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xparrotHysterical blink-and-you'll-miss-it fannish shoutout in Numb3rs 5x14 - a computer password that flashes onscreen for a second is "leonardsheldon4A". Well, I laughed, anyway.
Ah, Numb3rs - it's my safe place, the show I can count on not to disappoint me. I like every character and every character relationship, which means that no matter what combination of characters is in a scene, I'm happily looking forward to seeing them together. I've even warmed to Don's chickadee Robin now. She's as human as any of them and she's patient enough to be a good match for Don, and her professional and philosophical uncertainties complement rather than exacerbate his. And of course having a brief conversation with Alan in the most recent ep was wonderful as always. Alan Eppes is the Rakushun of American TV; he makes everyone awesomer.
Also, Liz is staying on! Yay, Liz~! She's a little unique - I can't think of another female character who was originally added as a love interest, and then, when it didn't work out, stayed on the cast. Without falling into another guy's arms, but because she's found her family. And I love that she and Don don't really have UST anymore, that neither of them is still carrying a torch, but at the same time there's that certain understanding between them.
Numb3rs has such wonderfully underplayed, mature, adult relationships, I do love them all.
That being said, Show, any more David/Colby hints you want to toss my way, I always am there. With bells on.
And Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has started up again. We watched the rest of it during its hiatus, and I admit to being really interested in it. I can't recommend it wholeheartedly; it's definitely flawed. Terminator scifi has always been sketchy and the show makes it worse (their timetravel paradoxes are headache-inducing; they arbitrarily change what kind of temporal rules they're working with every ep, whether it's a fixed-destiny loop or multiverses or what...) The writing is uneven and often BSG-style overdramatic, the acting is decent but not great, and I get that itchy X-files/Lost feeling that the writers don't know where they're going with their grand conspiracies, but are just winging it. And while the characters are interesting, I don't find them fannishly squeeworthy; they're difficult to fall in love with. (Also, as an old Sentinel fan, every time the FBI guy is called "James Ellison" it tweaks me out.)
All that being said, I'm still enjoying the show, because some of what it sets up is fascinating, particularly in regards to female characters. Watching the credits, there are multiple women on the writing staff and elsewhere in production, and it shows (in truth I wish it had more; I kind of wish this was a female-created show...not that it'd be that different if it was, most likely; but there might have been even more conscious awareness about the things it does, from the start.) The thing is, everyone's about saving John, but Sarah Connor is the show's protagonist - and Sarah Connor is John Winchester as a woman. She's the everywoman thrust into a private, unseen war, and she's not just risen to the occasion but blown it out of the water for the sake of her son, but gone a little mad in the doing. She's as competent and strong as any male hero in her situation would be - but she's not a man. And the show doesn't forget this - can't forget it. Because this isn't future scifi, or the other side of the galaxy, when no one questions that Aeryn Sun can kick any man's ass. This is modern American culture, and Sarah is living in a different world than John Winchester - and not just because she's up against robot apocalypse instead of demon armageddon.
The most recent ep illuminated this sharply. Sarah kidnapping the doctor at gunpoint is a classic scenario - a female doctor, even. But the doctor's reaction to Sarah's scars - if that were John Winchester on the bed, the stab wound probably would've frightened her more, made her ask what kind of life he leads. But with Sarah, the question is who did this to her. And it's a natural question, an expected question - a woman hurt like that, the assumption is not that she's a soldier, but that she's a victim. The doctor had personal reasons for jumping to that conclusion, but her backstory wasn't necessary for it to be a believable logical leap; it's a natural assumption.
(Part of this is that Sarah doesn't particularly look like a soldier, and I do wish the actor were as buff as Linda Hamilton in T2. But there's enough pretty boys playing warrior-types on TV - see all the Winchesters - that I don't think it's necessary for Sarah to be totally butch to be convincing, and it shines a brighter light on the mistaken assumptions. That's saying nothing of Cameron, who does the same almost to the level of parody, by being actually physically indestructible for all her fragile appearance.)
Because Sarah is the hero but female, a lot of gender role expectations get turned on their head as a matter of course. When Sarah's ex gets in trouble, he goes running to Sarah for help. In a family of women, John's the compassionate one, the tender heart who wants to help the falling sparrows; Sarah can't afford that empathy. And other scenarios play differently with the genderswap - again, in the most recent ep, the doctor goes through trials and betrayal, but comes out stronger for it, if harder, changed. It's a classic evolution countless chars undergo, male and female. But here, Sarah was the one who tested her - a woman was tested by another woman, and that I don't remember seeing before.
I also am really interested in the relationships. They're not drawn quite as strongly or compellingly as I'd like, but there's a few varieties that I haven't seen much of before, so even if I think they could be done better, I'm still pleased to get them. The family dynamics especially - mother & son is probably the least-explored parent-child dynamic on TV (at least the shows I watch), so I'm all over that. I also find Sarah and Derek's relationship intriguing; the wife-brother-in-law connection again is something different, and cool. Derek and John's connection is also interesting, though I think it especially could be handled better - I'd like to see more conflict with Derek, struggling with John's identity, reconciling the man he knew with the boy he is. It's an incredibly complex dynamic, especially considering Derek's relationship with John Connor was fraught with idolization and resentment to begin with - but the show doesn't always have a good feel for the depths there.
Of course, this being a FOX show, it probably won't last another season anyway. Which might be a blessing in disguise, if they don't know where they're going with it anyway. But I hope to see more shows like it, and more characters like Sarah Connor.
Ah, Numb3rs - it's my safe place, the show I can count on not to disappoint me. I like every character and every character relationship, which means that no matter what combination of characters is in a scene, I'm happily looking forward to seeing them together. I've even warmed to Don's chickadee Robin now. She's as human as any of them and she's patient enough to be a good match for Don, and her professional and philosophical uncertainties complement rather than exacerbate his. And of course having a brief conversation with Alan in the most recent ep was wonderful as always. Alan Eppes is the Rakushun of American TV; he makes everyone awesomer.
Also, Liz is staying on! Yay, Liz~! She's a little unique - I can't think of another female character who was originally added as a love interest, and then, when it didn't work out, stayed on the cast. Without falling into another guy's arms, but because she's found her family. And I love that she and Don don't really have UST anymore, that neither of them is still carrying a torch, but at the same time there's that certain understanding between them.
Numb3rs has such wonderfully underplayed, mature, adult relationships, I do love them all.
That being said, Show, any more David/Colby hints you want to toss my way, I always am there. With bells on.
And Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has started up again. We watched the rest of it during its hiatus, and I admit to being really interested in it. I can't recommend it wholeheartedly; it's definitely flawed. Terminator scifi has always been sketchy and the show makes it worse (their timetravel paradoxes are headache-inducing; they arbitrarily change what kind of temporal rules they're working with every ep, whether it's a fixed-destiny loop or multiverses or what...) The writing is uneven and often BSG-style overdramatic, the acting is decent but not great, and I get that itchy X-files/Lost feeling that the writers don't know where they're going with their grand conspiracies, but are just winging it. And while the characters are interesting, I don't find them fannishly squeeworthy; they're difficult to fall in love with. (Also, as an old Sentinel fan, every time the FBI guy is called "James Ellison" it tweaks me out.)
All that being said, I'm still enjoying the show, because some of what it sets up is fascinating, particularly in regards to female characters. Watching the credits, there are multiple women on the writing staff and elsewhere in production, and it shows (in truth I wish it had more; I kind of wish this was a female-created show...not that it'd be that different if it was, most likely; but there might have been even more conscious awareness about the things it does, from the start.) The thing is, everyone's about saving John, but Sarah Connor is the show's protagonist - and Sarah Connor is John Winchester as a woman. She's the everywoman thrust into a private, unseen war, and she's not just risen to the occasion but blown it out of the water for the sake of her son, but gone a little mad in the doing. She's as competent and strong as any male hero in her situation would be - but she's not a man. And the show doesn't forget this - can't forget it. Because this isn't future scifi, or the other side of the galaxy, when no one questions that Aeryn Sun can kick any man's ass. This is modern American culture, and Sarah is living in a different world than John Winchester - and not just because she's up against robot apocalypse instead of demon armageddon.
The most recent ep illuminated this sharply. Sarah kidnapping the doctor at gunpoint is a classic scenario - a female doctor, even. But the doctor's reaction to Sarah's scars - if that were John Winchester on the bed, the stab wound probably would've frightened her more, made her ask what kind of life he leads. But with Sarah, the question is who did this to her. And it's a natural question, an expected question - a woman hurt like that, the assumption is not that she's a soldier, but that she's a victim. The doctor had personal reasons for jumping to that conclusion, but her backstory wasn't necessary for it to be a believable logical leap; it's a natural assumption.
(Part of this is that Sarah doesn't particularly look like a soldier, and I do wish the actor were as buff as Linda Hamilton in T2. But there's enough pretty boys playing warrior-types on TV - see all the Winchesters - that I don't think it's necessary for Sarah to be totally butch to be convincing, and it shines a brighter light on the mistaken assumptions. That's saying nothing of Cameron, who does the same almost to the level of parody, by being actually physically indestructible for all her fragile appearance.)
Because Sarah is the hero but female, a lot of gender role expectations get turned on their head as a matter of course. When Sarah's ex gets in trouble, he goes running to Sarah for help. In a family of women, John's the compassionate one, the tender heart who wants to help the falling sparrows; Sarah can't afford that empathy. And other scenarios play differently with the genderswap - again, in the most recent ep, the doctor goes through trials and betrayal, but comes out stronger for it, if harder, changed. It's a classic evolution countless chars undergo, male and female. But here, Sarah was the one who tested her - a woman was tested by another woman, and that I don't remember seeing before.
I also am really interested in the relationships. They're not drawn quite as strongly or compellingly as I'd like, but there's a few varieties that I haven't seen much of before, so even if I think they could be done better, I'm still pleased to get them. The family dynamics especially - mother & son is probably the least-explored parent-child dynamic on TV (at least the shows I watch), so I'm all over that. I also find Sarah and Derek's relationship intriguing; the wife-brother-in-law connection again is something different, and cool. Derek and John's connection is also interesting, though I think it especially could be handled better - I'd like to see more conflict with Derek, struggling with John's identity, reconciling the man he knew with the boy he is. It's an incredibly complex dynamic, especially considering Derek's relationship with John Connor was fraught with idolization and resentment to begin with - but the show doesn't always have a good feel for the depths there.
Of course, this being a FOX show, it probably won't last another season anyway. Which might be a blessing in disguise, if they don't know where they're going with it anyway. But I hope to see more shows like it, and more characters like Sarah Connor.
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Date: 2009-02-16 06:03 am (UTC)I like it because it means there are no stereotypes in Numb3rs - no character has one major defining trait, be it their ethnicity or their military past or whatever; the characters are all made up of many details and quirks and beliefs and skills, just like real people.