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Had quite possibly the most unproductive break ever, aside from the fact that I think I have two shiny new fandoms to tide me over until baseball (btw, yes, Toronto IS on crack) and Deadwood return. Namely, Supernatural and Prison Break.
-- Supernatural --
I'm all caught up on this one. It's fun enough, but I have to say, I'm surprised it got such great reviews at the beginning of the season. At least I seem to remember it getting quite positive reviews. But I dunno. Despite the subject matter, it just seems awfully pedestrian in its execution. I feel like it's not half as ambitious as it could be. I imagine this is gonna be one of those shows where the efforts of fandom are what really make the Winchesters' world come alive.
I do like how we've gradually been seeing more and more of the not-quite-so-buried issues between the boys. Dean's problems with Sam surface in Skin, Sam's issues with Dean come to light in Asylum (Btw, I love that Sam pulled the trigger. Possessed or no, Dean's never gonna forget that Sam pointed a weapon at him and squeezed the trigger. I think Ackles can be a little over the top at times, but I thought he nailed the 'You hate me that much?' reaction in that scene), their differing takes on their father in Bugs. That kind of stuff is infinitely more interesting to me than the Scare-of-the-Week, but the way WB shows like to handle their storytelling, I'm sure fandom will do better, by leaps and bounds, to develop the backstory and to put the boys in scenarios that really test their relationship as brothers.
And speaking of the boys and their relationship, I have to admit, I really don't get any kind of slashy vibe off 'em. I know, color me a heretic ^_~ I've come across a few good writers that have made it work in one-shots, but overall? **shrugs** I do love me some WB RPS though, and the show does spawn a bit of that as well, so that is of the good.
I was checking out some of the old reaction posts in the TWoP forums and there seems to be an awful lot of concern that Sam being "special" means Dean will get shuttled to the side. I don't think the writers will do that, I think they know that the thing that makes this show is the relationship between the boys. I'm willing to give them credit for that much at least. Though if Sam is plotted to take on a bigger role on the show, I think they picked the right brother for that. (There was some debate in the forums that maybe Missouri was talking about Dean and the audience was being misdirected into thinking she meant Sam...but I think that's giving the writers a little TOO much credit ^_~) Jensen has his moments (breaking down during the message to his father, the confrontation with his brother in Asylum), but I think Jared's the stronger actor of the two. Actually, as I think about it, that's probably unfair of me to say; Jared's been given the juicier stuff to work with, since Sam's the "sensitive" one. When Jensen's been given more emotional stuff to play, I suppose he's handled it well.
========================================================================================
-- Prison Break --
This show is awesome! In the ping!instant classic! way. About 10 minutes into the pilot, I wanted to be around to see how it would all shake out. I feel the same way about this show that I feel about Deadwood, BSG or even 24 when they get me going. It's so well plotted; everything's so tight and connected, you can't tug on one string in the tapestry without seeing the distortion it causes elsewhere in the pattern. And that's fabulous. Everything about this show works together so well - I'm so impressed with how the writers and actors realized these relationships in so quick a time. And not just the main relationships either, you know?
Also quite impressive? How Michael doesn't have to beat guys off him at every turn despite being the most gorgeous thing many of those guys have probably ever seen in their lives. Heh. I guess it's good to have Lucifer in your corner. And an intense scowl that goes all the way to 11.
And on the topic of prison bitch action -- I don't find these brothers slashy either. Maybe baseball's overloaded my slash-vision? :-P Actually, I don't find any of the relationships on this show slashy, but the show's still fun for me. Will wonders never cease? (Though I was terrifically amused by the little tiff between Michael and Veronica, in the first episode no less: "You two have the most dysfunctional idea of love I've ever seen. . . . I loved him as much as you did." "Past tense for you maybe, but not me." Heh.)
(Actually, I am a little less than sold on the boys as brothers who would go all out for each other, but I recognize that's a constraint of the situation the boys are in. With Linc being kept apart from Michael, I haven't seen them together as much as I'd like. I hadn't realized just how much I depend on nonverbal interaction to flesh out character dynamics for me. It seems so much of what you're supposed to think of their relationship is based on what we've heard the characters say, and not as much how we've seen them be with each other. I believe that Linc means so much to Michael largely because WM3 sells it in his conviction that he's gonna keep his brother from the chair. I'm not as convinced of the emotion on Linc's end. I don't really believe, watching the show, that Linc would die for Michael without hesitation, in the way that I believe Dean would die to protect Sam, or hell, the way that I believe Michael would die to protect Linc. The lockdown episode (ah, which tv.com informs me was called Riots, Drills and the Devil) did a little for me in this regard.... seeing how hard Linc tried to protect that young CO gave me an idea of how he must be when his own family is threatened. But idealistically, I'd kind of want more. Actually, some pre-prison flashbacks not set when they were kids would be a start. Especially since the kids they cast look nothing like Dominic or Wentworth.)
In another triumph for this show on the line of Deadwood and BSG - female characters that don't totally annoy me every second they're on screen! I'm really surprised by that, especially with the Sara character. I think part of it is the chemistry the actress has with WM3, I believe the underlying attraction there AND I believe the intelligence each of them brings to the table, the way you can almost see them mentally dancing around each other, each trying to figure the other out. Veronica's nowhere near as interesting to me, but thankfully, Tunney's a decent actress. I'm getting a little tired of Nick/Veronica, but it hasn't reached a level of annoyance yet. (I was gonna comment on LJ's mom here as well, but she's no longer a factor, so nevermind!)
Peter Stormare is awesome in just about everything I've ever seen him in. The actor who plays Sucre is also fun. This show needs a much stronger black presence in the main plotline, but I get the impression the medicine man will be stepping back in to handle that?
I'msix eight eps in, and I was really considering not watching anymore and making the rest of the eps last me through the show's winter break, but that's clearly, clearly not gonna happen.
I don't know if it's a testament to the writing and the acting and the directing of this show, or if I'm just a sucker, but I'm on the edge of my seat through every ep. I could barely watch the second part of the lockdown storyline, it was so intense. (Btw, how hilarious is it that Sara hesitated when Michael came for her? Because seriously? Her alternative to going with him was eventually getting gangraped and killed, so...yeah, the guy who's doing time for attempted robbery and quotes Ghandi is probably a somewhat safer bet.) I like that half the time I don't know what's gonna happen, and the other the half of the time, I know what's gonna happen, but I don't know how it will unfold. Like with rookie CO and the lockdown - once he saw the hole, you knew he had to die. Or you were pretty sure he had to die, and you knew it for certain when dumbass T-bag started popping off about taking the man's daughter for a ride once he was on the outside. (I fucking hated T-Bag in that moment, because I'd been nursing some slim hope the poor guy would get out of there alive, but I knew that wasn't happening after T-Bag opened his damn mouth). So knowing there was now no way the CO wasn't gonna reveal them, I was just counting down to the minute he bought it. Poor Bob.
I'm glad they toned down the business with LJ for a little while, after the first few eps, because I thought it was slowing things down that still needed to get established inside Fox River, but otherwise, I really have no complaints.
Well, one other - I rather dislike Kellerman, and I wish they'd gone a different way with that character. (And given him a different name, because they say Kellerman, and I think Mike Kellerman. Every time.) Because right now, he's just plain dislikable. I like my bad guys with a side of compelling. Like T-Bag, I guess. Because, ugh, what a sleaze, but he's quicksilver, and you watch him with a kind of sick fascination. Kellerman, on the other hand? Kinda boring for a bad guy. He just leaves a trail of bodies everywhere he goes! How has he managed to keep anything underwraps?
Also, why is that blonde chick forever in her kitchen chopping vegetables? Geez. (Oh, I just got to the end of 1x08. D'oh! I must confess to being a little nervous about how big The Conspiracy is getting. Maybe it's the fact that I've marathoned these first 8 eps, but this thing just seems to be getting ridiculously huge. And what's with the real lack of concern about how many bodies it's taking to keep this thing "quiet"? Doesn't the government have simpler ways of engineering someone's death? The care the writers have taken with developing the breakout storyline makes me want to give them the benefit of the doubt on the conspiracy storyline, but still....)
I'm totally mainlining the eps right now, I can't help myself, so I look forward to using the time between the fall finale and the return of new eps to rewatch the series to date. Fox should totally have teamed it up with 24; that would have been wicked cool.
The more I watch of Prison Break, the more I want to see a Pitch Black prequel that features Vin Diesel's Riddick and a Wentworth Miller III character who's essentially a pre-Jack/Keira mini-Riddick, on the run together, dodging Johns and the law. Because that would be totally, totally badass. I mean, except for the part where Riddick was a total loner and it would be inconsisent with what we knew of him before the first film. But those are just details ^_~ Really, someone, anyone, needs to see their way to casting some action project that features both Vin Diesel and Wentworth Miller doing that scowly, intense growl thing they do so well. Because that would be hotness. Because they are hotness. Miscegenation, yay!
Speaking of, has anyone seen a picture of WM3's parents? I know, I'm completely classless, but I'm just so intrigued. His father either has to have the weakest dominant genes known to man, or Wentworth Miller II is also mixed. And inquiring minds want to know! Okay, fine, I want to know.
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scornedsaint, if you have any Prison Break fic recs, I'd love to hear them. I think in this fandom, I'd be more inclined towards short pieces rather than long, gen more so than het (and I have pretty much no interest in slash in this fandom), and stuff set during or near the timeline of the show, and not so much backstory stuff. So if you can think of anything that would be cool ^_~
Also, a gold star to the person who tells me why the other inmates call Michael "Fish". I'm usually okay at puzzling out slang, I mean it's not rocket science, or Cockney or anything, but I can't quite figure it. I mean, assuming the reason isn't anything so simple as the fact that he's been freshly "netted", the catch of the day, as it were? Anyway, I refuse to google that shit.
Oh, and speaking of the talk, spent quite a while with my brother on the road, which means he controlled the radio, which means...I have a question.
[Poll #620898]
I suppose I should get ready to hit the road. **yawns** I totally managed to not see RENT this weekend. I'm such a bad fan.
-- Supernatural --
I'm all caught up on this one. It's fun enough, but I have to say, I'm surprised it got such great reviews at the beginning of the season. At least I seem to remember it getting quite positive reviews. But I dunno. Despite the subject matter, it just seems awfully pedestrian in its execution. I feel like it's not half as ambitious as it could be. I imagine this is gonna be one of those shows where the efforts of fandom are what really make the Winchesters' world come alive.
I do like how we've gradually been seeing more and more of the not-quite-so-buried issues between the boys. Dean's problems with Sam surface in Skin, Sam's issues with Dean come to light in Asylum (Btw, I love that Sam pulled the trigger. Possessed or no, Dean's never gonna forget that Sam pointed a weapon at him and squeezed the trigger. I think Ackles can be a little over the top at times, but I thought he nailed the 'You hate me that much?' reaction in that scene), their differing takes on their father in Bugs. That kind of stuff is infinitely more interesting to me than the Scare-of-the-Week, but the way WB shows like to handle their storytelling, I'm sure fandom will do better, by leaps and bounds, to develop the backstory and to put the boys in scenarios that really test their relationship as brothers.
And speaking of the boys and their relationship, I have to admit, I really don't get any kind of slashy vibe off 'em. I know, color me a heretic ^_~ I've come across a few good writers that have made it work in one-shots, but overall? **shrugs** I do love me some WB RPS though, and the show does spawn a bit of that as well, so that is of the good.
I was checking out some of the old reaction posts in the TWoP forums and there seems to be an awful lot of concern that Sam being "special" means Dean will get shuttled to the side. I don't think the writers will do that, I think they know that the thing that makes this show is the relationship between the boys. I'm willing to give them credit for that much at least. Though if Sam is plotted to take on a bigger role on the show, I think they picked the right brother for that. (There was some debate in the forums that maybe Missouri was talking about Dean and the audience was being misdirected into thinking she meant Sam...but I think that's giving the writers a little TOO much credit ^_~) Jensen has his moments (breaking down during the message to his father, the confrontation with his brother in Asylum), but I think Jared's the stronger actor of the two. Actually, as I think about it, that's probably unfair of me to say; Jared's been given the juicier stuff to work with, since Sam's the "sensitive" one. When Jensen's been given more emotional stuff to play, I suppose he's handled it well.
========================================================================================
-- Prison Break --
This show is awesome! In the ping!instant classic! way. About 10 minutes into the pilot, I wanted to be around to see how it would all shake out. I feel the same way about this show that I feel about Deadwood, BSG or even 24 when they get me going. It's so well plotted; everything's so tight and connected, you can't tug on one string in the tapestry without seeing the distortion it causes elsewhere in the pattern. And that's fabulous. Everything about this show works together so well - I'm so impressed with how the writers and actors realized these relationships in so quick a time. And not just the main relationships either, you know?
Also quite impressive? How Michael doesn't have to beat guys off him at every turn despite being the most gorgeous thing many of those guys have probably ever seen in their lives. Heh. I guess it's good to have Lucifer in your corner. And an intense scowl that goes all the way to 11.
And on the topic of prison bitch action -- I don't find these brothers slashy either. Maybe baseball's overloaded my slash-vision? :-P Actually, I don't find any of the relationships on this show slashy, but the show's still fun for me. Will wonders never cease? (Though I was terrifically amused by the little tiff between Michael and Veronica, in the first episode no less: "You two have the most dysfunctional idea of love I've ever seen. . . . I loved him as much as you did." "Past tense for you maybe, but not me." Heh.)
(Actually, I am a little less than sold on the boys as brothers who would go all out for each other, but I recognize that's a constraint of the situation the boys are in. With Linc being kept apart from Michael, I haven't seen them together as much as I'd like. I hadn't realized just how much I depend on nonverbal interaction to flesh out character dynamics for me. It seems so much of what you're supposed to think of their relationship is based on what we've heard the characters say, and not as much how we've seen them be with each other. I believe that Linc means so much to Michael largely because WM3 sells it in his conviction that he's gonna keep his brother from the chair. I'm not as convinced of the emotion on Linc's end. I don't really believe, watching the show, that Linc would die for Michael without hesitation, in the way that I believe Dean would die to protect Sam, or hell, the way that I believe Michael would die to protect Linc. The lockdown episode (ah, which tv.com informs me was called Riots, Drills and the Devil) did a little for me in this regard.... seeing how hard Linc tried to protect that young CO gave me an idea of how he must be when his own family is threatened. But idealistically, I'd kind of want more. Actually, some pre-prison flashbacks not set when they were kids would be a start. Especially since the kids they cast look nothing like Dominic or Wentworth.)
In another triumph for this show on the line of Deadwood and BSG - female characters that don't totally annoy me every second they're on screen! I'm really surprised by that, especially with the Sara character. I think part of it is the chemistry the actress has with WM3, I believe the underlying attraction there AND I believe the intelligence each of them brings to the table, the way you can almost see them mentally dancing around each other, each trying to figure the other out. Veronica's nowhere near as interesting to me, but thankfully, Tunney's a decent actress. I'm getting a little tired of Nick/Veronica, but it hasn't reached a level of annoyance yet. (I was gonna comment on LJ's mom here as well, but she's no longer a factor, so nevermind!)
Peter Stormare is awesome in just about everything I've ever seen him in. The actor who plays Sucre is also fun. This show needs a much stronger black presence in the main plotline, but I get the impression the medicine man will be stepping back in to handle that?
I'm
I don't know if it's a testament to the writing and the acting and the directing of this show, or if I'm just a sucker, but I'm on the edge of my seat through every ep. I could barely watch the second part of the lockdown storyline, it was so intense. (Btw, how hilarious is it that Sara hesitated when Michael came for her? Because seriously? Her alternative to going with him was eventually getting gangraped and killed, so...yeah, the guy who's doing time for attempted robbery and quotes Ghandi is probably a somewhat safer bet.) I like that half the time I don't know what's gonna happen, and the other the half of the time, I know what's gonna happen, but I don't know how it will unfold. Like with rookie CO and the lockdown - once he saw the hole, you knew he had to die. Or you were pretty sure he had to die, and you knew it for certain when dumbass T-bag started popping off about taking the man's daughter for a ride once he was on the outside. (I fucking hated T-Bag in that moment, because I'd been nursing some slim hope the poor guy would get out of there alive, but I knew that wasn't happening after T-Bag opened his damn mouth). So knowing there was now no way the CO wasn't gonna reveal them, I was just counting down to the minute he bought it. Poor Bob.
I'm glad they toned down the business with LJ for a little while, after the first few eps, because I thought it was slowing things down that still needed to get established inside Fox River, but otherwise, I really have no complaints.
Well, one other - I rather dislike Kellerman, and I wish they'd gone a different way with that character. (And given him a different name, because they say Kellerman, and I think Mike Kellerman. Every time.) Because right now, he's just plain dislikable. I like my bad guys with a side of compelling. Like T-Bag, I guess. Because, ugh, what a sleaze, but he's quicksilver, and you watch him with a kind of sick fascination. Kellerman, on the other hand? Kinda boring for a bad guy. He just leaves a trail of bodies everywhere he goes! How has he managed to keep anything underwraps?
Also, why is that blonde chick forever in her kitchen chopping vegetables? Geez. (Oh, I just got to the end of 1x08. D'oh! I must confess to being a little nervous about how big The Conspiracy is getting. Maybe it's the fact that I've marathoned these first 8 eps, but this thing just seems to be getting ridiculously huge. And what's with the real lack of concern about how many bodies it's taking to keep this thing "quiet"? Doesn't the government have simpler ways of engineering someone's death? The care the writers have taken with developing the breakout storyline makes me want to give them the benefit of the doubt on the conspiracy storyline, but still....)
I'm totally mainlining the eps right now, I can't help myself, so I look forward to using the time between the fall finale and the return of new eps to rewatch the series to date. Fox should totally have teamed it up with 24; that would have been wicked cool.
The more I watch of Prison Break, the more I want to see a Pitch Black prequel that features Vin Diesel's Riddick and a Wentworth Miller III character who's essentially a pre-Jack/Keira mini-Riddick, on the run together, dodging Johns and the law. Because that would be totally, totally badass. I mean, except for the part where Riddick was a total loner and it would be inconsisent with what we knew of him before the first film. But those are just details ^_~ Really, someone, anyone, needs to see their way to casting some action project that features both Vin Diesel and Wentworth Miller doing that scowly, intense growl thing they do so well. Because that would be hotness. Because they are hotness. Miscegenation, yay!
Speaking of, has anyone seen a picture of WM3's parents? I know, I'm completely classless, but I'm just so intrigued. His father either has to have the weakest dominant genes known to man, or Wentworth Miller II is also mixed. And inquiring minds want to know! Okay, fine, I want to know.
scornedsaint, if you have any Prison Break fic recs, I'd love to hear them. I think in this fandom, I'd be more inclined towards short pieces rather than long, gen more so than het (and I have pretty much no interest in slash in this fandom), and stuff set during or near the timeline of the show, and not so much backstory stuff. So if you can think of anything that would be cool ^_~Also, a gold star to the person who tells me why the other inmates call Michael "Fish". I'm usually okay at puzzling out slang, I mean it's not rocket science, or Cockney or anything, but I can't quite figure it. I mean, assuming the reason isn't anything so simple as the fact that he's been freshly "netted", the catch of the day, as it were? Anyway, I refuse to google that shit.
Oh, and speaking of the talk, spent quite a while with my brother on the road, which means he controlled the radio, which means...I have a question.
[Poll #620898]
I suppose I should get ready to hit the road. **yawns** I totally managed to not see RENT this weekend. I'm such a bad fan.
