Being Human 5x02. Sticks and Rope. Alex, Queen of Hearts
Okay, this may have been a bit better than the premiere for me. Thank you, Alex, for being so gorgeous, funny and heartwrenching at the same time. Thank you, Kate, for doing such a magnificent job. So, I'd say, 80 % happy squee, 20 % will-you-stop-fucking-up-my-fav-show-please! XD Shall we? ;)
Previously: 5x01, The Trinity
1. I'll start with Alex's Bucket List (which was finally an additional scene and not like it was with Hal/Lady Catherine last time, so yay!). Can we stop for a moment to fully appreciate the awesomeness of this:
(c) insouuciant
A.k.a. Tom knows who Iron Man is!
And then this:
(c) insouuciant
A.k.a. so does Hal! Yes, as you might have already figured out, I do love Tony Stark, RDJ, Iron Man and The Avengers. And now I imagine them all watching that. Hal would be so unimpressed. Tom would be a not-so-secret fanboy and Alex would just swoon over RDJ. XD
Kissing someone who you happen to like in a film is not your unfinished business. You couldn't be more wrong, Hal, sweetheart. ;)
Also, this:
(c) halyorke
How much cuter can this girl be? XD
Then: Find Mum. Haunt Mum. And now we know this (strictly speaking, rather predictable) part. Still sad.
Swim with sharks, be wooed in Paris, steal a priceless diamond, read someone's diary... The epic high-five with Tom - awww! This is the broship to end all broships!
And finally: get revenge on Rook. "Not nasty revenge, not stabby revenge." Now I want to know what "harmless" revenge looks like, in her opinion, especially since in the last episode she pomised him that she would one day watch him die.
2. And this precious girl continues saving this sinking Titanic for me. We open with a heartbreaking scene of her and her brother Dickie.
(c) beinghumangifs
It's wonderful to finally see Alex's oft-mentioned brothers (and to have one of them actually say something). We now know cool little tidbits about her family, including some names: Brendan (the father), Ryan (whose name we knew from series 4), Dickie and the third unnamed one. And that her Mum left when she was 17. All that is great for ficwriting. XD As to the heart-wrenching effects of this scene: cross my heart and hope to die - BBC, I hate you. *sobs*
3. Alex wanted to be a concert pianist. Quite unsurprisingly, she sucks at it, as we learn later. To be honest, I'd much rather she was good at it because so far she's only confirming Hal's impression that she's good at screwing things up. That's a bit predictable, isn't it? So far, they've been so well with Alex. She's very layered and she's shown unexpected sides to her time and again. She's tough but she can be vulnerable, she's snippy but she's very kind-hearted, she's easily annoyed but endlessly patient at the same time. I kind of would have liked to rub something in Hal's face because he seems to have a rigid opinion about her. By the way, loved the scene, in which she teaches him to suck at his job. XD I've got a dancer's back. Yes, you do, hawtness. ;)
4. Oliver. I think he was hilarious. XD
Alex: I think the house is haunted!
Hal: Alex, there's no easy way to say it-
Alex: No, not me, you idiot! There's another one. You have to come home.
And then they're all scared of one little child ghostie. XD Also, the face and the sound Hal makes indicating his vampirism is the single most hilarious thing he's ever done.
(c) galadrield
I actually love all the little funny noises Hal makes occasionally (like the mocking laugh in the night club basement when Alex was annoying him in 4x07).
And then there's Oliver who is funny, cute, extremely annoying, touching and a tad bit creepy. ;) Gotta love his coughing fits (It's ill. It's a child and now it's ill. - I love you, Hal, but are you stupid? He's a ghost, he can't be ill. XD), his "lordly" manners, his nineteenth-century arrogance (is the B&B really that old? O_o) - and he seems to have a crush on Alex. XD
Alex: So why have you come out of hiding?
Oliver: Because I saw you. And I know you're not much to look at but one can't have everything. What did happen to your hair by the way? Some sort of industrial accident?
Are you still wondering why I love this kid? ;))) Maybe because he says all this while riding Tom. Maybe it's the accent. Maybe it's because old-fashioned children are always increasingly creepy (I mean, look at the way he's dressed and the way he talks!). Oh, and: Blankie! XDDD
I love it that Alex, while initially annoyed with Oliver, comes to take care of him like a big sister. It's clear how much she misses her brothers (she can't stop talking about them even if it's also clear that she was practically the most grown-up person in the household and had to be responsible for everything). Love the scene, in which she talks about Dickie looking up the symptoms online but not the diagnosis (menopause, LOL). It's funny but also heartbreaking.
They're men and they're idiots. Truer words, Alex. XDDD
Then there's Oliver's party. Which is hilarious any way you look at it because: poor Alex! LOL at Hal! Awww, Tom! I think, actually, that it's as much fun for Tom as it is for Oliver because Tom never had such parties as a kid and, like he says, everyone deserves that.
(c) beinghumangifs
Gotta love the confrontation that followed, too. Never have I met a less lady-like lady. I really doubt Alex had faced this problem before, but for some reason, everyone keeps telling her how unladylike she is, even, indirectly, Tom when he tries to treat her as a lady. I'm sure she's getting real tired of this shit. XD Especially, LOL, you can't conjugate Latin verbs. I think I died here. XD
But of course, things couldn't be that simple. We find out about Oliver's tragic death (a suicide at his age! T_T) In light of that, I absolutely love Alex hanging out with him, riding the dodgems, trying to make him (and by extension, herself, since she never did get to keep her promise to Dickie) feel better.
(c) beinghumangifs
Alex is a really awesome big sister. Like Tom says, she's "dead good with kids". <3 Not being good with them myself (I'm kind of like Hal in that respect; we don't mix), I find this skill pretty awesome, esp. since it requires unlimited patience. And Alex has it. (And the empty car at the dodgems spooking everyone is just funny. XD)
It's heart-wrenching that Alex should offer herself up to the men with sticks and rope in Oliver's place, especially since he's technically been working for Hatch all this time. But I loved it that the confrontation took place without Hal and Tom being present. This was Alex's episode through and through. She got the closure she needed, both through Oliver and via having one last look at her brothers and now she's staying.
5. Words can't express how much I love the scene that shows her saying goodbye to her brothers (hence the separate paragraph and all XD). I love the colouring. It makes things look almost unreal. Her brothers are cute (and we can see Ryan's infamous tattoo, unless it's a different one. ;)
Note that there are at least three photos of Alex in the room: those two on the mantelpiece and the one Dickie is looking at when he says: "Love you, sis."
I love the little moment when Hal is trying to be understanding about this being "time to say goodbye." Not to you, you idiot. To them. Oh, Alex. <333
The music is beautiful, haunting and very fitting for the scene:
6. As for the men with sticks and rope, they were okay, but I'm inclined to agree with Annie's assessment of them in 4x08: they're mostly just SFX, nothing to really be scared of. Actually, they seemed far scarier when we didn't see them, like in series 2. And predictably, they're working for the Devil and I - predictably - fucking hate it b/c it's dumb. If they are guardians of the afterlife and working for the Devil, does it mean the Devil pretty much governs the other side? Or are there "good" men with sticks and rope? Anyway, this would have been a letdown if I had expected anything good.
7. LOL Dominic continues being the star of this show along with Alex. To feed Fugly (a.k.a. Crumb) his own sister and niece, that was brutal and almost-but-not-quite made me feel sorry for Fugly. I suppose I could have tried harder, but then, so could he. Also, LOL Dominic has a pen fetish or what? ;)
Gotta love dorky Alan looking at his pen when Rook says that his is very special. XD How does Rook work with his people? Basically, this episode is about Alex and LOL Dominic running their own kindergartens. XD
One of the many things I love about Rook is that he's absolutely merciless when it comes to "greater good" the way he sees it, but he's far from being unaffected by his own actions. He clearly has a little panic attack when he finds out Fugly's niece is in the room. His face conveys such a turmoil - and yet, he promptly decides that it's a sacrifice worth making. When he pushes Fugly inside and sees his face when Fugly's realized what his family is there for, it's easy to see that Rook is shocked, perhaps disgusted with himself, but he can see no other way. He's protecting the world from evil after all.
8. Hal and Tom had their moments, but it wasn't really their episode. I found their competition all right, but the whole Hatch manipulating Tom echoed Kirby too much (and Kirby did it much better). I actually liked Hatch's scene with Hal. I wonder if he recognizes Hal from the ritual ground in 5x01...
Now, on to the stuff I did not like. As it was last time: I don't intend to insult anyone's preferences, but I'm not going to tone down my emotions, so I advise you to stop reading if you are a fan of Crumb, Hatch and their storylines.
9. Hatch still doesn't impress me in any way. He is not scary, he is not awe-inspiring, he's not even very subtle. His monologue at the end of the episode was extremely tacky and completely out of BH style. I (perhaps, naively) kept expecting some cracktastic punchline in the style of Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods when a character utters a similar apocalyptic speech on the phone and then asks if he's on speaker phone while everybody is laughing at him. Unfortunately, BH delivered none of that. More than that, it's a clear example of how quite often less is more. In the previous series, we had Mr Snow who was so terrifying at times - even without saying much. Perhaps it is because he never looked like he was planning something evil. He just looked very bored. He knew that he was the creepiest mofo out there and that was enough. He doesn't say much about the Old Ones' plans for the world f.ex. He answers Annie's question quite simply: "Pluck it [the world] apart, like a child with a spider." But the way he says it, the way his voice sounds is extremely chilling. That's a testament to Mark Gatiss's breathtaking performance of course, but Phil Davis can pull off creepy just as beautifully. The cabby on Sherlock was awesome. And I know he can do just the opposite (the old shopkeeper in Fast Girls f.ex. is touching and sweet). So I blame the writing. This show takes itself a little too seriously now. BH has always been a gorgeous blend of comedy and horror, but these days, personally I'm not scared and I don't get nearly as many laughs as I used to. Which is doubly sad for me because I spent the whole of last year proving to everyone and their mother that this was the best show in the world, very nearly flawless. And now we see more and more flaws cropping up.
10. Hal and Fugly in the hotel. This scene makes me want to scream and throttle whoever's written it. First of all: Hal, baby, you can't just push the responsibility for something you've done on Rook and expect things to be fine. Second of all: this scene could have worked so well if it had been written for Cutler. With all the history between them (not to mention, Gower's acting), it would have been stunning. As such, it's rushed, annoying and makes me want to hit Hal over the head. Hal is not a nice person as it is, but they're taking him down an even worse road.
11. Fugly and Alan on the beach. Well, thank you, whoever's written that atrocity. I love geeky characters. I've got plenty of favourite geeks (the Trio in BtVS, Abed and Troy in Community, the guys from The Big Bang Theory, Charlie from SPN). But this... didn't work. At all. There is no level, on which this worked. The scene made me cringe. Alan was cute for one second in that scene with Rook and the pen; here, he is annoying, stupid - and who would want to be recruited by Fugly in the first place!? Maybe this is another stage of Rook's plan? But if it isn't, then coming up to some clearly deranged vampire and asking to be recruited because you happen to like the same RPG is a bit... dumb? And before you leap to his defence, no, it's not the same as Alex wanting to kiss RDJ.
To sum it up, this could have been much worse. And I'm looking for the next ep, especially the LOL Dominic part because - well, just see the preview. ;))
Previously: 5x01, The Trinity
1. I'll start with Alex's Bucket List (which was finally an additional scene and not like it was with Hal/Lady Catherine last time, so yay!). Can we stop for a moment to fully appreciate the awesomeness of this:
(c) insouuciant
A.k.a. Tom knows who Iron Man is!
And then this:
(c) insouuciant
A.k.a. so does Hal! Yes, as you might have already figured out, I do love Tony Stark, RDJ, Iron Man and The Avengers. And now I imagine them all watching that. Hal would be so unimpressed. Tom would be a not-so-secret fanboy and Alex would just swoon over RDJ. XD
Kissing someone who you happen to like in a film is not your unfinished business. You couldn't be more wrong, Hal, sweetheart. ;)
Also, this:
(c) halyorke
How much cuter can this girl be? XD
Then: Find Mum. Haunt Mum. And now we know this (strictly speaking, rather predictable) part. Still sad.
Swim with sharks, be wooed in Paris, steal a priceless diamond, read someone's diary... The epic high-five with Tom - awww! This is the broship to end all broships!
And finally: get revenge on Rook. "Not nasty revenge, not stabby revenge." Now I want to know what "harmless" revenge looks like, in her opinion, especially since in the last episode she pomised him that she would one day watch him die.
2. And this precious girl continues saving this sinking Titanic for me. We open with a heartbreaking scene of her and her brother Dickie.
(c) beinghumangifs
It's wonderful to finally see Alex's oft-mentioned brothers (and to have one of them actually say something). We now know cool little tidbits about her family, including some names: Brendan (the father), Ryan (whose name we knew from series 4), Dickie and the third unnamed one. And that her Mum left when she was 17. All that is great for ficwriting. XD As to the heart-wrenching effects of this scene: cross my heart and hope to die - BBC, I hate you. *sobs*
3. Alex wanted to be a concert pianist. Quite unsurprisingly, she sucks at it, as we learn later. To be honest, I'd much rather she was good at it because so far she's only confirming Hal's impression that she's good at screwing things up. That's a bit predictable, isn't it? So far, they've been so well with Alex. She's very layered and she's shown unexpected sides to her time and again. She's tough but she can be vulnerable, she's snippy but she's very kind-hearted, she's easily annoyed but endlessly patient at the same time. I kind of would have liked to rub something in Hal's face because he seems to have a rigid opinion about her. By the way, loved the scene, in which she teaches him to suck at his job. XD I've got a dancer's back. Yes, you do, hawtness. ;)
4. Oliver. I think he was hilarious. XD
Alex: I think the house is haunted!
Hal: Alex, there's no easy way to say it-
Alex: No, not me, you idiot! There's another one. You have to come home.
And then they're all scared of one little child ghostie. XD Also, the face and the sound Hal makes indicating his vampirism is the single most hilarious thing he's ever done.
(c) galadrield
I actually love all the little funny noises Hal makes occasionally (like the mocking laugh in the night club basement when Alex was annoying him in 4x07).
And then there's Oliver who is funny, cute, extremely annoying, touching and a tad bit creepy. ;) Gotta love his coughing fits (It's ill. It's a child and now it's ill. - I love you, Hal, but are you stupid? He's a ghost, he can't be ill. XD), his "lordly" manners, his nineteenth-century arrogance (is the B&B really that old? O_o) - and he seems to have a crush on Alex. XD
Alex: So why have you come out of hiding?
Oliver: Because I saw you. And I know you're not much to look at but one can't have everything. What did happen to your hair by the way? Some sort of industrial accident?
Are you still wondering why I love this kid? ;))) Maybe because he says all this while riding Tom. Maybe it's the accent. Maybe it's because old-fashioned children are always increasingly creepy (I mean, look at the way he's dressed and the way he talks!). Oh, and: Blankie! XDDD
I love it that Alex, while initially annoyed with Oliver, comes to take care of him like a big sister. It's clear how much she misses her brothers (she can't stop talking about them even if it's also clear that she was practically the most grown-up person in the household and had to be responsible for everything). Love the scene, in which she talks about Dickie looking up the symptoms online but not the diagnosis (menopause, LOL). It's funny but also heartbreaking.
They're men and they're idiots. Truer words, Alex. XDDD
Then there's Oliver's party. Which is hilarious any way you look at it because: poor Alex! LOL at Hal! Awww, Tom! I think, actually, that it's as much fun for Tom as it is for Oliver because Tom never had such parties as a kid and, like he says, everyone deserves that.
(c) beinghumangifs
Gotta love the confrontation that followed, too. Never have I met a less lady-like lady. I really doubt Alex had faced this problem before, but for some reason, everyone keeps telling her how unladylike she is, even, indirectly, Tom when he tries to treat her as a lady. I'm sure she's getting real tired of this shit. XD Especially, LOL, you can't conjugate Latin verbs. I think I died here. XD
But of course, things couldn't be that simple. We find out about Oliver's tragic death (a suicide at his age! T_T) In light of that, I absolutely love Alex hanging out with him, riding the dodgems, trying to make him (and by extension, herself, since she never did get to keep her promise to Dickie) feel better.
(c) beinghumangifs
Alex is a really awesome big sister. Like Tom says, she's "dead good with kids". <3 Not being good with them myself (I'm kind of like Hal in that respect; we don't mix), I find this skill pretty awesome, esp. since it requires unlimited patience. And Alex has it. (And the empty car at the dodgems spooking everyone is just funny. XD)
It's heart-wrenching that Alex should offer herself up to the men with sticks and rope in Oliver's place, especially since he's technically been working for Hatch all this time. But I loved it that the confrontation took place without Hal and Tom being present. This was Alex's episode through and through. She got the closure she needed, both through Oliver and via having one last look at her brothers and now she's staying.
5. Words can't express how much I love the scene that shows her saying goodbye to her brothers (hence the separate paragraph and all XD). I love the colouring. It makes things look almost unreal. Her brothers are cute (and we can see Ryan's infamous tattoo, unless it's a different one. ;)
Note that there are at least three photos of Alex in the room: those two on the mantelpiece and the one Dickie is looking at when he says: "Love you, sis."
I love the little moment when Hal is trying to be understanding about this being "time to say goodbye." Not to you, you idiot. To them. Oh, Alex. <333
The music is beautiful, haunting and very fitting for the scene:
Click to view6. As for the men with sticks and rope, they were okay, but I'm inclined to agree with Annie's assessment of them in 4x08: they're mostly just SFX, nothing to really be scared of. Actually, they seemed far scarier when we didn't see them, like in series 2. And predictably, they're working for the Devil and I - predictably - fucking hate it b/c it's dumb. If they are guardians of the afterlife and working for the Devil, does it mean the Devil pretty much governs the other side? Or are there "good" men with sticks and rope? Anyway, this would have been a letdown if I had expected anything good.
7. LOL Dominic continues being the star of this show along with Alex. To feed Fugly (a.k.a. Crumb) his own sister and niece, that was brutal and almost-but-not-quite made me feel sorry for Fugly. I suppose I could have tried harder, but then, so could he. Also, LOL Dominic has a pen fetish or what? ;)
Gotta love dorky Alan looking at his pen when Rook says that his is very special. XD How does Rook work with his people? Basically, this episode is about Alex and LOL Dominic running their own kindergartens. XD
One of the many things I love about Rook is that he's absolutely merciless when it comes to "greater good" the way he sees it, but he's far from being unaffected by his own actions. He clearly has a little panic attack when he finds out Fugly's niece is in the room. His face conveys such a turmoil - and yet, he promptly decides that it's a sacrifice worth making. When he pushes Fugly inside and sees his face when Fugly's realized what his family is there for, it's easy to see that Rook is shocked, perhaps disgusted with himself, but he can see no other way. He's protecting the world from evil after all.
8. Hal and Tom had their moments, but it wasn't really their episode. I found their competition all right, but the whole Hatch manipulating Tom echoed Kirby too much (and Kirby did it much better). I actually liked Hatch's scene with Hal. I wonder if he recognizes Hal from the ritual ground in 5x01...
Now, on to the stuff I did not like. As it was last time: I don't intend to insult anyone's preferences, but I'm not going to tone down my emotions, so I advise you to stop reading if you are a fan of Crumb, Hatch and their storylines.
9. Hatch still doesn't impress me in any way. He is not scary, he is not awe-inspiring, he's not even very subtle. His monologue at the end of the episode was extremely tacky and completely out of BH style. I (perhaps, naively) kept expecting some cracktastic punchline in the style of Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods when a character utters a similar apocalyptic speech on the phone and then asks if he's on speaker phone while everybody is laughing at him. Unfortunately, BH delivered none of that. More than that, it's a clear example of how quite often less is more. In the previous series, we had Mr Snow who was so terrifying at times - even without saying much. Perhaps it is because he never looked like he was planning something evil. He just looked very bored. He knew that he was the creepiest mofo out there and that was enough. He doesn't say much about the Old Ones' plans for the world f.ex. He answers Annie's question quite simply: "Pluck it [the world] apart, like a child with a spider." But the way he says it, the way his voice sounds is extremely chilling. That's a testament to Mark Gatiss's breathtaking performance of course, but Phil Davis can pull off creepy just as beautifully. The cabby on Sherlock was awesome. And I know he can do just the opposite (the old shopkeeper in Fast Girls f.ex. is touching and sweet). So I blame the writing. This show takes itself a little too seriously now. BH has always been a gorgeous blend of comedy and horror, but these days, personally I'm not scared and I don't get nearly as many laughs as I used to. Which is doubly sad for me because I spent the whole of last year proving to everyone and their mother that this was the best show in the world, very nearly flawless. And now we see more and more flaws cropping up.
10. Hal and Fugly in the hotel. This scene makes me want to scream and throttle whoever's written it. First of all: Hal, baby, you can't just push the responsibility for something you've done on Rook and expect things to be fine. Second of all: this scene could have worked so well if it had been written for Cutler. With all the history between them (not to mention, Gower's acting), it would have been stunning. As such, it's rushed, annoying and makes me want to hit Hal over the head. Hal is not a nice person as it is, but they're taking him down an even worse road.
11. Fugly and Alan on the beach. Well, thank you, whoever's written that atrocity. I love geeky characters. I've got plenty of favourite geeks (the Trio in BtVS, Abed and Troy in Community, the guys from The Big Bang Theory, Charlie from SPN). But this... didn't work. At all. There is no level, on which this worked. The scene made me cringe. Alan was cute for one second in that scene with Rook and the pen; here, he is annoying, stupid - and who would want to be recruited by Fugly in the first place!? Maybe this is another stage of Rook's plan? But if it isn't, then coming up to some clearly deranged vampire and asking to be recruited because you happen to like the same RPG is a bit... dumb? And before you leap to his defence, no, it's not the same as Alex wanting to kiss RDJ.
To sum it up, this could have been much worse. And I'm looking for the next ep, especially the LOL Dominic part because - well, just see the preview. ;))