Comics and tv shows
Feb. 1st, 2010 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBack in Germany, with several comics read on the plane. I really liked Paul Cornell's Vampire State, a storyarc from his Captain Britain and MI-13 run. (Complete with Doctor Who gag.) Since halfmoon has started, does anyone do an entry for Faiza Hussein? (Cornell's Muslima doctor-turned-superhero.) Love her, love that she's the one who wields Excalibur these days and pwns Dracula and his anti-Islamic rants. BTW, said rants make of course complete sense given Vlad Tepes' backstory. Also, any story where you demonstrate love by staking your beloved's son at her request is fine by me, given my fondness for screwed-up family relationships.
In other news, Dollhouse ended like it was for the most part, to wit, massively flawed yet fascinating in everything not involving the main character. The irony is that the whole doll concept is a real showcase for acting skills, as Enver Gjokai as Victor/Tony and Dichen Lachman as Sierra/Priya amply demonstrate in the course of two seasons, and I hope they'll get good jobs after this. (Not a guarantee when you've shown what you can do in a Joss show; see also, Alexis Denisof's non-career post Joss despite his stellar turn as Wesley.) But what got showcased about Eliza Dushku were her painfully limited acting abilities. (Though to be fair her outburst after a about Paul's death was really well done. But generally speaking I don't think it's a coincidence or just to the cancellation rush that Echo integrating her personas basically happened off screen, or that both Caroline and integrated!Echo are variations of Dushku's tough-girl-with-vulnerabilities persona.) Mind you, the writing didn't make either Caroline or Echo more interesting, either. Otoh, cancellation rush fast forwarding developments or not, I do love the storylines for Adelle DeWitt and Topher through said two seasons, and their relationship with each other, which is pretty much unprecedented in Joss Whedon's previous ouevre, which made it so refreshing. (Which isn't to say some of the twists on previous patters didn't work for me as well. For example, I'm torn as to whether Boyd-as-a-Rossum-Founder was planned from the beginning, or a last minute improvisation, but either way, it works with the rest of the Jossverse, because a) he's the father figure, and nine out of ten father figures are of the evil or at least severely morally compromised with this writer, b) Boyd was the only character whose reasons for working for the Dollhouse we never learned until the big reveal, and c) Echo and Boyd as a dark twist to Buffy and Giles, with all the inherent betrayal of the Watcher/Handler position exposed instead of softened, is a good meta self comment. And to use a character from another fandom and another writer, one of these days, if I ever find the time, I might write an Adelle DeWitt/Arvin Sloane compare and contrast, and why they hit my soft spot for smart, competent, manipulative folk who indulge in massive self delusion at the same time. Which I suppose makes Topher darkside!Marshal Flinkman. Either of them would probably fanboy the other and go for that comparison. Though actually in relation to Adelle Topher is Nadia. . Down to the fact that affection and betrayal intermingle; Adelle handing over the plans to Rossum equates Sloane using Nadia for Rambaldi transcriptions. It's utterly different in that Nadia's firmly on the heroic side of things whereas Topher along with Adelle is probably the most guilty person of the show (among the regulars, not counting the Rossum founders etc.). Which I think simultanously makes it right that they shouldn't be "redeemed" (in as much as they are at all) via a relationship with one of the dolls who after all were their victims but should end up with this odd tenderness for each other, with full awareness of the horror of their respective responsibilities. Their scenes together in both episodes named "Epitaph" killed me. Affection for Adelle, Claire Saunders, Topher, Priya/Sierra and Tony/Victor notwithstanding, though, I'm not mourning for the show's cancellation; as an overall narrative, it could never quite decide what it wanted to be, and there are other shows who do not have that problem.
Being Human continues to be eminently watchable. This week's ep really had an OT3 vibe, and was the best Annie episode ever, which I really dig.
halfmoon has started, does anyone do an entry for Faiza Hussein? (Cornell's Muslima doctor-turned-superhero.) Love her, love that she's the one who wields Excalibur these days and pwns Dracula and his anti-Islamic rants. BTW, said rants make of course complete sense given Vlad Tepes' backstory. Also, any story where you demonstrate love by staking your beloved's son at her request is fine by me, given my fondness for screwed-up family relationships. In other news, Dollhouse ended like it was for the most part, to wit, massively flawed yet fascinating in everything not involving the main character. The irony is that the whole doll concept is a real showcase for acting skills, as Enver Gjokai as Victor/Tony and Dichen Lachman as Sierra/Priya amply demonstrate in the course of two seasons, and I hope they'll get good jobs after this. (Not a guarantee when you've shown what you can do in a Joss show; see also, Alexis Denisof's non-career post Joss despite his stellar turn as Wesley.) But what got showcased about Eliza Dushku were her painfully limited acting abilities. (Though to be fair her outburst after a about Paul's death was really well done. But generally speaking I don't think it's a coincidence or just to the cancellation rush that Echo integrating her personas basically happened off screen, or that both Caroline and integrated!Echo are variations of Dushku's tough-girl-with-vulnerabilities persona.) Mind you, the writing didn't make either Caroline or Echo more interesting, either. Otoh, cancellation rush fast forwarding developments or not, I do love the storylines for Adelle DeWitt and Topher through said two seasons, and their relationship with each other, which is pretty much unprecedented in Joss Whedon's previous ouevre, which made it so refreshing. (Which isn't to say some of the twists on previous patters didn't work for me as well. For example, I'm torn as to whether Boyd-as-a-Rossum-Founder was planned from the beginning, or a last minute improvisation, but either way, it works with the rest of the Jossverse, because a) he's the father figure, and nine out of ten father figures are of the evil or at least severely morally compromised with this writer, b) Boyd was the only character whose reasons for working for the Dollhouse we never learned until the big reveal, and c) Echo and Boyd as a dark twist to Buffy and Giles, with all the inherent betrayal of the Watcher/Handler position exposed instead of softened, is a good meta self comment. And to use a character from another fandom and another writer, one of these days, if I ever find the time, I might write an Adelle DeWitt/Arvin Sloane compare and contrast, and why they hit my soft spot for smart, competent, manipulative folk who indulge in massive self delusion at the same time. Which I suppose makes Topher darkside!Marshal Flinkman. Either of them would probably fanboy the other and go for that comparison. Though actually in relation to Adelle Topher is Nadia. . Down to the fact that affection and betrayal intermingle; Adelle handing over the plans to Rossum equates Sloane using Nadia for Rambaldi transcriptions. It's utterly different in that Nadia's firmly on the heroic side of things whereas Topher along with Adelle is probably the most guilty person of the show (among the regulars, not counting the Rossum founders etc.). Which I think simultanously makes it right that they shouldn't be "redeemed" (in as much as they are at all) via a relationship with one of the dolls who after all were their victims but should end up with this odd tenderness for each other, with full awareness of the horror of their respective responsibilities. Their scenes together in both episodes named "Epitaph" killed me. Affection for Adelle, Claire Saunders, Topher, Priya/Sierra and Tony/Victor notwithstanding, though, I'm not mourning for the show's cancellation; as an overall narrative, it could never quite decide what it wanted to be, and there are other shows who do not have that problem.
Being Human continues to be eminently watchable. This week's ep really had an OT3 vibe, and was the best Annie episode ever, which I really dig.
