Being Human 5.04 and Call The Midwife 2.04
Still in the business of catcching up, I'll start with the midwives:
Watching Call the Midwives after my Wire marathon made me think that in some ways CtM is the opposite number to The Wire: overwhelmingly female - there are male characters around, too, and they're written well, but the default interaction and the key ongoing friendships are between women. And of course the whole instution versus individual plays out completely different, because Britain's NHS, the reason why the midwives/nurses are able to care for the East End patients, is presented as an overwhelmingly positive force for good.
On to the actual episode: I thought the story of the baby born with a spinal injury was told sensitively, and appreciate that the mother wasn't vilified for her immediate reaction and fear to bond with the baby (and also that Jenny, as Sister Evangelina points out later, is party motivated by guilt because her own immediate reaction was horror; in what is a very optimistic show it keeps the characters three dimensional that while they're admirable people, they're not perfect). The orphanage as what happens to children whose parents for whatever reason feel they can't cope with raising them via Jane's revealed backstory was well done, too - no Victorian nightmare, but, as the matron points out, not a home, either. And speaking of Jane, the subplot of her and the Reverend was just lovely. Again, I like that traits like Jane's extreme shyness and the Reverend's chattiness aren't just handled as picturesque quirks but something coming from their respective backstories (the Reverend's brief statement about getting used to talk to fill the silences between his parents and their hate for each other was one of those cases where one statement suddenly gives you a whole lifetime); also, as with Chummy's clumsiness at the start in s1, you can see why people at the start of knowing them are annoyed by the traits (hard to talk with Jane when she never says anything, or with the Reverend if he never stops talking) but then the show reveals not just the reasons but also the rest of their character. And doesn't resolve this with Jane suddenly becoming un-shy, or the Reverend entirely silent, but with mutual acceptance. The show just keeps pushing my "awwww" button in the best way.
Trivia: the Teddy Boys were a good sign of the 50s slowly but surely giving way to the coming 60s; not overplayed but there.
Being Human:
I forgot that in a season with the devil as the Big Bad, you can't really do an episode without manipulation, but as none of our trio were the characters manipulated this week, I was okay with it. Also, my biggest regret about this being the final season is that I won't get to spend more than a season (and three previous eps in s4) with Alex, because she captures my heart more with every episode. The cheer, the vitality, the no-nonsense briskness and the Scottish accent: I just love her. (Also I've been in that situation where I guilt tripped myself into hanging out with types like Ian Crumb, minus the vampire aspect, who then reacted just as he did.) Given Hatch tried to dispatch her to beyond doorness already and she picked up on his presence at the end of this ep, methinks she'll be the first to figure out what's what.
Tom with Bobby was a new situation: both the initial rejection (understandable after the Larry experience last week) and the later protective mentorship. It's an interesting look at Tom in a scenario where he's not the younger, less experienced party, but the person in charge and able to share the xperience. (Well, you could argue he knew more about werewolfness than Allison last season, but that was balanced by them being the same age and Allison having the happy family background Tom lacked.) It was also of course a counterpoint to Hal's belated attempt to mentor Crumb. Both ended badly, but with Bobby this was entirely Hatch's fault, otherwise Tom's mentoring was a complete sucess, whereas with Ian both the mentor motivation was tainted - Crumb the vampire was entirely Hal's fault, plus he felt guilty about having started to kill again - and so was Ian's personality (minus the bloodlust); thinking about the whole nerd-complaining-about-friendzoned thing, it occured to me you might call Ian the unglamorous version of William, Spike's original human self - same character, only not played by a physically attractive actor who has the fangirls sigh over how women could possibly reject him. Mind you, the main reason for Ian to having been in the season at all turns out to be less Hal and more Rook, i.e. to give Rook a starting point for murderous self justification. This is also why Hatch's manipulation of the week worked better for me than the one two episodes ago - talking Rook from a mindset where he had already sacrificed Ian's sister and niece in an attempt to save his department to one where sacrificing a greater number of people is also justifiable made psychological sense and hadn't been played out ad infinitum by the show before. It also didn't escape my notice that when the two first saw each other again, we got a few lines of dialogue indicating that Hatch had been (re)captured by vampires before and freed by Rook who hadn't realised who/what Hatch was. (If so, which vampires? Can't have been anyone Hal knew. Is it too much to hope for an Ivan flashback later on?) Mind you, by now Rook should figure it out, between what Hatch talked him into, the 666 cards (neat touch) and the "you already sold your soul, you can't go back". Having inadvertendly released the devil before makes for another Rook and Hal parallel, and thus my speculation that Rook will take the place of one of the trinity in the finale in order to defeat/rebind Hatch as a way to atone for the deaths he caused still stands. By now I'm also pretty sure it will be Tom whose place he'll take, because of the Bobby plot (and Rook having been willing to let poor Bobby lose on the hotel guests).
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/872539.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Watching Call the Midwives after my Wire marathon made me think that in some ways CtM is the opposite number to The Wire: overwhelmingly female - there are male characters around, too, and they're written well, but the default interaction and the key ongoing friendships are between women. And of course the whole instution versus individual plays out completely different, because Britain's NHS, the reason why the midwives/nurses are able to care for the East End patients, is presented as an overwhelmingly positive force for good.
On to the actual episode: I thought the story of the baby born with a spinal injury was told sensitively, and appreciate that the mother wasn't vilified for her immediate reaction and fear to bond with the baby (and also that Jenny, as Sister Evangelina points out later, is party motivated by guilt because her own immediate reaction was horror; in what is a very optimistic show it keeps the characters three dimensional that while they're admirable people, they're not perfect). The orphanage as what happens to children whose parents for whatever reason feel they can't cope with raising them via Jane's revealed backstory was well done, too - no Victorian nightmare, but, as the matron points out, not a home, either. And speaking of Jane, the subplot of her and the Reverend was just lovely. Again, I like that traits like Jane's extreme shyness and the Reverend's chattiness aren't just handled as picturesque quirks but something coming from their respective backstories (the Reverend's brief statement about getting used to talk to fill the silences between his parents and their hate for each other was one of those cases where one statement suddenly gives you a whole lifetime); also, as with Chummy's clumsiness at the start in s1, you can see why people at the start of knowing them are annoyed by the traits (hard to talk with Jane when she never says anything, or with the Reverend if he never stops talking) but then the show reveals not just the reasons but also the rest of their character. And doesn't resolve this with Jane suddenly becoming un-shy, or the Reverend entirely silent, but with mutual acceptance. The show just keeps pushing my "awwww" button in the best way.
Trivia: the Teddy Boys were a good sign of the 50s slowly but surely giving way to the coming 60s; not overplayed but there.
Being Human:
I forgot that in a season with the devil as the Big Bad, you can't really do an episode without manipulation, but as none of our trio were the characters manipulated this week, I was okay with it. Also, my biggest regret about this being the final season is that I won't get to spend more than a season (and three previous eps in s4) with Alex, because she captures my heart more with every episode. The cheer, the vitality, the no-nonsense briskness and the Scottish accent: I just love her. (Also I've been in that situation where I guilt tripped myself into hanging out with types like Ian Crumb, minus the vampire aspect, who then reacted just as he did.) Given Hatch tried to dispatch her to beyond doorness already and she picked up on his presence at the end of this ep, methinks she'll be the first to figure out what's what.
Tom with Bobby was a new situation: both the initial rejection (understandable after the Larry experience last week) and the later protective mentorship. It's an interesting look at Tom in a scenario where he's not the younger, less experienced party, but the person in charge and able to share the xperience. (Well, you could argue he knew more about werewolfness than Allison last season, but that was balanced by them being the same age and Allison having the happy family background Tom lacked.) It was also of course a counterpoint to Hal's belated attempt to mentor Crumb. Both ended badly, but with Bobby this was entirely Hatch's fault, otherwise Tom's mentoring was a complete sucess, whereas with Ian both the mentor motivation was tainted - Crumb the vampire was entirely Hal's fault, plus he felt guilty about having started to kill again - and so was Ian's personality (minus the bloodlust); thinking about the whole nerd-complaining-about-friendzoned thing, it occured to me you might call Ian the unglamorous version of William, Spike's original human self - same character, only not played by a physically attractive actor who has the fangirls sigh over how women could possibly reject him. Mind you, the main reason for Ian to having been in the season at all turns out to be less Hal and more Rook, i.e. to give Rook a starting point for murderous self justification. This is also why Hatch's manipulation of the week worked better for me than the one two episodes ago - talking Rook from a mindset where he had already sacrificed Ian's sister and niece in an attempt to save his department to one where sacrificing a greater number of people is also justifiable made psychological sense and hadn't been played out ad infinitum by the show before. It also didn't escape my notice that when the two first saw each other again, we got a few lines of dialogue indicating that Hatch had been (re)captured by vampires before and freed by Rook who hadn't realised who/what Hatch was. (If so, which vampires? Can't have been anyone Hal knew. Is it too much to hope for an Ivan flashback later on?) Mind you, by now Rook should figure it out, between what Hatch talked him into, the 666 cards (neat touch) and the "you already sold your soul, you can't go back". Having inadvertendly released the devil before makes for another Rook and Hal parallel, and thus my speculation that Rook will take the place of one of the trinity in the finale in order to defeat/rebind Hatch as a way to atone for the deaths he caused still stands. By now I'm also pretty sure it will be Tom whose place he'll take, because of the Bobby plot (and Rook having been willing to let poor Bobby lose on the hotel guests).
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/872539.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.