Daredevil is awesome and if you haven't seen it, you should!

You guys, I am sold on Daredevil now. I didn't give two flips about the old movie or the comics before, and when they said they were making the show, I was like, okay that's fine, but I was more excited about AKA Jessica Jones because she'd be the first female lead in the MCU to get her own thing. But this show, you guys, this is how you make someone care about a dark, gritty, brutal story of a good man making extreme choices.

In no particular order, some things I want to think about:

This is not really an origin story. When the show starts, he's already a vigilante, and he's already starting to get noticed. Which is great, because I sort of hate origin stories now that we've had so many of the same ones over and over again. (cough - Batman and Spiderman and Superman - cough) He's still early in his career, doesn't yet have his suit, and because of that, he's making choices on the fly, he's hitting his limits, he's getting his ass kicked a lot, and he's dealing with actual consequences. It's unclear in the show whether he actually has powers, exactly, but even if he does, they don't include any of the useful superhero ones like healing or invulnerability--and that forces his lone-wolf-ness to compromise, and he gets Claire, who is awesome and who patches him up and sort of falls for him. And later, more people to help him, even when they still don't know what he's doing with the help.

In fact, the show constantly deals with consequences, something the MCU movies only do when it's convenient. It's not convenient here--but a thirteen episode series has a lot more space to watch things play out, I guess, so this is where it'll be.

Also, for most of the show, he's just a dude in black clothes, like a Navy SEAL with a face mask. Which I actually liked the look of more than the actual suit, but you know he had to get that suit before the end of the series.

There's connections to the MCU Big Plot, but they aren't integral. SHIELD keeps getting tangled up in their promise to connect everything, and then not actually being able to because of dumb plot points they won't drop for whatever reason, like Coulson supposedly being dead. Here, that doesn't matter much. They vaguely reference the Battle of New York, because they're there and things happened around them, but their purpose is much closer to home. Street-level, like the pre-release stuff said. They're dealing with the crime and corruption that existed before the Battle, and the fact that there are super heroes in the world is treated like the way we treat sports stars and celebrities--it's not the center of the world, it's some distant other thing that most people don't worry about on a daily basis. Which is nice, because it means this is definitely in that world, but it can tell its own story without being hampered.

SHIELD should take note.

The villain is the saddest creature ever created. Wilson Fisk is quiet, shy, possibly neuro-atypical, the victim of terrible abuse, and honestly thinks that what he's doing will save the city he honestly loves. He's extreme, but he makes so much sense, that he's way scarier than I've ever seen him be onscreen in any other version, and mostly what I feel for him is sadness. This huge, crushing sadness that can't quite excuse anything he did, but also knows why he did, which makes it a multi-layered sadness.

He obviously loves Wesley, who is a different sort of sociopath, and was loved by him in return. He fell for Vanessa almost at first sight. And a villain who can love is one that I love, because that's a well-rounded, multi-faceted character. He is complex and nuanced, and basically stole the show.

I feared constantly for all the women, and they all did fine. In shows that call themselves "gritty", I've come to take that to mean, at least some of the time, "women get really shitty behavior directed at them", so I was a little worried going in, and as I got to like Claire and Karen and Vanessa, I got a lot worried. The old lady was killed, which hurt, but Vanessa recovered from poison, Claire was not beaten to death and held her own as much as she could, and Karen didn't go insane or get killed or anything. None of them were sexually attacked, which was awesome, because too many shows rely on that to weaken or damage female characters, and this show didn't need that.

There's humor! And it's used right! The best use was when they were contrasting how poorly Foggy took the news of Matt's side job with how happy they were in college--those scenes where they were young and drunk and happy were so silly and sweet, and then brutally opposite from the pain and struggle of the present-day dealing-with-the-truth. Plus, through the rest of it, Matt is a sweet dork, but he will dangle you off a roof and punch you three-quarters to death to get the information he needs. Foggy is adorable, and his joking only gets more poignant as she show progresses, and when Karen stops joking with him, it makes it even more so.

It makes the rest of the MCU look like it's hobbled by it's rating. The fighting is brutal, much more brutal than any of the rest of the MCU stuff. There's blood and people die and things go wrong and there's lots and lots of actual physical damage that has to be healed and never really gets a chance to--like, at one point, Matt is speared with a hook and dragged across the floor, which should have left him in the hospital, but that he just deals with.

But it's also beautifully done, with all these long, slow single-takes, and this artful use of seeing and not seeing what's happening, and the lighting and cinematography was gorgeous. I wished that I could synch my Hue lights to it, actually, because some of the lighting was that pretty.

It hammers home the stance that this show seems to take that the bad and the good are always side-by-side, and that you can't have one without the other.

The pacing is great. At the beginning, it feels a little slow, but after a few episodes you see why it's slow, and that's so you can really get to know these characters, so you can really see how everything is set up and how little movement it takes to make it all fall down. It's a remarkably quiet show, overall, with only a small cast most of the time, and these quietly tense conversations happening all over the place--and then it's punctuated with amazing fight scenes that get really violent, with Fisk flipping out and then getting control of himself again, with explosions seen from across town, with all sorts of really beautiful and terrible things that are given the actual chance to punctuate. And it's all paced perfectly so that when we get to those punctuations, they have the right weight and impact.

It's renewed for season two! This was a whole story, and it could have stood as is (with minor interaction with AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, which I'm pretty sure this show set up without us even realizing it, since it deals with all these different gang factions), but now it doesn't have to. I was so happy when it was announced that it was coming back, because now we can see how these characters fare in the future! What will Fisk do? Will Vanessa become a villain in her own right? How will Foggy and Matt handle this second life, and when will Karen tell them what she did and when will she find out who Matt also is? Will Claire come back?

I can't wait.


How about you, readers? What did you take away from this show? What are your favorite details?

@pirategirljack livetweet roundup Week 17 2015

MONDAY 4-20-15

 Tweets about #scorpion from:pirategirljack include:retweets

You guys, that finale had ALL THE FEELS. Like, we all knew Walter was going to be okay, what with him being the main character, and, like, a real person who is alive, but what we didn't know was how or will it be  now or will we have to wait through an endless cliffhanger? We didn't have to wait--thank God--but also, we didn't have to deal with a cliffhanger after that previous one! I approve of seasons NOT ending on cliffhangers!

Also, being someone who watches TV shows for their emotional and character content more than for their "core episodes", I really liked this finale. The story was as simple as could be--Walter was on a cliff and had to not die with his team's help. But the genius (see what I did there) was in how the storylines set up by the last few episodes were resolved by the characters and, further, by them working together. Look:

• Toby and Happy have been sort of tense around each other; fixed by them leading the team to save Walter, as evidenced by the two of them together watching Ralph so Paige could stay with Walter in the hospital.
• Cabe was off the team and off Homeland; solved by him coming in and helping anyway, and being the literal last hope of the rescue effort. Walter even came to his senses about his sense of betrayal and they had a whole moment of apologies.
• Sly got his RC bird back, and proved yet again that he's underappreciated.
• Paige followed through with her decision to take Ralph somewhere safe--but realized that it was a bad decision the second she saw Walter on that news report and didn't even question the need to go back, to be there, to rejoin the team, Ralph and all. And at the end, there was the payoff of Ralph actually connecting with her and thanking her very sweetly for coming back.
• And there was Walter. He admitted he was emotional and that he didn't know what to do with it. He made up with Cabe. He gave every one of them a special message, reminding them of his favorite memories of each. He almost confessed his feelings for Paige (though since it's a first season they couldn't allow that, could they?? (I'm looking at you, 12 Monkeys, too)). 
• And at the very end, Paige confessed her feelings first, and it was very sweet.

All in all, exactly what a finale should be--emotionally complex, very effecting, and about these people we're watching the show for, not about the plots. Take a hint, NCISLA, who are in the same world but keep ending on crazy cliffhangers that wind up meaning nothing as soon as we come back.

Tweets about #gotham from:pirategirljack include:retweets

This show. Like, I like this show, and I watch it every week, but, like, I don't really remember all that much that happens week-to-week? I don't know why it hasn't really captured me, but it definitely takes up less space in my head than any number of other shows I watch.

Stuff I don't care about:

• 50 Shades of Serial Killer, unless Barbara decides to go full villain because of him.
• Police politics. Like, at all.
• Mob politics. At all.
• How Fish's story has basically been pushed off to the side and is a totally different show about Morloks.

What I do care about:

• Penguin, and how he can't ever get a break.
• Nygma, and how he just wants to be loved and totally can't manage that. 
• Harvey Bullock and whether he's eating or punching something.
• Bruce and Alfred being cross-generational buds.
• Whether or not everyone is leaving Morena Baccarin alone, because I swear, if they lay a finger on her...!
• Cat and Ivy squatting in Barbara's apartment.

So, basically, all the plot stuff bores me, but the character stuff delights me. So more character, please! I almost died of cute when Cat and Bruce went to that party, and everyone was all "Aww, baby CEO brought a date!" while the two of them totally scammed that guy to pick his pocket and copy his key. Brilliant. That's what I want.

Maybe next season we can have a whole episode that is just Penguin, Nygma, Harvey and the kids. I don't know how, but that'd be golden.

Tweets about #ncisla from:pirategirljack include:retweets

This felt like a set-up episode. Like, stuff happened but nothing was resolved. No one really found much in the way of answers, but things started moving toward a finale that will bring together NCIS and LAPD and the internal investigations and Callen's Mysterious Past and probably some terrorists, since that's the sort of baddies this show fights. It wasn't bad, and there was some cute stuff in between, but it was definitely a glide episode--barely a thing, just a way to get from one status quo to the next.

Tweets about #startalktv from:pirategirljack include:retweets

StarTalk is on TV! And it's basically the same thing as the StarTalk podcast that I love, except that now you can see their faces and hand gestures. I wish it was longer than an hour--these convos went FAST because they had to hit their points while also staying within the TV shape, and I would have liked to see more of the interview with George Takei, and heard more of them nerding about various shows and the tech that could be extrapolated off them. Maybe there'll be extras up on the website or in whatever episode of the podcast is closest--just more of this, is what I want.

It was a little bumpy at the beginning, but it evened out before the first break when everyone--who was non-white and included a lady, b-t-dubs--settled into their topics, the format, and their particular ideas of what it all meant. I loved it.

Ideas of the week: 

• Scifi doesn't predict the future, it sets a bar far out there for us to achieve and then surpass ourselves.
• Science fiction needs to be more optimistic to foster a general optimism that the world can be fixed, that things can be discovered, etc. Not that we're doomed to fail and die.

I didn't live-tweet this show, and I watched it on Sunday night after DVRing it on Monday before, but it's so neat. I love how Brian Unger hosts a history-info show, all conversational and loose and charming and informative. Go see it.

TUESDAY 4-21-15

Tweets about #theflash from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Barry went to Central City (for pizza, like you do) and there was a Ferris Air billboard! Does that mean we'll get Green Lantern and all that alien crazy spillover? I hope so. DC is as big a creation as Marvel, and I'd love if at least one show on TV manages to keep that feeling of bigness. Because Shield is doing a piss poor job of it.

There was a double! Who could look like any of them now, and I'm sure that won't come back to haunt us ever (insert sarcasm emoji here). But not-Barry trying to be all suave was great, and Caitlyn's face when he kissed her was pretty awesome, all WTF-eyebrows...before she sort of gave in, creating future complications...

Iris is still in the dark about everything except that Eddie has been working with the Flash. I guess that's a start? It's become one of my Common Gripes--all these shows where they aren't telling the one woman in the cast because of whatever dumb excuse when literally every other main character knows. It's condescending and it's stupid and it makes things hard to believe after a point--that Arrow just passed this season with Thea.

And they found the Secret Welles Room!

Tweets about #forever from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Tear my freaking heart out, why don'cha, Forever??? Like, it was bad when it seemed like the first body buried under the roses was Abigail; and then at the end? It was so much worse. She died after deciding that she'd been away too long and didn't want to give up her family. She died because of Adam. She died because she was protecting Henry and Abe! ALL THE FEELS when I hadn't even gotten over Scorpion's feels yet.

And in between that, we got Jo and Henry being a good team again, and Henry assuring Jo that things were still good between them, and PILES of wonderful Henry-Abe father-son stuff. 

Next week is the finale, and it looks like Jo will finally find out, and I hope that totally backfires on Adam since we hear him holding that over Henry's head as a threat--defuse it by having her already figure it out, and Henry telling her anyway, or her witnessing it happen, and then Adam being all "well damn, I got nothing". 

But mostly TELL HER OR LET HER FIGURE IT OUT, because of Common Gripe.

Tweets about #agentsofshield from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Still not sure where this story is going. Like, Ultron comes out soon, so I'm still hoping for some Real And Actual Connection, but I'm also trying to hold back hoping for too much. The Thor tie in what a joke, and the world on this show has become so muddy--all small and isolated and so hemmed in with mistrust that I don't even give a flip about two Shields, I just want Coulson to have his whole team back together and to go handle things. Screw the rest of this noise.

The best part of the episode was that scene in the hallway where he saw Skye and she saw him and they said each other's names and went to run into each other's arms--and then Gordon showed up and took her back, and Cal jumped on the Bamf wagon. If he hadn't done that, I'd be super annoyed at the reunion-blocking, but since he did, it's all complex and interesting, so I forgive it a little. 

Really, the whole ep was kind of sweet for Cal. He was trying so hard to be normal, to show his daughter the world he wanted to give her, and all his fav shops were closed and his building was a shambles, and then Hydra shows up again and is still indistinguishable from Shield because we really need to have three factions that all look the same and use the same tactics (insert eyeroll of epic proportions). And how Skye is starting to sort of understand him, and doesn't want him hurt. It was sweet. He's still a monster, but he's more understandable now, and not the worst thing ever.

Still don't like her mom. She's so calm and frosty that I don't trust her to not be a total jackass when it comes right down to it. Not sure about Lincoln who was all "I'm our friend" but was also all "I'm just gonna spy on you" and also "I know about things I'm not saying". Basically, I just want Skye to get back to Shield and stop being off on some other show being not-a-shield-agent when she spent so much time earning that badge. And I want her to be friends with Reina.

Tweets about #izombie from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Thank god Major isn't dead. I don't want him and Liv to get back together the way things are now, because 1) he's her past and she's literally a different person now, and 2) pre-existing love is dull when shows exist to show us how people fall in love. But he still has a lot of story to handle and I want him to have the chance to handle it, and to find out for himself what's going on in his weird city.

Liv, meanwhile, was being an agoraphobic internet troll and it was sort of amazing. How she was simultaneously dismissive and knew all the codes and sites and everything? How she kept slamming caffeine and cheesy-poofs? Wonderful. 

And I loved her and King Arthur together. They have a good chemistry, and he's a good resource for her--someone who has been going through the same things as her, who can understand what no one else can, not even Ravi, who tries. Even though I adore Ravi.

More Babineaux, though, okay? He keeps getting sort of squeezed out by all these other new characters. I did LOVE how he called her his partner and didn't even bat an eye at her being half-drunk on meds, and then too scared to leave her house so he just turned the laptop to face the suspect without question. I just love it all.

WEDNESDAY 4-22-15

Tweets about #arrow from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Olicity Did the Done! And it was a very well-handled scene, coming right after Felicity faced down the semi-immortal head of the world's biggest assassins union, and right before she drugged Ollie's stubborn ass to save his life. It was AMAZING, that whole sequence of scenes. Their mutual love was all over them--how they locked eyes and stayed that way, how there was no more holding back or hesitation, how sweet they were after. How he looked like he was being given the best gift in the world. How she ran her hands over his scars. 

Oh my god.

Unfortunately, those were the only good scenes in this episode because ugh, this story. Basically they went all the way to Nanda Parbat again, and really only managed to revive Thea from the mortal wounds Ra's gave her to get them to go to Nanda Parbat, to make them do what they then did. Ugh, shitty shitty shitty, and Thea still gets the worst of it, because first she's killed in service of this mess, and then she's brought back in a way that will basically guarantee that she's crazy or awful or something else stupid.

But we got Olicity without any hemming and hawing!

THURSDAY 4-23-15

Tweets about #bones from:pirategirljack include:retweets

This show. I love it, but I still feel like it's sort of coasting on its own goodness. Still, I want to come back and see these people every week. 

Bones found out she was pregnant again! We've all known anyway, and she's showing super-much, so no one should be surprised, but they're pretending her six months is like three months, so what ever. Yay Bones Baby #2! Booth thinks its a boy. I'm wondering if Angela and Hodgins are going to have another baby, too, or Cam or someone. Ooh, Cam having a baby when Mr Viziri is in unknown circumstances might make for some super-sad drama, and they seem to drop all the sad plots on her, so...

Also! Hodgins invents a thing that I'm pretty sure will bring back his fortune, which is funny because we were just wondering, before the episode started, if they were ever going to deal with all that money and influence he lost ages ago.

Tweets about #backstrom from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Backstrom continues to be just a little different from all the other cop-solves-crimes or bad-person-does-good shows. He himself is still awful, but he's being forced to realize why he's awful and at least start to deal with it, and the interaction between him and Valentine is almost always the best part of any episode. The fact that he's a cop but sort of shady, and Val is a criminal but sort of not shady enough is really fun to watch, too. I heard that this show is on the bubble, as they say, and I hope Fox takes a chance on it (ahahahahaa, as if Fox ever does ever), because it's finding its legs and they're good ones--and Thomas Dekker needs a show that doesn't get cancelled too soon; he's good at these weird and complex characters with strange goals and morals.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team continues to be awesome, and the way they just...don't listen to the bad stuff from Backstrom is like the air I breathe. He gets meaner when he's frustrated or scared or upset, and they just act more and more like he's a normal human being, and it is hilarious--but it's probably also what he needs: a whole functioning team of people who don't make a big deal about how awful he is has got to make him feel more normal and functional, too, right?

Tweets about #elementary from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Best part of the whole episode: Sherlock firing Alfredo as his sponsor so that he can be his friend without conflict of interest, and then looking all sorts of lemon-faced about the reality of having ANOTHER friend to deal with who immediately goes all sass-mouth about the whole thing. It's amazing that he has friends now, not just acquaintances and people he calls on when he needs help with something, and I hope whoever is his new sponsor next season is similarly just absorbed into this group of people that Sherlock likes and values. But I hope that it doesn't sideline his interactions with Joan even more; she's holding herself / her story is holding her somewhere intentionally off to the side, and the only hope I have is that Holmes keeps trying to bring her back in. Which I love. He's so awkward and strange when he's dealing with feelings, and she's so isolated. I'm waiting for a scene where she's had enough and breaks down and he's the one she turns to because a) that'll be so good for the characters, and b) Holmes trying to be a good shoulder to cry on would be amazingly strange, and I want to see how he works it out. I'm also trying not to want it too hard or to count on it too much because this is a CBS show in the classic CBS mold, where emotional matters are dealt with excruciatingly slowly. Le sigh.

Meanwhile, the team is developing nicely, and Bell is getting more screentime, and Gregson is being a good papa bear, and I'm loving it.

FRIDAY 4-24-15

Tweets about #themessengers from:pirategirljack include:retweets

New this week! I'm still a little unsure about this show. Like, there's a lot of good story-potential, and I like the set up of people having to stop the apocalypse (my other current favorite genre right now, I guess), but it's firmly in the Biblical range of plotlines and the fact that one of the characters is a TV preacher is already making it a little too preachy for me. Add that to the fact that one of the Chosen is an atheist, and I just feel like this whole show is going to boil down to Making The Atheist Believe, and I'm not here for that. It's not a 700 Club special episode, and I don't want all that dogma flopping around on my screen.

On the other hand, they all have neat powers and abilities, they keep winding up in the same places, and two of the characters are actual trained scientists, which could be cool. As soon as that other one gets back with the group, it should lighten up, too--two episodes in, and the show is really taking itself seriously, which gives it a sort of Rosewell feel that puts me off a little. CW is King of the Melodrama, but the best ones--Supernatural, especially--temper it with snark and wisecracking and the occasional totally bonkers episode to keep it from being opressive, and I'm waiting for The Messengers to find that balance. I know that they're dealing with Heavy Issues, but they're almost the same issues as Sleepy Hollow, which probably has a similar audience, and SH always has humor to keep it real. Even in the depths of that terrible middle of last season, it does.

So I like The Messengers, but I need to see where this story arc is going, because if it stays vaguely heavy handed, it's going to lose me, and the people who make the show have been so nice on Twitter that it would be sad to stop caring. On the other hand, if it goes instead to the science of the apocalypse, and the issues of crime and race, and has the characters seeking out reasons to love the world and want to save it instead of just doing it because they have to, that'd be cool. Super cool. And if they all sort of remember that things are sometimes funny even in the worst times.

SATURDAY 4-25-15

I had a rough weekend this week and it's now Monday and I haven't yet seen Outlander OR Orphan Black, so I'll catch up with them and talk about them on next week's post.

SUNDAY 4-26-15

And I have yet to pick up a new Sunday show.

What did you guys think about this week's TV? Is there anything I'm not watching that I need to be?

Fanmusic Friday - Ode to Spot

@pirategirljack livetweet roundup Week 16 2015

MONDAY 4-13-15

Tweets about #scorpion from:pirategirljack include:retweets

 Scorpion:

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THIS IS TOO MUCH. The synopsis was not lying when it said Walter has "one too many emotional blows"-- last ep, he went to tell Paige how he feels and saw her being happy with Drew, who she hadn't said was back in town. This week, he finds out that Cabe knew about the bombing that was done with his software, and didn't tell him because he didn't want him to stop the mission. Which leads him against Cabe, and then against Paige when she tries to stop him. And then Ralph gets in trouble and almost dies because he told Ralph he's part of the team. And then Paige says she's leaving because she can't keep Ralph in a risky situation and she doesn't want him to turn out like Walter.

And my heart collapsed into a thousand sharp little shards.

AND THEN HE DRIVES OFF A FUCKING CLIFF. This show runs hot on the emotion-scale for a show about people who supposedly don't feel emotions, and it's sort of too much for me. I fear the finale will straight up kill me, and it's more than I can handle.

Not that I'm not going to watch it, because the synopsis says all he wants to do is talk to Paige, and that is not something I'm going to miss.

But damn, this show gets me right in the feels.

Tweets about #ncisla from:pirategirljack include:retweets

NCIS:LA

You know, out of all these characters, Callen isn't really one I worry about or crave watching. That's more for Deeks and Kensi and Eric and Nell and Hetty. Callen is sort of a brick wall. But this episode showed more of his backstory, and how Hetty is basically his mom, saving him from a criminal life and a quick and dirty death. Young!Hetty was strange to see, but also really fun, and I sort of hope we get more of that for her own sake. I want to see a way-far flashback to young Hetty and young Granger as field agents in the and 80s, being badass and maybe building a history that they now don't talk about but haven't ever gotten over.

That's what I want to see.

Tweets about #gotham from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Gotham:

I don't even know what's going on with this show, really. Fish is off in some other show, being Queen of the Morloks. Penguin is getting all up in everyone's business but is mostly talking to new people. Bruce is getting weird. Jim is getting serious. Harvey is still being unexpectedly the most fun. I'm not super invested in any of the storylines, but I like the show for the characters. Whether or not they have anything in common (yet?) with the characters we know, I like how they interact with each other. And how they're setting stuff up.

Cat killing Reg was unexpected, and Bruce being...conflicted, we'll say, about it was pretty intense. That kid can sell it when he wants to.

I just hope the storylines come back together by the end of the season.


TUESDAY 4-14-15

Tweets about #agentsofshield from:pirategirljack include:retweets

SHIELD:

Does anyone else feel like it's way too easy for Skye to access these powers that were basically just making things sort of jiggle before and were breaking her bones? Like, I get that she was suppressing them before, but now almost immediately she can make water flow crooked and can move mountains. That seems fast. And now her story is as far away from everyone else's as possible, and I just sort of wonder what it's doing? I like Skye best when she's being May and Coulson's adoptive daughter*, and the longer she's away, the less she had to do with hacking, hacktivism, Coulson, May, Shield, and all the things that were previously the most defined thing about her. Maybe this is just me resisting what's unclear as her character develops, but I miss her on the team.

Which hardly exists anymore. But at least Fitz wants to come hang out with Coulson, and Simmons is using her skill at being two-faced to help Team C, and so on.

I loved the May backstory, but at the same time, I miss her mystery. I mean, there was no way Bahrain was ever going to be as horrible as they made it sound, but they did a really good job of making it resonate as bad as they've been saying. May wanted to have a baby and she didn't because she had to kill a kid, and that's horrible, and I'm sad that it happened to her and I'm sad that I know it. It brings ALL THE FEELS. I hope they're going to let her adopt a power-baby or something, because she needs to heal and I want her to heal, and she needs to just be Skye's mom. Even though Skye found her mom and I don't really care.

But Reina is a precog, though? That's interesting. Now just work her and Skye around to Inhuman besties and we're good.

And now I wonder if they're going to tie into Ultron at all, because shouldn't they have noticed Tony-Bots flying around and developing sentience? Or heard about the Avengers getting overwhelmed and having to do something about it? Or something? This is literally my biggest problem with the show, though--they're tied to the releases of the movies, without really tying into them at all (the tie-in for Thor 2 was literally nothing, not even looking for that ice-monster that was left free in London), and it's crippling the story.

Tweets about #izombie from:pirategirljack include:retweets

iZombie:

More Ravi! I want all the Ravi all the time always forever. Also, this episode could have used more Clive. But we did get a lot of Liv-and-her-life, which is good too, and a sexy new zombie who was not at that party and looks like King Arthur (which I really hope someone brings up), so there's that. Maybe Liv can be happy and cute for a little while before that goes spectacularly off the rails like all things must when you're hiding things as a plot point.**

And Major! Getting in over his head and being destroyed for it. Maybe literally. I saw a thing on Tumblr with the credits art that had Major on Liv's slab, and that is not something I'm hoping happens. I'm uninterested in Liv and Major getting back together, but Ravi only just moved in with him when he didn't want to move at all, and they have unfinished character business, and he was only trying to do what's right, and I will be very disappointed if that's cut off and handed to Liv when it's his story.

Also? That's a horrible thing for Liv to have to deal with, and for Ravi to have to deal with, and it was way super-sudden and jarring.



WEDNESDAY 4-15-15

Tweets about #arrow from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Arrow:
With Doug Jones! Mostly this episode felt like fluff, but the way this story is going, I liked fluff better than all the plot, so there's that, and there's a lot of set-up involved here:

• Metahumans who were not involved in the reactor explosion, which seems super important even though that wasn't even main characters who were talking about that.
• Atom getting to be a hero, even if it did have to be with Ollie remote-controlling the suit, and the relations between grim ol broody-pants and happy-go-lucky-and-unappreciated-pants evening out some. That high five was priceless.
• Ray seeing how Felicity still loves Ollie--and I hope he breaks up with her over it, because he needs to catch a break himself.
• Doug Jones. He's a plus in and of himself.
• THEA WHAT NO! Don't be a plot point!
• Lance not being a rage-fueled dick, but trying to help Roy...who then fakes his death because without Thea he has no story? I don't know, I hope he comes back.

And next week looks like it's time for sexytimes!

THURSDAY 4-16-15

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Bones:

No baby this week, but the ads say she finds out next week and they aren't even being coy about it, so that's great. No word on Mr Viziri, but we get the return of Wendel and his nurse-girlfriend and the return of hapless Hadgins because of it! But the better things go between them, the more I worry about her.

Bones's dad us still shifty as all fuck, but he brings back a ring that Bones lost because someone was threatening the family, and that's why her dad left to begin with, so that's okay? I guess? I don't know, her daddy issues are getting very ambiguous and I'm super-unsure how to feel about them anymore. But props to Booth for actually bugging his car with a GPS tracker, because that's totally in character and is awesome.

I still like Aubrey. He's so young but so sassy.

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Elementary:

Not ghosts, terrorists. But I really wanted it to be ghosts--or at least for them to start entertaining the idea that it actually is ghosts, just long enough for Joan to have to question what she thinks happens to dead people, and her and Sherlock to have a convo that makes her deal with Andrew's death.*** Which is probably too much to ask, since this is a slow-character-development classic CBS show. Le sigh.

Other than that, I don't really have a whole lot to say about this episode. The ones that are just cases are less interesting to me, though I do like that Gregson basically admitted that he cares about Joan and her wellbeing--and, probably, Sherlock, too--and that he doesn't like how shifty and bitchy his daughter turned out.


FRIDAY 4-17-15

I missed The Messangers, and it hasn't popped up on On Demand, so there's that. I'm gonna try to catch it next week.

First week without 12 Monkeys and I crey.


SATURDAY 4-18-15

Tweets about #outlander from:pirategirljack include:retweets

She chose him! I mean, it's a love story, so she has to choose him, and she can't go back before the end of the season or things will get overly complicated, but she chose him. And she took all day to do it, so we know she means it when she does! Jamie and Claire are such a shining example of Ideal Love that I can't even. He believed her crazy story about being from the future because it was her who said it and he knows her heart. He saved her from being burned at the stake. He's taking her home to Lallybroch, despite the fact that almost everything that happened to her this episode happened because of Baby Girlfriend and her jealous lunacy--or because of it.

Ughghghghg, so love, much feels, very dream.

And Gaillis! From 1969! She's a hippie who fell through time! That is great, and even though I sort of thought that's what was going on (I think because of the questions she was asking, not because of the book, because I read it so long ago I don't even remember if I got that far). Does she die? She's a bitch and a smug one and should have known better, but she's much more interesting than stupid old Baby Girlfriend.

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Orphan Black:

Yay Clones! I dropped out of this show sometime in Season 1, for whatever reason--I think it was opposite something else we were watching--and never got back to Season 2, but the whole day before the Season 3 premier, I watched the marathon, and I'm mostly caught up. It's such a rollercoaster, this show, and I'm so happy to be watching it live!

And we got so much in this one episode:

• Helena in a box, hallucinating or dreaming about a super-happy babyshower and then talking to scorpions!
• Crazy boy-Clones and their violent mustachioed brothers!
• Cophine breaking up because Delphine is probably the new Rachel and turning terrible, and Rachel is worse than we knew, trying to kill everyone with the help of her Cleaner, who she'd been sleeping with!
• Rachel now somewhat braindamaged?
• Sarah in holding, and then out of holding and then inpersonating Rachel and being impersonated by Alison!
• Everyone being tangled up in their own lives!
• A new Clone who has blonde hair and wears skimpy dresses and makes out with boy-Clones in elevators!

I don't even remember it all--I know I'm missing things--but it's so complex and wonderful and why isn't Tatiana Maslany winning every award ever? Oh, right, genre snobbery. Can't wait for next week!

SUNDAY 4-19-15

We have no Sunday shows anymore. Unless I start tweeting Naked and Afraid. Which I might.


Coming up next week:

• StarTalk! Neil deGrasse Tyson's new late-night science TV show! Starting on 4-20 when seems like less of a coincidence than it could be.
• Lip Synch Battle if I catch it live and tweet it.
• Time Traveling with Brian Unger, if I manage to catch it, because I love him.
• The Daytime Emmys?

I wish I had HBO so I could be watching Game of Thrones, but I'm so very behind on that show, what with NOT having HBO.

NOTES:
*Or possibly Coulson's May-December love interest, which I think would be awesome if they gave it as little comment as they gave to May and Ward's age-gap. But I think more and more that this is a pipe dream, and the more fatherly they make him, the more icky this possibility gets. And the more sad I get. Remember when you could ship anyone on this show with anyone else?
**Maybe Ravi will get jealous of King Arthur and there can be cuteness there, and the mixed messages of him wanting Liv back to himself, but also wanting to study more zombies so he can cure Liv. Yeah, I think I ship those two.
***And if it happens to push them into a more emotionally close relationship, that would be okay, too. Because we all know Sherlock's favorite way to release stress.

Fanmusic Friday - Agent Coulson

So it's been a week since 12 Monkeys concluded its first season

And this is the only photo I still have on my phone.

It was an amazing first season. When I heard about it, I'll admit I was a little "why, tho?" about the whole idea. But Syfy doing actual science fiction? Made by the guys who made Nikita and partially made Terra Nova? Starring that guy who was Pyro a million years ago?

Yeah, I was gonna watch it, even if it was horrible. And it so wasn't. I was basically hooked by the end of the opening monologue, but it really got me when things got weird--scratched-watch paradoxes, dudes disappearing shot and showing up two years later still shot, a Mission (capital-M, always) that immediately turns out to Not Be What It Seems. I love an ambitious show, and this one had some of that breakneck, holding-nothing-back energy that Sleepy Hollow had its first season*, and it just dove into piles of story. These thirteen episodes had as much story as, like, three seasons of an old show might have, and it was glorious.

And also, it was smart. It's not just that there was a lot of story--it's that the story was incredibly well crafted, with further episodes changing the meaning and context of everything that came before. Especially in the third act, every episode could have been a finale, and when the actual finale happened, it changed everything again. 

And it was real scifi. Time travel and viruses weren't just plot points, they were structural pieces necessary for the story to happen at all--which is how Big Scifi Pieces should be. And because time travel is awesome, it was used awesomely, to give us these phenomenal non-linear stories that uncover a little more each time we pass by them. This is how you handle a revelation-of-mystery plot. Take notes.

But the core of the series was the relationships--which were so human and flawed and tragic that they added both weight and normality to the increasing and delightful weirdness of the series. Cole and Cassie and their immediate connection (and how he can't seem to keep her alive), Cassie and Aaron and their failed normal life (and how he can't seem to let her go--or stop trying to control her choices), Cole and Ramse and the bromance to end all bromances that goes horribly awry (but still changes the world), Ramse and his family, everyone and the Monkeys, Jennifer and her dad, Jennifer and Cole, Jennifer and Cassie, Jones and Cole, Jones and Cassie, Jones and Whitley, Whitley and his dad, everyone and Spearhead, everyone and West Seven... There's a tight and thick weave of interpersonal relationships that all come down to love. Romantic love, platonic love, desperate love, familial love, lost love, love that is strong enough to change fate and alter all of history. It's amazing. It's epic. It's wildly personal and also universal in the way that Big Important Literature is. It's the relationships that ground te show and also make it universal.

Now, when I look back at the early episodes, it's with a mix of that feeling you get looking at baby pictures, knowing how everything goes wrong for those babies--and this pervasive wonder at how very much information was crammed into 45 minute chunks without damaging how understandable or accessible the immediate plot was. Those early episodes mean something else now that we know more than we did when we watched them the first time, but it adds to the re-watch-ability of the season. Now, there's new layers. Now, there's stuff that was always there that we missed tw first time.

And that's amazing to me, as a fan and as a writer. I feel like we've been given this really awesome gift, and I hope with every fiber of my being that they can keep it going at this high, complicated (but clear) level of story, plot, character, innovation, and joyfulness.**

Is it time for season two yet?

Notes:

* Please, holy mother of Fandoms, don't let season two of 12M go off the rails the way season two of SH did!

**Its weird that a show that gets so dark is joyful, but that's my main feeling--it's creating and experiencing joy in its own existence, and it's created this wonderful fandom that's been an amazing and unexpected addition to my life.

New Ant Man trailer!

This looks pretty cool, actually! And after watching seven episodes of Daredevil in two days, it's good to see some humor!

@pirategirljack livetweets roundup for Week 15 2015!

Hello again and welcome to ALL MY THOUGHTS IN ONE PLACE! Whoo!

MONDAY 4-6-15

Nothing at all because my whole life was preempted by sports and we watched like three old movies on Netflix because no one else wanted to watch Nikita starting half way through the first season where I am.

TUESDAY 4-7-15

The Flash: Rerun

Tweets about #agentsofshield from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Agents of Shield

Let's talk about: How I don't care at all about the division over which Shield is Shield, because there is literally no one to care about on the other side? I care about Team Coulson, and about Coulson keeping his family together, and about him, personally, figuring out a better way for Shield to work. I have nothing to hang any caring on for the other side, and since Bobbi looks like she's coming back toward this side, and Mac is being so paranoid he's ruined what I liked best about him--his reliable dependability--I'm just over it all.

But I do love Coulson being a badass, I love Mike joining the team and them stealing a jet, and I love them going on the offensive, finally, because really. They've been sitting back and waiting, and the world must be going to shit without Shield out there arriving before anyone knows there's a problem, and it annoys me that there's this wall around the show. Like, come on. Why isn't there more talk of what Tony is doing to pick up the slack? Why isn't there more mention of stuff going down in various cities (specifically, now, Hells Kitchen in NY, since Daredevil has been released, though it wasn't at the end of this episode).

I love these characters, and even though the show is much better than how it started, it's still hemmed in in weird ways, and I feel like it's wings are clipped. It's so frustrating.

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iZombie

Lets talk about: I know Kung Fu! Old reference, but a perfect one, and she was kicking people's butts and it was awesome. And the Clive storyline was brilliant--she thought he was a bad cop, and he was genuinely upset that she would just think something like that because he hates his undercover past, and they end back on that flirty, sassy tone we all love--but more affectionately and hopefully closer and more friendly because of this growing trust. I love the Liv-Clive partnership so much.

And! Major and Ravi are roommates! Even if it's just for Major to get closer to Liv again, and even if it's just a plot device to make those two people more a part of her actual life, it's amazing, and I love how they were just instant friends. It was like a meet-cute (Meat Cute?) when they were talking about moving in together under false meeting-pretenses.

Also, Blaine? He's got crazy plans, and I can't wait for that rich-Zombie-gourmet-brain racket to just go bonkers.

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NCIS

Lets talk about: How I have less and less to actually say about this show? Like, I still like it, I still watch it, but even liveblogging, I don't have much of actual comment? I might give up keeping it in this post...

But who else is really nervous about Tony's dad living so close?

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Forever

Let's talk about: How Jo didn't go to Paris with her super rich but also super pushy new boyfriend because SHE WANTED TO GO WITH HENRY! Henry who's advice was to get lost in the city at the first chance and wander around until you find it naturally and honestly and really live it! AND THAT SHE WENT TO TELL HIM! And then Abe showed up with the news that HE'D FOUND ABIGAIL. Because OF COURSE HE DID. With the help of Lucas, who Henry doesn't know was involved at all. And who has horrible timing and news that trumps an almost-confession that I hope makes them shy and flirty and awkward for at least one whole episode!

WEDNESDAY 4-8-15

Arrow: Rerun of not even an old episode, which really annoys me.

THURSDAY 4-9-15

Tweets about #bones from:pirategirljack include:retweets

Bones

Lets talk about: Mr Viziri! And his brother I'd forgotten (or didn't know?) he had, trapped in Iran. I'm almost definite that this means he'll be arrested and then Booth or someone will have to go in and get him or whatever, which feels contrived OR that it means they were looking for a way to get him off the show that would be very emotional--but that option pisses me off, because it means all of Cam's relationships end tragically when everyone else on the show including her daughter we hardly see has been given happy relationships.

And is that a new creepy killer? We haven't had one of those in ages.

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Backstrom

Lets talk about: Emotional development! Backstrom is still a terrible person, but this episode and last episode brought a lot of tragedy to the WHY he's a horrible person, and even though he goes about learning his lessons in all the wrong way every time, there's still this feeling that he actually IS learning them. He defended Valentine last ep, he actually, honestly cried this ep. He's making progress, and it's a very realistic, messy, painful sort of progress I don't think I've seen on a regular middle-of-primetime, not-very-serious show before.

And I love his team so much. I love how Niedermeyer knows everything but no one listens, and how he's just sort of a sad puppy about that fact, not pissy and mean. I love how Paquet makes the weirdest interactive-art-installation murder boards. I love Gravley's youngness, and how that doesn't damage her ability to do her job at all. I love Almond's self-possession, style, and vaguely flirty everything. And Moto! Moto did, like, all the legwork this episode, and followed hunches and did his research. It was amazing.

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Elementary

Lets talk about: How I STILL think this whole season is the story of how Holmes and Watson finally fell in love. Like, it's CBS and it's emotionally weird people, so I'm not holding my breath, and I'd be okay if they just confirm a deeply codependent friendship that isn't at all sexual because that never happens--but come on. That whole definition of friendship conversation? That was Holmes being emotionally open, honest, and basically saying "you're the best part of me and I want to be more like you, not you more like me, and I'm super worried about you". With an implied "do you want a hug because I kind of do". It's the closest we've gotten to anything truly love-like from him since he was trying to tell if that AI was actually sentient, and it was a lot more true and real than that philosophical talk.

Also? If the writers keep the Holmes-Watson story totally platonic, they'll be wasting the only adaptation of the series where Holmes and Watson being in love won't threaten people who worry about two dudes being in love. And why even bother genderswitching when everyone knows that the two of them are in love anyway?

FRIDAY 4-10-15

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12 Monkeys

Let's talk about: OH MY GOD IT'S THE LAST EPISODE UNTIL NEXT JANUARY EVEN THOUGH THEY STARTED PRODUCTION THIS PAST MONDAY!!! And how it's also the last day of the 12 Monkeys Theme Week, which really made the week fly by in a haze of feels and anticipation, but also made the finale so much harder to handle because now that's over toooooooo.

But for real, lets talk about:

• Mr Dr Jones was in charge of the Splinter Project, but it was Mrs Dr Jones's serum, so what did he have to do to get that? And is she already signed up with Spearhead? I mean, she had to not be there so she wouldn't know that Cassie was coming through, but where is she instead?
• CASSIE IS IN THE FUTURE. With a gut shot, no immunity (unless not being immune to the early strains doesn't mean you're not immune to the later, you just normally would have been dead already), and everything going to hell around her.
• What is up with those Ghost Soldiers? Are they the Army of the 12 Monkeys? Are they really those babies, because they look older than 28 years, and if they ARE those babies, how pissed are they going to be that Cassie appearing is not in the Plan they've been raised for?
• Aaron Marker is a tool, and that scene where they were interrogating him was hard to watch and brilliantly done--Cole really didn't want to do all that, and I think it was because Cassie was watching, but she's the one who told him to keep going--she's getting hard, and it's scary! And then he burned "to death" (in quotes because no body, no proof and he could still come back), and she wanted to save him, even after all that, and cried for him. So much emotional complexity going on there.
• And the Red Forest vision? Until that point, she was dedicated, but not cruel, and she always listened to Cole's advice--but afterward, she comes out, apparently not having been affected at all, although we have seen her losing hope and stuff when the red plants are around before, and that thread is still dangling about what they did to her, and she comes out and shoots Ramse. She's the one who saves people, not the one who shoots people, and that's scary too.
• How much time passed between hand-holding in the snow and waking up in bed?
• Why didn't they kiss when he thought he was sending her to her death? He knows exactly what splintering does to you, she's already bled a lot, and he has no way of knowing if she'll make it or if Jones can actually help her, so as far as he knows, it's probably just a doing-something-desperate sort of death rather than a doing-nothing-and-letting-her-die-in-his-arms-again sort of death. He refused to say goodbye, but he could have still kissed her.
• And we're just going to assume that "see you soon" now has exactly the same meaning as "as you wish" now, right?
• Ramse is not the Witness and was so weirded out that they thought he was! And when he saw that Cole had to choose between him and Cassie, he told him to save Cassie--even though saving her took his whole plan and threw it away, as far as he was concerned! It took him 28 years to come around, and Cole being alive gave him that final push, and then Cole came back and changed everything.
• Which makes me SO HAPPY, because I've been getting frustrated with how nothing changes, and without Ramse pre-knowing, there was NO REASON for things to keep going badly.
• Also, I was a little sad that he didn't go back to 2043 to get Cassie, but I know he really can't anymore, and I'm very very happy that he and Ramse are on the same side again--or at least getting there.
• Olivia is going to be SO PISSED when she finds out that Seki / Ramse didn't die, that Cole did not run off into obscurity, that she should have found out what happened to Dr Railly, and now because of it, Cole has access to everything Ramse knows (assuming they stop fighting and fucking compare notes, because everyone has different pieces to this puzzle), and Cassie now has access to whatever they know in the future--and can fill gaps there, too--and those Ghost Soldiers have no idea what's going on... It's gonna be epic.
• Deacon is so confused and I love it.
• Whitley and Adler survived! And there was so much sad-affection (sadfection?) between Whitley and Jones I almost died. I love those two so much. I want them to be in a cross-generational interracial love story, but I will settle for Jones, who didn't want to be a mom, just taking in all the strays.
• How is Jones going to convince the Soldiers to let her save Cassie? How is Cassie going to adapt to a mostly abandoned facility under hostile command? Will they give her Cole's old room? Because I need that.
• How long before we get reunions in the new season?
• How hard will Cole try to get back to her / get her back? Will the machine return her to 2015 the way it returned him to 2043 eventually, or will it be a different sort of trip because she was sent from the machine to itself?
• Jenniferrrrrr! She's still in charge of Markridge and it looks like everyone has basically forgotten about her as soon as she told them that she'd told Cole where to go--which was awful and which she didn't look happy about but did anyway, so what did they do to her to make her do it? She hates Cassie. She has 12 cases on her personal plane, but it's 2 years early. She wants to return the world to the animals because people are awful. She sent Ramse back to "undo what I've done" as well as whatever Cole and whoever else did. What is she doing?

Oh my god, I have no words. Well, I have a lot of words, and I'll be writing all sorts of fic to fill the gap, but I have no  idea what's going to happen next, and it's glorious, and I don't want to wait so long!

SATURDAY 4-11-15

NOTHING BUT DESOLATION BECAUSE 12 MONKEYS IS FINISHED FOR THE YEAR.

JK

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Outlander

Let's talk about: How the only good women in the past are Claire, who is headstrong and not very subtle, and Mrs Fitz who is hardly ever there. Gaillies is the least subtle person ever, flouncing around like she's untouchable, being all witchy in a really superstitious time and place, and now she's gotten Claire arrested. And Laoghrie, she's just a horrible brat. And everyone else is a dude.

I love Jamie and Claire together, but now it seems we're in the part of the season where everything is going to crap, and it bruises my heart!

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SNL: Taraji P Henson and Mumford and Sons

Let's talk about: How Taraji is amazing. That is all.

SUNDAY 4-12-15

No more Sunday shows for a while!

New stuff coming up next week!

• Daredevil! But since it's all at once, I'm going to give it it's own post.