My TV life
So, there isn't really much going on in my life right now apart from some serious catching up with various TV shows. Among those being targetted are Dollhouse, Castle, Chuck and then the last few episodes of SPN and Southland.
I still have lots to watch of Castle, but I'm totally seeing why so many people love it.
I'm slowly finding Dollhouse to be compulsive viewing.
I'm finding it very compelling and once I hit episodes 6-8 I literally could stop watching until I ran out of episodes (guess what's downloading as we speak? Also guess who has already pre-booked the DVDs for the end of July? Yep. Me.).
I still get uncomfortable watching, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; I think it makes for a really interesting show. There are moments when I love each and every character and moments when, well, I really don't.
The episodes that really stand out in my mind are the ones where we find out that Sierra's handler has been raping her, the one where Echo, Victor, Sierra and - crap, what's Mellie's code name? - "escape" and the one where everyone loses their minds.
And here are some random thoughts and observations from those episodes, in no particular order (mostly because I watched them in such quick sucsession that I can't actually remember what happens in each episode)
The internet dude who has Echo substitute for his dead wife: I both feel for him and kinda hate him. What happened with his wife is so sad and horrible thing to happen but really, does that honestly excuse essentially raping another woman?
I do love what we are finding out about the Dollhouse: loads of them across the world (which means Adelle has a boss - interesting) and also the fact that there are contracts involved. Fucking contracts, people. I just...That adds a whole degree of difficulty to the moraity of Dollhouse.
They chose people who want to get away from the lives they previously had - for whatever reason. They promise them...well, they promised Sam that his mom would be provided for very generously...so i assume they make similar such promises to all of them and then (if Adelle is to be believed) they store those personalities for five years and then you get your life back and oddles of hazard pay.
How much do the dolls know is going to happen to them? Do they give blanket permission? I mean, it's not like I think it's okay for all these people (because, although it's not shown, the guys are also totally used for sex, too) to be used for sex, but it does change things if the people know sex (and other stuff) is going to be involved.
How much did I love Boyd when he worked out what was going on with Sierra's handler? I cheered heartily when he punched him through the glass. I also loved how, although several people mentioned what he did, none of them disapproved; it seemed to be almost admiring (especially Topher).
Dr Saunders is possibly the one who scares me the most: she came up with the idea of letting the dolls escape - all that wish fulfillment. She seems so timid but I think that's just a good disguise.
I loved seeing Sierra and Victor as they were before they were wiped - even if they didn't have their memories. Despite this being about Echo and Caroline, I find that I'm more interested in Sierra and Victor; they seem so much cooler.
Is it weird and slightly wrong that I prefer Echo to Caroline? Caroline, well, she bugs me. I really don't find her all that compelling.
To me the FBI angle - so far, with what I've seen - seems to be the most under developed angle of the show. In the earlier episodes it seemed almost shoe-horned in there. It's better now he's been suspended.
Can I just say that I love how badass Ballard is. He got shot and then he took down three armed men. How. Fucking. Cool. And then there was his fight with Echo. Now that was an awesome and amazing fight. It totally, totally rocked.
[Also, someone is trying to contact Ballard. Is that a game within a game or is it something seperate - something Adele hasn't foreseen and planned for?)
But the way Paul is being played, well, that's kind of amazing. Poor guy. Totally feel for him. But Dollhouse are being SO fucking clever about it. They are all about giving people what they need/want.
I can't even begin to imagine how gutted and torn up Paul is going to feel when he finds out Mellie is a Doll. He hates what's being done to them and how they are being used. There is no way he isn't going to hate himself for using one, too, even though he is being used here as much as Mellie is.
And how messed up is it that he was thinking of giving up looking for the Dollhouse to protect Mellie when Mellie is more of a missing link than Caroline/Echo is.
I about fell off the counch when Topher made Victor an NSA agent, who therefore outranked Lawrence. Lawrence's muttered 'Topher' was fucking hilarious (and also the moment I thought Topher/Lawrence slash and then shook my head to try and clear my head of that thought).
And Victor coaxing Lawrence to give him the gun was brilliant.
All in all I can't wait to see the final four episodes and I'm utterly delighted that Dollhosue has been renewed for a new season.
And wow, NCIS, that was a tad cliff-hangery wasn't it?
Well, shit. It really is no surprise that Michael is dead. Slimey bastard. Seriously? Ziva found him even a little bit attractive? Why?
I was really worried that Ziva was going to kill him to save Tony, basically Ari all over again. But that didn't happen. Tony shot him. I kind of loved that. Tony was kind of bad ass in that fight.
But what will Ziva do now?
Although, you know Gibbs is going to be on Tony's side: he told him to keep digging because he liked what was going on about as much as Tony did.
Ziva really was blind when it came to Michael, wasn't she? I can't decide if she really thought he was there for her or if she was desperately trying to get a reaction out of Tony. There is no doubt in my mind that she wants Tony to be jealous, but really, I just don't see that in him here.
I tried to. As I watched Tony become more concerned for Ziva, I tried to view it as jealousy, but I couldn't. I didn't hear any jealous language or any jealous body language.
Tony seemed more concerned that Ziva was putting herself in an impossible position and that it was going to compromise both her integrity and the security of NCIS and America. Tony's concerns were of such a bigger picture than Ziva's.
It worries me that for someone who has seen the big picture in so many episodes - often to the annoyance of Tony - Ziva was so blind to the other posibilities that could exist and refused to share any information that could have been helpful to the team.
I really hope that next season
a) There is no Tony/Ziva romance. I used to find their flirting kind of cute, but now I find Ziva just cringworthy with all her Tony hang-ups
b) Tony and Gibbs give her hell for essentially leaving them hanging
Other than the Tony-Ziva drama...
I swear I thought the british chick was a baddie - instead she's just really rather incompetent
And seriously, please don't be having british people doing American accents - it throws me right out. An American drawl with a crisp british undertone sounds plain wrong. It's like there is a MI6 spy in ICE and no-one noticed *eyeroll*
I loved and adored Fornell being there. And Ducky demonstrating how the victim died on Fornell and Gibbs being so obviously amused was hilarious.
Ziva and Tony tag-teaming the british chick was so very cool. Although I was less amused by her beating Abby in her own lab. That was so wrong.
And yay, we heard how Callen is doing. Thank you, Gibbs, for giving us that.
And my new love seems to be Flashpoint.
Ed Lane rocked more than even I thought was possible and I think Ed rocks pretty hard.
On a shallow note, Ed looked very mighty fine in that coat as he walked through SRU HQ at the beginning. I did love how he confounded everyone with how jolly and happy he was.
Greg being all intimidating with that gang member was hilarious. We so rarely get to see Greg go badass. Also very fun was watching both him and Ed going badass on the gang member.
You know, a running gun battle in a hospital is never a good idea. For reals.
I very rarely like canon pairings, but damn, Jules and Sam are just too cute.
When Matty got the gun, I was just chanting at the TV 'Shit, Ed, do something. Shit, Ed, do something' until he stepped in front of the gun and talked the kid down. And then Ed just hugging him and telling him it'll be okay he he wasn't going to leave him when the shift was over. Damn, but, oh, ED you are really amazing.
My favourite bit by far was the end review, though. That was funny and sweet and quite lovely.
Greg congratulating Sam and Jules for getting through the day with no PDAs was so funny as was the look Sam gave Greg.
But I loved how he gave them all the credit they deserved. And gave true props to Spike's truly awesome takedown - I might have cheered because that was a tackle worthy of Morgan *g*
And finally all the slashy goodness of Criminal Minds
I'd read a lot of reviews before going into this episode (how can I resist mentions of Reid/Morgan goodness?) and I have decided that I agree with one sentiment and disagree with the other.
The one I agree with is Prentiss - boy, but was she annoying. I've never seen her have such a problem with keeping information away from the public before. Or at least, not that I remember. That just plain annoyed me. She seemed to be getting all moralistic for no good reason. Although, having said that, I did love her telling Rossi to not 'Emily' her. That was hilarious.
Then there is JJ - I get why it would annoy people, but I'm still inclined to give her some slack. Having a kid is a huge shift in priorities. From everything people have told me and what I've seen in friends with kids, things that seemed simple no longer are, because you sudden;ly find yourself more concerned about you child than you thought possible. And really, Henry is only so many months old and I can well believe that trying to not let cases affect you while your hormones are still not exactly settled, isn't the easiest thing to do. Also, this was the first big crisis case that JJ's had to cope with since becoming a mom, so I think her reactions were totally valid.
And really, if she had been fine with everything, I think a lot of people would have been complaining that she was a bit of a bitch for not even mentioning Henry once.
I loved Garcia saying that she'd break the rules for family and loved ones, and then going, 'what protocol?' as if realising that what she was agreeing to might not be a good idea.
When The General walked in, I was all like, 'Wonder Years Dad'!!!
My love for Garcia can't be textually rendered and about cried right along with her when Reid was giving her his message for his mum *sniffs*
And then there is all the Reid/Morgan stuff, which, obviously, I loved.
The bit where Reid pulls the door closed and his heartbreaking 'I'm sorry' to Morgan and Morgan's look of horror *hugs them both tightly*
And then he refuses to leave Reid *hugs Morgan tightly*
He does not do well when other members of the team are in danger, does he? He doesn't mind when it's him, but the moment someone else is in the danger zone, he doesn't like it and he's extra bad when it's Reid.
A soaking wet Reid is a lovely thing indeed. But poor Morgan was just so worried about, you know, Reid maybe dying, that he just couldn't properly appreciate it.
Morgan's face when Hotch said about focusing on the case, he looked like he was in agony and he had to take a moment so that he didn't go running off to check on Reid.
And Morgan looked so at home sitting by Reid's bed, eating his jello. And Reid wasn't surprised to see him there. Oh, but I love them both so much.
There was also some talk about how Morgan refused to do as Hotch said and some stuff - I can't quite remember it, but I read that differently as well.
Morgan likes to protect everyone and seeing as, in his eyes, he failed at protecting Reid, he couldn't let anyone else go into a potentially dangerous situation without him. It seemed like total Morgan behaviour to me.
And in my brain, everyone knew that Morgan was with Reid and they are just waiting for him to call and tell them to get their butts in to see Reid *nods*
I'm going to watch Numb3rs when I get home *bites fingernails*
On a couple of unrelated notes
1) MANCHESTER UNITED are Champions yet again *does a jig of joy*
2) My Expo ticket came on Thursday, so I now have my Celebrity Scocer and Expo tickets and am getting excited at the prospect of seeing Merlin peeps with so many crazed Merlin fans
3) If customers don't want a bag, why do they watch as I put their book in a bag, and then tell me they don't need a bag? Fucking irritating is what is it.
I still have lots to watch of Castle, but I'm totally seeing why so many people love it.
I'm slowly finding Dollhouse to be compulsive viewing.
I'm finding it very compelling and once I hit episodes 6-8 I literally could stop watching until I ran out of episodes (guess what's downloading as we speak? Also guess who has already pre-booked the DVDs for the end of July? Yep. Me.).
I still get uncomfortable watching, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; I think it makes for a really interesting show. There are moments when I love each and every character and moments when, well, I really don't.
The episodes that really stand out in my mind are the ones where we find out that Sierra's handler has been raping her, the one where Echo, Victor, Sierra and - crap, what's Mellie's code name? - "escape" and the one where everyone loses their minds.
And here are some random thoughts and observations from those episodes, in no particular order (mostly because I watched them in such quick sucsession that I can't actually remember what happens in each episode)
The internet dude who has Echo substitute for his dead wife: I both feel for him and kinda hate him. What happened with his wife is so sad and horrible thing to happen but really, does that honestly excuse essentially raping another woman?
I do love what we are finding out about the Dollhouse: loads of them across the world (which means Adelle has a boss - interesting) and also the fact that there are contracts involved. Fucking contracts, people. I just...That adds a whole degree of difficulty to the moraity of Dollhouse.
They chose people who want to get away from the lives they previously had - for whatever reason. They promise them...well, they promised Sam that his mom would be provided for very generously...so i assume they make similar such promises to all of them and then (if Adelle is to be believed) they store those personalities for five years and then you get your life back and oddles of hazard pay.
How much do the dolls know is going to happen to them? Do they give blanket permission? I mean, it's not like I think it's okay for all these people (because, although it's not shown, the guys are also totally used for sex, too) to be used for sex, but it does change things if the people know sex (and other stuff) is going to be involved.
How much did I love Boyd when he worked out what was going on with Sierra's handler? I cheered heartily when he punched him through the glass. I also loved how, although several people mentioned what he did, none of them disapproved; it seemed to be almost admiring (especially Topher).
Dr Saunders is possibly the one who scares me the most: she came up with the idea of letting the dolls escape - all that wish fulfillment. She seems so timid but I think that's just a good disguise.
I loved seeing Sierra and Victor as they were before they were wiped - even if they didn't have their memories. Despite this being about Echo and Caroline, I find that I'm more interested in Sierra and Victor; they seem so much cooler.
Is it weird and slightly wrong that I prefer Echo to Caroline? Caroline, well, she bugs me. I really don't find her all that compelling.
To me the FBI angle - so far, with what I've seen - seems to be the most under developed angle of the show. In the earlier episodes it seemed almost shoe-horned in there. It's better now he's been suspended.
Can I just say that I love how badass Ballard is. He got shot and then he took down three armed men. How. Fucking. Cool. And then there was his fight with Echo. Now that was an awesome and amazing fight. It totally, totally rocked.
[Also, someone is trying to contact Ballard. Is that a game within a game or is it something seperate - something Adele hasn't foreseen and planned for?)
But the way Paul is being played, well, that's kind of amazing. Poor guy. Totally feel for him. But Dollhouse are being SO fucking clever about it. They are all about giving people what they need/want.
I can't even begin to imagine how gutted and torn up Paul is going to feel when he finds out Mellie is a Doll. He hates what's being done to them and how they are being used. There is no way he isn't going to hate himself for using one, too, even though he is being used here as much as Mellie is.
And how messed up is it that he was thinking of giving up looking for the Dollhouse to protect Mellie when Mellie is more of a missing link than Caroline/Echo is.
I about fell off the counch when Topher made Victor an NSA agent, who therefore outranked Lawrence. Lawrence's muttered 'Topher' was fucking hilarious (and also the moment I thought Topher/Lawrence slash and then shook my head to try and clear my head of that thought).
And Victor coaxing Lawrence to give him the gun was brilliant.
All in all I can't wait to see the final four episodes and I'm utterly delighted that Dollhosue has been renewed for a new season.
And wow, NCIS, that was a tad cliff-hangery wasn't it?
Well, shit. It really is no surprise that Michael is dead. Slimey bastard. Seriously? Ziva found him even a little bit attractive? Why?
I was really worried that Ziva was going to kill him to save Tony, basically Ari all over again. But that didn't happen. Tony shot him. I kind of loved that. Tony was kind of bad ass in that fight.
But what will Ziva do now?
Although, you know Gibbs is going to be on Tony's side: he told him to keep digging because he liked what was going on about as much as Tony did.
Ziva really was blind when it came to Michael, wasn't she? I can't decide if she really thought he was there for her or if she was desperately trying to get a reaction out of Tony. There is no doubt in my mind that she wants Tony to be jealous, but really, I just don't see that in him here.
I tried to. As I watched Tony become more concerned for Ziva, I tried to view it as jealousy, but I couldn't. I didn't hear any jealous language or any jealous body language.
Tony seemed more concerned that Ziva was putting herself in an impossible position and that it was going to compromise both her integrity and the security of NCIS and America. Tony's concerns were of such a bigger picture than Ziva's.
It worries me that for someone who has seen the big picture in so many episodes - often to the annoyance of Tony - Ziva was so blind to the other posibilities that could exist and refused to share any information that could have been helpful to the team.
I really hope that next season
a) There is no Tony/Ziva romance. I used to find their flirting kind of cute, but now I find Ziva just cringworthy with all her Tony hang-ups
b) Tony and Gibbs give her hell for essentially leaving them hanging
Other than the Tony-Ziva drama...
I swear I thought the british chick was a baddie - instead she's just really rather incompetent
And seriously, please don't be having british people doing American accents - it throws me right out. An American drawl with a crisp british undertone sounds plain wrong. It's like there is a MI6 spy in ICE and no-one noticed *eyeroll*
I loved and adored Fornell being there. And Ducky demonstrating how the victim died on Fornell and Gibbs being so obviously amused was hilarious.
Ziva and Tony tag-teaming the british chick was so very cool. Although I was less amused by her beating Abby in her own lab. That was so wrong.
And yay, we heard how Callen is doing. Thank you, Gibbs, for giving us that.
And my new love seems to be Flashpoint.
Ed Lane rocked more than even I thought was possible and I think Ed rocks pretty hard.
On a shallow note, Ed looked very mighty fine in that coat as he walked through SRU HQ at the beginning. I did love how he confounded everyone with how jolly and happy he was.
Greg being all intimidating with that gang member was hilarious. We so rarely get to see Greg go badass. Also very fun was watching both him and Ed going badass on the gang member.
You know, a running gun battle in a hospital is never a good idea. For reals.
I very rarely like canon pairings, but damn, Jules and Sam are just too cute.
When Matty got the gun, I was just chanting at the TV 'Shit, Ed, do something. Shit, Ed, do something' until he stepped in front of the gun and talked the kid down. And then Ed just hugging him and telling him it'll be okay he he wasn't going to leave him when the shift was over. Damn, but, oh, ED you are really amazing.
My favourite bit by far was the end review, though. That was funny and sweet and quite lovely.
Greg congratulating Sam and Jules for getting through the day with no PDAs was so funny as was the look Sam gave Greg.
But I loved how he gave them all the credit they deserved. And gave true props to Spike's truly awesome takedown - I might have cheered because that was a tackle worthy of Morgan *g*
And finally all the slashy goodness of Criminal Minds
I'd read a lot of reviews before going into this episode (how can I resist mentions of Reid/Morgan goodness?) and I have decided that I agree with one sentiment and disagree with the other.
The one I agree with is Prentiss - boy, but was she annoying. I've never seen her have such a problem with keeping information away from the public before. Or at least, not that I remember. That just plain annoyed me. She seemed to be getting all moralistic for no good reason. Although, having said that, I did love her telling Rossi to not 'Emily' her. That was hilarious.
Then there is JJ - I get why it would annoy people, but I'm still inclined to give her some slack. Having a kid is a huge shift in priorities. From everything people have told me and what I've seen in friends with kids, things that seemed simple no longer are, because you sudden;ly find yourself more concerned about you child than you thought possible. And really, Henry is only so many months old and I can well believe that trying to not let cases affect you while your hormones are still not exactly settled, isn't the easiest thing to do. Also, this was the first big crisis case that JJ's had to cope with since becoming a mom, so I think her reactions were totally valid.
And really, if she had been fine with everything, I think a lot of people would have been complaining that she was a bit of a bitch for not even mentioning Henry once.
I loved Garcia saying that she'd break the rules for family and loved ones, and then going, 'what protocol?' as if realising that what she was agreeing to might not be a good idea.
When The General walked in, I was all like, 'Wonder Years Dad'!!!
My love for Garcia can't be textually rendered and about cried right along with her when Reid was giving her his message for his mum *sniffs*
And then there is all the Reid/Morgan stuff, which, obviously, I loved.
The bit where Reid pulls the door closed and his heartbreaking 'I'm sorry' to Morgan and Morgan's look of horror *hugs them both tightly*
And then he refuses to leave Reid *hugs Morgan tightly*
He does not do well when other members of the team are in danger, does he? He doesn't mind when it's him, but the moment someone else is in the danger zone, he doesn't like it and he's extra bad when it's Reid.
A soaking wet Reid is a lovely thing indeed. But poor Morgan was just so worried about, you know, Reid maybe dying, that he just couldn't properly appreciate it.
Morgan's face when Hotch said about focusing on the case, he looked like he was in agony and he had to take a moment so that he didn't go running off to check on Reid.
And Morgan looked so at home sitting by Reid's bed, eating his jello. And Reid wasn't surprised to see him there. Oh, but I love them both so much.
There was also some talk about how Morgan refused to do as Hotch said and some stuff - I can't quite remember it, but I read that differently as well.
Morgan likes to protect everyone and seeing as, in his eyes, he failed at protecting Reid, he couldn't let anyone else go into a potentially dangerous situation without him. It seemed like total Morgan behaviour to me.
And in my brain, everyone knew that Morgan was with Reid and they are just waiting for him to call and tell them to get their butts in to see Reid *nods*
I'm going to watch Numb3rs when I get home *bites fingernails*
On a couple of unrelated notes
1) MANCHESTER UNITED are Champions yet again *does a jig of joy*
2) My Expo ticket came on Thursday, so I now have my Celebrity Scocer and Expo tickets and am getting excited at the prospect of seeing Merlin peeps with so many crazed Merlin fans
3) If customers don't want a bag, why do they watch as I put their book in a bag, and then tell me they don't need a bag? Fucking irritating is what is it.