It disturbs me how many of my shows are on the CW
I watched three shows last night, and they were all, to a greater or lesser degree, GUT-WRENCHING. For hours afterwards, and even still today, I'm humming Anything but Ordinary, specifically that bit that goes:
"somebody ripped my heart out
and left me here to bleed"
Yes, I am a 35-year-old who knows the lyrics to Avril Lavigne songs. WHAT OF IT?
My Gossip Girl thoughts are already over at surreallis's journal here, if anyone other than the two of us is interested. They basically boil down to: Chuck is awesome, Ed Westwick is magic, and Liz Hurley still can't act.
So. The other two.
Eureka 5.01
This was pretty much what I'd expected, to be honest. I'd mostly managed to steer clear of spoilers, although I had seen the promo. I knew there was going to be a time-jump and I knew that Jo and Carter were going to be a couple.
Because of those two things (and a couple of others) I also knew it was going to be some sort of group delusion/virtual reality scenario. I suppose there may have been some people watching who didn't see that coming, but it seemed fairly obviously telegraphed throughout the whole thing.
To be honest, it was fairly obviously telegraphed at the end of last season. I never had any doubt that it was Beverly who was behind the early launch, and that fact alone made it unlikely that they would just end up back in Eureka as if nothing had happened. I still believe she had some sort of trojan horse or something installed into Deputy Andy when she sent him for an "upgrade" while she was briefly in charge at GD, and that that caused him to set up the early launch. I will be mightily disappointed if I turn out to be wrong about that.
To start with, I was kind of annoyed by the particular version of reality they chose to portray, but I got over that once I (over-)thought about it. It bugged me at first that Zane would come back to find that Jo had moved on, and that Allison would come back to find that Jack had. Much as I hate Allison (and Jack/Allison) this seemed kind of needlessly cruel to both couples, who have already been through some fairly traumatic times. It seemed odd to me that Fargo/Holly and Henry/Grace managed to survive intact.
Then came my over-thinking.
I'm assuming that what we're seeing is a guided virtual reality, with certain things decided by Beverly's team, and it's in Beverly's interests to get the minds of the Astraeus crew working on whatever the hell it is she wants them working on, so she doesn't necessarily want them distracted by running off to shag one another every five minutes. The exception to this is Grace, who, as a neuro-biologist, is probably the most likely to notice that something isn't right with their perceptions of reality. It would suit Beverly just fine to have her distracted and not questioning her surroundings.
Obviously, splitting up Holly and Fargo would have been difficult anyway, since they were both on the mission, so she'd have to let that slide. In addition, they both spend most of their time fairly divorced from reality anyway, so the risk of their ever figuring out that something's off is pretty slim.
So, of the crew-members we saw/care about, that leaves Zane and Allison. It's already clear that Allison is going to want to focus on Jenna, and building a relationship with her, so my guessing is that Jenna is a physical manifestation of some problem that Beverly wants solved.
I'd thought at first that maybe Jo was the same for Zane, but I'm starting to doubt that now. I think it's unlikely that Beverly knew about the depth of Zane's feelings, especially since everyone else around him seemed to be oblivious, so I doubt she would realise what a big deal that was to him. There's also the fact that alt!Jo was the only character (at least, as far as I noticed) to question how easy it was to do things. So, and I may just be letting my little Jo/Zane-shipping heart guide me here, I think their relationship is going to be the key to getting them all the hell out of there.
So, stuff I liked:
Hart of Dixie 1.18
This was a pretty much fantastic episode, but at times OMG SO FREAKING HARD TO WATCH.
It was long past time for Lavon and Lemon's secret to come out, and I'm glad it did, and not entirely surprised about the way it did. That said, I want so much for Lemon and George to work things out, that I can hardly see straight. I'm right there with Lemon in denial-land. Cancel nothing honey, maybe you can figure it all out.
Of course, there's a part of my brain looking at me like Magnolia did at Lemon: OMG YOU'RE CRAZYCAKES-WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?
I will be laughing forever at Magnolia's idea of Lemon's perfect hen party. Sorry, I can't call it that thing USians say. Mostly because bachelorette is a stupid word and I hate it.
It was really good to see Annabeth again, and I loved her analysis of her relationship with Lemon. And not just because I see it as foreshadowing of what will happen with Lemon and George.
So, Wade and Zoë. Oof. That was BRUTAL, but I think it did need to be said. Wade's been feeling kind of bitter and resentful and not good enough for a while now, and although he was projecting a lot of his feelings about his brother and his father onto his relationship with Zoë, I think everything he said to her had a pretty strong basis in fact.
I also think that Zoë needed to hear it. She's known for ages that Wade has feelings for her, but has made no effort to stop hurting him with every single decision she makes. I love Zoë, but I don't think anything Wade said was out of line.
I'm sure I had other thoughts about HoD, but I've already typed more than I really should.
"somebody ripped my heart out
and left me here to bleed"
Yes, I am a 35-year-old who knows the lyrics to Avril Lavigne songs. WHAT OF IT?
My Gossip Girl thoughts are already over at surreallis's journal here, if anyone other than the two of us is interested. They basically boil down to: Chuck is awesome, Ed Westwick is magic, and Liz Hurley still can't act.
So. The other two.
Eureka 5.01
This was pretty much what I'd expected, to be honest. I'd mostly managed to steer clear of spoilers, although I had seen the promo. I knew there was going to be a time-jump and I knew that Jo and Carter were going to be a couple.
Because of those two things (and a couple of others) I also knew it was going to be some sort of group delusion/virtual reality scenario. I suppose there may have been some people watching who didn't see that coming, but it seemed fairly obviously telegraphed throughout the whole thing.
To be honest, it was fairly obviously telegraphed at the end of last season. I never had any doubt that it was Beverly who was behind the early launch, and that fact alone made it unlikely that they would just end up back in Eureka as if nothing had happened. I still believe she had some sort of trojan horse or something installed into Deputy Andy when she sent him for an "upgrade" while she was briefly in charge at GD, and that that caused him to set up the early launch. I will be mightily disappointed if I turn out to be wrong about that.
To start with, I was kind of annoyed by the particular version of reality they chose to portray, but I got over that once I (over-)thought about it. It bugged me at first that Zane would come back to find that Jo had moved on, and that Allison would come back to find that Jack had. Much as I hate Allison (and Jack/Allison) this seemed kind of needlessly cruel to both couples, who have already been through some fairly traumatic times. It seemed odd to me that Fargo/Holly and Henry/Grace managed to survive intact.
Then came my over-thinking.
I'm assuming that what we're seeing is a guided virtual reality, with certain things decided by Beverly's team, and it's in Beverly's interests to get the minds of the Astraeus crew working on whatever the hell it is she wants them working on, so she doesn't necessarily want them distracted by running off to shag one another every five minutes. The exception to this is Grace, who, as a neuro-biologist, is probably the most likely to notice that something isn't right with their perceptions of reality. It would suit Beverly just fine to have her distracted and not questioning her surroundings.
Obviously, splitting up Holly and Fargo would have been difficult anyway, since they were both on the mission, so she'd have to let that slide. In addition, they both spend most of their time fairly divorced from reality anyway, so the risk of their ever figuring out that something's off is pretty slim.
So, of the crew-members we saw/care about, that leaves Zane and Allison. It's already clear that Allison is going to want to focus on Jenna, and building a relationship with her, so my guessing is that Jenna is a physical manifestation of some problem that Beverly wants solved.
I'd thought at first that maybe Jo was the same for Zane, but I'm starting to doubt that now. I think it's unlikely that Beverly knew about the depth of Zane's feelings, especially since everyone else around him seemed to be oblivious, so I doubt she would realise what a big deal that was to him. There's also the fact that alt!Jo was the only character (at least, as far as I noticed) to question how easy it was to do things. So, and I may just be letting my little Jo/Zane-shipping heart guide me here, I think their relationship is going to be the key to getting them all the hell out of there.
So, stuff I liked:
- Zane being snarky. I always love that.
- Allison was about 100 times more likeable than usual for me. Note: still not very, but y'know...
- Parrish is back again. I love me some Wil Wheaton.
- That it really is a big ol' fake-out and I don't need to worry that Jo/Jack is going to be a thing.
- That it didn't strike anyone as odd that they managed to defeat the AIs by using information someone just happened to hand them.
- That they managed to defeat the AIs put in place by the Senate and DoD, AND NO ONE IN THE GOVERNMENT SEEMED TO CARE.
- That, from the looks of the sneak peek of next week, we're going to be focussed on the VR. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN REAL EUREKA.
- That "taking down the firewalls" meant crawling through a tunnel and pulling crystals out of a wall. WTF? It reminded me simultaneously of Stargate SG-1 (where there was a lot of crystal-pulling), and that episode of The IT Crowd where they hand Jen a box and tell her it's the internet.
Hart of Dixie 1.18
This was a pretty much fantastic episode, but at times OMG SO FREAKING HARD TO WATCH.
It was long past time for Lavon and Lemon's secret to come out, and I'm glad it did, and not entirely surprised about the way it did. That said, I want so much for Lemon and George to work things out, that I can hardly see straight. I'm right there with Lemon in denial-land. Cancel nothing honey, maybe you can figure it all out.
Of course, there's a part of my brain looking at me like Magnolia did at Lemon: OMG YOU'RE CRAZYCAKES-WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?
I will be laughing forever at Magnolia's idea of Lemon's perfect hen party. Sorry, I can't call it that thing USians say. Mostly because bachelorette is a stupid word and I hate it.
It was really good to see Annabeth again, and I loved her analysis of her relationship with Lemon. And not just because I see it as foreshadowing of what will happen with Lemon and George.
So, Wade and Zoë. Oof. That was BRUTAL, but I think it did need to be said. Wade's been feeling kind of bitter and resentful and not good enough for a while now, and although he was projecting a lot of his feelings about his brother and his father onto his relationship with Zoë, I think everything he said to her had a pretty strong basis in fact.
I also think that Zoë needed to hear it. She's known for ages that Wade has feelings for her, but has made no effort to stop hurting him with every single decision she makes. I love Zoë, but I don't think anything Wade said was out of line.
I'm sure I had other thoughts about HoD, but I've already typed more than I really should.