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Monday's TV (only 3 days late)
I saw Heroes and Studio 60 on Monday and I’m writing my reactions on Thursday, so this may be vaguer and more inaccurate than usual.
Heroes
So over the voiceover. Unless it turns out to be Siler or something. Actually, even then.
Still loving Mohinder, but wondering how much of that is just that I’m shallow and have a crush. I have to admit, objectively, some of his decisions don’t make a ton of sense. He’s breaking into the apartment of Siler (or however that’s spelled) with no weapons and no one who knows where he’s gone and no more backup than an unarmed girl who he’s only known for a few days? It’s awfully risk-taking behavior for someone who almost shot the macaroni and cheese because he’s so jittery. But I wouldn’t say it’s not a well-chosen risk, in the circumstances, and maybe he’s a lot less jumpy on offense than on defense. Anyway brave and determined looks good on him, and I’m really buying – and loving – his conflictedness about his dad.
Starting to wonder if![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batyatoon is right to mistrust friendly neighbor girl, though. She still reads as harmless and sweet to me, but I can’t discount the fact that she hasn’t said or done anything that wouldn’t make just as much sense if she were an operative trying to get inside his perimeter and learn what he knows and does first-hand.
Feeling somewhat more sympathy and liking for Niki as she seems to be making active decisions to do stuff, and not just pinballing away from one outside hostile agenda to the next. I think part of my negative reaction before was that her angry Id, or whatever MirrorMe is supposed to be, seemed to be the only one who could get proactive, and that seemed like such a trite nice girl/bad girl dichotomy. But that’s not so true anymore, so yay.
Though I’m puzzled as to why she assumed her husband must have killed that guy just because she found the ring. Did I miss something? Just because he's dead doesn't mean lots of people couldn't have killed that guy. If anything the fact that her not so sub-conscious sent her right to that spot in the middle of nowhere seems like an indication that maybe *she* did it. Grandma is an interesting character too. I’m very curious to know how she felt about her son’s and Niki’s relationship before the (possible) crime and disappearance.
Poor Claire. I love this actress, who really succeeds at giving the character a dignity and sweetness without coming off as either saccharine or too precocious. I was initially rolling my eyes a little at the dialogue from the friend – honestly, humans can be more than one thing at once, if she’s a girl *and* a student *and* a cheerleader there’s no obvious reason why she can’t be *and* a superhealer too. At least with Buffy the supposed conflict was the time she needed to devote to the mission, but healing doesn't take time -- at least for her -- and neither of them seem to have made the jump to “there’s something more important you should be doing with your time and these powers” -- it was just “this makes everything else obsolete.”
However I can’t say its an inauthentic way for some teenagers to feel – especially one who found a lot of what Claire was into maybe a little unimportant or silly to begin with (or one who wanted to feel that way, I don’t know him well enough to guess). And anyway it works on the level of foreshadowing, because however much it wasn’t true when he said it, it’s true now, all that’s over. Too many people know how thoroughly dead she was for her to pull off going back and acting like nothing happened.
I wonder if Claire really is adopted. I imagine she is, or at least stolen, so she could be raised as part of a controlled experiment, but it’s not like her dad is a trustworthy source. He could be her actual dad, in which case, I wonder if he has powers too. He could have deliberately induced powers in her. Or it could be a sad accident from his point of view.
I’m a little meh on the rape and quasi-accidental-homicide scene. I don’t want to say that teenage boys never do that, because obviously some do, and the “are you stalking me?” line from when they were flirting works nicely as foreshadowing in hindsight. But on the other hand she was obviously into him to some extent, he’s wasn’t obviously drunk, he was willing to go back to the party a minute earlier, why could the guy who had months to study her milk choices from afar suddenly not wait a date or two? Maybe he’s got poor impulse control or anger at women or something, but it kind of played to me as “he does this now because the plot needs him to.” However, that shocking final shot of her is worth a lot.
Hiro is adorable. It’s our destiny! And his total willingness to obey the comic book down to the particular car – and his immediate and determined grasp of the idea that he has to stop it and no mundane considerations of job or what people would think matter in comparison.
The scene of Jason slowly and dramatically (and repeatedly) falling on his face was priceless and worth every portentous rooftop transition from the first episode to get that payoff. But I was somehow squidged by his “I’m meant for something more” in a way that I wasn’t by Hiro’s “it’s our destiny” even though on the face of it they're practically identical statements. And I don't think it's just that Hiro has literally seen the future and Jason hasn't. It came off as a little grandiose, off-balance – reminiscent of his brother’s nothing-matters-but-the-election tunnel vision. And it had the effect of devaluing his previous one-on-one work, as if he were never doing that because he believed in it but because he thought that’s all he was good for, being the co-dependent one, and now he has promoted himself to the center-of-attention role based on his powers. Especially because I got the vibe that his not being willing to ask out the girl before had as much to do with not thinking he was worth it until he got his powers as it did not crossing the professional lines.
I’m still not sure he even has powers. Maybe I’m reading too much into a facial expression, but I really got the sense that last time he only flew because his brother lifted him, and his inability to replicate it does nothing to contradict that. If I’m right, I worry about what’s going to happen when his newfound sense of self-worth collapses ‘cause it’s based on something false. And even if I’m wrong, it still feels too based on something external, like someone who thinks they’re only worth dating because they’re rich or have a nice car.
Isaac – I’m interested. But it’s hard to learn about him unless he’s interacting with someone, and his interactions with Simone seem both a little one-note, and over.
Studio 60
Glad they brought the writer’s room back and threw us a line for where they’d gone. And I’m liking Rickie and Ron, who seem to have a non-evil, if not necessarily compatible, agenda in their own right *and* some scruples and talent, as well as functioning as a sort of mirror collaboration for Matt and Danny.
The Joke of the Week was funny this time, I thought, though not thigh-slapping enough to stand up to lots of repetitions – but then what is? I did admire how willing everyone was to be where the buck stopped for someone else’s mistake. But I found the “we own the copyright” ending somewhat anti-climactic – mostly because it doesn’t really resolve the ethical issue. Unless the guy who screwed up knew that when he did it, in which case why didn’t he say so, it’s like breaking into someone’s house and accidentally stealing silver that it turned out you own. I especially liked that it wasn’t just a writers issue – the actor was personally upset.
I know they have a large cast to wrangle, but I miss more Matt/Danny interaction. “I trust you to do your piece and you trust me to do mine so we don’t talk much” is a perfectly valid method of collaboration but it doesn’t give me my pre-slash jollies. Though I’m pleased, and a little surprised, to find I am interested in the Harriet/Matt stuff that we got instead. Probably for the same reasons I initially liked Allie McBeal – the ex you have an ongoing and complicated friendship with is a common feature of life for many people I know, but it doesn’t appear nearly as often on screen, especially in shows about grownups. So there’s lots of room to be nuanced and unexpected. Not that the baseball bat is nuanced, exactly. Sorkin certainly knows how to concretize a metaphor -- and Matt decided not to give her the boot.
I’ve decided I don’t like Jordan. That could change, of course, but for now, she’s “feisty”. I hate feisty. It’s like fake-powerful, where on the surface you’re irreverent and tough but underneath it’s all based on the idea that you’ll get away with it because it’s cute. I like that she backs Matt and Danny and their calls, and that she’s not afraid to be made fun of, or at least understands that not allowing it is worse. But apart from having the Eve-on-Angel problem (allegedly being high-powered but in practice seemingly always underfoot with nothing better to do), every time she says something saucily quasi-defiant to her boss I find I’m gritting my teeth. I like her best when she’s interacting with Danny – hints of a love interest there? I could see an interesting parallel going between a Matt/Harriet and a Danny/Jordan relationship, wrt to the dating your boss issues. Although I’d be fine if they don’t go there, too.
Somehow this episode, while never dragging, didn’t feel as full of meat to me as previous episodes did. Maybe it’s just that my learning curve is leveling off now that I’ve got at least a vague sense of what everyone’s job is, even if I don’t know all their names.
Heroes
So over the voiceover. Unless it turns out to be Siler or something. Actually, even then.
Still loving Mohinder, but wondering how much of that is just that I’m shallow and have a crush. I have to admit, objectively, some of his decisions don’t make a ton of sense. He’s breaking into the apartment of Siler (or however that’s spelled) with no weapons and no one who knows where he’s gone and no more backup than an unarmed girl who he’s only known for a few days? It’s awfully risk-taking behavior for someone who almost shot the macaroni and cheese because he’s so jittery. But I wouldn’t say it’s not a well-chosen risk, in the circumstances, and maybe he’s a lot less jumpy on offense than on defense. Anyway brave and determined looks good on him, and I’m really buying – and loving – his conflictedness about his dad.
Starting to wonder if
batyatoon is right to mistrust friendly neighbor girl, though. She still reads as harmless and sweet to me, but I can’t discount the fact that she hasn’t said or done anything that wouldn’t make just as much sense if she were an operative trying to get inside his perimeter and learn what he knows and does first-hand.Feeling somewhat more sympathy and liking for Niki as she seems to be making active decisions to do stuff, and not just pinballing away from one outside hostile agenda to the next. I think part of my negative reaction before was that her angry Id, or whatever MirrorMe is supposed to be, seemed to be the only one who could get proactive, and that seemed like such a trite nice girl/bad girl dichotomy. But that’s not so true anymore, so yay.
Though I’m puzzled as to why she assumed her husband must have killed that guy just because she found the ring. Did I miss something? Just because he's dead doesn't mean lots of people couldn't have killed that guy. If anything the fact that her not so sub-conscious sent her right to that spot in the middle of nowhere seems like an indication that maybe *she* did it. Grandma is an interesting character too. I’m very curious to know how she felt about her son’s and Niki’s relationship before the (possible) crime and disappearance.
Poor Claire. I love this actress, who really succeeds at giving the character a dignity and sweetness without coming off as either saccharine or too precocious. I was initially rolling my eyes a little at the dialogue from the friend – honestly, humans can be more than one thing at once, if she’s a girl *and* a student *and* a cheerleader there’s no obvious reason why she can’t be *and* a superhealer too. At least with Buffy the supposed conflict was the time she needed to devote to the mission, but healing doesn't take time -- at least for her -- and neither of them seem to have made the jump to “there’s something more important you should be doing with your time and these powers” -- it was just “this makes everything else obsolete.”
However I can’t say its an inauthentic way for some teenagers to feel – especially one who found a lot of what Claire was into maybe a little unimportant or silly to begin with (or one who wanted to feel that way, I don’t know him well enough to guess). And anyway it works on the level of foreshadowing, because however much it wasn’t true when he said it, it’s true now, all that’s over. Too many people know how thoroughly dead she was for her to pull off going back and acting like nothing happened.
I wonder if Claire really is adopted. I imagine she is, or at least stolen, so she could be raised as part of a controlled experiment, but it’s not like her dad is a trustworthy source. He could be her actual dad, in which case, I wonder if he has powers too. He could have deliberately induced powers in her. Or it could be a sad accident from his point of view.
I’m a little meh on the rape and quasi-accidental-homicide scene. I don’t want to say that teenage boys never do that, because obviously some do, and the “are you stalking me?” line from when they were flirting works nicely as foreshadowing in hindsight. But on the other hand she was obviously into him to some extent, he’s wasn’t obviously drunk, he was willing to go back to the party a minute earlier, why could the guy who had months to study her milk choices from afar suddenly not wait a date or two? Maybe he’s got poor impulse control or anger at women or something, but it kind of played to me as “he does this now because the plot needs him to.” However, that shocking final shot of her is worth a lot.
Hiro is adorable. It’s our destiny! And his total willingness to obey the comic book down to the particular car – and his immediate and determined grasp of the idea that he has to stop it and no mundane considerations of job or what people would think matter in comparison.
The scene of Jason slowly and dramatically (and repeatedly) falling on his face was priceless and worth every portentous rooftop transition from the first episode to get that payoff. But I was somehow squidged by his “I’m meant for something more” in a way that I wasn’t by Hiro’s “it’s our destiny” even though on the face of it they're practically identical statements. And I don't think it's just that Hiro has literally seen the future and Jason hasn't. It came off as a little grandiose, off-balance – reminiscent of his brother’s nothing-matters-but-the-election tunnel vision. And it had the effect of devaluing his previous one-on-one work, as if he were never doing that because he believed in it but because he thought that’s all he was good for, being the co-dependent one, and now he has promoted himself to the center-of-attention role based on his powers. Especially because I got the vibe that his not being willing to ask out the girl before had as much to do with not thinking he was worth it until he got his powers as it did not crossing the professional lines.
I’m still not sure he even has powers. Maybe I’m reading too much into a facial expression, but I really got the sense that last time he only flew because his brother lifted him, and his inability to replicate it does nothing to contradict that. If I’m right, I worry about what’s going to happen when his newfound sense of self-worth collapses ‘cause it’s based on something false. And even if I’m wrong, it still feels too based on something external, like someone who thinks they’re only worth dating because they’re rich or have a nice car.
Isaac – I’m interested. But it’s hard to learn about him unless he’s interacting with someone, and his interactions with Simone seem both a little one-note, and over.
Studio 60
Glad they brought the writer’s room back and threw us a line for where they’d gone. And I’m liking Rickie and Ron, who seem to have a non-evil, if not necessarily compatible, agenda in their own right *and* some scruples and talent, as well as functioning as a sort of mirror collaboration for Matt and Danny.
The Joke of the Week was funny this time, I thought, though not thigh-slapping enough to stand up to lots of repetitions – but then what is? I did admire how willing everyone was to be where the buck stopped for someone else’s mistake. But I found the “we own the copyright” ending somewhat anti-climactic – mostly because it doesn’t really resolve the ethical issue. Unless the guy who screwed up knew that when he did it, in which case why didn’t he say so, it’s like breaking into someone’s house and accidentally stealing silver that it turned out you own. I especially liked that it wasn’t just a writers issue – the actor was personally upset.
I know they have a large cast to wrangle, but I miss more Matt/Danny interaction. “I trust you to do your piece and you trust me to do mine so we don’t talk much” is a perfectly valid method of collaboration but it doesn’t give me my pre-slash jollies. Though I’m pleased, and a little surprised, to find I am interested in the Harriet/Matt stuff that we got instead. Probably for the same reasons I initially liked Allie McBeal – the ex you have an ongoing and complicated friendship with is a common feature of life for many people I know, but it doesn’t appear nearly as often on screen, especially in shows about grownups. So there’s lots of room to be nuanced and unexpected. Not that the baseball bat is nuanced, exactly. Sorkin certainly knows how to concretize a metaphor -- and Matt decided not to give her the boot.
I’ve decided I don’t like Jordan. That could change, of course, but for now, she’s “feisty”. I hate feisty. It’s like fake-powerful, where on the surface you’re irreverent and tough but underneath it’s all based on the idea that you’ll get away with it because it’s cute. I like that she backs Matt and Danny and their calls, and that she’s not afraid to be made fun of, or at least understands that not allowing it is worse. But apart from having the Eve-on-Angel problem (allegedly being high-powered but in practice seemingly always underfoot with nothing better to do), every time she says something saucily quasi-defiant to her boss I find I’m gritting my teeth. I like her best when she’s interacting with Danny – hints of a love interest there? I could see an interesting parallel going between a Matt/Harriet and a Danny/Jordan relationship, wrt to the dating your boss issues. Although I’d be fine if they don’t go there, too.
Somehow this episode, while never dragging, didn’t feel as full of meat to me as previous episodes did. Maybe it’s just that my learning curve is leveling off now that I’ve got at least a vague sense of what everyone’s job is, even if I don’t know all their names.