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shadowkat1. Beastly - finished watching the tween modernization of the Beauty and The Beast fairy tale. Starring Vanessa Hudgins, Alex Pettifier, Peter Krause, Neil Patrick Harris, and Mary Kate Olsen. Not as bad as you'd think. Was mildly entertaining and sort of sweet. Basic premise the same - image and vanity unimportant, what's inside counts. Of course I'd be more convinced if the heroine wasn't beautiful. But at least this time she's a person of color. Also Neil Patrick Harris was mildly amusing as a blind guy...proving Harris has no clue how to act like a blind guy, but...let's not nit-pick. Overall a decent B Valentine's Day tween flick.
Once Upon a Time's take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale was actually more interesting, because it melded the Rumplestilskin story with the fairy tale.
In this version, Rumple agrees to protect the town from the Ogre, if the patriarch/leader will send Belle, his daughter, off to Rumple forever. The patriarch and Belle's intended Gaston protest, but Belle agrees because she wants to play hero.
Rumple leads her to her cell. But he's not unkind. And grows to care for her, much like the Beast in the fairy tale. And even lets her go. But she meets the Evil Queen on the road who convinces her to go back...that there may be a way to find love with Rumple, to break the curse and turn him back into an ordinary man. True love's kiss is the answer. The twist is that Rumple unlike the Beast in the original tale isn't cursed in quite the same way and doesn't want to be released from it. In the original the curse - removes the Prince's power and is meant to teach him humility. With Rumple - the curse is the result of his cowardice and desire for power, not to be weak. His fear of being weak, a victim, powerless - is what curses him. His belief that he can't be loved unless he has power. In a lot of ways Rumplestilskin reminds me of Willow in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which may explain why Espenson writes him so well. She's written it before. And in some respects it works better here...because no magic as crack mislead to stumble around. Rumple can't let go of the power - even for Belle's love or the love of his son. Belle accuses him of a being a coward, afraid to be an ordinary man to be loved. Afraid no one will love him.
He sends her away, and finds out later from the Evil Queen, he's sent her to her doom.
Her family condemned her. In the real world - Rumple is cruel to Belle's father, because of what the father did in the fairy tale realm. He is upset because the father took a chipped cup which is all he has left of Belle. The Queen tells him - to hold on to your power, all you have left of Belle, of love, is a chipped tea cup.
The episode explains three things: 1) The relationship between the Queen and Rumple.
2) Why Rumple hates the Queen - he has good reason to. 3) What Rumple has on the Queen and how much he remembers of the fairy tale world (pretty much everything - he's the Queen's equal power-wise and her deadly enemy, they are bound in hate and mutual interest..to a point. It also reveals to the Queen what Rumple remembers.
At the end of the episode we chillingly discover that the Queen has locked the real world version of Belle deep within the confines of the hospital in a cell. Demonstrating once again that the Queen is an irredeemable villain who needs to be killed. Seriously, how evil can they make this bitch? It's getting ridiculous.
I'm beginning to root for the Sheriff to just shoot her in the head, be quicker.
That's the one weakness in this show, every character but the Queen is shown to be layered. Rumple has more layers than an onion. But to date the Queen is pretty one-dimensional. Since she's a lead - they need to resolve that problem soon. OR kill her off. Because long-term, she's going to become dull.
There is hope though. And the set-up of this series reminds me a great deal of LOST.
We have the two villains, with the jigsaw puzzle power-play. In Lost it was Ben vs. Widmare. They were partners, and enemies. It's a great dynamic. So this makes me happy. It also has some of Lost's problems - which is pacing. We are spending a lot of time exploring back stories of the characters with not a lot happening in the real world. The fairy tale world as a result is more interesting - more is happening in it. This happened on Lost too. Often the back-story or flashbacks were more interesting than whatever they were doing on the island. It's a narrative structure issue.
Other than that? I loved this episode. Every episode written by Espenson or featuring Robert Carlyle's Mr. Gold/Rumple is excellent. This show is tailor made to Espenson's strengths, best writing she's done in ages. She does better with fantasy than sci-fi I think.
At any rate...we've been shown that the Queen now has something that Rumple wants.
Just as she has not one but two things that Emma wants. No one has anything the Queen wants. The Queen still appears to hold all the cards. And appears to be unbeatable. Which is interesting. Yet, Rumple/Gold states he has more power than she does, and has stated at different points that people are more afraid of him than her. Plus, she has to do what he says, when he says "Please". What does he have that she doesn't?
He knows how to break her curse. HE knows that Emma Swan is her doom. What he plans on doing with that knowledge is anyone's guess. But since it's clear he has every reason in the world to want to destroy Regina...
2.) Downton Abbey - better this week than last. The only weakness in this series is the story. Luckily the writing, direction, and acting sort of make that negligible. It's still melodramatically cliche in places.
Seriously, Matthew? Dude? Being a martyr to your dead wife's memory? She's dead. The Spainish Flu killed her. Hardly your fault. Even if you declared undying love for her, she'd have died. Move on. Plus awfully convenient way of getting rid of the character. Couldn't just have her break off the engagement and wander off? I do adore Maggie Smith's character. Also like Mrs. Crowley. And the servants. Mary's growing on me. As is Edith. Unfortunately, I still find Sir Richard more interesting than Matthew. Although Matthew and Mary have chemistry to burn and I clearly ship them.
But Matt's such a heroic nitwit. But then so is the Earl of Chatham so it must run in the family. Serve them both right if the burn victim returned and proved he was the true heir.
Saw the Bates being framed for murder coming from a mile away. Clearly his wife decided the best way to make him miserable was to die - this would send him back to prison again. But go Anna for insisting on getting married first, and being able to stand by him.
Tomas the evil footman is turning into a rather interesting character, as is Edith the evil ladies maid - who tried to confess her crime to her mistress. Felt for both in this episode. Still adore the cook.
The Sybill/Chauffer storyline never did much for me. Don't know why.
Overall entertaining, if weak in places.
3.) Justified - not much to say, except by far the best written tv show that I've seen all week. The dialogue crackles. It's hilarious. Well plotted. But unfortunately violent as all get out with hardly any women in it. Although Joella Carter who plays the black woman marshal - Violet, was quite good, still didn't have hardly anything to do. Sad. The best written tv show on - is regrettably about violent white guys who wave pistols around. (Yet still far less violent than the others.)
Once Upon a Time's take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale was actually more interesting, because it melded the Rumplestilskin story with the fairy tale.
In this version, Rumple agrees to protect the town from the Ogre, if the patriarch/leader will send Belle, his daughter, off to Rumple forever. The patriarch and Belle's intended Gaston protest, but Belle agrees because she wants to play hero.
Rumple leads her to her cell. But he's not unkind. And grows to care for her, much like the Beast in the fairy tale. And even lets her go. But she meets the Evil Queen on the road who convinces her to go back...that there may be a way to find love with Rumple, to break the curse and turn him back into an ordinary man. True love's kiss is the answer. The twist is that Rumple unlike the Beast in the original tale isn't cursed in quite the same way and doesn't want to be released from it. In the original the curse - removes the Prince's power and is meant to teach him humility. With Rumple - the curse is the result of his cowardice and desire for power, not to be weak. His fear of being weak, a victim, powerless - is what curses him. His belief that he can't be loved unless he has power. In a lot of ways Rumplestilskin reminds me of Willow in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which may explain why Espenson writes him so well. She's written it before. And in some respects it works better here...because no magic as crack mislead to stumble around. Rumple can't let go of the power - even for Belle's love or the love of his son. Belle accuses him of a being a coward, afraid to be an ordinary man to be loved. Afraid no one will love him.
He sends her away, and finds out later from the Evil Queen, he's sent her to her doom.
Her family condemned her. In the real world - Rumple is cruel to Belle's father, because of what the father did in the fairy tale realm. He is upset because the father took a chipped cup which is all he has left of Belle. The Queen tells him - to hold on to your power, all you have left of Belle, of love, is a chipped tea cup.
The episode explains three things: 1) The relationship between the Queen and Rumple.
2) Why Rumple hates the Queen - he has good reason to. 3) What Rumple has on the Queen and how much he remembers of the fairy tale world (pretty much everything - he's the Queen's equal power-wise and her deadly enemy, they are bound in hate and mutual interest..to a point. It also reveals to the Queen what Rumple remembers.
At the end of the episode we chillingly discover that the Queen has locked the real world version of Belle deep within the confines of the hospital in a cell. Demonstrating once again that the Queen is an irredeemable villain who needs to be killed. Seriously, how evil can they make this bitch? It's getting ridiculous.
I'm beginning to root for the Sheriff to just shoot her in the head, be quicker.
That's the one weakness in this show, every character but the Queen is shown to be layered. Rumple has more layers than an onion. But to date the Queen is pretty one-dimensional. Since she's a lead - they need to resolve that problem soon. OR kill her off. Because long-term, she's going to become dull.
There is hope though. And the set-up of this series reminds me a great deal of LOST.
We have the two villains, with the jigsaw puzzle power-play. In Lost it was Ben vs. Widmare. They were partners, and enemies. It's a great dynamic. So this makes me happy. It also has some of Lost's problems - which is pacing. We are spending a lot of time exploring back stories of the characters with not a lot happening in the real world. The fairy tale world as a result is more interesting - more is happening in it. This happened on Lost too. Often the back-story or flashbacks were more interesting than whatever they were doing on the island. It's a narrative structure issue.
Other than that? I loved this episode. Every episode written by Espenson or featuring Robert Carlyle's Mr. Gold/Rumple is excellent. This show is tailor made to Espenson's strengths, best writing she's done in ages. She does better with fantasy than sci-fi I think.
At any rate...we've been shown that the Queen now has something that Rumple wants.
Just as she has not one but two things that Emma wants. No one has anything the Queen wants. The Queen still appears to hold all the cards. And appears to be unbeatable. Which is interesting. Yet, Rumple/Gold states he has more power than she does, and has stated at different points that people are more afraid of him than her. Plus, she has to do what he says, when he says "Please". What does he have that she doesn't?
He knows how to break her curse. HE knows that Emma Swan is her doom. What he plans on doing with that knowledge is anyone's guess. But since it's clear he has every reason in the world to want to destroy Regina...
2.) Downton Abbey - better this week than last. The only weakness in this series is the story. Luckily the writing, direction, and acting sort of make that negligible. It's still melodramatically cliche in places.
Seriously, Matthew? Dude? Being a martyr to your dead wife's memory? She's dead. The Spainish Flu killed her. Hardly your fault. Even if you declared undying love for her, she'd have died. Move on. Plus awfully convenient way of getting rid of the character. Couldn't just have her break off the engagement and wander off? I do adore Maggie Smith's character. Also like Mrs. Crowley. And the servants. Mary's growing on me. As is Edith. Unfortunately, I still find Sir Richard more interesting than Matthew. Although Matthew and Mary have chemistry to burn and I clearly ship them.
But Matt's such a heroic nitwit. But then so is the Earl of Chatham so it must run in the family. Serve them both right if the burn victim returned and proved he was the true heir.
Saw the Bates being framed for murder coming from a mile away. Clearly his wife decided the best way to make him miserable was to die - this would send him back to prison again. But go Anna for insisting on getting married first, and being able to stand by him.
Tomas the evil footman is turning into a rather interesting character, as is Edith the evil ladies maid - who tried to confess her crime to her mistress. Felt for both in this episode. Still adore the cook.
The Sybill/Chauffer storyline never did much for me. Don't know why.
Overall entertaining, if weak in places.
3.) Justified - not much to say, except by far the best written tv show that I've seen all week. The dialogue crackles. It's hilarious. Well plotted. But unfortunately violent as all get out with hardly any women in it. Although Joella Carter who plays the black woman marshal - Violet, was quite good, still didn't have hardly anything to do. Sad. The best written tv show on - is regrettably about violent white guys who wave pistols around. (Yet still far less violent than the others.)
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 02:50 am (UTC)I think that the Sybil/Chauffeur 'romance' fell flat because it never seemed convincing as a romance... I could see it as a political partnership, but there was never any sexual attraction between the two of them....
Unlike Lady Mary who manages to have heat with everyone! She is a lot of fun to watch....
But it is true, all their story telling choices are wicked obvious... but I do enjoy the show.
Not as much as I'm enjoying Once Upon a Time though! OMG I love Rumplestiltskin more every week, he is amazing.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 03:04 am (UTC)Oops, just realized that I'm one episode (double!) behind. Never mind.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 05:11 am (UTC)Sybil and Chauffeur doesn't work, because we never saw a thing from Sybil's end. He talked and talked, but she never showed the least interest in him personally.
FYI: Edith is the plain sister of the three. Sarah O'Brien, who is always called O'Brien, is the frowning maid who always seems to destroy other people's lives, though this season she is a lot more sorry about it.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 08:51 am (UTC)I'm hoping that Sybil/Thomas will become more interesting now that they've moved away, assuming we still see them now and again.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 05:29 pm (UTC)Also...it seems people who leave Downton aren't focused on.
Sybil and the Chauffer unfortunately were never given enough screen-time really to build their romance and as cactuswatcher aptly states - we rarely saw the romance from her perspective.
She seemed less in love with him and more in love with a life of labor and hard-work. The life of leisure she has with her family was driving her nuts.
Edith has the same problem, I think.
They have nothing useful in which to fill their days.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 05:36 pm (UTC)Not sure why I flipped those two names. Didn't realize I had, thanks.
Sybil and Chauffeur doesn't work, because we never saw a thing from Sybil's end. He talked and talked, but she never showed the least interest in him personally.
Agreed. Sybil wasn't really interested in him at all while she got to be a nurse, it's when she had nothing to do that he interested her. I think she's more in love with the idea of having a life of hard work or labor vs. leisure. She's bored. Edith I think has the same problem. They've nothing to fill their time now that the war is over.
Matthew is an escapee from an early 19th century novel, the romantic hero with the woman he did wrong in his past, that he can never get over, even though he only sorta-kinda was in love with her in the first place.
That was my impression as well. He reminds me a great deal of the type of heroes wandering through Austen and Bronte novels.
They don't seem to know what they want,
and they become oddly attached to romantic notions. I keep wanting to slap them. If you still fancied yourself in love with Mary why lead Lavenia on, you dope? And if you are now in love with Lavenia? Stop leading Mary on. You can't have both, obviously, deal. Richard - I liked better - he knew what he wanted and went after it.
Less wishy-washy.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 05:37 pm (UTC)I agree with you about the prior episode, by the way. But I do like Mary better than you do. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 05:40 pm (UTC)Very true. She's one of the few characters that does. Not sure how much of this is the actress and how much is the writing.
But it is true, all their story telling choices are wicked obvious... but I do enjoy the show.
Evidence of how good writing, acting, production, and direction can save a bad story. For how a decent story can be destroyed by bad writing, acting, production and direction - you need go no further than Ringer - which actually had an interesting premise and plot, but is so badly written and performed it's hard to tell.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-14 07:08 pm (UTC)And of course Dame Maggie Smith makes me laugh out loud in almost every episode.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-26 07:59 am (UTC)