TV Meme: Day 17. Two memes for the price of one.
Day 17 - Favorite mini series: Elizabeth I (2005)
This was a really amazing HBO miniseries starring Dame Helen Mirren as Good Queen Bess (which she won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for), and she knocks it out of the park, of course. Also, Jeremy Irons was Robert/Robin Dudley Earl of Leicester (her long-time emotional lover), and Hugh Dancy was the Earl of Essex (her later boy-toy), and they were great, too. Also, Ian McDiarmid was William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, and Toby Jones was Robert Cecil. Emperor Palpatine and the Dream Lord as a politically savvy father-and-son team. Bizarrely fitting.
I love this miniseries because I'm a Tudor freak (though I haven't blogged much about it), and this is not overly sexualized like The Tudors or The Other Boleyn Girl sadly, I loved that book. There are no sex scenes---she makes out with Essex and I think Leicester kisses her neck, but that's it. Other awesome thing: it portrays Elizabeth as a capable leader who could be a cold bitch, but was also capable of mercy and sympathy---she could hardly ever afford to show it, though. They did go off the historical record by having her meet Mary, Queen of Scots face-to-face, but I think that heightened the emotional tension of her decision to her Mary executed, so I can forgive that for dramatic purposes.
I actually rented Part II first by accident, but then I watched Part I, and it still made sense.
I think my runner up for this category would be Anne of Green Gables because it's Anne of Green Gables and the entire cast was perfect. But my inner Tudor-obsessed historical fiction geek won out.
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this t.v season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite t.v show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite t.v show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you’ve watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best t.v show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First t.v show obsession
Day 29 - Current t.v show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
I accidentally got too excited and did this meme backwards:
'Reply and I'll give you four fandoms. You then have to make an entry writing about your favorite character from each fandom, and why.'
So here are my fandom picks:
The A-Team
Hmmm...Face or Murdock? Face or Murdock? Murdock. He's so wonderfully zany and fun and oddly intriguing. Weirdly, he's probably the most complicated character in the whole show, with regards to his questionable insanity. He's just such an entertaining trickster character that I can't help but love him. Here's a compilation of clips of Murdock's awesome.
People may think I'm nuts, but I also think Murdock has this extra tragic layer to him: he is the only member of the A-Team who wasn't charged with the crime, so while Hannibal, Face, and B. A. accept him as an integral part of the team, the military and the media do not. In fact, there was a Season 3 episode where they confront some evil A-Team impostors who only have three members, and Murdock becomes increasingly disgruntled and depressed about this as the plot progresses. Dwight played it so well that I thought we were going to get some permanent character development, but then Hannibal quickly calmed Murdock down with some half-assed crap about the Unknown Soldier and how some incredibly important people are kept secret. Really, show? You couldn't try harder?
The other aspect of this tragic slant is that Murdock may be faking his insanity to get free room and board at the V. A. Hospital, but also because if he's discharged into the real world, he can't run with the A-Team anymore. Hannibal, Face, and B. A. are not just his best friends, but his only friends. He has no one else to fall back on, and therefore cannot move on with his life because of this. In the last S1 episode "the Belly of the Beast from Boeing," Murdock shows up with papers saying he's been declared sane, and he proclaims, "My career is over!" Then, at the end of the episode, he guides Hannibal through the steps of flying a jet with his eyes closed the whole time (a gun discharged in his face), and when they land, he says, "Maybe they'll let me fly these things now that I'm not crazy." So that's my evidence for that. Of course, this show being what it is, he ends up being insane again. Alas...
I just feel like Murdock had all this untapped potential to be a really deep character. I might be as crazy as he may be, and I'm weirdly okay with that.
Doctor Who
visiblemarket already did an awesome analysis of Donna Noble (and I covered her in the TV meme), so I'm going to pick the Doctor. All of him. He's just this wonderfully powerful yet incredibly flawed being, and he's completely aware of that, even if he won't always admit it to his companions. Ten seemed to have momentarily forgotten about that, but he remembered shortly before he regenerated. Anyway, the Doctor is so fascinating because he has had so many different personalities, and yet they all somehow fit together to make a unified persona: eccentric, genius, witty, dangerous, reckless, cunning, manipulative, caring (though he may not always show it). I've seen shades of the Doctor in other characters (Murdock, for instance), but I've never found another character quite like him in fiction.
You know how some people keep wondering what his real name is? I don't care if we ever find out. He's the Doctor, and that's good enough for me.
Inglourious Basterds
Again, visiblemarket did a wonderful job with Shosanna, so I'm picking Hugo Stiglitz. Whom everyone in the German army has heard of. ;)
Basically, who the hell is this guy? We don't know a lot about most of the characters, but Stiglitz seems the most outright mysterious to me. Why did he kill those thirteen Gestapo officers? Did he have some sort of definitive motive or does he just love killing? Does he have any sense of morality? Did a specific event in his life make him the way he is or was he always just a sociopath? Does he actually care about anything?
My personal answer is that Stiglitz does whatever he wants because he wants to, but I'm not sure that's deep enough.
Interestingly, while the two characters above love to talk, I love that Stiglitz is so quiet. He can convey so much in simple expressions. Especially that badass bitchface. He is as concise as possible in both English and German when he does speak and well, that's just a quality that I really like about him.
Basically, Stiglitz falls into my "supporting characters that I adore" category.
Torchwood
You know this one: Captain John Hart. I know he's only in two episodes, but he just makes such a strong impression. He is so uninhibited and seemingly careless, and yet he's actually pretty calculating. After rewatching his episodes several times, I noticed that the fact that his position as Jack's parallel opposite is evident not just in their names (Jack vs. John, "Captain," CJH), but also in his appearance: long, blue military coat vs. short, red one; suspenders vs. belt; boots beneath pants vs. pants tucked into boots; and spiked-up vs. slicked-back hair. I think he's also a reflection of what Jack could have become if he hadn't met the Doctor, and I find that fascinating. Then my mind thinks this: what if John met the Doctor?
I don't have a gigantic fanon backstory for Captain John, but I have thought of this: if Jack came from a loving family, then John was a mean street kid. Seems appropriate.
So tired. Need sleep.