Television: Numb3rs, Blood Ties, Atlantis, Doctor Who

[butterfly]

First off, Children in Need aired! There's New Who! Squee! So, here we go: let's squee about "Time Crash", which was thoroughly delightful. Steven Moffat gives great dialogue, clearly has a lot of affection for both New and Old Who, and the segment was short enough not to need a plot and completely lacking in original female characters (which means that the things that bother me about his writing had no reason to exist).

Spectacular. Really, really great. Full of fantastically funny lines ("Still have that rubbish beard?" "No. Well, he did have a wife.") and good enough excuses for why everything was happening. And it was really sweet to see David get to fanboy Peter Davidson as the Doctor. The fifth Doctor is my second favorite, so I was really looking forward to seeing how he'd interact with my favorite. And it was wonderful!

Seven to eight minutes of pure joy. "Give all my love to long ago." Aw.

Numb3rs: Tabu

Again, Amita had a lot of speaking time. She's been getting to do a lot of her particular math stuff and just be a primary part of the cast. It's really nice. I think I was pretty thrilled with everyone this week. And David was back, which was nice. And Sean Patrick Flanery as a guest star made me happy. I like him. I really adore his voice -- he does a lot of different accents in the various roles of him that I've seen, but his voice is always so identifiable to me. He's always terrific.

Good episode.

Blood Ties: Drawn and Quartered

Again, I'm so thrilled and happy with the show in general that it folds over into my episode watching. I loved finding out more about Henry's past (was really glad when we found out that he didn't eat the mother, because I was worried for a bit). Adored all the Henry and Vicki interaction, though, wow, Henry really is so very much Vicki's. He pushes his hand against Mike's chest, Mike tells him to put it down, they glare at each other. Vicki says Henry's name and Henry drops his hand immediately.

I'm coming to discover that this is one of my relationship kinks -- Lois and Clark, the Doctor and Rose, and now Vicki and Henry. All feature an extraordinarily strong-willed human woman and an alien/long-lived/superpowered not-quite-human man. All cases where the woman holds the emotional control in the relationship, despite the man having more appearance of power, and the relationship ends up being one between equals, with mutual respect Of course, I also ship Buffy/Xander, which is an example of a superpowered woman and a 'normal' man, so it does go both ways for me. They're also all relationships where the friendship is more important than the romance, which is something I'm drawn to in slash as well.

Anyway, I adored him asking her to his showing. I loved when he shared that bit of his past with her. And I really loved him in that outfit at the gallery, with the eyeliner and the shiny belt buckle. Very Ewan McGregor from Velvet Goldmine.

And that moment when she gets lost in his eyes and doesn't realize that he's telling her that somebody's coming up the stairs (and their break-and-enter work might be discovered) was really adorable.

I'm pleased at how Henry really does feel that Maya is 'too young' for him (based on knowing her as a child). It's refreshing, actually. Too many times, I see the whole 'I protected you as a child, but you're a woman now and wow are you hot. Let's make out' thing. And it always bugs me.

Once again, Blood Ties avoids hitting my squicks and makes me happy instead.

SGA: The Seer

I'm glad that Teyla's arc is continuing. This episode was good -- strong Sheppard, McKay, and Carter (missed Zelenka, though). Sam really got to flex her leadership skills, John got to come to a place of peace with her as a leader, and Rodney was just really cute. I don't have a lot to say, but this season of Atlantis is really making me happy.

Also, I watched the pilot episode of Moonlight and it's funny that I mention my 'wow, are you hot' squick above, because the Beth/Mick interaction was really pushing the line for me. It wasn't even overtly romantic, it just set my teeth on edge.

Anyway, I watched Moonlight because it's a vampire PI show and I was curious about it (especially after how great Blood Ties has been to catch up on). I have to say that I'm not impressed so far. Mick is clearly a Sam Spade type, but what works for me in black and white movies doesn't work quite so well in the bright flashing colors of L.A. Plus, the vampires in Moonlight appear to be even better off than the ones in Blood Ties (sun doesn't burn them up and they can gather in groups and be buddies) yet Mick is so... joyless (it reminds me of the difference between QaFUK's Stuart and QaFUS's Brian. Stuart had so much more joy).

I have a question -- it's very hard to kill vamps in this 'verse (decapitation and possibly burning to ash), so why is Josef (who Mick said was around four hundred) one of the oldest vampires that Mick knows? Where did the older ones go? Is there a site for Moonlight vampire mythology so that it'll make sense to me? Unless he was just saying he's too young (and thus, not cool enough) for them to hang out with. Which I'll buy, because he is very much young and not cool.

Beth was... hmm. Kinda dumb, I thought. It was obvious to me (and Mick) that that the marks were not a bite the second that I saw them, but Beth really thought it was one. She's got some grit, but showed very little brain (and, as Henry said in BT, bravery is a powerfully attractive trait... stupidity is not).

The character that I came out of the episode liking the most was Josef, but even he was quite a bit of an asshole.

Because I did watch Blood Ties first, I'm not sure whether this show pales in comparison or if I would have found it as blah even without comparing Mick to Henry, Beth to Vicki (also, Vicki to Mick, as far as PIs go), and the complete lack of someone like Mike (well, Beth's cop friend has potential, but we barely saw him).

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It gets better? Hmm. Well, if Mick does get less broody, I might get to like him. He's cute. His face reminds me a little of Don from Numb3rs.

Thanks for commenting. I'll go ahead and check out a few more episodes.

[embitca.livejournal.com]

It does get better. Fair warning though, I found the first 55 minutes of episode 2 horribly lame. The last five minutes though are awesome! ep 3 is better and ep 4 is great.

I can see a little Rob Morrow there, for sure! Especially in profile.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'll give it at least until the fourth episode, then. Thanks so much for the information (though, really, I shouldn't be so happy -- the last thing that I need is another new show).