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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.)

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....wait. they got rid of one female (disabled) character by fridging her. Another female character has her storyline reduced to all about her dead baby. And another female character is being removed by alien takeover?

....
...

Am I getting that right? I mean, it doesn't sound surprising, but is Brad Wright really that shocked the ratings aren't great?

Oh man. That barely even scratches the surface of it. Basically:

- They fridged two female characters in one episode (and we're talking classic fridgings here, all about the male characters' angst and woe! Neither of them was even so much as mentioned the next episode.)

- The main female military member of the cast is a puddle of woe who is basically clinging to the conviction that her baby is really alive, but with aliens. This provides extra bonus opportunities for her asshole boyfriend-slash-commanding-officer to tell her she's delusional. He, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care about the dead baby at all; it's certainly not become the fulcrum around which his life revolves.

- The other main female character is turning into an alien. Apparently this is supposed to be making her super-smart, but what this actually means for storytelling purposes is that she now spends all her time locked in a holding cell, scrawling equations on the wall, with other characters telling her that they're going to have to kill her any day now because she's become "the enemy". (For what it's worth, the actress is doing a nice job with this; especially for as young as she is, she can do emotional nuance quite well. I just wish they'd give her something less icky to do.)

And that's most of the main female cast, right there.

Now, granted, you can sit down and make lists like this for MOST shows (at least in the shallow genre end of the pool where I typically swim). But, er, yeah. It's rather textual this season.

...man. I....I'm kinda disturbed that they're doing *worse* than they did for SG-1 and SGA. *sigh*

I think I'm going to stick with Sanctuary. As much as I wish it would pass the Bechedel test a little more often, it still manages to do right a lot of the time (though certainly not always). And mostly it makes me really happy.

A few days ago I had an argument in a pub with one of the Doctor Who writers about misogyny in Stargate. *gg*

I'm serious. He said it only 'counted' if things were said in televised interviews, stuff said on the internet (Mallozi's Blog of Doom was my point here) or showing up in the script apparently isn't 'real'. Or something. Then the boys I was with basically jumped on me. Good times :D

I'm pretty furious about the fridging of Mandy. I'm also annoyed that we never got to see her as herself - only in beautiful and able bodies. I thought that was a massive cop-out, since then they were having a disabled character without her ever actually having to be disabled.

I have no issue with TJ not being able to let go of her baby - my issue there is more with Young. Not that I ever managed to like him, but he's being so bloody heartless towards her.

It is impossible for me to look at Chloe's storyline objectively. GENETICS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! XD I'd really hoped that after SGA (where I was physically wincing at a lot of things to do with the Wraith and 'gene therepy') the writers would either do their research or just stop pretending they understood biology...

I'm watching the show for Rush and Camille right now. And the pretty pretty CGI :D

O.O; Shipper my dear, you are a masochist watching this, but then, who am I to talk with the shows I watch :-) Thank you for reminding me why I never bothered to watch this. I think it's funny in a non humorous way that they blame the SGA fans for their rating problems when most of the ones I've spoken to have actually given the show a change but it sucked more than a Wraith on crack that they stopped.

As for the female characters, yeah, we're getting that a lot on some of my fav shows lately. One of the shows that, IMO has the best female characterization fired one of their three female actors who has been with the show since it started, reduced the episodes of the other one, and placed the third in the role of the fired one which is so against type that it blows my mine that it's even still on the air. Aren't women a large percentage of tv ratings? And don't get me started on NCIS and Numb3rs. We so need a women revolution!!!

On a separate note: YOU HAVE CONVERTED!!! I used to hate Teyla/Rodney pairings but after reading yours I find them believable. =)

I really like this whole heartless-but-not-really, tormented-soldier thing that he's got going on this season.

Hee! So do I. Of course, I've loved Castiel since the start, but a lot of Castiel fans seem to be disappointed by his role this year, whereas I'm all, yay! this is how I want my Cas! *g*

It took me a looong time to warm up to Castiel, for various reasons. But I do like him now and look forward to his appearances, and I really like what they've done with him this season; I'm not really sure how his character is going to develop from here, but there are lots of interesting possibilities. :D I just want to know what's going on with Jimmy during all of this.

Oh yes, agreed on Jimmy. Actually, there are quite a few things this season about which I'm all, wait a minute, what about THAT? Adam, for example. But I'm happy that none of them so far are getting in the way of my enjoyment. :D

I, too, really like this version of Sammy. I even have my favorite quotes from the last episode: "If you wanna add some glitter to that glue you've been sniffin' that's fine. But don't spread your whackadoo all over us. We'd rather not step in it." and "Third kind already? Better run! I hear the fourth kind's a butt thing!" and lastly, "It's like Sedona, Arizona took a crap in here!"

As for Castiel? *shivers* "Of course, your problems always come first." Yes. Oh please to be giving more of the deadpan, 'you're ridiculous, Dean' Castiel. *loves* Also, Jimmy's dead and gone. He's no longer a part of the vessel. That happened late S4, I believe. Demons kidnapped his family when Cas was pulled topside, and he was mortally injured. Cas possessed his daughter, and Jimmy got all pissed, "You promised my family would be safe," and Cas (in his daughter) made a deal. Jimmy died and gave up his body as a permanent vessel for Cas.

And your reviews of SGU consistently remind me why I never started watching that show. Whew.

Regarding Jimmy - ohhh, thanks for the explanation! I missed quite a bit of stuff during seasons four and five (I really wasn't into the show much, so I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention when it was on) and although I remember that episode, I don't remember that happening. So, thanks!

The thing about psycho-Sam, I guess, is that I don't think I'd like him nearly as much if he was supposed to be sympathetic. He's a total asshole! And there are times when he makes me cringe. But there's something that's just ridiculously fun about watching him be his total asshole self, and Dean doing this sort of D: face whenever Sam embarrasses him. It's always sort of been the other way around, with Sam being the straight man to Dean.

ahahah! Dean's so not equipped to be the straight man (hmm. that works on two levels, there, doesn't it?)! I'm sure it's shocking to hear his inner thoughts coming out of Sam's mouth. Poor guy.

Yeah, actually come to think of it, maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm liking it so much (beyond just the fact that Sam-with-no-verbal-filters is lots of guilty fun), because Dean has always been the show's "id" character, the guy who cracked one-liners and flirted and generally indulged himself. Now, suddenly, Sam is that character, and Dean is having to be the grown-up in the relationship ... er, so to speak. It gives a whole new aspect to their interactions.

Jimmy died and gave up his body as a permanent vessel for Cas.

But that's not canon, is it? In that scene where Jimmy gives his body to Cas again, Cas explicitly talks about Jimmy being dragged along for millennia to come: "I want to make sure you understand. You won't die, or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand like it."

Hmm. forgot about that. And if that's the case, then that's some shoddy storytelling. :( They'd have been better off letting him go. And there's inconsistency too. When Cas was eating all the meat in the my Bloody Valentine ep, he said, "This vessel craves it,"
leaving it open to the interpretation that Jimmy's not the one craving it, but the body itself. Hmm. And having been exploded twice now? I'm pretty sure that God has pulled Jimmy out of that 'meat suit' by now - I mean I HOPE SO.

I mean I HOPE SO.

Yeah, seriously! It annoys me a bit that they've never addressed that - they really should have. *sighs* Definitely shoddy storytelling.

Thanks for the clarifications!

I think the show in general has gotten worse and worse about acknowledging that the vessel is a separate being from whatever is possessing it. It's been seasons since the characters bothered to try to save demons' vessels rather than just killing both -- and yeah, there's a war on, etc, but I still wish there was some occasional recognition in-universe that human vessel =/= demon. In Castiel's case, they may just not want to confuse viewers, especially casual viewers or those who've just tuned in (... like they're not gonna be confused anyway), but it doesn't have to be brought up constantly or a major plot point or anything; I just wish it'd be mentioned once in a while.

Completely agreed. It doesn't have to be in there all the time, but it'd be really nice if they didn't completely sweep these things under the carpet.

Thank you for reminding me why I stopped watching SGU. Brilliant Husband still watches. I had heard about the fridgings; I think he started that bit of information, "Oh, guess what they did this time?"

I liked Chloe for a few episodes; that ended. I didn't like TJ for a while, then finally started to like her, and then. . . . Well, then they killed her baby, and I stopped watching. (I also briefly liked Rush and then went back to not liking him.)

I was going to make an Eli userpic, but I couldn't find a still I liked. So my only SGU userpic is Greer. That seems fitting. I'd like to send Greer after the writers.

Wise decision on your part. :D

I think Eli is about as close as it comes to a character that I like all the time. The others ... they have their moments, and just when I start thinking I can get on board with them, they do something to lose my sympathy again. Sigh. (I'm pretty sure the TJ's baby storyline is hitting all the major Do Not Wants that I was so glad they didn't do with Teyla.)

I'm totally digging soulless Sam, and I've never really been a Sam fan. I guess because it's such a twist - Sam the A-hole and Dean being the sympathetic and down to earth one. Plus it keeps you guessing: does Sam really mean what he says? Does he want his soul back? Or is this all one big manipulation just to keep hunting?

Yeah, Sam's never been my favorite either, but the role reversal with him and Dean, as well as just the obvious glee that Jared Padalecki is having at playing the role, is really making it a lot of fun.

I dunno, I don't think he actually cares about getting his soul back at all. Mostly I think he's telling Dean what Dean wants to hear, in order to get what he (Sam) wants -- i.e. to keep hunting and not have Dean raise a big fuss about the soul all the time. I think he's pretty much just following the path of least resistance at this point.

Which means that things might get interesting when they actually manage to get in a position to retrieve/restore Sam's soul, because I could see this soulless version of Sam actually putting up a fight to avoid being restored to his usual self.

Imho Jimmy died when Castiel died on the end of 4.20. Cas then chose to use Jimmys dead body again, just like Anna chose to use the same form again.

I know, it is inconsistent with the whole vessel searching, but it's one of the aspects of the show I don't look to close at.

*ponders* Apparently there is some debate about that; see comments above. :D I don't remember the episode well enough to know for sure; perhaps I ought to go back and watch it again!

I love soulless!Sam too! I love his blaze attitude and the new dynamic between him and Dean. :)

*nods* I think it's made the show much more fun! I wouldn't want it to be this way forever, but I love the combination of the humor and smart-aleckness, and the genuine angst with Dean worrying about him and wanting to get him back the way he was before.

also:

I wish she'd just turn into an alien already

lol!

Hee. I truly think I'd much prefer that to the interminable dragging-out of this storyline! IT WILL NOT END.

What's a fridging? x)

Heh, it's shorthand for "women in refrigerators", which was coined by a female comics fan about ten years ago to describe how female characters in comics tend to end up violently killed in order to motivate a male superhero. It was named for a girlfriend character who was murdered and stuffed into the hero's refrigerator. Here's the wikipedia page and the original website that coined the term.

ETA: So basically a female character gets "fridged" when her death has little or no purpose other than to make the male hero upset and angry. It wouldn't be bothersome if it went both ways, but it doesn't seem to happen to male characters hardly at all.

Edited 2010-11-28 21:24 (UTC)

*facepalm* Are comic book writers like Comicbook Guy off The Simpsons? Total morons!

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