...here, have some reviews.
Wow, I've managed to make reviewing TV shows like work. How about that.
Anyway, didn't manage to get them all done, but here are a few, tossed out for your amusement. Also, I've decided I'm not going to do long reviews of Chuck, as no one else I know watches it.
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I’ll give you credit where it’s due, SVU. You’ve yet to inspire the blind, frothing rage in me that, say, S5 of Miami managed on a weekly basis (well, except for that one time). But…but still you disappoint me, SVU. I think the only reason I can’t direct that kind of wrath towards you is that I just can’t bring myself to care anymore. You’ve already broken my heart. Rage is useless now.
For starters, you didn’t just have gratuitous sex onscreen. Oh no. You had an entire gratuitous RAPE. The case was solved in fifteen minutes and served no purpose other than to lead in to the main case - and, apparently, to show a sobbing, helpless young woman in her nightgown. It was exploitative and pointless, and I don’t approve.
I mean, one of the good things about this show was that, in spite of the fact that it was about sex crimes, in its early seasons it managed to avoid being exploitative, titillating garbage whose only purpose was to shock. We saw the gruesome aftermath of rape but never had to sit through dimly-lit, fetishistic sex scenes of the rape itself.
This? This intro? It’s exactly what you weren’t supposed to do.
Now, if you built an entire case around it - on whether the kid really was acting on his sexual urges in his sleep, whether or not he could be held culpable for what he did, if he was really having an episode or if he was lying - then you could have made something of that. And it would have even been a court-centered episode! With lots of Casey! This would have been a good thing! But for goodness sake, don’t just use it as an attention-getting throwaway. There were plenty of other ways you could have worked in the primary case. I can’t think of any at the moment, but there were, I promise.
No Munch today. Y’all know my usual rant; just cut-and-paste it in here. Seriously, NBC. You’re just doing this on purpose now. The tiny - tiny - amount of Fin did not make up for it.
The actual case was okay, but I don’t have that many impressions of it because I really didn’t care. The “helpless victim does something risqué on the Intarwebz and ends up getting kidnapped and molested for it” has been done one point three billion times on every crime drama ever since the Internet was invented; dressing the case up with a Second Life clone didn’t change it all. Also not good were how we were basically supposed to point and laugh at all the perverts and freaks who turned out to be pasty, nebbishly librarians or college students. Gosh, I haven’t seen that stereotype before.
Also, the woman waiting in the cabin at the end just made my eyes roll. If the entire case had been better I might have bought that. Maybe. As it was, it was just another ridiculous tag-on to an already ridiculous case (for example, Victim’s avatar just happened to look like Perp’s old abductee? I do not buy that coincidence, especially since that avatar’s outfit and style is basically a template for every schoolgirl stripper ever to take the stage. You can’t tell me that was enough to set him off.).
Another Point of Weird: I can’t believe that Victim’s friend is just going to sit there and chat innocently about playing a child prostitute online to the police. She acted like it was absolutely no big deal. Maybe there’s something else going on, but I think most people’d be a little embarrassed narrating this kind of thing to the cops - or would be a little less enthusiastic, at least.
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You know what? I officially don’t fucking care what the rest of fandom thinks anymore. I like GSR. I’m not gonna apologize for it. No one is going to persuade me otherwise and I don’t give a damn how much everyone else hates it.
You have no idea how liberating it was to type those words. *fistpump*
Can I say that I liked Ecklie in this episode without incurring to much fannish wrath? He was appropriately delicate around Sara - obviously, coming down with the hammer of IAB wrath on a woman who recently escaped death would be somewhat rude - but his sarcasm when he approached Grissom won me over. “No one wants to talk about your love life less than me.” Snerk.
Thus far, I’m liking the way that the “GSR’s Canon?!” revelation is being handled. It’s still fairly subtle - even the conversations between the two are nicely restrained. I like the way Sara’s move to swing shift is revealed; I like the rapport between them; most of all, I like how Grissom and Sara are a topic of conversation amongst the other CSIs, but not the only topic of conversation - it’s not hammered into our heads. And, as suspected, Grissom has a radically different concept of what “becoming intimate” means than normal people do. Hee.
Aw, Warrick finally got divorced. :( Sad, but I suppose it was only a matter of time, given how his marriage was constantly in flux. Good news is, this means that the Warrick/Catherine chemistry is free to bubble away as enthusiastically as before. And bubble it does - just look at that nice long moment between them when the lights go back on. Oh yes. My ship lives, and I am pleased.
Speaking of which, favorite moment of the night? When Brass turns the lights off and explains the concept of the Blind restaurant.
Catherine:…Did he just leave?
Warrick: I think so.
David: Um, guys? I’ve got a dead body here…?
Quite a lot of giggles from my end of the TV, yes there were.
Pair of good cases this week - both interesting, both with believable perpetrators and suspects, although I found the murder at the restaurant a little more implausible. However, the primary case made up for that by ending in a tragic accident, which is always a favorite of mine since it’s surprising and sad. (And for that bizarre, surreal "Blue Danube" opener - reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey.) And the not-Playboy bunnies and restaurant customers were dumb and/or strange enough to be amusing without grating overmuch on the nerves.
I’m inclined to agree with Catherine, though. Blind is a sort of dumb concept for a restaurant. I mean, how do you see where to bite? How do you avoid skewering yourself with a fork or something?
There was only one rather irritating point of Bad Science this week, but as it was coming from someone who wasn’t supposed to be an actual scientist I could refrain from screaming and throwing things at the TV. I might have yelled, though. Just a little.
Best part of the episode was the ending scene, with all the CSIs cavorting around in go-carts like a bunch of teenagers. Nick’s enthusiasm was utterly adorkable, and it was so amusing and unexpected to see everyone else driving around in oversize helmets that it ended the episode on a happy note. Yeah, I know, CSI isn’t supposed to end on a happy note, but after the grim “Living Doll/Dead Doll” arc and the gruesome Miniature Killer, this more lighthearted episode felt like a breath of fresh air.
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Yeah, the entire fandom’s said it, but I’ll say it again: WTF NEW CREDITS MUSIC WHERE DID MY CREDITS MUSIC GO WHAT MANNER OF MADNESS IS THIS.
Ahem. That’s all the capslock for now.
Small confession: I was a little bit worried about this episode when the trailer hit. Yes, I know trailers are supposed to play up any drama any episode may have, but I don’t believe we’ve ever seen Alex cry before, and I was worried that we’d end up going overboard on the histrionics and have Alex do some serious character-breaking. (Just for the record: I found “Endgame” to be a little overdramatic for my taste, and subsequent viewings of “Renewal” tell me that, while I liked it better, it’s still skirting the line.)
But CI avoided that beautifully. I mean, obviously Alex would be upset if the murder of her husband was re-opened. I was puzzled as to why they brought it up now, when they’ve mentioned it for several seasons but never shown her having this much of a reaction, but hey, it’s a premiere. They’re allowed to do that during a premiere.
That said, on a show like CI, I have a mixed reaction to getting into the characters’ pasts. One of the reasons I liked CI, what distinguished it from SVU and TOS, was how utterly shorn it was of the characters’ personal lives. The main characters were strong enough and distinctive enough and commanding enough that they held the stories on their own - we didn’t need to know anything about them except what we could infer from their dialogue and personality. Not that the main characters on the other L&O shows aren’t strong or commanding, but the CI cast was…different. Their dynamic was different. Their methods were different. And that difference made them watchable even when we were given no details about their lives. That, and CI episodes tend to take us into the heads of the criminals, so there really wasn’t time or space to investigate the investigators.
Of course, it could be that SVU’s recent veer towards character-centricity means that now all but two of my crime dramas are stuffed full of the character’s Very Very Dramatic Personal Lives and sometimes I just want to watch a damn procedural. But *shrug* reruns are good for that.
However, if we are marching in the inevitable direction of character-centricity, at least it’s being handled fairly well. I can’t say I’m crazy about Eames suddenly losing her professional demeanor when confronted with her husband’s old case - refusing to consider that the man convicted of his murder might be innocent, for example. I can deal with her yelling at Bobby, and I can swallow (uneasily) her crying in the evidence room (AND CONTAMINATING EVIDENCE MISS EAMES!), but I didn’t buy her sudden loss of reason where her husband’s murder was concerned.
Bobby’s half of things, however, was handled much better, and once the evidence confirmed that Eames’ husband had been killed by someone else and we got back to the Eames I’m used to, that case went much better. I particularly liked her attitude when she arrested her husband’s real murderer - she was angry, obviously, but she kept her cool in a way she didn’t with the original suspect. Her last line to his killer - “He was a good cop” - was particularly nice.
Bobby was also back to his usual self, poking around where he isn’t supposed to be. :) I’m glad the fallout of “Endgame” is getting addressed here, particularly as it takes place so shortly afterward. Particularly nice was “I’ll tear this place apart…’cause I’m the whackjob”. Again, his reaction wasn’t overdone, but it was nice to see how this is affecting him - the revelations of “Endgame”, his reputation with the rest of the force, his knack for getting into trouble just by being who he is. Also nice was his dynamic with Eames this episode; he’s going to pry into her husband’s case regardless of whether or not she wants him to, because to him, that’s in the best interests of the current case (and he’s interested in it), but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to stick by her and back her up throughout the investigation.
On that note, how bizarre was it to see Bobby as the reasonable half of an argument? O__o
Final thought: I am redoubling my psychic efforts to get Holt McCallany his own show. Hey, it worked with Jeffrey Donovan; I think Holt’s just as deserving. He’s a fascinating actor to watch, and I kind of hate the fact that every character he plays gets screwed over in some way or another. (Why yes, I am still angry about the death of Hagen. Why do you ask?)
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I nap now.
Anyway, didn't manage to get them all done, but here are a few, tossed out for your amusement. Also, I've decided I'm not going to do long reviews of Chuck, as no one else I know watches it.
-----
I’ll give you credit where it’s due, SVU. You’ve yet to inspire the blind, frothing rage in me that, say, S5 of Miami managed on a weekly basis (well, except for that one time). But…but still you disappoint me, SVU. I think the only reason I can’t direct that kind of wrath towards you is that I just can’t bring myself to care anymore. You’ve already broken my heart. Rage is useless now.
For starters, you didn’t just have gratuitous sex onscreen. Oh no. You had an entire gratuitous RAPE. The case was solved in fifteen minutes and served no purpose other than to lead in to the main case - and, apparently, to show a sobbing, helpless young woman in her nightgown. It was exploitative and pointless, and I don’t approve.
I mean, one of the good things about this show was that, in spite of the fact that it was about sex crimes, in its early seasons it managed to avoid being exploitative, titillating garbage whose only purpose was to shock. We saw the gruesome aftermath of rape but never had to sit through dimly-lit, fetishistic sex scenes of the rape itself.
This? This intro? It’s exactly what you weren’t supposed to do.
Now, if you built an entire case around it - on whether the kid really was acting on his sexual urges in his sleep, whether or not he could be held culpable for what he did, if he was really having an episode or if he was lying - then you could have made something of that. And it would have even been a court-centered episode! With lots of Casey! This would have been a good thing! But for goodness sake, don’t just use it as an attention-getting throwaway. There were plenty of other ways you could have worked in the primary case. I can’t think of any at the moment, but there were, I promise.
No Munch today. Y’all know my usual rant; just cut-and-paste it in here. Seriously, NBC. You’re just doing this on purpose now. The tiny - tiny - amount of Fin did not make up for it.
The actual case was okay, but I don’t have that many impressions of it because I really didn’t care. The “helpless victim does something risqué on the Intarwebz and ends up getting kidnapped and molested for it” has been done one point three billion times on every crime drama ever since the Internet was invented; dressing the case up with a Second Life clone didn’t change it all. Also not good were how we were basically supposed to point and laugh at all the perverts and freaks who turned out to be pasty, nebbishly librarians or college students. Gosh, I haven’t seen that stereotype before.
Also, the woman waiting in the cabin at the end just made my eyes roll. If the entire case had been better I might have bought that. Maybe. As it was, it was just another ridiculous tag-on to an already ridiculous case (for example, Victim’s avatar just happened to look like Perp’s old abductee? I do not buy that coincidence, especially since that avatar’s outfit and style is basically a template for every schoolgirl stripper ever to take the stage. You can’t tell me that was enough to set him off.).
Another Point of Weird: I can’t believe that Victim’s friend is just going to sit there and chat innocently about playing a child prostitute online to the police. She acted like it was absolutely no big deal. Maybe there’s something else going on, but I think most people’d be a little embarrassed narrating this kind of thing to the cops - or would be a little less enthusiastic, at least.
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You know what? I officially don’t fucking care what the rest of fandom thinks anymore. I like GSR. I’m not gonna apologize for it. No one is going to persuade me otherwise and I don’t give a damn how much everyone else hates it.
You have no idea how liberating it was to type those words. *fistpump*
Can I say that I liked Ecklie in this episode without incurring to much fannish wrath? He was appropriately delicate around Sara - obviously, coming down with the hammer of IAB wrath on a woman who recently escaped death would be somewhat rude - but his sarcasm when he approached Grissom won me over. “No one wants to talk about your love life less than me.” Snerk.
Thus far, I’m liking the way that the “GSR’s Canon?!” revelation is being handled. It’s still fairly subtle - even the conversations between the two are nicely restrained. I like the way Sara’s move to swing shift is revealed; I like the rapport between them; most of all, I like how Grissom and Sara are a topic of conversation amongst the other CSIs, but not the only topic of conversation - it’s not hammered into our heads. And, as suspected, Grissom has a radically different concept of what “becoming intimate” means than normal people do. Hee.
Aw, Warrick finally got divorced. :( Sad, but I suppose it was only a matter of time, given how his marriage was constantly in flux. Good news is, this means that the Warrick/Catherine chemistry is free to bubble away as enthusiastically as before. And bubble it does - just look at that nice long moment between them when the lights go back on. Oh yes. My ship lives, and I am pleased.
Speaking of which, favorite moment of the night? When Brass turns the lights off and explains the concept of the Blind restaurant.
Catherine:…Did he just leave?
Warrick: I think so.
David: Um, guys? I’ve got a dead body here…?
Quite a lot of giggles from my end of the TV, yes there were.
Pair of good cases this week - both interesting, both with believable perpetrators and suspects, although I found the murder at the restaurant a little more implausible. However, the primary case made up for that by ending in a tragic accident, which is always a favorite of mine since it’s surprising and sad. (And for that bizarre, surreal "Blue Danube" opener - reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey.) And the not-Playboy bunnies and restaurant customers were dumb and/or strange enough to be amusing without grating overmuch on the nerves.
I’m inclined to agree with Catherine, though. Blind is a sort of dumb concept for a restaurant. I mean, how do you see where to bite? How do you avoid skewering yourself with a fork or something?
There was only one rather irritating point of Bad Science this week, but as it was coming from someone who wasn’t supposed to be an actual scientist I could refrain from screaming and throwing things at the TV. I might have yelled, though. Just a little.
Best part of the episode was the ending scene, with all the CSIs cavorting around in go-carts like a bunch of teenagers. Nick’s enthusiasm was utterly adorkable, and it was so amusing and unexpected to see everyone else driving around in oversize helmets that it ended the episode on a happy note. Yeah, I know, CSI isn’t supposed to end on a happy note, but after the grim “Living Doll/Dead Doll” arc and the gruesome Miniature Killer, this more lighthearted episode felt like a breath of fresh air.
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-----
Yeah, the entire fandom’s said it, but I’ll say it again: WTF NEW CREDITS MUSIC WHERE DID MY CREDITS MUSIC GO WHAT MANNER OF MADNESS IS THIS.
Ahem. That’s all the capslock for now.
Small confession: I was a little bit worried about this episode when the trailer hit. Yes, I know trailers are supposed to play up any drama any episode may have, but I don’t believe we’ve ever seen Alex cry before, and I was worried that we’d end up going overboard on the histrionics and have Alex do some serious character-breaking. (Just for the record: I found “Endgame” to be a little overdramatic for my taste, and subsequent viewings of “Renewal” tell me that, while I liked it better, it’s still skirting the line.)
But CI avoided that beautifully. I mean, obviously Alex would be upset if the murder of her husband was re-opened. I was puzzled as to why they brought it up now, when they’ve mentioned it for several seasons but never shown her having this much of a reaction, but hey, it’s a premiere. They’re allowed to do that during a premiere.
That said, on a show like CI, I have a mixed reaction to getting into the characters’ pasts. One of the reasons I liked CI, what distinguished it from SVU and TOS, was how utterly shorn it was of the characters’ personal lives. The main characters were strong enough and distinctive enough and commanding enough that they held the stories on their own - we didn’t need to know anything about them except what we could infer from their dialogue and personality. Not that the main characters on the other L&O shows aren’t strong or commanding, but the CI cast was…different. Their dynamic was different. Their methods were different. And that difference made them watchable even when we were given no details about their lives. That, and CI episodes tend to take us into the heads of the criminals, so there really wasn’t time or space to investigate the investigators.
Of course, it could be that SVU’s recent veer towards character-centricity means that now all but two of my crime dramas are stuffed full of the character’s Very Very Dramatic Personal Lives and sometimes I just want to watch a damn procedural. But *shrug* reruns are good for that.
However, if we are marching in the inevitable direction of character-centricity, at least it’s being handled fairly well. I can’t say I’m crazy about Eames suddenly losing her professional demeanor when confronted with her husband’s old case - refusing to consider that the man convicted of his murder might be innocent, for example. I can deal with her yelling at Bobby, and I can swallow (uneasily) her crying in the evidence room (AND CONTAMINATING EVIDENCE MISS EAMES!), but I didn’t buy her sudden loss of reason where her husband’s murder was concerned.
Bobby’s half of things, however, was handled much better, and once the evidence confirmed that Eames’ husband had been killed by someone else and we got back to the Eames I’m used to, that case went much better. I particularly liked her attitude when she arrested her husband’s real murderer - she was angry, obviously, but she kept her cool in a way she didn’t with the original suspect. Her last line to his killer - “He was a good cop” - was particularly nice.
Bobby was also back to his usual self, poking around where he isn’t supposed to be. :) I’m glad the fallout of “Endgame” is getting addressed here, particularly as it takes place so shortly afterward. Particularly nice was “I’ll tear this place apart…’cause I’m the whackjob”. Again, his reaction wasn’t overdone, but it was nice to see how this is affecting him - the revelations of “Endgame”, his reputation with the rest of the force, his knack for getting into trouble just by being who he is. Also nice was his dynamic with Eames this episode; he’s going to pry into her husband’s case regardless of whether or not she wants him to, because to him, that’s in the best interests of the current case (and he’s interested in it), but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to stick by her and back her up throughout the investigation.
On that note, how bizarre was it to see Bobby as the reasonable half of an argument? O__o
Final thought: I am redoubling my psychic efforts to get Holt McCallany his own show. Hey, it worked with Jeffrey Donovan; I think Holt’s just as deserving. He’s a fascinating actor to watch, and I kind of hate the fact that every character he plays gets screwed over in some way or another. (Why yes, I am still angry about the death of Hagen. Why do you ask?)
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I nap now.