TV With Chi
So, The Vampire Diaries premiered its third season last night. I would normally be using my TVD icon, but my icon package expired, like... a week ago? And I'm too poor to consider renewing it.
So you get BAMF Rose Tyler and this review:
I think I spent the first ten minutes of the episode babbling at shinoutime really deep things like: OMFG, did Steven McQueen actually get HOTTER over the summer? I wasn't aware that was possible... and wait, did Caroline's boobs get bigger?(I bet you all wish you could watch TV with me. It's this kind of deep insight that's standard fare when I'm around).
So, for those playing the home game, last season Damon got bit by a werewolf, and he was all dying and stuff and Stefan went to the Super Bad of the last season and was all: Save him! And Klaus was like: sure, but only if you'll be my mindless, serial-killing slave.
This is where my recent spree of Criminal Minds watching gave me the crackiest idea ever: Reid and Prentiss, Hotch, Morgan and Garcia all investigate the series of murders Stefan committed. Who wouldn't read that fic? Come on, now!
I'm really loving this plotline of the murdering-Stefan-character, but I hope that there are some consequences for this snap of Stefan's sanity, and not just "severe manpain". Because we already get that with Damon -- there should be consequences for evil, dangit!
And I think it says something interesting about Elena's choice to hang on to Stefan throughout this whole thing -- I believe goldy_dollar made an excellent point that Elena has lost so much recently that she's probably just hanging on to what she can, which is her love of Stefan.
And then some other stuff happened? Like Alaric acknowledged that he's sort of a shit guardian/chaperone (no really? I have to say -- I drank in high school. I'm not proud of it. But the parties I went to where there was drinking? They're nothing like the parties in this town, holy cow) -- but instead of doing something adult and responsible about it, he abandoned Elena and Jeremy. He's got no legal obligation to be there, I know, but I feel like he had an emotional obligation, and while I love Alaric to pieces, he had better redeem himself. That's all I have to say about that.
And Caroline got shot! After having sex with Tyler! The whole time they were having that "I need it all the time" conversation, I was like, oh, just screw already.
...I'm romantic like that. :D
So, yeah. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience on a visceral, edge-of-my-seat, pulled-by-my-gut level. The writers on this show are really something.
**
Speaking, obliquely, of Criminal Minds, I finished Season Six yesterday? Like, properly finished it. I have this thing where I have a hard time not skimming through the boring crap? So I finished it two weeks ago, but not properly. So last night I forced myself to sit through all of the episodes without Paget Brewster.
The thing that this rendez-vous with the pure procedural has really taught me is that I really do watch TV for characters. Like, if I find your characters compelling, engaging and realistic, I will willingly forgive a lot of crap (see: The Vampire Diaries), but if I think your characters lack something, all of a sudden I go Queen Bitch on you (see: Doctor Who, S5 & S6). Criminal Minds has these great characters -- the genius with the schizophrenic mother who practically raised himself, the Interpol agent with a spotty past, the father who lost his ex-wife to a serial killer...
And yet they stick to this pure procedural game -- and I guess that's fine. What I really loved about the 6x16, 6x17, 6x18 episodes, is that these characters were allowed to react like pure people, not just walking, talking plot devices.
I hope when they bring Paget back for S7 they keep going in these direction.
But the remainder of the season without Paget? Ugh. The young blonde actress they hired to be the replacement for A.J. and Paget is so flat and boring. I wish television producers wouldn't equate younger with hotter.
**
Sorry that neither of those reviews was, you know -- serious or meaningful or well-thought-out. My brain's a little fried from this week. I'll post a personal entry to let you all know what's going on here in a little bit.
Cheers!
So you get BAMF Rose Tyler and this review:
I think I spent the first ten minutes of the episode babbling at shinoutime really deep things like: OMFG, did Steven McQueen actually get HOTTER over the summer? I wasn't aware that was possible... and wait, did Caroline's boobs get bigger?(I bet you all wish you could watch TV with me. It's this kind of deep insight that's standard fare when I'm around).
So, for those playing the home game, last season Damon got bit by a werewolf, and he was all dying and stuff and Stefan went to the Super Bad of the last season and was all: Save him! And Klaus was like: sure, but only if you'll be my mindless, serial-killing slave.
This is where my recent spree of Criminal Minds watching gave me the crackiest idea ever: Reid and Prentiss, Hotch, Morgan and Garcia all investigate the series of murders Stefan committed. Who wouldn't read that fic? Come on, now!
I'm really loving this plotline of the murdering-Stefan-character, but I hope that there are some consequences for this snap of Stefan's sanity, and not just "severe manpain". Because we already get that with Damon -- there should be consequences for evil, dangit!
And I think it says something interesting about Elena's choice to hang on to Stefan throughout this whole thing -- I believe goldy_dollar made an excellent point that Elena has lost so much recently that she's probably just hanging on to what she can, which is her love of Stefan.
And then some other stuff happened? Like Alaric acknowledged that he's sort of a shit guardian/chaperone (no really? I have to say -- I drank in high school. I'm not proud of it. But the parties I went to where there was drinking? They're nothing like the parties in this town, holy cow) -- but instead of doing something adult and responsible about it, he abandoned Elena and Jeremy. He's got no legal obligation to be there, I know, but I feel like he had an emotional obligation, and while I love Alaric to pieces, he had better redeem himself. That's all I have to say about that.
And Caroline got shot! After having sex with Tyler! The whole time they were having that "I need it all the time" conversation, I was like, oh, just screw already.
...I'm romantic like that. :D
So, yeah. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience on a visceral, edge-of-my-seat, pulled-by-my-gut level. The writers on this show are really something.
**
Speaking, obliquely, of Criminal Minds, I finished Season Six yesterday? Like, properly finished it. I have this thing where I have a hard time not skimming through the boring crap? So I finished it two weeks ago, but not properly. So last night I forced myself to sit through all of the episodes without Paget Brewster.
The thing that this rendez-vous with the pure procedural has really taught me is that I really do watch TV for characters. Like, if I find your characters compelling, engaging and realistic, I will willingly forgive a lot of crap (see: The Vampire Diaries), but if I think your characters lack something, all of a sudden I go Queen Bitch on you (see: Doctor Who, S5 & S6). Criminal Minds has these great characters -- the genius with the schizophrenic mother who practically raised himself, the Interpol agent with a spotty past, the father who lost his ex-wife to a serial killer...
And yet they stick to this pure procedural game -- and I guess that's fine. What I really loved about the 6x16, 6x17, 6x18 episodes, is that these characters were allowed to react like pure people, not just walking, talking plot devices.
I hope when they bring Paget back for S7 they keep going in these direction.
But the remainder of the season without Paget? Ugh. The young blonde actress they hired to be the replacement for A.J. and Paget is so flat and boring. I wish television producers wouldn't equate younger with hotter.
**
Sorry that neither of those reviews was, you know -- serious or meaningful or well-thought-out. My brain's a little fried from this week. I'll post a personal entry to let you all know what's going on here in a little bit.
Cheers!