Watching Monday

[brigdh]

Parks & Rec
6.11-6.16
There were so many fantastic episodes in this batch: sexy chard! (though who has a farmer's market indoors? That seems so weird to me. Maybe it was just a filming thing.) Ben spending his anniversary with Larry/Jerry! The wall of bees! Ron's new baby!

Sleepy Hollow
2.05
I didn't like this episode quite as much as the previous ones this season, but it was still pretty great. The "Abbie drowning" scene was awesomely trope-y, Jenny – despite appearing only in a single short scene – was even hotter than usual, and Caroline was a great character until she, you know, died (Which is unfortunate. I would have liked to see more of her). I did really like Katrina in this episode: I really like that, despite being on the same side, she makes very different choices than Crane or Abbie. (Though, my God, did anyone tell Mary's family that she was dead? That seems needlessly cruel.) I like this sort of morally gray Katrina, willing to be fairly ruthless. I also like her relationship with Headless – not in a romantic way, but the lying and manipulation between them is really interesting.

Comments

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

I had mixed feelings about Sleepy Hollow, despite its charming elements, because I really wasn't keen on the whole vengeful-woman thing. It felt a bit overdone, and the hysterical jealous wife/lover is rather sexist, which SH normally isn't! All the same, I was glad to see Katrina cast in a more ambiguous light. We really need her to get a more nuanced characterisation if she's ever going to feel like more than an accessory to Ichabod's development.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. It didn't bother me as much as perhaps it should have, because I really loathe jealousy narratives, especially since it often tends to be portrayed as normal or charming. So seeing a character say, "She disapproved of my platonic friends! Wasn't that wrong of her?" cheered my heart. But you're right, and the jealous female ex is a stereotype that shows up way too often.

And yes, I agree. One of the problems is that Katrina's back-story keeps seeming to change: first she was a Quaker, then she was a wealthy young woman marrying for money, and then in this episode she seemed to own (? work on?) a farm.

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

I was reading a review of this week's episode (which I enjoyed a lot more than this one) and it pointed out that a major issue with SH is that we're not building up many relationships beyond our very central two. There isn't much sense of the wider SH universe, and characters keep getting dropped in to serve the Ichabod and Abbie narrative but then lost again. So in the previous ep, there was the re-enactor lady, then in this ep, we have Joe, who I thought might join the crime fighting team, but no, he got dropped in, had a lovely emotional connection with people, and is off again. I would really like more recurring characters!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That's a really good point. And oddly, I thought they did a great job with it last season: Henry was built up very nicely, slow and subtle (though of course they had greater plans for him all along), and they also did a good job with Irving's family, Jenny, Luke, and Andy. Now most of them have disappeared - some without explanation (though to be fair some of that's because actors got different jobs) - and I feel like the new additions to the cast this season haven't been as interesting or added in as smoothly.

I would like to see Joe again. I wouldn't want him to be a regular, necessarily, but I hope he will drop in from time to time. He has such interesting backstory with Abbie (and I'd love to know more about his and Jenny's connection).

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Agreed! It's strange to see the world shrinking rather than expanding in season 2. It would be cool if some of our secondary characters got a bit more development, too. I love Jenny, and I love how she interacts with Abbie, but it would be really great if we got episodes where we saw a bit more of her away from all of them. I'd really like to see Irving's family again too!! How often do we get disabled black characters on tv, after all? Macey has the potential to be a really interesting character and it seems a shame she ended up just being a plot device to get her dad in jail.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would love a Jenny-centric episode! I've been expecting her connection with that survivalist doomsday group to show up again, since there's been a few times when it seems like it would make sense to ask them for help (but I suppose Hawley's been filling that role instead).

And I've been assuming that they've been waiting to show Irving's family until he got out of jail, but he's been there so long that I just want Cynthia and Macey to show up for any reason.

[weirdquark]

The Mercato Centrale in Florence is an indoor market that has the feel of a farmer's market. It's a non-supermarket type market, where you go for various forms of produce and cheese and oil and meat and fish and bread and all that. It may not actually fit the definition of a farmer's market; I don't know how local everything is and some things are imported.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have been to a few markets like that! But I feel as though they usually tend to be more about, hmmm, processed food, I guess you'd say (bread and oil and cheese and so on) and less actual fruits and vegetables. But yes, thank you for reminding me. Those markets are really lovely too.