Two nine o'clock slots, two different shows.
The Good Wife 6.6 Old Spice
Thanks for the earworm, show. At least I had something to grin about every time ‘Call Me, Maybe’ popped into my head (not that I hate the song, but it really was a persistent earworm throughout yesterday), because I was totally in the mood for ODDBALLS IN LOVE. And boy, did we get it. I will be amused if/when Maclachlan returns in Agents of SHIELD.
I loved sneaky!Elspeth, especially as her courtroom tricks rebounded on her. Alicia’s rolling of the eyes only added to my enjoyment. But we got properly sneaky!Elspeth by the end. And her assistanti’s name, is, of course, Fantasia. Whom we never need to see (like perhaps Tascioni’s mental landscape).
I’m glad they ended on good terms. Elspeth and Josh.
I felt so sorry for Grace, somewhat sorry for Alicia, and glad that Eli’s daughter (whom I like, even if her name hasn’t registered) is going to be sticking around. Oh, and Cary! I think that the probation officer has a soft spot for him and was pretty much offering Kalinda up as something to get the judge not to revoke his bail. Of course, she was partly the cause of Cary’s oops, forgot I was out on bail spiral, because he suspects her of sleeping with someone else, and so felt he could do the same. And the extrinsic reason for the ban was maximum awkwardness.
THE private investigator??? Where’s Robin? SERIOUSLY?
I’m with Cary about being unconvinced about the return to the offices. Especially when Diane pulled out the line ‘I need a fresh start’. The other set/offices were the new start. The big moment of Alicia taking Will’s office, with all its memories for her own? Yes, it was emotional, but I’m not sure it was enough for me. With Alicia’s campaign heating up, it feels like something of a step backwards. Especially because they used Howard to get the offices. However, there’s certainly potential in Cary being relegated to David Lee’s office, while Diane and Alicia have the big ‘let’s lock eyes’ offices. And it'll be interesting to see what happens next in the war against Canning and Lee.
The Musketeers 2.8 The Prodigal Father
Spoilery trigger warning:this episode contained girls being abducted, threatened with whips and sold for sex and an attempted rape against a main female character. I'll be discussing that as part of my reaction post.
So much Did Not Want about this episode, so let’s start with the positives. I’m mostly sure it was unintentional, but it was brilliant that when Aramis said ‘All for one’ which the show has studiously Not Gone There, a BBC ‘apologies, there’s a fault, we’re trying to resolve it’ screen flashed up. WHAT?
The new locations made me drool and I really enjoyed the timbres of Howard Charles and the man playing his dad’s voices. Constance was extremely pretty, even if her mourning garb was absurd.
But you know it’s not going to be a fun show when you start with two terrified girls running, being caught, being threatened with whipping and too scared and intimidated to accept help. It got worse.
It didn’t help that the Porthos's paternity plot resolution didn’t really involve me. I think it might have worked better if we’d met his family over several episodes. The daughter and son-in-law were cartoonish and the father was meant to be more ambiguous. Ultimately, it was about which father figure Porthos was going to trust (clue: not the one who urged him to kill the other), and I didn’t really care enough about it, myself. The big gesture of leaving the Musketeers because insecure Porthos believed his father figure hadn’t picked him on merit lacked something for me, because surely Porthos’s feelings about the other musketeers should have come into play, but they were off, partly because Treville had told them to give Porthos space, but mainly because they were busy having with plot.
That plot. Ah yes, watching and hearing a girl be killed through the eyes and ears of her friend. Seeing the aristo callousness of it all. And then realising it was an auction of innocence for rich old men. This was all distressing enough, even as Our Heroes nobly rescued them with barely any weapons (Aramis’s hat apparently is one now) and their honourable rage.
What was implied, but not examined, was whether it had been going on longer. Porthos's mother came to the house a servant. We saw no marriage licence, although Treville seemed to support the married and abandoned story, it could have been a story. Porthos's mother could have been chained and abused just like the girl he found was.
Then we had the ending, and the only good thing about that was that Constance rescued Anne, really. (Even if the timeline of her getting changed, rejecting Lemay, waiting for D’Artagnan to return and giving him a few quick words and a kiss was plot-convenient rather than believable). Oh, ANNE. I’ve always liked her, so of course it was distressing to watch her be trapped, threatened and then nearly raped. We’d already seen her humiliated in court (again), and there was the bitter irony of hearing on the recent King’s Mistress’s lips that Anne’s adultery was So Much Worse than Louis's.
But I don’t think I’d clocked that Rochefort had first met Anne and mentored her when she was FOURTEEN, and had started his obsession about her then, and was holding her to her actions and words THEN. I know fourteen might not have the same associations then as now (although historical realism and this show are not the closest of friends, really) but STILL. She was even more vulnerable than I realised then.
Like she said and realised, Rochefort is delusional, and his ‘logic’ and the continued blaming of her is horrible. (And in a week where a convicted rapist blamed his victim for fighting back and the end of an emotionally frazzling week for me for other reasons, not what I needed from this show.)
That it was a woman, a lower-class woman who showed the same loyalty as the Musketeers generally do, who stopped Rochefort is something. But not enough to balance out what we saw. And if I were able to be more analytical about it, I might be able to judge how the show's handling of the storyline worked, but I'm mainly stuck on my emotional response.
Other things, I am getting tired of this theme of (relatively privileged) ladies on this show sighting over Duty versus Freedom (to Love) every single time.
I also thought Constance was right to ask for time for her to work through her feelings about her husband’s death, and got irked with D’Artagnan for getting mad that she wasn’t happy and jumping into bed with him straight away, presumably. Also, Lemay, no, so soon after her husband’s death and when she’s under the queen’s protection, so hardly in a precarious position, is not the best time to propose. I thought he was ducky, and in a different setting, might even ship them, because Constance’s influence is clearly changing him, he means well and sees her as a person, but she’s in the middle of a passionate love affair.
Although, D’Artagnan, you could have maimed the viperous Eleanor. She was trying to shoot you, and clearly the more ruthless person in her marriage. She had the potential to be an Epic Villainess.
Which brings us to Milady, whose gown was more what you’d expect someone in mourning to wear in terms of amount of fabric than Constance. Ah, she wants to tell Athos what she knows (Rochefort’s reaction when she said the Spaniards were behind last week’s assassination struck me as odd, although I suppose now that he hasn’t realised she also knows he was in on it, but he thought apologising could mean he could order her around as if she was the blackmailed Marguerite. You underestimate the lady, you power-mad, rapist scuzzball. Please feel free to bring him down, deWinter.) But Athos made it about the saving of Milday's soul. I am somewhat !?!?! about all of this, because I still think he wronged her. Although she has done indefensible things.
I love the fact that she was trying to earn money by giving information (although it is big enough that she should do it for France) when she wouldn’t accept his purse last week.
I'm still going to be sorting out my feelings about what happened for a bit.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/159141.html.
Thanks for the earworm, show. At least I had something to grin about every time ‘Call Me, Maybe’ popped into my head (not that I hate the song, but it really was a persistent earworm throughout yesterday), because I was totally in the mood for ODDBALLS IN LOVE. And boy, did we get it. I will be amused if/when Maclachlan returns in Agents of SHIELD.
I loved sneaky!Elspeth, especially as her courtroom tricks rebounded on her. Alicia’s rolling of the eyes only added to my enjoyment. But we got properly sneaky!Elspeth by the end. And her assistanti’s name, is, of course, Fantasia. Whom we never need to see (like perhaps Tascioni’s mental landscape).
I’m glad they ended on good terms. Elspeth and Josh.
I felt so sorry for Grace, somewhat sorry for Alicia, and glad that Eli’s daughter (whom I like, even if her name hasn’t registered) is going to be sticking around. Oh, and Cary! I think that the probation officer has a soft spot for him and was pretty much offering Kalinda up as something to get the judge not to revoke his bail. Of course, she was partly the cause of Cary’s oops, forgot I was out on bail spiral, because he suspects her of sleeping with someone else, and so felt he could do the same. And the extrinsic reason for the ban was maximum awkwardness.
THE private investigator??? Where’s Robin? SERIOUSLY?
I’m with Cary about being unconvinced about the return to the offices. Especially when Diane pulled out the line ‘I need a fresh start’. The other set/offices were the new start. The big moment of Alicia taking Will’s office, with all its memories for her own? Yes, it was emotional, but I’m not sure it was enough for me. With Alicia’s campaign heating up, it feels like something of a step backwards. Especially because they used Howard to get the offices. However, there’s certainly potential in Cary being relegated to David Lee’s office, while Diane and Alicia have the big ‘let’s lock eyes’ offices. And it'll be interesting to see what happens next in the war against Canning and Lee.
The Musketeers 2.8 The Prodigal Father
Spoilery trigger warning:this episode contained girls being abducted, threatened with whips and sold for sex and an attempted rape against a main female character. I'll be discussing that as part of my reaction post.
So much Did Not Want about this episode, so let’s start with the positives. I’m mostly sure it was unintentional, but it was brilliant that when Aramis said ‘All for one’ which the show has studiously Not Gone There, a BBC ‘apologies, there’s a fault, we’re trying to resolve it’ screen flashed up. WHAT?
The new locations made me drool and I really enjoyed the timbres of Howard Charles and the man playing his dad’s voices. Constance was extremely pretty, even if her mourning garb was absurd.
But you know it’s not going to be a fun show when you start with two terrified girls running, being caught, being threatened with whipping and too scared and intimidated to accept help. It got worse.
It didn’t help that the Porthos's paternity plot resolution didn’t really involve me. I think it might have worked better if we’d met his family over several episodes. The daughter and son-in-law were cartoonish and the father was meant to be more ambiguous. Ultimately, it was about which father figure Porthos was going to trust (clue: not the one who urged him to kill the other), and I didn’t really care enough about it, myself. The big gesture of leaving the Musketeers because insecure Porthos believed his father figure hadn’t picked him on merit lacked something for me, because surely Porthos’s feelings about the other musketeers should have come into play, but they were off, partly because Treville had told them to give Porthos space, but mainly because they were busy having with plot.
That plot. Ah yes, watching and hearing a girl be killed through the eyes and ears of her friend. Seeing the aristo callousness of it all. And then realising it was an auction of innocence for rich old men. This was all distressing enough, even as Our Heroes nobly rescued them with barely any weapons (Aramis’s hat apparently is one now) and their honourable rage.
What was implied, but not examined, was whether it had been going on longer. Porthos's mother came to the house a servant. We saw no marriage licence, although Treville seemed to support the married and abandoned story, it could have been a story. Porthos's mother could have been chained and abused just like the girl he found was.
Then we had the ending, and the only good thing about that was that Constance rescued Anne, really. (Even if the timeline of her getting changed, rejecting Lemay, waiting for D’Artagnan to return and giving him a few quick words and a kiss was plot-convenient rather than believable). Oh, ANNE. I’ve always liked her, so of course it was distressing to watch her be trapped, threatened and then nearly raped. We’d already seen her humiliated in court (again), and there was the bitter irony of hearing on the recent King’s Mistress’s lips that Anne’s adultery was So Much Worse than Louis's.
But I don’t think I’d clocked that Rochefort had first met Anne and mentored her when she was FOURTEEN, and had started his obsession about her then, and was holding her to her actions and words THEN. I know fourteen might not have the same associations then as now (although historical realism and this show are not the closest of friends, really) but STILL. She was even more vulnerable than I realised then.
Like she said and realised, Rochefort is delusional, and his ‘logic’ and the continued blaming of her is horrible. (And in a week where a convicted rapist blamed his victim for fighting back and the end of an emotionally frazzling week for me for other reasons, not what I needed from this show.)
That it was a woman, a lower-class woman who showed the same loyalty as the Musketeers generally do, who stopped Rochefort is something. But not enough to balance out what we saw. And if I were able to be more analytical about it, I might be able to judge how the show's handling of the storyline worked, but I'm mainly stuck on my emotional response.
Other things, I am getting tired of this theme of (relatively privileged) ladies on this show sighting over Duty versus Freedom (to Love) every single time.
I also thought Constance was right to ask for time for her to work through her feelings about her husband’s death, and got irked with D’Artagnan for getting mad that she wasn’t happy and jumping into bed with him straight away, presumably. Also, Lemay, no, so soon after her husband’s death and when she’s under the queen’s protection, so hardly in a precarious position, is not the best time to propose. I thought he was ducky, and in a different setting, might even ship them, because Constance’s influence is clearly changing him, he means well and sees her as a person, but she’s in the middle of a passionate love affair.
Although, D’Artagnan, you could have maimed the viperous Eleanor. She was trying to shoot you, and clearly the more ruthless person in her marriage. She had the potential to be an Epic Villainess.
Which brings us to Milady, whose gown was more what you’d expect someone in mourning to wear in terms of amount of fabric than Constance. Ah, she wants to tell Athos what she knows (Rochefort’s reaction when she said the Spaniards were behind last week’s assassination struck me as odd, although I suppose now that he hasn’t realised she also knows he was in on it, but he thought apologising could mean he could order her around as if she was the blackmailed Marguerite. You underestimate the lady, you power-mad, rapist scuzzball. Please feel free to bring him down, deWinter.) But Athos made it about the saving of Milday's soul. I am somewhat !?!?! about all of this, because I still think he wronged her. Although she has done indefensible things.
I love the fact that she was trying to earn money by giving information (although it is big enough that she should do it for France) when she wouldn’t accept his purse last week.
I'm still going to be sorting out my feelings about what happened for a bit.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/159141.html.