TeeVee
Covert Affairs3.15-3.16:
Pleasantly surprised they didn't kill Eyal, the way they've been getting rid of everyone who could be seen as coming between Annie and Auggie.
Hated Megan's death playing out as fridging, but loved Annie's solution to the "kill Khalid" issue.
Completely opposed to Annie working against Joan and Arthur, will only approve of Annie working with Wilcox if Jai is secretly alive.
But a pretty good finale overall.
Haven 3.9: I actually could have gone for this one lasting a few episodes.
Mostly because I wanted to see more of the wrong!present Haven and Audrey, Claire, Jordan and the Chief working together.
I feared a "you are your own granddaddy" plot with Duke and then...uhm...did Nathan just become the Colorado Kid's father? I WASN'T SURE EXACTLY WHAT THEY GOT UP TO ON THE BEACH THERE. Though the possibility made me wish we could see more of when Lucy and the Chief when they worked together. And maybe Sarah and wee!Chief.
Emily Rose did a good job making Sarah and Audrey different, and Duke's knowing The Rules of Time Travel was a hoot. (Why do I think Duke sits around researching everything that he thinks could possibly be a Trouble?)
Once Upon A Time 2.7: This was pretty good despite some terrible dialogue, and apparently combining two episodes into one. I mean, Once doesn't exactly have the best dialogue ever, but it's usually better than this.
The plotline for the flashbacks was a bit "whatever," but thematically I liked it a lot. Also, it was nice seeing Snow and Red when they were still naive and just barely out in the world, and a couple of the episodes from late in season one make more sense now on the Red front, as I recall being confused at how she could apparently change back and forth at will in a couple episodes. (Also, her mother looked a lot like Anna Silk, which was distracting in a crossover "but Anna Silk's Lost Girl character hooks up with a werewolf a lot..." way.)
George's vendetta against Charming makes no sense at all at this point unless I assume that he simply hates Charming and everyone connected to him for being alive. I tend to think that his son would be utterly horrified by everything he's done, excepting possibly getting Charming to pretend to be James, because that actually was necessary at the time. But killing his son's biological mother, tormenting his biological brother and attacking his niece and sister-in-law, not to mention Red? That would probably result in the loudest "OH DAD NO" ever. Though I did like how both that plotline and the flashback allowed for platonic love to be just as important as romantic and familial love.
Hoping for lots more Red/Belle scenes. Also, ecstatic that Belle FINALLY had scenes that weren't about the Rumpelstiltskin plot. (Even her scene with the dwarves in season 1 and her scenes with Red earlier this season were still largely about the influence he and their relationship have on her life, instead of just being about Belle herself, even if he wasn't in them.) Speaking of Rumples, though, it was nice to not be annoyed with his scenes for once. (I actually think he was sincere about not expecting anything back since it was for Henry, though if so, it's probably an indication that Neal is Bae.
Here's hoping that we actually get to see Henry and Aurora talking next time. With the hat gone, somehow using the red room seems to be the best option for getting them back between worlds. However it's done, I really hope Regina plays an important role in bringing Emma and Snow back.
Person of Interest 2.7: Apparently on tumblr, there's some sort of wank between PoI and Sherlock fans because PoI fans were referring to Finch as "their hedgehog" and Sherlock fans took offense. I have no idea what the significance is, but it certainly created some imagery when watching the episode.
I like Fusco looking out for Carter. I want more buddy scenes with them, and I'm glad both knowing the other is working with Reese and Finch means they get to do more of that this season.
I think Finch and I share the same squemishness about blood and viewing body organs.
"Yay!" for biracial lesbian pairing in which they have a happy relationship and neither is dead or evil by the end of the episode. If only I could say that more often about TV in general for regular characters.
I'm glad Carter told Reese about Snow, but I hope this doesn't mean she's going to be out of the loop with that plotline now.
Revenge: I'm current, but forget what the actual episode numbers involved are. This season is doing plot things that I don't really care about (Pretty much most plot things not directly related to Emily) and so I'm having trouble paying attention to some of it, particularly given how irritating I find the narrative's attitude towards Amanda and Ashley to be this season. Really, I don't know. I liked the first couple of episodes of the season a lot because of the Emily/Charlotte/Victoria focus but the episodes since have left me cold despite my affection for some of the characters. I'm starting to wonder if it's one of those series that has a excellent first season but only really had about a season's worth of truly maintainable plot. (TBH, there seemed to be a fair bit of that going around last fall.) And, unfortunately, it's having the same problem as Once Upon A Time, which is an overabundance of (typically scruffy) white dudes in roughly the 30-40 range being shoehorned in and taking attention away from the more interesting characters and storylines. (Revenge, at least, was nice enough to cast J. R. Bourne and Michael Trucco as two of theirs, so at least there's some actor affection going there, but their characters pretty much exist to give a couple white guys things to do outside their relationships with women, so...) This is made even more annoying by the fact that right now, Revenge is probably doing the worst of the shows I'm watching in terms of female character relationships and how the women treat other women. Only Charlotte, apparently, is allowed to have anything positive in her relationships with other women, and even then they're all lyin to or manipulating her, and while Emily can somehow find sympathy for all the men in her life, she seems to have nothing but contempt and disdain for other women, particularly Amanda.
Revolution 1.8:
I liked the Nora flashbacks, but was hoping for more information about her. Wasn't surprised Nia (Mia?) was working for the militia, given how easy it was to rescue her. I can't really blame her? She hates Miles for whatever he did to Nora and Charlie and Aaron are nothing to her, and she was promised her sister would live if she helped. A no brainer from her POV.
People appear to be hating on Julia for conspiring against their woobie, but I love it. From the start we've been hearing about how Monroe is getting more obsessive and unhinged, and that's from people in the field, not someone like Julia, who lives there and hears about and sees more of it, and most of his present scenes have been threatening torture, ordering torture, threatening to have people's kids tortured, killing people, and plotting getting more power. He may have been a pretty decent guy pre-blackout, but he's a straight up evil dictator now. I think this has probably been building up in Julia for a while, and torturing her son and then ordering his exile (an exile he's unlikely to return from) was the last straw. I don't know that Neville would be a better choice than Monroe, but he can't be a worse one.
But honestly, just a lot of YAYs for morally ambiguous and sneaky mothers who are still sympathetic.
JasonNateNipplesSpiderman, that crush of yours is going to get you in so much trouble.
Charlie, you didn't do much this week, but you're such a sweetheart.
Aaron is starting to annoy me, as opposed to leaving me cold, but my not minding him.
Randall, don't you dare get Grace killed.
And because I didn't get around to posting on last week's TV until after this week's Revolution aired:
Revolution 1.9: Not exactly filler as it was mostly character development (apparently largely designed to cater to shippers) But the only real plot momentum was with Rachel. My thoughts on Rachel are that I am very happy that this TV season and this show in particular is providing me with plenty of mothers who are morally ambiguous if not outright shady and have things going on besides thier kids while still being written as sympathetic and loving their kids.
Scandal 2.6: Have we actually had two whole episodes and no Fitz? Is it early Christmas?
This was a very "OH HUCK" episodes. "OH HUCK" episodes are episodes where I spend most of the episodes wondering if its ok to find a mentally unbalanced, violence-addicted ex assassin kind of cuddly and want to hug him until his issues go away. Also, did anyone else not recognize the one dude as the guy who was working for Cyrus last season until he mentioned the drill?
That was...an amazingly low thing Olivia and Harrison did to Abby. I have to digest it for a while.
Cyrus's husband is kind of....adorable when he's prima donna-ing. Or when he sulking. Or in general?
Eddison's charm has worn of a good bit. I'll still take him over Fitz, but I guess we're meant to assume that Olivia's type is domineering men who like to ignore her boundaries and choices and tell her they know what she wants?
The latest Arrow and Beauty and the Beast were good but felt like filler with a few important bits thrown in. Elementary was interesting on the Watson front but the Mystery Of The Week was brought down by a trope whose execution I didn't care for with Gregson's old partner.
I've pretty much finished Rich Man Poor Woman and Naniwa Shounen Tanteidan, the two jdramas I started a few months ago and got sidetracked from. "Pretty much" because, the last time I looked, the last episode of Naniwa hadn't been subbed yet. RMPW floundered a lot in the middle but got back on track in thel ast two episodes and had a pretty strong ending. Naniwa was pretty hit-and-miss in terms of the cases, but the characters and character interactions were great. I also finished season 4 of Fringe, which had a lot of interesting ideas going on but seemed determined to strip Olivia of agency in as many ways as possible. Like with AltLiv's storyline in the second half of season 3, I keep wanting to write up a rant but dissolve into inarticulate raging before I even get started. Then there's season 4 of Parks and Rec, which was largely very fun (as expected) but while I like Leslie/Ben and Leslie running for office, I dislike how it seemed to isolate them from the rest of the cast for large chunks of the season, and I'm unable to comment on Ann/Tom.
Pleasantly surprised they didn't kill Eyal, the way they've been getting rid of everyone who could be seen as coming between Annie and Auggie.
Hated Megan's death playing out as fridging, but loved Annie's solution to the "kill Khalid" issue.
Completely opposed to Annie working against Joan and Arthur, will only approve of Annie working with Wilcox if Jai is secretly alive.
But a pretty good finale overall.
Haven 3.9: I actually could have gone for this one lasting a few episodes.
Mostly because I wanted to see more of the wrong!present Haven and Audrey, Claire, Jordan and the Chief working together.
I feared a "you are your own granddaddy" plot with Duke and then...uhm...did Nathan just become the Colorado Kid's father? I WASN'T SURE EXACTLY WHAT THEY GOT UP TO ON THE BEACH THERE. Though the possibility made me wish we could see more of when Lucy and the Chief when they worked together. And maybe Sarah and wee!Chief.
Emily Rose did a good job making Sarah and Audrey different, and Duke's knowing The Rules of Time Travel was a hoot. (Why do I think Duke sits around researching everything that he thinks could possibly be a Trouble?)
Once Upon A Time 2.7: This was pretty good despite some terrible dialogue, and apparently combining two episodes into one. I mean, Once doesn't exactly have the best dialogue ever, but it's usually better than this.
The plotline for the flashbacks was a bit "whatever," but thematically I liked it a lot. Also, it was nice seeing Snow and Red when they were still naive and just barely out in the world, and a couple of the episodes from late in season one make more sense now on the Red front, as I recall being confused at how she could apparently change back and forth at will in a couple episodes. (Also, her mother looked a lot like Anna Silk, which was distracting in a crossover "but Anna Silk's Lost Girl character hooks up with a werewolf a lot..." way.)
George's vendetta against Charming makes no sense at all at this point unless I assume that he simply hates Charming and everyone connected to him for being alive. I tend to think that his son would be utterly horrified by everything he's done, excepting possibly getting Charming to pretend to be James, because that actually was necessary at the time. But killing his son's biological mother, tormenting his biological brother and attacking his niece and sister-in-law, not to mention Red? That would probably result in the loudest "OH DAD NO" ever. Though I did like how both that plotline and the flashback allowed for platonic love to be just as important as romantic and familial love.
Hoping for lots more Red/Belle scenes. Also, ecstatic that Belle FINALLY had scenes that weren't about the Rumpelstiltskin plot. (Even her scene with the dwarves in season 1 and her scenes with Red earlier this season were still largely about the influence he and their relationship have on her life, instead of just being about Belle herself, even if he wasn't in them.) Speaking of Rumples, though, it was nice to not be annoyed with his scenes for once. (I actually think he was sincere about not expecting anything back since it was for Henry, though if so, it's probably an indication that Neal is Bae.
Here's hoping that we actually get to see Henry and Aurora talking next time. With the hat gone, somehow using the red room seems to be the best option for getting them back between worlds. However it's done, I really hope Regina plays an important role in bringing Emma and Snow back.
Person of Interest 2.7: Apparently on tumblr, there's some sort of wank between PoI and Sherlock fans because PoI fans were referring to Finch as "their hedgehog" and Sherlock fans took offense. I have no idea what the significance is, but it certainly created some imagery when watching the episode.
I like Fusco looking out for Carter. I want more buddy scenes with them, and I'm glad both knowing the other is working with Reese and Finch means they get to do more of that this season.
I think Finch and I share the same squemishness about blood and viewing body organs.
"Yay!" for biracial lesbian pairing in which they have a happy relationship and neither is dead or evil by the end of the episode. If only I could say that more often about TV in general for regular characters.
I'm glad Carter told Reese about Snow, but I hope this doesn't mean she's going to be out of the loop with that plotline now.
Revenge: I'm current, but forget what the actual episode numbers involved are. This season is doing plot things that I don't really care about (Pretty much most plot things not directly related to Emily) and so I'm having trouble paying attention to some of it, particularly given how irritating I find the narrative's attitude towards Amanda and Ashley to be this season. Really, I don't know. I liked the first couple of episodes of the season a lot because of the Emily/Charlotte/Victoria focus but the episodes since have left me cold despite my affection for some of the characters. I'm starting to wonder if it's one of those series that has a excellent first season but only really had about a season's worth of truly maintainable plot. (TBH, there seemed to be a fair bit of that going around last fall.) And, unfortunately, it's having the same problem as Once Upon A Time, which is an overabundance of (typically scruffy) white dudes in roughly the 30-40 range being shoehorned in and taking attention away from the more interesting characters and storylines. (Revenge, at least, was nice enough to cast J. R. Bourne and Michael Trucco as two of theirs, so at least there's some actor affection going there, but their characters pretty much exist to give a couple white guys things to do outside their relationships with women, so...) This is made even more annoying by the fact that right now, Revenge is probably doing the worst of the shows I'm watching in terms of female character relationships and how the women treat other women. Only Charlotte, apparently, is allowed to have anything positive in her relationships with other women, and even then they're all lyin to or manipulating her, and while Emily can somehow find sympathy for all the men in her life, she seems to have nothing but contempt and disdain for other women, particularly Amanda.
Revolution 1.8:
I liked the Nora flashbacks, but was hoping for more information about her. Wasn't surprised Nia (Mia?) was working for the militia, given how easy it was to rescue her. I can't really blame her? She hates Miles for whatever he did to Nora and Charlie and Aaron are nothing to her, and she was promised her sister would live if she helped. A no brainer from her POV.
People appear to be hating on Julia for conspiring against their woobie, but I love it. From the start we've been hearing about how Monroe is getting more obsessive and unhinged, and that's from people in the field, not someone like Julia, who lives there and hears about and sees more of it, and most of his present scenes have been threatening torture, ordering torture, threatening to have people's kids tortured, killing people, and plotting getting more power. He may have been a pretty decent guy pre-blackout, but he's a straight up evil dictator now. I think this has probably been building up in Julia for a while, and torturing her son and then ordering his exile (an exile he's unlikely to return from) was the last straw. I don't know that Neville would be a better choice than Monroe, but he can't be a worse one.
But honestly, just a lot of YAYs for morally ambiguous and sneaky mothers who are still sympathetic.
JasonNateNipplesSpiderman, that crush of yours is going to get you in so much trouble.
Charlie, you didn't do much this week, but you're such a sweetheart.
Aaron is starting to annoy me, as opposed to leaving me cold, but my not minding him.
Randall, don't you dare get Grace killed.
And because I didn't get around to posting on last week's TV until after this week's Revolution aired:
Revolution 1.9: Not exactly filler as it was mostly character development (apparently largely designed to cater to shippers) But the only real plot momentum was with Rachel. My thoughts on Rachel are that I am very happy that this TV season and this show in particular is providing me with plenty of mothers who are morally ambiguous if not outright shady and have things going on besides thier kids while still being written as sympathetic and loving their kids.
Scandal 2.6: Have we actually had two whole episodes and no Fitz? Is it early Christmas?
This was a very "OH HUCK" episodes. "OH HUCK" episodes are episodes where I spend most of the episodes wondering if its ok to find a mentally unbalanced, violence-addicted ex assassin kind of cuddly and want to hug him until his issues go away. Also, did anyone else not recognize the one dude as the guy who was working for Cyrus last season until he mentioned the drill?
That was...an amazingly low thing Olivia and Harrison did to Abby. I have to digest it for a while.
Cyrus's husband is kind of....adorable when he's prima donna-ing. Or when he sulking. Or in general?
Eddison's charm has worn of a good bit. I'll still take him over Fitz, but I guess we're meant to assume that Olivia's type is domineering men who like to ignore her boundaries and choices and tell her they know what she wants?
The latest Arrow and Beauty and the Beast were good but felt like filler with a few important bits thrown in. Elementary was interesting on the Watson front but the Mystery Of The Week was brought down by a trope whose execution I didn't care for with Gregson's old partner.
I've pretty much finished Rich Man Poor Woman and Naniwa Shounen Tanteidan, the two jdramas I started a few months ago and got sidetracked from. "Pretty much" because, the last time I looked, the last episode of Naniwa hadn't been subbed yet. RMPW floundered a lot in the middle but got back on track in thel ast two episodes and had a pretty strong ending. Naniwa was pretty hit-and-miss in terms of the cases, but the characters and character interactions were great. I also finished season 4 of Fringe, which had a lot of interesting ideas going on but seemed determined to strip Olivia of agency in as many ways as possible. Like with AltLiv's storyline in the second half of season 3, I keep wanting to write up a rant but dissolve into inarticulate raging before I even get started. Then there's season 4 of Parks and Rec, which was largely very fun (as expected) but while I like Leslie/Ben and Leslie running for office, I dislike how it seemed to isolate them from the rest of the cast for large chunks of the season, and I'm unable to comment on Ann/Tom.