Shedding off my Friday glum
I was surprisingly chipper this morning, considering I started the morning off bleary-eyed, having not had enough sleep at all. It hit me in the afternoon, though. I've been meaning to post for a bit. For one thing, the other day, I read a fic which I didn't send feedback for, because what I wanted to say was something along the lines of thinking that it was a brave stylistic decision, one that paid off brilliantly at times, when the use of language soared and was incisive about the characters. But mostly, that stylistic choice ran away with the writer, leading to confusion and a narrative that thinned out to nothing. And there were some bits that should have been edited for poor grammar, style or not style. Trying to say that tactfully or even lucidly about a work that's a few years old? I couldn't be bothered, but the stylistic bravery - it was a sort of literary purple prose, expansive in its vocabulary, definitely not keeping to what we're used to in fandom - shook me.
On to last night's TV. The Avengers was depressing, because it was the changeover from Emma Peel to Tara King, and I'm not minded to be charitable or fair. Rigg brought a good deal of mischief and liveliness to her role and I loved it, whereas LT seems stiltedly arch. And bleh, I may drop it now.
ER. 12.19 No place to hide. I think I grunted a 'hmmph' at the previouslies (aka the threads that will be picked up this ep) and at the end. I wasn't deeply invested in most of this ep. I was glad to see Jane back, (Jane! I mean, COME ON! I don't really care about Jane, but I missed her.) I found the Abby overidentiying with the 12 yr old Ruthie tolerable for various reasons and thought they woefully underplayed Carter finding out about Abby and Luka's kid. Most meaningful moment/sequence was Kerry putting aside her crutch and quietly walking around the floor.
Really, do I care about Clemente? Nah. I was glad to find out that it was fear for his life that makes him stay at County, but not that bothered. I didn't recognise Sam's ex, which turned out to be less of a case than another instance of a turf war, with the regular beating the newcomer (Neela vs. Clemente in this case, but see also Morris vs. Allbright, which ended up with one of those shouting matches that turns into a snog that eight times out of ten doesn't work.) It was surprising, with the Ruthie case, to actually have a third way explored, rather than the unrealistic either it's black or it's white position that the show loves, because it's a shortcut to dramah! Ruthie caring for her gran and going into foster care were both a bit extreme, when it came to options, so it was nice to see Abby working something else out. And the parallells there were much subtler than the Darfur plane monologue.
I...don't know what to say about the Pratt in Darfur sequence, precisely. Like spikendru_basic's said, it seems that they haven't known what to do with Pratt. I got the whole naive knowitall getting humiliated, and it was a powerful enough sequence, ending with his bleeding feet, or no, with Pratt literally pushed on his back, watching a brutal revenge he didn't understand. Except COME ON not even #Pratt would be quite so ignorant about what was going on. And I don't know what I think of ER preaching this story.
And yeah, mostly watched this ep without getting involved - we had Neela and Ray scenes, but not a second together, not a second of fallout of her moving out. Nada. The description of Abby being ahead of the pack makes me wonder if there;ll be a big jump from series 12 to 13, with Abby having had the baby and being up for Chief Resident. Ah, speculation, I shouldn't bother with you, really.
Also I'm unilaterally blaming staying up to see Bones for my insomnia, which led to some writing. I still haven't looked at it to see if it makes any sense, and the watching of Buffy's Doppelgangenland ep at some bizarre hour. It's one of the Buffy eps that I keep on catching on repeat. And I enjoyed it, more than any of the above shows. There were so many fully fleshed out characters, or rather characters who were fleshed out over all the Buffy and Angel years. The size of AH's nose = especially as Vamp!Willow forcibly struck me, as did Anya/Anyanka and D'Hoffryn's long-running relationship with Willow's use and mis-use of magic.
Couple of links: Fametracker does it's find a shallowness obsession of the moment thing. (Feature on Jonathan Rhys Meyers). And Byker Grove is to end. I was obsessed with that for a long time, although I didn't go back to watching it for PJ and Duncan's return. End of an era, is it really 17 years old, that must mean horrible Maths doing yuck. Going to watch DVDs now.
On to last night's TV. The Avengers was depressing, because it was the changeover from Emma Peel to Tara King, and I'm not minded to be charitable or fair. Rigg brought a good deal of mischief and liveliness to her role and I loved it, whereas LT seems stiltedly arch. And bleh, I may drop it now.
ER. 12.19 No place to hide. I think I grunted a 'hmmph' at the previouslies (aka the threads that will be picked up this ep) and at the end. I wasn't deeply invested in most of this ep. I was glad to see Jane back, (Jane! I mean, COME ON! I don't really care about Jane, but I missed her.) I found the Abby overidentiying with the 12 yr old Ruthie tolerable for various reasons and thought they woefully underplayed Carter finding out about Abby and Luka's kid. Most meaningful moment/sequence was Kerry putting aside her crutch and quietly walking around the floor.
Really, do I care about Clemente? Nah. I was glad to find out that it was fear for his life that makes him stay at County, but not that bothered. I didn't recognise Sam's ex, which turned out to be less of a case than another instance of a turf war, with the regular beating the newcomer (Neela vs. Clemente in this case, but see also Morris vs. Allbright, which ended up with one of those shouting matches that turns into a snog that eight times out of ten doesn't work.) It was surprising, with the Ruthie case, to actually have a third way explored, rather than the unrealistic either it's black or it's white position that the show loves, because it's a shortcut to dramah! Ruthie caring for her gran and going into foster care were both a bit extreme, when it came to options, so it was nice to see Abby working something else out. And the parallells there were much subtler than the Darfur plane monologue.
I...don't know what to say about the Pratt in Darfur sequence, precisely. Like spikendru_basic's said, it seems that they haven't known what to do with Pratt. I got the whole naive knowitall getting humiliated, and it was a powerful enough sequence, ending with his bleeding feet, or no, with Pratt literally pushed on his back, watching a brutal revenge he didn't understand. Except COME ON not even #Pratt would be quite so ignorant about what was going on. And I don't know what I think of ER preaching this story.
And yeah, mostly watched this ep without getting involved - we had Neela and Ray scenes, but not a second together, not a second of fallout of her moving out. Nada. The description of Abby being ahead of the pack makes me wonder if there;ll be a big jump from series 12 to 13, with Abby having had the baby and being up for Chief Resident. Ah, speculation, I shouldn't bother with you, really.
Also I'm unilaterally blaming staying up to see Bones for my insomnia, which led to some writing. I still haven't looked at it to see if it makes any sense, and the watching of Buffy's Doppelgangenland ep at some bizarre hour. It's one of the Buffy eps that I keep on catching on repeat. And I enjoyed it, more than any of the above shows. There were so many fully fleshed out characters, or rather characters who were fleshed out over all the Buffy and Angel years. The size of AH's nose = especially as Vamp!Willow forcibly struck me, as did Anya/Anyanka and D'Hoffryn's long-running relationship with Willow's use and mis-use of magic.
Couple of links: Fametracker does it's find a shallowness obsession of the moment thing. (Feature on Jonathan Rhys Meyers). And Byker Grove is to end. I was obsessed with that for a long time, although I didn't go back to watching it for PJ and Duncan's return. End of an era, is it really 17 years old, that must mean horrible Maths doing yuck. Going to watch DVDs now.