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[krickets]

Random things from this week:

→ The Lost Fic Battle over at lostsquee is on! I'm super excited and there are already some great fics being written. Like this awesome jack/claire by colourmayfade. Writing goes until the 29th and I am definitely planning on writing!

→ Didn't watch more than a passing glance at the Golden Globes. I really like Ricky Gervais though so I was partially tempted even though I find awards shows to be pretty pointless and actually have issues with them as a whole. But I kind of wanted Kathryn Bigelow to win for director. (I didn't even know she was nominated until I looked it up last night. That's how invested I was.) The Hurt Locker was great. But she didn't. I know people are pissed about Avatar. I have little or no interest in seeing it beyond the casual, "ohh, Sam Worthington is pretty" distraction. And I can see why people are upset. (They're upset it won for the same reasons I don't really want to see it. Go with your instincts, KC.)

→ And how about Matt Barr guesting in Friday Night Lights? I just gotta say it kind of made me miss Sully and his cocky attitude. But it was nice to see him.

→ About Friday Night Lights, now that Matt is gone it feels like a completely different show. I was talking about this with Dayln. Ever since season three and knowing that people were going to start leaving, I have been dreading it. They managed to keep me pleasantly surprised until now. Until now.

It's not that Matt made the show, but he is, as it were, the straw that broke the camel's back. It will never ever be the same and I would just as soon it end this year and be done. The fact that Lyla and Tyra just disappeared with little (or NO) wrap-up was massively disappointing already, and as much as I love the coach and his luminous wife, I can't see myself caring much after this year. It's hard to care enough now.

It was a horrible decision to just start picking off their main cast one by one. It is truly the only thing this show has done that is unforgivable. Too bad it's also something that cannot be fixed at this point, not like a crappy storyline that you can wrap up and drop. I'm sad to say this, but it's beyond denying it now.

→ And about Dollhouse, this show was getting so deceptively good. And then they ruined it all with that Boyd reveal. I'm not even going to get into the racial ramifications of it, but you know they exist. Generally speaking I am happy to have the rug pulled out from under me by the likes of Joss. But in order for the shock to work properly it has to be the last thing you expect, and at the same time make perfect sense. That kind of clarity is not present here.

Perhaps if they had more time, to echo the words of Dr. Claire Saunders, they could have made me believe. But as it stands now, I'm pretty certain that this show is going to end up being one big disappointment. (And it has always skated on thin ice in that department.) I couldn't even fully appreciate Boyd's final act because I was still waiting for them to make it right, to make it make sense. Unless by some miracle the finale pulls through, I'm always going to be left with a sour taste in my mouth regarding this show. I guess we'll always have fic, right? Haha.

Comments

[gigglemonster.livejournal.com]

With Friday Night Lights I can tell the difference too. As exciting as it was to see Matt Bar (Sully!) the whole episode I kinda noticed my attention drifting away to check my e-mail and my flist more and more often lol And that usually never happens to me with that show. Plus, the least they could have done was have some sort of wrap-up for those characters you mentioned. I'm sure there are behind the scenes things that prevent some of that stuff from happening, but still. It's such a shame for a show that good.

Psstch Dollhouse. Ugh. I have to agree with your whole paragraph. Aside from Epitaph One and about the last 4-5 episodes of this season, I don't know if I really even officially liked this show. I liked some of the characters but I never really felt that invested in it. Even so, it was a really maddening slap in the face when they made that reveal.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yeah it really is. And I think they had a great cast and that they worked well together and they could have come up with another way to do it. Like I said, the idea that all of them would up and leave town after high school is just as unrealistic as all of them staying. It's usually more of a mix. What about community colleges? C'mon seriously.

I don't know if I really even officially liked this show. - I kind of know how you feel. I'm kind of torn, especially because I did like a fair amount of the characters. (Though I feel Boyd's sentiment about Paul, and Echo-Caroline.) So now I'm back to "What the crap? Show? I don't even know if I LIKE YOU."

[turquoisetumult.livejournal.com]

I feel like you can pull the "racial ramifications" card with a lot of shows so I won't even let that enter my mind, but:

But in order for the shock to work properly it has to be the last thing you expect, and at the same time make perfect sense. That kind of clarity is not present here.

I completely agree with this. It totally WAS the last thing I expected, but I still have no idea how it all worked out! Unless they had planned to reveal that stuff later on in the series, I almost feel like they pulled a LOST WTF?! moment and just "went with it."

There's still Anthony-Victor/Priya-Sierra for me, so I guess that's one of the few things that I will always like about this show. And Topher and Adelle really grew on me this season.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

If the story seemed more purposeful to me, rather than just thrown at us, I might not even see the racial ramifications being a problem, but as it is... well... lol.

And I LOVE the Priya/Tony stuff. They're just wonderful. Enver is consistently amazing. And I loved Topher even when everyone else hated him. TBH he is what made watching some episodes bearable.

Yeah it did seem like a total LOST thing to do. Like "this makes no sense! It doesn't matter, let's move on!"

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Aww, Boyd didn't work for you? I was okay with it because he still seemed like Boyd in the end. There are still a lot of questions, though. Was it totally satisfying and sense-making? No. But it was better than some other shows' reveals for sure.

I do like Dollhouse. But it does make me uncomfortable to enjoy it and it always did. People say it's 'supposed to' but I don't know if the show is quite that clever. Maybe.

I was bothered by Mellie/November's end. I really, really don't know what they were trying to say with her character all along. I'm waiting until the end to see if it will all make sense. I'm not that invested in Dollhouse as I came to it in season 2. But I really like discussing it. I swear I get more out of talking about this show than I do from the actual show.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

No it didn't work for me at all. I don't even know what he seemed like in the end. None of it truly makes sense to me. And right now I honestly can't think of another show (save for Lost) where the reveals have been more disappointing than this.

Yeah I'm not sure it's that clever either. I was also bothered by her end. The whole thing is just a huge step backwards. So she kills herself? WHY? Just... GIVE ME A BREAK. Gargh.

Anyway, I would probably agree that I get more out of this show by talking about it -- but then again I haven't really talked about it much lately, lol.

SPOILER ALERT (for other commenters)

[harlot2.livejournal.com]

The GF totally called that whole Mellie/November thing as soon as she recognized that she was attacking Paul. Then again, this is why people don't like watching movies with her; she's just too darn good at prediction. That being said, neither of us saw Boyd coming. I think I literally sat there with my mouth wide open for like five minutes. And the GF, being (mostly) black, was almost upset by the racial implications. ("Since when is it the black guy??")

I don't think Joss played the whole Boyd thing the right way though. The way it came across, it seemed a lot like a double-cross and a Heel Turn, and you could easily get so caught up in the thought process of "how is Boyd the Bad Guy?" (because we all assumed the Founder was the Bad Guy) that you fail to listen to exactly why he was interested in Caroline in the first place.

So here's a radical theory: Boyd's not the Bad Guy. Caroline is. Her DNA contained the secret to making a vaccine against imprinting, and she refused to let them do what they needed to do to avoid a catastrophe, like, say, the end of the friggin' world.

That is, of course, making the assumption that Boyd is not a big fat liar.

Re: SPOILER ALERT (for other commenters)

[harlot2.livejournal.com]

Of course, I know this won't be popular. I just felt it should be said.

Re: SPOILER ALERT (for other commenters)

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think he played it wrong too. I don't know, 10 years later seems a long time to finally redeem a character but it's possible I suppose.

I had my "boyd's a good guy" theory last week but I felt like that was pretty much squashed in the last episode. Not quite good, just slightly (massively) unhinged?

I don't even know. All I know is this last ep better fix it or I'm going to be incredibly disappointed.