Brief report on today's due South bingewatch
Today's DC Slash bingewatch had a small but enthusiastic attendance! Of course, I wore my "due South stealth slash T-shirt" and *points to icon* made an icon from a photo of it to use with this post! Of the four episodes we watched, I had only seen the last one. Shinykari, Kerguelen, and I watched and enjoyed the following:
The Gift of the Wheelman
This episode was both serious and funny, and I was happy with how it ended.
I loved how many quirky bits were simply taken in stride, like a policeman leading a line of Elvis impersonators into the station, only to be told by an irritated detective, "I said ELVES!" Meanwhile, Fraser & Vecchio glance, shrug, and get back to work without comment.
My watchmates let me know that this was the first appearance of Bob Fraser (yay!); Vecchio's dad appears too, which I didn't realize ever happened!
Irish gangsters! (Hey, it was fun to see Irish guys who weren't policemen or drunks.) The Irish music on the soundtrack, from a merry jig to a sad story-telling folksong, was lovely and a propos.
I liked the interlocking themes relating to fathers. Also a great Christmas episode!
The Deal
Ooh, I agree with my watchmates that Zuko was a great villain (though not a great human being). I appreciated how, in a conversation with Zuko, Vecchio is rude and easily dismissed, while Fraser, though super polite, makes a great and subtle zing about people who think they're respected.
Quirkiness shows up again with Fraser's childhood memory of the bully who came into the classroom swinging an otter over his head!!! (My watchmates assured me that the otter was dead at the time, which we do find out later in the episode. Because, after all, "swinging a live otter is illegal in the territories.")
I agreed with the others that this was a great episode for Vecchio. I was impressed with the actor who plays him; he experiences a wide range of emotions in response to both past memories and current happenings in the episode, and conveys them all with clarity, leading up to barely-contained rage in a dramatic one-on-one basketball scene. I also agreed with Ker that, in this episode, you can see how he was able to go undercover with the mob later on.
Juliet is Bleeding
I was assured that this was another great Vecchio episode, and it was! I didn't realize Carrie-Ann Moss had an important role in this episode as Zuko's sister. Wow!!! I had just seen her recently reprising the role of Trinity in Matrix: Resurrection. I really liked her character in this episode, and her strength and her sass.
I also greatly enjoyed a dryly humorous exchange between Fraser and Charlie, Zuko's right-hand man.
This episode was very sad for a couple of reasons, or should I say, a couple of deaths. One of the characters who dies seemed very annoying in previous episodes, but when he is killed it's a terrible shock. The achingly beautiful song "Full Circle" by Scots-Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt is played over his funeral and the final line especially fit the moment, "In your heart, in your soul, did you find peace there?" Another character dies later on, and while I found that death sad as well, somehow the episode wasn't syrupy.
The Vault
This was the only episode of dS that I saw when it was originally on - we were going to go to Kowalski eps, but when I asked if we could watch this one, the others kindly and cheerfully agreed. OMG, it was even more fun than I remembered! Frannie was a hoot and Diefenbaker was a joy - I love the scene where Dief stealths up into the bad guys' van ... but only to steal food! And what I remembered best--Fraser and RayV, locked in the vault, bickering hilariously--was a delight.
The Gift of the Wheelman
This episode was both serious and funny, and I was happy with how it ended.
I loved how many quirky bits were simply taken in stride, like a policeman leading a line of Elvis impersonators into the station, only to be told by an irritated detective, "I said ELVES!" Meanwhile, Fraser & Vecchio glance, shrug, and get back to work without comment.
My watchmates let me know that this was the first appearance of Bob Fraser (yay!); Vecchio's dad appears too, which I didn't realize ever happened!
Irish gangsters! (Hey, it was fun to see Irish guys who weren't policemen or drunks.) The Irish music on the soundtrack, from a merry jig to a sad story-telling folksong, was lovely and a propos.
I liked the interlocking themes relating to fathers. Also a great Christmas episode!
The Deal
Ooh, I agree with my watchmates that Zuko was a great villain (though not a great human being). I appreciated how, in a conversation with Zuko, Vecchio is rude and easily dismissed, while Fraser, though super polite, makes a great and subtle zing about people who think they're respected.
Quirkiness shows up again with Fraser's childhood memory of the bully who came into the classroom swinging an otter over his head!!! (My watchmates assured me that the otter was dead at the time, which we do find out later in the episode. Because, after all, "swinging a live otter is illegal in the territories.")
I agreed with the others that this was a great episode for Vecchio. I was impressed with the actor who plays him; he experiences a wide range of emotions in response to both past memories and current happenings in the episode, and conveys them all with clarity, leading up to barely-contained rage in a dramatic one-on-one basketball scene. I also agreed with Ker that, in this episode, you can see how he was able to go undercover with the mob later on.
Juliet is Bleeding
I was assured that this was another great Vecchio episode, and it was! I didn't realize Carrie-Ann Moss had an important role in this episode as Zuko's sister. Wow!!! I had just seen her recently reprising the role of Trinity in Matrix: Resurrection. I really liked her character in this episode, and her strength and her sass.
I also greatly enjoyed a dryly humorous exchange between Fraser and Charlie, Zuko's right-hand man.
This episode was very sad for a couple of reasons, or should I say, a couple of deaths. One of the characters who dies seemed very annoying in previous episodes, but when he is killed it's a terrible shock. The achingly beautiful song "Full Circle" by Scots-Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt is played over his funeral and the final line especially fit the moment, "In your heart, in your soul, did you find peace there?" Another character dies later on, and while I found that death sad as well, somehow the episode wasn't syrupy.
The Vault
This was the only episode of dS that I saw when it was originally on - we were going to go to Kowalski eps, but when I asked if we could watch this one, the others kindly and cheerfully agreed. OMG, it was even more fun than I remembered! Frannie was a hoot and Diefenbaker was a joy - I love the scene where Dief stealths up into the bad guys' van ... but only to steal food! And what I remembered best--Fraser and RayV, locked in the vault, bickering hilariously--was a delight.