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Hoo boy! Summer has given me more time for tv, including a new obsession (for which I totally blame LJ friends, and I would blame you by name if I remembered properly). I hope you will read the parts for any shows you watch, and discuss, even if you haven't seen some of these eps in a while! Just skip the ones that don't interest you. Don't let the size of the post deter you. Talk to me about tv! That's kind of why I'm here on LJ!
I miss Chuck; we're waiting for last season on DVD!
In no particular order, with spoilers through the episodes indicated:
Greatest American Hero: These three episodes were made just before, during, and/or after Connie Selleca gave birth, so Pam hardly appears at all. Too bad for the show, but good for the actress. (The IMDb order differs from the Netflix order, so I can't give episode numbers, and I'm watching out of order, according to the IMDb.)
"The 200-Mile-an-Hour Fastball": The requisite sports episode; at least they didn't make it a boxing episode! That would have hurt even more. As it is, Ralph breaks Bill's hand when they test to make sure he can aim as well as throw fast (and hard). Now Ralph has broken each of Bill's hand once. I'm thinking I should keep a tally of Bill's injuries and destroyed cars, but I've already lost count.
I love when Ralph simultaneously insists to his class that fame isn't changing him and demonstrates that it is—and they call him on it, as well they should.
"The Beast in the Black": I remembered this episode, or at least parts of it. It includes some of my most vivid memories from originally watching the show! I remembered it being really scary. Well, it's not so scary anymore. I'm not sure how much is because we have 1981 special effects (which consist largely of flashes of light and bad voice-overs), and how much is because I'm not that young anymore. Small Child seemed somewhat frightened.
I still enjoy this episode for the friendship between Bill and Ralph. When a ghost takes control of Bill's body (have I mentioned that I don't watch these for the plot?), Ralph's determination to get him back carries the episode (see remark about plot). Bill's attempts to fight off the ghost, and his certainty that Ralph has gone to his apartment to get his hat to be able to find him, warm the cockles of my fuzzy little heart. I also love that when the chandelier fells Bill, the kids really care. I had forgotten that the kids then disregarded Ralph's orders and went back into the house to salvage something so that the whole adventure wouldn't be all for nothing!
"Don't Mess Around with Jim": I had no memory of this episode. This one scares the adult me as "The Beast in the Black" didn't. Ralph and Bill encounter previous owners of a suit from the little green guys. They see how much the suit's power corrupted the previous wearer and how it brought down his partner, too. In the end, their predecessors go off with the aliens. Bill is scared out of his mind by this. Ralph thinks it's really neat and that it will be fun to go with them when their time comes! I think I sided with Ralph in 1981. I totally side with Bill now.
The Sarah Jane Adventures
I do miss Maria, and I was very geeked to see her again unexpectedly, though briefly, in a few episodes! I like Rani very much too, however. She's a bit more of a fighter and a go-getter. I love Sarah Jane dealing with Rani's parents in very different ways than she dealt with Maria's. She can't confide in Rani's parents; they would both flip out. I love the actor who plays Rani's dad and how much his personality at school differs from his persona at home. The poor man doesn't know what to do with Clyde! His most obvious troublemaker hangs out with the school prodigy and his daughter.
I'm conflicted about Clyde's father: I see black fathers portrayed in a negative light far too often, and while Clyde's wasn't a total villain, he'd done some pretty bad things even before he got hold of the pendant (or it got hold of him). I didn't appreciate that aspect. I did like seeing more of Clyde and finally meeting his mother, since we've seen so much of Maria's parents (even though they were divorced) and Rani's. I love Luke behaving like a real kid at his sleepover with Clyde. I enjoyed seeing Alan again so much that I won't complain that he could hack UNIT so easily.
Sarah Jane still rocks. She is an awesome heroine) Sarah Jane was an orphan, and her Doctor has left her twice now (once against her will, and now once when she could have gone with him), but she still has a full and happy life (not to mention an important and exciting one!).
Can anyone tell me how much SJA has shown in the UK? I'm so far out of it I don't know if they've completed s3, or started s4, or anything.
Psych
I'll get my complaints out of the way first. I think Shawn should have grown up a little by now. At least he's honest. I can't remember what Gus started by saying, "If we've learned one thing by now...", but Shawn blows him off, saying, "We haven't learned anything." Too true!
I also think Abigail was really good for Shawn in a way that Juliet isn't. Abigail and Shawn laughed at the same things, and she kept him (somewhat more) honest. Juliet and Shawn really don't share a lot of interests. I don't feel the attraction between Juliet and Shawn. Yes, I know that's very much in the eye of the beholder. I'm still sorry to lose Abigail.
My other complaint goes with "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet": please, can the racial humor! Sometimes, it's not so much mocking racism as making racism funny! Or, in this case, trying and failing to make racism funny. Shawn takes advantage of poor Ken (they didn't pay the guy?!) and then insults him repeatedly! Gus goes along with it: it's not enough to say that Shawn's acting racist when he's perfectly happy to accompany Shawn as Shawn tries to learn about triads from Ken and then tries to use Ken as a translator without even asking if Ken speaks any Chinese languages!
I did like in this episode that Juliet needed some time to recover. I also really liked her scene with Chief Vick. It really feels like Vick is trying to play the mentor to this young woman but doesn't quite know how, and Juliet appreciates the effort to some extent but feels really awkward, and these rare scenes ring true for me. I also love Lassie trying to lure her back in the most perverse way possible.
"Feet Don't Kill Me Now"
Dulé Hill can dance! Wow! I loved it! I had to check IMDb to see what the mystery was on this one, because though I only saw it ten days ago, the dancing just pushed everything else out of my head. The humor with Lassie was a little forced, but I enjoyed most of it.
This episode confirmed what we already know: Gus and Shawn really belong together. "Alien fist bump" FTW!
"Not Even Close . . . Encounters": This may be one of my favorite episodes ever! Freddie Prinze Jr. as a geek pretending to be a jock made me howl with laughter! He was great with Gus and Shawn! I want to see more of Denny! I was completely unsurprised that his wife turned out to be a closet geek too, and I only regret that they didn't learn each others' secrets in time to go to Comic-Con together. Well, I hope they can go next year.
Wait, I do have one more complaint: why hasn't Corbin Bernsen won an Emmy for this role yet? He is awesome as Henry, who appears to be a normal, good dad most of the time, until you find out those odd tidbits like the Easter eggs he hid ("There are still two down there, Shawn!"). He makes both the slightly psycho dad and the concerned father believable in the same person.
Doctor Who
I know I have friends who really enjoyed this season and friends who hated it and some in between. I'm in between. I won't go episode by episode.
First: I like Matt Smith, but I don't love him. I think I have loved all the others except Paul McGann, who simply didn't get enough time for me to love him. Yes, I'm even quite fond of Colin Baker. I think by the time I've had a full season of a Doctor, I ought to love him (I fall in love easily on tv, as this post probably makes clear). I do love Amy, rather in spite of myself, because I never ever want to see a companion throw herself at the Doctor again! Say what you will about Rose or Martha (don't take that too literally: I like them both!), but neither of them had a fiancé. Amy was engaged and still threw herself at the Doctor! She wanted sex! My gosh! This is a kids' show! I don't want sex in it! Ever! Even Captain Jack was a little much, but he wasn't so driven. The Doctor is an alien far too old for Amy! At least the Doctor didn't seem to be returning her interest in that way!
Okay, now that I've got that out of my system: I love Amy's energy and determination. I was touched by how upset she was that they hadn't prevented or even delayed Vincent's suicide. I love Rory too, and I love the two of them together, because they are better together than when they are apart. I was considering quitting the show if Rory stayed dead.
I don't think I have awfully high standards of plausibility for Doctor Who. I'm willing to accept a lot of things. I am bothered, however, two tendencies I see as continuations of two of the things I disliked most about the RTD era:
1. Continuity is disregarded too much. Yes, DW has a long history of rewriting itself, but I don't like so many changes in one season. Since when has the sonic screwdriver been able to heal people? How did the crack in time have anything to do with Amy not remembering the Daleks moving the earth? (Did the problem of everyone on Earth knowing about Daleks, etc., just turn into something Moffat didn't want to handle?) I thought DW had been pretty consistent about touching oneself from another timeline being catastrophic, but Amy from the Pandorica can touch Young Amy, and the Doctor can touch himself without consequences (get your mind out of the gutter; I see you there!). In the same episode, the Doctor tested to see whether the two sonic screwdrivers were the same by touching them together; they sparked. The people should have caused explosions (especially the two Amys, so separated in time).
I find this willingness to change continuity especially ironic when the show keeps self-consciously stressing its own past: showing us video clips of all the Doctors repeatedly this season, rattling off lists of his enemies (and bringing back as many as the budget would allow more often than common sense should perhaps permit).
2. I feel like Moffat is following directly in RTD's tracks by writing a good set-up for a really big problem and then not worrying about a plausible solution. I'm just not impressed with the solution for "The Big Bang." Watching the alien creature die in "Vincent and the Doctor" was a let-down, though the SF plot was so far inferior to the emotional story that episode that they never did belong together. The decision simply to suspend negotiations for a thousand years in "Cold Blood" was also anti-climactic for me, although I'm willing to let that go because I otherwise thought that two-parter pretty good. I have somehow already forgotten how "The Lodger" was resolved, which shows how much the plot mattered to me. I spent the season feeling like the writers made little real attempt to extricate the Doctor cleverly from any problems; they just blew stuff up repeatedly and let people be saved by Amy's memories of them.
Question for discussion: who is scarier? Amy, who makes the universe conform to her ideas of it? Or River, who's willing to shape those ideas as necessary and remembers what no one is supposed to remember?
On the plus side: I still like River, though she's really just too much. Kudos to Alex Kingston once again. I love the companions—can we count Rory, too? I only see people calling Amy a companion, but Rory is too. I really liked Vincent and Liz Ten (though I loathe the decision Liz Ten made repeatedly). I do like the lower body count than in the RTD years; I was getting really tired of seeing my favorites killed, or exiled to another universe (only to be brought back later), or deprived of memories to the extent that they lost their spark (oh, Donna!). I'm sticking with the show, but I wasn't really pleased with this season. I thought the writing could have been significantly better. I'm not asking for Chaucer- or Shakespeare-level brilliance. I am asking for a little more coherence and thought.
And now the moment you've all been waiting for! (What? You weren't? Huh.) Y'all have hooked me on White Collar. I know it was more than one of you, but I don't entirely remember whom to blame. Please, take responsibility in the comments (and let me talk about the show with you!).
The one person I know I can credit is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stasha2g; I liked some of her recs in other fandoms so much that I actually read White Collar fic before I saw the show, which sounds kind of crazy, but the last straw was her rec for "I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal (and I Just Don't Get Any Respect)" by fiercelydreamed. I read that story for Leverage though it's a crossover with WC and made Brilliant Husband read it, even though that's not exactly the way I see Leverage. Then I had to watch the show because the story made me helpless with laughter, and I wanted to get more of Peter, Neal, and Elizabeth. If you want another gem, by the way, read "Four Cups of Tea (and a waffle iron)" by LithiumDoll.
White Collar
Obviously we're watching two seasons at once and trying to get just enough spoilers to understand s2 without ruining s1—although I'm starting to think I don't watch anything on USA for plot, I watch for characters! (I do miss Monk, a little, but he had a great run. It's partly missing him and his friends that made me ready to pick up a new show.)
I'm pretty sureloriel_eris is the friend I dimly remember can't stand Neal Caffrey. Neal, like Shawn Spencer, reminds me of my youngest brother-in-law, which helps overcome the misgivings I might have had about such a character back before I met youngest brother-in-law. Brilliant Husband and I sit watching WC and Psych and going, "Yep, that's like YBIL"—except that YBIL is neither a criminal nor a fake psychic (just for the record). I think his parents (and his older brothers) must have raised him right, because he could so easily be a Shawn Spencer or a Neal Caffrey that it's almost not funny.
I love Peter and Neal and El and Mozzie. They are all awesome. I kind of identify with Peter; his rant in the premiere that he had to work for what he has and it's not right that Neal's fresh out of prison not even having completed his sentence and now lives in this multi-million-dollar house with multi-million-dollar views is absolutely true. I totally agree—and yet I still love Neal. And Peter does too, even if he's in denial about it. (I'm talking gen love, gang. I am not a slasher for this show, and the only romance I want to see here is between Peter and El.) My sympathies are with Peter most of the time. He's also rightly upset when he gets a call that Neal has run and then finds Neal in his house being friendly with his wife—and then, to add insult to injury, giving and getting love from Peter's dog!
How can I not love people who give me scenes like this?
Peter, on finding Neal not on the lam but on his couch: You're on my couch.
Neal: Yeah, I came to talk to you. And Peter, I have to say, you have such an amazing wife.
Peter Burke: Yeah, I like her. Get off my couch.
. . . .
Neal : Did you really put Elizabeth under surveillance before you asked her out? Peter, I underestimated you.
Peter: You told him?
Elizabeth (to Neal): Oh, he said he wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing anybody else. (to Peter) Honey, it's cute.
Neal: I think it's adorable.
Peter: I'm putting you back in prison.
Peter's right not to trust Neal, or at least not to trust him too far, but he's genuinely concerned in the Book of Hours episode that Neal could get hurt or killed. Of course, he tells El that he's really concerned about Neal taking the manuscript and running. Peter's only slightly clueless.
Yet Neal seems to have a lot of innate goodness himself. He's horrified to have put a model in danger in "Threads" and puts himself at risk trying to help out. He's another of those clueless men, but at least he follows his own advice: after telling Peter not to bother with a plan, he clearly has no plan when he chases a dangerous criminal, and he's shocked when the man draws a gun on him! He wants to help the homeless man with the sick dog, and he takes risks to do it. I want to see Neal live up to his potential as a genuinely caring person. I like that he rejects guns (although he really needs to learn more about them if he didn't realize lifting the clip still left a bullet in the chamber! "Not a gun guy.")
Elizabeth rocks. She has her own career but helps out her husband where she can; I love how in "Book of Hours" it's El who suggests that Neal ask the suspect out to dinner and then insists that she'll say yes (while poor Peter gives her the look). She's the most honestly self-assured of the three of them (Neal fakes so much I'm not sure he always knows when he's faking), and she can tell people what she really thinks (instead of pretending she's worrying about something else).
Mozzie is awesome too. We saw him the first time and said, "Martin Lloyd!" (from Stargate SG-1), but he soon drove thoughts of Martin Lloyd from our heads. The scenes where he has Peter come up with apparently random items so he can get the $10,000 they need for an operation had me screaming with laughter. He really cares about Neal, though.
I could go on and on. I've only seen June briefly, but her scenes are fantastic. I really liked Natalie Morales in Middle Man but couldn't stand the show, so it's great to see her here, though I also love Marsha Thomason and am glad she's back for s2. (I'm guessing they lost her in the long delay between filming the pilot and shooting the rest of s1; does anyone know for sure? She seems to have had other roles in that stretch, but I'm not sure of the various shows' filming schedules.) I like that Peter's team (Diana, Lauren, Jones) accept Neal with caution but without the open disdain or disregard shown by Ruiz. (I also liked how Neal with one comment signaled that he'd heard Ruiz saying he wouldn't lose any sleep over Neal's death but made it hard to argue either way.)
This show is full of nice little touches, too: Neal having a rubber ball band in a meeting where Hughes asks: "Why is he even here?" and Peter deftly plucking it from the air, Diana calmly shooting a perp exactly where she told him she would shoot him (even in hooker heels and a short, tight dress), Mozzie waking up by saying, "Let me see your warrant!" The mobster pleading with the FBI, "Please, please: help me find my goddamn Bible." As I said, I could go on and on.
Okay, I do have to say a few things about Books of Hours:
1. Monks generally didn't have them because they were supposed to have the hours memorized. Practices were more variable among nuns. Books of Hours were generally for the laity, who sometimes paid to have them lavishly illustrated.
2. Any art thief/forger worth his salt already knows the distinction between a Bible and a Book of Hours, and my Point #1, so Peter should not have had to explain it to Neal. Brilliant Husband thinks it would have been better for one of them to start and the other one to have interrupted to finish, showing what they both know and filling in the audience. (I'd bet money most lapsed and many practicing Catholics couldn't tell you what Peter did about Books of Hours, though.)
3. Size wasn't definitive; complete Bibles were rare because they were so freaking huge. The art historian could as well have thought it a part-Bible or a Gospel Book.
Other than that, I have to give points to the writers for knowing the distinction (even if they missed my three points), and I can totally imagine a Book of Hours with such a cover stopping a bullet, even at close range (particularly small caliber). Under the precious metal cover, that sucker had boards—real wood boards.
I've been reading fanfic—yes, mostly bad fic. If you have any recs for good fic, please share! (Gen or Bob primarily; I love Peter and Elizabeth as a couple, but I'm not interested in reading about sex.) I will try to resist writing any in this fandom, because I have too many fandoms already.
I miss Chuck; we're waiting for last season on DVD!
In no particular order, with spoilers through the episodes indicated:
Greatest American Hero: These three episodes were made just before, during, and/or after Connie Selleca gave birth, so Pam hardly appears at all. Too bad for the show, but good for the actress. (The IMDb order differs from the Netflix order, so I can't give episode numbers, and I'm watching out of order, according to the IMDb.)
"The 200-Mile-an-Hour Fastball": The requisite sports episode; at least they didn't make it a boxing episode! That would have hurt even more. As it is, Ralph breaks Bill's hand when they test to make sure he can aim as well as throw fast (and hard). Now Ralph has broken each of Bill's hand once. I'm thinking I should keep a tally of Bill's injuries and destroyed cars, but I've already lost count.
I love when Ralph simultaneously insists to his class that fame isn't changing him and demonstrates that it is—and they call him on it, as well they should.
"The Beast in the Black": I remembered this episode, or at least parts of it. It includes some of my most vivid memories from originally watching the show! I remembered it being really scary. Well, it's not so scary anymore. I'm not sure how much is because we have 1981 special effects (which consist largely of flashes of light and bad voice-overs), and how much is because I'm not that young anymore. Small Child seemed somewhat frightened.
I still enjoy this episode for the friendship between Bill and Ralph. When a ghost takes control of Bill's body (have I mentioned that I don't watch these for the plot?), Ralph's determination to get him back carries the episode (see remark about plot). Bill's attempts to fight off the ghost, and his certainty that Ralph has gone to his apartment to get his hat to be able to find him, warm the cockles of my fuzzy little heart. I also love that when the chandelier fells Bill, the kids really care. I had forgotten that the kids then disregarded Ralph's orders and went back into the house to salvage something so that the whole adventure wouldn't be all for nothing!
"Don't Mess Around with Jim": I had no memory of this episode. This one scares the adult me as "The Beast in the Black" didn't. Ralph and Bill encounter previous owners of a suit from the little green guys. They see how much the suit's power corrupted the previous wearer and how it brought down his partner, too. In the end, their predecessors go off with the aliens. Bill is scared out of his mind by this. Ralph thinks it's really neat and that it will be fun to go with them when their time comes! I think I sided with Ralph in 1981. I totally side with Bill now.
The Sarah Jane Adventures
I do miss Maria, and I was very geeked to see her again unexpectedly, though briefly, in a few episodes! I like Rani very much too, however. She's a bit more of a fighter and a go-getter. I love Sarah Jane dealing with Rani's parents in very different ways than she dealt with Maria's. She can't confide in Rani's parents; they would both flip out. I love the actor who plays Rani's dad and how much his personality at school differs from his persona at home. The poor man doesn't know what to do with Clyde! His most obvious troublemaker hangs out with the school prodigy and his daughter.
I'm conflicted about Clyde's father: I see black fathers portrayed in a negative light far too often, and while Clyde's wasn't a total villain, he'd done some pretty bad things even before he got hold of the pendant (or it got hold of him). I didn't appreciate that aspect. I did like seeing more of Clyde and finally meeting his mother, since we've seen so much of Maria's parents (even though they were divorced) and Rani's. I love Luke behaving like a real kid at his sleepover with Clyde. I enjoyed seeing Alan again so much that I won't complain that he could hack UNIT so easily.
Sarah Jane still rocks. She is an awesome heroine) Sarah Jane was an orphan, and her Doctor has left her twice now (once against her will, and now once when she could have gone with him), but she still has a full and happy life (not to mention an important and exciting one!).
Can anyone tell me how much SJA has shown in the UK? I'm so far out of it I don't know if they've completed s3, or started s4, or anything.
Psych
I'll get my complaints out of the way first. I think Shawn should have grown up a little by now. At least he's honest. I can't remember what Gus started by saying, "If we've learned one thing by now...", but Shawn blows him off, saying, "We haven't learned anything." Too true!
I also think Abigail was really good for Shawn in a way that Juliet isn't. Abigail and Shawn laughed at the same things, and she kept him (somewhat more) honest. Juliet and Shawn really don't share a lot of interests. I don't feel the attraction between Juliet and Shawn. Yes, I know that's very much in the eye of the beholder. I'm still sorry to lose Abigail.
My other complaint goes with "Romeo and Juliet and Juliet": please, can the racial humor! Sometimes, it's not so much mocking racism as making racism funny! Or, in this case, trying and failing to make racism funny. Shawn takes advantage of poor Ken (they didn't pay the guy?!) and then insults him repeatedly! Gus goes along with it: it's not enough to say that Shawn's acting racist when he's perfectly happy to accompany Shawn as Shawn tries to learn about triads from Ken and then tries to use Ken as a translator without even asking if Ken speaks any Chinese languages!
I did like in this episode that Juliet needed some time to recover. I also really liked her scene with Chief Vick. It really feels like Vick is trying to play the mentor to this young woman but doesn't quite know how, and Juliet appreciates the effort to some extent but feels really awkward, and these rare scenes ring true for me. I also love Lassie trying to lure her back in the most perverse way possible.
"Feet Don't Kill Me Now"
Dulé Hill can dance! Wow! I loved it! I had to check IMDb to see what the mystery was on this one, because though I only saw it ten days ago, the dancing just pushed everything else out of my head. The humor with Lassie was a little forced, but I enjoyed most of it.
This episode confirmed what we already know: Gus and Shawn really belong together. "Alien fist bump" FTW!
"Not Even Close . . . Encounters": This may be one of my favorite episodes ever! Freddie Prinze Jr. as a geek pretending to be a jock made me howl with laughter! He was great with Gus and Shawn! I want to see more of Denny! I was completely unsurprised that his wife turned out to be a closet geek too, and I only regret that they didn't learn each others' secrets in time to go to Comic-Con together. Well, I hope they can go next year.
Wait, I do have one more complaint: why hasn't Corbin Bernsen won an Emmy for this role yet? He is awesome as Henry, who appears to be a normal, good dad most of the time, until you find out those odd tidbits like the Easter eggs he hid ("There are still two down there, Shawn!"). He makes both the slightly psycho dad and the concerned father believable in the same person.
Doctor Who
I know I have friends who really enjoyed this season and friends who hated it and some in between. I'm in between. I won't go episode by episode.
First: I like Matt Smith, but I don't love him. I think I have loved all the others except Paul McGann, who simply didn't get enough time for me to love him. Yes, I'm even quite fond of Colin Baker. I think by the time I've had a full season of a Doctor, I ought to love him (I fall in love easily on tv, as this post probably makes clear). I do love Amy, rather in spite of myself, because I never ever want to see a companion throw herself at the Doctor again! Say what you will about Rose or Martha (don't take that too literally: I like them both!), but neither of them had a fiancé. Amy was engaged and still threw herself at the Doctor! She wanted sex! My gosh! This is a kids' show! I don't want sex in it! Ever! Even Captain Jack was a little much, but he wasn't so driven. The Doctor is an alien far too old for Amy! At least the Doctor didn't seem to be returning her interest in that way!
Okay, now that I've got that out of my system: I love Amy's energy and determination. I was touched by how upset she was that they hadn't prevented or even delayed Vincent's suicide. I love Rory too, and I love the two of them together, because they are better together than when they are apart. I was considering quitting the show if Rory stayed dead.
I don't think I have awfully high standards of plausibility for Doctor Who. I'm willing to accept a lot of things. I am bothered, however, two tendencies I see as continuations of two of the things I disliked most about the RTD era:
1. Continuity is disregarded too much. Yes, DW has a long history of rewriting itself, but I don't like so many changes in one season. Since when has the sonic screwdriver been able to heal people? How did the crack in time have anything to do with Amy not remembering the Daleks moving the earth? (Did the problem of everyone on Earth knowing about Daleks, etc., just turn into something Moffat didn't want to handle?) I thought DW had been pretty consistent about touching oneself from another timeline being catastrophic, but Amy from the Pandorica can touch Young Amy, and the Doctor can touch himself without consequences (get your mind out of the gutter; I see you there!). In the same episode, the Doctor tested to see whether the two sonic screwdrivers were the same by touching them together; they sparked. The people should have caused explosions (especially the two Amys, so separated in time).
I find this willingness to change continuity especially ironic when the show keeps self-consciously stressing its own past: showing us video clips of all the Doctors repeatedly this season, rattling off lists of his enemies (and bringing back as many as the budget would allow more often than common sense should perhaps permit).
2. I feel like Moffat is following directly in RTD's tracks by writing a good set-up for a really big problem and then not worrying about a plausible solution. I'm just not impressed with the solution for "The Big Bang." Watching the alien creature die in "Vincent and the Doctor" was a let-down, though the SF plot was so far inferior to the emotional story that episode that they never did belong together. The decision simply to suspend negotiations for a thousand years in "Cold Blood" was also anti-climactic for me, although I'm willing to let that go because I otherwise thought that two-parter pretty good. I have somehow already forgotten how "The Lodger" was resolved, which shows how much the plot mattered to me. I spent the season feeling like the writers made little real attempt to extricate the Doctor cleverly from any problems; they just blew stuff up repeatedly and let people be saved by Amy's memories of them.
Question for discussion: who is scarier? Amy, who makes the universe conform to her ideas of it? Or River, who's willing to shape those ideas as necessary and remembers what no one is supposed to remember?
On the plus side: I still like River, though she's really just too much. Kudos to Alex Kingston once again. I love the companions—can we count Rory, too? I only see people calling Amy a companion, but Rory is too. I really liked Vincent and Liz Ten (though I loathe the decision Liz Ten made repeatedly). I do like the lower body count than in the RTD years; I was getting really tired of seeing my favorites killed, or exiled to another universe (only to be brought back later), or deprived of memories to the extent that they lost their spark (oh, Donna!). I'm sticking with the show, but I wasn't really pleased with this season. I thought the writing could have been significantly better. I'm not asking for Chaucer- or Shakespeare-level brilliance. I am asking for a little more coherence and thought.
And now the moment you've all been waiting for! (What? You weren't? Huh.) Y'all have hooked me on White Collar. I know it was more than one of you, but I don't entirely remember whom to blame. Please, take responsibility in the comments (and let me talk about the show with you!).
The one person I know I can credit is
stasha2g; I liked some of her recs in other fandoms so much that I actually read White Collar fic before I saw the show, which sounds kind of crazy, but the last straw was her rec for "I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal (and I Just Don't Get Any Respect)" by fiercelydreamed. I read that story for Leverage though it's a crossover with WC and made Brilliant Husband read it, even though that's not exactly the way I see Leverage. Then I had to watch the show because the story made me helpless with laughter, and I wanted to get more of Peter, Neal, and Elizabeth. If you want another gem, by the way, read "Four Cups of Tea (and a waffle iron)" by LithiumDoll. White Collar
Obviously we're watching two seasons at once and trying to get just enough spoilers to understand s2 without ruining s1—although I'm starting to think I don't watch anything on USA for plot, I watch for characters! (I do miss Monk, a little, but he had a great run. It's partly missing him and his friends that made me ready to pick up a new show.)
I'm pretty sure
loriel_eris is the friend I dimly remember can't stand Neal Caffrey. Neal, like Shawn Spencer, reminds me of my youngest brother-in-law, which helps overcome the misgivings I might have had about such a character back before I met youngest brother-in-law. Brilliant Husband and I sit watching WC and Psych and going, "Yep, that's like YBIL"—except that YBIL is neither a criminal nor a fake psychic (just for the record). I think his parents (and his older brothers) must have raised him right, because he could so easily be a Shawn Spencer or a Neal Caffrey that it's almost not funny.I love Peter and Neal and El and Mozzie. They are all awesome. I kind of identify with Peter; his rant in the premiere that he had to work for what he has and it's not right that Neal's fresh out of prison not even having completed his sentence and now lives in this multi-million-dollar house with multi-million-dollar views is absolutely true. I totally agree—and yet I still love Neal. And Peter does too, even if he's in denial about it. (I'm talking gen love, gang. I am not a slasher for this show, and the only romance I want to see here is between Peter and El.) My sympathies are with Peter most of the time. He's also rightly upset when he gets a call that Neal has run and then finds Neal in his house being friendly with his wife—and then, to add insult to injury, giving and getting love from Peter's dog!
How can I not love people who give me scenes like this?
Peter, on finding Neal not on the lam but on his couch: You're on my couch.
Neal: Yeah, I came to talk to you. And Peter, I have to say, you have such an amazing wife.
Peter Burke: Yeah, I like her. Get off my couch.
. . . .
Neal : Did you really put Elizabeth under surveillance before you asked her out? Peter, I underestimated you.
Peter: You told him?
Elizabeth (to Neal): Oh, he said he wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing anybody else. (to Peter) Honey, it's cute.
Neal: I think it's adorable.
Peter: I'm putting you back in prison.
Peter's right not to trust Neal, or at least not to trust him too far, but he's genuinely concerned in the Book of Hours episode that Neal could get hurt or killed. Of course, he tells El that he's really concerned about Neal taking the manuscript and running. Peter's only slightly clueless.
Yet Neal seems to have a lot of innate goodness himself. He's horrified to have put a model in danger in "Threads" and puts himself at risk trying to help out. He's another of those clueless men, but at least he follows his own advice: after telling Peter not to bother with a plan, he clearly has no plan when he chases a dangerous criminal, and he's shocked when the man draws a gun on him! He wants to help the homeless man with the sick dog, and he takes risks to do it. I want to see Neal live up to his potential as a genuinely caring person. I like that he rejects guns (although he really needs to learn more about them if he didn't realize lifting the clip still left a bullet in the chamber! "Not a gun guy.")
Elizabeth rocks. She has her own career but helps out her husband where she can; I love how in "Book of Hours" it's El who suggests that Neal ask the suspect out to dinner and then insists that she'll say yes (while poor Peter gives her the look). She's the most honestly self-assured of the three of them (Neal fakes so much I'm not sure he always knows when he's faking), and she can tell people what she really thinks (instead of pretending she's worrying about something else).
Mozzie is awesome too. We saw him the first time and said, "Martin Lloyd!" (from Stargate SG-1), but he soon drove thoughts of Martin Lloyd from our heads. The scenes where he has Peter come up with apparently random items so he can get the $10,000 they need for an operation had me screaming with laughter. He really cares about Neal, though.
I could go on and on. I've only seen June briefly, but her scenes are fantastic. I really liked Natalie Morales in Middle Man but couldn't stand the show, so it's great to see her here, though I also love Marsha Thomason and am glad she's back for s2. (I'm guessing they lost her in the long delay between filming the pilot and shooting the rest of s1; does anyone know for sure? She seems to have had other roles in that stretch, but I'm not sure of the various shows' filming schedules.) I like that Peter's team (Diana, Lauren, Jones) accept Neal with caution but without the open disdain or disregard shown by Ruiz. (I also liked how Neal with one comment signaled that he'd heard Ruiz saying he wouldn't lose any sleep over Neal's death but made it hard to argue either way.)
This show is full of nice little touches, too: Neal having a rubber ball band in a meeting where Hughes asks: "Why is he even here?" and Peter deftly plucking it from the air, Diana calmly shooting a perp exactly where she told him she would shoot him (even in hooker heels and a short, tight dress), Mozzie waking up by saying, "Let me see your warrant!" The mobster pleading with the FBI, "Please, please: help me find my goddamn Bible." As I said, I could go on and on.
Okay, I do have to say a few things about Books of Hours:
1. Monks generally didn't have them because they were supposed to have the hours memorized. Practices were more variable among nuns. Books of Hours were generally for the laity, who sometimes paid to have them lavishly illustrated.
2. Any art thief/forger worth his salt already knows the distinction between a Bible and a Book of Hours, and my Point #1, so Peter should not have had to explain it to Neal. Brilliant Husband thinks it would have been better for one of them to start and the other one to have interrupted to finish, showing what they both know and filling in the audience. (I'd bet money most lapsed and many practicing Catholics couldn't tell you what Peter did about Books of Hours, though.)
3. Size wasn't definitive; complete Bibles were rare because they were so freaking huge. The art historian could as well have thought it a part-Bible or a Gospel Book.
Other than that, I have to give points to the writers for knowing the distinction (even if they missed my three points), and I can totally imagine a Book of Hours with such a cover stopping a bullet, even at close range (particularly small caliber). Under the precious metal cover, that sucker had boards—real wood boards.
I've been reading fanfic—yes, mostly bad fic. If you have any recs for good fic, please share! (Gen or Bob primarily; I love Peter and Elizabeth as a couple, but I'm not interested in reading about sex.) I will try to resist writing any in this fandom, because I have too many fandoms already.