Arduinna

To keep myself busy and online so I don't forget to register, I wrote up the world's longest, rambliest post. \o/ There are spoilers for practically everything here...

I'm settled in for a nice snowy weekend -- lots of cat food, plenty of people food, clean laundry, and a good parking spot. (... I'm a little compulsive about parking spots in bad weather, after 20 years of unassigned street parking in a neighborhood where snow emergencies mean there are too many cars vying for juuuust too few spots, especially given how many people don't know how to shovel, argh, so we wind up losing potential spots to crappy shoveling jobs. But I digress.)

This is going to be much better than last weekend's 27 inches in 24 hours; it'll be more like 4-ish inches in 24 hours, just enough so I can indulge my hermit-y ways and not budge till I have to go to work on Tuesday.

My only concrete plan for today is to sign up for Vividcon, yay! I can't believe it's already time again. All my fannish plans keep winding up on the backburner, but at least maybe this will kick the vidding in the butt, because if reg is here, deadlines are nearly upon us.

I've grabbed a bunch of tv that I probably won't have time to watch, but it looks interesting enough that maybe I'll give it a try at some point, like The Americans and Cracked. I'm banking them for the moment, for some day I'm looking for something new to watch and can marathon through.

I've been watching a bunch of other stuff, though. A couple I've only seen the pilot for so far:

Zero Hour

I don't know about this one. I'll give it a few more episodes, I think, but "secret, extinct-but-not-really religious order conspires to keep World Changing Thingamabob away from the Nazis" is getting a little old for me, somehow.

I was also absolutely convinced that the FBI agents who showed up out of nowhere were actually the people behind the kidnapping; if they hadn't had a scene in the actual FBI building, I would have kept on believing that. I still don't really get the FBI agent at all -- she's only been an agent for 4 years, before which she was a "social counselor" (is that really a thing? I've heard of counselors, and social workers, but never social counselors -- it sounds like matchmaking, for heaven's sake), and yet she seems to be the senior partner, and has enough autonomy to just randomly start following this citizen to foreign countries to work with him? I would also think that someone walking up to the FBI and saying "Hi, I'd like to be an agent specifically so I can hunt down the terrorist who killed my husband" would either be weeded out during the psych eval, or even if by a miracle she passed that, she'd be assigned something very very very far away from the terrorist who killed her husband. At a guess, she's missing just a tiny bit of objectivity here. (See: buying plane ticket to follow a citizen to a foreign country to shoot people there for him as a "resource".)

... Okay, the more I think about the agent, the worse it gets. Seriously, wtf.

I was doing okay with Hank until he turned out to be the reincarnation (... or whatever) of his holy Nazi officer self. My credulity, she is stretched a wee bit too far.

I'm a little eye-rolly that he's the managing editor (I assume?) of "Modern Skeptic", yes thank you for that anvil that here is a SKEPTIC who will need to FIND FAITH in UNEXPLAINABLE THINGS, show. Also, is this really just a three-person operation? If so, why are they renting such huge office space? How much is this magazine?paper? raking in, anyway? (Apparently enough that two reporters feel perfectly comfortable hopping a last-minute flight to Bavaria, after their boss explicitly told them not to travel anywhere...)

I did like the cranky clock maker, though, and I really like the clockworks bumpers in and out of segments, so I'll watch a few more episodes. But I'm currently not very hopeful about it.

The Following

I had originally forgotten to set a recording for this, and by the time I remembered it was already airing, and I wound up only recording the last 45 minutes. I mentioned this in passing to therienne, saying "I should probably wait and catch the repeat, since I probably need to see the first 15 minutes."

What she said was, "Yeaaaah, you do."

What she should have said was, "Well, fwiw, mollyamory and I watched, and you could not pay us enough money to watch that show again. I don't think you'll like it."

Now, mind, I'm completely spoilerphobic and have trained people not to tell me anything, even reaction spoilers, so I can't, and don't, blame her for not giving me reaction spoilers!

But omg. I wasted an hour of my life on a show I won't be able to bleach out of my brain. What the everloving FUCK.

The animal harm was horrific, and then they made it worse, purely for shock effect. The human harm was no picnic either, just gore and misery.

And as if all that wasn't enough, the evil villain actually said that he'd killed a woman just to spur the "protagonist" into chasing him; he said the only point of her death was to make this other man react. JFC, seriously, now we're actively admitting that fridging women is a thing, and reveling in it? UGH.

Oh, and about that woman. She was the only surviving victim of this serial killer 8 years ago, and the thing is, she was amazing even then -- when she couldn't take the knife out of her own abdomen to try to save herself, she pushed it instead to try to cut an artery to bleed out faster, and stop this sadist's fun. Then Our Hero The FBI Agent arrives, and while lying there on the floor bleeding out after a brutal, traumatic attack (and seeing her roommate killed in front of her), she has her wits about her enough to warn the agent "behind you".

The agent gets stabbed, right in the heart, and collapses; the killer turns back to the woman, his real victim. Agent shoots killer, saves woman, somehow one of them manages to call an ambulance before they both die, I don't know how.

The woman, who I think was a nurse, goes on to get a medical degree, live a nice successful life, moves on in general.

The agent loses his job (for behaving incredibly unprofessionally), gains a pacemaker, writes a book, and then... crawls into a bottle and apparently never crawls out. He spends the entire episode drunk, pretty much, because it's the only way he can function.

And he's the hero. Awesome.

Yeah, no, not watching this one anymore. Ugh.

And then there were the shows that ended recently:

Leverage

Oh my holy freaking god, I can't believe they actually did that. ALL THE HEARTS. In the end they really did understand the show they were writing, and left fandom with a brand new show (really pair of shows), all set up and ready for fandom to play with forever and ever. That was amazing. I totally forgive all the horribly clunky bad episodes they did in the back half of this season. That finale was a worthy, gorgeous successor to the summer finale.

♥ ♥ ♥

Okay really I have other thoughts about Leverage, but hopefully will get to those later. But mostly: oh yay, my team!


Fringe

... Huh. That wasn't actually what I was expecting, even though the characters were expecting it.

I thought the reset should go waaaaay further back. If the Observers qua Observers never existed, the initial 12 should never have been sent back on their specific mission. So September wouldn't have been in Walternate's lab at the crucial second to distract him from his beakers, and he would have realized that he had the cure for Peter. So our Walter wouldn't have needed to cross universes to save him, and the original timeline would never have been muddied up with cross-universe currents.

Basically, the orange universe would have become Prime, with no Peter. Which makes me incredibly sad for Walter, who never got the courage to move outside the lab, but the universe itself would have been vastly more stable.

I can't figure out why the only thing that would have changed is the invasion. Makes no sense!

But otoh, I pretty much adored the way everything imaginable got included, right down to the worms that got Charlie pregnant. And Broyles being totally awesome. And Gene <3, even all ambered up. And Lincoln and Altlivia. <3 <3

Alphas

Not really a recent ending, but I'm going to miss this show, and I'm sad it got cancelled. I liked the characters and all their different relationships, and the fact that the show was perfectly willing to make game-changing, world-changing moves; it may have only had two short seasons, but things moved along at an incredible pace, without being dragged out to milk every possible drop of drama out of a situation. I also really appreciate that they basically just went with "No, really, Rosen's a creepy, controlling bastard, all the worse because he genuinely thinks he's a nice guy most of the time".

I wish it had gained a bigger fannish audience, because this is a universe people should be playing in -- but without more eps coming, it's going to be relegated to Yuletide only, and who knows for how long. Woe.

And then, of course, there are the shows that are currently airing and ongoing. Anyone else remember how, 15 years ago, we used to fret every year that this year would be the last year of fannish tv? How we hung on cancellation news, because if X got cancelled, what would we watch?

I kinda miss those days, to tell you the truth. How is there this much tv all the damn time? I feel like I never talk about any of it, because I'm always racing to catch up to just watching it. And for all that I tend to really like the summer shows, man, I miss having a few months every year to catch up on stuff I missed, or rewatch things, or get involved in complicated discussions about What! Might! Happen! (... with other unspoiled people, because for me the fun is guessing, not knowing in advance).

So instead, have a bunch of brief overall reactions to shows, with only a little specific commentary, just so people have some idea of what it is I'm watching these days:

Person of Interest

Oh my heart. Oh, my show. ♥ ♥ ♥

There's not a single episode of this I haven't loved, which is just mind-blowing.

I am also feeling very pleased with myself, because a couple eps ago, when that little piece of paper had Harold's name on it, my first reaction was that it was a frame-up. There's no way that Harold would a) use the same name now as he would use for something like that, and b) that he would do something like sell that laptop to the Chinese. His theory about dangerous information isn't "disseminate it"; it's "lock it down so no one can replicate it". Also, he's too patriotic at heart; he created the Machine to help the United States, he'd never work so deliberately against US interest.

So I figured it was a frame, and my first thought was "this is Root, somehow."

And now I am justified! \o/ Or I think so, anyway. Root has certainly set herself up in a position where she can "leak" all sorts of information to all sorts of people, and be trusted to be telling the truth. And she would totally be out to get even.

But plot aside: Finch! and Reese! and Finch/Reese! (okay, seriously: we've had the baby ep, and the mutual-attempted-suicide-to-save-the-other-one*, and the desperate rescues, and the adoption of a puppy (complete with shared bathing duties, going for walks, going to the doggy park together, etc etc etc), and now they've not only gone undercover at a hotel together (and had a nice chat about how awesome hotels are for hiding out in) but have gotten dressed side by side in the locker room? Which one of us is writing this show??!!)

Carter and Fusco just keep getting better and better, too, and I love the glimpses we get of their working relationship. I feel bad for Fusco sometimes because John especially clearly trusts Carter so much more -- but there's a damn good reason for that, and moments like her refusal to hear his conscience-clearing about his former life show why. That was just lovely, especially in how she's willing to accept him as a partner and friend now; now there's a nuanced relationship. And Fusco, bless him, understands all of it; I love that, and him.

I will at some point write up actual real thoughts about this show, but mostly I just bask in it, because it is awesome.

Also, I am just gleeful watching POI sweep across my little corner of fandom. ♥

*Not even POI can beat out Invisible Man for mutual attempted protective suicide, though. *draws a giant pink heart around Bobby and Darien*


Elementary

I wasn't sure I'd like Elementary, but I'm glad I gave it a shot; I like it a lot, as it turns out! I'm not particularly fannish in it in terms of looking for fic to read or vids to watch, but I'm digging the vibe of it all, and the fact that Sherlock is aware that he's an ass, and tries not to be when he can (and knows when he needs to apologize, and sometimes even why he needs to apologize, when he can't). I love that the people around him are ready to call him on his shit. And that Greggson's totally prepared to punch him if need be.

Lewis

So this is completely new for me! I never watched Inspector Morse, and never had any interest in picking up Lewis, but my tivo recorded an ep for me a few weeks ago, and I watched it because what the hell, why not. I liked it a lot, although not enough to seek out other eps. Then my tivo brought me another, and suddenly I needed all the eps. All of them. Lewis and Hathaway are so great together! And I love Laura, too, she's fantastic.

Happily, I discovered that the first few series are streaming on Hulu Plus and Amazon, so I started watching, and plowed through the first four series in a few weeks. Then I crossed my fingers and checked thevault, and YAY the stuff that isn't streaming is up there! \o/

Then I started having computer problems, so it's been taking me a couple of weeks to get through s6, and I don't know how long it'll take me to get through s7 (they're all 4-6 episode seasons), but I have them, and I will watch them as fast as I can, because they're ridiculously addictive.

The mysteries are fun, but mostly I'm watching for Lewis and Hathaway, who just make me happy. Such a perfectly matched odd couple!

Once Upon a Time

After my huge set of posts right as the second season started up, I never said another word, but it wasn't for lack of watching - just part of my overall never finishing any of the posts I start.

I knew the season was heading in the right direction when it started off with Snow charging off after the wraith to rescue Emma, and David a step behind and trying to follow, but instead going SPLAT on the floor, and the hat. I, er, may have paused the show to laugh my head off for five minutes at that. And then the almost instant fridging of Prince Phillip so Aurora and Mulan could get on with having adventures! \o/

I'm really liking the season so far; I like that things were moving in both worlds but that they didn't drag that out for the whole season, and that nothing's as certain as it seems.

I really liked the very clear declaration that the huge focus on women as the holders of power and agency in this show isn't accidental, with the gender-bending of Jack into Jacqueline. Men are not the center of any of the stories here, with the exception of Rumplestiltskin (who isn't really a man).

I'm curious to see what's going on with Regina and Cora; I don't believe for an instant that Regina was so willing to suddenly cave and become best buds with her mother (although I could be wrong; Regina has issues as big as mountains, god knows). I also don't think it's Regina who showed up at the Charmings' door in the last episode; I think that was Cora masquerading as Regina again (and seriously, why did they immediately assume it was Regina? They know Cora's in town, and able to impersonate her!)

Cora storyline aside, I like how Regina's being handled this season in general -- trying to make amends but not really very good at it, and not able to just magically (... sorry) become a better person with great relationships with everyone. I appreciate that everyone's working at this, and that everyone's first reaction to Regina is going to be "don't trust her, she's evil" for a long time.

I also love the shift in the townsfolk as they sort of merge their two identities; one of my favorites is Ruby, who right from the season opener had suddenly stopped dressing as the sex kitten she always dressed as. It's a gorgeous little bit of characterization; in first season, she felt the animal inside but in our world, "animalistic" women are basically sex kittens, who dress provocatively and flirt and everything Ruby did. Once she knew that no, she had an actual wolf inside her, suddenly she was dressing in much less provocative clothes that made her look powerful and confident in her own right; they got darker and exposed her less, and started incorporating more leather and fur. It's really kind of great.

I'm mostly waiting to see how various storylines turn out -- I'm not thrilled that Belle has had her old life ripped away from her, but I'm fascinated that she's not actually being used as a fridging to motivate Rumple; he's furious, but he's still focused on Bae first. So maybe Belle's going to come out of this her own, stronger person, rather than someone tied inextricably to Rumple. I'd like to see the kickass Belle from the old land, who struck out on her own and did things her own way, make it to the fore again.

The giants storyline was kind of odd, but I liked the reworking into them as gentle, dedicated farmers (if sort of cult-like in their devotion -- "it doesn't matter that what we're doing is useless, the work is what makes us who we are", ye gods, no wonder Anton was unhappy). I did like the look back at James, though, and what a jerk he really was; no wonder the king was so disappointed in David! I'm glad we're done with the beanstalk, though -- if I never see that CGI again, it'll be too soon.

Spoilers for the previews for Sunday's ep: highlight to read So it looks like they really are setting up Bae as Henry's father, yes? That's... awkward. Can you imagine Thanksgiving dinner? Henry, Emma, Bae, Snow, David, Rumple, and Regina all at the same family table... (With Regina as both mother and step-great-grandmother, good grief.)

White Collar

I still really like White Collar, but I admit, I wish they'd get over their grim determination to never ever change one iota of their season forumla. This thing where every single season has to be about something from Neal's past that he's trying to find out, while Peter helps him a bit, but Neal conceals things from Peter, who gets tight-lipped about that so investigates Neal while they're working together and also working cases... argh. It worked great for the first couple of seasons, but it's stretched so thin now that it's fraying badly.

And now this season they're generating conflict by having Ell lose her mind? What? Why is she demanding that Neal lie to Peter? Peter didn't get hurt helping Neal; he got hurt doing his job as an FBI agent. It's the same fallout that led to Hughes getting canned. And Neal lying to Peter hurt Peter -- and hurt Neal, and hurt their relationship, a relationship that Ell has always nurtured because she knew how much it mattered to Peter. Argh. I can almost, almost, see her asking Neal to lie in the heat of her panic and worry, to put some sort of protection on Peter. But then Peter told her he knew Neal had lied, and he's told her repeatedly how upsetting this is to him, and now she's lying to Peter to protect herself and let Neal take the fall for her decision, and who IS this woman? Peter and Ell don't lie to each other! It's the best thing about them!

So, er, that part is really annoying me, and I think if they would just ease up on their damn formula they could find other ways of keeping tension alive. But they're so wedded to the idea of this exact form of tension that all they do is keep repeating it in increasingly unreal ways.

I know in the end it will all work out, because that's also the formula: at some point, Ell will confess to Peter that it was her idea, Peter will confront Neal and let him sweat for a minute before admitting that he knows it was Ell, Neal will half-collapse in relief and swear that he didn't want to lie, but he couldn't say no to Ell, they'll have a drink and everything will be okay. But man, when your formula is that established that I can literally describe the resolution you're going to air? That's not good.

OTOH, there's Mozzie, and Diana, and Jones who's finally getting more of a chance to work directly with Peter on a secret mission, and they brought June in just to sing, which was both kind of an absurd plot point and yet pretty damn awesome. And I never stop loving watching Peter and Neal work together, and bounce off each other, formulaicly or not. So it's not like I'm not still watching and enjoying. *g*

Revenge

I'm a few episodes behind on this one, partly because alas, it's less interesting to me than it was last season. There are too many storylines; it's turned into too much of a revenge-y soap opera, from a fairly focused revenge story that also had offshoots. But I'll catch up at some point; Emily and Nolan are too much fun not to, no matter what else is going on.

Shows that I'm waiting to come back:

Grimm

OMG YAY HANK KNOWS and Nick has brought him in as a full partner and there's all kinds of awesome buddy stuff going on there YAY!

... is pretty much my reaction to this season. *g*

There's a lot more going on than that, and I'm having fun with all of it. Most especially, though, the fact that these people continue to be adults who actually talk about things. Questions get asked and answered; Nick doesn't hide his Wesen cases except for the tiny fraction he needs to keep hidden; people tell each other what's going on. It's so great!

I wish they hadn't had such a long hiatus, especially after such a weird beginning to the season last summer, with a few random episodes on the wrong night, then a break, then normal airings. It's all just weird, and I hope it doesn't mean they're trying to force the show out, because it can't be helping the ratings at all. Which I don't understand, because Grimm gets great ratings! Whyyy must they screw up its schedule. Hmf.

Burn Notice

Burn Notice is suffering a bit from USA-formulaitis, like White Collar, although they have a little more room to maneuver within the formula so it's not quite as tight a cage. But I still wish they'd move away from "Michael finds yet another layer of government corruption that ruined his life and vows vengeance, which may mean working from the shadows or may mean working from within the system", like White Collar, it's been stretched beyond any reasonable length at this point.

And they're going to have to do something about Miami; I was absolutely baffled that when they were running into all the trouble at the end of the season, no one suggested just... trying to leave through a different port. Michael's not tethered there anymore, and they must all have contacts all over the place. Baffling.

Still and all, I still have lots of fun with the show, and I still like all the characters a lot; I adore Sam and Maddie in particular, and oh ye gods and little fishes, the h/c for Sam in the last couple of episodes nearly killed me dead. SAM! ♥ ♥ ♥ I may have watched those scenes a few times.

I'm sort of curious to see where they go with Michael's new job, but for me the show has never been about the season arcs; it's about the smaller cases, and the characters and their relationships. The best thing about the season arcs is the way they let Maddie shine, and how you can see just where Michael got pretty much everything from.

As long as they keep bringing me Sam, and Sam & Michael, and Maddie, I'll be happy. Fi and Jesse, also good!

Haven

This is longer than the others because it was eventually going to be its own post, but I figured if I waited to expand it for that, it would never get posted. So!

A while back, during the friending meme, someone responded to my entry asking what it is about Haven that I like. I wrote up a long comment in reply, then realized maybe she wasn't looking for quite such a treatise and chopped it way down, with a note saying I'd expand on it if she were interested. Which she wasn't, so it's as well I chopped it down. *g*

But I did save everything out, and just stumbled over it, and figured what the hell, may as well have a Haven post!

So the original question, specifically, was "what aspects of Haven appeal to you?"

To which my answer is: Oh, man. Lots! The characters, the relationships, the mysteries, the storytelling... I just really dig the whole thing. I'm less interested in the Trouble of the Week except as a vehicle to give me the characters, the relationships, and whatever new piece of the overall puzzle is being teased out.

I love that this is not just about weird happenings (always fun!) but has an overarching plot, one that's been deepening every season rather than being reset and ratcheted up; I get tired of shows that constantly have to come up with a bigger Big Bad until things get ridiculous. (... Okay, not that "people in this town have supernatural/paranormal/magical/weirdass abilities that get switched on every few decades" isn't kind of ridiculous on the face of it, but. Ridiculous-er.)

It's all a mystery so there's lots of questions, but those questions get answered, and those answers deepen the mystery. But not in an Alias or Lost or even X-Files kind of way where you realize TPTB are just making shit up and pretending it's forward motion as they churn up lots of froth to distract you; this is actual forward motion, with the answers providing a better look at the overall puzzle, which turns out to be bigger than anyone expected.

But while they're working out all that plot, they're also strongly focused on characters and relationships. I love them all. Audrey -- man, she should be so annoying. Like, Patrick Jane levels of annoying (although I realize not everyone finds him annoying, but I do, so...). She's always right, her superpower out supers everyone else's superpower by a mile, she just -- she should be annoying. But she's not; she's warm and real and funny and sweet and ruthless and determined and all kinds of awesome, instead. ♥ All the characters are like that -- they're well-rounded, and sometimes they're absolute jerks (including Audrey, from time to time), and the more we get to know them, the better we get to know them. They have layers, and sometimes they're contradictory, because sometimes people just are contradictory.

By relationships I mean all kinds; Duke and Nathan's long, intertwined history is fascinating to me, but I also love that TPTB have created a triangle of Nathan, Audrey, and Duke where everyone is an adult and where there's clear room for them to be an OT3 (not my thing, but man it is just right there. It's a general dynamic that these particular creators are very good at; they did something a little similar in the first few seasons of Dead Zone.) But also the Teagues brothers - their relationship with each other, with the town, with the town's history, with Audrey, with the younger generation, with their own generation -- they are verrrry interesting, the Teagues. Audrey's relationship with the other Audrey, and with Sarah and Lucy; Nathan and Duke's relationships with their fathers; various Troubled people's relationships with their families and friends.

Nothing here happens in isolation, and nothing is quite what it seems, right down to feckless "I need to be free" Duke being the one who's been married and had a kid (although not at the same time), and dependable Nathan being the one who's never really had a long-term romantic relationship that we know of (unless I'm forgetting something, which is entirely possible). And the Teagues, never forget the Teagues when it comes to things not being what they seem.

Mostly I really appreciate that, like many of the other shows on my list here, this is a show full of adults -- sometimes stupid adults, or selfish adults, but adults, who have more than one facet to their personalities. I see people deciding that Nathan is horrible and they don't like him anymore because he was "mean" to Duke in s3, and did some admittedly skeevy things, and to me, it's just more evidence that he's being written as a person, and not as The Nobly Suffering Character Who Is Always The Good Guy No Matter What. He screws up; they all screw up! And they all do awesome things, and try to do their best even if they're being kinda stupid. Because that's what people do.

It's frustrating to watch, sometimes, but it really makes all the characters feel much more real, and makes me that much more invested in things working out for them. Which I have faith it will. <3

So basically, I'm really looking forward to Season 4, and seeing what happens next.

I know as soon as I post this I'll come up with another half dozen shows I meant to mention. Oh well.

I would write about the reality tv I'm watching, but this is already an absurdly long post. Suffice to say, my favorite shows -- Amazing Race, Project Runway, Top Chef -- still have me, but I'm burning out from overload, and less invested every season. All three shows have had aired four complete seasons since December 2010, and all three are in or about to start another season. I hate to give any of them up for completist reasons, but man. I am just burning out.