I'm Back

And I am now caught up on Elementary.

Still over season behind on Supernatural, although now watching it seems like a chore rather than a pleasure. The writers are recycling their bad ideas, and while that's okay for fanserve once, make it a habit and you look uninterested.

Looking forward to Doctor Who.

And of course, Sherlock.

I've been writing but it's been a difficult month. Amazing how a death in the family can knock you sideways for a while. Don't get me wrong, but watching relatives react the way they do is like a master course in character studies. And maybe distancing myself like that to watch them is how I handled part of it. But then there's the sheer overwhelming gaping hole of persondom in the center of your little universe, like a black hole sucked up Saturn, and now the orbits of the remaining planets are all wobbly. Everything has changed but the same stuff has to get done so we're sorting out the new distribution of responsibility.

As our little group got up to do our part of the eulogy, I was thinking-- another chance to step back and watch myself observing others-- that I guess this is official adulthood at this point. Once the generation before you is stripped away, you're it.

That's a little too much reality for me, so I'm filling in the gaps with binge TV viewing.

Observations on Elementary: A little flat this season, not sure why. Also not sure why they chose to give Mycroft and Sherlock a strained relationship since that's not canon. Yes, BBC's Sherlock has a strained relationship at the heart of the brothers, and it works gloriously because of the actors and the scripts, but in Elementary, it feels wrong and only paper deep. Part of my reluctance to embrace it is Sherlock's obsession over Joan's sex life. He's put himself in the role of her duenna but she's a grown up woman, so he should NOT be commenting on, much less trying to manage, her sexuality. Stepping in there between her and his brother is downright creepy and obsessive. Add to that how he refuses to accept her boundaries (putting a turtle on her bed still means you went into her room while she was sleeping and violated her space, dude!), poking her bedding with a stick to both scold her for the possibility of having a sexual partner and for giving into his brother's machinations (so Mycroft would have no interest in her otherwise? huh?), and also meddling with her desire to start dating again (do we see the pattern of control building here? Why is this not setting off alarms? Because we like Sherlock? Still not cool. Joan Watson, call him out on that shit!)

I hope the season gets better. The cases must, or they won't last long.

Oh! Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Now I'm officially bored by agent whats-his-face. Grant? Gary? Who cares? Even he doesn't believe his backstory. And the Wonder Twin scientists? Too. Damn. Perky. I'm tired of reading that you have to give JW time to develop his characters. The time is NOW before you get canceled. Also, stop hinting at an interesting premise as you did in the first episode then wiff on it. You're science fiction - so if you ask the question you have to explore it in detail. Maybe over a whole season. Okay? 

And while I'm at it, what's with the very yucky 'Murica! Fuck Yeah!' attitude toward the ignorant savages, POC,  military of a sovereign country taking possession of something found on THEIR soil? We can't trust them because their skin is browner than ours? Only white Americans can be trusted with great power? And their women are exotic lovers who will stab you in the back in a fiery passionate rage.   See, I'm white and I'm noticing this, so it's REALLY BAD.  REALLY, REALLY BAD. Oh, that's not the message you meant to send, writers? Well guess what?  And you tried rather pathetically to make it up with The Girl in the Flower Dress. (Let us take a moment here to enjoy that an adult female in charge of a scientific group is a GIRL, not a woman. Dear lord, writers, are you really that clueless about your gender issues?) Anyway (Yes) An-y-way... So the local S.H.I.E.L.D people in Hong Kong (see, we hire brown people!) Are on the case but thank goodness the 'Muricans arrive to show them how a real investigation is run. Because the locals are only here to babysit other brown people who have power but Can't Be Trusted to Use It Wisely.   Yeah, I'm tired of it. Hiring Ming-Na Wen to play dragon lady does not get you a 'get out of being called on our bullshit' free card. Okay? We expect more from you, writers. (Strangely enough, not from JW, who while still thumping his chest loudly and proudly about his feminism  is a spectacular fail at race *cough FIREFLY cough*)

It's Officially Autumn, and You Know What That Means!

Premiership games!

Okay, what it really means to most Americans is that the new television season starts on networks. Does anyone else remember the preview nights they used to run for the new and returning shows? Yeah. CBS tried that with the actors from We Are Men and it was embarrassingly horrible. Maybe with the advent of quality television (the Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones), I'm getting picky about my junk food viewing.

I can't bear to watch it, but is that Robin Williams show as painfully forced as it looks from the ads?

Elementary debuted in it's sophomore season last week. My (extremely cool) niece, who is big into maker world, robotics, and 3D printers was vastly disappointed by the incorrectly portrayal of 3D printer technology. Welcome to my world, Alicia. Now you know how I cringed at the Moriarty/Irene Adler story's nonsensical financial plot in season 1.

Through most of the sequence of Joan and Sherlock riding through London, the word 'travelogue' popped into mind, which is my mental shorthand for 'if I mapped out the sites shown in this montage, would I find out they traveled five ties further than necessary to get where they were going?' Don't feel bad, Elementary. I often wonder the same thing about BBC's Sherlock.

Overall, not an interesting mystery and a rather flimsy excuse for the second murder. Getting rid of the nail would have accomplished the same thing. And why couldn't the murderer hang the mask at the same height? Really sloppy 'believe it because we wrote it' from the writers.

Oh yeah, and Mycroft showed up. Couldn't care less. He added nothing to the story.

Jumping over to Agents of Shield, the debut and following week were a bit rough but once they get the hang of things it may be a good show. I saw comparisons between Torchwood and AoS, which isn't a criticism by a long shot. A group of humans dealing with alien advanced technology secretly to help the world deal with aliens superheroes works for me, except that there seems to be one more cast member than fits comfortably in these types of ensemble pieces. I'd give up the hardass agent dude. He's by far the least interesting, although the wonder twin scientists are a close second. I liked Ming-Na Wen's work. When she's on screen, she has my complete attention. She feels like someone in command of things. Chloe Bennet has the right light comedic touch and her role is by far the most developed. So I'll watch for the women and hope the male characters get more interesting fast, because they're starting waaaay behind the curve.   

I'm sorry, but I didn't get a chance to see Sleepy Hollow. If it's my typical pattern, I'll binge watch it next summer and decide then if it's worth a regular time slot.