"Stop stealing the blanket. You're an arctic wolf, for god's sake."
Eureka 2.01 - "Phoenix Rising"
I'm not enthused by the prospect of Henry being this season's villain. And since the idea of Jack and Henry, estranged and reeling but sharing that experience of the other altered time line, moving forward into a future that changed outward in ripples from what they'd lived, seemed like a pretty interesting direction to go and was something of a balm to the do-over aspect of last season's finale, I am even less enthused by it. One of the things I liked best about this episode was Jack's initial cockiness, his certainty that the time line would repeat and that for once he had the advantage of knowing what would happen, slipping up with everyone around him, annoying Allison but expressing more confidence in Zoe and Jo than they'd seen from him before, and his eventual realization that he was going to have to struggle through the same stuff in an altered landscape. I'm afraid that Henry is back at Global Dynamics to get to the artifact and try to save Kim again, even knowing the cost, and that was monstrous enough the first time.
I am interested in seeing what's going on with Kevin, though.
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due South 2.08 - "One Good Man"
This episode walks a fine balance in exploring the power and limitations of Fraser's idealism, because Fraser basically causes the problem in the first place, by getting all the tenants to fix up the building to impress the new owner, by not understanding the economics of gentrification and the fragility of the poor's grasp on housing and the desirability of blending into the background instead of trying to put your best foot forward and having it get stomped on. He expects a lot from people--maybe, he wonders as Ray scales the side of a building with him, too much. He expects too much of the new building's owner, the ultimate powerful insider, and doesn't get it--the overall system doesn't change. And the neighbors waver, because they were already beaten down when Fraser arrived, and there's only so much risk they're willing to take. But his expectations are still enough to remind the city council of what they're supposed to represent (a filibuster consisting entirely of Fraser's childhood stories is pretty powerful motivation), and to get Ray to contribute his Riv regeneration fund to filling the council chamber even as he grumbles about Fraser's foolish idealism, and to bring the neighbors back to the fold once the dust has settled. There's also an interesting indication of how his time in Chicago is changing Fraser: when he first arrived in the city, he wouldn't have been fazed by having to live without electricity or running water, and when he accuses Diefenbaker of going soft, that's a sure sign that's something Fraser is wondering about himself.
Also, oh Ray. You're cute, but you do NOT spend your $5000 marital savings on a car "for her" and then twitch violently when she asks if she can drive it. The mystery of the demise of the Vecchio marriage, solved in one brief scene.
due South 2.09 - "The Edge"
This episode ties together Bob's warnings to Fraser about obsolescence, about aging and slowing and losing your edge and getting shunted aside, with Diefenbaker's doggie dreams of being put out to pasture from the sled team, and with the old warrior who learned to be very good at what he did and doesn't have a place in peacetime, and who looks on Fraser as something of a kindred spirit (and understands all too well that the way to drug Diefenbaker is with junk food). It's an understandable mistake: Fraser is somebody who has some sympathy with his cause, but not with his methods, and is somebody who has build his life around his duty. And Fraser is also someone who should know how to recognize the mechanisms men use to hide from what they really fear. Environmental terrorism, projecting onto your deaf wolf, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. And Thatcher was totally adorable at the end!
Also: "Ray, duck." HEE.
due South 2.10 - "We Are the Eggmen"
Everybody's having trouble with authority. Fraser tries to help the egg farmer and ends up getting sued (as Ray says, "Welcome to America"); Frannie's sandwich-selling business runs afoul of permit laws; and Thatcher, who's usually so reserved and would rather gnaw her own arm off than ask for help, ends up using Fraser to deflect her smarmy mentor's advances. (And Fraser, utterly willing to go along with it, and gentlemanly about letting her off the hook when she tries to apologize for putting him in that position, is such a terrible liar: "Your car. It's on fire. It's burning away and all the other cars feel threatened.") Fraser, of course, feels an inherent kinship with the egg farmer, a sympathy for craftsmanship and good animal husbandry and pride in a job well done, and also senses when someone is in trouble, even when that someone is suing him and causing him no end of trouble. It's a natural progression, for Fraser, that solving the egg farmer's problems will solve his own, because he's taken measure of the man and doesn't believe he'd sue unless he was backed up against the wall: people aren't necessarily bad, but they can do bad things with the right motivation. And I enjoyed seeing Thatcher get sucked into one of Fraser's crusades, much the way Ray does, because once you start admitting that Fraser's right about one small thing--in this case, the quality of the eggs--you somehow end up admitting he's right about everything, even after being locked in a vault/incubator with him.
And while I wanted very much to smack Ray for trying to cheat Frannie out of her lottery winnings, it also rang utterly true of a sibling relationship with a lifetime of rivalry and backbiting. Ray and Frannie strike me as people who are just on the cusp of getting to know each other as adults, but still loaded down with the baggage of their childhood relationship.
I am very close to the convergence of watching and posting with this show, which pleases me greatly.
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Hot on the heels of ads for a live/CGI-action Underdog movie comes this poster for Alvin and the Chipmunks. Jason Lee, fire your agent. And then wish me luck trying to scavenge the last smoking remains of my childhood.
Speaking of which... A letter to Optimus Prime from his Geico insurance agent.
Serious Eats has a rundown on the zombie diet.
Unskilled and Unaware of It--how people's incompetence extends to an inability to realize that they are incompetent. This is something I'd long suspected, because it explains so much. (ETA: and a layman's summary of the study, thanks to tzikeh.)
