Another mammoth TV post
May. 3rd, 2019 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Widow Ep 7
I have to admit that during the previouslies, I started going ‘dead’ ‘dead’ ‘dead’ at many of the characters. I wouldn’t have admitted to it, but it will become relevant.
An almost arty opening with…French rap. I was vindicated that there was an explanation for Sydney’s wife’s behaviour at the end of the previous episode as Major General Killer turned up and learned of Sydney’s betrayal. I was mildly concerned about the birthday boy – where was he? And finding your dad shot on your birthday is going to be quite a traumatic life event.
So, anyway, Georgia and Will’s phone conversation didn’t get very far forward, and a phone containing the precious coltan was smashed. Martin (Charles Dance’s character, who I think I’ve been calling Max, probably influenced by MotherFatherSon’s Max) urged Georgia to go to Rwanda and he’d try to find Adjida, who’d run away after overhearing them and assuming Georgia was going to try to palm her off to someone she didn’t trust. Georgia thought for that for about a second and went. Humph.
Most of the episode then was about Georgia finding Will and him telling the story from his POV. When he was full beard, I found myself staring a lot at the meeting of moustache, lip and teeth. Basically, another man who can’t carry a beard is what I’m saying.
Peter Bello came off okay in his story, at least he repaid Will’s favour. Of course, that favour was an attempt to rip off criminals he was working with, and that he wanted the money to finance a militia army (with child soldiers) to kill mine workers for more money and conspired to deceive Georgia. And we heard his ‘congratulations’ in the flashback that Georgia didn’t and suspected before she did that Will had moved on, which she hadn’t been able to do because of his deception. I liked that Gloria was the woman we’d seen help to transport him to Rwanda.
Even Georgia’s perky, bouncy, shiny ponytail wilted at all that – at the realisation that the man she’d loved was so weak, and that by investigating his ‘death’, many more deaths had been caused. Maybe not an airplane-full, but that’s only justification for Will.
AND THEN, after a bit of moping around a threatening Kinshasa, Adjida returned to Judith’s house (whither security, I wondered) AND WAS MET BY JUDITH.
AHAHAHAHA. I can just about believe she survived, and that the people using her house as a base didn’t care enough to check, but not that she’d be up and opening her own door.
With one ep to do, I still hoped Georgia and Adjida survive, especially as lily-livered Will got to have his second-chance daughter.
Ghosts 1.3 Happy Death Day
It has got funnier – and even touching – as the characters are established. The touching bit was the ghosts getting to Alison, mostly Pat, facing his death day, when his family came to pay their respects to him. I wonder if we’re going to see how more of the ghosts die. Even Kitty and her ignorance of how babies are made (really not helped by Julian’s grotty explanations) got to Alison. And of course, ghost wrangling meant that Alison’s plan to talk down the price with the nice builders wasn’t going to work. Things like the build-up and pay-off to the I Should Be So Lucky joke bubbled up nicely, as did Mike’s shouts disturbing the ghosts’ peace.
Oh, and the upstairs ghosts do know about the downstairs ghosts, who are far more erudite (I mean plague victims know about algorithms and tarragon?) than our idiots.
The Widow ep 8
Another arty opening episode, but following the coltan did feel meaningful after everything we’d seen, actually.
There was a real twist with Martin finally enabling Georgia-Adjida to build a new family. All episode he’d been agin’ it, even though I really wanted the childless mother and orphaned child who’d forged something that could be good to do so. Obviously, it would be difficult, but it would be symbolically right. But it looked like I had to lower my expectations to Georgia learning to live, free of Will.
The bit in Powys was interesting – at first because they were unclear on the timing. Was that Owen from Torchwood? Why not call the dog Nigella? Was he an assassin if it was now? No, just a toxic male who Georgia rightly called out.
And of course the question of whether she’d sell out Will (and his baby)’s location to Judith for Adjida’s hovered. It wasn’t clear until Georgia called him who’d done Will a favour, Judith or Georgia. But then somehow-up-and-walking Judith was all evil and self-justifying this episode. (Remember when she had three dimensions?)
I’d forgotten about the (unwanted) promise Georgia had made to the other widow – Yvette/Evette to find out who had killed Emmanuel until the previouslies. JUSTICE. To be honest, I only gained low-key satisfaction from this compared to the Georgia-Adjida reunion.
And we never did find out the backstory of the white cleaner ghost, did we?
Chimerica 1.2 Gray Areas
It’s more the details of life than Lee’s investigation that interests, stuff like living in a world of censorship and spying, Benny’s greed (dude, saying ‘satire’ doesn’t make it so) and the Tank Man clearly being an illegal immigrant in a country with less dirty air than Beijing, while The Donald claimed he was going to stop them with his wall.
Lee’s naivete was hair-raising. It’s partly because he’s American (dude, of course you should have been more careful about the e-mail to your friend) and also his (middle) age, as highlighted by Benny, voice of his (Chinese) generation – he was lucky, Mary Chen wasn’t.
Zhang Lin was desperate to ask Lee for relationship advice.
The fridged dead wife (Katie ‘Cho Chang’ Leung) is a lively presence. But the fridging stuff – with Lee’s fridge not working echo making it more of a thing - is bugging me – surely the writer knows it’s a trope.
All the while, the viewing audience knows the result of the US election.
Lee and Mel finally faced up to whether the subject of their story might not want to be found and plastered all over a Western newspaper, given everything.
3 The Brace Position
The feisty ghost is right. We had to watch middle-aged men who’ve forgotten their radical(ish) pasts continue to be somewhat naïve. Zhang Lin should have asked Joy before posting. And Lee, for all his humility, is neither as good a journalist as Mel and Alex, or truly humble. Put a man in danger – for what? Your redemption? Because you can’t think of anything better to do with your life like, er, voting!?
And the senator thought he was after a different story, but he did end up blackmailing her to get what he wanted.
I liked that it was the assistant who was the officer in charge of Tang.
I’m still a bit dubious about the mix of dramatic and non-fictitious footage, although the timing of the backdrop of this episode had extra fizz.
I’m posting about these three shows together, not just because I watched them between Monday and Wednesday, but because of the running theme of ghostly visitations, which jumped out at one, watching them in such a short block of time. The image of The Widow’s Major-General Killer surrounded by all his ghosts definitely reminded me of Ghosts, which plays the trope for laughs, while Chimerica’s haunting is more contained.
I have to admit that during the previouslies, I started going ‘dead’ ‘dead’ ‘dead’ at many of the characters. I wouldn’t have admitted to it, but it will become relevant.
An almost arty opening with…French rap. I was vindicated that there was an explanation for Sydney’s wife’s behaviour at the end of the previous episode as Major General Killer turned up and learned of Sydney’s betrayal. I was mildly concerned about the birthday boy – where was he? And finding your dad shot on your birthday is going to be quite a traumatic life event.
So, anyway, Georgia and Will’s phone conversation didn’t get very far forward, and a phone containing the precious coltan was smashed. Martin (Charles Dance’s character, who I think I’ve been calling Max, probably influenced by MotherFatherSon’s Max) urged Georgia to go to Rwanda and he’d try to find Adjida, who’d run away after overhearing them and assuming Georgia was going to try to palm her off to someone she didn’t trust. Georgia thought for that for about a second and went. Humph.
Most of the episode then was about Georgia finding Will and him telling the story from his POV. When he was full beard, I found myself staring a lot at the meeting of moustache, lip and teeth. Basically, another man who can’t carry a beard is what I’m saying.
Peter Bello came off okay in his story, at least he repaid Will’s favour. Of course, that favour was an attempt to rip off criminals he was working with, and that he wanted the money to finance a militia army (with child soldiers) to kill mine workers for more money and conspired to deceive Georgia. And we heard his ‘congratulations’ in the flashback that Georgia didn’t and suspected before she did that Will had moved on, which she hadn’t been able to do because of his deception. I liked that Gloria was the woman we’d seen help to transport him to Rwanda.
Even Georgia’s perky, bouncy, shiny ponytail wilted at all that – at the realisation that the man she’d loved was so weak, and that by investigating his ‘death’, many more deaths had been caused. Maybe not an airplane-full, but that’s only justification for Will.
AND THEN, after a bit of moping around a threatening Kinshasa, Adjida returned to Judith’s house (whither security, I wondered) AND WAS MET BY JUDITH.
AHAHAHAHA. I can just about believe she survived, and that the people using her house as a base didn’t care enough to check, but not that she’d be up and opening her own door.
With one ep to do, I still hoped Georgia and Adjida survive, especially as lily-livered Will got to have his second-chance daughter.
Ghosts 1.3 Happy Death Day
It has got funnier – and even touching – as the characters are established. The touching bit was the ghosts getting to Alison, mostly Pat, facing his death day, when his family came to pay their respects to him. I wonder if we’re going to see how more of the ghosts die. Even Kitty and her ignorance of how babies are made (really not helped by Julian’s grotty explanations) got to Alison. And of course, ghost wrangling meant that Alison’s plan to talk down the price with the nice builders wasn’t going to work. Things like the build-up and pay-off to the I Should Be So Lucky joke bubbled up nicely, as did Mike’s shouts disturbing the ghosts’ peace.
Oh, and the upstairs ghosts do know about the downstairs ghosts, who are far more erudite (I mean plague victims know about algorithms and tarragon?) than our idiots.
The Widow ep 8
Another arty opening episode, but following the coltan did feel meaningful after everything we’d seen, actually.
There was a real twist with Martin finally enabling Georgia-Adjida to build a new family. All episode he’d been agin’ it, even though I really wanted the childless mother and orphaned child who’d forged something that could be good to do so. Obviously, it would be difficult, but it would be symbolically right. But it looked like I had to lower my expectations to Georgia learning to live, free of Will.
The bit in Powys was interesting – at first because they were unclear on the timing. Was that Owen from Torchwood? Why not call the dog Nigella? Was he an assassin if it was now? No, just a toxic male who Georgia rightly called out.
And of course the question of whether she’d sell out Will (and his baby)’s location to Judith for Adjida’s hovered. It wasn’t clear until Georgia called him who’d done Will a favour, Judith or Georgia. But then somehow-up-and-walking Judith was all evil and self-justifying this episode. (Remember when she had three dimensions?)
I’d forgotten about the (unwanted) promise Georgia had made to the other widow – Yvette/Evette to find out who had killed Emmanuel until the previouslies. JUSTICE. To be honest, I only gained low-key satisfaction from this compared to the Georgia-Adjida reunion.
And we never did find out the backstory of the white cleaner ghost, did we?
Chimerica 1.2 Gray Areas
It’s more the details of life than Lee’s investigation that interests, stuff like living in a world of censorship and spying, Benny’s greed (dude, saying ‘satire’ doesn’t make it so) and the Tank Man clearly being an illegal immigrant in a country with less dirty air than Beijing, while The Donald claimed he was going to stop them with his wall.
Lee’s naivete was hair-raising. It’s partly because he’s American (dude, of course you should have been more careful about the e-mail to your friend) and also his (middle) age, as highlighted by Benny, voice of his (Chinese) generation – he was lucky, Mary Chen wasn’t.
Zhang Lin was desperate to ask Lee for relationship advice.
The fridged dead wife (Katie ‘Cho Chang’ Leung) is a lively presence. But the fridging stuff – with Lee’s fridge not working echo making it more of a thing - is bugging me – surely the writer knows it’s a trope.
All the while, the viewing audience knows the result of the US election.
Lee and Mel finally faced up to whether the subject of their story might not want to be found and plastered all over a Western newspaper, given everything.
3 The Brace Position
The feisty ghost is right. We had to watch middle-aged men who’ve forgotten their radical(ish) pasts continue to be somewhat naïve. Zhang Lin should have asked Joy before posting. And Lee, for all his humility, is neither as good a journalist as Mel and Alex, or truly humble. Put a man in danger – for what? Your redemption? Because you can’t think of anything better to do with your life like, er, voting!?
And the senator thought he was after a different story, but he did end up blackmailing her to get what he wanted.
I liked that it was the assistant who was the officer in charge of Tang.
I’m still a bit dubious about the mix of dramatic and non-fictitious footage, although the timing of the backdrop of this episode had extra fizz.
I’m posting about these three shows together, not just because I watched them between Monday and Wednesday, but because of the running theme of ghostly visitations, which jumped out at one, watching them in such a short block of time. The image of The Widow’s Major-General Killer surrounded by all his ghosts definitely reminded me of Ghosts, which plays the trope for laughs, while Chimerica’s haunting is more contained.
