Return of the living TV thoughts
Jan. 22nd, 2004 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiMan, it's been so long since I've had anything to write about that wasn't on Bravo or Discovery. It's also been ages since Gilmore Girls was the weakest of the three WB shows I watch every week:
Gilmore Girls:
It's not that this episode was bad. But it was blah. And, as always since the beginning of the year, a good deal of that has to do with no one on the hose apparently every having attended a university. Or studied Rory's character. Rory doesn't know that the Bigwig Prof is teaching her class? Why? Even freshman classes taught by "faculty" usually end up assigned to grad students (and, incidentally, Yale has an obscenely high rate of grad students teaching those freshman classes), not hotshots. And maybe, just maybe, the power/abuse thing which is inherent in a relationship like the one between Paris and Bigwig could be explored? Maybe Rory could even, I don't know, speak her mind?
And then there's the Star's Hollow side of things. I love Kids in the Hall, but Bruce McCullough's character gets old after about five minutes. They either need to drop him, or follow through with the hints that he might have been responsible for the fire. But otherwise, any plotline that's just there to give Michel someone to catfight with is silly (actually, any scenes with Michel that don't have him being snarky to hotel guests are pretty much pointless, although I admit I loved the "I rolled the baby under the bed" moment). And Luke is back to being silly comic relief (with Lane on the show for all of twenty seconds).
And then there's Digger, his Silly Fucking Dog, and His Stupid Insomnia/Awesome Guest Room. Jesus Fuck. With a popsicle. Hey, you know why they can't tell Rory's parents? Because Rory's parents have to find out accidentally during sweeps.
I don't recognize the name of the writer (Scott Kaufner), but it's a name I could do without seeing again.
That said, the scenes withJonathan Doyle were fun. And we get the return of Sebastian Bach next week. And it's written by Sheila Lawrence and Janet Leahy, which bodes well.
Smallville:
Well, who'd have thunk it? A fun episode that moves the storyline forward on all sorts of levels and is internally consistent. In January, even? I loved that they not only introduced one of the few remaining superpowers, but did so in a way that also set the stage for Clark to start wearing glasses. A very nice touch. And a good plotline with Chloe. Especially the end, in which Clark realizes that he's completely responsible for what's happened to her. Add in Pete getting four or five scenes (which matches the entire season for him so far), and good characterization for most of the regulars, and I'm pretty happy with this one. Now, considering how they did the Villain of the Week's powers, why couldn't the schmucks behind the awful Birds of Prey given us the real Black Canary?
But yeah, lots of fun, otherwise. And yeah, lots of the usual innuendo ("Sharpening Pencils." heh.)
That said, with the preview for next week, do we really need to see Evil Lana again?
Angel:
Before the episode, when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadesong expressed worry about Boreanz directing, my response was that the actor most like Boreanz is Jonathan Frakes, and Frakes turned out to be a great TV director (and a decent movie one). I stand by that statement -- Boreanz's debut kicked ass.
I can't even begin to talk about how much fun this episode was. From Lindsay introducing himself as "Doyle," to Eve getting some nice screen time, to that wonderful operation scene in the dream (with a bear in the law firm! Harvey Birdman shout-out!).
As with Smallville, I expected a filler epsiode, since it's January, but this one had some major steps forward. Lots of movement on the Doyle/Eve front, without revealing exactly what's going on. Doyle sending Spike to "save" Angel means that the vegetative state wasn't his final goal, but is he on the side of good or evil? And did Eve know that Doyle was going to send Spike? And how, exactly, could the Powers not know what she's doing? If she has tattoos, I'd like to see 'em.
And I loved some of the little touches. Harmony had some perfect moments. And the debate between Wes and Gunn over the proper way to dispose of the cult leader (with a possible shout-out to Real Genius as the solution Wes wanted) was just plain fun.
Really, just an enjoyable episode. The Buffyverse always seems to do a good job with dream sequence style shows.
Gilmore Girls:
It's not that this episode was bad. But it was blah. And, as always since the beginning of the year, a good deal of that has to do with no one on the hose apparently every having attended a university. Or studied Rory's character. Rory doesn't know that the Bigwig Prof is teaching her class? Why? Even freshman classes taught by "faculty" usually end up assigned to grad students (and, incidentally, Yale has an obscenely high rate of grad students teaching those freshman classes), not hotshots. And maybe, just maybe, the power/abuse thing which is inherent in a relationship like the one between Paris and Bigwig could be explored? Maybe Rory could even, I don't know, speak her mind?
And then there's the Star's Hollow side of things. I love Kids in the Hall, but Bruce McCullough's character gets old after about five minutes. They either need to drop him, or follow through with the hints that he might have been responsible for the fire. But otherwise, any plotline that's just there to give Michel someone to catfight with is silly (actually, any scenes with Michel that don't have him being snarky to hotel guests are pretty much pointless, although I admit I loved the "I rolled the baby under the bed" moment). And Luke is back to being silly comic relief (with Lane on the show for all of twenty seconds).
And then there's Digger, his Silly Fucking Dog, and His Stupid Insomnia/Awesome Guest Room. Jesus Fuck. With a popsicle. Hey, you know why they can't tell Rory's parents? Because Rory's parents have to find out accidentally during sweeps.
I don't recognize the name of the writer (Scott Kaufner), but it's a name I could do without seeing again.
That said, the scenes with
Smallville:
Well, who'd have thunk it? A fun episode that moves the storyline forward on all sorts of levels and is internally consistent. In January, even? I loved that they not only introduced one of the few remaining superpowers, but did so in a way that also set the stage for Clark to start wearing glasses. A very nice touch. And a good plotline with Chloe. Especially the end, in which Clark realizes that he's completely responsible for what's happened to her. Add in Pete getting four or five scenes (which matches the entire season for him so far), and good characterization for most of the regulars, and I'm pretty happy with this one. Now, considering how they did the Villain of the Week's powers, why couldn't the schmucks behind the awful Birds of Prey given us the real Black Canary?
But yeah, lots of fun, otherwise. And yeah, lots of the usual innuendo ("Sharpening Pencils." heh.)
That said, with the preview for next week, do we really need to see Evil Lana again?
Angel:
Before the episode, when
shadesong expressed worry about Boreanz directing, my response was that the actor most like Boreanz is Jonathan Frakes, and Frakes turned out to be a great TV director (and a decent movie one). I stand by that statement -- Boreanz's debut kicked ass.I can't even begin to talk about how much fun this episode was. From Lindsay introducing himself as "Doyle," to Eve getting some nice screen time, to that wonderful operation scene in the dream (with a bear in the law firm! Harvey Birdman shout-out!).
As with Smallville, I expected a filler epsiode, since it's January, but this one had some major steps forward. Lots of movement on the Doyle/Eve front, without revealing exactly what's going on. Doyle sending Spike to "save" Angel means that the vegetative state wasn't his final goal, but is he on the side of good or evil? And did Eve know that Doyle was going to send Spike? And how, exactly, could the Powers not know what she's doing? If she has tattoos, I'd like to see 'em.
And I loved some of the little touches. Harmony had some perfect moments. And the debate between Wes and Gunn over the proper way to dispose of the cult leader (with a possible shout-out to Real Genius as the solution Wes wanted) was just plain fun.
Really, just an enjoyable episode. The Buffyverse always seems to do a good job with dream sequence style shows.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 06:53 am (UTC)A Different Story
Date: 2004-01-22 07:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 07:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 07:31 am (UTC)And I just realized that Angel truly is the "Let's see how badly we can rape somebody's mind" show.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 02:16 pm (UTC)Just last week we saw that Angel has instituted a "zero tolerance" rule for W&H employees. He knows she sicced the mind-eating bug on him. He knows (or he's damn sure) it wasn't at the behest of the Senior Partners. And yet, after accusing her ("Eve did it in my bedroom with the Puppetmaster critter!"), and convincing the others of the truth--albeit with a pretty lame justification; where the hell are the remains of the _small_ one he crushed?--he let's her sashay out of the room without lifting a finger to stop her?
Morons! Grab her and threaten her unless she talks. Or take her to Fred's lab and use science to make her talk. Or use magic to make her talk. Or drag her into the White Room to have a conference with the Conduit. Do SOMETHING, you idiots.
But instead they chose to let the villain walk away, knowing that they're onto her, and giving her plenty of opportunity to make things worse for them. *sigh* I remember when ME used to make fun of storytelling like this....
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-26 07:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-26 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 07:34 am (UTC)However, last night I was watching far more serious fare - a show on Alzheimer's on PBS. Very good and informative yet at times depressing. So I'll have to wait until the re-broadcast.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 11:34 am (UTC)These shows are and have always been bumped up primetime fluff. Sure stories move forward, get silly, but damn it... they are episodic soap operas. The plots not that far from what Daytime soap operas are these days.
The difference is better dialogue (sometimes){btw, LJ's spellchecker doesn't accept this spelling), better acting (occasionally) and higher production values (always).
Yeah... damn it.
Yeah!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 03:30 pm (UTC)