Birdwings

This show. Holy cow, this show. Humor is subjective, and this is a teen supernatural drama, not a dramedy, sitcom or other humorous entity, so I'm aware much of my amusement is unintentionally provoked but I haven't laughed this much in years. I'm in fits of giggles just trying to get my notes in a semblance of order. Heads up: This is not one of my deeper, thoughtful reviews. ( Read more... )

I may have just turned the corner into becoming truly fannish about Roswell (90s edition). It's got time travel! Nothing I read about the show indicated it would have time travel, so I suspect this might be a one and done plotline, but it opens up a LOT of interesting questions (especially since I already know the big spoilers regarding some of the secondary characters). Alternate timelines and bad original outcomes really level up the consequences at play, even if Future!Max regrettably sports a Conan the Barbarian look. This is a weird little show.

By total happenstance, I watched Julian Schnabel's Vincent Van Gogh film At Eternity's Gate and the Doctor Who episode 'Vincent and the Doctor' within days of each other, which meant I noticed how the latter made swiss cheese of the order in which Van Gogh's paintings were produced, but I was also impressed by how much the two portrayals (Willem Dafoe and Tony Curran) actually matched in spirit. The gulf was nowhere near as huge as I feared it would be. I got choked up at all the right points, and the theory that Van Gogh didn't kill himself adds a level of texture to the Doctor's failure to save his life that I'm sure wasn't intended, but works very well as an alternate interpretation of the plot. I have no opinion one way or the other, but if I ever see a book on the topic, I might give it a whirl.

At Eternity's Gate was a strong film, although it was somewhat harmed by a reliance on shaky cam, as though in mimicry of a documentary style - which I found distracting at points and not in keeping with Van Gogh's style, which would have been better served by intense saturation, I feel. Dafoe carried it, which was good, because it wasn't striving to be comprehensive about Van Gogh's life and times. It stayed focused on his creative outlook throughout.

Between the two, I think I've had my fill of tragic artistry for a while.

It was about a year ago that I made this list of obscure ships, and it's time for a second go round, as there are shows I've watched since, or pairings I had not considered before, and a couple which almost made the prior list and were tossed to keep it relatively short. My criteria remain exactly the same, running the AO3 numbers and drawing purely from speculative shows. This time I will be including my sole ardent crossover ship. The list is arranged from least to most obscure. Again, this is mostly me having fun and showering these couples with deserved affection while I wait for my current writer's block to ease. It seems that's an October thing with me.

( Cut for images, old show spoilers and occasionally shamefaced gushiness. )

For the first time in years, I have signed up for a streaming service. I will not be on it any longer than strictly necessary, as "streaming" is interchangeable with "renting" and I like to own hard copies of quality shows - Netflix burned through all my streaming goodwill that way, and Hulu is already doing the same thing because Roswell is expiring in thirteen days. I've only been signed up for a week! This is especially aggravating because Hulu is fairly short on my kind of television and I have a very short watch list, so for them to already be culling it is a bad sign.

I watched a handful of pilot episodes, so I can zero in on the most interesting material to me, and do a love 'em and lose 'em routine. There's still a bunch I haven't tried yet. Arranged in declining order of investment.

Justified - Came highly recommended and even a single episode proved why. Sharp script, excellent acting, and I was quickly invested in several characters. Also overjoyed to see Nick Searcy in a main role, because he was terrific on American Gothic. We've watched four episodes now and it is increasingly entertaining and a lot funnier than I expected. It's on my Christmas list.

Roswell - A teenybopper Twin Peaks (it's even got Michael Horse in the sheriff's station, though sadly in a very minor role). An X-Files canvas thickly sugarcoated with high school themes. Gotta love the earnest heart-on-sleeve 90s-ness of it all, and the excellent choice of lanky, sinister Jason Behr (Ford the treacherous wannabe vampire on Buffy) as teen heartthrob Max. He brings a little needed grit to the role. Honestly, the pilot was silly and sweet and very much a 90s teen drama with supernatural sprinkles and I don't see any reason to consider this genre to be inherently shameful if the writing's there. One episode didn't tell me much, but it being on the chopping block won it the sweepstakes, so... thanks, Hulu? Second episode a huge improvement, emphasizing the secondary characters and cutting back on the googly eyes in favor of actual plot (plus Julie Benz!), and the third continues the upward trajectory. I am thoroughly charmed.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - I've always wanted to see this show, so this was a major factor in signing up. Lena Headey does a fine job, and I love that the scarred parent-child relationship is front and center with any romantic entanglements entirely an afterthought. Summer Glau sounded perfect on paper but I didn't find her quite robotic enough to be convinced. Compelling plot, a little more action-oriented than I require (some bottomless magazines and a lot of stuff getting demolished) but with time travel and plentiful paranoia and a promising group of characters getting involved in the looming apocalypse, so I am on board. Biggest downside was some really on-the-nose dialogue, but it's a pilot and has to tie back to two Hollywood blockbusters, so I'm ready to forgive.

Stargate: Atlantis - Wildly uneven, but I may have to swear allegiance to Canadian television at this rate. About the time I started saying "Is that Paul? Oh my God, it is Paul!" was the moment I realized I could easily binge this show (I finally looked him up - actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who so far has been totally wasted in a generic role, but at least he ain't dead yet). The first ten minutes were fully incomprehensible, possibly one of the worst spinoffs I've ever seen for failing to establish any lore for newcomers, but the characters were colorful archetypes easy to tell apart, so I stuck with it and once they hit Atlantis, the plot went into high gear, plus all that wonderfully unserious "here's an alien galaxy with conveniently located humans speaking English in British Columbian forests because we've got no budget, please go with it" that I find simply adorable. They clearly had budget, though - they just blew it all on some (admittedly damn good-looking) shots of Atlantis rising from the ocean and space dogfighting. The emphasis is definitely on action rather than character-driven ethical dilemmas, which is a pity as the scenario is pitch perfect to deliver both kinds of cake. The villains (chalk skinned Voice of the Legion alien vampires who wandered in from a heavy metal music video) are kind of rubbish. But with a bowl of popcorn...

White Collar - Bubblegum. An advertisement for it was on my Burn Notice discs, and it looked fun, and this is an accurate descriptor, but it also makes Burn Notice look gritty and heavy-hitting. Neal was exceptionally cute, the stolid FBI guy had a promising dynamic with him, and the script was full of zingers, but once Neal won an effortless ticket to a Rat Packer's mansion, my eyes rolled and never really recovered. Also, Neal's girlfriend leaving him a wine bottle just wasn't a strong enough hit to feed my angst addiction. Depending on how long I keep Hulu, I might give it a little more time to make a solid impression, but it's low priority.