Five thoughts after watching "Vertigo" and "White Heat"
1) Things I adore in these episodes: Robin being sarcastic and playful, Rino Romano's wonderful acting and inflections, Arrow's blind cluelessness, Groves! doing some kind of...soviet accent? I'm really not sure what he's going for, but it's Groves!, a villain who is really well-suited to the heroes' skill sets, JASON MARSDEN (this is the last time you will have to see me squeal about him, at least in this show), all the jokes about Firefly being such a crappy villain no one even knows his name, "Wanna hear a crazy guess about where the missing radiation went?", and that creepy-ass depressing image at the end of "White Heat."
2) Oh my gawd, Ollie, boat shoes? I know you're on a boat, but they still look douchey. Of course, that may be my biases talking; I've become quite the boat shoe bigot.
2a) So, it dawns on me that I've never actually heard - or even thought much about - Arrow's origin story. I'm pretty sure that, if this Robinson Crusoe thing is official canon, it's made him a less interesting character to me.
2b) Did he at least take archery classes as a kid or something? Because I refuse to believe that he made a perfect, working bow and then used it to shoot a perfect, home-made arrow directly through a fish on his first try.
3) Stealing directly from the mint is, like, the dumbest plan ever. Serial numbers, you doofus.
3a) I'm also always utterly amazed at how infrequently writers pay attention to the fact that heat radiates. Even if I suspend my disbelief far enough to accept that an irradiated human being can be turned into essentially a walking sun (instead of a dead human being), I'm still going to have trouble believing that anyone can get anywhere near him without bursting into flames. And I'm super glad I don't know anything about nuclear physics, because I don't think a television show has ever gotten a single fact right when dealing with that subject.
4) As much as I appreciate it when both of them are snarky, I would appreciate it even more if we could scale the petty Batgirl/Robin rivalry WAY back...especially when they're in the middle of cases.
5) I don't think I've ever heard Marsden's voice modulated *down* before. It's...weird, and slightly amusing that it's still not even in the baritone range, really.
And here are a couple of happy-making interviews I found yesterday: The first is Joss Whedon talking with Wired about...basically everything he's ever worked on (it includes a bit where he explains that, "I used to hide behind my chair, not during The Twilight Zone, but during The Patty Duke Show, because I also hate humiliation," and I have never felt more like Whedon has plucked an idea straight out of my brain - and, if you recall, this is the man who created Willow Rosenberg). The second is a video of NPH interviewing Jason Mraz (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP) about Love Is a Four Letter Word, which, in case you've somehow missed the memo, is one of the most perfect albums ever released.
I don't know how many dozens of times I've watched "Fool for Love," but it was only tonight that I realized that the Chinese Slayer gave Spike his scar. And I wouldn't have even realized it this time if I hadn't been watching it with the commentary track where Doug Petrie specifically points it out. Needless to say, I feel a little dumb right now...
Stuff, stuff, blah blah blah, I'm gonna go read now instead of sleeping or doing anything productive, because that's an excellent life choice.