Bumper TV post
The next episode on my BtVS Giles-centric DVD was ‘A New Man’ from season 4 (before it got definitively bad, maybe). You can tell writer Jane Espenson is having a blast, particularly when writing for the Englishmen. (Ethan Rayne turns up again, as well as Giles-Spike interaction.) Interesting that Willow and Tara were practicing on a rose given that Espenson went on to write ‘Skin Deep’, the Rumpelbelle origin episode. I then found out that she is working on a show about Victorian ladies with powers with Whedon and a few other familiar faces.
On the emotional front, this was mainly about Giles needing a new niche as the Scoobs settled into life after high school and the Giles-Buffy. Obviously, one sided with him over Maggie Walsh’s contention that Buffy had an absent father figure, and the actors sold Buffy recognising demon!Giles from his expression. I felt for Buffy, knowing how Buffy/Riley (and Buffy and the Initiative) would play out. She was so hopeful and yet vulnerable in their new relationship, that he’d cope with her being stronger and more authoritative and burdened than him and still like her.
I can see why I enjoyed Anya and Spike in this context.
Summer of Rockets - ep 6/finale
I wish I’d known it was nearly 90 mins long, sitting down to watch it.
Poliakoff is so dramaturgically and emotionally weird. It’s ended up a kind of anti-espionage story. For Arthur to save Samuel (for his invention) made sense, but dissipated all the dramatic tension that had been built uo. And the affect is so weird, running against the naturalistic style one’s used to.
Satire being the (accidental) best weapon against conspiracy was so clever, and it was still tense after that, as to whether Samuel would get away with spying (he didn’t). I wanted him to break a window to get out. Never mind how old and valuable the glass was.
I spent most of the beginning of the ep thinking how awful it was the Shaws had basically forcibly abducted someone, and frustrated they didn’t probe the David identity, such as asking about his childhood. It was emotionally awful. Whatever his age was at this point, more generally, it was the age of deference, and Richard telling everyone he was an MP before whisking a bellboy away in his Rolls meant that not even the Extreme Vegetarians saw the point in calling the police.
Of course, Aunt Mary talked David back into being Anthony.
I misread Nicholas with my terrible gaydar. We learned Hannah is good in a fight. But not at keeping secrets. Just like her father.
Actually, everyone decided to be honest this episode. But Mrs Shaw trampled all over Mrs Petruchkin’s moment of bravery by explaining about the Doomsday Clock. She also did a lot of talking about how things were going to change and she was going to be more informed, but didn’t do anything about it. I wasn’t in love with her!
I tended to believe Samuel about getting entirely over his desire to be an English gentleman after seeing the elite up close and treacherous. It was kind of him (and suspicious) to give Richard all the chances to back out. I wasn’t quite as lenient on the planned figurehead as the show, but the line about Lord Arthur having always been an influence on him explained a lot. The reunion between Arthur and Anthony had echoes of an abuser interacting with a former (child) victim, and the flashback that confirmed Anthony was David confirmed that it was the politics as much as Extreme Vegetarianism that made him vanish.
I liked Samuel a lot when, having weighed it up, he said he thought he could do the spying required of him. Mostly he did, despite his personality and lack of training. After everything, Hannah and the family had her party on their terms - because the possibility of it being held at the Shaws’ hung over most of the episode.
There were interesting elements to this - the success of the technology, as we’d expected, the sense of a fevered summer with the threat of nuclear annhiliation. There were effective moments too (the four leads particularly, and the striking looking actress playing Hannah). Oh, and Mark Bonnar’s Field being all stiff-upper lipped about how nobody could be held to account for killing the dog, but clearly suffering at the killing of said dog. But the tone…so weird.
Berlin Station 2.8 The Righteous One
Wow, did they mess with us over the shooting. I was as sure as April that it was Hector, but no, he didn’t do it. So many possibilities after upending our expectations in the opening scene.
Good for Esther for not waiting for Daniel’s phone to ring to answer hers. Such a spy couple.
Unsurprisingly, Lena didn’t seem to be too chuffed at what she’d said she wanted to occur happening.
CONVENIENT that BB missed her flight, and I don’t know how far she’s thought through the context, although she knows less than the viewers, but I did enjoy simply watching her and Valerie be competent.
And so Hector ended up back in the last place he wanted to be, but it was somewhat amusing that none of the extras/station staff there knew what he’d done. Danny pleaded for Esther, Robert had his eye on intra-American battles (of course, he knows more than anyone bar Stephen about what State is up to).
Fish turning up at the hospital was very interesting and suggestive enough that what Valerie and BB learned about Josef setting Katerina up and working with the other Americans didn’t feel like a surprise. Understandable that Valerie needed a moment, though.
And Lena couldn’t control herself, couldn’t take April’s advice, and Esther got a little win (although this may make it more difficult for Hector to spin all his plates, and for April).
With Danny and Hector teaming up, and both being willing to appear more ruthless than they were, Mr Shooter didn’t get very far, although I thought that their enquiries were old fashioned - surely NSA guy could have checked his finances and movements out.
Esther didn’t handle Lena as well as she could have.
Valerie needed another moment after leaving BB, and found that Josef had gone for a suspicious walkabout. Such a fine balance of the pro and personal (meanwhile, Noah, the time your dad admits over the phone that he’s CIA is the time you get worried).
And to no-one’s surprise, Katerina carked it.
Hector relieved April’s mind, but Lena named him, at least. (Esther improved her interrogation game offscreen.)
I know Josef’s absence was meant to make us suspicious, but buoyed by deducing the shooter would be found dead and alone in the abandoned car, I couldn’t see him handling the killer himself. The tradecraft made me think Fish.
And I was right, but of course, there were consequences, which Robert got - and the most immediate of which was for Hector. He hadn’t got away with it, after all. (The timeline of the deal precludes April’s intel that Hector and Lena were planning to shoot Gerhart having got out, right?)
The episode increased in tension, with just enough twists and continuing conflicts. I so badly wanted various people to meet and compare notes but that’ll have to come, I guess.
B99 6.13 Bimbo
I enjoyed the Jake-Holt strand way more than the lunch war. The academic setting, their insecurities and the punctuation of Andy Samberg faces or Peralta’s oneliners just worked. Exhibit: the development of Jake’s height obsession. (I too noticed they’d only found the one coin and found it an unsatisfactory solution.)
I wondered if Charles’s ears burned at hearing Kevin described as Jake’s best friend.
Rosa backed Amy, even as she turned into crazy competitive!Amy, to the hilt. It was Hitchcock and Scully’s magic powers when it came to free food that was the best (and with the Harry Potter a capella thing, the show was inviting fusions and crossovers and oh my).
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/388638.html.
On the emotional front, this was mainly about Giles needing a new niche as the Scoobs settled into life after high school and the Giles-Buffy. Obviously, one sided with him over Maggie Walsh’s contention that Buffy had an absent father figure, and the actors sold Buffy recognising demon!Giles from his expression. I felt for Buffy, knowing how Buffy/Riley (and Buffy and the Initiative) would play out. She was so hopeful and yet vulnerable in their new relationship, that he’d cope with her being stronger and more authoritative and burdened than him and still like her.
I can see why I enjoyed Anya and Spike in this context.
Summer of Rockets - ep 6/finale
I wish I’d known it was nearly 90 mins long, sitting down to watch it.
Poliakoff is so dramaturgically and emotionally weird. It’s ended up a kind of anti-espionage story. For Arthur to save Samuel (for his invention) made sense, but dissipated all the dramatic tension that had been built uo. And the affect is so weird, running against the naturalistic style one’s used to.
Satire being the (accidental) best weapon against conspiracy was so clever, and it was still tense after that, as to whether Samuel would get away with spying (he didn’t). I wanted him to break a window to get out. Never mind how old and valuable the glass was.
I spent most of the beginning of the ep thinking how awful it was the Shaws had basically forcibly abducted someone, and frustrated they didn’t probe the David identity, such as asking about his childhood. It was emotionally awful. Whatever his age was at this point, more generally, it was the age of deference, and Richard telling everyone he was an MP before whisking a bellboy away in his Rolls meant that not even the Extreme Vegetarians saw the point in calling the police.
Of course, Aunt Mary talked David back into being Anthony.
I misread Nicholas with my terrible gaydar. We learned Hannah is good in a fight. But not at keeping secrets. Just like her father.
Actually, everyone decided to be honest this episode. But Mrs Shaw trampled all over Mrs Petruchkin’s moment of bravery by explaining about the Doomsday Clock. She also did a lot of talking about how things were going to change and she was going to be more informed, but didn’t do anything about it. I wasn’t in love with her!
I tended to believe Samuel about getting entirely over his desire to be an English gentleman after seeing the elite up close and treacherous. It was kind of him (and suspicious) to give Richard all the chances to back out. I wasn’t quite as lenient on the planned figurehead as the show, but the line about Lord Arthur having always been an influence on him explained a lot. The reunion between Arthur and Anthony had echoes of an abuser interacting with a former (child) victim, and the flashback that confirmed Anthony was David confirmed that it was the politics as much as Extreme Vegetarianism that made him vanish.
I liked Samuel a lot when, having weighed it up, he said he thought he could do the spying required of him. Mostly he did, despite his personality and lack of training. After everything, Hannah and the family had her party on their terms - because the possibility of it being held at the Shaws’ hung over most of the episode.
There were interesting elements to this - the success of the technology, as we’d expected, the sense of a fevered summer with the threat of nuclear annhiliation. There were effective moments too (the four leads particularly, and the striking looking actress playing Hannah). Oh, and Mark Bonnar’s Field being all stiff-upper lipped about how nobody could be held to account for killing the dog, but clearly suffering at the killing of said dog. But the tone…so weird.
Berlin Station 2.8 The Righteous One
Wow, did they mess with us over the shooting. I was as sure as April that it was Hector, but no, he didn’t do it. So many possibilities after upending our expectations in the opening scene.
Good for Esther for not waiting for Daniel’s phone to ring to answer hers. Such a spy couple.
Unsurprisingly, Lena didn’t seem to be too chuffed at what she’d said she wanted to occur happening.
CONVENIENT that BB missed her flight, and I don’t know how far she’s thought through the context, although she knows less than the viewers, but I did enjoy simply watching her and Valerie be competent.
And so Hector ended up back in the last place he wanted to be, but it was somewhat amusing that none of the extras/station staff there knew what he’d done. Danny pleaded for Esther, Robert had his eye on intra-American battles (of course, he knows more than anyone bar Stephen about what State is up to).
Fish turning up at the hospital was very interesting and suggestive enough that what Valerie and BB learned about Josef setting Katerina up and working with the other Americans didn’t feel like a surprise. Understandable that Valerie needed a moment, though.
And Lena couldn’t control herself, couldn’t take April’s advice, and Esther got a little win (although this may make it more difficult for Hector to spin all his plates, and for April).
With Danny and Hector teaming up, and both being willing to appear more ruthless than they were, Mr Shooter didn’t get very far, although I thought that their enquiries were old fashioned - surely NSA guy could have checked his finances and movements out.
Esther didn’t handle Lena as well as she could have.
Valerie needed another moment after leaving BB, and found that Josef had gone for a suspicious walkabout. Such a fine balance of the pro and personal (meanwhile, Noah, the time your dad admits over the phone that he’s CIA is the time you get worried).
And to no-one’s surprise, Katerina carked it.
Hector relieved April’s mind, but Lena named him, at least. (Esther improved her interrogation game offscreen.)
I know Josef’s absence was meant to make us suspicious, but buoyed by deducing the shooter would be found dead and alone in the abandoned car, I couldn’t see him handling the killer himself. The tradecraft made me think Fish.
And I was right, but of course, there were consequences, which Robert got - and the most immediate of which was for Hector. He hadn’t got away with it, after all. (The timeline of the deal precludes April’s intel that Hector and Lena were planning to shoot Gerhart having got out, right?)
The episode increased in tension, with just enough twists and continuing conflicts. I so badly wanted various people to meet and compare notes but that’ll have to come, I guess.
B99 6.13 Bimbo
I enjoyed the Jake-Holt strand way more than the lunch war. The academic setting, their insecurities and the punctuation of Andy Samberg faces or Peralta’s oneliners just worked. Exhibit: the development of Jake’s height obsession. (I too noticed they’d only found the one coin and found it an unsatisfactory solution.)
I wondered if Charles’s ears burned at hearing Kevin described as Jake’s best friend.
Rosa backed Amy, even as she turned into crazy competitive!Amy, to the hilt. It was Hitchcock and Scully’s magic powers when it came to free food that was the best (and with the Harry Potter a capella thing, the show was inviting fusions and crossovers and oh my).
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/388638.html.