finales and such
It's season finale week, so a few quick thoughts on Castle and V (which suddenly got quite good, yay!).
The Castle season finale was worth the price of admission for Mitch Pileggi's character realizing he'd been thrown in real jail and not fake jail!
But that's not what people are remembering about this one, is it... ;)
I thought the ending was just right in the sense that it was heavy on the characterization and I don't think it necessarily spells "reset button." Yes, it sets us up for further delay in getting Castle and Beckett together, but I don't think this is going to keep getting endlessly deferred, a la Bones. There has been active and consistent growth and development with this relationship, and I have no reason to expect that won't continue. By the time we see her again, Kate is going to be guarded about her feelings once more, I'm sure, but there's a change: she's admitted those feelings to herself, and that changes the game. I think I will go ahead and call Castle/Beckett getting together sometime in season 3 and then the show continuing to explore what, exactly, that means for its continuing seasons (assuming it has them). Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, I think that will signal a change of direction on the part of the writers.
I can't remember what it was--an episode or perhaps a fic--that made me realize, not too long ago, that one of Beckett's important personality traits is introversion: she needs her space, her quiet time to recharge and formulate her thoughts, her independence. And of course it's pretty obvious that Castle's an extrovert, but the extent of his extroversion hit home for me in this episode. He can't even contemplate the idea of spending a weekend alone at the beach, much less the whole summer. Alexis is going away, Martha is going away, Kate turns down his offer to come, so he starts casting around for someone else and ends up with Gina. And one of the most interesting aspects of this episode and its conclusion is how much the predicament that they find themselves in at the end is the result of their respective personalities: Kate's reticence and guardedness causes her not to play her hand in time, and Castle's irrepressible need to have people around him causes him not to be patient quite long enough. Neither is to blame--this is who they are, and they had no reason to expect what the other would do--but it does indicate that watching them continue to negotiate this relationship, even after they've stopped getting wires crossed and have decided to give it a go, will be interesting. And oh so refreshingly adult.
**
And V! Suddenly I'm actively excited that there will be a season 2 because with a couple of glaring exceptions, that was well-played.
I'll go ahead and address the bad: the blatant fridging of Val was VERY UNCOOL, show. In a lot of ways, this show has done quite well on the female character front: arguably the two, and perhaps three, characters with the most agency are women. Nevertheless, they dropped the ball with Val in a really problematic way (and all the more so since she is--or was--the only woman of color on the show). I was very angry with Ryan for making decisions about Val and her pregnancy without her knowledge or consent. A woman's reproductive choices are HER OWN, dammit! That plot point was saved, at least somewhat, when Val found out and told him to get the hell away from her. If she'd just forgiven him at that point, that might have been a dealbreaker with the show for me. But then she's offscreen for several eps, only to reappear, forgive Ryan, give birth, and die. DO I REALLY NEED TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH THIS??????
Despite the fact that everything else seems to be improving, I'm keeping the show on notice for that.
In better news, the two primary problems that have been plaguing the show all along--wooden, boring characters and lack of moral gray areas--seem to be improving, at least somewhat. Empathy and emotions, it turns out, do not automatically lead to Vs siding with humans: there is a choice to be made. I wish we'd seen Lisa struggling a bit more with that choice, though presumably there's more time for that. And Ryan looks like he'll have more room for ambiguity next season, as does Anna herself. Anna now opens up the possibility for a V to be emotional and thoroughly a Bad Guy, which, while perhaps not as nuanced as I'd like, is still an improvement on the moral ambiguity front. Meanwhile, Hobbes may be a compelling look at the other side: a human who has all the information and still betrays humanity. Unfortunately, there was the implication that Marcus is blackmailing him by threatening someone he loves ("her"--Hobbes's daughter? lover? sister? I imagine we'll find out), which would make his motivation FAR less interesting than if he really did just sell himself to a higher bidder.
So more potential for moral ambiguity, even though the show has a long way to go yet on that front, and also more potential for interesting character developments. Several characters underwent pretty dramatic shifts in orientation in this ep: Ryan may be back with the Vs, Chad looks like he's flipped to Fifth Column (with undercover agent potential), Lisa has sided with the Fifth Column and will (I would imagine?) eventually be the figure most likely to overthrow and replace Anna, and Hobbes may turn undercover agent in the other direction. Most of these changes are still more about what these characters do than about who they are, but they do represent development and change and provide possible hooks for caring about them.
Some more random thoughts:
* Lisa and Joshua have about five billion times more chemistry than Lisa and Tyler.
* Actually, can Anna just go ahead and eat Tyler? It was blatantly obvious during the dinner scene how out of his league he is with all three of those women.
* Can Erica and Lisa run the world, eventually? I would so watch that show. (I'm impressed, incidentally, with how sympathetic Lisa has become now that she's acquired characterization. She's swiftly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I would NEVER have expected that at the beginning. Quite loved her tiny smirk when Anna lost her shit at the end.)
* I wish I knew more about Catholic hierarchy and governing practices (although if I did, I would know whether the show knows anything about it, and I suspect I might be disappointed on that front). It's been clear all along that Jack is subordinate to Father V Fan. But to what extent is it really Father V Fan's church? Presumably he's the rector (or whatever the equivalent is in Catholicism--head priest), but he wouldn't have the power directly to get rid of his associate/curate (or equivalent? again, I don't know the Catholic terminology)/whatever Jack is on his own. Jack would have been appointed to that position by the diocese, and if Father V Fan wants to get rid of him, he'd have to go to the diocese, which would then have to find someplace else to put Jack. I'll be curious to see how they play this storyline. I suppose they could quickly dispense with the plot either by having all of Jack's superiors so overrun with V fans that he really might be forced to resign (though this would be a significant break from the reality of an organization that is so committed to protecting its own that it has produced the current pedophile priest scandal), or by quickly having it blow over or moving Jack elsewhere. But I'd really like to see it play out in a nicely complicated way that lets us explore Jack's faith a bit.
* This has been bugging me since the beginning: where does Erica live? If that house is supposed to be in NYC proper, it's in outer Queens. More likely a house like that is in Nassau County (Long Island), Jersey, or Westchester. I buy that Erica might live in any of those places and commute in to work, but it makes very little sense that Tyler is in and out of the city so much, as a teenager, if he lives in one of those places. Not many 17-year-old bridge-and-tunnel kids are in and out of the city on a practically daily basis. Nor, in fact, are 17-year-old residents of outer Queens. (Also, isn't Tyler in school? How is he supposed to join the Live Aboard program and continue to go to high school in Scarsdale (or wherever) every day? Surely the school system doesn't give allowances for this sort of thing. This whole thing would make so much more sense if Tyler didn't exist were older--though I suppose then there would be less cause for Erica to angst about him?) How much more difficult would it have been for Erica and Tyler to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn or Long Island City or Astoria or something???
**
And yesterday and today in the TV Meme:
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
This one's a bit difficult! For theme songs I think it's hard to beat the various Star Treks, and I especially like the minimalism of the DS9 and Voyager visuals combined with two quite awesome scores. I like the Voyager song just a wee bit better, so that's my runner-up in this category:
Yes, runner-up. Because while the Voyager theme may be my favorite opening credits song, for the entire sequence I have to go with the season 3 Farscape credits. It captures the stunning visuals of the show, the voiceover is better than in the first two seasons (and "nightmares" vs. "wonders" nicely sums up so much of what the show is about), and the shift in the music and color palate with "wonders I've seen" (at the introduction of Gigi Edgley) gives me chills pretty much every time. Plus, I admit I'm rather fond of the manic wailing chipmunks of the Farscape theme!
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
A show where every character is so perfectly cast and every actor so very, very good? Easy: The West Wing
The Castle season finale was worth the price of admission for Mitch Pileggi's character realizing he'd been thrown in real jail and not fake jail!
But that's not what people are remembering about this one, is it... ;)
I thought the ending was just right in the sense that it was heavy on the characterization and I don't think it necessarily spells "reset button." Yes, it sets us up for further delay in getting Castle and Beckett together, but I don't think this is going to keep getting endlessly deferred, a la Bones. There has been active and consistent growth and development with this relationship, and I have no reason to expect that won't continue. By the time we see her again, Kate is going to be guarded about her feelings once more, I'm sure, but there's a change: she's admitted those feelings to herself, and that changes the game. I think I will go ahead and call Castle/Beckett getting together sometime in season 3 and then the show continuing to explore what, exactly, that means for its continuing seasons (assuming it has them). Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, I think that will signal a change of direction on the part of the writers.
I can't remember what it was--an episode or perhaps a fic--that made me realize, not too long ago, that one of Beckett's important personality traits is introversion: she needs her space, her quiet time to recharge and formulate her thoughts, her independence. And of course it's pretty obvious that Castle's an extrovert, but the extent of his extroversion hit home for me in this episode. He can't even contemplate the idea of spending a weekend alone at the beach, much less the whole summer. Alexis is going away, Martha is going away, Kate turns down his offer to come, so he starts casting around for someone else and ends up with Gina. And one of the most interesting aspects of this episode and its conclusion is how much the predicament that they find themselves in at the end is the result of their respective personalities: Kate's reticence and guardedness causes her not to play her hand in time, and Castle's irrepressible need to have people around him causes him not to be patient quite long enough. Neither is to blame--this is who they are, and they had no reason to expect what the other would do--but it does indicate that watching them continue to negotiate this relationship, even after they've stopped getting wires crossed and have decided to give it a go, will be interesting. And oh so refreshingly adult.
**
And V! Suddenly I'm actively excited that there will be a season 2 because with a couple of glaring exceptions, that was well-played.
I'll go ahead and address the bad: the blatant fridging of Val was VERY UNCOOL, show. In a lot of ways, this show has done quite well on the female character front: arguably the two, and perhaps three, characters with the most agency are women. Nevertheless, they dropped the ball with Val in a really problematic way (and all the more so since she is--or was--the only woman of color on the show). I was very angry with Ryan for making decisions about Val and her pregnancy without her knowledge or consent. A woman's reproductive choices are HER OWN, dammit! That plot point was saved, at least somewhat, when Val found out and told him to get the hell away from her. If she'd just forgiven him at that point, that might have been a dealbreaker with the show for me. But then she's offscreen for several eps, only to reappear, forgive Ryan, give birth, and die. DO I REALLY NEED TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH THIS??????
Despite the fact that everything else seems to be improving, I'm keeping the show on notice for that.
In better news, the two primary problems that have been plaguing the show all along--wooden, boring characters and lack of moral gray areas--seem to be improving, at least somewhat. Empathy and emotions, it turns out, do not automatically lead to Vs siding with humans: there is a choice to be made. I wish we'd seen Lisa struggling a bit more with that choice, though presumably there's more time for that. And Ryan looks like he'll have more room for ambiguity next season, as does Anna herself. Anna now opens up the possibility for a V to be emotional and thoroughly a Bad Guy, which, while perhaps not as nuanced as I'd like, is still an improvement on the moral ambiguity front. Meanwhile, Hobbes may be a compelling look at the other side: a human who has all the information and still betrays humanity. Unfortunately, there was the implication that Marcus is blackmailing him by threatening someone he loves ("her"--Hobbes's daughter? lover? sister? I imagine we'll find out), which would make his motivation FAR less interesting than if he really did just sell himself to a higher bidder.
So more potential for moral ambiguity, even though the show has a long way to go yet on that front, and also more potential for interesting character developments. Several characters underwent pretty dramatic shifts in orientation in this ep: Ryan may be back with the Vs, Chad looks like he's flipped to Fifth Column (with undercover agent potential), Lisa has sided with the Fifth Column and will (I would imagine?) eventually be the figure most likely to overthrow and replace Anna, and Hobbes may turn undercover agent in the other direction. Most of these changes are still more about what these characters do than about who they are, but they do represent development and change and provide possible hooks for caring about them.
Some more random thoughts:
* Lisa and Joshua have about five billion times more chemistry than Lisa and Tyler.
* Actually, can Anna just go ahead and eat Tyler? It was blatantly obvious during the dinner scene how out of his league he is with all three of those women.
* Can Erica and Lisa run the world, eventually? I would so watch that show. (I'm impressed, incidentally, with how sympathetic Lisa has become now that she's acquired characterization. She's swiftly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I would NEVER have expected that at the beginning. Quite loved her tiny smirk when Anna lost her shit at the end.)
* I wish I knew more about Catholic hierarchy and governing practices (although if I did, I would know whether the show knows anything about it, and I suspect I might be disappointed on that front). It's been clear all along that Jack is subordinate to Father V Fan. But to what extent is it really Father V Fan's church? Presumably he's the rector (or whatever the equivalent is in Catholicism--head priest), but he wouldn't have the power directly to get rid of his associate/curate (or equivalent? again, I don't know the Catholic terminology)/whatever Jack is on his own. Jack would have been appointed to that position by the diocese, and if Father V Fan wants to get rid of him, he'd have to go to the diocese, which would then have to find someplace else to put Jack. I'll be curious to see how they play this storyline. I suppose they could quickly dispense with the plot either by having all of Jack's superiors so overrun with V fans that he really might be forced to resign (though this would be a significant break from the reality of an organization that is so committed to protecting its own that it has produced the current pedophile priest scandal), or by quickly having it blow over or moving Jack elsewhere. But I'd really like to see it play out in a nicely complicated way that lets us explore Jack's faith a bit.
* This has been bugging me since the beginning: where does Erica live? If that house is supposed to be in NYC proper, it's in outer Queens. More likely a house like that is in Nassau County (Long Island), Jersey, or Westchester. I buy that Erica might live in any of those places and commute in to work, but it makes very little sense that Tyler is in and out of the city so much, as a teenager, if he lives in one of those places. Not many 17-year-old bridge-and-tunnel kids are in and out of the city on a practically daily basis. Nor, in fact, are 17-year-old residents of outer Queens. (Also, isn't Tyler in school? How is he supposed to join the Live Aboard program and continue to go to high school in Scarsdale (or wherever) every day? Surely the school system doesn't give allowances for this sort of thing. This whole thing would make so much more sense if Tyler didn't exist were older--though I suppose then there would be less cause for Erica to angst about him?) How much more difficult would it have been for Erica and Tyler to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn or Long Island City or Astoria or something???
**
And yesterday and today in the TV Meme:
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
This one's a bit difficult! For theme songs I think it's hard to beat the various Star Treks, and I especially like the minimalism of the DS9 and Voyager visuals combined with two quite awesome scores. I like the Voyager song just a wee bit better, so that's my runner-up in this category:
Click to viewYes, runner-up. Because while the Voyager theme may be my favorite opening credits song, for the entire sequence I have to go with the season 3 Farscape credits. It captures the stunning visuals of the show, the voiceover is better than in the first two seasons (and "nightmares" vs. "wonders" nicely sums up so much of what the show is about), and the shift in the music and color palate with "wonders I've seen" (at the introduction of Gigi Edgley) gives me chills pretty much every time. Plus, I admit I'm rather fond of the manic wailing chipmunks of the Farscape theme!
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
A show where every character is so perfectly cast and every actor so very, very good? Easy: The West Wing