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Thoughts on recent teevee
SPN:
So, um. I actually love soulless!psychopath!Sam. After season upon season of gloom, angst and emo, I'm finding Sam's gleeful lack of scruples ridiculously fun. I'm not really super into the show, but after almost quitting it a number of times over the last couple of years, I'm looking forward to it again. This is not to say I don't still have problems with it, but, uh ... it's worth it for the amount of entertainment I'm getting out of it otherwise? I've sort of come around on Castiel; I hated him for a season or two, but found myself warming up to him over the last half of last season, and I, er, kind of look forward to his appearances now. I really like this whole heartless-but-not-really, tormented-soldier thing that he's got going on this season. (Don't tell anyone. *g*) Though I do wish the show would remember the difference between mortal vessels and the supernatural beings that inhabit them. Does Jimmy get taken bodily up to Heaven during the 95% of the time that Cas is there now? Or does he just live a normal life on Earth with random angelnapping interludes when Dean hollers Cas's name? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.
Also, I loved the all-Bobby episode. (Husband: "It's like there's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with the Winchesters!" Me: "Don't worry, it'll be back to normal next week.")
Anyway. Fun. I'm not really fannish about it or anything, but I find it entertaining.
SGU:
Er, is anyone surprised that the one canonically disabled character in the Stargateverse just got killed? And not just killed, but killed in an absolutely classic 'fridging: murdered, off-camera, in order to send a male character who loved her on a revenge quest! (Double fridging, actually, except that Eli didn't get to do the whole revengy thing. And now they're forgotten as of the next episode. Mmm-hmm. I'm sure we'll come back to it at some point so that Rush and/or Eli can gloom about how depressing it all is, though.)
Having said that, "Malice" was a good solid episode. They used to do good cat-and-mouse action episodes on the other Stargate shows, and that's still true. The best thing lately, though, was using the gate as a defensive weapon a few episodes ago to take out the attacking hordes of monsters. I'm gonna have to remember that trick for fanfic purposes.
The most recent episode was pleasantly creepy but I think I would have liked it much better if there had been any obvious reason for the aliens to do what they did other than just being sadistic bastards who like screwing with people. Which is seriously the only explanation I can come up with at this point. It's not like they gave the dead colonists a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones or anything, since they didn't even know they were dead; they just got to die horribly a second time.
Also, TJ's obsession with her dead baby is rapidly making me lose any remaining shreds of sympathy that I had for her. Mostly I'm getting myself through the TJ scenes by thinking of Rimmer on Red Dwarf: "Of course I don't believe in God. Preposterous. I believe in ALIENS, Lister!" (Dead colonist to TJ on screen: "Your baby is in a better place." Me, to husband, as TJ: "Yes, my baby is with ALIENS!")
I'm also sick to death of the interminable Chloe-is-turning-into-an-alien storyline, especially since it's providing yet another example, a la the euthanasia-in-the-shuttle episode, of just giving up on a character without even trying to save them. Come on, guys: the SGC is FULL of medical personnel who have lots of experience at people turning into aliens, bugs, robots, the works. So, what, you can't spare a single body-swap stone for a consultation, huh? It's worth it to fix the ship but not to save a life? (I had some hope this most recent episode that we were going to get it over with, what with her recording goodbye messages on the Kino, but no. Just an excuse for gratuitous angst again. I wish she'd just turn into an alien already, because Chloe scuttling around in the ducts for the rest of the season, dodging Greer and his commandoes and trying to sabotage the ship, would beat the hell out of all this weepiness and woe and gloom.)
Rush and Young being sent to explore the other ship by themselves was hilariously awesome, though. Good move, guys! Because this worked so well the LAST time they went off alone together! What did you THINK was going to happen? (Yes, I'm jumping around all over the place, but whatever. We just got caught up on a bunch of episodes, and past a certain point, they all blend together into a blur of shakycam and emo anyway.)
So, um. I actually love soulless!psychopath!Sam. After season upon season of gloom, angst and emo, I'm finding Sam's gleeful lack of scruples ridiculously fun. I'm not really super into the show, but after almost quitting it a number of times over the last couple of years, I'm looking forward to it again. This is not to say I don't still have problems with it, but, uh ... it's worth it for the amount of entertainment I'm getting out of it otherwise? I've sort of come around on Castiel; I hated him for a season or two, but found myself warming up to him over the last half of last season, and I, er, kind of look forward to his appearances now. I really like this whole heartless-but-not-really, tormented-soldier thing that he's got going on this season. (Don't tell anyone. *g*) Though I do wish the show would remember the difference between mortal vessels and the supernatural beings that inhabit them. Does Jimmy get taken bodily up to Heaven during the 95% of the time that Cas is there now? Or does he just live a normal life on Earth with random angelnapping interludes when Dean hollers Cas's name? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.
Also, I loved the all-Bobby episode. (Husband: "It's like there's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with the Winchesters!" Me: "Don't worry, it'll be back to normal next week.")
Anyway. Fun. I'm not really fannish about it or anything, but I find it entertaining.
SGU:
Er, is anyone surprised that the one canonically disabled character in the Stargateverse just got killed? And not just killed, but killed in an absolutely classic 'fridging: murdered, off-camera, in order to send a male character who loved her on a revenge quest! (Double fridging, actually, except that Eli didn't get to do the whole revengy thing. And now they're forgotten as of the next episode. Mmm-hmm. I'm sure we'll come back to it at some point so that Rush and/or Eli can gloom about how depressing it all is, though.)
Having said that, "Malice" was a good solid episode. They used to do good cat-and-mouse action episodes on the other Stargate shows, and that's still true. The best thing lately, though, was using the gate as a defensive weapon a few episodes ago to take out the attacking hordes of monsters. I'm gonna have to remember that trick for fanfic purposes.
The most recent episode was pleasantly creepy but I think I would have liked it much better if there had been any obvious reason for the aliens to do what they did other than just being sadistic bastards who like screwing with people. Which is seriously the only explanation I can come up with at this point. It's not like they gave the dead colonists a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones or anything, since they didn't even know they were dead; they just got to die horribly a second time.
Also, TJ's obsession with her dead baby is rapidly making me lose any remaining shreds of sympathy that I had for her. Mostly I'm getting myself through the TJ scenes by thinking of Rimmer on Red Dwarf: "Of course I don't believe in God. Preposterous. I believe in ALIENS, Lister!" (Dead colonist to TJ on screen: "Your baby is in a better place." Me, to husband, as TJ: "Yes, my baby is with ALIENS!")
I'm also sick to death of the interminable Chloe-is-turning-into-an-alien storyline, especially since it's providing yet another example, a la the euthanasia-in-the-shuttle episode, of just giving up on a character without even trying to save them. Come on, guys: the SGC is FULL of medical personnel who have lots of experience at people turning into aliens, bugs, robots, the works. So, what, you can't spare a single body-swap stone for a consultation, huh? It's worth it to fix the ship but not to save a life? (I had some hope this most recent episode that we were going to get it over with, what with her recording goodbye messages on the Kino, but no. Just an excuse for gratuitous angst again. I wish she'd just turn into an alien already, because Chloe scuttling around in the ducts for the rest of the season, dodging Greer and his commandoes and trying to sabotage the ship, would beat the hell out of all this weepiness and woe and gloom.)
Rush and Young being sent to explore the other ship by themselves was hilariously awesome, though. Good move, guys! Because this worked so well the LAST time they went off alone together! What did you THINK was going to happen? (Yes, I'm jumping around all over the place, but whatever. We just got caught up on a bunch of episodes, and past a certain point, they all blend together into a blur of shakycam and emo anyway.)
no subject
I haven't been watching SGU -- what's the Stargate-as-defensive-weapon trick?
no subject
I haven't been watching SGU -- what's the Stargate-as-defensive-weapon trick?
It was actually really cool! For a change.
Some of the characters were being attacked by a horde of snakelike/dinosaur-like things offworld, and they couldn't escape through the Stargate because one of the characters was contaminated with a contagion (blah blah plot blah). And they'd run out of ammo. The planet had a short ramp leading up to the Stargate, so they lay down on the ramp and dialed the gate to get it to "kawoosh" every time that a new wave of monsters would attack. Then immediately they'd let the wormhole collapse, wait a minute and dial again. They just kept vaporizing monsters that way until the contagion thing was fixed (blah blah technobabble) and they were able to get home.
I've seen it done in fanfic as a one-time thing -- lure an enemy in front of the gate and then dial it -- but I don't think they've done something like this on the show before. Mostly the gate is just kind of ... there; they don't take advantage of its special properties. I always liked the episodes of SG1 where they'd do something unusual with the gate, too, like turning it on its back or manually dialing it.
no subject
no subject
There was some story or other -- it may have been one of synecdochic's -- where they had tape marks on the gate room floor to indicate how far back was a safe distance to stand, which struck me as a really awesome idea ... because, man, talk about an OSHA violation. *g*
no subject
I have a vague memory of an SG-1 episode; they were memory-wiped, underground workers, and some of the other 'inmates' deliberately stood in front of the kawoosh. Their belief was that they would be elevated to some higher plane. What we saw was empty, smoking shoes left on the ramp.
It might have been fic, but I don't think so; I don't read much SG-1. But which season or episode, I have no clue.
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no subject
Thus, "death by gate" is canonical and isn't new to SGU (unsurprisingly, she added snarkily).
no subject
Thanks for the confirmation. All grist for the fanfic mill by other authors; whee!
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no subject