tee-fracking-vee

[jlh]

So yesterday I watched Black Books, which bhanesidhe had lent me. I found I liked—no, loved—the characters. But the situations were sort of, typical sit com situations where you can see the disaster coming at the end of the first act. It was fun to see them react, but I was really surprised at how much like Seinfeld the show ended up being. It was a tick more sentimental, and definitely pro-connection with others, which Seinfeld decidedly is not. But it was a sort of no good deed goes unpunished sort of show. I don't know why I was so surprised to see familiar sitcom plotting here; possibly because the few UK sitcoms I've seen don't work that way (Spaced, which I adore, plus a few eps of The IT Crowd.) The love-the-characters-not-the-situations usually means fanfiction, but I severely doubt that there's good fic for this show. The comedy is too odd, the character voices too singular and subtle, and really, what would you have them doing? Anyway I'm super glad that I saw it, as it was a lot of fun.

Also, I have finished my project of reading all the BSG recaps on the BSG wiki. I do have probably five or six episodes that I want to actually watch in second and third season, mostly those having to do with the mythology. I began to be more interested in the goings-on in the middle of the third season, but reading the recaps for the first half of season four I grew annoyed again. I'm not sure why—though it might be because against all my attempts to keep my emotions distant from a show that so gleefully fucks with and kills off its characters, almost punishing you as a viewer for being invested (it's as if Ron Moore is out there going "HA, I made you like them and now I will destroy them! SUCKERS!") I never lost my little light for Tyrol (bearded, bespectacled union organizer? HOT!) and watching him spiral downwards after Cally was killed made me sad. Not to mention watching Foster being a capital-V-Villain was equally tiresome. As much as I'm intrigued by the mythology, the whole Roslin v Thrace thing doesn't move me.

Now that I've had a chance to watch so much of it play out, I find the entire Lee Adama-Kara Thrace thing to be omg the most tiresome thing possible. Like, marry each other and have a big messy can't live with 'em can't live without 'em relationship (Tighs, part 2) or don't, but dragging other people into your clusterfuck because you can't deal is pretty lame, Kara. I sort of like Anders and Dualla. At this point I'd like Lee and Kara to be together just so they don't fuck over even more people in their long slow death spiral of emo dysfunction. Get over yourselves, guys.

I'll watch the second half of the fourth season because now of course I want to know what will happen. I'm still trying to sort of not-care about it all, or certainly try to not-care about the characters I find myself almost-caring about (okay, fine: Helo, Tyrol, Anders, Athena, Dualla, Papa Adama and Roslin) which is a tricky thing? But I have a general sense that either (A) the people behind this show think it's funny that viewers care about the characters and want to make us cry as much as possible to prove some kind of point that I clearly don't understand or (2) this really is a show about the ultimate futility of life itself and all that we do, the proper ending of which will be the extinguishing of all human and cylon life (though hopefully without the reboot as hi, Matrix much?). I don't find myself having real hope for any of the people within the show since the narrative itself seems to be so relentlessly about the pointlessness of hope, or even worse, the damage of hope, that hope is a horrible thing.

I don't understand that perspective at all. Why be so against hope when in some way hope is what keeps us from killing ourselves every day, or makes us mourn the loss of those who have died? What is the point of existence if there is no hope for the future? And I resent the implication that my reliance on hope—because it is hope for tomorrow that keeps me from swallowing a bottle of pills tonight, and I mean that quite literally—marks me as some sort of lesser human being, a step backwards in the evolutionary train, or not as fully realized, or something. It isn't my philosophy, and it's one that I feel, at this moment, in this country, to be rather irresponsible.

But maybe Jacob will change my mind. Though I understand that many of you think of Jabob's recaps as an abomination, they were one of the carrots dangled in front of me for watching the show, and I'm looking forward to reading them, like fruit after the vegetables of the wiki recaps.

Comments

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

My impression was that it just felt like drama for its own sake -- "stirring things up" in a way that wasn't all that interesting and make everyone unhappy. But you'd have to ask her to be sure, of course ;3

Black boooooooooooooooooooooooks

Are we HIMYMing tonight?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I YEARN to see you tonight. HIMYM is a repeat of "Sandcastles in the Sand" according to my DVR. I do have wine, though. And one outfit I want your opinion on whether it should go into the Salvation Army pile.