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ravenI am bored. Insomnia is boring. It features too much getting up in the middle of the night and looking for eggs and bacon.
Anyway, to stave it off I am mostly watching TV. I have watched the first three episodes of Supernatural, and while I haven't fallen headlong for it (possibly "yet" is required here), I am enjoying it very much, in a sort of oh-dear-god-so-pretty way. Seriously, Dean but particularly Sam - so pretty. They were on the cover of SFX this month - I meant to give my copy to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
likethesun2, and completely forgot - and obviously picking up the circulation of the magazine quite a bit. Anyway, in news of the slightly less shallow, I like the plot, too. I finally finished watching the pilot yesterday, and I was actually scared by it. It does the creepy archetype thing very well. It's not an original plot - who hasn't heard that particular sleepover ghost story? - but nicely executed. And I like the basic premise very much. The continuous road-trip thing, the rootless, forever-on-the-road thing is one of my bulletproof narrative kinks. (Whoever I stole the phrase "bulletproof narrative kink" from - thank you very much, it never stops coming in useful.)
I initially wondered if the parallels between this show and The X-Files are intentional - three episodes in, I'm sure they are. Apart from the broad similarity of the premise - ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night, yay! - there are similarities in the details. Both shows have as their lynchpin a lead character who had a defining piece of childhood trauma, an unfinished event that coloured everything that followed. So Dean wanders around looking for whatever it was that killed his mother, and Mulder wanders around looking for whoever it was who abducted his sister, and such is the intensity of the obsession that they need their sidekicks to follow them around, need them in a way which isn't exactly healthy. I'm extrapolating with Supernatural, of course, but I think this is one of the things that'll keep me watching. Yay, fucked-up character dynamics!
I was spoiled in advance for the twist in the tale of the pilot, which ruined the effect of it a bit, but awww, Sam. The actual meat of the episode could have been anything at all, I think - it's the first five minutes and the last five minutes which make it a good pilot rather than an average one. Dean carrying Sam out both times struck me as a nice echo. Awww, Sam. I want to ruffle his hair and say "awwww" a lot. Bless.
The rest of the parallels are more of the lightly-done humourous type. The second episode, "Wendigo", where Dean and Sam search for their father, is a basic rehash of the XF episode "Detour". (Which is, lest we forget, the one where Mulder and Scully escape from an FBI training conference in order to run around the woods in a panic, losing people to centuries-old forest monsters who keep them strung up in a hole in the ground for no immediately apparent reason. Also, Scully sings "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog", they bicker in very cute fashion about sleeping bags falling from the sky, and really, it's a lot better than I'm making it sound.) The SPN version is quite a lot creepier. Unlike XF, which was always shot as darkly as possible, it has an overexposed, washed-out look that is very effective in conveying that whole Blair Witch feel. I liked it.
Also, something else that me giggle - Dean mentions using the sacred signs, or whatever, of the Anasazi. Heee. I liked the reference, but I didn't realise until later how neat it is - "Anasazi" is the XF episode where Mulder searches for his father. Heee.
The third episode has a title that temporarily escapes me, but it involved scary things in lakes and made me apprehensive about taking a shower. It seems Amy Acker is terribly sweet whatever she's in, and I did like her role in this one. In fact, I don't know exactly why, but I liked a lot about this episode. Dean bonding with small children - awww. I have said "awww" a lot during the course of this entry. I begin to think this may be a recurring theme as I keep watching.
And while I'm reviewing TV, I also wanted to babble a bit about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the pilot for that. I never watched the pre-aired pilot because I decided to watch for the real one, and, um. I'm not sure. I thought the first ten minutes of the show were unmitigatedly marvellous, and very Sorkin - to coin an adjective - but I was sort of unsure about the rest of it. I got the feeling it was about half an hour of material stretched out to the full slot. Which isn't to say there wasn't a lot I liked about it. To start with, E4 are back on the first season of Friends at the moment, and I was just thinking how much I liked, and still do like, Matthew Perry. Chandler as he was remains one of my favourite characters written for television - the humour as defence mechanism! the man as mass of seething neuroses! the "homosexual quality"! - and part of it was the charm of the actor. You can see that with Matt on Studio 60 - putting him on Vicodin was a delightfully surreal touch - and I sort of think he and Danny (whom I liked too) will be the big slash pairing of 2007.
In fact, I think it's the exposition that worried me a bit, here. The issues they've got flying around - censorship, Jordan vs. the rest of the universe, Matt breaking up with whatever-her-name-is over Pat Robertson, Danny and his cocaine addiction, etc., etc. - they sort of need to be exposited (not a word, but should be), and I'm kind of thinking that's not something you need to worry about once they've dealt with the pilot. So, basically, I think it was good, but could get a lot better.
One last thing while I'm still chatting about Sorkin. Pedar and I are making a thing about watching The West Wing together (last one tonight, woe), and tonight we were watching one called "Enemies", which opens with Leo and his daughter snarking magnificently at each other over breakfast. We were watching without comment, and then he turned to me and said, "In ten years, that's going to be us, isn't it."
It wasn't a question. Sigh.
And now, to bed! Sans eggs and bacon, but you can't have everything.
Anyway, to stave it off I am mostly watching TV. I have watched the first three episodes of Supernatural, and while I haven't fallen headlong for it (possibly "yet" is required here), I am enjoying it very much, in a sort of oh-dear-god-so-pretty way. Seriously, Dean but particularly Sam - so pretty. They were on the cover of SFX this month - I meant to give my copy to
likethesun2, and completely forgot - and obviously picking up the circulation of the magazine quite a bit. Anyway, in news of the slightly less shallow, I like the plot, too. I finally finished watching the pilot yesterday, and I was actually scared by it. It does the creepy archetype thing very well. It's not an original plot - who hasn't heard that particular sleepover ghost story? - but nicely executed. And I like the basic premise very much. The continuous road-trip thing, the rootless, forever-on-the-road thing is one of my bulletproof narrative kinks. (Whoever I stole the phrase "bulletproof narrative kink" from - thank you very much, it never stops coming in useful.)I initially wondered if the parallels between this show and The X-Files are intentional - three episodes in, I'm sure they are. Apart from the broad similarity of the premise - ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night, yay! - there are similarities in the details. Both shows have as their lynchpin a lead character who had a defining piece of childhood trauma, an unfinished event that coloured everything that followed. So Dean wanders around looking for whatever it was that killed his mother, and Mulder wanders around looking for whoever it was who abducted his sister, and such is the intensity of the obsession that they need their sidekicks to follow them around, need them in a way which isn't exactly healthy. I'm extrapolating with Supernatural, of course, but I think this is one of the things that'll keep me watching. Yay, fucked-up character dynamics!
I was spoiled in advance for the twist in the tale of the pilot, which ruined the effect of it a bit, but awww, Sam. The actual meat of the episode could have been anything at all, I think - it's the first five minutes and the last five minutes which make it a good pilot rather than an average one. Dean carrying Sam out both times struck me as a nice echo. Awww, Sam. I want to ruffle his hair and say "awwww" a lot. Bless.
The rest of the parallels are more of the lightly-done humourous type. The second episode, "Wendigo", where Dean and Sam search for their father, is a basic rehash of the XF episode "Detour". (Which is, lest we forget, the one where Mulder and Scully escape from an FBI training conference in order to run around the woods in a panic, losing people to centuries-old forest monsters who keep them strung up in a hole in the ground for no immediately apparent reason. Also, Scully sings "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog", they bicker in very cute fashion about sleeping bags falling from the sky, and really, it's a lot better than I'm making it sound.) The SPN version is quite a lot creepier. Unlike XF, which was always shot as darkly as possible, it has an overexposed, washed-out look that is very effective in conveying that whole Blair Witch feel. I liked it.
Also, something else that me giggle - Dean mentions using the sacred signs, or whatever, of the Anasazi. Heee. I liked the reference, but I didn't realise until later how neat it is - "Anasazi" is the XF episode where Mulder searches for his father. Heee.
The third episode has a title that temporarily escapes me, but it involved scary things in lakes and made me apprehensive about taking a shower. It seems Amy Acker is terribly sweet whatever she's in, and I did like her role in this one. In fact, I don't know exactly why, but I liked a lot about this episode. Dean bonding with small children - awww. I have said "awww" a lot during the course of this entry. I begin to think this may be a recurring theme as I keep watching.
And while I'm reviewing TV, I also wanted to babble a bit about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the pilot for that. I never watched the pre-aired pilot because I decided to watch for the real one, and, um. I'm not sure. I thought the first ten minutes of the show were unmitigatedly marvellous, and very Sorkin - to coin an adjective - but I was sort of unsure about the rest of it. I got the feeling it was about half an hour of material stretched out to the full slot. Which isn't to say there wasn't a lot I liked about it. To start with, E4 are back on the first season of Friends at the moment, and I was just thinking how much I liked, and still do like, Matthew Perry. Chandler as he was remains one of my favourite characters written for television - the humour as defence mechanism! the man as mass of seething neuroses! the "homosexual quality"! - and part of it was the charm of the actor. You can see that with Matt on Studio 60 - putting him on Vicodin was a delightfully surreal touch - and I sort of think he and Danny (whom I liked too) will be the big slash pairing of 2007.
In fact, I think it's the exposition that worried me a bit, here. The issues they've got flying around - censorship, Jordan vs. the rest of the universe, Matt breaking up with whatever-her-name-is over Pat Robertson, Danny and his cocaine addiction, etc., etc. - they sort of need to be exposited (not a word, but should be), and I'm kind of thinking that's not something you need to worry about once they've dealt with the pilot. So, basically, I think it was good, but could get a lot better.
One last thing while I'm still chatting about Sorkin. Pedar and I are making a thing about watching The West Wing together (last one tonight, woe), and tonight we were watching one called "Enemies", which opens with Leo and his daughter snarking magnificently at each other over breakfast. We were watching without comment, and then he turned to me and said, "In ten years, that's going to be us, isn't it."
It wasn't a question. Sigh.
And now, to bed! Sans eggs and bacon, but you can't have everything.
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no subject
on 2006-09-25 03:49 am (UTC)Check out some of the names on the production side. *g*
I've seen the last two episodes of the season in the last two weeks. I'm still a bit lost, and if for some reason I was prevented from seeing anymore, I'd have no problems, but it's fun nonetheless. I think I'll like it more once I see some standalone eps, rather than the arc-heavy ones I've seen.
no subject
on 2006-09-27 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-25 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-25 04:18 am (UTC)Same here.
I thought the episode was good enough, I suppose, but the first ten minutes were brilliant. I think maybe I only felt let down by the rest of the episode because it didn't really live up to the promise of the first part.
I am looking forward to seeing how the series turns out though.
no subject
on 2006-09-27 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-09-25 11:47 am (UTC)Are you a West Wing devotee as well?
no subject
on 2006-09-27 12:26 am (UTC)Yes, ish. I've been watching the first season episodes on television and really getting into it, but I'm yet to really see much.
no subject
on 2006-09-27 01:50 am (UTC)I wonder if it will be the same for Studio 60. I dunno if you've seen the second ep yet but I by the end of it my faith was restored in Sorkin. still not loving that Jordan woman yet tho.
no subject
on 2006-09-25 04:42 pm (UTC)"I was doing neither."
"You were doing it with your voice."
Oh, I miss when TWW was good so much. *sigh*
And yay! You have Studio 60 and Supernatural (which everyone on my flist is becoming obsessed with but I have never bothered downloading) so I can borrow/watch them when you get back to Oxford, riiight? *hopeful face*
no subject
on 2006-09-27 12:27 am (UTC)Any chance I can do a swap for TWW? *very hopeful face*
no subject
on 2006-09-27 10:41 am (UTC)