A long time after Roswell
Jun. 4th, 2013 07:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessOUAT 1.9 Queen of Hearts
Felt like too much happened too fast while it was going on. For a lot of it, the only character given any time to have feelings was Regina. I mean, it got better: there were beats for Henry, Mary Margaret and Emma, Aurora and Mulan and even Hook throughout, but still.
I have no idea about what Cora’s motivation is by this point. Wanting to give Regina Snow’s heart was creepy. The Wonderland section showed up Barbara Hershey’s limitations as an actress. But the costume design nearly made up for the terrible CGI in that section.
I don’t know why they randomly decided to put in the 28 years ago and 28 years later titles when they did, when I could have done with it for the opening scene, which REALLY threw me. I was settling down and looking forward to what would come next after the previouslies and then...I was a bit confused. I think it was partly that Belle wasn’t looking distinctly fairytale (while Regina’s costumes were EPIC and I loved her black coat in Storybrooke). Speaking of Belle, I know the focus of the ep was Ragina and the Charmings, but she should have been there to see Rumpelstiltskin/Gold attack Ruby.
I refuse to engage much with Emma’s angst at being the object of Rumpelstiltskin’s planning or his response that she’s the product of her parents and their true love.
Who was the dead fairy? Colouring and Grumpy being about suggest Nova.
I don’t know if I care about rescuing Phillip much, but it would be nice for Aurora and Mulan to get more development, and it’s interesting that they’ve kept a strand going in what’s left of the Enchanted Forest in the here and now.
Revenge season 2 finale or 2.22 The Truth part 2
Bits of this were better than the series deserved. Bits of it were mad/maddening. (Yes, setting off explosions in New York, even if the point was eventually Conrad and other businesspeople exploiting it.)
The continuity guy gave away that someone would die. I had talked myself down from thinking that it would be Jack, so I was hoping that it would be Aiden, but as soon as Declan pretended he was fine to Charlotte, I knew it would be him. And as I’ve been calling him the Idiot Declan, I wasn’t too sad. Plotwise, his being killed in Jack’s place by Conrad’s actions would drive Jack to very dark places (flat caps and glasses as it turned out) and by impregnating Charlotte he’d further mixed up the Porters and the Greysons (good grief the Porters and Victoria are fertile) it makes for interesting developments.
I did think that the actor did well in his scenes, although Gabriel Mann’s sympathetic playing probably helped. I hope he gets to play less of an idiot in the future.
Also enjoyed VanCamp’s performance and how she mainly keeps our sympathy. Emily felt very broken when she returned home. It has been a breakneck period of time, and it’s all got the more personal, the fact that her first question all the time was about Jack gave her away. There was the love that Victoria didn’t see for Daniel and that Aiden didn’t quite muster. Although, as Nolan said, after everything, Aiden deserve the truth, but it was Jack who got it.
(Sorry, I’m totally failing to sit on my inner shipper, even though I think that Emily is all kinds of damaged in ways that the show isn’t acknowledging.)
It was good to have an Emily-Victoria confrontation, which Emily won on points, but Victoria’s shots lingered too. I loved the slow realisation by the end of the episode that she was almost alone, had lost her children – well, Charlotte is such a pawn, so Daniel, at any rate. Unlike the viewer, he didn’t realise her shock was genuine at what Conrad would stoop to and that she had certain lines. She was also an object of pity.
I totally bought Conrad having joined in with the Initiative, and if the conspiracy itself is not as epic as it could have been, when do TV drama conspiracies ever live up to their build up anyway? It’s convenient that he became the most evil – the moment where he’s so horrible that Ashley clearly thought ‘Fine, go and get shot then’ - but then, he started the season off as much weaker so it works as an arc for him, and I enjoy how the actor enjoys playing the character.
Ugh, Aiden. Why was he even there for most of it? Then there was the weirdness of the FBI freeing him. (I was several steps behind, stuck at being amused at his SHOCK! That he wasn’t getting to see a lawyer given what he was being set up for.) My initial idea was that he’d pointed them to Nolan, which made no sense, so I was glad they cleared up that it was the Falcon and the Initiative covering their tracks. Nolan’s hubris and the circumstantial evidence told against him plus the identification with David really worked.
It worked much better than the mystery of what happened between the fight at Emily’s beach house and Daniel turning up at the party injutred (um, why wouldn’t he go to a hospital?) Echoes of the big teaser at the start of season 1. My chief thought was anger with Aiden for starting a fight in Emily’s beach-house where he knows she has secrets in every nook. I was more concerned about the notebook knocked over than the gun. Also, if Aiden could beat Takeda, but Daniel could beat Aiden, which is what’s kind of suggested, that’s hilarious and I doubt they’ll write themselves out of that corner convincingly.
As I’ve said before, I hope the actor playing Patrick is hot and that the character isn’t too stupid...not much to ask for, surely.
Emily chasing desperately up some stairs for Jack was deliberately bookending the episode, I suppose. As we had a blood-spattered Daniel, one main character dead already and Aiden’s status undetermined, it was good that they didn’t have another bullet shot. Also, while Jack has got to a very revenge-y place, he had enough sense of justice to kill Victoria (although her pushing Amanda off the balcony has always been brushed over!). Yes, this ep has set up how very evil Conrad was, but if they’ve held back from having Emily kill, they were bound to with Jack. ANYway, having the drama circle around the reveal, which yes, he’s always known worked for me.
I also LOVE that she is the protective one for him and that, unlike Aiden, that protection doesn’t ignore taking away his agency. Well, apart from lying to him until now, but that’s part of a greater deception. It’s not the irritating behaviour shown even in the encounter with Daniel.
And I loved the idea of Nolan seeing Jack as a brother, as part of his family of choice, which, thanks to David, includes Emily. I look forward to Emily and Jack rescuing him. I also want to spend this summer wallowing in shippiness that the reality of the exigencies of the next season with smash.
Felt like too much happened too fast while it was going on. For a lot of it, the only character given any time to have feelings was Regina. I mean, it got better: there were beats for Henry, Mary Margaret and Emma, Aurora and Mulan and even Hook throughout, but still.
I have no idea about what Cora’s motivation is by this point. Wanting to give Regina Snow’s heart was creepy. The Wonderland section showed up Barbara Hershey’s limitations as an actress. But the costume design nearly made up for the terrible CGI in that section.
I don’t know why they randomly decided to put in the 28 years ago and 28 years later titles when they did, when I could have done with it for the opening scene, which REALLY threw me. I was settling down and looking forward to what would come next after the previouslies and then...I was a bit confused. I think it was partly that Belle wasn’t looking distinctly fairytale (while Regina’s costumes were EPIC and I loved her black coat in Storybrooke). Speaking of Belle, I know the focus of the ep was Ragina and the Charmings, but she should have been there to see Rumpelstiltskin/Gold attack Ruby.
I refuse to engage much with Emma’s angst at being the object of Rumpelstiltskin’s planning or his response that she’s the product of her parents and their true love.
Who was the dead fairy? Colouring and Grumpy being about suggest Nova.
I don’t know if I care about rescuing Phillip much, but it would be nice for Aurora and Mulan to get more development, and it’s interesting that they’ve kept a strand going in what’s left of the Enchanted Forest in the here and now.
Revenge season 2 finale or 2.22 The Truth part 2
Bits of this were better than the series deserved. Bits of it were mad/maddening. (Yes, setting off explosions in New York, even if the point was eventually Conrad and other businesspeople exploiting it.)
The continuity guy gave away that someone would die. I had talked myself down from thinking that it would be Jack, so I was hoping that it would be Aiden, but as soon as Declan pretended he was fine to Charlotte, I knew it would be him. And as I’ve been calling him the Idiot Declan, I wasn’t too sad. Plotwise, his being killed in Jack’s place by Conrad’s actions would drive Jack to very dark places (flat caps and glasses as it turned out) and by impregnating Charlotte he’d further mixed up the Porters and the Greysons (good grief the Porters and Victoria are fertile) it makes for interesting developments.
I did think that the actor did well in his scenes, although Gabriel Mann’s sympathetic playing probably helped. I hope he gets to play less of an idiot in the future.
Also enjoyed VanCamp’s performance and how she mainly keeps our sympathy. Emily felt very broken when she returned home. It has been a breakneck period of time, and it’s all got the more personal, the fact that her first question all the time was about Jack gave her away. There was the love that Victoria didn’t see for Daniel and that Aiden didn’t quite muster. Although, as Nolan said, after everything, Aiden deserve the truth, but it was Jack who got it.
(Sorry, I’m totally failing to sit on my inner shipper, even though I think that Emily is all kinds of damaged in ways that the show isn’t acknowledging.)
It was good to have an Emily-Victoria confrontation, which Emily won on points, but Victoria’s shots lingered too. I loved the slow realisation by the end of the episode that she was almost alone, had lost her children – well, Charlotte is such a pawn, so Daniel, at any rate. Unlike the viewer, he didn’t realise her shock was genuine at what Conrad would stoop to and that she had certain lines. She was also an object of pity.
I totally bought Conrad having joined in with the Initiative, and if the conspiracy itself is not as epic as it could have been, when do TV drama conspiracies ever live up to their build up anyway? It’s convenient that he became the most evil – the moment where he’s so horrible that Ashley clearly thought ‘Fine, go and get shot then’ - but then, he started the season off as much weaker so it works as an arc for him, and I enjoy how the actor enjoys playing the character.
Ugh, Aiden. Why was he even there for most of it? Then there was the weirdness of the FBI freeing him. (I was several steps behind, stuck at being amused at his SHOCK! That he wasn’t getting to see a lawyer given what he was being set up for.) My initial idea was that he’d pointed them to Nolan, which made no sense, so I was glad they cleared up that it was the Falcon and the Initiative covering their tracks. Nolan’s hubris and the circumstantial evidence told against him plus the identification with David really worked.
It worked much better than the mystery of what happened between the fight at Emily’s beach house and Daniel turning up at the party injutred (um, why wouldn’t he go to a hospital?) Echoes of the big teaser at the start of season 1. My chief thought was anger with Aiden for starting a fight in Emily’s beach-house where he knows she has secrets in every nook. I was more concerned about the notebook knocked over than the gun. Also, if Aiden could beat Takeda, but Daniel could beat Aiden, which is what’s kind of suggested, that’s hilarious and I doubt they’ll write themselves out of that corner convincingly.
As I’ve said before, I hope the actor playing Patrick is hot and that the character isn’t too stupid...not much to ask for, surely.
Emily chasing desperately up some stairs for Jack was deliberately bookending the episode, I suppose. As we had a blood-spattered Daniel, one main character dead already and Aiden’s status undetermined, it was good that they didn’t have another bullet shot. Also, while Jack has got to a very revenge-y place, he had enough sense of justice to kill Victoria (although her pushing Amanda off the balcony has always been brushed over!). Yes, this ep has set up how very evil Conrad was, but if they’ve held back from having Emily kill, they were bound to with Jack. ANYway, having the drama circle around the reveal, which yes, he’s always known worked for me.
I also LOVE that she is the protective one for him and that, unlike Aiden, that protection doesn’t ignore taking away his agency. Well, apart from lying to him until now, but that’s part of a greater deception. It’s not the irritating behaviour shown even in the encounter with Daniel.
And I loved the idea of Nolan seeing Jack as a brother, as part of his family of choice, which, thanks to David, includes Emily. I look forward to Emily and Jack rescuing him. I also want to spend this summer wallowing in shippiness that the reality of the exigencies of the next season with smash.
