Random TV commentary
Jul. 2nd, 2010 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
giandujakissSaving Grace Series Finale
What the hell just happened?
No ... seriously - what happened?
I mean, I knew Grace was going to die - they telegraphed that plot point at least four or five episodes ahead. But ... umm, why did she have to throw the cigar on the explosives? And what were the explosives doing there?
I said since the beginning that Saving Grace was two different shows - a really atmospheric police procedural, and a bizarre religious drama with a seriously problematic morality system. In earlier episodes, the police procedural dominated the storyline, almost as though they realized right off the bat that they didn't need the religious hook to keep things interesting. I was very disappointed to see the religious side of things dominate the storyline toward the end.
In Plain Sight Season Finale
Sigh. I am.... not pleased with the new direction of the show.
So, they're obviously diminishing and/or eliminating the mom and the sister, which is a terrible pity. I admit they weren't my favorite part of the show - me and my buddy!kink, it's very predictable - but I did enjoy them, I did enjoy the depth and the complexity of that whole family dynamic, and I enjoyed the whole Bechdel-test-ness of it, and it's disappointing to see the show go the way of every other cop show.
And, out went the characters of color - Rafe and Dershowitz. And I'm particularly upset about Dershowitz, since he was hot and had a nice dynamic with Mary and I loved him as a potential love interest for her (he was much better for her than Rafe, who was, I must confess, irredeemably dull).
Then we lost the office manager chick who went toe to toe with Mary - and I was okay with that because we were getting Alison Janney, except that Alison Janney was disappeared almost as soon as she arrived.
So that left the core of my reasons for watching the show: Mary and Marshall. And now that's getting fucked up, too. For most of the show, they were portrayed very much as buddies - not romantic partners. There was a tiny bit of romantic chemistry that sort of peeked through occasionally, but not often. (Offscreen, the actor who plays Marshall has said his character is in love with Mary - which I can believe, but it was never played up onscreen). And I was fine with that, because I figured they'd spend a lot of time on the buddy-ness of the relationship, and then maybe develop a romance over time, and that would just be awesome.
But then, in the last few episodes, Marshall and Mary were split up - every episode had an A plot and a B plot and Mary went one way while Marshall went the other, so there was no buddy-ness at all. And to top it all off, in the final episode of the season, after Marshall and Mary have barely been in the same room for the past several weeks, Marshall practically declares his love for her and tells her that he's the right guy for her!
NOOOOOO!!!! It's far too soon, and there's been no build at all.
Show, you're killing everything. Are the ratings this bad? Is it that you just can't decide how to hold an audience, so you're just jumping from one idea to the next?
Sigh.
And in other news, how much do I love Scarecrow & Mrs. King? I've been rewatching the first season on DVD, and it's got a certain casual 80s sexism and racism and classism (oh god, do not get me started on the casual racism of "I Have Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been ... A Spy"), and it's very Republican (in the 80s sense of the word - which has nothing to do with what Republican means today), but despite all of that, it can be incredibly charming. And it's such a fascinating show from a feminist point of view, because of the incredible mixed messages it sends about the virtues of domesticity and homemaking versus "career women," and how it doesn't seem to recognize that it's undermining its own message because Amanda is the most careerist woman of them all. And yet, at the same time, looking at it today, I also kind of appreciate a show that seems to genuinely place value on spheres that are traditionally feminine.
And of course, Amanda and Lee nail my buddy!kink so hard.
When's the second season coming out? When, when?? (Yes, I have really awful VHS-to-DVD copies of the rest of the show, but I want nice shiny professional DVDs!)
And, hey! I think you can stream the pilot episode here. It looks like most, if not all, of the episodes are available for streaming.
What the hell just happened?
No ... seriously - what happened?
I mean, I knew Grace was going to die - they telegraphed that plot point at least four or five episodes ahead. But ... umm, why did she have to throw the cigar on the explosives? And what were the explosives doing there?
I said since the beginning that Saving Grace was two different shows - a really atmospheric police procedural, and a bizarre religious drama with a seriously problematic morality system. In earlier episodes, the police procedural dominated the storyline, almost as though they realized right off the bat that they didn't need the religious hook to keep things interesting. I was very disappointed to see the religious side of things dominate the storyline toward the end.
In Plain Sight Season Finale
Sigh. I am.... not pleased with the new direction of the show.
So, they're obviously diminishing and/or eliminating the mom and the sister, which is a terrible pity. I admit they weren't my favorite part of the show - me and my buddy!kink, it's very predictable - but I did enjoy them, I did enjoy the depth and the complexity of that whole family dynamic, and I enjoyed the whole Bechdel-test-ness of it, and it's disappointing to see the show go the way of every other cop show.
And, out went the characters of color - Rafe and Dershowitz. And I'm particularly upset about Dershowitz, since he was hot and had a nice dynamic with Mary and I loved him as a potential love interest for her (he was much better for her than Rafe, who was, I must confess, irredeemably dull).
Then we lost the office manager chick who went toe to toe with Mary - and I was okay with that because we were getting Alison Janney, except that Alison Janney was disappeared almost as soon as she arrived.
So that left the core of my reasons for watching the show: Mary and Marshall. And now that's getting fucked up, too. For most of the show, they were portrayed very much as buddies - not romantic partners. There was a tiny bit of romantic chemistry that sort of peeked through occasionally, but not often. (Offscreen, the actor who plays Marshall has said his character is in love with Mary - which I can believe, but it was never played up onscreen). And I was fine with that, because I figured they'd spend a lot of time on the buddy-ness of the relationship, and then maybe develop a romance over time, and that would just be awesome.
But then, in the last few episodes, Marshall and Mary were split up - every episode had an A plot and a B plot and Mary went one way while Marshall went the other, so there was no buddy-ness at all. And to top it all off, in the final episode of the season, after Marshall and Mary have barely been in the same room for the past several weeks, Marshall practically declares his love for her and tells her that he's the right guy for her!
NOOOOOO!!!! It's far too soon, and there's been no build at all.
Show, you're killing everything. Are the ratings this bad? Is it that you just can't decide how to hold an audience, so you're just jumping from one idea to the next?
Sigh.
And in other news, how much do I love Scarecrow & Mrs. King? I've been rewatching the first season on DVD, and it's got a certain casual 80s sexism and racism and classism (oh god, do not get me started on the casual racism of "I Have Not Now, Nor Have I Ever Been ... A Spy"), and it's very Republican (in the 80s sense of the word - which has nothing to do with what Republican means today), but despite all of that, it can be incredibly charming. And it's such a fascinating show from a feminist point of view, because of the incredible mixed messages it sends about the virtues of domesticity and homemaking versus "career women," and how it doesn't seem to recognize that it's undermining its own message because Amanda is the most careerist woman of them all. And yet, at the same time, looking at it today, I also kind of appreciate a show that seems to genuinely place value on spheres that are traditionally feminine.
And of course, Amanda and Lee nail my buddy!kink so hard.
When's the second season coming out? When, when?? (Yes, I have really awful VHS-to-DVD copies of the rest of the show, but I want nice shiny professional DVDs!)
And, hey! I think you can stream the pilot episode here. It looks like most, if not all, of the episodes are available for streaming.