paratti

I just caught up on my telly watching.

Heroes didn't have enough Ecclescakes and did have too much Nikki/Jessica multiple personality disorder angst but Claire remains fabulous - if in need of claws to go SNICKT. Hiro and Ando were adorable - though that Berserker Samurai did remind me a bit of Wolvie again. I know this show rips off Marvel but a touch more originality would be cool even if Mohinder is hot, Isaac attractively shirtless and the Grunberg, the Grunberg. The List - Cerebro should sue as it is such a rip off, though among so many X-Men rip-offs it's probably really at home. I could have done without the God references too, but I guess that's why I'm so at home in the Whoverse and haven't even tried FNL as I know it'll drive me nuts.I did like Claire getting her friend back from basics, but I don't buy a ship between them one little bit. You can mindwipe a character, you can't mindwipe an audience - even in a comicsverse like this one.

Speaking of comicsverses, Smallville did the Justice League episode and it was enjoyable, hokey like whoa, but enjoyable. It was telling that I didn't miss Lana one iota. It was good to see Lionel all grey and messy again. Aquaman was toned down, which helped. I think it was a shame that they went homeless and dumped by his girlfriend before being rescued by Blond Oliver for the black superhero and after Beaver I just couldn't take Cassidy Bart seriously as the Flash. I just kept saying keep that man away from school buses and Chloe's drinks, don't trust that smile and overly large eyebrows - and that was even before the stupid outfit. The power walk was good, though done better in FFL/Darla. I'm not a DC reader but even I could see they'd got Chloe Oracle'd. Which, meep on the mobility front but yay on the allowed to live omens. Clark was less annoying, which is always good and the nicknames and who got to chose was fun, as was the five superheroes sitting in a room bitching - though again, that's nothing new. But I guess this episode was aiming at nothing new but at bringing comics to life and it did it pretty well. Apart from something that just keeps on bugging me in all of SDK's work - the attitude to sex. We got a typically anvilicious Lois and Ollie haven't done the bad, wrong penetrative sex - even though they're healthy adults, hot for each other, with a sex drive in a long established relationship. Now this is something that may not be a toxic carry-over from ME's seriously fucked up sexual politics or it may be a dictate from DC not wanting anyone other than Clark to be Lois's first, in which case we have to pardon the Smallville writers for all but clumsiness, but after his ME work and what he's done on this show a girl can't help but be disturbed by more of the same.

Rome pleased me by proving me right about the fate of the Vorenii. I wish we weren't racing towards Actium but we are, so I'm putting up with the compressed history. The rifting of Antony and Octavian was done well along with the foreshadowing. The King of Goats fascination with a quieter and so more dangerous Cleo. Octavian's cold study of the boy he'll someday have killed - and I do wonder if the Cleo-Pullo look will foreshadow Pullo letting slip who fathered the boy to his patron - and so freeing said patron from the stigma in his own mind of spilling family blood. I do wonder if Pullo will be made to kill the boy (in a shadow doubling of the fate of the other small dark haired bastard boy) or whether Vorenus will be asked to kill his friend's son as a test of loyalty on being forgiven by Octavian for being on the wrong side at Actium. Either way. Wibble. Antony using the only thing that will still get through to the Centurion was awesome, as was Pullo trying to tend to his brother as Eirene learns to manage the big lug. Timon's brother, the Zealot, won't be a massive problem for him in future episodes - though the way they were trying to explain what he was without using the word Zealot or going into a Life of Brian what have the Romans ever done for us routine was funny though. I did like the way the smoke from the funeral pyre hung over the episode, both the public and the private fumes and the fall out from both. With Vorenus becoming the Tony Soprano of the Aventine, the kisses of those about to be murdered by the kissee and the parade of the image of the god paralleling the use of the parade of the saint in The Godfather movies the more things change the more they remain the same/roots of the mafia culture being very deep was very clear. Atia fucked up big time in not backing her boy enough. Octavian's ultimate fate in Livia is all there in the way he's cradled by his sister - the little boy inside craves nurture - but the man it's produced will prove unable to keep the family he craves as its the one skill he doesn't have, as he's been too screwed up by his childhood. But he does have the brains to out-think his competition and the military backing will come. Craves Actium. Craves next episode.

Supernatural Was one of the weakest episodes, I think. It's a shame. The ingredients were good. Dolls are never not deeply creepy - yes, I was scarred for life in childhood by the Evil Doll in Terror of The Autons. Old houses and hotels are inherently creepy, though as I live in a 30's building I do find the idea of a 30's building as 'old and creepy' laughable. Though I know things like age are relative between the two sides of the pond and that this is the same situation as walking the Freedom Trail in Boston and having a hard time thinking that places much younger than the house I was living in at the time were remotely historical. Ghosts and Creepy Children are both staples of the genre and combining the two should be a no-brainer. Voodoo is also a good standard scary thing. The show is built on Brotherly Angst. But the show blew it. JP should never do Drunk Acting again. It was just embarrassing watching him. The shoutout to the wincest shippers was not only eye-pokingingly unsubtle, it ground the pacing and the episode to a complete halt. I also found it irritating as the CW is not going to allow brothers shagging in canon - and indeed I wouldn't watch it - so I find having nods and winks to something that will never happen really annoying. They didn't solve the case. There are now two ghosts in that hotel, which is still sold off and I can't help thinking that the poor sods demolishing the place will all end up dying horribly. And on a final note, that cast on JP's wrist is worrying me. I know mine was on for seven weeks and I still only avoided an operation by the use of weights and learning to knit but that cast has been on a long time in story as well as episode terms. In story terms, that needs a lantern hanging to acknowledge it. Off-screen, I hope he's ok. On-screen, I hope the show gets back to form next week.

BSG had some things that rocked. Helo shooting Sharon as she begged him to do, so they could save their kid was awesome. That she was only met by Caprica and that the rescue went as fast as it did was, I think, a bit of a cop-out, but as it got the show off the Disco Ship, I'll live with it. Though I'm sad that Boomer's story was so truncated and that her latest death didn't move me, the way that Caprica's neck breaking has moved from killing a child in the mini to saving a child through doing it was great. Having Caprica on board Galactica is also great - as was Sharon standing up for her. We should see a contrast with how Gina was treated, but with at least some Pegasus people on board there should be some drama over how she's treated - especially now they've muddied the legal waters on Cylon prisoners legal status with Sharon in uniform. This time there can't just be a spacing or a charge on illegal discharge of a fire iron. Caprica and Baltar in adjoining cells should be fun especially with Head Six in the mix. Boxing Three was downright disturbing. The way it was done with the switch being flipped before she was ready to leave the goo and the shot of all the other pods of goo means that the other Cylons must have capped every Three in the empire. That's a really long way from the Cylon not killing Cylon we started with. They really are humanity's children. I realised while watching Kara whimper with her burnt hands that I didn't give a toss. The character has now lost me completely. She crossed the same line with the bitching at her rescuer that the Buffy creature did in Hell's Bells with the All About My Happy Ending comment - she's broken the last threads of tolerance I have for her. They can now do anything to her and I won't care. Sits and awaits with dread a rape redemption plot. They could really have done a better job with the sweat. It looked like oil. And they go down to the Glaring Planet of Blinding Light and no-one wears shades. Purlease. Dee was better with the slap, though she did need to really jog those needles while they were in Kara the Special One. About which, that mandala thing - blegh. About the whole Double Triangle - Double Blegh. Helo is very blocky but he did rock in telling off Roslin with such dignity and I do love his love for his wife and child and how far he'll go for love of them. I didn't like the teasing and idiotic boxing without interrogation over the Final Five. Of who I expect enough to be revealed along with a cliffhanger of glowy spine shagging (possibly a montage of shagging in the dark) to allow for renewal if the move and taking characters off the Basestar works in improving the ratings while keeping back enough for a Farscape type coda if it doesn't.