TV catch-up post
Assume spoilers through all aired eps.
Agents of SHIELD
1x03 bored me so badly I almost quit watching, but the show's been on an upward trajectory since then, not least because there's been more Melinda May (my favorite by a mile). I was amused by the reminder, in the Thor tie-in ep, that part of SHIELD's function is as clean-up crew. I continue to be disturbed by the pervasive attitude of "Doing terrible things is okay as long as we're the ones doing them"; I am trying not to hope too hard that the show is eventually going to explode that assumption, because I am likely to be disappointed. In the meantime: still watching, but without much to say.
Almost Human
I am enjoying the John-and-Dorian dynamic, though I was surprised and frankly a bit disappointed that John's anti-Synthetic sentiment was so quickly dispatched in the pilot. (I did like the contrast between John's pointed use of "Synthetic" and Dorian's casual use of "man," and I would have liked it even better if the show hadn't pinned a ribbon on it.) I am very happy to be seeing Lili Taylor and Minka Kelly on a weekly basis; the show had better give them more to do pretty soon, though. I get that Kelly is decorative, but there's no reason for her to be just decorative.
Castle
This show continues to fill me with delight. As I said to
sdwolfpup in her journal a while back, I love that Castle and Beckett continue to be their partner-y, banter-y selves, only now with wedding jokes. What I love most about the show, and have for a while now, is that the relationships have a sense of history and continuity that is surprisingly nuanced for what is on the surface an utterly fluffy episodic show. The investigative procedural A-plot stuff continues to be cheerfully ridiculous 90% of the time, but interactions related to the characters' relationships to each other are always grounded in how they feel about each other and relate to each other. And I love that even though the show is fundamentally optimistic about relationships -- everybody really CARES about each other -- that doesn't mean everything is sweetness and light all the time. Castle is often genuinely annoyed with Martha. Alexis is seriously mad at her dad after the way he treated Pi, and she has every right to be mad (even though Pi is super annoying) and to refuse to accept Castle's non-apology. AND YET none of that changes the fact that they really love each other; love and irritation can totally coexist!
Elementary
Case of the week blah blah whatever; I'm here for the Joan-and-Sherlock dynamic. (Well, okay, the Mycroft thing was interesting; I'm curious to see where that goes.) I especially loved their recent discussions of whether Sherlock is "nice," his insistence that "nice" requires energy that most people don't merit, and Joan's quiet refusal to be mollified by Sherlock's insistence that she is Special. I like that their relationship is continuing to develop and that the show is sowing the seeds of what could at some point become a major conflict between them.
Glee
I was beginning to worry that the writers had thrown us the bone of a Kurt/Blaine engagement so they could get away with never having the characters interact (or even mention interacting) again, and mercifully the past couple of eps have allayed that concern. On the other hand, the past few eps have also pounded on my secondhand embarrassment squick with a force and directness that has been painful. Win some, lose some.
I am feeling a bit out of sync with the show at the moment, partly because I am so so so over the Lima parts of the show and so desperate for The School Year That Would Not End to just fucking END already, but also because I finally feel like I have enough equilibrium about Kurt/Blaine (and enough of a sense of where their story's going) to go back to the vid ideas that took up so much of my brainspace last year but that I felt way too emotionally raw to actually make. Now I feel like I could finally make them -- except now for various reasons I am having trouble making time for vidding. So I'm sort of stuck in an emotional space with the show that the show itself has largely moved past, and it's making it hard to watch the episodes that are actually airing. Argh. Vidder problems! *waves hands*
Sleepy Hollow
Previously on Sleepy Hollow: our heroes chained up Death with a bunch of UV lights in a special basement made by Thomas Jefferson, and then shit really got weird! I love that the show has embraced the fact that it is completely fucking bonkers, not least because it helps distract me from the historical anachronisms and inaccuracies; I mean, who cares about the inaccuracies when they chained up Death in a basement? Bring the lunacy, is what I'm saying. I love Abbie Mills, I love Jenny Mills, I love Frank Irving, I love Jenny and Frank kinda-sorta-flirting over the prospect of Thanksgiving dinner and the fact that she made off with two of his guns -- seriously, that was one of the most delightful and unexpected things I have seen in ages. I am not that interested in Ichabod Crane on his own (though I will cop to being amused by Ichabod vs. the 21st century), but I am very much into his relationship with Abbie -- not in a 'shippy way, but in an Us Against The World way, which I am a total sucker for if it's done right. (Also, that baseball scene? COMEDY GOLD.) Basically I love that the show is giving me both Awesome Partner Dynamic and Awesome Ensemble Fun (I haven't even mentioned John Cho's Andy!) in one energetically demented package. And it doesn't hurt that, as a post I reblogged on Tumblr put it, Sleepy Hollow's cast is what we usually have to racebend to get. I have absolutely no idea where the show will go next (firing the horseman's head into the sun so that the resulting solar flares will kill demons on the moon? who the fuck even knows?), but thus far I'm enjoying the ride.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth || Read
comments on Dreamwidth
Agents of SHIELD
1x03 bored me so badly I almost quit watching, but the show's been on an upward trajectory since then, not least because there's been more Melinda May (my favorite by a mile). I was amused by the reminder, in the Thor tie-in ep, that part of SHIELD's function is as clean-up crew. I continue to be disturbed by the pervasive attitude of "Doing terrible things is okay as long as we're the ones doing them"; I am trying not to hope too hard that the show is eventually going to explode that assumption, because I am likely to be disappointed. In the meantime: still watching, but without much to say.
Almost Human
I am enjoying the John-and-Dorian dynamic, though I was surprised and frankly a bit disappointed that John's anti-Synthetic sentiment was so quickly dispatched in the pilot. (I did like the contrast between John's pointed use of "Synthetic" and Dorian's casual use of "man," and I would have liked it even better if the show hadn't pinned a ribbon on it.) I am very happy to be seeing Lili Taylor and Minka Kelly on a weekly basis; the show had better give them more to do pretty soon, though. I get that Kelly is decorative, but there's no reason for her to be just decorative.
Castle
This show continues to fill me with delight. As I said to
sdwolfpup in her journal a while back, I love that Castle and Beckett continue to be their partner-y, banter-y selves, only now with wedding jokes. What I love most about the show, and have for a while now, is that the relationships have a sense of history and continuity that is surprisingly nuanced for what is on the surface an utterly fluffy episodic show. The investigative procedural A-plot stuff continues to be cheerfully ridiculous 90% of the time, but interactions related to the characters' relationships to each other are always grounded in how they feel about each other and relate to each other. And I love that even though the show is fundamentally optimistic about relationships -- everybody really CARES about each other -- that doesn't mean everything is sweetness and light all the time. Castle is often genuinely annoyed with Martha. Alexis is seriously mad at her dad after the way he treated Pi, and she has every right to be mad (even though Pi is super annoying) and to refuse to accept Castle's non-apology. AND YET none of that changes the fact that they really love each other; love and irritation can totally coexist!
Elementary
Case of the week blah blah whatever; I'm here for the Joan-and-Sherlock dynamic. (Well, okay, the Mycroft thing was interesting; I'm curious to see where that goes.) I especially loved their recent discussions of whether Sherlock is "nice," his insistence that "nice" requires energy that most people don't merit, and Joan's quiet refusal to be mollified by Sherlock's insistence that she is Special. I like that their relationship is continuing to develop and that the show is sowing the seeds of what could at some point become a major conflict between them.
Glee
I was beginning to worry that the writers had thrown us the bone of a Kurt/Blaine engagement so they could get away with never having the characters interact (or even mention interacting) again, and mercifully the past couple of eps have allayed that concern. On the other hand, the past few eps have also pounded on my secondhand embarrassment squick with a force and directness that has been painful. Win some, lose some.
I am feeling a bit out of sync with the show at the moment, partly because I am so so so over the Lima parts of the show and so desperate for The School Year That Would Not End to just fucking END already, but also because I finally feel like I have enough equilibrium about Kurt/Blaine (and enough of a sense of where their story's going) to go back to the vid ideas that took up so much of my brainspace last year but that I felt way too emotionally raw to actually make. Now I feel like I could finally make them -- except now for various reasons I am having trouble making time for vidding. So I'm sort of stuck in an emotional space with the show that the show itself has largely moved past, and it's making it hard to watch the episodes that are actually airing. Argh. Vidder problems! *waves hands*
Sleepy Hollow
Previously on Sleepy Hollow: our heroes chained up Death with a bunch of UV lights in a special basement made by Thomas Jefferson, and then shit really got weird! I love that the show has embraced the fact that it is completely fucking bonkers, not least because it helps distract me from the historical anachronisms and inaccuracies; I mean, who cares about the inaccuracies when they chained up Death in a basement? Bring the lunacy, is what I'm saying. I love Abbie Mills, I love Jenny Mills, I love Frank Irving, I love Jenny and Frank kinda-sorta-flirting over the prospect of Thanksgiving dinner and the fact that she made off with two of his guns -- seriously, that was one of the most delightful and unexpected things I have seen in ages. I am not that interested in Ichabod Crane on his own (though I will cop to being amused by Ichabod vs. the 21st century), but I am very much into his relationship with Abbie -- not in a 'shippy way, but in an Us Against The World way, which I am a total sucker for if it's done right. (Also, that baseball scene? COMEDY GOLD.) Basically I love that the show is giving me both Awesome Partner Dynamic and Awesome Ensemble Fun (I haven't even mentioned John Cho's Andy!) in one energetically demented package. And it doesn't hurt that, as a post I reblogged on Tumblr put it, Sleepy Hollow's cast is what we usually have to racebend to get. I have absolutely no idea where the show will go next (firing the horseman's head into the sun so that the resulting solar flares will kill demons on the moon? who the fuck even knows?), but thus far I'm enjoying the ride.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth || Read
comments on Dreamwidth