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lagilmanLook, you really should be following me over on Tumblr at this point, if you're heavily into the media fannish side....
Agents of Shield:
Three…four… a lot of callouts to the various Marvel movies tonight. Also backstory bits, surprise aliens, a female bad guy, and characters who are aware when they’re a danger to those around them/out of control, and actually act responsibly about it. Plus snark, friendly banter, and tight teamwork.
Huh. Agents of Shield, after a very rocky start, you’re finally the show I was hoping for. And I appreciated the fact that you didn't even nibble on my heart, considering what was to come.
Bad Boys:
"They leave, and you’re not responsible for them any more"
Okay, this ep has officially broken me.
And I had some post-ep thoughts on Fathers, Brothers, and Family in SPN... (warning: some very minor spoilers here)
on Dean:
ooohhhhhhhhh…..
Oh god. ”I’m proud of you.” He’s been offered the apple pie life, or as close to it as he’s ever known, school, teammates, maybe a girlfriend…. His dad abandons him, and he’s offered an out, and He. Can’t. Take. It.
Because Sam?
That’s why he never told Sam. Why he shut it down completely.
The "secret" was that Dean considered staying/wanted to stay… and that now he’s been forced to remember that he had that chance, the offer of a healthy life and positive role models, that he deserved something good….
on Sam (and Zeke):
"Forced ejection" And Sam doesn’t react well to that idea.
Is it 100% Sam? Is it even 90% Sam?
On one hand, no, he doesn’t “feel” like 100% Sam… but it doesn’t feel like Zeke, either. There’s too much brother-feels, and no angelic recovery or resistence. I wonder if they’re bleeding into each other, maybe without active intent on Zeke’s part? That could be…. interesting.
(I may be in the small percentage that’s not convinced Zeke’s Evil, but I’m holding onto it, just because it’s such an obvious ‘easy out’ for the writers to take, and I want more from them…)
Person of Interest:
You miserable, magnificent fuckers. Even braced for it, I wasn't braced enough.
So here’s the thing.
I like it, personally, when writers are able to kill beloved characters (although GRRM takes that to an extreme I can’t quite condone). It tells us that the stakes are real, that anything can happen - the fact that, last night, I was not entirely sure they would not kill a teenager (offscreen) made the tension ratchet up measurably.
So in that regard, even though I am furious at losing one of the best WoC characters on television today, and may never forgive PoI even as I salute them for giving her to us in the first place, having Joss Carter die felt okay to me, from a storytelling perspective. It was sudden, it was shocking, it was heartbreaking, and it will change everyone left behind.
It was how they led up to it that pissed me off.
Because even if you ‘shipped Carter/Reese, you have to admit that the deep emotions John were spouting in that scene seemed to come out of nowhere (over the course of three seasons), and - more to the point - totally overran every other connection we’ve seen him make - particularly the slow but very real trust in and strength taken from Finch (in, IMO, a purely platonic way).
And that felt like a shoehorn to make this a somehow ‘greater’ tragedy, as though losing a dear friend and partner wasn’t ‘enough.’
It would have been, POI. It would have been. And you would have dodged the “female love interest must die” crap that we expect from shows like SPN, not you.
Am I pissed that we lost one of the best, most amazing POC characters on tv? Oh hell yes. Do I think it matters to how I (and others) feel about the show? Yes.
But I don’t hate the show because they made a decision about a character dying, no matter the race, because I can see specific long-arc storytelling reasons for it to happen.
Now the onus is definitely on POI to up its game and keep the cast from staying all-white. Because one of their strengths has been reality-based casting, and if you try to tell me that there’s a show set in and around the NYPD/NYC that is all-white, I’m going to roll my eyes no matter how good that cast may be.
Give us more strong, reoccurring black characters. Give us Asian characters. How about Indian, or Middle-Eastern? Trust me, the actors are out there… and it matters.
Agents of Shield:
Three…four… a lot of callouts to the various Marvel movies tonight. Also backstory bits, surprise aliens, a female bad guy, and characters who are aware when they’re a danger to those around them/out of control, and actually act responsibly about it. Plus snark, friendly banter, and tight teamwork.
Huh. Agents of Shield, after a very rocky start, you’re finally the show I was hoping for. And I appreciated the fact that you didn't even nibble on my heart, considering what was to come.
Bad Boys:
"They leave, and you’re not responsible for them any more"
Okay, this ep has officially broken me.
And I had some post-ep thoughts on Fathers, Brothers, and Family in SPN... (warning: some very minor spoilers here)
on Dean:
ooohhhhhhhhh…..
Oh god. ”I’m proud of you.” He’s been offered the apple pie life, or as close to it as he’s ever known, school, teammates, maybe a girlfriend…. His dad abandons him, and he’s offered an out, and He. Can’t. Take. It.
Because Sam?
That’s why he never told Sam. Why he shut it down completely.
The "secret" was that Dean considered staying/wanted to stay… and that now he’s been forced to remember that he had that chance, the offer of a healthy life and positive role models, that he deserved something good….
on Sam (and Zeke):
"Forced ejection" And Sam doesn’t react well to that idea.
Is it 100% Sam? Is it even 90% Sam?
On one hand, no, he doesn’t “feel” like 100% Sam… but it doesn’t feel like Zeke, either. There’s too much brother-feels, and no angelic recovery or resistence. I wonder if they’re bleeding into each other, maybe without active intent on Zeke’s part? That could be…. interesting.
(I may be in the small percentage that’s not convinced Zeke’s Evil, but I’m holding onto it, just because it’s such an obvious ‘easy out’ for the writers to take, and I want more from them…)
Person of Interest:
You miserable, magnificent fuckers. Even braced for it, I wasn't braced enough.
So here’s the thing.
I like it, personally, when writers are able to kill beloved characters (although GRRM takes that to an extreme I can’t quite condone). It tells us that the stakes are real, that anything can happen - the fact that, last night, I was not entirely sure they would not kill a teenager (offscreen) made the tension ratchet up measurably.
So in that regard, even though I am furious at losing one of the best WoC characters on television today, and may never forgive PoI even as I salute them for giving her to us in the first place, having Joss Carter die felt okay to me, from a storytelling perspective. It was sudden, it was shocking, it was heartbreaking, and it will change everyone left behind.
It was how they led up to it that pissed me off.
Because even if you ‘shipped Carter/Reese, you have to admit that the deep emotions John were spouting in that scene seemed to come out of nowhere (over the course of three seasons), and - more to the point - totally overran every other connection we’ve seen him make - particularly the slow but very real trust in and strength taken from Finch (in, IMO, a purely platonic way).
And that felt like a shoehorn to make this a somehow ‘greater’ tragedy, as though losing a dear friend and partner wasn’t ‘enough.’
It would have been, POI. It would have been. And you would have dodged the “female love interest must die” crap that we expect from shows like SPN, not you.
Am I pissed that we lost one of the best, most amazing POC characters on tv? Oh hell yes. Do I think it matters to how I (and others) feel about the show? Yes.
But I don’t hate the show because they made a decision about a character dying, no matter the race, because I can see specific long-arc storytelling reasons for it to happen.
Now the onus is definitely on POI to up its game and keep the cast from staying all-white. Because one of their strengths has been reality-based casting, and if you try to tell me that there’s a show set in and around the NYPD/NYC that is all-white, I’m going to roll my eyes no matter how good that cast may be.
Give us more strong, reoccurring black characters. Give us Asian characters. How about Indian, or Middle-Eastern? Trust me, the actors are out there… and it matters.
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no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 05:50 pm (UTC)Side point - I felt like all it needed was this tweak: Kiss her on the forehead, instead of the lips. THAT is something I would buy, and it wouldn't really feel like it was coming out of left field.
I may have sworn about this to my husband.
At length.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 09:35 pm (UTC)Also, I would've liked it better if she was killed in action while fighting to reach the Federal building. That would've been a heartbreaking but organic end to her story arc -- a hero takes on impossible odds and pays the price. To tack it on at the end after everything seemed fine came off as cheap theatrics.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-21 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-21 11:47 am (UTC)POI? Yes. Good grief. They already established that John attributes his saving to Finch. This? This was just dumb. And a kiss on the lips? Totally out of character. Third season has been a huge disappointment, with the exception of the Root/Shaw episode. Robbed her of all agency. Lost a really good actress. The problem was, indeed, that they had written their one strong POC character into a corner. She was no longer "lawful good" and there weren't too many places they could take her now that she's done this and this and this and this step toward chaotic good. But to focus on her as a woman and a love interest in her final moments? Good God, NO!
I called that she was the character to be killed, so it wasn't a surprise at all. They had saved Fusco so many times that it would have been an anti-climax to knock him off. Weatherdude was holding out for Reese, in the way of Primeval. But these writers won't do that. No, instead they kill off a woman and a POC. And try to make it ok by making her a love interest. Oh, ugh, writers! Women do not have to fall in love with every man they work with, even Reese.
Jeez.
Oz
no subject
Date: 2013-11-21 04:51 pm (UTC)At least the WASPM action hero kissed the POC without being seduced or otherwise "influenced" into it... on network TV with no big deal being made of it.
OK, that's searching really, REALLY hard, and suspecting that in a universe in which the characters interact with the screenwriters in person that everyone in the writing room is hiding from Shaw right now. It will be interesting to see if the screenwriters try to force Reese into "now it's my turn to redeem a damaged coworker, and I have to choose between Shaw and Root"... since one of the reasons that Carter might have had such an influence on Reese is that she was the least-damaged of the group.