Liveblog roundup masterpost!

So two things happened. I got behind on posting the roundups, as I knew I would, and I had a rough week where I felt like crap. And coming up, we've got premiers happening, which will keep me behind the way I've been doing it, so I'm going to instead link you to the right place to see everything! Much quicker, and all in one post! That way, I can keep up easier AND I can have a blog that isn't 90% reposts from somewhere else!

The Emmys:

The biggest criticism I hear about the Emmys is that it's famous people patting each other on the back, but I like it because it's famous people hanging out with each other and proving they're all still the dorks they probably were in high school.

You can find my hopes and exclamations here!

The Quest:

This show is so ridiculous, borderline cheesy, and so totally earnest that I can't help it. I love it. Even if they CONTINUE to get really stupid when it comes to the weekly eliminations. Even if they keep booting the ones I like best.

You can find my cheering and such here! Note, though, I did miss an episode somewhere along the line because it was preempted by stupid local football, and I don't know when it actually aired.

Hell on Wheels:

I was seriously not happy with this show for the first, like, three episodes, but it won me back over as soon as it got back into the town--where it belongs. Though I do wish people would stop being assholes just to be assholes, and I do miss the central story element of the train. Oh well. This last week's episode about Elam in the Comanche camp was soo cool.

You can find my commentary here!

Outlander:

This show. You guys. If Hell On Wheels and Game of Thrones are masculine juvenile fantasies, this one is a feminine adult fantasy. I mean, last night had all sorts of dick jokes and dudes being assholes, but it also had people being educated, people caring about what happens to their people, and Claire finally reaching that place in all time-travel stories where you stop blindly reacting and you start trying to change the tragedies you happen to know will happen.

And there's still Jamie being amazing.

You can find my squeeing here!

Doctor Who:

I think this right here is the theme of the season. So far, anyway. I'm loving 12. I love that he's grouchy, that he doesn't like hugs, that he doesn't know what to do with people kissing him or laughing at things, that he's confused and strange and sort of like a really awkward mad scientist--but that he's also trying to be good and to fix things, because through it all, he knows that he's caused a lot of trouble, too.

It's great.

You can see my constant commentary here!

That's it for this week (and last week and a bit that I didn't do here), and you can see what I'll be watching this week and whether any new shows will be included in the next post!

Hell On Wheels s4s3 "Chicken Hill" liveblog roundup

Last week's liveblogs today!

Ha!

• Almost time for Hell On Wheels and Outlander! I’m sure one will annoy me and one will make me happy, who wants to bet which is which?
• That is a whole lot if work for one page…
• What is New-omi going to do about those hookers Bohannon used to be friendly with?
• Yes! Bohannon really is back! I’m already feeling better about this season.
• "It’s three ghost of Cullen Bohannon. And Mormon no less."
• "I’m the only one can get it moving again" he says, right in front if the dude who had been doing that job all winter.
• "I got a Mormon girl in a family way. I need a job. Any more questions?"
• "Killed gots brother and I helped him bury him. Guess that makes us something."
• Hallucinating Elam. Like a bro, ya know.
• I’m so happy Bohannon is back. Like, so happy. This show walks a thin line between getting it right and being entirely aggravating, and it’s easier to keep on the right side whe Bohannon is in the same place ad everyone else.
• Yes mam women concerned about each other (even if they are still talking about a guy).
• You’d better not her yourself in trouble because you’re determined to be tough.
• Someone needs to get Eva a pile if food.
• "If I didn’t know better, I might consider to interest more…personal. he’s not that interesting!"
• I love that everyone is pissed about the casino thing.
• You take control of good your life, Eva!
• She was counting cards, but that guy cheated her?
• Hey, look how this show is suddenly a full on Western with card sharks and all.
• Ha! Practicing with cards while he does his business.
• Aww, the horses! That dude just lost them a lot of money. Also? Dumbass.
• I’m glad they’re reaffirming Bohannon’s ties to the railroad. That’s the core of the show.
• Took him a while there, didn’t it?
• "You would’ve come back if you were alive" But he did come back, tho. Just later than expected.
• Aw, unfair, Bo. Asking Ruth to help take care of the wife that isn’t her.
• I never would have thought I’d prefer Durant to whatever moral weirdness there is.
• Jeeze, Bo. Enemies everywhere you go.
• Ugh. I hoped we’d get more time before going back to the Swede.

So this week!

I'm less concerned about Eva, because she's finally doing something about her life. Being a hooker wasn't great, and acting like one isn't great either, but at least she had some sort of self-posession back then, and she's got a little of it back tonight! But also, her transitioning into a card hustler could be REALLY COOL if they do it right; she could be a full-on lady outlaw, beloved of the people, powerful in the town, scourge of all the assholes that keep washing up along that rail road!

Now I'm concerned about Ruth's fragile sanity (her dad did go nuts, you know), and about Naomi's ability to adapt to the town.

On the other hand, I love the slight rekindling of the Newspaper-Lady / Bohannon BroMance that was sort of amazing for a minute there before the show went left into Mormon Subplot Of Doom.

What did you think?

This week on Professional Fangirl

We gots us some NEW DOCTOR WHO!!! You guys, I don't even care that because it's going to be a two-hour premier it's going to be tricky to record Hell on Wheels and / or Outlander, because it's NEW DOCTOR WHO! With a new Doctor! And Clara! Who I'm still hoping gets to come into her own! And another new companion! And Madam Vastra and Jenny!

Ahem.

It's the first of the come-backs for shows I watch, and I'm sort of excited.

We'll also have the usual roundups of The Quest, Hell on Wheels and Outlander, and some fun posts on other stuff that are actual real posts! Stay tuned!

Hell On Wheels s4e2 liveblog roundup!

As you may or may not know, I frequently liveblog shows over on my tumblr--here's what I thought about Hell On Wheels this week:

(borrowed from here)

• Three more minutes until Hell On Wheels plays a rousing game of How Can We Piss Sami Off This Week?
• "mumble mumble mumble?" "glare" "mumble!" "(bang bang bang!!)"
• Ha! Over ruled by Bohannon!
• And even the dad!
• "your situation gets curiouser and curiouser, sir!"— no kidding, dude!
• Now they want him to build them a railroad?? What. Even. Is. This. BS?
• I continue to be done with the whole Mormon storyline. Sorry, actual Mormons, but this is dumb and needless.
• "you sound like an unreconstructed southerner, but don’t worry, we’ll handle all that."
• Hey, Ruth. And some exposition.
• Don’t send that kid away, too. We don’t need a no-kids-allowed policy on this show.
• Look at him holding that tiny baby in his big murdery hands.
• I like Bohannon doing things. This whole storyline has been severely lacking action on the part of the dude who was most active in the beginning.
• I’m going to rewrite the last two seasons where instead of Mormons, Bohannon was poached by the other railroad, because that’s a story that needed to be told and wasn’t. Also would be more fun.
• Do not send Ezra away. It would verify that last season’s story set-up means nothing and make him pointless. Also, if Durant was all “I’m an orphan too”, he should just take him in. You can adopt a kid and still be a villain.
• Hey, the newspaper and the news lady! Remember when there were other characters in this show, like these?
• Ugh, now Eva has to clean up blood off that floor.
• I dearly hope these new Feds unite the old cast and get them working together again.
• Ha! Swede’s WTF face is amazing.
• But what the fuckity fuck is even going on with that plot??
• So…he’s forcing him into a position where he has to forgive him and let him go, or he has to expose himself…?
• Ha! Getting him to righteously confess!!!!
• Bohannon could have been a tv preacher, who knew?
• Please let that be the end of this BS story! That was neat!
• Come on brave telling them Elam is their new hero! Or that he says they need to team up!
• What if that was literally exactly what Bohannon yelled at him, right down to the liver for the crows, but neither understood each other?
• Why are they going to kill the dude in the casino, blocking up business, instead of building a gallows their behavior says they’ll need anyway?
• And now Eva’s got to mop up pee, too? She should organize a women’s rebellion.
• Look at big ol Cheyenne being all tiny in actuality!
• Train in the river: (is in the river) Bohannon:(side eyes so hard he falls off the wagon)
• Is that the same horse Bohannon had?
• Somes is happy to see him!
• Whoops. Your weird ass storyline detour killed your best friend.
• "who’s Elam?" "(man pain too much to answer because caring is for girls)"

I continue to be so over the Mormon Plot and Eva's Plot, that it's amazing I even want to watch this show right now. 

The Mormon one because it makes no sense--like, they want to kill him for killing their son, but no one even mentions that it's the father's fault it happened and they must've known that shady stuff was going on with him, but then when Naomi is all like "I'll marry him", they all decide to make him one of them? Even though he says he's made a deal and he's leaving the second it's done? And the dad is okay with that and no crappy weirdness is there anymore, but the mom is all "you can die and I'll take that baby"? But then when it's time for him to go, she's not even there, doesn't protest, and says not a thing more on the subject? And what the hell was the Swede (Norwegian) even up to???

And then Eva? She's just getting crap after crap after crap, her friendships that she made last season with the Newslady and the other whores (and Ruth? did she make friends with Ruth?) are totally ignored--though they do remember that Durant is nice to her when he's not nice to anyone else. So...guys' plots stick and girls' don't? And I mean, she's literally cleaning up everyone's mess and no one cares much? And it's also tied in with Mickey being all sorts of squicky, and whatever the hell the plot is doing with Elam (is he really dead? if he is, the show is gonna suck so much more than it already does, and if he isn't, it seems even meaner that they're basically punishing her for trying to do what she thought was right, so...).

And then Ezra! He was the only one who could verify that the Swede was who Bohannon said he was, and now that plot point isn't needed because Bohannon did it himself, and Ezra's going delinquent and going to be sent away like a plot no one loves, so what? No kids allowed?

Basically? Not pleased.

Hell On Wheels s4e1 liveblog reactions -- and discussion

I never know what to expect from this show, and coming into the fourth season knowing that the plot took a serious left turn right at the end of season three when there was a new showrunner sort of made me...hesitant. So here's the evolution of how I felt as I watched it, spur-of-the-moment-typing-on-my-phone typos and all:

• Hell on Wheels, aka Let's see how many interpersonal power struggles we can cram into every scene.
• Come on beautiful establishing shots in the new season!
• Yeah, but, the commercial totally showed that train caning through the ice at some point, so...
• Why the flip, Durant? You can't put the rails right on the ice like that!
• He has someone smuggling him a newspaper! Ha!
• "so pick yourself up". Thanks, dude, but how about, I dont know, offering a new our better job instead of unhelpful words?
• Did they recast his wife? Ugh.
• You'd better take New-omi with you when you go, Bohannon.
• Was Swede hoping Bohannon would go all Stockholm Syndrome and give up trying to go??
• I could live in one of these fancy train cars.
• I feel like if this show stays in Cheyanne, it's not really HoW, since that is meant to be the very front line of the rails...
• I like this lady.
• Swede, dude, trapping someone down a well will eventually poison the while towns water, one way our another.
• "god has spoken to me that it's a boy"-- so I really hope it's a girl. Our twin girls, a double take-that!
• Oh, don't you even keep him from his baby's birth. How will posing him off and putting a wedge between him and his wife keep your peace or brainwash him to your side?
• Twins! Is it going to be twins? Even tho it's the mother that twin-ness gets passed down from, so...
• STOP SHOWBOATING YOU CRAZY FUCK !
• Nope. Giant dude grabbing on my Eva, nope, nope, nope!
• Not even yours, Swede.
• I'm kind of loving how this overseer is totally not having any of durant's bs.
• Seriously, tho, why does the Swede have to be right about how it was a boy?
• I hope this new-omi can get the wryness the other one had; so far, she's too...passive?
• Now her mom's in on it? But in a stupid and frustrating way? This whole storyline ned's to move on soon and get everyone back to the railroad.
• Hey, remember when this show was sort of clever & subversive?
• Ugh, Eva's whole storyline.
• "all women are whores, by nature"-- I'm getting real uncomfortable about how he's saying all this stuff like it's a comfort... But hell yes her fighting back, even a little!
• "oh, you still like me, you just don't trust me! It's perfectly normal!" -- Ha! Durant.

Okay. That was a lot of me sitting in my seat being alternately frustrated, annoyed, and really uncomfortable.

Things I liked:

• They remember that Durant is sort of gruffly nice to Eva.
• That cattle baroness is SO AWESOME and is having none of all this male bullshit all around her. She knows exactly what's going on.
• Not everyone in the Mormon camp is against Bohannon.

And things I very much didn't like:

• Eva's entire storyline. She "felt his spirit pass" and no one went out to see what's up? So she spends four months lost and lonely and no one does anything to help her, even though at the end of the last season there was at least a little solidarity among the women? And now those women are nowhere to be seen? And then she gets beat up and most likely molested by some giant weirdo, left in the mud, brought inside by Mickey--who then tells her that all women are whores like it's a good and soothing truth, and then he tries to molest her, too???? I am so not here for this if the show keeps going down the road of making EVERY WOMAN A BEATEN VICTIM.
• Bohannon in the Mormon camp. I hate it all. I hate the delusional dad, and him being nice to him like they've come to some unspoken agreement. I hate the Swede not making any sense at all, as a villain or as someone who claims to be redeemed. I hate that they recast Naomi with someone who so far doesn't have the wryness or the feeling that she's got her own plans and reasons, thereby making her basically a pawn clinging to the husband she barely knows for no good reason. I hate that the Swede was right about the baby being a boy, and that he was all busting into the room and talking in tongues in what looked like a pretty ordinary birth to me--like, if it was a dangerous one, they did a really bad job of conveying that. And I hate that now the mom is all "you're going to give me that baby to replace the baby you killed" as if she doesn't know that her husband is a creep and an asshole. The whole thing had better end quickly and get Bohannon back on the rails, with that kid who can identify the Swede and has no other reason to be there, otherwise.
• Also? I still can't shake the feeling that Bohannon and Naomi didn't actually finish anything when they met, that him getting her into that barn was out of character anyway, and that the baby is probably not his. I'm betting on the original idea being that it was incest or something--but it seems like the entire idea of what happened between Bohannon and her family has been retconned without being explained away, so that the story we saw is clashing with the story they're talking about.
• I feel like the show is getting bogged down in the new city of Cheyenne. It's supposed to be about the front end of the rails, and trying to beat the other company to get across the continent, but now they're miles ahead of the city and we're still at the city. And now Mickey's ruling everything and in a battle of greaseball-ness with Durant, and if that gets important, we'll be there even more.
• They're holding out on us on whether or not Elam is actually dead. I'm betting he's not, that he was rescued by those braves after they saw him take out a bear with his bare hands, and that he's been cared for by them, giving him something in common with Eva again. If not? Then they totally missed a really good storyline that could have done away with some of the idea that the Indians are only savages out to kill everyone, and they've removed the best friendship Bohannon and Eva both had--leaving them with what?

Basically, I have a lot of concerns about the story this season. And I might wind up hating it. But what I'm more concerned about is whether or not they'll manage to maintain the characters--Bohannon was interesting in the beginning because he was a closed door with a purpose; now he's opened, but he's feeling more and more like he's just getting dragged around. The women who survived were all strong women--and now they're either beaten down, simplified, or notably absent. And being on the railline seems to be turning everyone shitty in not-pleasant or fun-to-watch ways, and it's making me uncomfortable.

How about you? What did you think?