12 Monkeys, Episodes 2 & 3
Dec. 1st, 2022 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereTwo episodes done last evening, cut for rambling.
Episode 2: Mentally Divergent
The use of lighting on this show is excellent, especially in the bookshop locale, where the golden hue suffuses everything with a richness that contrasts well with the clinical blue-gray tint of the future world.
Speaking of the future, I love how even when the world's gone to hell, you can't get anything done without an evidence board.
Bunny Colvin is dead with only one scene to his name. Even as a fan of The Wire I had completely forgotten that actor was in this show. Pity he wasn't given something more consequential to do before shuffling off.
Ramse, whom I'd forgotten I loved because of... stuff... that happens later, but here he is in his whisper-voiced glory - the skeptic, the guy who tells the brainiacs there might be trouble in the actual place and time they're actually in, and the guy who freaks the hell out because he's realized that they don't know what they're doing. This makes me curious going forward because once Ramse goes off the rails, he definitely does know what he's doing, which is an interesting concept that I totally missed the first time, along with Katarina telling him off and threatening him with "your future is not preordained." Nice foreshadowing there.
Then there's the fight scene. Short, brutal and barely interrupting Cole and Ramse's conversation, resumed without breaking stride, showcasing how often they've done this, how well they work as a team, and how little the violence matters to them. In what's probably going to be the first of many Jeremiah comparisons (I got all the way to the second episode before I made one), the behavior they exhibit here is not that of heroes. Jeremiah and Kurdy spend the vast majority of their time refusing to kill unless given no choice, sometimes to an infuriating degree. These two are clearly long past that point, and Ramse saying "we do what we have to" appears to be a coping mantra. Cole being singled out in this scene as the more reckless of the two, it stands to reason he has more to regret, hence why he's the suicidal one. Or at least that's my current theory, subject to change.
Interesting moments of time travel ethics: Cole embraces Katarina Jones' vision not because he shares her higher ideal, but because he craves non-existence. She knows and exploits this, but when Ramse later snaps at her (paraphrasing here) "are you trying to kill him?" she claims her response "Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do" is sarcasm. Which, no. Just no.
Then there's Jennifer Goines, whom the entire fandom seems to adore but I really don't have anything to say about her so far. I wish her origin story hadn't felt so much like exposition. I'm most interested in what she brings out in Cole. Here's this girl who is willing to talk to him, and hasn't done anything aggressive and Cole pretty much attacks her for nothing, like this is just his standard procedure for getting information out of people. Again, not a hero maneuver. Once he's tied up, he gets better and starts relating to her a bit.
Episode 3: Cassandra Complex
The ending scene is where I realized I could really fall in love with this show (before stuff happened...). So Henri is fated to die (despite the whole point of their mission being to change the past), so Cole steps up to shoot him before he can fall into the hands of the Gentleman (making this a mercy kill). Yet by doing so, Cole becomes essentially the hand of fate, acting without malice yet also without any real sign of reluctance, and the question is: Does Cole even view this as murder? Henri was "already dead," after all. The ethics of time travel, tossing viewers in at the deep end without any signal as to where the answer lies.
Haiti feels like a missed opportunity, setting wise, and I wish the writers had canned most of the bullshit medical stuff and focused on the part where post-apocalyptic Cole lands in such a messed-up part of the "golden age" he's trying to save for Katarina that it feels normal to him.
I find it pretty much impossible to refer to Katarina as Jones. Love her accent, by the way, and her habit of referring to everyone formally.
More Aaron in both episodes being a completely decent, rational person trying to help Cassie. Sadly, he's in the wrong genre and is factually incorrect in every scene, but he doesn't know that and when you stop and consider the mess Cassie has involved him in and the lack of evidence she provides for it, his level of support is truly stunning. I've exhausted my icon making skills, such as they were, or I'd definitely pursue a Tea and Sympathy Aaron icon.
Episode 2: Mentally Divergent
The use of lighting on this show is excellent, especially in the bookshop locale, where the golden hue suffuses everything with a richness that contrasts well with the clinical blue-gray tint of the future world.
Speaking of the future, I love how even when the world's gone to hell, you can't get anything done without an evidence board.
Bunny Colvin is dead with only one scene to his name. Even as a fan of The Wire I had completely forgotten that actor was in this show. Pity he wasn't given something more consequential to do before shuffling off.
Ramse, whom I'd forgotten I loved because of... stuff... that happens later, but here he is in his whisper-voiced glory - the skeptic, the guy who tells the brainiacs there might be trouble in the actual place and time they're actually in, and the guy who freaks the hell out because he's realized that they don't know what they're doing. This makes me curious going forward because once Ramse goes off the rails, he definitely does know what he's doing, which is an interesting concept that I totally missed the first time, along with Katarina telling him off and threatening him with "your future is not preordained." Nice foreshadowing there.
Then there's the fight scene. Short, brutal and barely interrupting Cole and Ramse's conversation, resumed without breaking stride, showcasing how often they've done this, how well they work as a team, and how little the violence matters to them. In what's probably going to be the first of many Jeremiah comparisons (I got all the way to the second episode before I made one), the behavior they exhibit here is not that of heroes. Jeremiah and Kurdy spend the vast majority of their time refusing to kill unless given no choice, sometimes to an infuriating degree. These two are clearly long past that point, and Ramse saying "we do what we have to" appears to be a coping mantra. Cole being singled out in this scene as the more reckless of the two, it stands to reason he has more to regret, hence why he's the suicidal one. Or at least that's my current theory, subject to change.
Interesting moments of time travel ethics: Cole embraces Katarina Jones' vision not because he shares her higher ideal, but because he craves non-existence. She knows and exploits this, but when Ramse later snaps at her (paraphrasing here) "are you trying to kill him?" she claims her response "Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do" is sarcasm. Which, no. Just no.
Then there's Jennifer Goines, whom the entire fandom seems to adore but I really don't have anything to say about her so far. I wish her origin story hadn't felt so much like exposition. I'm most interested in what she brings out in Cole. Here's this girl who is willing to talk to him, and hasn't done anything aggressive and Cole pretty much attacks her for nothing, like this is just his standard procedure for getting information out of people. Again, not a hero maneuver. Once he's tied up, he gets better and starts relating to her a bit.
Episode 3: Cassandra Complex
The ending scene is where I realized I could really fall in love with this show (before stuff happened...). So Henri is fated to die (despite the whole point of their mission being to change the past), so Cole steps up to shoot him before he can fall into the hands of the Gentleman (making this a mercy kill). Yet by doing so, Cole becomes essentially the hand of fate, acting without malice yet also without any real sign of reluctance, and the question is: Does Cole even view this as murder? Henri was "already dead," after all. The ethics of time travel, tossing viewers in at the deep end without any signal as to where the answer lies.
Haiti feels like a missed opportunity, setting wise, and I wish the writers had canned most of the bullshit medical stuff and focused on the part where post-apocalyptic Cole lands in such a messed-up part of the "golden age" he's trying to save for Katarina that it feels normal to him.
I find it pretty much impossible to refer to Katarina as Jones. Love her accent, by the way, and her habit of referring to everyone formally.
More Aaron in both episodes being a completely decent, rational person trying to help Cassie. Sadly, he's in the wrong genre and is factually incorrect in every scene, but he doesn't know that and when you stop and consider the mess Cassie has involved him in and the lack of evidence she provides for it, his level of support is truly stunning. I've exhausted my icon making skills, such as they were, or I'd definitely pursue a Tea and Sympathy Aaron icon.
