Happiness day 2

[norwich36]

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.

Comments

[rsadelle]

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.)

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

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

[rsadelle]

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!

[random-serious.livejournal.com]

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.