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shipperxSo comments on a few shows that I've wanted to comment on.
1) Boo BBC America! I see that a new episode of Dr Who aired in the UK but not in the U.S. :P
2) I was late and thank goodness for OnDemand, but I finally got around to watching the 2-part Community finale and OMG, it was so awesome X eleventy! Loved "Fist full of Paintballs" with its Western motif and Annie playing anti-heroiness.
Oh! And Josh Holloway turning up as the "black rider". Then the full on Star Wars parody for the final episode with Abed assuming the Han Solo role before Jeff could take it. Awesome set of episodes. And someone made a faux_trailer. Heh.
3) Friday Night Lights is, of course, consistently good. Something that struck me in last week's episode is that they structure the episode to make sense and to work and to be wonderfully emotional even if you have no clue about and no interest in football. On the other hand if you do know something about football, it often works there too. I was impressed with Vince's plot this week because it manages to do both. It plays entirely on its own with the somewhat shady father. But if you have reference... damn, they're really setting up Vince's dad to be Cecil Newton, aren't they? When they had Vince walk in with his father having the shirts and the shoes I at first thought that Vince's dad stole it. Then as the scene went on, it clicked. Dude. A recruiter came by and gave that out. DUDE! That's a NCAA violation!
In the scene where Vince worried about the schools not taking him because of his juvie record I was thinking. Nuh-uh. A juvie record won't hinder you with Coach's rec, but the fact that you're talking to Jason Street will! Jason's a sport's agent now. Vince was talking to a sport's agent. That can cost him his eligibility in a heartbeat. Big college schools will run for the hills if there's any hint of that sort of NCAA violation.
Neither of these things are especially highlighted in the episode. The episode works without knowing much about that. But if you do know it, it ups the stakes, which is probably the way that sort of thing should be used. (Also, damn, Vince, coach told you to take a knee! When you're that far ahead in a football game unless you're Steve Spurrier in the 1990s you take a damn knee. You don't rub it in the opponent's face. If it's your third or fourth string still scoring on the opposition at tha point, that's one thing. You can't really tell the kids who have sat on the bench for most of the season to not have their moment of glory. But Vince is first string. Etiquette is if still playing the first string at that point, you take a knee.
Anyway, overall a very nice episode and I do love how the show works in those details.
4) Game of Thrones. I'm really late posting my thoughts on this one though I've posted about it in comments elsewhere. The basic take I have on it is that the stuff that works in the episode is from the book. The stuff that didn't work was needlessly included.
The Littlefinger scene was gratuitous. I don't mean that it was gratuitous for the sex and nudity (though it was that too. Turn the libidos down to simmer boys, when you're doing script editing, m'kay?) I mean that the entire scene was gratuitous.
First off, that scene wasn't in the book. And one reason I think that scene wasn't in the book was that it wasn't needed.
It really doesn't hurt if one of your villains is a little mysterious. In the book by that point we knew that Littlefinger wasn't trustworthy. We knew that he had points of irritation with Catelyn having married into the Starks, and given the stuff I've read in the 'totally unspoiled' thread on TWOP, the show has done enough even before now to get that point across to an uninitiated audience. In the book, however, we didn't know exactly which way that Littlefinger would jump at this juncture. We knew he had a game, but we also suspected that his game ran deep and ran for the long term. We didn't know that betrayal was happening within the next half hour. And we weren't sure which way he would jump regarding Ned's current fight with Cersei, so when he doublecrossed Ned it played both as "aha! I could see that coming" and "Wow, I didn't anticipate that quite yet." It had the bonus quality of also not making Ned look like a complete idiot.
Having Littlefinger explain his motives and his plan in excruciating detail at the beginning of the episode really robbed the "umpf!" from the final scene. Also, the whole sexposition (sex + exposition) thing went on for-freaking-ever! It brought the momentum of the episode to a screeching halt. Note to producers: We aren't fooled. A six minute soliloquy is still a six minute exposition sililoquy no matter how much gratuitous girl on girl action you have going on in the background.
We see what you did there and it still dragged the episode to a screeching halt.
Also purely on a characterization level, would Littlefinger honestly confess his masterplan to the whore of all Westeros upon first meeting her? Really? Because I don't think so!
I think I resent the Littlefinger scene for the scenes they didn't do in order to shove in the six minute sexposition. I really, truly would've preferred the Jon Snow scene from the book where he goes to Mormont and Aemon to lobby for Sam being allowed to take his vows with the rest of his 'class'. That scene did more for character development, and it explained what was going on in the episode better.
Jon going to bat for Sam helped Jon's characterization. It also helped further establish the Jon/Sam friendship. It helps to even the relationship out with Jon going to bat for Sam then Sam talking sense to Jon. And it made sense of why Mormont and Aemon decided to put Jon on the management track.
Jon pointing out why Sam had skills that the Watch should use wisely was pretty much the moment where Mormont and Aemon decided that Jon wasn't just good with a sword. He could be a future leader of the Watch. Leaving that scene out made their decision to make him a steward look like it might be vindictive and that wasn't what it was about (even if Jon misinterpreted it as such).
Also, they could've left in the scene where Sansa naively went to Cersei giving the information that Ned was trying to get the girls out of King's Landing. That played into how and when Cersei struck... and would've been more useful in the episode than the gratuitous Littlefinger scene.
Dude, we don't actually need a villain to give us a speech about his intentions in the first half of the episode. It's actually okay for the smart villain to play his cards close to his vest and to be a bit mysterious. Expecially when it helps maintain the suspense of the climax of the episode. Instead Ned looks like a complete idiot for being taken by surprise because the audience sure as hell wasn't.
5) I spent yesterday's holiday being worthless watching a Hallmark Channel marathon of the "Love Saga" (What? Don't judge me.) I basically watched the first one to mock Catherine Heigl, which is strange. I liked Catherine Heigl back during her Roswell days (but she wore out my last nerve with all the gossip/publicity of her stint on Gray's Anatomy... and I don't even watch the show). The truth is, the Catherine Heigl portion of the Saga was actually the best part. And I lol'd at the January Jones one (I swear to god, Mrs. Donald Draper looked twelve in her movie). But watching the 'saga' back to back to back began to amuse because the tropes they were using became so damn obvious over the course of the saga.
Part 1 - Catherine Heigl is in a wagon train with her first husband. First husband dies. She finds herself in a marriage of convenience with a God-fearin' settler with a motherless tot. God-fearin' settler teaches Catherine Heigl to believe in a merciful God and motherless tot takes to calling Catherine Heigle 'Ma!"
Part 2 -- Motherless tot is now a teenaged January Jones (Betty Draper, yo!). Ma and Pa worry about their little girl. Little girl falls in love with good boy next door.
Part 3 -- Motherless Tot who was Betty Draper is now some other actress. Not Betty Draper baby dies. Her husband dies. She adopts motherless tot#2 and meets a gosh-darn perfect cowboy Sheriff. Only she can't be with gosh-darn perfect cowboy sheriff because he doesn't believe in God. So God-fearin Motherless Tot who Used to be January Jones has to convince him to be a Christian. When she does that she can fall in love and marry the gosh-darn perfect sheriff and raise their adopted motherless tot.
Part 4 -- Motherless Tot #2 has grown up and wants to be a frontier doctor and is determined to be a frontier doctor and so is wary of allowing herself to fall in love with gosh darn near perfect boy next door. But gosh-darn-perfect boy next door wants her to go to college and become a doctor, so she marries gosh darn perfect boy next door.
Part 5 - Motherless Tot #2's gosh-darn-perfect boy next door has also died (of course.) And now she's all wary of falling in love again and disillusioned by God. So she ends up taking care of an orphange of girls, and motherless Tot #3 sort of adopts her. Meanwhile she falls in love with hunky God-fearin' blacksmith who restores her faith in God.
Part 6 - Motherless Tot #3 falls in love with gosh-darn perfect boy next door who wants her to be able to go to college... if he had watched the rest of the series, he'd also be making out his will...
Heh. It was like "Little House on the Prairie" meets Nicholas Sparks and/or Danielle Steel... in a Christian novel (and the whole thing amused me far more than it probably should've. They clearly had no qualms about repeating their plots. ;)
1) Boo BBC America! I see that a new episode of Dr Who aired in the UK but not in the U.S. :P
2) I was late and thank goodness for OnDemand, but I finally got around to watching the 2-part Community finale and OMG, it was so awesome X eleventy! Loved "Fist full of Paintballs" with its Western motif and Annie playing anti-heroiness.
Oh! And Josh Holloway turning up as the "black rider". Then the full on Star Wars parody for the final episode with Abed assuming the Han Solo role before Jeff could take it. Awesome set of episodes. And someone made a faux_trailer. Heh.
3) Friday Night Lights is, of course, consistently good. Something that struck me in last week's episode is that they structure the episode to make sense and to work and to be wonderfully emotional even if you have no clue about and no interest in football. On the other hand if you do know something about football, it often works there too. I was impressed with Vince's plot this week because it manages to do both. It plays entirely on its own with the somewhat shady father. But if you have reference... damn, they're really setting up Vince's dad to be Cecil Newton, aren't they? When they had Vince walk in with his father having the shirts and the shoes I at first thought that Vince's dad stole it. Then as the scene went on, it clicked. Dude. A recruiter came by and gave that out. DUDE! That's a NCAA violation!
In the scene where Vince worried about the schools not taking him because of his juvie record I was thinking. Nuh-uh. A juvie record won't hinder you with Coach's rec, but the fact that you're talking to Jason Street will! Jason's a sport's agent now. Vince was talking to a sport's agent. That can cost him his eligibility in a heartbeat. Big college schools will run for the hills if there's any hint of that sort of NCAA violation.
Neither of these things are especially highlighted in the episode. The episode works without knowing much about that. But if you do know it, it ups the stakes, which is probably the way that sort of thing should be used. (Also, damn, Vince, coach told you to take a knee! When you're that far ahead in a football game unless you're Steve Spurrier in the 1990s you take a damn knee. You don't rub it in the opponent's face. If it's your third or fourth string still scoring on the opposition at tha point, that's one thing. You can't really tell the kids who have sat on the bench for most of the season to not have their moment of glory. But Vince is first string. Etiquette is if still playing the first string at that point, you take a knee.
Anyway, overall a very nice episode and I do love how the show works in those details.
4) Game of Thrones. I'm really late posting my thoughts on this one though I've posted about it in comments elsewhere. The basic take I have on it is that the stuff that works in the episode is from the book. The stuff that didn't work was needlessly included.
The Littlefinger scene was gratuitous. I don't mean that it was gratuitous for the sex and nudity (though it was that too. Turn the libidos down to simmer boys, when you're doing script editing, m'kay?) I mean that the entire scene was gratuitous.
First off, that scene wasn't in the book. And one reason I think that scene wasn't in the book was that it wasn't needed.
It really doesn't hurt if one of your villains is a little mysterious. In the book by that point we knew that Littlefinger wasn't trustworthy. We knew that he had points of irritation with Catelyn having married into the Starks, and given the stuff I've read in the 'totally unspoiled' thread on TWOP, the show has done enough even before now to get that point across to an uninitiated audience. In the book, however, we didn't know exactly which way that Littlefinger would jump at this juncture. We knew he had a game, but we also suspected that his game ran deep and ran for the long term. We didn't know that betrayal was happening within the next half hour. And we weren't sure which way he would jump regarding Ned's current fight with Cersei, so when he doublecrossed Ned it played both as "aha! I could see that coming" and "Wow, I didn't anticipate that quite yet." It had the bonus quality of also not making Ned look like a complete idiot.
Having Littlefinger explain his motives and his plan in excruciating detail at the beginning of the episode really robbed the "umpf!" from the final scene. Also, the whole sexposition (sex + exposition) thing went on for-freaking-ever! It brought the momentum of the episode to a screeching halt. Note to producers: We aren't fooled. A six minute soliloquy is still a six minute exposition sililoquy no matter how much gratuitous girl on girl action you have going on in the background.
We see what you did there and it still dragged the episode to a screeching halt.
Also purely on a characterization level, would Littlefinger honestly confess his masterplan to the whore of all Westeros upon first meeting her? Really? Because I don't think so!
I think I resent the Littlefinger scene for the scenes they didn't do in order to shove in the six minute sexposition. I really, truly would've preferred the Jon Snow scene from the book where he goes to Mormont and Aemon to lobby for Sam being allowed to take his vows with the rest of his 'class'. That scene did more for character development, and it explained what was going on in the episode better.
Jon going to bat for Sam helped Jon's characterization. It also helped further establish the Jon/Sam friendship. It helps to even the relationship out with Jon going to bat for Sam then Sam talking sense to Jon. And it made sense of why Mormont and Aemon decided to put Jon on the management track.
Jon pointing out why Sam had skills that the Watch should use wisely was pretty much the moment where Mormont and Aemon decided that Jon wasn't just good with a sword. He could be a future leader of the Watch. Leaving that scene out made their decision to make him a steward look like it might be vindictive and that wasn't what it was about (even if Jon misinterpreted it as such).
Also, they could've left in the scene where Sansa naively went to Cersei giving the information that Ned was trying to get the girls out of King's Landing. That played into how and when Cersei struck... and would've been more useful in the episode than the gratuitous Littlefinger scene.
Dude, we don't actually need a villain to give us a speech about his intentions in the first half of the episode. It's actually okay for the smart villain to play his cards close to his vest and to be a bit mysterious. Expecially when it helps maintain the suspense of the climax of the episode. Instead Ned looks like a complete idiot for being taken by surprise because the audience sure as hell wasn't.
5) I spent yesterday's holiday being worthless watching a Hallmark Channel marathon of the "Love Saga" (What? Don't judge me.) I basically watched the first one to mock Catherine Heigl, which is strange. I liked Catherine Heigl back during her Roswell days (but she wore out my last nerve with all the gossip/publicity of her stint on Gray's Anatomy... and I don't even watch the show). The truth is, the Catherine Heigl portion of the Saga was actually the best part. And I lol'd at the January Jones one (I swear to god, Mrs. Donald Draper looked twelve in her movie). But watching the 'saga' back to back to back began to amuse because the tropes they were using became so damn obvious over the course of the saga.
Part 1 - Catherine Heigl is in a wagon train with her first husband. First husband dies. She finds herself in a marriage of convenience with a God-fearin' settler with a motherless tot. God-fearin' settler teaches Catherine Heigl to believe in a merciful God and motherless tot takes to calling Catherine Heigle 'Ma!"
Part 2 -- Motherless tot is now a teenaged January Jones (Betty Draper, yo!). Ma and Pa worry about their little girl. Little girl falls in love with good boy next door.
Part 3 -- Motherless Tot who was Betty Draper is now some other actress. Not Betty Draper baby dies. Her husband dies. She adopts motherless tot#2 and meets a gosh-darn perfect cowboy Sheriff. Only she can't be with gosh-darn perfect cowboy sheriff because he doesn't believe in God. So God-fearin Motherless Tot who Used to be January Jones has to convince him to be a Christian. When she does that she can fall in love and marry the gosh-darn perfect sheriff and raise their adopted motherless tot.
Part 4 -- Motherless Tot #2 has grown up and wants to be a frontier doctor and is determined to be a frontier doctor and so is wary of allowing herself to fall in love with gosh darn near perfect boy next door. But gosh-darn-perfect boy next door wants her to go to college and become a doctor, so she marries gosh darn perfect boy next door.
Part 5 - Motherless Tot #2's gosh-darn-perfect boy next door has also died (of course.) And now she's all wary of falling in love again and disillusioned by God. So she ends up taking care of an orphange of girls, and motherless Tot #3 sort of adopts her. Meanwhile she falls in love with hunky God-fearin' blacksmith who restores her faith in God.
Part 6 - Motherless Tot #3 falls in love with gosh-darn perfect boy next door who wants her to be able to go to college... if he had watched the rest of the series, he'd also be making out his will...
Heh. It was like "Little House on the Prairie" meets Nicholas Sparks and/or Danielle Steel... in a Christian novel (and the whole thing amused me far more than it probably should've. They clearly had no qualms about repeating their plots. ;)
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Date: 2011-06-01 04:23 am (UTC)I agree that the Jon scene would have been a better choice. The Sansa scene I think might still come, it is a flashback in the books too and I think Arya and Sansa's story will be told parallel next week.
Though I have to say there were also added bits I liked. First off the very start of the sexposition scene, where you see all the whores bathing their children. And also the scene in the beginning where you see Tywin skin the stag. Meeting Tywin does explain tons about how his children are.
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Date: 2011-06-01 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-01 03:42 pm (UTC)Oh, FNL. Forever my heart <333
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Date: 2011-06-01 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-02 04:39 am (UTC)I think that even when you have time constraints that require you to condense some exposition and some characterization, there's still no excuse for implementing a "tell, don't show" policy to this extent. We're not supposed to know what Littlefinger is really thinking. There's a reason why the book doesn't tell us this much about him at this point, and if you're gonna insist on giving us too much information, at least show us who the character is instead of having him tell us who he is. They totally missed the mark on that one. It was a disservice to the character and to the story, and I totally agree that Jon Snow going to bat for Sam would've been more appropriate, and it would've hit the mark in terms of showing us who Jon and Sam are (instead of telling us), and in terms of what we should know at this point in the story.