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Two weeks of TV in one night
We've been saving up TV episodes and got all caught up tonight.
I believe that Lost and I have finally parted ways for good.
There's just ... no reason to keep watching this show, really, except a sort of vague curiosity about what's going on with the island, but I'm starting to suspect that we're never going to get a satisfactory resolution to that, either. And I don't think curiosity is worth it for how unhappy the show has been making me lately.
It's tough to put my finger on just what about it, exactly, is leaving me so disturbed. I think a lot of it is the way that it'll set you up to want a particular resolution with the characters, and then jerk the rug out from under your feet, time after time. It's like Charlie Brown and that damn football. The way they take away all the characters' power and leave them helpless and mindfucked, and then just keep twisting the knife ... it *hurts*, and not in a good way.
If they're trying to depict the island turning all the characters into paranoid, manipulative assholes, then they're doing a great job. Unfortunately, I have better things to do with my time than watch a bunch of unlikeable and whiny people manipulate each other.
(I still like Hurley. And Jin and Sun. But they're just about the only ones.)
But SPN was very squee-worthy!
So many of the shows I've been watching lately have 20-episode seasons ... I thought that this was the season finale, so it left me kind of confused at first -- and WORRIED, because there was no cliffhanger; did that mean no third season? But the season finale starts next week ... *whew*.
And oh ... oh, oh Dean. Ouch. After Lost working over my emotions in an abusive-boyfriend kind of way, I really needed this: a show where someone does the right thing, even though it hurts them, because they're a decent person and it's the right thing to do. And they get something worthwhile back from it. Ahhh. My faith in genre television is restored. *grin*
No, seriously, fun episode. I guessed the "It's a Wonderful Life" angle right off the bat, but nice twist on the Matrix-style finale. I was actually expecting something more like "The Monkey's Paw" -- with Dean wishing for a perfect suburban life and it all going horribly and ironically wrong. The reality was more poignant in some ways, perhaps less so in others, since ultimately I really don't think the decision was THAT much of a decision, especially for Dean. A false happiness is still false, and with the real Sam still out there and now facing demons alone, I couldn't see Dean choosing any other way. Once they dropped their veil, they'd lost him. Still, it was a very telling character episode, seeing Dean's idea of a perfect life and the various small ways in which his subconscious screwed it up for him. (It actually reminded me of the SGA episode "Home" in a lot of ways, especially how Season 1-era Sheppard screwed up his own alternate "perfect" reality with a similar kind of self-doubt.)
Oh, yeah, and we also watched 2x19 tonight, the prison episode, which made exponentially less sense than even an average John Shiban episode (I mean, really, Dean, the 1001 obvious holes in your "plan" -- I use the term loosely -- never occurred to you? How are you still walking around?) but it was entertaining and I liked the prison-guard twist, which I really did not see coming.
I believe that Lost and I have finally parted ways for good.
There's just ... no reason to keep watching this show, really, except a sort of vague curiosity about what's going on with the island, but I'm starting to suspect that we're never going to get a satisfactory resolution to that, either. And I don't think curiosity is worth it for how unhappy the show has been making me lately.
It's tough to put my finger on just what about it, exactly, is leaving me so disturbed. I think a lot of it is the way that it'll set you up to want a particular resolution with the characters, and then jerk the rug out from under your feet, time after time. It's like Charlie Brown and that damn football. The way they take away all the characters' power and leave them helpless and mindfucked, and then just keep twisting the knife ... it *hurts*, and not in a good way.
If they're trying to depict the island turning all the characters into paranoid, manipulative assholes, then they're doing a great job. Unfortunately, I have better things to do with my time than watch a bunch of unlikeable and whiny people manipulate each other.
(I still like Hurley. And Jin and Sun. But they're just about the only ones.)
But SPN was very squee-worthy!
So many of the shows I've been watching lately have 20-episode seasons ... I thought that this was the season finale, so it left me kind of confused at first -- and WORRIED, because there was no cliffhanger; did that mean no third season? But the season finale starts next week ... *whew*.
And oh ... oh, oh Dean. Ouch. After Lost working over my emotions in an abusive-boyfriend kind of way, I really needed this: a show where someone does the right thing, even though it hurts them, because they're a decent person and it's the right thing to do. And they get something worthwhile back from it. Ahhh. My faith in genre television is restored. *grin*
No, seriously, fun episode. I guessed the "It's a Wonderful Life" angle right off the bat, but nice twist on the Matrix-style finale. I was actually expecting something more like "The Monkey's Paw" -- with Dean wishing for a perfect suburban life and it all going horribly and ironically wrong. The reality was more poignant in some ways, perhaps less so in others, since ultimately I really don't think the decision was THAT much of a decision, especially for Dean. A false happiness is still false, and with the real Sam still out there and now facing demons alone, I couldn't see Dean choosing any other way. Once they dropped their veil, they'd lost him. Still, it was a very telling character episode, seeing Dean's idea of a perfect life and the various small ways in which his subconscious screwed it up for him. (It actually reminded me of the SGA episode "Home" in a lot of ways, especially how Season 1-era Sheppard screwed up his own alternate "perfect" reality with a similar kind of self-doubt.)
Oh, yeah, and we also watched 2x19 tonight, the prison episode, which made exponentially less sense than even an average John Shiban episode (I mean, really, Dean, the 1001 obvious holes in your "plan" -- I use the term loosely -- never occurred to you? How are you still walking around?) but it was entertaining and I liked the prison-guard twist, which I really did not see coming.
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What, me, bitter much? *g*
I wish I'd wised up sooner!
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* their guard-friend was Simon-from-SGA and Narim-from-SG1 (also - yay you not seeing it coming...the friend I watched it with and I appeared to be the only ones who hadn't)
* Dean playing poker for cigarettes - he works so well in prison
* Sam shaking salt out of the tiny little shakers.
As for the other one - yep. No way he'd choose a life where Sam doesn't love him. But it was so cute watching how excited he was to mow a lawn. Good detail.
(I have up on Lost very early S2 - so I'm impressed you made it this far)
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Smart, very smart. I keep stopping for a while, and then I'll think, "Well, maybe I'll watch one episode and see if it's still as bad as I remember", and then something will happen to give me hope that there's something other than torment and misery in the characters' future. The hope is then dashed. Rinse and repeat.
* their guard-friend was Simon-from-SGA and Narim-from-SG1
OMFG, that's who he was! I kept trying to figure it out; I even went to IMDB and looked up guest stars, but they didn't have a thorough list for that episode. That would explain why I kinda liked him even while being slightly creeped out by his character on the show, though.
I also never noticed that Simon and Narim were the same actor, though now that you mention it ...
What, me, observant much? *g*
And, yeah, there were a ton of awesome little moments, and finding out that a guard was in on it suddenly made at least some of the plot holes (like the almost comically loose security, letting Sam sneak around in the vents and such) make more sense. And Dean fitting in, and making himself king of the exercise yard ... HEEEE. And Sam asking him if it disturbs him how easily he's fitting in, and he's all, "Huh?"
And yeah, mowing the lawn, and being so excited about all the little details of a quiet suburban life ... oh *DEAN*.
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But I got really pissed when they didn't actually answer anything at the end of season one so I gave them a few episodes of S2 and then said "be gone with you"
Yep. Narim. Which meant I was sitting there at the end shouting "don't kill Narim! You can't kill Narim!" and the friend I watch it with (who is a huge SPN fangirl but has only seen the SG1 I've made her watch) decided I was crazy.
Yes on the plotholes though - particularly the security. And I loved the garden gnome when Dean was mowing.
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I liked both those episodes; didn't see the Prison Guard coming, and it was almost a relief because I didn't want "Narim from SG1" to be the bad guy. But I wonder how long they're going to think they can keep going with this FBI dude on their tail in today's world.
And yeah, Dean, doing the right thing, unwilling to give up his relationship with Sam even if means all the rest--though I thought it was a lovely, painful touch that Carmen was a girl in a beer ad. Traumatized by your mother's death, much, Dean? I have to watch first season; so far I've seen four episodes of the second season.
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I kinda lost interest as well, and I see the "big mystery" spiraling down into that 'huh, really? no... seriously?' kinda territory that the X-Files slipped into there in the end :o)
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On the other hand, I've been getting a bad feeling about the mystery for some time now. The "clues" (if you can call them that) don't make enough sense together to give me much hope that there's an underlying pattern to it all. It would be awesome if they pull a finale where it all makes total sense ... but instead, I'm getting the feeling that it's all collapsing into a snarled mess of loose plot threads.
And I loathe Ben. I don't love to hate him as a great villain. I simply loathe him and I can't figure out why none of his cultists (or Locke or Jack or Juliet or GOD PLEASE SOMEONE) hasn't just picked up a brick and bashed his head in. I think that one of my trigger-buttons is watching characters being tormented without ever being able to get back at their tormenters. There's no catharsis, just a whole lot of frustration.
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I liked the nod to the theories about the island (are they in hell/purgatory), but the whole 'other' philosophy told to Locke makes me want to run screaming.
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The Sawyer thing is one of the big things that has truly driven me over the edge. Because he was actually TRYING, for a while there -- he was getting along with the rest; he was willing, sort of, to step up to the plate and be an actual leader rather than a leader by thuggery and intimidation. So what happens? Kate thoroughly screws him over (in a metaphorical as well as literal sense), and then Locke does one of the most vile things that anybody on this show has done so far ... not the murder, but lying and manipulating Sawyer into doing it for him, and WHY? So that he can fit in with a bunch of people who are about as fucked up as a society can be and still function! You know, I even had SOME sympathy for Locke back when he was a creepy woods dude manipulating Boone into being his own personal cultist for Boone's "own good", but at this point, I really don't care if he lives or dies. It's really alarming how many of the characters I'm starting to not just dislike, but outright *hate*.
I liked the nod to the afterlife theory, and the parachutist talking about the plane being found was suitably creepy -- although with all the lies being tossed around and the bizarre extent to which the Others will go to manipulate people, I don't especially believe her. And Hurley is ten different kinds of awesome; he's just such a fantastic "everyman" type character. But I'm just not getting enough enjoyment out of the show anymore to make up for the sheer frustration of watching it.
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is it thursday yet!?
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That's a newcomer take anyway. :S
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