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Ramblings
Friday, February 2, 2007. 2:19 a.m.Rome! I had completely forgotten how much I loved this series until it started showing again. It's not without its flaws, of course, but the good always outstrips the bad. Vorenus and Pullo's storyline is heartbreaking, especially with Pullo saying, "I'm your friend, I love you," just before Vorenus throws him out. Brutus is breaking my heart as well. And even the weaselly Cicero has won my affection just a little bit. But by far my favorite story arc is Octavian's rise to power. The fact that we know he wins just makes it all the more delicious to watch. Every time someone underestimates him (Mark Antony especially), I cackle. You can practically see Octavian filing away every slight and insult for future reference in his List of People I'm Totally Going to Kill Once I Become Emperor. I wonder what it says about me that my favorite character is a ruthless, cold-blooded little bastard whose only redeeming values are his unparalleled brilliance, his sympathy for the common people and his (twisted, incestuous) affection for his older sister? In any case, I'm very sorry to see Max Pirkis go. He's one in a million, that kid. So much talent and gravitas, and in one so young. But I am looking forward to seeing how Simon Woods handles the adult Octavian. He's got a tough act to follow. And speaking of Octavian's rise to power... I have to say, I'm totally smitten with Agrippa. He's only appeared in one scene, but I love him already. I know some people were expecting a larger than life, menacing military man (like Vorenus, maybe), but I'm so glad the writers went with a different approach. Rome's Agrippa is gentle and humble, and shy around Octavia, but completely self-possessed and confident when it comes to matters military and political. The way he handled the confrontation with Atia makes it pretty clear Octavian was smart to make him his right-hand man. That said, they better not make him a complete wuss. Agrippa was a military genius (among other things) and I want to see him kicking Mark Antony's ass. Don't let me down, Rome! Also, as embarassing as it is to admit, I am totally 'shipping Agrippa and Octavia now. Yes, just from that one scene they had together. And yeah, I know, historically she ends up married to Mark Antony and Agrippa marries Octavia's own daughter and later Octavian's, but I can't help it. They're adorable together. Agrippa's so winsome, and you can tell he's got it bad for Octavia. And Octavia's led such a crappy life, being constantly used as a pawn by her mother, brother, uncle and Servilia, that it would be nice to see her be happy, even if it's just for a little while. It's not as though the show has ever been a stickler for historical accuracy. And hey, there's always fan fic, if the writers choose to keep the Agrippa/Octavia relationship purely one-sided. I haven't written any in ages, but if I were ever inspired to write 'shipper fic again, it would definitely be of the Agrippa/Octavia variety. Just lookit! 
Aww, Agrippa. And aww, Octavia. *sighs* It's just too bad Octavian's going to wreck any potential Agrippa/Octavia lovin' by marrying her off to that lech Antony. A pox on you, history! Playing Catch-Up Man, oh, man. My poor, woefully neglected blog. I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated it. I guess I wasn't in much of a blogging mood for the last, oh, six months? *hangs head in shame* I didn't even feel like bitching about my birthday and / or Christmas last year. I enjoyed both, but both felt enough like non-events to let them pass without mention. In fact, the whole later half of last year was pretty much like one huge non-event. One day passed into the other without me noticing it, until finally the year was just... over. The strange thing is, I'm fairly certain I enjoyed the hell out of it. Sitting in front of my computer now on this lazy Sunday afternoon with only the slightest crick in my neck and absolutely no back pain to speak of (huzzah!), I realize I actually feel pretty damn contented. Suck on that, bitter, adolescent pre-July 2006 me. That said, I'm actually feeling gabby today, so I thought I'd play catch-up on my blog. Who knows, I might even upload new photos from last Christmas, if I'm not feeling too lazy. (By the time I'm done with this entry, though, I probably will be.) On the Fandom Front I've only ever been a sporadic watcher of Smallville. I've always chalked that up to two things: One, the hero of the piece never interested me much. The character of Superman has always bored me. Too nice, too clean-cut, too perfect. And even though I grew up on Marvel Comics rather than DC, I've always had a healthy respect for certain DC characters. I've read maybe a handful of Batman comics in my life, but if I had to make a list of who I thought were the most kick-ass superheroes of all time, Batman would definitely be near the top. (And if I had to make a list of which superheroes I thought had the nicest asses of all time, Nightwing would be number two. Seriously, Google it. You could bounce a quarter off of Dick Grayson's ass.) In any case, Clark Kent has rarely interested me. Though I can objectively see that Tom Welling is a very good-looking guy, he just didn't have enough charisma to pull me in. And though Michael Rosenbaum has got both charisma and talent going in spades, ultimately I'm one of those people who needs to be able to love and root for the protagonist in order for me to get truly invested in a TV show. I guess that makes me a rather pedestrian sort of viewer, but there you go. So, a boring protagonist --- strike one against Smallville. Strike two: none of the female characters interested me at all. Most of the shows I love (with the exception of Buffy --- but then, Buffy has proven to be the exception in nearly every aspect of my fandom interests) have men for their central characters. Angel, Firefly, Rome, The Sopranos, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, heck, even Futurama... they all more or less revolve around a single male character. And those characters (Angel, Mal, Tony Soprano, etc.) are the ones I love and empathize with the most. On the other hand, shows that feature women as the central characters rarely raise a blip on my interest radar. Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are good shows by most accounts, but I've never seen more than one or two episodes of each. Don't ask me to explain it, as I'm sure there are a whole lot of screwy Freudian psychosexual causes at the root of it that would be better left unexamined. Let's just leave it at this: most of the shows I enjoy have a guy for their main character. However --- and here is one very important condition --- to be truly invested in a show, I always, always need a supporting female character to love. In Angel, it was Cordelia (before they totally ruined her character), in Scrubs, Carla. Edie Falco's Carmela I love with an unholy, unnatural love. In Smallville, it came down to three characters: Lana, Chloe and Martha Kent. And though Annette O'Toole is all kinds of awesome, Martha was too much of a background character where the plot was concerned to really pull me in. Lana was too inconsistently written and Chloe, though a fun character all around, was entirely too cutesy for my liking. Three strikes and you're out, right? So Smallville had only one more chance to pull me in. And baby, they knocked it out of the park with Lois Lane. She's a fairly controversial addition to the show, and that's just as it should be. The addition of a character as big and full of life as Lois Lane should be the equivalent of throwing a live grenade into the trenches. If she isn't shaking things up, then she's not being done right. And she did shake things up (much to my endless amusement). Online fandom is divided on her --- either you love or hate her. And man, do I love her. She's tough, she's funny, she's bullheaded and she says the wrong things at the worst possible times. She's also bossy, emotionally guarded and fiercely loyal to the people she loves. Most of all, she injects joy and lightheartedness into a show that would otherwise get bogged down in clichéd coming-of-age angst. She makes Clark fun. More amazing than that, she makes Clark fun for me. To use an old standby: damn it, they got me. And if that wasn't enough, the show has injected a huge shot of adrenaline into their sixth season in the form of Oliver Queen, a.k.a. the Green Arrow. Now I'll admit I know next to nothing about his comic book counterpart, but Smallville's Oliver hooked me in from the word go. Here was the hero I always wished Smallville had: smart, confident, charismatic, dedicated, bad-ass and just flawed and human enough to keep him approachable. And it certainly doesn't hurt that he's insanely hot. But here's the clincher: he makes Clark fun to watch. Between the two of them, Ollie and Lois have actually got me liking the show's protagonist, a feat which I never thought would be possible from the show's early episodes. Now here's the icing on my Smallville cake: Lois and Ollie are going out. Yep. Oliver Queen totally hit that. Oh, I'd feel sorry for the future Clark, who'll have to live with the knowledge that his teammate and friend rounded the bases with his wife before he did, but present Clark is such a dumbass in the romance department that I can't help but chortle evilly at the thought anyway. And though I know it won't last (Lois ends up with Clark, Ollie with the Black Canary --- that's always been the way of things), I'm still enjoying the hell out of Oliver and Lois' relationship. He's hot, she's hot, and dude: they are very hot together. And not just hot, but fun and entertaining as hell. From the moment Lois opens the door on Ollie and mistakes him for the delivery boy to the moment he manages to trick her into believing he isn't the Green Arrow, these two have been an outright joy to watch. In the five episodes they've been going out, they've accomplished what Smallville has failed to do in the past five seasons with their endless permutations of Clark/Lana/Lex/Chloe/etc. romances: they've given me a couple to root for and get invested in. Ollie and Lois have it all: playful banter, genuine affection, conflict and tension in the form of Ollie's secret identity, a constantly shifting dynamic that keeps them on their toes and some very potent sexual and physical chemistry. In a show that practically chokes us with the boring-as-paint Clark and Lana dynamic, this is more than a breath of fresh air. It's the first breath of air after being revived when you've already suffocated from being held underwater longer than you can physically withstand. Knowing the relationship won't last doesn't detract one bit from my enjoyment of it. When Oliver leaves (*sob* only one episode to go now), he'll take a lot of the fun of watching the show with him. For now, though, I'm loving every minute of it. It's been a hell of a ride, and thankfully, I have my downloaded episodes to play over and over again until even I'm sick of it. Which, yes, I will be doing. Ah, the brothers Winchester. You know how I said that in order to get truly invested in a show, I need a female character to love? Well, oops. This would be an exception. *kicks figurative pebble sheepishly* I'm still loving the show, even though (or maybe because) it's wandered far from its monster-of-the-week format. Jared and Jensen continue to bring it. I have never been more in love with the dynamic of the Winchester brothers. I sorely miss their more lighthearted moments (I still maintain that the prank war in Season 1 was the best thing ever, and not just because it gave us wet, naked Sammy), but what they have now --- the naked grief and the anxiety and the raw uncertainty following their father's death and the (non)revelation of Sam's destiny --- is just as good, though somewhat painful to watch. Long live Sam and Dean! Man, oh, man. Was there ever a show that started off so kick-ass and degenerated so quickly into a boring rigmarole of half-baked plots, nonsensical twists and meaningless characterizations? Seriously, what a waste of so much potential. Lost is totally boring now. After Eko's inglorious death and the more than likely upcoming death of Claire, I will totally be done with this show. In a way, it's a relief --- one less show to bother downloading. Of course, that just means I have space in my TV lineup for one more show. Speaking of which... The plot's kind of a mess, the writing ranges from mediocre to downright bad, the characters are paper-thin and the acting is nothing to write home about. In spite of all that, I'm really enjoying this new show. Hiro rocks on so many levels. So do Niki and Nathan. I have an irrational, inexplicable fondness for Ali Larter, and Adrian Pasdar plays Nathan with such a slick and smarmy charm that you just can't help but love the guy. You know you ought to hate him, but you can't. Or if you do, you still enjoy it. And Masi Oka is just so unbelievably adorable. He injects so much joy and enthusiasm into the role of Hiro. I don't think much of the other two characters we're supposed to identify with (Claire and Peter), but since it's a large ensemble, there are plenty of other characters to like and root for. I also like the show for one other reason: it's the closest we'll get to a live action X-Men series. Yatta! Meh. I hate to say it, but the shine has worn off this show. I still watch it out of habit, but the truth is, House has become such an ass that not even Hugh Laurie's brilliance can make me go on loving the character as much as I used to. Even Cuddy's lost a bit of her oomph. And let's not get started on the rest of the characters. Cameron still bugs, Wilson's a not terribly endearing doormat, Foreman's a jerk (a sometimes amusing one, but not frequently enough to be worth it) and Chase is still no more or less than wallpaper. After a mediocre start to the second season, Earl has definitely kicked it up a notch these last few episodes. The main characters are back to their hilarious selves (I especially love that Earl can still sometimes be an ass), and the running gags are as great as ever. I'm also having entirely too much fun with the minor characters. Someone once mentioned that the citizens of Camden County are like the live-action counterparts of the citizens of Springfield, and I have to say, it's a great comparison. Crazy-eyed Donny Jones, Ralph Mariano, Patty the Daytime Hooker, Willie the One-Eyed Mailman, Kenny James, Nescobar A-Lop-Lop, Electrolarynx Guy --- they all freaking rule. And "Oh, God! I skinned my pecker!" will never not be funny to me. I don't know what it is, but my love for comics seems to be waning lately. With Y: The Last Man winding down to its conclusion and no other new series piquing my interest, I'm just not as involved with comics fandom as I used to be. The new Dark Tower miniseries should change that, though. I love Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and the prospect of seeing it in comic book form, especially with Jae Lee and Richard Isanove's gorgeous art, has me practically salivating. Speaking of things I'm looking forward to, the new season of Rome is starting soon (tomorrow, as a matter of fact). Yay! I've really missed Vorenus, Pullo, Octavian and the gang. And since HBO was stupid enough to cancel Deadwood, I'm definitely jonesing for some period piece drama. It's just a pity that this new (and last) season of Rome is only ten episodes long. But I suppose it's just as well --- better to go out on top than drag out the story longer than it needs to go (hear that, Sopranos?). On Real Life Things are going surprisingly smoothly in real life. I suppose I should be worried and waiting for that other shoe to drop, since life is never smooth sailing all the time. But for now, I just can't be bothered to worry. When God drops whatever bombshell He has in store for me, I'll roll with it as best as I can. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy myself. Things with my family and friends are good. My dad actually got a job. As the sailor once said, ain't that a kick in the head? Now I'll be very surprised if he actually manages to hold it for any amount of time, but the fact that he went out and got one is a miracle in and of itself. My mom and I are getting along great, though I suppose that goes without saying. Heck, even my back pain is almost all gone. Earlier the year before, it got so bad that I actually had to get physical therapy done three times a week for a couple of weeks. At first, it didn't seem like it was helping, but it must have because after I stopped, the pain was substantially decreased. Christmas was a blast. Our family's theme was '60s/'70s. I went in a very unimaginative hippie costume. Well, let's face it, the theme's not terribly inspiring. But I did have a lot of fun. For Christmas with my dad's side of the family, I taught my aunts and cousin Texas Hold 'Em. And wouldn't you know it, my grandpa (deaf as all get out, but still spry for a guy his age and definitely still as sharp as a tack) totally schooled all of us in poker. He handed my ass to me on a silver platter, and I actually enjoyed it. With my friends, our costume theme was the '80s. I went as Cyndi Lauper. I am not ashamed. Anna Lyn went as Boy George (and looked awesome, by the way), Nina as Toni Basil in the "Mickey" video, Kristine as Rainbow Brite (squee!), Rachelle as a Generic '80s Floozy, Martin as She-Ra, Princess of Power, and perhaps most hilariously of all, Ranina as Pac-Man. A dead Pac-Man, no less. Heeeeee. In other news, I turned twenty-three last November. I have to say, it doesn't feel at all different from being twenty-two. I guess Billy Crystal had it right in City Slickers: "When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, 'What happened to my twenties?' Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Fifties, you have a minor surgery. You'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery. Sixties, you'll have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at two o'clock in the afternoon, you have lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. You spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, 'How come the kids don't call? How come the kids don't call?' The eighties, you'll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama." If he's right about the rest of it, at least I'll know exactly what I have to look forward to. And in a way, that's very, very comforting. |
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