Birdwings

We've just finished watching Better Call Saul, which I was never invested in to the extent of needing to write about the experience. It was, of course, of inarguable quality once we got past the first season or so, but I don't think I've struggled so much with a show in a long time, partly for personal reasons (the entire Chuck storyline was hellish). I was hoping the ending would turn it around for me the way it happened with Breaking Bad, but it didn't. The finale, though low-key and thematically fitting, really didn't do anything to lessen the pain and discomfort of six seasons of toxic relationships, bad life choices, petty cruelty and cringe-inducing cons.

Anyway, since this one didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat and Breaking Bad oddly enough did - transforming my experience of the entire show which came before - I got to thinking which other shows actually pulled such eleventh hour victories and went ahead and made a spoilery list of the endings which have most impressed me for one reason or another.

( Read more... )

Reading: Took a break from the depressing Faulkner with Camilla by Madeleine L'engle, which I expected to be a light distraction. I think it was actually even more bleak, since at least Light in August has some fine atmosphere to go along with its sundry tales of woe. Powered through Camilla in a couple of nights just to get through the pain. Best part was discovering a single fanfic which did a good job taking some of the sting out of the story, but it was essentially an entire novel of petty cruelties and grown men creeping on the teen protagonist and that's not really what I'm looking for right now in my novels.

Watching: Best time for watching television is the evening when BF and I are both home from work. I campaigned to make 12 Monkeys our next evening show, but BF wanted to tackle Ashes to Ashes while we could still remember Life on Mars (which was a fair argument). We barrelled through season one, which I thought was mostly self-parody of Life on Mars, before it finally made an eleventh hour alteration in tone that improved things going forward. We're now at the start of season three and my investment comes purely from the long-running story arc and the two leads.

Consistently disappointing use of the secondary characters, who are trapped in the same limited roles they were introduced in - no matter how many mistakes they make, Chris and Ray will never grow as people; Viv will remain a token black character; and Shaz got a whole episode focused on her choice to resign from the force, even though it was completely predictable that she would get her mojo back and change her mind by the end of the episode. This is why I rarely watch police procedurals. I got into this show for the abundant mind screw (and Manchester, which change in location still annoys me) and luckily it still delivers on that premise, but for only having eight episodes per season, there's an awful lot of filler.

Listening: Getting Wish You Were Here stuck in my head for two days kind of killed that song and reminded me why I prefer Floyd's early years.

Writing: I have several scenes fully stitched up and feel pretty good about that (I need to be feeling good about something, because life ain't it right now). Also mapping out a couple of future crossovers I want to try (Buffy/American Gothic and Jeremiah/Brimstone - the latter is like dead fandoms squared).