for the record
So I'm not even going to talk about Sherlock Remix right now. I'm going to talk about television instead, and then catch up on emails.
Okay, so let's talk TV!
Homeland: Well, Damian Lewis and Claire Danes are phenomenal in this, and I have to say, I bought into their romance totally, because the show seemed to start off making a fairly obvious point about the erotic charge of voyeurism, and then linked it into Carrie's medical issues and made a whole new twisted thing out of it. (Also, "high purple" is a fantastic phrase that made me shudder even before I caught its significance.) I feel like Saul didn't get enough story, and while I usually like when a show deploys its pieces sparingly until they're most needed, his relationship with Mira felt off to me. Carrie's family, though, is great. I was surprised by how little I felt about Peter Quinn one way or the other - I'd expected to love or hate him immediately, but he never got beyond blah for me.
Bosom Buddies (season 1): I got this out from the library, as I have fond memories of watching this when I was little. Yes, it's ridiculous. Ham-handed, yes, and awfully fond of teaching lessons, but there's plenty of zip in the banter between the two best friends, and there's Holland Taylor as their ruthless boss Ruth (ha!), doing her Holland Taylor thing. Also, unpopular opinion time: Peter Scolari, somewhere after the first six or so episodes of the season, begins to look uncannily like a younger version of present-day Viggo Mortensen. Now, I never got the cult-of-Viggo thing, but I'm telling you that if you put pictures of them side by side, I'd have difficulty identifying which one was Tom Hanks's bff.
The Good Wife: I can't believe the season finale is tonight (at least the show's been renewed, for which I am very thankful). All season long, I've been wondering about the whereabouts of Amber Madison (the hooker Peter fucked while he was first state's attorney). Surely she's just waiting in the wings for another shot at the spotlight? I'm totally invested in Alicia's struggle to reconcile her new management position with the ideals with which she went into law, and think that the two options they've laid out for her (stay at Lockhart/Gardner as a partner, leave to found Florrick/Agos with Cary) are both credibly viable. Though I've had a third option in mind for some time now: Peter gets elected governor and dies either in office or on his way to it (violence, heart attack, accident, whatever), leaving Alicia to serve in his place. That would give the show a shortcut to the Alicia-as-politician plotline it's long hinted that Eli's working toward. I'd be all over that.
Community: I have not been feeling this season, though the most recent episode (the body-switching one) was great. Donald Glover hit it out of the park, I thought, and I liked the callback to Troy looking to Jeff for advice on manhood, when they both know that Troy's further along that path than Jeff is. Also, go Shirley! Valedictorian of my heart! But this season has tried to go too big, I think - it needs to come back to the heart of the show, which is those seven (or six plus Pierce) people in a study room, on the Greendale campus. Do a story about Luis Guzman, immortalized in bronze!
Hannibal: This show is so hauntingly disgusting, truly grotesque. The images are beautiful on the surface and rotten underneath - proof (as if it was needed after Pushing Daisies) that Bryan Fuller writes in images. I thought the second ep was stronger than the pilot and like Will and Hannibal particularly, though the only one who is actively earning my hatred is Freddie Lounds, who could not be a less interesting mustache-twirler if she tried (in terms of her looks, they're going for Rebekah Brooks, surely?). I missed the most recent ep, but will catch up soon.
Louie (season 1): Another find at the library, and it's an interesting show. I particularly liked the looseness of the casting (a woman who plays Louie's date in one episode shows up in another as his mother in a flashback), and I believe that Louie the character is a great dad from the way he behaves around his daughters (and the absence of any pretension to having it together when they're not around). I find his comedy interesting without really being funny.
Damn, 1971 was a great year for talented male actors to be born. In chronological order, we've got Jeremy Renner, Damian Lewis, Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Josh Charles, and Joel McHale. (That is also an exceedingly white list. Hmmm.) Anyway, nothing more to say on that other than that is a serious assemblage of talent.
This entry was originally posted at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/415940.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Okay, so let's talk TV!
Homeland: Well, Damian Lewis and Claire Danes are phenomenal in this, and I have to say, I bought into their romance totally, because the show seemed to start off making a fairly obvious point about the erotic charge of voyeurism, and then linked it into Carrie's medical issues and made a whole new twisted thing out of it. (Also, "high purple" is a fantastic phrase that made me shudder even before I caught its significance.) I feel like Saul didn't get enough story, and while I usually like when a show deploys its pieces sparingly until they're most needed, his relationship with Mira felt off to me. Carrie's family, though, is great. I was surprised by how little I felt about Peter Quinn one way or the other - I'd expected to love or hate him immediately, but he never got beyond blah for me.
Bosom Buddies (season 1): I got this out from the library, as I have fond memories of watching this when I was little. Yes, it's ridiculous. Ham-handed, yes, and awfully fond of teaching lessons, but there's plenty of zip in the banter between the two best friends, and there's Holland Taylor as their ruthless boss Ruth (ha!), doing her Holland Taylor thing. Also, unpopular opinion time: Peter Scolari, somewhere after the first six or so episodes of the season, begins to look uncannily like a younger version of present-day Viggo Mortensen. Now, I never got the cult-of-Viggo thing, but I'm telling you that if you put pictures of them side by side, I'd have difficulty identifying which one was Tom Hanks's bff.
The Good Wife: I can't believe the season finale is tonight (at least the show's been renewed, for which I am very thankful). All season long, I've been wondering about the whereabouts of Amber Madison (the hooker Peter fucked while he was first state's attorney). Surely she's just waiting in the wings for another shot at the spotlight? I'm totally invested in Alicia's struggle to reconcile her new management position with the ideals with which she went into law, and think that the two options they've laid out for her (stay at Lockhart/Gardner as a partner, leave to found Florrick/Agos with Cary) are both credibly viable. Though I've had a third option in mind for some time now: Peter gets elected governor and dies either in office or on his way to it (violence, heart attack, accident, whatever), leaving Alicia to serve in his place. That would give the show a shortcut to the Alicia-as-politician plotline it's long hinted that Eli's working toward. I'd be all over that.
Community: I have not been feeling this season, though the most recent episode (the body-switching one) was great. Donald Glover hit it out of the park, I thought, and I liked the callback to Troy looking to Jeff for advice on manhood, when they both know that Troy's further along that path than Jeff is. Also, go Shirley! Valedictorian of my heart! But this season has tried to go too big, I think - it needs to come back to the heart of the show, which is those seven (or six plus Pierce) people in a study room, on the Greendale campus. Do a story about Luis Guzman, immortalized in bronze!
Hannibal: This show is so hauntingly disgusting, truly grotesque. The images are beautiful on the surface and rotten underneath - proof (as if it was needed after Pushing Daisies) that Bryan Fuller writes in images. I thought the second ep was stronger than the pilot and like Will and Hannibal particularly, though the only one who is actively earning my hatred is Freddie Lounds, who could not be a less interesting mustache-twirler if she tried (in terms of her looks, they're going for Rebekah Brooks, surely?). I missed the most recent ep, but will catch up soon.
Louie (season 1): Another find at the library, and it's an interesting show. I particularly liked the looseness of the casting (a woman who plays Louie's date in one episode shows up in another as his mother in a flashback), and I believe that Louie the character is a great dad from the way he behaves around his daughters (and the absence of any pretension to having it together when they're not around). I find his comedy interesting without really being funny.
Damn, 1971 was a great year for talented male actors to be born. In chronological order, we've got Jeremy Renner, Damian Lewis, Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Josh Charles, and Joel McHale. (That is also an exceedingly white list. Hmmm.) Anyway, nothing more to say on that other than that is a serious assemblage of talent.
This entry was originally posted at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/415940.html. Please comment there using OpenID.