millahnna

About that cold open... What in the actual Fuck. I mean seriously this show. I cannot for the life of me figure out how an American remake will work and it's scenes like that which have me stumped.

Other than the stuff you guys mentioned, something about how the characters spoke of the crisis felt really off to me in a way I can't quite describe. It's like they forgot all about gay people (some of whom would have to be on the government radar as being potentially good parents after the embryos were carried to term). I mean if they are willing to take away little Elvis because the kids are such a precious resource then why do they care if the same person who births them raises them? Also it weirdly felt like the infertility was being focused on the woman even though they have the subthread of Elvis 's dad being a prstitute and sperm donor. Like I said, I have a hard time explaining this. Generally I liked it but the first half hour felt off.

I can see that. For me it worked because I felt that that beat would have been there had more pressing issues not come up. It seemed like we were on our way to it and then whatever emergency happened (was that when Lincoln stabbed Finn that I'm thinking of?). I saw a flicker of reluctance and then everyone got on with it. I find Octavia's stuff more perplexing, truly. Some folks were talking upthread about all of her stuff being rushed (including that dead guy who seemed ok). What's funny is that I feel like that's sort of the point (like she's rushing into things because of her lack of experience around people) but that they did it all wrong. It kind of makes me laugh; they somehow managed to rush rushing.

Right? When he first arrived I thought cute young man but not the kind of attractive I'd have imagined for the guy but I'll be damned if he doesn't heat up a room anyway. Neat trick.

Just the fact that Raven and Clarke get along, genuinely seem to like each other, and can focus on when something urgent needs to get done (even moments after discovering they were involved in a triangle, if I recall that episode correctly) is a massive improvement for me. I mean the romance feels like it is a focus for the characters, themselves, but not the main focus of the show in writing those characters (well kind of it is with Finn but that's his whole "written as a classic plot device female with no real personality" thing). But I do think they could shift stuff around in how they are going about the romance elements with the younger cast and make it much better. I'll be curious to see how the writing is for any romantic or sexual entanglements amongst the adults.

The thing I find fascinating about this show is that it somehow manages to be the male fantasy tittyfest thing and have Karen be completely and utterly wrong about Hank on many levels, all at the same time. It's bizarre. I mean Karen wanting Hank to grow up and "actually try at something"? Totally makes sense. Her not liking his promiscuity when they're broken up? I find that one to bit a bit of a complicated mixed bag but I certainly don't fault her for not liking it. But flat out treating him like he's cheated on her; the show has gone out of its way with flashbacks to show us that is not true. Yet it often feels like the entire world in the show thinks it is. It's very confusing. Oh well, it made me laugh more than it should have over the years so I'm all good, I guess.

But it's not the existence of love triangles in and of themselves that has been a problem; it's been the execution (and then beating the ones that did work into the ground).

On the Wikipedia article we have the U.S. ratings listed but nothing on the CA or U.K. ratings (which I assume will have an impact, particularly the Canadian ones). Until episode 5 the ratings trend slightly higher than last year's but fairly close. After that the trend is considerably higher ratings than the same point in the season last year. My guess would be that we're all good.

It's not that I mind romance; I'd say in general, I'm partial to stories where the romance not one of the main genres (I make some exceptions for a handful of sci fi romance authors who kind of blow my mind) but many of my favorites (books, games, tv, films, whatever) definitely have a strong romantic undercurrent even if it's not the main focus. But if the romance is poorly written, the actors' chemistry doesn't work, etc. etc., that's when it bugs me. And CW is stuck in a rut right now with how they do their romance. That said, I truly think this show is doing a better job balancing the romance concerns with the "we need to eat and oh fuck is that us getting slaughtered" than some other CW fare (and other similar types of shows in general over the last few years) than I would have expected. Other than the chemistry problems (and blandness problems) with the Finn focused one and the rushing with the Octavia stuff (which... I think I see what they were going for with her it just didn't entirely work), most of the kid side of the story is spent getting shit done, all things being relative. I mean sure they get done poorly but hey that's life sometimes.

I swore that was the same little girl we saw go all white walker way back in the first scene of the pilot. This confused the crap out of me because shouldn't that kid have hit a freaky Bran style growth spurt by now and aren't whitewalkers reanimated corpses too so why wasn't whatever it was that was stopping the skeletons stopping her.

Machi just slays me. I was totally with Russel in that I've been quoting him (which is to say the specific words of his stuff has stayed with me rather than the general concept of the jokes). Karlous's mentoring session seemed weird in that "oh right, reality shows are edited oddly" kind of way. On the one hand he seemed dismissive and almost disrespectful but then they cut to his testimonial style bits and he seemed genuinely thrilled to talk to them. It just came off odd.

My absolute favorite revelation of the whole episode is that Tywin did not know about the twincest; I'm deeply and truly surprised but in thinking back on the small bits of his limited soft side we've seen tiny glimpses of (out of the corner of our eyes if we squinted the right way) it kind of makes sense that his blinders about his kids was there in that regard.

Well that doesn't make me nervous at all.

He could have enjoyed it but still been extremely uncomfortable about it at the same time. It's common enough to be a situation taught to rape counselors for more conventional, real world sexual assaults. I don't see any reason why a more extreme fictional counterpart couldn't incorporate that element, though I find that I doubt whether the show will clarify Paul's feelings on the matter with that much specificity. I just can't imagine who he'd have the conversation with where he'd admit to such a potential dichotomy. Although now that I think of it, great hilarity could be had if he discusses Rachel sex with Felix, because Felix always brings great hilarity, even when it's not really all that funny.

Star Crossed was completely shot and in the can several months prior to the show premiering. The network suits didn't have a chance to tell the writers to do anything. It was all already done.

Honestly, I've been a bit confused about Curtis in that regard since the beginning of the season. I assumed I blanked a line of dialogue from the first few episodes (they were throwing an awful lot at us awfully quickly) but I don't know if they've ever clarified his role with the Freelancers. I'm sitll not sure if he was a Freelancer before he hooked up with Liber8 or if the Freelancers recruited him once he got back here to the 2010s. Fun idea though... what if he is one of the people who was sent back in time to establish the freelancers to begin with. SO he comes from 2198 or whatever and travels back to 2077 to hook up with Liber8 so that he can travel back to our time... and ouch my head hurts. For all of my confusion, I really do love the crap out of this show.

You shut your filthy mouth.

Ministers are way scarier to me than dentists.

I was thinking Mass Effect but only because of the name.

Actually it's more likely the other way around; that the folks on earth (the Grounders at least, possibly the mountain dudes) would have developed diseases that the arc peeps haven't been exposed to. Also possible that the Grounders would have some stuff that the Mountain peeps wouldn't have a resistance to but the ark people are going to be at the highest risk of encountering previously unknown diseases.

I'm hoping this will at least have a feeling of complete story, though I'm certain lots of stuff will be left up in the air. Sigh, I really liked this show.

That just killed me. My favorite comics make me think and laugh (Carlin, Hicks, Izzard, etc.). I didn't even realize he hadn't gotten through. I kind of don't really keep up with the competition portions of this show. I fast forward to get to the routines, the judging (in case of good back and forth) and sometimes the backstory videos. If they go back to living in the house, I'll skip most of that, too. I just want the funny stuff.

In addition to helping with the bodies, I remain convinced that Lorne is going to get off scot free in the finale and that Lester will go down for Lorne's crimes. When Lorne killed Lester's bully back in the first few episodes, Lester as patsy for Lorne struck me and I haven't been able to shake it since. Or Lorne will die (off alone where no one finds him... bear trap?) and Lester will still go down for Lorne's crimes. I said Chekov's bear trap aloud right as Lester pulled the gun out of the trunk. Made me laugh but I can't really explain why. So about that theory of mine... The fact that those FBI guys are totally off book right now is kind of giving me pause; if my Lester/Lorne thing pans out, both they and Molly will still look wrong in hindsight and I can so see Bill noting that they were just file clerks disobeying orders if that came out.

It's been awhile since I read up but IIRC, it's been confirmed in the off show stuff (and I think mentioned in passing on show) that it was a terrorist thingy that started the arcfall. But it hasn't been revealed who did it so they could go humans who screwed themselves or small cabal of aliens who screwed the rest of their people (i.e. most Votons wouldn't be involved or have knowledge of it at all). Based on what they've laid out so far, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Oh man I just checked the Canadian official site for the show and they link to the video that won't play in Canada, too. That's... really bad business sense, that right there. It's here if you want to poke around and see if you can find it. There's a possibility the web proxy I'm going through may be spazzing out so maybe it's just borked for me.