The Idiot Box
Mar. 12th, 2013 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
netgirl_y2kSpring arrived. But then it got frightened and went away again. So, it's been the perfect weather for sitting inside and watching telly.
Sunday evening was the last ever episode of Being Human, and I was pleased to see that the fifth series was keeping up the fine tradition of the odd numbered series of BH being the best ones, I think I was right at the end of S4 when I said that Hal, Tom & Alex might work better as a trio than Hal, Tom & Annie had. Actually, of the boys, I think I ended up liking Hal and Tom better than George and Mitchell, who both had manpain-y tendencies that... irked me. Of course, much as I liked Alex, and I'm never going dislike a mouthy Scot, the earlier series had Annie and Nina, so they win on points difference.
I do think it was fortunate that the showrunners knew this was going to be the last series before anyone sat down to write. For example, you can't have the devil as your big bad if you're going to have to sit down in a years time and come up with a bigger bad. And how glad was I that the villains this year weren't vampires, because the vampire mythology has always been the weakest part of this show. The cosy supernatural flatshare never sat particularly comfortably beside the evil vampire conspiracy attempting to take over the world and enslave humanity, again, stuff. Which, actually, brings me to my one niggle with S5, I thought they were getting their own vampire mythology mixed up with treating Good Hal and Evil Hal like two entirely separate characters, it all went a bit buffyverse, didn't it? Although, with all of Hal's tics and ocd traits the show left you just enough wiggle-room to headcanon that his evil persona was a personality Hal had created to shove all his worst impulses onto, which is exactly what I've been cheerfully doing.
It's odd, because Hal isn't usually the kind of character I'd expect to like (see: how I lost patience and sympathy with Mitchell in the earlier series) but I find Damien Molony sort of compulsively watchable. I mean, his musical interlude should have been ludicrous yet somehow wasn't.
I actually wonder how far in advance the finale had been planned out, because the temptations the devil offered our heroes would have worked equally well with the original trio, right down to Hal having been in the army and recruited after a battle; admittedly several centuries prior to Mitchell.
Anyway I really liked them all ending up human, and it neatly solved the problem of Hal, which was basically a rehash of the problem of Mitchell; if Hal is a serial recidivist how long can you justify not introducing him to a stake, how long can you support Tom and Alex in enabling what can only ever be a temporary reprieve from bloodshed?
I know there was some suggestion that the ending was a fake-out and they're still in a devil created dream world. And, yeah, there were a few things that suggested that; the origami wolf, Hal's line about the devil's mistake being in not keeping them together, Alex being human too, because surely if the devil's permanent demise meant that his curses were broken, well, Hal and Tom were cursed, Alex was just dead, her only curse was in not being able to move on...
But I'm overthinking it, and I'm a sucker for a happy ending so I'm choosing to believe that it was real and they're all human now.
But my favourite-favourite bit was actually before that, the name check of Annie, Nina, George, and Mitchell, and Hal's line about wanting to be human being the end not the beginning. And the fact that he could give Tom that farewell in bad guy mode implies to me that evil Hal and good Hal aren't two separate people, Hal just desperately wants them to be.
There's also been Once Upon a Time, which I haven't had much to say about for the last few weeks because, shall I tell you my supremely unpopular OUAT opinion? I am largely bored by Rumpelstiltskin. Robert Carlyle is never less than supremely watchable, and he does get a lot of the best lines but Rumple heavy eps are usually the ones where I end up playing suduko in another tab. So, his backstory, whether he gets to reconcile with his son and Belle, if he gets to keep his power, and if Henry is in fact his kryptonite are developments I have greeted with varying degrees of indifference.
But this episode I really, really liked. I thought Rose McGowan was excellent as young Cora, and I wonder if we're going to get another flashback to show how they went from being Prince Henry and Princess Cora to being plain old comfortably middle-class Henry and Cora. And I loved, loved, loved that it was the eligible, young, tragically personality-less prince who was being sold off for the good of the kingdom. Nice work turning the usual trope on its head there, show!
Cora's death was not a surprise, the manner of it really was. Well done again, show, because surprises have not been your forte of late. Nealfire, anyone? Snow, I really did not think you had it in you. The cold bit wasn't even in trading Cora's life for Rumple's, which was arguably a necessary evil. I'm no great fan of Rumple's, but better to have him as the Dark One than Cora, you know? The cold bit was manipulating Regina into finishing the deed on the fly.
That, actually, was another surprise. I was expecting Cora to die by Regina's hand, that actually was where I thought Regina's arc was going, to double crossing her mother. But this way was awesome, partly, yes, because the scene where Cora has her heart and is just looking at Regina with endless wonder and love was gorgeous and heartbreaking and awful.
But, also, making sure Regina lost the mother she'd always wanted rather than the mother she actually had justifies her wanting revenge without making her seem like a total hypocrite given that she's been involved in three indirect attempts on Cora's life that we know of. Also also, having Snow be the one who tricked her into the deed adds a delicious layer of deliciousness to their relationship and Regina's animosity. I love Regina, but I much prefer her Storybrooke incarnation to her fairytale one, and a huge part of that is that a lifelong blood-feud against an eight year old who made a mistake is a shit motivation for Evil Queen-ness and one I choose to gloss over as much as possible.
Rumple's dying phone call to Belle was kind of interesting too, especially in light of Cora's eventual fate. That's two women who've broken Rumple's heart who've had their hearts literally broken by him. I like Belle very much, and therefore am entirely in favour of her crossing the town boundary and joining the witness protection program. I also thought Rumple playing the Henry's grandpa card and being embraced to the metaphorical bosom of his new family was fascinating, especially taking the prophecy about Henry into account. Regina, even in full on unrepentant Evil Queen mode, is probably not a threat to Henry (at least, not a deliberate or direct one; remember the apple turnover incident?) Rumple... may yet be.
Sunday evening was the last ever episode of Being Human, and I was pleased to see that the fifth series was keeping up the fine tradition of the odd numbered series of BH being the best ones, I think I was right at the end of S4 when I said that Hal, Tom & Alex might work better as a trio than Hal, Tom & Annie had. Actually, of the boys, I think I ended up liking Hal and Tom better than George and Mitchell, who both had manpain-y tendencies that... irked me. Of course, much as I liked Alex, and I'm never going dislike a mouthy Scot, the earlier series had Annie and Nina, so they win on points difference.
I do think it was fortunate that the showrunners knew this was going to be the last series before anyone sat down to write. For example, you can't have the devil as your big bad if you're going to have to sit down in a years time and come up with a bigger bad. And how glad was I that the villains this year weren't vampires, because the vampire mythology has always been the weakest part of this show. The cosy supernatural flatshare never sat particularly comfortably beside the evil vampire conspiracy attempting to take over the world and enslave humanity, again, stuff. Which, actually, brings me to my one niggle with S5, I thought they were getting their own vampire mythology mixed up with treating Good Hal and Evil Hal like two entirely separate characters, it all went a bit buffyverse, didn't it? Although, with all of Hal's tics and ocd traits the show left you just enough wiggle-room to headcanon that his evil persona was a personality Hal had created to shove all his worst impulses onto, which is exactly what I've been cheerfully doing.
It's odd, because Hal isn't usually the kind of character I'd expect to like (see: how I lost patience and sympathy with Mitchell in the earlier series) but I find Damien Molony sort of compulsively watchable. I mean, his musical interlude should have been ludicrous yet somehow wasn't.
I actually wonder how far in advance the finale had been planned out, because the temptations the devil offered our heroes would have worked equally well with the original trio, right down to Hal having been in the army and recruited after a battle; admittedly several centuries prior to Mitchell.
Anyway I really liked them all ending up human, and it neatly solved the problem of Hal, which was basically a rehash of the problem of Mitchell; if Hal is a serial recidivist how long can you justify not introducing him to a stake, how long can you support Tom and Alex in enabling what can only ever be a temporary reprieve from bloodshed?
I know there was some suggestion that the ending was a fake-out and they're still in a devil created dream world. And, yeah, there were a few things that suggested that; the origami wolf, Hal's line about the devil's mistake being in not keeping them together, Alex being human too, because surely if the devil's permanent demise meant that his curses were broken, well, Hal and Tom were cursed, Alex was just dead, her only curse was in not being able to move on...
But I'm overthinking it, and I'm a sucker for a happy ending so I'm choosing to believe that it was real and they're all human now.
But my favourite-favourite bit was actually before that, the name check of Annie, Nina, George, and Mitchell, and Hal's line about wanting to be human being the end not the beginning. And the fact that he could give Tom that farewell in bad guy mode implies to me that evil Hal and good Hal aren't two separate people, Hal just desperately wants them to be.
There's also been Once Upon a Time, which I haven't had much to say about for the last few weeks because, shall I tell you my supremely unpopular OUAT opinion? I am largely bored by Rumpelstiltskin. Robert Carlyle is never less than supremely watchable, and he does get a lot of the best lines but Rumple heavy eps are usually the ones where I end up playing suduko in another tab. So, his backstory, whether he gets to reconcile with his son and Belle, if he gets to keep his power, and if Henry is in fact his kryptonite are developments I have greeted with varying degrees of indifference.
But this episode I really, really liked. I thought Rose McGowan was excellent as young Cora, and I wonder if we're going to get another flashback to show how they went from being Prince Henry and Princess Cora to being plain old comfortably middle-class Henry and Cora. And I loved, loved, loved that it was the eligible, young, tragically personality-less prince who was being sold off for the good of the kingdom. Nice work turning the usual trope on its head there, show!
Cora's death was not a surprise, the manner of it really was. Well done again, show, because surprises have not been your forte of late. Nealfire, anyone? Snow, I really did not think you had it in you. The cold bit wasn't even in trading Cora's life for Rumple's, which was arguably a necessary evil. I'm no great fan of Rumple's, but better to have him as the Dark One than Cora, you know? The cold bit was manipulating Regina into finishing the deed on the fly.
That, actually, was another surprise. I was expecting Cora to die by Regina's hand, that actually was where I thought Regina's arc was going, to double crossing her mother. But this way was awesome, partly, yes, because the scene where Cora has her heart and is just looking at Regina with endless wonder and love was gorgeous and heartbreaking and awful.
But, also, making sure Regina lost the mother she'd always wanted rather than the mother she actually had justifies her wanting revenge without making her seem like a total hypocrite given that she's been involved in three indirect attempts on Cora's life that we know of. Also also, having Snow be the one who tricked her into the deed adds a delicious layer of deliciousness to their relationship and Regina's animosity. I love Regina, but I much prefer her Storybrooke incarnation to her fairytale one, and a huge part of that is that a lifelong blood-feud against an eight year old who made a mistake is a shit motivation for Evil Queen-ness and one I choose to gloss over as much as possible.
Rumple's dying phone call to Belle was kind of interesting too, especially in light of Cora's eventual fate. That's two women who've broken Rumple's heart who've had their hearts literally broken by him. I like Belle very much, and therefore am entirely in favour of her crossing the town boundary and joining the witness protection program. I also thought Rumple playing the Henry's grandpa card and being embraced to the metaphorical bosom of his new family was fascinating, especially taking the prophecy about Henry into account. Regina, even in full on unrepentant Evil Queen mode, is probably not a threat to Henry (at least, not a deliberate or direct one; remember the apple turnover incident?) Rumple... may yet be.