Swansong

Not killing either boy also stayed true to the original. I wish they hadn't killed off Philip's mum, but I suppose the point was to establish him more firmly with Helen and Gabe. I think the ending was kind of clunky, but I bought Ryan realizing the situation was hopeless by the end once Helen (and I guess everyone else) was on to him. I mean he'd killed how many people including Bella to protect himself, tried to kill Lukas and everything had just unraveled worst instead.

Yeah. She isn't exactly written to be sympathetic which I guess wouldn't matter if she was written to be interesting. I had the same thought. He's just so over the top. Not just lying about the murder, but lying about the drugs. I'm glad he came clean and I know he save Philip's life, but he really hasn't been worth all the drama and despair he seems to have put Philip through.

Well she is an Essex girl at heart. lol

I remember her playing a rape victim whose younger brother was murdered on Waking the Dead and she was great in that so I've always known she had the acting chops. I really like her in this, but I'm not sure how seriously I can take a murderer lecturing someone on their failings because they killed someone.

I haven't read the books so I don't really get why Magnus felt so entitled to feel betrayed by Alec's decision to marry Lydia. Not on the story they've told us so far anyway. Disappointed because he's obviously attracted and was hoping something might happen maybe, but beyond a bit of a flirt and a drink they didn't exactly have much of a relationship and as someone else pointed out Alec might be attracted to Magnus, but for the bulk of the season we've been led to believe that Alec is in love with Jace hence part of the reason for his weirdness with him. They actually did a much better job establishing a friendship between Lydia and Alec so their marriage of convenience actually made some sense to me considering where their heads are supposed to be at and struck me as more believable than Alec abandoning everything to be with Magnus at the alter. That moment didn't feel earned at all which is a pity because I actually like the idea of them and think the actors have nice chemistry, but the show has really failed at the show rather than tell portion of their development.

Very late to the party, but I just wanted to say I can see why they made German a murderer and a creep at the end of season 2 . Not just because as the least likely suspect it would be a "shock", but it also allows the audience to ignore what a jerk Derek actually is in the whole Derek/Ahsha/German triangle so far. I'm not Ahsah's biggest fan, but I'm definitely not rooting for her to end up permanently with German, but I'm also not rooting for her and Derek either. I've realised I don't mind Ahsha when she's interacting with anyone not part of the triangle. The actress isn't very good outside of the dancing, but the character has the potential to be interesting if written right particularly with regards to Jelena's influence on her.

I suspect killing someone elses 'property' because you were mad would probably be more trouble than it was worth though especially financially. I assume that's why Kunte was hobbled when he kept running away instead of being outright killed because a dead slave has no value. It reminds me of the scene where that slave woman died giving birth in the field and Waller was upset, not because she'd been treated so horribly, but because her death cost him money and then said he was taking the money out of his overseers pay check. I assume anyone who killed a slave without the blessing of the slave owner would also be risking a significant financial loss.

Just because he has dirty hands doesn't mean he can't have lines even he won't cross. And he had a point. She's a black contestant who likely won't get that far or even get much air time except for when they make her look like 'Angry black woman' so quitting her degree to be on the show is unlikely to be worth it if she just wants a platform for her views. I was actually surprised that she fell for Rachael's bullshit that easily. Yes Rachael is supposed to be good at her job, but her argument wasn't even that compelling especially if you've watched the show which we were supposed to believe the contestant had. So I really hope she has other motives for deciding to do the show.

The only 'fight back' moment I had a problem with was the last one when George killed the slaveholder son and even that was more because I don't think the show did a good job of establishing that the slaveholder father had that much affection or much of a relationship with his slaves which I think they needed to do for that to pay off. I think someone said he was supposed to have some affection for Tom, but I don't remember that being established all that well or at all or maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. I mean he was nicer than his son, not hard to be, but he was also apparently willing to deny them food and then offered them that lame chicken and hog deal for them continuing to work the land. So the idea that he would help them after they killed his son, even in self-defense, even if he didn't like his son all that much and knew what an arse he was didn't really work. Plus it really wasn't a necessarily moment since the real empowering event was them getting to leave of their own free will not getting to kill a white slaveholder. Whereas the moment with Kunte Kinte worked for me because there were no real witnesses(well except the British soldiers who stumbled upon him after the fact and had their own agenda which he then played on) and the importance of Kunte being someone still very tied to his African roots and being a warrior were treated as very integral to his character and from what I've read they were more likely to fight back so I though the circumstances fit. I also thought Tom Lea was one of the better developed white characters and that the show did a pretty good job of establishing his relationship with Kizzy and Chicken George and Mingo and the kind of man he was and how that played into their relationship with him. I also agree it wasn't just a case of slaves being passive or going all Django, but something much more in between and complex in terms of resistance and I thought the series also did a great job of showing that not just with the rebellions and the 'killing moments', but also with the moments like slaves repeatedly trying to run away or less obvious things like the songs they sang and how they were used or trying to hold on to traditions or Kizzy learning to read and write despite the severe consequences or putting stuff in people's food or even playing up to their slave owners in the hopes of getting concessions in return.

I studied his play The Royal Hunt of the Sun for O-Level and I can still quote from it. I became a big fan of his plays.

They probably would have made a more likely match, but I'm still glad they resisted the urge to go there. Now if only they'd handled Nat/Bruce better since they didn't resist the urge to go there.

I don't see their love as particularly romantic, but I have to agree. I've been actually relieved that they didn't develop Clint and Natasha or Steve and Natasha into romantic relationships because 9/10 that level of commitment to one another would be a precursor for the inevitable romantic hook-up.

I've been catching up on Aloe Blacc's music and a younger Miles Brown dances in his music video for the song Loving You Is Killing Me.

Well that's an attitude largely perpetuated by men to make women responsible for men's reactions to them. If a woman goes out at night in sexy clothes she's asking for it because how can a man control his urges in those circumstances. It's probably not surprising that translates to how people respond to male and female nudity on screen. I assume most men do in fact have the ability to control themselves in the face of female nudity, but fiction doesn't exist in a vacuum and if you perpetuate a particular attitude off-screen it's not a shock that bleeds into how we address certain issues on-screen. I don't think the idea of the 'male-gaze' is necessarily attributed to all forms of female nudity because there are obviously times when nudity exists in a text where people may find it sexy, but that's incidental to the actual intent and there are times when it's pretty clear that a female character is only naked or partially naked because the creators were thinking men needed something nice to look at. But it makes sense that people, women in particular, might be more sensitive to female nudity as opposed to male nudity because there's a long recent history of young female characters especially being used as exactly that kind of eye-candy with relatively little else to counteract that image in comparison to men and that's only slowly begun to change and a long history off screen of men feeling a certain entitlement to women and their bodies not only because of attitudes that are perpetuated off screen, but reinforced on screen which isn't really true in the reverse. I agree it's hypocritical and I can't say I understand it, but Modern America was founded by the Puritans. lol. I guess some attitudes still linger. I don't think it's specifically tied to female nudity or at least not entirely. I guess people find sex scenes titillating in a way they don't necessarily find violence although people do tend to find it cool when female characters get to beat people up. People do tend to complain about violence, but it's usually in terms of it being glamourized so maybe it's harder for some people to separate the idea of titillation from sex in a way they can from violence. But other than that I've got nothing.

Pretty much this. The reason why a woman couldn't walk down the street with her top off the way men do is because the reaction would be so radically different because women's bodies and by extension women's breast are so sexualized to the point where, as you say, women can't even breast feed without some people seeing it as obscene. So in theory while male nudity on soaps and say the CW pretty much serves the same function as women wearing sexy clothes or female nudity does pretty much all the time i.e nice eye candy it still doesn't carry the same weight. Not when men still feel an entitlement to a female body just based on the way she dresses (or doesn't dress). I mean I think it's pretty silly to have a female character wearing a bra while they're having sex (and really if they're that afraid to show female breasts what happened to the strategically placed sheet) and I don't really have an issue with women being nude on screen, but I still think we're a long way from a time where even giving equal time to male and female nudity in a show would make those things truly equal.