Watching Monday

[brigdh]

True Blood

Everything about Violet, Adilyn, and Wade was HILARIOUS. Horny goat weed! Strap-ons from the 19th century! Fuzzy handcuffs! Why does Violet own a giant house full of sex toys? I don't know, and I don't really care, because these scenes were worth it.
I really liked the Arlene/Keith sex dream (which I did not realize was a dream at first) and even more the actual Arlene/Keith scene at the end. Though Hep-V is an STD now? I don't think I'd realized that.
I don't understand what was going on with Jason and Hoyt's girlfriend. She wasn't that hot. Was it residual Jessica guilt? Was she a minor character from a previous season I've forgotten? The threeway hug with Jason in the middle was the most hilariously uncomfortable thing I've ever seen, though.
Speaking of characters I've forgotten: Dr. Ludwig, who apparently has been on the show before, though I have no memory of it. I loved her, though!
Sarah Newlin's ghost visions were AMAZING. I particularly loved Jason as a grim specter of death.
Lafayette and Lettie Mae digging up some poor girl's yard was also great. This whole episode was really funny.
My prediction: Bill will die of his speedy Hep-V but afterwards Sookie will have his magic vampire-fairy baby.


Leverage

The Toy Job:
Normally I hate Christmas episodes (on any show), but the earlier Leverage Christmas episode was so great that I'm excited for this.
Aren't these characters all supposed to be incredibly rich? Why have money restrictions on their gifts? They may as well spend that money buying Christmas presents for each other.
OMG that doll is almost as terrifying as the one from Sleepy Hollow.
Awww, poor baby Parker in therapy.
"What are parents most afraid of?" / "Clowns?" / "No." / "Evil clowns?" / "No." / "Crazy clowns named Gigi who whisper your name from under your bed?" / "...No." AHAHAHAHA.
Man, Parker has a clearer sense of morality than Nate does.
HARDSION IN GLASSES YES GOOD.
"Smart babies are so eight years ago." Haaaaaa.
"You don't ever want to be alone in that warehouse. Ever." I AGREE.
Nate the trumpet player is an odd image.
Aww, I wanted to hear all of their stories. But I guess this was set-up for the next episode.

The Long Goodbye Job:
"20 pounds of crazy" / "5 pound bag." Hahaha, Hardison and Eliot are adorable, both of them watching Parker.
Heee, Parker changing in the elevator! Callback!
OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING HARDISON SHOULD NOT BE ALL SMASHED UP INSIDE. OMG ELIOT IS SHOT. OMG HOLDING HANDS. OMG EVERYONE'S DEAD.
Haaaaaa, omg, Eliot's eyeroll while he's pretending to be shot.
This scene where Nate talks Sterling into letting him get away with it is totally like the "underneath we're all the same" scene where the villain tries to seduce the hero to the dark side. Except the villain is the protagonist and the hero is Sterling. That seems wrong.
WHAT IS PARKER WEARING WHY DOES IT HAVE ONE BRIGHT YELLOW SLEEVE?
"Did you steal it?" / "No." / "Because that would have been more romantic." HAAAAAAAA. YES GOOD SOPHIE.
"Till my dying day." OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING EVERYONE IS GETTING MARRIED.
Man, Parker looks scary. I think it's the plucked eyebrows.


And that's it! No more Leverage. :( I loved it though. It was great, and I'm sort of sad that I didn't get to watch it while it was airing, but I'm glad I saw it now, at least.

I'd take suggestions for what I should watch next, but I think actually it's going to be 'Musketeers', since I only hve a few episodes left in the first season.

Iron Man 2

Evil Russian Iron Man has a pet cockatoo! And he feeds it wine out of a chalice. As one does.
A dude named "Hammer"? I am predicting he is the bad guy because, seriously, Hammer. I'm sure all of these characters were named in 1960s comic books where such things worked better, but I love it.
I like that Ivan the evil Iron Man manages not to drop his toothpick through the whole first fight.
I don't know why anyone thought it was necessary to add a hand pistol and machine gun to an Iron Man suit; don't they come with hand lasers and all sorts of super technology?
So Ivan is not only an action hero (action villain?) and physicist, but also a hacker and... whatever specialization one would have to build an Iron Man suit, probably some kind of engineer. And speaks at least two languages. Impressive!
Hey, it's the scene where Natasha beats up the boxing coach! Hey, it's the scene where Natasha yells at Tony in Italian! I see these gifsets on tumblr on the time.
Aww, Ivan got a replacement cockatoo, I am bizarrely charmed by the saga of his pet birds.
This is the most complicated way to pass on a map of an atom ever. Also, do you really need a map? Couldn't you just say, like, "152" and be done with it? Elements are simple by definition; add extra parts and it's an alloy or something else. Also did Tony seriously just build the Hadron Collider in his basement?
Did Natasha actually put her hair down to get ready to fight the bad guys? That seems unhelpful.

Overall, not as good as the first one, but still a lot of fun.

Comments

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

this finale is a) the best finale and b) why i'm only able to write royalty-au leverage fics with lots of loyalty drama. because damn.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

IT WAS SO GOOD. I had been spoiled to know that the series ended with a Parker/Hardison/Eliot Leverage, and it was interesting watching the fifth season leading up to it – there were a lot of hints that they were going in that direction, even though apparently they didn't know they were getting canceled until the last minute? It was really well done. The best ending you could have, basically (if it had to end at all!).

And any reason for royalty AU is a good reason. I need to go reread those fics, now that I actually know who these characters are, ha.

[fiddlingfrog.livejournal.com]

Hi, friend of a friend here. I've been enjoying your Leverage reaction posts (it's one of only two series we own complete on DVD.) You might also enjoy taking a look at John Rogers' blog (http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com) to read some fun behind the scenes stuff.

And if you're willing to entertain suggestions my wife and I fell in love with Burn Notice and devoured the entire series in four months. It hits a lot of those same "defending the helpless" vibes as Leverage, but with more explosions.

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

seconding roger's blog rec HARD, it's a very enjoyable and smart smart look-in at what and how they were doing.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That blog is a great rec; I've already read a few posts.

And thanks for the Burn Notice rec, too! I haven't heard much about it, but I'll have to check it out.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE IS MARRIED, Parker is the hottest, it might be the hair, it's definitely the body language, and actually, yeah, I am kind of spoiled forever to only read Alina's royalty AUs, because, like, everything else falls short in terms of dramatic excellence. (I mean, like, I could also work with Parker the pirate captain and Hardison her pirate bride and Eliot their grouchy siren friend. Or something where Parker's an elf queen and Hardison is a mage king and Eliot's a human soldier bound by love to serve them for eternity. Or, you know, anything with the same level of grandeur and the same basic dynamics of love, respect, and Eliot kneeling a lot.)

(I wonder if a highschool AU could ever work, but probably not. They all need to be adult, I think it can't really work without that. Not a coffeeshop AU either, like, there's no amount of coffee savant-ness that could replace their passion for thieving/hacking/bodyguarding.)

(Huh, maybe, like with BenJanuary, they could all be teachers! Lit/drama for Sophie, computers for Hardison, home ec or PE for Eliot... possibly maths for Nate, UGH. But what would Parker do?? I can't imagine her teaching.)

ANYWAY, since True Blood is going to end eventually too, have you considered Being Human UK? I think you'd really enjoy the first season. There's OT3 shipping potential, an adorable cast, really funny/surprising character voices. Also a messed-up addict character, which I think you've said you enjoy? And stuff about The Power of Friendship, and realllllllly interesting friendship power dynamics. And supremely creepy cops, which is always kind of comforting (well, more comforting than nice cops, usually). And it's just six episodes and ends very satisfactorily.

... but then there's the second season, which has a different tone and different themes, and I'm not sure if you'd enjoy it? I did, but kind of selectively, IDK. AND THEN there was the third season, where just about everyone dies, there's a massive tone shift again. And then there's two more seasons again, I think, and they get sort of metaphysical and everyone keeps dying? I haven't seen those, my delicate constitution couldn't handle the stress, but I definitely intend to watch it all one day, because I really like the way the writers approach their story.

I realise this wasn't much of a pimp! I really do think s1 is awesome, and each season should be viewed as, basically, a complete story that's only loosely connected to the others. Maybe check out the first ep (not the zeroth-ep pilot, which had a whole different cast and thus set skewed expectations of vampiric hotness and ghostly mediocrity), and if the tone works for you, keep watching!

... this is assuming you haven't seen it yet. If you have, you'll have to tell me all about your feels when I come home from Greece!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

OMG PIRATES AND ELF/MAGE ROYALTY I mean yes, yes I would read those fics also. I've been desultorily reading through the Leverage category on AO3, and it's mostly been kind of disappointing. Or maybe I've just had bad luck on the stories I clicked on. But if there was more grandeur and kneeling that would help!

And hmmm, yeah, I agree about high schools (though picturing them as awkward teenage dorks is really endearing) and coffeeshops. I'm not sure even being teachers is the right... level of accomplishment, I guess, for them. They're supposed to be the best of the best, you know? I'm not sure they'd be happy with the more "every day" happiness of being teachers. There's always historical AUs! Victorian jewel thieves or Roman soldiers or, like, hacking the first writing in Mesopotamia.

Ooo, I've heard good things before about Being Human; it was already on my to-watch list. I'll have to push it up!