TV Snark: They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Black Hole

[executrix]

Netflix, thank you for triggering my sense of wonder and simple gratitude. You don't know how much you're enjoying watching a DVD until it stops playing, and then you can watch the end of the episode by switching from the DVD player to the computer, but the DVD stops playing halfway through the second episode

Comments

[astrogirl2]

Gaah, stupid discs...

but you watch because you want to see what's going to happen. Although in both cases it's masochistic because it's a known fact that the series ends without EVER explaining The Big Secret.

Yeah, tell me about it. I don't know why I do these things to myself, either. Although I did come to quite like a couple of the Odyssey 5 characters... whose story arcs I also never got to see the end of. Sigh.

I wonder if it was accident or conspiracy that made him a dead ringer for the Hell's Kitchen guy (who also swears a lot)?

Ha! I hadn't even made that connection, but you're right. Which amuses me greatly. :)

Kurt is definitely one of the characters I liked, even if he does suffer badly from Hollywood Atheist Syndrome, in which skepticism is equated to cynicism, a lack of belief automatically means a lack of morals and/or self-restraint, and choosing scientific reason over faith is some kind of character defect we're apparently supposed to hope the person in question can overcome. I'm getting more than a little tired of that pattern, even if many of the characters it applies to are a lot of fun, taken individually. Ah, well.

I would love to see crossovers with him meeting Tony Stark, anyway. :)

[executrix]

Kurt Mendel (a fairly pathetic name for a geneticist, although in a sense they're all their own clones so they're like two peas in a pod) also looks a little like he could be Ripper if he'd been on the Science side.

Sebastian Roche is just having fun so for me he's good value as a character, although I don't buy him as a Scientist any more than I believe either Taggart or Angela Perry as an Astronaut. (Clue: if there's a tank in a deserted and fortunately unguarded warehouse that you think has a monster in it, DON'T POKE IT WITH A STICK.)

[astrogirl2]

Yeah, that sort of overly obvious naming bugs me a lot. Seriously, are they trying to snap my suspension of disbelief, or do they just think we're all so lacking in basic science knowledge that no one will notice? I have the same problem with the Indian mathematician on Numb3rs, who was named after the most famous Indian mathematician in history. And, in a show full of mathematicians, nobody ever even once asks her, "Are you related to...?" Sigh.

But Sebastian Roche is tremendous fun to watch. And, really, by TV scientist standards? Kurt's not too bad. Not that that's saying much. And Peter Weller as Chuck has the old school astronaut attitude down so well that as far as I'm concerned, he can get away with a lot and still feel believable.

That having been said... I know I'm the one who recommended this show, while I was still in the process of watching it, but having finished it all, I find I honestly don't know quite how I feel about it. It was... sort of an odd mix of pretty cool and weirdly WTFish, and of course, none of it went anywhere before it got canceled. I personally found it worth watching, flaws and all; at least did a good job of not boring me. But your mileage may, of course vary. So if it doesn't do it for you, try not to blame me too hard. :)

[executrix]

I tend to get caught up in other people's fannish enthusiasms, so even thought I didn't like The Avengers very much and Jeremy Renner didn't have much to do in it, I ended up watching all 11 episodes of The Unusuals. I don't want my nine or so hours back but I'm not sure I could exactly recommend it.

However, I feel that in fandom, we are responsible for our own fics, vids, meta, etc. but not for stuff we merely recommend.