Random opinions on SGA season two
Mar. 11th, 2024 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereThis got long, so I'll cut.
One thing these writers do adorably well is mini disaster movies. Someone gets stuck (underwater, in the caldera of a supervolcano, in a time compression pocket, whatever) and the rest of the runtime is desperate attempts at rescue. I find these episodes delightful. 'Grace Under Pressure' was a particular favorite this season. Fabulous acting from David Hewlett in that one, even though on average I feel like his character became more static this season compared to last.
In fact, I'm not sure I can identify a character arc for anyone where they end up in an astonishingly different place emotionally to where they began the season. The stakes are high, the mistakes catastrophic (McKay blows up a solar system), and the moral quandaries are vast and complex, but there's very little sense of follow through. McKay spends an episode being abnormally subdued after his debacle, but the whole concept of his having to earn back trust is forgotten because he's the go-to scientist - later, his mistake is only brought up by Sheppard to score cheap points. Weir crosses a desperate line and agrees to torture a man she personally dislikes for information, the bullet is dodged by sheer convenience, she finds out she was wrong about the culprit - and then she gets like two lines of dialogue being introspective about the choice she made before credits roll and it is not brought up again.
Likewise, Carson has a Hippocratic Oath to defend, even as he engages in dubious experiments on unwilling alien test subjects, and finally in the last episode of the season he brings up his doubts about using his retrovirus as a weapon of death when he wanted it to be for deliverance (which is also a huge philosophical question that is brought up and dropped).
What makes this frustrating to me is that the show has remarkably good continuity regarding the worldbuilding - the scientific and tech discoveries are never just thrown into the void, and the planets they visit get referred to later on and successful strategies are brought back into play wherever possible. It all builds on the existing rules - but it's all external. Where are the personal conflicts and growth? Why must every problem be solved mechanically, with violence or scientific retrofitting? Why can't Weir save the day by brokering a peace treaty or Ronon by rising above his life strategy of "if it's a problem, kill it?"
Just a thought.
So maybe it doesn't exactly register as a full meal in my mind. Tasty, though! To wit:
'The Long Goodbye,' which changed tactics by letting the wacky situation of the week wallop Weir as well as Sheppard, and for allowing Teyla to solve the problem using crafty psychology. Any and all points where Weir got to step up and use her negotiator skills were appreciated and I was partial to the political strife in 'Coup D'etat' (I was rather fond of Ladon by the end and hope he reappears).
'Epiphany,' which I adored for the time flow hijinks, the way the monster of the week was solved by encouraging people to rise above their fear and the appearance of Jeremiah's adorable harmonica girl (Nicole Munoz) among the townspeople (still being adorable under much happier circumstances). This brings the total Jeremiah actors I've spotted so far to four - the others being Chris Heyerdahl, Jessica Amlee (Rose!) and Kavan Smith (smug snake Vincent, here in a recurring heroic role as Major Evan Lorne, who fills in for Sheppard when Sheppard is off Shepparding).
When they actually indulge in character details, they usually work really nicely. The ending of 'Trinity,' with Sheppard relating some actual war experience of pilots refusing to bail out of planes and dying because of it while he's trying to convince McKay to run for his life was effective. Also, the entirety of McKay's panicked monologue in 'Grace Under Pressure' was brilliantly realized and I wish he talked to imaginary colleagues more often.
I kind of object to the Cadman plotline, with her overriding McKay's bodily autonomy and then his subsequent discomfort around her being treated as a joke, as though he were being unreasonable and should just get over being physically hijacked. On the other hand, he didn't just get over it, so I'm counting that as a win for emotional consequences. Still, sci-fi and fantasy run into this problem of not thinking through the parallels being made by their autonomy-robbing spells and gadgets with some frequency (especially if the issue is further confused by the perpetrator not being male). For all its elaborate character arcs, that is something Buffy did not do any better than this show. Worse, actually. Anyway...
Adding a little nuance to the Wraith was a relief, as I no longer have to sigh wearily and wait for the bad movie villain dialogue to cease when they're around. And then there's 'Michael.' Create Your Own Villain: The Gold Star Edition. Loads of fun to watch, this is where the story finally dove feet-first into all the delicious potential of their misuse and abuse of medical ethics threading the season, and the way the heroes have from the start created their biggest problems and then claim desperate times need desperate measures, and thus create more problems. I had a lot of sympathy for Michael Kenmore, and shipped him and Teyla for a hot minute. It sank with unusual speed even for me, as his reversion to Wraith form killed the appeal. Human/alien isn't my thing.
Making concepts of alien hybrids into a big recurring theme made me wish Ford had worked out, because I kept thinking how interesting his perspective on things like Sheppard getting turned into a Wraith bug or on the Michael experiment would have been. Sadly not to be. Ford got written out in a way which was... a mixed bag. I was fond of him both pre and post junkie transformation. I liked the way the writers leaned into the whole "no body, not dead" aspect of television, but would it have been so hard for them to allow Ford an actual good plan of action - or at least a classic heroic sacrifice? I kept waiting for him to provide the key for Sheppard's survival, to snap out of his madness and die as himself. It didn't happen and this was a two-parter. It should have been Ford's grand farewell. It wasn't. Of all the times to avoid the cliches, this was not it.
Speaking of cliches to avoid, 'The Tower' was bottom of the bin drivel. Medieval peasants ruled by French aristocrats with Revolution trappings and (just to round out the schizophrenic look) diet Nazi police squads who threaten whippings and rapings of the peasants. All ruled over by an evil bald white vizier. Every line was a cliche. Total crap, and I do not say that very often. McKay, trapped in another mini-disaster movie, was the bright spot due to his isolation from every headdesk moment, but given this followed directly on the heels of 'Grace Under Pressure' it was not really helping.
Still, that was the low point, leaving 19 solidly entertaining episodes, which is damn impressive. Onwards to season three! Hopefully I'll make a bit better time on that one...
One thing these writers do adorably well is mini disaster movies. Someone gets stuck (underwater, in the caldera of a supervolcano, in a time compression pocket, whatever) and the rest of the runtime is desperate attempts at rescue. I find these episodes delightful. 'Grace Under Pressure' was a particular favorite this season. Fabulous acting from David Hewlett in that one, even though on average I feel like his character became more static this season compared to last.
In fact, I'm not sure I can identify a character arc for anyone where they end up in an astonishingly different place emotionally to where they began the season. The stakes are high, the mistakes catastrophic (McKay blows up a solar system), and the moral quandaries are vast and complex, but there's very little sense of follow through. McKay spends an episode being abnormally subdued after his debacle, but the whole concept of his having to earn back trust is forgotten because he's the go-to scientist - later, his mistake is only brought up by Sheppard to score cheap points. Weir crosses a desperate line and agrees to torture a man she personally dislikes for information, the bullet is dodged by sheer convenience, she finds out she was wrong about the culprit - and then she gets like two lines of dialogue being introspective about the choice she made before credits roll and it is not brought up again.
Likewise, Carson has a Hippocratic Oath to defend, even as he engages in dubious experiments on unwilling alien test subjects, and finally in the last episode of the season he brings up his doubts about using his retrovirus as a weapon of death when he wanted it to be for deliverance (which is also a huge philosophical question that is brought up and dropped).
What makes this frustrating to me is that the show has remarkably good continuity regarding the worldbuilding - the scientific and tech discoveries are never just thrown into the void, and the planets they visit get referred to later on and successful strategies are brought back into play wherever possible. It all builds on the existing rules - but it's all external. Where are the personal conflicts and growth? Why must every problem be solved mechanically, with violence or scientific retrofitting? Why can't Weir save the day by brokering a peace treaty or Ronon by rising above his life strategy of "if it's a problem, kill it?"
Just a thought.
So maybe it doesn't exactly register as a full meal in my mind. Tasty, though! To wit:
'The Long Goodbye,' which changed tactics by letting the wacky situation of the week wallop Weir as well as Sheppard, and for allowing Teyla to solve the problem using crafty psychology. Any and all points where Weir got to step up and use her negotiator skills were appreciated and I was partial to the political strife in 'Coup D'etat' (I was rather fond of Ladon by the end and hope he reappears).
'Epiphany,' which I adored for the time flow hijinks, the way the monster of the week was solved by encouraging people to rise above their fear and the appearance of Jeremiah's adorable harmonica girl (Nicole Munoz) among the townspeople (still being adorable under much happier circumstances). This brings the total Jeremiah actors I've spotted so far to four - the others being Chris Heyerdahl, Jessica Amlee (Rose!) and Kavan Smith (smug snake Vincent, here in a recurring heroic role as Major Evan Lorne, who fills in for Sheppard when Sheppard is off Shepparding).
When they actually indulge in character details, they usually work really nicely. The ending of 'Trinity,' with Sheppard relating some actual war experience of pilots refusing to bail out of planes and dying because of it while he's trying to convince McKay to run for his life was effective. Also, the entirety of McKay's panicked monologue in 'Grace Under Pressure' was brilliantly realized and I wish he talked to imaginary colleagues more often.
I kind of object to the Cadman plotline, with her overriding McKay's bodily autonomy and then his subsequent discomfort around her being treated as a joke, as though he were being unreasonable and should just get over being physically hijacked. On the other hand, he didn't just get over it, so I'm counting that as a win for emotional consequences. Still, sci-fi and fantasy run into this problem of not thinking through the parallels being made by their autonomy-robbing spells and gadgets with some frequency (especially if the issue is further confused by the perpetrator not being male). For all its elaborate character arcs, that is something Buffy did not do any better than this show. Worse, actually. Anyway...
Adding a little nuance to the Wraith was a relief, as I no longer have to sigh wearily and wait for the bad movie villain dialogue to cease when they're around. And then there's 'Michael.' Create Your Own Villain: The Gold Star Edition. Loads of fun to watch, this is where the story finally dove feet-first into all the delicious potential of their misuse and abuse of medical ethics threading the season, and the way the heroes have from the start created their biggest problems and then claim desperate times need desperate measures, and thus create more problems. I had a lot of sympathy for Michael Kenmore, and shipped him and Teyla for a hot minute. It sank with unusual speed even for me, as his reversion to Wraith form killed the appeal. Human/alien isn't my thing.
Making concepts of alien hybrids into a big recurring theme made me wish Ford had worked out, because I kept thinking how interesting his perspective on things like Sheppard getting turned into a Wraith bug or on the Michael experiment would have been. Sadly not to be. Ford got written out in a way which was... a mixed bag. I was fond of him both pre and post junkie transformation. I liked the way the writers leaned into the whole "no body, not dead" aspect of television, but would it have been so hard for them to allow Ford an actual good plan of action - or at least a classic heroic sacrifice? I kept waiting for him to provide the key for Sheppard's survival, to snap out of his madness and die as himself. It didn't happen and this was a two-parter. It should have been Ford's grand farewell. It wasn't. Of all the times to avoid the cliches, this was not it.
Speaking of cliches to avoid, 'The Tower' was bottom of the bin drivel. Medieval peasants ruled by French aristocrats with Revolution trappings and (just to round out the schizophrenic look) diet Nazi police squads who threaten whippings and rapings of the peasants. All ruled over by an evil bald white vizier. Every line was a cliche. Total crap, and I do not say that very often. McKay, trapped in another mini-disaster movie, was the bright spot due to his isolation from every headdesk moment, but given this followed directly on the heels of 'Grace Under Pressure' it was not really helping.
Still, that was the low point, leaving 19 solidly entertaining episodes, which is damn impressive. Onwards to season three! Hopefully I'll make a bit better time on that one...
no subject
Date: 2024-03-11 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-12 01:41 am (UTC)I'm sort of curious about your shallow reasons for rejecting it... :)
no subject
Date: 2024-03-20 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-21 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-21 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-21 07:14 pm (UTC)