Updates

[cleolinda]

Okay, I have nearly posted this entry like four different times, then held back for some reason, then needed to update it again, and it's finally turned into this mulch pile of an entry that I keep turning over every couple of days. IT NEEDS TO BE POSTED

Comments

[lonelywalker]

Yay to better health! I am a huge supporter of Staying in Bed for Science. Or really any purpose.

I thought perhaps it wasn't really Gillian Anderson, but her stunt double or something? But then I don't know why she'd need a stunt double. Maybe dedicated GA fans can tell it's her from the back of her neck.

The bonsai is people!

[cleolinda]

Yeah, I just can't figure out why she'd have a double for a dialogue scene. For some reason, I'm more intrigued by her suit than anything else.

Regarding the other point, I'm just concerned all over again about my blood pressure because I was doing really well last week, and then... mania. Which tends to make me more reactive generally, more excitable or irritable, which in turn... not good. At least I know to watch out for it, I guess.

[lonelywalker]

I eagerly anticipate the Hannibal vs. Bedelia ju-jitsu battle that is sure to ensue at any moment.

Spoilers for season one, speculation for season two?

[cleolinda]

I am super, super concerned for Bedelia's well-being, let me tell you. Bryan Fuller referred in some interview to a character they had intended to kill off, but didn't feel like they'd "serviced" that character's story yet, so they realized they had to kill off Abigail instead. (This is another reason I keep insisting that Abigail's really most sincerely dead.) Since Bedelia's an original character not tied to the overall storyline of the original series... I could see her being expendable, while also being too interesting and mysterious to give up on just then. And he also rather gleefully referred to killing characters off this coming season. I AM AFRAID FOR BEDELIA.

(I'm fascinated by the way he talks about their writing process. The full-circle Abigail storyline seems so wonderfully inevitable in retrospect, but... clearly, it wasn't obvious at first. The writers had to discover it in the process of writing. And that makes me feel so much better about my wild plotty flailings-about in my own drafts.)

[mysticowl]

As much as I'd love for you to see Elementary, you shouldn't start on Season 2 until you've seen Season 1, there's a big thing in the last few episodes of Season 1 that Season 2 will likely spoil. Unless you've been spoiled by Tumblr, in which case it doesn't matter.

It's worth noting that I remember finding the first episode of Elementary a little weak, especially in comparison with how I felt about the show a few episodes in.

[cleolinda]

Yeah--I was actually already spoiled for the Natalie Dormer business, because Tumblr. But what I know of it does suggest that I would need to see all of that and not try to watch the second season without it.

Honestly, I tend to be pretty forgiving of first episodes, particularly since it may have been a pilot shot before everything else, and it may by its nature have a lot of Captain Obvious info-dumping. A first season often takes a few episodes to settle down; there may even be a huge quality jump from the first to the second. I mean, you know I adore The X-Files, but it happened there, too. I think that's why I realized Hannibal was going to be something special right then, after months of NOT SURE IF WANT, because (IMO) the first episode had none of those issues and was actually one of the strongest in the whole season.

[phoenixangel13]

i think even if you are spoiled (sad) it's worth watching from the beginning instead of skipping ahead because at its heart elementary focuses on holmes and watson's relationship development more than the procedural stuff. their arc is important to see. and if you skip to season two you will miss out on it (even if you watch the two seasons together).

[cleolinda]

Yeah, and I'm way more interested in the two characters/actors than the case-of-the-week stuff. I hate that I got spoiled, too, but I just saw way too many vague hints on Twitter and Tumblr and then suddenly one day it fell into place and I was like, "SHIT! THAT'S SO AWESOME! ... FUCK! NOW I ALREADY KNOW!" But, you know, if you put off watching something for months, you take that risk.

[reynardine]

Yeah, I also have times when I can't concentrate enough to read, either due to a manic episode or being very depressed. Usually I'll switch to manga or children's books or poetry during those times, because y'know, I can't NOT read!

It's frustrating, though. I had a goal to reread the Brother Cadfael mysteries this year, and I've only made it through 5 so far (of 20). And those are fairly short books!

[cleolinda]

I often go back to favorite books--comfort reading--because I can wander around my favorite parts and not have a problem, you know, remembering and comprehending the last sentence I just read. It's weird (and kind of distressing), because this "inability to focus to the point where I can't read" has only set in the last two or three years. Which is to say, I've clearly transitioned from benign hypomania towards actual, unpleasant mania, and that worries me.

[vivian_lake]

I'm glad to know you're at least somewhat better, hope it will last.

Fuller's plans for season two make me nervous. (I'm not sure if I should spoiler-tag for the things he said in the interview, it's not detailed enough to count as an actual spoiler anyway... but I wonder just how season four's cast list is going to look like.)

Season two speculation

[cleolinda]

BASICALLY, YES. He has dropped dire enough hints about killing unspecified characters off that I am SCARED. Like, I keep thinking, surely Team Science is safe, because they just don't really come into the line of fire, as it were. SO FAR. I keep thinking Crawford's safe for the same reasons Will is safe--they're the two big characters in Red Dragon. I mean, I GUESS. Supposedly they're also committed to Freddie's big scene in Red Dragon. So basically I AM SUPER SCARED FOR ALANA AND BEDELIA. I'm hoping by "characters" he means "characters we introduce this season" as well. Like, kill Will's lawyer, whatever. But ALANA IS NOT FOR EATING.

Re: Season two speculation

[vivian_lake]

They can also kill Gideon, I suppose. But I doubt his death would have the desired impact.

Re: Season two speculation

[lonelywalker]

...isn't he already dead?

Or did you mean Raul Esparza?

[goldenusagi]

Ha, I bet on The Blacklist, he's going to turn out to be her father, which puts a different spin on the whole 'tell me about your troubled childhood' thing. Plus, he knew a ton about her before he even met her.

[cleolinda]

Heh. I've just started hoping that the first episode was all up in the Silence of the Lambs stuff to get people to watch, and then it'll kind of bait-and-switch over to something a lot less derivative. It just reminds me of that period in the '90s where everything was Off-Brand Brilliant Imprisoned Sociopaths all the time. I thought we had moved past this, people.

[meleth]

Jung was actually going to write at length about the Imprisoned Sociopath archetype, and how well it overlaps with the Draco in Leather Pants archetype, but he was silenced by the Illuminati.