Miraculous crap
Mar. 11th, 2003 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSpoilers for Miracles ep The Bone Scatterer
I am not good at pimping shows. I can't stand hearing that people think something I love is crap, so I avoid trying to sell people, most of the time. I've pimped Miracles though to a few people and they loved it, so when someone asked if we could watch the ep that was on L's TiVo at a gathering this weekend, and then I could explain who everyone was and give them the backstory, I blurted "No!" and then, "well, I mean, why?" but relented, and we started watching Little Miss Lost from last week. A couple people seemed to really like it, but last night I just cringed through the entire ep, realizing that they would tune in and see this big pile of crap and not only wonder what I was smoking, but also laugh mockingly at me. Sigh.
This ep reminded me way too much of XF -- first we got this wonderful stuff that lured us into the show, like Deep Throat and Darkness Falls, and then when people started pimping it to their friends, we were graced with shit like Space and Ghost in the Machine. People tuning into Miracles last night must have been going, WTF? There was definitely some of the cute Alva/Paul interaction, and Alva was delightfully weird (I want to know where he got that Star Trek comm device that allows him to speak any language, any time, anywhere), but the cliches were so painful I had to take a Tylenol3 afterwards.
First was the whole kid calls the Miracles Inc. hotline, and they figure out where he is. Then when they get there, Evvie spouts some craptacular line about showing people life goes on, and the sheriff's all over her like a rash, and surmises instantly that she used to be a cop. No one asks questions about why these freaks, good-looking though they are, are wandering around schools and libraries and cruising underage youths. (I did really enjoy the dad insinuating that Paul's interest in his son was unhealthy. Heee!) Then of course Sheriff Dad turns out to be The Great Santini; and of course so does the multifunctional wrestling coach, and pretty much all the men in the town. Gah.
I worry about Paul and his tendency to focus so strongly on children, especially boys, and with that soulfull gaze and all, he's going to get into deep trouble one of these days. And he was raised by priests, so this could be a problem. Hopefully Alva will keep him on the straight and narrow, and keep flirting with him in order to refocus poor Paul. My favorite part of the ep, though, was Indian Gaydar, when the (incredibly good looking) guy in the bar suggested Alva head on out of town to meet people like him at the Rainbow Bar. I howled. Especially because Alva seems to get gayer all the time, even though they're not showing the eps in order at all.
The story overall left me really cold, I think mostly because of the reliance on hackneyed plot points and trite dialog. Honestly, the kid's breakdown in the cabin should have been sad and heartbreaking; instead I felt like I could diagram the dialog before it was spouted, it was such a collection of cliches. You could tell everything that would happen before it happened, and the twin thing just felt ridiculous -- al of this to the point where I wasn't able to be horrified by the final death with Sheriff Santini, even a little. It drives me nuts when stories make someone so over the top evil and obviously Bad that you can't care even a little when that person is brutally killed right before your eyes. The pacing was glacial in this episode, too, and I think that's a mistake when you're trying to lure viewers -- or maybe they never were trying to lure at ABC, but I imagine Greenwalt would like to. They need to step things up a bit, and hopefully next week will deliver.
And Skeeter's hair was too slicked back, too much. I am hereby starting a fan campaign called Free the Hair -- we want it unfettered and falling fetchingly over the eyes and temples, as in the ABC promo they air where Skeeter and Angus circle around each other slashily. Such great hair wasted with gel and a comb. Although, it didn't stop me from wishing he could keep watch over me at night.
Veritas
What a delight to see Carlo Rota (Mick Schtoppel/Mr. Jones on La Femme Nikita) at work again. I've missed him terribly. He's always so enjoyably hammy and jokey, plus he looks awfully smashing in a big fur-collared Joan Crawford coat, and you can't say that about many men.
The show is still doofusy beyond belief, but who cares when Vincent and Solomon are giving each other arch looks and come-hither glances. When Vincent told Sol he was making a mistake, I half expected him to finish up with, "and now come here and give us a kiss."
The one tactical error I thought they made was having Vincent appear to go bad so early in the show. But since this is also being shown terribly out of order, it may be that this ep falls later in the storyline, so the audience would know enough about Vincent to care and follow the story. As it was, since we know virtually nothing about him and the crew only three eps in, it's hard to emotionally connect to the betrayal storyline. But ah crap, who cares? Arnold is just so fun with the Vulcan death grip and the super zen cool line readings.
Now if Solomon would just give him a kiss.
I am not good at pimping shows. I can't stand hearing that people think something I love is crap, so I avoid trying to sell people, most of the time. I've pimped Miracles though to a few people and they loved it, so when someone asked if we could watch the ep that was on L's TiVo at a gathering this weekend, and then I could explain who everyone was and give them the backstory, I blurted "No!" and then, "well, I mean, why?" but relented, and we started watching Little Miss Lost from last week. A couple people seemed to really like it, but last night I just cringed through the entire ep, realizing that they would tune in and see this big pile of crap and not only wonder what I was smoking, but also laugh mockingly at me. Sigh.
This ep reminded me way too much of XF -- first we got this wonderful stuff that lured us into the show, like Deep Throat and Darkness Falls, and then when people started pimping it to their friends, we were graced with shit like Space and Ghost in the Machine. People tuning into Miracles last night must have been going, WTF? There was definitely some of the cute Alva/Paul interaction, and Alva was delightfully weird (I want to know where he got that Star Trek comm device that allows him to speak any language, any time, anywhere), but the cliches were so painful I had to take a Tylenol3 afterwards.
First was the whole kid calls the Miracles Inc. hotline, and they figure out where he is. Then when they get there, Evvie spouts some craptacular line about showing people life goes on, and the sheriff's all over her like a rash, and surmises instantly that she used to be a cop. No one asks questions about why these freaks, good-looking though they are, are wandering around schools and libraries and cruising underage youths. (I did really enjoy the dad insinuating that Paul's interest in his son was unhealthy. Heee!) Then of course Sheriff Dad turns out to be The Great Santini; and of course so does the multifunctional wrestling coach, and pretty much all the men in the town. Gah.
I worry about Paul and his tendency to focus so strongly on children, especially boys, and with that soulfull gaze and all, he's going to get into deep trouble one of these days. And he was raised by priests, so this could be a problem. Hopefully Alva will keep him on the straight and narrow, and keep flirting with him in order to refocus poor Paul. My favorite part of the ep, though, was Indian Gaydar, when the (incredibly good looking) guy in the bar suggested Alva head on out of town to meet people like him at the Rainbow Bar. I howled. Especially because Alva seems to get gayer all the time, even though they're not showing the eps in order at all.
The story overall left me really cold, I think mostly because of the reliance on hackneyed plot points and trite dialog. Honestly, the kid's breakdown in the cabin should have been sad and heartbreaking; instead I felt like I could diagram the dialog before it was spouted, it was such a collection of cliches. You could tell everything that would happen before it happened, and the twin thing just felt ridiculous -- al of this to the point where I wasn't able to be horrified by the final death with Sheriff Santini, even a little. It drives me nuts when stories make someone so over the top evil and obviously Bad that you can't care even a little when that person is brutally killed right before your eyes. The pacing was glacial in this episode, too, and I think that's a mistake when you're trying to lure viewers -- or maybe they never were trying to lure at ABC, but I imagine Greenwalt would like to. They need to step things up a bit, and hopefully next week will deliver.
And Skeeter's hair was too slicked back, too much. I am hereby starting a fan campaign called Free the Hair -- we want it unfettered and falling fetchingly over the eyes and temples, as in the ABC promo they air where Skeeter and Angus circle around each other slashily. Such great hair wasted with gel and a comb. Although, it didn't stop me from wishing he could keep watch over me at night.
Veritas
What a delight to see Carlo Rota (Mick Schtoppel/Mr. Jones on La Femme Nikita) at work again. I've missed him terribly. He's always so enjoyably hammy and jokey, plus he looks awfully smashing in a big fur-collared Joan Crawford coat, and you can't say that about many men.
The show is still doofusy beyond belief, but who cares when Vincent and Solomon are giving each other arch looks and come-hither glances. When Vincent told Sol he was making a mistake, I half expected him to finish up with, "and now come here and give us a kiss."
The one tactical error I thought they made was having Vincent appear to go bad so early in the show. But since this is also being shown terribly out of order, it may be that this ep falls later in the storyline, so the audience would know enough about Vincent to care and follow the story. As it was, since we know virtually nothing about him and the crew only three eps in, it's hard to emotionally connect to the betrayal storyline. But ah crap, who cares? Arnold is just so fun with the Vulcan death grip and the super zen cool line readings.
Now if Solomon would just give him a kiss.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-11 11:49 am (UTC)Best. Song. Ever! I want to vid to it so badly... the evolution of Buffy and Spike.. (not relationshippy, just character wise) about how they pick up and go on no matter what... so good. I love love LOVE that song.
That's about all I got out of your post, since I've never seen Miracles. But still... I like when someone listens to good music. GOOD. Love that song. I want to marry it.
I'm such a dork.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-11 12:04 pm (UTC)Yeah.
After the teaser, I turned to him and said, "Well, it was all those things last week. I don't know what's going on with it this week." And we took off. *sigh*
He did promise me he would keep an eye out for it, though, because he was intrigued by the concepts. Last night's ep was just not worth sitting in front of the TV for an hour, when he had places to be and things to do.