Television and other things...
Oct. 14th, 2025 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. After much contemplation - I finally bit the bullet and booked a "Thai" massage for Friday.
My plans - such as they were - have kind of fallen through as a result of a combination of things - weather, sleep/exhaustion and mobility issues. Does anyone know how to heal tightened sore calve muscles? I've tried everything - yoga, stretching exercises, leg exercises, drinking lots of water, cutting back on antihistamines. Hopefully one will work. Also massage - to stretch out and re-align, because not sure how much of the pain is due to alignment. [I'm leaving calling the doctor again as a last resort - I already asked them for help, and they told me: 1) dehydration (drink more water, and limit the anithistamines) and 2) do exercises, and 3) lose weight.)
But that's okay, I'm doing other stuff - and at least I'm away from work and my body is hopefully healing - getting more sleep, and more exercise?
2. PSA: Ao3 finally posted something about how to protect yourself from scammers - probably because they'd gotten a barrage of complaints about them - if you've been posting fic, meta, any type of writing for more than a year, and have followers, on social media platforms - you've probably run across the scammers.
They pop up on live-journal and dream-width too, by the way. I've not really seen that many on WordPress or Facebook (mainly because my FB page is friends/family only and private). They are a nuisance.
3. Buffy S4 - continues to be good, and an improvement over previous seasons. The one flaw - is well - the Initiative Story-Arc, which basically just underlines how little the writers know about the military outside of watching cheesy 1960s science fiction serials. Oh well, at least they have Spike to poke fun at it - and he does.
Sunday's hippie Vampire Frat Boy: Don't drink that it's drugged.
Spike: Ugh. And you might be?
SHVFB: A rat like all the other lab rats. We're here to die. They starve us until we bite our own arm off, then feed us drugged blood ...
Spike: And they might be who exactly? The government, Nazis, a major cosmetics company?
Lab Rat: It was all fine until the slayer came in and broke up our group - we had a great thing going until she arrived.
Spike: the Slayer! I always wondered what would happen if she got some good funding behind her...
He clearly thinks more of the Slayer as a threat that well the government.
S4 Episode 7 - The Initiative - makes me wonder about the writers again.
Juliet Landau brings this up in her rewatch - so it's not just me, apparently. The writers seem to like to show the male characters in the worst light, and often emphasize their misogynistic and chauvinistic traits. The chat between Riley, Forrest, and Grant about women could have been lifted from the S2 episode Reptile Boy. Also both episodes are about campus rape - utilizing metaphors for it. And how men view women, and why campuses are dangerous at night for women. I still have the black rape whistle they gave me Freshman year at my college, no particular reason I still have out, outside of convenience. And for some reason it always made me feel safe? Landau discusses this at length during her rewatch of Reptile Boy and how campus rape, particularly in Frat Houses continues to be an issue. (I really want to see her commentary on The Initiative).
Parker's statement about Buffy to Riley - resulting in Riley punching him, is a typical statement, that we've all heard (outside of Buffy). I won't reproduce it. It says more about Parker than Buffy, and quite a bit about Forrest, Riley's friend, who sees Buffy as an object nothing more. Riley himself doesn't take much of an interest in Buffy until Professor Walsh tells him that she likes Buffy, after Buffy stands up to Walsh. Then Riley starts pursuing Buffy, much to Buffy's own considerable bemusement and confusion. To give Buffy some credit - she didn't pursue Angel, Parker, Riley or Spike - they pursued her, same with Xander.
While Riley isn't quite as nasty as Forrest and Grant in the chats, he isn't exactly off the hook either. And there's a parallel structure to The Iniative and Reptile Boy - that underscores the idea that we, the viewer, aren't supposed to like what Riley is up to. Much like the guys in Reptile Boy, they have a secret basement lair, and they aren't on the up and up.
Spike - is the "metaphorical" rapist in the episode. He is stalking Buffy.
And hunts down her dorm room. Then when he can't find her - attacks Willow, much like a rapist would. His position on top of her, how she fights him off, and even their discussion after the fact screams it. (Marsters who hates these types of scenes, didn't have an issue with this one, partly because Spike can't go through with it.)
While the actors sell the hell out of this scene, there are problems. Willow's dialogue doesn't exactly make sense - considering the fact that Spike almost killed her more than once, she met her vampire doppleganger, and she was damsel of the week for most of S1-S3. So her statement: "No one picks me, they always pick Buffy, and you didn't really want me, you just settled..." is kind of ludicrous. Then again, it can be justified as yet another projection over what happened with OZ and Veruca, which Willow is still reeling from. Spike is somewhat comical in how he reassures her.
Once again he's playing up the Wile E Coyote angle - "I had this plan, it would have worked perfectly, if someone hadn't screwed up..." (Honestly, he should thank the Initiative - or Buffy would have staked him for killing Willow.)
It's a good episode for several stand out scenes: Xander and Harmony's slap fight. Xander is definitely in the comic role in S4. And likable, also relatable. This may be the most relatable that Xander has been throughout the series to date, not to mention likable. He's even half-way decent to Harmony. Spike and Harmony's scene - indicating Spike's obsession with Buffy broke up not one but two romantic relationships. And how Harmony manages to stand up to him and throw him out again. Spike's escape from the Initiative - which is hilarious, and demonstrative of how inept the Initiative is (no wonder they need a slayer, the government is not with it in taming the demon menace - and where were they with the Mayor? Honestly the University isn't that far away. And was the Initiative ignorant of Reptile Boy and half the vamps on the campus?). You know you have an issue when the audience is actively rooting for Spike. Although I think? We were supposed to be rooting for him?
The scene where Buffy scares the Initiative. And her scene with Riley, where she's trying to draw out Spike, and Riley is trying to get her to leave and be out of danger, and Riley's buddies want her to be bait.
They also build the episode well - and in the same way they built up Reptile Boy - the frat boys from the beginning are treating women like object to fuck. (Sorry, but that's what they are thinking - fucking them, not making love, not caring, just sticking their penis in a hole to get off. And they pretty much state just that. Buffy is hot. Peculiar but hot.
Wouldn't you like to get into that - Forrest tells Riley. Or have a piece of that? She's a piece of meat to Forrest, not a human being. He sees her as just a way of getting off. As does Parker - whose one complaint, is she didn't appreciate that it was just meant to be a one time thing. Parker is kind of the human version of Angelus, he fucks Buffy, and that's all he wants. She has great stamina, but hey, he's moved on. Both Riley and Parker are different versions of Angel - Parker is Angelus, and Riley is Angel, both pursue Buffy, Parker feeds her the sob story, while Riley is constantly rescuing people and trying to make her safe, and big, and older. They also both, unintentionally perhaps, point out why Buffy and Angel didn't work, and why you wouldn't want to be with any of the above. Riley is also very similar to the villain in Reptile Boy, all nice, clean cut all American frat boy - who was protective of Buffy, until he could feed her to his demon. Except Riley would never do that, right? There's an almost unnerving feeling about Riley in the episode, in which upon rewatch, I'm thinking - hmmm, Buffy would be better off with Spike? And no, I did not find Spike attractive in this episode, amusing and watchable, yes, but not attractive - Spike is unnerving as well and kind of scary in how he stalks and hunts down Buffy.)
There's another interesting scene in the episode, which kind of tells the audience off the bat where they are headed with Riley and Buffy - this isn't a romance, after all.
Willow tells Riley that he's going to get Buffy to fall in love with him, then up and leave her, leaving her feeling lost and betrayed. And Riley responds (somewhat sarcastically, but with a big wide grin): Yes, that's the plan.
Riley basically does to Buffy the same thing that OZ did to Willow. And Willow calls it early on. Buffy can't count on Riley, any more than she could count on Angel. At the end, Willow states to Riley - all Buffy really has is herself. (An echo of Becoming.)
Overall, an entertaining and meaty episode, you just have to overlook the cheesy 1960s sci-fi plot in the middle of it.
Pangs - I've less to say about, but I loved this episode. It has some of the best lines and banter in the entire series. Also the bantering debate between Willow, Giles, Xander, Spike, Buffy and Anya about the Native Americans and Thanksgiving is hilarious, and informative...and realistic. It reminds me of why I liked the later seasons - I really loved the addition of Anya and Spike - I liked those two characters (and actors) far better than Angel and Cordelia - they were less mopey? Whiny? And more witty. (It does depend on one's sense of humor? Angel's didn't work for me, Buffy's did.)
"And they say Romance is dead, or maybe we just wish it were?" - Buffy
"You made a Bear!" - Spike
"I didn't mean to." - Buffy
"Undo it! Undo it!" - Spike
"It's a sham, with yams. It's a yam sham!"
"You won't be able to jokingly rhyme your way out of this one!"
[Actually, it just occurred to me? Buffy and Spike hit it off - because they are both poets and sardonic quips. They like to make fun of things.]
Pangs is proof that Buffy succeeded because the writers could write dialogue. According to the Juliette Landau rewatch - when she interviewed Charles Martin Smith one of the Buffy directors - Whedon had a tendency to write pages of dialogue, no set direction, no camera direction, no action - just dialogue. And from what I've read - he was the go-to guy for good dialogue. And came from Roseanne - which had great comedic dialogue and one liners. Say what you will about Whedon - he was a good script writer. Might have been a horrific boss that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy - but he could churn out a good script, and tended to find other writers who could.
4. Finished another S1 episode of Poker Face- this is the Rian Johnson series that stars Natasha Lyon as a kind of Columbo style detective, in a stealth anthology series. The only on-going link in the series is Lyon's Charlie, who is a former card counter/gambling security checker on the run from the Mob (and any law enforcement associated with it). She takes odd jobs here and there, and cleverly solves mysteries along the way. The odd jobs range from sweeping up hair in a barber shop to assisting a special effects film director. She drives a ratty old 1970s era Cad, that looks like it was picked off the lot of Starsky and Hutch. And each episode features older rather famous actors (much as Columbo and Murder She Wrote did back in the day). The episode I just watched had Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, and Luz Guzman.
Like all stealth anthology series - some episodes are better than others. It's not really binge material. I watch it sporadically. It does require some attention or focus though, and it has commercials - although they aren't intrusive.
If you like Rian Johnson (who is admittedly an acquired taste), Natasha Lyonn (also an acquired taste and the female version of Peter Falk), and Columbo/Alfred Hitchcock/Agatha Christie style mysteries - this is for you.
This episode was written and directed by Natasha Lyon. I'm impressed by Nolte who is still acting at 84, and doing a great job of it. (Nolte is another one of my actor crushes.)
My plans - such as they were - have kind of fallen through as a result of a combination of things - weather, sleep/exhaustion and mobility issues. Does anyone know how to heal tightened sore calve muscles? I've tried everything - yoga, stretching exercises, leg exercises, drinking lots of water, cutting back on antihistamines. Hopefully one will work. Also massage - to stretch out and re-align, because not sure how much of the pain is due to alignment. [I'm leaving calling the doctor again as a last resort - I already asked them for help, and they told me: 1) dehydration (drink more water, and limit the anithistamines) and 2) do exercises, and 3) lose weight.)
But that's okay, I'm doing other stuff - and at least I'm away from work and my body is hopefully healing - getting more sleep, and more exercise?
2. PSA: Ao3 finally posted something about how to protect yourself from scammers - probably because they'd gotten a barrage of complaints about them - if you've been posting fic, meta, any type of writing for more than a year, and have followers, on social media platforms - you've probably run across the scammers.
They pop up on live-journal and dream-width too, by the way. I've not really seen that many on WordPress or Facebook (mainly because my FB page is friends/family only and private). They are a nuisance.
3. Buffy S4 - continues to be good, and an improvement over previous seasons. The one flaw - is well - the Initiative Story-Arc, which basically just underlines how little the writers know about the military outside of watching cheesy 1960s science fiction serials. Oh well, at least they have Spike to poke fun at it - and he does.
Sunday's hippie Vampire Frat Boy: Don't drink that it's drugged.
Spike: Ugh. And you might be?
SHVFB: A rat like all the other lab rats. We're here to die. They starve us until we bite our own arm off, then feed us drugged blood ...
Spike: And they might be who exactly? The government, Nazis, a major cosmetics company?
Lab Rat: It was all fine until the slayer came in and broke up our group - we had a great thing going until she arrived.
Spike: the Slayer! I always wondered what would happen if she got some good funding behind her...
He clearly thinks more of the Slayer as a threat that well the government.
S4 Episode 7 - The Initiative - makes me wonder about the writers again.
Juliet Landau brings this up in her rewatch - so it's not just me, apparently. The writers seem to like to show the male characters in the worst light, and often emphasize their misogynistic and chauvinistic traits. The chat between Riley, Forrest, and Grant about women could have been lifted from the S2 episode Reptile Boy. Also both episodes are about campus rape - utilizing metaphors for it. And how men view women, and why campuses are dangerous at night for women. I still have the black rape whistle they gave me Freshman year at my college, no particular reason I still have out, outside of convenience. And for some reason it always made me feel safe? Landau discusses this at length during her rewatch of Reptile Boy and how campus rape, particularly in Frat Houses continues to be an issue. (I really want to see her commentary on The Initiative).
Parker's statement about Buffy to Riley - resulting in Riley punching him, is a typical statement, that we've all heard (outside of Buffy). I won't reproduce it. It says more about Parker than Buffy, and quite a bit about Forrest, Riley's friend, who sees Buffy as an object nothing more. Riley himself doesn't take much of an interest in Buffy until Professor Walsh tells him that she likes Buffy, after Buffy stands up to Walsh. Then Riley starts pursuing Buffy, much to Buffy's own considerable bemusement and confusion. To give Buffy some credit - she didn't pursue Angel, Parker, Riley or Spike - they pursued her, same with Xander.
While Riley isn't quite as nasty as Forrest and Grant in the chats, he isn't exactly off the hook either. And there's a parallel structure to The Iniative and Reptile Boy - that underscores the idea that we, the viewer, aren't supposed to like what Riley is up to. Much like the guys in Reptile Boy, they have a secret basement lair, and they aren't on the up and up.
Spike - is the "metaphorical" rapist in the episode. He is stalking Buffy.
And hunts down her dorm room. Then when he can't find her - attacks Willow, much like a rapist would. His position on top of her, how she fights him off, and even their discussion after the fact screams it. (Marsters who hates these types of scenes, didn't have an issue with this one, partly because Spike can't go through with it.)
While the actors sell the hell out of this scene, there are problems. Willow's dialogue doesn't exactly make sense - considering the fact that Spike almost killed her more than once, she met her vampire doppleganger, and she was damsel of the week for most of S1-S3. So her statement: "No one picks me, they always pick Buffy, and you didn't really want me, you just settled..." is kind of ludicrous. Then again, it can be justified as yet another projection over what happened with OZ and Veruca, which Willow is still reeling from. Spike is somewhat comical in how he reassures her.
Once again he's playing up the Wile E Coyote angle - "I had this plan, it would have worked perfectly, if someone hadn't screwed up..." (Honestly, he should thank the Initiative - or Buffy would have staked him for killing Willow.)
It's a good episode for several stand out scenes: Xander and Harmony's slap fight. Xander is definitely in the comic role in S4. And likable, also relatable. This may be the most relatable that Xander has been throughout the series to date, not to mention likable. He's even half-way decent to Harmony. Spike and Harmony's scene - indicating Spike's obsession with Buffy broke up not one but two romantic relationships. And how Harmony manages to stand up to him and throw him out again. Spike's escape from the Initiative - which is hilarious, and demonstrative of how inept the Initiative is (no wonder they need a slayer, the government is not with it in taming the demon menace - and where were they with the Mayor? Honestly the University isn't that far away. And was the Initiative ignorant of Reptile Boy and half the vamps on the campus?). You know you have an issue when the audience is actively rooting for Spike. Although I think? We were supposed to be rooting for him?
The scene where Buffy scares the Initiative. And her scene with Riley, where she's trying to draw out Spike, and Riley is trying to get her to leave and be out of danger, and Riley's buddies want her to be bait.
They also build the episode well - and in the same way they built up Reptile Boy - the frat boys from the beginning are treating women like object to fuck. (Sorry, but that's what they are thinking - fucking them, not making love, not caring, just sticking their penis in a hole to get off. And they pretty much state just that. Buffy is hot. Peculiar but hot.
Wouldn't you like to get into that - Forrest tells Riley. Or have a piece of that? She's a piece of meat to Forrest, not a human being. He sees her as just a way of getting off. As does Parker - whose one complaint, is she didn't appreciate that it was just meant to be a one time thing. Parker is kind of the human version of Angelus, he fucks Buffy, and that's all he wants. She has great stamina, but hey, he's moved on. Both Riley and Parker are different versions of Angel - Parker is Angelus, and Riley is Angel, both pursue Buffy, Parker feeds her the sob story, while Riley is constantly rescuing people and trying to make her safe, and big, and older. They also both, unintentionally perhaps, point out why Buffy and Angel didn't work, and why you wouldn't want to be with any of the above. Riley is also very similar to the villain in Reptile Boy, all nice, clean cut all American frat boy - who was protective of Buffy, until he could feed her to his demon. Except Riley would never do that, right? There's an almost unnerving feeling about Riley in the episode, in which upon rewatch, I'm thinking - hmmm, Buffy would be better off with Spike? And no, I did not find Spike attractive in this episode, amusing and watchable, yes, but not attractive - Spike is unnerving as well and kind of scary in how he stalks and hunts down Buffy.)
There's another interesting scene in the episode, which kind of tells the audience off the bat where they are headed with Riley and Buffy - this isn't a romance, after all.
Willow tells Riley that he's going to get Buffy to fall in love with him, then up and leave her, leaving her feeling lost and betrayed. And Riley responds (somewhat sarcastically, but with a big wide grin): Yes, that's the plan.
Riley basically does to Buffy the same thing that OZ did to Willow. And Willow calls it early on. Buffy can't count on Riley, any more than she could count on Angel. At the end, Willow states to Riley - all Buffy really has is herself. (An echo of Becoming.)
Overall, an entertaining and meaty episode, you just have to overlook the cheesy 1960s sci-fi plot in the middle of it.
Pangs - I've less to say about, but I loved this episode. It has some of the best lines and banter in the entire series. Also the bantering debate between Willow, Giles, Xander, Spike, Buffy and Anya about the Native Americans and Thanksgiving is hilarious, and informative...and realistic. It reminds me of why I liked the later seasons - I really loved the addition of Anya and Spike - I liked those two characters (and actors) far better than Angel and Cordelia - they were less mopey? Whiny? And more witty. (It does depend on one's sense of humor? Angel's didn't work for me, Buffy's did.)
"And they say Romance is dead, or maybe we just wish it were?" - Buffy
"You made a Bear!" - Spike
"I didn't mean to." - Buffy
"Undo it! Undo it!" - Spike
"It's a sham, with yams. It's a yam sham!"
"You won't be able to jokingly rhyme your way out of this one!"
[Actually, it just occurred to me? Buffy and Spike hit it off - because they are both poets and sardonic quips. They like to make fun of things.]
Pangs is proof that Buffy succeeded because the writers could write dialogue. According to the Juliette Landau rewatch - when she interviewed Charles Martin Smith one of the Buffy directors - Whedon had a tendency to write pages of dialogue, no set direction, no camera direction, no action - just dialogue. And from what I've read - he was the go-to guy for good dialogue. And came from Roseanne - which had great comedic dialogue and one liners. Say what you will about Whedon - he was a good script writer. Might have been a horrific boss that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy - but he could churn out a good script, and tended to find other writers who could.
4. Finished another S1 episode of Poker Face- this is the Rian Johnson series that stars Natasha Lyon as a kind of Columbo style detective, in a stealth anthology series. The only on-going link in the series is Lyon's Charlie, who is a former card counter/gambling security checker on the run from the Mob (and any law enforcement associated with it). She takes odd jobs here and there, and cleverly solves mysteries along the way. The odd jobs range from sweeping up hair in a barber shop to assisting a special effects film director. She drives a ratty old 1970s era Cad, that looks like it was picked off the lot of Starsky and Hutch. And each episode features older rather famous actors (much as Columbo and Murder She Wrote did back in the day). The episode I just watched had Nick Nolte, Cherry Jones, and Luz Guzman.
Like all stealth anthology series - some episodes are better than others. It's not really binge material. I watch it sporadically. It does require some attention or focus though, and it has commercials - although they aren't intrusive.
If you like Rian Johnson (who is admittedly an acquired taste), Natasha Lyonn (also an acquired taste and the female version of Peter Falk), and Columbo/Alfred Hitchcock/Agatha Christie style mysteries - this is for you.
This episode was written and directed by Natasha Lyon. I'm impressed by Nolte who is still acting at 84, and doing a great job of it. (Nolte is another one of my actor crushes.)
no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 02:51 pm (UTC)This was before cell phones, smart watches, and lap top computers.
Willow's kind of empathetic here? She's also doing a lot of projecting? And identifies with Spike who is clearly on the rebound and acting out? Not sure that's empathy so much as misery loves company?
no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-15 10:07 pm (UTC)And.. look at what is happening with ICE now? People are literally standing in the way of ICE. People are assisting immigrants and accompanying them to court. People are chaining themselves to ICE facilities.
I mean - it depends? On the person? The situation? What people are going through at the time?
I don't think we can generalize?
Were there a lot of date rapes and rapes on my campus? Yes. Did I see any? No. Did I hear anyone scream? No. Did I know people who were in these situations - yes, but they told me about it long after it happened. Was I personally in any danger? No, but I was also very very careful. I didn't go to certain places at night. I usually stuck to well lit areas. I'm six foot or close, and not a small person. In college - I was in great shape. I didn't go to that many frat parties (actually I think I'd only been to two?) - I didn't drink that much, stayed clear of drugs, and was careful who I dated and hung with. I kind of had a sixth sense about people? There were a lot of guys, I stayed clear of, and I certainly wasn't their type. I'm not a Buffy or Willow or Cordelia? I was more of an Aeryn Sun, Ripley, or Xenia. That guy would be on the floor holding his dick in agony, and the guys knew it? The monsters stayed clear of me.