Just a round up of things that irritate me

[trinityvixen]

Scooter's not getting any jail time. Paris Hilton did more time than he for her first trip to the pokey. She probably paid more in fines, too. Please, someone grow a pair and impeach Bush already?

*

I feel defeated by my apartment. Being the only one here for any significant time last week (one roommate never being around, the other being elsewhere occupied and lodged), I figured I should just take out the garbages and such. I was in such a weary mood, I was perfectly resigned to a bunch of chores, so I did that and the dishes and scooping litters, and what not. I also changed the two lightbulbs that had been burnt out for a while in the hall and living room. I was a bit worried about putting in a 75 Watt bulb in the hallway, since the electrician who came a dog's age ago said I ought to use only 60W, but I figure we so rarely use that light, it'll be okay. I put the sole remaining 60W bulb in the living room fixture, then I settled in with a) painkillers for the headache, and b) soda (for much the same reason; caffeine withdrawal = not my friend) and treated myself to an episode of Doctor Who.

The episode ended. The light bulb popped. The new one. I just...I just wanted to cry. The wiring in this place defeats me. When the electrician came, he indicated that what he thought was the root problem of us burning through light bulbs so quickly was that there was some heat-absorbing/resistant/insulating material missing from the fixture in the living room. He also said that because we were using 75W bulbs, they were getting hotter and thus popping faster. I switched to 60W bulbs and hoped that would be the end of it. Then this bulb popped no more than two months after the electrician came and I wondered. Then its replacement popped, and I knew this wasn't fixed.

I called the building manager immediately instead of doing a run-around through the management company or the perfectly useless (for this purpose) super. He was very nice about it, but he wouldn't sit and take the call at 8 pm. So I have to call back tomorrow during business hours. I hung up, agreed to do so, and just collapsed, ready to bawl my eyes out for no reason other than I thought I'd made a bunch of progress on stuff tonight and one fucking light bulb utterly vanquished me. Again.

*

Doctor Who, by the by, was dreadful. New York accents are bad enough where you find them. Doing bad New York accents should be a crime punishable by death. Plus "Daleks in Manhattan" really takes all the mystery out of the episode, thanks. I'm usually jovially blind enough to the obvious that I never know what's going to happen in an episode of this show, but I spent the entire time wanting to smack the Doctor, Martha, and anyone else who spoke--mostly for their accents, but also because they were all so stupid. Episode is called "Daleks in Manhattan," and I'm supposed to have any suspense as to what creature the Doctor will--eventually, with much time lapsing--discover to be behind the recent shenanigans? Please. Concepts other than the not-surprise villain were okay, but the dialogue could cause a statue to roll its pupil-less eyes.

I made a plan, now that the third new season is over in the UK, to stretch out the season that I'm backlogged on so I don't spend all summer and fall waiting for Christmas like I did last year. I heard this season got really good towards the end, too, which is why I'm picking it up again and trying to slog through the crap to get there. But the crap is so bad--"Love & Monsters" bad; "Fear Her" bad--that I don't think I'm going to have any difficulty taking my time with this. Which is amazing considering that I got through all of the second season in one and a half days. And the show is suffering for the utter lack of chemistry between the Doctor and Martha. Out of nowhere, random side heroine decides that she sees Martha making googly eyes at the Doctor. I think Mickey made for more convincing googly eyeing, 'cause I sure ain't seen any of the like from Martha. Certainly nothing like ANY OTHER SINGLE COMPANION I'VE EVER SEEN (including those from Classic Who). She doesn't have visible emotions that I've seen. She smiles and goes, "ooh this is keen!" Or she doesn't. It shouldn't be that a pop-star-turned-actress can show this girl up, but she is no Billie Piper.

There was one thing to be salvaged from the travesty of that "I know you loooooooove him!" conversation though. Martha denies that the Doctor would ever be hers, and the random side heroine goes, "I shoulda realized: he's into musical theater, huh? What a waste."

Never let it be said those Brits can't be clever with a euphemism :)

Comments

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Thank GOD someone else doesn't like Martha. I've tried to give the girl a chance. I WANT to like her. She has a lot of nice qualities. It's just... I'm sorry, I really really hate her. I understate my hate because I've got a few people on my flist who would get well and truly offended if I launched an all out rant war on how much I hate this character. But I hate her the way half the fandom hates Rose. I just hate her. Hate.

But don't stall on the season, really. It'll just make you not feel like watching it. I didn't feel like watching it and I had to catch up in a rush to get to the finale at the same time as all my friends who watch. It DOES get good, but the finale made me rant and rant and rant. But the good things? Are very, very good. It's just... the finale will make you squee at one or two things because they're pure awesome, but you will also want to bitchslap the writers. A whole lot. FINISH SO YOU CAN RANT WITH ME.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

ALSO? Re: the "musical theatre" thing? If the finale does nothing else, it cements the fact that it's not that the Doctor can't love Martha because she's no Rose; it's that he can't love Martha BECAUSE HE'S 1000% GAY. SRSLY. It's very nearly canon.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

lolz

I will watch another episode tonight, maybe. After that, nothing until after Wednesday 'cause I just don't even have time.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

She's a pretty girl with a nice smile, but she's just posh looking and not a whole lot else. She gapes appropriately and is all "Wow!" about stuff, but there's no wariness or working her way into it like we did with Rose to really get close to her. Her superficially sketched background and personality make it hard to get to know her. Contrasted with Rose's definite, deep, complex family and her relationship with Mickey, there's nothing to Martha or her background to be familiar with. SO blah.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I have friends who are incredibly emotionally attached to her, and as a whole there are parts of the fandom who adore Martha to the exclusion of Rose, so I sense a bit of backlash, as a Rose fan and a Rose writer.

But yeah. I like Freema well enough. She's pretty. Martha is mostly competent. But the spark has never, ever been there for me and I don't understand what people are seeing in her beyond the occasional moments of funny and her general competence where sometimes Rose could get herself into stupid situations.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It could also just be David Tennant. He wasn't half so marvelous with Rose as Christopher Eccleston was. He's cute and funny but he doesn't always bring across the same intensity as his predecessor. And his being so fluffy as a character generally (minus the emo-ing) makes it hard for a companion to form that hard-and-fast connection with him. I think he skated by with Billie Piper doing a lot of that work, and without someone half so good and with less history between them, the chemistry suffers.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

The Scooter thing, if used correctly, could turn out to be a good thing.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=5dad4c57-3a65-4eb7-aba3-f019e45d031a&f=00&fg=email


If we spare Scooter to get at Cheney then I think it might be a reasonable trade.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

I went into a real blah thing in the middle of this season, too, but then everything from episode 8 on totally rocked my socks. So my plan to make it to Christmas is to just rewatch select scenes and episodes over and over. ;)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's smart. My plan is to mix it up more with going through season 2 again (since I only just bought the DVDs and need to watch them all to be sure they work).

My impression of season 3 from rumor is that it's like the anti-season 2. Season 2 started really strong, got really boring in the middle, ended smashingly. Season 3 has started weak, gets much better, ended upsettingly (So I hear! Shh! No spoilers!). We'll see if this actually holds up once I actually watch it all.

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

Well, I would just say, avoiding all spoilers, that I actually enjoyed the finale, so don't take all the nay-saying to heart. You may or may not like, but don't feel like it's received wisdom that it's truly awful. There is, in fact, some great stuff sprinkled in between the stuff that is bothering people.