Been feeling like posting lately but none of the stuff I have planned is exactly ~ready~ yet so I thought I'd do a bit of a television chatty post? I've been wanting to do one for a while, actually, since I always love reading everyone's what-I'm-watching type posts but for the past few years I haven't really been watching much, or haven't felt like talking about it. But I am actually watching things lately!
Agent Carter. AGENT CARTER. Agent Carterrrrrr giving me everything I neeeeeed. Having been a hardcore Hayley Atwell fan since Brideshead Revisited (and enjoying bragging about it as though I discovered her or something), I am intensely delighted to get to look at her gorgeous face every week, but getting to watch her play a character as amazing as Peggy? Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. I'm sure anyone who has been on the internet has seen the waxing poetic about Pegs, but I will do some more of it: I did not even anticipate just how much fun she is?? Like I did not expect the zaniness or lolzy side eye?? I don't know why but I did not and I am so happy. I watch this show LIVE. I don't even know the last time I watched a television show live. Peggy is everything I could have possibly wanted. So capable! So hilarious! So tragic! Such fashion! So lipstick! Jarvis!!! SWEET PRINCE JARVIS. Angie!! I have nothing of value to add about this show, I'm just rolling on the floor and crying about Peggy and reapplying red lipstick in her honor over and over again.
Jane the Virgin. I kind of expected to be more into this show than I am? Like, I totally get the appeal and love Jane, Xo, and Rogelio, but... I don't know. I'm not excited for the next episode, you know what I mean? I'm not really attached to either of Jane's romances. It's just sort of cute and there.
Empire. Really enjoying this! I'm sure anyone who has followed my journal for any length of time or is friends with me or whatever will be unsurpried to learn I am All About Cookie. Taraji is gorgeous and serving some camp excellence, but I also quite like the show as a whole! Especially the brothers. Give me messy family dynamics all day every single fucking day. (However, I remain unsold on Terrence Howard. Is it just me or is he kind of sleeping through the performance? Like, imagine if someone incredibly powerful was in that role, how good that would be.)
Broad City. Just fully caught up with this! V. funny, digging it, much lols.
Constantine. I want to love this show more than I acutally love it, I think. The lead guy is REALLY GOOD. I actually do love him a lot. He gives a great performance despite not having a ton to work with and I keep tuning in in the hopes the show rises to his level. It's sort of glaring, at times, how much it is mediocre whereas he is great. I really want this show to be Angel, kind of? In a way? I have an Angel-shaped void in my heart and it's not filling it, really, but I WISH. I'll keep watching until it gets cancelled, though; I have no doubts it will be cancelled. I read some Constantine comics as a kid (really just a few, whatever showed up in Sandman) but he's a very interesting, gripping character, so I will continue to hope the show surprises me. It could be SO GOOD if it would just BE GOOD. Rise above supernatural procedural dullness, show!!
AHS: Freak Show. Total trash. I suffered through it but I don't even know why at this point. Watching the finale as I type this up and just. Bleh. Here's hoping s5 is totally the opposite of everything this season was.
Looking. Apparently I watch this show now??? I tried the pilot back when it first aired and found it SO UNSPEAKABLY DULL. I was like, this is just a bunch of hipsters talking quietly in low-lit rooms, why would I bother with this. But on a whim, I tried the first episode of s2 and was oddly into it, so I went back and caught up with everything. It's just too easy to catch up with half-hour shows. There are some parts of it I'm indifferent too (fuckin Agustin I swear to GOD) but Jonathan Groff is so fucking cute someone should slap him right in his face. And I love seeing a History Boys alum popping up in things! I find myself genuinely on the fence as to the triangle it's got going, though I know tumblr is all over Patrick/Richie (and Richie is hella handsome so I get it) but I find both relationships appealing for totally different reasons, so. Not obsessed but enjoying the show and happily along for the ride. Did I mention Groff is the motherfucking cutest?
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The Slap (the Australian one). Speaking of slaps. Just finished this, like mere moments ago. It's a miniseries and maybe y'all have seen that they're remaking it for NBC with a load of good people (Peter Sarsgaard, Thandie Newton, Quinto, Uma Thurman). I first heard about it because Penn Badgley's got a small role and thought it sounded pretty lame. The first episode is about a man slapping another couple's child at a barbeque and the series is, partially, about the resulting fallout, which just sounded massively uninteresting to me, though I planned to check it out for Penn. But the original Australian series is all on Netflix, so I figured I'd give it a shot out of boredom and to see what Penn's role would be like (fangirl extremis, I know) and I ended up really enjoying it quite a lot! It was really a great show, much more interesting than its conceit would have one believe. It was eight episodes, each from the PoV of a different character, and I found myself really enjoying/missing that format. It reminded me a bit of Skins that way – not the content, because obviously it's very different, but the idea of an episode telling a contained story about a specific person in a very poignant way while at the same time contributing to a larger narrative. It was very well done, really well acted, and just on the whole very compelling. I basically watched it straight through. Great character work. It's funny, when you get used to watching shows with sort of lazy character work or character work that's secondary to plot stuff, you can forget what it's like to see it done very well. I loved the women most, unsurprisingly, but I found even the characters I didn't find likable presented in a fascinating way. Really, this show was what pushed me to make the post, I really would love to talk to someone about it! I highly recommend it.
My favorite character was perhaps not one of the major major ones, though she had the second episode to herself. Her name was Anouk and she was played by Essie Davis (Uma will play her in the NBC one) and I kind of wish she'd come along to do the role again (Melissa George is reprising her role) because I have a really hard time imagining someone else in the part. She was just very much the kind of character I like to watch (capable, indepdent, slightly selfish, sort of bitchy, strong-willed) and I liked her entire storyline and growth. So... I'm very interested to see how much changes in the remake and I'm now eagerly looking forward to the show! I really hope it's good. I found the world of the characters so interesting and so full that I was sort of disappointed that it was only eight episodes.
Also, I said it on tumblr, might as well say it here too – I'm pretty sure I'm going to do lolzy recaps of Gossip Girl Acapulco, so...stay tuned for that?
Agent Carter. AGENT CARTER. Agent Carterrrrrr giving me everything I neeeeeed. Having been a hardcore Hayley Atwell fan since Brideshead Revisited (and enjoying bragging about it as though I discovered her or something), I am intensely delighted to get to look at her gorgeous face every week, but getting to watch her play a character as amazing as Peggy? Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. I'm sure anyone who has been on the internet has seen the waxing poetic about Pegs, but I will do some more of it: I did not even anticipate just how much fun she is?? Like I did not expect the zaniness or lolzy side eye?? I don't know why but I did not and I am so happy. I watch this show LIVE. I don't even know the last time I watched a television show live. Peggy is everything I could have possibly wanted. So capable! So hilarious! So tragic! Such fashion! So lipstick! Jarvis!!! SWEET PRINCE JARVIS. Angie!! I have nothing of value to add about this show, I'm just rolling on the floor and crying about Peggy and reapplying red lipstick in her honor over and over again.
Jane the Virgin. I kind of expected to be more into this show than I am? Like, I totally get the appeal and love Jane, Xo, and Rogelio, but... I don't know. I'm not excited for the next episode, you know what I mean? I'm not really attached to either of Jane's romances. It's just sort of cute and there.
Empire. Really enjoying this! I'm sure anyone who has followed my journal for any length of time or is friends with me or whatever will be unsurpried to learn I am All About Cookie. Taraji is gorgeous and serving some camp excellence, but I also quite like the show as a whole! Especially the brothers. Give me messy family dynamics all day every single fucking day. (However, I remain unsold on Terrence Howard. Is it just me or is he kind of sleeping through the performance? Like, imagine if someone incredibly powerful was in that role, how good that would be.)
Broad City. Just fully caught up with this! V. funny, digging it, much lols.
Constantine. I want to love this show more than I acutally love it, I think. The lead guy is REALLY GOOD. I actually do love him a lot. He gives a great performance despite not having a ton to work with and I keep tuning in in the hopes the show rises to his level. It's sort of glaring, at times, how much it is mediocre whereas he is great. I really want this show to be Angel, kind of? In a way? I have an Angel-shaped void in my heart and it's not filling it, really, but I WISH. I'll keep watching until it gets cancelled, though; I have no doubts it will be cancelled. I read some Constantine comics as a kid (really just a few, whatever showed up in Sandman) but he's a very interesting, gripping character, so I will continue to hope the show surprises me. It could be SO GOOD if it would just BE GOOD. Rise above supernatural procedural dullness, show!!
AHS: Freak Show. Total trash. I suffered through it but I don't even know why at this point. Watching the finale as I type this up and just. Bleh. Here's hoping s5 is totally the opposite of everything this season was.
Looking. Apparently I watch this show now??? I tried the pilot back when it first aired and found it SO UNSPEAKABLY DULL. I was like, this is just a bunch of hipsters talking quietly in low-lit rooms, why would I bother with this. But on a whim, I tried the first episode of s2 and was oddly into it, so I went back and caught up with everything. It's just too easy to catch up with half-hour shows. There are some parts of it I'm indifferent too (fuckin Agustin I swear to GOD) but Jonathan Groff is so fucking cute someone should slap him right in his face. And I love seeing a History Boys alum popping up in things! I find myself genuinely on the fence as to the triangle it's got going, though I know tumblr is all over Patrick/Richie (and Richie is hella handsome so I get it) but I find both relationships appealing for totally different reasons, so. Not obsessed but enjoying the show and happily along for the ride. Did I mention Groff is the motherfucking cutest?
The Slap (the Australian one). Speaking of slaps. Just finished this, like mere moments ago. It's a miniseries and maybe y'all have seen that they're remaking it for NBC with a load of good people (Peter Sarsgaard, Thandie Newton, Quinto, Uma Thurman). I first heard about it because Penn Badgley's got a small role and thought it sounded pretty lame. The first episode is about a man slapping another couple's child at a barbeque and the series is, partially, about the resulting fallout, which just sounded massively uninteresting to me, though I planned to check it out for Penn. But the original Australian series is all on Netflix, so I figured I'd give it a shot out of boredom and to see what Penn's role would be like (fangirl extremis, I know) and I ended up really enjoying it quite a lot! It was really a great show, much more interesting than its conceit would have one believe. It was eight episodes, each from the PoV of a different character, and I found myself really enjoying/missing that format. It reminded me a bit of Skins that way – not the content, because obviously it's very different, but the idea of an episode telling a contained story about a specific person in a very poignant way while at the same time contributing to a larger narrative. It was very well done, really well acted, and just on the whole very compelling. I basically watched it straight through. Great character work. It's funny, when you get used to watching shows with sort of lazy character work or character work that's secondary to plot stuff, you can forget what it's like to see it done very well. I loved the women most, unsurprisingly, but I found even the characters I didn't find likable presented in a fascinating way. Really, this show was what pushed me to make the post, I really would love to talk to someone about it! I highly recommend it.
My favorite character was perhaps not one of the major major ones, though she had the second episode to herself. Her name was Anouk and she was played by Essie Davis (Uma will play her in the NBC one) and I kind of wish she'd come along to do the role again (Melissa George is reprising her role) because I have a really hard time imagining someone else in the part. She was just very much the kind of character I like to watch (capable, indepdent, slightly selfish, sort of bitchy, strong-willed) and I liked her entire storyline and growth. So... I'm very interested to see how much changes in the remake and I'm now eagerly looking forward to the show! I really hope it's good. I found the world of the characters so interesting and so full that I was sort of disappointed that it was only eight episodes.
Also, I said it on tumblr, might as well say it here too – I'm pretty sure I'm going to do lolzy recaps of Gossip Girl Acapulco, so...stay tuned for that?