Manhattan 1.12
Oct. 16th, 2014 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakStill an awful combination of sick and busy, so behind with replying to everyone's replies. But finally able to catch up on Manhattan which I just learned got renewed for another season!
Liza was incredibly brave, outing her illness to the world in the greater cause of fighting against rules by secrets and against sacrificing liberty for safety. However, swept away as I was in the moment, a cynical little bird now that I'm writing is telling me that in rl, the listeners instead of being impressed by her would more likely have seen her as either a spy or a crazy woman or both. This being the 40s. But hey - it's the alt!40s anyway, where Heisenberg gets to have a glitzy superlab in 1943, so Liza getting to make a rousing speech against the taking away of democratic rights in the name of fighting for them, which has obvious present day relevance, and actually at least at that moment impressing her target audience positively - it can happen.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Akley wasn't a spy, the secret he was keeping was that he knew Thin Man wouldn't work before Charlie figured it out and hoped Charlie would fix it. The audience positions Akley and Frank mostly as bad as each other, with one critical difference: Frank is finally able to let ego aside and work with Akley, Akley commits suicide. I'm not sure how I feel about this resolution to a seasonal plot - I mean, way better than if Akley had turned out to be a spy, because the pilot set him up so clearly as the boo hiss corporate guy to Frank's original scientist - and it does fit with the theme of academics and their ambition driving themselves to ugly as well as beneficial extremes -, but I think if that was the resolution all along, Akley should have gotten more fleshing out along the way, not just a scene with his wife (who apparantly, as opposed to Liza and Abby, did get told what everyone is working on) in the last two eps, so the emotional effect would be different. Also, they should have given Charlie a genuine relationship with him - not just him telling Charlie repeatedly how brilliant C. is - , which would have founded Charlie's split loyalties better, because Charlie changing his mind three times in the space of an episode really does make him look like a child trying to decide who, Frank or Akley, is the mean daddy here. Abby lampshading it doesn't make it less true.
Speaking of academics and their ambition, looks like Helen's burning of the letter is about to be discovered since Dr. Theo Sinclair did make it to Los Alamos after all (thank you, Glen Babbitt, this presumably means Theo Sinclair will be a regular character next season? If so, yay!). Which leaves Abby's affair with Elodie as the one big secret which could make it into the next season. Depending on whether or not Abby will go through with her intention for a divorce, I suppose. On the one hand, if she and Charlie divorce, the character will leave the show, and I'd miss her. Otoh, I do want her to divorce Charlie, look for Elodie, confess what she's done, and then for the two of them to live together.
Charlie and Helen finally having sex after everyone thought they were when they hadn't for weeks: no opinion. I'm far more curious how Helen will react to Theo Sinclair's arrival.
Whereas Fritz and Jeanie talking about how Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are taking themselves both way too seriously and a superhero needs a sense of humor while reading comics together in bed: adorable. Though Jeanie mentioning Fritz already has an origin story with his plutonium incident reminds me Fritz must be living on borrowed time. And I'm not familiar with Clark/Superman in the 1940s comics, but most incarnations of Clark Kent I know (before Nolan got his hand on him, that is) DO have a sense of humor about themselves, which is in those later incarnations one of the key things that sets him apart from good old Bruce. So, Superman experts - did or did his 1940s incarnation already have a sense of humor?!?
And on that geeky note, off to take more medicine and hope I don't croak too much during rl obligation.
Liza was incredibly brave, outing her illness to the world in the greater cause of fighting against rules by secrets and against sacrificing liberty for safety. However, swept away as I was in the moment, a cynical little bird now that I'm writing is telling me that in rl, the listeners instead of being impressed by her would more likely have seen her as either a spy or a crazy woman or both. This being the 40s. But hey - it's the alt!40s anyway, where Heisenberg gets to have a glitzy superlab in 1943, so Liza getting to make a rousing speech against the taking away of democratic rights in the name of fighting for them, which has obvious present day relevance, and actually at least at that moment impressing her target audience positively - it can happen.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Akley wasn't a spy, the secret he was keeping was that he knew Thin Man wouldn't work before Charlie figured it out and hoped Charlie would fix it. The audience positions Akley and Frank mostly as bad as each other, with one critical difference: Frank is finally able to let ego aside and work with Akley, Akley commits suicide. I'm not sure how I feel about this resolution to a seasonal plot - I mean, way better than if Akley had turned out to be a spy, because the pilot set him up so clearly as the boo hiss corporate guy to Frank's original scientist - and it does fit with the theme of academics and their ambition driving themselves to ugly as well as beneficial extremes -, but I think if that was the resolution all along, Akley should have gotten more fleshing out along the way, not just a scene with his wife (who apparantly, as opposed to Liza and Abby, did get told what everyone is working on) in the last two eps, so the emotional effect would be different. Also, they should have given Charlie a genuine relationship with him - not just him telling Charlie repeatedly how brilliant C. is - , which would have founded Charlie's split loyalties better, because Charlie changing his mind three times in the space of an episode really does make him look like a child trying to decide who, Frank or Akley, is the mean daddy here. Abby lampshading it doesn't make it less true.
Speaking of academics and their ambition, looks like Helen's burning of the letter is about to be discovered since Dr. Theo Sinclair did make it to Los Alamos after all (thank you, Glen Babbitt, this presumably means Theo Sinclair will be a regular character next season? If so, yay!). Which leaves Abby's affair with Elodie as the one big secret which could make it into the next season. Depending on whether or not Abby will go through with her intention for a divorce, I suppose. On the one hand, if she and Charlie divorce, the character will leave the show, and I'd miss her. Otoh, I do want her to divorce Charlie, look for Elodie, confess what she's done, and then for the two of them to live together.
Charlie and Helen finally having sex after everyone thought they were when they hadn't for weeks: no opinion. I'm far more curious how Helen will react to Theo Sinclair's arrival.
Whereas Fritz and Jeanie talking about how Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are taking themselves both way too seriously and a superhero needs a sense of humor while reading comics together in bed: adorable. Though Jeanie mentioning Fritz already has an origin story with his plutonium incident reminds me Fritz must be living on borrowed time. And I'm not familiar with Clark/Superman in the 1940s comics, but most incarnations of Clark Kent I know (before Nolan got his hand on him, that is) DO have a sense of humor about themselves, which is in those later incarnations one of the key things that sets him apart from good old Bruce. So, Superman experts - did or did his 1940s incarnation already have a sense of humor?!?
And on that geeky note, off to take more medicine and hope I don't croak too much during rl obligation.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-16 01:55 pm (UTC)Feel better soon.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-18 12:38 pm (UTC)-J
no subject
Date: 2014-10-18 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-18 12:37 pm (UTC)Otherwise, though--wow, am I loving this show.
-J
no subject
Date: 2014-10-18 02:52 pm (UTC)