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TV tonight
I'm still on the fence about Heroes. I feel bad for Claire and the world of pain coming her way in re: her Dad, who appears to be on the bad, or at least opposite, side. That's gonna sting, one way or the other.
I am still loving Mohinder, although given the invasions of this apartment I'm starting to wonder why he hasn't already either moved or changed the locks -- or set a trap, at least a camera. And I like the neighbor girl so far. And yes, Hiro is cute -- how totally wiggy to find a comic book about your own life.
I confess to being kind of tired of reflection girl (Niki?) and her Id Issues. I'm not saying it couldn't be interesting, but it hasn't been yet. I'm so not into the characters that pinball from reaction to reaction without ever achieving a proactive agenda of their own, and so far that's all she's done. Like her longsuffering kid, though.
And I'm kind of meh on Siler and his serial killer plot. I'm happy to have it addressed that just having powers doesn't automatically make them good guys, and in theory I'm down with the "what responsibility do the researchers bear?" ethical dilemma, but there are already a gracious plenty of shows doing the chase-the-crazy-criminal much better. And I have to wonder why the cop who hears voices hasn't figured out by age whatever that he's the only one who does and he'd better mask it. Did he just start?
I'm mixed on Isaac and Simone, too. I have sympathy with "I don't want to date a crazy heroin addict who burns his paintings", lord knows, but she really doesn't seem to me to be paying enough attention to the pretty suggestive circumstantial evidence she saw last time that he *is* painting the future -- if he'd painted that canvas after that day's paper had been delivered, it would still have been wet. Plus, while it's undoubtedly true that "I can paint the future" would not be taken seriously by Homeland Security, that doesn't mean they can't warn them, it just means they can't tell them how they know. In these paranoid days it's hard for me to believe that an anonymous tip or a claim to have overheard it somehow wouldn't get taken seriously. The bigger risk is that Isaac would be mistaken for a terrorist (or malicious prankster) himself. The vibe I got was that she wasn't seriously considering it, she was just trying to get him to calm down, and while that's fair enough really -- how seriously would I take it if one of y'all told me you could paint the future while you were high? -- since we know he's right and she's not, I'm ready for it to be over soon.
I like the twist that it was the unlikeable brother who could fly, but I feel like the revelations about Peter's dad are flying a little too thick and fast and verge on melodrama. Can the next conversation between him and his mom be about making lasagna or doing laundry or something?
And *eyeroll* to the voiceover again. So far I'm entertained, but I'm not in love.
Studio 60, on the other hand, I am in love with. I may quibble and whine because hey, that's just how I roll, but there's little doubt in my mind that this is "my show" and I'm in it as long as I can stand to be.
I admire the sand tackling scene immensely. First, yum. It's proving exactly how well they know each other *and* straddling. Sometimes I'm just that easy.
But second, I have to admire the deft economy of having the characters explicitly point out the homoeroticism. Especially since Matt is a writer as well as a character, and he's locating the interpretation not in himself but in how it appears to outside onlookers, it manages to simultaneously acknowledge *and* diffuse the slash reading. It's a masterpiece of hide-in-plain-sight slight of hand.
Of course, in an ideal world they wouldn't *be* uncomfortable with the homoeroticism, but ideal worlds make boring TV and I don't mind this level of mild internalized homophobia, especially in the beginning. It leaves them somewhere to grow.
It's minor but I didn't think Science, Schmience was all that funny. Obviously -- I hope it's obvious -- I'm on the side of the facts, I just thought it was a very authentically SNL thing, the skit whose one joke is in the premise and it's all downhill from there.
Still torn about the ex-girlfriend. On the one hand, I admire her for standing up for the little guy -- the little guy often gets mocked or dismissed by the hard driving ambitious talented people, and it's nice to see that rebuked from time to time with a little compassion.
On the other hand, *yes*, they're just trying to raise their kids well. But while there's nothing wrong with the motivation, there's something messed up about a culture that believes that you can raise you kids well by not exposing them to dangerous ideas. And that *is* funny, and sad too, and needs pointing out so people can take a step back and see how it looks from the outside. Plus it's not like the joke made fun of them for only making a little money and working in a bread factory. They may not have a lot of power in the country but they have way too much power over the kids. It's *that* exercise of power that it was mocking, and I call it fair game.
Still on the fence about Jordan, too. She's defiant with her superior not just when it counts but almost always, and oddly deferential to her inferior (Danny). Maybe that's supposed to be egalitarian or principled, but it just comes off to me like somebody who's not at home in her role. Which could be interesting if that's the idea, that she's new to this and still trying to figure out where the boundaries are, but I get the sense that we're supposed to read her as supremely confident yet endearingly coltish instead.
On the other hand every time he talks to her Danny gets surprised vulnerable face, and I could forgive a lot for that. And I'll be interested to see how the tell-all-book plotline plays out with the genders swapped compared to the VP on The West Wing.
Didn't the sex club thing happen to the actress who played 7 of 9? I don't mean to make light of the real life trauma of having your spouse overpersuade you to something you find distasteful, especially in the sexual arena. But I do want to say for anyone whose only exposure to the concept has been that and this, that there are women who go to these things of their own accord. It's not all arm-twisty husbands and unhappy wives.
I was hoping for a little bit more writers in the writing plotline -- there was a whole writer's room in the clothing scolding scene, not just the two guys Matt has a grudge against. Where did they go? Oh, well, maybe next time. I like the Matt/Jeanie trust your instincts lesson, and the t-shirt. And I adored the final look between Matt and Danny -- and Danny was dancing with the ex. After her reference to "you'd go nuts if I slow danced with Danny", I have to wonder if that's deliberate on her part.
I also have to wonder, after all that talk about DUI and seatbelts, if we're supposed to make something of the fact that Matt drove off without buckling his, or whether it just doesn't look cool and/or I blinked and missed it.
I am still loving Mohinder, although given the invasions of this apartment I'm starting to wonder why he hasn't already either moved or changed the locks -- or set a trap, at least a camera. And I like the neighbor girl so far. And yes, Hiro is cute -- how totally wiggy to find a comic book about your own life.
I confess to being kind of tired of reflection girl (Niki?) and her Id Issues. I'm not saying it couldn't be interesting, but it hasn't been yet. I'm so not into the characters that pinball from reaction to reaction without ever achieving a proactive agenda of their own, and so far that's all she's done. Like her longsuffering kid, though.
And I'm kind of meh on Siler and his serial killer plot. I'm happy to have it addressed that just having powers doesn't automatically make them good guys, and in theory I'm down with the "what responsibility do the researchers bear?" ethical dilemma, but there are already a gracious plenty of shows doing the chase-the-crazy-criminal much better. And I have to wonder why the cop who hears voices hasn't figured out by age whatever that he's the only one who does and he'd better mask it. Did he just start?
I'm mixed on Isaac and Simone, too. I have sympathy with "I don't want to date a crazy heroin addict who burns his paintings", lord knows, but she really doesn't seem to me to be paying enough attention to the pretty suggestive circumstantial evidence she saw last time that he *is* painting the future -- if he'd painted that canvas after that day's paper had been delivered, it would still have been wet. Plus, while it's undoubtedly true that "I can paint the future" would not be taken seriously by Homeland Security, that doesn't mean they can't warn them, it just means they can't tell them how they know. In these paranoid days it's hard for me to believe that an anonymous tip or a claim to have overheard it somehow wouldn't get taken seriously. The bigger risk is that Isaac would be mistaken for a terrorist (or malicious prankster) himself. The vibe I got was that she wasn't seriously considering it, she was just trying to get him to calm down, and while that's fair enough really -- how seriously would I take it if one of y'all told me you could paint the future while you were high? -- since we know he's right and she's not, I'm ready for it to be over soon.
I like the twist that it was the unlikeable brother who could fly, but I feel like the revelations about Peter's dad are flying a little too thick and fast and verge on melodrama. Can the next conversation between him and his mom be about making lasagna or doing laundry or something?
And *eyeroll* to the voiceover again. So far I'm entertained, but I'm not in love.
Studio 60, on the other hand, I am in love with. I may quibble and whine because hey, that's just how I roll, but there's little doubt in my mind that this is "my show" and I'm in it as long as I can stand to be.
I admire the sand tackling scene immensely. First, yum. It's proving exactly how well they know each other *and* straddling. Sometimes I'm just that easy.
But second, I have to admire the deft economy of having the characters explicitly point out the homoeroticism. Especially since Matt is a writer as well as a character, and he's locating the interpretation not in himself but in how it appears to outside onlookers, it manages to simultaneously acknowledge *and* diffuse the slash reading. It's a masterpiece of hide-in-plain-sight slight of hand.
Of course, in an ideal world they wouldn't *be* uncomfortable with the homoeroticism, but ideal worlds make boring TV and I don't mind this level of mild internalized homophobia, especially in the beginning. It leaves them somewhere to grow.
It's minor but I didn't think Science, Schmience was all that funny. Obviously -- I hope it's obvious -- I'm on the side of the facts, I just thought it was a very authentically SNL thing, the skit whose one joke is in the premise and it's all downhill from there.
Still torn about the ex-girlfriend. On the one hand, I admire her for standing up for the little guy -- the little guy often gets mocked or dismissed by the hard driving ambitious talented people, and it's nice to see that rebuked from time to time with a little compassion.
On the other hand, *yes*, they're just trying to raise their kids well. But while there's nothing wrong with the motivation, there's something messed up about a culture that believes that you can raise you kids well by not exposing them to dangerous ideas. And that *is* funny, and sad too, and needs pointing out so people can take a step back and see how it looks from the outside. Plus it's not like the joke made fun of them for only making a little money and working in a bread factory. They may not have a lot of power in the country but they have way too much power over the kids. It's *that* exercise of power that it was mocking, and I call it fair game.
Still on the fence about Jordan, too. She's defiant with her superior not just when it counts but almost always, and oddly deferential to her inferior (Danny). Maybe that's supposed to be egalitarian or principled, but it just comes off to me like somebody who's not at home in her role. Which could be interesting if that's the idea, that she's new to this and still trying to figure out where the boundaries are, but I get the sense that we're supposed to read her as supremely confident yet endearingly coltish instead.
On the other hand every time he talks to her Danny gets surprised vulnerable face, and I could forgive a lot for that. And I'll be interested to see how the tell-all-book plotline plays out with the genders swapped compared to the VP on The West Wing.
Didn't the sex club thing happen to the actress who played 7 of 9? I don't mean to make light of the real life trauma of having your spouse overpersuade you to something you find distasteful, especially in the sexual arena. But I do want to say for anyone whose only exposure to the concept has been that and this, that there are women who go to these things of their own accord. It's not all arm-twisty husbands and unhappy wives.
I was hoping for a little bit more writers in the writing plotline -- there was a whole writer's room in the clothing scolding scene, not just the two guys Matt has a grudge against. Where did they go? Oh, well, maybe next time. I like the Matt/Jeanie trust your instincts lesson, and the t-shirt. And I adored the final look between Matt and Danny -- and Danny was dancing with the ex. After her reference to "you'd go nuts if I slow danced with Danny", I have to wonder if that's deliberate on her part.
I also have to wonder, after all that talk about DUI and seatbelts, if we're supposed to make something of the fact that Matt drove off without buckling his, or whether it just doesn't look cool and/or I blinked and missed it.
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I wondered the samme thing.
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I agree, except that I don't consider it that minor. This is a show about a comedy program, featuring this character who is supposed to be a brilliant writer single-handedly saving Studio 60 from mediocrity. And by presenting this subtle-as-a-two-by-four game show parody as the primary example of Matt's comic genius, they undercut the reality of the show. Seriously, I love and admire Sorkin, but he either has to find someone who actually knows how to write sketch comedy, or he needs to stay solidly backstage.
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But the rest :-)
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Heroes has me hooked into wanting to know how everything got that way. I don't understand Nicki's power yet and want to know more. I think it was a nice twist on Hiro's power that they brought in the "time" aspect of the time & space. The brothers plot line looks like it has a lot of places to go as the two of the deal differently with the power and at the same time try to deal with years of family drama. Clair's making me like cheerleaders again - there's a Buffyesque color on her story.
As much as I liked the West Wing when I saw it in re-runs, Studio 60 hasn't held my attention yet. The brief shining moment of the tackle scene on the beech didn't do anything to stop the yawning I did throughout the rest of the episode.
... I don't mind this level of mild internalized homophobia, especially in the beginning. It leaves them somewhere to grow.
Except that it doesn't. Sorkin hates fans and specifically slashers, so I bet he replays this over and over, giving them a bit of slash and then undercutting it to get some mileage out of the homoeroticism, but not leaving anything for us to hang onto.
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DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO FIND AN APARTMENT IN THE NYC AREA?
;)
And changing locks really means nothing, if a pro wants to get in, they WILL get in. Locksmiths don't tell you that, but it is sadly true, according to all the relatives of mine who are NYC police.
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I wondered about the moving too, but OTOH if Mohinder moved he'd lose access to anything his dad might've secreted away in the walls or floorboards. Which isn't to say his dad *did* do that, just that I can see that worry being a reason why he'd hang where he was.
I'm with you on S60 too. I thought this ep was better than last week's, but I also didn't like the end point on the Cruicible thing. I liked that Harry stood up for them, because that helps show that it's people and not a stereotype, but OTOH how does "They're poor and have a rough life, so why not let them be closed-minded and stupid?" come off as an acceptable thing to say??
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Yes, tired of Niki already, but like her kid.
Am I the only one suspicious of Conveniently Helpful Neighbor Girl? If Mohinder doesn't get something useful from her about his father's work by next episode, I'm gonna start thinking she's a mole. (I mean, I already suspect she may be a mole, but that's on my own time, as it were.)
I like the twist that it was the unlikeable brother who could fly
I so didn't see that coming. And it turns out it's both of them, which yay.
Talking of things I didn't see coming: the last thirty seconds of this episode. His power folds space and time, right, and his control over it isn't all that fine yet.... And that gives us the deadline, too. They set that up tremendously well, especially considering how clunkily a lot of the show's been set up so far.
Also, Hiro is made of baby chickens. *hugs him*
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