assorted things and stuff
I love that other people go to ComicCon and tell me all about it! I would be so miserable but it's so much fun to hear about upcoming stuff. It's like Fashion Week for nerds!
I feel like "2012 Emmy nominations" would actually be as apt a topic as "2013 Emmy nominations." With one notable exception, the series represented in the biggie categories don't much feel like they're based on this year's television.
I am very excited to see Game of Thrones get so much acknowledgment! I do hope it wins Best Drama, and my fingers are crossed tight for Dinklage to win (though that's me going off outdated material too, as I haven't seen S3 yet). Having seen this clip, I can't argue with Emilia Clark being the show's Best Supporting Actress representative (putting out that kind of badass presence in a made-up language? AWESOME), though it's a show with such a deep bench of talent that it'd be fair if all six noms in both categories were GoT actors.
LOL WHAT THE FUCK DOWNTON ABBEY AND HUGH BONNEVILLE THOUGH. WHY. I actually wouldn't have had an issue with DA being represented in the Supporting Actor category, but the standout cast member this past season was clearly Rob James-Collier. (I adhere to the Barrow House Words, which are "WE WILL FIGHT YOU.")
My prediction for Best Actor (Drama) is the Hamm, and I have no quarrel with that; he turned out some spectacular work this past season. However! My choice would be Kevin Spacey for House of Cards. Spacey's Frank Underwood shows the moral rot of Walter White, the charismatic gladhanding facility of Don Draper, and the gross aristocratic arrogance of Robert Crawley and Will McAvoy. Spacey has done the jobs of most if not all the other actors in his category, with the added quirk of breaking the fourth wall and letting us into his character's (awful, awful, yet brilliant and darkly hilarious) mind.
Based on what I've seen of Scandal (since ABC has not yet seen fit to make S2 legally available to new viewers who'd like to catch up, AHEM) and heard of the second season, I feel fairly comfortable saying I'd probably be rooting for Kerry Washington for Best Actress (Drama). Based on what I have actually seen, I'd be pretty thrilled to see Connie Britton or Robin Wright walk away with the win. (WATCH HOUSE OF CARDS, GUYS.) THAT SAID, and I really hate to say this because of my affection for Peggy and especially Mary, WHAT THE FUCK did they do this past season to score nominations over Tatiana Maslany and Keri Russell? Oh right, they did great work on dynamic storylines two years ago. And yeah, I am just as irritated about Russell being passed over as Maslany.
For Best Comedy and Best Female Lead in a Comedy, all I really have to say is that I'm pretty mystified at the exclusion of The Mindy Project. As it stands, I'm hoping to see some love for Veep, though given the whole two-years' vintage theme of the nominations we'll probably be saluting 30 Rock on its way to the great syndication lineup in the sky. (I do at least hope this extends to Jane Krakowski getting some love for Jenna! I'm very pleased to see her nominated.)
Supporting Actress (Drama): I'm thinking and hoping Anna Gunn will win.
I'm a little surprised that AHS: Asylum went in as a miniseries? I suppose because the seasons are purposefully contained as separate stories. I'm pulling for AHS for best miniseries, but Sigourney Weaver as not!HRC for Best Actress. Both of those categories could go for either show, though.
Typing this out, I realized that I did end up having a couple of things to say about:
I REALLY LIKED DON DRAPER THIS SEASON WHAT?! And I suspect it was for the same reason that he seems to have fallen out of favor with a lot of viewers, which was the emotional rawness and vulnerability we saw as his facade crumbled to dust. I did keep up reading reviews throughout the season, though I didn't have much to say on my own, and it struck me how eager people were to say that the show was all about people who couldn't break out of patterns and so Don would fall back into old behaviors, any day now, REALLY! And it started to strike me as wishful thinking, because, when has Don EVER tried to break those patterns we apparently find so titillating? I mean, if he has a shiny new marriage and swank apartment, or even a particularly exciting challenge at work (ie when they lost Lucky Strike), it makes his old habits less appealing in comparison for a little while. But he's never actually decided to expend effort and risk failure in a real attempt to change.
And it wasn't so much of a big existential choice this season, though maybe it was a series of little choices he didn't realize he was making on some level, but still, authenticity crept into his life and out of his mouth a little more in every episode. (It was a neat contrast with Megan's career as an actress - there's a certain honesty in someone whose career is all about acknowledging their pretensions.) I don't think I've ever liked him so much as when he's out at a bar with Arnold Rosen - Rosen's grumbling about how kids these days like his "soft" son aren't dutifully trudging off to Vietnam and all but inviting Don to jump in with the macho swagger, and Don just blinks and says "war is wrong." Not only is he making an honest moral declaration for the first time in, oh, EVER, he's actively startled by the idea that he'd want anyone to go through what he went through. And then he retreats from that moment of realness by exploiting Sylvia's gratitude, and then he's forced right back into reality when Sally catches his persona in the act and he sees himself through her eyes as seedy, not glamorous. That, and much of the rest of the season, builds up to his moment of rejecting his persona in front of a client, no less, claiming that advertising and all other fakeness shouldn't really be necessary. If what you're selling has emotional value, it should speak for itself. And that's when he decides to own who he is, to create/acknowledge a little value of his own.
By contrast, Breaking Bad is...not losing me in terms of decreasing in quality, but it does feel like it's out of things to say besides "look! darkness! OOGA BOOGA!" I'm sure the last half-season will be good, but yeah, it's time. (This was exactly the problem I knew I was going to have with watching The Wire this year, was that BB would suffer in comparison. OOP.)
So....THIS WEEK'S MAJOR CRIMES, HUH? The characters of MC tip a little more toward aspirational than realistic, sad to say, but I think there's a lot of value in creating an expectation of professionalism in police forces, and that includes education on and respect for trans* people and issues.
I continue to love what's happening with Rusty. There's a temptation, I think, for shows to try to make the suffering of young people into something "ennobling" or whatever, where people who've had to grow up too fast in some ways are therefore supposed to just skip over all aspects of healthy human development. NOT HAPPENING with this kid! He's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, as we saw a couple of episodes ago over the college application essay. Which might be a little bit aggravating for Sharon and his teacher, as normal teen behavior can be, but from a kid in Rusty's shoes, mildly aggravating normal teen behavior is a VERY GOOD SIGN, and Sharon/the narrative knows it. And these last two episodes, I think, have handled his sexual orientation in a compassionate and honest way. It doesn't feel like he's frightened or embarrassed, and he's definitely not being condemned for keeping things to himself for the moment. He wants a little bit of privacy to think over his future, and for exactly the reason we see with Jackson's cluelessly condescending commentary, that he's so used to being pathologized and judged over his past. Sharon's protecting his right to as much normalcy as possible.
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/303689.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.
I feel like "2012 Emmy nominations" would actually be as apt a topic as "2013 Emmy nominations." With one notable exception, the series represented in the biggie categories don't much feel like they're based on this year's television.
I am very excited to see Game of Thrones get so much acknowledgment! I do hope it wins Best Drama, and my fingers are crossed tight for Dinklage to win (though that's me going off outdated material too, as I haven't seen S3 yet). Having seen this clip, I can't argue with Emilia Clark being the show's Best Supporting Actress representative (putting out that kind of badass presence in a made-up language? AWESOME), though it's a show with such a deep bench of talent that it'd be fair if all six noms in both categories were GoT actors.
LOL WHAT THE FUCK DOWNTON ABBEY AND HUGH BONNEVILLE THOUGH. WHY. I actually wouldn't have had an issue with DA being represented in the Supporting Actor category, but the standout cast member this past season was clearly Rob James-Collier. (I adhere to the Barrow House Words, which are "WE WILL FIGHT YOU.")
My prediction for Best Actor (Drama) is the Hamm, and I have no quarrel with that; he turned out some spectacular work this past season. However! My choice would be Kevin Spacey for House of Cards. Spacey's Frank Underwood shows the moral rot of Walter White, the charismatic gladhanding facility of Don Draper, and the gross aristocratic arrogance of Robert Crawley and Will McAvoy. Spacey has done the jobs of most if not all the other actors in his category, with the added quirk of breaking the fourth wall and letting us into his character's (awful, awful, yet brilliant and darkly hilarious) mind.
Based on what I've seen of Scandal (since ABC has not yet seen fit to make S2 legally available to new viewers who'd like to catch up, AHEM) and heard of the second season, I feel fairly comfortable saying I'd probably be rooting for Kerry Washington for Best Actress (Drama). Based on what I have actually seen, I'd be pretty thrilled to see Connie Britton or Robin Wright walk away with the win. (WATCH HOUSE OF CARDS, GUYS.) THAT SAID, and I really hate to say this because of my affection for Peggy and especially Mary, WHAT THE FUCK did they do this past season to score nominations over Tatiana Maslany and Keri Russell? Oh right, they did great work on dynamic storylines two years ago. And yeah, I am just as irritated about Russell being passed over as Maslany.
For Best Comedy and Best Female Lead in a Comedy, all I really have to say is that I'm pretty mystified at the exclusion of The Mindy Project. As it stands, I'm hoping to see some love for Veep, though given the whole two-years' vintage theme of the nominations we'll probably be saluting 30 Rock on its way to the great syndication lineup in the sky. (I do at least hope this extends to Jane Krakowski getting some love for Jenna! I'm very pleased to see her nominated.)
Supporting Actress (Drama): I'm thinking and hoping Anna Gunn will win.
I'm a little surprised that AHS: Asylum went in as a miniseries? I suppose because the seasons are purposefully contained as separate stories. I'm pulling for AHS for best miniseries, but Sigourney Weaver as not!HRC for Best Actress. Both of those categories could go for either show, though.
Typing this out, I realized that I did end up having a couple of things to say about:
I REALLY LIKED DON DRAPER THIS SEASON WHAT?! And I suspect it was for the same reason that he seems to have fallen out of favor with a lot of viewers, which was the emotional rawness and vulnerability we saw as his facade crumbled to dust. I did keep up reading reviews throughout the season, though I didn't have much to say on my own, and it struck me how eager people were to say that the show was all about people who couldn't break out of patterns and so Don would fall back into old behaviors, any day now, REALLY! And it started to strike me as wishful thinking, because, when has Don EVER tried to break those patterns we apparently find so titillating? I mean, if he has a shiny new marriage and swank apartment, or even a particularly exciting challenge at work (ie when they lost Lucky Strike), it makes his old habits less appealing in comparison for a little while. But he's never actually decided to expend effort and risk failure in a real attempt to change.
And it wasn't so much of a big existential choice this season, though maybe it was a series of little choices he didn't realize he was making on some level, but still, authenticity crept into his life and out of his mouth a little more in every episode. (It was a neat contrast with Megan's career as an actress - there's a certain honesty in someone whose career is all about acknowledging their pretensions.) I don't think I've ever liked him so much as when he's out at a bar with Arnold Rosen - Rosen's grumbling about how kids these days like his "soft" son aren't dutifully trudging off to Vietnam and all but inviting Don to jump in with the macho swagger, and Don just blinks and says "war is wrong." Not only is he making an honest moral declaration for the first time in, oh, EVER, he's actively startled by the idea that he'd want anyone to go through what he went through. And then he retreats from that moment of realness by exploiting Sylvia's gratitude, and then he's forced right back into reality when Sally catches his persona in the act and he sees himself through her eyes as seedy, not glamorous. That, and much of the rest of the season, builds up to his moment of rejecting his persona in front of a client, no less, claiming that advertising and all other fakeness shouldn't really be necessary. If what you're selling has emotional value, it should speak for itself. And that's when he decides to own who he is, to create/acknowledge a little value of his own.
By contrast, Breaking Bad is...not losing me in terms of decreasing in quality, but it does feel like it's out of things to say besides "look! darkness! OOGA BOOGA!" I'm sure the last half-season will be good, but yeah, it's time. (This was exactly the problem I knew I was going to have with watching The Wire this year, was that BB would suffer in comparison. OOP.)
So....THIS WEEK'S MAJOR CRIMES, HUH? The characters of MC tip a little more toward aspirational than realistic, sad to say, but I think there's a lot of value in creating an expectation of professionalism in police forces, and that includes education on and respect for trans* people and issues.
I continue to love what's happening with Rusty. There's a temptation, I think, for shows to try to make the suffering of young people into something "ennobling" or whatever, where people who've had to grow up too fast in some ways are therefore supposed to just skip over all aspects of healthy human development. NOT HAPPENING with this kid! He's got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, as we saw a couple of episodes ago over the college application essay. Which might be a little bit aggravating for Sharon and his teacher, as normal teen behavior can be, but from a kid in Rusty's shoes, mildly aggravating normal teen behavior is a VERY GOOD SIGN, and Sharon/the narrative knows it. And these last two episodes, I think, have handled his sexual orientation in a compassionate and honest way. It doesn't feel like he's frightened or embarrassed, and he's definitely not being condemned for keeping things to himself for the moment. He wants a little bit of privacy to think over his future, and for exactly the reason we see with Jackson's cluelessly condescending commentary, that he's so used to being pathologized and judged over his past. Sharon's protecting his right to as much normalcy as possible.
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/303689.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.