30 January 2007 @ 01:47 pm
Recent TV Adventures  
Lost, Heroes, QaF, Battlestar Galactica, Dresden Files, and Torchwood

I've finally picked up Lost on DVD since plenty of people I know and respect say it's a cool show. I've made it through the first season and am starting on the next. Does it make me less female that all the emo backstory for each of the characters just annoys me? Maybe I wouldn't hate it so much if it weren't specifically designed to stop the forward momentum of the story? No, actually, it's that I have little patience for people making the same stupid mistakes over and over and over and... Besides, the mystery of what's up with the island is far more interesting. Better storytelling would bring that forward without the need for jarring flashbacks meant to stop the action on a cliffhanger.

Speaking of annoying emo, next week looks to be a good time to sit down and finally watch Season 5 of QaF since Joe'll be out of town. Well, to fast forward through large chunks that I know will annoy me. I've seen large parts of the last 1/2 of the season but I haven't seen the first half. Actually, I'm having a hard time working up any enthusiasm for watching it because I know where it's headed. :|

I've been catching up on Heroes; I'm enjoying that quite a bit. I think it's probably because a show like that really does have to map out what's going to happen in future episodes and build its way there. I loved Bab5 for that very reason. I love complex story lines and I want what happens in episode 5 to have an effect on what happens in episode 15 and episode 105. The characters are wonderful and seeing Christopher Ecclestein AND George Takei last night was nice. The promise of their being in another few eps at least have me very happy. :)

Finished Torchwood, in which I'm enjoying John Barrowman. Can't say at this point that I like any of the other characters. I fear they've fallen from flawed humans into irretrievably stupid and gullible -- and rather callous towards others. I hope there's some feedback to the writers on this because Owen in particular is repulsive at this point. Gwen, around whom so much of the show revolves, really isn't winning any points with me. I know they can write some good stuff - the penultimate episode was wonderful not only for the Harkness Snogging Harkness bits but the team stuff. Jack and Tosh were wonderful and even the Ianto / Owen scenes were good as they argued over what Jack would want them to do, what was the right thing, yadda. Then, of course, they buggered it up in the very next episode. *sigh*

Dresden Files -- I've only seen the pilot but I gotta say it didn't grab me. I'm very disappointed because this is one show I've been eagerly awaiting since I saw the first promo months ago. It felt as if it should be longer so that I could meet the characters more and get a little more feel for them. Why is the cop calling him to help if she isn't aware of his powers, for instance? I meant to watch it again this week but forgot it was on, even though it was right before BSG. That's really not a good sign. :(

Battlestar Galactica is starting to lose me. I don't really like what they're doing with Baltar, Starbuck, or Apollo. Again, it's going all emo and weepy on me and I can't say that I have much patience for it. The apparent exit of Lucy Lawless removes one of the things I was enjoying in the series. BSG really needs a multi-year story plan; without one it's wandering the same way the survivors theoretically are, all over known space.

I quite enjoyed the "what makes humans worth saving" philosophical questions. I quite enjoyed the military/civilian tensions. I love trying to figure out what the hell the Cyclons are about. The artificial sexual tension between Starbuck and Apollo would have worked for me if they didn't each decide to marry someone else but they did and really? That makes this all seem like an exercise to up the ratings via sex and throwing pretty people at each other. It all just leaves me completely turned off. Again, I think the tragic emo-ness of it all is meant to appeal to women but I just find it tedious and off-putting.

Also? The move from Friday to Sunday really doesn't work for me. Friday was all about kicking back, relaxing, and being irresponsible while Sunday is a lead-in to another week of responsibility. Maybe I'll record it and just wait until Friday to watch it. :)


I've decided to wait to watch SG-1 until the freezing over of hell whenever SciFi decides to air it. April? May? November? I guess I'm putting off the inevitable end of SG-1, which is really rather silly since it's not as if I've been a happy fan of the new stuff. But there it is. It's an old friend and a fandom where I've met a lot of good people so I'm reticent to rush to its conclusion.
 
 
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Mish: Rodney -- St. Rodney of Atlantis[identity profile] hsapiens.livejournal.com on January 31st, 2007 11:43 pm (UTC)
Now that you mention it, I think she does have violet eyes. :) Someone should totally make a sparkly Gwen icon and color her eyes violet.

I would never hold the series against the books - and for now, I can't even hold it against the writers because Sci FI is yet again screwing something up. :(

Forums tended, for me, to become too isolationist; a sort of echo chamber. I can find intelligent people who disagree with me on LJ and friend them personally. I like that aspect because I'm perfectly happy to debate, discuss, and even bicker a bit but I prefer to do it on my own terms. Forums are invariably owned by someone else (because there is no way I'm willing to mod one of those behemoths) and it inevitably comes down to being their show. There's nothing wrong with that but somehow or another I ended up dissatisfied. So...LJ solved my problems.

So I guess the pendulum has swung so that it is no longer SGA getting all of the creative energy and SG-1 getting stuck as the red-headed step-child run by Mallozzi. That sucks for SGA; I am very sorry for those fans. I'm so glad they never managed to interest me in SGA. For now, I'm happy-ish with Heroes and my collections of DVDs.
nialla: SGA - McKay[personal profile] nialla on February 1st, 2007 07:29 pm (UTC)
I think LJ is a little more "one to one" than forums. Forums do tend to gravitate towards one end of a spectrum, and I greatly appreciate those who have both "free for all" threads as well as protected ones for various POVs. But in LJ I find myself freer to discuss with who I want, when I want, and like you say, people I'd probably not meet up with in forums who have differing opinions than mine seem more open to discussion in LJ. I think maybe it takes away some of the "hive mind" mentality some lists and forums sometimes have.

For whatever reason Wright and Cooper seem fixated with making a movie, any movie, even straight to DVD ones. I guess they think it's going to improve their resume or something, possibly helping them to get future movie deals. SG-1 is just the only way they could get their foot in the door, so I don't really think it's going to be taking all their creative energy, since they haven't really done all that much creative on either show in recent years. SG-1 is just a means to an end now, with the end having nothing to do with Stargate, but the furtherance of careers.

The only reason I watch SGA is David Hewlett, and it sounds like he's going to have a lot of other projects in the works soon, so if I do ditch the show, I'll still be able to show my support for him elsewhere.