Finding Carter
Sep. 23rd, 2014 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI've spent the last week watching season 1 of Finding Carter and enjoyed it. It was actually nice to watch a whole show straight through without stopping to write a review. Maybe I need to do that more often. Having said that, a couple thoughts:
• My biggest issue with the series was actually the timeline. Form pilot to finale it was only three months? Seriously? I realise that a lot of episodes happened back to back but wow, that is way too short a time. Not for how the relationships all progressed. That bugs me.
• So I'm pretty disposed to liking the main character of any show and while I do like Carter sometimes she really annoys me. She is just so self-absorbed/selfish, and while understandable especially in her situation, sometimes it go really frustrating. I don't blame her for her reaction to Lori/Liz, or her anger at the various lies but I would have been nice to see her reach out to other people more often, to consider their feelings. That said, she got a lot better at it over the season.
• Taylor is really sweet. Her personality makes complete sense.
• I loved Taylor/Carter in the final couple episodes. Taylor lashing out made complete sense and I loved that Carter responded by reaching out to her sister. We got to see Carter thinking about someone else and I loved that. I also loved them during their birthday episode.
• Liz and David are interesting because I started the series liking one of them a lot more than the other and by the end they had actually switched places.
Liz starts the series so angry at Lori and closed-off emotionally that she was hard to really like even as I completely understood where she was coming from. Learning about the affair didn't really help. But as the series went on, as she opened up more and we got to know her I found her to be one of my favourite characters. She's a hard-ass, too strict and controlling, but she's also pretty emotionally damaged, genuinely caring and pretty honest. In fact that's the big difference between her and David - excepting the affair, Liz is too honest which makes her come off as harsh/unfair while David avoids conflict, tries to keep the peace but does it by lying/manipulating.
David starts the series much more sympathetically. He's much softer to Liz's harshness, he's willing to compromise to make things easier for Carter, he's the one who is gently reaching out to her and who tries to keep the peace. Plus, Liz is having an affair so automatic sympathy there. But very quickly you see the downside of David and how his automatic response seems to be to lie about everything.
His low point of the season was definitely the post-affair reveal episode where he manipulates the situation into getting permission to write the book, that he has already written, from Carter. He made his daughter, who he's basically only known for months, think the only way to save her parent's marriage was by letting him write the book. That's pretty despicable. Also front and centre in those episodes was his low self esteem and issues with regards to his manliness.
He did take a turn in the last couple episodes. Once all (?) the lies were revealed, and I was honestly surprised the book thing came out so quickly, he did seem to realise how bad he screwed up and started working to fix things. Him getting a teaching job was big. Him not asking Carter about the manuscript even once was even bigger. I also liked the notes he left for Liz (cute) and how supportive he was of everyone.
• Then you and Lori and the implication that there was something between her and David. Carter was completely right not to know who to believe since they're both liars and it's hard for me to know who to believe too. Lori came off very stalker-ish and unstable in the finale, so different from the pilot, that I don't know what to think. Why would she lead Carter to those stalker-ish pic of David/Liz? What exactly was that supposed to prove? Then there's the photo of David - a close-up of his sleeping, or unconscious, naked body. WTH? If it had been the two of them together that would be one thing but just him, unconscious? It really did come off as more stalker than former relationship.
So I go back and forth on what's going on. Did David and Lori have a relationship in the past? Perhaps they were together, she had a miscarriage, he got together with Liz and Lori was never able to let go of how that was supposed to be her life? Or she wanted David but he was with Liz and Lori thought that should be her life and she was stalking them? IDK. It looks worse for Lori here though.
• I loved the Carter/Liz relationship best of all. I love how it progressed from beginning to end. Their conversation in the car in the finale where Carter finally calls her her mom and tells her that she loves her was so satisfying. So earned. Liz's reaction was beautiful. Definitely one of my top five scenes of the show. I loved their day off together.
• Something that I just though of and feel the need to point out - David has basically been a househusband for much of their marriage - a writer sure but not a successful one. After Carter was kidnapped Liz reacted by becoming a cop and he wrote about their experience. Then he spent the next thirteen years staying at home, writing but never publishing and presumably taking care of the kids. And yet we see Taylor cooking more often then him (ie. never) and when Taylor was explaining things to Carter she only mentioned that their mom doesn't cook. Nothing about their dad who is always home and thus whose job that presumably should be. Hmm. We see no one cleaning that I can think of. Liz does some laundry. What exactly does David do? As the person who is home all day should he be doing all the housework? It feels like she works a full time job, he's home all day and yet she's still expected to do the stereotypical housewife/mom stuff.
• I feel like Carter is really going to regret throwing that manuscript out the window. You just know that someone is going to find it, or some of it, and post it everywhere. Calling it now.
• Grant, I loved. He was funny and sweet and totally right that he was the replacement/forgotten child. Poor Grant. I loved his elephant/armadillo pet names with Carter. It was really sweet.
• Max is a complete sweetheart. I love everything about him. The description of him as a loyal St. Bernard was pretty spot on. I love how the Wilson family took him in and I'm kind of hoping that next season involves him moving in with them.
• Gabe, I liked. He seemed like a nice guy. He's pinning over Carter and hero-complex towards her was a bit much a times. I loved the scene with Grant during the birthday party and it made me wish they'd had more. The most touching scene of his was definitely when he revealed that he knew about the affair for the past three years but never said anything because his dad was finally happy after his mom's horrible death and he didn't want to ruin it.
- Which makes it so weird that after that episode his character ends up seriously backgrounded for the rest of the season. We get one short scene with him reacting to the fallout and then nothing. If anything his presence should have been more noticable. But then the affair itself was weirdly kind of backgrounded in some ways - we got no Liz/Kyle scenes about their relationship at all. No her breaking up with him or telling him what happened. Their relationship was pretty much ignored. It was weird and bothered me.
• The Liz/Kyle affair wasn't just some small thing. They were together for three freaking years! Liz was going to leave David. There were clearly strong feelings there, maybe more on Kyle's side, and I would have liked them explored more. Now there was a lot happening towards the end of the season so I can see why they ended up ignored but I'm really hoping the show goes back to them next season and that the David/Liz/Kyle triangle isn't over.
• I like that Gabe and Taylor came to the realisation together that they thought of each other as brother and sister.
• I like Bird a lot and I did feel sorry for her and her situation. I know, 'poor little rich girl' but having money doesn't automatically make your life great. Her basically being abandoned by her parents (8 months!) is legitly horrible even if they did leave her tons of money to take care of herself.
• I loved Bird/Carter, their friendship is something I'm all over... except it definitely felt a little bit too lopsided for me. I love devotion in relationships, and Bird was definitely devoted to Carter in all the ways I love, but Carter let me down. I need some reciprocal devotion/love and I just didn't feel it as much from Carter. Bird's line about it killing her that she and Carter were fighting and how it hurt because it wasn't killing Carter pretty much encapsulates it. I need Carter to hurt too. It makes sense to me that Bird, lonely hurt little girl that she is, would be far more attached than Carter, who is pretty confident and together, but I just wish that we'd gotten more.
• I actually quite liked Ofe. I find the actor really likeable.
• I don't think the show put enough thought into Taylor's life pre-Carter. She introduces Carter to her friend/crush Gabe. They've been friends since kindergarten. Except then Carter ends up hanging out with Gabe's other friends - Bird/Ofe/Crash - and it becomes obvious that they are his main friends group/the ones he hangs out with most. I believe that he and Taylor are good friends but she is not friends with his other group. So... where are Taylor's friends? We never see or even hear a hint of Taylor having any friends and I'm sorry but I don't buy it. Even with Liz's overprotectiveness Taylor would have school friends, probably other shy/studious girls. This bothers me.
• I can't believe that Liz would leave Carter unattended at the same place she was meeting Lori to arrest her. That was just super dumb. There should have been a police officer sitting with her. But the TPTB had her acting dumb throughout the episode - I can't believe she would let some woman she never met come to her house and talk with Carter alone. Just, what? This is the over-protective cop parent. Ridiculous.
Wow. This got soooo much longer than I was expecting.
• My biggest issue with the series was actually the timeline. Form pilot to finale it was only three months? Seriously? I realise that a lot of episodes happened back to back but wow, that is way too short a time. Not for how the relationships all progressed. That bugs me.
• So I'm pretty disposed to liking the main character of any show and while I do like Carter sometimes she really annoys me. She is just so self-absorbed/selfish, and while understandable especially in her situation, sometimes it go really frustrating. I don't blame her for her reaction to Lori/Liz, or her anger at the various lies but I would have been nice to see her reach out to other people more often, to consider their feelings. That said, she got a lot better at it over the season.
• Taylor is really sweet. Her personality makes complete sense.
• I loved Taylor/Carter in the final couple episodes. Taylor lashing out made complete sense and I loved that Carter responded by reaching out to her sister. We got to see Carter thinking about someone else and I loved that. I also loved them during their birthday episode.
• Liz and David are interesting because I started the series liking one of them a lot more than the other and by the end they had actually switched places.
Liz starts the series so angry at Lori and closed-off emotionally that she was hard to really like even as I completely understood where she was coming from. Learning about the affair didn't really help. But as the series went on, as she opened up more and we got to know her I found her to be one of my favourite characters. She's a hard-ass, too strict and controlling, but she's also pretty emotionally damaged, genuinely caring and pretty honest. In fact that's the big difference between her and David - excepting the affair, Liz is too honest which makes her come off as harsh/unfair while David avoids conflict, tries to keep the peace but does it by lying/manipulating.
David starts the series much more sympathetically. He's much softer to Liz's harshness, he's willing to compromise to make things easier for Carter, he's the one who is gently reaching out to her and who tries to keep the peace. Plus, Liz is having an affair so automatic sympathy there. But very quickly you see the downside of David and how his automatic response seems to be to lie about everything.
His low point of the season was definitely the post-affair reveal episode where he manipulates the situation into getting permission to write the book, that he has already written, from Carter. He made his daughter, who he's basically only known for months, think the only way to save her parent's marriage was by letting him write the book. That's pretty despicable. Also front and centre in those episodes was his low self esteem and issues with regards to his manliness.
He did take a turn in the last couple episodes. Once all (?) the lies were revealed, and I was honestly surprised the book thing came out so quickly, he did seem to realise how bad he screwed up and started working to fix things. Him getting a teaching job was big. Him not asking Carter about the manuscript even once was even bigger. I also liked the notes he left for Liz (cute) and how supportive he was of everyone.
• Then you and Lori and the implication that there was something between her and David. Carter was completely right not to know who to believe since they're both liars and it's hard for me to know who to believe too. Lori came off very stalker-ish and unstable in the finale, so different from the pilot, that I don't know what to think. Why would she lead Carter to those stalker-ish pic of David/Liz? What exactly was that supposed to prove? Then there's the photo of David - a close-up of his sleeping, or unconscious, naked body. WTH? If it had been the two of them together that would be one thing but just him, unconscious? It really did come off as more stalker than former relationship.
So I go back and forth on what's going on. Did David and Lori have a relationship in the past? Perhaps they were together, she had a miscarriage, he got together with Liz and Lori was never able to let go of how that was supposed to be her life? Or she wanted David but he was with Liz and Lori thought that should be her life and she was stalking them? IDK. It looks worse for Lori here though.
• I loved the Carter/Liz relationship best of all. I love how it progressed from beginning to end. Their conversation in the car in the finale where Carter finally calls her her mom and tells her that she loves her was so satisfying. So earned. Liz's reaction was beautiful. Definitely one of my top five scenes of the show. I loved their day off together.
• Something that I just though of and feel the need to point out - David has basically been a househusband for much of their marriage - a writer sure but not a successful one. After Carter was kidnapped Liz reacted by becoming a cop and he wrote about their experience. Then he spent the next thirteen years staying at home, writing but never publishing and presumably taking care of the kids. And yet we see Taylor cooking more often then him (ie. never) and when Taylor was explaining things to Carter she only mentioned that their mom doesn't cook. Nothing about their dad who is always home and thus whose job that presumably should be. Hmm. We see no one cleaning that I can think of. Liz does some laundry. What exactly does David do? As the person who is home all day should he be doing all the housework? It feels like she works a full time job, he's home all day and yet she's still expected to do the stereotypical housewife/mom stuff.
• I feel like Carter is really going to regret throwing that manuscript out the window. You just know that someone is going to find it, or some of it, and post it everywhere. Calling it now.
• Grant, I loved. He was funny and sweet and totally right that he was the replacement/forgotten child. Poor Grant. I loved his elephant/armadillo pet names with Carter. It was really sweet.
• Max is a complete sweetheart. I love everything about him. The description of him as a loyal St. Bernard was pretty spot on. I love how the Wilson family took him in and I'm kind of hoping that next season involves him moving in with them.
• Gabe, I liked. He seemed like a nice guy. He's pinning over Carter and hero-complex towards her was a bit much a times. I loved the scene with Grant during the birthday party and it made me wish they'd had more. The most touching scene of his was definitely when he revealed that he knew about the affair for the past three years but never said anything because his dad was finally happy after his mom's horrible death and he didn't want to ruin it.
- Which makes it so weird that after that episode his character ends up seriously backgrounded for the rest of the season. We get one short scene with him reacting to the fallout and then nothing. If anything his presence should have been more noticable. But then the affair itself was weirdly kind of backgrounded in some ways - we got no Liz/Kyle scenes about their relationship at all. No her breaking up with him or telling him what happened. Their relationship was pretty much ignored. It was weird and bothered me.
• The Liz/Kyle affair wasn't just some small thing. They were together for three freaking years! Liz was going to leave David. There were clearly strong feelings there, maybe more on Kyle's side, and I would have liked them explored more. Now there was a lot happening towards the end of the season so I can see why they ended up ignored but I'm really hoping the show goes back to them next season and that the David/Liz/Kyle triangle isn't over.
• I like that Gabe and Taylor came to the realisation together that they thought of each other as brother and sister.
• I like Bird a lot and I did feel sorry for her and her situation. I know, 'poor little rich girl' but having money doesn't automatically make your life great. Her basically being abandoned by her parents (8 months!) is legitly horrible even if they did leave her tons of money to take care of herself.
• I loved Bird/Carter, their friendship is something I'm all over... except it definitely felt a little bit too lopsided for me. I love devotion in relationships, and Bird was definitely devoted to Carter in all the ways I love, but Carter let me down. I need some reciprocal devotion/love and I just didn't feel it as much from Carter. Bird's line about it killing her that she and Carter were fighting and how it hurt because it wasn't killing Carter pretty much encapsulates it. I need Carter to hurt too. It makes sense to me that Bird, lonely hurt little girl that she is, would be far more attached than Carter, who is pretty confident and together, but I just wish that we'd gotten more.
• I actually quite liked Ofe. I find the actor really likeable.
• I don't think the show put enough thought into Taylor's life pre-Carter. She introduces Carter to her friend/crush Gabe. They've been friends since kindergarten. Except then Carter ends up hanging out with Gabe's other friends - Bird/Ofe/Crash - and it becomes obvious that they are his main friends group/the ones he hangs out with most. I believe that he and Taylor are good friends but she is not friends with his other group. So... where are Taylor's friends? We never see or even hear a hint of Taylor having any friends and I'm sorry but I don't buy it. Even with Liz's overprotectiveness Taylor would have school friends, probably other shy/studious girls. This bothers me.
• I can't believe that Liz would leave Carter unattended at the same place she was meeting Lori to arrest her. That was just super dumb. There should have been a police officer sitting with her. But the TPTB had her acting dumb throughout the episode - I can't believe she would let some woman she never met come to her house and talk with Carter alone. Just, what? This is the over-protective cop parent. Ridiculous.
Wow. This got soooo much longer than I was expecting.
