Political Animals 1.04
Aug. 7th, 2012 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which viewerdom goes wild over TJ while I thank God or rather Greg Berlanski I had the Susan-Georgia-Douglas storyline to enjoy instead, with a sideline of Elaine & Garcetti.
To be fair: TJ needed some fleshing out, and we did finally see him do more than lie and emotionally blackmail his family. Unfortunately, I lost the sympathy raised by the backstory of him falling for the Republican closeted senator form Ohio (of course he did!) and getting his heart broken in the process pretty thoroughly when he talked his sponsor into using coke again. See, when Breaking Bad let Jesse Pinkman pull something like that (which they did in s3 and s4), I could be confident the show wanted me to see this as a reminder Jesse isn't some innocent victim in his story and does damage of his own, especially when he's being nihilistic. Whereas I suspect PA wants me to go awwwww, poor TJ for the most part. Still, I'm not made of stone. The soap technique of intercutting Elaine finding TJ at his first suicide attempt with Bud finding him at his second was pretty effective.
On to the part of the episode which I loved, which was everything to do with Susan and Georgia, Susan and Douglas, and Elaine & Garcetti. I can only repeat what I said last week: I AM SO THRILLED that Georgia gets developed this way, continues to be shown as smart and ambitious and not vilified for it, and now she's managed to get herself a writing partnership with Susan for the big Elaine story by journalistic skills (getting Ann to slip up) , not by Alex the thankfully non-appearing editor jerk. Loved, too, that Doug calls Susan on her ego re: refusing to share the byline, the intersection of these two storylines. And I must say, Susan and Doug have a nice spark. Hmmm. How much in love with Ann and true to Elaine's principles is Doug? Who at any case shows this week that he's inherited some of his parents' political smarts when pointing out to Susan why he's not so much in her pocket as she wants him to think he is due to his earlier leaking.
The Elaine and Garcetti scenes were great because they show he's a worthy and intelligent opponent, and give us another example of Elaine finding a third way instead of the two alternatives suggested, and Gets Things Done which is the particular Elaine superpower. Also I'm still enjoying having the Pasdar back on my view screen.
Lastly: it probably says something about certain headlines during the last decade or so that the moment I hear of a Republican congressman/senator from the heartland, I immediately assume this is going to be a closeted gay character long before the story confirms it. Or we could blame Angels in America.
To be fair: TJ needed some fleshing out, and we did finally see him do more than lie and emotionally blackmail his family. Unfortunately, I lost the sympathy raised by the backstory of him falling for the Republican closeted senator form Ohio (of course he did!) and getting his heart broken in the process pretty thoroughly when he talked his sponsor into using coke again. See, when Breaking Bad let Jesse Pinkman pull something like that (which they did in s3 and s4), I could be confident the show wanted me to see this as a reminder Jesse isn't some innocent victim in his story and does damage of his own, especially when he's being nihilistic. Whereas I suspect PA wants me to go awwwww, poor TJ for the most part. Still, I'm not made of stone. The soap technique of intercutting Elaine finding TJ at his first suicide attempt with Bud finding him at his second was pretty effective.
On to the part of the episode which I loved, which was everything to do with Susan and Georgia, Susan and Douglas, and Elaine & Garcetti. I can only repeat what I said last week: I AM SO THRILLED that Georgia gets developed this way, continues to be shown as smart and ambitious and not vilified for it, and now she's managed to get herself a writing partnership with Susan for the big Elaine story by journalistic skills (getting Ann to slip up) , not by Alex the thankfully non-appearing editor jerk. Loved, too, that Doug calls Susan on her ego re: refusing to share the byline, the intersection of these two storylines. And I must say, Susan and Doug have a nice spark. Hmmm. How much in love with Ann and true to Elaine's principles is Doug? Who at any case shows this week that he's inherited some of his parents' political smarts when pointing out to Susan why he's not so much in her pocket as she wants him to think he is due to his earlier leaking.
The Elaine and Garcetti scenes were great because they show he's a worthy and intelligent opponent, and give us another example of Elaine finding a third way instead of the two alternatives suggested, and Gets Things Done which is the particular Elaine superpower. Also I'm still enjoying having the Pasdar back on my view screen.
Lastly: it probably says something about certain headlines during the last decade or so that the moment I hear of a Republican congressman/senator from the heartland, I immediately assume this is going to be a closeted gay character long before the story confirms it. Or we could blame Angels in America.
