The word of the day is bacon mayonnaise
Bacon mayonnaise. I am trying to wrap my brain around this, really I am, because on the one hand, it's mayonnaise made out of bacon fat! And on the other hand, it has opened a Pandora's box in my brain--now that the idea is out there, I can't not do something with it. And I say that as someone who finds bacon fat really gross. I might have to make this, and then make D. take the leftovers after I make one sandwich (which he totally would) because--bacon mayonnaise! And then I might have to run five miles. For a month.
Poll
* * * * *
A promo shot for "200," with casting spoilers. I am pleased as can be to see Janet and General Hammond, but a little disconcerted to see that, apparently, Mitchell and Jack have been surgically grafted together and now share an arm. Seriously, SciFi, put down the Photoshop and back away slowly!
* * * * *
Awkward conversation with parents #258: explaining Dragon*Con.
Me: I'm really only going to hang out with friends.
Mom: I just don't see what it has to do with dragons. I don't see a dragon anywhere on their website. Are there actually going to be any dragons there?
Dad: All that money we spend on your education? I want a refund.
Me: *facepalm*
So... who else is going to be there?
* * * * *
I'm finally working through some of the TiVO backlog.
Eureka 1.01 - "Pilot"
Pilots tend to be a mixed bag, but this one was moderately entertaining. The show uses a device that Farscape used to great effect--bringing in an outsider as the POV character and framing all of the exposition around his introduction, which seems to make the inevitable pilot exposition dump a lot smoother going down.
Because of my previously mentioned teenaged Max Headroom obsession, it made me a little sad to see that Matt Frewer is old and pretty darn bald (while I, of course, have not aged a bit in the past sixteen years *cough*), but it was fun to see him run with his obviously craaaaaaazy Ahab character. The characters seem pretty engaging, and I'm a little surprised by how character-centric the setup is; that's promising. The town itself has a lot of personality, although I could do with a little less anviliciousness about the potential for obstruction from head scientist guy, the potential for interference from military guy, and the potential for romance with DOD woman (who has excellent taste in first names!).
This episode does establish the potential for chaos in the setup, the competitive and eccentric nature of the scientists, the inevitability of things going wrong, and that's something I think the show will get a lot of mileage out of, plot-wise, even without the spy angle.
Eureka 1.02 - "Happily Ever After"
Apparently, this episode is about domestic ideals. The part about SARAH the house (Fargo is so great!) and Carter's broken relationship with his daughter is good stuff, but the rest of it is just---Apparently, the takeaway is that it's no big deal for a guy to clone his wife, since she doesn't want children and doesn't want to move to Eureka, and to go on to raise a family with this clone. And when the clone is killed, the guy gets a DO-OVER WIFE because the real wife has come to her senses and realized that she really does feel a connection to this child and wants that family, as every woman apparently secretly does, under the thin veneer of having her own ambitions and desires. WHAT?!? And Allison wins no points for her part in forcing the issue who had just realized she was in a fucked-up situation and made the wise decision to get out of town. I cannot believe the writing is telling us that this is a happy, not at all messed-up outcome to this situation. Bleah!
Eureka 1.03 - "Before I Forget"
I'm really glad they followed the episode full of rage-inducing domestic politics with an episode that has a lot of snap. Carter and Zoe's relationship continues to be interesting--it's like he's having to meet her for the first time as an adult, he's been so absent, and she is not going to let him forget that absence for a second, no matter how hard he's trying now. She's been burned. If they make their relationship the backbone of the show and back off the heavy-handed Allison/Carter romance anvils, that would be good.
I also like how little time they waste ascertaining that something funky is going on and seeking the cause--the default assumption is that the impossible can happen, so there's no fifteen minutes of someone trying to convince everybody else that they saw something strange. And I liked Henry's past coming up, and the evilosity of the arrogant scientist having stolen his wife's memories and work for years was rather horrifying, and they didn't downplay how devastating that would be.
And hey, this must be the episode Kung Fu Monkey was talking about. Like janeespenson, he's got some interesting things to say about scriptwriting, and it's nice to be able to connect that to a specific show I'm watching.
Overall verdict--moderately entertaining, though nothing I'm extremely enthused about.
LOM 1.02 and 1.03
This is just a really, really well-done show. I'm enjoying it a lot.
There are more hints that Sam's in a coma, and the little girl from the TV test pattern is terribly creepy. There's also more interesting contrast between Sam's professionalism and insistence on process, his use of reason, facts, evidence, and Hunt's hyperviolence and reliance on gut feeling. Hunt is perfectly willing to frame the guilty, because in his black-and-white world, that's justice. Sam can't feel good about that form of justice, because to him the ends can never justify the means.
Another thing that's a huge contrast is Sam's professional approach to policework and Hunt's tribal one, with insiders and outsiders and rivalries with other tribes (or services), and the way Sam is able to finesse this aspect of the situation he finds himself in by siding with his department against the gun squad that's trying to swoop in and claim glory for the arrest, because Hunt sees everything as us-or-them, and Sam has scored one for the tribe. (And the gun squad is just as tribal; it's a completely different atmosphere than what Sam is used to, but he's learning.)
One thing I really liked about episode 1.03 was the way it dealt with the death spiral of manufacturing, the hopelessness and crime that rise out of big economic dislocations, and the way Sam has the historical perspective of thirty years' time and knows that the unions' struggle is futile.
* * * * *
I want to point Supernatural fans to Let's Play Too, a lovely Sam and Dean vignette by brynnmck. Y'all are so lucky to have her writing in the fandom.
And for Farscape folks that may not be aware of it, pellucid wrote Five Things that Never Happened to Xhalax Sun.
I'm excited to see VividCon vids popping up on my flist, though I can't watch them at work. But let me point you to one I've already seen, sdwolfpup's Fix You, which is an excellent take on the Cylons' relationship to humanity, set to one of the most unintentionally disturbing love songs ever written.
Poll
* * * * *
A promo shot for "200," with casting spoilers. I am pleased as can be to see Janet and General Hammond, but a little disconcerted to see that, apparently, Mitchell and Jack have been surgically grafted together and now share an arm. Seriously, SciFi, put down the Photoshop and back away slowly!
* * * * *
Awkward conversation with parents #258: explaining Dragon*Con.
Me: I'm really only going to hang out with friends.
Mom: I just don't see what it has to do with dragons. I don't see a dragon anywhere on their website. Are there actually going to be any dragons there?
Dad: All that money we spend on your education? I want a refund.
Me: *facepalm*
So... who else is going to be there?
* * * * *
I'm finally working through some of the TiVO backlog.
Eureka 1.01 - "Pilot"
Pilots tend to be a mixed bag, but this one was moderately entertaining. The show uses a device that Farscape used to great effect--bringing in an outsider as the POV character and framing all of the exposition around his introduction, which seems to make the inevitable pilot exposition dump a lot smoother going down.
Because of my previously mentioned teenaged Max Headroom obsession, it made me a little sad to see that Matt Frewer is old and pretty darn bald (while I, of course, have not aged a bit in the past sixteen years *cough*), but it was fun to see him run with his obviously craaaaaaazy Ahab character. The characters seem pretty engaging, and I'm a little surprised by how character-centric the setup is; that's promising. The town itself has a lot of personality, although I could do with a little less anviliciousness about the potential for obstruction from head scientist guy, the potential for interference from military guy, and the potential for romance with DOD woman (who has excellent taste in first names!).
This episode does establish the potential for chaos in the setup, the competitive and eccentric nature of the scientists, the inevitability of things going wrong, and that's something I think the show will get a lot of mileage out of, plot-wise, even without the spy angle.
Eureka 1.02 - "Happily Ever After"
Apparently, this episode is about domestic ideals. The part about SARAH the house (Fargo is so great!) and Carter's broken relationship with his daughter is good stuff, but the rest of it is just---Apparently, the takeaway is that it's no big deal for a guy to clone his wife, since she doesn't want children and doesn't want to move to Eureka, and to go on to raise a family with this clone. And when the clone is killed, the guy gets a DO-OVER WIFE because the real wife has come to her senses and realized that she really does feel a connection to this child and wants that family, as every woman apparently secretly does, under the thin veneer of having her own ambitions and desires. WHAT?!? And Allison wins no points for her part in forcing the issue who had just realized she was in a fucked-up situation and made the wise decision to get out of town. I cannot believe the writing is telling us that this is a happy, not at all messed-up outcome to this situation. Bleah!
Eureka 1.03 - "Before I Forget"
I'm really glad they followed the episode full of rage-inducing domestic politics with an episode that has a lot of snap. Carter and Zoe's relationship continues to be interesting--it's like he's having to meet her for the first time as an adult, he's been so absent, and she is not going to let him forget that absence for a second, no matter how hard he's trying now. She's been burned. If they make their relationship the backbone of the show and back off the heavy-handed Allison/Carter romance anvils, that would be good.
I also like how little time they waste ascertaining that something funky is going on and seeking the cause--the default assumption is that the impossible can happen, so there's no fifteen minutes of someone trying to convince everybody else that they saw something strange. And I liked Henry's past coming up, and the evilosity of the arrogant scientist having stolen his wife's memories and work for years was rather horrifying, and they didn't downplay how devastating that would be.
And hey, this must be the episode Kung Fu Monkey was talking about. Like janeespenson, he's got some interesting things to say about scriptwriting, and it's nice to be able to connect that to a specific show I'm watching.
Overall verdict--moderately entertaining, though nothing I'm extremely enthused about.
LOM 1.02 and 1.03
This is just a really, really well-done show. I'm enjoying it a lot.
There are more hints that Sam's in a coma, and the little girl from the TV test pattern is terribly creepy. There's also more interesting contrast between Sam's professionalism and insistence on process, his use of reason, facts, evidence, and Hunt's hyperviolence and reliance on gut feeling. Hunt is perfectly willing to frame the guilty, because in his black-and-white world, that's justice. Sam can't feel good about that form of justice, because to him the ends can never justify the means.
Another thing that's a huge contrast is Sam's professional approach to policework and Hunt's tribal one, with insiders and outsiders and rivalries with other tribes (or services), and the way Sam is able to finesse this aspect of the situation he finds himself in by siding with his department against the gun squad that's trying to swoop in and claim glory for the arrest, because Hunt sees everything as us-or-them, and Sam has scored one for the tribe. (And the gun squad is just as tribal; it's a completely different atmosphere than what Sam is used to, but he's learning.)
One thing I really liked about episode 1.03 was the way it dealt with the death spiral of manufacturing, the hopelessness and crime that rise out of big economic dislocations, and the way Sam has the historical perspective of thirty years' time and knows that the unions' struggle is futile.
* * * * *
I want to point Supernatural fans to Let's Play Too, a lovely Sam and Dean vignette by brynnmck. Y'all are so lucky to have her writing in the fandom.
And for Farscape folks that may not be aware of it, pellucid wrote Five Things that Never Happened to Xhalax Sun.
I'm excited to see VividCon vids popping up on my flist, though I can't watch them at work. But let me point you to one I've already seen, sdwolfpup's Fix You, which is an excellent take on the Cylons' relationship to humanity, set to one of the most unintentionally disturbing love songs ever written.