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shadowkat1. The current fight debate on health care in the US (now that the bill has been signed into law) reminds me of the wars in various fandoms. Nice to know that people are consistently stubborn about adhering to their pov no matter what. And somewhat crazy in expressing it. Although to be honest? I think the people haggling over health care have long surpassed the craziest of fans. It's a bit frightening to realize that a professional news commentator can be crazier than a teenage fan on the internet. Or reassuring, I can't decide which. Been one of those weeks.
Overheard two co-workers discussing it this morning. One insisted that this was evidence that the end was near. Both sides had gone insane. Actually, everyone had gone crazy. And maybe he should head off to the hills and become a mountain person, live off the land, and in a bunker until it passes over. Granted work has been nutty lately, but not that nutty --- okay, wait, they are discussing the health care debate and NY State politics.
Got it.
2. Work is killing me right now. Strung out. Had several panic attacks. And feel like I'm being pulled in five directions at once. Don't want to talk about it. Just throwing it out there to let you know, real life is kicking my butt - so don't have the energy to spend much time writing or online and if this post comes across as a tad snarky and cranky, that's why. I come home at night and crash in front of the telly, a complete zombie (in the metaphorical sense not the literal one of course.)
3. I'm considering giving up on Damages - I don't care about anyone - both women characters, Rose and Patty, are people that I feel an overwhelming desire to slap repeatedly whenever they are on-screen, probably does not help that I've met them in real life and went to law school with them, reasons 500 and 501 of why I am NOT a lawyer, and find my attention wandering. Plus, bored. And it's plugging up my DVR. I may just let it delete itself.
4. Lost - sigh. Well that was a thrill and a half. NOT. You know actually![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selenak pretty much said everything I thought about the episode in her journal already. So did wee_warrior for that matter. Which was basically... if I was stuck on an island with a sanctimonious prick who liked to lure people to the island in order to play out sick morality plays to convince me that people weren't corruptible, I might become a homicidial maniac too.
There were some interesting bits...unfortunately they were at the very beginning such as the first five minutes, but hey we can't have everything.
* The good: Ben's quip ..."Oh this should be interesting"...regarding Jack finding out FINALLY that Locke came back from the dead but as Smokey! Hilarious. I love Ben.
And Richard Alpert's response to Illana's statement that Jacob told them to ask Ricardo (Richard Alpert) what to do once they had the candidates together ...and Alpert said, "Don't look at me. I've no idea. Jacob never told me anything. It's time I went to try the other one."
The reappearance of the Man in Black otherwise known as Smokey - who explained why he had become smokey - Jacob removed his humanity. Also explained Not!Lock's comment about those chains.
*The bad? Alpert's entire back story - which appears to be stolen from a historical romance novel or maybe an Alexander Dumas novel, could be Captain Blood or a comic. Guessing a comic. At any rate it's a cliche. And a bad one.
I was bored from the moment we met the painfully beautiful and dying wife, Isabella. And it took forever for them to get to the point. I remember looking at the tv and saying - aloud - okay, enough with the lying about in chains, free him already. I'll say this for the Sideways verse episodes - at least we flipped back and forth and kept the momentum going. This baby spent far too much time with poor Alpert struggling in the boat...I almost fast-forwarded.
Personally, I think my idea about Alpert being part of the East India Company made more sense and was more interesting...or having him be an Egyptian. You know you have a problem with the way the story is going when... your ideas or your friends ideas for the plot are much more interesting and innovative than well what the writers have come up with. Not to mention the fact that my idea was more historically accurate.
They clearly made him Spainish - because a)the actor is Spainish and can speak fluid Spainish, and b) Hurley Reyes speaks Spainish. So voila. Hurley can't speak Egyptian. And they needed Hurley to use his ghost seeing skills...
Hurley is beginning to grate on my nerves. He is rapidly becoming like the Charlie character in S1 and 2, or the character that I most want to see bite the dust...shame, because I rather adored the character in the first three seasons. The character has had little development since maybe season 3. I think they ran into a brick wall. Don't worry, I'll be shocked if they kill him any time soon.
It's probably not a good thing that I'm rooting for Team Smokey, is it? Or Smokey period?
At any rate, I think I've figured out Jacob and Smokey. Jacob is a jailer, the island is a jail, and Smokey is a prisoner that Jacob must keep confined and hopefully rehabilitate. It's either that or another twist on the conceit that God is a dick and the devil is basically just trying to have a life, wait no...maybe it's supposed to be the other way around. Hard to tell, Mark Pellingero seems to be playing Jacob much the same way he is playing the Devil in Supernatural except I like him better in Supernatural.
At any rate...have come to the conclusion that this story is going to end with everyone dead but Not!Lock and Jack, who are sitting on a cliff-face, with Jack luring more people to the island to play out morality games, while Lock pesters him about leaving. Which would be ironic, sure, but isn't all that interesting to me.
5. Been watching or streaming Being Erica , the Canadian tv series, via my DVR - which is shown on SoapNEt in the US. Watched several episodes in a row this week. Quite a cool little show. Rather enjoying it and its premise. Also it meets the Bechdel Test, well most of the time, just not in the last two episodes, but you can't have everything. I'm in love with Kai - who has a definite Spike-ish air about him. He even moves a little like Marsters did in that role. And Erin Karplunk as Erica is wonderful. She's also the best thing on Life Unexpected - which I'm getting close to giving up on. Yep, the one notable thing about Life Unexpected is the actress playing Erica, has a recurring role as Kate Cassidy's best bud and producer on Life.
Overheard two co-workers discussing it this morning. One insisted that this was evidence that the end was near. Both sides had gone insane. Actually, everyone had gone crazy. And maybe he should head off to the hills and become a mountain person, live off the land, and in a bunker until it passes over. Granted work has been nutty lately, but not that nutty --- okay, wait, they are discussing the health care debate and NY State politics.
Got it.
2. Work is killing me right now. Strung out. Had several panic attacks. And feel like I'm being pulled in five directions at once. Don't want to talk about it. Just throwing it out there to let you know, real life is kicking my butt - so don't have the energy to spend much time writing or online and if this post comes across as a tad snarky and cranky, that's why. I come home at night and crash in front of the telly, a complete zombie (in the metaphorical sense not the literal one of course.)
3. I'm considering giving up on Damages - I don't care about anyone - both women characters, Rose and Patty, are people that I feel an overwhelming desire to slap repeatedly whenever they are on-screen, probably does not help that I've met them in real life and went to law school with them, reasons 500 and 501 of why I am NOT a lawyer, and find my attention wandering. Plus, bored. And it's plugging up my DVR. I may just let it delete itself.
4. Lost - sigh. Well that was a thrill and a half. NOT. You know actually
selenak pretty much said everything I thought about the episode in her journal already. So did wee_warrior for that matter. Which was basically... if I was stuck on an island with a sanctimonious prick who liked to lure people to the island in order to play out sick morality plays to convince me that people weren't corruptible, I might become a homicidial maniac too. There were some interesting bits...unfortunately they were at the very beginning such as the first five minutes, but hey we can't have everything.
* The good: Ben's quip ..."Oh this should be interesting"...regarding Jack finding out FINALLY that Locke came back from the dead but as Smokey! Hilarious. I love Ben.
And Richard Alpert's response to Illana's statement that Jacob told them to ask Ricardo (Richard Alpert) what to do once they had the candidates together ...and Alpert said, "Don't look at me. I've no idea. Jacob never told me anything. It's time I went to try the other one."
The reappearance of the Man in Black otherwise known as Smokey - who explained why he had become smokey - Jacob removed his humanity. Also explained Not!Lock's comment about those chains.
*The bad? Alpert's entire back story - which appears to be stolen from a historical romance novel or maybe an Alexander Dumas novel, could be Captain Blood or a comic. Guessing a comic. At any rate it's a cliche. And a bad one.
I was bored from the moment we met the painfully beautiful and dying wife, Isabella. And it took forever for them to get to the point. I remember looking at the tv and saying - aloud - okay, enough with the lying about in chains, free him already. I'll say this for the Sideways verse episodes - at least we flipped back and forth and kept the momentum going. This baby spent far too much time with poor Alpert struggling in the boat...I almost fast-forwarded.
Personally, I think my idea about Alpert being part of the East India Company made more sense and was more interesting...or having him be an Egyptian. You know you have a problem with the way the story is going when... your ideas or your friends ideas for the plot are much more interesting and innovative than well what the writers have come up with. Not to mention the fact that my idea was more historically accurate.
They clearly made him Spainish - because a)the actor is Spainish and can speak fluid Spainish, and b) Hurley Reyes speaks Spainish. So voila. Hurley can't speak Egyptian. And they needed Hurley to use his ghost seeing skills...
Hurley is beginning to grate on my nerves. He is rapidly becoming like the Charlie character in S1 and 2, or the character that I most want to see bite the dust...shame, because I rather adored the character in the first three seasons. The character has had little development since maybe season 3. I think they ran into a brick wall. Don't worry, I'll be shocked if they kill him any time soon.
It's probably not a good thing that I'm rooting for Team Smokey, is it? Or Smokey period?
At any rate, I think I've figured out Jacob and Smokey. Jacob is a jailer, the island is a jail, and Smokey is a prisoner that Jacob must keep confined and hopefully rehabilitate. It's either that or another twist on the conceit that God is a dick and the devil is basically just trying to have a life, wait no...maybe it's supposed to be the other way around. Hard to tell, Mark Pellingero seems to be playing Jacob much the same way he is playing the Devil in Supernatural except I like him better in Supernatural.
At any rate...have come to the conclusion that this story is going to end with everyone dead but Not!Lock and Jack, who are sitting on a cliff-face, with Jack luring more people to the island to play out morality games, while Lock pesters him about leaving. Which would be ironic, sure, but isn't all that interesting to me.
5. Been watching or streaming Being Erica , the Canadian tv series, via my DVR - which is shown on SoapNEt in the US. Watched several episodes in a row this week. Quite a cool little show. Rather enjoying it and its premise. Also it meets the Bechdel Test, well most of the time, just not in the last two episodes, but you can't have everything. I'm in love with Kai - who has a definite Spike-ish air about him. He even moves a little like Marsters did in that role. And Erin Karplunk as Erica is wonderful. She's also the best thing on Life Unexpected - which I'm getting close to giving up on. Yep, the one notable thing about Life Unexpected is the actress playing Erica, has a recurring role as Kate Cassidy's best bud and producer on Life.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 06:06 am (UTC)And even beyond the fact that I don't like Jacob, the "cork in the bottle" dialogue annoyed me. I wanted to yell, "What you're explaining is not complicated--there's no reason for you to be describing this by analogy." I think if Jacob had delivered a little more information than he did, it wouldn't have bothered me as much. (Then again, I liked when Ben tried to explain to John about thinking of the island as a box where anything could be inside it, back in season three, because of its Schrodinger's Cat associations.)
My favourite bit of dialogue, for somewhat meta reasons, was (paraphrasing):
Ben: Richard has looked this way for a very long time.
Lapidus: Are you saying he doesn't age?
Ben: That's exactly what I'm saying.
I feel like there have been a lot of occasions on the show (and even in this episode!) where someone says something like the first line, but the other characters don't bother following up on it or clarifying a possibly ambiguous statement. The episode seems to imply that in 150 years, Richard hasn't gotten any more information than he got in his first two days in the island--at least, he doesn't seem to realize that Smokey was actually his wife when she saw him on the island. So bully for Lapidus and Ben for doing so. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 03:26 pm (UTC)And even beyond the fact that I don't like Jacob, the "cork in the bottle" dialogue annoyed me. I wanted to yell, "What you're explaining is not complicated--there's no reason for you to be describing this by analogy." I think if Jacob had delivered a little more information than he did, it wouldn't have bothered me as much. (Then again, I liked when Ben tried to explain to John about thinking of the island as a box where anything could be inside it, back in season three, because of its Schrodinger's Cat associations.)
Oh, so agree. Ben's explanation to Lock was so much more interesting.
The whole this is malevolent evil that must never enter the world or we will all go to hell thing is so Stephen King, and so cliche by now,
that I find it rather uninteresting, plus it does not help that Supernatural basically did the same story line but with more humor and far less seriousness. The whole evil in a bottle story is silly and been done to death.
I also agree with you about the acting - it was well acted, poorly written but well acted. In fact all my problems with the episode lie at the writer and editors doors, and possibly the director. But the acting was great. These actors are quite amazing.
I feel like there have been a lot of occasions on the show (and even in this episode!) where someone says something like the first line, but the other characters don't bother following up on it or clarifying a possibly ambiguous statement. The episode seems to imply that in 150 years, Richard hasn't gotten any more information than he got in his first two days in the island--at least, he doesn't seem to realize that Smokey was actually his wife when she saw him on the island. So bully for Lapidus and Ben for doing so. :)
That's what I found interesting. Is Jack and Ben more or less agree that
Jacob is a manipulative jerk that they shouldn't trust. Alpert calls him the devil, that we are in hell, and everyone's dead - then we get his backstory, which proves that Alpert is projecting his own religious beliefs onto everything. It's no surprise that Alpert follows Jacob - he's old school religion. Nor that he can't quite piece together that Smokey pretended to be Isabella...he's not educated, that's made clear.
Nor all that bright - from what I've seen.. Ben makes that clear.
Another favorite line:
Illana: You know Richard?
Ben: Let me put to you this way, I first met Richard when I was ten.
Illana: You knew each other when you were kids? Richard was born on the island?
Ben: No. I was ten, Richard is the same age he is now.
That's when Lapidus asks for clarification. I rather adore Lapidus, but then I've always been a Jeff Fahey fan (that's the actor playing him).
He's snarky too. He told Sun that Illana's group knocked him over the head, kidnapped him, then told him they were the good guys. Sun said the good guys knock you on the head? Lapidus - dead-pan, yep, Exactly!
LOL!
In short, neither side is good. It's basically the lesser of two evils.
The one who kills everyone who comes to the island or the one who lures everyone to the island to be killed.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-28 06:02 am (UTC)I haven't read enough Stephen King, but I know everyone's saying that the good side-bad side stuff is out of The Stand. I did actually start reading that at some point and sort of trailed off, though I had been enjoying it (I sometimes just don't finish books, not sure why).
Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed that Alpert was made dumb-as-a-post. But it actually does seem to fit his previous characterization--probably he just seemed wise and enigmatic, but was actually just slightly better informed about the island than others, and enigmatic.
I like Lapidus, who actually is filling somewhat the audience-stand-in role (the Xander, "This is what is happening and I will comment on it" role), that used to be Hurley. I don't remember thinking much about him either way in season four, but I'm enjoying his contribution this season. I am still a little annoyed at him for not stopping the Ajira flight when Jack basically told him that the plane was going to crash back on the island, but I suppose that's necessary for the plot. (Or he could have just come on the radio, had Jack said, "Wait, is that Lapidus' voice?" and have Ben say, "Yes," rather than have Lapidus come out, talk to them, and then seem to realize that they are probably destined to return to the island and do nothing.)
And agreed on neither side being good.