(no subject)

[snowystingray]

TVness!

Okay, so I might have just posted about how this show and I are on the verge of a breakup... but I take it all back! Or at least most of it back! Sorry, "The Other Man" was just such a raging shitfest that I couldn't motivate myself to catch up with anything beyond that, but after a solid week of moping I finally went back to watch "The Honeymooners" and it was UNBELIEVADORABLE, as was "Role Models." I think somewhere along the line I had forgotten that my distaste for Chuck/Sarah came from all of obstacles fabricated for them, the majority of which made Chuck look like the world's worst boyfriend EVER and Sarah like the world's least professional colleague EVER, and yet? At the very heart of it? They, when they are just allowed to be them, are charming and cute and ever so WIN. I approve! (Even if "Other Man" and I will NEVER BE RECONCILED, SIIIIGH. Such is life!)

Of course, I still have things to whine about:
- treatment of Ellie in general. Her being the odd (wo)man out of everything. Chuck being A HORRID HORRID BROTHER, and yet Ellie still being gracious and taking the blame for it ("It's my fault for leaving you!" WTFFF ELLIE NO IT ISN'T). Even though Doctors Without Borders was Ellie's dream, Awesome ends up being the one who is, well... awesome at it, whilst Ellie flounders as the hopelessly lost city girl (seriously, folks? NO. JUST NO).
- um... somewhat treatment of Casey? There were some good Sarah/Casey moments to be sure, but one of my qualms with Sarah/Chuck was the tendency to automatically phase out Casey -- like, just because Sarah and Chuck had some sort of romantic bond meant that Casey could never be a cohesive part of the team. ARRRGHHHH. Didn't we go through this last season in "Chuck vs. the Colonel"? INVITE CASEY ALONG. HE WANTS TO HELP. I am getting into the Casey/Morgan B-team in a way, but... but... :/ OT3 OR BUST. (And, anyway, I still have issues with Morgan being in on Team Bartowski BUT THAT IS FOR ANOTHER RANT.)

Mostly, though... oh, show, you know how to woo me back. How could I hate you after this?

(Of course, looking at the preview for this week, I think I might HATE YOU AGAIN so, y'know. We might be on break-up alert once more.)









So, right, I'm ten thousand years behind the rest of the world, but "The Time of Angels" just aired here last night AND WHAT THE FUCKING WHAT WHY DID I WATCH THAT OH GOD WHAAAAAAATTTTTTT. And then I tried to go to bed immediately afterward and for some odd reason could not make my eyes close. After about fifteen minutes of lying there, very determinedly NOT BLINKING, I remembered that I still had "Blink" on my iPod and hadn't gotten around to watching it, so... yeah... you probably know where this is going. Why did I think that was a good idea for something to watch at 1AM to help me fall asleep? Because WHAT THE FUCKING WHAT WHY DID I WATCH THAT OH GOD WHAAAAAAATTTTTTT PT. 2. Or technically pt. 1 and the other one was pt. 2?

I totally called the two heads thing, though.

ALSO, AMY POND, ILU.







In other HOLY CRAAAAAAAAP territory -- ASHES. WHAT. So much this series has been freaking me out, but nothing so much as Thordy doing the Sam Tyler monologue from his cell WHAT WHAT WHAT AND ALSO WHAAAAAAAATTTTTT.

And then Viv's death scene was absolutely horrifying, not least of all because it was Viv's death scene what no whhhhyyyy??!?

I honestly have absolutely no idea what is going on with this show any more. Well -- ideas, yes, but I'm just not sure what to make of them. I haven't really written anything about this series yet, have I? So! Thoughts!:

-It's generally accepted, then, that both Jim and Gene have some sort of... soul-collecting purpose? I'm actually somewhat on Team Jim (just in the sense that I think he's a great character and I'm still holding out that he's more than just a purely nefarious force), but whereas Louise had a death scene that was somberly peaceful and seemed... guided, almost? VIV'S WAS JUST PURE TORTURE TO WATCH and I'm not sure what to make of the contrast. (And then what of Gene at Bevan's death, then? Can he and Jim really be at opposite ends of it? They strike me as more two-sides-of-the-same-coin. And even as Jim becomes more creepy and calculating, so does Gene become more brutal and ruthless. They're going on a matched downward spiral on the likability scale, which again makes me question whether it's going to be as simple as an angel/devil duality.)
-The stars and such: if they're visible by those who are breaking hold with Gene's world, it's interesting that the visions only come to characters after they've received some sort of specific stated personal approval from Gene. Is it approval to move on? But then why does he still seem so desperate to hold them together?
-Not so much to do with this season, but... series two starts on BBCA this week. I went into "must convert everybody" phase and started looking up appropriate clips to post on facebook and pimp the show (why do I always do this, guys? IT NEVER WORKS). Gosh, but series two seems so long ago! And series one even impossibly longer! I... I kind of miss it? It's weird because when I first got into Ashes, I enjoyed the everloving heck out of S1 but felt that the show improved exponentially in S2 -- but thinking about it now, I miss the fluff ridiculous of S1. I've really enjoyed wanting to curl up in a ball of pain and confusion at the end of every episode this series (MINDFUCKS, I CRAVE THEM), but... I don't know. I've been quite good at compartmentalizing LOM and A2A, and I've already prepared myself to just accept whatever the A2A endgame happens to be and not let it tarnish any rosy views I have of the shows up to this point... but I am starting to get legitimately jittery. As completely screwed up as the LOM finale is, I want Sam to have made the right choice for himself and I'm so worried that things are going to happen to change that. Honestly, I think a lot of my feelings on S3 are akin to my feelings on S6 of Lost -- I love that we are getting hardcore dense mythology of INSANITY, but I kind of long for simpler character moments of yore, where I could still comfortably like the people involved without being worried that they turn out to be SATAN or something. Why do I do this to myself. D:









And the only thing I really have to say about Legend of the Seeker 2.20...:

CARA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

OH MY GOD HOW ARE THERE ONLY TWO EPISODES LEFT. TWO EPISODES EVER. D: D: D:

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, for being an enormously intelligent alien, the Doctor is a bit dense.

[ridiculii.livejournal.com]

Ah, but we love him for it.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

The flaws are good and all, though; they make up for the saving-the-world-with-instant-brilliance all the rest of the time, right? ;)

[moondog.livejournal.com]

Am skipping past Ashes to Ashes stuff since perhaps one day I shall watch it, but as for DW:

Ha ha ha! Could've told you that would happen ;D

Have you heard this song?

[moondog.livejournal.com]

Well that didn't work, now did it.

Um... well... here. On the right side. "Blink".

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Haaaa, awesome! I love "Gallifreyan History 101," too. XD

[ridiculii.livejournal.com]

Oh god I really need to get into LOM/A2A.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

THAT YOU DO, MY FRIEND. THAT YOU DO. I'm currently fighting the urge to rewatch all of both series at this point.

[ridiculii.livejournal.com]

This is the best thing I've ever seen without context.

[an-lagat-glas.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD YOU WATCHED BLINK AT 1AM? I watched it at 7pm in the summer, when it was perfectly light out, and my sister and I were still clinging to each other in terror.

Also, wow, someone else who watches Legend of the Seeker! We just started watching it, and now I'm noticing it pop up EVERYWHERE.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

I KNOW WHAT WAS I THINKING? OR WAS I EVEN THINKING AT ALL? D: D: D:

I've been on and off with Seeker ever since it started -- it immediately struck me as a MUST WATCH NOW show when it premiered; but the first few episodes were pretty week and it was a terrible time slot so I fell off with it; and then I kept hearing awesome things about series two so I finally caught back up and ahhh AWESOME SHOW IS INDEED AWESOME. How far along are you? I think the first season really picks up about halfway through, and so far season two has been pretty much one giant string of excellence. (So why why why is it being canceled? TV hates us, clearly.)

[an-lagat-glas.livejournal.com]

We don't watch live TV anymore for that very reason (also, I am impatient); we pretty much get everything off Netflix. Or the internet.

We just watched 1x09 (the one with the puppet and the snotty princess), and it's really starting to pick up. I can deal with cheesy dialogue and improbable fight scenes when there is actual story, which we're getting a lot more of now, yay! And I'm glad that S2 is so good! I hope they can do a decent conclusion since it got cancelled : /

[arcadiaego.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely with the last part of the paragraph about Ashes to Ashes. And it does feel the same for me as Lost (only on a much less soul destroying scale, clearly :-P) - I am glad we are actually going to get to the end, but on the other hand I really don't *want* to get to the end in case it ruins what's gone before. I didn't watch A2A at first *because* I thought the end of LOM was so good (even though I wasn't a massive fan of the series as a whole) and didn't want them to go messing around in the same "universe" - but then it was a very different style and really nothing to do with LOM at all. But now...Well, eep, basically.

I am ridiculously in love with Doctor Who at the moment (I feel like I want to make a post about why but fear it will just turn into incoherent squeeing) but even I didn't think the angels would finally scare me (I am the only person alive who was completly underwhelmed by Blink). But in part 2 of the twoparter, they did.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of the Lost connection just in terms of general... end of show anxieties... but then once I got to the whole angel/demon thing I was like, WAIT WHAT NO HOW DO I KEEP GETTING EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN (PROBABLY) SATAN?? Like, when and how did that become a habit? SIGH SIGH. And, yes, exactly this:

but then it was a very different style and really nothing to do with LOM at all.

They were so very much their own creatures that issues of A2A "mucking up" LOM didn't really bother me. In a way I always felt that LOM really was all in Sam's head; but in a way that was most real to him (I guess the Dumbledorian thing, then? "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"); but then it was also a very personal, closed reality. I never saw Alex as living in that same world, then -- I've always loved how meta A2A is, and to me it always reads as a piece of LOM fanfiction that Alex is unwittingly writing for herself -- but at the same time, then it's her world. ...And of course that all gets terribly fucked in S2, and even moreso now, and... yeah, okay, I can finally see where gruff LOM fans come from, because it does sort of bug me to think that this is all Alex sharing in Sam's world that has been ruined for him. I DON'T KNOWWWWW. I reserve judgment for the finale, but... we shall see.

I feel like I want to make a post about why but fear it will just turn into incoherent squeeing

Hee! That is perfectly acceptable! I thought my affection and glee was due in high part to this being my "first" proper Who experience, but I guess the show really is just that delightful right now! Even if, you know, it's scaring the living daylights out of me at the same time.

[arcadiaego.livejournal.com]

WAIT WHAT NO HOW DO I KEEP GETTING EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN (PROBABLY) SATAN??

Because the writers want you to I suppose? Although regarding Lost, I am slightly concerned by how much I am still convinced that MIB has a point and that Jacob is an ass despite the fact that the writers have *said* MIB is the big bad. (But but but, they haven't said Jacob is good!) I am horribly swayed by good acting? I still have a bit I cut out of a magazine with Michael Emerson saying the writers keep trying to make him think Ben is actually the Antichrist stuck on my wall just to remind me of the absurdity of what is bearable in story that would be terrifyingly horrific in real life!

to me it always reads as a piece of LOM fanfiction that Alex is unwittingly writing for herself

Yes, this exactly. :) And I can see why if one was very into LOM one could be worried at this point, although I think it would be a hard heart that could dislike A2A's existance full stop.

I thought my affection and glee was due in high part to this being my "first" proper Who experience

Well, it's funny, because in some ways this series feels like it's my first "real" TV Who experience. There's this myth around the show, and how it's supposed to make you feel, and even with Nine's series, which I really liked as television, I didn't usually feel quite how everyone seemed to tell me Doctor Who should feel like, and didn't until I got into the book fandom. But now it's like I finally really understand what everyone was going on about!