Science fiction, double feature
Jul. 22nd, 2010 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
st_aurafinaThe whole point of updating more regularly was supposed to be so that I didn't have to do these massive posts all the time.
*sighs and keeps trying*
Holiday was brief but fun. We saw a pair of brolgas in a paddock with cows. (A brolga is a kind of crane. The ones we saw looked like this.) They were almost as tall as the cows, but had very droll faces. I think they're less frightening than ibis. Ibis scare me - birds shouldn't have proboscises. And things with proboscises shouldn't swarm.
Catching up on TV before the next round of episodes comes along:
Covert Affairs 1.01
It's quite hand-held, for the record. At first it was just for the action scenes, which I can justify andlilacsigil can look away. The episode later developed that annoying wiggle during dramatic conversations. (*rants silently and impotently about useless and manipulative shooting techniques*)
But otherwise, I liked the pilot well enough to keep watching.
I really like the set up with the FBI - interagency bickering is always interesting. One of the things I always liked about X-Files was the way they built a community of agencies: intelligence, criminal, military, and so on. I hope this is something they go with, I'd like to see them develop a character for their CIA.
Speaking of which. Not very diverse, this CIA, is it? Not very queer, either. We're all straight and white and straight here, oh, yeah. *le sigh*![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
likeadeuce mentioned that Sendhil Ramamurthy will be coming on board in later episodes. Good.
But Maggie from Leverage! And she's in charge of Annie's unit, and she's totally badass. I am hoping they tone down the 'marriage on the rocks' plotline, and let Joan be awesome and professional in her own right.
Auggie, the blind character - I wasn't sure how he would come off on screen, but he was good. I would still have preferred a visually impaired actor in the role, but Chris Gorham seems to have done his research. I liked seeing the adaptive technology in use. I wish the writers hadn't felt the need to give Auggie a background story where he was a super tough Ranger who lost his sight on a super tough mission - it feels like they had to make him extra, extra masculine because of his disability. But despite all these considerations, I like the character. I am looking forward to where they go with this. (Is 'Auggie' short for August? Augustus? Augustus Anderson, now there's a superhero name.)
Conrad Shehan III? Wiki says He is described as a "womanizer who enjoys a spicy rapport with Annie." A spicy rapport, eh? *snickers* I hate him so much.
Weirdly, I have the least to say about Annie: I like her character well enough, I like the 'Lower Deck' feel of her position in the agency, I like her sister (though I hate the clunky plot device of her sister not knowing where she works, ugh. Haven't we done that to death already? I mean, seriously.)
I'm intrigued by Annie's ex and the conspiracy that's building up around him - I could have lived without having him step off a train and rescue her at the last minute. I hope that there's some reversal of that dynamic ASAP. But otherwise, the machinations of the upper levels of the agency, the fact that Annie's immediate superior knows about this guy and may have brought Annie out of training early because of him, that's all interesting to me.
So, apparently there was another episode on tonight? I am quite looking forward to seeing it.
Leverage 3.06: The Studio Job
Dude, how are we up to episode six already? Wow. That's what happens when you have all those double episodes.
Had to watch great chunks of this on mute; I have a huge embarrassment squick for characters who sing. This was oddly worse for Christian Kane than it was for Alona Tal - not sure why. I wasn't going to watch it, but I'm glad I did, it was funny and easy going. Sophie playing a carefully hip record exec - tailored suits and a blue streak in her hair! *hearts her*
Rizzoli and Isles 1.01
Rizzoli and Isles was fun! Competent crime-solving femslash-tastic fun. And very not hand-held, which was a refreshing relief.
I love Maura Isles, she's deadpan and fancy and she has a tortoise and lives a more functional life than Temperance Brennan from Bones. She would get along with Dana Scully, I think. They could peer-review Wiki pages together and drink excellent wines.
The show hit one of my crime fiction squicks - the serial killer coming after the investigating detective - but I skipped through the parts with Hoyt the Surgeon, and it didn't bother me too much. Apparently this was an entire novel condensed into a single episode? And Maura doesn't actually appear until the second novel. So I forgive the pilot episode a little clunky set-up: that's a lot of ground to cover.
What else? *ponders*
Fringe 2.13 - spoiler-free thoughts.
I have refined my theory on the science of Fringe. In first season, I had to tell myself that it was set in a universe without gloves, where it was okay to touch the gooey, infectious stuff with your fingers, and spread it all over your lab. *shudders*
Today I realised that Fringe is actually asking us for the kind of suspension of disbelief that you see on the stage - a foil-covered crown is really gold and jewels, a row of spear-carriers is an army. I love the show dearly, and even more for its fifties-inspired cardboard and paint colour-coded science. "Ladies and gentlemen, if this swab turns purple, then the fly DNA has merged with the muskrat. Behold!"
Science. It works, bitches. Walter Bishop told me so.
*sighs and keeps trying*
Holiday was brief but fun. We saw a pair of brolgas in a paddock with cows. (A brolga is a kind of crane. The ones we saw looked like this.) They were almost as tall as the cows, but had very droll faces. I think they're less frightening than ibis. Ibis scare me - birds shouldn't have proboscises. And things with proboscises shouldn't swarm.
Catching up on TV before the next round of episodes comes along:
Covert Affairs 1.01
It's quite hand-held, for the record. At first it was just for the action scenes, which I can justify and
lilacsigil can look away. The episode later developed that annoying wiggle during dramatic conversations. (*rants silently and impotently about useless and manipulative shooting techniques*) But otherwise, I liked the pilot well enough to keep watching.
I really like the set up with the FBI - interagency bickering is always interesting. One of the things I always liked about X-Files was the way they built a community of agencies: intelligence, criminal, military, and so on. I hope this is something they go with, I'd like to see them develop a character for their CIA.
Speaking of which. Not very diverse, this CIA, is it? Not very queer, either. We're all straight and white and straight here, oh, yeah. *le sigh*
likeadeuce mentioned that Sendhil Ramamurthy will be coming on board in later episodes. Good. But Maggie from Leverage! And she's in charge of Annie's unit, and she's totally badass. I am hoping they tone down the 'marriage on the rocks' plotline, and let Joan be awesome and professional in her own right.
Auggie, the blind character - I wasn't sure how he would come off on screen, but he was good. I would still have preferred a visually impaired actor in the role, but Chris Gorham seems to have done his research. I liked seeing the adaptive technology in use. I wish the writers hadn't felt the need to give Auggie a background story where he was a super tough Ranger who lost his sight on a super tough mission - it feels like they had to make him extra, extra masculine because of his disability. But despite all these considerations, I like the character. I am looking forward to where they go with this. (Is 'Auggie' short for August? Augustus? Augustus Anderson, now there's a superhero name.)
Conrad Shehan III? Wiki says He is described as a "womanizer who enjoys a spicy rapport with Annie." A spicy rapport, eh? *snickers* I hate him so much.
Weirdly, I have the least to say about Annie: I like her character well enough, I like the 'Lower Deck' feel of her position in the agency, I like her sister (though I hate the clunky plot device of her sister not knowing where she works, ugh. Haven't we done that to death already? I mean, seriously.)
I'm intrigued by Annie's ex and the conspiracy that's building up around him - I could have lived without having him step off a train and rescue her at the last minute. I hope that there's some reversal of that dynamic ASAP. But otherwise, the machinations of the upper levels of the agency, the fact that Annie's immediate superior knows about this guy and may have brought Annie out of training early because of him, that's all interesting to me.
So, apparently there was another episode on tonight? I am quite looking forward to seeing it.
Leverage 3.06: The Studio Job
Dude, how are we up to episode six already? Wow. That's what happens when you have all those double episodes.
Had to watch great chunks of this on mute; I have a huge embarrassment squick for characters who sing. This was oddly worse for Christian Kane than it was for Alona Tal - not sure why. I wasn't going to watch it, but I'm glad I did, it was funny and easy going. Sophie playing a carefully hip record exec - tailored suits and a blue streak in her hair! *hearts her*
Rizzoli and Isles 1.01
Rizzoli and Isles was fun! Competent crime-solving femslash-tastic fun. And very not hand-held, which was a refreshing relief.
I love Maura Isles, she's deadpan and fancy and she has a tortoise and lives a more functional life than Temperance Brennan from Bones. She would get along with Dana Scully, I think. They could peer-review Wiki pages together and drink excellent wines.
The show hit one of my crime fiction squicks - the serial killer coming after the investigating detective - but I skipped through the parts with Hoyt the Surgeon, and it didn't bother me too much. Apparently this was an entire novel condensed into a single episode? And Maura doesn't actually appear until the second novel. So I forgive the pilot episode a little clunky set-up: that's a lot of ground to cover.
What else? *ponders*
Fringe 2.13 - spoiler-free thoughts.
I have refined my theory on the science of Fringe. In first season, I had to tell myself that it was set in a universe without gloves, where it was okay to touch the gooey, infectious stuff with your fingers, and spread it all over your lab. *shudders*
Today I realised that Fringe is actually asking us for the kind of suspension of disbelief that you see on the stage - a foil-covered crown is really gold and jewels, a row of spear-carriers is an army. I love the show dearly, and even more for its fifties-inspired cardboard and paint colour-coded science. "Ladies and gentlemen, if this swab turns purple, then the fly DNA has merged with the muskrat. Behold!"
Science. It works, bitches. Walter Bishop told me so.