I miss my telly
Jul. 16th, 2010 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI shouldn't be doing this, because I'm drowning in work, but I just have to take a mental break from the work and the people being wrong on the Internet. And I miss talking about TV.
So, new series I have checked out, let me tell you about them.
I went into this with the understanding that it was La Femme Nikita lite, which is to say, Alias, but I wasn't expecting it to actually be Alias lite. Since the guy who developed the Bourne trilogy was behind it, I expected a lot, and my expectations were unmet. It has the same cute geek guy + plucky beautiful heroine (blonde variety) + seasoned older man in charge who may or may not be evil + ball-busting immediate supervisor/partner (female variety) thing going on from LFN/Alias (at least Alias went with an African-American male on that one so it seemed less of a complete ripoff... sort of). They mixed it up a little, sure. But it still -- well, for a guy who loves spies, Lyman seems unable to tell reasonably true tales about what they do/can do. And it frustrates me. I think that if this were a show done for a really different audience (not the middlebrow audience USA shoots for these days, where everything's fairly sanitized) on some network that actually lets them swear and be in adult situations/show the effects of the job (violence, alchoholism, etc.), it might perk things up with a little more verisimilitude, but as it is, it's just a rehash of a rehash. And really, is there any female spy ever on film who couldn't "pass for a call-girl" as if that's some sort of actual qualification? Gah.
One of the things I loved about early season Burn Notice was how it showed the really awful effects of what Michael's chosen profession does to people. They still pick up on that from time to time (the season ender from last year, and Michael crying in front of his mom this year), and I think that's kind of important if you want audiences to care for these characters. I don't know if there's any way I can care for this character... crikey, I couldn't even remember her name until just now... Annie, and the cliches of the other characters are just irritating, but some of the actors are worth keeping an eye out for. I'm not sure I would ever recommend this to anyone, but as a summer mindless entertainment show, it could work.
I'll state up front that I hate Angie Harmon. Just haaaaate. So I went into this with a lot of trepidation. And I wanted this to pass the Bechdel test, but it failed with flying colors, so if you're wondering about that, I'll just state up front: there's an FBI guy in the pilot ep who is the subject of much flirtation and discussion, and the show also fails in a different, kind of weird way, in that the serial killer stalking Rizzoli is of course a guy they spend much time discussing, so nearly every conversation they have is related to these two men.
Still, there are at least a few conversations that don't center around guys, and some of them even involve pets, and I liked Isles a lot -- her fashion obsessions, the pets she keeps, the fact that even as a kid she wanted to dissect dead people. Rizzoli I'm a little more iffy on -- some of her crankiness doesn't seem the least bit motivated, and she's Angie Harmon with her Texas accent trying to sound not Texas but Boston, which... no. But she did, at least, get out of a deadly situation completely on her own, with no rescue from anyone else, and even though it was a cheesy setup, at least she did it on her own. I also like that she's aware of people's expectations of her as a slob and enjoys flouting them (the apartment thing was funny).
It suffers from a lot of tropes I really can't stand at this point -- the superhuman serial killer who can escape anything (seriously, it was tired within picoseconds of Silence of the Lambs, can't we retire this now?), the apprentice killer, the bad science, the quirky-person-who-hates-animals (really, WHY is this charming? They did it to Maddy this year on Burn Notice, making her hate cats, and I just... sorry, but it's not charming), the faux-feminism of having female cops and MEs as leads but whose world still revolves around men. If you're hoping for a modern-day Cagney & Lacey, you'll be vastly disappointed; it suffers from all the usual TV-network lack of understanding of how to make interesting female characters who actually reflect real-life women.
But I've never read the books, and I will probably keep watching at least for a few more episodes to see if they tone these problems down and focus more on character development that doesn't come as plot contrivances. I think it has more potential than Covert Affairs to be a good all around show, and not the least of which is that they can swear and do some more adult things that real grownups actually do. It's nowhere near what a good pay-cable show can do in terms of developing characters, but it's more of a start than some shows.
Now, here's a female-lead show that has some potential, although again, Syfy's sanitation division has robbed it of any actual real-world connective devices. And I'm very, very weary of the weird-happenings in small town with federal agent in the center of it (at least on Eureka it was a regular cop). And it's got my most hated Syfy problem -- everything filmed in Canada, so each scene, each location looks exactly like the one you saw on the other show you watched the other night -- how do you ever suspend disbelief when you're remembering each location? But it has a firm presence in Stephen King's story, and there's the mystery background, so there's at least some potential for development of a deeper emotional tale than the other two shows.
Of course we're immediately given a potential will-they or won't-they romance, which is tiresome in the extreme. One of the things I like about Warehouse 13 is that they've developed the friendship between Pete and Myka, and I hope this show might take a cue from them and spend some more time on developing relationships with everyone instead of trying to force us to care about potential attractions. I'm always nervous when I see Eric Balfour these days, since he seems to harbinge series death, but we'll see if the show lasts. Syfy isn't known for its female-centrism, and I think they often do a pretty damn bad job with female characters in general on their series, but every once in a while they surprise us with a great one, so there could be hope they've learned from sister channel USA and are putting some good people on the show staff.
It's a very grey, washed out color palette, which I don't like, and there's nothing visually distinctive about it (that filmed in Canada issue -- why are so many actual Canadian shows so gorgeous but the US-based filmed in Vancouver series look like crap?), but it could be that rare whimsical fantasy show with some depth of character and a strong female lead. Who knows?
I haven't seen Glades yet, but I'm going to try to catch up on at least the first few eps at some point... if I ever have TV time again.
So, new series I have checked out, let me tell you about them.
I went into this with the understanding that it was La Femme Nikita lite, which is to say, Alias, but I wasn't expecting it to actually be Alias lite. Since the guy who developed the Bourne trilogy was behind it, I expected a lot, and my expectations were unmet. It has the same cute geek guy + plucky beautiful heroine (blonde variety) + seasoned older man in charge who may or may not be evil + ball-busting immediate supervisor/partner (female variety) thing going on from LFN/Alias (at least Alias went with an African-American male on that one so it seemed less of a complete ripoff... sort of). They mixed it up a little, sure. But it still -- well, for a guy who loves spies, Lyman seems unable to tell reasonably true tales about what they do/can do. And it frustrates me. I think that if this were a show done for a really different audience (not the middlebrow audience USA shoots for these days, where everything's fairly sanitized) on some network that actually lets them swear and be in adult situations/show the effects of the job (violence, alchoholism, etc.), it might perk things up with a little more verisimilitude, but as it is, it's just a rehash of a rehash. And really, is there any female spy ever on film who couldn't "pass for a call-girl" as if that's some sort of actual qualification? Gah.
One of the things I loved about early season Burn Notice was how it showed the really awful effects of what Michael's chosen profession does to people. They still pick up on that from time to time (the season ender from last year, and Michael crying in front of his mom this year), and I think that's kind of important if you want audiences to care for these characters. I don't know if there's any way I can care for this character... crikey, I couldn't even remember her name until just now... Annie, and the cliches of the other characters are just irritating, but some of the actors are worth keeping an eye out for. I'm not sure I would ever recommend this to anyone, but as a summer mindless entertainment show, it could work.
I'll state up front that I hate Angie Harmon. Just haaaaate. So I went into this with a lot of trepidation. And I wanted this to pass the Bechdel test, but it failed with flying colors, so if you're wondering about that, I'll just state up front: there's an FBI guy in the pilot ep who is the subject of much flirtation and discussion, and the show also fails in a different, kind of weird way, in that the serial killer stalking Rizzoli is of course a guy they spend much time discussing, so nearly every conversation they have is related to these two men.
Still, there are at least a few conversations that don't center around guys, and some of them even involve pets, and I liked Isles a lot -- her fashion obsessions, the pets she keeps, the fact that even as a kid she wanted to dissect dead people. Rizzoli I'm a little more iffy on -- some of her crankiness doesn't seem the least bit motivated, and she's Angie Harmon with her Texas accent trying to sound not Texas but Boston, which... no. But she did, at least, get out of a deadly situation completely on her own, with no rescue from anyone else, and even though it was a cheesy setup, at least she did it on her own. I also like that she's aware of people's expectations of her as a slob and enjoys flouting them (the apartment thing was funny).
It suffers from a lot of tropes I really can't stand at this point -- the superhuman serial killer who can escape anything (seriously, it was tired within picoseconds of Silence of the Lambs, can't we retire this now?), the apprentice killer, the bad science, the quirky-person-who-hates-animals (really, WHY is this charming? They did it to Maddy this year on Burn Notice, making her hate cats, and I just... sorry, but it's not charming), the faux-feminism of having female cops and MEs as leads but whose world still revolves around men. If you're hoping for a modern-day Cagney & Lacey, you'll be vastly disappointed; it suffers from all the usual TV-network lack of understanding of how to make interesting female characters who actually reflect real-life women.
But I've never read the books, and I will probably keep watching at least for a few more episodes to see if they tone these problems down and focus more on character development that doesn't come as plot contrivances. I think it has more potential than Covert Affairs to be a good all around show, and not the least of which is that they can swear and do some more adult things that real grownups actually do. It's nowhere near what a good pay-cable show can do in terms of developing characters, but it's more of a start than some shows.
Now, here's a female-lead show that has some potential, although again, Syfy's sanitation division has robbed it of any actual real-world connective devices. And I'm very, very weary of the weird-happenings in small town with federal agent in the center of it (at least on Eureka it was a regular cop). And it's got my most hated Syfy problem -- everything filmed in Canada, so each scene, each location looks exactly like the one you saw on the other show you watched the other night -- how do you ever suspend disbelief when you're remembering each location? But it has a firm presence in Stephen King's story, and there's the mystery background, so there's at least some potential for development of a deeper emotional tale than the other two shows.
Of course we're immediately given a potential will-they or won't-they romance, which is tiresome in the extreme. One of the things I like about Warehouse 13 is that they've developed the friendship between Pete and Myka, and I hope this show might take a cue from them and spend some more time on developing relationships with everyone instead of trying to force us to care about potential attractions. I'm always nervous when I see Eric Balfour these days, since he seems to harbinge series death, but we'll see if the show lasts. Syfy isn't known for its female-centrism, and I think they often do a pretty damn bad job with female characters in general on their series, but every once in a while they surprise us with a great one, so there could be hope they've learned from sister channel USA and are putting some good people on the show staff.
It's a very grey, washed out color palette, which I don't like, and there's nothing visually distinctive about it (that filmed in Canada issue -- why are so many actual Canadian shows so gorgeous but the US-based filmed in Vancouver series look like crap?), but it could be that rare whimsical fantasy show with some depth of character and a strong female lead. Who knows?
I haven't seen Glades yet, but I'm going to try to catch up on at least the first few eps at some point... if I ever have TV time again.
