somniloquence

Spoilers for Alias, and for Miracles, Hand of God

I’m having so much fun with Alias and Miracles that I almost (hah! But not quite) don’t have anything to say about them – they’re just great little romps, full of very different kinds of psychological melodramas and action, but both really pacing along, keeping me glued to my TV.

On Alias, it’s been interesting watching Sloane, who I don’t generally care for, break out of the shell of cool, detached malevolence and into an angry, desperate guy who can’t decide which direction he’s going. And even more fascinating to watch Irina be the voice of reason, watch her move him along in the direction she wants him to go. This convinces me even more that it’s a triple-cross brewing, because she could easily wash her hands of Sloane, take pretty little Sarky with her, and blow the pop stand for something better. I think she’s working towards an end, and that’s also the reason Jack isn’t pursuing that end as hard as Sydney is.

I love the couplehood of Syd and Vaughn, especially because I think it’s heading towards thwartedness as stuff with Fake!Francie heats up. And Willage! My god, that poor guy, he just never sees it coming and gets himself into such hot water. I really want him to wise up – I know, it’s not like you expect your new girlfriend to be a robotic, emotionless spy assassin, but I hate seeing him perpetually put himself in the position of resident dunderhead and then suffer horribly for it later. I like him, he’s cute. Maybe Sark could wise him up to the ways of the world.

And finally, we got the episode of Miracles we’ve been promised for over a month, and lo! It was good! I really enjoyed this episode, although for god’s sake, Paul, the face! Watch the face! That guy is going to look like Frankenstein’s monster pretty soon for all the severe facial injury and head trauma he’s received in five episodes. Although how cool was it to see him beating the kid senseless? Paul, we didn’t know you had it in you!

What was especially enjoyable was the tension between Keel and Paul – it’s clear that the episodes are being aired all out of order, because we see a bit of this tension developed here in episodes that have already aired, but Paul’s twitchiness makes more sense after viewing this episode. The guy has some serious father issues, and Keel isn’t helping anything by withholding either information or ideas. Paul should feel like he can ask Keel to help him with the questions he seeks answers to, but Keel is keeping too much to himself and building mistrust. I’m not certain he sees that, either, and is blinded by his own ambitions and his own fear for Paul.

It was a lovely bit of slashiness between the two of them at the police station. The way Keel kept touching Paul, and then the look on his face when he said “It led me to you, Paul.” Yikes! Earnestness from Keel, what will we do? I also loved Paul’s sarcastic, “I can completely believe that” when Keel told him he had been deciphering bird languages at university. There’s a nice bit of that slashy dislike and tension going on there, although I’m still uncertain what I think about that. And there’s tension with Evvie; I don’t think she trusts Alva when it comes to Paul now, and so maybe there’s just a big box ‘o tension being loosed at SQ and none of it means anything more.

But I mean, how can you resist all the soulful eyes and the sad glances? Angus’s huge eyes, Skeeter’s big almond eyes, and the unhappiness just hiding there behind them is wonderful. Now that Paul’s seen this darkness inside himself, what’s he going to do? And is Keel really as frightened of Paul’s potential as he seems? (He did seem really disturbed during his argument with Evvie.) Oooo, I just can’t wait to find out. I also wonder about that last dream – Paul with his father and the fountain of blood. Who will be revealed as his father, and will Paul meet anyone else who’s had that dream and can tell him?

But Free the Hair, man! Skeeter is just so luscious, especially when he makes Skeet Face (which some wag on TwoP described as looking like he’s either going to cry or throw up), and I want them to get him out of those preppy clothes and the slicked-back hair. Let it hang fetchingly across his furrowed brow, and put him back in those t-shirts and jeans from the pilot, please! They’ve got Angus dressed in the nice turtlenecks and jaunty hats, now let Skeetmeister be properly dressed.

Comments about Alias -- spoilers!

I came back from vacation today to find my office all shambled out -- my computer unplugged from the network (which I didn't realize at first), about 15 error messages on the previously shut down monitor, the computer frozen, my keyboard and mouse unplugged, the CPU sitting in the middle of the floor where my feet go normally. And someone had readjusted my chair! I felt like frigging Evil Goldilocks had come by while I was gone, and now I forgot all the things I wanted to say about Alias from last night that I was going to write this morning before everyone arrived to see me goofing off.

Anyway. What else is there to say but that it rocked? Everything they're cribbing from La Femme Nikita is the good stuff these days. The double, triple, quadruple crosses, the insiders bickering, the duplicity and seduction, the lies and half-truths and missions being lost to petty infighting. Yummy! And the thwarting process for Syd and Vaughn has begun, with her already doubting him, and him holding back, Michael-like, with how he feels and what he knows and his own personal fears and failures, and it's all very Nikitaesquely tasty.

I especially love Lena Olin and have enjoyed her immensely on the show, all this time waiting to see if she was as evil as I figured she'd be, and last night's denouement made me deliriously happy to see that she was. I'm hopelessly heterosexual no matter how hard I want not to be; but man, if was bi, I'd want to be bi with Lena Olin (or Angela Bassett, but that's another story!). She is dangerous, sexy, predatory, cool, intelligent, mysterious... that character of Irina fits her to a T, and she plays it to the hilt. Victor Garber really helps her do it, too -- they have a lovely chemistry and their love scenes last night were delightful, especially because we so rarely get to see older actors having love scenes that are sexy and cool -- they were proof positive that you don't have to hide your eyes and scream "old people macking!"

Poor Jack! He's going to be dismembered for this failure. And poor Syd -- first to have her hopes confirmed by Vaughn that her mother is clean, and then to find out the truth! It's terribly tragic and wonderful. And most of all, poor Willage!! The guy cannot get a break -- now he's going to lose this job because he's giving out info to the enemy and he thinks he's just sleeping with his lover. And then he'll also have to find out his lover isn't his lover, and so all the positive steps in his life will be destroyed, the way his life was destroyed in season one. The guy is just doomed, and he's so cute and sweet -- even his nightmares show how cute and sweet he is that he has bad dreams he's failing the CIA.

I just love a show where everyone's fucked, and there's love and betrayal and sex and longing. At first Alias was annoying me by doing a bad imitation of LFN; now it's making me happy because it's taking those torturous elements and doing wonderful things with them. And they still throw in the butt-kicking and the psycho cruelties and the torture -- what's not to love? I knew once they got everyone into the CIA the fun stuff would start, and it has. Now we get to find out who helped Irina contact Sloane, how he knew what was going on, and see what fate awaits Jack. Whee!

And during Alias they advertised Miracles, saying there would be six weeks of all new episodes of it and the Practice. I have no trust in ABC for keeping their word about this (they yanked MDs when we'd been promised a few more eps), but if I could get six more eps, I'd be thrilled -- at least then I'd have enough to vid with. Damn, I love this show and am so looking forward to tonight's; but if they keep pre-empting it for crap like more Michael Jackson bullshit, it's got even less hope than I anticipated.