TeeVee
1. The Librarians is back and I hadn't even realized z return date had been set yet.
-The "why we broke up over the summer" bit was unfortunately expected, but quickly done away with and not done annoyingly.
-I'm glad that Flynn didn't magically become a team player over hiatus. He works best as the weird uncle who's always out adventuring but keeps popping by because he really wants to date your babysitter.
-Dare we hope that the things fandom thought might mean Cassie is bi are actually being followed up on this season? Though, they also played up Cassie/Jake more than before too. (not that I object to that.)
-The fictionals are interesting, but could go wrong. I'm already annoyed that, of the 3 fictionals, 2 are decently developed men who are going to play a large role, 1 is a sympathetic male who gets to stay in the real world, and the sole female is a scantily clad joke and the only one sent back to her book.
-I assumed it was Moriarty from the start, not Holmes, but still got a kick out of Flynn's fanboying.
-I really hope we don't get a Flynn/Baird/Moriarty triangle, but am completely ok with Moriarty crushing on Baird (Who wouldn't? Aside from Ezekiel, apparently.) and Baird using it to her advantage.
-Anyone else think Cassie has been using magic during her solo adventures?
-I'm assuming that the Librarian who has the staff is one of our librarians after a time travel trip.
2. Supergirl officially started! I watched the pilot when it leaked and it was mostly like I remembered it, though there were a few scenes I remembered being longer before.
-I was ready to give Clark the Worst Cousin Ever award when Kara had no idea that Kryptonite existed, but since Astra didn't know about it either, maybe Clark doesn't know either.
-The conversation between Kara and Jimmy about Krypton is the kind of conversation I want her to have with Clark if he ever shows up. Not Clark teaching her about superheroing (she's getting plenty of that) but Kara teaching him about Krypton.
-As much as I like Chyler Leigh as Alex, I really wish they'd cast a WoC in the role, particularly since Alex's presumed biological father is played by a POC actor.
-I recognized Henshaw's name as a DC villain before, but I was really hoping they were just soing the "familiar name" thing, since Winn has the same name as a DC supervillain but they apparently aren't making him a villain, but it looks like Henshaw will will be following his counterpart's villainous footsteps. Unfortunately.
-Speaking of which, I wonder what era of Max Lord they're going with here.
-I really loved the Kara/Alex and Kara/Cat mentoring/setting straight scenes.
-I thought they'd drag out Kara learning about Astra for a while longer, but I think I'm glad Kara knows about Astra this early in.
-I really don't understand why they think we'd be interested in Kara/Winn when we have Kara/Jimmy and Kara/Alex available for shipping.
-Given how incredibly pointed some of Cat's comments to Kara about Supergirl were, I really hope she knows or at least suspects who Supergirl really is. I know she was being the show's voice about inexperienced superheroing there, but some of what she said is much more suited to talking about the person you're talking to than talking to someone about another person. Though it could be chalked up to Cat seeming to see Kara as a younger version of herself. I guess we'll know next week.
-I really like how Kara crushes metal just by using her strength to move it. It always weird me out when people with superstrength don't break things when they can't be gentle with them.
-But when are Mama and Papa Danvers going to show up and demand explanations? Do they know about Alex's real job?
-Jay Jackson makes another appearance as a news anchor!
Despite its issues, I really really like it. And sure, it's pretty 101 when it comes to feminism, but let's face it, unlike the bulk of the people criticizing the show for the heavyhanded feminism (and ignoring the ones who are trying to cover for being afraid of girl cooties getting in their superhero shows) the vast majority of people who watch superhero shows and movies don't spend hours a week directly or indirectly consuming information on or discussing feminist theory and intersectionality. And even a lot of those have decently long passages that amount to "it has this thing which is actually a really good thing but I feel compelled to explain why it isn't, or should barely count."
3. Every new episode of Scream Queens makes me hope that i'll finally lose interest in the mystery and save myself from this garbage, but nope.
4. Mark Pellegrino playing Graham Norton's father in Quantico is very weird to me, since the only other thing I've seen either in is Revolution. (Where they both played much more endearing characters.
5. Sleepy Hollow continues to be better than last season, but not as good as season 1.
-Pandora really rocked that outfit this week. I don't really have an opinion on Pandora as a character yet, given the lack of development, but I'm really enjoying Shannyn Sossamon in the role.
-Was I the only one expecting Abby to go into the tree with Pandora? Hoping, even.
-There better be an out with where they're going with the Sheriff Corbin plot, because making him be bad is pretty much slapping Abby, Jenny and Joe in the face and then kicking them while they're down.
-Betsy Ross actually worked for me this week. I can't tell, though, if it's that the actress and writers got a handle on the character, or because it didn't revolve around trying to force chemistry with Ichabod and confuse the timeline. Probably some of both.
-GRACE DIXON. Can we just...start to have all the Revolutionary War flashbacks be about her journals? Please?
-Ichabod's romance with whatshername is less awkward and forced than the Betsy plot, but still not great. I really wish they hadn't killed off the RenFaire girl, because I remember liking her, though I also like the actress a lot in Bones.
-Dare I hope that Jenny is developing hereditary witch powers, and not just cursed? Probably not.
-I can't tell if Abby's boss really can't remember what happened, or is faking it. (BTW, that relationship? Also confusing in timeline terms, but not forced.)
6 I've started watching the supernatural fusion sageuk The Scholar Who Walks the Night (AKA, romance between vampire scholar and crossdressing bookseller) now that it's over. It's a bit cheesy (a lot of which, IMO, is the soundtrack. Hard not to compare it to Arang and the Magistrate's excellent soundtrack, as both are supernatural fusion sageuks starring Lee Joon Ki.), but good so far. My problem with it, though, is that the antagonist is SO BORING so far. Part of it is that the actor is...not good. At all. Like, he fails embarassingly at "dangerously evil but sexy" (It takes more than lighting and eyeliner to pull that off.) and I just cringe at all his scenes. I'm apparently meant to believe that he's so dangerous that Lee Joon Ki's vampire scholar hasn't been able to kill him in 120 years of trying. I can only conclude that, all evidence to the contrary, Our Hero is just amazingly incompetent. I mostly want him to quit boring up my screen so more time can be spent on the protagonists and Lee Joon Ki's sidekicks and even the angstmuffin prince. (Who I do like so far, but he has the potential to go very wrong for me.) Everyone else in the show ranges from competent to pretty good as far as acting goes, and then there's Cardboard Guyliner Vampire. The tumblr tag for the show is about 85% him, though, so I guess others felt differently.c
7. I'm watching season 3 of Grand Hotel (aka, the first telenovela I watched back before Hulu and Netflix started carrying any, though only the first season was available then.) and it's the last season. The first episode (well, Netflix's first episode, Netflix breaks the 70-90 minute episodes into 44 minutes, which gets awkward at times) was rather awful, but it got better after that, though it's not as good as the first two seasons were. Largely because Diego's villainy is is almost comical in how over the top and extreme it's become. I keep expecting him to try to twirl his mustache.
-The "why we broke up over the summer" bit was unfortunately expected, but quickly done away with and not done annoyingly.
-I'm glad that Flynn didn't magically become a team player over hiatus. He works best as the weird uncle who's always out adventuring but keeps popping by because he really wants to date your babysitter.
-Dare we hope that the things fandom thought might mean Cassie is bi are actually being followed up on this season? Though, they also played up Cassie/Jake more than before too. (not that I object to that.)
-The fictionals are interesting, but could go wrong. I'm already annoyed that, of the 3 fictionals, 2 are decently developed men who are going to play a large role, 1 is a sympathetic male who gets to stay in the real world, and the sole female is a scantily clad joke and the only one sent back to her book.
-I assumed it was Moriarty from the start, not Holmes, but still got a kick out of Flynn's fanboying.
-I really hope we don't get a Flynn/Baird/Moriarty triangle, but am completely ok with Moriarty crushing on Baird (Who wouldn't? Aside from Ezekiel, apparently.) and Baird using it to her advantage.
-Anyone else think Cassie has been using magic during her solo adventures?
-I'm assuming that the Librarian who has the staff is one of our librarians after a time travel trip.
2. Supergirl officially started! I watched the pilot when it leaked and it was mostly like I remembered it, though there were a few scenes I remembered being longer before.
-I was ready to give Clark the Worst Cousin Ever award when Kara had no idea that Kryptonite existed, but since Astra didn't know about it either, maybe Clark doesn't know either.
-The conversation between Kara and Jimmy about Krypton is the kind of conversation I want her to have with Clark if he ever shows up. Not Clark teaching her about superheroing (she's getting plenty of that) but Kara teaching him about Krypton.
-As much as I like Chyler Leigh as Alex, I really wish they'd cast a WoC in the role, particularly since Alex's presumed biological father is played by a POC actor.
-I recognized Henshaw's name as a DC villain before, but I was really hoping they were just soing the "familiar name" thing, since Winn has the same name as a DC supervillain but they apparently aren't making him a villain, but it looks like Henshaw will will be following his counterpart's villainous footsteps. Unfortunately.
-Speaking of which, I wonder what era of Max Lord they're going with here.
-I really loved the Kara/Alex and Kara/Cat mentoring/setting straight scenes.
-I thought they'd drag out Kara learning about Astra for a while longer, but I think I'm glad Kara knows about Astra this early in.
-I really don't understand why they think we'd be interested in Kara/Winn when we have Kara/Jimmy and Kara/Alex available for shipping.
-Given how incredibly pointed some of Cat's comments to Kara about Supergirl were, I really hope she knows or at least suspects who Supergirl really is. I know she was being the show's voice about inexperienced superheroing there, but some of what she said is much more suited to talking about the person you're talking to than talking to someone about another person. Though it could be chalked up to Cat seeming to see Kara as a younger version of herself. I guess we'll know next week.
-I really like how Kara crushes metal just by using her strength to move it. It always weird me out when people with superstrength don't break things when they can't be gentle with them.
-But when are Mama and Papa Danvers going to show up and demand explanations? Do they know about Alex's real job?
-Jay Jackson makes another appearance as a news anchor!
Despite its issues, I really really like it. And sure, it's pretty 101 when it comes to feminism, but let's face it, unlike the bulk of the people criticizing the show for the heavyhanded feminism (and ignoring the ones who are trying to cover for being afraid of girl cooties getting in their superhero shows) the vast majority of people who watch superhero shows and movies don't spend hours a week directly or indirectly consuming information on or discussing feminist theory and intersectionality. And even a lot of those have decently long passages that amount to "it has this thing which is actually a really good thing but I feel compelled to explain why it isn't, or should barely count."
3. Every new episode of Scream Queens makes me hope that i'll finally lose interest in the mystery and save myself from this garbage, but nope.
4. Mark Pellegrino playing Graham Norton's father in Quantico is very weird to me, since the only other thing I've seen either in is Revolution. (Where they both played much more endearing characters.
5. Sleepy Hollow continues to be better than last season, but not as good as season 1.
-Pandora really rocked that outfit this week. I don't really have an opinion on Pandora as a character yet, given the lack of development, but I'm really enjoying Shannyn Sossamon in the role.
-Was I the only one expecting Abby to go into the tree with Pandora? Hoping, even.
-There better be an out with where they're going with the Sheriff Corbin plot, because making him be bad is pretty much slapping Abby, Jenny and Joe in the face and then kicking them while they're down.
-Betsy Ross actually worked for me this week. I can't tell, though, if it's that the actress and writers got a handle on the character, or because it didn't revolve around trying to force chemistry with Ichabod and confuse the timeline. Probably some of both.
-GRACE DIXON. Can we just...start to have all the Revolutionary War flashbacks be about her journals? Please?
-Ichabod's romance with whatshername is less awkward and forced than the Betsy plot, but still not great. I really wish they hadn't killed off the RenFaire girl, because I remember liking her, though I also like the actress a lot in Bones.
-Dare I hope that Jenny is developing hereditary witch powers, and not just cursed? Probably not.
-I can't tell if Abby's boss really can't remember what happened, or is faking it. (BTW, that relationship? Also confusing in timeline terms, but not forced.)
6 I've started watching the supernatural fusion sageuk The Scholar Who Walks the Night (AKA, romance between vampire scholar and crossdressing bookseller) now that it's over. It's a bit cheesy (a lot of which, IMO, is the soundtrack. Hard not to compare it to Arang and the Magistrate's excellent soundtrack, as both are supernatural fusion sageuks starring Lee Joon Ki.), but good so far. My problem with it, though, is that the antagonist is SO BORING so far. Part of it is that the actor is...not good. At all. Like, he fails embarassingly at "dangerously evil but sexy" (It takes more than lighting and eyeliner to pull that off.) and I just cringe at all his scenes. I'm apparently meant to believe that he's so dangerous that Lee Joon Ki's vampire scholar hasn't been able to kill him in 120 years of trying. I can only conclude that, all evidence to the contrary, Our Hero is just amazingly incompetent. I mostly want him to quit boring up my screen so more time can be spent on the protagonists and Lee Joon Ki's sidekicks and even the angstmuffin prince. (Who I do like so far, but he has the potential to go very wrong for me.) Everyone else in the show ranges from competent to pretty good as far as acting goes, and then there's Cardboard Guyliner Vampire. The tumblr tag for the show is about 85% him, though, so I guess others felt differently.c
7. I'm watching season 3 of Grand Hotel (aka, the first telenovela I watched back before Hulu and Netflix started carrying any, though only the first season was available then.) and it's the last season. The first episode (well, Netflix's first episode, Netflix breaks the 70-90 minute episodes into 44 minutes, which gets awkward at times) was rather awful, but it got better after that, though it's not as good as the first two seasons were. Largely because Diego's villainy is is almost comical in how over the top and extreme it's become. I keep expecting him to try to twirl his mustache.