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beer_good_foamyThoughts on some series I've been watching recently.
Agent Carter, season 2
Was it just me, or did it feel like the writers were just as surprised as everyone else that they actually got a season 2? There's great stuff here, to be sure; Mrs Jarvis, the various jabs at Hollywood ("A movie based on a comic book? Sounds like a dreadful idea!"), the continuing worrying at various gender/racial divides that weren't quite as glossed over as they are today... We arguably get a better villain this season for that very reason; Whitney Frost deciding she'd rather be a monster with agency than a woman without is a story we don't see often, and it really worked well. Especially with the Hollywood backdrop (including the bit where the Marvel narrative smacks Frost down easily, because in this story women don't get to do that) and that final scene.
At the same time, though, it felt like the central characters didn't fare quite as well. While both Peggy, Daniel and Thompson get a lot to do, and Dottie is a lot of creepy fun, the stakes seem lower; season 1 had a place in the MCU, it covered backstory that fit in. Season 2, even when it's very good, feels like it's treading water; nothing that happens in it will have an effect on the story at large. Which may be why Peggy's storyline leans so heavily on Choosing The Right Man, and Daniel's fiancée is introduced only to be suddenly written off. Don't get me wrong, I love to see her moving on from moping over Captain Cardboard, but... well...
(Also, I miss Angie. Or at least mention of her outside a quick cameo.)
Eh. It's still one of the best parts of the MCU, Hayley Atwell and Enver Gjokaj are awesome, I really like the period setting, and I'd much rather watch season 3 than any of the upcoming movies. But speaking of the MCU...
Agents of SHIELD, 3.11
That was... actually pretty good? I've never been a huge fan of the series, but since the end of s1 it's at least been solidly competent. The mid-season finale left me a bit conflicted; Yes, they finally killed off Ward, only to bring him back as a zombie. Does Brett Dalton have compromising pictures of Stan Lee or something? But I liked that this episode got to introduce a new inhuman - and, considering the history of the show, a non-American non-English-speaking woman of colour, at that - who wasn't either killed off, imprisoned, depowered or joined our heroes, but got to have her own valid story independent of SHIELD. I'm sure this, along with their new presidential seal of approval, will all play into the civil war thing and I'll end up hating it, but for now it at least feels like the show is playing fair. Also, I liked the bonding moments between Coulson & May and Fitz & Simmons. But speaking of civil wars...
The 100
I'm done, I'm out, I'm gone. The 100 was always an uneven show, but when it was good, it really delivered in a very Buffy-like way; unprepared people having to deal with more than they can deal with, with no obvious "right" solutions. The main problem this season has been that they've introduced not just one but two new storylines - an AI storyline copied from BSG, and a story in which a genocidal maniac takes over leadership - that feel much too forced, where characters make stupid decisions for no other reason but to serve a plot that doesn't work.
And then, they kill off one of the series' best characters, and the fandom rightly revolts. I completely sympathize with those who are furious that yet another gay character gets killed off, seemingly because they're gay. But adding even more to that: It's so badly written - Lexa's death seems to check every single box on the cliché list, and partly feels like an exact carbon copy of Tara's death on BtVS, except without even the payoff of getting to see Warren pay for it. If they wanted to kill her off, it's not like they lacked opportunity to do it in a way that would have served the character; instead, they take a character who had been fighting her entire life, who faced death on her own terms on a daily basis, and kill her in a stupid accident where she gets no say at all except to blithely declare that she's at peace before dying. (How about just once, a non-villainous character gets to be, I dunno, furious or terrified or sad at their own death?) This, of course, is because it's so obviously done to sell the audience on the other two storylines that don't work. They even have a character literally cut Lexa's corpse open to reduce her to a plot point in the AI storyline, for fuck's sake, and I'll bet any amount you want that Clarke will get on board with the City of Light thing just so she can meet Lexa again.
The 100 always had problems, and it was never nearly as brave and subversive as it liked to pretend, but that was the final straw for me. A show must be allowed to kill off characters, whatever their demographics, even if it hurts. But when you do it as a substitute for knowing how to write a convincing plot with recognizable characters, when you sacrifice the good parts of the story hoping to make the bad ones suck less, I reserve the right to jump ship. And speaking of being disgusted...
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, season 11
No show should ever run for 11 seasons. That said, the Gang still manage to wring humour from utterly despicable characters for another round. They've got their character dynamics down so well they can plop them into any plot - this season, including an 80s college comedy and a courtroom drama - and just let them wreak havoc on each other. The shtick is old and we know what's coming, but in a world where Full House gets rebooted, I'm glad IASIP exists to remind us that sitcoms were always just 22-minute slices of sociopathy.
Plus, y'know, if you're going to satirize Trump, do it right.
Oh well. Bring on Game of Thrones and Daredevil. (Has anyone written a Weredevil AU? I'd be disappointed with fandom otherwise.)
Agent Carter, season 2
Was it just me, or did it feel like the writers were just as surprised as everyone else that they actually got a season 2? There's great stuff here, to be sure; Mrs Jarvis, the various jabs at Hollywood ("A movie based on a comic book? Sounds like a dreadful idea!"), the continuing worrying at various gender/racial divides that weren't quite as glossed over as they are today... We arguably get a better villain this season for that very reason; Whitney Frost deciding she'd rather be a monster with agency than a woman without is a story we don't see often, and it really worked well. Especially with the Hollywood backdrop (including the bit where the Marvel narrative smacks Frost down easily, because in this story women don't get to do that) and that final scene.
At the same time, though, it felt like the central characters didn't fare quite as well. While both Peggy, Daniel and Thompson get a lot to do, and Dottie is a lot of creepy fun, the stakes seem lower; season 1 had a place in the MCU, it covered backstory that fit in. Season 2, even when it's very good, feels like it's treading water; nothing that happens in it will have an effect on the story at large. Which may be why Peggy's storyline leans so heavily on Choosing The Right Man, and Daniel's fiancée is introduced only to be suddenly written off. Don't get me wrong, I love to see her moving on from moping over Captain Cardboard, but... well...
(Also, I miss Angie. Or at least mention of her outside a quick cameo.)
Eh. It's still one of the best parts of the MCU, Hayley Atwell and Enver Gjokaj are awesome, I really like the period setting, and I'd much rather watch season 3 than any of the upcoming movies. But speaking of the MCU...
Agents of SHIELD, 3.11
That was... actually pretty good? I've never been a huge fan of the series, but since the end of s1 it's at least been solidly competent. The mid-season finale left me a bit conflicted; Yes, they finally killed off Ward, only to bring him back as a zombie. Does Brett Dalton have compromising pictures of Stan Lee or something? But I liked that this episode got to introduce a new inhuman - and, considering the history of the show, a non-American non-English-speaking woman of colour, at that - who wasn't either killed off, imprisoned, depowered or joined our heroes, but got to have her own valid story independent of SHIELD. I'm sure this, along with their new presidential seal of approval, will all play into the civil war thing and I'll end up hating it, but for now it at least feels like the show is playing fair. Also, I liked the bonding moments between Coulson & May and Fitz & Simmons. But speaking of civil wars...
The 100
I'm done, I'm out, I'm gone. The 100 was always an uneven show, but when it was good, it really delivered in a very Buffy-like way; unprepared people having to deal with more than they can deal with, with no obvious "right" solutions. The main problem this season has been that they've introduced not just one but two new storylines - an AI storyline copied from BSG, and a story in which a genocidal maniac takes over leadership - that feel much too forced, where characters make stupid decisions for no other reason but to serve a plot that doesn't work.
And then, they kill off one of the series' best characters, and the fandom rightly revolts. I completely sympathize with those who are furious that yet another gay character gets killed off, seemingly because they're gay. But adding even more to that: It's so badly written - Lexa's death seems to check every single box on the cliché list, and partly feels like an exact carbon copy of Tara's death on BtVS, except without even the payoff of getting to see Warren pay for it. If they wanted to kill her off, it's not like they lacked opportunity to do it in a way that would have served the character; instead, they take a character who had been fighting her entire life, who faced death on her own terms on a daily basis, and kill her in a stupid accident where she gets no say at all except to blithely declare that she's at peace before dying. (How about just once, a non-villainous character gets to be, I dunno, furious or terrified or sad at their own death?) This, of course, is because it's so obviously done to sell the audience on the other two storylines that don't work. They even have a character literally cut Lexa's corpse open to reduce her to a plot point in the AI storyline, for fuck's sake, and I'll bet any amount you want that Clarke will get on board with the City of Light thing just so she can meet Lexa again.
The 100 always had problems, and it was never nearly as brave and subversive as it liked to pretend, but that was the final straw for me. A show must be allowed to kill off characters, whatever their demographics, even if it hurts. But when you do it as a substitute for knowing how to write a convincing plot with recognizable characters, when you sacrifice the good parts of the story hoping to make the bad ones suck less, I reserve the right to jump ship. And speaking of being disgusted...
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, season 11
No show should ever run for 11 seasons. That said, the Gang still manage to wring humour from utterly despicable characters for another round. They've got their character dynamics down so well they can plop them into any plot - this season, including an 80s college comedy and a courtroom drama - and just let them wreak havoc on each other. The shtick is old and we know what's coming, but in a world where Full House gets rebooted, I'm glad IASIP exists to remind us that sitcoms were always just 22-minute slices of sociopathy.
Plus, y'know, if you're going to satirize Trump, do it right.
Oh well. Bring on Game of Thrones and Daredevil. (Has anyone written a Weredevil AU? I'd be disappointed with fandom otherwise.)
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no subject
Date: 2016-03-12 02:35 pm (UTC)I don't mind that Peggy had a romance storyline. Almost every protagonist gets a love interest; it's de rigeur in western media. What I like about Peggy's story is that Jarvis, her main partner in crime, is not that love interest. The two of them are a delight to watch, and their friendship is a refreshing change from the "will they/won't they" partner trope of shows like Moonlighting. Peggy's choice was refreshing in that both her suitors were good men who treated her with respect. You don't see that very often on TV.
Jarvis was hilarious this season, and I loved watching him and Peggy both roll their eyes at Howard and how ridiculous he is.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-12 03:12 pm (UTC)100% agreed. I didn't really mind the existence of a romance storyline at all, I just thought the love triangle felt a bit too telegraphed, with several characters commenting on it in-story. It was the part that felt the most "written". But yeah, it was handled a lot better than some other examples, and anything with Peggy and Jarvis interacting will always keep me watching.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-12 05:35 pm (UTC)I could really live without the whole "Hydra is a cthulhoid cult" storyline, but provided there is no chance of Ward being redeemed or ending up with Skye I'm just about OK with it.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-13 09:28 am (UTC)provided there is no chance of Ward being redeemed or ending up with Skye I'm just about OK with it
This episode seemed to establish that Ward is dead and gone and some other being has set up shop in his body. Of course, that rarely lasts in Whedon productions...
no subject
Date: 2016-03-12 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-03-13 09:24 am (UTC)I honestly don't know how representative the louder parts of fandom are, but I hope the show takes a big hit for this. It was just so incredibly tone-deaf. For all the issues that "Seeing Red" had, it at least acknowledged that both the characters and the fans were absolutely livid at what happened to Tara. That's a natural, valid reaction to loss. But The 100's writers doesn't even give us that, and they seem completely taken by surprise by the outcry. They were mining for tragedy, and they struck pure fury.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-13 09:57 am (UTC)(And Kitten Jihad is still a fabulous term.)
I honestly don't know how representative the louder parts of fandom are
Well, they've made their voices heard. They had a fundraising drive and raised $30,000. The ratings [for the next episode] were way down, the lowest all year, and there's stuff like this (which includes graphs showing that the showrunner's number of Twitter followers went off a cliff...) Oh and there's even a BBC article.
They were mining for tragedy, and they struck pure fury.
Best description I've heard so far.
no subject
Date: 2016-03-13 10:15 am (UTC)Absolutely. But at the very least they knew which emotion they were manipulating. They didn't expect fans to just go "Awww, that's sad."
The ratings [for the next episode] were way down... the showrunner's number of Twitter followers went off a cliff
Awesome. That's the sort of stuff they care about.
And the "We had to kill her off since the actress had been cast in another show" would have been a lot more convincing if they hadn't already written her out at the end of s2, and brought her back for this...
no subject
Date: 2016-03-15 10:17 pm (UTC)I did not know that. Wow.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-26 02:23 am (UTC)Fortunately, I figured out that Lexa was dead meat at the beginning of S3, so never really invested in the character that much. To be honest, I preferred the previous leader. And I had to keep restraining myself from telling people she was going to die and not to ship her. (Reminded me of S6 of Buffy, where I kept having to restrain myself from telling people that the writers were clearly planning on killing off Tara to turn Willow dark for a bit. Word to the wise? the most mature, together, cool character, in a relationship with a lead character -- and they are really happy, is going to die. Always. Unless you are in a hospital medical drama--- no wait, they do it there too, never mind.)
I respectfully disagree with you on how her death was portrayed and written from a story and thematic perspective.
Lexa's death works - if you view the series as anti-violence and about moral ambiguities. She is surrounded by violence, it permeates her world. And her advisor was clearly against Clarke, even hated Clark, and kept trying to get her to leave. That was built up well actually. And, we saw that he was secretly torturing Murphy. Lexa was turning a blind eye to her advisor to have Clarke, ignoring the fact that everyone around her hated Clarke. So desperate the advisor tries to kill Clark in a way that keeps him off the hook, even knowing that due to his role there's no way Lexa can kill him. But, he accidentally kills Lexa instead. It's tragic. It's stupid. But it's definitely real. That happens so often in reality.
He intended on killing Clark, and hit her instead. God the pain for all involved. And he wasn't clearly a villain like Warren Meirs, he was more complex than that. You can't just hate him. The writer's don't give you that.
So in some respects, her death felt more realistic, not satisfying, just unspeakably sad. And it shouldn't have been satisfying. We don't get to pick how we die. Death isn't like that. Great fighters seldom get to die fighting. They often trip and fall on their own sword. The Universe is a comedian.
So killing her this way is from an objective perspective? Brilliant. Leaving Clark and the audience with no one to hate or want vengeance on except the writers...or the comedic universe. It was an accident. But it was also the end result of various events that Lexa and Clark set into motion, with their behavior towards Lexa's advisors and people. They were in this bubble or so they thought.
Clark couldn't righteously hate the flame-keeper, who hated himself. And he couldn't righteously hate Clark any longer, who became the lesser of two evils. It's far more morally ambiguous than Tara's death in Buffy, and in that respect, in my view better written.
I'm not emotionally invested in the character or the relationship in any way. So from an objective angle?
I found it to be rather interesting and complex and well done. (I don't know what I've felt if I was emotionally invested in the character -- most likely outraged like you and other fans. I know I would have been if it had been say Spike on Buffy or ...maybe Clark here.)
It surprised me. Because I read your post several months prior to seeing the episodes and expected to hate it. I didn't. In some respects I think the 100 works better in a binge watch, then watching weekly. It flows better. And it also helps if I'm too invested in certain characters, which I think was true of Whedon's shows as well, in retrospect. And, watch it away from online fandom, which has a tendency to cloud my views. ;-)
I gave up on Agent Carter - didn't hold my interest. Lacked something from the previous season. I just no longer cared about the characters. An example of how you have to have some emotional investment in the characters to stick with them.
So..I guess the aim is for the happy medium? Not fannish, but not ambivalent to the point of not caring all that much? (shrugs)