Sniff, sniff, and an update
Things I haven’t been doing recently include blogging here or, in an odd coincidence, watching much prime time TV. Things I have been doing include working too much, and watching daytime TV.
No, seriously, by way of prime time TV I have been watching Ugly Betty because I get together with friends on a Sunday night (which is when it airs here) and watch it over many beers. I have generally been watching Grey’s Anatomy because it’s on afterwards, though I am one episode behind on that too. And on the subject of Betty I cannot believe that Channel 7 did exactly the same thing ABC did and showed that one episode completely out of order in a manner that made no sense whatsoever. Australian networks usually correct those scheduling quirks.
I did catch up with the last four episodes of The Office last weekend, though I’m rapidly reaching the conclusion that nothing will top “The Negotiation” as my favourite episode of the season. Toby, Toby, Toby.
My Tivo (which, in my case is actually a combination of files on my computer and a stack of video tapes on top of the TV), however, is currently filled to over flowing with as yet unwatched episodes of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Men in Trees, Prison Break and several other things I have no doubt forgotten. Time, she has not been on my side.
The purpose of this post is, though, to offer a snifflt tear for the now confirmed departure of Veronica Mars, and another sniffly tear for the departure of Gilmore girls from our screens. One departure was timely; I think the decision to end the girls was appropriate on a large number of levels, but it doesn’t mean I won’t miss it. The other departure is just so, so disappointing.
Vale, Veronica Mars.
Filed under: Gilmore girls, Programming, Television, The Office, Ugly Betty, Veronica Mars | Leave a Comment
Programmers are mean
Australian TV programming is cruel.
So many nights of the week there is nothing for this reality-eschewing, game show-disliking, CSI-snoozing viewer to watch.
And then there’s Wednesday.
Currently on Wednesday evenings the various networks here are showing not less than House, Medium, Cold Case, Without A Trace (hey, that rhymes), Heroes, Prison Break, 24, Spicks & Specks and Extras.
Given the option, without competing interests, I would watch at least seven of those shows without a second thought. That they all compete with each other means that choices have to be made and those shows that don’t have serial elements get ditched first.
Last week I found myself watching House (10) and Without a Trace (9), while taping the Heroes, Prison Break, 24 run (7). That was relatively simple. But tonight the ABC re-enters the game and I only have one TV and one VCR, so what do I do at 8.30 now?
On a non-Wednesday note, I do really like the fact that network 7, which has bought pretty much all the good US shows over the last three years*, has done a great thing in reintroducing Sunday nights as a TV night. For so long it’s only been the ABC that’s really offered anything decent to watch on a Sunday evening, which is really a perfect TV watching time. Now, with 7 planting some of it’s big guns, anchored by Grey’s Anatomy, there, 9 continuing with its CSI-is-the-only-real-property-we-own-a-thon and 10 throwing down the reality gauntlet, it does seem like they’re all taking it seriously again.
Finally, Celebrity Dog School? Really? Is this not scraping the bottom of the concept barrel? (Sadly, I don’t think it is; I am reasonably confident they can go much, much lower. Unfortunately.)
*I think every single new show network 9 bought from the States this year has already been cancelled over there before it even screens here except Men In Trees, which they’ve kept as a summer program and given no respect (not even the fluffy kind). Whereas 7 picked up Heroes and Ugly Betty plus Brothers & Sisters and a few other things.
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Good Decision
Yay!
After the last episode I thought Andy was destined for the loony bin, but I’m very glad he’s not.
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24 – Day 6 “6am – 8am”
Thoughts going through my head during the first 2 hours of 24, season 6:
“Hmm, this is quite good and I appear to be being sucked in, again.”
“And yet, I get sucked in every season and then get distracted part-way through.”
“Which is why the last 2/3 of season 5 are still sitting on tape, on my floor, by the TV, together with the second half of Lost season 2, unwatched.”
“In fact, the only seasons of 24 I’ve watched all the way through are seasons 1 and 4. So the fact that I am getting sucked in to the first couple of hours apparently means nothing. Nothing at all!”
“Apparently Keifer has not lost the neck biting skills he obviously learned during The Lost Boys. Must get out my DVD of The Lost Boys.”
“Alexander Siddig. Well played, 24, you get extra points automatically by casting him.”
“If another 20 months has passed since the end of last season, and there were 18 months between the first two seasons and similar time spans between all the other seasons, shouldn’t Jack be about 60 by now?”
This last thought I one that I’ve had, in one form or another, since about the start of season 3.
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Prison Break – 2×14 “John Doe”
We return from hiatus to perhaps the very definition of an uneven episode.
Five of the character threads were running, two were compelling and three were not bad so much as wholly uninteresting. Which is, in my view, often worse. If something’s patently bad you can often at least find something to laugh about, but when it’s just boring then it feels like a waste of time.
So, let’s get those three plot lines out of the way first. Catching up on what C-Note is doing is reasonable enough, but did we need essentially the same scene repeated three or four times? It felt like just a stall for time while the three amigos were taking plane trips. I’d rather have seen the plane trip, and I would definitely have preferred more time with Mahone. It would have been more productive, and interesting, to check in with C-Note, establish exactly what baby C-Note’s illness actually is, establish that Mrs C-Note has been denied bail and leave it at that. One scene. Maybe two. Come back later when they actually have something to do other than stare at a pay phone.
Then we have Bellick. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the gigantic lunk head? If we are, it’s not working. If he is so stupid as to not only find himself, but rather actively get himself into the position were he’s a prisoner at Fox River, then he deserves whatever he gets. I guess Brad is the complete anti-Michael when it comes to forethought. He obviously doesn’t think more than half a step ahead at any time. When Linc the Sink plans ahead more successfully than you, the you’re beyond help.
Though I can’t tell if part of my lack of caring about this story comes from being a bit spoiled. Because I have an idea of where Bellick’s going to end up, I would have been far more interested to see him languishing in county jail in wherever it was he was arrested, trying to match wits with the smart detective for a few episodes than this unnecessary diversion. In short, interest level very low, sympathy level non-existent.
Next up, T-Bag. The incredulity continues apace. Now, we always knew he was a psycho, but I’d never really taken him for this type of psycho. The hold people hostage as a means of deluding oneself into a sense of family type of nut-job. No matter how good the actor, I am actually less interested in watching that type of scenario than I am in watching him off the local vet. He seems so much more pathetic and not remotely compelling.
Thankfully, however, we have The Company for that.
Mahone’s mix of steel and desperation continues to be riveting, though I felt like we could have taken a little of the time devoted to the above threads to spend with him in this episode. I know there needed to be that hole for the reveal of the dead blonde at the end, but it still left me a little confused. Not the shooting of the agent, but what happened with Pam and the kid. Did he shoot the blonde and drive to Colorado to see his kid with the body in the boot? Did he not go to Colorado at all? If not, where is he? A scene of two taken from C-Note or T-Bag or Brad and the brownie saga could have clarified that without giving away the ending.
Moving forward, so far as the enemy of my enemy is my friend scenario goes, where is he now? It’s going to be interesting to watch that play out. (And you may notice that I’m completely over-looking the giant continuity problem of the disappearance of Mahone’s Little Helper pills. Fitcher is good enough to make me do that. Luckily for them.)
Now to the real fun. Who can argue with Michael, Linc and Kellerman as the road trip dream team? You’ve got Linc sitting there like a brick most of the time, but exploding periodically at inopportune moments, Michael thinking and planning but being rather antsy that absolutely everything he did plan for has gone wrong, and Kellerman with a combination of ruthless determination and endless bravado that he can completely back-up. A brawn verses knowing snark verses brains struggle. Snipe, snipe, snipe.
I’m glad they played a little with the Paul/Caroline back-story, though the crush plus marriage proposal explanation didn’t quite seem right to me. The underlying currents between them last season seemed a little more even than that, but President Reynolds has been clearly established as a completely ruthless bitch, so one never knows and it’s hard to deal with on a more even basis without Patricia Wettig this year.
I also like the way that Linc’s previously attractive billowing shirt becomes quite depressing sitting in a cheap motel room contemplating dead girlfriends and his whole life falling apart, again.
Michael and Paul having to talk Linc out of actually killing the guy he’s been on death row for killing, while simultaneously not noticing that they were effectively talking Steadman into killing himself was kind of amusing. I guess it would have been too harsh just to point out that Veronica wasn’t worth it, right?
It’s interesting that while Paul and Michael are the brains of the operation, Kellerman is just as likely to reach for his gun to try and resolve a crisis as Linc is to bum-rush someone, and Michael’s obviously the one most likely to panic when it goes wrong. The way the dynamic keeps changing as a result is where a lot of the interest lies, and that’s just going to be enhanced when Sara inevitably joins the crew. I’m looking forward to that.
Oh, and watching Mr Kim panic is kind of fun too, so the more of that which is generated by the double, triple and quadruple-crossing being executed by Kellerman and Mahone, the better, in my view.
In short, more conspiracy, less aimless convicts on the run please Prison Break.
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Frakking Pretty Boys
Where have I been? Well travelling, again and some more, and since I returned I have been engaged in my apparently now annual immersion into Battlestar Galactica.
Given previous posts you will be stunned, just stunned, to hear that it hasn’t been shown with any regularity of broadcast or time slot here in Australia, at least not on free to air, and so I was late to the party.
My old roommate had a perhaps unreasonable fondness for the original series (I had a definitely unreasonably fondness for Dirk Benedict and his hair, born from The A-Team and reflecting backwards, rather than the other way around), and therefore I did laugh my way through several episodes back in the days when we had cable and the original series would get a run. BSG Fan used to then keep me updated about whatever was happening in the competing new versions war or whatever that was, though I only half listened as even the vast spaces set aside in my brain solely for past and present TV trivia reached their capacity when the subject of the future remake of a cheesy 70s sci fi series came up.
I do seem to recall them showing the new mini series in prime time here, though I was no longer sharing a house with BSG Fan at that point and so, for whatever reason, didn’t watch it. I did hear enough positive press about both it and the subsequent series though that last year around this time I borrowed both the mini series and the first season on DVD from BSG Fan and underwent immersion therapy. It was entirely painless.
And so, starting last weekend, I am now undergoing part 2 of immersion therapy, watching seasons 2.0 and 2.5 in an occasionally interrupted for work and sleep marathon. I was going to post here episode by episode, and I may yet do that after I’ve done the whole podcast thing (sure to come a comment about how the odd light episode is a good thing because I gather season 3 is even more relentlessly bleak than season 2 which is fine, but an occasional break beyond the comic-relief of Baltar’s insanity is appreciated), but I want to watch first, comment later.
I also have the beginnings of a couple of other posts, one on Men In Trees, and one on the forthcoming end of The OC, in the works.
So, in other words, this is a post about pretty much absolutely fracking nothing except the confession of a sweet spot for Face even though B.A. was cooler, Hannibal was badder and Murdock was more interesting. Yep, sometimes the pretty boys get me.
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Guilty Pleasures, The A Team | Leave a Comment
Men in Trees – 1×01 Pilot
They have just started screening Men in Trees here, and of course I have to check it out. Why? Largely because that despite everything that happened after, I retain a giant soft spot for Anne Heche thanks to her turn as twins Vicky and Marly Hudson on the dear departed Another World. Plus, of course, it seems like it could be fun.
I am fairly dismissive of pilot episodes because generally they have so many set-up hurdles to leap that it’s extremely difficult to deliver a fully satisfactory pilot, or one which is truly reflective of how a series will turn out.
Usually the premise will have been what caused me to watch in the first place, so provided that plays out as promoted, or, more likely, in a more interesting way than promoted then that’s a checked box. Sometimes it’s an actor that brings me to the television, so provided they’re not offed in episode one, there’s another checked box ( the only example of this I can think of immediately is Reed Diamond’s character getting blown away on The Shield, though in that case his presence was a Homicide-related bonus rather than a reason for watching, so I kept watching regardless).
What I’m looking for beyond that in a pilot is general tone, character appeal, and dialogue that doesn’t clunk around all over the place. On the last of these I’m willing to give a lot of slack because a (hopefully) larger amount of it than usual must necessarily be devoted to exposition. That is doubly the case with a fish-out-of-water type premise where the writers have to establish not only the environment the protagonist is ultimately staying in, but also the one she is leaving. If the pilot delivers a decent tone, interesting characters and decent dialogue then generally I’ll watch the next week to see how the show really works. Unless it bores me absolutely to tears. Which has been known to happen.
Pleasingly, there were no tears of boredom with Men in Trees. There was no instant rapport of “I love this” either, but I wasn’t expecting that. I was hoping for an amusing diversion, and nothing in the pilot diminished that hope. Heche was charming, the supporting characters weren’t as supremely quirky as one may have feared, and it all looks very picturesque. So I will be watching next week.
The one thing that bugged the hell out of me though, was the music. Not necessarily the choices of music, though there was a degree of that too, but more specifically the intrusion of the music.
In my view the music used in any show (or film), be it score or licensed music, should be complimenting the action and in a lot of cases, while vital, virtually unnoticeable. Unless we’re doing a big dramatic, poignant or comedic montage with music playing over the top, then I don’t want the show to appear like a music video for the song rather than the song highlighting the vision. Which is exactly what happened here.
In the pilot, the first half in particular, the use of music resulted in me projecting myself into the minds of the producers and thinking the following: “Grey’s Anatomy is doing very well with its use of music and its soundtracks, let’s put music front and centre and hopefully we’ll have a successful album and good music reputation too!” And that is not what the audience is supposed to be thinking while watching a show.
Perhaps it was because I was familiar with most of the music. I already own most of the music. Actually, I think I do already own all the music named below, which means it’s probably not quite the unusual mix they were going for.
It started out fine, the use of Persephone’s Bees under the opening sequence worked well, delivered a little pulse without overwhelming the dialogue or vision. I noticed it because I know the song, not because it was screaming at me.
But then they broke out the Three Dog Night, which seemed entirely random over a driving/arrival scene in a small Alaska town and stood out like a sore thumb. It might have worked in a bar scene, or something similar, but as used it just said “quirky soundtrack” to me. I like quirky soundtracks, but not if they announce themselves as such.
Then the KT Tunstall was pure music video stuff for me. I like the song, I like the rhythm, I’m not sure it fitted the scenes beyond the rhythm, but regardless it had the affect of me being distracted by the song. Distracted from visions of bike riding (almost) off cliff and shoe-eating raccoons. Distracted from setting up the main character and the town quirk. And while I think they were hoping for “indie-ish soundtrack hit” I don’t think they were aiming for that above “noticing the show enough to keep watching”.
It did get better as things went along. The Violent Femmes interlude was a bit more successful.
And the use of The Lemonheads “The Outdoor Type” under the vision rather than over it, identifiable by me instantly because I love both the song and the sentiment, but used more subtly, was an improvement even though I think it should have been used a few minutes earlier than it actually was. It should have started when they were first undressed in the cabin in place of the apparently obligatory score diversion into “Let’s Get It On”, and still continued through the driving scenes, and ended earlier than it actually did. I could appreciate it later, I would have appreciated it more earlier.
The song over the end, the only one I wasn’t familiar with to begin with, worked fine; end montages are the right place for songs drifting above and below the images, but by then they’d already annoyed me too much to fully appreciate it.
I’d like to add that I had no issue with the score; it worked fine. I didn’t even notice it was there until the second viewing for the purposes of this entry, which is how it’s meant to work. But that only further emphasised the failings on the licensed music side.
I’ll be interested to see if the pilot rules apply, and musical things improve next week. Not to mention getting a real fix on the show. But so far – one major annoyance aside – not so bad.
Filed under: Men In Trees | 1 Comment
In season one they handled an over-arching mystery in 22 episodes supremely well because, among other reasons, the very nature of the mystery meant that virtually all of the main cast was involved. That’s something that’s much easier to do in season one that at any other time, as was proved in season two when they handled the best part of two over-arching mysteries in 22 episodes far less convincingly.
As a result, I applauded the decision to go with the shorter arcs this season, and it would appear that the 9 episode arc (well, really 10 episodes because of “The Rapes of Graff”) is pretty close to hitting the right balance between momentum in the mystery and ensuring that it’s not all mystery, all the time. Now that the rapists are caught and the mystery solved, it feels like we really got a satisfying mixture of plot development, character development among the supporting players, red herrings, set up for the next mystery, actual hints and clues, and an appropriate amount of impact on our core players and their ongoing lives.
Whether the mystery arc will become a thing of the past after Dead O’Dell’s presumed murder is solved is presently a topic of much discussion, and my satisfaction with this arc’s resolution notwithstanding, I can see the merits of going in either direction. A satisfyingly delivered mystery resolution over 1, 9 or 22 episodes is very rewarding as a viewer, but I’m already hooked, so I’m not the target audience right now. And even as a welded-on viewer I can see that as Veronica has been driven so much by personal motivation to solve the longer mysteries to date, it would be difficult to keep generating those motivations in a manner that feels as organic as it did with Lilly’s murder, or, I feel safe in saying, Dean Ed’s. So I am willing to try stand-alones for a while if it brings in new viewers and ensures a 4th season.
Anyway, returning to “Spit and Eggs”, I had a few minor issues, but overall left it satisfied with both the episode itself and the overall arc.
First, if Sacks had only decided to risk life and limb and wake up Lamb, we would have had the whole cast together for the first time all season. I had missed Mac and all her deadpan glory. Cast-wise one of my minor issues though was that I thought Parker should have been in on the post mortem at Veronica’s right before the one-two punch (sorry, baseball bat and gun shot) of the finale. After all, she and Veronica have not only developed a nice rapport over recent episodes, she was integral to ensuring that Veronica was there to have the discussion at all. Though, as I said, minor issue.
Otherwise, on the friendship front, this episode delivered. There was teamwork based on friendship going on between Veronica, Mac, Wallace, Piz and eventually Logan, and while Veronica was her usual using other people’s resources self, the underlying comeraderie that always marked her ‘he has his uses’ relationship with Wallace came shining through in this episode in a manner it really hasn’t all season. Plus, the return of Veronica’s irresistible begging face.
The continued expression of Veronica’s friendships is something I really want to see in the second half of the season, together with an expansion of those between the others. Logan and Wallace are great together and that tentative friendship developed independent of and yet driven by their relationships with Veronica and so there’s no reason for that not to continue; Wallace and Piz have developed an easy friendship ; and some more exploration of Mac and Parker’s odd couple partnership should be further played out now that Mac is, as they say, back. And then, of course, we need much more Veronica/Weevil and Logan/Weevil interactions.
As for the break-up, even that left me satisfied. I mentioned last week that I like Veronica and Logan together but I also like them separately and I would much rather them break up with feeling and understanding than with stupidity and misunderstanding (see break-ups 1-3). Logan continues to grow up and I really like that this year. Having them split so early in the episode also gave them both an opportunity to demonstrate how different this split is from the last three, and that while I’m all for some snark to follow – as I imagine it will especially the minute one or other of them starts seeing someone else – I rather appreciate that the underlying tenderness between them was preserved. It’s been preserved, noted, and now we can get on with the next arc for both of them and see where the epic story goes next. I imagine, in the first instance, it will be in quite separate directions but crossing paths, as with much of season two.
While I’m on Logan, with just four short scenes, I really felt like this was his episode. We got grown-up, mature Logan, and we got a windshield smashing return to old Logan. But even his penchant from inflicting vehicular damage has matured. In the past it was just reckless, now it’s with purpose. Misguided purpose, but purpose none the less. You attacked my girlfriend and brought out the worst in me simply to serve an alibi; I think I may have to get myself thrown in jail to deal with you. I hope they got the cell with the good light.
As for the mystery resolution, that worked rather well, didn’t it? We’d had the groundwork laid nicely not only through Veronica’s detective work, but also through Logan and Wallace, some of the red herrings laid out, including Tim, lead nicely into the next mystery, and the whole thing actually made sense. Not to mention adding a extra layer to the entire meta-explosion that was last week’s episode. Well played show.
My one issue with it was not about the whole arc, but just the way the final chase-down played out. I could buy her leaving the party alone, but the run to Wallace’s room just didn’t make sense, and wasn’t necessary, I don’t think, to put her into Moe’s path. Mercer seemed sufficiently incapacitated that yelling and using the whistle in the hall they were in could have called quite a few people to attention, and one would have thought that Moe would have been paying particular attention given he knew she was out hunting the rapist that night. And, while she might not have been thinking that clearly and running for safe ground makes sense, she can’t have been so confuzzled by the whole experience pre-drugging that she forgot that Wallace was with Logan tracking down the other half of the lead and Piz was at the party. Anyway, stylistically I appreciated the run, but otherwise it annoyed me just a tad.
Moving on to more random notes, pop culturally it really was the episode for the music this week. Last week was Stockholm syndrome crossed with countless references to The Simpsons, this week it was music front and centre with a juxtaposition of Fatboy Slim at the front and, well, back end of the centre, the perfectly selected use of a Neil Diamond cover band at the frat party (I defy anyone, except Mac, to resist the lure of the Sweet Caroline), and a little Olivia Newton John in the middle. I was impressed and amused.
I loved Veronica’s look at the reference to planning the perfect murder of Lamb, and the continued decision not to name any Pi Sig that wasn’t Chip or Dick and to call attention to such namelessness. And yes, “master debater” was amusing. As was a unicorn finally coming through for Veronica. And, most definitely, Piz’s dance of distraction and Wallace’s reaction to it.
I never noticed that the radio station was in the cafeteria before. Guess that I wouldn’t do so well, detective-wise.
Moving on to the new mystery, I think they built up Dean Ed, and layered in other elements of his life, very well over the first arc so that we could care about is demise, and see why both Veronica and Keith will be invested in solving his murder. It’s sad that Keith and O’Dell’s friendship built over bone-marrow theft had to come to such an end. I like Keith having a friend. Hopefully he’ll get to drink Dean Ed’s special scotch as a memorial, rather than having it be a plot point.
Oh, and on a purely superficial note, I disliked Veronica’s new haircut in the first scene we saw it with Parker, when it was still rather choppy, but that was the only scene where it really stood out for me and I’m already used to it. Plus, Logan should live in those long sleeved t-shirts.
And with that I say, bring on January.
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Okay, so, suspension of disbelief. Key tenet of enjoying this show. Of course, being a lawyer – though, in a different country and steering as far away from criminal law as possible – it becomes a little harder for me to do that when court rooms are involved. Thus, my hackles are raised when the prosecutor plays Bellick’s threat tape at the bail hearing, but that pales into comparison by what follows. Let’s see:
They’re plea bargaining within 24 hours?
They’re sending him back to the jail he was a guard at? Yeah, sure. Regardless of his request to go back to Illinois, which was reasonable, I’m guessing there’s more than one jail and even if there wasn’t how on earth is he back at Fox River on the same damn day?
He’s happy about it? I guess he really is just that dumb.
And then, having done all of that, they’re actually going to put a former guard from that very jail into the general population? I just don’t think so. Though, the Avocado thing was a nice, looming, touch.
Moving on from that ludicrous, though potentially enjoyable for the second half of the season, plotline and on to the next.
T-Bag is, once again, looking and acting far too healthy. But sort of charming. Though, why is he dressed like a lumberjack in June? And why would even the most desperate of lonely postal workers in Kansas be joining a pale, skeevy lumberjack for a little afternoon delight? Especially a postal worker who has been in the same room as a wanted poster of the guy for presumably 8 or 9 days? I’m not even going to deal with the whole hand scenario. Unlike the Bellick story, I’m not seeing too much potential for enjoyment with T-Bag’s story in the second half of the season unless the stories merge and he winds up back in jail with Bellick. I guess I can take my sociopaths when they’re locked up, but not when they’re out killing helpless vets (both kinds) and postal workers. Not that that is much of a surprise.
Now, on to more enjoyable plots.
I enjoyed the quipping pilot. Pity he had to go splat. That said, I think they dealt with Sucre’s situation with appropriate brevity in this episode. They got in a little humour and they got the job done in two scenes. Now let’s hope that Sucre takes a long time to get to Maricruz and has so many amusing adventures on his way across Mexico that he forgets all about her.
Geez Kim is smug.
I never thought for a second that Sara was going to kill herself, so that whole razor blade fake out was a complete waste of time. They could have dealt with her stuff really well with the other three scenes – the phone call, catching the news and the wallet drop – and left it at that. That said, the phone call and the inter-cut with Michael ‘listening’ was a great piece of editing.
Moving on to the boys, aside from Lincoln’s instantly healing broken arm, I thought all of that had the right amount of tension and all but one thing about the transportation was explained as being set-up by Kellerman, Mahone and thier inside man, and apparent to the boys as being a set-up, so the incredulity meter only really went into the red twice. That was when they put them in the same van in the first place, which was clearly not part of the set-up but rather just plain stupidity, and when, once they were in the tunnels, only Kellerman and Mahone were chasing them despite all the rest of those guards and police initiating the pursuit.
Casual Kellerman with a rifle was unreasonably hot. Especially given I don’t like guns and last week he tried to drown a woman. And yet, here we are.
The “Let me get us out of here the only way I know how” “Fighting?” “Yeah” exchange was amusing, though it had no relevance to what followed because there was always going to be running and shooting in that escape scenario and not a hell of a lot of space for any fighting.
Finally, my love for both Kellerman and Mahone continues to grow, Mahone with his desperation and Kellerman for just being Kellerman. He really is such a Magnificent Bastard (TM Sobell) and I cannot wait for the second half of the season when the new trio of distrust inevitably meet up with Sara and some explanations are due in relation to a certain iron burn and other events. Plus Lincoln really needs to have some of his patented “words” with Paul regarding LJ.
Bring on January.
Filed under: Guilty Pleasures, Prison Break | Leave a Comment
I try to steer away from reading other people’s opinions before I put my thoughts about an episode down, but I did notice a few people commenting on the upping of Veronica’s one-liner quotient this week and thinking it felt off. I certainly noticed the increased presence of jokes that stood out rather than blended in, but that was largely because Veronica herself was drawing attention to them like never before. As a result I actually thought it was a great contrast with how scared she clearly was.
Usually Veronica will throw off a one-liner, a pop culture reference, a pun, a joke, without trying to draw attention to it; outside her relationship with Keith anyway. This episode she was always seeking the laugh, asking for it – and not often getting it; though hee to “wrecked him” – which I thought was a sign that she was actively over-compensating for how scared she was, which is also what she was doing in avoiding Logan through the episode up to their confrontation. I think there was more to her ditch of him at the end, but through most of it she just didn’t want to deal with it. She spent half of the episode dodging shadows including hiding under desks, and the other half saying “look, laugh at me, laugh at me”. So maybe I’m just spinning it because I love the show, but that was the way I took it and I thought it worked without them having the hammer us over the head breakdown moment.
Speaking of jokes and running references, we of course had a huge chunk of Lebowski with a hit of The Simpsons, so all was complete in pop-culture land.
I actually just re-watched Lebowski for the first time in a couple of years last weekend – it was “The Big Lebowlski” reference in the bowling alley in ‘Hi, Infidelity!’ that pushed me other the edge, in case you were wondering – so when they revealed Mr Sheffield, or, as he is better known to me, Shane Donovan, in the wheelchair it did bring a nice laugh. They perhaps didn’t need to go that far to hit the reference, but it was still fun. And while, Brant is no Phillip Seymour Hoffman, nor Daniel Davis for that matter, but he was still amusing enough.
Patty Hearst isn’t a great actress by any means, but the entire set up was just too fabulous not to appreciate. So I will appreciate it and move on.
In other news, it turned out that I missed Dick. I didn’t realise this had been the case, but apparently his “repungant” self has grown on me. Plus, he has now officially grabbed the trophy for the girliest argyle sweater, for which there has been substantial competition. I also loved Veronica and Dick’s different, yet similar, reactions Morty the homeless guy’s offer to shake hands.
Before moving on to the Veronica/Logan issues of the episode, I particularly appreciated that Keith and Veronica were working together again, the Veronica/Lamb phone interaction with Keith’s interruption, and Keith’s “Actually…” in response to Patty’s comment about being a national laughing-stock.
So, Veronica and Logan. Last week we ended on a tender moment of realisation from Veronica. But she’s still Veronica, which means that while she’s hanging with Keith she’s not telling him quite the whole truth, and she’s dodging Logan because his worried puppy-dog eyes are working overtime, and despite those things she still wants to solve the case. She can’t do that with either of them being watchful, and so she obfuscates on the one hand and avoids on the other. I liked it. Our heroine isn’t perfect, nor is she scared – even when she should be – so that she may be rescued by the men in her life but won’t hide behind them, even to her own detriment and that of her relationships is pretty true to form. And, of course, next week and for who knows how far into the future that will come back to bite her in the emotional and possibly the actual ass.
That being said, in the argument of who was right and who was wrong, neither Logan nor Veronica is particularly more right than the other, but I think Logan wins the argument because of his increased self-awareness. Which is born partly from general personal growth, but mainly I think because while Veronica has Keith, has family, Logan really doesn’t have anyone but Veronica, and so is working harder to keep her safe and keep her full stop. And, of course, Veronica feeling that she’s pretty much always right has been a theme this season, and I’m wondering how that’s ultimately going to be her comeuppance – last week just being stage one. Either way I’m glad he called her on it. And when Logan is the voice of reason, albeit with a literal heavy hand, Veronica should be concerned.
Now, small spoiler followed by cryptic speculation. It’s no surprise that next week they’re breaking up. They wouldn’t be Veronica and Logan if they weren’t stuffing up their relationship – though I’m glad it’s her turn to fuck it up this time – and so while I am pro-couple, I like both characters either together or apart so I don’t have an issue with a break-up provided it doesn’t end like I have a vague suspicion it will. Not to be too cryptic, but without going too far down the speculation path, let me just say that the conclusion I have jumped too makes a great deal of sense from one perspective and none at all from another, and I hope isn’t true, though I won’t be surprised if it is. Sad, but not surprised. It’s also not completely out of left field because I’ve seen that a couple of other people around the web have had the same thought. I’m hoping that the break up means the return of the spark and a bit more character growth for both of them, and nothing else, but we shall see.
In the meantime, Logan’s face at the end, awww…
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