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iariaKoshonin 1x01
• I found this first episode difficult to get through because of my embarrassment squick. It was less straight up embarrassing scenes and more the way that Usagi, as the new and only female member of SIT, kept being ignored and looked down upon. I kept pausing before she said or did something in anticipation of everyone’s reactions to her. I really wish there was a set of recaps for this series. Hopefully it will get better as Usagi proves to everyone that she is good at her job. Anyway, that’s not to say I hate how this episode has played her introduction to her new job (at least at the beginning).
• The casual sexism and derision she faced – the co-worker asking her to get coffee, another taking a picture of her behind her back – actually didn’t bother me as much as I’d have expected. There were some mitigating factors with those incidents – with the first the guy has been used to working only with men and didn’t continue to try and use her as an assistant after being corrected, the second got quelling looks and head shaking after taking the picture (though no one said anything) – but I think the reason why they didn’t infuriate me is because Usagi is good at her job and I know that they’re all going to learn it soon enough. It made it a little easier knowing they’d have to eat crow eventually.
• Then we had a moment of disdain on an entirely different level when her boss, Kirisawa, hit her across the face! And he hit her hard enough to knock her into a wall and cause her to bleed! I don’t even know what to do with that. I mean – what the hell?!
• I had an issue with the response to the hostage takers in that I found the size of it really bizarre. The first case was one guy holding one person hostage and yet the police and media response felt far more appropriate for a couple of people holding multiple hostages (like a bank robbery). Or even the second case it felt a bit more appropriate. I mean the first time it was stated that they had 200 hundred cops there! On the second case I really noticed how many negotiators were at the scene and while I understand working in a team I’ve really been left wondering why they need over ten people to go on each case.
• I think I am way to Western, or too used to Western TV, because the hostage-taker was in plain sight pretty much the entire time and it left me going ‘... why don’t they just shoot him?’
• I am pretty intrigued with Usagi and Mariya and I like how it’s personal between them. Before watching the series I was wondering how it would work for her to need to visit a psychopath on death row every episode for help on a case but instead she visits him for personal reasons and I like that much better.
• I find ‘Usagi’ as a last name very strange; it will never not mean Tsukino Usagi to me.
White Collar 2x12 ‘What Happens In Burma’
• The fact that Neal has father issues and that it’s his relationship with father that’s so important to who he is now is really blah to me. Because what we don’t have enough of are stories about the importance of fathers (whether good or bad). I was so sure that Neal’s father would end up being a bigger deal – like, Neal didn’t know him and was searching for him and that it would become a plotline through the rest of the season – so I am glad that didn’t happen but, god, I am so over father issues. On a positive we did get Peter asking about Neal’s mother at the end so maybe well someday learn something about her, or even meet her.
• I loved Diana calling Peter on his exasperation with Neal – he told Neal not to do it but he didn’t stop him and thus gave his implicit support for his actions – and I am so happy Diana didn’t let him get away with pretending he didn’t. Seriously he and Diana’s relationship reads as a very close and long-standing one. I hate that canon had them meet only four years ago.
Chuck 4x13 ‘Chuck Versus the Push Mix’
“Casey’s family. Chuck and I would do anything for family.” Aw. That was nice and I love that Ellie has accepted Casey as part of her family. It was also really nice for Ellie to have her mother there when she gave birth.
• The Volkoff/Frost stuff this episode just hit so many buttons I can’t even... When he shot the guard who decked her and stated “No one touches my Frost.”, even after what had just occurred between them, I fell just a bit more in love with them. And then she tells him ‘my husband is ten times the man you are & I thought of him when I was with you’ and his response is to kiss her and tell her that he’ll bring her husband’s corpse to her. It really is too bad that Mary’s attitude and feelings towards Volkoff weren’t a little more grey and complicated. If they were I could love those two so much. But even with her disgust with him they still hits those kinks a bit. Him being a powerful and dangerous man who is completely devoted to her, so much so that he will forgive/ignore anything she does including betrayal... I love that. What do I call that – a kink? A trope? Regardless they hit a part of for me. Well, except that he was intending to let her die/have her killed in the end. Oh, well. I can still imagine an AU situation where Frost couldn’t help but feel something for him and things played out a little differently.
Bones 6x12 ‘The Sin in the Sisterhood’
• Bones rarely does well when it tackles different sexualities/kinks/sexual mores. It tends to feel very judgey, via Booth, to me (but then did really well on transgender in that one episode). I love Booth but his very conservative views on sexuality/marriage and more specifically the way he judges people because of it really bugs me. I didn’t like him being proven ‘right’ in the end and Brennan never really ‘winning’ any of their discussions about polygamy irritated me. The whole thing just didn’t work for me. I guess there goes any possibility of Brennan/Booth/Hannah being supported by canon (but I still ship it).
• I also didn’t like the final conversation between Brennan and Booth because it felt way too heavy handed to me.
• I did like the look on Booth’s face as he looked at Brennan just after saying “you just do (know who you love most)” and the way he immediately looked down when she turned back to him.
• “You know with this baby coming we could really use another wife.” – Angela
“Really? You want me to marry another woman?” – Hogdins
“No, not you. Me. I could use the help.” – Angela
♥ I really loved that. I would love it forever if the show actually went there (they won’t, and there isn’t actually anyone on the show who could take that position anyway but it would make me so happy.)
• I found this first episode difficult to get through because of my embarrassment squick. It was less straight up embarrassing scenes and more the way that Usagi, as the new and only female member of SIT, kept being ignored and looked down upon. I kept pausing before she said or did something in anticipation of everyone’s reactions to her. I really wish there was a set of recaps for this series. Hopefully it will get better as Usagi proves to everyone that she is good at her job. Anyway, that’s not to say I hate how this episode has played her introduction to her new job (at least at the beginning).
• The casual sexism and derision she faced – the co-worker asking her to get coffee, another taking a picture of her behind her back – actually didn’t bother me as much as I’d have expected. There were some mitigating factors with those incidents – with the first the guy has been used to working only with men and didn’t continue to try and use her as an assistant after being corrected, the second got quelling looks and head shaking after taking the picture (though no one said anything) – but I think the reason why they didn’t infuriate me is because Usagi is good at her job and I know that they’re all going to learn it soon enough. It made it a little easier knowing they’d have to eat crow eventually.
• Then we had a moment of disdain on an entirely different level when her boss, Kirisawa, hit her across the face! And he hit her hard enough to knock her into a wall and cause her to bleed! I don’t even know what to do with that. I mean – what the hell?!
• I had an issue with the response to the hostage takers in that I found the size of it really bizarre. The first case was one guy holding one person hostage and yet the police and media response felt far more appropriate for a couple of people holding multiple hostages (like a bank robbery). Or even the second case it felt a bit more appropriate. I mean the first time it was stated that they had 200 hundred cops there! On the second case I really noticed how many negotiators were at the scene and while I understand working in a team I’ve really been left wondering why they need over ten people to go on each case.
• I think I am way to Western, or too used to Western TV, because the hostage-taker was in plain sight pretty much the entire time and it left me going ‘... why don’t they just shoot him?’
• I am pretty intrigued with Usagi and Mariya and I like how it’s personal between them. Before watching the series I was wondering how it would work for her to need to visit a psychopath on death row every episode for help on a case but instead she visits him for personal reasons and I like that much better.
• I find ‘Usagi’ as a last name very strange; it will never not mean Tsukino Usagi to me.
White Collar 2x12 ‘What Happens In Burma’
• The fact that Neal has father issues and that it’s his relationship with father that’s so important to who he is now is really blah to me. Because what we don’t have enough of are stories about the importance of fathers (whether good or bad). I was so sure that Neal’s father would end up being a bigger deal – like, Neal didn’t know him and was searching for him and that it would become a plotline through the rest of the season – so I am glad that didn’t happen but, god, I am so over father issues. On a positive we did get Peter asking about Neal’s mother at the end so maybe well someday learn something about her, or even meet her.
• I loved Diana calling Peter on his exasperation with Neal – he told Neal not to do it but he didn’t stop him and thus gave his implicit support for his actions – and I am so happy Diana didn’t let him get away with pretending he didn’t. Seriously he and Diana’s relationship reads as a very close and long-standing one. I hate that canon had them meet only four years ago.
Chuck 4x13 ‘Chuck Versus the Push Mix’
“Casey’s family. Chuck and I would do anything for family.” Aw. That was nice and I love that Ellie has accepted Casey as part of her family. It was also really nice for Ellie to have her mother there when she gave birth.
• The Volkoff/Frost stuff this episode just hit so many buttons I can’t even... When he shot the guard who decked her and stated “No one touches my Frost.”, even after what had just occurred between them, I fell just a bit more in love with them. And then she tells him ‘my husband is ten times the man you are & I thought of him when I was with you’ and his response is to kiss her and tell her that he’ll bring her husband’s corpse to her. It really is too bad that Mary’s attitude and feelings towards Volkoff weren’t a little more grey and complicated. If they were I could love those two so much. But even with her disgust with him they still hits those kinks a bit. Him being a powerful and dangerous man who is completely devoted to her, so much so that he will forgive/ignore anything she does including betrayal... I love that. What do I call that – a kink? A trope? Regardless they hit a part of for me. Well, except that he was intending to let her die/have her killed in the end. Oh, well. I can still imagine an AU situation where Frost couldn’t help but feel something for him and things played out a little differently.
Bones 6x12 ‘The Sin in the Sisterhood’
• Bones rarely does well when it tackles different sexualities/kinks/sexual mores. It tends to feel very judgey, via Booth, to me (but then did really well on transgender in that one episode). I love Booth but his very conservative views on sexuality/marriage and more specifically the way he judges people because of it really bugs me. I didn’t like him being proven ‘right’ in the end and Brennan never really ‘winning’ any of their discussions about polygamy irritated me. The whole thing just didn’t work for me. I guess there goes any possibility of Brennan/Booth/Hannah being supported by canon (but I still ship it).
• I also didn’t like the final conversation between Brennan and Booth because it felt way too heavy handed to me.
• I did like the look on Booth’s face as he looked at Brennan just after saying “you just do (know who you love most)” and the way he immediately looked down when she turned back to him.
• “You know with this baby coming we could really use another wife.” – Angela
“Really? You want me to marry another woman?” – Hogdins
“No, not you. Me. I could use the help.” – Angela
♥ I really loved that. I would love it forever if the show actually went there (they won’t, and there isn’t actually anyone on the show who could take that position anyway but it would make me so happy.)
