No penguins were harmed doing this TV round up.
The computer always decides to crash when I have very limited online time, doesn't it?
Not really the sort of episode you should be discussing over lunch. Which seems perfectly obvious to me, but there you go. For instance within a few minutes, Carol doesn't just get mugged, oh no, a few tottering seconds later she gets run down by a menacing car (everything is menacing in WITB, it's grim oop north.) Predictably it wasn't just a murder case - it was a case of ritualistic serial killings repeating another set of killings. And the victims were all boys who were abused, covering most forms of abuse we know about. Plus there's the usual unsettling fun of watching Tony get into the head of killer and victim (please may this killer not be the new Mary, the serial killer he kept visiting for the last couple of series.)
What's new? A couple of new staff - or at least, I didn't remember the Assistant Chief Constable (would have called him top brass, but am going by the Radio Times for actual title) and techy constable. As Carole was mostly off-screen or in a hospital bed, the man in charge was Kevin, who did much as you would expect, a little too busy trying to Prove Himself and going for the obvious things, although Carol does that too, both constrained to the hour and a half schedule (if they have a suspect in sight in the first seventy five minutes, it ain't them.) I liked the way it was an element of the story, but very low key, the focus was on the case. And though I could have done with more Carole (she had very nifty hair!) what we got was cool. There's a lot of by the way T/Cness, although the fact that he was hanging about the hospital pragmatically had to do with the inhospitable state of his drenched house, the interaction was sweet (and nearly always with red roses in the background. In an election year!) And there was the big "imagine you were married to me" scene, which was pretty funny by the time you got to idolising and so forth.
The story was sufficiently twisty to get me at some times, (and it's always nasty enough that visually or with THAT music it does 'get' you - even when part of your mind is thinking 'this is such a horror cliché!') but predictable enough to make me feel smug. (Hint, guess that the worst possible thing will happen.) Really weird thing was the heavy use of filters. The first five minutes had all been colourised. It feels like they're increasing Tony's 'I see dead victims' schtick too (I rather think that Andrew, the bald kid, was a creation of his mind.) Pets disturbed Tony.
So yes, it's back with that cracking thwacky sound effect over the titles, with it's pushing of the heinous crime/justice served envelope to such extremes that I wonder at my own psyche.
I don't have much to say about the episode in which we were first introduced to Travis (I only saw the one scene because of my timing difficulties, but I really like DA doing American accents.) But still. Look at Catherine being the one with the most lavishly described inner turmoil and life. Again.
The O.C. The key to this episode, I thought, was Han Solo. For Zack has gone from bland to annoying with the one line. Luke and Leia my foot (and I'm not even that invested in Star Wars, but old school Harrison Ford is another matter.) And then there was the Raiders kissing ref (unless if that was a lift from another film.) And to conclude the film geekery, one wonders if Seth was expounding on the slash in Top Gun or what? Because there were plane flying hand movements.
Aaaanyway, I'm still mildly aggrieved that the only people who can be friends on this show are apparently Seth and Ryan. Having said that, I have decided that the one thing I would really hate is if Seth and Marissa ever genuinely become friends. Which is weird, but as Ryan/Lindsay is charming me, and he says the word like quite naturally, and (even though it would have been no less embarrassing to talk to Kirsten) Seth seems to be trying to be friends with Summer, and I like platonic becoming romantic on this show rather than thunderbolt! Drama! And goodness knows they've made the 'we were never friends' point about Marissa and Ryan, which can be taken as 'because this is a GREAT love story' but it isn't, and so I sniff at it. So, yes.
Speaking of lack of belief, I spent most of Alex's scenes referring to her as the seventeen year old, because I'm sure that it would be fine for her to be in charge of everything which she's been shown to be doing - handling money. Fine. Just like I believe Lana Lang single handedly runs the Talon. And Marissa arranged that party (that she didn't want to go to. Which. Eh, shut up, Marissa.) If one is arranging a party, one is the first person there to check that the place is as you set it up - that the penguins are still upright, that everybody who is meant to be there is coming, that the mythical tickets are being taken in. You don't waltz in after the dj and the chaperones and half the school population. Realistically, Marissa wouldn't be Social Chair for long.
Also, the most intimidatingly beautiful girl in high school? Hee. No. She's a clothes horse - although again, witness the crack if they think Marissa looks good in a petticoat (is that what designers think we should be wearing to parties now? Oh dear.) And again with the brooch. Oh dear.
Anyway, there was a second where Ryan showed some spine when it came to the yard boy debacle. Wonders will never cease.
ETA: Ha! I have just realised I have messed up my memories even more.
Not really the sort of episode you should be discussing over lunch. Which seems perfectly obvious to me, but there you go. For instance within a few minutes, Carol doesn't just get mugged, oh no, a few tottering seconds later she gets run down by a menacing car (everything is menacing in WITB, it's grim oop north.) Predictably it wasn't just a murder case - it was a case of ritualistic serial killings repeating another set of killings. And the victims were all boys who were abused, covering most forms of abuse we know about. Plus there's the usual unsettling fun of watching Tony get into the head of killer and victim (please may this killer not be the new Mary, the serial killer he kept visiting for the last couple of series.)
What's new? A couple of new staff - or at least, I didn't remember the Assistant Chief Constable (would have called him top brass, but am going by the Radio Times for actual title) and techy constable. As Carole was mostly off-screen or in a hospital bed, the man in charge was Kevin, who did much as you would expect, a little too busy trying to Prove Himself and going for the obvious things, although Carol does that too, both constrained to the hour and a half schedule (if they have a suspect in sight in the first seventy five minutes, it ain't them.) I liked the way it was an element of the story, but very low key, the focus was on the case. And though I could have done with more Carole (she had very nifty hair!) what we got was cool. There's a lot of by the way T/Cness, although the fact that he was hanging about the hospital pragmatically had to do with the inhospitable state of his drenched house, the interaction was sweet (and nearly always with red roses in the background. In an election year!) And there was the big "imagine you were married to me" scene, which was pretty funny by the time you got to idolising and so forth.
The story was sufficiently twisty to get me at some times, (and it's always nasty enough that visually or with THAT music it does 'get' you - even when part of your mind is thinking 'this is such a horror cliché!') but predictable enough to make me feel smug. (Hint, guess that the worst possible thing will happen.) Really weird thing was the heavy use of filters. The first five minutes had all been colourised. It feels like they're increasing Tony's 'I see dead victims' schtick too (I rather think that Andrew, the bald kid, was a creation of his mind.) Pets disturbed Tony.
So yes, it's back with that cracking thwacky sound effect over the titles, with it's pushing of the heinous crime/justice served envelope to such extremes that I wonder at my own psyche.
I don't have much to say about the episode in which we were first introduced to Travis (I only saw the one scene because of my timing difficulties, but I really like DA doing American accents.) But still. Look at Catherine being the one with the most lavishly described inner turmoil and life. Again.
The O.C. The key to this episode, I thought, was Han Solo. For Zack has gone from bland to annoying with the one line. Luke and Leia my foot (and I'm not even that invested in Star Wars, but old school Harrison Ford is another matter.) And then there was the Raiders kissing ref (unless if that was a lift from another film.) And to conclude the film geekery, one wonders if Seth was expounding on the slash in Top Gun or what? Because there were plane flying hand movements.
Aaaanyway, I'm still mildly aggrieved that the only people who can be friends on this show are apparently Seth and Ryan. Having said that, I have decided that the one thing I would really hate is if Seth and Marissa ever genuinely become friends. Which is weird, but as Ryan/Lindsay is charming me, and he says the word like quite naturally, and (even though it would have been no less embarrassing to talk to Kirsten) Seth seems to be trying to be friends with Summer, and I like platonic becoming romantic on this show rather than thunderbolt! Drama! And goodness knows they've made the 'we were never friends' point about Marissa and Ryan, which can be taken as 'because this is a GREAT love story' but it isn't, and so I sniff at it. So, yes.
Speaking of lack of belief, I spent most of Alex's scenes referring to her as the seventeen year old, because I'm sure that it would be fine for her to be in charge of everything which she's been shown to be doing - handling money. Fine. Just like I believe Lana Lang single handedly runs the Talon. And Marissa arranged that party (that she didn't want to go to. Which. Eh, shut up, Marissa.) If one is arranging a party, one is the first person there to check that the place is as you set it up - that the penguins are still upright, that everybody who is meant to be there is coming, that the mythical tickets are being taken in. You don't waltz in after the dj and the chaperones and half the school population. Realistically, Marissa wouldn't be Social Chair for long.
Also, the most intimidatingly beautiful girl in high school? Hee. No. She's a clothes horse - although again, witness the crack if they think Marissa looks good in a petticoat (is that what designers think we should be wearing to parties now? Oh dear.) And again with the brooch. Oh dear.
Anyway, there was a second where Ryan showed some spine when it came to the yard boy debacle. Wonders will never cease.
ETA: Ha! I have just realised I have messed up my memories even more.