1. After the early meh-to-me episodes, I got into Wayward Pines once it got over "ZOMG! MYSTERY!" and got to the actual plot. And then the epilogue happened and taught me my lesson about considering trusting M. Night.
I will say, though, that there appears to have been a woman on staff whose main duty was to go around and thwap people upside the head with a rolled up newspaper when it looked like they were about to Do It Wrong with the women. Not that it was perfect, but there were a lot of times it looked like it was heading into terrible cliches, and then saved itself.
(Also, How dare you, show, make me think you're about to end with morally ambiguous frenemy secretly bisexual coleaders, and then take that from me. HDU.)
Uhm...if you watch it, just stop the second Ben wakes up in the last episode, and I guess you'll be OK?
2. Despite also technically ending on a cliffhanger, The Messengers had a much more satisfying and rewarding finale, even with the literal Deus Ex Machina. I'm still not thrilled with the SURPRISE! plot twist midway through and wish Zahir had had more development, but overall, I enjoyed the series, and wish it'd been given more of a chance.
3. Dark Matter and Killjoys pretty much had the same 5th episodes, though I think Killjoys did it better.
Over in Dark Matter, my liking for 6 of the 7 cast members is steadily increasing, but my feeling for One are on a starkly opposing trajectory. The latest episode made him crossover from "annoyed" to "dislike" though. I'm also really tired of people comparing Three and Five to Jayne and River. I always thought the Five/River comparisons were stretching it (River Tam is neither the first nor the last "mysterious teenaged girl" to pop up in a SciFi show), but they're really stretching it now that we know more about Five and how she does the things she does (ie: actual skills developed over months/years, not because someone did something to her head). Three/Jayne had more basis since Three actually does exhibit a lot of the same traits and behaviors as Jayne, but while Jayne's assholishness and selfishness were largely sincere with "not so bad" and fairly genuine loyalty coming through when absolutely necessary, since around the third episode, it's been pretty obvious that a lot of it with Three is an act, and at this point, it seems to mostly being an act.
( spoiler for episode 7 )
4. I watched season 6 of The Good Wife. The performances are still strong and I've always mostly watched because the actors are really, really good at what they do with their characters, forcing me to like almost every character, but the plot really is all over the place now. When the season was airing, I saw people commenting that it was like the characters were in two different shows without realizing it, and that's very true.
5. Hwajung has finished up with Gwanghae's rein, and started on Injo's. While the show is taking the typical sageuk liberties with Princess Jeongmyung's life, from what I can tell, it's actually being truer to history in other ways than is often the norm for sageuk biodramas. I'm currently deciding whether I was to watch The Scholar Who Walks the Night as it airs (or rather, as DramaFever gets it on their 2 week delay, since I can stream it on my TV through Hulu then) or wait until it's finished and binge.
I will say, though, that there appears to have been a woman on staff whose main duty was to go around and thwap people upside the head with a rolled up newspaper when it looked like they were about to Do It Wrong with the women. Not that it was perfect, but there were a lot of times it looked like it was heading into terrible cliches, and then saved itself.
(Also, How dare you, show, make me think you're about to end with morally ambiguous frenemy secretly bisexual coleaders, and then take that from me. HDU.)
Uhm...if you watch it, just stop the second Ben wakes up in the last episode, and I guess you'll be OK?
2. Despite also technically ending on a cliffhanger, The Messengers had a much more satisfying and rewarding finale, even with the literal Deus Ex Machina. I'm still not thrilled with the SURPRISE! plot twist midway through and wish Zahir had had more development, but overall, I enjoyed the series, and wish it'd been given more of a chance.
3. Dark Matter and Killjoys pretty much had the same 5th episodes, though I think Killjoys did it better.
Over in Dark Matter, my liking for 6 of the 7 cast members is steadily increasing, but my feeling for One are on a starkly opposing trajectory. The latest episode made him crossover from "annoyed" to "dislike" though. I'm also really tired of people comparing Three and Five to Jayne and River. I always thought the Five/River comparisons were stretching it (River Tam is neither the first nor the last "mysterious teenaged girl" to pop up in a SciFi show), but they're really stretching it now that we know more about Five and how she does the things she does (ie: actual skills developed over months/years, not because someone did something to her head). Three/Jayne had more basis since Three actually does exhibit a lot of the same traits and behaviors as Jayne, but while Jayne's assholishness and selfishness were largely sincere with "not so bad" and fairly genuine loyalty coming through when absolutely necessary, since around the third episode, it's been pretty obvious that a lot of it with Three is an act, and at this point, it seems to mostly being an act.
( spoiler for episode 7 )
4. I watched season 6 of The Good Wife. The performances are still strong and I've always mostly watched because the actors are really, really good at what they do with their characters, forcing me to like almost every character, but the plot really is all over the place now. When the season was airing, I saw people commenting that it was like the characters were in two different shows without realizing it, and that's very true.
5. Hwajung has finished up with Gwanghae's rein, and started on Injo's. While the show is taking the typical sageuk liberties with Princess Jeongmyung's life, from what I can tell, it's actually being truer to history in other ways than is often the norm for sageuk biodramas. I'm currently deciding whether I was to watch The Scholar Who Walks the Night as it airs (or rather, as DramaFever gets it on their 2 week delay, since I can stream it on my TV through Hulu then) or wait until it's finished and binge.
1A. Secrets and Lies ended. Well, the season did, at least. I had thought it was a miniseries going in, and seem to recall it being promoted as such. Pretty much, I didn't realize it was possible to feel that betrayed and let down by a show you found faily all over the place anyway, and didn't actually like.
1B. It was renewed, and I'll probably end up at least trying out season 2 in the hopes that the one element of the finale that I liked gets followed up on.
1C. Agent Carter and Galavant were also renewed, and I'm pretty sure they were also originally promoted as miniseries? At least I mostly liked both of them, though, and can hope the second seasons will be better about the things I didn't
2. Madam Secretary's first season also ended, and was a much better ending. I've seen some people call it anticlimactic, but I don't think it really was. I think we're just conditioned to expect cliffhangers, and for parts of the BIg Mystery to carry over into the second season, not leave things resolved, especially when another season is already a done thing. Fandom seems to have skipped over this one for the most part, which makes me sad, but at least it apparently has decent enough ratings.
3. Hwajung is probably my favorite thing I'm watching right now. For those who don't like to start sageuks until the leads have grown up, they grow up at the end of episode 7. I am pleased to report that the crossdressing exiled princess heroine who wants revenge is also a conartist who braves volcanoes and Edo era checkpoints (hey, those things were scary!) I can see some of the things I liked best about Queen Seon Deok as influence here (well, the 51 episodes of QSD that I acknowledge exist), particularly in regards to character dynamics and how Jungmyung thinks and plots, but not to a really obvious degree. I made a few picspams for tumblr for it. Two general ones for the first episode, and one for episode 8 that's more character specific.
( cut for spoilers and caps )
4. Interesting article about the influence of Nancy Drew.
5. I took a break from Murder She Wrote because the narrative POV of Jessica's writing and adventuring in it really, really irked me, but I'm watching season 6 now. An interesting thing about watching older shows is that they're prone to reusing the same guest actors in multiple roles. Today, with DVDs and streaming services being the norm, it's really noticeable. But 20+ years ago, the episodes wouldn't be spaced far enough apart that you wouldn't immediately go 'this producer was the lady in prison back in X episode of season 1, and this guy was the cheating husband in Y episode, the hapless cop in Z episode, and the evil brother in T episode."
Also, people's hair looks they they could have conceivably done it themselves. I mean, you know wardrobe got their hands on them, but it LOOKS like they could have done it themselves, as opposed to completely broke people's "disheveled" look making them look like they just spent 3 hours at the salon.
6. While they don't have much in common besides being historical mysteries with a civilian female lead solving crime with a police officer who initially doesn't care for their butting in, I think fans of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries might like Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mysteries.
1B. It was renewed, and I'll probably end up at least trying out season 2 in the hopes that the one element of the finale that I liked gets followed up on.
1C. Agent Carter and Galavant were also renewed, and I'm pretty sure they were also originally promoted as miniseries? At least I mostly liked both of them, though, and can hope the second seasons will be better about the things I didn't
2. Madam Secretary's first season also ended, and was a much better ending. I've seen some people call it anticlimactic, but I don't think it really was. I think we're just conditioned to expect cliffhangers, and for parts of the BIg Mystery to carry over into the second season, not leave things resolved, especially when another season is already a done thing. Fandom seems to have skipped over this one for the most part, which makes me sad, but at least it apparently has decent enough ratings.
3. Hwajung is probably my favorite thing I'm watching right now. For those who don't like to start sageuks until the leads have grown up, they grow up at the end of episode 7. I am pleased to report that the crossdressing exiled princess heroine who wants revenge is also a conartist who braves volcanoes and Edo era checkpoints (hey, those things were scary!) I can see some of the things I liked best about Queen Seon Deok as influence here (well, the 51 episodes of QSD that I acknowledge exist), particularly in regards to character dynamics and how Jungmyung thinks and plots, but not to a really obvious degree. I made a few picspams for tumblr for it. Two general ones for the first episode, and one for episode 8 that's more character specific.
( cut for spoilers and caps )
4. Interesting article about the influence of Nancy Drew.
5. I took a break from Murder She Wrote because the narrative POV of Jessica's writing and adventuring in it really, really irked me, but I'm watching season 6 now. An interesting thing about watching older shows is that they're prone to reusing the same guest actors in multiple roles. Today, with DVDs and streaming services being the norm, it's really noticeable. But 20+ years ago, the episodes wouldn't be spaced far enough apart that you wouldn't immediately go 'this producer was the lady in prison back in X episode of season 1, and this guy was the cheating husband in Y episode, the hapless cop in Z episode, and the evil brother in T episode."
Also, people's hair looks they they could have conceivably done it themselves. I mean, you know wardrobe got their hands on them, but it LOOKS like they could have done it themselves, as opposed to completely broke people's "disheveled" look making them look like they just spent 3 hours at the salon.
6. While they don't have much in common besides being historical mysteries with a civilian female lead solving crime with a police officer who initially doesn't care for their butting in, I think fans of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries might like Victoria Thompson's Gaslight Mysteries.
mostly TeeVees
Apr. 25th, 2015 09:33 pm1. I've watched the first 2 episodes of The Messengers and am enjoying it. The basics are that a "meteor" strikes earth and when it does, several people die and are reborn with superpowers. Since angels and demons are the "in" thing, we learn that they're representatives of archangels meant to avert the apocalypse. I'm sideeyeing some things(sooooooo much could go wrong here) but so far I like it. It's a very CW take of Serious Business Apocalypse, so take that as you will.
2. Speaking of CW, I'm still watching and loving Jane the Virgin and iZombie though I don't really have much to say about either, and I'm very ready for The 100 and Beauty and the Beast to come back.
3. Reign fans, should I bother? It seems everyone who loved the first season is hating the second.
4. The second week of Hwajung was great, and I learned this week that The King's Face, which I heard good things about while to was airing, is also about Gwanghae, and leaves off somewhere around where Hwajung starts. I'm somewhat tempted to watch it, but will probably just be weirded out by watching 2 different takes on him at the same time.
5. Waiting for Hwajung episodes, though, has got me back to watching Ja Myung Go. I've been watching it off and on for almost a year. It hasn't taken me so long to get through it because it's bad, but because I know it'll end with almost everyone dead. (Also, while I sympathize with the male lead, I just can't get invested in him, and much prefer a couple of the secondary male characters, and as a result, I can't really get into the main romance, as much as I'm into pretty much everything else in the show.)
6. I found out last week that Hulu has all of Castle streaming, and so I'm current with that show for the first time ever. Possibly more importantly, it looks like they have season 3 of Body of Proof too, and I'm watching that this week.
7. In movie news, has anyone seen/does anyone plan to see The Age of Adeline? It looks interesting;
8. It is entirely possible that, after turning in my Rarely Written assignment a couple hours ago, I started to completely redesign my Hay Day farm. It's a very "down the rabbit hole' project. (And one I might abandon halfway through, since my flight's festival is this week on Flight Rising.)
2. Speaking of CW, I'm still watching and loving Jane the Virgin and iZombie though I don't really have much to say about either, and I'm very ready for The 100 and Beauty and the Beast to come back.
3. Reign fans, should I bother? It seems everyone who loved the first season is hating the second.
4. The second week of Hwajung was great, and I learned this week that The King's Face, which I heard good things about while to was airing, is also about Gwanghae, and leaves off somewhere around where Hwajung starts. I'm somewhat tempted to watch it, but will probably just be weirded out by watching 2 different takes on him at the same time.
5. Waiting for Hwajung episodes, though, has got me back to watching Ja Myung Go. I've been watching it off and on for almost a year. It hasn't taken me so long to get through it because it's bad, but because I know it'll end with almost everyone dead. (Also, while I sympathize with the male lead, I just can't get invested in him, and much prefer a couple of the secondary male characters, and as a result, I can't really get into the main romance, as much as I'm into pretty much everything else in the show.)
6. I found out last week that Hulu has all of Castle streaming, and so I'm current with that show for the first time ever. Possibly more importantly, it looks like they have season 3 of Body of Proof too, and I'm watching that this week.
7. In movie news, has anyone seen/does anyone plan to see The Age of Adeline? It looks interesting;
8. It is entirely possible that, after turning in my Rarely Written assignment a couple hours ago, I started to completely redesign my Hay Day farm. It's a very "down the rabbit hole' project. (And one I might abandon halfway through, since my flight's festival is this week on Flight Rising.)
(no subject)
Apr. 15th, 2015 09:43 pm1. I know a lot of people dislike Cassandra Clare, and why, but this rant about slutshaming women who have sex, write sex scenes, and enjoy reading sex scenes, and the idea that things meant to entertain teenaged girls is the lowest common denominator has some pretty good bits.
2. Related: What (Straight)Women Want ( no relation to sexist Mel Gibson movies) according to years and years of reading fiction.
3. Via![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
retsuko , a list of anime and manga recs for people who aren't fans of anime and manga that doesn't make my eyes glaze over with boredom. Most of what I haven't read or watched, I have no interest in reading or watching, and there are other things I'd have on there, but, IMO, it's better than most.
4. I shouldn't start a new kdrama before finishing Ja Myung Go and the telenovelas I've been watching, but I checked out a new sageuk Hwajung out of curiosity. The plot is about Jeongmyung, a Joseon princess who is exiled after her half-brother, Gwanghae, usurps the crown, grows up as a boy, and returns years later as a boy. The first episode focuses mostly of the political and personal circumstances that lead to Gwanghae's coup. (Though really, it's another prince's coup. Played by the same actor who played Mishil's scheming brother in Queen Seon Duk.) Different things I've seen have promoted either Gwanghae or Jeongmyung as the main character. I opt to believe that it's Jeongmyung, with a greater focus on Gwanghae in early episodes because Jeongmyung is a little girl in them, and because Cha Seung Won is a much bigger star than Lee Yoon Hee. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Lee Yeon He in a leading role, as I've only seen her as the younger versions of sageuk women before.
Trailer:
I have pretty much no historical reference for the one. I know some bits about Gwanghae, but that's it.
5. Is anyone else planning to watch CW's The Messengers? I'm not really sold on the trailer, but I do like JD Pardo, and it has potential. (If nothing else, CW will probably treat him better than Revolution did.)
Trailer:
6. Speaking of CW, I enjoyed this week's iZombie a lot, but suspect I would have been more excited about it if (A) I had ever watch a single scene of Merlin (though I did quite like the actor) or (B) had ever understood why anyone would like Dick "prove you're a man by raping an unconscious girl" Casablancas. (He never even had "love to hate" or "at least he's amusing" status for me, but I know a lot of people enjoyed him.)
Meanwhile, petition to get protective details for Clive and Ravi. (Liv should be fine.)
7. Rarely written fic is due in 2 weeks. I have 0 words, but a vague idea? I need panic induced adrenaline to set in.
2. Related: What (Straight)Women Want ( no relation to sexist Mel Gibson movies) according to years and years of reading fiction.
3. Via
retsuko , a list of anime and manga recs for people who aren't fans of anime and manga that doesn't make my eyes glaze over with boredom. Most of what I haven't read or watched, I have no interest in reading or watching, and there are other things I'd have on there, but, IMO, it's better than most.4. I shouldn't start a new kdrama before finishing Ja Myung Go and the telenovelas I've been watching, but I checked out a new sageuk Hwajung out of curiosity. The plot is about Jeongmyung, a Joseon princess who is exiled after her half-brother, Gwanghae, usurps the crown, grows up as a boy, and returns years later as a boy. The first episode focuses mostly of the political and personal circumstances that lead to Gwanghae's coup. (Though really, it's another prince's coup. Played by the same actor who played Mishil's scheming brother in Queen Seon Duk.) Different things I've seen have promoted either Gwanghae or Jeongmyung as the main character. I opt to believe that it's Jeongmyung, with a greater focus on Gwanghae in early episodes because Jeongmyung is a little girl in them, and because Cha Seung Won is a much bigger star than Lee Yoon Hee. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Lee Yeon He in a leading role, as I've only seen her as the younger versions of sageuk women before.
Trailer:
I have pretty much no historical reference for the one. I know some bits about Gwanghae, but that's it.
5. Is anyone else planning to watch CW's The Messengers? I'm not really sold on the trailer, but I do like JD Pardo, and it has potential. (If nothing else, CW will probably treat him better than Revolution did.)
Trailer:
6. Speaking of CW, I enjoyed this week's iZombie a lot, but suspect I would have been more excited about it if (A) I had ever watch a single scene of Merlin (though I did quite like the actor) or (B) had ever understood why anyone would like Dick "prove you're a man by raping an unconscious girl" Casablancas. (He never even had "love to hate" or "at least he's amusing" status for me, but I know a lot of people enjoyed him.)
Meanwhile, petition to get protective details for Clive and Ravi. (Liv should be fine.)
7. Rarely written fic is due in 2 weeks. I have 0 words, but a vague idea? I need panic induced adrenaline to set in.
