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icons: Scandal
Mar. 8th, 2013 07:52 pm 167 x Scandal (season 1)
( I appear to have dropped the show, but I made these a while back, so... )
( I appear to have dropped the show, but I made these a while back, so... )
Call the Midwife: Christmas Special: Simultaneously thoroughly heartbreaking and uplifting. It's unlikely to have any repercussions on the series as a whole, but is a very good standalone episode. One of the main plotlines adapts one of the most heartbreaking and traumatic stories from Worth's memoir, but the adaptation thankfully stomps on your heart less after ripping it out. (I have a feeling that I'm now going to look at all plotlines in the show to see what story from the book it's derived from, and wonder if the ones I don't recognize are from Worth's other memoirs, which aren't currently available in the US, as far as I know.) I was very pleased that Chummy is still around. I wasn't sure if she would be after the ending of the first season. (Though it would have been a very good exit if she were gone.)
The Hour: Series 2: I think this series was stronger than the first in a lot of ways. I found the season long investigation more interesting than in the first season, and the various relationship dramas were largely intereting instead of often frustrating like the first season. I also really liked Marnie's plotline this season (and I continue to find the way she deals ith Hector's women fascinating), and the fact that Lix had one, and they wrote Bel more like what I'd think a young female television producer of the time would be like. I also think they managed to portray Freddie as the kind of character they were trying to in the first series, which is considerably less annoying than the character we had in the first series. It also managed to separate itself from the inevitable Mad Men comparisons. (I do think the first couple episodes of the first series had a bit of a "wants to be Mad Men" feel to them, but that the comparison is overdone quite a bit. That said, I still can't help but think Hector is a case of Don Draper done in a way where I can find the character interesting and even enjoyable.)
Labyrinth: A miniseries that has nothing to do with the movie with David Bowie prancing around in circulation-killing pants, and everything to do with the Kate Mosse book. (Which I haven't actually read.) The story centers around a modern woman, Alice, who begins having visions of Alais, a Cathar woman from the early 13th century caught up in the massacre of the Cathars, and being made the caretaker of the Cathar treasure (in this case, an unconventional Grail). I was mostly interested going in for the historical plotline, as most (conspiracy theory) fictional stories that I've encountered about the Cathar treasure have tended to not actually involve many Cathars, much less center around a woman trying to escape the massacre. Unfortunately, a lot of the conflict there ended up centering around Alais's sister, Oriane, becoming Alais's antagonist, with her hatred for her sister being rooted in men liking Alais more, so while I did like the historical plot, I didn't like it as much as I expected. But the modern part involved secret organizations and conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries and legacies, so I was all over that. There are some unfortunate messages about ambitious women (though, sadly, none we haven't seen plenty of times before) but also women with heroic destinies. In the end, I liked the bulk of it a lot, but didn't like it as much as I've thought I would since learning about it back in the summer.
Restless: A miniseries set on both the 1970s and 1939-1941, Ruth Gilmartin (Michelle Dockery) goes to visit her mother, Sally (Charlotte Rampling) only to find her mother staring at the woods, talking about how people who have been looking for her for years have found her and are watching her. Like most people, Ruth's response is "no, mom, there are not bad guys in the woods, at which point her mother informs her that she isn't British, but was born Russian, grew up in exile in France and was a British spy from 1939-1941, and that her real name is Eva Delectorskaya. The bulk of the series is Eva's (Hayley Atwell) backstory as she engages in a number of spyjinks, up to and including killing a would-be assassin with a pencil, and begins to suspect that she's being used in a secret plot, while Ruth learns about her mother and tries to help her learn if there really is anyone after her. It gets a solid thumbs up and all three main actresses are rather amazingly cast, though I'm a bit miffed that my dream of having Hayley Atwell and Michelle Dockery do a period drama together came true in a drama in which they share no scenes, though all three actresses have enough sinmilar mannerism that Atwell must have collaborated with Dockery and Rampling offscreen, because the actresses share a number of mannerisms.
Scandal 2.7-2.9:
( spoilers )
Meanwhile, US TeeVees are coming back from their Holiday breaks, and I don't seem to want to watch anything that isn't either complete or that I don't have a large chunk of available. Probably a good time to catch up on anime and doramas.
The Hour: Series 2: I think this series was stronger than the first in a lot of ways. I found the season long investigation more interesting than in the first season, and the various relationship dramas were largely intereting instead of often frustrating like the first season. I also really liked Marnie's plotline this season (and I continue to find the way she deals ith Hector's women fascinating), and the fact that Lix had one, and they wrote Bel more like what I'd think a young female television producer of the time would be like. I also think they managed to portray Freddie as the kind of character they were trying to in the first series, which is considerably less annoying than the character we had in the first series. It also managed to separate itself from the inevitable Mad Men comparisons. (I do think the first couple episodes of the first series had a bit of a "wants to be Mad Men" feel to them, but that the comparison is overdone quite a bit. That said, I still can't help but think Hector is a case of Don Draper done in a way where I can find the character interesting and even enjoyable.)
Labyrinth: A miniseries that has nothing to do with the movie with David Bowie prancing around in circulation-killing pants, and everything to do with the Kate Mosse book. (Which I haven't actually read.) The story centers around a modern woman, Alice, who begins having visions of Alais, a Cathar woman from the early 13th century caught up in the massacre of the Cathars, and being made the caretaker of the Cathar treasure (in this case, an unconventional Grail). I was mostly interested going in for the historical plotline, as most (conspiracy theory) fictional stories that I've encountered about the Cathar treasure have tended to not actually involve many Cathars, much less center around a woman trying to escape the massacre. Unfortunately, a lot of the conflict there ended up centering around Alais's sister, Oriane, becoming Alais's antagonist, with her hatred for her sister being rooted in men liking Alais more, so while I did like the historical plot, I didn't like it as much as I expected. But the modern part involved secret organizations and conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries and legacies, so I was all over that. There are some unfortunate messages about ambitious women (though, sadly, none we haven't seen plenty of times before) but also women with heroic destinies. In the end, I liked the bulk of it a lot, but didn't like it as much as I've thought I would since learning about it back in the summer.
Restless: A miniseries set on both the 1970s and 1939-1941, Ruth Gilmartin (Michelle Dockery) goes to visit her mother, Sally (Charlotte Rampling) only to find her mother staring at the woods, talking about how people who have been looking for her for years have found her and are watching her. Like most people, Ruth's response is "no, mom, there are not bad guys in the woods, at which point her mother informs her that she isn't British, but was born Russian, grew up in exile in France and was a British spy from 1939-1941, and that her real name is Eva Delectorskaya. The bulk of the series is Eva's (Hayley Atwell) backstory as she engages in a number of spyjinks, up to and including killing a would-be assassin with a pencil, and begins to suspect that she's being used in a secret plot, while Ruth learns about her mother and tries to help her learn if there really is anyone after her. It gets a solid thumbs up and all three main actresses are rather amazingly cast, though I'm a bit miffed that my dream of having Hayley Atwell and Michelle Dockery do a period drama together came true in a drama in which they share no scenes, though all three actresses have enough sinmilar mannerism that Atwell must have collaborated with Dockery and Rampling offscreen, because the actresses share a number of mannerisms.
Scandal 2.7-2.9:
( spoilers )
Meanwhile, US TeeVees are coming back from their Holiday breaks, and I don't seem to want to watch anything that isn't either complete or that I don't have a large chunk of available. Probably a good time to catch up on anime and doramas.
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.
( 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.
Arrow1.1: Better than I expected, but still rather eyerolly. Particularly Oliver's "I am Batman with a touch of Edmond Dantes" voiceovers, and I mostly cringe at Oliver's somewhat annoying BFF and how they appear to be treating his bodyguard. I started it not expecting to like Oliver and don't particularly, but don't dislike him the way some things I'd heard made me expect I would. No idea what I think of the plot yet, but I was entertained. Dinah lance is now a lawyer and goes by Laurel. I refuse to ship her with the guy who cheated on her with her sister (especially since her sister died in the middle of the cheating. Err, because of a shipwreck, not his killing her) but they are pretty and maybe he'll work really really hard at it.* But I hope she gets to join in on the crimefighting in the literal sense before long too. Roy Harper also appears to have been genderbent into Oliver's younger sister (And, uhm, he held on to a rock for 5 years because it had an engraving that reminded him of her and it was his "beacon of hope" type thing or whatever? CW shows and siblings...) which I think I approve of. Especially if sh ever joins in on the literal crimefighting.
*There's also a scene that goes pretty much like this:
LAUREL: Well, I guess I'm glad you're alive.
OLIVER: OMG YOU STILL LOVE ME. WE ARE OTP. FOREVER.
LAUREL: I mean, my sister still died while you were cheating on me with her, so there's not going to be anything happening there, but if you ever need to talk...
OLIVER: OMG YOU TOTALLY WANT TO GET BACK TOETHER EEEEEEEE. Wait, this doesn't work well with my angst.
LAUREL: I'm not sure we're having the same conversation.
OLIVER: I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER BUT WE CANNOT BE FOR I AM A DARK AND ANGSTY AVENGER. I MUST PUSH YOU AWAY FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
LAUREL: What is going on here?
OLIVER: FOR. YOUR. OWN. GOOD. Cocky playboy time!
LAUREL: Well, you're still a jerk.
Beauty and the Beast 1.1: Very entertaining, bad dialogue, multiple POC, and soundly fails to pass the reserse Bechdel Test due to the fact that the 1 scene with 2 men and no women is the men talking about Catherine. They don't even try to make Vincent look beastly (he just has a strategically placed scar) most of the time and the beast part is that he kinda...werewolfs out? They seem to be doing a Jekyll/Hyde thing which has the unfortunate potential to head south fast but we'll see. I'm going to be watching in fear that we'll start having Catherine having to learn how to behave around him, though I don't actually get that vibe from the pilot. But, well, it's CW, and they have a certain history there when it comes to controlling/abusive men as love interests. (I also remember that in the original series, he lived in an underground city filled with "society's rejects" or however they put it-my mother loved that show so I saw a lot of it, but not since my early teens-and i think I much prefer that to being holed up in his buddy's apartment.) I feel like multiple episodes worth of Catherine and Vincent's relationship was condensed into one episode (I suppose they wanted to jump straight to the "Angsty forbidden romance" part?) and wish they'd taken their time. It's called "Beauty and the Beast," we know you're going to have lots of angsty romance, you don't have to shove as much of it into the first episode as you can to make sure we know that, ok? It's not going to win any "Best Anything" awards (well, maybe for Kristen Kreuk's hair) but I mostly enjoyed it, though I suspect that of the new shows I'm watching, it's the one most likely to get cancelled.
(Err, Both Arrow and Beauty and the Beast pretty much end with the dude watching the heroine from above without her knowing? What's with that, CW?)
Haven 3.4: I enjoyed this episode's Troubled plot, but so much of it made me think of the things I don't want to have happen (love triangles, Audrey and Duke not trusting each other, Audrey and Nathan not being buddycops anymore with Boston Cop on the scene, Boston Cop ending up evil, etc.) threatening to happen. I mostly enjoyed Claire's scenes (I'm starting to suspect she's Troubled herself.) and hope she doesn't go the way of other non-Audrey female characters on this show. I'd much rather have more of Audrey's past selves than the stuff Nathan and Duke are up to.
Once Upon A Time 2.2: Well, that was a pretty good episode despite the almost total lack of Emma and Snow.
( spoilers )
Revenge 2.2:
( spoilers )
Revolution 1.4:
( spoilers )Scandal 2.1-2.2: I adore this show despite not caring about roughly 2/3 of the plot. (Though I think I'll much prefer the "What happened to Quinn?" plot more than the Amanda Tanner plot simply because Fitz isn't involved in it.) But then, I adore Olivia and Mellie and like and am interested in every other important character except Fitz. 2.2 makes me just want to...not talk about anything but how much I hate Fitz. He's verbally abusive to Mellie, might as well be an ornament but likes to rant about how the people who keep him afloat are the unimportant ones, andhe has no respect for Olivia's interests or boundaries in the name of their "true love" (which she seems to suffer more than reciprocate, more often than not. I mean, those phone calls are downright creepy. Try replacing "call" with "touch." Especially the one at the beginning of 2.2, when it pretty much becomes "I stayed up late and made 23 people work late so that I could impose on you in the middle of the night and touch you. Do you want me to stop touching you? Tell me, the most powerful man in the country, to stop touching you in private. No? Ok, I'll abuse my power and misuse my staff again so I can touch you again tomorrow night." WHY SHOW WHY DO YOU FIND THIS RELATIONSHIP ROMANTIC? Yet, I will endure it for the sake of watching Olivia and Mellie verbally smack people around and rule the world. (Why can't Mellie be olivia's Forbidden True Love? At least that'd be different and interesting.)
World Without End 5-6: I thought these episodes were a lot better than the first 4. Things felt more unified in general, and it pretty much did away with the violence against women that was so pervasive in the first half. I briefly considered liking the king again, but then I remembered the "you can be my mother or you can be a whore" bit, and, nope. Sorry Blake Ritson. Hopefully the last two episodes stay on the same track as these two.
Avatar: The Legend of Korra 1.8-1.10: Aside from rolling my eyes a lot at the romantic subplots (not your strong point, guys, seriously) I liked these episodes.
( spoilers )
The Borgias 2.8-2.10: So, at this point, they're basically referencing a history book every once in a while for some cooler bits to throw in, then mshing things up any which wayt hey want otherwise, aren't they? Despite a rocky start, this season ended up pretty fun, though a step down from the first season. It also has an unfortunate tendency to randomly forget some of the more interesting supporting characters exist. (Though, given what happened when they remembered Ursula, that may not be such a bad thing. Also, I think I somewhat like Micheletto now, despite disliking him a lot in the first season.) I'm looking forward to season 3, though not as much as I was to season 2. As a side note, I rewatched Willow a week or so ago and every time something bad happened or Vannozza was annoyed by something, I was all "But Sorsha, don't you still have that serrated sword in your closet? you should use it!")
Continuum 1.1-1.4: Canadian scifi show about a cop from the future (Rachel Nichols) who accidentally travels back to present day with a group of terrorists and works with local cops to find and stop them. The dialogue in the future is hilariously bad (and the show sadly doesn't have the budget to do what it wants to in the future parts) but it's thankfully somewhat better in the present, and the "fish out of water" elements manage to avoid the usual secondhand embarassment. OTOH, while the show does better than certain other Canadian genre shows (*cough*Lost Girl ILU, but...*cough*) in including a number of POC in its regular cast, the bulk of them are part of the terrorist group. (The terrorist include Tony Amendola and Lexa Doig, both of whom were criminally underused the first couple of episodes, but who are getting more to do in the 3rd and 4th episodes.) It's a bit too straight-up procedural-like at times, but pretty fun despite it's flaws, especially if you happen to like Rachel Nichols, though I'm not sure how long they can keep the plot going without some revamping.
Scandal Season 1: Political drama about a team who solves the problems of (mostly) politicians and public figures before they become legal problems. It was described to me as Leverage, but with politics instead of cons and a more central ongoing plot, a comparison that (while largely accurate) amuses me because my first thought while watching was "Wait, isn't this the girl Parker was jealous of in that one episode?" The first season is only seven episodes, and is pretty fun. While I'm a bit iffy about some things that happen in the last episode, my only big issue is a subplot with the main character, Olivia Pope's, love life. We apparently aren't allowed to have strong, competent, professional women who are great at what they do and in charge of things without their having illicit affairs with married men who have more power than they do. Sigh. But I love how it assumes that no one will find it remotely unusual to have a competent and powerful black woman as the lead and the way it isn't apologetic at all about passing the Bechdel test multiple times an episode and often forgetting to give men anything to do but be bossed around or pwned by Olivia. After Olivia, my favorite character is probably the First Lady. (Not that I"d want to cross her in real life.) I eagerly anticipate season 2.
New shows need to start up now, because Korra is the only one of these still airing, and it only has a couple episodes left in the season.
