(no subject)
Ugh. I feel dreadful this morning. I don't know if it's because I'm coming down with something or if it's merely because it's TMI time of the month. The flu has been going around at work, so I hope it's not that because jesus fuck, I do not need to get ill at the moment.
---
I started watching Suits the other day because somebody told me it was good. And it is! Okay, so I'm only in ep 4 or 5 at the moment, but so far it's been very satisfying. It's kind of what I have been missing about television. I like that the basic idea is that there is this character who is extraordinary/has special gifts (in this case: photographic memory or some such thing), as per today's cliché á la Mentalist or House or Castle or whatever that show is with Tim Roth in*, but he isn't a superhuman cocky bastard who just breezes in and solves ALL THE CASES with his SPESHUL SKILL. No, instead he, despite his skill, is definitely a rookie who makes rookie mistakes, and the people he works with don't rely on him because, ffs, they are professional and they have done this far longer than Mr Special Skills so they do know their shit, buddy. And I like that, instead of a big mysterious movie-like plot line that the entire show revolves around á la Dexter and company**, we have a fairly subtle story arch that is based on personal character dramas to drive it forward: no complex stuff, no whodunnits, just simple character work and you keep watching because you really want to know what happens with these people as people. With almost a decade of television that's kind of been trying to become movies because that approach is trendy, I've been missing this approach quite a lot. I don't know if the show will continue like that or at some point just start sucking ass in other ways, but for now, I'm happy.
Also: Donna.
*I'm not saying that these aren't entertaining, (fairly) well-written and engaging shows in their own way or that the premise is automatically bad, just that it has been a television fad for quite some time and it is getting annoying for the sheer quantity of shows like this. Kind of like when CSI rolled around and then suddenly everybody was trying to come up with the most imaginative and unheard-of new police/federal investigation unit, preferably with a nice acronym.
**Again, nothing wrong with that but it's been overdone.
---
I started watching Suits the other day because somebody told me it was good. And it is! Okay, so I'm only in ep 4 or 5 at the moment, but so far it's been very satisfying. It's kind of what I have been missing about television. I like that the basic idea is that there is this character who is extraordinary/has special gifts (in this case: photographic memory or some such thing), as per today's cliché á la Mentalist or House or Castle or whatever that show is with Tim Roth in*, but he isn't a superhuman cocky bastard who just breezes in and solves ALL THE CASES with his SPESHUL SKILL. No, instead he, despite his skill, is definitely a rookie who makes rookie mistakes, and the people he works with don't rely on him because, ffs, they are professional and they have done this far longer than Mr Special Skills so they do know their shit, buddy. And I like that, instead of a big mysterious movie-like plot line that the entire show revolves around á la Dexter and company**, we have a fairly subtle story arch that is based on personal character dramas to drive it forward: no complex stuff, no whodunnits, just simple character work and you keep watching because you really want to know what happens with these people as people. With almost a decade of television that's kind of been trying to become movies because that approach is trendy, I've been missing this approach quite a lot. I don't know if the show will continue like that or at some point just start sucking ass in other ways, but for now, I'm happy.
Also: Donna.
*I'm not saying that these aren't entertaining, (fairly) well-written and engaging shows in their own way or that the premise is automatically bad, just that it has been a television fad for quite some time and it is getting annoying for the sheer quantity of shows like this. Kind of like when CSI rolled around and then suddenly everybody was trying to come up with the most imaginative and unheard-of new police/federal investigation unit, preferably with a nice acronym.
**Again, nothing wrong with that but it's been overdone.