talking about things that happened long ago (yesterday and Monday)
WITB - Bad Seed
Really, what can you say about a show that uses the sexual abuse of young girls as a red herring two weeks in a row. Only this time, it was biological incest! (I think.) I caught the beginning and the warning of bloody violence throughout. So we started off with (grr, the killer, I forgot about him till the end, but we actually saw him, didn't we) various body parts in a bin bag, went on to squishy body parts being used as mural painting tools, and some dancing around things being too shocking to look at, and then showing them anyway. But it was in the emotional effect of all this on Tony and Carole that it worked. The dialogue was a bit obvious, sons, inherited disposition, conception, wah, wah, wah. (And wasn't Mack the Knife annoying, just in personality and obviousness and okay, I was mainly yelling in disbelief that someone who acts like that could get to do a doctorate.)
But the blocking of all the Tony/Carole scenes will make me forgive a lot. And anyway the show earned most of it (though I was bemused by the whole John/potential father of Carole's child business at first. Whuh?) I did wish that the blunt force that was Mack the knife hadn't gone for the you would be a terrible mother you career woman you, and no man would want you either. But then I loved the way that it was in protecting Tony that she flipped, and that she called him on his abnegation of Mack (me, I would have just liked him not allowed to do a doctorate thesis ever, anywhere) - loved the subtle way they had Tony mirror Mack's stunted hand as he lay waiting for his death. Furthermore, being soft, I liked how it was made clear that that had been more as a result of his grief over Peter's death rather than becoming the killer that Mack threatened him as being. Not that I don't completely see how he is damaged goods, the way they film Tony often committing the same activities as the killers as he's walking through what they've done is unsettling and telling. But, I didn't want them to take him there, bad enough that he is where he is. However it was a jolt to see his reaction to finding Peter, because we're so used to see him walking methodically through a crime scene. It was little moments like that, Carole finding the baby clothes, the rush at the end of the hypnosis session, where it all got too much that worked as the strong thread that kept things going. And yeah, I do 'ship them, but I love the fact that all the issues are out there and in our faces and they might encourage each other that they'll be great parents (I read too much into the whole secretive/don't let on how much you care thing, rather than the more obvious 'I need you') they went their separate ways and they said see you later as much to offer hope for themselves/each other as really meaning it. Loved the ruefulness and the support and the whole aspect of that.
Other impressions- the rain when Anya was killed was really pretty. Hurrah, the computer tech is about. I kept worrying about Paula and Carole, because I am a sucker for misdirection, and I like to underestimate Kevin. Did I mention how very much I love the blocking? The rather unsubtle in your face three seconds away from macking between Tony and Carole is contrasted by the staging when they're walking through a scene, and oh, it works.
Was discussing the show with someone who obviously doesn't quite empathise with the whole 'weird, obsessive' Tony Hill, who was complaining it was boring to follow him around talking to himself. And I'm floundering about trying to explain that it is precisely that that I get and love about the character - to the point that I was surprised at the very neat way that books were piled up in his living room when he was conveniently needing space to pace. I have decided that that was down to the flooding last week, and now satisfied myself on that point.
The O.C. ep 2.06 'The Chrismukkah that almost wasn't'
Ooh, I love Chrismukkah. Seth at his most extreme, all the family entanglements writ large (okay, so Seth is mistaken in his Lindsay is now a Cohen apprehension, but yes, amusing that Summer is the only one on the outers.) And Kirsten! Perhaps Kirsten let down the drinking game side with only the one glass of wine, but you could have made up for that with Marissa's jokey references to booze, because both of their alcohol dependency is so funny yay. Well, Kirsten's can be, Marissa's is just boring.
Granted the whole "Chrismukkah used to be this culty thing but now there is all this pressure woe" speech was far too obvious (and was The O.C. ever that much of a cult hit, because we knew about it's success within weeks of it's being aired in the US.) But the rest of it was a delight, from the brief emergence of Julie's conscience, to her mad hypocrisy, flawless make up and best of all the perfect deconstruction of her bratty daughter's egoism. I will grant that Jimmy looks good with the curls and the navy bedclothes. Ryan/Lindsay is still endearing, with a nice natural feel about it (it helps that the actress in the coupling can act, and I really liked how she played it throughout.)
But best of all was the Summerness. From the way that she insisted throughout that Seth carried her Christmas tree (and you know that he did off-screen even if it did his back in because he can't carry anything other than homemade Chrismukkah-related craft.) Just as he refused to do for his family, who wisely bow and sway as the young Cohen demands his colour-co-ordinated festivities run just so. Heh. See, I do 'ship them, but canonically, so I feel I can - for now - trust the show makers, and if they don't screw Seth/Summer up in the long run, I'll trade it off for whatever Ryan and Marissa's arc ends up being in the long run, though there is no chemistry there to carry off the simplistic and wearying dynamic they had going. I'm just saying this because there were moments of geometric returning to the Young Four that bothered. I like the Young Four better when they are three.
And being the driving force behind keeping Chrismukkah alive/making the miracle/tacking up the redheads house most triumphantly (because you know that Marissa would have been happy to mope about how not being surgically attached to any boyfriend is a tragedy and where's the booze?) Totally reiterated my beloved theory that Summer could rule the world if she could be bothered to set her mind to it. Even in the ugly tea cosy hat thingy.
Maybe I'm less picky about the self-referentialism when it comes to Chrismukkah, or maybe the comedy was tighter, in set up and timing mainly, as Cal went about saying the wrong thing entirely every time. Little moments of heartbreak from Kirsten's "you stepped on my mom's memory I slap you" rage, to one or two reaction shots form Adam Brody that reminded me that they really need to have Seth grow up out of this very funny but dramatically limited part, and the redheads little moments.