Moonlight & Numb3rs
So, there was actually new television on that I care enough about to talk about tonight. I hope I manage to say reasonably coherent things. Half my brain is still pretty well lost to, "Oooh, pretty vampires. I want pretty vampires." The other half may or may not be able to compensate.
Moonlight, 1x13, Fated to Pretend
Written by Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman
This was an absolutely gorgeous episode. I really wasn't expecting much. When we last saw Mick he was newly and temporarily human, surrounded by take-out. I've been avoiding spoilers, so really, the only thing I knew about this episode was that for most or all of it, Mick would be human. Somehow that just didn't seem like that great of a concept. I was wrong, so very very wrong.
I'm going to try to watch this again and maybe calm down enough to write an actual substantive analysis of it. For right now, this is mostly all the reasons that I love Josef and Mick and don't even mind Beth that much.
It's no secret that Josef is my #1 love from this show. That didn't change at all tonight. First, he seems to be genuinely happy for Mick, even though he doesn't get it and he wouldn't want it, he understands how important Mick's humanity is to him. He's 400 years old, a little bitter and a whole lot cynical, but he still cares enough about a friend to be able to step outside himself and see the world through their eyes. It's sweet. Then later in the scene where Mick and Beth are asking questions about what they found on Maureen's computer, he's sarcastic, and at the very least offended that they'd even ask. I loved though, that Mick said from the start that it wasn't Josef, even while allowing that Josef commits murder all the time, this isn't his style. Even if it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for his friend, it does demonstrate a great deal of understanding of just what makes Josef tick. Which of course brings us to Josef confronting Mick about doing something completely idiotic like running off to fight vampires while he's completely human. Which while I'm on the subject, I love that Guillermo (Morgue guy, I think this is his name) calls Josef when he can't talk Mick out of doing something incredibly stupid. The whole scene is scorchingly hot. Beginning with the fake fight that Josef easily wins. Including Josef's clear struggle not to at least taste Mick when he has him up against the wall. Also, does anyone believe that Josef would have backed off for anyone else? Then when Mick tells Josef to turn him. It's an incredible scene. The screen practically crackles with the emotion of that scene. Not just that Mick gives up something that he's wanted for so long to save Beth, whom he loves (and I don't doubt that love a bit, doesn't mean that he can't also love Josef or more importantly that Josef can't be in love with him), but also how hard Josef fights against it. You know he wants to, but it's not something that Mick actually wants. His voice very nearly breaks when he asks Mick to forgive him. He sounds so incredibly fragile. And then there's that tear when Mick is dying, as Josef feeds him.
I've watched a lot of scenes where someone is being turned in my life. I can't think of a single one that was hotter than this one, and we really saw nothing. It was all about the way Josef was cradling Mick's body, and again, about the emotion of the scene. Perfectly scripted and beautifully done. And it's capped off with them going to save Beth and the new ADA, Ben Talbot, who I hope we see again.
I said up there that I didn't even dislike Beth. That's really true. She's starting to grow on me, even if she does, on occasion, do unspeakably stupid things. I also like her, because she doesn't accept any of this doomed love crap that Mick tries to foist off on her. She loves him, and maybe it'll be difficult, maybe it's not perfect, but it's worth it. Also loved the line about how he might have forever, but she doesn't.
The actual case was fairly dull. I'm glad they caught the politician. I feel sorry for his daughter who has effectively lost both parents now. I'm not entirely sure what the father might be charged with. Chances are that he didn't have any kind of Blood Alcohol test done after the accident, because he wasn't supposed to be the one driving. It's awfully hard to prove, even negligent homicide if you can't prove he was drunk. But he'll at least be facing some obstruction charges, and maybe they'll even get a real confession out of him. Or maybe they'll accept his daughter's (and possibly the valet's if they can convince him to testify) testimony about his actions and manner as evidence that he was impaired.
I had the plastic surgeon picked as the vampire that killed Maureen from the second we saw him. What I don't get, but maybe I just lost it when my brain shut down from the pretty, is why he bribed the coroner/ME to not mention her plastic surgery scars. I completely fail to understand how we got from, "She has a plastic surgeon who just happens to be a vampire who does a booming business in rare blood types," to "Nobody must know about the plastic surgery, and I'll kill this reporter to keep it quiet." I seem to be missing a few steps.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next episode. My evil brain is telling me that I absolutely don't need to work on any of my already pending fics, and that I should instead write Moonlight fic. I'm going to try to resist, though I might outline something.
Numb3rs, 4x15, End Game
Written by Don McGill
I thought this was a good but not fabulous episode. I might have liked it better if it hadn't followed this wonderful Moonlight episode. I think my problem was that it was going too many places at one time. We had the main plot, which I thought was very good. It brought back a minor character that I had quite liked, made him even more sympathetic than he was the first time, and really had a fairly engaging and tight story. Then there was Don's woman troubles, which I'm frankly getting a little tired of watching. We had Colby's struggle to make Cole Porter somehow fit into the military that he knows, and deal with the things that happened after he was pulled out of Afghanistan. We had Larry's issues with his grand project and its possible implications. We had Charlie and Alan's struggle over just what changes should be made to their home. They were all (with the possible exception of Don's) interesting and good stories. There were just too many of them. Not that it isn't possible to juggle that many storylines, but Don McGill is no Aaron Sorkin, and that's the genius it takes to successfully handle all these threads. These felt rushed or unfinished.
Anyway, there were a lot of fairly political implications of the episode. I'd like to talk more about them, but I'm really tired. Too tired to write that analysis with half my brain still stuck on the pretty. Maybe over the weekend sometime.
Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow sometime I should be posting a couple of writing memes, and hopefully I'll also write something up for Ark of Truth.
Moonlight, 1x13, Fated to Pretend
Written by Gabrielle Stanton & Harry Werksman
This was an absolutely gorgeous episode. I really wasn't expecting much. When we last saw Mick he was newly and temporarily human, surrounded by take-out. I've been avoiding spoilers, so really, the only thing I knew about this episode was that for most or all of it, Mick would be human. Somehow that just didn't seem like that great of a concept. I was wrong, so very very wrong.
I'm going to try to watch this again and maybe calm down enough to write an actual substantive analysis of it. For right now, this is mostly all the reasons that I love Josef and Mick and don't even mind Beth that much.
It's no secret that Josef is my #1 love from this show. That didn't change at all tonight. First, he seems to be genuinely happy for Mick, even though he doesn't get it and he wouldn't want it, he understands how important Mick's humanity is to him. He's 400 years old, a little bitter and a whole lot cynical, but he still cares enough about a friend to be able to step outside himself and see the world through their eyes. It's sweet. Then later in the scene where Mick and Beth are asking questions about what they found on Maureen's computer, he's sarcastic, and at the very least offended that they'd even ask. I loved though, that Mick said from the start that it wasn't Josef, even while allowing that Josef commits murder all the time, this isn't his style. Even if it's not exactly a ringing endorsement for his friend, it does demonstrate a great deal of understanding of just what makes Josef tick. Which of course brings us to Josef confronting Mick about doing something completely idiotic like running off to fight vampires while he's completely human. Which while I'm on the subject, I love that Guillermo (Morgue guy, I think this is his name) calls Josef when he can't talk Mick out of doing something incredibly stupid. The whole scene is scorchingly hot. Beginning with the fake fight that Josef easily wins. Including Josef's clear struggle not to at least taste Mick when he has him up against the wall. Also, does anyone believe that Josef would have backed off for anyone else? Then when Mick tells Josef to turn him. It's an incredible scene. The screen practically crackles with the emotion of that scene. Not just that Mick gives up something that he's wanted for so long to save Beth, whom he loves (and I don't doubt that love a bit, doesn't mean that he can't also love Josef or more importantly that Josef can't be in love with him), but also how hard Josef fights against it. You know he wants to, but it's not something that Mick actually wants. His voice very nearly breaks when he asks Mick to forgive him. He sounds so incredibly fragile. And then there's that tear when Mick is dying, as Josef feeds him.
I've watched a lot of scenes where someone is being turned in my life. I can't think of a single one that was hotter than this one, and we really saw nothing. It was all about the way Josef was cradling Mick's body, and again, about the emotion of the scene. Perfectly scripted and beautifully done. And it's capped off with them going to save Beth and the new ADA, Ben Talbot, who I hope we see again.
I said up there that I didn't even dislike Beth. That's really true. She's starting to grow on me, even if she does, on occasion, do unspeakably stupid things. I also like her, because she doesn't accept any of this doomed love crap that Mick tries to foist off on her. She loves him, and maybe it'll be difficult, maybe it's not perfect, but it's worth it. Also loved the line about how he might have forever, but she doesn't.
The actual case was fairly dull. I'm glad they caught the politician. I feel sorry for his daughter who has effectively lost both parents now. I'm not entirely sure what the father might be charged with. Chances are that he didn't have any kind of Blood Alcohol test done after the accident, because he wasn't supposed to be the one driving. It's awfully hard to prove, even negligent homicide if you can't prove he was drunk. But he'll at least be facing some obstruction charges, and maybe they'll even get a real confession out of him. Or maybe they'll accept his daughter's (and possibly the valet's if they can convince him to testify) testimony about his actions and manner as evidence that he was impaired.
I had the plastic surgeon picked as the vampire that killed Maureen from the second we saw him. What I don't get, but maybe I just lost it when my brain shut down from the pretty, is why he bribed the coroner/ME to not mention her plastic surgery scars. I completely fail to understand how we got from, "She has a plastic surgeon who just happens to be a vampire who does a booming business in rare blood types," to "Nobody must know about the plastic surgery, and I'll kill this reporter to keep it quiet." I seem to be missing a few steps.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next episode. My evil brain is telling me that I absolutely don't need to work on any of my already pending fics, and that I should instead write Moonlight fic. I'm going to try to resist, though I might outline something.
Numb3rs, 4x15, End Game
Written by Don McGill
I thought this was a good but not fabulous episode. I might have liked it better if it hadn't followed this wonderful Moonlight episode. I think my problem was that it was going too many places at one time. We had the main plot, which I thought was very good. It brought back a minor character that I had quite liked, made him even more sympathetic than he was the first time, and really had a fairly engaging and tight story. Then there was Don's woman troubles, which I'm frankly getting a little tired of watching. We had Colby's struggle to make Cole Porter somehow fit into the military that he knows, and deal with the things that happened after he was pulled out of Afghanistan. We had Larry's issues with his grand project and its possible implications. We had Charlie and Alan's struggle over just what changes should be made to their home. They were all (with the possible exception of Don's) interesting and good stories. There were just too many of them. Not that it isn't possible to juggle that many storylines, but Don McGill is no Aaron Sorkin, and that's the genius it takes to successfully handle all these threads. These felt rushed or unfinished.
Anyway, there were a lot of fairly political implications of the episode. I'd like to talk more about them, but I'm really tired. Too tired to write that analysis with half my brain still stuck on the pretty. Maybe over the weekend sometime.
Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow sometime I should be posting a couple of writing memes, and hopefully I'll also write something up for Ark of Truth.