Ringer...

[shadowkat]

Yes, I'm still watching Ringer...what? it's entertaining in its own way. Also a lot less soapy this week than last week...more,
I want to say low budget pulpy noir romance novel? But that's not quite right. It reminds me of something...



Damn. The Momster called it last week - when she said over the phone, it was probably Siobhan who had Gemma killed. After all we still don't know who Siobhan is working with and who is calling her and keeping her informed. (I'm guessing it's sponsor #2 (Charlie), otherwise known as Billy from Y&R (which the Momster also figured out). ) I admittedly hoped it would be Henry - who is so enamored of Siobhan, he covered up the crime. Which says something about Henry. For a while I wondered if Siobet had done it. Then remembered, uh no, she can't be in two places at the same time. No her sis, Siobhan hired a guy to do it instead - probably the one with the cell phone. But is this the same one that's been keeping tabs on everything? Or is there someone else who is doing that?

*Question is - why did Bridget deliberately implicate herself? As a means of clearing Henry? Or an unconscious attempt to reveal her secret?

*The other question is why did Siobhan kill Gemma? Because she wanted Bridget to keep up the ruse? Still don't understand not quite sure what Siobhan is up to. I know it's about Revenge (because SMG told me that in interview more than anything else) and I assume it entails taking down her hubby and her sis. But what did poor Henry do to Siobhan to deserve this? (Not sure I'd be that forgiving of Siobhan if I were Henry. And boy does Siobhan seem wicked in Henry's flashbacks.)


And...I'm rooting for the FBI guy. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be rooting for the FBI guy or not. But I am. There it is.
Oh and Logan from Veronica Mars popped up as a nice "teacher" to comfort whiny teenage stepdaughter. He's a bit old for a love interest, but you never know. Very cliche sub-plot, whiny teen step-daughter. I kept thinking the Principal was a nit-wit. Obviously Tessa did this - Tessa has a record for doing this, even Logan the teacher knew that. It was obvious. And of course the other kids would support Tessa, I mean come on. If I were the Principal - I would have brought the parents in for both kids and kept both for detention. Made them work on a community project together. [Wait...didn't that happen with Buffy and Sheila or Buffy and Cordy? And wasn't that Principal Snyder? Geeze, Snyder had more sense than I gave him credit for. Or maybe that was just the writing...shows like this make me miss Buffy and Veronica Mars for that matter.] But no...this is about Daddy and Teen Daughter dealing with their trust issues, and teen daughter bonding with new teacher. Not sure how this links up with Bridget/Siobhan, but I'm sure we'll find out. [And it's saying something that for the life of me I can't remember whiny teen daughter's name. Not quite sure what. Tessa who appears for five minutes? Yes. But not whiny Teen daughter. I do remember sponsor - Charlie and teacher - Mr. C (mostly because both begin with a C, and the teacher's name makes me think of Happy Days. It helps to have these connections to remember names.)]

Feeling awfully sorry for Malcolm. Poor guy can't catch a break. Nor can the actor - who has spent most of the series being tortured.

Is it insane that I'm half-hoping they'll cast James Marsters as some banker rival of Andrew's, maybe his older brother, from North England, that bitchy Siobhan hooks up with in Paris, and they have wicked I hate you sex for five episodes? Yeah, insane. But oddly, I can see them doing that...except for the fact that I have the oddest impression* that the two actors despise each other and there is no way in hell Gellar would agree to casting Marsters in her show or Marsters would audition for it.
Sad. They had great chemistry, possibly because they despised each other.

*I got this impression from Whedon's commentary on Wild at Heart, and then again later in a Sharon Ozborn interview, where he turned over cards of him kissing Buffy so he didn't have to look at them, and a couple of Marster's Q&A's where he slips up. Yes, I know, there are some things you really don't want to know about the people entertaining you or are better off not knowing.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

"Logan from Veronica Mars" also had a regular role as Josef, a wealthy vampire on the series Moonlight. Poor little rich girl: her favorite teacher is a vampire and her step-mom is a slayer.

Yes, Tessa, was more memorable than whiny daughter.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I just looked up whiny daughter. Her name is Juliet, and she's played by Zooey Deutch, Lea Thompson's daughter. You'd think she'd be more charming.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Or a better actress. I can't put my finger on it - but it's as if she's trying too hard. You can really see the difference in the school scenes where she is acting opposite Tessa who is playing a similar role.

And thanks...I thought it was Juliet but could not remember.

As an aside, why do these shows feel the need to put in the teen subplot?
Neither Revenge nor Ringer need it - it feels off in both series.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Or a snarky spoiled bad-boy from a better femme noire series? ;-)

Ah yes, Josef, the best thing in Moonlight - although Moonlight was ruined for me by Forever Night. I couldn't stop comparing the two (more so than Angel actually).

[kwritten.livejournal.com]

I find it kind of refreshing that Marsters and SMG don't get along in real life. And it makes logic-sense, since I don't like SMG ... possibly because Marsters began as a stage actor and SMG is very much a tv actor, I'd assume them just having different approaches to the job and that affecting their personal relationship after so many years.
I love Marsters and Benson's RL relationship. I care more about that, I think....

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Although I think it's more complicated...and not so much medium, as age and experience and well how the set was run or the culture on the set. It was Whedon's first time as a show-runner of a tv series and he really had no clue what he was doing most of the time. Also his only experience on tv back then was on Roseanne - which was a bad work environment, Roseanne unlike most tv stars, had power and fired writers and actors right and left.

Gellar was a child star - with a background in Daytime Soaps - where you basically learn twenty pages of lines in an hour, hit all your marks, jump to the next scene, don't worry too much about how well you portrayed the character or what the character's motivation is or what you'll end up doing, because hello, soap, it's unlikely to make sense. Also you can be killed off at any time on the whim of the "producers", "stars" or fans. Gellar also had Susan Lucci as a mentor/partner (and they hated each other) - Lucci was a bit of a diva on All My Children and the lead (as far as soaps actually have one). So Gellar came from the sort of mentality that in tv - the lead rules and can be bitchy as she wants to be, as long as she learns her lines, hits her marks and treats the crew well. Add to that Gellar was 18 when she got the Buffy role and at least 5-20 years younger than most of the cast. Never attended college and went to a high school for performing arts.

Marsters in stark contrast, was 32 when he got cast. Had over 20 years of stage experience, ran his own theater company, had a BA and A Masters degree in Theater, had gone to Julliard and gotten kicked out for his temper, was divorced, had a child, had been a starving theater owner and been struggling to get roles in tv and/or film for about five years. He was also being told every day by his boss that his character would be dead soon, and out of a job. For the years, Marsters read his scripts backwards to see if he was killed off.


Sigh - I know more than I want to know about these people and what they do for a living. ;-)

[kwritten.livejournal.com]

All of this is basically what I assumed, without doing any outside research. All I've ever heard Marsters say about SMG is that she's a "professional" ... but I never really got the sense that it was either a positive or negative comment, more like: this is all I know about Sarah.

Super enlightening. You are... marginally insane for knowing all of this. But we love you anyway :D


oh and this: So Gellar came from the sort of mentality that in tv - the lead rules and can be bitchy as she wants to be, as long as she learns her lines, hits her marks and treats the crew well. is the image that is in my head concerning SMG... I wrote on this before and got horrible backlash from fandom, but my opinion stands: dislike of SMG doesn't mean that I don't like the Buffster... just means I think different actor = different Buff

http://kelpyfinners.livejournal.com/17981.html

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hee. Some people read the gossip columns about which star is sleeping with whom, I read the back stage stuff and Q&A's on what it was like filming the show and the whole process. I'm insanely fascinated by
what people do for a living and what their workplace is like - particularly one's that are vastly different than my own. (That's more an explanation for why I know all this than anything else.)

Marsters tells several rather amusing stories in his later Q&A's about his time on the Buffy set working with Gellar that make me wonder if he plans on ever working with her again. Guessing not. LOL! He also tells a few on-set stories about Whedon, that make me wonder the same thing. All of which are quite believable actually.
Since other people have mentioned similar things.

What's insane is I remember this stuff. Life would be so much simpler if I could remember multiplication tables instead.

Re SMG and fandom's take? Fandom for some reason or other wants to put all these people on a pedestal. They are human and make dumb mistakes. Like in any workplace. And the entertainment business is well..an interesting and odd place to work. ;-) Which is why I'm so fascinated by it. It's bizarre. I mean imagine coming to work each day and being told to get undressed and pretend to have sex, hot and heavy sex, with some guy or gal that you aren't attracted to, not interested in, you are married to someone else/in love with someone else, and in front of a dozen people, cameras, and on a cold set? Gah.