SourK
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Posts posted by SourK
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Eh. I can undesrtand the logic of structuring the season this way, but I've never been that interested in the story at the Wall. It's not my absolute least favourite story (that honour goes to Bran), but it's near the bottom of the list. I can deal when it when it's mixed in with everything else, but watching a whole episode of this is too much for me.
Ygritte used to be one of my favourite characters, so I should be sad that she died, but, she was AWOL for so many episodes that it was almost as if she were dead already. We haven't been taken inside her POV, or shown what she's thinking and feeling lately, and I didn't feel connected with her anymore by the time she died. I think maybe it'll be different watching the whole thing back-to-back rather than one episode a week, but I didn't feel like there was a lot of tension about what would happen when those two met up again.
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I was actually pleased and impressed that Littlefinger chose to groom Lyssa's son rather than sticking him in a tower room somewhere. Training him is an investment in Littlefinger's long term success. After the conversation with the Vale family leaders, it seems like the son might be turned into a new rallying point for families against the Lannisters.
Initially, this sounded more to me like the Westeros equivalent of sending your step-son to boarding school, but then it sounded like maybe they were all going together at the end, so I'm confused.
ETA: Although her hair looked darker, I'm 99% sure it was just the lighting and not that she had dyed it as some others suggested earlier. There was a big window behind her so her face was shadowed, which would also explain why her hair looked darker in that scene. I'm pretty sure it was still red though.
Yeah, I couldn't tell either. At first I thought it was black, then I thought it was the lighting, then I looked at that photo in the costume thread where it's definitely black, and now I wonder how on earth she managed that. I guess, if she's going out, then the hair colour will help to disguise her, but with the hair and the clothes all at once, it comes across like a cheesy "evil" transformation, like this is Legend or something.
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Oh, god. They made me love him just so it would hurt more when he died! I honestly should have seen that coming, but I didn't at all and it's the first time I've been so surprised since season one.
I really liked this episode. I felt like it flew by. Maybe Tyrion's speech about the beetles was a little heavy-handed, but, otherwise, it was great.
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Yeah. I think Keisha's problem in service was indicative of her problem in general -- that she doesn't like to be responsible for things, and tries to delegate responsibility to someone else. It's fine to have Melanie cook the pasta, and to trust that she'll do that without watching her, but being responsible for the dish means checking the end result before it goes up, to make sure it turned out okay. I don't think it makes her a bad chef that she didn't do that, but it probably means this isn't the right competition for her. I don't see any possible way she could win at this point.
Also, I know that the show deliberately stresses them out so that they'll yell at each other, but every time they all stand around and yell at each other, I just wish they had a mediator or something to calm them down. It shouldn't be this hard to have a simple discussion. Plus, I wonder what you think if you're one of the normal people who works on this show, and you just stand there and watch the contestants go crazy as the weeks go by.
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I'm not sure the new Blood vs Water has returning players? If they said that, I missed it. Either way, I'm not super stoked about it. What I liked about that season had very little to do with the concept and more to do with particular people who played well. I'm much more in favour of their idea to cast people who play to win.
I get why Woo took Tony to the end. A lot of sporty people treat Survivor as a sports competition, where you whittle out the weaker competitors until only the strongest are left, and then it's "May the best man/woman win." It makes a certain kind of sense from that perspective, and he was very gracious about it. He seems like a nice guy.
TBH, I found myself cheering for Kass in the finale, because I think she gets a worse rap than she deserves, but it was nice to see that most people seem to be getting along now that the show's over, and most of the players seem to remember that they were playing a game.
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I think my absolute favorite Sansa moment last night was the expression on her face when she stood in the falling snow. I thought that was a kind of beautiful, yet heartbreaking moment... she grew up in Winterfell.
Also, props to the music people for that scene. My memory isn't good enough to know which theme they were playing, but it was definitely one of the ones associated with the Starks/Winterfell. I think they used to play it for Catelyn sometimes, too, but I could be wrong. Either way, it was a nice nonverbal way of showing us what Sansa must be feeling.
Didn't Littlefinger play a large part in the destruction of Catelyn's family? I thought that his actions up until this episode were an indication that he had moved on from his feelings about Catelyn and transferred them to some sort of need for power, but in this episode he declares her his only love twice. He was just playing on her emotions, right? Both times he proclaimed his love in front of Sansa.
It is interesting, because I don't know if we ever got to see Littlefinger's reaction to Catelyn's death (and the manner of it). If that were actually his reason for killing Joffrey, you'd think he'd have some self-blame, so he's just playing her, right? But it was satisfying to see Sansa's smile. If anyone thinks he was sincere about Catelyn, I would love to hear some other perspectives.
I think Littlefinger is sincere in believing that he loved Catelyn, but he's lying to Sansa about that being the reason he went after Joffrey. I suppose there's a possibility that he didn't intend for Ned to die when he betrayed the Starks in season one and blew up their whole family (and therefore he's mad at Joffrey), but I think it's much more likely that this is a lie.
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Agree! Agree! The tasks for this episode seemed to be chosen for spectacle value rather than as a way to challenge the teams. Without any big final roadblock to tie things together, it seemed kind of pointless.
The David Copperfield stunt was interesting except for the ending. Did people really believe that a nationally televised show would put people in danger by setting them on fire? C'mon. Killer fatigue does not explain stupidity.
I'm going to give the racers a pass on being concerned about this. I think that you wouldn't expect an established show like TAR to put you in danger on purpose, but accidents happen and things can go wrong, so, if you witnessed what looked like your partner getting hurt and everyone around was like, "Crap, that didn't go right," your first reaction would probably be to worry about what had happened.
Did Dave say "you'll do it" to Connor for the skydive, before it cut to him suiting up with no real explanation why? Perhaps there was an instruction on the clue saying that he had to do it. The RB totals were skewed at the end anyway.
I noticed that, too. It definitely seemed like he was planning to make Connor do it and then changed his mind. In the past, the clue has explicitly said that whoever did the first roadblock can't do the second, so I wonder if that was in play and they just didn't show it. I'm not sure.
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Trish lost some points both with her anti-Kass tirade and her vote. I guess she thought having unreliable Tony who has voted a different person than he told her twice as her only ally was more valuable than taking people she could actually maybe beat to the final. Trish made a couple of good moves that kept her alliance together, but overall her gameplay wasn't great.
I think Trish was playing a different game called "Who deserves to win for being an awesome teammate?" It goes right back to day one, when she took the extra rice instead of looking for the HII. I don't personally think that Survivor should be "Who deserves to win for being an awesome teammate?" but a sizeable minority of players seem to think that that's what it's about and, from that perspective, it makes sense that she would want to punish Kass for being a sucky teammate and go to the end saying, "I was loyal to Tony and Woo, and I carried all the fire wood, and I got the extra rice, etc, etc." It depends on what you expect to be rewarded for at the end.
Nevermind ... found the answer:
"CBS announced its Spring 2014 finale dates on Thursday (March 20) morning and the major switch is that for the first time in 10 years, "Survivor" has opted not to go with a Sunday finale and will, instead, wrap the "Cagayan" season on the aforementioned May 21, sticking with the normal Wednesday air schedule."
This pleases me because, for the first time in 10 yesrs, Survivor will not conflict with any of my other shows.
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The one thing I admire about Kass has nothing to do with her gameplay at all, and it's just that she's not intimidated by things like Tony yelling at her. She's basically impossible to bully, and I like that.
As far as the game goes, though, I agree that she's basically an emotional player. I'm not sure she even realizes it, but her decisions are ruled by trying to feel one-up to everyone else rather than trying to win the game. She's done a good job of voting out who she wants to vote out, but a really poor job of setting herself up with the jury, because she's either not thinking that far ahead, or she's assuming that she can win them over with a logical argument, which usually doesn't work.
As far as Trish's rant about Kass playing the victim, I don't see that. I think what she's describing is that Kass likes to push people's buttons and then accuses them of behaving poorly when they respond. That's not really playing the victim so much as it's playing a stupid power game to prove that you can make someone flip out.
In other news, I'm really happy for Spencer that he won immunity. If he can somehow get himself into the finals, he deserves to win the whole thing. I laughed a bit when Jeff said, "The question is, does Tony know how to do a slide puzzle?" in a tone of voice that clearly meant "The answer is, Tony does not."
Speaking of Tony, he's gone to that place where he gets mad at anyone else who tries to play the game, and that's my least favourite place for a player to be.
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I think this week, like many weeks, showed why King's Landing is the most interesting part of the show -- because that's where most of the characters actually cross paths and interact with each other, and you get this really rich, layered situation based on all of their past encounters. The trial was a great sequence because of that. It also built to a great ending, which is, again, based on the characters' relationships and how they're in an awkward social position. I love it.
I liked the scene with Danaerys and that slavers son, I liked that he told her his father spoke out against crucifying those children.I also liked that scene, though I still have issues with the plot line as a whole. When she crucified everyone, I remember thinking, "Um... so, let's say I was a rich man who didn't believe in slavery and wasn't powerful enough to stop it, and now I'm nailed to a post..." They telegraphed pretty clearly that that was a bad decision, since one of her henchmen told her not to do it, but I'm happy that they followed up on it.
Why didn't Yara just knock Theon out and then take him with her.
The whole sequence with Yara seemed like it was rushed or cut for time (especially given the awkward voiceover speech while they're sailing to wherever the hell Theon is -- I forget). I was much more interested in watchign the trial, so it's not like I was salivating for more Theon-centric scenes, but she sure didn't try very hard to rescue him. I mean, after she came all that way. After it was a big cliffhanger last season that she was coming for him. It seemed very anti-climactic. I know she wasn't expecting him to resist, but knocking him out and carrying him to the boat did seem like the clearest solution, so I don't know why nobody tried that.
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I'm sorry to see Tasha go, but she would have won if they'd kept her. She was good at most aspects of the game, though, and she was (I think) a fan favourite, so maybe they'll invite her back sometime?
The second Kass talked about people hating Tony not being a bad thing for her, I knew they would vote Tasha out. And much as I can't stand her, I can't knock that move. Even Kass I don't think is delusional enough to not realize how disliked she is, so it makes sense that she's going to think taking someone who may have pissed more people off is a good idea.
Yeah. I don't know if Kass has any chance with the jury, but her best bet is probably to go against someone like Tony, who's abrasive and rubs people the wrong way. I don't know if she can beat Tony, but I like her chances with Tony more than I like them with Tash, Woo, and Spencer.
I think Kass' liability as a player is that she has a knee-jerk reaction of alpha-rolling anyone who tries to take charge. That's why so many of the early boots were of people who tried to lead the Brains tribe, why she jumped ship to get rid of Sarah, etc, etc. It's something that probably works out well for her as a lawyer, but tonight it almost led her to get rid of Tony, who's probably the only person she might beat at F3. It's also what leads her to keep getting into petty arguments with people around camp, which contributes to her not being liked.
And say what you will about Tony, but he is smart in many aspects of the game. I loved how Tony easily realized that Woo's lie made no sense. I mean really, why would Spencer go along with a plan to get rid of Tasha, his only ally left in the game.As much as I dislike Tony, I was also impressed by this. Not that Woo's lie was good, but I've seen people fooled by pretty lame lies on this show. I was also impressed that he and Trish both understood right away that if Woo said nobody mentioned strategy, it would be a red flag. It's something that seems obvious, but that not everyone is able to do in the moment. If I have a criticism though, it's that Tony is too obvious about the things he notices. Rather than saving it for a confessional, or to discuss with his allies, after, he likes to blurt it out and tell the person that he sees what they're doing.
Honestly, Tasha did herself in when she told Kass what a horrible person Tony is, and right then you see the realization strike Kass's face that she has no chance against the brains. She should've just left well enough alone, Kass was pissed at Tony and there was no need to bring logic back into Kass's head.
It's a great Survivor moment, but she made a mistake, for sure. I think it follows from having had immunity for so many weeks in a row, and not having had the opportunity to get used to tolerating the anxiety that comes from worrying that you're about to get voted out. Whereas Spencer is pretty practised at dealing with this by now, because it's always him, she got nervous and started talking too much. An immunity run can be a double-edged sword that way, because it takes you out of the game and you don't get as good at surviving tribal councils by other means.
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I came thisclose to using the term retcon. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone.
Yeah, it feels a little retconny to me, too. It doesn't really contradict what we know (as far as I remember), but because it seems to come ouf of nowhere, and because there was no real indication, during the first three seasons, that we were supposed to believe anything we were told about that murder was untrue, it does feel like they're retoractively changing their minds. It makes it feel a little bit like one of those conspiracy shows where, every time the action needs to change, the characters are just like, "Ha! Everything I said before this conversation was a lie, and part of the long game I was playing to make you confused!" They need to be careful with that.
Another example of Sansa sticking up for Tyrion and I awwwww'd. Sigh. I did not see that ship coming but I can't get off the damned boat. ;)...
I just can't decide whether Littlefinger is just THAT good in the sack that he managed to convince her to do all this crazy shit and pine for him, or is she just that crazy and thus easy to manipulate?
I liked Sansa and Tyrion as a (fakeish kind of) couple because they were nice to each other, and that's pretty rare on this show. From a story perspective, I like that the writers arranged it so that Joffrey's murder (which should be a joyous occasion) actually disrupts one of the only stable relationships between kind people and leaves them both stranded in bad situations again.
For Lysa and Littlefinger, my impression is that Littlefinger is to Lysa as Catelyn was to Littlefinger -- i.e., the object of a crazed obsession that began during their childhoods. After the way he treated Catelyn, it's even more delicious to me that he got stuck with Lysa in the end.
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My relationship with Glee at this point is two parts hate-watch, one part hoping to see a good musical number. That said, I found this worse than usual, and Kurt telling that random woman that she had to forgive her mother and butting into their relationship ranks right up there with Mercedes telling Kurt he had to go to church, or everyone telling Quinn she couldn't smoke under the bleachers, in terms of me giving fictional characters the finger.
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I laughed and laughed at Littlefinger getting hoist by his own petard and having to marry Lysa and live with her creepy son. I mean, clearly he's going to kill her, because she can't keep her mouth shut (that was some awkward exposition, BTW; this show usually does a better job), and how hard will it really be to pretend she just fell through that big, gaping hole in the floor that they like to keep open? Still, I feel like he's not very good at Game of Thrones. Yeah, he's moving up in the world, but he keeps getting all these crap titles, and ruins, and now there's all this stuff -- he's just very funny to me. I'm sure he'll do something awful and terrifying to make me hate him, soon, but for now I really enjoy it.
Serious question about Essos, though. Is Dany now living in wherever the hell place Shae comes from? Or are they conicidentally dressing the same? Or are they actually not dressed the same, and I'm bad at noticing the details of dresses (all of these things are possible)?
From a character perspective, it would make sense to me if Dany's story was ultimately that she decides she wants to live in Essos (and rule it?) and that Westeros is a foreign land to her that she no longer has interest in conquering, but, from a TV show perspective, she's always been kind of disconnected from everyone else, and her storyline is underdeveloped because of that. We're now in the fourth season, and she has even less to do with the other characters than she did at the beginning. I like her as a character, and I get that she and her dragons are one of the most iconic aspects of the show, but it's getting pretty weird.
Speaking of story lines that are boring, I enjoy that we haven't seen Rickon in ages.
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Tash had nerves of steel during that immunity challenge. Imagine how panicky you would get listening to Probst blather on and on while you are trying to concentrate.
Yeah, one of my favourite moments was that shot they got of Probst standing right by her ear yelling about how close she was and whether or not she was going to pull it off. I usually don't think about how distracting it would be to have him yell out everything you do (except in the balance tasks, where I'm amazed they don't fall down as soon as he starts talking to them), but that was intense.
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It did bug that Skye didn't just let Deathlock kill Ward. I mean, I would've, and Ward would never make out with me (I'm close to twice his age). But that's the way they roll on these network shows.
Yeah. I was actively cheering for her to call their bluff and let Ward die. Even if it wasn't a bluff, then let them kill one of their own dudes. Even outside of it making sense on a character level, I was also hoping that the show would be smarter than to use a gimmick where Skye gives in to that kind of manipulation. It's such a cliche that I was really hoping for a clever reversal, and I was disappointed that we didn't get one.
I think the show wussed out on an awful lot of things in that scene, actually. It would have been horribly uncomfortable to watch them torture Skye for information, but there was a moment where I thought that was what they were going to do, and that, for good or ill, that would have been a bold choice from the writers (you know, given how horribly uncomfortable it would be). But, no. Again, we fall back on something safe and familiar and they torture her by threatening Ward instead.
Only issue I have is that Ward looses a ton of cool points (cool in an evil way, of course), now that he actually has "feelings" for Skye. Damnit, Ward. Just embrace the evil.
Yeah. Ward became a thousand times more interesting once he randomly became evil -- er, I mean, once it was "revealed" that he had "always" been evil. It's not just that the character is more interesting, but the actor is much more emotive and charismatic in his performance now that Ward's personality is "being evil" instead of "being the stodgy military guy." Now that I see what he can do, I wish that he had made different choices about how he pitched the performance early on. Ward could have been an interesting guy if we had seen a little more feeling behind his control.
That said, I have a hard time believing his feelings for Skye, and it makes him seem like much less of a badass that he wants to keep whining about it. I liked him with May, god dammit. Partly because -- and this relates to what I said above -- at least that was unexpected.
I would watch the hell out of The Maria Hill & Melinda May show. If they add Simmons to the mix, I would buy the DVDs and download it on I-tunes!Myself as well. Myself as well.
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At this point, Kass and Spencer have both said some really nasty things about each other, and it makes me dislike both of them. I'm kind of pulling for Spencer anyway, because he's such an underdog, and because he's Tasha's main alliance, and I still like her the best.
I'll be honest and say that I only really hate immunity idols when they go to people I don't like. I'm hypocritical like that.
Part of me is actually hoping that Tony makes it to final three, just so we can see what Sarah has to say to him, because it's clear that she hates him SO MUCH.
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I laughed out loud when Mrs. S said that she tossed her apartment and kidnapped Kira to "confuse the situation." I think we've stumbled on the only reason anyone does anything on this show.
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I like the way they handled Joffrey's murder. You had an opportunity to notice the clues as it happened (I totally didn't notice them, but I know other people did), and then they strongly implied a lot of it last week, and then this week they came out and told us how it happened. I think that was the right way of doing it, so that there's a little bit of mystery, but it doesn't become the dominating question this season. Also, because they put the clues there, and because they introduce the solution gradually over the next two episodes, it all makes sense when you hear about it, and you feel ready to accept the answer. Pretty deft writing, there.
The awesome thing is that Jamie gave his sword to Brienne. She at least is honorable enough to wield what was once Ice. Wonder if Tywin will notice?
I wonder WTF Jaime's telling people about her at all. We kind of glossed over the part where he explained that, even though she was working for their enemies and taking him to King's Landing as a hostage, they are now somehow friends and she should just be allowed to hang around the castle. I have no idea what he's going to say now that he gave her the family sword and wished her well on her trip to help Sansa. I mean, I guess he could say, "She went home and, unrelatedly, I lost my sword," but someone's gonna put the two together. Especially if they start hearing about a really big woman with a really big sword asking people if they've seen a little redhead girl.
The Jamie of Season 1 and the Jamie of Season 4 are the same person. He has never expressed any kind of remorse for pushing Bran out of the window or for killing his Lannister cousin. He's a monster with good looks and a title who is capable of doing nice things for some people.
This is probably a good way of looking at it. What's weird for me is that I feel like, especially with the direction SNAFU last week, the way the character's coming across on screen is different from what's probably intended (I have no outside info about him, and haven't read the books). I think we're supposed to see him as mostly a good guy (especially since the show has worked so hard to make us think he was doing a pubilc service by killing The Mad King, and that he's been unfairly maligned over that). This week, he's buying all this armour for Brienne and exchanging meaningful looks with her, sort of like the Westeros Knight version of Pretty Woman, and I get that there's supposed to be tension between Brienne bringing out the best in him and Cersei bringing out the worst, but... the characterization is not the best.
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I don't really care that much if the teams are mean to each other, but I hate it when they copy each other. I hate it at the best of times, when there's no alliance, and people who get to a task first lose their lead by having the other teams copy them, and I hate it even more when there is an alliance and people just tell each other the solution and no one has to try.
I do think it's interesting, though, that strategies have evolved to the point where the weaker teams are banding together to try to beat the stronger teams. I'm not sure that's the race I want to watch, but it's interesting.
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S02.E13: We Have Manners. We're Polite.
in Orange Is The New Black
I'm saving my season comments for the season thread, but this episode:
That felt weird to me, too, but there's a problem with Vee from a storytelling perspective, which is that she seems like a character from a different (and darker, and better) show. So, unless they want Orange is the New Black to become a continuing sage about gang wars and drug dealers -- which I don't think they do, since it's not in keeping with the overall tone they've established -- they had to get rid of her somehow. I actually think that it would have made more sense for them to send her to max (which is where she was headed anyway, when she escaped) or to just have her disappear down the mystery hole, and we never knew what happened. Killing her with the van felt especially cheap. (I think it was also an attempt to tie very disparate stories together, but, I don't think it worked that well).
This. I don't understand why Larry is still part of the show. I did like him with Polly, but he's not important to the story anymore.
Me too. She was driving so badly, I thought for sure they were going to get T-boned by a truck or something, and I was really tense waiting for it.