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45 x Damages
34 x Joseon X-Files/Secret Investigation Record
31 x Nikita
65 x Pretty Little Liars
46 x The Undercovers
70 x Vampire Diaries
the rest at my lj
It’s easy to catch up with your shows when they’ve all been on hiatus! And…are apparently only coming back for two episodes each.
Undercovers remains mostly episodic and absolutely adorable. I mean, I think I even liked Leo and Holt in this episode. I may not have much to say about it, but I’m really going to miss it when it’s officially gone.
Nikita had a very strong comeback episode, overall. I’m so very happy that they’re finally doing things with Jaden now. Though I…I wonder if the writers are actually intending for her to be as likable and sympathetic as she comes across? Because everyone I know who talks about Nikita is all “Whee! Jaden! Will Jaden and Alex finally become frenemies?” (And have been from, like, the first episode.) but I’m worried that the writers see her more as an antagonist.
( spoilery whine )
Then there’s Vampire Diaries, which…there were some really good parts, and then one major part that kind of…seriously killed the episode. And may I say that I’m seriously disturbed by how the fans are squeeing over Damon repeatedly threatening Elena with physical violence, telling her she doesn’t get to make her own decisions, and then actually using physical force against her? Because I am.
( lotsa spoilers )
Undercovers remains mostly episodic and absolutely adorable. I mean, I think I even liked Leo and Holt in this episode. I may not have much to say about it, but I’m really going to miss it when it’s officially gone.
Nikita had a very strong comeback episode, overall. I’m so very happy that they’re finally doing things with Jaden now. Though I…I wonder if the writers are actually intending for her to be as likable and sympathetic as she comes across? Because everyone I know who talks about Nikita is all “Whee! Jaden! Will Jaden and Alex finally become frenemies?” (And have been from, like, the first episode.) but I’m worried that the writers see her more as an antagonist.
( spoilery whine )
Then there’s Vampire Diaries, which…there were some really good parts, and then one major part that kind of…seriously killed the episode. And may I say that I’m seriously disturbed by how the fans are squeeing over Damon repeatedly threatening Elena with physical violence, telling her she doesn’t get to make her own decisions, and then actually using physical force against her? Because I am.
( lotsa spoilers )
And Sundry. Mostly TV.
Nov. 23rd, 2010 11:44 pm1. I was going to start this with “first and foremost, where is this week’s Lost Girl?” but it finally showed up a little while ago, if way later than usual. I actually just got around to watching ep 8 on Sunday, and haven’t seen ep 9 yet, but having it is the most important part! Speaking of ep 8, I rather hope the Villain of the Week doesn’t reappear, though he’s certain too. He bugged me on multiple levels, not the least of which was that it was like watching Damon Salvatore try to impersonate Jack Sparrow. Actually, despite certain good parts, that episode was one I could do without altogether.
Incidentally, though the character has not (to my knowledge) appeared since the first episode (though she has been mentioned a few times) I will be deeply saddened if the Morrigan is not Bo’s mother, aunt, or grandmother. Or somehow related. If she is not related to Bo, I demand she be the goddess. Slumming.
2. It is entirely possible that I am being stalked by “The Magic Flute.” Shortly after posting on the 2 versions I recently watched, I read Julia Quinn’s latest book* where the characters go to watch it at the opera and the hero…almost quotes me regarding Pamina and Tamino’s Epic Love. Then, while traveling to visit my brother and his family last weekend, I was browsing radio stations on the highway and settled on a classical music station…then realized it was playing instrumentals from “The Magic Flute.” And then I was flipping through one of Eva Ibbotson’s YA romances (though they were originally published as general fiction, I believe) and realized the heroine was involved with a company putting on a production of “The Magic Flute”!
3. I am rewatching the first Fairies of Liao Zhai arc with some of the usual suspects, though not the usual combination of the usual suspects, and while I’ve always noticed that this director likes deeply saturated colors, Hu Ge, friendships of all sorts, melodrama, crack, and Doom, I think part of why I always start something of his assuming that I’ll love it is that he always has lots of women (not unusual for wuxia) but also that his shows are more willing to give them flaws and acknowledge the flaws, but also still expect us to like them. I actually can’t think of any of his female characters that didn’t seem to be written with the expectation that the audience would like her and find her interesting, even if the actual character sometimesmostly just one time isn’t as fun as written. (Also, rewatching is letting me appreciate the clothes more. OMG the clothes.)
4. Is Undercovers gone forever? I thought there were a few more eps left to air!
5. Nikita and Vampire Diaries being on hold is reminding me of why I don’t often watch shows until they’re finished/the season is complete/there are DVDs. The breaks are traumatic! (Purely in the fannish sense.)
This is particularly bad with Vampire Diaries as I am prone to theorizing there, and fantasizing about what the future may bring. My head may have spun epic plot arcs about the Bennett witches, Caroline and Tyler having supernatural adventures, and Meredith having a hugely important role in which she is still Hispanic, does not die,does not hook up with Alaric, because he’s older here and I like him with Jenna even though I’m annoyed they aren’t having her do much outside of that this season, and I know the show will give me none of these. Ok, maybe Caroline and Tyler having supernatural adventures. It also gave me time to ponder.
( series spoilers )But! Breaks in airing! Trauma! Though I may try watching the currently airing kdrama Secret Garden a few weeks behind as it comes out, once there are a few more subbed eps. It worked fairly well for me with Chuno, and it’s Ha Ji Won and Hyun Bin switching bodies. Err…their characters switching bodies. I have yet to see Hyun Bin in anything, but Ha Ji Won is my favorite Korean actress, and the star of 2 of my 3 favorite kdramas.
6. Out of curiosity, is there much Bollywood fandom on LJ/DW, or is that fandom basically the people I already follow? I know there’s a pretty good sized English language fan base for Bollywood, but I get the impression that it’s like wuxia, where most English language fandom centers around the forums of a few websites.
*Which was a fun book, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a single character who wasn’t landed gentry or upper class. Like, I know Julia Quinn basically singlehandedly made super-windowdressing Regency Historicals the norm and created scores of copies (but she’s usually fun so we usually forgive her, except the one “no, JQ, men can so be raped too!” book) but that was a bit much. Also, the hero coped with his angst by writing gothic novels, and lives to encounter his fans, who all think he’s a woman hidden out in the country or something. I’m pretty sure he’s one of the guys who annoyed me in Quinn’s last book, but he was fun here.
Incidentally, though the character has not (to my knowledge) appeared since the first episode (though she has been mentioned a few times) I will be deeply saddened if the Morrigan is not Bo’s mother, aunt, or grandmother. Or somehow related. If she is not related to Bo, I demand she be the goddess. Slumming.
2. It is entirely possible that I am being stalked by “The Magic Flute.” Shortly after posting on the 2 versions I recently watched, I read Julia Quinn’s latest book* where the characters go to watch it at the opera and the hero…almost quotes me regarding Pamina and Tamino’s Epic Love. Then, while traveling to visit my brother and his family last weekend, I was browsing radio stations on the highway and settled on a classical music station…then realized it was playing instrumentals from “The Magic Flute.” And then I was flipping through one of Eva Ibbotson’s YA romances (though they were originally published as general fiction, I believe) and realized the heroine was involved with a company putting on a production of “The Magic Flute”!
3. I am rewatching the first Fairies of Liao Zhai arc with some of the usual suspects, though not the usual combination of the usual suspects, and while I’ve always noticed that this director likes deeply saturated colors, Hu Ge, friendships of all sorts, melodrama, crack, and Doom, I think part of why I always start something of his assuming that I’ll love it is that he always has lots of women (not unusual for wuxia) but also that his shows are more willing to give them flaws and acknowledge the flaws, but also still expect us to like them. I actually can’t think of any of his female characters that didn’t seem to be written with the expectation that the audience would like her and find her interesting, even if the actual character sometimes
4. Is Undercovers gone forever? I thought there were a few more eps left to air!
5. Nikita and Vampire Diaries being on hold is reminding me of why I don’t often watch shows until they’re finished/the season is complete/there are DVDs. The breaks are traumatic! (Purely in the fannish sense.)
This is particularly bad with Vampire Diaries as I am prone to theorizing there, and fantasizing about what the future may bring. My head may have spun epic plot arcs about the Bennett witches, Caroline and Tyler having supernatural adventures, and Meredith having a hugely important role in which she is still Hispanic, does not die,
( series spoilers )But! Breaks in airing! Trauma! Though I may try watching the currently airing kdrama Secret Garden a few weeks behind as it comes out, once there are a few more subbed eps. It worked fairly well for me with Chuno, and it’s Ha Ji Won and Hyun Bin switching bodies. Err…their characters switching bodies. I have yet to see Hyun Bin in anything, but Ha Ji Won is my favorite Korean actress, and the star of 2 of my 3 favorite kdramas.
6. Out of curiosity, is there much Bollywood fandom on LJ/DW, or is that fandom basically the people I already follow? I know there’s a pretty good sized English language fan base for Bollywood, but I get the impression that it’s like wuxia, where most English language fandom centers around the forums of a few websites.
*Which was a fun book, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a single character who wasn’t landed gentry or upper class. Like, I know Julia Quinn basically singlehandedly made super-windowdressing Regency Historicals the norm and created scores of copies (but she’s usually fun so we usually forgive her, except the one “no, JQ, men can so be raped too!” book) but that was a bit much. Also, the hero coped with his angst by writing gothic novels, and lives to encounter his fans, who all think he’s a woman hidden out in the country or something. I’m pretty sure he’s one of the guys who annoyed me in Quinn’s last book, but he was fun here.
1. I have heard but not seen it confirmed that Undercovers has been picked up for a full season, despite the ratings. I hope this is true! I am exceptionally fond of it despite the lack of, uhm, any ongoing plot. But it is so upbeat and pretty and energetic and devoted to trying to aachieve equal opportunity fanservice and we may never again get a show about happily married spies if it goes away.
2. It, however, is the only of the four shows I'm trying to watch as they air (the others being Lost Girl, Nikita, and Vampire Diaries) that I'm current on. Nikita needs more of a metaplot and spoilers make me worry, but then Maggie Q strokes a gun and I forget things. Lost Girl remains superawesome, I just keep forgetting to post on it because so many people I talk to in IMs watch it. You are familiar with my Vampire Diaries whiplash.
3. But speaking of airing shows, has anyone checked out The Walking Dead? I checked out some of the comic book series back when it was The Hot New Thing but didn't stick with it, and hadn't paid much attention to the TV show buzz until I noticed Laurie Holden, one of my earlier girlcrushes, in the promotional pictures.
4. Continuing my trend of old school adventure shows, I've started watching The Lost World, which is kind of cringey, but fun. Marguerite and Veronica are awesome and the old professor is adorable and the reporter is...endearing, though moreso in the 2 part pilot than the couple episodes after it that I've seen. Roxton...has potential to eventually make me like him, but right now I mostly want to thwap him, and every time he and Marguerite interact, I'm all "gosh, Maeve showed way more skin than this-a lot of it cleavage-and Sinbad managed to usually keep his eyes where they belonged and avoid the objectifying sexist comments..." Challenger I kinda...pretend isn't there. So far, it's better that way. I think I've read the book, but if so, it's been ages.
5. Today at Wal-Mart, I picked up the boxed sets of Crusoe and Surface for $10 each. I remember vaguely being interested in both when they aired, but never hearing much about them and basically forgetting all about them because almost no one talked about them. Which probably doesn't bode well, but surely they'll give me at least $10 worth of entertainment each, in one way or another. Also, I kept staring at the cover of Crusoe and wondering why the main guy was making me feel both vague fondness and wanting to thwap him. And then I realized it was Jack from SyFy's Alice, and it all made sense.
6. Last week, I watched the 2005 Night Stalker series because I had been told it had Gabrielle Union, and I kinda fell for her in the second season of Life. I am utterly amazed at how that show was watchable and fairly enjoyable, yet utterly lacking in any semblance of originality. The lead actors and characters were great (and Mira Furlan has an awesome guest role as a Villain Of The Week, even though I cringe at the "obsessed with beauty' trope inthat episode) but it was like everything went into the leads and there was nothing left for the rest of it. Like, I'd start every episode thinking "this is the episode where the show will actually get interesting" (and yet...) and "this is the episode that will make me start hating Kolchak. (Normally, I'd dislike him very much? But for some reason, I liked him.) But, yeah. What a sad waste of Gabrielle Union and Stuart Townsend.
7. Anyone wanna rec me mystery series? I'm mostly thinking A&E and BBC stuff, but US works too. I specifically mean mysteries, as in "detective goes out and does footwork and solves it all with hir brain" and not procedurals, as in "lots of technology/modern methods and attention to the dead body and gory details." I've seen all of Foyle's War and all the Poirots and Marples that have been released stateside. I've seen a bit of Inspector Lynley and thought it was good and liked the leads, but couldn't get into it. For US stuff, I watch Castle (which does veer into procedural, but not quite) and Psych. I've seen a lot of Monk but, while I remember it fondly, it's been a few years, and I suspect I'd have problems with it now. I also watch Bones, but that's about as procedural as I get (all of these on DVD). For older stuff, I've seen all of Remington Steele and a good chunk of Moonlighting (I stopped when I was told it was best to not watch past. Reading spoilers and the reactions of others, this was wise) and bits of some others. What I've heard of Sherlock doesn't make me think I'd enjoy it a lot, but you're welcome to change my mind.
Nikita and The Undercovers
Oct. 2nd, 2010 08:43 pmBetween these two shows, it’s like someone reached into my psyche, pulled out all my kinks, and made a couple shows out of them.
The Undercovers is about Samantha and Steven Bloom, a pair of retired CIA agents who now run a catering business who are reactivated when an old friend goes missing, and then are kept in reserve for special missions. It’s rather absurdly enjoyable. I adore the leads and really like their boss, The Hotel Guy (as I shall call him until I learn his name), but am quite annoyed by their sidekick. Sam’s sister, who works in their catering business, and Leo, the old friend, I’m not sure about yet.
The first two episodes are fairly standalone, though the groundwork is set for a larger plotarc to develop. (Apparently revolving around Steven’s secrets and angst. It’s a good thing I like Steven.) It seems to be built largely around classic comedies and the “adventuring/crime solving couple” shows of the 70s and 80s, with some modern sexing it up. So far, it’s almost as willing to have Steven wandering around without his shirt or with his shirt open as it is to have Sam in skimpy little outfits.
Preview:
My only exposure to the Nikita franchise prior to this show is the least known incarnation: the American movie with Bridget Fonda, so I’m not going into it with any previous attachment to the more popular incarnations.
The show is fairly evenly split between Nikita, a rogue agent of a black ops group called The Division who’s now trying to bring them down, and Alex, a new recruit in The Division. I have a lot of criticisms of the show (like how, aside from an Asian heroine with tons of agency, the show completely fails with race) and yet, as I’m watching, I just don’t care. Lots of women with agency! And guns! And relationships with each other! Women plotting to bring down evil organizations!
The show passes the Bechdel test on multiple fronts every episode. And I don’t mean two women having several scenes together, but I mean Alex/Amanda, Alex/Jaden, Nikita/Important-to-the-episode’s-plot Guest Star, and Nikita/*spoiler*. Though, as you may have noticed from that list, the setup has Nikita fairly isolated from the other characters, and Alex the one in the center, forming many of the import relationships that we’ll care about. At the same time, Alex’s relationships are also deliberately set up to mirror Nikita’s own relationships from when she was still an agent, which I absolutely adore.
I’m sad, though, that so far, I’m rather mehed by the inevitable Nikita/Michael pairing, and Michael himself? I think that it’s partly because the show relies at least a bit on carryover from Le Femme Nikita, but also, the actors don’t have much chemistry. (Based on Nikita’s interactions with other characters, they must have tried really hard to find an actor Maggie Q didn’t have chemistry with to play her love interest. I‘m just saying.) I suspect both will grow on me, though.
Also, I’m kind of amused by the naming? I’ve never really been particularly impressed with the “give the girl a typically male name to show she’s the cool girl/action girl,” but in this case, “Nikita” is actually a man’s name that usually gets mistaken as a woman’s name, because that’s how it sounds to English speakers, so I wonder if it’s coincidence, or another deliberate mirroring.
Preview:
I’m current with the aired episodes of both shows (two for The Undercovers and four for Nikita). Spoilers for both welcome in comments.
The Undercovers is about Samantha and Steven Bloom, a pair of retired CIA agents who now run a catering business who are reactivated when an old friend goes missing, and then are kept in reserve for special missions. It’s rather absurdly enjoyable. I adore the leads and really like their boss, The Hotel Guy (as I shall call him until I learn his name), but am quite annoyed by their sidekick. Sam’s sister, who works in their catering business, and Leo, the old friend, I’m not sure about yet.
The first two episodes are fairly standalone, though the groundwork is set for a larger plotarc to develop. (Apparently revolving around Steven’s secrets and angst. It’s a good thing I like Steven.) It seems to be built largely around classic comedies and the “adventuring/crime solving couple” shows of the 70s and 80s, with some modern sexing it up. So far, it’s almost as willing to have Steven wandering around without his shirt or with his shirt open as it is to have Sam in skimpy little outfits.
Preview:
My only exposure to the Nikita franchise prior to this show is the least known incarnation: the American movie with Bridget Fonda, so I’m not going into it with any previous attachment to the more popular incarnations.
The show is fairly evenly split between Nikita, a rogue agent of a black ops group called The Division who’s now trying to bring them down, and Alex, a new recruit in The Division. I have a lot of criticisms of the show (like how, aside from an Asian heroine with tons of agency, the show completely fails with race) and yet, as I’m watching, I just don’t care. Lots of women with agency! And guns! And relationships with each other! Women plotting to bring down evil organizations!
The show passes the Bechdel test on multiple fronts every episode. And I don’t mean two women having several scenes together, but I mean Alex/Amanda, Alex/Jaden, Nikita/Important-to-the-episode’s-plot Guest Star, and Nikita/*spoiler*. Though, as you may have noticed from that list, the setup has Nikita fairly isolated from the other characters, and Alex the one in the center, forming many of the import relationships that we’ll care about. At the same time, Alex’s relationships are also deliberately set up to mirror Nikita’s own relationships from when she was still an agent, which I absolutely adore.
I’m sad, though, that so far, I’m rather mehed by the inevitable Nikita/Michael pairing, and Michael himself? I think that it’s partly because the show relies at least a bit on carryover from Le Femme Nikita, but also, the actors don’t have much chemistry. (Based on Nikita’s interactions with other characters, they must have tried really hard to find an actor Maggie Q didn’t have chemistry with to play her love interest. I‘m just saying.) I suspect both will grow on me, though.
Also, I’m kind of amused by the naming? I’ve never really been particularly impressed with the “give the girl a typically male name to show she’s the cool girl/action girl,” but in this case, “Nikita” is actually a man’s name that usually gets mistaken as a woman’s name, because that’s how it sounds to English speakers, so I wonder if it’s coincidence, or another deliberate mirroring.
Preview:
I’m current with the aired episodes of both shows (two for The Undercovers and four for Nikita). Spoilers for both welcome in comments.
