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So all season long I've swung back and forth about Dollhouse, wanting to make sure I gave it the benefit of the doubt and being interested but not enamored and waiting out the dreary beginning.
It felt very postmodern to me - and I don't have a natural affinity for postmodernism. Instead of fantasy, it's world view seemed very bleak - grim, mundane reality, and the notion of identity was something that kept on being reinterpreted, overlaid again and again with something new, depending on who and what agenda was behind the machine. To the point where the notion of intrinsic meaning or core value was being called into question.
( Read more... ) Complete and utter narcissism if you ask me. He should just go into therapy and stop taking his guilt trip and various anxieties out on us.
It felt very postmodern to me - and I don't have a natural affinity for postmodernism. Instead of fantasy, it's world view seemed very bleak - grim, mundane reality, and the notion of identity was something that kept on being reinterpreted, overlaid again and again with something new, depending on who and what agenda was behind the machine. To the point where the notion of intrinsic meaning or core value was being called into question.
( Read more... )
Worried about Bobby
May. 4th, 2009 09:57 amSpoilers for 4.20 and Future Spec
I'm pretty worried about Bobby. In fact, I've been worried about him for months now. We know Dean is going to lose Sam to the darkside. That's been clear for months and months.
( Read more... )
I'm pretty worried about Bobby. In fact, I've been worried about him for months now. We know Dean is going to lose Sam to the darkside. That's been clear for months and months.
( Read more... )
" Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one."
He shall be greatest who can be loneliest, the most concealed, the most deviant, the human being beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues, he that is overrich in will.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -
He shall be greatest who can be loneliest, the most concealed, the most deviant, the human being beyond good and evil, the master of his virtues, he that is overrich in will.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -
4.19: It's All about Literary Symmetry
Apr. 27th, 2009 09:15 amJust a quick additional thought about 4.19:
So I figured out another reason why they needed the third( Read More )
So I figured out another reason why they needed the third( Read More )
SPN 4.19: Who Is the Monster Now?
Apr. 24th, 2009 09:31 amI liked this episode, though it wasn't one of my favourites. (Although given the quality of the shows this year, that's a hard category to match on a weekly basis.) Thematically it fit in so perfectly with the series arc and the season arc. And I loved the irony of the title, ( Read More )
SPN 4.19: Jump the Shark
Apr. 23rd, 2009 10:34 pmI loved all the inversions and the reverse symbolism, ( Cut for Spoilers )
But, oh man. That last scene, insert dagger into heart and twist.
So sad.
________
And on another note, I didn't realize that Ronald Resnick was on Harper's Island - that guy made an impression on SPN.
But, oh man. That last scene, insert dagger into heart and twist.
So sad.
________
And on another note, I didn't realize that Ronald Resnick was on Harper's Island - that guy made an impression on SPN.
Can I Haz Wings?
Apr. 23rd, 2009 12:29 pmA while back someone somewhere on LJ pointed out this image of Lucifer as containing a visual similarity to Sam, most particularly the hair.
For some reason back then, I fixated on the hair, and didn't even notice the wings. So now I'm wondering, when/if Sam rises as Lucifer, will he have wings. I really want him to have wings.
( Read more )
For some reason back then, I fixated on the hair, and didn't even notice the wings. So now I'm wondering, when/if Sam rises as Lucifer, will he have wings. I really want him to have wings.
( Read more )
Dollhouse 1.8
Apr. 4th, 2009 12:17 amOkay - I really don't get Dollhouse.
I'm finding it disturbing and unpleasant.
Despite wanting to like it.
And I'm not seeing the point of it. We're 8
episodes into a 13 episode stories. Surely
there should be a point besides women are
victims/men are sleeze, victims stay victims,
you can't get out, victim, victim, victim.
( Read more )
I'm finding it disturbing and unpleasant.
Despite wanting to like it.
And I'm not seeing the point of it. We're 8
episodes into a 13 episode stories. Surely
there should be a point besides women are
victims/men are sleeze, victims stay victims,
you can't get out, victim, victim, victim.
( Read more )
Dean, Dean, Dean
Apr. 3rd, 2009 12:53 am
Dean is back, I'm so happy!!!
Man, I missed him.
He kind of breaks my heart though, because all it seemed that he needed
in motivation was for someone to tell him he was going to succeed in
what he was setting out to do, ( Read more )
It's All About the Pain
Mar. 17th, 2009 11:07 am
[Spoilers up to 4.15 and speculation]
While this Whedon mantra has been true for several seasons already on Supernatural, it's pretty interesting that right now, It's All About the Pain has become daily reality for the characters, given Dean's descent through Hell. It's moved from being the emotional arc the characters were on - to being honed down to the thing itself, metaphor made flesh. He's not just experiencing emotional pain, he's become first the receptacle of pain itself and then the wielder of it.
It's all about the pain that Dean was given for 30 years. And even more about the pain that he learned to inflict for the last 10 years. And his fears about how that pain worked to begin to destroy his humanity. His deep seated fear of himself. What he could be again if he let himself.
And this begins to explain why Dean has lost his edge, which has been so troubling lately. The fact is that he's lost his edge in so many ways. Jensen Ackles even seems to have put on some weight, so the angles in his face are blunter, less honed, the hallows less apparent, his face is a flatter plane, less beautiful. (Though I suppose they could be achieving this same effect by lighting him very differently, not to throw his angles into relief.) His entire presence feels heavier, unanimated by the sparkle and flare and self possession of early Dean. And, with some rare exceptions, he's always covered up in so many layers, you can't see his actual body shape, it's obscured behind this veil of illusion, another aspect of his (self) concealment.
But his true edge is so sharp after 10 years of torturing in Hell, he's afraid to go anywhere near it, of being in the same vicinity with it, let alone touching it and taking it back up. So he's fallen into this edgeless, whiny, passive aggressive self that's not all there, leaving a lot of the operation of day to day affairs to Sammy. And simultaneously hating the less potent self that he has allowed to return and is now present. More foreshadowing from Yellow Fever.
The interesting thing is that this aspect of Dean is what Sammy doesn't have the slightest clue about experientially, he'll be used to dealing with edgeless Dean, softer Dean, Dean with new limits Sam doesn't like - so when their eventual confrontation occurs, Dean will have 10 solid years of Alastair certified torturing and 30 solid years of outlasting Alastair's tortures in his bag of tricks. And - if trends stay true - Sammy will be fairly dismissive of Dean.
Sammy has his demon blood to make him different. And Dean, Dean has his years in Hell. With Pain as his Superpower.
That's what makes him different - and suitable to be the one to oppose againstSam/Lucifer or whoever Sam will be at the time.
Lost in the Smokies
Feb. 28th, 2009 12:40 pm
Real life tragedies, which I don't mean to minimize, but I just wish I could put this in a folder and send it to the Winchester boys to solve.
Lost in the Smokies: Mystery surrounds disappearances over the past 40 years
This is precisely their kind of thing.
Supernatural 4.14: Sex and Violence
Sam: Dean, look, you know I didn't mean the things I said back there,
right; that it was just the Siren's spell talking.
Dean: Of course. Me, too.
So it's absolutely clear at the end of Supernatural 4.14 that Dean is
lying to Sam and that he knows he is lying to Sam when he nods
agreement that his words and actions were the Siren's spell speaking.
The interesting case here is Sam.
Unlike Dean, Sam has been lying for years about his identity - and
he's done it so he won't have to deal with others learning the truth
about him and thinking he's freakish. He did it categorically when he
was at Stanford and now he does it to keep Dean from learning the
truth about him and thinking he's freakish. In other words, he does it
for self protection. Which makes it different from Dean whose
significant lies, for the most part, are made to others in order to
protect them from truths they can't bear.
OTOH, Sam was born under a bad sign. And the fact that he sometimes
needs privacy to deal with issues that have been forced on him and
were not, in origin, of his making, is also undeniable.
Sam is the one to begin the apology at the end of 4.14. And he does it
in his sincere voice, with his face sincere and his eyes sincere. I
think the only question here is is he trying to convince himself or to
convince Dean? Or is lying so ingrained in his psyche now that he
believes his lies as he is saying them?
Dean doesn't buy it for an instant. Every word he uttered was right
from his heart and he knows that this is true of a part of Sam as
well, a Sam we have caught glimpses of throughout the seasons. But
since under the Siren's spell he tried to kill Sam, he hardly feels he
has the right to call Sam on anything, and it's just not his style to
confront the problematic emotional stuff with talk, but to sit on the
problem, hoping the impulses will fizzle out, before it explodes.
Sam learns the truth about what he said in Dean's eyes, when Dean,
too, agrees with his assertion and it's absolutely clear Dean's lying;
because Sam then knows that Dean knows he's lying, too, and just
doesn't want to talk about it directly, since that might cause their
fraying fraternal ties to break clean away.
So this last episode of Supernatural, Criss Angel is a Douchebag, continues to confirm my suspicions of where the season is headed.
Everything I see, including this last episode we just saw, points to Sam falling at the end of the season.
Not to mention, the writers take the horror show aspect of the show very seriously. All of the seasons have ended really badly for the characters - and in Season 3 they initiated a wonderful pattern of giving the audience exactly what they promised all along and having the final themes echo all along the season. Tightly woven foreshadowing.
So, we've already been told in so many words that Dean won't be able to stop what's coming and that he shouldn't blame himself for it because what ends up happening will be destiny.
So, I think Dean is going to end up feeling deep anger at Heaven/the Angels/God at what he will feel is his manipulation.
IOW, the Powers in Heaven left him rotting in Hell long enough so that - through the process described in this post - he got far enough along to his own permanent damnation that, upon being released, he would have an insatiable desire to rescue people - a desire which can only be sated by saving the world from turning into Hell on earth. That's the only way he can get his sense of self and any sense of self worth back again.
In other words, Heaven set him up to be a counterweight to Sam.
And I think that Uriel's trick to make Dean betray either his brother or Anna, knowing he'd choose his brother, is going to be the template for the final decision he has to make. He'll either be able to save Sam from getting all demonified and going to hell, or reigning in Hell or something like that, or he'll be able to save the world - but he won't be able to do both.
In the season 2 finale we saw Dean explicitly turn away from shutting the gates of hell to look for the YED so he could get him. This time, I think he'll have to do the opposite - save the world and leave Sam - because this time he knows explicitly what Hell on earth means - really means -and he's not going to let that happen on his watch. Not if he can prevent it. That's going to be a more important pledge than keeping his brother safe - which was his job, the thing he was conditioned to do, since he was 5 years old.
So he's going to have a choice beween the two most important things for him - saving the world and himself thereby or saving Sam. And this time, I believe he'll choose the world. Just like in the episode we saw tonight, the old guy made the right, moral decision but ended up killing his friend and being alone and hating himself for it. That is the position that Dean is going to end up in, I think with tons of questions and man pain about whether he made the right choice.
As for Sam, it would be cool if he went darkside by killing Lilith who was in the middle of killing Dean, since Dean is his weakness and he would easily use his powers to the fullest in order to prevent it. It would also make Dean's pain so much more intense that his brother went dark saving him and he didn't reciprocate. The one thing that seems clear to me is that after Dean's confession of what happened to him in hell, Sam is not going to let Dean go back to hell. Also, this night's episode shows how much pain Sam still is in from being left alone when Dean went to hell, not just once, but twice - in Mystery Spot and in No Rest for the Wicked. A pain that has gotten shunted aside, because Dean's issues were so much more weighty and Sam has never yet confessed to Dean or to anyone what happened in Mystery Spot and how long it lasted for him and how much pain he was in - it's an experience that seems to have changed him a great deal.
It would be a nice touch in terms of foreshadowing the ending, if towards the end, Sam offers Dean immortality or power or somesuch, like the immortal "brother" offered to his two friends in tonight's episode.
I think Zarek's chances of being the last cylon in the final 5 just shot up astronomically. Got Mr. Clean in to do the job he wanted done - and which will leave his hands publicly clean. With just a few sincere words to Lee - tte of, "I'm on her side. Trust me, better yet - trust yourself." And now he has Lee now pitted against Roslin, and soon his agenda will come into view, whether he has one of his own, or if merely wants to be a spoiler and problematicize Roslin's job by upsetting her. Which will in turn upset the Admiral because his son is leading an attack against her. And it's all geared to make Laura look bad and to show off her weaknesses, which are already known. As Lee said, she thinks of herself as a benevolent dictator.
This dynamic is an interesting switch from the early seasons, where Lee used to ally with Laura in order to annoy his father. All a part of their messy ongoing oedipal struggle. Now he's going to do it, indirectly and filled with righteous indignation, through Laura. Which will succeed in distracting the President and the Admiral. And with all that righteous indignation fueling him, Lee won't notice the main game.
Zarek, who had observed this dynamic at various stages, has now outmaneuvered everyone. A bit like Cavil on the other ship.
The cylons may no longer have a plan, but he sure does.
Well played, Zarek.
This dynamic is an interesting switch from the early seasons, where Lee used to ally with Laura in order to annoy his father. All a part of their messy ongoing oedipal struggle. Now he's going to do it, indirectly and filled with righteous indignation, through Laura. Which will succeed in distracting the President and the Admiral. And with all that righteous indignation fueling him, Lee won't notice the main game.
Zarek, who had observed this dynamic at various stages, has now outmaneuvered everyone. A bit like Cavil on the other ship.
The cylons may no longer have a plan, but he sure does.
Well played, Zarek.
So here are some of the reason I (still) don't like Lee.
His entire civilization of billions has been reduced to somewhat significantly less than 50,000 souls in a long term apocalyptic war. And, despite the fact that he's a natural pilot with god given abilities and the highest ranking pilot that exists in the dwindling human race, he's indulging an IDENTITY CRISIS because daddy makes him feel like a beta male. (Well, he is a beta male, so that is no surprise, but he blames that on daddy, too.) And he resents the fact that he became a pilot, following in his father's footsteps, even though that was his free and clear choice, because he still resents his father leaving him/them when he was a child.
Get over it already, Lee!
Clearly he doesn't have the stones of a member of the greatest generation. Unlike Daddy 'Dama who has been steady as a rock despite almost dying and unbearable, unremitting pressure. (That won't be such a feat, however, if daddy turns out to be a cylon.)
Also, Lee reminds me of Riley. Total straight arrow.
And Kara can't really love him because she needs some monster in her man. Which he doesn't have and never will have.
His entire civilization of billions has been reduced to somewhat significantly less than 50,000 souls in a long term apocalyptic war. And, despite the fact that he's a natural pilot with god given abilities and the highest ranking pilot that exists in the dwindling human race, he's indulging an IDENTITY CRISIS because daddy makes him feel like a beta male. (Well, he is a beta male, so that is no surprise, but he blames that on daddy, too.) And he resents the fact that he became a pilot, following in his father's footsteps, even though that was his free and clear choice, because he still resents his father leaving him/them when he was a child.
Get over it already, Lee!
Clearly he doesn't have the stones of a member of the greatest generation. Unlike Daddy 'Dama who has been steady as a rock despite almost dying and unbearable, unremitting pressure. (That won't be such a feat, however, if daddy turns out to be a cylon.)
Also, Lee reminds me of Riley. Total straight arrow.
And Kara can't really love him because she needs some monster in her man. Which he doesn't have and never will have.
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