TeeVee
Lost Girl 2.12-2.13: These were both episodes that I liked until we got to the last few minutes, which I really disliked.
Shallow note: Bo's significant others really go for the pretty ones, don't they?
Why did we have to have Lauren re-enslave herself to Lachlan? Why are they trying to make Lachlan sympathetic or something now? Why did they basically kick all the women but Bo and Kiara (who will probably be dead by the end of the season) out, even if it's probably only for a couple of episodes. (Why do I find Kenzi's amazingly convenient sudden childhood love a bit creepy?)
I don't know! The travel service was a hoot and I'm starting to like the mytharc of the season, but the way they're doing chunks of it is just terribly aggravating. Yet, I still love this silly show and likely will have forgotten about my problems by the time I watch the next episode.
Also, I kind of giggled at the "Bo is sad and alone and isolated" after her birthday party. They just went home! They're all on speed dial!
Also #2: I know this is a popular fandom theory, but I really hope that Trick isn't Bo's father. If I remember Aoife's backstory correctly, I think we were supposed to read from that that Bo was most likely the product of rape (or possibly seduction trickery to escape?)
Downton Abbey: Christmas Special: Two non-spoilery things that made me happy:
1. Isobel got Violet a nutcracker for Christmas! A nutcracker! With an explanation full of awkward innuendo.
2. Mary had The Tenant of Windfell Hall in charades. Probably a lot less fun if you didn't read the book a week before watching this episode.
On to the spoilers:
I'm so happy Edith didn't hook up again with the guy who flaked on her in season 1. I know Mary's lie has a lot of responsibility there, but it would have basically been hot air if the guy had trusted Edith at all. I fear he may be back next season though. (Edith needs someone who won't flake on her, isn't married to someone else, and isn't possibly a conman.)
I wish I cared about the Bates plot, but I don't, aside from wishing Anna was allowed to have anything to do besides that plot.
I...don't think I like them retconning Pamook's rape of Mary, and not just because of all the fans who liked to self-righteously talk about how they "forgave" Mary for it. I mean, the scene itself played out as "girls have hormones too, you know!" The original scene, IMO, was very much framed as rape. She had unconditionally rejected him so he arranged to break into her bedroom-where she never gave him any indication that he would be welcome-while blackmailing a servant (who probably thought it was an arranged tryst) to make sure he wasn't interupted. Then he gave her a choice between violent rape or sex that she might enjoy. The point is that whether or not to have sex with him wasn't an option he gave her, and he set this up knowing that Mary's society would have trained her since birth to belive that maintaining the APPEARANCE of virtue was what mattered, and that it would be worse to fight and hve everyone think it happened than to have it happen and then do damage control.
Changing that, IMO, is an indication of how much the show has changed since the first season, and not really for the better, as it's stopped doing a lot of the things it used to do. (See also how they seem to want us to forget that Thomas is gay.)
Robert...you know, most parents are HAPPY when they learn they're going to be grandparents. They don't go on about how it's ruining civilization. (Also, dude, she got married and moved to another country. I think it was already final, as many problems as I have with that relationship.) But he was actually pretty decent after that!
Matthew finally managed to make me throw up my hands in defeat when he said that Mary didn't deserve to be hsppy. WTF? It's not her fault he decided he was obligated to marry Lavinia, and it's not like she forced im to dance with her or kiss him. I'm pretty sure he still has some depression from the war but is keeping it suppressed, but still. It's like he was determined to wallow in self-hatred and felt Mary had to be there with him because she's what he felt guilty about. He did redeem himself with admitting that Mary's sex life was none of his business andclearly wanting to throttle Carlisle and the last few minutes, but still. (Also, Carlisle,feel free to not be gone for good. I enjoy your mustache-twirling semi-villainy, and Iain Glen is always fun. Well, he annoys me in Game of Thrones, but I doubt any actor could overcome a character who lusts after a girl who could be his granddaughter and likes to talk about how other people forced him to be a slavetrader for me.)
Of course, now that Mary and Matthew are happy and engaged, I'm a bit apprehensive about what Drama will be thrown at us with that pairing next season.
Rosamund's reaction to her maid and her suitor was perfect and priceless and never has she been more her mother's daughter. (And who played Shaw, anyway? I have a feeling she's an actress I always like, but who always looks different.)
Let us hope William's ghost has been laid to rest for good. And that Thomas stops with the backsliding.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012): I basically know nothing about this Dickens but checked it out because it was short and I've liked the other recent Dickens adaptations I've watched (Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Great Expectations) despite only being familiar with one of the canons going in. I liked this as much as I can like something where I dislike the main character? I have difficulty liking things where I don't like the lead character. Pretty well done and entertaining, though I liked Great Expectations more.
The Hour: Series 1: A recent BBC series about the founding of an hour long new program in the 50s with Romala Garai as the show's producer, Bel. Her best friend, Freddy, is about half a step from being a conspiracy theorist and feels insulted at only being assigned home affairs for Bel's show and is obsessed with discovering the truth about his childhood friend's death. Freddy was annoying, but less annoying than I expected, and the romantic plotlines were annoyingly predictable from the first episode and I did my best to ignore them. That said, the show is pretty good, even if it does sometimes suffer a bit too much from Mad Men syndrome. (It seems to be going around.) The conspiracy plot isn't revolutionary but it works and the actual reporting and production of the program were interesting and the characters were largely interesting as well. IMO, Bel and her plot are the main reasons to watch, but opinions may vary.
Revenge 1.9-1.13: My ssshhhhooooowwwwww!
First of all: Paternity reveal! My life is (slightly more) complete! (Gosh was that scene with Charlotte and Emanda blatantly emotionally manipulative. In all the good ways.)
I know some people have been having trouble with Emanda and how she treats people, especially Nolan, But I...don't? At least, not in the context of the show. Emanda is a sociopath and has been from the first episode. She's not the Damon Salvatore kind of sociopath where her life is all about proving her power over those she considers weaker than her to feel strong, but she's literally incapable of seeing the world in any context but her revenge, which isn't helped by the fact that she was basically psychologically tortured by a sadist as a child until she believed she was an evil little lying liar who lies. (C.C.H. Pounder's character kinda furthered it, though I see where she was coming from.) She doesn't seem to really want to hurt anyone beyond the people who betrayed her father-and them she wants publicly and financailly destroyed, not physically harmed-but collateral damage isn't something she can really factor in. And in Nolan's case, she didn't ask for his help, but he basically forced his help on her and so she uses him as the tool he offered himself up for. But I think that, for her growth, using Nolan like that is kind of crucial? Revenge plots like this tend to end with the person out for revenge seeing the light and learning to forgive and accept, but I don't think Revenge is going there.
Emanda can't/won't admit that she cares about people. She says she trained herself not to trust, but I think she trained herself not to feel positive emotions, either. She probably loves Emanda 2.0 (though not in the way Emanda 2.0 seems to love her) and if she doesn't love Daniel, then she seems to at least have some sort of strong feeling for him (Aside: Charlotte's half-siblings are shacking up. Aiyiyi.) but she can only admit to either if she's telling herself that it's fake. Her "underlings" are told that Jack and Daniel are off limits and not targets, but she can't make herself really say why. She says she doesn't care that Charlotte is her half-sister, but her face when she was watching the tape and when she saw Charlotte later both say otherwise. I don't think Emanda is going to "see the light," but instead is going to eventually be able to admit that there are people she cares about (Nolan, Charlotte, Jack, Daniel, probably Ashley) and not wanting to keep hurting them. She started down that path in ep 13, but kinda got dropkicked back a few steps by Daniel saying Victoria accused David of rape.
Which...was odd? I thought Daniel was coming to that conclusion when she was crying but I'm not sure she was trying to imply that? They say Daniel is her favorite but she seems to get a lot more worked up over Charlotte, and sometimes lose perspective (like how when Charlotte disappeared after the therapist's tape and she didn't seem to even notice that Frank told the cops that they were sleeping together). I kind of wonder, though, if she'll use it with the idea out there.
Also, I seem to like Daniel and Declan more than I did before. Though my opinion of both tends to be directly relate to how they're respectively treating their mother and girlfriend at any given time. Declan kind of slipped when he got in a snit about Charlotte having a life outside of him, but he's improving a lot in general. (Also, Daniel ranks his father last when it comes to his family. I approve.)
Uhm...I think I hate Conrad more every episode? I realize I should feel some sympathy for him right now, but I just can't. I was very sad that Tyler didn't kill him.
I shall miss Emanda 2.0, though I doubt she'll be gone long. Also, she and Jack were kind of adorable, despite the whole fake identity thing. (Though he liked her before she lied about who she was and there were years and years between him and Amanda and him and fake!Amanda, so it doesn't trigger anything near the response it normally would.)
I watched ep 11 and was all "Nolan and Ashley need to be drinking buddies!" and then they were! I kind of miss Ashley and Emanda having scenes, even though it's questionable now how much Ashley likes Emanda. (Her comment about rejecting her best friend all summer makes me think she's fonder of Emanda than she implied to Tyler? I kind of think she picked up on Emanda using her, but not on how or why.)
Going back to the subject of paternity, having recently rewatched the 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, I have come to the conclusion that it and Revenge share a writer, and that writer is a major Mercedes.Edmond shipper who thinks that Dumas created a great injustice against the universe in not making Albert be Edmond's son.
Other TV (and 1 anime) bits: Finally watched the Moribito anime. It is as awesome as everyone says, but also made me a bit depressed at the "no more US releases of the books" thing. (Which spiraled into "no more Twelve Kingdoms books" and "we only ever got one Kino book...") Am finally watching season 2 of Spooks/MI:5 after watching and being entertained by the first season a couple years ago. It's so...entertainingly absurd. Like, the Drama is so blown up at times that it inspires inappropriate laughter of the "no, wait this is seriously tragic/actually rather offensive WHY AM I GIGGLING?" variety. A (usually) very fun show in which very talented actors play the worst spies ever but we're supposed to think they're amazing. Also, My brain cannot really process Keeley Hawes in a contemporary role. I also watched the first few eps of Lie to Me, which were entertaining enough to keep the rest of the season in my netflix queue, but I'm not sure it'll ever inspire great love. It makes me think of Psych if Psych took itself superseriously and Shawn were able to pay attention for more than 30 seconds. Also, I kind of really don't like the main character so far, even if he is entertaining.
Currently behind on:
Covert Affairs
Nikita
Once Upon A Time
Pan Am
And I think White Collar came back this week.
Meanwhile, Revenge is on hiatus again. Maybe I'l rewatch Gankutsuo.
Shallow note: Bo's significant others really go for the pretty ones, don't they?
Why did we have to have Lauren re-enslave herself to Lachlan? Why are they trying to make Lachlan sympathetic or something now? Why did they basically kick all the women but Bo and Kiara (who will probably be dead by the end of the season) out, even if it's probably only for a couple of episodes. (Why do I find Kenzi's amazingly convenient sudden childhood love a bit creepy?)
I don't know! The travel service was a hoot and I'm starting to like the mytharc of the season, but the way they're doing chunks of it is just terribly aggravating. Yet, I still love this silly show and likely will have forgotten about my problems by the time I watch the next episode.
Also, I kind of giggled at the "Bo is sad and alone and isolated" after her birthday party. They just went home! They're all on speed dial!
Also #2: I know this is a popular fandom theory, but I really hope that Trick isn't Bo's father. If I remember Aoife's backstory correctly, I think we were supposed to read from that that Bo was most likely the product of rape (or possibly seduction trickery to escape?)
Downton Abbey: Christmas Special: Two non-spoilery things that made me happy:
1. Isobel got Violet a nutcracker for Christmas! A nutcracker! With an explanation full of awkward innuendo.
2. Mary had The Tenant of Windfell Hall in charades. Probably a lot less fun if you didn't read the book a week before watching this episode.
On to the spoilers:
I'm so happy Edith didn't hook up again with the guy who flaked on her in season 1. I know Mary's lie has a lot of responsibility there, but it would have basically been hot air if the guy had trusted Edith at all. I fear he may be back next season though. (Edith needs someone who won't flake on her, isn't married to someone else, and isn't possibly a conman.)
I wish I cared about the Bates plot, but I don't, aside from wishing Anna was allowed to have anything to do besides that plot.
I...don't think I like them retconning Pamook's rape of Mary, and not just because of all the fans who liked to self-righteously talk about how they "forgave" Mary for it. I mean, the scene itself played out as "girls have hormones too, you know!" The original scene, IMO, was very much framed as rape. She had unconditionally rejected him so he arranged to break into her bedroom-where she never gave him any indication that he would be welcome-while blackmailing a servant (who probably thought it was an arranged tryst) to make sure he wasn't interupted. Then he gave her a choice between violent rape or sex that she might enjoy. The point is that whether or not to have sex with him wasn't an option he gave her, and he set this up knowing that Mary's society would have trained her since birth to belive that maintaining the APPEARANCE of virtue was what mattered, and that it would be worse to fight and hve everyone think it happened than to have it happen and then do damage control.
Changing that, IMO, is an indication of how much the show has changed since the first season, and not really for the better, as it's stopped doing a lot of the things it used to do. (See also how they seem to want us to forget that Thomas is gay.)
Robert...you know, most parents are HAPPY when they learn they're going to be grandparents. They don't go on about how it's ruining civilization. (Also, dude, she got married and moved to another country. I think it was already final, as many problems as I have with that relationship.) But he was actually pretty decent after that!
Matthew finally managed to make me throw up my hands in defeat when he said that Mary didn't deserve to be hsppy. WTF? It's not her fault he decided he was obligated to marry Lavinia, and it's not like she forced im to dance with her or kiss him. I'm pretty sure he still has some depression from the war but is keeping it suppressed, but still. It's like he was determined to wallow in self-hatred and felt Mary had to be there with him because she's what he felt guilty about. He did redeem himself with admitting that Mary's sex life was none of his business andclearly wanting to throttle Carlisle and the last few minutes, but still. (Also, Carlisle,feel free to not be gone for good. I enjoy your mustache-twirling semi-villainy, and Iain Glen is always fun. Well, he annoys me in Game of Thrones, but I doubt any actor could overcome a character who lusts after a girl who could be his granddaughter and likes to talk about how other people forced him to be a slavetrader for me.)
Of course, now that Mary and Matthew are happy and engaged, I'm a bit apprehensive about what Drama will be thrown at us with that pairing next season.
Rosamund's reaction to her maid and her suitor was perfect and priceless and never has she been more her mother's daughter. (And who played Shaw, anyway? I have a feeling she's an actress I always like, but who always looks different.)
Let us hope William's ghost has been laid to rest for good. And that Thomas stops with the backsliding.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012): I basically know nothing about this Dickens but checked it out because it was short and I've liked the other recent Dickens adaptations I've watched (Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Great Expectations) despite only being familiar with one of the canons going in. I liked this as much as I can like something where I dislike the main character? I have difficulty liking things where I don't like the lead character. Pretty well done and entertaining, though I liked Great Expectations more.
The Hour: Series 1: A recent BBC series about the founding of an hour long new program in the 50s with Romala Garai as the show's producer, Bel. Her best friend, Freddy, is about half a step from being a conspiracy theorist and feels insulted at only being assigned home affairs for Bel's show and is obsessed with discovering the truth about his childhood friend's death. Freddy was annoying, but less annoying than I expected, and the romantic plotlines were annoyingly predictable from the first episode and I did my best to ignore them. That said, the show is pretty good, even if it does sometimes suffer a bit too much from Mad Men syndrome. (It seems to be going around.) The conspiracy plot isn't revolutionary but it works and the actual reporting and production of the program were interesting and the characters were largely interesting as well. IMO, Bel and her plot are the main reasons to watch, but opinions may vary.
Revenge 1.9-1.13: My ssshhhhooooowwwwww!
First of all: Paternity reveal! My life is (slightly more) complete! (Gosh was that scene with Charlotte and Emanda blatantly emotionally manipulative. In all the good ways.)
I know some people have been having trouble with Emanda and how she treats people, especially Nolan, But I...don't? At least, not in the context of the show. Emanda is a sociopath and has been from the first episode. She's not the Damon Salvatore kind of sociopath where her life is all about proving her power over those she considers weaker than her to feel strong, but she's literally incapable of seeing the world in any context but her revenge, which isn't helped by the fact that she was basically psychologically tortured by a sadist as a child until she believed she was an evil little lying liar who lies. (C.C.H. Pounder's character kinda furthered it, though I see where she was coming from.) She doesn't seem to really want to hurt anyone beyond the people who betrayed her father-and them she wants publicly and financailly destroyed, not physically harmed-but collateral damage isn't something she can really factor in. And in Nolan's case, she didn't ask for his help, but he basically forced his help on her and so she uses him as the tool he offered himself up for. But I think that, for her growth, using Nolan like that is kind of crucial? Revenge plots like this tend to end with the person out for revenge seeing the light and learning to forgive and accept, but I don't think Revenge is going there.
Emanda can't/won't admit that she cares about people. She says she trained herself not to trust, but I think she trained herself not to feel positive emotions, either. She probably loves Emanda 2.0 (though not in the way Emanda 2.0 seems to love her) and if she doesn't love Daniel, then she seems to at least have some sort of strong feeling for him (Aside: Charlotte's half-siblings are shacking up. Aiyiyi.) but she can only admit to either if she's telling herself that it's fake. Her "underlings" are told that Jack and Daniel are off limits and not targets, but she can't make herself really say why. She says she doesn't care that Charlotte is her half-sister, but her face when she was watching the tape and when she saw Charlotte later both say otherwise. I don't think Emanda is going to "see the light," but instead is going to eventually be able to admit that there are people she cares about (Nolan, Charlotte, Jack, Daniel, probably Ashley) and not wanting to keep hurting them. She started down that path in ep 13, but kinda got dropkicked back a few steps by Daniel saying Victoria accused David of rape.
Which...was odd? I thought Daniel was coming to that conclusion when she was crying but I'm not sure she was trying to imply that? They say Daniel is her favorite but she seems to get a lot more worked up over Charlotte, and sometimes lose perspective (like how when Charlotte disappeared after the therapist's tape and she didn't seem to even notice that Frank told the cops that they were sleeping together). I kind of wonder, though, if she'll use it with the idea out there.
Also, I seem to like Daniel and Declan more than I did before. Though my opinion of both tends to be directly relate to how they're respectively treating their mother and girlfriend at any given time. Declan kind of slipped when he got in a snit about Charlotte having a life outside of him, but he's improving a lot in general. (Also, Daniel ranks his father last when it comes to his family. I approve.)
Uhm...I think I hate Conrad more every episode? I realize I should feel some sympathy for him right now, but I just can't. I was very sad that Tyler didn't kill him.
I shall miss Emanda 2.0, though I doubt she'll be gone long. Also, she and Jack were kind of adorable, despite the whole fake identity thing. (Though he liked her before she lied about who she was and there were years and years between him and Amanda and him and fake!Amanda, so it doesn't trigger anything near the response it normally would.)
I watched ep 11 and was all "Nolan and Ashley need to be drinking buddies!" and then they were! I kind of miss Ashley and Emanda having scenes, even though it's questionable now how much Ashley likes Emanda. (Her comment about rejecting her best friend all summer makes me think she's fonder of Emanda than she implied to Tyler? I kind of think she picked up on Emanda using her, but not on how or why.)
Going back to the subject of paternity, having recently rewatched the 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, I have come to the conclusion that it and Revenge share a writer, and that writer is a major Mercedes.Edmond shipper who thinks that Dumas created a great injustice against the universe in not making Albert be Edmond's son.
Other TV (and 1 anime) bits: Finally watched the Moribito anime. It is as awesome as everyone says, but also made me a bit depressed at the "no more US releases of the books" thing. (Which spiraled into "no more Twelve Kingdoms books" and "we only ever got one Kino book...") Am finally watching season 2 of Spooks/MI:5 after watching and being entertained by the first season a couple years ago. It's so...entertainingly absurd. Like, the Drama is so blown up at times that it inspires inappropriate laughter of the "no, wait this is seriously tragic/actually rather offensive WHY AM I GIGGLING?" variety. A (usually) very fun show in which very talented actors play the worst spies ever but we're supposed to think they're amazing. Also, My brain cannot really process Keeley Hawes in a contemporary role. I also watched the first few eps of Lie to Me, which were entertaining enough to keep the rest of the season in my netflix queue, but I'm not sure it'll ever inspire great love. It makes me think of Psych if Psych took itself superseriously and Shawn were able to pay attention for more than 30 seconds. Also, I kind of really don't like the main character so far, even if he is entertaining.
Currently behind on:
Covert Affairs
Nikita
Once Upon A Time
Pan Am
And I think White Collar came back this week.
Meanwhile, Revenge is on hiatus again. Maybe I'l rewatch Gankutsuo.