December fever
Dec. 1st, 2012 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniIt's been a hectic week again. And I'm under the weather. I couldn't call in sick (too much wok to do, and two meetings with parents) but I went to the doctor on Wednesday evening and I've been on antibiotics since then. This afternoon I had a 2 hour nap. Body needed it. I ran errands afterwards and now I'm relaxing in front of Deadwood S1. *pets the dvd box*
A few thoughts which I don't think I mentioned in previous posts:
- Alma was gorgeous when Brom's body was brought back. The way she carried herself in the street, bare foot, with her night gown. She did look like a goddess walking among mortals. A goddess high on laudanum but a goddess nonetheless. And then cut to shirtless and sweaty Seth! By the way, knowing Olyphant's work on Justified makes me acknowledge his performance on Deadwood even more.
- E.B's monologue, as he's cleaning the floor, playing both himself and Al, voicing his deep self-hatred, is such a great moment. No need for fantasy and magic here, nor ring of power, and yet E.B is the Gollum/Smeagol of Deadwood.
- And then there's Johnny calling the chief's head a good "piece of conversation", thinking that the Indian head would make the clients stay and talk at the Gem, but also foreshadowing – without knowing it – Al's own conversations with the dead head. Thos little details.
- Reverend Smith's asking Bullock about Wild Bill's funeral, and the hymn he suggests, the obvious metaphor for the show about how individuals became a community. The star wasn't any cast members, but the whole body.
I wish I had more time to watch my shows, read my books and interact with my Internet friends. Unfortunately I am in the grip of RL. And I haven't started shopping for Christmas yet! I am not much of an internet shopper, except for books. By the way many thanks toherself_nyc for the heads-up about Richard Powers' new story, ebook-style, which I found on Amazon and bought right away. I even passed the info to Tom McRae on twitter, because I know that he is a fan too, and he told me that this will make the kindle he owns worth using at last. It was like having a New York/Paris/London threesome! I love having my literary network all over the world.
The internet contains horrible places and allows ugly behaviours but it is so wonderful. The things and the people you can access, it makes life easier and brighter.
I often marvel at the fact that I can find many useful papers online when it comes to my thesis research and that I can follow my shows almost at the same time as my fellow American viewers when it comes to my entertainment.
Boardwalk Empire's penultimate episode was terrific and I can't wait for the finale! It isn't Deadwood, and many things are predictable story-wise, but it's so well-crafted and the characters are so wonderfully played. Best show currently on in my opinion.
Steve Buscemi nailed it in "Two imposters" and it was a very exciting episode. Every scene was a little gem, one after another.
I adored the Eddy/Nucky scenes, and Eddy reciting Kipling's "If" was poignant. Chalky got to shine too, facing Gyp Rosetti, and the relationship between Nucky and Mr White suddenly became "real". I also enjoyed the young Samuel and how he handled things.
Capone as the cavalry was a bit phoned eventually but so enjoyable. Stephen Graham has been a treat as Al Capone so far, and he did deliver that final line about deciding "who dies"!
And there's Richard Harrow putting his arsenal on the bed, after Gilliian's last provocation, and getting ready for some soldiery action, something that everybody has been waiting for since the beginning of the season. Will he survive the season's finale or die trying to get Tommy out of Gillian's whorehouse?
On the one hand we know what the series' writers are capable of killing off a major character and everyone who is not Nucky can disappear, on the other hand, Richard is the viewers' favourite character (everybody, man or woman, is in love with him!) and is so iconic that it would be a bigger loss than Jimmy Darmody. Killing him before the show's final season seems too risky. They didn't kill Omar Little before the last seaosn on The Wire and Richard is easily the Omar of Boardwalk Empire.
I don't think that Gillian will die either. The show needs strong female characters and Margaret's storyline isn't enough. Esther Randolph is too peripheral a character, and Julia mostly revolves around Richard's arc, the same way Van Alden's Norwegian wife revolves around his. Gillian is a good character, and someone everybody loves to hate.
So I kinda expect Eli to die. He has proved himself to be loyal, an redeemed himself in Nucky's eyes, so his death would be a third blow after Billie's death and Owen's (and Margaret's unfaithfulness being revealed as well).
Also, I now own Alan Sepinwall's book on kindle so you can already picture me tonight reading it under the duvet while the cats are purring against me.
A few thoughts which I don't think I mentioned in previous posts:
- Alma was gorgeous when Brom's body was brought back. The way she carried herself in the street, bare foot, with her night gown. She did look like a goddess walking among mortals. A goddess high on laudanum but a goddess nonetheless. And then cut to shirtless and sweaty Seth! By the way, knowing Olyphant's work on Justified makes me acknowledge his performance on Deadwood even more.
- E.B's monologue, as he's cleaning the floor, playing both himself and Al, voicing his deep self-hatred, is such a great moment. No need for fantasy and magic here, nor ring of power, and yet E.B is the Gollum/Smeagol of Deadwood.
- And then there's Johnny calling the chief's head a good "piece of conversation", thinking that the Indian head would make the clients stay and talk at the Gem, but also foreshadowing – without knowing it – Al's own conversations with the dead head. Thos little details.
- Reverend Smith's asking Bullock about Wild Bill's funeral, and the hymn he suggests, the obvious metaphor for the show about how individuals became a community. The star wasn't any cast members, but the whole body.
I wish I had more time to watch my shows, read my books and interact with my Internet friends. Unfortunately I am in the grip of RL. And I haven't started shopping for Christmas yet! I am not much of an internet shopper, except for books. By the way many thanks to
herself_nyc for the heads-up about Richard Powers' new story, ebook-style, which I found on Amazon and bought right away. I even passed the info to Tom McRae on twitter, because I know that he is a fan too, and he told me that this will make the kindle he owns worth using at last. It was like having a New York/Paris/London threesome! I love having my literary network all over the world.The internet contains horrible places and allows ugly behaviours but it is so wonderful. The things and the people you can access, it makes life easier and brighter.
I often marvel at the fact that I can find many useful papers online when it comes to my thesis research and that I can follow my shows almost at the same time as my fellow American viewers when it comes to my entertainment.
Boardwalk Empire's penultimate episode was terrific and I can't wait for the finale! It isn't Deadwood, and many things are predictable story-wise, but it's so well-crafted and the characters are so wonderfully played. Best show currently on in my opinion.
Steve Buscemi nailed it in "Two imposters" and it was a very exciting episode. Every scene was a little gem, one after another.
I adored the Eddy/Nucky scenes, and Eddy reciting Kipling's "If" was poignant. Chalky got to shine too, facing Gyp Rosetti, and the relationship between Nucky and Mr White suddenly became "real". I also enjoyed the young Samuel and how he handled things.
Capone as the cavalry was a bit phoned eventually but so enjoyable. Stephen Graham has been a treat as Al Capone so far, and he did deliver that final line about deciding "who dies"!
And there's Richard Harrow putting his arsenal on the bed, after Gilliian's last provocation, and getting ready for some soldiery action, something that everybody has been waiting for since the beginning of the season. Will he survive the season's finale or die trying to get Tommy out of Gillian's whorehouse?
On the one hand we know what the series' writers are capable of killing off a major character and everyone who is not Nucky can disappear, on the other hand, Richard is the viewers' favourite character (everybody, man or woman, is in love with him!) and is so iconic that it would be a bigger loss than Jimmy Darmody. Killing him before the show's final season seems too risky. They didn't kill Omar Little before the last seaosn on The Wire and Richard is easily the Omar of Boardwalk Empire.
I don't think that Gillian will die either. The show needs strong female characters and Margaret's storyline isn't enough. Esther Randolph is too peripheral a character, and Julia mostly revolves around Richard's arc, the same way Van Alden's Norwegian wife revolves around his. Gillian is a good character, and someone everybody loves to hate.
So I kinda expect Eli to die. He has proved himself to be loyal, an redeemed himself in Nucky's eyes, so his death would be a third blow after Billie's death and Owen's (and Margaret's unfaithfulness being revealed as well).
Also, I now own Alan Sepinwall's book on kindle so you can already picture me tonight reading it under the duvet while the cats are purring against me.