Spontaneous Musings

Watched a heck of a lot of tv this weekend, while coughing and convalescing. Been doing a lot of convalescing this year - it's getting tiresome. Today, though, felt much better, still coughing but not as badly, not as much, and not as painful. The antibiotics though are making me slightly wired, which is weird. As is the cough syrup, which is annoying.

Did the Supernatural marathon and the Flashforward marathon, as well as watched In Plain Sight, Project Runway
and Justified.

Supernatural is basically the anti-Buffy (or that's what I call it in my head). It's mythology from a male perspective, their fears, their nightmares and urban legends/horror tales as perceived purely by men or from a male perspective. Have I seen this story done before? You betcha. Do I know what will happen next? Pretty much. Is it enjoyable? More than I want to admit, but hey, I like noire - was weaned on the stuff. Noir and Westerns - two genres that traditionally treat women like shit on toast, but have interesting male characters. Also, for a course in urban folklore, I studied and wrote a paper on male urban legends, folktales and stories. Took a course on Western films as well. So about 85% of the tales that appear in Supernatural? I taped as oral narratives, transcribed, and analyzed for a paper in the 1980s. I also went to a lecture by a guy who is an expert and wrote not one, but two books regarding urban legends. I also read Neil Gaiman's American Gods - which sort of hit upon the same mythos, yet in a different way. We rarely get the female mythos - what we tend to get in most sci-fi/fantasy horror is male mythos. Not that the female doesn't exist, it does, it's just male writers get the money and backing to put their work on the air, in books, or comics - specifically in this genre.

Buffy was actually amongst the few tv shows that took a different tack.

That said, it is admittedly fun. If you can ignore the rampant sexism and misogyny, and focus on the relationship between the two brothers - the show rocks. I like the brother relationship, but that admittedly is one of my story kinks. I was in love with Angel S5 for much the same reason and would watch Spike and Angel read the phone book together, and bicker over it, if I could. Personally, I'd have been happy if the writers killed off all the other characters and just let it be the Spike and Angel show - which wait, is exactly what Supernatural is. It's basically the Spike and Angel show - except with Dean and Sam. Women are more or less treated the same by both pairings and in both shows. Because that's gothic/horror noir.

The plot? Hee. They are trying to kill Lucifer before he takes over Sam's body and destroys the world, or Dean is forced to let the Archangel Michael take over his body to kill Sam. Lucifier's brother the Angel Gabriel told them that it would be a lot easier to just trick Lucifier into getting back into his cage and locking him up again, because apparently he's too powerful to kill the normal way. Lucifer wants to destroy the world because he's jealous of humanity. Before humanity was born, he was God the father's favorite kid. Michael his brother - has had it with Lucifier and just wants to kill him already, even if it results in the apocalypse and takes out about 80% of humanity in the process. Watching this show reminds me of a parody of some of the Presbyterian children's bible stories that I heard in college, which people believed in - much to my considerable bewilderment and amusement. We went on this Presbyterian retreat in college and they told me the whole angel's at war with demons story - which was news to me, because this was NOT part of my Catholic upbringing. Apparently the Catholics are right not everyone should be permitted to interpret the bible - some people take it far too literally and seem to forget the context in which it was written - ie. the apostles thought that they were the last humans, that the world was going to end, and no one would survive them. Imagine their surprise to discover this was not the case?? Not only did we survive, we've turned the apostles into Saints, and their leader into a God. Go us. Human beings are funny creatures - we think God is like us, thinks like we do, feels like we do, wants what we do, and does the same dumb stuff that we do. We are so egotistical and self-absorbed, it's hilarious.

At any rate - I enjoy Supernatural - because it gives me insight into a pov I truly do not agree with, and provides me with two shockingly attractive and fascinating characters. Also, it doesn't hurt that I recognize the mythos and have studied the metaphors, and as a result appreciate the inside jokes. (e.g. Food of the Gods? Man.)

Flashforward is actually better this season than last season. The characters are more developed and going in interesting directions. I rather adore the Japanese woman who is a mechanic and a musician. Dimitri (the FBI agent) and his fiance. And Dominic Monaghan's Simon is growing on me. Some nice twists, and the philosophy as well as the science behind time travel is far more digestible than Lost. (in other words it makes logical sense, while Lost really doesn't). Read a letter in EW - in which a viewer of Lost stated that Flashforward explained too much, that it's mystery was explainable, and a true mystery is one that cannot be explained and unravels whenever you try to figure it out - which is what makes Lost great.
Interesting.

Justified - is a great character piece, well acted, and well written. It's also fairly male-oriented, but unlike Supernatural, not misogynistic or sexist in the least. See? This is possible, folks! It's an exploration of a specific character - Ryallings Gibbons, brilliantly played by Timothy Olyphant, and we see everything more or less from his point of view.

In Plain Sight - basically Justified, except from the female perspective. The main character is a female US Marshall with Witsec and we get the story from her pov. It's also a well acted, well written character piece, and an exploration of a central character - this time a woman, who is brilliantly played by Mary McCormack. (My fantasy at the moment is to see Mary and Ryallings on an assignment together - I'm not sure who'd take lead. But I'm guessing Mary could give Ryallings a run for his money.) I prefer In Plain Sight to Justified, in part because it is different and unique, and in part because it's nice to have a woman play that type of role for a change.

Merlin - rather adore this little show. Particularly the Gwen/Lance/Arthur triangle - which is done rather brilliantly here. Because Arthur tells Merlin he can't marry or love Gwen because she's a servant, beneath his class. His father wouldn't even let him rescue her - he had to sneak out and do it. Lancelot meanwhile chooses to let Gwen go, even though she admits she loves and cares for him more than anyone, and he clearly loves her - and they are the same class. But he does so, because he sees greater things for her - that she should be with Arthur.
He puts his cause above their love. He's not doing it for her. He's doing it for the cause - the hope that things could change with Arthur - and are more likely too, if Arthur can have Gwen. Which is an interesting interpretation and very British. The Americans don't quite look at class and race the same way as the Brits do. The series is questioning and critiquing the British class system - which British tv shows do a lot. Doctor Who is constantly referring to class issues - that's what the whole Doctor Who/Rose Tyler romance was in part about. As well as his relationship with Donna Noble. This stuff tends to go over my head. It wasn't until Merlin, where they literally underline it and put it in big bold capital letters that I caught on. Why? Because it's not really a huge issue in the US, or it is an issue, but not in quite the same way. I'm guessing because the US is a)bigger and b)has more people. NYC alone has 8.4 million, actually I think we have more than that since NYer's aren't doing a great job of returning their census sheets. And the US at last count? 308 million. Or so said the Olympics.
When you have more people, class issues tends to get blurry. As do race issues. Oh, we have them, they are just different. In much the same way apples and oranges are different, I suspect.



Project Runway - was quite happy with this seasons finale. All three of them put on great shows, and I'd try on any of those clothes, heck I'd love to able to wear some of them. My favorite was probably Emilio (no surprise there, his was the most commercial and wearable, with Mia a close second. Seth Aaron won - which I didn't disagree with completely - he's the most entertaining and took the most risks. But I'm not sure I see myself wearing his stuff - its too busy. Which is what the judges stated. And Emilio's green dress was just beautiful - I want that dress - that was a piece of art. That's my fantasy gown - flowing, like air, and it looked comfortable - a rarity. I rather hated Seth Aaron's blue/purple bubble gown - bizarre. But liked the plaid trousers and jacket.
And Mia had this sweater and jacket number, as well as knitted cowl neck, with black dress and pants that was amazing. Best runway show in a while. Normally, I look at the stuff on the final show and think, eww, I wouldn't be caught dead in that. Or, that looks so uncomfortable and unflattering. Not to mention frilly. But this round, I was blown away by the quality and taste.