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Oct. 13th, 2006 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI stayed up way too late when I was already tired last night to finish both discs I got from Netflix.
I'm almost finished with the second season of The 4400, and man, it got a lot better. And, strangely, worse at the same time. The better part is the fact that the show layers its reveals really well. Things shown in earlier episodes come back to haunt later ones. Characters reappear who weren't in immediately previous episodes, which gives it a bit of real-world feel (there are always plenty of people in the drama of our lives that we don't see every day or even all that often). It's a nice break and refresher when you get tired of what you got and tired of them just introducing new characters who won't survive to be in the next episode.
I think, in that way, The 4400 one-ups The X-Files, to which it owes a lot, thematically. The X-Files did build stuff up over time, but the reveals were fairly obvious. The 4400 walks the line of reveals closer to the way LOST did in its first season--in other words, it's not ridiculously complex (yet) nor melodramatic and ominous. I look forward to finishing it. I'm going to go see when I can queue up the third season, if it's available.
Okay, if not for the fact that Alanna is a nice character touch, I'd hate what they did here. In fact, I do hate what they've done. It's complete sexist bullshit, and it really mocks the character this enforced relationship is supposed to be building up. I liked Tom Baldwin, the not-all-together single dad. It's different, something you don't get a lot of on TV (single moms, yes, single dads, let alone fallible ones? No), and I don't like the way it was done. He's a good guy at heart, and I like that he still makes mistakes, that he gets swept up in things and loses (rightly) his wife and alienates (rightly) his son, even as he loves (or, in the case of the former, loved) both. That's fairly human, it's a flaw that pains him but that he cannot really change either, and I like that. I like the concession that Tom has to make it on his own the best he can because his best still doesn't make time for family dinners and intimate conversations with a wife. Throwing a woman at him to be his support, to make him into the family guy, make him happy et al? Just weakens the character, insults his ability to get things done on his own (which, after a few mistakes, he does to his credit), and makes me mad (especially as it implies that the human mind and soul cannot weather a spiritual crisis on a individual basis, which is utter bullshit).
It's also incredibly insulting to poor Alanna--you have no agency except to fall in love and support a man. She literally does not exist in the show as a person. She is a crutch for Her Man. He may love her, she may love him, that's all well and good. But really, the future wants her to be his woman, so, therefore, clearly, they can't choose otherwise. Remember Alanna's life without Tom? No, of course not, it's unimportant. Her crippling loss of her own family is insignificant. She should--and is made to-- just be happy that she gets another man to have her and a new son to replace her useless, dead one. This is sort of what bugged me about Lily's pregnancy, too, and I'm glad they've rectified that shallow trope of a parents replacing one lost child with another by having Lily talk to her daughter from before she was abducted. Alanna, on the other hand, her life before Tom is irrelevant, as are the lives of all women before they meet the man to whom they belong. She's an endearing person, but she's being written as an archetype, and a none-too-flattering one at that.
And while the future was at it, why no mate for Scouris? Maybe that's coming up, but I can't help but notice that all she got out of the 4400 was a daughter, and if Alanna's story isn't a bunch of sexist, patriarchal crap, then hers and Scouris' together certainly are. It holds up the two stereotypical gender roles for women: wife and mother. That Scouris is a good agent, able to do the tough stuff is not important--being Maia's mother is. That Alanna can create alternate worlds with a thought (into which, she could pull every 4400 and figure out what they do that's so friggin important but she won't because it was just a parlor trick to make her and Tom fall in love) is secondary to her need to accomodate Tom's emotional problems and fill his love void. Yes, yes, Scouris can be genuinely happy with Maia, and I believe she is, but she was sorta fooled into assuming the role. I note that there have been no other similar examples of 4400s being forced on men (Lily has Isabelle on her, too, so that's two).
Point is this: if having someone at your side is so important for Tom's character, how about making he and his partner trust each other more? They both have the clearance and the expectation they'll be dealing with any crap that comes down from the 4400 fiasco, so why not give the two people who need to know shit a psychic weekend retreat? I don't mean make them fall in love either. Just make them partners. They're friendly enough when defending mutual interests, but they keep too many things from each other for there to be any trust there. That's where the show isn't following the lesson of early X-Files well enough. You can't be partners and make a difference if you don't trust each other (and you can be partners and still disagree). Get Scouris in on the whole problem with Tom's son, and you've got a team to take on the end of the world. Throwing Alanna around will only destablize the center.
In other news,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
feiran was subjected to some Smallville last night and scared the crap out of me with the face she made when I said Green Arrow was hot. She agreed, in a scary, scary way. That said, I still like him. I like the look of arrogance and disgust and dismissal he has when Lois came to see him. He's going to be a prick, and an entitled one at that (so, basically, Lex without a conscience, which, I SWEAR, makes sense in my head even though it looks stupid to say). Plus, hey, another trim guy with his shirt off. I don't mind that at all, especially since Tom Welling hasn't lost his in a while (prompting me to be catty and say he's probably gotten too fat to look good without a shirt on any more). Go go green vigilante!
I'm almost finished with the second season of The 4400, and man, it got a lot better. And, strangely, worse at the same time. The better part is the fact that the show layers its reveals really well. Things shown in earlier episodes come back to haunt later ones. Characters reappear who weren't in immediately previous episodes, which gives it a bit of real-world feel (there are always plenty of people in the drama of our lives that we don't see every day or even all that often). It's a nice break and refresher when you get tired of what you got and tired of them just introducing new characters who won't survive to be in the next episode.
I think, in that way, The 4400 one-ups The X-Files, to which it owes a lot, thematically. The X-Files did build stuff up over time, but the reveals were fairly obvious. The 4400 walks the line of reveals closer to the way LOST did in its first season--in other words, it's not ridiculously complex (yet) nor melodramatic and ominous. I look forward to finishing it. I'm going to go see when I can queue up the third season, if it's available.
Okay, if not for the fact that Alanna is a nice character touch, I'd hate what they did here. In fact, I do hate what they've done. It's complete sexist bullshit, and it really mocks the character this enforced relationship is supposed to be building up. I liked Tom Baldwin, the not-all-together single dad. It's different, something you don't get a lot of on TV (single moms, yes, single dads, let alone fallible ones? No), and I don't like the way it was done. He's a good guy at heart, and I like that he still makes mistakes, that he gets swept up in things and loses (rightly) his wife and alienates (rightly) his son, even as he loves (or, in the case of the former, loved) both. That's fairly human, it's a flaw that pains him but that he cannot really change either, and I like that. I like the concession that Tom has to make it on his own the best he can because his best still doesn't make time for family dinners and intimate conversations with a wife. Throwing a woman at him to be his support, to make him into the family guy, make him happy et al? Just weakens the character, insults his ability to get things done on his own (which, after a few mistakes, he does to his credit), and makes me mad (especially as it implies that the human mind and soul cannot weather a spiritual crisis on a individual basis, which is utter bullshit).
It's also incredibly insulting to poor Alanna--you have no agency except to fall in love and support a man. She literally does not exist in the show as a person. She is a crutch for Her Man. He may love her, she may love him, that's all well and good. But really, the future wants her to be his woman, so, therefore, clearly, they can't choose otherwise. Remember Alanna's life without Tom? No, of course not, it's unimportant. Her crippling loss of her own family is insignificant. She should--and is made to-- just be happy that she gets another man to have her and a new son to replace her useless, dead one. This is sort of what bugged me about Lily's pregnancy, too, and I'm glad they've rectified that shallow trope of a parents replacing one lost child with another by having Lily talk to her daughter from before she was abducted. Alanna, on the other hand, her life before Tom is irrelevant, as are the lives of all women before they meet the man to whom they belong. She's an endearing person, but she's being written as an archetype, and a none-too-flattering one at that.
And while the future was at it, why no mate for Scouris? Maybe that's coming up, but I can't help but notice that all she got out of the 4400 was a daughter, and if Alanna's story isn't a bunch of sexist, patriarchal crap, then hers and Scouris' together certainly are. It holds up the two stereotypical gender roles for women: wife and mother. That Scouris is a good agent, able to do the tough stuff is not important--being Maia's mother is. That Alanna can create alternate worlds with a thought (into which, she could pull every 4400 and figure out what they do that's so friggin important but she won't because it was just a parlor trick to make her and Tom fall in love) is secondary to her need to accomodate Tom's emotional problems and fill his love void. Yes, yes, Scouris can be genuinely happy with Maia, and I believe she is, but she was sorta fooled into assuming the role. I note that there have been no other similar examples of 4400s being forced on men (Lily has Isabelle on her, too, so that's two).
Point is this: if having someone at your side is so important for Tom's character, how about making he and his partner trust each other more? They both have the clearance and the expectation they'll be dealing with any crap that comes down from the 4400 fiasco, so why not give the two people who need to know shit a psychic weekend retreat? I don't mean make them fall in love either. Just make them partners. They're friendly enough when defending mutual interests, but they keep too many things from each other for there to be any trust there. That's where the show isn't following the lesson of early X-Files well enough. You can't be partners and make a difference if you don't trust each other (and you can be partners and still disagree). Get Scouris in on the whole problem with Tom's son, and you've got a team to take on the end of the world. Throwing Alanna around will only destablize the center.
In other news,
feiran was subjected to some Smallville last night and scared the crap out of me with the face she made when I said Green Arrow was hot. She agreed, in a scary, scary way. That said, I still like him. I like the look of arrogance and disgust and dismissal he has when Lois came to see him. He's going to be a prick, and an entitled one at that (so, basically, Lex without a conscience, which, I SWEAR, makes sense in my head even though it looks stupid to say). Plus, hey, another trim guy with his shirt off. I don't mind that at all, especially since Tom Welling hasn't lost his in a while (prompting me to be catty and say he's probably gotten too fat to look good without a shirt on any more). Go go green vigilante!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:27 pm (UTC)Oh, oh, hunny bunny, if you are thinking that Smallville even slightly believes in the regular DC universe, you are sadly mistaken. I just don't even bother to complain about canon-rape any more. What's the point?
I tell you, they get Batman in Kansas, that's when I draw up my walking papers. Until then, I'm not really caring what they do to relatively minor characters.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-14 12:58 pm (UTC)*splutter* minor characters? *splutter* We're talking about Oliver Queen here.
Oh, no wait, we're talking about Smallville. Oops, my bad :). On SV he's a minor character (appears to be from the promos I've seen--recurring and then eventually gone).
It just pains me to see a character I have a soft spot for being so...not himself.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-14 12:58 pm (UTC)What I really need to do is turn the tv on a bit later. LIke at 9 pm exactly instead of 8:55.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:22 pm (UTC)-season 3 is not on dvd yet and may not be before christmas (finding very little in the way of info on this topic)
-Actually the folks from the future have forced their way on a man (more than one if you are keeping count), and quite destructively too (you'll get a reminder soon)
-You might want to hold some of this back till you finish season 2. I won't go into more since it would spoil a few things coming up
Now one comment I can make safely across the board is that the 4400 is all about being used. At it's core each and every person in the series is being used in order to create the "better future". There's no getting around this. Now having not seen season 3 yet I can't see if some of my predictions have come true (the way season 2 ends, you might actual take back some of the comments above....... maybe). So wait till you get the last disk, you may be surprised.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:31 pm (UTC)And when were kids or spouses forced on men in this show? From what I've seen, the guys are making out like bandits. Sean gets laid, Kyle gets laid, the twitchy doctor got his sanity back (River Tam, notably, did not), and the villain who killed NTAC agents? A woman. I watched eight episodes last night, and women were either love interests, mothers, or villainess whores. Okay, that's a simplification, but it's not too far off.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 04:53 pm (UTC)And when were kids or spouses forced on men in this show?
From the spoiler I just saw for season 3, this point will be obvious. But outside that, Tom was thrown into that relationship too. If you recall how resistant he was to fall into it in the first place? Also, Isabelle has two parents not just one. Plus as you have seen already, she plays her two parents against one another a lot (more on that as you see the rest of season 2).
As for "twitchy doctor", how used he's going to be is coming up pretty soon too. I can't wait to see what happens with him in season 3 *resists the urge to spoil something*
I will say that the 4400 like B5 leaves very few threads left to frey. Many of those women play bigger roles as time goes on (I would point out that the female main lead isn't exactly fitting into your "interests, mothers, or villainess whores" branding to well (ok she did adopt, but she's been more the agent than the mother so far). I will only remind you that each of the 4400 have a role to play in creating that future =-รพ
PS: For the love of all that's holy be careful if you hit there official site. Some spoilers I've come across haven't been that bad given I saw up to the end of season 2, but some of it is up there.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 05:45 pm (UTC)Re: the rest? Since I can't comment without being spoiled, I'll just let it rest for now, and I can revisit these remarks, see if they change any.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 06:45 pm (UTC)