Five thoughts after watching "Artifacts" and "Seconds"
1) There is ALWAYS an episode like this, isn’t there? Except on Batman Beyond, where the entire SERIES was this.
2) THIS THEORY ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF THE BATMAN IS SO PRECIOUS. OMG, THOMAS AND MARTHA AND ALFRED IN A WHEELCHAIR…! (Sidebar - Why are all DC heroes required to have at least one parent named either Jonathan or Martha?)
3) They did a really good job voice-matching Oracle with Batgirl, to the point where I assumed it was the same actress. I’m not sure why they even bothered to recast, really… Romano is doing an amazing job, too, but then, I’m rather a bit of a fangirl at this point, so my opinion is probably a little biased.
4) “I resolve to leave more butts un-kicked; gotta leave some for Robin.” BARB. I LUUUUURVE YOU.
4a) “Why is it deadly chemicals are always green? Why can’t they ever be pink?” PERFECTION.
5) Does a leisure suit and a Pancho Villa mustache count as a different-coloured suit and a thing on his head? I think it does. And how far back in time can this guy go? Because, yeah, I could use the ability to preview risky decisions…
5a) Apparently a long time. Dude, why didn’t he think of undoing the robbery a long time ago? Kind of oblivious villain, really. Although, it is lovely to see Bats *rehabilitate* a villain for once.
5b) Um…what clock repairman makes house calls on New Year’s Eve? And why would anyone think that’s the night they absolutely HAVE to have their clock repaired, anyway?
In last night’s dream, I was the secret eighth member of the Community study group, so quiet and boring that I didn’t make it to the show. As we were preparing to graduate, however, signing yearbooks and whatnot (because community college = high school?), Pierce said something particularly gross about Britta, and I flipped out on him and basically chased him out of the library.
So Pierce held the library hostage with a gun that shot expanding silly string.
In dreamland, this was srs bsns. Like, way beyond the gravitas given to the paintball fights and pillow wars on the show. Characters died in this silly string hostage situation. We caught sight of Pierce through a window while on a recon mission, and he appeared to have turned into some half-zombie, half-muttation creature. I woke up before finding out how it all worked out, but I know it wasn’t headed toward a rousing Winger speech that would have brought everyone back together and cured Pierce of whatever hulk rage had overtaken him because Winger was one of the fatalities.
A mash-up of “The Sounds of Silence” and “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight” is stuck in my head. WHAT IS MY BRAIN?
So, I ran across another episode in the first four seasons of Boy Meets World that I had never seen before: I knew about the episode where Shawn joins a cult, but I had no idea there was also an episode where Shawn joins the mob. WOT, WRITERS? Although, props to the writers, as it somehow didn’t come across as completely stupid. Implausible? Yes. A rehashing of about 50% of the Shawn-centric plots to date? Sure. But handled much better than it could have been, and I think it is perhaps one of the best showcases of Rider Strong’s talent on that show. And then the stuff with Feeney and Eric in “B & B’s B ‘N B” is just so smushy I can’t even…and is it just me, or is “Wheels” the very best example in the whole run of how few shits this show gives about continuity?
And a final entry in today's brain-dump: I have been slowly catching up with Penguins of Madagascar and having a grand old time with it (especially “The Trouble with Jiggles,” which I have to assume was a sequel to an earlier episode, and I’m quite looking forward to seeing that OMG KOWALSKI YOU GET ALL OF THE HEARTS [AND AN ANNIE I’M SO PROUD OF YOU, BENNETT <33333]). But…can we all agree that “The Otter Woman” was just a mess? Hey, let’s center an episode around the under-utilized, sole female character in the central cast, but let’s use the episode to reinforce gender stereotypes, exoticize and dehumanize (for lack of a better word) foreigners*, illustrate once again that the male characters on this show do not listen to a word spoken by the female characters, and be just a little bit racist, to boot**. OR HOW ABOUT LET’S NOT.
* I understand that Kowalski IS just going to start running tests on people the moment they show up because that’s who he is, and I am completely fine with that. What I’m not okay with is how, for some reason, he acts like an Arctic mink wouldn’t be able to speak English when every other animal on the show can be understood by all the others. I admit that I am new to the show and there may be things going on that I don’t understand because of that, but, yeah, my instinct as a new viewer is to be disgusted by this.
** The animals treat Marlene like one of the guys; Marlene’s brown fur gets bleached, and Skipper and Julien instantly start vying for her affections; Marlene’s fur gets dyed back to brown, Skipper and Julien instantly lose interest, and there is no indication of any lingering confusion regarding their feelings for their friend, proving their attraction was entirely about appearance. White = sexy and desirable, brown = not even a blip on the radar of sexual desirability. And I’d like to stress that this fur colour preference transcends the fact that we are, in fact, talking about three entirely different species; it doesn’t matter to the penguin or the lemur that they are attracted to an otter/mink, just that she is white.