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Aug. 2nd, 2008 03:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snowystingrayWhat is all this business about no new SGA until the 15th? Clearly I have been spoiled by fandoms with more consistent air dates. *grumble grumble* But before I get too mopey about what has not yet come to pass, time to get flaily about new episodes!
I feel like there was some really really good stuff going on in this episode mixed with some really really could have been worked into something better stuff -- the latter kind of throwing me for a loop because, seriously, it's like it was right there and intentional and yet they just didn't go for it. Me = confused.
Let's take the daddy issues, for instance. I think James Roday has been doing a fantastic job with all of the added drama this season, enough to where I'm sure I'm not the only viewer asking, "Really? They waited two years to give him this stuff?" (Seriously, after the Emo Motorcycle Ride of Doom in 1.02, that whole tone of Shawn's character seemed largely dropped until this season.) I know this doesn't mean much coming from me because I cry at literally everything, but I certainly got a little misty-eyed over Shawn's impassioned speech to Dutch -- and I love that it came after he already agreed to let him go through with it. And you know what? Because I am just that kind of sick bastard? I kind of wanted Dutch to die. :/ (Tangent time! But this is like all of my guilt about Robin Hood where I worried that I subconsciously introduce angst to my happy shows just because I derive this perverse satisfaction from truly awful soul destroying things and even when I try to avoid it, it just... follows me. Except now it's like I'm actively inviting it along.) Anyway, I just think it could have played, like... okay, it's like I was talking about with last week's ep, I guess -- that Shawn has this moment of personal revelation through his observations of Dutch & family. He truly can understand why Dutch would be willing to kill himself for them, would keep his son from pursing his dream, all through this idea of protecting them. And he can't hate Dutch for being that way, either; if anything, I think he hates being in a position where he finally gets it. (And, err, of course this is all heavily projected Henry-related stuff, so I feel like really I should be writing "Dutch/Henry" instead of just "Dutch".) (And now I'm back to part where I jump around too much in my own brain, sorry, but I'm going to go back further to the season opener before closing up the connection to last week. ...It'll make sense at the end. Maybe.) Again to go back to some of my earlier comments on the Shawn/Henry developments this season, I think this fits in nicely with how I saw the end of the season opener play out: Shawn finally gets this insight into the truth behind his parents' relationship, why Henry acts the way he does about Shawn and about Shawn's mom; but rather than leading to instant reconciliation with his father, I really hoped that they would play around with some of the underlying resentment that comes from introducing new grounds for empathy. For a lot of people (or maybe I'm just extrapolating from myself, who knows; I apologize for any gross over generalizations!), it seems like some of the most difficult obstacles in parental relationships come from some of the most well-intentioned actions. "It's for your own good, you know. You'll thank me when you're older." "I'm not saying this to be critical -- I'm saying it because I want you to be happy." And sometimes it is so frustrating when it feels like, no, you don't see what I see, if you wanted me to be happy then you'd know well enough to let me be happy and not try to "fix" all of my "mistakes" for me.
So I think what happens for Shawn first in 3.01 and then much more explicitly in this episode is that he really does get why people like his father and like Dutch would feel the need to do these things for the people they love. At the same time, though, that doesn't stop them from being any more messed up -- seriously, not telling your family that you're terminal and then killing yourself to get them more money? Yeah, that's the best way to help them cope -- it just makes it that much more complicated to hate them for it. It's easy for Shawn to color all of his interactions with Henry as part of some elaborate scheme to undermine his goals, to embarrass and humiliate him as a constant reminder that he has grown up a disappointment. To be faced with the knowledge, then, that his father (and Dutch) really, truly felt that he was doing the best for his son? It's like he's given an in to finally love his dad in the way he's always wanted to but talked himself out of by believing that his dad hates him -- but once you add that in, there's still that extra level of frustration that, really? Now you won't even let me hate you properly? Gahhh, you're ruining my life! But, no, teen angst aside, it's still hard to work through that disconnect of "I want what's best for you because I love you"/"I want to make you proud of me because I love you" where it seems like the sentiments should meet in the middle but sometimes they just don't -- and for Shawn, I think the biggest obstacle intercepting the two is just that hurt, pleading question of, "If you really wanted to show that you love me, why would you put me through this?" Here of course it's in direct response to what Dutch is planning to do to (for?) his family, but it can easily apply to Shawn's whooole long history with Henry.
So to go back (back? forward?) to what I mentioned above about last week's philosophizing over the power of a moment, I'm not sure I was quite satisfied with the way it was handled in this episode. For Shawn, yes, that was a HUGE speech on an extremely personal level, but it seemed almost too easy to have Dutch on board with it, too. I wanted, oh... I don't even know. Maybe for him to stick to his screwed up convictions? Because sometimes saying things just isn't enough to fix it? And your own moment of growth based on a personal history of daddy issues isn't necessarily going to jive with somebody else's? And mostly because I just wanted a mopey ending? So that way Shawn could sort of do the same thing with Henry that he did with Jules last week -- realize that it's a compilation of moments and not just one big revelation, and then want to go see his dad and seriously where the hell was Henry this week, aside from in the 80s with an even worse wig than usual if I'm not mistaken? Conspicuous by your absence, my friend! *wags finger* And also because I wanted more emo with mini!Dutch (whose name escapes me at the moment... Louis?).
Which brings me to the main thing I wanted to talk about, actually (well, as an off shoot of the above, anyway). And that would be a queer reading of the episode -- because a lot of those issues seem so crucial to the arc of daddy angst, and seemed almost explicitly set up in this episode, but were then just handled in a really really weird way that I'm not quite sure what to make of at all. ...And somehow it has become three in the morning ARGHHH and I know I have a horrible habit of doing this but I'm afraid I have to break off here and hopefully resume in the morning.
Except before I go, there is always (ALWAYS!!!) time for SGA squee. And boy oh boy, this episode was just fun. *GRIIIINS* :D :D :D Teyla as a sekkrit computer guru is BRILLIANCE times a LOT, oh gosh. And behold the usefulness of video games, ha, during Ronon's frustration with the Daedalus weaponry. "Buttons are our friends!" Clearly John is going to schedule some emergency gaming sessions immediately after returning to the city. I now declare it canon that John would not be averse to sexin' up an AU version of himself (so many amazing Joefaces in his self-congratulatory scene! Although holy stock footage Batman! for those F-302 shots of Sheppard). And Rodneeeeeey. OMG. Could he have yelled "SHEPPARD!" any more times in this episode? No, I didn't think so. Best part was totally him geeking out over figuring a plausible explanation for the red giant based on Sheppard's alternate timeline experience. Ronon: "So how does this help us?" Rodney: "I... don't know. *deflated* I just found it interesting."
But, well, yeah, let's sound surprised. :P Bethany loved the episode that was 95% isolated team brilliance? Wow, who saw THAT one coming? Even then, though, yaaaaay B team! Lorne/Zelenka jumper time!
(My only quibble is that, much as I hate to always compare SG to my familiar Trek mentalities, they seriously have the worst first contact protocol ever. Sheppard: "Ooh, look, some new aliens from a new universe... Don't really recognize them, though. Huh. Guess we'd better start shooting them!" Me: *headdesk* He's just lucky that universe had its own equally, err, diplomatically challenged Sheppard, is all I'm gonna say about that.)
I feel like there was some really really good stuff going on in this episode mixed with some really really could have been worked into something better stuff -- the latter kind of throwing me for a loop because, seriously, it's like it was right there and intentional and yet they just didn't go for it. Me = confused.
Let's take the daddy issues, for instance. I think James Roday has been doing a fantastic job with all of the added drama this season, enough to where I'm sure I'm not the only viewer asking, "Really? They waited two years to give him this stuff?" (Seriously, after the Emo Motorcycle Ride of Doom in 1.02, that whole tone of Shawn's character seemed largely dropped until this season.) I know this doesn't mean much coming from me because I cry at literally everything, but I certainly got a little misty-eyed over Shawn's impassioned speech to Dutch -- and I love that it came after he already agreed to let him go through with it. And you know what? Because I am just that kind of sick bastard? I kind of wanted Dutch to die. :/ (Tangent time! But this is like all of my guilt about Robin Hood where I worried that I subconsciously introduce angst to my happy shows just because I derive this perverse satisfaction from truly awful soul destroying things and even when I try to avoid it, it just... follows me. Except now it's like I'm actively inviting it along.) Anyway, I just think it could have played, like... okay, it's like I was talking about with last week's ep, I guess -- that Shawn has this moment of personal revelation through his observations of Dutch & family. He truly can understand why Dutch would be willing to kill himself for them, would keep his son from pursing his dream, all through this idea of protecting them. And he can't hate Dutch for being that way, either; if anything, I think he hates being in a position where he finally gets it. (And, err, of course this is all heavily projected Henry-related stuff, so I feel like really I should be writing "Dutch/Henry" instead of just "Dutch".) (And now I'm back to part where I jump around too much in my own brain, sorry, but I'm going to go back further to the season opener before closing up the connection to last week. ...It'll make sense at the end. Maybe.) Again to go back to some of my earlier comments on the Shawn/Henry developments this season, I think this fits in nicely with how I saw the end of the season opener play out: Shawn finally gets this insight into the truth behind his parents' relationship, why Henry acts the way he does about Shawn and about Shawn's mom; but rather than leading to instant reconciliation with his father, I really hoped that they would play around with some of the underlying resentment that comes from introducing new grounds for empathy. For a lot of people (or maybe I'm just extrapolating from myself, who knows; I apologize for any gross over generalizations!), it seems like some of the most difficult obstacles in parental relationships come from some of the most well-intentioned actions. "It's for your own good, you know. You'll thank me when you're older." "I'm not saying this to be critical -- I'm saying it because I want you to be happy." And sometimes it is so frustrating when it feels like, no, you don't see what I see, if you wanted me to be happy then you'd know well enough to let me be happy and not try to "fix" all of my "mistakes" for me.
So I think what happens for Shawn first in 3.01 and then much more explicitly in this episode is that he really does get why people like his father and like Dutch would feel the need to do these things for the people they love. At the same time, though, that doesn't stop them from being any more messed up -- seriously, not telling your family that you're terminal and then killing yourself to get them more money? Yeah, that's the best way to help them cope -- it just makes it that much more complicated to hate them for it. It's easy for Shawn to color all of his interactions with Henry as part of some elaborate scheme to undermine his goals, to embarrass and humiliate him as a constant reminder that he has grown up a disappointment. To be faced with the knowledge, then, that his father (and Dutch) really, truly felt that he was doing the best for his son? It's like he's given an in to finally love his dad in the way he's always wanted to but talked himself out of by believing that his dad hates him -- but once you add that in, there's still that extra level of frustration that, really? Now you won't even let me hate you properly? Gahhh, you're ruining my life! But, no, teen angst aside, it's still hard to work through that disconnect of "I want what's best for you because I love you"/"I want to make you proud of me because I love you" where it seems like the sentiments should meet in the middle but sometimes they just don't -- and for Shawn, I think the biggest obstacle intercepting the two is just that hurt, pleading question of, "If you really wanted to show that you love me, why would you put me through this?" Here of course it's in direct response to what Dutch is planning to do to (for?) his family, but it can easily apply to Shawn's whooole long history with Henry.
So to go back (back? forward?) to what I mentioned above about last week's philosophizing over the power of a moment, I'm not sure I was quite satisfied with the way it was handled in this episode. For Shawn, yes, that was a HUGE speech on an extremely personal level, but it seemed almost too easy to have Dutch on board with it, too. I wanted, oh... I don't even know. Maybe for him to stick to his screwed up convictions? Because sometimes saying things just isn't enough to fix it? And your own moment of growth based on a personal history of daddy issues isn't necessarily going to jive with somebody else's? And mostly because I just wanted a mopey ending? So that way Shawn could sort of do the same thing with Henry that he did with Jules last week -- realize that it's a compilation of moments and not just one big revelation, and then want to go see his dad and seriously where the hell was Henry this week, aside from in the 80s with an even worse wig than usual if I'm not mistaken? Conspicuous by your absence, my friend! *wags finger* And also because I wanted more emo with mini!Dutch (whose name escapes me at the moment... Louis?).
Which brings me to the main thing I wanted to talk about, actually (well, as an off shoot of the above, anyway). And that would be a queer reading of the episode -- because a lot of those issues seem so crucial to the arc of daddy angst, and seemed almost explicitly set up in this episode, but were then just handled in a really really weird way that I'm not quite sure what to make of at all. ...And somehow it has become three in the morning ARGHHH and I know I have a horrible habit of doing this but I'm afraid I have to break off here and hopefully resume in the morning.
Except before I go, there is always (ALWAYS!!!) time for SGA squee. And boy oh boy, this episode was just fun. *GRIIIINS* :D :D :D Teyla as a sekkrit computer guru is BRILLIANCE times a LOT, oh gosh. And behold the usefulness of video games, ha, during Ronon's frustration with the Daedalus weaponry. "Buttons are our friends!" Clearly John is going to schedule some emergency gaming sessions immediately after returning to the city. I now declare it canon that John would not be averse to sexin' up an AU version of himself (so many amazing Joefaces in his self-congratulatory scene! Although holy stock footage Batman! for those F-302 shots of Sheppard). And Rodneeeeeey. OMG. Could he have yelled "SHEPPARD!" any more times in this episode? No, I didn't think so. Best part was totally him geeking out over figuring a plausible explanation for the red giant based on Sheppard's alternate timeline experience. Ronon: "So how does this help us?" Rodney: "I... don't know. *deflated* I just found it interesting."
But, well, yeah, let's sound surprised. :P Bethany loved the episode that was 95% isolated team brilliance? Wow, who saw THAT one coming? Even then, though, yaaaaay B team! Lorne/Zelenka jumper time!
(My only quibble is that, much as I hate to always compare SG to my familiar Trek mentalities, they seriously have the worst first contact protocol ever. Sheppard: "Ooh, look, some new aliens from a new universe... Don't really recognize them, though. Huh. Guess we'd better start shooting them!" Me: *headdesk* He's just lucky that universe had its own equally, err, diplomatically challenged Sheppard, is all I'm gonna say about that.)
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Date: 2008-08-02 03:07 pm (UTC)I have issues with Shawn a lot of the time to the point that sometimes the show annoys me. Shawn is immature and very manipulative, especially with Gus. He takes no reguard for how Gus feels about things or how it impacts Gus which is why I really didn't like the first two episodes of this season all that much. I REALLY didn't like the premiere where Shawn was COMPLETELY manipulative and not only got away with it, but was pretty much rewarded for it. The second episode was a little better, but I still felt he was rather insensitive to Juliet after dragging her out on a wild goose chase. Anyway, this was the first episode of the season where I actually liked Shawn the whole time and he actually acted mature for a while.
The thing is, I want to like Shawn. I loved him the first season, but somewhere along the line it felt like they let him turn into a grown brat that rarely gets called on it. I like that his mother DID call him on it at the beginning of the season, but for the first two episodes it felt like they made him so obnoxious under the guise of him being funny that I was a little turned off.
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Date: 2008-08-03 05:12 am (UTC)