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Invisible Man watch/rewatch - 1x03 Ralph
.... clearly I fail forever at making these posts in a timely fashion.
As always, spoilers for future episodes should be hidden using one of the following methods:
Invisible Man 1x03 - Ralph
Okay, so first of all, I AGREE FOREVER with Darien that this is a terrible, terrible thing to do to a child. (Which I was thinking even before Darien started having issues with it.) Way to give this kid problems telling fantasy from reality FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE.
Along those lines, I didn't quite buy that her reaction to "Ralph" was "you don't look right" rather than "You're not real!" My sister and I had a whole pantheon of imaginary playmates, but I don't think at any point we thought they actually existed, or would have been anything other than scared out of our minds if they started talking to us.
... that said, Darien and the little girl were absolutely adorable together.
This bit, though:
Jess: "I'm your only friend!"
Darien: "You know what? You may have a point there."
;_____;
GOD. DARIEN. YOUR LIFE.
He's so adorable, though! He's like a big puppy.
I also really liked that Jess was a rather tomboyish little girl who liked playing in the woods, rather than a super girly girl. Not that there's anything wrong with being a girly girl, but you don't see the other kind on TV all that much.
The trick with the bulletproof lining of Darien's jacket was a neat twist I didn't remember, though SO MANY things about that part didn't make sense (wouldn't he have noticed the extra weight? and why did the sniper just leave his body lying there?). Also, the characters on this show have terrible, terrible trigger discipline, even the good guys.
LOL'ing forever at the Agency using Fish & Game investigations as a cover for their own investigation, while also at least nominally doing the work they were supposedly hired to do. Another thing about that early scene at the crime scene - while I did remember the thing with Hobbes's mental illness having gotten him fired from other agencies, I didn't realize that it was brought up so early in the show.
Hmm, other thoughts ... the scene at the end is really beautifully shot, with the sunset light. (Though there is something vaguely wtf about Darien comparing an 8-year-old girl to his own personal Irene Adler. IN WHAT WAY IS THAT COMPARISON ACCURATE OR APPROPRIATE, DARIEN.)
Overall: really cute episode, if slightly lacking in plot logic. And Darien is a total sweetheart.
As always, spoilers for future episodes should be hidden using one of the following methods:
- rot13 (copy-paste text into the cypher window to code or unencode it)
- LJ spoiler cut: <lj-spoiler>spoiler text</lj-spoiler> -- does not work on DW
- spoiler span text: <span style="color:white;background:white;">spoiler text</span> -- does not work on LJ
Invisible Man 1x03 - Ralph
Okay, so first of all, I AGREE FOREVER with Darien that this is a terrible, terrible thing to do to a child. (Which I was thinking even before Darien started having issues with it.) Way to give this kid problems telling fantasy from reality FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE.
Along those lines, I didn't quite buy that her reaction to "Ralph" was "you don't look right" rather than "You're not real!" My sister and I had a whole pantheon of imaginary playmates, but I don't think at any point we thought they actually existed, or would have been anything other than scared out of our minds if they started talking to us.
... that said, Darien and the little girl were absolutely adorable together.
This bit, though:
Jess: "I'm your only friend!"
Darien: "You know what? You may have a point there."
;_____;
GOD. DARIEN. YOUR LIFE.
He's so adorable, though! He's like a big puppy.
I also really liked that Jess was a rather tomboyish little girl who liked playing in the woods, rather than a super girly girl. Not that there's anything wrong with being a girly girl, but you don't see the other kind on TV all that much.
The trick with the bulletproof lining of Darien's jacket was a neat twist I didn't remember, though SO MANY things about that part didn't make sense (wouldn't he have noticed the extra weight? and why did the sniper just leave his body lying there?). Also, the characters on this show have terrible, terrible trigger discipline, even the good guys.
LOL'ing forever at the Agency using Fish & Game investigations as a cover for their own investigation, while also at least nominally doing the work they were supposedly hired to do. Another thing about that early scene at the crime scene - while I did remember the thing with Hobbes's mental illness having gotten him fired from other agencies, I didn't realize that it was brought up so early in the show.
Hmm, other thoughts ... the scene at the end is really beautifully shot, with the sunset light. (Though there is something vaguely wtf about Darien comparing an 8-year-old girl to his own personal Irene Adler. IN WHAT WAY IS THAT COMPARISON ACCURATE OR APPROPRIATE, DARIEN.)
Overall: really cute episode, if slightly lacking in plot logic. And Darien is a total sweetheart.
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And, yeah, this is a terrible idea.
I continue to feel incredibly sorry for Darien.
The jokes at the Agency's expense deeply amused me. Like, maybe Darien was exaggerating when he said it shut down for a week because the copier broke, but I hope he was being entirely serious. And I really enjoy the whole Fish and Game thing. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if the Official himself were a joke, but he's not. He's everything you'd except a manipulative, shadowy government figure to be. He just has limited resources. I didn't realize that I really wanted someone to answer the question "What would the Cigarette Smoking Man (of X-Files fame) be like if he had no funding?" but now I know the answer. Thank you Invisible Man.
The Sherlock Holmes bookends are weird. I get what they were going for, I think, but it's really too much of a stretch.
The FBI agents were so over the top awful that it was almost funny. Not just in the gross way in which that one guy mocked Hobbes for his mental illness, but near the end when they're all outraged that Darien and Hobbes have accused the bad guy of being the bad guy just because he's a sniper. Uh, no, they're accusing him of being the bad guy BECAUSE HE SHOT DARIEN MULTIPLE TIMES.
In conclusion, if there was never a comedy episode in which the Agency had to work an assignment for Fish and Game that really was just for Fish and Game, with no spy shenanigans, then there really should have been.
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I'm going with "contrivance" here -- sort of like the way that fictional kids seem to flip-flop between acting younger and older than RL children of a comparable age, depending on what the plot requires. I expect that kids like that exist (because adults like that exist -- there are people with headmates who are every bit as real to them as the people around them) but fiction makes it out like that's the average childhood experience and, um, no.
(Very cute kid, though.)
The jokes at the Agency's expense deeply amused me. Like, maybe Darien was exaggerating when he said it shut down for a week because the copier broke, but I hope he was being entirely serious. And I really enjoy the whole Fish and Game thing. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if the Official himself were a joke, but he's not. He's everything you'd except a manipulative, shadowy government figure to be. He just has limited resources. I didn't realize that I really wanted someone to answer the question "What would the Cigarette Smoking Man (of X-Files fame) be like if he had no funding?" but now I know the answer. Thank you Invisible Man.
Yes! Honestly, I think this is my favorite thing about the show. I was thinking yesterday about what we were talking about with the show's brand of humor, contrasted with Orphan Black, and I think the jokes on Invisible Man sometimes fall flat because they're the wrong kind of joke for the kind of show it is -- like, a lot of the humor is sitcom-type humor, but transplanted into a serious universe, so sometimes it just feels weird and kind of breaks you out of the reality of the show. As opposed to a show like Orphan Black (and Justified is another one) which are very funny, but in a way that feels organic to the universe. However, the ongoing jokes about the Agency's budget problems are, I think, the biggest aspect of the show's sense of humor that really does work very well. It's a delightful idea, it's functional and believable in-universe, and it lets them do a lot of mocking of spy/government-men-in-black cliches in a very fun way.
As opposed to things like ...
.... they're all outraged that Darien and Hobbes have accused the bad guy of being the bad guy just because he's a sniper. Uh, no, they're accusing him of being the bad guy BECAUSE HE SHOT DARIEN MULTIPLE TIMES.
XD XD XD Yeah, and the sniper himself is no stellar model of competence either (still can't get over him shooting Darien in a public place with, I'm pretty sure, his service weapon, and then just walking away).
There are times when I swear this show is being plotted by monkeys on speed. I say that with affection, because I really am enjoying it greatly on the rewatch, but STILL.
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And yeah, this episode was cute and fun, but mostly it's just kinda there. Although I did enjoy it; Darien is such a sweetheart with the kid, and there were various cute bits between him and the other characters.
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I've always liked this episode - maybe b/c it's just light-hearted-er than the previous one or maybe b/c I love Darien being really great w/ the kid and being the only one who tries to understand her and what's going on for her. (And dammit, White Collar, I almost typed 'Neal' instead of 'Darien'.)