sjohnson

Perhaps Kreizler is a dick because his damaged arm is symbolic emasculation and he's compensating? At any rate, I don't think there is a serious triangle. It's Sara/John and Mary/Laszlo, and any gestures towards triangularity are for camouflage, obfuscation and denial, not least to themselves. Sarah is reluctant to admit to feelings for John because 1) love is giving up a career in this time and 2) John is a man-slut. Kreizler won't admit to feelings for Mary because 1) a patient 2) she's the help and he's dependent, which galls him 3) the woman is jealous and demanding and may feel she has the right to hurt him if he pisses her off. John is reluctant to admit because 1) he knows he's a man-slut, and is ashamed and 2) very wounded about being the sensitive artistic type while Sarah is so much not, but (so far) successfully competing with men in a way he can't and 3) he knows on some level he's kind of neurotic....which is why he's so attached to Kreizler. Mary is the strongest character in some ways because she has zero problems with marking her territory, which is Kreizler. At least that's how it looks to me as of now. A Freudian could write an article about the symbolism of the shoe buttoning. Mary left the door open and the undergarments on the floor on purpose, to taunt Kreizler, because she was pissed. I wonder if he'd have reacted to her challenge that way if the madam hadn't wound him up? New data: Pitons, and of course silver smile. It is very unlikely silver smile isn't the killer I think, because silver smile coincidentally talking about taking the boy to a castle in the air by coincidence is to much. A regular, yes, but that too?

Rewriting the timeline isn't necessarily paradoxical. It is only paradoxical when it prevents the creation of a time machine, and the time traveler(s) who caused the change. Unless... If an artifact or person appears without an origin, or has two or more origins, then that is a paradox. Obviously the question arises in regard to the journal. Any timeline change that would undo the Lucy who wrote the journal is a paradox.

Rufus and Lucy as I recall were pretty straightforwardly justifiable homicides (killing in self defense, to save another...there is the gray area where a person committing a crime refuses to surrender, is not fleeing and is armed, constituting a potential threat [for police, potential threats are capital crimes in themselves].) Wyatt, despite the common insistence he has no weight to his presence, is pretty ruthless but he no doubt considers it either combat, or, when he tries to kill Flynn, orders. The superior officers who ordered Wyatt to kill Flynn are entitled by precedent to kill anyone designated a target without it being deemed murder, even if it is a US citizen, even a child, no charges necessary, much less trial.

1) Because she is the one with the powers, including the power to disappear seconds after he approached her 2) Because she knew exactly who Tyler was and wasn't being polite to a stranger 3) Because an angel/Warrior of God doesn't enjoy small talk for its own sake, she actually did like Tyler's attentions and he didn't imagine that 4) Because she knew exactly how upset Tyler was and didn't do anything about it, not even sending her own email with a brush off 5) Because she knows that no matter how oddly persistent Tyler's romantic attachment is, he's not someone to be afraid of, because she's got the powers 6) Because fearing and hating harmless losers isn't good 7) Because having only seen her once, he can't be a stalker As for the writing, Tyler's adoration is supposed to not be adorable because Tyler is cute. It's supposed to be about how Yvette is adorable, an in universe character tribute. Whether love for mankind so great that she would descend from heaven is too pure to actually love a man is not a dramatic issue at the moment, but this could also be about laying pipe for that.

The blackout business is even stranger the second time around. The theology behind that has to be complex. The idea that babies are pure and innocent isn't, it just denies original sin. This is actually a common position but it is rarely stated openly. When Yvette discovers she's becoming more human, she is also discovering that she should interact with more humans, especially Tyler. Instead she leaves Kevin out to dry. Making Kevin "confess" to Tyler without being able to explain that he knew for a fact Tyler was rejected by the Lady in Laos in a way is lying to Tyler. It gives Tyler the impression that Kevin has been diverting him from the pursuit of the real Lady. Jason Ritter playing Tom Cruise in Cocktail? This show is ruthlessly inventive. "Two hours of my life I'm never getting back." Young people are ridiculous! Nate and Amy...well, I suppose somebody else's sex games/roleplaying looks faintly ridiculous and highly undignified from the outside.

It may seem odd, but Mary's insistence on *significant looks* struck me as innuendo about Kreizler aimed more at the witnesses. Which would be the equivalent of John Moore leering at Sarah in front of strangers, I think. The only time it didn't seem like that, part of the shirt scene, I didn't perceive Kreizler to be angry or superior. Oddly enough, since I happen to think profiling isn't very accurate and not very helpful, Kreizler's fumbling seems much more forgivable to me in a period setting. The interest in the mechanics of the crimes is not misplaced. You don't find locked room mysteries in real life because it's the solution that conclusively identifies the killer. The technical requirements strike names off the suspect list. It's death in the open, where anybody or his brother could have done the deed that are hard to solve. The description "silver smile" is almost certainly inspired by something behavioral. Kreizler should have been interested in that. They don't care what happened with Moore because they despise him. Even Sarah, who has some favorable feelings for him, felt more comfortable pretending she was interested in a doctor. Weak on plot developments I thought. But very, very good on society, which is plenty good enough to make this worth while watching. The old HBO series Rome was the same way. It too was hugely underrated. My opinions only.

Every single body has a stack. Every single re-sleeve displaces a stack. It's musical chairs. Only clones and 3D printed bodies will ever extend life in general. It is not clear why these should be so expensive, especially since the rich would prefer their original bodies (indeed, it is supposed to be safer for the person's mental health!.) There would be more research money put into cloning than in Viagra. I forgot to mention, though, that the usual fate of the poor would be a shadowy afterlife in a construct, spun up into VR. Or so it would seem.

In the end, this is a woman is the devil story, and the man killing the devil is both a conquering hero fantasy and a suffering hero fantasy, plus it is a judgment of Paris story, where the hero chooses between the three women who simply must have his seal of approval. But I guess the woman is the devil story is balanced by the diva ex machina story? At any rate, you can't deny this is a complex story, can you? You can? Kovacs giving up Quell did seem like a sacrifice, because I forgot she wanted everyone in the galaxy to die.

My attention has started wavering but I could have sworn I saw her sleeping with Kovacs. And that would be because she feels like she's sleeping with Ryker...even though according to the story she's known all her life that's not so. And sleeping with him is why I don't think she's just trying to save the body for when she clears Ryker and he is taken off ice, as they call it (I think.) If Ryker's RD'd (I've lost track,) as someone Neo-Catholic, she'd feel like Kovacs murdered Ryker for the sleeve, instead of feeling such an attraction. Women in general, and Ortega in particular, are not supposed to be so fixated on the body. And this show isn't challenging stereotypes. As witness Isaac and his boy friend Brevlov.

It's amazing how much a *second* cage fight sequence really lowered the quality of the show for me. It always comes across to me any more as insisting people are just rabid animals insane with blood lust. So much so, I'm starting to have trouble accepting the premise that immortal capitalists mean capitalism is immortal too. Or that everybody can live forever, because *where will they get the bodies?!* Calling them sleeves doesn't make them mass produced. If cloning is too expensive, then most people won't be immortal. And why don't Neo-Catholics object that taking another sleeve is murder, and that is what's wrong. Or that Ortega somehow doesn't know how things work and that "Ryker" isn't Ryker any more. And the seeming contradiction between the cryptofascist aesthetic of Envoys and revolutionism is resolved by discovering their program is in fact genocide, albeit genocide for everyone in excess of a century. Of course, if I was enjoying the show more I would be too distracted for this stuff to come to the surface of my mind.

Mutton shunting sounds so bad I'm afraid to imagine.

Do not think it was Bancroft who was spying on his wife. Did she deliberately put on a show for the minidrone? But the escapade is I think why Bancroft was throwing Kovacs into the fight and giving a weapon to the opposition. But why would anyone keep that thing in a hardwood case? Was it an antique? Kovacs, by the way, is Magyar aka Hungarian, which is not Slavic, even if it is in "Eastern" Europe. (Neither is Romanian, Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish, Roma and Greek.) The writers messing up the research is one thing, but Kovacs would likely know. The mob baying at people fighting in a cage match is so lame that making the mob the rich, instead of the usual proles, doesn't help. Nor does the null gravity. One has to wonder what ordinary people are supposed to do for a living in this world. I'm afraid that the world building is very superficial and slipshod. I think it was the late Ursula LeGuin who commented it was somehow easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism (or maybe it was the late Mark Fisher?) As to the nature of the Envoys, on one level Morgan wanted the reader to be indignant about the bloodsucking ruling class. But on another level, he finds all rebels to be sexy like Nazis in porn. My opinion of course, not an established fact. So the last Envoy isn't truly believable. I'm fanwanking it as the guy remembers seeing his adored Quell killed before his eyes, and he's in a funk. (Technically there's the defeat of his cause, whatever that was, but as I say although formally Takeshi Kovacs is a political revolutionary, functionally there's really only the Manly Man taming the savagery of unmanly men and unmanly simulacra of real men.) But I'll keep watching, because I can be misled by this show. In the episode Fallen Angel, I took the title to refer not just to Kovacs/Lucifer, but to the fallen woman, prostitute, Lizzie Elliott, and further identified her with the woman who fell from the sky. This seemed so inevitable I didn't even see the color coding that marked Lizzie as Vernon's daughter! Of course that was Henchy! Although in my defense, the whole sleeve concept means superficial appearance tells you nothing, not even who Vernon's daughter is.

Well, the fallen angel is a literally fallen woman, Lizzie Elliott. Presumably the body is evidence of some crime/scandal. Except I don't understand how anyone could the possibility of Lizzie herself coming out of her trauma loop and telling people what happened isn't the real problem. Watch this space I guess. Do believe it was Ortega who had hidden the Henchy daughter's body. She felt remorse I think and took the stack, so she could give the mother the body. What I'm thinking at the moment is that she's the one who tried to off the evil billionaire, and that's why she's so antsy about Kovacs. Will Yun Lee played Tak in a flashback. Did they cast him as a joke, because he's playing Taka in Falling Water? James Purefoy doing full frontal while Joel Kinnaman is ostentatiously shieldid is like Thandie Newton and Evan Rachel Wood: It's the ones who are over the crest of the hill who have something to prove.

For some reason, the Richard K. Morgan books I remember are Market Forces, Thirteen and The Steel Remains. Can't even remember if I've read all the Takeshi Kovacs. I am confused as to whether the female voice is Quell Falconer, who sounds like his leader, or his sister. Somehow Dichen Lachmann seems to be the sister. Envoy=gun kata, so the primary influence so far is Equilibrium, not Blade Runner. There is more Western than noir in this too, because Kovacs is supposed to be a defeated rebel, but this has a right wing slant where the rebel is admirable, a la Firefly. And James Purefoy is reprising Mark Antony from Rome. At least that's what it looks like so far. But hey, I'm in, so far.

I agree with others he was terrified before he was drugged. John Moore has been in brothels many times, there's no obvious reason this one should be so traumatic from the moment he sees the shoes hanging. As for being sickened, the notion that Moore hasn't seen girls of a suspicious youth strikes me as highly unlikely. Nor does it seem likely to me that even Moore is so gullible as to think the women he's seen were free from compulsion of some sort or other. I think the show has skipped showing the young girls and showing the exploitation so obviously because it is conflating pedophilia and homosexuality. And, really, if this were supposed to be such an unusual establishment in purveying very young children, I don't think it would limit itself to one sex. As to Kreizler being an ass all the time? When Sarah Howard said John wasn't as strong as he wanted Kreizler to think, Kreizler snorted. Sarah Howard pointedly asked him if he thought she was funny. Keeping Moore's confidence, Kreizler said nothing...seeming to Sarah Howard to just be dicking around. On reflection though I think Kreizler this was more admirable than blabbing what Moore said.

No, I think the writers are well aware that many viewers know Evans is out, and they mean this to make Evans' portrayal of a man with sexual hangups more compelling. People can't unknow these things while they watch TV. It's why every homicide isn't a trauma, we know they're actors. I don't know exactly how Evans was playing the final scene because I'm not clever enough to interpret an eyeball. I'm afraid I do think the show is conflating pedophilia and homosexuality in the visuals, which has nothing to do with Evans' performance. I don't know why John Moore would be terrified throughout the entire sequence (as opposed to after he collapses and the men come in.) I do think John Moore was supposed to be sickened because it was pedophilia.

Re Kreizler's 21st century mores instead of 19th century, consider Walt Whitman, Victoria Woodhull and the Oneida colony under Humphries just in the US. Further afield were Edward Carpenter in England. And John Addington Symonds had already published A Problem in Greek Ethics, and perished. As for the specifics of Kreizler's alienist practice, this was the period when Krafft-Ebbing, Albert Moll, Magnus Hirschfeld and Sigmund Freud either had established careers, or were coming into note. The phrasing of the dialogue tends to slip into 21st century. But it's the period sounding dialogue most people dislike, dismissing it as stilted. If anything I fear it is that people are overestimating the 21st century's attitudes. There seem to me to be millions of people who are not that sympathetic to a Kreizler now, even if they are too sophisticated technologically to try using leeches on their daughter.

Further thoughts prompted by a Genevieve Valentine review. She was exercised over the portrait scene, badly misreading it. The point of the scene is not that John thought she was fat, or that the audience is supposed to think she was vain. The point was that the rich mother was ordering the lowly artist to idealize the portrait. Not all of us in the audience would think she was fat. And, of those who do, not all would seize upon an occasion for scorn. This show is very much about gestures to modern sensibilities while indulging old ones. If that was inartistic in Mad Men for all those years, it’s inartistic here for ten weeks. Lastly, as it happens Luke Evans is out, which gives some strange vibes to the final scene. John Moore is in a panic over being raped vs. John Moore is overwhelmed with feelings? The whole sequence plays a little fast and loose with ages, just enough younger boys, including some who may be prepubescent, to equate homosexuality and pedophilia (where have we heard that one before?) Whether the prostitutes are taking female persona as a kind of denialism of male/male sexuality, or as signifiers of (female) inferiority, rather than expressing their own transgender natures, doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Think Roosevelt realized Kreisler told him Sarah Howard had provided the information,. And Kreisler is correct that Roosevelt gave permission in a totally plausible deniability way. Stevie may save Moore's bacon. Socialist Labor Party was a real thing. Jack London was perhaps the most famous member. It may be like the Wobblies, still around, sort of.

^^^So much of season one was spent wondering if the Woman in Red was real, it didn't feel like they were committed to it. And as I recall after it was established she was real, she was a prisoner, which meant she and Burton weren't a thing. But on second thought, there's Woody and the mayor this season. Of course Bad Things are happening there too...

It would be hilarious if the mayor found out how Woody invaded her dreams, then shot him in a rage. I do wonder why they terminated all the other character stories but kept his. Have no idea why they're so bashful about hooking up Burton and Tess. But it's Hollywood maybe they're still nervous about interracial. It sort of doesn't count since Brochere is French, but you know how conservative Hollywood is. (No, selling sex is not left-wing.) Has Alex split from her wife Christine? Still awkward dealing with the retcons....there are categories of dreamers with specific powers now? But, Taka's dream about Sabine and his mom Kumiko being just a mistake affected me. There are things I wish was just a mistake and I can relate.

Also, Sarah Howard wouldn't go to work without a corset any more than a secretary today goes to work in a flannel sweat suit or muumuu. Something so irremediably no class is something no respectably ambitious woman would do. Corsets like that were haute couture.

February is a sweeps month. It's doesn't necessarily match the calendar, so the sixth may not be. And January 30 is State of the Union. So I'd say ABC at least thinks they can get more with a new Kevin than Match Game repeat. That said, I'm not optimistic.

Re Sarah's corset: I don't think natural rebels join the police force. The semi-official view was announced I think by Alan Sepinwall, who is a reliably second-rate reviewer. The subject is old hat. And it's a period piece (which is implied to be old hat too.) Therefore no one need really watch. I think the real issue is that TNT is not to be accepted as competition for FX. Professional reviews are part of the publicity machine. As an amateur reviewers, with no ax to grind, I would like to point out that Hannibal was a terrible serial killer show, although it was an extraordinary homoerotic fantasy, unless you really get off on fetishized murder. That Mindhunter (and the overlooked Manhunt: Unabomber) is actually best when it is about the folly of profiling. That Penny Dreadful may be set in the same period but it was not even the same genre, and ditto The Knick. And Boardwalk Empire is not even the same period, and looks at crime from the criminal perspective. Looking only at the sets is rather superficial I think. Sepinwall is so desperate to preempt viewing he even tries to drag in CSI, noticing for once CSI was a true procedural. The thing is, it is pretty obvious that, for better or for worse, The Alienist had anticipated the Mad Men tactic of seeing now in its origins. The funny thing is, the real objection might be that Criminal Minds has burnt us with hundreds of hours. Except that a superficial glance shows the execution to be far superior, I think. I don't know whether The Alienist will end up being a complete success. Flaws in the source material may kill it in the end. But I do for some reason feel contrarian, and want to kick back against the anti-buzz. And watch it first.

Being too cool to care about other people, like Deadpool, is heroically cool. Every EMT is someone who wants to save people, but not every EMT is a hero. Every lawyer wants to save people from jail, and every accountant wants to save people from financial disaster, and they aren't heroes. Being a hero is about beating the odds, about being a winner, not just for people whose jobs are to save lives. That's why there are sports heroes. Being a hero is like being a star, glamorous, exciting. Walter White as Heisenberg is the ultimate winner, defeated only by cancer, which is why he's the hero. The twenty-five year old virgin is by definition not a winner. That's why he, like Hank, is an anti-hero. (There is a version of anti-hero that superficially resembles this, which is the protagonist who is too sensible to buy into false ideals of "right." You meet with these largely in anti-war stories. Deadpool is not against false ideals. He's very into the ideal of love, of an especially supercool physically sexual kind. In that field he's such a winner he conquered the amazingly perfect Morena Baccarin, who is out of humanity's league.) Also, Danny meets your own definition of hero. When he abandons his post, he doesn't care about doing the right thing. Which also highlights that Danny does "learn" something besides not hitting everyone all the time. If you don't take your own definition seriously, why should I? It's painful for vicarious identification to be a loser. As you say, there's "only so much of that I can take." But to be honest, I'm so old I don't identify much with any characters any more. I'm not sure but we might agree on the fascination of the Rand/Meachum family dynamics (aka "supporting characters.") That's what kept me watching the series. But maybe you mean Colleen Wing, who I find to be as dull as dirt. Trying to be fair, there is one huge thing Danny Rand doesn't learn, which is that he is the victim of a cult. Except....is it really a cult if it delivers real supernatural powers? Doesn't that make it a True Religion? Hoping this comes up in season two, myself. But perhaps the real lesson is that putting magic into a story keeps it from being serious?