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Nov. 2nd, 2014 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDear crazy network marketing folks, please stop it already with the hyperbole ads for "How to Get Away With Murder". I'm sorry but there' s nothing about the series How to Get Away with Murder that is the least bit jaw dropping, shocking, or surprising. Well, not unless you've never seen a trashy soap opera or watched a Sydney Sheldon or Judith Krantz mini-series. It's rather disappointing to tune in and discover - well, nothing shocking happened. If I hadn't been told in a million commercials - I might actually have been surprised or shocked. But telling me ahead of time - sort of results in disappointment.
I've just binge watched the 6-7 episodes of "Murder" and...while compelling here and there, it's sort of predictable. With one exception, I've seen the plot twists coming a mile away. And it's hard to care that much about any of the characters - the writers haven't bothered to develop them beyond being pawns of hair-pin plot twists. And as stated above, if you are at all familiar with Scandal or the trope, you can sort of see the plot twists coming. Once the writer sets the pattern - it's not hard to predict what will happen next - just come up with the most outlandish idea and there you go. Does have some interesting things to say about gender, sexual orientation, and race - as well, all of Shondra Rhimes series do, but other than that...
It's trying to blend trashy soap opera/murder mystery with a legal procedural. Legal procedurals rarely work for me - mainly because after a certain point I feel like I'm watching Perry Mason, and it bares no resemblance whatsoever to reality. Annalease, the protagonist, would be thrown out of the court-room by now for contempt. The Good Wife is the only legal drama that I've seen that is half-way realistic.
"Murder" reminds me a little of Damages, except Damages was better written, etc.
Yet another over-hyped series, proving that it is best to take social media and magazine reviews with a hefty grain of salt. I miss professional film and television critic reviews...I don't really see that depth of media criticism any longer - instead I see a lot of marketing hype. And they say evil marketing people don't rule the world?
On a brighter note? Saw Once Upon a Time tonight which continues to surprise me. I really didn't see the latest plot twist coming and it works. They built up to it rather well.
Apparently Anna's mother is Gerda. In this version the Snow Queen was Gerda's eldest sister. Somehow her older sisters, Ingrid and Helga disappeared. The rock trolls erased everyone's memories of them - due to the tragedy. But I think they was more to the story - since Ingrid was imprisoned in an urn and is convinced she was imprisoned because she was the odd one out and not wanted, that her family rejected her. And now wants desperately to rebuild that family. Replacing Helga with Emma, who apparently is Hegla's Doppleganger and like Elsa and the Queen, has powers. Anna didn't have powers - so the Queen couldn't keep Anna, also Anna had rejected the Queen - from the Queen's perspective.
The mirror is similar to the one in the original fairy tale - it's the "shattered mirror" which results in people turning on each other and themselves. It creates dissent.
Rumple has the Fantasia Hat which strips people of their magic - and imprisons them within the hat. Which is a bigger threat to Emma, Elsa, and Regina...than the mirror, in my opinion. Although not so sure Rumple will go there - with Henry looking on.
Henry might to save Emma from the Snow Queen.
Speaking of Henry - that kid is getting really tall. He's almost Emma's height.
I'm thinking Emma may end up being Kai in this tale, and Henry or Regina may find themselves in the role of Gerda - saving Emma from the Snow Queen? Although I'm more worried about the town than Emma, since the Queen wants Emma, who bears an eery resemblance to both the Queen and Elsa - making me wonder if David and Snow White had any distant relatives that they aren't telling us about? Can this town get any more incestuous? (Loved Hook's line regarding that - "Live here long enough and you'll discover everyone is related in some way." Regina was the other one with a good line, "I already have to put up with you and Captain Eyeliner making eyes at each other.")
Poor Belle is in for a crushing disappointment regarding Rumple - who got a wee bit hoisted on his own petard regarding the dagger. He had to pretend it was the real one.
Which the Snow Queen used to her advantage. However, Rumple is not someone, as Hook recently discovered, that you can blackmail or outsmart. He'll always find a way to outmaneuver you - unless of course he manages to outmaneuver himself - which is what happened with Belle.
And she wants to be a hero. Is it bad that I agreed with Mirror Belle? Actually was sort of cheering mirror Belle on. Shame Rumple stopped that. Belle is a pathetic, manipulable, weakling, who puts herself and her own wants above others. She did choose the rock over Anna, and she does tend to enable Rumple.
Oh as an aside, a friend related a story about a six year child that she is teaching, who is watching The Walking Dead - most likely with his 14 year old sister.
People? There are parental blocks on your cable boxes for a reason - utilize them. This is not rocket science. The Walking Dead is not a television series that anyone under the age of 18 should be watching - hence the 10 pm time slot, and "this program is for Mature Audiences Only, Parental Supervision is Strongly Advised, not intended for young audiences". The fact that people need to be told this...is mind-boggling, the fact that they ignore it...
Although it is possible he was watching it at a friend's house. My mother told me that she'd found it impossible to monitor half the things we saw - often at friend's houses, on the sly (true - I snuck in to see a PG-13 movie with a friend when I was 8 years old - it was "Fun with Dick and Jane" (the first version - hello, 1970s, Jim Carry and Tea Lonie were 8 years old back then). Ironically? 10 years later, I could probably have watched it on tv at 3pm. But hey, at the time, it was risque, and I got grounded. My brother meanwhile snuck in to see Porky's - at the age of 14. Of course this was after our parents accidentally took us to see Excalibar. So never mind.
I've just binge watched the 6-7 episodes of "Murder" and...while compelling here and there, it's sort of predictable. With one exception, I've seen the plot twists coming a mile away. And it's hard to care that much about any of the characters - the writers haven't bothered to develop them beyond being pawns of hair-pin plot twists. And as stated above, if you are at all familiar with Scandal or the trope, you can sort of see the plot twists coming. Once the writer sets the pattern - it's not hard to predict what will happen next - just come up with the most outlandish idea and there you go. Does have some interesting things to say about gender, sexual orientation, and race - as well, all of Shondra Rhimes series do, but other than that...
It's trying to blend trashy soap opera/murder mystery with a legal procedural. Legal procedurals rarely work for me - mainly because after a certain point I feel like I'm watching Perry Mason, and it bares no resemblance whatsoever to reality. Annalease, the protagonist, would be thrown out of the court-room by now for contempt. The Good Wife is the only legal drama that I've seen that is half-way realistic.
"Murder" reminds me a little of Damages, except Damages was better written, etc.
Yet another over-hyped series, proving that it is best to take social media and magazine reviews with a hefty grain of salt. I miss professional film and television critic reviews...I don't really see that depth of media criticism any longer - instead I see a lot of marketing hype. And they say evil marketing people don't rule the world?
On a brighter note? Saw Once Upon a Time tonight which continues to surprise me. I really didn't see the latest plot twist coming and it works. They built up to it rather well.
Apparently Anna's mother is Gerda. In this version the Snow Queen was Gerda's eldest sister. Somehow her older sisters, Ingrid and Helga disappeared. The rock trolls erased everyone's memories of them - due to the tragedy. But I think they was more to the story - since Ingrid was imprisoned in an urn and is convinced she was imprisoned because she was the odd one out and not wanted, that her family rejected her. And now wants desperately to rebuild that family. Replacing Helga with Emma, who apparently is Hegla's Doppleganger and like Elsa and the Queen, has powers. Anna didn't have powers - so the Queen couldn't keep Anna, also Anna had rejected the Queen - from the Queen's perspective.
The mirror is similar to the one in the original fairy tale - it's the "shattered mirror" which results in people turning on each other and themselves. It creates dissent.
Rumple has the Fantasia Hat which strips people of their magic - and imprisons them within the hat. Which is a bigger threat to Emma, Elsa, and Regina...than the mirror, in my opinion. Although not so sure Rumple will go there - with Henry looking on.
Henry might to save Emma from the Snow Queen.
Speaking of Henry - that kid is getting really tall. He's almost Emma's height.
I'm thinking Emma may end up being Kai in this tale, and Henry or Regina may find themselves in the role of Gerda - saving Emma from the Snow Queen? Although I'm more worried about the town than Emma, since the Queen wants Emma, who bears an eery resemblance to both the Queen and Elsa - making me wonder if David and Snow White had any distant relatives that they aren't telling us about? Can this town get any more incestuous? (Loved Hook's line regarding that - "Live here long enough and you'll discover everyone is related in some way." Regina was the other one with a good line, "I already have to put up with you and Captain Eyeliner making eyes at each other.")
Poor Belle is in for a crushing disappointment regarding Rumple - who got a wee bit hoisted on his own petard regarding the dagger. He had to pretend it was the real one.
Which the Snow Queen used to her advantage. However, Rumple is not someone, as Hook recently discovered, that you can blackmail or outsmart. He'll always find a way to outmaneuver you - unless of course he manages to outmaneuver himself - which is what happened with Belle.
And she wants to be a hero. Is it bad that I agreed with Mirror Belle? Actually was sort of cheering mirror Belle on. Shame Rumple stopped that. Belle is a pathetic, manipulable, weakling, who puts herself and her own wants above others. She did choose the rock over Anna, and she does tend to enable Rumple.
Oh as an aside, a friend related a story about a six year child that she is teaching, who is watching The Walking Dead - most likely with his 14 year old sister.
People? There are parental blocks on your cable boxes for a reason - utilize them. This is not rocket science. The Walking Dead is not a television series that anyone under the age of 18 should be watching - hence the 10 pm time slot, and "this program is for Mature Audiences Only, Parental Supervision is Strongly Advised, not intended for young audiences". The fact that people need to be told this...is mind-boggling, the fact that they ignore it...
Although it is possible he was watching it at a friend's house. My mother told me that she'd found it impossible to monitor half the things we saw - often at friend's houses, on the sly (true - I snuck in to see a PG-13 movie with a friend when I was 8 years old - it was "Fun with Dick and Jane" (the first version - hello, 1970s, Jim Carry and Tea Lonie were 8 years old back then). Ironically? 10 years later, I could probably have watched it on tv at 3pm. But hey, at the time, it was risque, and I got grounded. My brother meanwhile snuck in to see Porky's - at the age of 14. Of course this was after our parents accidentally took us to see Excalibar. So never mind.
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Date: 2014-11-05 01:34 am (UTC)So yeah, it deconstructs itself. There is no such thing as happy endings..but stories can be comforting when they provide them, although weirdly they don't - since most stories tend to end in the middle, with the characters starting a new life together, but still in their prime..