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shadowkatI enjoy Revenge, it's not quite a soap opera, and it's not quite literary. And I particularly enjoy Emily-Amanda's voice over's. Particulary the quote from Hamlet.
As Hamlet said to Ophelia, we all have two faces, one we were given at birth and one we
create ourselves and show the world.
When I heard this, oddly, I did not think of Shakespeare, but rather George RR Martin's Feast of Crows - in the chapter I was reading on the train today, Ayra, is told how to lie. You lie by controlling your face. Owning its movements. And you change who you are, how you look, by doing the same. Controlling the muscles. Smiling not when the mood hits you, but when you decide to.
First a few quibbles...
* Why is it that in every tv show, the character that has caught on to the protagonist's plot decides to tell the protagonist what they are up to? OR tell the person they've found who is obviously a friend or associate, what they are up to? Are you asking to die? How stupid are you? Also if you are going to confront them? Why not wait until you have a nice safety net...which would make it counter-productive for them to kill you? I don't understand this. These people need to watch more television or soap operas on television. (I had the same problem with Ned Stark in Game of Thrones and Gemma in Ringer. It's very hard to root for a dumb character. You sort of think they deserve their Darwin Award.) Here? I had troubles buying that Frank, head of security, big on the covert ops, would confront Emily Thorn and tell her that he was on to her. Or that he would be so open about what he'd discovered with the gal posing as Amanda Clark. You'd think he'd be smarter. Gemma and Ned Stark made sense, they aren't exactly in the espionage business. But Frank?
*The Charlotte/Deckard love story is still dragging the show down. These characters are sort of flat and a bit on the whiny side. They are the weakest part of the story. But I get why they are a part of it - they are also the most honest, as is Jack. And possibly Daniel.
*Nolan continues to fascinate me. He's playing Tyler rather well. I knew he was going to tape his romantic interlude with Tyler. Didn't quite understand what Tyler thought he was doing? I mean, hello, Nolan has mentioned he has dirt on you, that he's willing, and he has zip to lose. What's to keep Nolan from using your flirtation with him as a means to get more dirt? Also, wouldn't it be wise to figure out what Nolan's game is first? Tyler is out of his depth with Emily and Nolan. So is Ashely for that matter. Although I will state Ashely got more interesting. She states to Tyler that the only one she cares about is Ashely.
Hee. Ashley is playing Emily, and Emily is playing Ashley.
Tyler is playing Nolan, Nolan is playing Tyler. What Tyler hasn't figured out is Nolan's connection to Emily. Go Nolan. I love Nolan. Also, Nolan being gay does explain a lot.
He really isn't interested in Emily in a romantic way. They do have a sort of brother/sister chemistry going.
*Victoria also is becoming more interesting. She's miserable. Proof that Emily really doesn't have to do anything, Conrad and Victoria are more than capable of doing themselves in. Apparently Emily/Amanda's father was the love of Victoria's life and she screwed him over royally to keep her son Daniel. The threat of losing her son, was more than she could bear. (Which makes Daniel's death all the more ironic - what she did ages ago...more than likely is what leads to her son's death in the future. The choices we make come back to haunt us.)
Emily voice over: "We all have good and evil inside of us, and we make choices..."
Too true. Victoria is having troubles living with hers. They haunt her. But not Conrad so much. Although Conrad does appear to be in love with Victoria, even though he realizes she doesn't love him. As did poor Frank. I like his line - it's probably a good thing you don't love me - look what happened to the guy you did love. She destroyed the person she loved.
And his daughter has come to take the things she destroyed him for, away from her. Although I think she would have lost them eventually anyhow.
* Lydia has regained consciousness. You just can't keep a good ...I don't know what to call her down. Her survival is...a bit difficult to believe, which kudos to the show for admitting. Question is? Does Lydia remember anything?
*And what about the real Emily Thorne who has popped up? Actually this episode was rather informative, thank you Frank. We know two things - CC H. Pounder who plays the Warden, clearly aided Amanda Clark in her transformation and in how to tackle the Graysons. She covers for her, in part because Amanda donated quite a bit of money to the facility. Not that it helps, since Frank breaks into her office and finds what he needs anyhow - which is that Emily Thorne and Amanda Clark switched places at some point. The real Emily is a stripper in a club, and had been in juvie with Amanda. I sort of figured that out already - made the most sense, that Amanda had taken someone she'd met in juvie's identity, that's the best mask. She did more than that she switched identities. CCH Pounder/Warden tells Amanda/Emily to never forget what she told her. Amanda states: "yeah, know your enemy." Pounder/Warden: "No, never let your guard down." Good advice. Emily/Amanda may never panic, but she has begun to get a bit comfortable in her con.
Enter the gal who switched identities with her. And apparently misses her. She asks Frank where Emily is - that she hasn't been able to find her. When she finds out what Frank is up to, she kills him and tracks down Emily, says she missed her, and what happened. I'm starting to wonder if the real Emily is the one who kills Daniel - now that would be an interesting twist.
Revenge is interesting, a bit more literary than you'd think. It's become a bit more serialized in the past few weeks, and more, I want to say, soapish? It is definitely better plotted and has better pacing than Ringer. (But that's not saying all that much.)
I like aspects of it quite a bit - the Victoria/Emily battle of wits and the exploration of both characters continues to fascinate me, in some ways it's better done than OUAT's Snow and Evil Queen, in part, because the characters are more than archetypes. OUAT hasn't quite moved past the archteypal stage yet in it's characterization, but it's only two episodes in.
Nolan in particular, fascinates - because I'm not sure who he is or what he is about, we get glimmers each week. Jack is a bit too nice and too one-dimensional for my taste, as is Daniel. Neither has been fleshed out well. While Tyler and Ashely have...which is odd.
They may be being set up as the next story thread? I know the intent behind the series is to have a new Revenge con - focusing on new or existing characters, who are different from the current ones, each season. This portion is Emily. The murder trial will be someone else. And so on.
Thanks for taking the poll below. Realized when I read over the answers, that I screwed up.
I answered two of the questions wrong. I only have a brother, I do not have a sister (I wish I did but not in the cards), and I don't exactly speak two languages, I read two languages, and one not that well. Hee. Ironic that I screw up in answering my own poll, isn't it?
As Hamlet said to Ophelia, we all have two faces, one we were given at birth and one we
create ourselves and show the world.
When I heard this, oddly, I did not think of Shakespeare, but rather George RR Martin's Feast of Crows - in the chapter I was reading on the train today, Ayra, is told how to lie. You lie by controlling your face. Owning its movements. And you change who you are, how you look, by doing the same. Controlling the muscles. Smiling not when the mood hits you, but when you decide to.
First a few quibbles...
* Why is it that in every tv show, the character that has caught on to the protagonist's plot decides to tell the protagonist what they are up to? OR tell the person they've found who is obviously a friend or associate, what they are up to? Are you asking to die? How stupid are you? Also if you are going to confront them? Why not wait until you have a nice safety net...which would make it counter-productive for them to kill you? I don't understand this. These people need to watch more television or soap operas on television. (I had the same problem with Ned Stark in Game of Thrones and Gemma in Ringer. It's very hard to root for a dumb character. You sort of think they deserve their Darwin Award.) Here? I had troubles buying that Frank, head of security, big on the covert ops, would confront Emily Thorn and tell her that he was on to her. Or that he would be so open about what he'd discovered with the gal posing as Amanda Clark. You'd think he'd be smarter. Gemma and Ned Stark made sense, they aren't exactly in the espionage business. But Frank?
*The Charlotte/Deckard love story is still dragging the show down. These characters are sort of flat and a bit on the whiny side. They are the weakest part of the story. But I get why they are a part of it - they are also the most honest, as is Jack. And possibly Daniel.
*Nolan continues to fascinate me. He's playing Tyler rather well. I knew he was going to tape his romantic interlude with Tyler. Didn't quite understand what Tyler thought he was doing? I mean, hello, Nolan has mentioned he has dirt on you, that he's willing, and he has zip to lose. What's to keep Nolan from using your flirtation with him as a means to get more dirt? Also, wouldn't it be wise to figure out what Nolan's game is first? Tyler is out of his depth with Emily and Nolan. So is Ashely for that matter. Although I will state Ashely got more interesting. She states to Tyler that the only one she cares about is Ashely.
Hee. Ashley is playing Emily, and Emily is playing Ashley.
Tyler is playing Nolan, Nolan is playing Tyler. What Tyler hasn't figured out is Nolan's connection to Emily. Go Nolan. I love Nolan. Also, Nolan being gay does explain a lot.
He really isn't interested in Emily in a romantic way. They do have a sort of brother/sister chemistry going.
*Victoria also is becoming more interesting. She's miserable. Proof that Emily really doesn't have to do anything, Conrad and Victoria are more than capable of doing themselves in. Apparently Emily/Amanda's father was the love of Victoria's life and she screwed him over royally to keep her son Daniel. The threat of losing her son, was more than she could bear. (Which makes Daniel's death all the more ironic - what she did ages ago...more than likely is what leads to her son's death in the future. The choices we make come back to haunt us.)
Emily voice over: "We all have good and evil inside of us, and we make choices..."
Too true. Victoria is having troubles living with hers. They haunt her. But not Conrad so much. Although Conrad does appear to be in love with Victoria, even though he realizes she doesn't love him. As did poor Frank. I like his line - it's probably a good thing you don't love me - look what happened to the guy you did love. She destroyed the person she loved.
And his daughter has come to take the things she destroyed him for, away from her. Although I think she would have lost them eventually anyhow.
* Lydia has regained consciousness. You just can't keep a good ...I don't know what to call her down. Her survival is...a bit difficult to believe, which kudos to the show for admitting. Question is? Does Lydia remember anything?
*And what about the real Emily Thorne who has popped up? Actually this episode was rather informative, thank you Frank. We know two things - CC H. Pounder who plays the Warden, clearly aided Amanda Clark in her transformation and in how to tackle the Graysons. She covers for her, in part because Amanda donated quite a bit of money to the facility. Not that it helps, since Frank breaks into her office and finds what he needs anyhow - which is that Emily Thorne and Amanda Clark switched places at some point. The real Emily is a stripper in a club, and had been in juvie with Amanda. I sort of figured that out already - made the most sense, that Amanda had taken someone she'd met in juvie's identity, that's the best mask. She did more than that she switched identities. CCH Pounder/Warden tells Amanda/Emily to never forget what she told her. Amanda states: "yeah, know your enemy." Pounder/Warden: "No, never let your guard down." Good advice. Emily/Amanda may never panic, but she has begun to get a bit comfortable in her con.
Enter the gal who switched identities with her. And apparently misses her. She asks Frank where Emily is - that she hasn't been able to find her. When she finds out what Frank is up to, she kills him and tracks down Emily, says she missed her, and what happened. I'm starting to wonder if the real Emily is the one who kills Daniel - now that would be an interesting twist.
Revenge is interesting, a bit more literary than you'd think. It's become a bit more serialized in the past few weeks, and more, I want to say, soapish? It is definitely better plotted and has better pacing than Ringer. (But that's not saying all that much.)
I like aspects of it quite a bit - the Victoria/Emily battle of wits and the exploration of both characters continues to fascinate me, in some ways it's better done than OUAT's Snow and Evil Queen, in part, because the characters are more than archetypes. OUAT hasn't quite moved past the archteypal stage yet in it's characterization, but it's only two episodes in.
Nolan in particular, fascinates - because I'm not sure who he is or what he is about, we get glimmers each week. Jack is a bit too nice and too one-dimensional for my taste, as is Daniel. Neither has been fleshed out well. While Tyler and Ashely have...which is odd.
They may be being set up as the next story thread? I know the intent behind the series is to have a new Revenge con - focusing on new or existing characters, who are different from the current ones, each season. This portion is Emily. The murder trial will be someone else. And so on.
Thanks for taking the poll below. Realized when I read over the answers, that I screwed up.
I answered two of the questions wrong. I only have a brother, I do not have a sister (I wish I did but not in the cards), and I don't exactly speak two languages, I read two languages, and one not that well. Hee. Ironic that I screw up in answering my own poll, isn't it?
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Date: 2011-11-04 01:21 am (UTC)I also forgot that I was a legal resident of New Hampshire for about 6 months... which means I've lived in 11 different states (I'm afraid those 6 months were forgettable). Not that that matters at all.
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Date: 2011-11-05 02:14 am (UTC)On the states? I've lived in four-five. Pennsylvania, Kansas, Colorado, New York, also for the first three years of my life Illinois. Towns? 7.
I'm not as close right now to my brother as I'd like, but I figure relationships ebb and flow like the tides. So have decided not to worry about it.