Right now I'm going through all of Charmed, Holmes on Holmes, and MASH for completion, and through Alias, Cowboy Bebop, QI, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Tom Baker's Doctor Who all for the first time. As well as going through Burn Notice again to write down the spy tips.
I've gotten through two seasons of Charmed and one of Alias. Charmed is a fun, sort of casual, show to watch. Reruns are on the TV all the time, and it's more a monster-of-the-week type show, so big story arcs aren't that important, so it's pleasant and possible to just watch whatever is on TV. But I like big story arcs, hence going through them all in order. For me, it feels like a guilty pleasure show. It doesn't always have good stories, and at times the mythology of the show can just seem a bit stupid. I mean, gaining a witch's powers through blood injection? Leo not recognizing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse one second, and then rattling off all the things other Four Horsemen have done in the past 50 years? Or monkeys mastering their powers in a day when it took the Charmed Ones several episodes to come even close to that? But even with all of that (those were only from the 2nd and 3rd to last episodes of the second season) I still enjoy watching the show. It is still fun enough to cover for it's flaws. And speaking of flaws, how about free will. They make a huge point about humans having free will and blah blah blah. Good couldn't step in and help because of free will and they needed to make the decision to be good on their own. But they also harp on 'everything happens for a reason' which just screams predestination. Everything is going to be alright now because you were predestined to make the right choice through free will. Although my personal opinion on free will is that it doesn't matter at all. But that's a subject for another blog post.
Alias is a totally different type of show. It is very heavy on mythology and long story arcs. It reminds me a bit of Whedon shows. The characterization is quite amazing. Every character that is introduced has the feeling of a fully fleshed out person, and seems quite unique. And if they aren't killed off by the end of the episode, it starts delving into the character, showing new sides and revealing insights into different aspects in totally unexpected ways. I've heard that by the end of the show's run, Alias has countless organizations and betrayals and such. At the moment, it seems like that sort of thing could be pulled off in a very good way. Everyone has such rich motivation and backstory, as well as having resources to work on their own goals, that is seems plausible, or even likely, that everyone goes off in there own directions, instead of static 'teams' all working together on everything. This is why I am loving this show right now. What I'm not loving is the pacing. It seems like every commercial break is brought on by a huge revelation that feels like the end of an episode. Except it feels like the end of the episode around three or four times during the episode. And the cliffhangers that do end episodes have a different sort of punch. They seem less fulfilling, generally Sidney in peril from some threat that she'll be able to deal with in the first two minutes of the next episode. So the ends of episodes seem like lame breaks in a longer action scene, while commercial breaks are big plot and character revelations. The commercials leave me wanting more, and the ends just make me say 'meh'. It seems like such a silly thing, but (if you couldn't tell by how I've been rambling on about it (hey - rambling - like the blog title)) it just really bugs me. But the characters bring me back wanting more. Even if the plots can be kind of stupid. The whole Rambaldi storyline is a bit ridiculous. The characters going after each of the pieces in the puzzle is quite entertaining, but the puzzle itself just seems stupid. Crazy prophet that saw the future, and now governments and secret organizations are all clambering over the pieces and hinged on Rambaldi's every dead word. That's the other thing that really bugs me. 'She shall rend down the highest power' Your run-of-the-mill vague prophecy. When that was first revealed, there were three options where it could go - 1. The highest power is the US and by accusing Sydney they brought it on themselves. 2. The highest power is actually the bad guys that Sydney will eventually bring down. 3.Sydney isn't the she. It looks like they're going with Sydney's mother and the US as the two people in the prophecy, but my money is still on Sydney and the bad guys. It makes for the more compelling story and is really the only option if you're going with Rambaldi is right about everything. Because the woman mentioned is unstoppable, so either Sydney loses or Rambaldi is wrong. Sydney losing would be a great option in my opinion (heroes are way to successful, so it's fun when they lose), but the show would never end with that. They'll play with the idea all the time, but they'd never have it be final. Rambaldi being wrong just messes up their whole mythology. It's a stupid mythology, and actually, I would only be slightly surprised if they went with that. In the long run, Sydney is bound to win and Rambaldi, who may seem to be wrong for a time, will have actually been right all along.
Some of the other shows may get a write up in due course, and Charmed and Alias may get mentioned again when I get further along. But for now, it's time to make some more spy notes.
*edit* Holy crap. I just skimmed over the post after posting this and couldn't believe how long those paragraphs were. Hopefully, the blog title warned you. I am quite prone to rambling. If you actually did read through the whole thing - congratulations.
at Sunday, July 03, 2011
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