TV update
So, I'm doing pretty well on my TV goal so far (actually, I'm doing pretty well on my book goal, too).
My new TV loves are Battlestar Gallactica and Misfits, two shows many people have highly recommended to me. My roommate owns the BSG DVDs, so that was an easy excuse to watch them, and a friend copied me his misfits collection (so, ditto).
Firstly, Misfits (a British sort-of sci fi show that uses superpowers to look at social issues) is brilliant and HILARIOUS. I adore it, and my new favourite quote comes from there: when one character inadvertently shares a secret desire, another character declares, "You should keep that between you and your Internet Service Provider."
Secondly, OH MY GOD, Battlestar Gallactica. This is a show I've always known I would love, but I guess I didn't want to get into yet *another* show (you know, unless my roommate happens to own the whole series...). WOW. Was I missing out! It's nice to watch it all at once, though.
I started out watching the show with a bunch of friends (we watched the mini-series that starts BSG off at a party) and they made various comments that gave me a few hints about where things were going to go (and, although I haven't seen BSG before, I am very familiar with the fandom due to LJ -- so I know certain people survive until the end, etc). Early on I started pining for a ship, and I'm posting now (spoilers behind the cut) because I am so frakking pissed off about how it's going. If it were a real ship, it would be blown out of the water before it ever set sail. FRAK.
First, please NO spoilers about BSG in the comments. I'm in the middle of the third season now (just finished 3x13).
So, right from the mini-series, I've been pegging Lee Adama and Starbuck to get together. My friends at the party responded to this by saying, "Oh, you noticed that already?" Their underlying sexual tension becomes obvious as episodes wear on, of course. It seemed pretty certain that they would get together sooner rather than later, actually, until Starbuck jumped to her presidential mission to retrieve the arrow-thing on Caprica at the end of season one. Then she meets a hot guy and knows him for about a total of two days (not including her hospital incarceration) before she heads back to Gallactica, her head all in the lovey-dovey clouds now. And so now, of course, she spurns Lee's advances because she's pining for a man she has only known for two days. Two intense days, sure. But, c'mon. Brother of the Love of Your Life whom you've been close to for years and screamed out his name during sex with Gaius vs. dude you just met and frakked. How do you know you and this dude will even get along on a long-term basis? Your heart was with Lee when you left, even if you hadn't fully acknowledged it, and this guy suddenly turns it all upside down? SIgh.
But, okay. Anders is hot, and a super sweet guy, and you guys make an exceptionally adorable couple. I will tolerate you, but you are not my 'ship. So Kara eventually goes and rescues Anders from Caprica (and pretty much everyone with them died, which annoyed me; I mean, sure, you got this special guy, but those are pretty heavy losses..). And then we get this jump, this time jump. Suddenly everyone's married (WHAT?) and living on New Caprica, and sure. Okay. Well, BSG is brilliant, and this is interesting, and a way to shake things up. Let's see where it goes. Oh, and Lee and Starbuck are so NOT talking at all, so something happened there, but we won't find out for half a season. (And this 'shipper finds herself obsessing and finding it hard to sleep.... Ahhhgahhh what haaaaaaaaappens? [Don't answer that])
(Oh, and I was PISSED when Billy died, and although I like Dee quite a lot, I HATE her with Lee. The story we learn later totally justifies that.)
So, Starbuck and Anders are married, and they're cute, and Lee and Dee (hee) are married, and they're annoying. Then Cylon occupation whatever happens, freedom blah, and then everyone's back on the ship running from the Cylons again, just like old times. And then comes my FAVOURITE. EPISODE. EVER. Squee! The boxing episode, which tells an elaborate backstory and shows us FINALLY why Lee and Starbuck won't talk to one another. Turns out, back before all this marriage crap happened, the two couples were happy friends back in the One Year of Peace before the Cylon occupation. And one night Lee and Starbuck got really drunk, and their significant others were not around, and they got all to confessing their love for one another and frakking each other's brains out. (In fairness, Lee was much more initiating with the confessing love part.) And so the show goes back to shots of current-day Lee and Starbuck boxing each other's brains out in the Gallactica ring, and the viewer wonders what the frak happened. And then we see.
The next morning, back on New Caprica after the frakking, Lee walks back to town all mussed and happy-like. Then his father says, "Oh you missed the news." And Lee's like, "What? We were attacked?" And his father's like, "No, no, Kara got married." And then Lee feels like he just got attacked by multiple Cylon raiders, because, like, what could possibly be more hurtful than that? There really is nothing to say - it is just that devastating.
And so now I realize that Lee's weight gain (which my friends told me was not originally part of the writing, but that the actor gained weight and so the writers added it in) really made sense, because it's all clear now: after declaring his love for this amazing woman, she not only (after-the-fact) rejects him but actually declares herself for another man -- like she's saying, I am obviously terrified of commitment, but not in general, just to you, Lee, just to you... The night before she didn't even WANT to get married, and suddenly she's all embracing the sanctity of marriage? Bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. She just has a crafty way of running from a truly intense relationship. Anders is safe. Anders she can handle.
And so what does Lee do? At this point I just feel for the guy and can't really blame him for whatever way he chooses to balm his wounds. But. He runs back to his girlfriend, the one he was so ready to leave the night before, and declares his love for her. In the extended footage (a special DVD episode), we see Lee propose to her, and I just want to punch them both. Dee actually says that he loves Starbuck, and that she'll take him for as long as he chooses to stay with her, until he eventually leaves her for Starbuck. What a way to start a marriage. Later, Dee declares their marriage was built on a lie. Bingo! Both marriages were built on lies, or at least insincere intentions. Both Lee and Kara were running away from something, not to Anders and Dee. Anders and Dee deserves better than that.
And so. The boxing episode (my FAVOURITE. EPISODE. EVER.) ends with Starbuck and Lee hugging it out (hee!). The episode, especially the extended episode, makes it clear that Starbuck and Lee are now or will soon be an item, with Anders and Dee giving up the fight. YAAAAAAAY!
But! Then the next couple of episodes oscillate right back to where we frakking started.
Lee and Starbuck kissing, Lee pushing her away, saying that he won't cheat. She says she won't divorce Anders. ... WHY NOT?! How the HELL can she have respect for the sanctity of her voe but not for the sanctity of her vow to be faithful?! DOES. NOT. COMPUTE. Kara, honey, I love you, I admire you, you are frakking awesome, but you are starting to piss me off. MAKE UP YOUR FRAKKING MIND. FIGURE OUT WHAT THE FRAK YOU WANT. AND THEN, JUST LIKE THE STARBUCK I KNOW WOULD, GO THE FRAK OUT THERE AND GET IT!) But awesome, amazing women are shit in relationships, right? Is that the message here? She was abused as a child, too, so I guess she gets some excuses for being messed up. But please, Kara? Make up your frakking mind?
Just make a decision either way. I'll respect it, I swear I will. But if you're going to work things out with Anders, then STOP MAKING GOOGLY EYES AT LEE. It's not fair to you, it's not fair to Anders, nor Lee and Dee! Same goes for you, Lee. If you're going to re-commit to Dee, STOP STARING AT KARA.
But the next episode that's exactly what they do. They both re-commit to their significant others, and they both end the episode staring at each other significantly.
Is this the shittiest 'ship ever? I think it just may be.
Abandon ship! (I'm strongly considering it.)
My sympathy, though, is with Lee fully on this one. He declared himself for her, and his willingness to leave Dee, that night on New Caprica. Once AGAIN he does the same thing a year and a half later, but Kara somehow can't break her marriage vows that she only made to hurt and/or run away from The Man She Truly Loves. So once in the episode, Kara comes to him and says "Hey, will you still leave Dee if I leave Anders? I'm, like, open to that now, I think. Or something." And Lee looks at her and says, "I just don't know. How do I know you won't change your mind again?" And she says nothing. And that's it! That's their big heart-to-heart. I do not blame Lee at all for not making a life-changing decision based on that. She's not opening herself up, not declaring herself, not taking a chance. I don't blame him at all for not taking yet another leap of faith on her.
I DO blame him for re-committing to Dee and saying that bullshit about how "When I married you, I did it because I loved you, and I still do." You are just justifying your current position, staying with Ms. Good Enough, because, what? You can't stand to be alone? Sigh.
These people should all be single. If your relationship is that frakked up, you shouldn't be in it. Dee should stand up for herself and break things off instead of settling for being second-best (although I admit Lee's declaration of love would be hard to turn away); Anders -- well, actually, I respect Anders for fighting for Kara, and he's pretty good about not taking any shit; and Lee and Kara really need to accept that their marriages are based on something not as pure as True Love, but denial and settling and avoidance, and then either re-build their relationships from the ground up (declarations of love are not good enough) or abandon ship.
Should I abandon this ship? Don't answer that.
Clearly I love this show. I am still seething.
My new TV loves are Battlestar Gallactica and Misfits, two shows many people have highly recommended to me. My roommate owns the BSG DVDs, so that was an easy excuse to watch them, and a friend copied me his misfits collection (so, ditto).
Firstly, Misfits (a British sort-of sci fi show that uses superpowers to look at social issues) is brilliant and HILARIOUS. I adore it, and my new favourite quote comes from there: when one character inadvertently shares a secret desire, another character declares, "You should keep that between you and your Internet Service Provider."
Secondly, OH MY GOD, Battlestar Gallactica. This is a show I've always known I would love, but I guess I didn't want to get into yet *another* show (you know, unless my roommate happens to own the whole series...). WOW. Was I missing out! It's nice to watch it all at once, though.
I started out watching the show with a bunch of friends (we watched the mini-series that starts BSG off at a party) and they made various comments that gave me a few hints about where things were going to go (and, although I haven't seen BSG before, I am very familiar with the fandom due to LJ -- so I know certain people survive until the end, etc). Early on I started pining for a ship, and I'm posting now (spoilers behind the cut) because I am so frakking pissed off about how it's going. If it were a real ship, it would be blown out of the water before it ever set sail. FRAK.
First, please NO spoilers about BSG in the comments. I'm in the middle of the third season now (just finished 3x13).
So, right from the mini-series, I've been pegging Lee Adama and Starbuck to get together. My friends at the party responded to this by saying, "Oh, you noticed that already?" Their underlying sexual tension becomes obvious as episodes wear on, of course. It seemed pretty certain that they would get together sooner rather than later, actually, until Starbuck jumped to her presidential mission to retrieve the arrow-thing on Caprica at the end of season one. Then she meets a hot guy and knows him for about a total of two days (not including her hospital incarceration) before she heads back to Gallactica, her head all in the lovey-dovey clouds now. And so now, of course, she spurns Lee's advances because she's pining for a man she has only known for two days. Two intense days, sure. But, c'mon. Brother of the Love of Your Life whom you've been close to for years and screamed out his name during sex with Gaius vs. dude you just met and frakked. How do you know you and this dude will even get along on a long-term basis? Your heart was with Lee when you left, even if you hadn't fully acknowledged it, and this guy suddenly turns it all upside down? SIgh.
But, okay. Anders is hot, and a super sweet guy, and you guys make an exceptionally adorable couple. I will tolerate you, but you are not my 'ship. So Kara eventually goes and rescues Anders from Caprica (and pretty much everyone with them died, which annoyed me; I mean, sure, you got this special guy, but those are pretty heavy losses..). And then we get this jump, this time jump. Suddenly everyone's married (WHAT?) and living on New Caprica, and sure. Okay. Well, BSG is brilliant, and this is interesting, and a way to shake things up. Let's see where it goes. Oh, and Lee and Starbuck are so NOT talking at all, so something happened there, but we won't find out for half a season. (And this 'shipper finds herself obsessing and finding it hard to sleep.... Ahhhgahhh what haaaaaaaaappens? [Don't answer that])
(Oh, and I was PISSED when Billy died, and although I like Dee quite a lot, I HATE her with Lee. The story we learn later totally justifies that.)
So, Starbuck and Anders are married, and they're cute, and Lee and Dee (hee) are married, and they're annoying. Then Cylon occupation whatever happens, freedom blah, and then everyone's back on the ship running from the Cylons again, just like old times. And then comes my FAVOURITE. EPISODE. EVER. Squee! The boxing episode, which tells an elaborate backstory and shows us FINALLY why Lee and Starbuck won't talk to one another. Turns out, back before all this marriage crap happened, the two couples were happy friends back in the One Year of Peace before the Cylon occupation. And one night Lee and Starbuck got really drunk, and their significant others were not around, and they got all to confessing their love for one another and frakking each other's brains out. (In fairness, Lee was much more initiating with the confessing love part.) And so the show goes back to shots of current-day Lee and Starbuck boxing each other's brains out in the Gallactica ring, and the viewer wonders what the frak happened. And then we see.
The next morning, back on New Caprica after the frakking, Lee walks back to town all mussed and happy-like. Then his father says, "Oh you missed the news." And Lee's like, "What? We were attacked?" And his father's like, "No, no, Kara got married." And then Lee feels like he just got attacked by multiple Cylon raiders, because, like, what could possibly be more hurtful than that? There really is nothing to say - it is just that devastating.
And so now I realize that Lee's weight gain (which my friends told me was not originally part of the writing, but that the actor gained weight and so the writers added it in) really made sense, because it's all clear now: after declaring his love for this amazing woman, she not only (after-the-fact) rejects him but actually declares herself for another man -- like she's saying, I am obviously terrified of commitment, but not in general, just to you, Lee, just to you... The night before she didn't even WANT to get married, and suddenly she's all embracing the sanctity of marriage? Bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. She just has a crafty way of running from a truly intense relationship. Anders is safe. Anders she can handle.
And so what does Lee do? At this point I just feel for the guy and can't really blame him for whatever way he chooses to balm his wounds. But. He runs back to his girlfriend, the one he was so ready to leave the night before, and declares his love for her. In the extended footage (a special DVD episode), we see Lee propose to her, and I just want to punch them both. Dee actually says that he loves Starbuck, and that she'll take him for as long as he chooses to stay with her, until he eventually leaves her for Starbuck. What a way to start a marriage. Later, Dee declares their marriage was built on a lie. Bingo! Both marriages were built on lies, or at least insincere intentions. Both Lee and Kara were running away from something, not to Anders and Dee. Anders and Dee deserves better than that.
And so. The boxing episode (my FAVOURITE. EPISODE. EVER.) ends with Starbuck and Lee hugging it out (hee!). The episode, especially the extended episode, makes it clear that Starbuck and Lee are now or will soon be an item, with Anders and Dee giving up the fight. YAAAAAAAY!
But! Then the next couple of episodes oscillate right back to where we frakking started.
Lee and Starbuck kissing, Lee pushing her away, saying that he won't cheat. She says she won't divorce Anders. ... WHY NOT?! How the HELL can she have respect for the sanctity of her voe but not for the sanctity of her vow to be faithful?! DOES. NOT. COMPUTE. Kara, honey, I love you, I admire you, you are frakking awesome, but you are starting to piss me off. MAKE UP YOUR FRAKKING MIND. FIGURE OUT WHAT THE FRAK YOU WANT. AND THEN, JUST LIKE THE STARBUCK I KNOW WOULD, GO THE FRAK OUT THERE AND GET IT!) But awesome, amazing women are shit in relationships, right? Is that the message here? She was abused as a child, too, so I guess she gets some excuses for being messed up. But please, Kara? Make up your frakking mind?
Just make a decision either way. I'll respect it, I swear I will. But if you're going to work things out with Anders, then STOP MAKING GOOGLY EYES AT LEE. It's not fair to you, it's not fair to Anders, nor Lee and Dee! Same goes for you, Lee. If you're going to re-commit to Dee, STOP STARING AT KARA.
But the next episode that's exactly what they do. They both re-commit to their significant others, and they both end the episode staring at each other significantly.
Is this the shittiest 'ship ever? I think it just may be.
Abandon ship! (I'm strongly considering it.)
My sympathy, though, is with Lee fully on this one. He declared himself for her, and his willingness to leave Dee, that night on New Caprica. Once AGAIN he does the same thing a year and a half later, but Kara somehow can't break her marriage vows that she only made to hurt and/or run away from The Man She Truly Loves. So once in the episode, Kara comes to him and says "Hey, will you still leave Dee if I leave Anders? I'm, like, open to that now, I think. Or something." And Lee looks at her and says, "I just don't know. How do I know you won't change your mind again?" And she says nothing. And that's it! That's their big heart-to-heart. I do not blame Lee at all for not making a life-changing decision based on that. She's not opening herself up, not declaring herself, not taking a chance. I don't blame him at all for not taking yet another leap of faith on her.
I DO blame him for re-committing to Dee and saying that bullshit about how "When I married you, I did it because I loved you, and I still do." You are just justifying your current position, staying with Ms. Good Enough, because, what? You can't stand to be alone? Sigh.
These people should all be single. If your relationship is that frakked up, you shouldn't be in it. Dee should stand up for herself and break things off instead of settling for being second-best (although I admit Lee's declaration of love would be hard to turn away); Anders -- well, actually, I respect Anders for fighting for Kara, and he's pretty good about not taking any shit; and Lee and Kara really need to accept that their marriages are based on something not as pure as True Love, but denial and settling and avoidance, and then either re-build their relationships from the ground up (declarations of love are not good enough) or abandon ship.
Should I abandon this ship? Don't answer that.
Clearly I love this show. I am still seething.