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chaniReading my flist or trying to post an entry has been difficult for a couple of days. Anyway I had a busy weekend so not much time to spend online.
So as I seem to be allowed to post at last, here's some reviews on Lost, Ashes to Ashes and Doctor Who.
Desmond is one of my favourite characters, perhaps my favourite one behind Locke, and Desmond/Penny is what brought true grace to the series (while stuff like the quadrangle of doom almost ruined it). Desmond-centric episodes are usually brilliant and emotionally-charged episodes and "The Constant" might remain as the best Lost episode ever. So...I was very excited to see "Happily Ever after". It wasn't as strong as the previous Desmond episodes though. Something was missing, something was forced upon us. There were bits I loved but also stuff that didn't work for me.
What I loved:
- Cusick's performance, especially when undergoing the MRI he started remembering Penny. The look in his eyes was wonderful.
- Alt!Charlie reenacting the Not Penny's Boat thing underwater
- Eloïse being the creepy" I know better than everybody" person she always is in Desmond episodes–– I enjoyed the inside pun of her telling alt! Desmond "it's about time" when she met him! She seems to be a bigger player than anyone else.
- zombie Sayid showing up in the end, and serene Desmond accepting to follow him. The two of them have reached a sort of state of acceptance; Sayid is emotionless, robot-like, having accepted that he is only good at killing while Desmond was Buddha-like as if he had found enlightenment. It was an interesting counterpoint.
What didn't work for me:
- Charlie's speech about true love and having seen Claire during his near-death experience
-the way Daniel wasn't showed during the Eloïse/Desmond scene but we knew he was the guy at the piano. I hate that sort of false suspens Lost indulges in from time to time.
- the whole Daniel/Desmond scene, Daniel mentioning the bomb and Charlotte...it sounded very forced again.
The opening scene of Ashes to ashes, as Alex is dreaming of the CID boys performing a video-clip on Billy Joël's Uptown Girl was simply priceless! Hilarious scene and Philip Glenister was quite light on his feet.
It was a dark episode but Alex' fantasy provided the perfect lightness to balance things(I loved Ray and Chris playing the workers on the "OhohOh" at the beginning of the song, and of course Philip Glenister who seemed about to burst into laughter).
I'm still pondering Shaz's weirdness in the episode (especially that moment, near the end, as the camera zoomed in and she had a blank expression on her face and we could hear a bit of "Life on Mars").
The uniform guy has lost half of his face...it could mean something about a character showing only half of what he/she is.
And the weather cock? A metaphor for Alex' not being able to make up her mind?
I'm beginning to wonder whether Gene is aware of his not being "real", of being a "genie" indeed.
He does know something and he is afraid that Alex might find it. And it's tied in to Sam Tyler.
Is Sam really dead?
I'm still attached to the theory that Alex isn't real either, like everyone else she is a figment of Sam's imagination, a Sam who reinvented himself in his own fantasy while being in a second coma after he jumped, who killed himself in the Gene's world (a second suicide, this time inside of his head!)to come back as Alex, so everything we saw in the first episode of "Ashes to ashes" would actually already be a fantasy.
The first episode of this third series showed us that Alex basically can't wake up; when she thought she was out of the coma she was actually still in a fantasy world. There must be a reason!
It would be the best explanation for Alex ending up in a more feminized version of Gene's world (hence the character of Shaz), and it wouldn't ruin the concept "Life on Mars" was based on.
Alex should stop sleeping on the zebra sofa!!!!
I enjoyed "The Beast Below" very much. Eleven and Amy Pond are growing on me.
I couldn't help thinking that, besides questioning the nature of democracy(it's so easier to turn a blind eye to what our leaders do sometimes so we don't have to face the responsablities ourselves) and its strategy (playing on people's fears for instance), the "forget" button was sorta addressing the Donna issue too. And Eleven being outraged when finding out that Amy tried to protect him from making a painful decision echoed The Doctor's own choosing Donna's fate in her stead!
Ten's shadow is still there...and I don't think it's a coincidence that we got Liz TEN as supporting character!
Amy pointing out the parallel between the Doctor the the Space Whale twice was a bit heavy though...
from the first scene in the classroom we learnt that the Smilers were the authority figures. I think it says a lot about our leaders. Once upon a time, in European Democracies, politicians never smiled, never tried to seduce the people. Smiling and seduction was something that dictators developped in the 30's(and that entertainment-oriented media encouraged in the United States). European leaders used to try to convince the citizens, to win them over with ideas so they'd vote for their party. Now it's all about communication/seduction/empathy (something Stephen Frears showed very well in his The Queen), and when smiles don't work, leaders play on fears and on the urge to forget.
The scary and sinister Smilers reminded me of the crying Angels from "Blink" when they showed teeth. I like how Moffat carries on the fairytale theme with using a beast, because there's always a beast in fairytale, a terrifying monster, and sometimes the beast is actually the victim not the threat.
The scene in which The Doctor makes the others hear the creature's screams reminded me of "The Planet of the Oods" when Ten allowed Donna to hear the Oods as well and she begged him to stop (one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful scene ever). No lyricism here, but an effective way to address our relief at not hearing the others' agony. I like how The Doctor ordered the human to remain silence when he decided to turn the beast into a vegetable who wouldn't feel pain anymore.
Matt Smith was very good when playing angry doctor. He is also good at showing a doctor that is more alien-like than Ten was. He does belong to a world of monsters.
I liked the fact that Amy put it all together and saved the day while the Doctor didn't figure it out. She is a new Sally Sparrow!
Because it's a fairytale, and for the sake of the allegory, I will accept the fact that the Doctor was so busy proving to Amy that his box was a spaceship that he didn't notice the huge Whale below the Spaceship UK, and that nobody in the British government had thought that a tortured whale might not be the most reliable space pilot.
So as I seem to be allowed to post at last, here's some reviews on Lost, Ashes to Ashes and Doctor Who.
Desmond is one of my favourite characters, perhaps my favourite one behind Locke, and Desmond/Penny is what brought true grace to the series (while stuff like the quadrangle of doom almost ruined it). Desmond-centric episodes are usually brilliant and emotionally-charged episodes and "The Constant" might remain as the best Lost episode ever. So...I was very excited to see "Happily Ever after". It wasn't as strong as the previous Desmond episodes though. Something was missing, something was forced upon us. There were bits I loved but also stuff that didn't work for me.
What I loved:
- Cusick's performance, especially when undergoing the MRI he started remembering Penny. The look in his eyes was wonderful.
- Alt!Charlie reenacting the Not Penny's Boat thing underwater
- Eloïse being the creepy" I know better than everybody" person she always is in Desmond episodes–– I enjoyed the inside pun of her telling alt! Desmond "it's about time" when she met him! She seems to be a bigger player than anyone else.
- zombie Sayid showing up in the end, and serene Desmond accepting to follow him. The two of them have reached a sort of state of acceptance; Sayid is emotionless, robot-like, having accepted that he is only good at killing while Desmond was Buddha-like as if he had found enlightenment. It was an interesting counterpoint.
What didn't work for me:
- Charlie's speech about true love and having seen Claire during his near-death experience
-the way Daniel wasn't showed during the Eloïse/Desmond scene but we knew he was the guy at the piano. I hate that sort of false suspens Lost indulges in from time to time.
- the whole Daniel/Desmond scene, Daniel mentioning the bomb and Charlotte...it sounded very forced again.
The opening scene of Ashes to ashes, as Alex is dreaming of the CID boys performing a video-clip on Billy Joël's Uptown Girl was simply priceless! Hilarious scene and Philip Glenister was quite light on his feet.
It was a dark episode but Alex' fantasy provided the perfect lightness to balance things(I loved Ray and Chris playing the workers on the "OhohOh" at the beginning of the song, and of course Philip Glenister who seemed about to burst into laughter).
I'm still pondering Shaz's weirdness in the episode (especially that moment, near the end, as the camera zoomed in and she had a blank expression on her face and we could hear a bit of "Life on Mars").
The uniform guy has lost half of his face...it could mean something about a character showing only half of what he/she is.
And the weather cock? A metaphor for Alex' not being able to make up her mind?
I'm beginning to wonder whether Gene is aware of his not being "real", of being a "genie" indeed.
He does know something and he is afraid that Alex might find it. And it's tied in to Sam Tyler.
Is Sam really dead?
I'm still attached to the theory that Alex isn't real either, like everyone else she is a figment of Sam's imagination, a Sam who reinvented himself in his own fantasy while being in a second coma after he jumped, who killed himself in the Gene's world (a second suicide, this time inside of his head!)to come back as Alex, so everything we saw in the first episode of "Ashes to ashes" would actually already be a fantasy.
The first episode of this third series showed us that Alex basically can't wake up; when she thought she was out of the coma she was actually still in a fantasy world. There must be a reason!
It would be the best explanation for Alex ending up in a more feminized version of Gene's world (hence the character of Shaz), and it wouldn't ruin the concept "Life on Mars" was based on.
Alex should stop sleeping on the zebra sofa!!!!
I enjoyed "The Beast Below" very much. Eleven and Amy Pond are growing on me.
I couldn't help thinking that, besides questioning the nature of democracy(it's so easier to turn a blind eye to what our leaders do sometimes so we don't have to face the responsablities ourselves) and its strategy (playing on people's fears for instance), the "forget" button was sorta addressing the Donna issue too. And Eleven being outraged when finding out that Amy tried to protect him from making a painful decision echoed The Doctor's own choosing Donna's fate in her stead!
Ten's shadow is still there...and I don't think it's a coincidence that we got Liz TEN as supporting character!
Amy pointing out the parallel between the Doctor the the Space Whale twice was a bit heavy though...
from the first scene in the classroom we learnt that the Smilers were the authority figures. I think it says a lot about our leaders. Once upon a time, in European Democracies, politicians never smiled, never tried to seduce the people. Smiling and seduction was something that dictators developped in the 30's(and that entertainment-oriented media encouraged in the United States). European leaders used to try to convince the citizens, to win them over with ideas so they'd vote for their party. Now it's all about communication/seduction/empathy (something Stephen Frears showed very well in his The Queen), and when smiles don't work, leaders play on fears and on the urge to forget.
The scary and sinister Smilers reminded me of the crying Angels from "Blink" when they showed teeth. I like how Moffat carries on the fairytale theme with using a beast, because there's always a beast in fairytale, a terrifying monster, and sometimes the beast is actually the victim not the threat.
The scene in which The Doctor makes the others hear the creature's screams reminded me of "The Planet of the Oods" when Ten allowed Donna to hear the Oods as well and she begged him to stop (one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful scene ever). No lyricism here, but an effective way to address our relief at not hearing the others' agony. I like how The Doctor ordered the human to remain silence when he decided to turn the beast into a vegetable who wouldn't feel pain anymore.
Matt Smith was very good when playing angry doctor. He is also good at showing a doctor that is more alien-like than Ten was. He does belong to a world of monsters.
I liked the fact that Amy put it all together and saved the day while the Doctor didn't figure it out. She is a new Sally Sparrow!
Because it's a fairytale, and for the sake of the allegory, I will accept the fact that the Doctor was so busy proving to Amy that his box was a spaceship that he didn't notice the huge Whale below the Spaceship UK, and that nobody in the British government had thought that a tortured whale might not be the most reliable space pilot.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-11 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-12 05:48 pm (UTC)I miss David, but Moffat's angle is really interesting.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-14 09:15 am (UTC)John Locke. I think he has to die.
But this is what Desmond is doing. Acting as a cupid in some cases and as god or the devil in others. It is as if what occurs in the LAXverse is what will come to be their lives when LOST is concluded. A tranferrence so to speak of all of them except he who takes Jacob's place. And after what Desmond did tonight, I think he is setting up Locke and Jack to be at odds in the LAXverse or something. Yeah, I think it will be Jack....
no subject
Date: 2010-04-14 12:57 pm (UTC)