assorted ~feelings.
This is me BEING THE CHANGE instead of whining that LJ is dead today.
I watched the first seven episodes of Farscape over the holiday and kept thinking I would react when I finished the first season. And now three weeks later I have....watched the first seven episodes of Farscape and I'm a little stuck with it.
I think the main strike against it for me is that it's such a visual show. I like to play solitaire or read or write even while I'm watching something for the first time (wait, who has attention span issues?) so I end up taking forever to get through an episode and don't know how long it'll take me to latch in. Right now, it doesn't seem to be saying anything big to me, or have any grand-scheme arcs. It's just solid Muppety fun. But it is a lot of fun! I'm always surprised when I can come to expect a show to have a sense of humor about itself, but Farscape pretty consistently does.
not your father's hero
JOHN CRICHTON, YOU GUYS. I love it when shows let me love the main character. He seems....relatively angst-free, really? I was all pre-emptively bristling at what I figured were going to be his Daddy Issues, which I um, may or may not have a slight thing for when they work? but mediocre cases are a dime a dozen and fraught with ugly masculinity issues so I tend to approach with trepidation. But that at least looked at first like a relatively normal, healthy relationship. And then he inaugurates human-alien contact with "uhhhh...hi?" and promptly gets his ass handed to him, thus revealing himself to be a bro.
So, this is going to sound way more intense than I know it is, but it's really bugging me. THIS WAS REALLY DISTURBING TO WRITE AND IT MIGHT BE DISTURBING TO READ. OKAY. John gets...violated a lot, doesn't he? I don't really have another word for it. The linguistic chip they shot in him in the first episode. Fine, it'd be a worse violation to cart him around if he couldn't communicate, but I felt like his fear of it was played for laughs. The toothbrush-scorpion in the second. The green ray that gets into his head in the third episode, leading to the sexual assault/stabby (penetrative) death visions. Knocked cold and kidnapped into Aeryn's suicide mission against his express wishes in the fourth. Felt up twice in the first scene of the sixth episode, and then the worm shoved into him. Arguably the stun gun in the seventh episode, which in isolation would be unpleasant but not necessarily gross, but as it is, he's being rendered physically and mentally without agency by a big phallic weapon, AGAIN.
Tellingly, the one episode it hasn't happened in so far was the one where he showed his relative manliness by way of a traditional girl-of-the-week storyline. Which, I'm not trying to say THIS SHOW IS THE BIGGEST GENDER FAIL EVER, nor if it was would that necessarily stop me from getting attached (see: my love of AtS, which I acknowledge pretty much is), but Christ. Is this what really needs to happen, constantly, to tell us that he's not some macho alpha male douchebag? It's like he's getting punished for everything that makes me really like him.
All of which is deeply irresponsible, for sure, but also, I think it's hurting my enjoyment of the show as a whole even more than it would, because my emotional investment so far starts and ends with John. It's just that bitchy asides are the key to my soul. "You mock me." "Dargo, I mock all of us." BRO.
weird, amazing, psychotic life
I think my favorite right now is Zhaan. She's from a radical planet! And does not as a construct conflate all religions with modern American right-wing Christianity! And is in her own right a "leading anarchist" which is kind of like being the CEO of Communism, Inc. which is totally a thing IIIIIIIIIIIIIN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!! (WHY IS THAT STILL FUNNY HOW OLD AM I). And of course I was worried that it would fall into the BSG trap of assuming that gender equality means some bizarro-world where women have to out-butch men just to be accepted, but she seems to be a femmy kind of lady.
I am completely enjoying the arrogant little green guy. He Improves Everything. He could be dropped into L&O:LA and get me to watch it. Well, probably not, but I'd approve. I completely lack feelings about Dargo and Pilot but they get some good lines in, too. I do like the Moya concept, of an environment that changes with its occupants and defines and protects its inhabitants. But none of that feels dynamic to me yet, you know? It's just a conceptually interesting setup.
she's so sweet with her get-back stare
I love Aeryn a lot, obviously, but I'm worried that the uniqueness of a woman who really does not grok the concept of tact will turn into having her be mean or harsh for the hell of it and assuming that's entertainment, because oooh, look, a monkey in a party hat! or whatever. And that's what I'm afraid is happening with Aeryn. I like that she's tough and blunt as hell, but I think "I don't know this concept, compassion" goes a little too far into shock value territory. That said, I do really love that she isn't being explained with damage or anything? John is all "don't you have feelings" and she's just like I FEEL YOUR FACE IS MILDLY AMUSING AND YET ODDLY ENDEARING. (She has that solemn, Illyria-like ALL-CAPS INTONATION.)
so are you gonna be my girl?
I'm already spoiled and know Aeryn/John is a thing. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm torn because I really do love their dynamic. But I really don't like process of elimination shipping, and I feel like that's what's happening here, where everyone else is presumptively disqualified on account of being funny-looking and so clearly they are The Couple? I'd think that was my own set of assumptions coming into play, except as soon as someone who does look human shows up, she hits it off with John immediately and it leads to Big Feelings Confessions (well, by Aeryn's OKAY AND MY standards, anyway) and then they're forced apart by circumstance. Possibly I am revealing the depths of my hopeless romanticism, but I much prefer ships where the story at least humors the possibility that they might actually choose to be together? I KNOW, I ASK A LOT. So I'm disposed to be negative on that level, but then they're SUPER-HOT together, and then I get irritated at the discordance. I'll probably just be contrary and resent them until they make with the ill-advised boning and then be powerless to resist.
Alternatively! LOL this was probably not intended, but that scene in I, ET where Aeryn is carrying Zhaan around so she can have her transcendent masochistic experience: strangely hot? THE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMATIC MEDIA: LADYSHIPPING. Kidding! sort of.
SO ANYWAY, hivemind, I am decidedly ambivalent. tell me things:
Also, I watched the first few episodes of Alcatraz. Who else is watching?
I really think I'm going to like it! I didn't write anything out as I was watching, so i have v little to say, since it seems I really am incapable of absorbing information without taking notes of some kind. I am feeling so vindicated about my entire academic career right about now. But! Dr. Adorkable Criminologist makes me smile, I like Becky a lot, and I'm intrigued by Scary Guard Dude. I think the setup is extremely promising - you know right away that some weird shit is going down and everyone involved accepts that, it sets up a varied but reliably threatening crew of adversaries which all tie back to the main mystery, and doesn't need to rely on a man-behind-the-curtain shock value reveal. The voiceover makes it feel more like a fairy tale than anything else - "that's not what happened. Not at all." I haven't seen LOST yet - I know, I know - so I don't have a point of comparison for Abrams' work. (Though if anyone has tips for how to get past the mind-sucking tedium of the first few episodes, please do share, because I know I'm missing out, even if only on quality time with Ian's Crazy Eyes.)
I did try an episode of Person of Interest but I lost count of the deranged paranoid Ron Paulian (THREE WORDS THAT ALL MEAN THE SAME THING!) notes it hits in the opening monologue alone and so the overall effect of the show was not all I was hoping for.
I watched the first seven episodes of Farscape over the holiday and kept thinking I would react when I finished the first season. And now three weeks later I have....watched the first seven episodes of Farscape and I'm a little stuck with it.
I think the main strike against it for me is that it's such a visual show. I like to play solitaire or read or write even while I'm watching something for the first time (wait, who has attention span issues?) so I end up taking forever to get through an episode and don't know how long it'll take me to latch in. Right now, it doesn't seem to be saying anything big to me, or have any grand-scheme arcs. It's just solid Muppety fun. But it is a lot of fun! I'm always surprised when I can come to expect a show to have a sense of humor about itself, but Farscape pretty consistently does.
not your father's hero
JOHN CRICHTON, YOU GUYS. I love it when shows let me love the main character. He seems....relatively angst-free, really? I was all pre-emptively bristling at what I figured were going to be his Daddy Issues, which I um, may or may not have a slight thing for when they work? but mediocre cases are a dime a dozen and fraught with ugly masculinity issues so I tend to approach with trepidation. But that at least looked at first like a relatively normal, healthy relationship. And then he inaugurates human-alien contact with "uhhhh...hi?" and promptly gets his ass handed to him, thus revealing himself to be a bro.
So, this is going to sound way more intense than I know it is, but it's really bugging me. THIS WAS REALLY DISTURBING TO WRITE AND IT MIGHT BE DISTURBING TO READ. OKAY. John gets...violated a lot, doesn't he? I don't really have another word for it. The linguistic chip they shot in him in the first episode. Fine, it'd be a worse violation to cart him around if he couldn't communicate, but I felt like his fear of it was played for laughs. The toothbrush-scorpion in the second. The green ray that gets into his head in the third episode, leading to the sexual assault/stabby (penetrative) death visions. Knocked cold and kidnapped into Aeryn's suicide mission against his express wishes in the fourth. Felt up twice in the first scene of the sixth episode, and then the worm shoved into him. Arguably the stun gun in the seventh episode, which in isolation would be unpleasant but not necessarily gross, but as it is, he's being rendered physically and mentally without agency by a big phallic weapon, AGAIN.
Tellingly, the one episode it hasn't happened in so far was the one where he showed his relative manliness by way of a traditional girl-of-the-week storyline. Which, I'm not trying to say THIS SHOW IS THE BIGGEST GENDER FAIL EVER, nor if it was would that necessarily stop me from getting attached (see: my love of AtS, which I acknowledge pretty much is), but Christ. Is this what really needs to happen, constantly, to tell us that he's not some macho alpha male douchebag? It's like he's getting punished for everything that makes me really like him.
All of which is deeply irresponsible, for sure, but also, I think it's hurting my enjoyment of the show as a whole even more than it would, because my emotional investment so far starts and ends with John. It's just that bitchy asides are the key to my soul. "You mock me." "Dargo, I mock all of us." BRO.
weird, amazing, psychotic life
I think my favorite right now is Zhaan. She's from a radical planet! And does not as a construct conflate all religions with modern American right-wing Christianity! And is in her own right a "leading anarchist" which is kind of like being the CEO of Communism, Inc. which is totally a thing IIIIIIIIIIIIIN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!! (WHY IS THAT STILL FUNNY HOW OLD AM I). And of course I was worried that it would fall into the BSG trap of assuming that gender equality means some bizarro-world where women have to out-butch men just to be accepted, but she seems to be a femmy kind of lady.
I am completely enjoying the arrogant little green guy. He Improves Everything. He could be dropped into L&O:LA and get me to watch it. Well, probably not, but I'd approve. I completely lack feelings about Dargo and Pilot but they get some good lines in, too. I do like the Moya concept, of an environment that changes with its occupants and defines and protects its inhabitants. But none of that feels dynamic to me yet, you know? It's just a conceptually interesting setup.
she's so sweet with her get-back stare
I love Aeryn a lot, obviously, but I'm worried that the uniqueness of a woman who really does not grok the concept of tact will turn into having her be mean or harsh for the hell of it and assuming that's entertainment, because oooh, look, a monkey in a party hat! or whatever. And that's what I'm afraid is happening with Aeryn. I like that she's tough and blunt as hell, but I think "I don't know this concept, compassion" goes a little too far into shock value territory. That said, I do really love that she isn't being explained with damage or anything? John is all "don't you have feelings" and she's just like I FEEL YOUR FACE IS MILDLY AMUSING AND YET ODDLY ENDEARING. (She has that solemn, Illyria-like ALL-CAPS INTONATION.)
so are you gonna be my girl?
I'm already spoiled and know Aeryn/John is a thing. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm torn because I really do love their dynamic. But I really don't like process of elimination shipping, and I feel like that's what's happening here, where everyone else is presumptively disqualified on account of being funny-looking and so clearly they are The Couple? I'd think that was my own set of assumptions coming into play, except as soon as someone who does look human shows up, she hits it off with John immediately and it leads to Big Feelings Confessions (well, by Aeryn's OKAY AND MY standards, anyway) and then they're forced apart by circumstance. Possibly I am revealing the depths of my hopeless romanticism, but I much prefer ships where the story at least humors the possibility that they might actually choose to be together? I KNOW, I ASK A LOT. So I'm disposed to be negative on that level, but then they're SUPER-HOT together, and then I get irritated at the discordance. I'll probably just be contrary and resent them until they make with the ill-advised boning and then be powerless to resist.
Alternatively! LOL this was probably not intended, but that scene in I, ET where Aeryn is carrying Zhaan around so she can have her transcendent masochistic experience: strangely hot? THE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMATIC MEDIA: LADYSHIPPING. Kidding! sort of.
SO ANYWAY, hivemind, I am decidedly ambivalent. tell me things:
- Am I going to get this bad taste out of my mouth re: masculinity policing via forcible penetration? If it doesn't, I'd rather know before I try to get invested, because that is probably a dealbreaker.
- tell me why not to start anti-shipping now with Aeryn/John. I want to root for them.
- I've seen enough to think I'll like it if I can latch in, but I haven't been able to so far. Is there a place to start for a long-arc story? or just some isolated not-to-be-missed episodes to get me into the swing of things?
Also, I watched the first few episodes of Alcatraz. Who else is watching?
I really think I'm going to like it! I didn't write anything out as I was watching, so i have v little to say, since it seems I really am incapable of absorbing information without taking notes of some kind. I am feeling so vindicated about my entire academic career right about now. But! Dr. Adorkable Criminologist makes me smile, I like Becky a lot, and I'm intrigued by Scary Guard Dude. I think the setup is extremely promising - you know right away that some weird shit is going down and everyone involved accepts that, it sets up a varied but reliably threatening crew of adversaries which all tie back to the main mystery, and doesn't need to rely on a man-behind-the-curtain shock value reveal. The voiceover makes it feel more like a fairy tale than anything else - "that's not what happened. Not at all." I haven't seen LOST yet - I know, I know - so I don't have a point of comparison for Abrams' work. (Though if anyone has tips for how to get past the mind-sucking tedium of the first few episodes, please do share, because I know I'm missing out, even if only on quality time with Ian's Crazy Eyes.)
I did try an episode of Person of Interest but I lost count of the deranged paranoid Ron Paulian (THREE WORDS THAT ALL MEAN THE SAME THING!) notes it hits in the opening monologue alone and so the overall effect of the show was not all I was hoping for.