TeeVee

Nov. 24th, 2012 09:42 am
meganbmoore: (covert affairs: gimme tv)
Covert Affairs3.15-3.16:

spoilers )

Haven 3.9: I actually could have gone for this one lasting a few episodes.spoilers )

Once Upon A Time 2.7: This was pretty good despite some terrible dialogue, and apparently combining two episodes into one. I mean, Once doesn't exactly have the best dialogue ever, but it's usually better than this.

spoilers )

Person of Interest 2.7: Apparently on tumblr, there's some sort of wank between PoI and Sherlock fans because PoI fans were referring to Finch as "their hedgehog" and Sherlock fans took offense. I have no idea what the significance is, but it certainly created some imagery when watching the episode.

spoilers )

Revenge: I'm current, but forget what the actual episode numbers involved are. This season is doing plot things that I don't really care about (Pretty much most plot things not directly related to Emily) and so I'm having trouble paying attention to some of it, particularly given how irritating I find the narrative's attitude towards Amanda and Ashley to be this season. Really, I don't know. I liked the first couple of episodes of the season a lot because of the Emily/Charlotte/Victoria focus but the episodes since have left me cold despite my affection for some of the characters. I'm starting to wonder if it's one of those series that has a excellent first season but only really had about a season's worth of truly maintainable plot. (TBH, there seemed to be a fair bit of that going around last fall.) And, unfortunately, it's having the same problem as Once Upon A Time, which is an overabundance of (typically scruffy) white dudes in roughly the 30-40 range being shoehorned in and taking attention away from the more interesting characters and storylines. (Revenge, at least, was nice enough to cast J. R. Bourne and Michael Trucco as two of theirs, so at least there's some actor affection going there, but their characters pretty much exist to give a couple white guys things to do outside their relationships with women, so...) This is made even more annoying by the fact that right now, Revenge is probably doing the worst of the shows I'm watching in terms of female character relationships and how the women treat other women. Only Charlotte, apparently, is allowed to have anything positive in her relationships with other women, and even then they're all lyin to or manipulating her, and while Emily can somehow find sympathy for all the men in her life, she seems to have nothing but contempt and disdain for other women, particularly Amanda.

Revolution 1.8:

spoilers )
And because I didn't get around to posting on last week's TV until after this week's Revolution aired:

Revolution 1.9: Not exactly filler as it was mostly character development (apparently largely designed to cater to shippers) But the only real plot momentum was with Rachel. My thoughts on Rachel are that I am very happy that this TV season and this show in particular is providing me with plenty of mothers who are morally ambiguous if not outright shady and have things going on besides thier kids while still being written as sympathetic and loving their kids.

Scandal 2.6: Have we actually had two whole episodes and no Fitz? Is it early Christmas?
spoilers )

The latest Arrow and Beauty and the Beast were good but felt like filler with a few important bits thrown in. Elementary was interesting on the Watson front but the Mystery Of The Week was brought down by a trope whose execution I didn't care for with Gregson's old partner.

I've pretty much finished Rich Man Poor Woman and Naniwa Shounen Tanteidan, the two jdramas I started a few months ago and got sidetracked from. "Pretty much" because, the last time I looked, the last episode of Naniwa hadn't been subbed yet. RMPW floundered a lot in the middle but got back on track in thel ast two episodes and had a pretty strong ending. Naniwa was pretty hit-and-miss in terms of the cases, but the characters and character interactions were great. I also finished season 4 of Fringe, which had a lot of interesting ideas going on but seemed determined to strip Olivia of agency in as many ways as possible. Like with AltLiv's storyline in the second half of season 3, I keep wanting to write up a rant but dissolve into inarticulate raging before I even get started. Then there's season 4 of Parks and Rec, which was largely very fun (as expected) but while I like Leslie/Ben and Leslie running for office, I dislike how it seemed to isolate them from the rest of the cast for large chunks of the season, and I'm unable to comment on Ann/Tom.

TeeVee

Nov. 4th, 2012 01:08 am
meganbmoore: (covert affairs: gimme tv)

Arrow 1.3-1.4:

spoilers )

Beauty and the Beast 1.3-1.4: I feel I've watched all these mystery plots before in various other shows but I don't care because I just enjoy watching Catherine and Tess running around being buddycop and the show not feeling it has to bend over backwards to reassure us that they aren't lesbians. (Though, since the show appears determined to be all het all the way, I can't help but think they'd be better off doing Tess/Evan than trying to force a Vincent/Catherine/Evan triangle, because the Catherine/Evan thing mostly feels like the writers assume two people that pretty will HAVE to want to jump each other and so have other characters assuming the same when the characters...don't come across that way, really.) These episodes seemed to devote a lot of time to Vincent making up his mind, which is ok since it had a bunch of Government Conspiracy stuff going with it, but I can only take so much "I must hide from the world so no one will see me! But I'll leave the pretty cop notes and run out to save people every 5 minutes BUT NONE MUST KNOW I EXIST!" and am ready to get back to Catherine and her official and unoffical buddycop adventures.

Elementary 1.5: I think I liked this mystery more than the earlier ones. They're definitely getting better at them. But I mostly liked learning more about Joan's past (even though we didn't learn as much as I thought we would) and being amusedc at Sherlock's less-than-secret obsession with it.

Nikita 3.2-3.3: Well, these episodes took care of the doubts the first episode of the season left me with, and could be summed up as "Nikita: the suprspy who saves other women, and her sidekick, the first girl she saved." Actually, 3.2 might be my favorite episode of the series so far, but it did play into a lot of excellent narrative tropes, and the writers appear to have watched Hanna between seasons.

spoilers )

Once Upon A Time 2.5: Much better than last week, but that wouldn't be hard to achieve in my book.

Tspoilers )


Person of Interest 2.5: The first half of this episode was absolutely hilarious. In general, the series seems to not be taking itself quite as seriously as it did in the first season, and I think it's stronger for it. I had actually forgotten that there were dangling threads for the ongoing plotline this episode went back to, but that's ok. It's always good to see Zoe Morgan, even for that little amount of screentime, and I think this was Gloria Votsis auditioning for Lois Lane. Hopefully she'll be in more episodes, since White Collar seems to have written her out.

Revolution 1.6: I don't know who thought a promo that went "Will Charlie be forced to prostitute herself to save her friend? MEN WILL DISCUSS IT AND DECIDE." was more interesting than the actual plot of the episode, but whoever it was really should not be left in charge of promoting shows again.
spoilers )

In non-currently-airing US TV news, I've watched season 3 of Warehouse 13 and it was its normal campy delight and had some interesting changes and developments (only somewhat marred by the horrific decision to give Joanne Kelly straight hair. Not that it actually hurt the character or her looks or anything, but sometimes I get attached to character/actor hair, and in this case, Joanne Kelly with straight hair is just wrong.) until the last couple episodes, in which in all became Gloom and Angst and Drama and I was pretty much sitting here going "......whhhhyyyyyy....." and then the DVDs ended with a Christmas Special that appears to be set during the first season (maybe early in the second) in which Harry Dresden is being stalked by Santa, and so at least the DVDs ended on a happier note, even if the season didn't. I'm also 9 episodes into season 4 of Fringe and I was really really enjoying the new status quo (especially the changes to Olivia and Nina's relationship, even if they still had few scenes together) and hoping it'd be like Eureka and make the radical change permanent, but apparently changing things back to the way they were before is the main goal of the season. Also, why can't Olivia have a partner without developing a romantic interest in them? (Or even just a partner who isn't a white male close to her in age and with a compatible sexual orientation.)
meganbmoore: (boss: shyeah right)
Show, why are you having black people sacrificing themselves so white people can go save the world(s)? I mean, you kind of really fail at race in general, but that one especially sticks in my craw.

*disapproving glare*

(I'm actually several episodes past that but just got a disc from Netflixand was reminded.)
meganbmoore: (vd: kill you with my brain)


As of yesterday, I am current-ish (through vol 5-there may be more now) with the manhwa 13th Boy.  All I have to say (aside from "Yay!  Girl-bonding!  Weird girl-bonding, but who's complaining?") is that this has every standard shoujo RomCom trope ever (with a bonus talking cactus named Beatrice that turns into a bishounen during the full moon) and yet, it obeys absolutely none  of the rules a decade of shoujo reading has taught me.  I keep thinking I know where it's going, and then I don't!  I have no idea how this will end or what will happen next, which isa very refreshing change of pace.

I've also watching through the end of season  2 of Fringe.  As far as I know, everyone reading this post is actually further along than me.  If not, you might want to skip the rest.  There are things I like a lot and some things I don't (Uhm...mostly Walter.  And how he treats Astrid a lot of the time.  And how basically everything is his fault-and I'm not really convinced that he regrets any of it-even though I'm sure the writers are expecting us to sympathize with him.) and I...need to watch some of season 3 before I really can get into this, but while I kind of adore the alternate universe and all more than the main universe, maybe)  I...am really bugged by how the tretment of it kinda...smacks of colonialism.  I mean, think about it:

Party A invades the homeland of Party B.  Party A steals from Party B, and causes irreparable damage to its homeland.  Party A knew this would happen when Party A invaded Party B's homeland.  Party B figures out what happened and creates defenses.  Eventually, Party B, believing Party A is an enemy out to destroy Party B (and why would Party B think otherwise?) opts for infiltration and retaliation.

Party A and Party A's allies are the protagonists.  Party B is the villain.

I really really hope things don't go down the way I fear they will in season 3.
 

meganbmoore: (baccano: intrepid reporter)

Earlier today (like, 2 hours ago) I was watching an episode of Fringe and wondering why this cop who died in the first 5 minutes, and then I realized that it was Malone from Lost World, only 10 years older, and went' "What a coinkidink! I got a Lost World disc from NetFlix today!"  And then I finished the ep and read a bit and made dinner and turned on Lost World, and this guy ran out of the woods and looked familiar AND IT IS WALTER BISHOP FROM FRINGE, TEN YEARS YOUNGER!

And I went "..."

Also, this ep of Lost World has them finding Jack the Ripper's knife and Malone picks it up not knowing what it is, and it basically gives him Jack the Ripper's memories and he's traumatized by, you know, suddenly having memories of murdering and mutilating women, and Challenger...bullies him into doing it again in the name of science.  Just when I was disliking Challenger a bit less, too...

ETA:  Veronica just clocked JtR when he got fresh, then he pulled a gun and she beat him up.  This is way better than the episode of Babylon 5 that's basically JtR torturing Delenn the whole episode! 

ETA 2:  Now Walter is JtR.  Or one is possessed by the knife.  This twist is startlingly appropriate.  (This episode is basically and excuse to put the cast in Victorian clothing on gloomy streets...)

ETA 3:  Both characters were JtR!  And this episode was literally Veronica and Marguerite (mostly Veronica) beating up JtR.  And at one point, Walter revealed he had taken all the bellets out of Marguerite'as gun and was all "Ha Ha! You are helpless now!" and so she clubbed him with it.  A lot.  This is officially my favorite "Let's solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper!" episode ever.  (Though, I typically dislike them.  A lot.)
meganbmoore: (moonacre: tree)

I’ve had Fringe recommended to me for a while, but never got around to it. Then I started watching the first season at about the same time there was a literal explosion of listies discovering it.

This is, in short, an exercise in slightly-morbid geekery disguising itself as a procedural. Ok, maybe not an exercise in geekery, but it is very geeky (in a good way) and really does try hard to disguise itself as a procedural.

The main reccing power (at least in my circles) is Olivia Dunham. This is possibly the only show ever to (1) give a character a Crowning Moment of Awesome in almost every episode and have them actually deserve it, and (2) have that character be a woman.

This woman is relentless people. It’s really half her awesomeness. She’s a dog with a bone and justice is her bone. I am fairly certain that she would move mountain ranges with pure force of will if it was required.

The other members of the main cast, unfortunately, don’t really take off until mid-season, or just before, and some things (like the way they decided making Peter be openly chauvinistic in the first few episodes would be charming, or deciding to make the pretty blonde lead‘s new black superior be antagonistic towards her because she took down his buddy for sexual misconduct*) take a bit to get over in terms of having the characters (and writers) grow on you. And other things.

The plot…well, I find it interesting and am very curious to see what‘s going on, but I’m a bit bummed that it’s Peter and Walter’s plot, and that Olivia is more…trying to figure out what’s going on. She becomes more involved in the metaplot beyond her investigations later in the season, but it’s still very much their plot.

Regarding the ending of the season I guessed that what happened the Walter was that he went to the other reality to get Peter when the alternate reality possibility started cropping up and there was a mention of Walter losing something, but I haven‘t decided yet if I think that our Peter is the “proper“ Peter from the show’s reality who went there accidentally and was trapped, or if I think our Peter is from the alternate reality, and Walter went over and stole him after the Peter from the regular reality died. I suspect season 2 or early season 3 will resolve that for me.

It’s not quite the show I wanted it to be, but it’s a fun one.

*I hasten to assure you that this is done away with very quickly, and that the superior in question later unhesitatingly sides with her regarding the douche in question.

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