Heroes (And Villains) Bond

They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows.

So it seemed to me that Heroes was all about bonds; either repairing old ones or forming new ones or forming ones that should have been there all along but weren’t due to craptastic parenting.  Angela finally let Peter in, as much as Angela does anyway.  Nathan and Claire spent some quality time together and got to know one another better.  And of course our beloved serial killer has taken up with a new, much more formidable partner.  Watching those two play off of each other is going to be enjoyable, if this episode was anything to go by.

MAtrelli is clearly in distress if she'll let herself look like this.

After being saved by her son, Angela decided the place to be was the church she used to attend.   She sat there and prayed and refused to tell Peter anything, because you know that’s how Angela rolls.  She apologizes for how they raised the Petrelli boys, supporting them but not giving them support.  Peter had a nice emo moment of asking God why he was given his power to help and now was being hunted for it.  He asked for a sign and then the candles went out and in stormed the feds and HRG.  I guess that’s a sign huh?  Of what I am not sure.  He and Angela went and hid in the confessional, which I found hilarious since Angela confesses nothing.  While there she does tell him that she was once idealistic like he was but nobody believed her and she ended up resorting to lies and manipulation and betrayal to save the world.  Visiting the church seemed to have served her well, for she had enough of an epiphany to inform Peter that they needed to go see her sister, his aunt.  It was rather clear by Peter’s expression that he didn’t know he had an aunt.  Shocker, that!  But it got me hoping again…maybe Angela’s sister is Sylar’s real mom?  Yes, I still refuse to give up on a family tie between those two, why do you ask?  Anyway, HRG found them but pretended he didn’t and got the feds off their backs for this day.  Off to Aunties!

Who doesn't bond over tequila shots?

In Mexico, Claire and Nathan were shacking up together and causing pervs far and wide to get excited.  Okay, it was one perv but still.  They had only money for one night (in Mexico? I doubt that) so Nathan decided to challenge 4 frat guys to a tequila shots contest.  Apparently that’s how he got through his military service.  Fun!  Anyway, why he took on 4 is beyond me, but it gave Claire the opportunity to step in when Dad was unable to finish the job.  She drank frat boy under the table and seemed to have to fake drunk once but appeared unaffected.  Is that part of her immortality thing?  Beer bongs for everyone!  She dragged dear old drunken Dad back to their room and he gave her a speech about how he was going to make everything alright again.  Sober Nathan didn’t have the same conviction that drunk Nathan had though and Claire stormed off after telling him how fantastic he was supposed to be, how he was superman and could fly.  Nathan made amends by getting her back the necklace she sold to get them the tequila cash and convinced her to stick with him and help him make it right.  Father/daughter bonding at its finest!

Sylar likes showing off for his new partner.

Of course the most interesting bonds are the ones that form between the unlikeliest of partners.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about Sylar pairing up with Danko, as it has been my greatest hope that Sylar would be the one to kill Danko and save everybody, all while not seeking any redemption for who he is.  Not that this partnership means that Sylar ultimately won’t kill Danko either, I’m sure once they have everybody captured or dead, Sylar would kill him as the only one who knows he’s alive.  Not that that’ll happen, but I still hold on to a head cutting in Danko’s future.

Danko and co are after some guy we’ve never heard of, James Martin, a professor whose power is unknown.  He sends 3 guys after him and they all end up shot in the head and HRG is none too pleased.  He’s told Danko several times that pairing up with someone with abilities is the best way to capture people with abilities but of course he didn’t want to hear that.  He heads over to investigate and when he returns to his car, Sylar’s kicking it in the backseat to the tune of “Runaway”.  I love that they’re giving him theme music this year!  He offers partnership but Danko isn’t quite ready to accept it yet and before he can shoot Sylar, he disappears.

Who doesn't like a head for a present?

Danko goes back to his office and some guy comes in to compliment him on his speech to his men about finding the one who killed some of them.  While he’s pondering that he gets a phone call from Sylar telling him that his quarry is a shapeshifter and there’s a fourth headless body on the roof.  Danko opens the package to find a head, the head of the guy who just complimented him on his pretty speech.  How very Seven of them!  A chase ensues and he manages to get some shots off at the asskisser.  All asskissers should be shot!  He gets away in a crowd of people as a new form, a janitor he happened to run past on the way down the stairs.  I must say, shapeshifting is a cool power but it looks gross, like bugs are under their skin as they change.  Ick!

Danko goes back to the shapeshifter’s apartment and happens upon Sylar again, who is there to show him just how you find a person with power.  He studies the pictures and discovers some matches of a club the dude goes to and picks up chicks as various men of power.  All that seeking out of people with powers has made our little killer quite the detective.  After a bit of a pissing contest, they head to the club together and see the shapeshifter is there as none other than Danko himself.  He’s totally getting action which you know has to burn Danko since he doesn’t appear to get any on his own.  Sylar’s amused and tells Danko that he’s a better him than he is.  They’re spotted and a chase ensues and he bursts out the door, except that it’s the real Danko and Sylar is behind him.  They chat for a second and then Danko shoots him before fake Sylar can kill him and the real Sylar appears and is disappointed because he killed the dude.  But Danko tells him he didn’t kill him and asks if he can take his power without the messy head cutting.  Sylar smiles and leans in close.

Sylar checks out his old face after dropping one of his new ones.

Next thing we see is HRG seeing Sylar in a body bag with a knife in the back of his head.  Danko looks all sorts of pleased with himself and heads to his car where he awaits the female who zipped up the body bag.  She slides in and then after some facial contortions we have our Sylar back.  Yep, he zipped up his own body bag.  Danko points out that in the end he’ll be the only one with any powers and Sylar grins over that one and says “funny how that works” while the Rolling Stones “We Gotta Get Outta This Place.”  Again, awesome use of music since it’s playing as Nathan and Claire leave Mexico and Peter and Angela leave the church and Sylar and Danko leave the club.

I definitely liked this episode better than the last one.  Things happen and story advanced.  The Petrelli’s are headed back together and a new relative is set to enter next week.  Danko’s made a deal with the devil and now Sylar is going to be after our Heroes once again.  You must admit, he’s at his best when he’s hunting his fellow powered people!  I can’t wait til next week, it’s Angelacentric and they say we’re going to find out some of her secrets, at least the ad did!  Is it Monday yet?  I never look forward to Mondays but I’m already ready for the next one!

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Twilight: The Movie

Edward & Bella

Whenever a well known book is made into a movie, there are legions of fans wanting certain aspects included.  We don’t all get our ways, of course, but we do go in with a preconceived notion of how things will be and when expectations are not fully met, it can and does leave a bad taste in our mouths.  I’ll admit that the first time I saw Twilight, I did have an adverse reaction.  Subsequent viewings have elevated the movie somewhat in my viewpoint but I’ve never let go of certain reactions.  I thought I’d go over here what I liked and what I didn’t.  The what I didn’t like stuff will be more heavily discussed here, but keep in mind I didn’t hate the movie by any means.  I have 3 different copies due to different extras and offers, so clearly I continue to be psychotically attached to any and all aspects of the Twilight world. I’ll break things down into casting, storyline and directing just to cover all the major bases.

Casting

I thought Robert Pattinson brought coolness and charm to Edward.

For me, they got one lead role right and one lead role very wrong.  Can you guess which way I’m going here?  Probably if you’ve read any of my other blogs but we’ll flesh it out anyway.

Robert Pattinson as Edward worked for me on almost every level.  Looks, charm, sense of humor, an underlying self-loathing that was not obvious but was there if you looked at him.  I loved the little smirks he would throw in when he was amused by something.  As an Edward groupie, I was predisposed to either love or loathe the casting with no in-between, luckily I fell on the love side and honestly, the first time I saw the movie the only reason it worked for me at all was because of him.  That’s not to say that he was perfect, there were some missed beats and some strange expressions that could nearly throw me out of a scene but overall I thought he did a good job.  My mother saw the movie with me and she walked out of the theater saying that she thought the actor did a good job appearing as something other (she has not read the books) so that says something to me.  She also thought he was far too good for Bella, which leads me to….

The kiss was hot, Kristen Stewart as Bella was not.

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan.  The first time I watched the movie, I couldn’t stand her as Bella and it took me a long time to figure out why.  I thought maybe it was a visceral “Don’t touch my man” thing or a she can’t act thing, which it kind of was the latter for me.  In subsequent viewings I was able to pinpoint it a little more accurately; Kristen played Bella as entirely too hard of a character.  I didn’t really get a sense of fragility or vulnerability from her at all.  Sure, she weighs like 2 pounds so she looks fragile, but the character’s inflections just had an edge to them that I didn’t feel Bella had at all.  I’ve seen interviews with Stewart wherein she talks about how strong Bella is and that one throws me for a loop too.  Maybe she gets stronger as the series goes, but in Twilight she didn’t strike me as particularly strong.  Trusting, fish out of water, stubborn and passionate maybe, but not strong.  Maybe I read that wrong, I don’t know.

I also felt the actress did not portray her love for Edward well enough.  That complete and utter desperation and dependence upon him did not come through at all.  I think she tried in the hospital scene but she wasn’t very good.  The two leads did show good chemistry in the bedroom kissing scene and at the prom, but again I didn’t feel her need to be with him.  I know it’s hard to portray that level of longing but I think it fell flat.

She just did not work for me, at all, as Rosalie.

Another casting that I loathed was Nikki Reed at Rosalie.  This will sound pretty bitchy of me I suppose but over and over we were told that Rosalie was the epitome of beauty.  The most beautiful person they could find was Nikki Reed?  I know she has a history with Hardwicke and that’s what got her the role, but come on.  They could have found a gorgeous blond wearing a bitchface to plug into that role that would have been more effective.  I’m predisposed to hate Rosalie anyway but they could have cast someone that made her believable as some intimidating gorgeous force of nature who hates her life.

Jasper with that constipated look upon his face.

I wasn’t overly fond of the Jasper casting either; nothing against the actor but all he put into the role was a look of constipation.  I get that was supposed to be his discomfort and desire for blood but it just cracked me up.  I did like his bat handling skills in the baseball scene though, I bet that’s why he got the role.  He just didn’t look like Jasper to me.

The rest of the Cullens all worked for me to a point.  Esme was pleasant enough and so was Carlisle, though they were a lot older than the book made them out to be.  I can deal, they wanted them to look more like parental figures.  I did enjoy the bits of Alice we got to see and I found Emmett interesting.  Loved his friendly wave to Bella while holding the knife in the kitchen.  That is how I imagine Emmett behaving, so it worked for me.

Chief Swan was funnier and more lovable in the movie.

My favorite casting had to be Billy Burke as Charlie Swan.  He’s the only one of the entire cast that actually improved upon the book character for me.  He was gruff but hilarious and I thought he did a great job of showing Charlie’s love for Bella coupled with his inability to express it.  He was given the funniest lines and expressions and he worked them.  Kudos to Billy Burke.

I save Jacob Black for last because he was such a minor role in this book and he had little screen time.  I thought Taylor Lautner looked stupid as hell with that hair and I’m glad that it gets cut off in New Moon cause that wig was just bad.  I am one of the people who thinks Jacob should have been recast for the next movie, for I fear they’ll have to spend all of their budget on making him look like he morphs into a real man.  The kid is barely taller than Kristen Stewart and midway through New Moon he’s supposed to look about 25, so I have real reservations about keeping him in the role.  I’ve seen interviews and I do like the actor and think he has charm, which could translate well on screen when he’s given something to do.  I just don’t know if he’s going to be believable or not.  I remain cautious on this one but I  would have recast him, seeing as he only had about 3 minutes of screen time in Twilight, but we’ll see.

Storylines

I had two huge issues when it came to this movie.  The first was Kristen as Bella and the second is storyline related.  I understand that they couldn’t stick to the book 100% .  I can deal with that.  However, to me there are certain scenes that are sacred, one of them being my favorite in the entire series.  When you mess with those, well, I’m not going to be happy.  I did feel that Twilight stayed very true to the book, using most of the story lines, I just felt that the timing could have used a lot of work.  A lot of it.

Does that look like a meadow to you?

The big one for me was the lack of the meadow scene.  That’s the scene that started the whole series, the scene Meyer dreamed about.  So to me, it should have been there in it’s entirety.  Firstly, it’s hot.  It’s a sexy little scene wherein Edward tests his ability to be close to Bella.  Secondly, it’s the scene where the trust is completely built and established.  She puts her life in his hands, he tells her just how much he wanted to attack her and why and she stays.  She chooses to stay right then and there despite knowing that her blood calls him more potently than any other.  I wanted desperately to watch him touch her face, to watch her feel that passion and desire she had for him.  I wanted to watch her touch his face as she’d longed to do since the first time she saw it and for him to feel the warmth of a humans touch.

Did I get any of that?  No!  What I got was her stomping past him at school and informing him that she knew what he was and then the terrible glittery chest scene.  I got the lion and the lamb line, sure, and I even liked how he had her caged between his arms and the tree for it, but it wasn’t enough for me at all.  The touching was kept to a minimum and the meadow consisted of them lying and looking at each other while he sparkled in bad CGI (Side note, it actually didn’t look as bad on my high def TV as it did in the theater, I don’t know if they improved it for the DVD or if my TV just rocks.)  They weren’t even holding hands!  It annoyed me greatly, as you can see.

Another big change that I didn’t appreciate was Edward just blurting out that he could read minds in the restaurant.  I get that it was supposed to be cute, him telling her what everyone was thinking; sex, money, cat; but it annoyed me because Bella figures that out on her own.  I liked that she was watching him closely enough to figure it out and I know that Edward liked that about her too.  Her perception when it came to him was part of her appeal.  I didn’t like how that was handled, nor could you really tell he was reading minds up til that point.  They showed him seeming to hear things a couple of times but that could have been written off to vampire hearing abilities if you hadn’t read the book.

I mentioned this a little already but I didn’t care for the way the vampire information was revealed either.  I liked that she told him in the car on the way home in the book and what it meant that she was actively choosing to ride with him knowing he was a vampire, not her going home and researching and then telling him in the woods outside of the school.  Little thing and I didn’t mind the scene overly much accept that it overlapped and became the meadow scene, but I just would have preferred it to be done as it was written.

Where is the love?

Also, other than the lion and the lamb comment, we never ever heard either character say that they loved one another.  That was a huge deal and I really missed the scene where Edward spends the night for the first time and Bella sees him there in the morning and jumps into his lap, overjoyed that he’s still there.  He tells her she said she loved him in her sleep and she burrows into his neck and tells him again.  He tells her outside of the baseball game.  I know, I’m nitpicking a bit but this is a love story, we should be hearing some declarations of love.

I understood the need to ramp up the action in the movie so I didn’t necessarily mind the bad vamps hunting additions.  It was good to establish how different the Cullens were and to set up the future conflicts with James, Laurent and Victoria.  What I did mind was having Charlie and the cops hunting down the killers and figuring out that they were human.  One of the fun things about the books is that Charlie is entirely clueless up until Breaking Dawn.  His days are spent playing cards and rounding up the occasional truant, not tracking deadly vampires.  Are they gonna drag that all through the rest of the movies?  I like clueless Charlie!

I did enjoy the baseball scene and the final fight scene between Edward and James.  Aspects were cheesy of course but overall they were fun to watch and pretty well done.  One thing I didn’t like though was when Edward was sucking the venom out of Bella and Carlisle had to tell him to stop and that he was killing her.  One of the signs of his love for her is that despite how her blood tastes to him, he’s able to quit on his own.  It was a small but major thing to me that they had Carlisle saying that he was killing her.  They could have had her pass out and us still wondering if she was okay without that addition.

Directing

I gotta say, when they announced they were getting a new director for New Moon I was not in the least bit upset by that news.  I know that the budget on this film wasn’t huge but I thought the special effects and CGI could have been much better done.  I lay the casting snafus directly on Catherine Hardwicke, for every character she cast well was balanced out by one she didn’t I thought.  I blame her for the lack of a meadow scene and the lack of an I love you scene.  I blame her for not giving Kristen Stewart direction to act like she was swept away by love.  I also blame her for showing Bella to be entirely too comfortable in her own skin.  She quickly seemed to become a leader among her circle of friends, she didn’t feel like an outsider to me and I consider that hugely important to her character.  For someone who was so enamored by the books, I felt she really left a lot unaddressed or inadequately covered.

I did like the foreshadowing to the conflicts with the wolves, thought that was a good set up heading into New Moon.  That will be the hardest movie for me personally, as an Edward fan, but I have high hopes that it will be an improvement on Twilight.  They’ll have a bigger budget and hopefully a cast that is more comfortable with their characters.

Again, I would like to say that I didn’t hate this movie, I’m just overly critical because of how much I loved the book.  Had I seen it in a vacuum I don’t know if it would have worked better; I think I would have been confused about the mind reading and the overall state of their relationship but I can’t say that with any accuracy.  I was really left disappointed that some of my favorite scenes were not in the movie and were changed.  Some worked alright despite that, some didn’t.  It’s hard to see a movie made out of a book you’re passionate about I guess!

Anyway, I’m interested to hear what everyone else thought.  Was I too critical?  Are there things you would have changed that I didn’t address?  I’m really looking forward to hearing what my fellow Twilighters thought.  This will probably be my last Twilight blog until New Moon comes out; I think I’ve covered the stuff I wanted to discuss, but if you think of anything else you’d like to see me tackle let me know, god knows I’m always open to discussing this series!

PS.  For those of you that have the movie on DVD, I highly recommend watching the movie with the DVD commentary.  Rob is hilarious to listen to!

All pictures from TwilightPoison.com

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Drama In Dillon

The lovebirds bask in the afterglow before an untimely interruption!

I have again been lax in my Friday Night Light posts, not because I haven’t been loving the show as always but because I get distracted on the weekend and I’ve been outta town too.  So I’m going to make up for it and talk about the three or so episodes I’ve missed, hitting the highlights and things that really stood out to me.

Matt & Julie

My favorite couple on the show, aside from Coach and Mrs. Taylor, has far and away been Matt & Julie.  I struggled through last year with her being a mega-bitch and him sleeping with his grandma’s nurse and this year I’m getting major payoff.  They finally made love when Julie attacked him at the lake and have been happy together since.  Of course the big news was her father walking in on the two of them in bed together.  Coaches running out of the house reaction was priceless as was his silence on the drive home and his abrupt announcement to Tammy in bed.  It was all just so adorable but I was mortified for him and Julie of course.  I cannot imagine being in their place; what a nightmare that would be!

Of course Tami needed to talk to her daughter and what I saw was one of the most real, touching sex talks between parent and child that’s ever been done.  I was in tears watching Tami talk to Julie about sex and responsibility and what it means to love that way.  Julie’s fear that her parents would be disappointed in her was so real as was Tami’s sadness that she hadn’t wait but understanding for her at the same time.  Major kudos to Connie Britton and Aimee Teegarden for that scene.  It was beautifully done.

Lyla & her father

God, is there a bigger waste of space in Dillon than Buddy Garrity?  Well, yes, there is but we’ll get to him later.  Buddy apparently invested in some guy’s venture and lost $75,000, all of which was Lyla’s college fund.  After all her fighting to get Riggins to take his future seriously, hers is suddenly in doubt.  She blew up at her dad and moved into Tim’s house after a night at the Taylor’s.  They’re so fabulous, I want the Taylor’s to be real.  Anyway, since staying with Tim she’s been partying with Billy and Missy.  You know you’re in trouble when Tim Riggins is the responsible one in your relationship.  I think he got through to her at the end of this weeks episode, so hopefully she’ll reign it in and work on her future.  She can get loans if she has to.

Tyra & Landry

They’re making baby steps back together I think.  What had to happen for these two did happen; Landry called her on how she uses him and told her he wasn’t going to stand it anymore.  Julie backed up Landry’s truths and Tyra took a look and realized she was using him constantly.  She hooked his band, the hilariously named Crucifictorious, up with a gig and that has put them back on the path to friendship.  Of course he was busy helping her set up her sister’s bridal shower this last episode, but I think the using is tempered down somewhat.  We’ll see.  For me Tyra’s really only likable when Landry is around so I hope things work out for them.

JD McCoy & his father

The biggest douche in the town of Dillon is Jack McCoy; he’s definitely worse than Buddy.  You see, his son has dared to decide that he wants to have a life outside of football and he’s getting into girls.  Or one girl in particular, Madison.  Mr. McCoy took it upon himself to call the girls parents and demand that she stay away from him until after the season is over, but they weren’t having that.  JD refuses to stay away from her and that’s driving him nuts.  Worse, in his eyes, is that JD is not listening to him when it comes to football anymore.  He’s running the plays the way he wants to and listening to his coach.  His father fumed the whole playoff game because JD was throwing despite rainy conditions.  JD threw a pick and he nearly lost his mind.

Of course, JD also threw the game winning 2 point conversion (ballsy call by Coach Taylor when 1 would have tied and taken it to OT) but was his father happy?  No, he wasn’t.  And he stewed about it the whole way to the restaurant while JD chatted with Madison.  Then he screamed at him to get off the phone and laid into him in the parking lot.  JD said he wasn’t going to give up the girl and he won the game and his father needs to chill.  They started pushing each other and next thing you know, Mr. McCoy is whaling on JD while his mother screams.  Coach and Tami saw this from the restaurant and ran out to stop him; taking Mrs. McCoy and JD to their home for the night.  JD and Coach had a heartfelt talk about his dad’s actions and Coach said he was there for them and had them stay over.  Is it any wonder I adore the Taylors?

The other big happening is they want to redistrict the schools and create a new one that would cost the team some of it’s star players.  Buddy and the fellow douche boosters do not want this and are redrawing the boundary lines to their liking.  It’s rather hilarious.  Coach is worried about losing his players but he’s more worried about the way that the boosters are controlling things.  I kinda got spoiled on where this is going and it should be interesting to watch how things play out.

So those are the big happenings in the town of Dillon that I hadn’t discussed the last few weeks.  I still adore this show beyond all measure and some recent reports indicate that it might be given another 2 year Direct TV/NBC order, which thrills me to no end.  The Panthers are headed to state and it looks like Matty is going to have step back in at QB next week, which thrills me to no end.  He’s so my favorite, at least now that Smash isn’t there. Looking forward to it.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!  Go Panthers!

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Touched By An Angel

AlternaDean is still extremely hot!

It’s a very Supernatural Alternaverse this week!  I don’t have nearly as much to say about it as I usually do because the meat of the episode came at the very end and everything else was just humor and hijinks.  It was a lot of fun but didn’t really much advance the story until the very end of the episode.  I think I’ll just hit the stuff I enjoyed and talk about what’s coming up if that’s okay with you all!

Sam, Office Drone!

Sam is the lowly office worker while Dean is a corporate bigwig.  Why yes, I am playing with the color feature, time I did that. hehe  I considered this a pleasant surprise, because from the start of things it’s always been made clear that Sam would be the super successful lawyer type if things were different and Dean would be the blue collar worker.  Since I’m rather irritated with Sammy’s attitude towards Dean these days, it was nice to see Sam sitting a cubicle being bored out of his mind.

I'm a sucker for Dean in a suit, what can I say?

Dean is a carb counting yuppie.  No beer, no food, concerned with his stocks and health care, listening to NPR instead of rock.  No, this is not our usual Dean Winchester.  Loved his super sleek apartment, looked like something out of Wall Street.  I enjoyed him drinking his cleansers and eating his salads.  Of course, the best part was Dean’s first words after being brought back to reality, “Why am I wearing a tie?  My god am I hungry!”  Yes, that is my Dean.

The inevitable draw of the two brothers to one another.  The best part of this of course was that when Sam tried talking to Dean he assumed he was gay and told him to take it to his health club, but I also liked how they kept coming together and then spilled their guts to one another.  That trust that is beginning to go missing was there when they were Dean Smith and Sam Weller or whatever his name was.  I think it’s a good sign that they can get back to a healthy place with one another.

The return of the Ghostfacers!  I knew they were coming in this episode but it was fun to have a clueless Dean (King of research, hehe, another role reversal!) stumble across their website in his search for how to fight the ghost.  Sam & Dean watching the Ghostfacers and thinking they were cool was fun, as was them not knowing that those Douche Winchesters that they kept talking about were themselves.

Castiel's boss, Zachariah, pulls Touched By An Angel on Dean.

Zachariah!  A new angel on the scene and not just any angel, Cas’ boss!  Turns out this whole mind bending story was the machinations of the angels to make Dean see that he was destined for this life.  His father didn’t choose it for him, God didn’t choose it for him, it’s his destiny and he knows it.  Funny that it’s also Sam’s destiny and he accepted it first when he’s the one who so badly wants out of the life.  Zachariah tells him that he will be successful and he will stop it.  Dean’s irritated and wants to know just what he’ll stop but Zach tells him he can stop it all.  I loved Dean’s “Angel or not, I will stab you in your face” comment.  So Dean!  So lovely!  Zach’s response that his life of classic car driving and fornicating with women while saving the world isn’t such a bad one was pretty good too, you could see that Dean was like thinking that was true.  Zach asks Dean if he’s going to stand up and be who he really is and we cut off with Dean looking determined again.

So, we did take a step forward, Dean was broken last episode and this one was about putting him back together without taking him by the hand and guiding him through.  He had to make the choice first and then Zachariah appeared to him.  They’re not allowing Dean any wallow time but I guess I can deal with that.  I’d like to see Sam’s reaction as well though, how does he feel about the fact that he chose the life on his own as well?  Probably doesn’t change anything since next week he looks poised to possibly get it on with Lillith, who thankfully is not going to be a little girl.  There will also be some humor through the use of a comic book; I’m looking forward to it.  Dean, cartoon, full frontal.  Yep, I can deal!

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He’s Our You

Sayid being lead to be tortured by Larry, but not with stories about his brothers Darryl.

A Sayid episode!  Those are always among my faves, although this one wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.  Still good, just not blow you out of the water good like so many Lost episodes have been this season.  I’m not complaining though, I was thrilled to finally get some more Sayid backstory and to find out how the hell he ended up on the plane with the rest of the Losties.  I don’t have as much to say as I usually do (a first, I know) so I’m going to do a list like last week.  Hope you approve!

• Must all my shows have a hate-on for animals?  Sayid’s first flashback was of his brother getting bullied by dear old dad and ordered to kill a chicken.  Sayid feels bad for big bro and goes into the hen house and wrings a chickens neck.  Sigh…let’s get back to killing people Sayid, I can’t take the animals!
• This was a way to demonstrate how alike in upbringing Sayid was to young Ben, having a hard father and all that.  I liked how Sayid instinctively stood to protect Ben when his father laid into him for bringing Sayid a sandwich.  So chivalrous, even to the boy he’s longing to kill!
• Okay, seriously, tell me that is not IT when it comes to the Sayid/Ben back story.  Sayid killed for him for 2 years and Ben told him he was done and to have a nice life and that’s what made Sayid hate him and tell Hurley never to trust him again?  There has to be something more right?  He has to find out that he was mislead or something, because that is pretty lame if that’s what set him off.
• Loved Ben’s “You’re a killer” line to Sayid and his attempts to deny it, up until he tried to kill young Ben (and no, I do not believe for one second that my Ben is dead) and told him he was right, he is a killer.  Sweet circular storytelling, you know I love it!
• So Ilana is a bounty hunter, not a federal marshal, and she sexed up Sayid to catch him.  Well that’s one way to get your man!  I must say, her kicking him in the face as he removed her hooker boots was pretty awesome.  I hope those two catch up to each other again on island, Sayid owes her one.
• I loved Sayid’s face when he saw Hurley and Jack waiting for the plane, then noticed Kate sitting in the chair.  Coincidence, thy name is Lost!
• Flaming Dharma vans!  That brought back fond memories of Hurley running down Others to save Jin and Sayid and co, perhaps a van must always be used in Sayid rescues?  Make it so!
• Everybody else just felt like filler this episode, didn’t they?  Sawyer wasn’t, but the rest all were.  Kate’s face upon the Sawyer/Juliet reveal was pretty good, as was the interruption just as she was about to tell Sawyer that he was the reason she came back to the island (I presume anyway).  I’m not big on triangles and quads (see all of my Days blogs for that!) but this could actually be decent.
• Poor Sawyer.  He tries to save Sayid but he won’t cooperate at all.  Why is beyond me.  I guess he wants to be away from Ben so badly that he’s willing to die for it?
• And for my favorite part of the night, Our You, aka the torturer of the group, turns out to be Larry from Newhart!  Couldn’t they have had him name his needle Darryl or something?  Just a little shout out?  And then Sayid could have knocked the needle out of his hand and he could have gotten a new one and said, “This is my other needle, Darryl.”  Okay, I’m being silly, but I was thinking it so I had to share it here.
• How cute is it that Sayid was telling the truth and everybody thought he was insane?  It’s a good thing Sawyer changed his last name though, saves the confusion!
• Poor Jin, just trying to help and Sayid knocks him out as young Ben watches from the trees.  I was worried that Jin was saying too much while Ben listened but then Sayid shot him so I guess that’s not so much of an issue.
• I must say, that was a rather well done scene.  Young Ben urging Sayid to go and Sayid telling him he was right, he is a killer and shooting him as he stood there stunned.  Beautifully done.  I’m assuming that act could sort of help make Ben into what he’s become today.  I don’t know.  I just know he can’t die because of the paradox situation and because he is Ben.  Heheh Let not my Ben love fool you, I expect him to die sometime in the last season and I will accept that as his due, but I think it’s too early now.

Those were the main points I wanted to hit, I definitely enjoy watching Sayid’s journeys play out and seeing his path toward the introspective but deadly man that he is today.  He is one of the most fascinating and complicated characters and I love when he gets his screen time.  I’ll be interested to see where he heads next, if he ends up with Richard and co after all.  Next week it looks like we’ll have some infighting and accusations over Sayid’s escape.  Looking forward to it, as always!  I was just thrilled that this episode didn’t cause me sleepless nights, nice to have a regular episode now and then!

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Rebel Revealed

The true leader of the Heroes!

So there was a lot of hype going into last night’s Heroes:  Bryan Fuller was back and the show was going to return to form!  Strike up the band and roll out the red carpet!  Well a funny thing happened on the way to the celebration; the episode totally fell flat for me.  Now I will say that part of it could have been the inclusion of all of my least favorite characters, minus Claire, and the absence of my faves but for a brief appearance by Peter.  I make allowances that that might have factored into my lack of excitement with the episode.  Still, though, I thought it was much ado about nothing.

We found out that Micah is indeed Rebel, long specced by most of the Heroes watching population.  I’m not disappointed by this, I was glad to see the kid again though he’s turned into Walt from Lost.  The Heroes need him on their side since he’s smarter than all of them combined.  Still, the reveal fell flat for me because of the focus on Tracy making herself bait and leading HRG to Rebel.  You knew darn well that she would sacrifice herself to save Micah so there was no surprise factor.  I did like the ice illusion and Danko shooting her and shattering her, but since she winked I figure she’s not really dead and will be back.  That sucks.  I am quite done with her and have been from the get go.

In other death news, Daphne finally bit it.  What was the point of all that really?  Matt gets her out of the facility and takes her to a doctor but she dies anyway?  I was completely flummoxed by her waking up and acting like she and Parkman didn’t have that relationship we never got to see and then the Paris thing.  Luckily when he started flying I realized he was planting stuff in her head (tho why would he plant the relationship was nothing part?)  I guess the dance in the sky over Paris was pretty in a very cheesy way, I just don’t get why they went ahead and killed her off anyway.  Why not have her die when she was shot?

Cute or not, this kid would drive me batty.

I guess part of it was leading up to the reveal of baby Matt Parkman and his ex Janice, who I do not want to revisit again.  Now that Hiro and Ando have absconded with her baby, maybe she’ll disappear.  Sigh.  Sure.  Seems Daphne’s death brought on memories of the ex so I’m sure we’ll be stuck with her again.  Oh and the baby gave Hiro back his freezing time power, hooray.  He can be a hero again!  I was sooooo waiting for that to happen!  I’m so excited that he can think he’s going to save the day again!  Yes, that was sarcasm, why do you ask?  Also, Heroes, never ever rip off a beloved ET moment again, particularly not with Hiro.  Ugh.

And the baby hijinks with Hiro already suck.

In an aside, if I had a baby that had the power to turn on all his toys at once and drive me absolutely insane?  I wouldn’t go looking for him when he disappeared, that’s all I’m saying.  I love kids but I don’t think anybody could endure that one constantly.   Oh, and I demand that Peter get his hands on that kid and turn on some of his cooler powers.  If Hiro can get some of his back, so can Peter and he’s quite clearly going to need them based on previews.

Peter's still a mommas boy at heart.

Angela had the ninjas hot on her tail and met with Swoozie Kurtz who gave her attitude and then some cash.  Didn’t help her as she got trapped in an elevator and was being brought down to the feds, but when the door opened, there was Peter with his arms around Mommy and whisking her away to the Statue of Liberty to hang for awhile.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with the two of them; she was worrying to HRG that she might have pushed Peter away permanently so she has some atoning to do.  I’m also pretty mad at her for being willing to throw Micah under the bus to save her own hide.  You gotta love her mothering instincts don’t ya?  Throw the kids to the wolves!  She does make me laugh.  I wonder what she’d do with Matt Parkman Jr. and all those noisy toys?

Awesome shot of Peter and Angela looking out over NYC.

So, on top of the confusing Matt/Daphne thing, we had Danko chilling in his apartment shaving with no Sylar anywhere in sight.  I was quite perturbed that my boy was not present and was not threatening and/or killing the dude.  Instead, he sets off the Danko’s alarms and he heads into the living room to find Doyle the Puppetmaster strung up like one of his marionettes.  Sylar gifted him with Doyle as a sign of good faith I guess, cause next week they’re actually meeting and Sylar is promising to help him round up the others so he can be the only special one.  Sigh.  Sylar, my love, we’d come so far and then you go and do this to me?  Why do you destroy my hopes of you and Peter teaming up to take on the government and crushing everyone in your way?  So uncool.  I’ll wait and see how it plays out but I’m quite unhappy about this unlikely union.  Still, it has me looking forward to next week so I guess that’s something.

Sylar's idea of the perfect gift.

So that was the big stuff this week.  Daphne and Tracy died, but probably only Daphne permanently.  Hiro got a power.  Matt & Mohinder are out and about again.  Peter saved Angela.  Sylar helped the enemy.  I am interested to see what Angela has to say to her boy and to see what Sylar is going to do (he still better kill Danko for me down the road, this is not too much to ask!) and to see what’s next for Matt that hopefully doesn’t involve changing diapers.  I loved him working the mind mojo on the ninja soldiers and the doctors.  Such a cool power.  If nothing else, I appreciated that!  I also loved Mohinder getting the tables turned on him by Danko yet again…silly, pretty, dumb Mohinder!  They really do need Micah to lead them all, don’t they?

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The Fall Of The Righteous Man

Dean has a very long road ahead, gorgeous pic from SupernaturalSeries.com

Every now and then a television program can reach inside and grab the viewer by putting forth a perfect episode.  It’s amazing that this season a couple of my shows have been able to do that, to leave me floored and awed and excited and disturbed all at the same time.  Lost has done it and so has Supernatural.  Sometimes writing and acting can come together and hit every single note; tonight’s Supernatural was just such an episode.

Before I delve into the storyline, can I just say that Jensen Ackles continues to wow me with his growth as an actor?  I felt Dean’s pain tonight; I sat and watched him torture a demon, knowing just what it was doing inside him to relive those moments from hell.  I watched his world shatter when he realized that he was the start of everything that was happening and I watched him lie broken in a hospital, damaged and defeated.  And it was all beautifully done.  He still managed to bring the snark through it all too.  That’s my Dean.

Now that's a fallen angel.

Sam & Dean find Castiel and Uriel waiting for them with the news that seven angels have been killed and they need help finding out what demon is responsible.  They yank Dean to Alastair’s location and order him to torture the information out of him.  Meanwhile, Sam calls Ruby in to find where they took Dean because he thinks that Dean won’t be able to handle it.  And it seemed to me that he wasn’t questioning Dean’s ability to deal with torturing Alastair after what he’d been through in hell; it was his doubting Dean’s ability to get the information.  He wasn’t strong enough in Sam’s opinion.  I think, in past seasons, I would have believed that Sam was worried for his mental issues but now he was talking about physical strength.  I could be wrong there but that’s how I saw it.

Castiel is questioning his mission again.

Dean starts out refusing to do it and begging Castiel not to ask him to.  He doesn’t want to go there and he doesn’t want to face that.  Uriel gets up in his face and tells him that he has to do it and takes off to find some revelation.  I’ll be honest here and say that I was unspoiled but I knew from the get go that Uriel was the one actually killing the angels.  I don’t know why but I just felt that he was behind it, so I wasn’t floored by that revelation.  Dean sucks it up and heads in to torture Alastair, slowly wheeling in a cart full of scary looking devices and holy water.

Hee, now that looks like a demon!

Alastair, of course, revels in the thought of Dean turning the tables on him; the student becoming the master and whatnot.  Can I just say, and this disturbs me about myself but it’s the truth, that Dean has never been hotter than when he was torturing Alastair?  I mean, my god, he took my breath away with that determined, steely look on his face.  I should probably be ashamed of myself for that one but there you have it.  He was beautiful…I guess it’s always been said that avenging angels could be beautiful so maybe I’m not so far off there.  I feel a little dirty though.

Dean looks mighty fine while torturing Alastair.

While Dean’s getting his torture on, Ruby shows up to help Sam find Dean though she’s none too pleased about it.  Then Sam tells Ruby he needs more strength and I had a moment to fear that there was going to be some sexing going on, but no, she instead sliced her arm open and let him drink her demon blood.  Lovely, Sam’s a vampire now.  So this is how he’s been getting stronger.  At least this helps solidify the thought that Ruby is not some “good” demon out to help the world.  Her agenda can’t be that pure if she has to give Sam dope hits to get his mojo working.

Sam does his best Edward Cullen impression.

Dean continues with his creative tortures for Alastair, revealing that he was able to dream while in hell and he thought up many ways to make him suffer if he ever got the chance.  He injects him with holy water and makes him swallow salt and stabs and such.  During this, a pipe valve starts moving and water drips onto the demon’s trap on the floor.  Alastair then hits Dean with that terrible truth, that he was the one that opened the first seal when he gave in and became a torturer in hell.  A righteous man had to spill blood in hell in order for the first seal to open.  He thought John Winchester would be the one; apparently he got to torture Daddy for 100 years without him giving in and Dean only lasted 30.  These are not my words, they’re Alastair’s, I think lasting 30 years is pretty damn good myself.  Dean just stops and processes this and you know that he knows it’s true, even though Alastair wouldn’t be above lying.  He turns around to face him and finds Alastair has broken free.

Dean knows Alastair is telling the truth, he started the apocalypse.

While all that is going on, Castiel is hanging outside listening to Alastair’s yelling and looking rather upset about what he sent Dean off to do.  Anna shows up in a flash of lights and asks him how torture could be god’s will.  Cas doubts that himself but he is not used to questioning his orders and she gets pissed at him for putting Dean in that position.  He goes in and finds Dean being choked to death by Alastair and takes him on himself.  Alastair has him up against the wall and starts chanting to send him back to heaven but Sam shows up and throws him against the wall.

Alastair turns the tables on Dean.

As Castiel watches in disbelief, Sam demands to know who is killing the angels.  Alastair won’t tell him so he uses his mojo hand and starts hurting him.  He chokes out that it isn’t a demon; if demons knew how to kill angels they wouldn’t off them one by one.  Sam sees that it’s true and Alastair tells him to send him back to hell.  Sam reveals that he’s beyond that now, he can actually kill a demon and he proceeds to do so while Castiel watches with concern.

Sam's more powerful and closer to the edge.

Sam is sitting by Dean’s bedside when he sees Castiel walking by outside.  He goes out and demands that he heal Dean.  Cas says he can’t do that and Sam reiterates that it wasn’t a demon that was killing the angels.  Cas heads outside and talks to Anna, asking her what it’s like to fall and telling her he has begun to doubt his duty.  She gets irritated with him again for wanting her to give him orders instead of just manning up and deciding to act on his own.  He heads off to meet up with Uriel and Uriel admits that only an angel can kill an angel and whips out a knife.  He tries to persuade Castiel to join him in his quest to free their fallen brother, Lucifer, but Cas isn’t buying.  They start fighting and just as Uriel is about to finish Castiel off, Anna appears and stabs him in the throat.  No more angry Uriel.  His light comes screaming out and presumably he’s not heading to heaven.

Dean is thoroughly broken.

Dean awakens with Castiel at his bedside and he asks him if what Alastair said was true, if he was the start of the apocalypse.  Castiel tells him that it was true and they tried to get into hell before he gave in but they weren’t in time.  Dean asks why they didn’t leave him there and Castiel tells him not to blame himself, it is fate.  The righteous man begins the apocalypse and he’s the only one who can finish it.  Dean questions how in the heck he could stop Lucifer and the apocalypse but Cas can’t tell him the hows, only that their fate rests with him.  Dean tells him that they’re screwed, he can’t do it, he’s not a hero and he’s not strong enough.  He tells him he’s not the man that either of their dads wanted him to be and to find someone else.  A tear escapes and he turns away.

It was powerful and raw and real.  This whole episode, all mytharc and much needed after some lighter episodes, laid the groundwork for the beginning of the end.  Dean is broken right now and he’s going to have to pull himself together and stand up and save the world.  And he’s clearly going to have to do it against a brother who is feeling mighty powerful and sure of himself at the moment.  Sammy’s not dark side yet but taking hits off Ruby’s blood is a sure sign that he’s going too far.  Castiel is questioning his mission and probably putting himself in a bad position with the big man upstairs or at least some of the higher ranking angels.

It’s quite clear that I’m a Dean fangirl but damned if I don’t fall more and more for him each week as he struggles with what is being asked of him and living with what he went through in hell.  He’s just beautiful inside and out and he doesn’t know it (well he knows he’s hot) and it draws me right in.  Kudos to Jensen and the writers for making Dean more compelling week in and week out.  Next week it looks like we’re going lighter again, which is probably good after such a deep and epic episode.  I’m still longing for more though; a sure sign that they’re getting it right.

Thanks to SupernaturalSeries.com for capturing some better Dean pics.

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Namaste

I looked up the meaning of Namaste tonight because I couldn’t remember exactly what it stood for.  The way it was used in Lost made me think maybe it was a greeting or a wish for good luck, but it’s meaning is actually “I bow to you.”  Could there be a better name for an episode wherein the power shifts?  I don’t think so, so I let the name speak for itself and used it as my title.  Because I continue to be Lost’s bitch, I am up at 1 AM typing this up rather than sleeping.  I figure if I get it out of my head maybe my mind will shut off and I can still snag a few z’s.  I’m not going to do my usual long Lost blog, because it is 1 AM and because you all saw the show and know what happened.  I just want to jot down some thoughts and questions.

• Why did Sun stay in the plane when the rest of the Oceanic 6 disappeared in the flash of light?  I’m of two minds on this one, the first being that maybe since she had a baby after leaving the island there was some kind of shift within her that made her unrecognizable to the island?  The other is Tripp’s theory that maybe it has something to do with the actual personality change she underwent off-island.  Since she believed Jin was dead, she turned into a cold, ruthless businesswoman.  Maybe the island didn’t recognize her for that reason?
• I loved the moment that Sun knocked Ben out with the kayak paddle.  She seemed to be going along with him and once he gave out enough information, the where they were heading, she knocked him out and got Frank to head to the island with her.  Initially I kinda disapproved since she has no idea that she’s in a completely different time than Jin is, but since Christian appeared to spread the knowledge I guess it worked out well enough.  I guess now we know how Ben ends up in the makeshift infirmary when Locke sees him next.
• Sun knocking Ben out right after he gave her the key information of course hearkened me back to Ben killing Locke once he learned of Mrs. Hawking.  Karma, Ben, karma.  I may adore your awesome creepiness but that was funny.
• Speaking of what goes around, comes around, how cool is that Sayid is being held prisoner and might be tortured by Sawyer?  I mean, I don’t want him to hurt Sayid but it reminds me of Season 1 when Sayid was going to torture Sawyer to find his weapons stash.  I love full circles!
• Anybody have any idea what happened to the rest of the Losties?  I mean, I know they weren’t main characters but last we saw Bernard and Rose they were being shot at by flaming arrows right?  What happened to those guys in the 3 years since?  Are they part of Richard’s band of merry men?  I assume they would have to have joined up with them since they don’t appear to be in the Dharma camp.
• I loved Sawyer getting 70’s clothes for Jack and Kate but where did he come upon anything that would fit Hurley?
• I thought for a brief second that Juliet had left Kate off the list on purpose.  I was very glad that wasn’t the case but it created a fun, awkward moment when she swept in to keep Kate out of trouble.
• I do not like Phil.  At all.  He’s suspicious and annoying.  He needs to be Frogurted and in a hurry, I think he’s going to cause some trouble.
• I loved Sayid’s face when he was introduced to young Ben of the huge bug eyed glasses.  You could actually see that moment click in his head wherein he decides to try to kill the kid for the good of the future.  Obviously, this cannot happen because Daniel warned against such things and because I cannot picture this show without Ben at all.  Still, he’s going after young Ben first chance he gets.  I can’t wait to see how that plays out.
• How come young Ben can manage to wrangle a minute or two alone with Sayid but Sawyer, I mean LaFleur, couldn’t?  He couldn’t have ordered Forehead Dude and Phil away so he could give Sayid the lowdown?  The heck?  Maybe Ben was already working his manipulative powers at the ripe old age of 11.
• Where is Daniel?  Sawyer mentioned Faraday but then when Jack asked if he was there he said not anymore.  Did he head off the island to start his studying at Oxford or did something more ominous occur?
• I saved the biggest for last, of course.  What an incredible scene at the end between Sawyer and Jack when Jack showed up at Sawyer and Juliet’s cabin.  First he was trying to process the fact that the two were living together and then he sees Sawyer reading his book and demands to know what the plan is.  Sawyer tells him he’s thinking about it and Jack makes snarky comments about how that’s quite clear seeing as he’s kicking back with a book and all.  Sawyer tells him that Churchill read every night while conducting a war and just because he wasn’t being stupid and acting rashly like Jack always did didn’t mean he was doing nothing.  Jack took umbrage to that one and pointed out that when he was leader he did get some of them off the island and Sawyer pointed out that a lot of people died under his watch too.  I found the role reversal here fascinating as hell, because wouldn’t you imagine Sawyer to be the one rushing headlong into action while Jack was the cerebral one, planning each step?  That’s not how it worked out but I never would have pictured Sawyer plotting and strategizing in season 1.  How far we’ve come!  There’s a new leader in town and I don’t think Jack is going to like it one bit.  I look forward to the coming headbutting that is sure to happen.

Those were the highlights of the night for me and the things that I couldn’t get out of mind until I came here to get them all out on screen.  Maybe I can sleep now.  Maybe not, but I’m going to try.  This show sure does get into my mind and won’t let me go, but that’s probably what makes it my favorite show.  It always leaves me thinking and always leaves me wanting more.  I couldn’t believe it when it ended because I was so into it that time flew.  Haha maybe I’m swept up in travel myself, huh?  Next week looks action packed and awesome, can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.  I’m off to try to get some sleep!  Namaste, Lost, you got me again.

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Higley Won The Battle, But I Remain Standing

It’s been ages since my last Days post, I know.  It’s not that I haven’t been watching either.  Every day at one I flip to NBC and watch faithfully, although I work while watching, some days harder than others.  But I stopped caring.  I don’t know when it happened but I really don’t give a damn anymore.  There are myriad reasons for that and we’ll discuss them here, but I really have lost all interest in my once favorite Salemites.  It’s not even that the writing is so terrible anymore either; many have said and I agree that the show actually seems to have a cohesive direction these days.  Rarely do I feel like different people are writing different shows each day.  I’ve read the April spoilers and some of them sound downright interesting, or they would be if I retained any interest in the program.  What can you do?

The first thing that killed my love was the constant seesawing between couples.  My friend, Tripp, pointed out to me several months ago that every single couple on screen currently was with someone else less than 6 months ago (not now but this is when I was getting disenchanted).  That’s not counting the vets since they were all mostly nonexistent.  It just felt like new pairings were happening every couple of weeks; Philip bounced from Chloe to Morgan back to Chloe for 5 seconds to Stephanie with a little Melanie on the side.  Couples with no chemistry randomly came together (lookin at you Chloe and Lucas!) and were engaged within minutes of screwing in an elevator.  Or it felt that way anyway.  One uncle/niece pairing was traded for another.  EJami/EJole came down to baby switching and lies…it was quite sad really because I once cared mightily about both pairings and now, not so much.

Where pairings were my first draw for Days watching, they were hardly my only, for I loved certain characters regardless, or maybe because of, their bad actions.  I don’t even have that anymore.  My once shining gray to black to white EJ does nothing for me anymore.  Part of that is, of course, due to his terrible hair but not all of it.  My EJ would never believe the stuff that Nicole pulled on him, nor would he have believed Sami’s lame pregnancy coverup attempts before she went to the safehouse.  I do get occasional glimpses of the EJ I love when he fights with Brady or Philip or belittles Melanie, but those are few and far between.  I do hold out hope that my love can be restored with more of those scenes and a good haircut but the Days Emmy winning hair team will never fix him properly so I resign myself to watching my shell of a pretty man be fooled by the women in his life.

The vet exodus also took me out of the show.  I hated John and Marlena with all that was in me but they were written off so unsatisfactorily that I couldn’t even celebrate.  Instead I had to feel BAD for them for having such a terrible sendoff, with John paralyzed and their reunion crammed into 10 minutes of show.  Then Steve and Kayla got the boot but instead of being written off they’re getting the “Alice” treatment, mentioned like they’re in the next room but we all know they’re not.  Now a part of me is grateful they weren’t written off, because I feared Higley would have Kayla die from her gunshot wound and Steve either leave town or commit suicide to be with his love eternally.  What?  You think that didn’t occur to her?  You know it did!  So at least they were spared a terrible write off but it seems to me that actors that were icons of the show could have been given a proper goodbye, in both cases.  Throw in the fact that Bo & Hope were temporarily broken up by retarded psychic visions and now Bo is seeing Hope in bed with some other guy in his visions and well…it doesn’t speak highly for the veteran pairings does it?  And the vets are what people were invested in.  Love them or hate them, that’s what people tuned in for with Days.  I know who Hope is in bed with in the Bo visions and there aren’t words for the horror of that one.  I shan’t discuss it here now, that’ll be another blog, but suffice it to say that we’ll all need to bleach our eyes for those scenes.

While the vets were backburnered, certain characters were shoved on our screens and made into main players with little to no lead up.  What does that do for you?  It makes me disinterested in the characters.  I liked Melanie for about 5 seconds but then they shoved her in every single storyline and let her butt up against every hot guy in town like she was Heather Locklear on Melrose Place and any interest I had in her faded like 80’s denim.  Same with Daniel, they shoved him into that passionless pairing with Chelsea and then threw him and Kate and by the time they turned him to Chloe, when he could actually be interesting, I just didn’t give a damn anymore.  Well I sort of gave a damn in the sense that certain people I hated on message boards were not getting their favorite pairings, but other than that I really didn’t care.  I pretended to though, to rub it in cause I’m a bitch like that.

All those things, combined with tons of other little ones, have come together to make me severly disinterested in Days.  Not disheartened because I truly did stop caring.  It was probably silly to care about soaps anyway, but I invest in my TV, which is quite clear since I spend good chunks of time here writing about it.  Higley did manage to kill my joy in Days but she hasn’t turned me away yet.  I will still be watching the day the final credits roll, hopefully long after she’s no longer at the helm of the show but I’m a realist.  I hold on hoping that one day I’ll care again or that one day they’ll remember that Eric Martsoff used to be shirtless 99% of the time on his other show and maybe give us a glimpse of naked Brady.  This would perk up my interest considerably, along with fixing EJ’s brains and his hair.  I am shallow enough to buy right back in, so I’ll keep on and wait for the Power of the Pretty to bring me back.  Dena will not defeat me!

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Breaking Down Breaking Dawn

Now that several friends have finally finished Breaking Dawn, I felt it was time that I finally do a blog on the book.  Easily the most criticized and reviled book in the Twilight Series, it’s the one that I also had the most problems with.  I didn’t hate it like some did but I did have my share of issues so I thought I’d talk about them here.  What it all boiled down to for me was sacrifice.  This is the book where Bella was going to have to give up her old life and step into her new, but Meyer took it easy on her and made her give up nothing at all.  This bothered me greatly as I was very excited to see Bella deal with the consequences of becoming a vampire.

Before I get too heavily into that, I’ll talk about what I did like, for there was plenty that made me happy.  I’m a sucker for a happy ending and I swore I wasn’t going to even read the book if Bella and Edward did not end up together forever.  Once I was reassured of that, I did read it and was happy to experience their wedding, their honeymoon, her awakening as a vampire, her finding her strength and saving the others with it and particularly that final scene in the book where Edward gets to hear her thoughts for the first time.  I thought that was a beautiful ending to the series and a great circle around from the first time he saw her and got intrigued because he couldn’t hear her thoughts at all.

Of course, the big issue a lot of people had with the book was the Renesmee end of things, Edward being able to have a child with Bella despite being a vampire.  This didn’t bug me that much because it’s Meyer’s world and she’s created her own vampire cannon so I can respect that choice.  I wasn’t in love with the baby angle but I understood it and found parts of it interesting.  Using her to bring the Volturi down upon them was a good choice I think, so I didn’t take as much issue with Renesmee as others did.  Had I been writing it I wouldn’t have created her, but I can deal with her.

I have some Jacob related nitpicks, of course, because Jacob is not my favorite character by book four, although he takes some redemptive steps of course in the name of love and friendship.  I didn’t like having him come to her wedding and freak out on her at all, I’d rather he stay away than cast any kind of pall on that moment but that’s the Edward/Bella fan in me speaking and I can see why Meyer did that.  I didn’t care for the huge chunk of book written in his viewpoint either, although I understood Meyer wanting to tell the story from some different eyes.  Outsider eyes.  That again is the Edward lover in me speaking, I’d rather have heard it from his viewpoint since Midnight Sun is my favorite of the books, unfinished though it might be.

Then there’s the whole imprinting thing.  Look, I am glad that Jacob backed off Bella and I’m glad that he got to find some happiness.  I may not have liked him but I didn’t wish him a life of loneliness and misery either.  But to have him imprint on Bella’s daughter?  Put the baby thing aside, cause some of the other wolves imprinted on little ones as well, but Bella’s daughter?  The woman that he was so in love with?  That’s pretty gross when you think about it.  He remembers all the fantasies he had of seeing her naked and now he’s destined for her daughter?  What kind of sick soap opera stuff is this? 

I get why Meyer did it and I honestly think it was in direct reaction to the outrage that came out of her having Bella admit to being in love with Jacob in Eclipse.  I thought that was a gigantic miscalculation and I think she must have too, because I can’t imagine doing that on purpose and then creating Bella’s daughter for Jacob.  I personally felt that she found a loophole in creating this kid that maybe could account for Bella’s love for Jacob, this feeling that they were destined to be together in some way.  I  believe that in a world in which Edward did not exist perhaps Bella could eventually have come to love Jacob but I don’t believe that she could in world in which he did.  That’s my personal bias and I’m holding on to it!

My other issue, besides the big one, is the showdown with the Volturi.  I was thrilled to see Jane and Caius and Aro and co again but I was deeply disheartened by the lack of battle.  I’m glad the Cullens and the wolves and pals ended up safe but it would have been nice to have a little action in the fight.  I’m not asking for piles of burning vamps but I wanted to see Jane and Caius get killed dammit.  And I would have sacrificed some of the protagonists to see that happen.  I mean, not my faves of course, but Rosalie could have died and I would have been alright with it.  Maybe a wolf or two as long as Seth made it.  Yeah, I’m qualifying, I know that, it’s just that for all the showdowns that are discussed, the only one that ends up with any action is in Eclipse.  We could have used a bit more battle, that’s all I’m saying. 

Now it’s time for me to get into my real issue with the novel that I touched upon in my first paragraph.  Before I get too into it, I will admit that I know these books were initially written with a teen audience in mind, but I like to think our youth can and do like to look deeper into books and don’t need everything to be happy in order to find a book compelling.   We read Hemingway and Chaucer and Shakespeare and all that when we’re teens, so I don’t see why teens of today couldn’t deal with a little darkness in their books.

Meyer’s first big wrong was taking the choice away from Edward in whether or not to turn Bella into a vampire.  She had him agonized over that idea through 3 books but in the end he had to do it because she was going to die anyway.  I had to suffer through a lot of Bella angst in New Moon with Edward gone and I would have enjoyed more Edward angst in this one over turning her.  We had a lot of tortured Edward through her 2 week pregnancy but that was seen through Jacob’s eyes and wasn’t enough for me.  I guess I just wanted him to turn her because he wanted her forever and she had made that choice and he respected it, not because he had to.  Does that make sense?

After Bella was turned, life for her was even better than she’d dreamed it would be.  She got the vampire powers, her own special power and her daughter and Edward.  I was good with those things but not with the rest that came along with it.  She should have had to give up something in becoming a vampire but she didn’t.  She got to keep Jacob as a best friend and minus the romantic issues; she got to keep her father in her life; she was able to control herself nearly immediately and never had to deal with killing a human; the sex was even better for her and Edward after she turned and her love for him was stronger instead of overcome by blood lust and her daughter was going to grow up and live forever as well.  One could argue perhaps that she had to give up her mother but I don’t consider that whatsoever because I felt her mother gave her up long before she came to forks when she chose the husband over her daughter. 

I’m all for happy endings but I would argue that if this book really was intended for teens then there should have been some consequences to Bella’s choice.  Shouldn’t teens and tweens learn that sometimes sacrifices have to be made when you make a heavy decision and that you should weigh everything carefully?  By not having Bella have to give up anything, I honestly feel the wrong message is sent.  

How powerful would it have been to have her go to Charlie’s house shortly after being turned and watch him from afar, wishing she could go to him but knowing that she couldn’t?  Having to raise her daughter without her grandfather and just telling her stories about him instead?  Having Jacob become her enemy instead of staying her best friend, maybe not even her enemy but just someone not in her life anymore.  How powerful would it be down the road if she ran across him on a hunt or something?  Or if years down the road, still 18, Bella saw an adult Jacob with a family of his own?  She wouldn’t have to regret the choice she made but she could mourn for the choices she didn’t and the things she lost.  It just would have been better that way, at least for me.

I, as usual, have gotten very long winded but when you’re talking about a long story I guess it makes sense to have a lot to say.  I want to make clear that I didn’t hate Breaking Dawn at all and in subsequent readings I’ve grown to like it more than I did the first time around.  I’m happy that the characters found happiness and despite the weirdness of Jacob/Renesmee I wouldn’t mind a book about them down the road either although I liked the idea of Jacob/Leah hooking up; going from antagonism to friendship to love and bucking the whole imprinting thing, but that’s another blog for another day perhaps.  Breaking Dawn just left me wish some dissatisfaction and a longing for something more in a way that the rest of the Twilight Saga did not.  I’m sure part of that was knowing it was the last book in the series but the rest I’ve outlined for you above.  Despite that, I still love the Cullens and I’m glad they got their happily ever after.  I hope one day Meyer will delve back into them, finishing Midnight Sun and perhaps writing the others from Edward’s viewpoint.  Or telling us more about Jasper & Alice, my other faves.  There is much she could do and I am still not ready to let go.  The beauty of books is that I can revisit them anytime.  I’ve managed to not read a Twilight book for about 2 months now but that doesn’t mean I’ve put it aside.   Clearly I haven’t because here I am writing about them 4 months after my initial descent into the Twilight world.  Despite some missteps, that’s the thing Meyer really got right, she created a world I don’t want to escape from.

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