TeeVee
Agatha Christie's Marple 6.1: "A Caribbean Mystery": Pretty good adaptation overall. Once I got used to the extreme liberties this series takes (my favorite in this one when it jut randomly introduces Ian Fleming in a bit role), it became pretty near and dear to me. I am a bit confused, though, as Nemesis, whose plot is largely dependent on the death of a character in a Caribbean Mystery, was adapted in an earlier episode of the series, back in the Geraldine McEwan days, and I'm pretty sure the McEwan and McKenzie episodes are still considered part of the same series. Oh well. On a superficial note, it took me about 20 minutes to realize that Charity Wakefield was playing Molly, as blonde hair makes her look very very different.
Agatha Christie's Marple 6.2 "Greenshaw's Folly": If I've read the short story this is based on, it's been changed enough that I don't recognize it. That said, aside from a few "No! Stop traumatizing the abused little boy!" moments, I liked this one a lot. Fiona Shaw! Julia Swalhala! Julia McKenzie! Judy Parfitt! And...other perfectly fine actors and actresses. The mysteries and twists were rather standard for Christie (and, admittedly, I shudder a bit to think of how many adaptations of her stuff I've watched at this point), but but I thought they worked well anyway.
Agatha Christie's Poirot 13.1 "Elephants Can Remember": I haven't read the book this is based on (I haven't read many Poirot books, actually. Much as I love him when it's David Suchet, he aggravates me in the books) and so can't comment on it as an adaptation, but I liked this a lot, and especially enjoyed all the gothic tropes, and found myself almost rooting for the killer due to motivations.
Beauty and the Beast 1.21-1.22: My childhood memories are vague, but i'm pretty sure elements of the last scene were genderswapped versions of the season 2 finale of the 80s series.
-At least, I THINK that one ended with Vincent on the rooftop while Catherine was carried away on a helicopter by the villain.
-The penultimate episode seemed to mostly be there to show us Gabe's beast form? (I admit, the golden eyes on him are considerably more AHEM than they are on Vincent. Then again, I do find Sendhil to be considerably hotter in general.)
-Joe really annoyed me in that episode, too. i keep hoping that his being a douche is going to result in Tess dumping him, but instead it's apparently him struggling with their True Love or something.
-Vincent's "I must be normal at all costs! Even if it'll kill me in 2 years and/or make me and Catherine 50 times more likely to get killed tonight." was a bit much and felt out of character. Wanting to be "normal"? Yes. But not at those costs.
-When they said Catherine wasn't biologically related to her father, my first thought was "CLONE!" Instead her biological father is...a random villain. Ok then. (Also, while Heather would obviously be told that Catherine's blood isn't compatible with their father's [and I believe this does actually happen with biological children, though not commonly] so that they can get a donation from her, I don't think she would have been told that Catherine wasn't biologically their father's, especially not without telling Catherine first, as she obviously doesn't know. Though, maybe this will be used to bring Heather into the plot more next season.)
-Very upset by Gabe and Tyler's apparent deaths, though it's possible that Gabe, at least, could heal from those wounds. I mean, I doubt even Muirfield knows his limits, and they last had him when he was...6? 7? I'm pretty sure going through all of life's changes over the last 25+ years is likely to have more changes since the last time they had him than something done to adults 10 years ago. And I'll even further delude myself with survival possiblities by pointing out that we don't actually know that Cat's random villain biodaddy shot her with, and she's also connected to Muirfield somehow. (I'd say she's a rogue Muirfield scientist, but there was also something weird up with her back when they showed it a while back, so maybe she's another form of mutated human.)
Bomb Girls 2.7-2.12: GUYS. Rose O'Donnell guested as a character named Dottie. If you don't know why it made me figuratively bounce around with joy to have Rosie O'Donnell play a character named Dottie in a show about women taking on men's jobs during wartime, then either you haven't seen A League of Their Own, or it's been too long since you've watched it. Either way, it should be corrected.
Also, the series is cancelled, which is tragic beyond words.
-Ok, whose idea was it to give Tahmoh a British accent? Because it was kind of awful. I...don't know that I disliked Clifford, but I hated how he came along and pretty much isolated Gladys from the other girls. I mean, give me a story about an independent heiress who becomes a spy and I'll gobble it up, but I didn't like it in the context of this show.
-While I don't find Carol particularly likable a lot of the time, I do find her endlessly entertaining, and am glad she and Vera are set up to become friends now. Except, you know, we won't get to see it. Because the series was cancelled.
-Overall, while I disliked it at times, I think I ended up liking Vera/Marco more than the other het romances on the show. I didnt care a lot about the "Marco falls in with fascists" subplot, pertinent as it was. (Though, TBH, half the time I forget Marco isn't the only important male character on the show, and so kind of...forgot the other characters were involved at times.)
-Also, I want Vera's magic scar-shrinking cream. That stuff is amazing. (Show, why spend so much time on it in the first season if it's going to shrink so much later?)
-Kate! Betty! What, how can you leave things hanging like that? I honestly don't know if they would have gotten together later on (I mean, like most of fandom-though I understand there was something of a femslash ship war while it was airing-I do ship them, but Kate is so repressed in so many ways that sometimes it's hard to tell if something are there but repressed or not.) or will in the movie, but that was an evil cliffhanger designed to make shippers lose it.
-Mostly, I am very sad that it was cruelly taken from us. (Except that we at least get a movie to wrap things up. But still.)
Continuum 2.5-2.8:
-I dislike Betty being a Liber8 mole (unless she's someone else's mole in Liber8) but her being a mole adds all sorts of interesting possibilities to her conviction that kiera would be able to get into her office and access her computer unnoticed.
-If Liber8 can disappear for 2 whole episodes except for computer dude making a 3 second cameo, why can't Alec disappear for whole episodes?
-Kellogg hasn't been doing a lot lately, either. Well, he appears to be using knowing about the future to fairly successfully take over the world or something, but despite his screentime, he mostly seems to be chasing future worldleaders and attempting to dictate Alec's love life.
-While I am interested in old!Alec, I am apparently interested in old!Julian and much as young!Julian. I am very concerned about the possibility of Alec's mom being alone inthat house with him soon, though. (I mean, I guess he's fond enough of her, but I'm not sure if that would be good or bad for her.)
-I'm glad Carlos knows about Kiera being a time traveler. She can have honest conversations with people besides Alec now!
-Enjoying the new boss, and hoping she doesn't turn out to be evil. I think I like Alec's spy!girlfriend, too, but it's hard to judge since she's had about 1 scene without him.
-Don't care about "Jason and Alec are bonding! Is Jason Alec's biodaddy?"
-Jasmine, that was very close to monologuing. It seems rather unlike you to talk so much before taking care of something.
Revolution 1.19-1.20: I rarely deliberately spoil myself before watching things, but I'm glad I did this time.
-I'll assume my general pissiness over Nora's death is understood. However, until season 2 starts airing, I shall delude myself that the following will happen in 2.1: Either Grace successfully sneaks away or Jason saves her and she/they come across Nora and Grace whips out one of the blinky things, or they get to the infirmary and get in and Grace whips out a blinky thing there, and they're able to revive Nora because she wasn't dead long enough for brain damage to set in. Yes, I know, leave me alone. I need my delusions.
-I am glad, though, that Rachel survived, given how they've been playing with the idea that she has to "Atone," and when you unintentionally helped cause the apocalypse, that usually means death. Ditto Grace, who will hopefully have a lot more to do next season.
-I didn't realize how much I utterly loathed Monroe until he told Charlie to "thank" him. Like, I was actively repulsed by that. I know a lot of people want more Charlie/Monroe scenes but I can barely handle when Charlie has to be in the same room as Neville, and even though Neville is more directly responsible for Ben and Danny's deaths, it feels less...personal? Like, it's just Neville's job, whereas it's personal with Monroe. (There's also the fact Neville likely had little or no involvement in the things that happened to Rachel, whereas Monroe had her tortured for years, and if he didn't rape her, it's only because she seduced him to survive, IMO-and he almost certainly let Strausser rape her-and there itsn't much difference there.)
-At the same time, the "just a job" with Danny and Ben's death's, IMO, helps make Neville MORE interesting as a central antagonist to the Mathesons, esp. since I think this latest betrayal might make Jason finally able to break free, because the rampant obsession on Monroe's part is really a short term thing. Neville may be prone to fixation, but he's also a lot more capable of logic and planning and manipulation. He may be nasty, but when men turn to and stay loyal to him, it's going to make a LOT more sense than how Monroe managed to stay in power.
-related: so pissed both Monroe and Aaron survived. I would have rather kept Randall, who is at least somewhat interesting and played by an actor with more screen presence than the other two combined.
-Though, I am amused that the "secondary characters of revolution react to the power coming back on" was, uhm, all women. Because they've killed off every recurring male character.
-I almost think the writers were throwing up their hands in defeat with Monroe at the end there. Every episode made it more obvious that they have no idea what to do with him, and as aggravating as Miles and Monroe basically hugging things out at the end was, it felt like closure. If we're lucky, they'll have him recurring next season. (They aren't going to kill him, given that they expanded the role due to popularity, which sadly hasn't waned.) Also, as much as fandom likes to (wrongly, IMO) claim that Charlie and Miles display little or no interest in Jason and Nora, and the latter 2 are just chasing after them, people are really good at missing out on the fact that Miles/Monroe is about 90% Monroe obsessing over Miles, 8% Miles going "yeah, it kinda sucks that we're enemies, since we used to be such pals," and 2% Miles displaying anything but hate with the occasional bit of regret mixed in.
-They seriously need to get back to Charlie's POV being the main POV, and the plot centering around Charlie. Every episode they try to make Miles the main character makes it more obvious that they didn't intend him to be.
-general "WTF?" over the ending. They should have explored more of the world without power first.
I watched a little bit of the first episode of The White Queen, based on the Philippa Gregory novel, but didn't care for it. A pity, as I'd really been anticipating it. I also watched season 4 of Community. I didn't dislike it the way a lot seem to, though maybe that's because I"d heard that it was really bad, and so had lowered expectations? But while a lot of it felt off and sometimes characters felt like regressing (and they went even further with "Britta's a dumb blonde" than last season, which is saying something, and not something good), I'm pretty sure this is also the first time Troy and Shirley have had a plot for just the two of them, and there seemed to be more scenes of Annie, Britta and Shirley interacting than I remember there being in the second and third seasons.
Agatha Christie's Marple 6.2 "Greenshaw's Folly": If I've read the short story this is based on, it's been changed enough that I don't recognize it. That said, aside from a few "No! Stop traumatizing the abused little boy!" moments, I liked this one a lot. Fiona Shaw! Julia Swalhala! Julia McKenzie! Judy Parfitt! And...other perfectly fine actors and actresses. The mysteries and twists were rather standard for Christie (and, admittedly, I shudder a bit to think of how many adaptations of her stuff I've watched at this point), but but I thought they worked well anyway.
Agatha Christie's Poirot 13.1 "Elephants Can Remember": I haven't read the book this is based on (I haven't read many Poirot books, actually. Much as I love him when it's David Suchet, he aggravates me in the books) and so can't comment on it as an adaptation, but I liked this a lot, and especially enjoyed all the gothic tropes, and found myself almost rooting for the killer due to motivations.
Beauty and the Beast 1.21-1.22: My childhood memories are vague, but i'm pretty sure elements of the last scene were genderswapped versions of the season 2 finale of the 80s series.
-At least, I THINK that one ended with Vincent on the rooftop while Catherine was carried away on a helicopter by the villain.
-The penultimate episode seemed to mostly be there to show us Gabe's beast form? (I admit, the golden eyes on him are considerably more AHEM than they are on Vincent. Then again, I do find Sendhil to be considerably hotter in general.)
-Joe really annoyed me in that episode, too. i keep hoping that his being a douche is going to result in Tess dumping him, but instead it's apparently him struggling with their True Love or something.
-Vincent's "I must be normal at all costs! Even if it'll kill me in 2 years and/or make me and Catherine 50 times more likely to get killed tonight." was a bit much and felt out of character. Wanting to be "normal"? Yes. But not at those costs.
-When they said Catherine wasn't biologically related to her father, my first thought was "CLONE!" Instead her biological father is...a random villain. Ok then. (Also, while Heather would obviously be told that Catherine's blood isn't compatible with their father's [and I believe this does actually happen with biological children, though not commonly] so that they can get a donation from her, I don't think she would have been told that Catherine wasn't biologically their father's, especially not without telling Catherine first, as she obviously doesn't know. Though, maybe this will be used to bring Heather into the plot more next season.)
-Very upset by Gabe and Tyler's apparent deaths, though it's possible that Gabe, at least, could heal from those wounds. I mean, I doubt even Muirfield knows his limits, and they last had him when he was...6? 7? I'm pretty sure going through all of life's changes over the last 25+ years is likely to have more changes since the last time they had him than something done to adults 10 years ago. And I'll even further delude myself with survival possiblities by pointing out that we don't actually know that Cat's random villain biodaddy shot her with, and she's also connected to Muirfield somehow. (I'd say she's a rogue Muirfield scientist, but there was also something weird up with her back when they showed it a while back, so maybe she's another form of mutated human.)
Bomb Girls 2.7-2.12: GUYS. Rose O'Donnell guested as a character named Dottie. If you don't know why it made me figuratively bounce around with joy to have Rosie O'Donnell play a character named Dottie in a show about women taking on men's jobs during wartime, then either you haven't seen A League of Their Own, or it's been too long since you've watched it. Either way, it should be corrected.
Also, the series is cancelled, which is tragic beyond words.
-Ok, whose idea was it to give Tahmoh a British accent? Because it was kind of awful. I...don't know that I disliked Clifford, but I hated how he came along and pretty much isolated Gladys from the other girls. I mean, give me a story about an independent heiress who becomes a spy and I'll gobble it up, but I didn't like it in the context of this show.
-While I don't find Carol particularly likable a lot of the time, I do find her endlessly entertaining, and am glad she and Vera are set up to become friends now. Except, you know, we won't get to see it. Because the series was cancelled.
-Overall, while I disliked it at times, I think I ended up liking Vera/Marco more than the other het romances on the show. I didnt care a lot about the "Marco falls in with fascists" subplot, pertinent as it was. (Though, TBH, half the time I forget Marco isn't the only important male character on the show, and so kind of...forgot the other characters were involved at times.)
-Also, I want Vera's magic scar-shrinking cream. That stuff is amazing. (Show, why spend so much time on it in the first season if it's going to shrink so much later?)
-Kate! Betty! What, how can you leave things hanging like that? I honestly don't know if they would have gotten together later on (I mean, like most of fandom-though I understand there was something of a femslash ship war while it was airing-I do ship them, but Kate is so repressed in so many ways that sometimes it's hard to tell if something are there but repressed or not.) or will in the movie, but that was an evil cliffhanger designed to make shippers lose it.
-Mostly, I am very sad that it was cruelly taken from us. (Except that we at least get a movie to wrap things up. But still.)
Continuum 2.5-2.8:
-I dislike Betty being a Liber8 mole (unless she's someone else's mole in Liber8) but her being a mole adds all sorts of interesting possibilities to her conviction that kiera would be able to get into her office and access her computer unnoticed.
-If Liber8 can disappear for 2 whole episodes except for computer dude making a 3 second cameo, why can't Alec disappear for whole episodes?
-Kellogg hasn't been doing a lot lately, either. Well, he appears to be using knowing about the future to fairly successfully take over the world or something, but despite his screentime, he mostly seems to be chasing future worldleaders and attempting to dictate Alec's love life.
-While I am interested in old!Alec, I am apparently interested in old!Julian and much as young!Julian. I am very concerned about the possibility of Alec's mom being alone inthat house with him soon, though. (I mean, I guess he's fond enough of her, but I'm not sure if that would be good or bad for her.)
-I'm glad Carlos knows about Kiera being a time traveler. She can have honest conversations with people besides Alec now!
-Enjoying the new boss, and hoping she doesn't turn out to be evil. I think I like Alec's spy!girlfriend, too, but it's hard to judge since she's had about 1 scene without him.
-Don't care about "Jason and Alec are bonding! Is Jason Alec's biodaddy?"
-Jasmine, that was very close to monologuing. It seems rather unlike you to talk so much before taking care of something.
Revolution 1.19-1.20: I rarely deliberately spoil myself before watching things, but I'm glad I did this time.
-I'll assume my general pissiness over Nora's death is understood. However, until season 2 starts airing, I shall delude myself that the following will happen in 2.1: Either Grace successfully sneaks away or Jason saves her and she/they come across Nora and Grace whips out one of the blinky things, or they get to the infirmary and get in and Grace whips out a blinky thing there, and they're able to revive Nora because she wasn't dead long enough for brain damage to set in. Yes, I know, leave me alone. I need my delusions.
-I am glad, though, that Rachel survived, given how they've been playing with the idea that she has to "Atone," and when you unintentionally helped cause the apocalypse, that usually means death. Ditto Grace, who will hopefully have a lot more to do next season.
-I didn't realize how much I utterly loathed Monroe until he told Charlie to "thank" him. Like, I was actively repulsed by that. I know a lot of people want more Charlie/Monroe scenes but I can barely handle when Charlie has to be in the same room as Neville, and even though Neville is more directly responsible for Ben and Danny's deaths, it feels less...personal? Like, it's just Neville's job, whereas it's personal with Monroe. (There's also the fact Neville likely had little or no involvement in the things that happened to Rachel, whereas Monroe had her tortured for years, and if he didn't rape her, it's only because she seduced him to survive, IMO-and he almost certainly let Strausser rape her-and there itsn't much difference there.)
-At the same time, the "just a job" with Danny and Ben's death's, IMO, helps make Neville MORE interesting as a central antagonist to the Mathesons, esp. since I think this latest betrayal might make Jason finally able to break free, because the rampant obsession on Monroe's part is really a short term thing. Neville may be prone to fixation, but he's also a lot more capable of logic and planning and manipulation. He may be nasty, but when men turn to and stay loyal to him, it's going to make a LOT more sense than how Monroe managed to stay in power.
-related: so pissed both Monroe and Aaron survived. I would have rather kept Randall, who is at least somewhat interesting and played by an actor with more screen presence than the other two combined.
-Though, I am amused that the "secondary characters of revolution react to the power coming back on" was, uhm, all women. Because they've killed off every recurring male character.
-I almost think the writers were throwing up their hands in defeat with Monroe at the end there. Every episode made it more obvious that they have no idea what to do with him, and as aggravating as Miles and Monroe basically hugging things out at the end was, it felt like closure. If we're lucky, they'll have him recurring next season. (They aren't going to kill him, given that they expanded the role due to popularity, which sadly hasn't waned.) Also, as much as fandom likes to (wrongly, IMO) claim that Charlie and Miles display little or no interest in Jason and Nora, and the latter 2 are just chasing after them, people are really good at missing out on the fact that Miles/Monroe is about 90% Monroe obsessing over Miles, 8% Miles going "yeah, it kinda sucks that we're enemies, since we used to be such pals," and 2% Miles displaying anything but hate with the occasional bit of regret mixed in.
-They seriously need to get back to Charlie's POV being the main POV, and the plot centering around Charlie. Every episode they try to make Miles the main character makes it more obvious that they didn't intend him to be.
-general "WTF?" over the ending. They should have explored more of the world without power first.
I watched a little bit of the first episode of The White Queen, based on the Philippa Gregory novel, but didn't care for it. A pity, as I'd really been anticipating it. I also watched season 4 of Community. I didn't dislike it the way a lot seem to, though maybe that's because I"d heard that it was really bad, and so had lowered expectations? But while a lot of it felt off and sometimes characters felt like regressing (and they went even further with "Britta's a dumb blonde" than last season, which is saying something, and not something good), I'm pretty sure this is also the first time Troy and Shirley have had a plot for just the two of them, and there seemed to be more scenes of Annie, Britta and Shirley interacting than I remember there being in the second and third seasons.