random telly noodling
Have any of you had the thing where you're trying to do something that Matters Desperately to you, only it's a really big thing so there's no actual chance of finishing any time soon, it's a matter of figuring out where you can pause, and you keep finding new things to do and also it affects other people but you don't know what you're doing?
And also the news is terrible and makes you want to cry?
That.
So I am going to talk about TV for five minutes!
The Americans second season has just finished, and it was REALLY REALLY GOOD. Only the thing that I am actually most excited about was how it's set up the world for season three. Season one was fairly self-contained, but season two was clearly done with a pretty high expectation that there would be more, and the widening out of the possible story-space is super exciting. It's sort of done the opposite of season one like that, actually. Season one said, is it possible to make a loving relationship out of this situation? And it answered, basically, yes, it's just really difficult. And season two is all about saying and it doesn't get any less so once you commit to loving each other, especially when there's kids.
AND it did brilliant things with my two favourite non-Philip-and-Elizabeth characters, too: Nina and Martha both face so many of the same issues, and are clearly paralleled, but are such delightfully different people. They want to be happy, and they want to be treated with respect, but the context of that in their lives means they approach it almost like they're living in two different worlds.
Which, in a lot of ways, they sort of are: one of the things the show does is show that these different perspectives on events all co-exist, but not looking for/caring about other people's perspectives means they practically don't exist. We the viewer literally switch from seeing things like the FBI to seeing things like the KGB, depending on who we're following, and it's our greater knowledge of what people are thinking and feeling that lets us do that. Which is, I think, why they chose to show us Nina's bruises before telling us that it was deliberate: the narrative was with Stan at that point, and Stan didn't know. We the viewer might guess, but for that second of first seeing her, we were Stan.
Basically, this show is REALLY GOOD and I wish more people watched!
The Good Wife basically ended with something out of
catwalksalone's brain, and it made me really happy. I don't even care if they do or don't have Alicia actually run for State's Attorney: I can see it going either way. But as a power narrative, having the option, having to think about it, is SO EXCITING because it's exactly the sort of story that female characters don't usually get. Eeeeeee.
(also DIANE JOINED FLORRICK-AGOS AND I JUST. Also Eli's face as he realised OMG ALICIA IS A POTENTIAL CANDIDATE, ahahah omg. Also also, I want someone to punch Michael C Fox's character in the face.)
I am less into Mad Men these days than I was - I feel like it's pretty depressing, and also, when a key point of your show is "change is REALLY HARD and barely ever happens without serious force", then it's very easy for your message to get a little... repetitive. Especially when you hate Don, which I pretty much do.
I am kind of hoping that that's where the kid storylines are going though. I love that Sally looks like her mother, right down to the hair and the way of smoking her cigarette - but she didn't go after the jock boy, she went after the shy nerd. That's CHANGE. Joan is a partner and about to become a millionaire. Betty stood up for herself against a husband who told her to shut up. Peggy saw the future in the moon landing, and she got an amazing pitch out of it. Peggy is basically Don now, and Joan still lives with her mother, and Betty, as TLo observed, is asserting her right to judge PE teachers as slutty, so okay, that's not truly huge change in some ways... but in others, it really is.
I don't think it's an accident we've had several of the more old-school characters literally die, is what I'm saying. The world changes, if only because new people are born.
(Also I thought the moon landing bit where we saw everyone watching it was perfect - it's the sort of slow, atmospheric thing that Mad Men excels at, and it did so beautifully. And I love that while Sally flirted with the cynicism of the "but so much money" jock boy, she didn't go there!)
I am rewatching Deep Space Nine, and while that is making me happy (Trials and Tribbleations alone will never stop making me happy) I just watched the episode where Odo gets his shape-shifting back and damn, I forgot how very much it seems to be saying "Odo just needs to understand his abuser and that makes it all okay". NO. DOCTOR MORA IS AWFUL AND NEEDS TO SHUT UP AND LEAVE POOR ODO ALONE NOW. FOREVER. GO AWAY AND NEVER BE CONSULTED BY STARFLEET AGAIN, DOCTOR MORA.
..possibly I am also projecting my feelings about some of the week's news onto my lovely Trek, but, well. I feel that's justified. It's appalling. :(
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/140055.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
And also the news is terrible and makes you want to cry?
That.
So I am going to talk about TV for five minutes!
The Americans second season has just finished, and it was REALLY REALLY GOOD. Only the thing that I am actually most excited about was how it's set up the world for season three. Season one was fairly self-contained, but season two was clearly done with a pretty high expectation that there would be more, and the widening out of the possible story-space is super exciting. It's sort of done the opposite of season one like that, actually. Season one said, is it possible to make a loving relationship out of this situation? And it answered, basically, yes, it's just really difficult. And season two is all about saying and it doesn't get any less so once you commit to loving each other, especially when there's kids.
AND it did brilliant things with my two favourite non-Philip-and-Elizabeth characters, too: Nina and Martha both face so many of the same issues, and are clearly paralleled, but are such delightfully different people. They want to be happy, and they want to be treated with respect, but the context of that in their lives means they approach it almost like they're living in two different worlds.
Which, in a lot of ways, they sort of are: one of the things the show does is show that these different perspectives on events all co-exist, but not looking for/caring about other people's perspectives means they practically don't exist. We the viewer literally switch from seeing things like the FBI to seeing things like the KGB, depending on who we're following, and it's our greater knowledge of what people are thinking and feeling that lets us do that. Which is, I think, why they chose to show us Nina's bruises before telling us that it was deliberate: the narrative was with Stan at that point, and Stan didn't know. We the viewer might guess, but for that second of first seeing her, we were Stan.
Basically, this show is REALLY GOOD and I wish more people watched!
The Good Wife basically ended with something out of
catwalksalone's brain, and it made me really happy. I don't even care if they do or don't have Alicia actually run for State's Attorney: I can see it going either way. But as a power narrative, having the option, having to think about it, is SO EXCITING because it's exactly the sort of story that female characters don't usually get. Eeeeeee.
(also DIANE JOINED FLORRICK-AGOS AND I JUST. Also Eli's face as he realised OMG ALICIA IS A POTENTIAL CANDIDATE, ahahah omg. Also also, I want someone to punch Michael C Fox's character in the face.)
I am less into Mad Men these days than I was - I feel like it's pretty depressing, and also, when a key point of your show is "change is REALLY HARD and barely ever happens without serious force", then it's very easy for your message to get a little... repetitive. Especially when you hate Don, which I pretty much do.
I am kind of hoping that that's where the kid storylines are going though. I love that Sally looks like her mother, right down to the hair and the way of smoking her cigarette - but she didn't go after the jock boy, she went after the shy nerd. That's CHANGE. Joan is a partner and about to become a millionaire. Betty stood up for herself against a husband who told her to shut up. Peggy saw the future in the moon landing, and she got an amazing pitch out of it. Peggy is basically Don now, and Joan still lives with her mother, and Betty, as TLo observed, is asserting her right to judge PE teachers as slutty, so okay, that's not truly huge change in some ways... but in others, it really is.
I don't think it's an accident we've had several of the more old-school characters literally die, is what I'm saying. The world changes, if only because new people are born.
(Also I thought the moon landing bit where we saw everyone watching it was perfect - it's the sort of slow, atmospheric thing that Mad Men excels at, and it did so beautifully. And I love that while Sally flirted with the cynicism of the "but so much money" jock boy, she didn't go there!)
I am rewatching Deep Space Nine, and while that is making me happy (Trials and Tribbleations alone will never stop making me happy) I just watched the episode where Odo gets his shape-shifting back and damn, I forgot how very much it seems to be saying "Odo just needs to understand his abuser and that makes it all okay". NO. DOCTOR MORA IS AWFUL AND NEEDS TO SHUT UP AND LEAVE POOR ODO ALONE NOW. FOREVER. GO AWAY AND NEVER BE CONSULTED BY STARFLEET AGAIN, DOCTOR MORA.
..possibly I am also projecting my feelings about some of the week's news onto my lovely Trek, but, well. I feel that's justified. It's appalling. :(
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/140055.html. Please comment there using OpenID.