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Carnivale
So we started watching Carnivale for ... reasons. XD We are only 2 episodes into it yet, and I can't watch more for a week or so because my hubby is out of town, so NO SPOILERS PLEEEEEASE (assuming that any of you have seen it). This is a show that I want to watch completely unspoiled if possible, because it's so unpredictable and bizarre. It's really quite good -- too early to tell yet, though, if the show is going to end up having a coherent plotline that ends on an emotionally satisfying note, or if it'll degenerate into total weirdness for weirdness's sake (really, from what's happened so far, it could go either way).
Thus far, though, it's grabbed me a lot harder than most shows tend to do in the first episode or two -- it's just so weird and fascinating and different. It's not Hollywood-pretty; it's set during the Depression in the Dust Bowl, so everyone is filthy, most of them are fairly plain, and even the good-looking members of the cast are buried under a lot of dirt and unflattering, sepia-toned 1930s clothes.
And, well, reasons:
I put it in the Netflix queue because I knew Tim DeKay had been in it, but I didn't realize he was actually one of the main characters (I was expecting recurring guest character at best). Even better, his character hits me right smack in the id.
One thing that I find absolutely fascinating is ... hmm, I'm not quite sure how to express this: the intersection between physicality and disability, perhaps? As a person with a (relatively mild) physical disability myself, I am very interested in the way that people navigate physical impairments and learn to compensate for them. Most people who meet me don't actually realize that I have a disability, because I've learned to move around it. Most people with disabilities do likewise; it's not a matter of concealing it, just learning to do things smoothly and quickly while working around it.
And I'm especially interested in seeing fictional characters cope with a disability while being in a physically demanding occupation and/or from a working-class background. This is a combination of traits which is common in real life but vanishingly rare on TV (actually, the last time I remember a TV character appealing to me in this particular way was Bobby on Supernatural, for a while).
So Tim's character Jonesy basically had me at hello. He's the carnival's mechanic/sort of general handyman-type guy, and he walks with a leg brace -- I actually wore a brace somewhat similar to that when I was a teenager (more high-tech and orthopedic, but the same general idea) and I love the casual way that he moves with it, especially when he's doing things where the brace impairs his freedom of movement, like crouching down:
... for one thing, because I remember doing similar things myself, and the way that he moves with it strikes me as totally real and convincing.
And because he is the character that he is, we get lots of Jonesy being competent and active and working with his hands and a;lskjfalds;kjfa;sdfsdkj;asdlf.
Right now I'm mostly thinking, "Jonesy, please don't break my heart" ... either by dying, or by turning out to be a total asshole and doing something irredeemably horrible like, oh, raping the object of his affections or something (this is definitely the sort of show in which this is not an unreasonable fear).
But until something like that happens, I'll be over here in the shallow end of the wading pool. *g*
And seriously, there are a lot of reasons why I'm enjoying this show that have nothing to do with Tim DeKay -- it is very intriguing and mysterious and full of flawed, complex characters. It's not a show that everyone would enjoy; it's pretty dark, for one thing, and WEIRD. It reminds me somewhat of Twin Peaks (er, not that I've actually seen any of Twin Peaks except the movie, which probably wasn't the best place to start) ... but anyway, there are deeply strange religious overtones, hallucinations and dream sequences, psychic powers and hints of the Apocalypse.
... ahahaha, and as I typed that last sentence, something just spontaneously fell off a shelf next to me and scared the crap out of me. XDD Perhaps I should not be writing about weird, creepy supernatural shows while I'm home alone.
Thus far, though, it's grabbed me a lot harder than most shows tend to do in the first episode or two -- it's just so weird and fascinating and different. It's not Hollywood-pretty; it's set during the Depression in the Dust Bowl, so everyone is filthy, most of them are fairly plain, and even the good-looking members of the cast are buried under a lot of dirt and unflattering, sepia-toned 1930s clothes.
And, well, reasons:
I put it in the Netflix queue because I knew Tim DeKay had been in it, but I didn't realize he was actually one of the main characters (I was expecting recurring guest character at best). Even better, his character hits me right smack in the id.
One thing that I find absolutely fascinating is ... hmm, I'm not quite sure how to express this: the intersection between physicality and disability, perhaps? As a person with a (relatively mild) physical disability myself, I am very interested in the way that people navigate physical impairments and learn to compensate for them. Most people who meet me don't actually realize that I have a disability, because I've learned to move around it. Most people with disabilities do likewise; it's not a matter of concealing it, just learning to do things smoothly and quickly while working around it.
And I'm especially interested in seeing fictional characters cope with a disability while being in a physically demanding occupation and/or from a working-class background. This is a combination of traits which is common in real life but vanishingly rare on TV (actually, the last time I remember a TV character appealing to me in this particular way was Bobby on Supernatural, for a while).
So Tim's character Jonesy basically had me at hello. He's the carnival's mechanic/sort of general handyman-type guy, and he walks with a leg brace -- I actually wore a brace somewhat similar to that when I was a teenager (more high-tech and orthopedic, but the same general idea) and I love the casual way that he moves with it, especially when he's doing things where the brace impairs his freedom of movement, like crouching down:
... for one thing, because I remember doing similar things myself, and the way that he moves with it strikes me as totally real and convincing.
And because he is the character that he is, we get lots of Jonesy being competent and active and working with his hands and a;lskjfalds;kjfa;sdfsdkj;asdlf.
Right now I'm mostly thinking, "Jonesy, please don't break my heart" ... either by dying, or by turning out to be a total asshole and doing something irredeemably horrible like, oh, raping the object of his affections or something (this is definitely the sort of show in which this is not an unreasonable fear).
But until something like that happens, I'll be over here in the shallow end of the wading pool. *g*
And seriously, there are a lot of reasons why I'm enjoying this show that have nothing to do with Tim DeKay -- it is very intriguing and mysterious and full of flawed, complex characters. It's not a show that everyone would enjoy; it's pretty dark, for one thing, and WEIRD. It reminds me somewhat of Twin Peaks (er, not that I've actually seen any of Twin Peaks except the movie, which probably wasn't the best place to start) ... but anyway, there are deeply strange religious overtones, hallucinations and dream sequences, psychic powers and hints of the Apocalypse.
... ahahaha, and as I typed that last sentence, something just spontaneously fell off a shelf next to me and scared the crap out of me. XDD Perhaps I should not be writing about weird, creepy supernatural shows while I'm home alone.
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But yeah, I know what you mean about vicariously enjoying someone else's fan reports on a show you know you're never going to watch. :D
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As I said, I don't want to spoil you! But if you have triggers, you may want to seek out someone to watch and warn. (If you would like, I'll give you the name of the guest star on those eps so you know exactly which ones I'm talking about.)
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I can say that I'm (mostly) okay with dark/grotesque stuff -- I don't seek it out, but I can handle something on the level of, say, "Saw" or Tarantino's movies, for example. I suppose it helps to know that something really awful and triggery is coming up. Forewarned is forearmed, I guess?
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And yes, I had a huge post about it at the time, and I maybe mentioned that Ron Moore connection. What is up with that man and what he writes about women? He always starts out so well, too.
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And as well as the casually tossed-off (and hideously misogynistic) horror of the ending, the episodes don't even make narrative sense! Once the reason for the murder was revealed, the "harlot" thing is absolute nonsense -- it's like the first and second halves of the episodes were not only written by different people (which they were) but written by different people who didn't even communicate with each other. The characters' reasons for being wary of Babylon ended up having nothing whatsoever to do with the town's actual secret, thematically or otherwise. The apparent reason why Dora was killed (why her, I mean, rather than one of the other women in the carnival) turns out to have nothing to do with it either. It really did end up feeling like they wrote the first half of the two-parter with no clue where it was going, just setting up some random weird/creepy stuff and then flailing around trying to tack an ending onto it.
And then there's the problem that, in-show, they were sent here deliberately ... as opposed to randomly stumbling upon this town in the course of their usual travels. Which means all of this was on purpose -- the murder and eternal damnation of a young woman. Which means that the force driving them is meant to be an evil one (in which case, GET OUT OF THE CARNIVAL, YOU IDIOTS, WHY ARE YOU STILL THERE), or the writers consider this to be necessary collateral damage for the "good" side of the Apocalypse (in which case, writers, fuck you very much; I got plenty of that in Supernatural), or there IS no plan and this is the kind of random plot meandering that I can expect from the rest of the show. Even Lost took more than six episodes to get to that point!
(ETA: Oh, and I forgot the OTHER thing that bothered me narratively about the episode - why would you even bother introducing a character who can bring back the dead if you're just going to ignore that whenever people actually die?!)
... er, do you have a link to your post? I would be interested to read it, if you don't mind linking.
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