"The wolf is not involved in this, is he?" "Only peripherally."
Having the stomach flu yesterday was really good for my TV-watching time, but maybe not so good for my observational skills. We'll see.
* * * * *
Veronica Mars 3.12 - "Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves"
* I see that the VM writers are not a fan of the serial comma. I disapprove.
* I certainly wouldn't have pegged the campus term paper entrepreneur as a closet romantic, but then this episode did a lot of working against stereotype--the hooker with a heart of gold who was still scamming the mark and the way she wasn't quite able to escape her old life; the geek who may be naive about love and sex but was better than his friends at reading real emotion; the hilariously businesslike madame and her enforcers, the giant and Mr. Happy; the way the past shapes the present and unambiguous happy endings are few and far between on the show.
* A lot of the dialogue in this episode was just terrible--clunky, forced, especially a lot of Veronica's allegedly snappy one-liners. And that includes the Battlestar Galactica references.
* Keith and Veronica's relationship continues to be a high point of the show, and the mystery is playing to their strengths as they work different angles of the Dean O'Dell mystery--Keith following up on official sources, using his stature as an adult and professional (though his impersonation of a law enforcement officer with the feminists seemed oddly sloppy), Veronica coming at the case from the inside, as a student at the college who knows a lot of the people involved, and both Veronica and Keith being able to piece together clues that they themselves observed firsthand, like the fact that the Dean was driving the minivan the day of his death. Better yet, we the audience observed many of them too--when Weevil tells Keith that the Dean's window was egged, we know it was because we saw it too.
* Veronica's curiosity about Logan's history is a terrible idea and, I think, reveals her lingering trust issues--she's willing to believe what he tells her, but she has to ask the questions in the first place, and curiosity killed the cat, but Veronica is too young and inexperienced to know the multiple variations of problems that can be caused when she brings the skills that serve her well in her outside life to bear on her relationships. I thought her reaction to Madison's taunting was a little strange--too credulous, not defiant enough, and not trusting enough of Logan--until I remembered that Madison pushes some very specific buttons for Veronica, ones that put her back in a time, emotionally, before she learned all of the hard lessons of the past two years, to a place of "with me or against me." Whenever he's been on the rebound, Logan has exercised some pretty awful judgment when it comes to women; Madison is, because of her connection to Veronica's rape and the events of that entire terrible year, a step beyond that. (Especially if her hair looked like that when he hooked up with her, because that was some seriously assy hair.)
* I wish a pox on all the houses of the CW promo department; after the way they strung together a bunch of unconnected pieces of dialogue to make it sound like Veronica was accusing Logan of being with a hooker last week, I refuse to even acknowledge the promo I saw this week. Who the hell knows what relationship it bears to the actual episode.
* * * * *
Stargate 10.14 - "The Shroud"
I was spoiled for Daniel becoming a prior, though I didn't know any of the details, and can I just say that in my wildest imagination, I did not imagine that the show could make such a potentially dark and fraught development so BORING. My God. There was the fact that they went the safest route with the development--Daniel sharing a body with Merlin and acting as a double agent--which is, in all fairness, the characteristic way this show handles things, but then there was the sheer expository overload. Apparently, when Claudia Black is not delivering the exposition, it's not as interesting. Shanks' pancake makeup and deliberately stilted delivery of the Merlin lines didn't help. Although there was some fun bizarreness to having Daniel talk like Daniel while looking like a prior, and in some sense, this is just another archaeological expedition for him, he's living with the natives and studying them, and utterly focused on the ultimate goal.
I did like the way the triangle between Vala, Daniel, and Adria played out, with Daniel as the fulcrum--Vala knowing Adria is using Daniel to get to her and bothered by that on several levels, and skeptical of Daniel's plans, which the pessimist in her knows are far too optimistic of his ability to control events.
It was really nice to see Jack not just in the episode but actively a part of it (though I'm not sure what about this particular plot made Jack's involvement make sense, and suspect that RDA's availability dictated Jack's appearance rather than this specific storyline), and I enjoyed seeing his interactions with Daniel, all the weight of their history, coming out now that Daniel has really struck out on his own. They've grown so far beyond the place where Jack knew more than Daniel and Daniel deferred to him, and they've actually come out on the other side here, with Daniel being maybe a little too sure of himself. I was a little less happy that the rest of the team faded into the background somewhat, but I suppose the dynamics of the guest appearance dictated that.
Still, man, that was boring. All of the conflict was in all of the wrong places--Daniel being mad that they won't trust him when they trust him way more than they should, Daniel being mad that they don't trust his plan when it's obviously going to go down in flames, the audience knowing all of this.
* * * * *
I have been interested in checking out due South for some time; many of y'all like it, and your enthusiasm is infectious. But, as with most things in my life, it was brynnmck's fault that I actually got my hands on Season 1. So.
Some general observations:
* I am absolutely fascinated by how Fraser, who should be so hokey and trite, instead ends up having this awesome superpower of Hypnotic Canadianness that makes everyone around him who isn't a stone cold villain want to be a better person. This should not work. I feel like this show is somehow defying the laws of television physics. I think the way the pilot establishes him is really important, because he's introduced performing this almost painfully earnest feat of textbook do-goodism--he caught the guy who was fishing with dynamite AND brought him in over a pass that he shouldn't have been able to cross due to bad weather AND donated the leftover fish to the local Inuits AND you could practically see the cartoon sparkle with the *ping* sound effect when he smiled to boot--but it immediately provides the context, the long shadow cast by the father, the hero with feet of clay, and the way Fraser's adherence to that standard, a standard even his father couldn't meet, costs him his home.
* The pairing of Ray and Fraser is the classic straight man/funny man combo, but it also is part of the reason Fraser works as a character, Ray's loudness--loud clothes (JESUS, THE CLOTHES), loud personality, oversized emotions, vocal skepticism and cynicism, serve as a great backdrop for Fraser's quiet, methodical optimism and surprising flashes of dark humor, just like Ray's chaotic, intrusive family contrast with Fraser's spartan, solitary lifestyle. Ray may be more cynical, but he's also much more likely to take things at face value; Fraser has a much more fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity, but he's not stupid, he notices things, and he's pretty quick to pick up on the differences between appearance and reality. Also, I'm pretty sure he's scamming Ray into paying for everything by only carrying Canadian currency. And they're both curious, interested in the process of detective work, the steps of solving the puzzle.
* I love Diefenbaker. A lot. I loved him from the beginning, I loved him more for having his own social life, I loved him especially for taking the bed while Fraser got the bedroll on the floor (though I'm not sure if that's because the wolf likes it that way or because Fraser does). But I loved him the most in "Chinatown" when Fraser gave his speech about how a wolf saves your life and then you pay and pay and pay. Once again, this should not work, because on paper, the precocious pet is so hokey.
* Lt. Welsh is so great! He's so sarcastic, and so constantly on the verge of throwing his hands up in exasperation, and he is so unclear on why the Mountie is always in his office getting his detective involved in some random harebrained investigation, but the Mountie is so polite and somehow they're always right in the end, and the wolf hasn't bitten anybody recently.
* A word on clothing. Paul Gross + Mountie uniform = RAWR. Ray + Ray's clothes = *bleeding eyes*.
* I usually have to trip over the slash and injure myself before I'll notice it, but--it's RIGHT THERE. After "Chinatown" and the closet, even Elaine had figured it out. And before that, they wore frozen horsemeat together! RIGHT THERE.
* I hope they tone the chase scenes down a little, because the first few episodes have a very formulaic structure. Though they do get bonus points for mixing up the locations, and having the characters canoe through the sewer.
* The scale of the show works really well; Fraser gets himself involved with these crimes trying to help the people around him, and the people around him have problems that are vital to their lives but fairly small in the grand scheme of things--the kid who accidentally got involved with the bank robber, the pizza delivery boy and his stolen car, the mother who might lose her children because of the supermarket's tainted meat.
* Stargate actor watch--one of Ray's sisters was Teal'c's advocate in "Cor-Ai," and Felger showed up in "Pizza and Promises." brynnmck and asta77 were very alarmed that I knew that first one, but come on! Every Canadian actor over the age of twenty, and some of the ones under the age of twenty, have appeared in Stargate.
* * * * *
*facepalm*
Newsome has been an effective mayor, and I'd hate to see a personal meltdown get in the way of that. Consider this my heartfelt plea to him to stop being so skeevy in his personal life, because it's embarrassing.
* * * * *
Veronica Mars 3.12 - "Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves"
* I see that the VM writers are not a fan of the serial comma. I disapprove.
* I certainly wouldn't have pegged the campus term paper entrepreneur as a closet romantic, but then this episode did a lot of working against stereotype--the hooker with a heart of gold who was still scamming the mark and the way she wasn't quite able to escape her old life; the geek who may be naive about love and sex but was better than his friends at reading real emotion; the hilariously businesslike madame and her enforcers, the giant and Mr. Happy; the way the past shapes the present and unambiguous happy endings are few and far between on the show.
* A lot of the dialogue in this episode was just terrible--clunky, forced, especially a lot of Veronica's allegedly snappy one-liners. And that includes the Battlestar Galactica references.
* Keith and Veronica's relationship continues to be a high point of the show, and the mystery is playing to their strengths as they work different angles of the Dean O'Dell mystery--Keith following up on official sources, using his stature as an adult and professional (though his impersonation of a law enforcement officer with the feminists seemed oddly sloppy), Veronica coming at the case from the inside, as a student at the college who knows a lot of the people involved, and both Veronica and Keith being able to piece together clues that they themselves observed firsthand, like the fact that the Dean was driving the minivan the day of his death. Better yet, we the audience observed many of them too--when Weevil tells Keith that the Dean's window was egged, we know it was because we saw it too.
* Veronica's curiosity about Logan's history is a terrible idea and, I think, reveals her lingering trust issues--she's willing to believe what he tells her, but she has to ask the questions in the first place, and curiosity killed the cat, but Veronica is too young and inexperienced to know the multiple variations of problems that can be caused when she brings the skills that serve her well in her outside life to bear on her relationships. I thought her reaction to Madison's taunting was a little strange--too credulous, not defiant enough, and not trusting enough of Logan--until I remembered that Madison pushes some very specific buttons for Veronica, ones that put her back in a time, emotionally, before she learned all of the hard lessons of the past two years, to a place of "with me or against me." Whenever he's been on the rebound, Logan has exercised some pretty awful judgment when it comes to women; Madison is, because of her connection to Veronica's rape and the events of that entire terrible year, a step beyond that. (Especially if her hair looked like that when he hooked up with her, because that was some seriously assy hair.)
* I wish a pox on all the houses of the CW promo department; after the way they strung together a bunch of unconnected pieces of dialogue to make it sound like Veronica was accusing Logan of being with a hooker last week, I refuse to even acknowledge the promo I saw this week. Who the hell knows what relationship it bears to the actual episode.
* * * * *
Stargate 10.14 - "The Shroud"
I was spoiled for Daniel becoming a prior, though I didn't know any of the details, and can I just say that in my wildest imagination, I did not imagine that the show could make such a potentially dark and fraught development so BORING. My God. There was the fact that they went the safest route with the development--Daniel sharing a body with Merlin and acting as a double agent--which is, in all fairness, the characteristic way this show handles things, but then there was the sheer expository overload. Apparently, when Claudia Black is not delivering the exposition, it's not as interesting. Shanks' pancake makeup and deliberately stilted delivery of the Merlin lines didn't help. Although there was some fun bizarreness to having Daniel talk like Daniel while looking like a prior, and in some sense, this is just another archaeological expedition for him, he's living with the natives and studying them, and utterly focused on the ultimate goal.
I did like the way the triangle between Vala, Daniel, and Adria played out, with Daniel as the fulcrum--Vala knowing Adria is using Daniel to get to her and bothered by that on several levels, and skeptical of Daniel's plans, which the pessimist in her knows are far too optimistic of his ability to control events.
It was really nice to see Jack not just in the episode but actively a part of it (though I'm not sure what about this particular plot made Jack's involvement make sense, and suspect that RDA's availability dictated Jack's appearance rather than this specific storyline), and I enjoyed seeing his interactions with Daniel, all the weight of their history, coming out now that Daniel has really struck out on his own. They've grown so far beyond the place where Jack knew more than Daniel and Daniel deferred to him, and they've actually come out on the other side here, with Daniel being maybe a little too sure of himself. I was a little less happy that the rest of the team faded into the background somewhat, but I suppose the dynamics of the guest appearance dictated that.
Still, man, that was boring. All of the conflict was in all of the wrong places--Daniel being mad that they won't trust him when they trust him way more than they should, Daniel being mad that they don't trust his plan when it's obviously going to go down in flames, the audience knowing all of this.
* * * * *
I have been interested in checking out due South for some time; many of y'all like it, and your enthusiasm is infectious. But, as with most things in my life, it was brynnmck's fault that I actually got my hands on Season 1. So.
Some general observations:
* I am absolutely fascinated by how Fraser, who should be so hokey and trite, instead ends up having this awesome superpower of Hypnotic Canadianness that makes everyone around him who isn't a stone cold villain want to be a better person. This should not work. I feel like this show is somehow defying the laws of television physics. I think the way the pilot establishes him is really important, because he's introduced performing this almost painfully earnest feat of textbook do-goodism--he caught the guy who was fishing with dynamite AND brought him in over a pass that he shouldn't have been able to cross due to bad weather AND donated the leftover fish to the local Inuits AND you could practically see the cartoon sparkle with the *ping* sound effect when he smiled to boot--but it immediately provides the context, the long shadow cast by the father, the hero with feet of clay, and the way Fraser's adherence to that standard, a standard even his father couldn't meet, costs him his home.
* The pairing of Ray and Fraser is the classic straight man/funny man combo, but it also is part of the reason Fraser works as a character, Ray's loudness--loud clothes (JESUS, THE CLOTHES), loud personality, oversized emotions, vocal skepticism and cynicism, serve as a great backdrop for Fraser's quiet, methodical optimism and surprising flashes of dark humor, just like Ray's chaotic, intrusive family contrast with Fraser's spartan, solitary lifestyle. Ray may be more cynical, but he's also much more likely to take things at face value; Fraser has a much more fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity, but he's not stupid, he notices things, and he's pretty quick to pick up on the differences between appearance and reality. Also, I'm pretty sure he's scamming Ray into paying for everything by only carrying Canadian currency. And they're both curious, interested in the process of detective work, the steps of solving the puzzle.
* I love Diefenbaker. A lot. I loved him from the beginning, I loved him more for having his own social life, I loved him especially for taking the bed while Fraser got the bedroll on the floor (though I'm not sure if that's because the wolf likes it that way or because Fraser does). But I loved him the most in "Chinatown" when Fraser gave his speech about how a wolf saves your life and then you pay and pay and pay. Once again, this should not work, because on paper, the precocious pet is so hokey.
* Lt. Welsh is so great! He's so sarcastic, and so constantly on the verge of throwing his hands up in exasperation, and he is so unclear on why the Mountie is always in his office getting his detective involved in some random harebrained investigation, but the Mountie is so polite and somehow they're always right in the end, and the wolf hasn't bitten anybody recently.
* A word on clothing. Paul Gross + Mountie uniform = RAWR. Ray + Ray's clothes = *bleeding eyes*.
* I usually have to trip over the slash and injure myself before I'll notice it, but--it's RIGHT THERE. After "Chinatown" and the closet, even Elaine had figured it out. And before that, they wore frozen horsemeat together! RIGHT THERE.
* I hope they tone the chase scenes down a little, because the first few episodes have a very formulaic structure. Though they do get bonus points for mixing up the locations, and having the characters canoe through the sewer.
* The scale of the show works really well; Fraser gets himself involved with these crimes trying to help the people around him, and the people around him have problems that are vital to their lives but fairly small in the grand scheme of things--the kid who accidentally got involved with the bank robber, the pizza delivery boy and his stolen car, the mother who might lose her children because of the supermarket's tainted meat.
* Stargate actor watch--one of Ray's sisters was Teal'c's advocate in "Cor-Ai," and Felger showed up in "Pizza and Promises." brynnmck and asta77 were very alarmed that I knew that first one, but come on! Every Canadian actor over the age of twenty, and some of the ones under the age of twenty, have appeared in Stargate.
* * * * *
*facepalm*
Newsome has been an effective mayor, and I'd hate to see a personal meltdown get in the way of that. Consider this my heartfelt plea to him to stop being so skeevy in his personal life, because it's embarrassing.