X Never Marks the Spot

Finally managed to gather the household for long enough to watch the finale of Elementary!

Last year when Elementary s6 ended, the showrunners thought it might be the end, so they wrote the finale they wanted for the show. And I loved it, to the point that when the show did get renewed for a final short seventh season, I was actually a little disappointed, because I wasn't sure if they could stick the landing a second time. So while I was happy to get more and was enjoying this season, I was a little worried all along about how it was all going to end.

Now it has. And, in the final reckoning -- I am so, so happy they got that last season, and that we got this finale.

( spoilers for Elementary 7x13 )

So gnine and I just finished watching the Japanese dorama Ouroboros, which came out earlier this year.

In the end I can't honestly recommend it, though I really enjoyed a lot of it. The concept (adapted from a seinen manga I might have to look up) is compelling - two orphan boys witness the murder of their teacher/foster mother and vow to get revenge; twenty years later, one of the boys has become a police detective, the other is a rising yakuza lieutenant, and they're still working together towards their vengeance. The plot spirals out from there into government conspiracies, secret agendas, and conflicting loyalties; the story has more turns than a Boston street, constantly leaving you guessing who's on what side and what's really going on. The violently codependent bond between the two main guys, with the added identity porn of their shared secrets, is pure fan catnip and milked for all its worth as only a drama can - it's often campy and cheesy and always over the top, but man do they deliver on the angst and h/c. Also I've finally gained an appreciation for Oguri Shun - never quite got the appeal before but apparently all it took was putting him in a pair of cool glasses and three-piece yakuza suits (and then repeatedly shooting him and beating him bloody. Mmm yeah Japan knows fangirls.)

...Then there was the end. ( Massive spoilers for the series finale; general content warnings that would be spoilery to specify. )

( Spoilers for the ep. Also flailing. )

Is the next ep here yet? What do you mean, TWO MORE WEEKS? D:

A few brief words. ( spoilers & such )

( on the appearance of a certain biological trope in sci-fi )

First off, if you've heard about the earthquake in Haiti and want to do something, check out help_haiti. They've got various donation links, and are running a fandom auction (donate and get a fannish reward!) I'm offering a fic for bidding here.

Unrelatedly, concerning the last ep of NCIS (7x12): ( a bit of squeeful spoilers )

While I'm not really fanning, I've been enjoying this season of Supernatural - angels in trenchcoats are a major button for me, so the increased Castiel presence is much appreciated, and otherwise the show seems determined to not so much jump the shark as pole-vault over it with a rocket pack, which is if nothing else entertaining - better a bang than a whimper, no?

Concerning the latest episode, 5x09: ( Spoilers )

And then there was the new Doctor Who, "Waters of Mars"...( yup, more spoilers! If vague ones. Including mention of the X-mas special preview )

Hysterical 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. ( mildly spoilery musings for the last couple eps )

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. ( Minor spoilers through ep 2x14 - no major arc events, just single-episode details )

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.

I actually watched the leak of this a couple weeks ago, and haven't had a chance to rewatch it yet, but my el quicko reaction was: ( Spoilers, natch. All squee, here! )

Huh. I saw negative reactions to this ep, but having finally bucked up and watched it, I enjoyed it. ( spoilers - squeeful ones, even! )

Oh, yeah, that's how it's done, SGA!

( spoilers )