Five things kick off the squee
Jan. 28th, 2010 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilman1: #SOTU: My president is a left-leaning pragmatist. I approve. Now to see if he can drag Congress with him or not [and how much violence he's willing to use to do it. I would approve of carefully-applied presidential violence, in this case].
2. Internet: Ur doin it Right: My congresscritter just used his e-mailing list to ask us to vote on the top three things we want him to focus on during the year. No trees were killed in the soliciting of these opinions.
3. Giving a certain publisher a deadline for a response is a pretty good way to get a "No." Then again, after 18 months of waiting, even a no is a relief of sorts. [yes, even multiply-published writers get rejected. The game is not rigged, just slightly biased]
4. Every day is a mix of bad news and good news, up moods and down. Any day you can end on an even note is a good one. I need to remember that when the bad stuff hits.
4a. Also, I have the best damn friends, even if too many of them live on the wrong damn side of the country.
5. Leverage. Oh, show. I ♥ you. "The first bomb is the hardest."
5a. I really wish story ideas would wait until after my show(s) to come knocking in my brain. Then again, jumpstarting ideas is the mark of Good Stuff, so kudos to them.
And here, your Thursday morning Leverage-squee kickoff:
I loved the set-up for this -- anything that lets Elliot beat up on Sterling is all right in...pretty much everyone's books, I think, plus it was a good and interesting twist on the "find client, client tells them their story of woe." Also, more Mark. Always, always a good thing, used wisely and in moderation. Parker still Parker. Still awesome.
The actual job itself was a bit hole-y, but this is the nature of caper plots. You handwave and talk fast and by those standards it worked okay -- especially when you added in Sterling's quasi-official status to bring them in as needed. The "location" shots seemed a bit lacking this time... did someone overrun the budget?
Am I the only one who doesn't like Elliot's longer hair? Must be. But I love how he takes over with no fuss or arrogance when the job needs him to [and how the show established his not-quite-beta status by his mostly-following Nate's request not to do anything violent (by Elliot's standards, anyway) allowing Nate to stand back and enjoy the show w/o having to worry about actual damage being inflicted]. And the quiet paying-off of the bartender by Hardison was genius, and a bit of worldbuilding most shows would have forgotten. Good writers. Yes, I probably enjoyed that entire scene waaaaay too much.
Hardison didn't get enough to do here but he still gets some of the best minutes -- the feedback thing was pure nasty genius. Entire team was on-target, IMO. Tossing the egg was a perfect little telling touch, especially since it was done so casually (both the tossing and the showing) to establish how little-impressed the team is by Things of Value purely for their value, especially when something more important's at stake. Nicely done, show.
Oh Sterling. When will you get your own spin-off? Or at least a stand-alone adventure? I'd so write that.
Maggie still awesome, yes. Her taste in men still sucks, too. The way she and Nate torture each other, without ever meaning to do harm -- it's like a master class in how to write complicated loving-but-broken relationships. And the bit at the end, where she tells him that what's worrying her is that he's hiding the booze in a coffee mug -- zing. Right there, shows a) that she understands him better than anyone else and b) he will hear what she's saying when he ignores everyone else. He may not listen, but he hears her.
And Nate... well, Nate's heading for a crash. That's what he does, manic-obsessive control freak alcoholic woobie genius that he is. Still the nastiest, tho. But I want to note that I am not impressed with Sophie's "I need space...no wait, why aren't you chasing me... everyone can talk to me but don't let him know" behavior. If she wants to be part of the team, she should come back. If she needs space and time to figure her shit out, then stay away. Demanding it both ways [especially if she comes back pissy at Nate] doesn't impress me much. I may be in the minority here, tho.
2. Internet: Ur doin it Right: My congresscritter just used his e-mailing list to ask us to vote on the top three things we want him to focus on during the year. No trees were killed in the soliciting of these opinions.
3. Giving a certain publisher a deadline for a response is a pretty good way to get a "No." Then again, after 18 months of waiting, even a no is a relief of sorts. [yes, even multiply-published writers get rejected. The game is not rigged, just slightly biased]
4. Every day is a mix of bad news and good news, up moods and down. Any day you can end on an even note is a good one. I need to remember that when the bad stuff hits.
4a. Also, I have the best damn friends, even if too many of them live on the wrong damn side of the country.
5. Leverage. Oh, show. I ♥ you. "The first bomb is the hardest."
5a. I really wish story ideas would wait until after my show(s) to come knocking in my brain. Then again, jumpstarting ideas is the mark of Good Stuff, so kudos to them.
And here, your Thursday morning Leverage-squee kickoff:
I loved the set-up for this -- anything that lets Elliot beat up on Sterling is all right in...pretty much everyone's books, I think, plus it was a good and interesting twist on the "find client, client tells them their story of woe." Also, more Mark. Always, always a good thing, used wisely and in moderation. Parker still Parker. Still awesome.
The actual job itself was a bit hole-y, but this is the nature of caper plots. You handwave and talk fast and by those standards it worked okay -- especially when you added in Sterling's quasi-official status to bring them in as needed. The "location" shots seemed a bit lacking this time... did someone overrun the budget?
Am I the only one who doesn't like Elliot's longer hair? Must be. But I love how he takes over with no fuss or arrogance when the job needs him to [and how the show established his not-quite-beta status by his mostly-following Nate's request not to do anything violent (by Elliot's standards, anyway) allowing Nate to stand back and enjoy the show w/o having to worry about actual damage being inflicted]. And the quiet paying-off of the bartender by Hardison was genius, and a bit of worldbuilding most shows would have forgotten. Good writers. Yes, I probably enjoyed that entire scene waaaaay too much.
Hardison didn't get enough to do here but he still gets some of the best minutes -- the feedback thing was pure nasty genius. Entire team was on-target, IMO. Tossing the egg was a perfect little telling touch, especially since it was done so casually (both the tossing and the showing) to establish how little-impressed the team is by Things of Value purely for their value, especially when something more important's at stake. Nicely done, show.
Oh Sterling. When will you get your own spin-off? Or at least a stand-alone adventure? I'd so write that.
Maggie still awesome, yes. Her taste in men still sucks, too. The way she and Nate torture each other, without ever meaning to do harm -- it's like a master class in how to write complicated loving-but-broken relationships. And the bit at the end, where she tells him that what's worrying her is that he's hiding the booze in a coffee mug -- zing. Right there, shows a) that she understands him better than anyone else and b) he will hear what she's saying when he ignores everyone else. He may not listen, but he hears her.
And Nate... well, Nate's heading for a crash. That's what he does, manic-obsessive control freak alcoholic woobie genius that he is. Still the nastiest, tho. But I want to note that I am not impressed with Sophie's "I need space...no wait, why aren't you chasing me... everyone can talk to me but don't let him know" behavior. If she wants to be part of the team, she should come back. If she needs space and time to figure her shit out, then stay away. Demanding it both ways [especially if she comes back pissy at Nate] doesn't impress me much. I may be in the minority here, tho.
