TS- "Vow of Silence"
So if I'm gakking this correctly, Vow of Silence would be the Season One finale. It's also the first one shot entirely on location (ETA: unless the monastery interiors were studio sets). We have only the two leads, none of the usual the co-starring cast.(Speaking of which, I am so looking forward to meeting Conner and Rafe and H in upcoming seasons- feel as if I know them already just from reading the fics. Hell, I feel I could write Naomi, and I've never so much as heard her voice yet!) The camera work and lighting is uniformly good throughout. Set dec and costuming, all good. And Garett gets some good scenes one-on-one with his real-life dad.
I'd like to think that there's a general vibe of relaxed happiness in the air, which could be attributed to both "yay! we're on hiatus!" and "YAY! We got renewed!" This might explain why the guys both look just extra-gorgeous in this ep, the pair of 'em.
Except for the teaser scene, almost everything was shot on location at a small monastery (which looks like it may have been the real thing) which means that- praise the lord- there is no Bitch of the Week. The Brothers and the eventual Bad Guys are all well cast. No complaints.
Brandon Maggert: just checked his imdb listing, and the guy works pretty steadily. It's kind of odd that his two famous offspring, Garett and his half-sister Fiona Apple, show a marked resemblance to each other, and yet not much to their father. Wonder what he looked like when he was young?
My friend and co-conspirator lit_gal notes with suspicion that it seems vastly improbably that a monastery- a religious community based in part on the tenet of celibacy- would offer double-occupancy cells. Single cells? Of course. Dormitories? Go for it. But two to a room? Bun-chicka-wah-wah! < /cheesy porn!music>
She also thought it was hilarious how Blair chivvied Jim into handing over his phone and gun when asked by the Abbot. My two favourite Married Moments were: on the basketball court, when (referring to the vow of silence) Jim cluelessly asks, "you guys still do that?" and Blair glares at him with a snort of exasperation; I'd love to see if that was written into the script or if it was one of their wonderful improvs. As it was, I barked with laughter, prompting the husband to ask from the other room what was so funny. I explained, and he nodded in recognition: he's seen and heard me do the exact same thing to him.
The other such moment: at the dinner table, when Jim grudgingly folds his hands for grace, and Blair reaches over with one hand and bats his elbows off the table. Heh. Done that to my husband, too. With accompanying glare, which Jim also got.
The final action montage was well wrought. Don't know if they used actual Enigma/Delerium for the background music, or if the composer just ripped off the sound wholesale, but it really worked in the action!Blair scene. So much for the wimpy pacifist sometimes drawn in fanon- canon Blair can certainly stick up for himself. In Siege he almost booted a psycho out of a helicopter; here, he knocked a gunman out of a second-storey window. Go Blair!
In Jim's fight scene, he seems to do a lot of the choreography without benefit of stunt double. Yes, that was definitely him doing a graceful high kick to relieve the bad guy of his gun. Mmm. Love a flexible man with muscles.
Okay, now for the obligatory costume notes: in this ep the leads were well dressed. Why do I say that? Because their wardrobe was entirely unremarkable. The clothes did not draw attention to themselves: that is the goal of most modern costuming. As I was told when starting a Boots and Shoes gig at an opera company: "if you've done your job right, nobody will notice your work."
Having said that, I think Blair looked quite edible in his tan suede jacket and nicely-fitting faded jeans. And Jim always looks hunky and heroic in his jackets and khakis. He was probably pretty easy to shop for.
I bet the monk costumes were all built in-house rather than rented. Habits and cowls take a lot of fabric, but are relatively fast to make, and the (probable) wool-cotton blend fabric is not that expensive.
Picky point, but one that drove me nuts: the hems of the cowls (the separate hood/shoulder mantle) were all ripply. Argh! This happens when you're trying to sew a rolled hem on a curve. The solution is to carefully and completely steam-press the hem *before* machine-stitching it- the steam can shrink the fabric into shape, in the hands of a skilled worker. Many seamstresses will skip that step and try to steam out the ripples later- I can tell you from bitter experience that it just won't work.
As my work in film and television included an awful lot of ironing and steaming- or "prepping", as the department heads so breezily term it, and doesn't that sound a lot more fun than ironing?- I can't help but notice if collars and shirts are wrinkled on camera. Just like with footwear... if the job's done right, I won't even notice it.
Looking at the screencap sites (and how much do we love Starfox? Hint: LOTS) it looks like next week's ep will be Flight, which appears to be wall-to-wall slashy goodness. And that's even without the trouser lizard. I can hardly wait!