Trying to emerge from hibernation
Jul. 11th, 2012 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniI've started uploading pictures from Rome, on photobucket, but I'm feeling extremely Internet-lazy...and every time I think of posting a new LJ entry, I give up. All will come in time, I guess.
BTW, Breaking Bad returns in 4 days (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I have a post in my head, about the character Walter White, that demands to be done, but I am not ready to write it down yet.
As for the tv shows I missed when I was away, I have caught up with Mad Men, The Borgias...and I even watched the final episodes of The Killing, because I was curious, and I caught up with the new season of True Blood.
Mad Men 's finale was okay, but not as satisfying as the two previous episodes (the wonderful "The Other woman", and Lane's heartbreaking exit) , and I was really annoyed by Megan's mother, or rather by the fact that Julie Ormond just can't speak French while her character is supposed to be francophone. It isn't only a problem of accent, what she says is pure gibberish. It's either that the writers don't care about writing lines in correct French or that the actress doesn't care about her own lines but gets away with it nonetheless...either way, it's annoying.
I know that Giancarlo Esposito doesn't speak a word of Spanish, yet they gave him many Spanish-speaking scenes in Breaking Bad and he didn't sound like a Chilean guy, but, at least, when he spoke Spanish on screen syntax and grammar were correct!
Anyway, a really good season of Mad Men despite a somewhat frustrating last episode. See you next year Don, Peggy, Joan, Megan, Roger and my dear Pete!
The Borgias? To tell the truth, it is not perfect, but I really loved the series this year. When I was in Rome and ran across so manygoodlooking clergymen I kept waiting for Jeremy Irons to pop up! One of my fellow grant holders follows the series as well, and loves Jeremy's acting but thought that he is too old to be called "sexy". Must be because she's still in her 20's!
Anyway, the ending lived up to the rest of the season. Irons killed it again, and I loved how they made Juan look very Christ-like in the last episodes, especially in his last moments (David Oakes was excellent). I still don't understand the reason they wrote him as Rodrigo's second son while the historical Juan was the eldest, but the show has become so good that I'm past caring about its many historical inaccuracies. It's now a really decent tv show that hasn't received the credits and success it deserves. I wouldn't put it in my tv pantheon but, in my opinion, it's in the same league as series like Rome or Boardwalk Empire...or The Good Wife.
The Killing had its moments this season (which is a miracle given how bad season 1 turned to be), but ended up like the terrible mess it used to be; it's difficult to find redeeming qualities to a show that ruined its potential and is filled with plotholes, obvious red herrings, contrived stuff, clichés and bad dialogues. And they wasted Callum Keith Reenie and Tahmoh Penikett which is quite unforgivable. *pets beloved BSG actors*
True Blood. Not as bad as last year, but still very silly and poorly written to the point that I wonder if they gave the keys of the writing room to a mere trainee. No really, it's hard not to be in eye-rolling mode when you think of the structure, pace and arcs. Still, dumb Jason continues to be entertaining, in spite of being stuck in a storyline loop; Bill and Eric make a good pair; Pam still delivers great lines; Jessica is hot; Sam is still cute (and so is his bare ass!), and I love the Bellefleur boys (especially Terry) even though I fear that the writers will ruin the characters with inappropriate and boring storylines, the way they ruined Lafayette and Tara for me (two characters who used to be my favourites in season 1). The Authority plot started intriguing but has turned disappointing (not sure Christopher Meloni is up to the job) and the false suspense about the mole is really lazy writing (almost as bad as the so-called twist about EJO's character in the last season of Dexter) since everybody and their aunt have figured it out for a while that Salome is the traitor, but hopefully Russel will save the day...so to speak.
The problem with TB is that the characters seem trapped in a soap-like spiral of recycling themes/ideas hardly covered up with "new storylines" or new supernatural stuff.
And yet I tend to be more indulgent with TB's big flaws because, unlike The Killing, it doesn't take itself seriously. There's nothing worse than drama that pretends to be quality television but has poor writing/execution.
In other words, not all tv runners and writers are genius creators with a true vision and the skills (or the good writing team) to carry it on through several seasons. I know, I know...I just discovered hot water saying that.
BTW, Breaking Bad returns in 4 days (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I have a post in my head, about the character Walter White, that demands to be done, but I am not ready to write it down yet.
As for the tv shows I missed when I was away, I have caught up with Mad Men, The Borgias...and I even watched the final episodes of The Killing, because I was curious, and I caught up with the new season of True Blood.
Mad Men 's finale was okay, but not as satisfying as the two previous episodes (the wonderful "The Other woman", and Lane's heartbreaking exit) , and I was really annoyed by Megan's mother, or rather by the fact that Julie Ormond just can't speak French while her character is supposed to be francophone. It isn't only a problem of accent, what she says is pure gibberish. It's either that the writers don't care about writing lines in correct French or that the actress doesn't care about her own lines but gets away with it nonetheless...either way, it's annoying.
I know that Giancarlo Esposito doesn't speak a word of Spanish, yet they gave him many Spanish-speaking scenes in Breaking Bad and he didn't sound like a Chilean guy, but, at least, when he spoke Spanish on screen syntax and grammar were correct!
Anyway, a really good season of Mad Men despite a somewhat frustrating last episode. See you next year Don, Peggy, Joan, Megan, Roger and my dear Pete!
The Borgias? To tell the truth, it is not perfect, but I really loved the series this year. When I was in Rome and ran across so many
Anyway, the ending lived up to the rest of the season. Irons killed it again, and I loved how they made Juan look very Christ-like in the last episodes, especially in his last moments (David Oakes was excellent). I still don't understand the reason they wrote him as Rodrigo's second son while the historical Juan was the eldest, but the show has become so good that I'm past caring about its many historical inaccuracies. It's now a really decent tv show that hasn't received the credits and success it deserves. I wouldn't put it in my tv pantheon but, in my opinion, it's in the same league as series like Rome or Boardwalk Empire...or The Good Wife.
The Killing had its moments this season (which is a miracle given how bad season 1 turned to be), but ended up like the terrible mess it used to be; it's difficult to find redeeming qualities to a show that ruined its potential and is filled with plotholes, obvious red herrings, contrived stuff, clichés and bad dialogues. And they wasted Callum Keith Reenie and Tahmoh Penikett which is quite unforgivable. *pets beloved BSG actors*
True Blood. Not as bad as last year, but still very silly and poorly written to the point that I wonder if they gave the keys of the writing room to a mere trainee. No really, it's hard not to be in eye-rolling mode when you think of the structure, pace and arcs. Still, dumb Jason continues to be entertaining, in spite of being stuck in a storyline loop; Bill and Eric make a good pair; Pam still delivers great lines; Jessica is hot; Sam is still cute (and so is his bare ass!), and I love the Bellefleur boys (especially Terry) even though I fear that the writers will ruin the characters with inappropriate and boring storylines, the way they ruined Lafayette and Tara for me (two characters who used to be my favourites in season 1). The Authority plot started intriguing but has turned disappointing (not sure Christopher Meloni is up to the job) and the false suspense about the mole is really lazy writing (almost as bad as the so-called twist about EJO's character in the last season of Dexter) since everybody and their aunt have figured it out for a while that Salome is the traitor, but hopefully Russel will save the day...so to speak.
The problem with TB is that the characters seem trapped in a soap-like spiral of recycling themes/ideas hardly covered up with "new storylines" or new supernatural stuff.
And yet I tend to be more indulgent with TB's big flaws because, unlike The Killing, it doesn't take itself seriously. There's nothing worse than drama that pretends to be quality television but has poor writing/execution.
In other words, not all tv runners and writers are genius creators with a true vision and the skills (or the good writing team) to carry it on through several seasons. I know, I know...I just discovered hot water saying that.