While U Wait. (TV edition)
Aug. 20th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckThese are half-formed thoughts about some of the television I've watched in the past couple of days.
I like The Closer for its unorthodox female lead and its ensemble, including Chief Pope, her ex-husband, played by J.K. Simmons who I first encountered in Oz as Vernon Schillinger. He's a very versatile actor, because you just have to love the Pope's calm way of handling competing departments and dealing with his personal entanglements in this! He's got wit and poise.
The cases aren't always that gripping - at the beginning it was fascinating to see Brenda Leigh Johnson manipulate suspects and witnesses to maintain her reputation as The Closer - and I was impressed by the acting even in the minor roles. (As to complaints about Kyra Sedgwick's Southern accent - I wouldn't know what's authentic and what isn't and I don't care. Also, what is it about Southern accents that makes people complain so much - see True Blood? I guess it must have something to do with the fact that there is a broad range of Southern accents and people favour different varieties.)
Then there was the Fritzi romance - and his nickname which is frankly extremely ridiculous in German gives me great pleasure. In Germany, Fritz is already an old-fashioned name that is not currently in danger of becoming terribly popular again, probably thanks to a brand of silly jokes about a small boy character called Fritzchen, and you just wouldn't call a grown man Fritzi - but that's typical of Brenda and her now-husband is man enough to accept that. He was also man enough to accept her decision not to have kids - looking after Kitty was enough commitment for Brenda. Now Kitty has died and we get the kids talk again - instigated by Fritzi. Brenda is still skeptical and uses the case of the week, and thus her experiences on the job, as an argument: She sees so many suffering parents that she doesn't want to have children - her husband agrees that there is much pain in the world, but she still got married even though she sees lots of grieving spouses, too.
Strangely, considering my personal circumstances, I don't want Brenda to have a child. We'll see what the writers will do with that particular storyline, though judging from Half Load, the last episode that I've watched I'm not too confident that I'll like it. Because that had an ending that truly disappointed me - too soppy, too much After school special with a symbolic coming-together of the community and the police while painting a wall.
And that brings me to why I gave up Leverage - for some reason, on American television you need to be moralistic. While the Hustle crew always found deserving marks, they were clearly out for their own gain and there was no sad tale at the beginning of each episode to justify their subsequent criminal behaviour. The need for a sob story makes me groan - and no amount of clever hustling later on can make up for it. It gives everything extra weight - look, we're doing good, we're not just criminals - and then it's just no fun anymore. But maybe I've got it all wrong and it's not supposed to be fun?
I like The Closer for its unorthodox female lead and its ensemble, including Chief Pope, her ex-husband, played by J.K. Simmons who I first encountered in Oz as Vernon Schillinger. He's a very versatile actor, because you just have to love the Pope's calm way of handling competing departments and dealing with his personal entanglements in this! He's got wit and poise.
The cases aren't always that gripping - at the beginning it was fascinating to see Brenda Leigh Johnson manipulate suspects and witnesses to maintain her reputation as The Closer - and I was impressed by the acting even in the minor roles. (As to complaints about Kyra Sedgwick's Southern accent - I wouldn't know what's authentic and what isn't and I don't care. Also, what is it about Southern accents that makes people complain so much - see True Blood? I guess it must have something to do with the fact that there is a broad range of Southern accents and people favour different varieties.)
Then there was the Fritzi romance - and his nickname which is frankly extremely ridiculous in German gives me great pleasure. In Germany, Fritz is already an old-fashioned name that is not currently in danger of becoming terribly popular again, probably thanks to a brand of silly jokes about a small boy character called Fritzchen, and you just wouldn't call a grown man Fritzi - but that's typical of Brenda and her now-husband is man enough to accept that. He was also man enough to accept her decision not to have kids - looking after Kitty was enough commitment for Brenda. Now Kitty has died and we get the kids talk again - instigated by Fritzi. Brenda is still skeptical and uses the case of the week, and thus her experiences on the job, as an argument: She sees so many suffering parents that she doesn't want to have children - her husband agrees that there is much pain in the world, but she still got married even though she sees lots of grieving spouses, too.
Strangely, considering my personal circumstances, I don't want Brenda to have a child. We'll see what the writers will do with that particular storyline, though judging from Half Load, the last episode that I've watched I'm not too confident that I'll like it. Because that had an ending that truly disappointed me - too soppy, too much After school special with a symbolic coming-together of the community and the police while painting a wall.
And that brings me to why I gave up Leverage - for some reason, on American television you need to be moralistic. While the Hustle crew always found deserving marks, they were clearly out for their own gain and there was no sad tale at the beginning of each episode to justify their subsequent criminal behaviour. The need for a sob story makes me groan - and no amount of clever hustling later on can make up for it. It gives everything extra weight - look, we're doing good, we're not just criminals - and then it's just no fun anymore. But maybe I've got it all wrong and it's not supposed to be fun?
