norwich36 | Happiness day 2

Well,

thefourthvine posted recs yesterday, and that meant I stayed up until two a.m. reading a really sweet Naruto story, of all things. (Have I seen one minute of the source text? No. She gave enough explanation in the rec to contextualize it, though).It made me very happy between midnight and two a.m., which counts as today, right? Though the sleep deprivation, not so much.

Also, someone brought in pizza around lunchtime, and free pizza is always happy making. (And cushions the stomach against the amount of caffeine I am imbibing to stay awake today).

Recent TV has sometimes been happy-making and sometimes merely puzzling. These are less formal reviews than they are emotional responses:

Sarah Connor Chronicles

My main response to the most recent SCC episode is to wonder why there isn't more Sarah Connor/John Winchester fic out there, because never have two people been more matched in their self-destructive obsessions. It doesn't particular bother me that Sarah is still going after the three dots--she can be pretty monomaniacal, and as I expected, that plot was actually going somewhere--but why the hell doesn't she at least let people know when she's deliberately walking into dangerous situations? *Headdesk*

I do think it was brilliant that she was looking for answers at a UFO convention and actually *found* some--because if there ever was a group that was disbelieved as much as Sarah herself was, it would be abductees. How fun that it turns out they are probably right about the abductions, though wrong about whoever is really doing it. (It almost felt like a 4400 homage: it's the *future* that's kidnapping you! Though is it future robots or future humans? I guess we have to wait until February to find out).

And I really liked Abraham--I was bummed out that she was killed. (I'd guessed the woman was Abraham, but not that Abraham was trans--that was a nice twist.) Seeing Sarah interact with information sources really demonstrates how scary and non-empathic she can be; I honestly can't figure out why Abraham told her anything.

I was less into the other plot, though I felt bad for Riley at the end. Jesse is not really good at supporting her troops, is she? I'm kind of surprised Riley didn't just tell John everything rather than trying to kill herself, though.

The only thing that interested me about Ellison's plotline was the AI asking if God made him, too.

Heroes

I swear, every other week this season I keep vowing to stop watching this show, and then some plotline sucks me back in. This week, all I have are questions, though: is it really Nathan that has gone all power-mad and "round up the mutants," or has his dad taken over his body? Did Peter regain all his old powers after the injection, or just flight? Is Sylar really dead? (And why the hell did they have to make him evil again? I was actually enjoying his redemption). Will the next chapter be worth watching, or should I just give up completely on this show? (Hint: if Nathan is supposed to really be Nathan going evil, I just don't know that I will keep watching).

Leverage

All I have for this show is TOTAL SQUEE. As

rsadelle said about yesterday's episode: CK's character used to be a stable boy? The porn, it WRITES ITSELF.

What I enjoy most about this show is the characters: Aldiss Hodge (Alec) makes an adorable tech geek, and Christian Kane (Eliot) either gets to beat someone up or ride a horse every week, and Beth Riesgraf (Parker) is adorably psychotic ("I once saw a horse kill a clown"), and I am completely in love with Gina Belman (Sophie)'s many, many versions of the femme fatale, and Timothy Hutton (Nate)is the glue that holds everything together.

This show is just sheer enjoyment on every level. It combines the best of Robin Hood with the best of Ocean's 11 (and I'm a complete sucker for a good caper story), and there was never a better cultural for "help the little guy get revenge on greedy corporate sharks," was there? YOU SHOULD ALL BE WATCHING THIS SHOW.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hmm. I think I need to watch Sarah Connor again before I can have a real response, but I think I had the opposite reaction that you did: I wasn't that into Sarah's plot, and I was really into John's plot and seriously irked that Riley's suicide/suicide attempt was halfway through and they didn't come back to that storyline in the episode. My two things I said out loud were: "Oooh! Riley flashback to the future!" and "Whoa. Didn't see that coming," at her slitting her wrists. It's kind of a brilliant tactical move (although she maybe wasn't thinking of it that way): If she lives, she wins because John will be completely focused on her and not listen to Cameron. If she dies, she still wins because John will still be focused on her and not listen to Cameron, and possibly even blame Cameron. I really want everyone to show up at the hospital or the cemetery (depending on which way it goes) and that to be the way they find out. I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed that the Riley/Jesse vibe was waaaaay toned down in the episode from what was in the preview (which is a good example of what you can do with editing, because it's not like there was anything in the preview that wasn't in the ep), and I kind of wanted more from the Riley-Cameron showdown. Someone in the community I read said, "Cameron's choices of tattoos are interesting. One is a solitary predator the other is a social group predator. And she hasn't decided. It's like her subtle way of saying something." Which I hadn't noticed, but which is cool.

I also didn't like this episode of Leverage as much as I liked the previous two. Only now that I'm writing this do I think maybe I shouldn't watch TV while PMSing. I was also cooking while watching, so it might be the kind of show I like better if I just watch straight through without doing anything else. It might be because I knew it was coming, but I thought Chris's song was sort of shoehorned in for the cross-promotion rather than used because it was appropriate for the scene. It's not a goodbye song, and knowing that made it not work for me to play over the goodbye scene. (Also, they cut it just before it swings into a more energetic/upbeat part, which left me hanging.)

Well, I'm not surprised you were more into the Riley-Cameron stuff, since that's what you were looking forward to in the episode. But since I'm not really any kind of shipper in this fandom, the Riley-Cameron-John triangle doesn't do a lot for me. I guess I hadn't thought about John blaming Cameron for what Riley did, but you're right--it's very good strategy.

I thought that was a Chris song at the end of Leverage, but I didn't know going in there was going to be one so I wasn't disappointed with how they did it. I'm not sure I liked last night's ep as much as the one before, *except* that I was completely charmed by Sophie's southern belle act, and I like the idea that they now have a nemesis, since it'll make things more interesting.

It was weird for the story structure, too, because they kept shifting storylines, and then they stopped including that one.

I rewatched it today, and remembered something that I meant to say before: This is a huge turning point episode because this incarnation of Sarah doesn't kill humans - and now she has.

Sophie did a great southern belle. I'm not sure I like it that they have a nemesis. I liked them just as a group pulling heists. I'm not sure I like the idea of them pulling heists and outwitting a nemesis.

Oh, good point about Sarah killing. (Though I actually thought that the guard was metal--I suspect Sarah did too, at first, once he came after her with the gun. Does that still count?)

Apparently the nemesis wasn't supposed to be introduced for a while, but TNT swapped the airing of the eps.

He didn't have the metal music, though, and if he was metal, just shooting him the way she did wouldn't kill him. I think she just saw herself out of options. I think it's interesting that in the first episode of the season, John first kills someone, and now for the "fall finale," Sarah first kills someone. I wonder if it will make her think she understands John better.

Hmmm. I don't know if I would like it better if he came in later. (I still need to rewatch.)

I love Leverage, for purely shallow reasons. Two shallow reasons. *g*

Hee! That's a perfectly good reason to like a show.

Random thing that just occurred to me about Sarah Connor this week: They're in a rental. He can't tear out the wallpaper and paint!

Sure he can! Do you think the Connors are seriously worried about getting their security deposit back?

Hmmm. Maybe not. But, still, all this time and they haven't so much as moved a knick knack, and suddenly John's painting? What will Kacy think? (Also, shouldn't Kacy be having her baby pretty soon?)

I have been wondering about Kacy and her baby. I also wondered how long they're supposed to have been there at this point, because of that episode a couple eps back where they flashed back 6 months. I hadn't even realized they had been in the future for 6 months!

I wondered during that episode too! She was fairly pregnant when they moved in. I don't think they showed any of the Reese-Connor family at home during the six months ago flashbacks, so they could have been at the old house then. Maybe. If they were at the new house, though, then it makes no sense because Kacy would have had her baby in fewer than six months after they moved in. Actually, Kacy probably should have had her baby already. (I would love for Cameron to be there for it, and not understand this mysterious, crazy, messy human thing, but be fascinated.)

Leverage is the new love!

Also, TSCC: The show has been so awesome as of late, as if they are trying to get their jollies out before they are cancelled. I like that it is weird, and lots goes unexplained, and that there really isn't any good guys and that Sarah and crew might be actually actively creating the future they are trying to fight (The Grays, the hovers, Ellison bringing god into the discussion with John Henry...) Love it all.

Yeah, they're so much more intelligent about the time travel stuff than Heroes has been. Though I have to say, in the ep where Cameron tracked down the Terminator from the 1920s, I wondered why the machines don't just go back to an era before humans had the tech to fight them and wipe them out, or something. (Or at the very least, kill Sarah Connor's parents before she is born.)

Yeah, you're right, but I've wanked it something like this: Maybe there are limits of how far you can travel, or maybe the terminators have incomplete knowledge of things, like Sarah's parents and stuff, or maybe the terminators have a weird honor code/ preferance for efficiency, and thus stick to Sarah and John and their future, rather than solve "the problem" in the past.

Happiness day 2

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