I Do Still Watch Television. I Think.
Jul. 13th, 2007 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowNew Who and Burn Notice are really the only things on my viewing radar right now. One would think I'd be doing a lot more reading of printed texts as a result, but sadly, I continue to be mostly swamped by life, so I'm not doing much of anything in the way of media intake aside from reading the paper and skimming my flist.
Now, watching Dr. Who is a given (plus I looooove Martha. Who is easy to love in a way Rose is not - although I loved Rose,immediately. But Rose shouldn't have been easy for me. Young, blond, not terribly educated. But Rose had heart, and what they used to call spunk in 40's romantic comedies, and Rose was just so solid, and young, and certain, and brave. Martha is young, yes, but whip smart and clever and capable, charged with a whole complicated mess of family whereas Rose was herself and her mother and they faced off to the world.
One of the most startling things that Rose's story did was allow Jackie's story to be told as well. Jackie came on the scene as one thing, and left as something else and I found that wonderful and remarkable.)
However, let me tell you why I love Burn Notice. For one, it (like The Dresden Files which worked for me less successfully), it takes an old school sensibility and freshens it. We've got the male narrator (and the typical male lens through which the show is filtered), and he's literally narrating for us, telling us his story in first person like he's Magnum or Rockford or Kojak. And he's the stable center of an off-balance universe, the tough guy with a heart of gold, the anti-hero who's not so anti. But what the show does well is gives him something to want, and a dubious lawlessness complete with a complex moral code that is totally old-school and yet really works for me.
Plus, I love his sidekicks (Fiona is really a lovely shade of girlfriend and unpredictable, terrible, terrible accent aside. It's great backstory. Gabrielle Anwar is attractive without being beautiful, and reads as someone dangerous and unpredictable but sort of... solid. Smart. But the Irish accent is just terrible. So terrible. So Crichton in PK Gear terrible but without the benefit of being over in half the episode. However, I like the impression that even if she's mostly there to supplement Michael's skills, she's clearly finding her own entertainment as well.
Sharon Gless is fabulous as his crazy (in a really mom kind of crazy) mother.
And then there's Bruce Campbell. Need I say more?
Like everything on USA, it's not as dark as it could be. It's a little frothier than I normally like, a little lazier, a little not quite perfect because they can't say fuck on network TV, but at the same time, certain things strike me as really smart. It's a current show, it's taking things we love (spies, spy stuff, conspiracies, mysteries) and lacing it together to feel mostly relevant.
The mysteries are kind of run of the mill, but Jeffrey Donovan is really fabulous at playing the straight man with an edge of not quite normal and the sun drenched hues of "Miami" make the whole thing fun summer viewing.
Plus? Every week we learn how to build spy stuff out of household products, even if M. says that I can't actually make any of them at our house.
Other than that I'm mostly trying to write, trying to sort out the ins and outs of the new job, trying to keep myself afixed and afloat, and talking A LOT about shoes and feet. For those of you less than interested in shoes and feet, go on over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
feetwantout anyway and read some of the entries on going barefoot. I found them utterly charming and heartfelt, which is a really nice perk!
Now, watching Dr. Who is a given (plus I looooove Martha. Who is easy to love in a way Rose is not - although I loved Rose,immediately. But Rose shouldn't have been easy for me. Young, blond, not terribly educated. But Rose had heart, and what they used to call spunk in 40's romantic comedies, and Rose was just so solid, and young, and certain, and brave. Martha is young, yes, but whip smart and clever and capable, charged with a whole complicated mess of family whereas Rose was herself and her mother and they faced off to the world.
One of the most startling things that Rose's story did was allow Jackie's story to be told as well. Jackie came on the scene as one thing, and left as something else and I found that wonderful and remarkable.)
However, let me tell you why I love Burn Notice. For one, it (like The Dresden Files which worked for me less successfully), it takes an old school sensibility and freshens it. We've got the male narrator (and the typical male lens through which the show is filtered), and he's literally narrating for us, telling us his story in first person like he's Magnum or Rockford or Kojak. And he's the stable center of an off-balance universe, the tough guy with a heart of gold, the anti-hero who's not so anti. But what the show does well is gives him something to want, and a dubious lawlessness complete with a complex moral code that is totally old-school and yet really works for me.
Plus, I love his sidekicks (Fiona is really a lovely shade of girlfriend and unpredictable, terrible, terrible accent aside. It's great backstory. Gabrielle Anwar is attractive without being beautiful, and reads as someone dangerous and unpredictable but sort of... solid. Smart. But the Irish accent is just terrible. So terrible. So Crichton in PK Gear terrible but without the benefit of being over in half the episode. However, I like the impression that even if she's mostly there to supplement Michael's skills, she's clearly finding her own entertainment as well.
Sharon Gless is fabulous as his crazy (in a really mom kind of crazy) mother.
And then there's Bruce Campbell. Need I say more?
Like everything on USA, it's not as dark as it could be. It's a little frothier than I normally like, a little lazier, a little not quite perfect because they can't say fuck on network TV, but at the same time, certain things strike me as really smart. It's a current show, it's taking things we love (spies, spy stuff, conspiracies, mysteries) and lacing it together to feel mostly relevant.
The mysteries are kind of run of the mill, but Jeffrey Donovan is really fabulous at playing the straight man with an edge of not quite normal and the sun drenched hues of "Miami" make the whole thing fun summer viewing.
Plus? Every week we learn how to build spy stuff out of household products, even if M. says that I can't actually make any of them at our house.
Other than that I'm mostly trying to write, trying to sort out the ins and outs of the new job, trying to keep myself afixed and afloat, and talking A LOT about shoes and feet. For those of you less than interested in shoes and feet, go on over to
feetwantout anyway and read some of the entries on going barefoot. I found them utterly charming and heartfelt, which is a really nice perk!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-13 10:14 pm (UTC)Bruce Campbell?
no subject
Date: 2007-07-13 10:26 pm (UTC)Burn Notice is on USA. (I know, I know.) It's about a spy who gets "burned" - terminated from his employment and all professional employment in the spy world. He doesn't know why or who, and he's stuck in Miami (where he grew up) as a result. He's trying to get back into the game, which involves figuring out who burned him, and in the meantime is "helping" people with problems for extra cash.
Plus, his mother lives there and is sort of a nut.
It's way more fun, if just as cotton candy frothy, as it sounds, and Jeffrey Donovan is all kinds of crazy appealing.
Plus, Bruce Campbell.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 12:32 am (UTC)Ethnicity aside, I'm just so fascinated and impressed by Davies character building and the respect he's shown for his characters - normally cast changes result in narrative amnesia and I don't think I'm spoiling it for you to tell you that Rose remains on the Doctor's mind. Martha is in many ways Rose's opposite - she's educated, professional, resolutely middle class (which is a distinction that still matters more, I think, in England than in North America - face it we're all classist societies but in England, it strikes me as different and more meant), and every reason not to go gallavanting with the Dr. She's curious about the universe and interested in the Doctor in a way that Rose wasn't. Psychoogically, Martha is far more evolved than Rose, but as you say, Rose always had that "kick the aliens in the face" courage and heart that Martha needs to find in herself. It's a subtle difference, particularly for a genre that paints with such broad strokes as TV, one that leads to completely different adventures that honours both characters and their relationship with the doctor, without making one better than the other.
Oh, and don't watch "Blink" alone.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 01:24 pm (UTC)Or in the dark. Or any place that's not in the safety of your own home. AUGH.
Um, anyway, I wanted to say to both of you that I like and appreciate your thoughts on the differences between Rose and Martha, because they're basically my thoughts - I like them both, but they're very different, and I hate that the fandom is starting to lean towards an either-or choice.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 04:33 am (UTC)I was going to watch it anyway ,
as I am a big fan of Jeffery Donovan. He is one of those actotrs
that has something going on behind the eyes at all times.
And it is great to see him playing something other than a
pyscho killer type.
And I adore Bruce Campbell playing his slobby middle aged self.
Not one mocks himself as well as Bruce does. And it is fun to see
exactly how far this guy will go.
I am happy with it and the ratings have been decent so we may see
a whole season! Fancy that.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 09:07 am (UTC)