sundries: media madness edition

[rm]

We have plan: Patty will be home Saturday. Yay.

Tragically, she'll probably be here too late or too tired for the Moulin Rouge singalong. Life is cruel.

Have to put up a few more auction things tonight, but remember that bidding at graduate_maria opens at 12:01am EST on 7/15/2010. You can still add new items to auction after that point, but it's nice to have a much stuff up by tonight as possible. So far things posted including awesome art, handmade items, fanfiction, a steno starter kit, laster-etched glassware with the custom design of your choice and more. For those willing to signal boost, now is a good time!

The Argentinian senate votes on the legalization of gay marriage today.

While not going to Infinitus was TOTALLY the right choice (I just got off a plane, the thought of getting on another one tonight is AWFUL), I'm a bit sad. Have fun, you all.

Last night the new season of White Collar began, and I liked it very much. The show is still very much a 2+2=5 experience for me, in that the thing itself is greater than the sum of its parts, mostly because of the chemistry between all the performers. And it's the opposite of Merlin -- here the chemistry helps the story instead of consistently getting in the way of it.

That said, despite brief moments from female characters (many of them awesome series regulars who were just here to wave and say hi in this episode) I find the relentless all-male nature of this show aggravating. Just as an aggressively gender dichotomous world is uncomfortable for me to live in, a single-gendered world is unpleasant for me to watch.

And I find it puzzling that I have that reaction so strongly to this show where the masculinity, while constant is hardly overbearing or traditional (Neal's shape is the masculine version of the hourglass; Peter loves his wife; no one would normally want to grow up to be a nebbish like Mozzie, but Mozzie is so cool), but that said there were points last night where I felt like we were seeing that "hints of softness in men, good! The actual presence of women, tedious necessity!"

I haven't really had this problem with the show in the past (thanks to my deep love of June and El), and I'm hoping this was a single episode aberration.

The show, of course, remains firmly about love, and I'm deeply interested in the construction of the world that has the ability to trust being Neal's salvation and, perhaps, Peter's downfall.

More than that though, I have to say I still don't quite trust Peter. I think, now that we're in the second season of this, it would be cheap to find out that Peter is some criminal mastermind who wants Neal and the music box for his own nefarious purposes, but the show continues to structure itself so that rationally you must doubt periodically, and are then thrust into Neal's position -- do you invest and trust or do you walk away?

Ultimately, I'm not one for mysteries. I didn't care about the Kate plotline, and I don't care who killed her. I do care how people cope in the face of it, but I could do without all this chasing after the music box, to be frank.

And since I was mentioning it to bodlon last night and he hadn't seen it, if you like Tim Dekay go netflix Carnivale right now, even if it was designed for a three season arc and only got two; even if it's super disturbing and occasionally frustrating in terms of internal mystery. It is, among other things, one of the most interesting examinations of female sexuality I've seen on screen.

Then I watched Covert Affairs which isn't very good and also has one of these central mystery plots I don't really care for. On the other hand, I sort of love the kinda weird looking blind guy with the more nerdly version of Ianto Jones's wardrobe who is ultimately played as totally hot. I probably won't keep watching unless someone who does tells me that four episodes in that character suddenly gets an interesting plotline of his own. Just as I found White Collar exhausting for its relentless masculinity, I found Covert Affairs exhausting for its relentless heteronormativity.

I don't know if it's my reading habits lately or if this there is suddenly a spate of Torchwood fic about Ianto adjusting not to the idea of being attracted to and sleeping with Jack, and not about Ianto dealing with being out in the public world, but Ianto dealing with a sense of internal disconnect regarding being out to himself or having a life very different than the one he once anticipated: i.e., waking up next to Jack, negotiating domesticity, not having the easy heteronormative guidance of "okay, I'm the guy, now I do this" about all the weird little nitpicky things about sharing intimate space with someone. Has anyone else noticed this? I'm not sure I'm even explaining it well. Anyway, it's a potentially interesting phenomenon (if it's not just all in my head), both for theme and timing.

Did anyone, btw, debunk that Torchwood casting sheet yet? It's fake, btw, but I don't feel like showing my math. Someone should get on that.

Despite not being a Holmes fan, and not even converted to such through the research I did for Bristol, I have to say, Moffat's Sherlock looks very smart, and I may be watching. And I'm not just saying this because Moffat is now on Twitter.

redstapler just sent me this: OMGWTF, Batpug!

Comments

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Totally seconding non-interest in Kate and the music box. Though, sadly, it looks like the music box is going to be a big thread in this season. And I really, really doubt we've seen the last of Kate. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Peter himself, though he seems genuine in wanting to hunt for Kate's killer, if he was the one who set it all up, and they actually managed to sneak Kate out through a hole in the bottom of the plane when Neal wasn't looking or something. We all know he wanted to get Kate out of Neal's life, and we can't be certain if Peter was telling the truth about that scene with Kate since the scene was from his recollection... Yeah, haven't trusted Peter from the start, sometimes he seems genuine, maybe he's doing it all with Neal's best intentions in mind, who knows. Calling it mentor, and calling in Diana who he was a mentor of hadn't occurred to me. Honestly, I was originally thinking Oversight was working with whoever taught Neal, Neal's mentor.

Enough on that, yes, the show needs more female power. And turning Diana into a villain isn't helping anything. And it is incredibly sad that they never want to put Diana and Cruz in the same episode, since I can imagine them being an awesome team together. I'm personally hoping for more of Alex.

Covert Affairs...I actually liked it. Though, like you, I mostly liked it for the blind guy. All the scenes with them together were pure gold. I mean, I'm wondering just how blind he is, considering he could see her heels. Maybe it's some sort of elaborate cover. Even if it isn't, I loved that scene with them sneaking into the medical examiner's morgue and calling the FBI questioning him sight-ist was brilliant. His whole conversation with the guys questioning him was memorable. Admittedly I didn't care much for the Matt Damon Bourne Identity movies (though the original Robert Urich ones are pretty good), and Covert Affairs has the same pace, and not much threadable story. I think I'm with the others though, swearing to watch it mainly for the blind guy.