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Jun. 14th, 2015 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatCatching up on the television series that I saved to my DVR and hadn't gotten around to watching until now. So far, watched all of Elementary including the finale, which was ...an interesting and somewhat disturbing study of Holmes heroine addiction. In all of the versions of Sherlock Holmes, the character is an addict, albeit for different reasons. I rather like Elementary's take on the character - whose addiction is a direct result of his guilt and feelings of inadequacy or self-hatred. He became an addict because he could not save the love of his life and in part to stave off loneliness and despair, which can walk hand in hand like squabbling brothers.
I find the characterization in Elementary to be more layered than in the BBC's Sherlock.
If you love twisty plots and catchy dialogue, Sherlock will most likely be more your thing. But if you prefer layered characterization and evolving character relationships, I'd recommend Elementary (well that, and the characters are a wee bit more likable and less over-the-top.) There's a frenetic sensibility to Cumberbatch's Sherlock, which is far more underplayed by the twitchy Johnny Lee Miller. Also the use of a female Watson and a female Moriarty in Elementary shakes things up a bit, and makes the series a wee more gender equal or less sexist, depending on how one wants to look at it.
I enjoy both. And will admit some of Elementary's episodes bore me -- the episodic mystery of the week format doesn't always work. And some of the plot lines fall flat.
But that's to be expected of a series with 22 episodes vs. one with maybe five. One has more time to evolve the characters, while the other is likely to have a much tighter plot. I tend, by and large, to care less about plot than character. There's a really good reason for this -- plots are a dime a dozen, and there really aren't any new one's out there. But characters...tend to vary. Even if they are standard trope like say Sherlock Holmes or J. Watson. There a various ways even those characters can be examined and portrayed.
The other series that I've watched four episodes of this weekend is Game of Thrones. I'm not very far. Still have about five episodes to go. Have mixed feelings about this season. While I'm pleased by some of the changes they've made from the books (mainly Tyrion, Dany, Davos, Brienne, and Jaime's storylines have improved greatly from the books), other changes...make me cringe and scratch my head in bewilderment. (The Sansa Stark/Little Finger arc is not working for me. Not that it completely worked in the books - but it made more logical sense and fit the story threads better. This take, I find sort of unbelievable and, well, I'm not sure I'll be able to watch it. Also not quite sure about Dorn and the Myrcella storyline.)
Also as an aside, this series just gets more gut-wrenchingly violent as it goes. Not that I haven't watched and enjoyed graphically violent television series. (Gotham was pretty violent, so too was Breaking Bad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, and The Wire.) But I'm growing tired of watching people being skinned, beheaded, and burned alive. It's getting old -- can we just be told it happened without having to actually see it? Seriously?
I'm thinking maybe this series much like Gotham is not one I'm going to enjoy binging on.
May need breaks.
* So, they've decided to do the Stark/Ramsey Bolton marriage with Sansa Stark as opposed to the fake Ayra. (WHy? I guess to tighten the storyline up and maybe give Brienne a conflict of interest. Going to be hard to kill Stannis, when she'll need him to defeat Bolton and save Sansa, assuming they even go that direction. (DON'T SPOIL ME!)
OR maybe they wanted to heighten the stakes -- for Theon and Jon Snow? Considering Sansa will hate Theon on sight...curious to see how that goes.)
Sansa -- can you be any more stupid? Talk about consistently making poor decisions.
First you decide to marry Joffrey (look how well that worked out), then you run off with Little Finger, then you let him convince you to marry a Bolton. Granted you don't have a great deal of power -- but I'd have run off with Brienne and asked her to take me to the WALL. Not that she would have been much safer up there. But hey, death by zombie/cold or raped/tortured/starved and skinned by Ramsey? Let me think? Death by zombie.
Also why is Little Finger even doing this? He's not going to get anything from Bolton.
Make more sense to marry Sansa off to someone he can control, not someone who can bully and control him. And aren't the Bolton's still in coohoots with the Lannisters? I was under the impression they were. When did they break off on their own exactly? In fact in the books, the Lannisters marry Ramsey Bolton to Ayra Stark (they think she's Ayra, Jamie and Brienne know it isn't but keep their mouths shut.) That made more sense.
Not a change that works. Wonder what if anything the book fans thought of that change?
(And I really hope I don't have to watch Sansa being tortured by Ramsey. Seriously, Sansa's going to start missing Joffrey. Poor Sansa, she's becoming the most tortured female character in this series. First Joffrey, then her Aunt, and now Ramsey. Tyrion ironically was the best husband she had. She should have stuck it out with him.
* Tyrion - loving Tyrion's story line. They ditched the whole bit with the prince and the sailors and the boat that was in the books and drug forever. Skipping to the chase - which was Jorah kidnapping Tyrion at a brothel to take him to Dany. (That's where we ended things for tonight.) The books drug the Tyrion story out...to the point that I wanted to strangle the writer or scream, get on with it!
No one in the books ever meets up. They just wander aimlessly around the seven kingdoms, missing each other, or dying or getting grabbed or taking off before they can meet up. Talk about frustrating the heck out of your readers. Brienne wanders aimlessly never finding Ayra or Sansa (in the television series she finds both and realistically gets nowhere with either -- why she thought either kid would embrace or accept her as their knight in shinging armor, I don't know). And Tyrion wanders around Dany's domain, fights in a war, plays a clown, but still never runs into Dany. Actually he comes really close, but she takes off, and he's a slave, so we get nowhere. His storyline next to Brienne's is by far the most frustrating in the books.
* Not sure what I think about Dorn, too soon to tell. But in the books, Oberon's spouse wasn't a major character.
I do however, love love love the pairing of Jamie and the sellsword, who was Tyrion's friend.
* Ayra's story is exactly the same as the books --- so apparently the writers loved it and didn't think it needed to be tightened. It is by far the best arc and the tightest in the books. Next to maybe Jon Snow, whose is also exactly the same to date.
I'm loving the actress in this role.
* Oh dear, Dany killed one her people -- this isn't going well. They've changed her storyline, I think.
* Cersei's plotting with the High Sparrow isn't going to end well. Margary is a little brighter and has more power than Cersei, mainly because she hasn't royally pissed anyone off yet, except for Cersei. Also, unlike Joffrey, Timmon is nice and not his mother's son. Timmon seems to take after his father...
They are delivering my A/C while I'm at work tomorrow. I've left a large sign in the lobby requesting they leave it with the super and have the super sign for it. Also sent an email and put the request in the additional comments. Fingers crossed that the delivery guys follow my instructions -- will save us both headaches.
I find the characterization in Elementary to be more layered than in the BBC's Sherlock.
If you love twisty plots and catchy dialogue, Sherlock will most likely be more your thing. But if you prefer layered characterization and evolving character relationships, I'd recommend Elementary (well that, and the characters are a wee bit more likable and less over-the-top.) There's a frenetic sensibility to Cumberbatch's Sherlock, which is far more underplayed by the twitchy Johnny Lee Miller. Also the use of a female Watson and a female Moriarty in Elementary shakes things up a bit, and makes the series a wee more gender equal or less sexist, depending on how one wants to look at it.
I enjoy both. And will admit some of Elementary's episodes bore me -- the episodic mystery of the week format doesn't always work. And some of the plot lines fall flat.
But that's to be expected of a series with 22 episodes vs. one with maybe five. One has more time to evolve the characters, while the other is likely to have a much tighter plot. I tend, by and large, to care less about plot than character. There's a really good reason for this -- plots are a dime a dozen, and there really aren't any new one's out there. But characters...tend to vary. Even if they are standard trope like say Sherlock Holmes or J. Watson. There a various ways even those characters can be examined and portrayed.
The other series that I've watched four episodes of this weekend is Game of Thrones. I'm not very far. Still have about five episodes to go. Have mixed feelings about this season. While I'm pleased by some of the changes they've made from the books (mainly Tyrion, Dany, Davos, Brienne, and Jaime's storylines have improved greatly from the books), other changes...make me cringe and scratch my head in bewilderment. (The Sansa Stark/Little Finger arc is not working for me. Not that it completely worked in the books - but it made more logical sense and fit the story threads better. This take, I find sort of unbelievable and, well, I'm not sure I'll be able to watch it. Also not quite sure about Dorn and the Myrcella storyline.)
Also as an aside, this series just gets more gut-wrenchingly violent as it goes. Not that I haven't watched and enjoyed graphically violent television series. (Gotham was pretty violent, so too was Breaking Bad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, and The Wire.) But I'm growing tired of watching people being skinned, beheaded, and burned alive. It's getting old -- can we just be told it happened without having to actually see it? Seriously?
I'm thinking maybe this series much like Gotham is not one I'm going to enjoy binging on.
May need breaks.
* So, they've decided to do the Stark/Ramsey Bolton marriage with Sansa Stark as opposed to the fake Ayra. (WHy? I guess to tighten the storyline up and maybe give Brienne a conflict of interest. Going to be hard to kill Stannis, when she'll need him to defeat Bolton and save Sansa, assuming they even go that direction. (DON'T SPOIL ME!)
OR maybe they wanted to heighten the stakes -- for Theon and Jon Snow? Considering Sansa will hate Theon on sight...curious to see how that goes.)
Sansa -- can you be any more stupid? Talk about consistently making poor decisions.
First you decide to marry Joffrey (look how well that worked out), then you run off with Little Finger, then you let him convince you to marry a Bolton. Granted you don't have a great deal of power -- but I'd have run off with Brienne and asked her to take me to the WALL. Not that she would have been much safer up there. But hey, death by zombie/cold or raped/tortured/starved and skinned by Ramsey? Let me think? Death by zombie.
Also why is Little Finger even doing this? He's not going to get anything from Bolton.
Make more sense to marry Sansa off to someone he can control, not someone who can bully and control him. And aren't the Bolton's still in coohoots with the Lannisters? I was under the impression they were. When did they break off on their own exactly? In fact in the books, the Lannisters marry Ramsey Bolton to Ayra Stark (they think she's Ayra, Jamie and Brienne know it isn't but keep their mouths shut.) That made more sense.
Not a change that works. Wonder what if anything the book fans thought of that change?
(And I really hope I don't have to watch Sansa being tortured by Ramsey. Seriously, Sansa's going to start missing Joffrey. Poor Sansa, she's becoming the most tortured female character in this series. First Joffrey, then her Aunt, and now Ramsey. Tyrion ironically was the best husband she had. She should have stuck it out with him.
* Tyrion - loving Tyrion's story line. They ditched the whole bit with the prince and the sailors and the boat that was in the books and drug forever. Skipping to the chase - which was Jorah kidnapping Tyrion at a brothel to take him to Dany. (That's where we ended things for tonight.) The books drug the Tyrion story out...to the point that I wanted to strangle the writer or scream, get on with it!
No one in the books ever meets up. They just wander aimlessly around the seven kingdoms, missing each other, or dying or getting grabbed or taking off before they can meet up. Talk about frustrating the heck out of your readers. Brienne wanders aimlessly never finding Ayra or Sansa (in the television series she finds both and realistically gets nowhere with either -- why she thought either kid would embrace or accept her as their knight in shinging armor, I don't know). And Tyrion wanders around Dany's domain, fights in a war, plays a clown, but still never runs into Dany. Actually he comes really close, but she takes off, and he's a slave, so we get nowhere. His storyline next to Brienne's is by far the most frustrating in the books.
* Not sure what I think about Dorn, too soon to tell. But in the books, Oberon's spouse wasn't a major character.
I do however, love love love the pairing of Jamie and the sellsword, who was Tyrion's friend.
* Ayra's story is exactly the same as the books --- so apparently the writers loved it and didn't think it needed to be tightened. It is by far the best arc and the tightest in the books. Next to maybe Jon Snow, whose is also exactly the same to date.
I'm loving the actress in this role.
* Oh dear, Dany killed one her people -- this isn't going well. They've changed her storyline, I think.
* Cersei's plotting with the High Sparrow isn't going to end well. Margary is a little brighter and has more power than Cersei, mainly because she hasn't royally pissed anyone off yet, except for Cersei. Also, unlike Joffrey, Timmon is nice and not his mother's son. Timmon seems to take after his father...
They are delivering my A/C while I'm at work tomorrow. I've left a large sign in the lobby requesting they leave it with the super and have the super sign for it. Also sent an email and put the request in the additional comments. Fingers crossed that the delivery guys follow my instructions -- will save us both headaches.
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Date: 2015-06-15 02:58 am (UTC)What interested me about the relapse storyline was how it played into their introduction of Oscar Rankin, who tried so desperately to bring Sherlock down. Their earlier interactions showed that Sherlock was absolutely irrational in dealing with him; Rankin brought out the worst in Holmes because of the reminders of who Sherlock had once been.
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Date: 2015-06-15 10:29 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, I missed the episodes that set up the relationship with Oscar Rankin. So I had to sort of figure it out via the episode. I thought they were old buddies. Took me a while to realize, no Oscar was Sherlock's drug dealer not just his buddy.
Really curious about next season - they cast John Noble (Fringe, Sleepy Hollow) as Sherlock's father.