On TV series
Long time, no see. What have you guys been up to? Me, I've been watching DVDs...
I watched Heroes with my younger brother when it first aired, and I rather liked it. Not as much as I liked Lost, tha'ts for sure, but it was fun enough and extremely suspenseful. But then season three rolled along and it all got strange(r), and well, after the second to last episode of Villains we just never got around to downloading another episode. I remember being pissed that Sylar killed Elle. Not to mention being pissed at Noah for killing Sylar (even though it didn't stick).
A year or so later I got the first season on DVD, tried to watch it and decided that the series just didn't work if you already knew what was going to happen.
But then, this last fall, I gave it another chance and discovered that not only did I really like the show, I absolutely LOVED Sylar. And that third season that made me give up on the show in the first place? It's fucking brilliant! Uneven, sure, but brilliant. Fun. Exciting. Interesting. Surprising.
Now, I remain highly aware of the series' flaws - for instance, what is up with the V.O? Unless used for funny effect, as in Scrubs or HIMYM, it's a freaking disaster every single time. In Heroes... Argh. Double argh. And argh again. Not to mention the psuedo scientific angle. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't. Okay? If you want to throw genetics in my face, you better be damn sure you have a good grap of the shit. Which, dear writers and creators of the show, you obviously don't. Now, I don't mind that you wanna push a scientific explanation for the whole abilities thing, but keep it vague, yeah? I mean, no need to flaunt your ignorance. It annoys me. It ruins my fangirlish squealing with delight every time Sylar shows up on screen mood.
They're great with characters, though. They are strong, unique and well-defined even as they remain highly ambigious. (Paradox? You betcha.) This is actually both a strenght and a weakness. No one is purely good or purely evil and even the ones with the best of intentions mess up royally from time to time. Decisions are made from a very limitied point of view, opinions and agendas can changes in the blink of an eye, and you choose your path without understanding where it will lead you... Often, you - as a viewer - can't tell what is good and what is evil. Very much like life, really, so that's interesting. But there is a reason for this not being all that common in storytelling; it's rather disjointed. You don't understand where the story is headed. You don't understand why the hell the characters act so stupid. We are used to something... smoother. Something more like a story, with a beginning a middle and an end, a logical progression. But life is not a story; stories are just what we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives.
Still. Heroes is a story, and it - sadly - fails to deliver good endings. They build up all this tension (and you get all excited, even when you're not really sure what's going on, or which side you should root for) and then the final episode just... don't meet your expectations. But while the punchline may be bland, the build-up is beautiful! There are so many amazing character moments; so many unexpected twists; so much badassery.
And there is Sylar. God, there is Sylar. Now there's perfect villain. He's up there with a certain Dark Lord and Gerald Tarrant as my all time favourites. No small feat that! He's got all I want from a bad guy; amazing skills, wit, cool clothes, good looks, a real flair for evil... but deep down, he's a nice guy, really. Poor fella just needs a friend. The world is his hostage, and it seems I have developed a serious Stockholm syndrome.
I'm pretty mad about the show being cancelled, but in a way, I'm glad too. At least it ended rather damn well for my favourite character, and now the world of fanfiction can continue the saga. Back in the days I used to slash Sylar and Peter, but that went icky for a while there in season three and then I just never fell back into it. Sylar/Claire, that's my poison, with a heavy dollop of friends!Peter/Sylar. It's rather hard to find, though... What is up with those slash fantatics? :p
I went into serious sad mode after watching the last episode, but there's still the bonus stuff on the season four DVD to dig into, and I'm watching the third and fourth season again with my brother. Nice bonding, nice show. Yay.
Fortunately, there is also Supernatural. It's grown on me. I'm not a big fan of 'monster of the week' episodes, so the first two seasons were... not really to my taste. But I had faith in daath and kept on watching (this preserverance was made easier by the extreme prettiness of Dean) and season three was good and now, half-way season five, I'm a true believer. Even though the last three episodes were kind of bland. I like it when they go all crazy and you don't know whether to laugh or scream. Meta FTW! When the show gets too emotional and angsty I kinda tune out - bit of angst is all good and well, but I need it mixed with fun an laughter. Life isn't a sob story, people! It's a bloody joke, that's what it is. (Actually, I loved Lost for this, particularly in the first season. Whenever things had been gloomy for a while, they threw in a scene to lighten the mood. Brilliance.)
Sadly, I am not yet convinced of the whole Castiel/Dean thing. Sure, I can see where it's coming from, but Castiel is a tad too... cool. I want more obvious and aggressive foe yay! I miss the British chick - I really wanted her and Dean to hook up. Angry sex FTW! So, for my slashpairing, I think I'll go with... TADAA!... Dean/Gabriel-turned-Trickster. Now that's a fun couple. :D I think I might have slashed Lucifer/Michael if they weren't pushing the damned brother angle so hard.
I'm all for Team Free Will, btw. Well, duh. Angels suck. Jacob as Lucifer is bloody hilarious. Not to mention the surprise appearance of MiB as War. Huzzah!
I've also watched the first two season of Veronica Mars, and found it enjoyable enough. Especially Logan. It's odd, though; just like Robin and Barney in HIMYM, they work better as a couple-to-be rather than an actual couple. More tension. More... oomph.
Then there was the first season of The L Word. Hm. What can I say? I don't care of parts of it are dull as dust, Shane is sex on legs. I cannot not watch it/her.
Oh, and last but not least. (Actually, it totally is least.) Dark Angel. Sorry, this has great potential but the character of Max is just too... I don't know. She doesn't really make a lot of sense. She's empty, with a few emotions plastered on. Pah. at least Jensen Ackels will show up eventually. Yay!
Also re-watching Buffy with a friend. Now, that is a show that can be watched again and again and again...
Next time I'll be talking about books.
I watched Heroes with my younger brother when it first aired, and I rather liked it. Not as much as I liked Lost, tha'ts for sure, but it was fun enough and extremely suspenseful. But then season three rolled along and it all got strange(r), and well, after the second to last episode of Villains we just never got around to downloading another episode. I remember being pissed that Sylar killed Elle. Not to mention being pissed at Noah for killing Sylar (even though it didn't stick).
A year or so later I got the first season on DVD, tried to watch it and decided that the series just didn't work if you already knew what was going to happen.
But then, this last fall, I gave it another chance and discovered that not only did I really like the show, I absolutely LOVED Sylar. And that third season that made me give up on the show in the first place? It's fucking brilliant! Uneven, sure, but brilliant. Fun. Exciting. Interesting. Surprising.
Now, I remain highly aware of the series' flaws - for instance, what is up with the V.O? Unless used for funny effect, as in Scrubs or HIMYM, it's a freaking disaster every single time. In Heroes... Argh. Double argh. And argh again. Not to mention the psuedo scientific angle. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't. Okay? If you want to throw genetics in my face, you better be damn sure you have a good grap of the shit. Which, dear writers and creators of the show, you obviously don't. Now, I don't mind that you wanna push a scientific explanation for the whole abilities thing, but keep it vague, yeah? I mean, no need to flaunt your ignorance. It annoys me. It ruins my fangirlish squealing with delight every time Sylar shows up on screen mood.
They're great with characters, though. They are strong, unique and well-defined even as they remain highly ambigious. (Paradox? You betcha.) This is actually both a strenght and a weakness. No one is purely good or purely evil and even the ones with the best of intentions mess up royally from time to time. Decisions are made from a very limitied point of view, opinions and agendas can changes in the blink of an eye, and you choose your path without understanding where it will lead you... Often, you - as a viewer - can't tell what is good and what is evil. Very much like life, really, so that's interesting. But there is a reason for this not being all that common in storytelling; it's rather disjointed. You don't understand where the story is headed. You don't understand why the hell the characters act so stupid. We are used to something... smoother. Something more like a story, with a beginning a middle and an end, a logical progression. But life is not a story; stories are just what we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives.
Still. Heroes is a story, and it - sadly - fails to deliver good endings. They build up all this tension (and you get all excited, even when you're not really sure what's going on, or which side you should root for) and then the final episode just... don't meet your expectations. But while the punchline may be bland, the build-up is beautiful! There are so many amazing character moments; so many unexpected twists; so much badassery.
And there is Sylar. God, there is Sylar. Now there's perfect villain. He's up there with a certain Dark Lord and Gerald Tarrant as my all time favourites. No small feat that! He's got all I want from a bad guy; amazing skills, wit, cool clothes, good looks, a real flair for evil... but deep down, he's a nice guy, really. Poor fella just needs a friend. The world is his hostage, and it seems I have developed a serious Stockholm syndrome.
I'm pretty mad about the show being cancelled, but in a way, I'm glad too. At least it ended rather damn well for my favourite character, and now the world of fanfiction can continue the saga. Back in the days I used to slash Sylar and Peter, but that went icky for a while there in season three and then I just never fell back into it. Sylar/Claire, that's my poison, with a heavy dollop of friends!Peter/Sylar. It's rather hard to find, though... What is up with those slash fantatics? :p
I went into serious sad mode after watching the last episode, but there's still the bonus stuff on the season four DVD to dig into, and I'm watching the third and fourth season again with my brother. Nice bonding, nice show. Yay.
Fortunately, there is also Supernatural. It's grown on me. I'm not a big fan of 'monster of the week' episodes, so the first two seasons were... not really to my taste. But I had faith in daath and kept on watching (this preserverance was made easier by the extreme prettiness of Dean) and season three was good and now, half-way season five, I'm a true believer. Even though the last three episodes were kind of bland. I like it when they go all crazy and you don't know whether to laugh or scream. Meta FTW! When the show gets too emotional and angsty I kinda tune out - bit of angst is all good and well, but I need it mixed with fun an laughter. Life isn't a sob story, people! It's a bloody joke, that's what it is. (Actually, I loved Lost for this, particularly in the first season. Whenever things had been gloomy for a while, they threw in a scene to lighten the mood. Brilliance.)
Sadly, I am not yet convinced of the whole Castiel/Dean thing. Sure, I can see where it's coming from, but Castiel is a tad too... cool. I want more obvious and aggressive foe yay! I miss the British chick - I really wanted her and Dean to hook up. Angry sex FTW! So, for my slashpairing, I think I'll go with... TADAA!... Dean/Gabriel-turned-Trickster. Now that's a fun couple. :D I think I might have slashed Lucifer/Michael if they weren't pushing the damned brother angle so hard.
I'm all for Team Free Will, btw. Well, duh. Angels suck. Jacob as Lucifer is bloody hilarious. Not to mention the surprise appearance of MiB as War. Huzzah!
I've also watched the first two season of Veronica Mars, and found it enjoyable enough. Especially Logan. It's odd, though; just like Robin and Barney in HIMYM, they work better as a couple-to-be rather than an actual couple. More tension. More... oomph.
Then there was the first season of The L Word. Hm. What can I say? I don't care of parts of it are dull as dust, Shane is sex on legs. I cannot not watch it/her.
Oh, and last but not least. (Actually, it totally is least.) Dark Angel. Sorry, this has great potential but the character of Max is just too... I don't know. She doesn't really make a lot of sense. She's empty, with a few emotions plastered on. Pah. at least Jensen Ackels will show up eventually. Yay!
Also re-watching Buffy with a friend. Now, that is a show that can be watched again and again and again...
Next time I'll be talking about books.