Suits 1x09: "Undefeated" + recs
Aug. 23rd, 2011 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ariadnes_stringSo this was an enjoyable episode, filled with lots of Harvey/Mike byplay (though I thought the Rachel plot was kind of stupid).
I was particularly fascinated by the semiotics of high school sports:
Harvey=Baseball.
Which one could have (and did) call. He's too short to play basketball, too slight to play football, and probably didn't go to a school ritzy enough to have a lacrosse team--hockey is too pugnacious and swimming too solitary. But of course he was an athlete.
Mike=Wrestling. Though in terms of body type he's the least likely wrestler ever. What did he do, take people down with his elastic-boy arms? A mathalete seems more likely.
Unless we think this weird throwaway about Mike's past--like his announcement last week that he'd had a difficult relationship with his father--is a lie. *throws up hands*
Travis Tanner=Tennis.
Which he continued at Yale. "Tennis at Yale" seemed like code for "evil." Don't get me started on this.
And, okay, aside from that, I felt like the show was conducting an experiment on how long you can keep a show going with characters who are sexy and fun to watch but not really loveable. I'm starting to feel like I need to know the reasons why Harvey and Mike are the way they are--what's really at stake for them?
That weird little story about Harvey and the High School championships was so annoying. Is it just a personality trait? Or did he miss the college scouts because he wasn't at the final, and so didn't get the scholarship he'd been counting on, ended up going to community college and then running away to NYC to work in the mail room? Why didn't he go to law school under his own power in the first place, since he's clearly bright enough? They do have these things called scholarships and loans, y'know? Did he lack self-belief? Was he a fuck-up, an addict?
Just--I need more, folks.
But it took 11 episodes for me to upgrade Steve McGarrett from "flinty-eyed lummox" to "soulful flinty-eyed lummox, so I guess they have two more to go.
I haven't been reading all that much in the fandom, but I have stumbled across some good fic:
Can I Have It In Writing? by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
entangled_now "Writing on the Body" (Harvey/Mike PG-13)
and, since I know some of you like h/c as much as I do: No Florence Nightingale byzinfic (Harvey, Louis, gen).
Also, I've added Wolf Hall to my pile of unread books, since my rarely-attended book group is reading it. Has anybody read it? I read the first 20pp and enjoyed them, but then realized that no way was I going to read 600 non-work pages before the end of Sept., so got the audiobook to listen to in the car.
I was particularly fascinated by the semiotics of high school sports:
Harvey=Baseball.
Which one could have (and did) call. He's too short to play basketball, too slight to play football, and probably didn't go to a school ritzy enough to have a lacrosse team--hockey is too pugnacious and swimming too solitary. But of course he was an athlete.
Mike=Wrestling. Though in terms of body type he's the least likely wrestler ever. What did he do, take people down with his elastic-boy arms? A mathalete seems more likely.
Unless we think this weird throwaway about Mike's past--like his announcement last week that he'd had a difficult relationship with his father--is a lie. *throws up hands*
Travis Tanner=Tennis.
Which he continued at Yale. "Tennis at Yale" seemed like code for "evil." Don't get me started on this.
And, okay, aside from that, I felt like the show was conducting an experiment on how long you can keep a show going with characters who are sexy and fun to watch but not really loveable. I'm starting to feel like I need to know the reasons why Harvey and Mike are the way they are--what's really at stake for them?
That weird little story about Harvey and the High School championships was so annoying. Is it just a personality trait? Or did he miss the college scouts because he wasn't at the final, and so didn't get the scholarship he'd been counting on, ended up going to community college and then running away to NYC to work in the mail room? Why didn't he go to law school under his own power in the first place, since he's clearly bright enough? They do have these things called scholarships and loans, y'know? Did he lack self-belief? Was he a fuck-up, an addict?
Just--I need more, folks.
But it took 11 episodes for me to upgrade Steve McGarrett from "flinty-eyed lummox" to "soulful flinty-eyed lummox, so I guess they have two more to go.
I haven't been reading all that much in the fandom, but I have stumbled across some good fic:
Can I Have It In Writing? by
entangled_now and, since I know some of you like h/c as much as I do: No Florence Nightingale by
zinfic (Harvey, Louis, gen).Also, I've added Wolf Hall to my pile of unread books, since my rarely-attended book group is reading it. Has anybody read it? I read the first 20pp and enjoyed them, but then realized that no way was I going to read 600 non-work pages before the end of Sept., so got the audiobook to listen to in the car.
