shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2021-02-14 02:58 pm
shallowness) wrote2021-02-14 02:58 pm
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Some contrast between these two shows
BSG 3.11 ‘The Eye of Jupiter’ and 3:12 ‘Rapture’
I overall enjoyed these two eps, which felt like a two-parter with the ‘to be continued’ and the planetary location. What grumbles I have are somewhat down to lack of proper build-up.
At the start of the first ep, I was all ‘oh yeah, algae.’ Which may suggest where my mind wasn’t at. Though this wasn’t so much about rations or processing it as an excuse to get a team on the planet. For all the talk of coincidences about humans and Cylons being in the same spot, IT WAS BECAUSE GAIUS TOLD THE CYLONS WHAT HE’D BEEN WORKING ON FOR THE HUMANS. And I say that as someone who is perfectly happy to go along with the religious/mystical aspects of the show.
I liked that they picked up on Tyrol’s religious upbringing (in an episode that brought back Dean Stockwell’s clone), and the link between the Cylon five and the humans’ faith.
So, who was the chosen one after all that? It was the humans who got the marker. Diana saw the five – and all we know is that one of them is short – not Gaius, who is still listening to Six, although it sounds like she’s changing what she’s saying to suit the narrative. But the episode ended on Kara and her destiny. (And Hera Lives still.) Nice follow-through of the rest of the seven responding to Diana’s messianic complex and the Threes’ willingness to support it, ignoring their decision-making process. A process that still feels like what we’ve seen of the colonies.
Caprica finding out about Diana and Gaius’s plotting suffered a bit because they’ve only sketched out that triad, and, indeed, Caprica’s character and recent development. But then bringing Boomer!Sharon back (to snap rather randomly around Hera and to forget that Caprica had form for attacking other Cylons) made it striking that they hadn’t done much with Boomer of late either after all the fuss of reincarnating them…
I was glad they picked up on Lee/Kara this quickly – not sure if Sam’s intimation that Kara has been unfaithful before was a reference to before she got kidnapped and coerced. Anyway, she and Lee were predictably confused about what their thing means, and indeed what their vows mean. Kara was particularly playing semantics: it’s all infidelity. And Dee was such a competent officer despite all her suspicions that I felt sorry for her – Apollo’s orders were as much to do with keeping Sam on side as his own feelings, but Lieutenant Duale wasn’t to know that so Mrs Adama was entitled to be peeved, especially as her redshirt sergeant had got shot on the mission. Also Dee’s tension with Kara had so much less macho aggression to put up with than between Lee and Sam, and was more interesting because of it.
Kallie and Tyrol offered a slightly better picture of – hey, are they even married? I’ll just go on to Athena and Helo. I’d quibble that Athena had already had it strongly hinted to her that Hera Lives, but hadn’t followed it up, but now Boomer told her plainly. Loved that Helo’s pain over what Roslin did to their baby girl was recognised too, as Adama’s sympathy as a father who’d lost his child (contrasted with Roslin’s childlessness) fed into the reaction. I was glad we spent some time on the righteous anger front, to realise that Adama had trusted Athena without knowing that Roslin had done her this great wrong. I didn’t feel too much tension about where Athena’s loyalties lay. Saving Hera might come first, but I didn’t think she’d easily betray the fleet’s secrets having chosen the uniform. Before that, though, I didn’t fully grasp that Sharon was asking her husband to kill her until he did it, and although we knew she’d get resurrected, that was the whole point, all the blood and his pain at the act was horrible.
NO MAGIC HYBRID BABY BLOOD for the baby herself.
By bringing Caprica along it’ll be interesting to see how Athena influences her. Well, I fear it’ll be more about how Caprica’s tied to Gaius and his brand of mania. Well, I’d rather do without the arty, discombobulating Gaius wakes up on the basestar scenes. Dean Stockwell’s Cylon’s willingness to throw Baltar in as part of the deal with the humans was hilarious. Gaius’s locks were now mre flowing than most of the Cylon ladies – yes, I could see what look they were going for.
The story was certainly gripping as all the plotlines converged, but the thinner strands were shown up by details like Helo remembering something he’d seen in Kara’s place being the unexpected end of the episode. By being occasionally brilliant, the show’s inconsistency is disappointing.
I watched The Masked Singer finale last night and as I’ve spared you my guessing over the past few weeks, I’ll just note that I only got four guesses right, none of which was Sausage.
Having Nicola Roberts back as a guest judge was a good all, because not only was she able to guess two out of the three finalists as a singer, she offered the competitors’ view. Like last year, the right winner, but very different. When Nicola got emotional, I was reminded that the audience’s emotional connection to her singing was part of the reason why. Her presence on this final underlined that that was a year ago, and what a year it was. A year that made it oddly fitting that this year’s winner embraced the whole ‘silly sausage’ role. I mean, when the mask was removed, it was clear that Joss Stone had not been putting on her persona (ebullient from pregnancy hormones?), but had been taking the singing seriously. But the way she said ‘Such a funny show’ was spot on, and indeed, so was her response to the question ‘Why the Masked Singer?’ ‘Why not?’ I suspect it was an easy 'yes' from all the celebrities to do the show when they haven’t been out much, with most of them being performers of one sort or another.
I overall enjoyed these two eps, which felt like a two-parter with the ‘to be continued’ and the planetary location. What grumbles I have are somewhat down to lack of proper build-up.
At the start of the first ep, I was all ‘oh yeah, algae.’ Which may suggest where my mind wasn’t at. Though this wasn’t so much about rations or processing it as an excuse to get a team on the planet. For all the talk of coincidences about humans and Cylons being in the same spot, IT WAS BECAUSE GAIUS TOLD THE CYLONS WHAT HE’D BEEN WORKING ON FOR THE HUMANS. And I say that as someone who is perfectly happy to go along with the religious/mystical aspects of the show.
I liked that they picked up on Tyrol’s religious upbringing (in an episode that brought back Dean Stockwell’s clone), and the link between the Cylon five and the humans’ faith.
So, who was the chosen one after all that? It was the humans who got the marker. Diana saw the five – and all we know is that one of them is short – not Gaius, who is still listening to Six, although it sounds like she’s changing what she’s saying to suit the narrative. But the episode ended on Kara and her destiny. (And Hera Lives still.) Nice follow-through of the rest of the seven responding to Diana’s messianic complex and the Threes’ willingness to support it, ignoring their decision-making process. A process that still feels like what we’ve seen of the colonies.
Caprica finding out about Diana and Gaius’s plotting suffered a bit because they’ve only sketched out that triad, and, indeed, Caprica’s character and recent development. But then bringing Boomer!Sharon back (to snap rather randomly around Hera and to forget that Caprica had form for attacking other Cylons) made it striking that they hadn’t done much with Boomer of late either after all the fuss of reincarnating them…
I was glad they picked up on Lee/Kara this quickly – not sure if Sam’s intimation that Kara has been unfaithful before was a reference to before she got kidnapped and coerced. Anyway, she and Lee were predictably confused about what their thing means, and indeed what their vows mean. Kara was particularly playing semantics: it’s all infidelity. And Dee was such a competent officer despite all her suspicions that I felt sorry for her – Apollo’s orders were as much to do with keeping Sam on side as his own feelings, but Lieutenant Duale wasn’t to know that so Mrs Adama was entitled to be peeved, especially as her redshirt sergeant had got shot on the mission. Also Dee’s tension with Kara had so much less macho aggression to put up with than between Lee and Sam, and was more interesting because of it.
Kallie and Tyrol offered a slightly better picture of – hey, are they even married? I’ll just go on to Athena and Helo. I’d quibble that Athena had already had it strongly hinted to her that Hera Lives, but hadn’t followed it up, but now Boomer told her plainly. Loved that Helo’s pain over what Roslin did to their baby girl was recognised too, as Adama’s sympathy as a father who’d lost his child (contrasted with Roslin’s childlessness) fed into the reaction. I was glad we spent some time on the righteous anger front, to realise that Adama had trusted Athena without knowing that Roslin had done her this great wrong. I didn’t feel too much tension about where Athena’s loyalties lay. Saving Hera might come first, but I didn’t think she’d easily betray the fleet’s secrets having chosen the uniform. Before that, though, I didn’t fully grasp that Sharon was asking her husband to kill her until he did it, and although we knew she’d get resurrected, that was the whole point, all the blood and his pain at the act was horrible.
NO MAGIC HYBRID BABY BLOOD for the baby herself.
By bringing Caprica along it’ll be interesting to see how Athena influences her. Well, I fear it’ll be more about how Caprica’s tied to Gaius and his brand of mania. Well, I’d rather do without the arty, discombobulating Gaius wakes up on the basestar scenes. Dean Stockwell’s Cylon’s willingness to throw Baltar in as part of the deal with the humans was hilarious. Gaius’s locks were now mre flowing than most of the Cylon ladies – yes, I could see what look they were going for.
The story was certainly gripping as all the plotlines converged, but the thinner strands were shown up by details like Helo remembering something he’d seen in Kara’s place being the unexpected end of the episode. By being occasionally brilliant, the show’s inconsistency is disappointing.
I watched The Masked Singer finale last night and as I’ve spared you my guessing over the past few weeks, I’ll just note that I only got four guesses right, none of which was Sausage.
Having Nicola Roberts back as a guest judge was a good all, because not only was she able to guess two out of the three finalists as a singer, she offered the competitors’ view. Like last year, the right winner, but very different. When Nicola got emotional, I was reminded that the audience’s emotional connection to her singing was part of the reason why. Her presence on this final underlined that that was a year ago, and what a year it was. A year that made it oddly fitting that this year’s winner embraced the whole ‘silly sausage’ role. I mean, when the mask was removed, it was clear that Joss Stone had not been putting on her persona (ebullient from pregnancy hormones?), but had been taking the singing seriously. But the way she said ‘Such a funny show’ was spot on, and indeed, so was her response to the question ‘Why the Masked Singer?’ ‘Why not?’ I suspect it was an easy 'yes' from all the celebrities to do the show when they haven’t been out much, with most of them being performers of one sort or another.