Walk Into the Heart of You
Tonight's Community was so delightfully bizarre. I'm too young to fully appreciate the G.I. Joe references in tonight's episodes, but general cultural osmosis and exposure to late 80s, early 90s cartoons is enough to convince me that this was spot on. I was prepared for this to be a gimmick, if a funny one, but this was just as character-relevant as the Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas episode, and perhaps even a little bit darker. While there were a ton of laugh out loud moments, Jeff's brush with pop culture-related psychosis was driven by his fear of death and grappling with his mortality, and there was a genuine pathos to the idea of just turned 40 Jeff turning to a fifth of scotch and some ill-advised shady "revivifying" pills to regain his youth.
I've always liked Community's darkness, finding it a welcome balance against sitcom zaniness that gives it emotional heft, and this episode actually pulled back from that darkness more than I would have liked. The hugs and laughter closing scene was just too pat for me. I didn't want a downer ending or anything, but I was hoping for more bittersweetness. It didn't ruin the episode for me, but it did knock it down from an A- to a B+ in my personal grading rubric.
In other sitcom news, Brooklyn Nine-Nine crept up on me. I thought it would just be the kind of show that I'd watch while doing chores or whenever I remembered to catch the latest episode, but then I ended up really into it. It's just a great ensemble, and none of its humor is mean-spirited. I'm not as invested as I am with Community, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine has really become one of my favorite shows with the latter half of its season. Now that it's first season is finished, I really recommend that anyone who held out on watching it give it a try.
And moving on from sitcoms, I'm glad Elementary came back tonight! And lo and behold, some more Joan backstory! I am greedy and want MORE, especially since this instance was just a sort of isolated island in the sea of her history, but I liked that we get more of a sense of how much responsibility Joan takes on herself and the high standards she holds herself to.
Sherlock seemed especially adorable in this episode what with the wanting to go on a treasure hunting cruise with Joan (PLEASE GIVE ME THIS EPISODE, I NEED IT TO LIVE), the picking out her clothes again (one of my favorite running jokes, all the better this time because he picked them out down to the scarf and she clearly did not go with his choices), waking her up with Clyde (in a turtle cozy knitted by Ms. Hudson :D ), and willingness to sing songs from Frozen in pursuit of leads from Everyone (it is a TRAGEDY that this happened offscreen). I also really liked that he was the one basically playing therapist this episode. It's lovely that Joan and Sherlock do not at all have a one-sided relationship, and they both offer each other this kind of support, even when they're both respectively wary of being offered the support or offering it.
Here is today's poem:
"Tim Riggins Speaks of Waterfalls" by Nico Alvarado
You want to know what it was like?
It was like my whole life had a fever.
Whole acres of me were on fire.
The sun talked dirty in my ear all night.
I couldn’t drive past a wheatfield without doing it violence.
I couldn’t even look at a bridge.
I used to go out in the brush sometimes,
So far out there no one could hear me,
And just burn.
I felt all right then.
I couldn’t hurt anyone else.
I was just a pillar of fire.
It wasn’t the burning so much as the loneliness.
It wasn’t the loneliness so much as the fear of being alone.
Christ look at you pouring from the rocks.
You’re so cold you’re boiling over.
You’ve got stars in your hair.
I don’t want to be around you.
I don’t want to drink you in.
I want to walk into the heart of you
And never walk back out.
This entry was originally posted at http://yasaman.dreamwidth.org/450110.html, with
comments there.
I've always liked Community's darkness, finding it a welcome balance against sitcom zaniness that gives it emotional heft, and this episode actually pulled back from that darkness more than I would have liked. The hugs and laughter closing scene was just too pat for me. I didn't want a downer ending or anything, but I was hoping for more bittersweetness. It didn't ruin the episode for me, but it did knock it down from an A- to a B+ in my personal grading rubric.
In other sitcom news, Brooklyn Nine-Nine crept up on me. I thought it would just be the kind of show that I'd watch while doing chores or whenever I remembered to catch the latest episode, but then I ended up really into it. It's just a great ensemble, and none of its humor is mean-spirited. I'm not as invested as I am with Community, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine has really become one of my favorite shows with the latter half of its season. Now that it's first season is finished, I really recommend that anyone who held out on watching it give it a try.
- CAPTAIN HOLT. I love Andre Braugher as Captain Holt so much. There's just so much hilarity in his deadpan responses and in the way he wrangles the precinct and trolls Jake. I love the way the show finds humor in who Captain Holt is as a gay black man: not in any jokes about stereotypes or in treating him as a spectacle, but in always couching the humor as coming from his perspective. That is, we're not intended to laugh at him and at his identity, we're intended to laugh with him and because of him. I don't know if I'm explaining it right, but Holt is never the butt of the joke in an ugly way.
- Terry Jeffords! Terry Crewes is an absolute treasure, and his character is so hilarious and so sweet. I love how many different facets his character has and how just when you think you know Terry, something new pops up. He was an art major! He did a year of study abroad in Japan! He's willing to go on a crazy diet to support his wife even though he gets kind of scary when he's hungry!
- Oh Santiago. Amy Santiago is just a little bit too relateable for me, and is frequently a source of second hand embarrassment. But she is adorable and awkward while still being great at her job, and she has such great chemistry with almost the whole cast. I'm really a little too invested in her because ahahaha overidentifying with the validation seeking overachiever, I wonder why?
- Rosa is amazing. I love that she is a stone cold badass and there's no traumatic origin story, that's just who she is. Amy is who I am, Rosa is kind of who I want to be.
- Gina is a whole different sort of role model, but she is delightful in her bizarreness. I love that she is indeed a total weirdo while still being sensible and successful in slightly unexpected ways. She adds just the right amount of chaos into the show's chemistry, and I really love when she and Holt are paired together for storylines.
- I was kind of expecting to just tolerate Andy Samberg as Jake Peralta, the manchild genius detective, but I've really been won over. It would have been so easy for Peralta to become unbearable, but he's written and played with just enough sweetness and decency, plus actually being good at his job, that it's hard for me to dislike him.
- And uh, let it be noted that I am kind of embarrassingly into Santiago/Peralta. I'm a sucker for the bickering friends type couple, plus Peralta's declaration of being into her "romantic stylez" was very winning.
- Unfortunately, Boyle. Yeah, for anyone who watches the show, that's all I need to say. Boyle is fine in all other respects other than the gross Rosa/Boyle thing! I love the running jokes about his foodieness and I love his friendship with Peralta! But uuuuughhhh the gross unrequited Boyle's crush on Rosa thing. It is the one, huge wrong note of the whole show for me.
And moving on from sitcoms, I'm glad Elementary came back tonight! And lo and behold, some more Joan backstory! I am greedy and want MORE, especially since this instance was just a sort of isolated island in the sea of her history, but I liked that we get more of a sense of how much responsibility Joan takes on herself and the high standards she holds herself to.
Sherlock seemed especially adorable in this episode what with the wanting to go on a treasure hunting cruise with Joan (PLEASE GIVE ME THIS EPISODE, I NEED IT TO LIVE), the picking out her clothes again (one of my favorite running jokes, all the better this time because he picked them out down to the scarf and she clearly did not go with his choices), waking her up with Clyde (in a turtle cozy knitted by Ms. Hudson :D ), and willingness to sing songs from Frozen in pursuit of leads from Everyone (it is a TRAGEDY that this happened offscreen). I also really liked that he was the one basically playing therapist this episode. It's lovely that Joan and Sherlock do not at all have a one-sided relationship, and they both offer each other this kind of support, even when they're both respectively wary of being offered the support or offering it.
Here is today's poem:
"Tim Riggins Speaks of Waterfalls" by Nico Alvarado
You want to know what it was like?
It was like my whole life had a fever.
Whole acres of me were on fire.
The sun talked dirty in my ear all night.
I couldn’t drive past a wheatfield without doing it violence.
I couldn’t even look at a bridge.
I used to go out in the brush sometimes,
So far out there no one could hear me,
And just burn.
I felt all right then.
I couldn’t hurt anyone else.
I was just a pillar of fire.
It wasn’t the burning so much as the loneliness.
It wasn’t the loneliness so much as the fear of being alone.
Christ look at you pouring from the rocks.
You’re so cold you’re boiling over.
You’ve got stars in your hair.
I don’t want to be around you.
I don’t want to drink you in.
I want to walk into the heart of you
And never walk back out.
This entry was originally posted at http://yasaman.dreamwidth.org/450110.html, with
comments there.