![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ariadnes_stringI was wondering how I would fit two such dissimilar shows into the same post, but look—they practically joined themselves. Daddy issues? They've all got 'em.
H50 1.14
Okay, to be honest, I’d give the plot of this one about a B-. Plus, I was confused as to why this particular murder/kidnapping was a matter for the Governor’s Task Force—since it didn’t seem to involve international incidents or serial killers or even People-the-Team-Knows—just good ol’ domestic skullduggery.
But these are mere quibbles.
You can probably guess my favorite parts, in no particular order.
“What are you? A schmu—?" (Are you not allowed to say schmuck on network TV? Did someone look up what it actually means in Yiddish or something? “Penis”, in can you were wondering—most derogatory Yiddish words mean penis.)
“What? Am I riding in a car with Sigmund Freud?" + that whole conversation.
And the whole CHiPs thing was cute, but not as cute as the “courtesy knock” exchange. Or as Steve’s at-home outfit.
Kono’s badass driving.
I quite liked Chin’s ex-fiancee. I wish she’d had a little more to do.
Steve was very sweet with the little boy and his grandfather, and I have no problem with Steve McGarrett, Friend of the Stateless, but the citizenship papers from the Governor were a little OTT, imo.
Looking forward to next week!
Southland 3.02
You probably all know by now how hard I am crushing on this show, so, even though I didn’t manage to watch last week’s episode until over the weekend, it left me with THINGS TO SAY. Feel free to skip.
This episode was kind of jam-packed with STUFF—not just great character things, but also the show’s characteristic, ironic take on the culture around it: it’s not really pointed or ideological enough to be called a critique, I don’t think—more like acute, skeptical observation.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
destina had a great post about the realistic depiction of sexism and misogyny on Southland, and I was struck, too, by what it had to say about “broken families.”
I thought Nate’s line about “Father’s Day being the most confusing day in the ghetto” could have been the tag line for the whole episode (or for the whole series, really, given the back story on Cooper and Sherman), and it was a nice, characteristically laconic response to Sammy’s rant about gang violence ultimately deriving from female-headed homes (Sammy, bless him, seemed more concerned with women who let themselves get pregnant without knowing who the father is, than with fathers who abandon their families.)
In true Southland fashion, Sammy’s rant was both proven true (by the woman saying the exact words he claimed mothers always said in the very next scene), and shown to be manifestly not true (we are often reminded that Lydia was brought up by just her mother, and the three sons of twice-divorced Josie seem to be doing just fine). Nor did the show allow the claim to stand as just a “ghetto” problem—since we know Father’s Day is a pretty complicated holiday in Nate’s own family.
As, we now know, it will be in Sammy’s. And as much as I hate it like poison when the show ends with a tear-drenched Tammy saying “I’m sorry, Sammy” (and as much as I would preferred the closing minutes to be more of Nate with the cars, or gratuitous shots of Ben getting sweaty with the “den mother”—or, best of all, Lydia and Josie going shoe shopping together), this time the somewhat strained story arc did seem to drive home a point.
A point that the episode was chewing like a dog with a bone: why does one guy end up a church-going, gainfully employed family man, and his best friend end up a gangbanger? How are we supposed to stop the roots of violence if there isn’t some formula of income or family structure or environment that can predict which side of the law someone will end up on?
Okay—I’m done—I’m not going to expound on the epic love of Cooper and Sherman, but feel free to in the comments :)
H50 1.14
Okay, to be honest, I’d give the plot of this one about a B-. Plus, I was confused as to why this particular murder/kidnapping was a matter for the Governor’s Task Force—since it didn’t seem to involve international incidents or serial killers or even People-the-Team-Knows—just good ol’ domestic skullduggery.
But these are mere quibbles.
You can probably guess my favorite parts, in no particular order.
“What are you? A schmu—?" (Are you not allowed to say schmuck on network TV? Did someone look up what it actually means in Yiddish or something? “Penis”, in can you were wondering—most derogatory Yiddish words mean penis.)
“What? Am I riding in a car with Sigmund Freud?" + that whole conversation.
And the whole CHiPs thing was cute, but not as cute as the “courtesy knock” exchange. Or as Steve’s at-home outfit.
Kono’s badass driving.
I quite liked Chin’s ex-fiancee. I wish she’d had a little more to do.
Steve was very sweet with the little boy and his grandfather, and I have no problem with Steve McGarrett, Friend of the Stateless, but the citizenship papers from the Governor were a little OTT, imo.
Looking forward to next week!
Southland 3.02
You probably all know by now how hard I am crushing on this show, so, even though I didn’t manage to watch last week’s episode until over the weekend, it left me with THINGS TO SAY. Feel free to skip.
This episode was kind of jam-packed with STUFF—not just great character things, but also the show’s characteristic, ironic take on the culture around it: it’s not really pointed or ideological enough to be called a critique, I don’t think—more like acute, skeptical observation.
destina had a great post about the realistic depiction of sexism and misogyny on Southland, and I was struck, too, by what it had to say about “broken families.”I thought Nate’s line about “Father’s Day being the most confusing day in the ghetto” could have been the tag line for the whole episode (or for the whole series, really, given the back story on Cooper and Sherman), and it was a nice, characteristically laconic response to Sammy’s rant about gang violence ultimately deriving from female-headed homes (Sammy, bless him, seemed more concerned with women who let themselves get pregnant without knowing who the father is, than with fathers who abandon their families.)
In true Southland fashion, Sammy’s rant was both proven true (by the woman saying the exact words he claimed mothers always said in the very next scene), and shown to be manifestly not true (we are often reminded that Lydia was brought up by just her mother, and the three sons of twice-divorced Josie seem to be doing just fine). Nor did the show allow the claim to stand as just a “ghetto” problem—since we know Father’s Day is a pretty complicated holiday in Nate’s own family.
As, we now know, it will be in Sammy’s. And as much as I hate it like poison when the show ends with a tear-drenched Tammy saying “I’m sorry, Sammy” (and as much as I would preferred the closing minutes to be more of Nate with the cars, or gratuitous shots of Ben getting sweaty with the “den mother”—or, best of all, Lydia and Josie going shoe shopping together), this time the somewhat strained story arc did seem to drive home a point.
A point that the episode was chewing like a dog with a bone: why does one guy end up a church-going, gainfully employed family man, and his best friend end up a gangbanger? How are we supposed to stop the roots of violence if there isn’t some formula of income or family structure or environment that can predict which side of the law someone will end up on?
Okay—I’m done—I’m not going to expound on the epic love of Cooper and Sherman, but feel free to in the comments :)
