Dexter S04E12

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Many major spoilers for the end of Dexter Season 4 (the one with the Trinity Killer) below.

Given this show has a twisty history unlike most others, I’m laying bets there’s a good chance it wasn’t Trinity who killed Rita. If it was, fine, but I’ll probably be a little disappointed, since typically nothing on this show is what it seems. I won’t be surprised if next year sometime we find out it was someone else, and they staged it to look like Trinity.

Rita was definitely stuffed in a fridge, and while I’ve never been really wild about Rita, her being fridged is a pretty good illustration of why I feel "meh" about her: the character has always been about the writers needing to put Dexter somewhere or make Dexter do something or complicate Dexter’s life. Rita’s pretty much always been a backboard to bounce Dexter off of and never a real character in her own right. I was honestly not at all surprised. As much as I like this show and as much as I like some of the female characters — especially Deb — the writing of Rita has always been full of fail.

I do wonder what kind of aftermath we’ll see, because ,while that’s not typically how fridging goes, the aftermath and Dexter dealing with suddenly being a single father of three might be the point in this particular case. And how is Dexter’s going to explain all this at work, because he has to report it and, whether Trinity killed her or not, it looks like he did; everyone’s going to be asking why, especially ’cause she doesn’t fit the pattern. Also, at some point won’t the Miller family talk about that Kyle Butler fellow that kept showing up and seemed to know something was up with Arthur? Talk yourself out of THAT one, Dexter Morgan. I double-dog dare you.

I hope the writers are setting up Deb to figure Dexter out next season, because I think that would be an interesting story to tell, and ’cause Deb is awesomecakes and I want lots more of her. Also it seems like they’re setting up the dominos in just that way, what with Deb figuring out about Dexter’s mom and all that.

Anyway. Good season finale. Looking forward to next year. I am already grumbly about having to wait so long.

Dollhouse and Merlin and Dexter, Oh My!

Monday, December 7th, 2009

So I’ve caught up on a bunch of TV I didn’t have time to watch over the weekend. Some open letters with varying degrees of spoilers, in no particular order:

Dear Dollhouse:

Why are you getting canceled just as you’re really starting to get that special kind of good? You can’t just give me Epitaph One Topher and Adelle, then Topher and Doctor Saunders, and a Sierra episode that did everything wrong right, and Alexis Denisof being so fantastic, then Topher and Bennett, Ballard finally fucking learning something and letting Madeline choose and fall, and Victor!Topher, and the crown jewel of Actual Topher and Victor!Topher scheming in synchronized geekery, and then tell me this show is cancelled? For serious?

This show was pretty mediocre at the start of the first season. And no matter how many tiny ways Eliza Dushku occasionally sucks me in (and she did a few times in this two-parter for sure, especially as we start to understand that sweet Caroline may not be so sweet after all) it’s always going to be the characters on her peripherals that make this show win. But somewhere four or five episodes from the end of season one, this show hit its stride and aside from a bump or two it hasn’t really looked back. I love the way it plays with identities, the way it asks questions about technology and what makes us human and who we are once our minds are no longer our own. Bodies are hardware and minds are software and the Topher-tinkerers sit in little rooms and write stories with pictures of brains in computers and empty dolls in glowing chairs. I have never seen a show with so much relevant commentary on science and morality and spirituality, and so, so many shades of gray. I can hardly keep up with them all and I love it.

At least we’ll get some of the loose ends tied up. Or at least hopefully understand the direction they were pointing.

So sad there’s only a few more,

Chelle

Dear Merlin:

Can we at least attempt to keep Arthur’s character somewhat even from episode to episode? Please? Pretty please? Yes, we’ve established the guy’s an arrogant prick sometimes and an honourable softie some other times, but instead of schizophrenic extremes of his personality, could we find a nice middle ground? I much prefer seeing both sides of his character play against each other like in the episode where he stayed at Gwen’s to this weekly ping-ponging.

Begging for the tiniest bit of consistency,

Chelle

Dear Dexter:

It is unfair that I have to wait almost an entire week for your season finale. You are such a tease.

Excited,

Chelle

PS: I love Deb. Even more than Dexter now. Because she is just awesome. There, I admitted it.

Waters of Mars: Ye Olde Reaction Post

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

First reactions: ZOMG AWESOME.

Coherent reactions: Honestly, I’ve been wondering and hoping we were going to get a crazy Ten arc (even a small one, which it looks like is all we get but I digress) because the build up with Runaway Bride then all of season four and even the little small things over the last two specials what with Ten refusing companionship… it just seemed to be heading in that direction. RTD, I am glad you do not disappoint or fake me out.

Ten has always been a little bit crazy in a way Nine wasn’t, especially since losing Rose the first time but even before that. The only thing that ever kept him sane were his companions, and what with this self-imposed loneliness over the last who knows how long, I’m not at all surprised to see him crack apart. The last ten minutes of this episode, watching him take on the laws of Time and abandon all his principles, was really excellent. And then his calm unrepentant arrogance with Adalaide at the end just before Time comes back and backhands him? Chilly. Oncoming storm indeed.

Adalaide was fantastic, and it was excellent to see him always running to keep up with her. From the time he lands on Mars, for maybe the first time in a long time, the Doctor isn’t in control and RTD played that beautifully. Every step of the way the Doctor is either battling with his own demons and completely unable to beat them down without someone, and even physically he’s constantly behind Adalaide, who has a date with fate and yet still manages to be in better control of the situation than the Doctor is.

His speech about fixed points and destiny? Really lovely. Inspiration and joy painted over sadness. Well delivered and well received. One of the things I love about this series is how most of the time the Doctor can change or meddle or adjust things except sometimes when it matters. Generally universes embrace one thing or the other, but this show manages to say that sometimes both are true and somehow that makes them both mean more. This special was about that, how some moments in time are necessary and important and unbreakable, and yet those are the ones he wants to change the most. You always want the thing you can’t have.

I kind of wish we could have more crazy Ten. I think a three or four episode arc of crazy Ten could be totally and completely awesome. But it doesn’t look like that’s what we’ll get, so I guess I have to be okay with ten minutes of it. Ten, I will miss your angst most of all. Who will lonely-eyes when you’re gone? I think maybe Ten invented angst. It’s probably an adventure we didn’t see. Someone fic it for me, ‘kay? :D

Also: unexpected Ood was unexpected. And weird. I’m assuming that will all make sense at Christmas, otherwise you can expect some sort of WTF OOD post at that point.

But ZOMG DONNA! I adore Donna. I want her back and I want her awesome so badly, and all throughout this episode all I could think of was how much the Doctor needed Donna. Not Rose, Donna. I hope somewhere Donna woke up and had an irrepressible urge to yell at someone.

And WILF! And platinum blond skeletor!Master. *cackles*

Sanctuary

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

I mentioned at work the other day that I felt there was a major Sci-Fi TV show hole gap in my life, what with Battlestar Galactica being over and it being a very Who-light year, and someone told me I should check out Sanctuary.

I have, and it’s awesome in a cracky kinda way. It’s one of those shows that draws from myth and folklore and gives prominent historical figures super powers and has secret societies, and I’m a sucker for that kind of thing. They don’t build most of the sets, but shoot a lot of green screen with CG rendered sets in the background, which is a little bit jarring but also gives it a unique look and feel that sometimes really works, considering the subject matter. The actor playing the lead male role throws me off because sometimes he looks and sounds like James Marsters and sometimes he looks and sounds like Tom Cruise, and it’s a strange mix of impressions. It also mixes up some gender roles which is interesting, putting female characters as aggressive and having them fill the roles of physical protectors and analytical scientific thinkers while the male lead is more intuitive, emotional, and plays less of a role in the Ass Kicking that happens in each episode. They manage to do it generally without making the males seem less masculine or the females less feminine, which definitely appeals to me.

Anyway. This show has exactly the kind of bait a show needs to lure in an unsuspecting Chelle. And lured in I have been.

Stuff About TV & Miscellaneous

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Happy National Punctuation Day. Are you punctuating properly?

TV round-up: Spoilers for HIMYM, Criminal Minds, Bones, Glee, & Dollhouse

How I Met Your Mother: I’m so relieved the writers aren’t screwing up the Robin/Barney thing, because what a shame that would be. I like that their relationship is more about the moment they’re in than what the future might hold or whether they’re compatible long term. And you know what? Some relationships are like that and that’s okay. Not everything has to be about forever ’til death do us part. Not all relationships need borders and rules and labels and futures. At the end of the episode Lily’s smugly convinced she knows what’s what, and that moment bothered me even if it reads true to life; people uncomfortable with relationships that blur the line between friend and lover force labels on them so they fit neatly into a world view those people don’t necessarily share, and it’s extremely frustrating. I hope the writers resist the temptation to force Robin and Barney to be something they aren’t. Not every couple’s happy ending has wedding bells and babies.

Criminal Minds: OMG poor Hotch. The scene with Jack in the hospital room broke my heart. And also, how much are the writers teasing the Prentiss/Hotch shippers, eh? Other than that, my critique is mostly of the NEEDS MOAR GARCIA variety.

I really love all the women on Criminal Minds. AJ, who did not buckle to society’s expectations and quit her job to be a stay-at-home mom (and what a wonderful show it is that gives us a man who gets it and decides on his own to relocate and become a stay-at-home dad, eh?). Emily Prentiss, who is professional, competent, efficient, and can compartmentalize without becoming the cold, ice-queen cliche. And my dear, wonderful Penelope Garcia, who is who she is and makes no apologies for it, who is unabashedly awesome without having to be a gun-toting, ultra-skinny super-agent because there are so many other ways to be a hero and this show just gets that.

Bones: AHHHHH JUST KISS ALREADY. Sweets, I usually love you but SHUT. UP. Though I suppose the romantic tension between Booth and Brennan is a pretty integral part of why this show works, so I get the writers being hedgy about getting them together. Still. WHATEVER, SHOW. Also, the payoff for Booth’s coma was kind of lame. They couldn’t have given us one or two episodes of Brennan angst before his memories started to come back? I understand the show can’t go for very long with Booth not solving crime because it is, at it’s core, a Crime Of The Week show, but there could have been one episode dealing with Booth’s amnesia. Ball, you has dropped it.

Glee: Ugh, this whole pregnancy storyline is brutal. I’m sick of it already and it’s only episode four. I wants more dancing football players, more music, and more Emma. I do like that Will’s not catering to Rachel’s need to be the star of everything. But that part where she was like WAH WHY DON’T I HAVE THE SOLO AND THE BOYFRIEND AND THE RESPECT IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT made me want to throw something at my TV. It is sort of interesting that we have a protagonist who is at times genuinely unlikeable, and depending on what they do with her arc it could be brilliant or just awful.

My biggest problem with Glee at the moment is how little I care about the characters over all. I’m basically watching it for the musical numbers at this point, but if I continue to be uninspired to give a damn about the people then I might start catching the musical numbers via youtube. Show, I want to like you for more than the razzle-dazzle, but you’re making it very difficult. A few more flat episodes and I’m probably gonna tune you out.

Dollhouse: On tomorrow, so we’ll see. Some spoilers in this interview at Television Without Pity here. I’m especially keen to see Summer Glau play Topher’s mirror in another house. Also, because I love Alexis Denisof, hurray for Alexis Denisof! I’m stoked about the promise of more stories set in the Epitaph One future, too.