Highly delayed thinkery
So delayed all the good reveals are taken, and no one really cares any more. Anyway!
OK, so, a three month coma patient should not be able to walk right off the bat due to muscle deterioration. That has no bearing on anything, and I don't come to this show for realism, I just had to get that off my chest.
1983 was interesting becasue the big revolutions had ended. The New Romantics, a bold underground reaction to 70's culture, moved into the mainstream, like with the hippies and beats before them. The unions were being quietly crushed, Thatcher and the conservatives were secure, free love had been killed by AIDS, health and safety was born. The most reactionary thing to happen was Thriller (if that does not feature in an episode prominantly, I will be so sad) and that happened to America.
Thing is, Alex is coming back to a dying world. You could see it in the colours, in the attitudes. They're being choked by their society, yet this is where she feels more comfortable. In all the 21st century images of Alex she's surrounded or closed in somehow, just look at the claustrophobic curtain of black that surrounds her the first time we see her, the mesh shelving we pan ovver to get to her, the close angle on her reaction to the talking televisions. (I love the team. I love them all! "We're not together any more but that's cool. And the gang.") She's frozen and isolated. The first colour and movement are in the western movie/music video gene-dream. (Subtle!) The paradox confuses me, but not as much as every other bloody thing on this show.
The first we see of Jim Keats is interesting. Wide eyed, worried, yet already a bit creepy. "I read all about you," nothing good ever comes of that sentance. Particularly his tense, which is quite lost in text, but it could be present or future and I would really like it if Jim is also lying in a hospital bed somewhere. That would be very interesting.
From Picadilly Circus to a cell with a window onto what might be season one Alex, still in that same head shot coma, making this a coma dream in a coma dream? And a policeman, dead for many years, appearing in archaic uniform and half a head and I bet you a dollar it is Gene. hollywoodgrrl said it first, and has a picspam to prove it, but it does make a weird kind of sense. ("Maybe you're real.") The whole of 1983 is, maybe, his construction? His little corner of the afterlife, or something? Which begs the obvious question: why? And why did he die? I don't know about suicide, I've never believed the Theory, if only due to the lack of suicidal motivations in LoM. But there's always been a theme of parental betrayal and police corruption, and I can't remember if Gene ever mentioned his father doing anything but drinking. Was his father a copper too? A bent one who killed his son? I don't know, I came up with that one on the plane.
Also in that moment, the clock stops on 9:06. Jim Keats' does too. I didn't think of it until hollywoodgrrl wondered if Christianity was going to be the overarching mythology of the show, but Keats does make a massive point about being brought up that way. So I found my copy and it's Daniel, chapter 6, Daniel in the lion's den, protected from the ravening beasts by his faith in god. One good man, saved by simply being good.
Interesting, that. I don't want to think Faith and God are going to have much to do with the final reveal, but I'm fine with stealing the metaphors. Is it Jim against the Lion, or is it referring to Alex? Hell, is Gene even the lion he's claimed to be? Or is it a big giant misdirect?
Speaking of misdirects, Dorothy in her red check and placard signs on the telly may be a Molly replacement, but she's also an echo of the Test Pattern Girl. There's even something on the couch that's got the same colour scheme as the clown. And Alex found her by listening to a television? That's quite awesome, really, in a sneaky meta way, and a clever trick to remind us this is a sequal, it's part of a bigger story. In that bigger story, Alex is not the protagonist. Even though she had that massively transparent conversation about being needed and falling, this series isn't all about her blatant love for Gene.
It's just about Gene. We know nothing about him. He had a junkie brother? A wife who left him? A soft spot for old dears and wacky DIs? He's a man who inspires stories. They've given us so little it could go almost anywhere, and that last conversation with Jim indicates something pretty insane. I can't wait.
Jim Keats! Schizophrenic Jim, hiding behind his glasses, reflecting. He's going to help Alex? Or does he just think he's helping Alex? And what the fuck was that mid-hate-rant dry mouth, Gene pours him a drink, "Maybe you'd prefer water," "No thanks," resume hate-rant? That whole scene seemed out of character and a little bit out of the realm of human interaction. They kept saying things to each other that seem unconnected, and I really hope something happens to explain this whole bit. Why does Gene mention his dart score so specifically? Why does Jim pause before saying "eroded" and "dismantle"? I could be reading way too much into it. It could just be a badly written scene. But it feels purposeful! And they're building association between Sam, what Gene did three years ago and the ghost who is probably also Gene. WHAT? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Next time: more sexual tension and secrets, Shaz quits Hunt's kingdom (Keats smirks) and turns up yelling on television. Is that what happens when you stop playing by the rules of the game? Or is Shaz just pregnant?
So many questions. But that's why I love this show, that's why I'm probably going to love Lost if I ever get around to watching it. You can't assume anything.
One more thing: who pulled the sheet off the Quattro?
Also, Dr Who is a pile of fun. Eleven, though there were moments when he was channeling/ripping off Tennant, did enough interesting things with the material to convince me to keep watching. And I'm rather fond of Amy.
OK, so, a three month coma patient should not be able to walk right off the bat due to muscle deterioration. That has no bearing on anything, and I don't come to this show for realism, I just had to get that off my chest.
1983 was interesting becasue the big revolutions had ended. The New Romantics, a bold underground reaction to 70's culture, moved into the mainstream, like with the hippies and beats before them. The unions were being quietly crushed, Thatcher and the conservatives were secure, free love had been killed by AIDS, health and safety was born. The most reactionary thing to happen was Thriller (if that does not feature in an episode prominantly, I will be so sad) and that happened to America.
Thing is, Alex is coming back to a dying world. You could see it in the colours, in the attitudes. They're being choked by their society, yet this is where she feels more comfortable. In all the 21st century images of Alex she's surrounded or closed in somehow, just look at the claustrophobic curtain of black that surrounds her the first time we see her, the mesh shelving we pan ovver to get to her, the close angle on her reaction to the talking televisions. (I love the team. I love them all! "We're not together any more but that's cool. And the gang.") She's frozen and isolated. The first colour and movement are in the western movie/music video gene-dream. (Subtle!) The paradox confuses me, but not as much as every other bloody thing on this show.
The first we see of Jim Keats is interesting. Wide eyed, worried, yet already a bit creepy. "I read all about you," nothing good ever comes of that sentance. Particularly his tense, which is quite lost in text, but it could be present or future and I would really like it if Jim is also lying in a hospital bed somewhere. That would be very interesting.
From Picadilly Circus to a cell with a window onto what might be season one Alex, still in that same head shot coma, making this a coma dream in a coma dream? And a policeman, dead for many years, appearing in archaic uniform and half a head and I bet you a dollar it is Gene. hollywoodgrrl said it first, and has a picspam to prove it, but it does make a weird kind of sense. ("Maybe you're real.") The whole of 1983 is, maybe, his construction? His little corner of the afterlife, or something? Which begs the obvious question: why? And why did he die? I don't know about suicide, I've never believed the Theory, if only due to the lack of suicidal motivations in LoM. But there's always been a theme of parental betrayal and police corruption, and I can't remember if Gene ever mentioned his father doing anything but drinking. Was his father a copper too? A bent one who killed his son? I don't know, I came up with that one on the plane.
Also in that moment, the clock stops on 9:06. Jim Keats' does too. I didn't think of it until hollywoodgrrl wondered if Christianity was going to be the overarching mythology of the show, but Keats does make a massive point about being brought up that way. So I found my copy and it's Daniel, chapter 6, Daniel in the lion's den, protected from the ravening beasts by his faith in god. One good man, saved by simply being good.
Interesting, that. I don't want to think Faith and God are going to have much to do with the final reveal, but I'm fine with stealing the metaphors. Is it Jim against the Lion, or is it referring to Alex? Hell, is Gene even the lion he's claimed to be? Or is it a big giant misdirect?
Speaking of misdirects, Dorothy in her red check and placard signs on the telly may be a Molly replacement, but she's also an echo of the Test Pattern Girl. There's even something on the couch that's got the same colour scheme as the clown. And Alex found her by listening to a television? That's quite awesome, really, in a sneaky meta way, and a clever trick to remind us this is a sequal, it's part of a bigger story. In that bigger story, Alex is not the protagonist. Even though she had that massively transparent conversation about being needed and falling, this series isn't all about her blatant love for Gene.
It's just about Gene. We know nothing about him. He had a junkie brother? A wife who left him? A soft spot for old dears and wacky DIs? He's a man who inspires stories. They've given us so little it could go almost anywhere, and that last conversation with Jim indicates something pretty insane. I can't wait.
Jim Keats! Schizophrenic Jim, hiding behind his glasses, reflecting. He's going to help Alex? Or does he just think he's helping Alex? And what the fuck was that mid-hate-rant dry mouth, Gene pours him a drink, "Maybe you'd prefer water," "No thanks," resume hate-rant? That whole scene seemed out of character and a little bit out of the realm of human interaction. They kept saying things to each other that seem unconnected, and I really hope something happens to explain this whole bit. Why does Gene mention his dart score so specifically? Why does Jim pause before saying "eroded" and "dismantle"? I could be reading way too much into it. It could just be a badly written scene. But it feels purposeful! And they're building association between Sam, what Gene did three years ago and the ghost who is probably also Gene. WHAT? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Next time: more sexual tension and secrets, Shaz quits Hunt's kingdom (Keats smirks) and turns up yelling on television. Is that what happens when you stop playing by the rules of the game? Or is Shaz just pregnant?
So many questions. But that's why I love this show, that's why I'm probably going to love Lost if I ever get around to watching it. You can't assume anything.
One more thing: who pulled the sheet off the Quattro?
Also, Dr Who is a pile of fun. Eleven, though there were moments when he was channeling/ripping off Tennant, did enough interesting things with the material to convince me to keep watching. And I'm rather fond of Amy.