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rachg82Hola, amigas. I think it's time for me to ramble about TV for a while, which is something I haven't done in far too long. (I was going to include movies in this as well, but I'm going to put that off until next time.)
-Bones: I told a couple of you recently that I'd talk about "The Party in the Pants" in my next TV post, so here's where I do that. I basically liked only one scene in this episode--the part in the park where Booth's anger finally comes out--but otherwise this storyline was another huge disappointment for me. After how let down I was over "The Shot in the Dark" (more on that in a moment), and on top of other issues that have been building for the past couple years, it really became the final straw for me, and I deleted the show from my DVR. As sad (and yet somehow relieved, too) as that makes me, I doubt I'll be adding it back. I might watch the finale out of curiosity, and I'm open to tuning in to specific episodes in the future if they're important & well-received enough, but yeah. It's time. I wanted to hang in there until the end, but it didn't work out that way. I'd rather stop now & remember the show as it once was.
Like others, it bothered me that the writers didn't even acknowledge how fucking weird it was that Booth never said whether his mother was still alive before. That he never brought up how his mother left him & his brother, so perhaps he could relate to some of Brennan's abandonment issues. He never even mentioned how his mother had never met her first grandchild (remember him?). I went into the episode open to seeing these issues addressed in a satisfactory way, so it's not that I couldn't fanwank up reasons for Booth being so clammed up about her all this time. But, as has become the norm for the show now, the writers were too lazy to even try. The new motto seems to be "if it's tough to do right, keep it out of sight!"
Then there were the usual frustratingly simple continuity errors -- like how the writers don't even pretend to remember where Booth grew up anymore. ~Remember playing in this DC playground back in the day, son?~ Even though you grew up in Pennsylvania? Right. I'm sorryI'mnotsorry, but that shit is pathetic. I know we're supposed to be used to it as viewers by now, but there's only so much I can take before I start feeling embarrassed to be a fan. These aren't just occasional mistakes anymore. It's become EXPECTED.
What *really* bothered me about this episode on a personal level, though, was how cheesy & emotionally manipulative it was, particularly in regards to everyone telling Booth he had to forgive his mother tout de suite. Something you've got to keep in mind when thinking about this is how big an issue "feeling your feelings" is for adult children of alcoholics. Booth made excuses for her & stuffed his anger & sadness for decades, plastering a smile on his face & claiming to be ~fine~. He only FINALLY got in touch with his anger towards her in this episode after she confessed to having her own brand new family, and IMMEDIATELY everyone was up his ass about it, invalidating his right to feel how he felt. Is forgiveness a good thing? Obviously. But it's wielded like a power tool in dysfunctional relationships -- why won't you just forgive me for abusing you/enabling your abuse/etc? Don't you know forgiveness is divine? It's not MY fault for hurting you; it's your fault for being hurt. Can't you see how much your pain is affecting ME? Don't you know life is short? The shit goes on & on. When you look at this laundry list of common ACA characteristics, it's easy to spot all the ones which would complicate a dynamic like this. It's not up to the people around the ACA to lecture prompt forgiveness. It's one thing to explore with them whether their current choices, which are being influenced by anger & pain, will be something they'll regret later, but even that should be done with extreme delicacy. Because even then you risk making it THEIR fault if they regret how things happened later. Even then the other person bears no responsibility for putting you in that position to begin with.
I know some fans thought it was great how Brennan brought up religion to reach him, but for me it was a low blow & not even in character for her anyway (not in the sense of her using something important to him to connect -- that's in character. But her using religion as a reason for him to hop on that forgiveness train, and her saying that's the reason Christianity has existed all these years? No. Like, really? REALLY? NO). All I could see during that scene were the writers & show-runners behind the scenes trying to tell the audience how to feel. Same goes for the ~beloved childhood stuffed animal~ the mom just happened to still have, which OF COURSE Christine just loved! Kinda like how you should love her! Like how even Brennan likes her! Ugh. It reminded me how HH & SN have tried to shove other characters down our throats in the past (e.g. Hannah, Pelant). Rather than giving us reasons to love her, they just tell us to in various ways over & over.
I would've been fine with him choosing to attend the wedding under different circumstances, too, but as it stood it was too much for me. And then to have Brennan catch the bouquet on top of that? I was rolling my eyes so hard I think I might've sprained something.
To be clear, I was able to sympathize with Booth's mother to a degree. I understand that she was a victim of abuse herself, and that once she decided to leave, it was too hard for her to reach out to them again. But they don't even explain whether the kids were being abused at that time yet. And the storyline could've been so much better, had so much more depth, if they hadn't tried to wrap it all up in one episode like a Full House-esque sitcom. It would've been so much better if the people around Booth had just respected how he felt, sat & listened to him without judgment, and then had him alone be the one to decide to attend the wedding -- without shaming him into repressing his anger all over again. They could've let him remain hurt & angry, while still having him take that step towards reconciliation. Instead they took the easy way out, like they always do now.
The only other good thing I can say about the episode is that they allowed his mom to seem somewhat selfish & narcissistic, which balanced the "everyone loves her, and so should you!" plot devices & let her still seem human. But the fact that no one EXPLORED those aspects to her choices & personality, beyond Booth's single outburst, really bothered me. A couple years ago I probably could've handled all of it better, the way I used to be able to fanwank Booth's actions in season 6 via fic, but now it's just kind of depressing.
I don't have as much to say about "The Shot in the Dark" because it's been longer since I've seen it, but my main issue--beyond the supreme cheesyness of the hour--was this whole idea that Brennan's the way she is because of one bit of boy advice given to her by her mother. Boy advice that doesn't even fit, continuity-wise, with what we know of Brennan's boy history as a teenager. Advice that doesn't fit with what we've been told of her as a kid before. ~She was so dreamy & emotional until her mom told her to use her head!~ That explains it! It's enough to give me a rage blackout.
The other thing is that I don't think they even KNOW exactly what they were trying to do there, because at one point she said Brennan was changing herself for him, implying that she WASN'T wholly changed by this bit of advice -- that it just cemented the way she already was normally & perhaps exacerbated certain aspects of it, alongside the trauma of their disappearance in general & other things that happened to her over the years. That I could buy. But in all the pre & post interviews, HH & SN made it sound like this was The Single Explanation for Brennan. I just…cannot. It's almost insulting.
I've been troubled for a couple years now by how the show seems to be trying to change Brennan while letting Booth be Booth, the "most moral man on TV." It's only getting worse now, and that's not what I signed up for. I don't take issue with character growth, but I do take issue with the sexist implications of domesticating all the women while breaking down Brennan into a simpler, more box-able form.
I could go on for a while about all this (especially if I talked about the spoilers I've heard for the finale, which sound DUMBER THAN ALL THE DUMB THAT EVER DUMBED), but I have other shows I want to talk about too, so I won't. I'll just say that I still love more seasons of this show than I don't, so I'll always be glad I discovered it. And I'm not done with it or the fandom as a whole -- I'm sure I'll do a rewatch eventually. But I do hope that season 9 is the end, because I think it's way past time for it to exit the stage gracefully.
-Southland: That episode where Cooper & his partner were abducted was so effing intense. Best of the season, hands down. And I'm SO GLAD Lydia is friends (maybe more?) with her old partner again. I didn't see that coming, and it's great. Lastly, her baby is so cute it's gross. Heh. I wish this show had longer seasons, ugh. Cable hiatuses suck so hard.
-Psych: This season has been super enjoyable thus far, imo, and I'm a big fan of having all the episodes together vs. split up like normal. Shawn & Jules are still adorable and give me all sorts of feels, and I'm totally okay with the break-up because it feels earned & is being handled well. His secret had to come out eventually. I'm glad that Shawn is giving Juliet the space she's asked for & that they're taking some time to be friends so she can deal with her feelings at her own pace, because it's true that most people can't just "flip a switch" like that, and I'm not worried about their future. They're definitely End Game, no question. Also, I'm happy that Gus finally has someone. FINALLY. And Lassie's wedding episode was fab. I really like seeing Lassie happy.
The last two episodes were particularly funny, too. I actually got sent into a crying, coughing fit last week, I was laughing so hard. That campaign ad destroyed me.
Just for funsies, let me share some of my other recent fave moments:
-Parks & Rec: I don't have anything spoilery to say about this season, just that it's been fantastic.
-Community: I think this season has been okay -- some of it I really liked & some of it was just meh. But not bad. I am a little sad that next week is the finale, since I'm pretty sure it'll be the series finale, but it's also totally the right time for it, story-wise. I can't complain about having gotten four seasons out of this show -- it's more than generous, considering how it's struggled with ratings, and it's long enough for everyone to graduate. Kinda perfect.
-Grimm: I think this show has been reaching its stride. It's not something I flail over, but it's good times. I appreciate how the female characters have become more central, too. It sort of fills the hole that X-Files & Buffy left behind for me, though it's not exactly in their league. But, again, it's certainly entertaining & getting better. My one wish now would be that Sergeant Wu could be let in on the secret so he could play a larger role with the team. He's kind of a scene stealer for me.
-Shameless: I made it through one season of this show before I had to give it up. I felt like stopping it long before then, actually, but I kept going because I liked & cared about most of the characters, and because I related to certain elements of the story. But there were too many triggering things for me, and too many things I found extremely offensive, particularly when it comes to rape, both statutory & not.
-Breaking Bad: It took me until the end of season 2 to really get invested in this show (though I thought it was decently interesting before that. The plotline with Jane is what made it all click, emotionally), and from there it just kept getting better. I was really impressed how they handled all the character arcs, especially with Jesse & Walter. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle Walter's storyline, because it's hard for me to enjoy a show where the lead is an irredeemable villain, but with the way they manage it, it's not a problem for me at all. It becomes this really interesting look at the moral decay of a human being, how his own choices change who he becomes, how his arrogance & pride & impending death influence those choices, and how that decay affects all the people around him. And Jesse balances that by making bad choices as well, but, unlike Walter, he DOESN'T compartmentalize & rationalize them away, and you can see how that affects him. Meanwhile, you have Skyler & Hank & all these other well-written & well-acted characters, and…yeah, it's just really something. I'm psyched to see how they wrap it up this summer. As if I didn't already love Vince Gilligan enough back in his XF days!
For my Vid of the Day, here's one that showcases some of Breaking Bad's aforementioned fabness.
-Bones: I told a couple of you recently that I'd talk about "The Party in the Pants" in my next TV post, so here's where I do that. I basically liked only one scene in this episode--the part in the park where Booth's anger finally comes out--but otherwise this storyline was another huge disappointment for me. After how let down I was over "The Shot in the Dark" (more on that in a moment), and on top of other issues that have been building for the past couple years, it really became the final straw for me, and I deleted the show from my DVR. As sad (and yet somehow relieved, too) as that makes me, I doubt I'll be adding it back. I might watch the finale out of curiosity, and I'm open to tuning in to specific episodes in the future if they're important & well-received enough, but yeah. It's time. I wanted to hang in there until the end, but it didn't work out that way. I'd rather stop now & remember the show as it once was.
Like others, it bothered me that the writers didn't even acknowledge how fucking weird it was that Booth never said whether his mother was still alive before. That he never brought up how his mother left him & his brother, so perhaps he could relate to some of Brennan's abandonment issues. He never even mentioned how his mother had never met her first grandchild (remember him?). I went into the episode open to seeing these issues addressed in a satisfactory way, so it's not that I couldn't fanwank up reasons for Booth being so clammed up about her all this time. But, as has become the norm for the show now, the writers were too lazy to even try. The new motto seems to be "if it's tough to do right, keep it out of sight!"
Then there were the usual frustratingly simple continuity errors -- like how the writers don't even pretend to remember where Booth grew up anymore. ~Remember playing in this DC playground back in the day, son?~ Even though you grew up in Pennsylvania? Right. I'm sorry
What *really* bothered me about this episode on a personal level, though, was how cheesy & emotionally manipulative it was, particularly in regards to everyone telling Booth he had to forgive his mother tout de suite. Something you've got to keep in mind when thinking about this is how big an issue "feeling your feelings" is for adult children of alcoholics. Booth made excuses for her & stuffed his anger & sadness for decades, plastering a smile on his face & claiming to be ~fine~. He only FINALLY got in touch with his anger towards her in this episode after she confessed to having her own brand new family, and IMMEDIATELY everyone was up his ass about it, invalidating his right to feel how he felt. Is forgiveness a good thing? Obviously. But it's wielded like a power tool in dysfunctional relationships -- why won't you just forgive me for abusing you/enabling your abuse/etc? Don't you know forgiveness is divine? It's not MY fault for hurting you; it's your fault for being hurt. Can't you see how much your pain is affecting ME? Don't you know life is short? The shit goes on & on. When you look at this laundry list of common ACA characteristics, it's easy to spot all the ones which would complicate a dynamic like this. It's not up to the people around the ACA to lecture prompt forgiveness. It's one thing to explore with them whether their current choices, which are being influenced by anger & pain, will be something they'll regret later, but even that should be done with extreme delicacy. Because even then you risk making it THEIR fault if they regret how things happened later. Even then the other person bears no responsibility for putting you in that position to begin with.
I know some fans thought it was great how Brennan brought up religion to reach him, but for me it was a low blow & not even in character for her anyway (not in the sense of her using something important to him to connect -- that's in character. But her using religion as a reason for him to hop on that forgiveness train, and her saying that's the reason Christianity has existed all these years? No. Like, really? REALLY? NO). All I could see during that scene were the writers & show-runners behind the scenes trying to tell the audience how to feel. Same goes for the ~beloved childhood stuffed animal~ the mom just happened to still have, which OF COURSE Christine just loved! Kinda like how you should love her! Like how even Brennan likes her! Ugh. It reminded me how HH & SN have tried to shove other characters down our throats in the past (e.g. Hannah, Pelant). Rather than giving us reasons to love her, they just tell us to in various ways over & over.
I would've been fine with him choosing to attend the wedding under different circumstances, too, but as it stood it was too much for me. And then to have Brennan catch the bouquet on top of that? I was rolling my eyes so hard I think I might've sprained something.
To be clear, I was able to sympathize with Booth's mother to a degree. I understand that she was a victim of abuse herself, and that once she decided to leave, it was too hard for her to reach out to them again. But they don't even explain whether the kids were being abused at that time yet. And the storyline could've been so much better, had so much more depth, if they hadn't tried to wrap it all up in one episode like a Full House-esque sitcom. It would've been so much better if the people around Booth had just respected how he felt, sat & listened to him without judgment, and then had him alone be the one to decide to attend the wedding -- without shaming him into repressing his anger all over again. They could've let him remain hurt & angry, while still having him take that step towards reconciliation. Instead they took the easy way out, like they always do now.
The only other good thing I can say about the episode is that they allowed his mom to seem somewhat selfish & narcissistic, which balanced the "everyone loves her, and so should you!" plot devices & let her still seem human. But the fact that no one EXPLORED those aspects to her choices & personality, beyond Booth's single outburst, really bothered me. A couple years ago I probably could've handled all of it better, the way I used to be able to fanwank Booth's actions in season 6 via fic, but now it's just kind of depressing.
I don't have as much to say about "The Shot in the Dark" because it's been longer since I've seen it, but my main issue--beyond the supreme cheesyness of the hour--was this whole idea that Brennan's the way she is because of one bit of boy advice given to her by her mother. Boy advice that doesn't even fit, continuity-wise, with what we know of Brennan's boy history as a teenager. Advice that doesn't fit with what we've been told of her as a kid before. ~She was so dreamy & emotional until her mom told her to use her head!~ That explains it! It's enough to give me a rage blackout.
The other thing is that I don't think they even KNOW exactly what they were trying to do there, because at one point she said Brennan was changing herself for him, implying that she WASN'T wholly changed by this bit of advice -- that it just cemented the way she already was normally & perhaps exacerbated certain aspects of it, alongside the trauma of their disappearance in general & other things that happened to her over the years. That I could buy. But in all the pre & post interviews, HH & SN made it sound like this was The Single Explanation for Brennan. I just…cannot. It's almost insulting.
I've been troubled for a couple years now by how the show seems to be trying to change Brennan while letting Booth be Booth, the "most moral man on TV." It's only getting worse now, and that's not what I signed up for. I don't take issue with character growth, but I do take issue with the sexist implications of domesticating all the women while breaking down Brennan into a simpler, more box-able form.
I could go on for a while about all this (especially if I talked about the spoilers I've heard for the finale, which sound DUMBER THAN ALL THE DUMB THAT EVER DUMBED), but I have other shows I want to talk about too, so I won't. I'll just say that I still love more seasons of this show than I don't, so I'll always be glad I discovered it. And I'm not done with it or the fandom as a whole -- I'm sure I'll do a rewatch eventually. But I do hope that season 9 is the end, because I think it's way past time for it to exit the stage gracefully.
-Southland: That episode where Cooper & his partner were abducted was so effing intense. Best of the season, hands down. And I'm SO GLAD Lydia is friends (maybe more?) with her old partner again. I didn't see that coming, and it's great. Lastly, her baby is so cute it's gross. Heh. I wish this show had longer seasons, ugh. Cable hiatuses suck so hard.
-Psych: This season has been super enjoyable thus far, imo, and I'm a big fan of having all the episodes together vs. split up like normal. Shawn & Jules are still adorable and give me all sorts of feels, and I'm totally okay with the break-up because it feels earned & is being handled well. His secret had to come out eventually. I'm glad that Shawn is giving Juliet the space she's asked for & that they're taking some time to be friends so she can deal with her feelings at her own pace, because it's true that most people can't just "flip a switch" like that, and I'm not worried about their future. They're definitely End Game, no question. Also, I'm happy that Gus finally has someone. FINALLY. And Lassie's wedding episode was fab. I really like seeing Lassie happy.
The last two episodes were particularly funny, too. I actually got sent into a crying, coughing fit last week, I was laughing so hard. That campaign ad destroyed me.
Just for funsies, let me share some of my other recent fave moments:
-Parks & Rec: I don't have anything spoilery to say about this season, just that it's been fantastic.
-Community: I think this season has been okay -- some of it I really liked & some of it was just meh. But not bad. I am a little sad that next week is the finale, since I'm pretty sure it'll be the series finale, but it's also totally the right time for it, story-wise. I can't complain about having gotten four seasons out of this show -- it's more than generous, considering how it's struggled with ratings, and it's long enough for everyone to graduate. Kinda perfect.
-Grimm: I think this show has been reaching its stride. It's not something I flail over, but it's good times. I appreciate how the female characters have become more central, too. It sort of fills the hole that X-Files & Buffy left behind for me, though it's not exactly in their league. But, again, it's certainly entertaining & getting better. My one wish now would be that Sergeant Wu could be let in on the secret so he could play a larger role with the team. He's kind of a scene stealer for me.
-Shameless: I made it through one season of this show before I had to give it up. I felt like stopping it long before then, actually, but I kept going because I liked & cared about most of the characters, and because I related to certain elements of the story. But there were too many triggering things for me, and too many things I found extremely offensive, particularly when it comes to rape, both statutory & not.
-Breaking Bad: It took me until the end of season 2 to really get invested in this show (though I thought it was decently interesting before that. The plotline with Jane is what made it all click, emotionally), and from there it just kept getting better. I was really impressed how they handled all the character arcs, especially with Jesse & Walter. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle Walter's storyline, because it's hard for me to enjoy a show where the lead is an irredeemable villain, but with the way they manage it, it's not a problem for me at all. It becomes this really interesting look at the moral decay of a human being, how his own choices change who he becomes, how his arrogance & pride & impending death influence those choices, and how that decay affects all the people around him. And Jesse balances that by making bad choices as well, but, unlike Walter, he DOESN'T compartmentalize & rationalize them away, and you can see how that affects him. Meanwhile, you have Skyler & Hank & all these other well-written & well-acted characters, and…yeah, it's just really something. I'm psyched to see how they wrap it up this summer. As if I didn't already love Vince Gilligan enough back in his XF days!
For my Vid of the Day, here's one that showcases some of Breaking Bad's aforementioned fabness.
