TV: Game-Change, Once, and the Good Wife
Mar. 11th, 2012 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatTrying to cross-post from DW doesn't always work well for me. Because I forget I did it when I go back to edit, and end up only editing lj. What can I say? I'm a creature of habit. Also one whose life is out of balance. Trying to fix that, failing miserably.
But won't bore you with the details, at least not tonight at any rate.
TV...
1. Game Change - disappointing. Didn't reveal anything new. The acting performances were good all around. Particularly, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Peter McNichol and Ed Harris. Moore nailed Sarah Palin and managed to make her character sympathetic and relatable as opposed to either a satiric sketch or a parody. And there were a few good lines...but I was somewhat bored during it. It's skippable. The book is actually better - since it goes in depth on all the candidates, and apparently Hilary's campaign and what went wrong there is more interesting. The reason the book is called Game Change - is it is about how the internet and information age has changed political campaigns. Information goes viral in minutes. This flick touched on that theme, but didn't do enough to cover it and relied far too heavily on old news casts to make its points.
2. Once Upon a Time - sigh, this show makes me miss Buffy and Lost. The fairy tale world remains more interesting and better paced than the real one. Also, I can't stand Regina. Every time she appears, I wish someone would off her. She's like nails on a chalkboard. I actually thought...while watching the Good Wife - could we have the villain who murdered his wife and got away with it jump over to Once and kill Regina? Or maybe the cast of Walking Dead? Either works for me.
Seriously, the Storybrook plot thread moves at a snail's pace. Not helped by the fact that the lead characters in Storybrook are...annoying. So I'm frustrated. OTOH, I like their alter-egos in the "fairy tale world" - that world is actually interesting with some rather cool twists and turns. Also less predictable. Plus it's better paced.
I think the problem is that the writers find the fairy tale world more interesting too and don't quite know what to do in Storybrook. They have to do all these back-stories for all the inhabitants of Storybrook - so they can't very well do anything to Regina. Because if anything happens to Regina, Storybrook will dissolved and we won't have two realities to play with. Regina's curse and Regina's continued maintenance of that curse is why the fairy tale characters reside in Storybrook. Some miserable, some actually happier than they were in fairy tale world.
It's that Catch-22 that annoys me with tv shows. Angel the series had a similar issue - Angel couldn't become uncursed or get the shanshu, because the moment he did, there wouldn't be a series. Lost? They "all" couldn't get off the island, because then there'd be no story. So, you had people constantly trying to get off and failing, or getting off only to try to get back on. Which got to be a bit ridiculous after a while - but hey better paced than Once. BattleStar Galatica? Same dilemma - they can't find earth, because the show is about their journey to Earth. Finding Earth can only happen in the final episode. I call these journey shows or carrot shows. Where the protagonist is either seriously clueless (Emma) or just perpetually frustrated (Angel/Jack).
I prefer shows like Buffy and the Vampire Diaries...where there are no carrots, just insane love triangles and tragically impaired romantic relationships that can't ever quite go anywhere - because there would be no conflict and no story according to the idiotic writers who can't figure out how maintain a somewhat sane long-term relationship to save their lives.
Sorry, enough whining about television tropes that frustrate me.
What I liked?
I did like:
* Nice Twist: Red Riding Hood turning out to be the Big Bad Wolf along with Granny (who she inherited from). How incredibly tragic that Red ends up eating her chained up huntsman whose been visiting her. Now if she'd only worn that cloak. (I admit that I didn't see that twist coming, I thought Granny was the wolf, up until Red chained up her huntsman and was able to sniff out the trail).
*Heart in the box bit...interesting. What is it with Regina and hearts? I can't remember, did we get proof that was Katherine's heart? No, Emma assumed. I bet it's the old Sheriff's. Emma needs to start taking Henry a bit more seriously - when he says no one can leave Storybrook.
That's about it.
The characters, outside of Regina and Mr. Gold, are all still far too wimpy. Get some backbone, people. Is there something in the air that makes you all pathetic and wander about in a whiny daze? Regina only has power because everyone has given it to her.
It's getting annoying.
3. The Good Wife - seriously the best written show I've seen all week. The writing and performances continue to blow me away, after I see everything else. It was even better written than Justified this week. The threading of the stories, beautiful, the theme of power and politics sustained throughout. And I love the parallel structure of Alicia and Carey's stories. Alicia struggling with Diane and her paranoia in regards to Caitlin, while Carey struggles with Peter and the people questioning Peter's decisions and favoritism of Carey. And it's all about women in the workplace.
Caitlin who we are lead to believe is playing power politics and wants Alicia's place in the firm. And Alicia's increasing paranoia. Not helped by David Lee, Diane,
Kalinda and Will who all lead Alicia to believe Caitlin is a threat. Caitlin's not doing this to Alicia, the people surrounding her, are. Add to this, Alicia's anxiety regarding her home situation. The owners of her apartment building want to turn the units into high-priced condos. She has 90 days to opt to buy or opt out. Or decide to buy back her old house. She can't quite afford either on her current salary. And
doesn't know if she can get a raise. Is Caitlin pushing her out? I totally identified with Alicia's situation - been there, too many times to count. Actually am sort of going through a little of this now...the mind-games, the politics, the uncertainty.
In reality? Caitlin is planning a wedding and was hiding it from Alicia. She's pregnant and wants to resign and become a full-time wife and mother. She tells Alicia that it may be a generational thing - she doesn't feel she has anything to prove. She's in love and wants to stay home and be a mom. It's a choice. Her's. Law isn't what she wants. Which is also realistic - a lot of younger women feel that way today.
My generation - which is Alicia's - less so.
It's too late and I'm too tired to discuss all the other bits, and there were several.
* Carey firing the Gay subordinate and supervisor who had sex on Peter's couch
* Carey, after being called on the mat by the recently demoted ADA, for fraternizing with Dana before Dana got demoted.
* Monica Baccaren's sexual harrassment suit against the creepy CEO who got away with killing his wife, and is working to get his company back, and makes a deal with him to raise their kid and get rid of the guy trying to take away his company. (Shout-out to Bebe Neuwirth as judge of the week, and Kate Burton as lawyer of the week).
So much going on. Lots of angles. And it continues to be amongst the least violent shows on TV. See? You can write a really good tv show without killing anyone, it can be done.
But won't bore you with the details, at least not tonight at any rate.
TV...
1. Game Change - disappointing. Didn't reveal anything new. The acting performances were good all around. Particularly, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Peter McNichol and Ed Harris. Moore nailed Sarah Palin and managed to make her character sympathetic and relatable as opposed to either a satiric sketch or a parody. And there were a few good lines...but I was somewhat bored during it. It's skippable. The book is actually better - since it goes in depth on all the candidates, and apparently Hilary's campaign and what went wrong there is more interesting. The reason the book is called Game Change - is it is about how the internet and information age has changed political campaigns. Information goes viral in minutes. This flick touched on that theme, but didn't do enough to cover it and relied far too heavily on old news casts to make its points.
2. Once Upon a Time - sigh, this show makes me miss Buffy and Lost. The fairy tale world remains more interesting and better paced than the real one. Also, I can't stand Regina. Every time she appears, I wish someone would off her. She's like nails on a chalkboard. I actually thought...while watching the Good Wife - could we have the villain who murdered his wife and got away with it jump over to Once and kill Regina? Or maybe the cast of Walking Dead? Either works for me.
Seriously, the Storybrook plot thread moves at a snail's pace. Not helped by the fact that the lead characters in Storybrook are...annoying. So I'm frustrated. OTOH, I like their alter-egos in the "fairy tale world" - that world is actually interesting with some rather cool twists and turns. Also less predictable. Plus it's better paced.
I think the problem is that the writers find the fairy tale world more interesting too and don't quite know what to do in Storybrook. They have to do all these back-stories for all the inhabitants of Storybrook - so they can't very well do anything to Regina. Because if anything happens to Regina, Storybrook will dissolved and we won't have two realities to play with. Regina's curse and Regina's continued maintenance of that curse is why the fairy tale characters reside in Storybrook. Some miserable, some actually happier than they were in fairy tale world.
It's that Catch-22 that annoys me with tv shows. Angel the series had a similar issue - Angel couldn't become uncursed or get the shanshu, because the moment he did, there wouldn't be a series. Lost? They "all" couldn't get off the island, because then there'd be no story. So, you had people constantly trying to get off and failing, or getting off only to try to get back on. Which got to be a bit ridiculous after a while - but hey better paced than Once. BattleStar Galatica? Same dilemma - they can't find earth, because the show is about their journey to Earth. Finding Earth can only happen in the final episode. I call these journey shows or carrot shows. Where the protagonist is either seriously clueless (Emma) or just perpetually frustrated (Angel/Jack).
I prefer shows like Buffy and the Vampire Diaries...where there are no carrots, just insane love triangles and tragically impaired romantic relationships that can't ever quite go anywhere - because there would be no conflict and no story according to the idiotic writers who can't figure out how maintain a somewhat sane long-term relationship to save their lives.
Sorry, enough whining about television tropes that frustrate me.
What I liked?
I did like:
* Nice Twist: Red Riding Hood turning out to be the Big Bad Wolf along with Granny (who she inherited from). How incredibly tragic that Red ends up eating her chained up huntsman whose been visiting her. Now if she'd only worn that cloak. (I admit that I didn't see that twist coming, I thought Granny was the wolf, up until Red chained up her huntsman and was able to sniff out the trail).
*Heart in the box bit...interesting. What is it with Regina and hearts? I can't remember, did we get proof that was Katherine's heart? No, Emma assumed. I bet it's the old Sheriff's. Emma needs to start taking Henry a bit more seriously - when he says no one can leave Storybrook.
That's about it.
The characters, outside of Regina and Mr. Gold, are all still far too wimpy. Get some backbone, people. Is there something in the air that makes you all pathetic and wander about in a whiny daze? Regina only has power because everyone has given it to her.
It's getting annoying.
3. The Good Wife - seriously the best written show I've seen all week. The writing and performances continue to blow me away, after I see everything else. It was even better written than Justified this week. The threading of the stories, beautiful, the theme of power and politics sustained throughout. And I love the parallel structure of Alicia and Carey's stories. Alicia struggling with Diane and her paranoia in regards to Caitlin, while Carey struggles with Peter and the people questioning Peter's decisions and favoritism of Carey. And it's all about women in the workplace.
Caitlin who we are lead to believe is playing power politics and wants Alicia's place in the firm. And Alicia's increasing paranoia. Not helped by David Lee, Diane,
Kalinda and Will who all lead Alicia to believe Caitlin is a threat. Caitlin's not doing this to Alicia, the people surrounding her, are. Add to this, Alicia's anxiety regarding her home situation. The owners of her apartment building want to turn the units into high-priced condos. She has 90 days to opt to buy or opt out. Or decide to buy back her old house. She can't quite afford either on her current salary. And
doesn't know if she can get a raise. Is Caitlin pushing her out? I totally identified with Alicia's situation - been there, too many times to count. Actually am sort of going through a little of this now...the mind-games, the politics, the uncertainty.
In reality? Caitlin is planning a wedding and was hiding it from Alicia. She's pregnant and wants to resign and become a full-time wife and mother. She tells Alicia that it may be a generational thing - she doesn't feel she has anything to prove. She's in love and wants to stay home and be a mom. It's a choice. Her's. Law isn't what she wants. Which is also realistic - a lot of younger women feel that way today.
My generation - which is Alicia's - less so.
It's too late and I'm too tired to discuss all the other bits, and there were several.
* Carey firing the Gay subordinate and supervisor who had sex on Peter's couch
* Carey, after being called on the mat by the recently demoted ADA, for fraternizing with Dana before Dana got demoted.
* Monica Baccaren's sexual harrassment suit against the creepy CEO who got away with killing his wife, and is working to get his company back, and makes a deal with him to raise their kid and get rid of the guy trying to take away his company. (Shout-out to Bebe Neuwirth as judge of the week, and Kate Burton as lawyer of the week).
So much going on. Lots of angles. And it continues to be amongst the least violent shows on TV. See? You can write a really good tv show without killing anyone, it can be done.
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 04:06 pm (UTC)Oh...I finally remembered where I'd seen the box before - it's the same box that the Evil Queen put the Deer's heart that the huntsman gave her in the fairy tale world.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 05:52 pm (UTC)But then I realized I was going to miss out on Game Change! I've loved seeing Danny Strong promoting the show.... *sigh*
However your review kind of makes me feel like I didn't miss that much... I can see it, eventually, on DVD. Or iTunes. Whatever.
I definitely agree w/you about Once Upon A Time... I would probably even stop watching it if there was anything else on Sunday nights (besides, I still LOVE Rumplestilskin!)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 06:04 pm (UTC)I thought they were doing it as a mini-series or series...if that had been the case, it could
have been interesting.
Regarding Once? I may not make it to next season. Right now the only character I'm really caring about is Rumplestilskin. If they don't do something to shake things up soon...we need a game-changer, a big plot twist. Right now the storybrook storyline is just frustrating.