No bunting?
It was with great trepidation that I put in Babylon 5 season 5, The Wheel of Fire, which I almost called Wait for the Wheel à la Farscape. My heart ached with Ivanova's absence and with the heavy-handed exposition with which they introduced Lochley. I am suspicious of whatever it is between her and Sheridan. And speaking of Sheridan, I am once again darkly amused by how he has no idea who Delenn truly is or how much power she has. In the end, my nervousness about starting this season was unfounded; No Compromises was altogether boring and a rather awkward attempt at setting up the season, but it did have G'Kar behaving delightfully in his attempts at swearing in Sheridan, finally just asking him if he wanted the job and instructing him to place his hand on the book and say, "I do."
I have been watching my way through season 8 of SG-1 and I completely adore this show. It makes me laugh out loud more than I could ever have expected, and it maintains gigantic (and often simultaneous) plot arcs without sacrificing smaller character-driven episodes. I am head over heels in love with Jack, but I also adore Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c in equal measure. Even when they do stupid narrative things as ambitious sci-fi shows always inevitably do (I'm thinking specifically of Icon), the episodes always have something redeeming. And the details! I love a show that remembers the details. Most recently, I watched Jack and an angry-at-his-son Teal'c play ping pong, and every volley Teal'c returned hit Jack hard - and once, the ball bounced off down the hall and Jack just watched it go.
My favorite episode so far has been Zero Hour, because watching Jack acclimate to being the boss, and having to deal with the decoration for his swearing-in ceremony, the buffet menu, and the paperwork and still having to make the tough calls, was pure genius. The alien plant itself was brilliance: Jack glares at the cutting, and just a few scenes later soldiers are hacking at the plant as it takes over the lab, and then nearly the next scene the plant spreads into the corridors and proves to be completely flame-resistant. Ba'al shows up in the gateroom somewhere between plant-takeover and the news that there are no red, white, and blue buntings to be had, and Jack says, "And what do YOU want?" as though Ba'al is just one problem too many. Jack has this fantastic expression of mild alarm tempered by tough-as-nails confidence that everything will right itself, and half the time it looks as though he's just telling himself that as long as he doesn't think too much about anything, it will all be fine.
I am still reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because life has been intervening in my reading time, but I will finish the book this weekend, or, if I have enough coffee, maybe tonight, and then I'll get to read what you all think about the end of this great story.
I have been watching my way through season 8 of SG-1 and I completely adore this show. It makes me laugh out loud more than I could ever have expected, and it maintains gigantic (and often simultaneous) plot arcs without sacrificing smaller character-driven episodes. I am head over heels in love with Jack, but I also adore Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c in equal measure. Even when they do stupid narrative things as ambitious sci-fi shows always inevitably do (I'm thinking specifically of Icon), the episodes always have something redeeming. And the details! I love a show that remembers the details. Most recently, I watched Jack and an angry-at-his-son Teal'c play ping pong, and every volley Teal'c returned hit Jack hard - and once, the ball bounced off down the hall and Jack just watched it go.
My favorite episode so far has been Zero Hour, because watching Jack acclimate to being the boss, and having to deal with the decoration for his swearing-in ceremony, the buffet menu, and the paperwork and still having to make the tough calls, was pure genius. The alien plant itself was brilliance: Jack glares at the cutting, and just a few scenes later soldiers are hacking at the plant as it takes over the lab, and then nearly the next scene the plant spreads into the corridors and proves to be completely flame-resistant. Ba'al shows up in the gateroom somewhere between plant-takeover and the news that there are no red, white, and blue buntings to be had, and Jack says, "And what do YOU want?" as though Ba'al is just one problem too many. Jack has this fantastic expression of mild alarm tempered by tough-as-nails confidence that everything will right itself, and half the time it looks as though he's just telling himself that as long as he doesn't think too much about anything, it will all be fine.
I am still reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because life has been intervening in my reading time, but I will finish the book this weekend, or, if I have enough coffee, maybe tonight, and then I'll get to read what you all think about the end of this great story.