TeeVee
The third episode of Blindspot was pretty "meh," and agent whatshisface's dialogue was awful. I'm giving it another episode or two, but I lost a lot of my energy for the show this week. OTOH, I really enjoyed the new Minority Report, and am sad that it's apparently doing terrible in the ratings.
This week's Empire was, IMO, a lot better than the first two episodes of the season.
iZombie's season premeire did not impress me much. The Brain of the Week seemed to just be an excuse to make a lot of racist jokes and avoid and consequences or the need to address it because we know "the real Liv" would never say those things. I'm also not really a fan of Major, and it looks like the progression that led to his plotline overpowering everyone else's in the later part of last season is going to be even more prominent this season. Madam Secretary, OTOH, had a very strong premeire.
There was a lot of theorizing last season that Bess would eventually run for president or vice president, and I think the show knew it had to go there one way or another. I actually really like how they handled it. Bess has consistently not really wanted to be any more involved in politics than she has to be to do her job, so there was no way they could have her actively seek more power without her being forced to unless they changed her character radically. (This is completely different from Political Animals ending with the implication that Elaine is going to run for president again because she has to because the other options are awful. The subtext involved in a woman who has never been interested in political power seeking it out of necessity is completely different from the subtext of a woman who previously sought political power only being allowed to seek it again because she has to.) Bess's discomfort with the oval office was wonderful. THE DESK. IT MIGHT BITE ME. WAIT, HOW WILL I SURVIVE WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO LEAN AGAINST A DESK?
Stevie...continues to make questionable romantic choices. Bess's staff remains great. Russell appears to have suffered from a strange case of character growth regression.
Sleepy Hollow was largely enjoyable, but the Betsy Ross scenes made me cringe. It's like they took the problems with Katrina and amplified them, but with a less talented actress. Katrina, IMO, was a character with the potential to be good played by an actress who was good enough that she could have made a well written character great, but wasn't quite good enough to salvage such an inconsistently written character. She was also very much a modern woman in (fake) period clothing, which is, of course, not inherently bad, but so far, Betsy Ross is almost a caricature of the "gutsy period heroine with modern sensibilities" type. (Granted, we haven't really learned much about her opinions or life yet, but the dialogue and approach are definitely there.) I'm crossing my fingers that they'll get better with her, but the show doesn't really have a good record with women who aren't Abbie and Jenny. (I mean, I liked Reyes a lot, but she wasn't always handled well. Macey and Cynthia they did a good job with, but forgot all about them for most of season 2.) I do enjoy Pandora, but mostly for Shannyn Sossamon.
That said...
Abbie found her father! Which I am mostly interested in because I want to know why he left.
I'm not sure the Jenny/Joe Corbin subplot served much of a purpose beyond bringing Joe back into the show, but I liked it.
Ichabod cleaning the house was great, the demon of the week was kind of bland.
Ok, so, it's been a year since season 2 and Reynolds has apparently never been to Sleepy Hollow before, so how were they in the academy together and he's already a regional director? I mean, Abbie's only been out of the academy a few months. Are they saying Abbie went to Quantico years before, then came back to Sleepy Hollow and joined the police? I mean, I guess that's plausible if she had to drop out for some reason (Jenny related, maybe?) but I think it's just bad chronology.
Also, when, exactly, is all this Betsy Ross stuff happening in the past? When Ichabod first mentioned her, it seemed to be a brief, pre-Katrina relationship. But now it's apparently an extended thing? And it's taking place when Ichabod is already trusted by Washington, so it isn't right after he and Katrina first met, but more likely taking place when we were told he was pining for Katrina while she was engaged to his best friend. Which is rather awkward.
How to Get Away With Murder is actually stressing me out a bit. I'm so worried about everyone! Also, in the flashforwards, I'm pretty sure Annelise told them to do it, but we'll see. Friendship things in the present still fill me with delight, though. Also, nice to see that my assumption about the murder siblings was right, and Sherri Saum was a nice treat.
This week's Empire was, IMO, a lot better than the first two episodes of the season.
iZombie's season premeire did not impress me much. The Brain of the Week seemed to just be an excuse to make a lot of racist jokes and avoid and consequences or the need to address it because we know "the real Liv" would never say those things. I'm also not really a fan of Major, and it looks like the progression that led to his plotline overpowering everyone else's in the later part of last season is going to be even more prominent this season. Madam Secretary, OTOH, had a very strong premeire.
There was a lot of theorizing last season that Bess would eventually run for president or vice president, and I think the show knew it had to go there one way or another. I actually really like how they handled it. Bess has consistently not really wanted to be any more involved in politics than she has to be to do her job, so there was no way they could have her actively seek more power without her being forced to unless they changed her character radically. (This is completely different from Political Animals ending with the implication that Elaine is going to run for president again because she has to because the other options are awful. The subtext involved in a woman who has never been interested in political power seeking it out of necessity is completely different from the subtext of a woman who previously sought political power only being allowed to seek it again because she has to.) Bess's discomfort with the oval office was wonderful. THE DESK. IT MIGHT BITE ME. WAIT, HOW WILL I SURVIVE WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO LEAN AGAINST A DESK?
Stevie...continues to make questionable romantic choices. Bess's staff remains great. Russell appears to have suffered from a strange case of character growth regression.
Sleepy Hollow was largely enjoyable, but the Betsy Ross scenes made me cringe. It's like they took the problems with Katrina and amplified them, but with a less talented actress. Katrina, IMO, was a character with the potential to be good played by an actress who was good enough that she could have made a well written character great, but wasn't quite good enough to salvage such an inconsistently written character. She was also very much a modern woman in (fake) period clothing, which is, of course, not inherently bad, but so far, Betsy Ross is almost a caricature of the "gutsy period heroine with modern sensibilities" type. (Granted, we haven't really learned much about her opinions or life yet, but the dialogue and approach are definitely there.) I'm crossing my fingers that they'll get better with her, but the show doesn't really have a good record with women who aren't Abbie and Jenny. (I mean, I liked Reyes a lot, but she wasn't always handled well. Macey and Cynthia they did a good job with, but forgot all about them for most of season 2.) I do enjoy Pandora, but mostly for Shannyn Sossamon.
That said...
Abbie found her father! Which I am mostly interested in because I want to know why he left.
I'm not sure the Jenny/Joe Corbin subplot served much of a purpose beyond bringing Joe back into the show, but I liked it.
Ichabod cleaning the house was great, the demon of the week was kind of bland.
Ok, so, it's been a year since season 2 and Reynolds has apparently never been to Sleepy Hollow before, so how were they in the academy together and he's already a regional director? I mean, Abbie's only been out of the academy a few months. Are they saying Abbie went to Quantico years before, then came back to Sleepy Hollow and joined the police? I mean, I guess that's plausible if she had to drop out for some reason (Jenny related, maybe?) but I think it's just bad chronology.
Also, when, exactly, is all this Betsy Ross stuff happening in the past? When Ichabod first mentioned her, it seemed to be a brief, pre-Katrina relationship. But now it's apparently an extended thing? And it's taking place when Ichabod is already trusted by Washington, so it isn't right after he and Katrina first met, but more likely taking place when we were told he was pining for Katrina while she was engaged to his best friend. Which is rather awkward.
How to Get Away With Murder is actually stressing me out a bit. I'm so worried about everyone! Also, in the flashforwards, I'm pretty sure Annelise told them to do it, but we'll see. Friendship things in the present still fill me with delight, though. Also, nice to see that my assumption about the murder siblings was right, and Sherri Saum was a nice treat.