Meandering Musings

Okay, I couldn't resist.  I downloaded the FNL finale.    That final montage did me in, y'all.  I was crying (in a good way).

• It rained today. My back yard is so happy. We really, really needed the rain. My hydrangeas have begun to look quite sad. On the other hand, my tomato plant ("Juliet" It's the type. I didn't name my tomato plant) is going gangbusters. I picked 10 tomatoes and counted another 54 on the plant with blooms for still more to come after that. It's been a very prolific plant).



• Went out to Surin and had Thai for dinner. Yum.



• Have begun reading Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking



• Watched Friday Night Lights last night and damn I miss Matt Saracen. However, I have to be honest, I've had enough with tragedy for the time being. It hurts knowing that there is more dispiriting stuff to come for these characters. The show is beautifully written, but the hard luck stories in it...God. So many of them!



• Spent time last night making this banner for menomegirl. It feels really odd making a Bangel banner. :)



• Rewatched the Doctor Who ep that aired on BBC America tonight. It's the one where the Doctor became a guy's flatmate and played soccer. It's not really the best of episodes, but darn it's a fun one



• Have continued rewatching Season 1 Farscape but haven't had much to say. ( I tend to think my watching Season 1 is always influenced by the fact that I watched the series starting with Season 4 then backtracked. )
  
  
  It's weird because plot-wise and mythology-wise it really doesn't kick in until Scorpius shows up, which is almost at the end of the first season. On the other hand, I appreciate things that are earlier because they did indeed function in capacity of world building. Things like the throw away of Sebacean heat sickness and the way that it will eventually play into Scorpius's construction as a villain. So I do appreciate little throw away things in MOTW episodes because they helped to form the Farscape universe, but a lot of the MOTW themselves are only okay. I don't know that I would have valued them much without the rest of the series to give me a lens to view them through.
  
  Generally, though, I haven't had much to say with the recent episodes that I've watched. I have been fascinated by some of shadowkat67 's meta, especially her discussion of Farscape's central theme. If BtVS's central theme is about the challenges (and demons) of growing up, Farscape explores the emotional and interpersonal repercussions of violence and warfare. I don't know that I ever thought about it as clearly as shadowkat67 discussed it, but once noted it's so clear to see it in the series as a whole. ( Rambly thematic thoughts on Farscape )
  Each of them grapple with what violence has cost them. Each of them carry -- and often perpetuate -- those scars. It doesn't happen in a void.
  
  Also a shout-out to shadowkat's summary of Farscape's Season 3's finale Dog With Two Bones ( Read more... )
  What makes Season 3 wonderful to me is its inevitability. That's what's so damn impressive to me, because Season 3 ends on a note that fannish, shippy hearts don't want. Cannot want. And yet... it has to happen that way.
  
  There was a discussion in someone's LJ Friday about tragic endings and I mentioned that I had listened to a writing workshop where the lecturer said that stories need the happiest ending the author can give them. Then he stressed that this does not mean that stories have to have happy endings. Not at all. It means that it can't feel like the author is doing something just to make the audience cry. Audiences don't like to feel manipulated and jerked around. A tragic ending cannot be arbitrary. It must be an organic outcome of the situation that the characters are in. The tragedy needs to be the best outcome those characters (and the audience) could reasonably expect given what has happened in the story and who the characters are. Dog with Two Bones is a wonderful example of this. It's a tragedy... but it's an earned one. Given these characters and the situation they were in, the pain that they were in, and the choices they must make to be true to themselves... it has to end this way. That's what makes it heartbreaking. I can't imagine a happier ending for Season 3 that would feel authentic to what had gone before. So, even as it breaks my heart (and every time that it breaks my heart), I still cannot imagine it happening any other way, not and be true to the journey the characters had taken to reach that point.



• ( Related thoughts on Doctor Who )


Er... it made sense to me anyway.


• ( Subsequent thoughts on BtVS )
  Inquiring minds want to know...



• And, while watching Doctor Who on BBC America, I saw ads for Being Human! It starts July 24th. It was a freaking awesome season of Being Human, enough so that I will have to watch it again. It was a wonderful case of plotting the downfall of characters by having them slip-n-slide there with the best of intentions. The characters take what they think is the right course -- or at least a reasonable one -- most of the way. The audience, however, can readily see that this is going to end badly and that the characters are blinded by their own wants and needs. Beautifully done.

• It rained today. My back yard is so happy. We really, really needed the rain. My hydrangeas have begun to look quite sad. On the other hand, my tomato plant ("Juliet" It's the type. I didn't name my tomato plant) is going gangbusters. I picked 10 tomatoes and counted another 54 on the plant with blooms for still more to come after that. It's been a very prolific plant).



• Went out to Surin and had Thai for dinner. Yum.



• Have begun reading Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking



• Watched Friday Night Lights last night and damn I miss Matt Saracen. However, I have to be honest, I've had enough with tragedy for the time being. It hurts knowing that there is more dispiriting stuff to come for these characters. The show is beautifully written, but the hard luck stories in it...God. So many of them!



• Spent time last night making this banner for menomegirl. It feels really odd making a Bangel banner. :)



• Rewatched the Doctor Who ep that aired on BBC America tonight. It's the one where the Doctor became a guy's flatmate and played soccer. It's not really the best of episodes, but darn it's a fun one



• Have continued rewatching Season 1 Farscape but haven't had much to say. ( I tend to think my watching Season 1 is always influenced by the fact that I watched the series starting with Season 4 then backtracked. )
  
  
  It's weird because plot-wise and mythology-wise it really doesn't kick in until Scorpius shows up, which is almost at the end of the first season. On the other hand, I appreciate things that are earlier because they did indeed function in capacity of world building. Things like the throw away of Sebacean heat sickness and the way that it will eventually play into Scorpius's construction as a villain. So I do appreciate little throw away things in MOTW episodes because they helped to form the Farscape universe, but a lot of the MOTW themselves are only okay. I don't know that I would have valued them much without the rest of the series to give me a lens to view them through.
  
  Generally, though, I haven't had much to say with the recent episodes that I've watched. I have been fascinated by some of shadowkat67 's meta, especially her discussion of Farscape's central theme. If BtVS's central theme is about the challenges (and demons) of growing up, Farscape explores the emotional and interpersonal repercussions of violence and warfare. I don't know that I ever thought about it as clearly as shadowkat67 discussed it, but once noted it's so clear to see it in the series as a whole. ( Rambly thematic thoughts on Farscape )
  Each of them grapple with what violence has cost them. Each of them carry -- and often perpetuate -- those scars. It doesn't happen in a void.
  
  Also a shout-out to shadowkat's summary of Farscape's Season 3's finale Dog With Two Bones ( Read more... )
  What makes Season 3 wonderful to me is its inevitability. That's what's so damn impressive to me, because Season 3 ends on a note that fannish, shippy hearts don't want. Cannot want. And yet... it has to happen that way.
  
  There was a discussion in someone's LJ Friday about tragic endings and I mentioned that I had listened to a writing workshop where the lecturer said that stories need the happiest ending the author can give them. Then he stressed that this does not mean that stories have to have happy endings. Not at all. It means that it can't feel like the author is doing something just to make the audience cry. Audiences don't like to feel manipulated and jerked around. A tragic ending cannot be arbitrary. It must be an organic outcome of the situation that the characters are in. The tragedy needs to be the best outcome those characters (and the audience) could reasonably expect given what has happened in the story and who the characters are. Dog with Two Bones is a wonderful example of this. It's a tragedy... but it's an earned one. Given these characters and the situation they were in, the pain that they were in, and the choices they must make to be true to themselves... it has to end this way. That's what makes it heartbreaking. I can't imagine a happier ending for Season 3 that would feel authentic to what had gone before. So, even as it breaks my heart (and every time that it breaks my heart), I still cannot imagine it happening any other way, not and be true to the journey the characters had taken to reach that point.



• ( Related thoughts on Doctor Who )


Er... it made sense to me anyway.


• ( Subsequent thoughts on BtVS )
  Inquiring minds want to know...



• And, while watching Doctor Who on BBC America, I saw ads for Being Human! It starts July 24th. It was a freaking awesome season of Being Human, enough so that I will have to watch it again. It was a wonderful case of plotting the downfall of characters by having them slip-n-slide there with the best of intentions. The characters take what they think is the right course -- or at least a reasonable one -- most of the way. The audience, however, can readily see that this is going to end badly and that the characters are blinded by their own wants and needs. Beautifully done.

Wow.  Nice casting move-- not just because I loved me some Agent Pearce on 24, and not simply because the man can act, but also because he totally looks like he could be Landry's dad.

FNL casting news from TVGuide:
Shall we assume that Agent Pearce ultimately whisked Martha Logan away to the Mount Airy Lodge for some good lovin'? Glenn Morshower, who played 24 fans' favoritest Secret Serviceman, is joining Friday Night Lights this season as Landry's father, a state champion Panthers alum turned local lawman.


Also the Ask Matt Roush litany of much deserved outrage over the Emmy noms (The Emmy's are a joke and FNL and Lost have every right to scream foul!   The only redeeming thing to the nominations is 30 Rock's nom.  But that's little consolation to the inexcusable stupidity of the Drama nominations.)

Read it and cheer

Read it and cheer