Two shows for today (or a few days ago)
Apr. 12th, 2019 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Widow – ep 2
The writers were still on it for the pacing, with a reveal just before the ad break here, a car explosion before an ad break there, and even though I thought it was coming from the camera’s behaviour, I still gasped at the car blowing up, although most of Emmanuel’s backstory had been revealed. And thus another widow was made.
Admittedly, the fact that first wife Gaelle was apparently an unknowing suicide bomber, in the first real answer we got to the many mysteries thrown up by the show, does make me suspect the rest of the series won’t be as good as the build-up.
Georgia was, unsurprisingly, not put off by the warning to GO HOME, and showed enough energetic curiosity to put off an actual reporter. Certainly kidnapping a child for information was crossing a line, no matter how bouncy her ponytail was, I mean, desperate and driven she was. We also learned that her suicide attempt wasn’t after the plane crash as we’d assumed, which raises questions about her marriage with Will.
Judith Gray stepped forward (well they hadn’t cast Alex Kingston for nothing) and seemed more likeable than I’d thought. Sensible and having to put up with a lot. And then the car bomb on her drive, which showed that someone was serious about Georgia dropping the investigation and going home. And it couldn’t have been Peter, as he was far away, doing his deal with the militia, and Will probably wouldn’t kill his wife…and as we learned, he was being transported in a box. And definitely alive in case anyone was doubting that. I don’t think this is a ‘secret twin’ kind of show.
Judith not asking Georgia about getting the police’s advice sort of struck me as odd, but then, why wouldn’t you and why shouldn’t she use her contacts? Georgia didn’t seem much interested in official help – possibly because of what happened with the plane crash. But then after Emmanuel’s death, Georgia’s reticence became more pointed.
The scene with the newly made widow was pretty good. Emmanuel playing wingman to Georgia on her investigation when his wife was in danger from her violent ex shifted my sympathy a bit.
And I’d been wondering if Beatrix was working for someone up until she researched the plane crash and it seemed like Ariel had been lying, and for all her bluntness, she suddenly appeared vulnerable – although why would you lie about a thing like that? And not in the way she accused him of, but when the facts were easily accessible. Also, it was a big deal for her to invite him back to her home to tell her the truth.
So, it turned out some more of the facts were ‘facts’ – remember that there was an opposition politician on the plane? So, I don’t know how the solutions to the mysteries will all come together (and surely Charles Dance’s character will return, because Charles Dance), although this episode had a lot of the characters theorising and musing possibilities along with the audience.
MotherFatherSon – episode 6
Kathryn and Caden made their preparations (and Max made his…better).
We started off with the Prime Minister’s family replaying the main family’s dynamics. I’m pretending this is an AU where the phone hacking scandal didn’t happen, people use the internet differently (certainly not for accessing news, oh no), ISIS didn’t happen, as such, and THE PM HAS HAD NO MEDIA TRAINING. Yes, this is where suspension of disbelief first broke down in the episode, with the PM looking all shifty in front of the camera and no media adviser telling the mother to say something. Oh, come on.
It’s also a huge problem that the writing is ignoring how getting a PM works in the UK.
We got a little bit more about Kathryn’s family life (woah this show does not depict a happy picture of the nuclear family – see also Scott and his mother), and how her mother didn’t want the fact that her only line was stopping her sex-addict creep husband from abusing their daughter to come out. !!!
Caden’s conversation with Orla was enlightening, because apart from the warning, I thought he was mainly talking about his feelings, and she kept referring to ‘us being in love’. Pronouns as giveaways for the win! Then the stuff about the tribunal and her feeling like the weak link in Max’s pressure games happened – but the gardener therapist debunked that. So, Orla has survivor’s guilt leading to hallucinations or something?
Kathryn showed steel against the hot but disappointing physio. She then went on to set up an interview with Maggie. I wouldn’t have used her own mobile in the hospital that Max had paid off myself, but I watch spy shows. Still, not surprising that Max gatecrashed the interview.
The now sacked reporter man came home to find his wife still in her nightclothes. I looked askance at her claim that they’d be fine, but maybe she works from home or has a trust fund?
For all that Scott beatifically offered himself and love and kindness to Kathryn, I am more suspicious of him and his temper. It seems that Mrs Max No. 2 is getting suspicious of Max, and given that she’s carrying his child, I wish Kathryn could step aside from trying to save her son and have a word…but then, maybe her mother’s right and she’s still in love with Max. But another child brought up by him?
Meanwhile, the question of Max’s assistant – who really should resign given her qualms, but I daresay we’ll have to wait a bit for her to be the smoking gun who reveals that Max’s current tactic of blaming Caden for everything is a lie – was crucial, with Sarah Lancashire’s Demagogue (she’s obviously having a blast, especially in the speechifying) sucking up to her mum. The mum eventually saw through the scary lady’s politicking. But will it be enough with Max having listened and decided she’s the one? (How much does he believe that codswallop he sold, really?)
And then we had a ‘David Budd wouldn’t have fallen for that’ moment, where Max’s story led to the death of a Caden figure.
Apparently the new series of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been back on UK screens for a few weeks, but I didn't know, so I'll have to catch up on those epsiodes. It's always been a catching-up type of show for me.
The writers were still on it for the pacing, with a reveal just before the ad break here, a car explosion before an ad break there, and even though I thought it was coming from the camera’s behaviour, I still gasped at the car blowing up, although most of Emmanuel’s backstory had been revealed. And thus another widow was made.
Admittedly, the fact that first wife Gaelle was apparently an unknowing suicide bomber, in the first real answer we got to the many mysteries thrown up by the show, does make me suspect the rest of the series won’t be as good as the build-up.
Georgia was, unsurprisingly, not put off by the warning to GO HOME, and showed enough energetic curiosity to put off an actual reporter. Certainly kidnapping a child for information was crossing a line, no matter how bouncy her ponytail was, I mean, desperate and driven she was. We also learned that her suicide attempt wasn’t after the plane crash as we’d assumed, which raises questions about her marriage with Will.
Judith Gray stepped forward (well they hadn’t cast Alex Kingston for nothing) and seemed more likeable than I’d thought. Sensible and having to put up with a lot. And then the car bomb on her drive, which showed that someone was serious about Georgia dropping the investigation and going home. And it couldn’t have been Peter, as he was far away, doing his deal with the militia, and Will probably wouldn’t kill his wife…and as we learned, he was being transported in a box. And definitely alive in case anyone was doubting that. I don’t think this is a ‘secret twin’ kind of show.
Judith not asking Georgia about getting the police’s advice sort of struck me as odd, but then, why wouldn’t you and why shouldn’t she use her contacts? Georgia didn’t seem much interested in official help – possibly because of what happened with the plane crash. But then after Emmanuel’s death, Georgia’s reticence became more pointed.
The scene with the newly made widow was pretty good. Emmanuel playing wingman to Georgia on her investigation when his wife was in danger from her violent ex shifted my sympathy a bit.
And I’d been wondering if Beatrix was working for someone up until she researched the plane crash and it seemed like Ariel had been lying, and for all her bluntness, she suddenly appeared vulnerable – although why would you lie about a thing like that? And not in the way she accused him of, but when the facts were easily accessible. Also, it was a big deal for her to invite him back to her home to tell her the truth.
So, it turned out some more of the facts were ‘facts’ – remember that there was an opposition politician on the plane? So, I don’t know how the solutions to the mysteries will all come together (and surely Charles Dance’s character will return, because Charles Dance), although this episode had a lot of the characters theorising and musing possibilities along with the audience.
MotherFatherSon – episode 6
Kathryn and Caden made their preparations (and Max made his…better).
We started off with the Prime Minister’s family replaying the main family’s dynamics. I’m pretending this is an AU where the phone hacking scandal didn’t happen, people use the internet differently (certainly not for accessing news, oh no), ISIS didn’t happen, as such, and THE PM HAS HAD NO MEDIA TRAINING. Yes, this is where suspension of disbelief first broke down in the episode, with the PM looking all shifty in front of the camera and no media adviser telling the mother to say something. Oh, come on.
It’s also a huge problem that the writing is ignoring how getting a PM works in the UK.
We got a little bit more about Kathryn’s family life (woah this show does not depict a happy picture of the nuclear family – see also Scott and his mother), and how her mother didn’t want the fact that her only line was stopping her sex-addict creep husband from abusing their daughter to come out. !!!
Caden’s conversation with Orla was enlightening, because apart from the warning, I thought he was mainly talking about his feelings, and she kept referring to ‘us being in love’. Pronouns as giveaways for the win! Then the stuff about the tribunal and her feeling like the weak link in Max’s pressure games happened – but the gardener therapist debunked that. So, Orla has survivor’s guilt leading to hallucinations or something?
Kathryn showed steel against the hot but disappointing physio. She then went on to set up an interview with Maggie. I wouldn’t have used her own mobile in the hospital that Max had paid off myself, but I watch spy shows. Still, not surprising that Max gatecrashed the interview.
The now sacked reporter man came home to find his wife still in her nightclothes. I looked askance at her claim that they’d be fine, but maybe she works from home or has a trust fund?
For all that Scott beatifically offered himself and love and kindness to Kathryn, I am more suspicious of him and his temper. It seems that Mrs Max No. 2 is getting suspicious of Max, and given that she’s carrying his child, I wish Kathryn could step aside from trying to save her son and have a word…but then, maybe her mother’s right and she’s still in love with Max. But another child brought up by him?
Meanwhile, the question of Max’s assistant – who really should resign given her qualms, but I daresay we’ll have to wait a bit for her to be the smoking gun who reveals that Max’s current tactic of blaming Caden for everything is a lie – was crucial, with Sarah Lancashire’s Demagogue (she’s obviously having a blast, especially in the speechifying) sucking up to her mum. The mum eventually saw through the scary lady’s politicking. But will it be enough with Max having listened and decided she’s the one? (How much does he believe that codswallop he sold, really?)
And then we had a ‘David Budd wouldn’t have fallen for that’ moment, where Max’s story led to the death of a Caden figure.
Apparently the new series of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been back on UK screens for a few weeks, but I didn't know, so I'll have to catch up on those epsiodes. It's always been a catching-up type of show for me.
