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quarter_to_five ...to be followed by a post on The Serious Atlantic Episodes, after I rewatch those, because - chewy.
(What do you call the whole of the archipelago that includes Ireland and Great Britain and the Isle of Man and the Orkneys and so on? "The British Isles" sounds like it's leaving out Ireland, though it appears to be technically correct according to Wikipedia, which is all I need.)
So these first four episodes of the season are kind of ridiculous, but they're fun! They may be summerized as the one in Cannes, the one with Armin Shimmerman, the one in Malta and the one with baseball. (And later theres the other one in Malta, that I think belongs here as well, thematically, and thats as far as i've watched. Why Malta? Who knows.)
- I like the international setting a lot. They're cheesy as all out, but i'm a Geography student and changes of scenery are like crack to me. The qualities of the landscape in contributing to the narrative and all that.
- Laura finally wears something to equal the leather suit! Pleated-balloony-tapering white pants that manage to make someone with Stephanie Zimbalist's figure look shapeless, which is quite an achievement, and I do wonder what that big rhomboid peacock shirt-thing ever did to sequins that sequins would do that back.
- Oh, they've broken up. Yeah, right.
- Steele investigating a crime he committed is ace. Laura is a better detective than he is, but she's also a better investigator than he is a crook.
- For a hardened criminal and all that, he sure does tend to be terribly helpful to anyone who rings him up asking for a favour. (I continue to massively heart all of the ways in which Steele's character is not an awful human being. And the ways in which he is a bit of an awful human being, but never in the simple, cliched (gender normalized) ways I expect with this kind of character.)
- Baseball episode was sort of charmingly wtf, probably because I don't know anything at all about Baseball and have no sense whatsoever of it's associated mythology or anything. "America!"
- The icy villainous adultress (I think...I kind of lost track of the complicated spouse-ex spouse-lover hexagon at some point) does jump in a golf cart in a daring escape attempt there, which struck me as another one of those moments where a woman got to do something, even though there was a male character around who could have done it or it could have gone undone all together. It seems like it shouldn't be jumping out at me, but it constantly is.
- I was thinking the workout machine thing looked unusually like torture, even for a workout machine thing, and woah, 80's were hardcore, but then it was actually used as a torture device, so hopefully it was simply a particularly egregious subspecies.
- Has Armin Shimmerman ever gotten to play anyone other than the really grouchy guy with a secret - but still kind of twisted and pathetic - soft spot?
- The daydream sequences were hilariously over the top and slightly painful to watch, but also rather sneakily self aware and deconstructive in a lot of ways, of both the characters and the show's premise. "Your mysterious past was much better when it was mysterious," and Steele's daydreams contrasting between working class, family life America and a James Bondian casino somewhere on the continent, but both of them exaggerated and mocked. (And I can't help it, French hooker Laura was funny. And making out with a sailor on the roulette table was a perfect touch, tonally speaking. Despite being, y'know, ridiculous.) Laura, on the other hand, daydreaming about snapping and putting Steele in his place. I do like that even this far on, with Steele being a more competent investigator and the relashionship between them more complicated, Laura is still proud of her work and still frustrated with being overlooked and sidelined. (Actually from some episode in S2. Oh well.)
- Robots! Why not, robots.
- Laura fights bureaucracy!
- Shades of Terminator 2 and Sarah Connor (pre-shades? Arthur C. Clarkian Childhood's End style genetic future-memory of media? Something) with Laura breaking out of the mental ward and the overturned iron frame bed.
In conclusion, Laura + Sarah Connor, running amok in the 80's - best thing ever?
(What do you call the whole of the archipelago that includes Ireland and Great Britain and the Isle of Man and the Orkneys and so on? "The British Isles" sounds like it's leaving out Ireland, though it appears to be technically correct according to Wikipedia, which is all I need.)
So these first four episodes of the season are kind of ridiculous, but they're fun! They may be summerized as the one in Cannes, the one with Armin Shimmerman, the one in Malta and the one with baseball. (And later theres the other one in Malta, that I think belongs here as well, thematically, and thats as far as i've watched. Why Malta? Who knows.)
- I like the international setting a lot. They're cheesy as all out, but i'm a Geography student and changes of scenery are like crack to me. The qualities of the landscape in contributing to the narrative and all that.
- Laura finally wears something to equal the leather suit! Pleated-balloony-tapering white pants that manage to make someone with Stephanie Zimbalist's figure look shapeless, which is quite an achievement, and I do wonder what that big rhomboid peacock shirt-thing ever did to sequins that sequins would do that back.
- Oh, they've broken up. Yeah, right.
- Steele investigating a crime he committed is ace. Laura is a better detective than he is, but she's also a better investigator than he is a crook.
- For a hardened criminal and all that, he sure does tend to be terribly helpful to anyone who rings him up asking for a favour. (I continue to massively heart all of the ways in which Steele's character is not an awful human being. And the ways in which he is a bit of an awful human being, but never in the simple, cliched (gender normalized) ways I expect with this kind of character.)
- Baseball episode was sort of charmingly wtf, probably because I don't know anything at all about Baseball and have no sense whatsoever of it's associated mythology or anything. "America!"
- The icy villainous adultress (I think...I kind of lost track of the complicated spouse-ex spouse-lover hexagon at some point) does jump in a golf cart in a daring escape attempt there, which struck me as another one of those moments where a woman got to do something, even though there was a male character around who could have done it or it could have gone undone all together. It seems like it shouldn't be jumping out at me, but it constantly is.
- I was thinking the workout machine thing looked unusually like torture, even for a workout machine thing, and woah, 80's were hardcore, but then it was actually used as a torture device, so hopefully it was simply a particularly egregious subspecies.
- Has Armin Shimmerman ever gotten to play anyone other than the really grouchy guy with a secret - but still kind of twisted and pathetic - soft spot?
- The daydream sequences were hilariously over the top and slightly painful to watch, but also rather sneakily self aware and deconstructive in a lot of ways, of both the characters and the show's premise. "Your mysterious past was much better when it was mysterious," and Steele's daydreams contrasting between working class, family life America and a James Bondian casino somewhere on the continent, but both of them exaggerated and mocked. (And I can't help it, French hooker Laura was funny. And making out with a sailor on the roulette table was a perfect touch, tonally speaking. Despite being, y'know, ridiculous.) Laura, on the other hand, daydreaming about snapping and putting Steele in his place. I do like that even this far on, with Steele being a more competent investigator and the relashionship between them more complicated, Laura is still proud of her work and still frustrated with being overlooked and sidelined. (Actually from some episode in S2. Oh well.)
- Robots! Why not, robots.
- Laura fights bureaucracy!
- Shades of Terminator 2 and Sarah Connor (pre-shades? Arthur C. Clarkian Childhood's End style genetic future-memory of media? Something) with Laura breaking out of the mental ward and the overturned iron frame bed.
In conclusion, Laura + Sarah Connor, running amok in the 80's - best thing ever?
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 06:52 pm (UTC)Sequined shoulder pads!