vaznetti | really miscellaneous television

As usual, I am not dead, just dragging my feet about updating. It's so much easier to read my friends list than to think of something to write -- and the less I write, the more I need to write when I finally do get around to updating. It's like a vicious cycle! And there are so many things to talk about (and I am so behind at work...)

On the televisual front...

I don't know what to do with my ~~Saturday~~ Sunday nights, now that Being Human is over. (I have a non spoilery theory about that show. You know the myth about the Norns, or whoever they are, where there's three of them and they only have a single eye and have to pass it around? Well, Mitchell, Annie and George only have one dose of common sense between the three of them: one of them can exhibit common sense at any given time, but no more than one of them. Exhibit A: pretty much every episode in season 2.)

I have other things to say about Being Human, but they belong in a post of their own, under a cut.

As usual with American shows, I'm more than a step out-of-step. So I am enjoying Glee very much (in part because I've never seen such a collection of horrible people in a single show), and wondering why everyone on my friends list is so enthusiastic about The Good Wife (I saw the first few episodes, and it seemed very by-the-numbers; obviously this changes at some point?) And even though I mean to watch NCIS (only two seasons behind!) somehow I keep forgetting to.

I actually acquired the most recent flashback episode of Supernatural, despite not having seen any of this season or the last. I haven't watched it yet, mind you, but it's on my computer. The next question is: will the desktop melt down before I get around to viewing the episode? I have concerns about that.

And on that bombshell, as they say (and this is a whole 'nother issue, because I totally blame Jeremy Clarkson for the fact that Spartacus' favorite word is "car"), I must go figure out how I managed to lose all my ink pens, and why I still have so many essays to mark for tomorrow.

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I subscribe very much to your theory, and I've only seen through 2x03.

S2 does seem to be somewhat varying the pattern I noticed in S1, which I summed up as: Housemate A is in trouble. Housemate B is having some form of emotional breakdown. Housemate C helps Housemate B get his/her shit together so they can bail out Housemate A.

Now, I loved this, but the variation is nice. ~~Even if I do currently want to grab Mitchell and shake him until his eyeballs rattle in his poor little overwhelmed head.~~

You will see the S1 pattern again, don't worry. Also, if you think you want to shake Mitchell (and George, and Annie) now, just wait!

For a while I thought that Annie had all the common sense, and occasionally lent some to George or Mitchell but then I changed my mind.

I think I have to seek out Being Human. I may actually have to break down and get the pay cable instead of the free-with-the-building cable, but I am watching so little tv right now that spending and extra $50 bucks a month for it seems absurd.

Alas, that Supernatural's gender issues reached their tipping point for me. I stopped ranting and just stopped watching. The show would be awesome if it didn't hate women so much.

Being Human is very, very good -- but I'm not sure that extra cable will help you see it. It is funny and scary and just generally excellent.

I think that if the last season of SPN I saw in full (actually, saw any of, because I have a feeling I have one or two episodes from S4 also on my computer, still unviewed) hadn't been S3, I might miss the show more. But as it is, I just haven't felt the urge to go seek it out. I read some comments on LJ, but mostly I am just not that interested. Also, I hate to watch TV on my computer.

I think they show Being Human on BBC America, which I would get for my $50, along with hockey in actual HD rather than the old square picture. But, you know, I grew up with four channels and an antenna in the attic, so it seems excessive when I get most of the channels for free.

I miss early SPN that didn't need to kill all the women as its trademark trope. I liked the boys more then, too. But I am loving Chuck more every episode.

The Good Wife does build slow; I got into the show by watching episode 6 or so and then backtracking to get the rest. What I like is the ambiguity of a lot of what's going on: what does Alicia actually feel for Peter? Is Peter guilty? Did Childs frame Peter? What is Kalinda's game (and orientation)? Why did Will hire Alicia? Is Cary as skeevy as he appears? Will the firm go down in flames, and if so, will Alicia go with it?

The acting is excellent, and the casting top-notch; recent guests have included Alan Cumming, Gary Cole, Joanna Gleason, Peter Reigert, ad Joe Morton. The legal stuff is simplified for tv, but still smarter (messier) than in most legal dramas--they spend time on unglamorous stuff like depositions and motions, and they often don't have all the information they need when they need it. There's a lot of believably frantic running-about as deadlines approach.

Finally, the show ultimately is, I think, about the conflicts faced by a lot of working women: balancing demands of motherhood versus the intellectual rewards of professional life, the danger of relying on a male partner for financial security, the conflicts that can arise from the use of outside child-care, the interference of office politics with personal relationships (and vice versa).

But on the surface, the show is about a big-old conspiracy and how that affects this one woman and her family, without making any of the effects simple.

So, that's why I like it. I am not fannish about it, I just think it's smartly done and well-acted.

Hm. Maybe I will give it another try; I think we're on episode 8 or 9. The first seemed very courtroom-drama, with some life/work stress thrown in, and the mixture didn't really appeal to me. I do like shows that are about grown-ups, and the Chicago politics side of things is interesting.

(Have you ever tried Being Human? I think you might enjoy it.)

And on that bombshell, as they say (and this is a whole 'nother issue, because I totally blame Jeremy Clarkson for the fact that Spartacus' favorite word is "car")

\o/

>>I totally blame Jeremy Clarkson for the fact that Spartacus' favorite word is "car"

Ooh! How soon till we can start sending our Matchbox collections over? (They are very hazardous to adults, alas; we have farther to fall when we step on one and go ass over teakettle.)

I have lost my mind, apparently. At some point, in a fugue state brought on (no doubt) by the weight of worldly cares, I dl'd the entire first season of Legend of the Seeker. I... fear I may watch it.

DO NOT ENCOURAGE HIM! We already have to check the stairs for wheeled vehicles on a regular basis. He likes to deposit things directly behind our feet, these days. (Last night it was a set of funnels, placed upside down in the kitchen. Apparently our house has insufficient caltrops.) His favorite cars are naturally very small and not in the least age-appropriate.

What is this "Legend of the Seeker" of which you speak?

He's practicing, clearly: subversion, derring-do, and so on. Nobody would think to fear the funnels!

I may have watched

theanonsisters' beguiling yet hilarious Festivids entry (http://community.livejournal.com/brokencaps/18535.html) a few times too many and, needing respite from school, sought out the source.

I'm nearly certain it's unbearably silly and not about what the vid suggests at all, but if there are lots of knife-wielding women with superpowers fighting balletically at least once per episode, it may be worth it.

really miscellaneous television

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