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Nov. 15th, 2010 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
savage_midnightI had a dream about Mason from Vampire Diaries last night. Bizarre. We were hanging out on the roof of some mall-type building, sprawled on blankets and snoozing beneath the covers. It was a very warm and squishy dream (I mean that in a purely platonic, non-dirty way), and I woke up about 6.30am with a craving for lemonade. Huh.
Speaking of … how much am I loving this show right now? I mean, I had my issues with it from the beginning, but not the usual book vs. show issues I was expecting. No, the characters are not who they’re supposed to be (I think the only character who comes anywhere close is Stefan), but I’m okay with that because their TV counterparts are pretty awesome themselves.
The only problem I’ve ever had with this show is the way the writers naturally assume we either have a short memory or a superficial disposition, because now Damon’s inching his way towards his redemption (something that’s key to the books themselves, so I see why the writers are choosing to go down this route), every seriously shitty thing he’s done isn’t even mentioned.
I mean, Elena’s breaking point with Damon was him killing Jeremy. My breaking point with Damon would have been his obvious and downright cruel abuse of Caroline. Heap on killing Stefan’s best friend, trying to kill Bonnie and just being an all-around bastard and you’ve got a character that’s not even worth redeeming.
But I can settle into a nicely-superficial disposition if I so please, and I do it quite easily for this show. Because it’s a beautiful thing, people. It restrains itself from being a complete and utter Stefan-and-Elena whine-fest. The pacing is brilliant, the plots are tight and well-balanced, the cast is spot on, and every scene is… well, let’s just say I don’t feel like I’m watching teenagers chewing scenery when I watch this show.
My wish list for this show is for it to continue being awesome, but most of all I still want someone to call Damon out on his bullshit. At this moment I feel it needs to be Caroline. I think she has majority rights, especially because Damon is still being a complete and utter prick to her. Kick his ass, Caroline! I know you’re badass enough to do it.
Also? Nina Dobrev? You. Are. The Bomb. That shit you pulled off in the Katerina episode was more versatile than I originally expected of you coming into this show. I guess I got the same shock when I realised I actually like Paul Wesley as Stefan. I haven’t had many nice things to say about Wesley or his roles in the past, and I honestly never believed it would be this one that endeared him to me.
I do think that Ian Somerhalder should play down the crazy eyes a little, though. As it is, there’s a part of me that never quite manages to take his character seriously, which… yeah, I get that he’s the carefree, conscience-free brother and anything he does is just so damn unpredictable. But the kookiness has its time and place and I think we viewers need to see a slight shift in that devil-may-care exterior. The locket scene with Elena proved he’s capable of it. I want to see this same sincerity when he’s with Caroline, because she is his childe and a girl he used and abused and manipulated, a girl he is still bullying despite the fact that she died and her entire existence has changed.
Although, on that note, Stefan and Caroline as BFFs? I’d totally watch that spin-off.
Is it bad that I’ve stopped caring about Supernatural? I mean, if this is really the last season, I’ll watch it, just because I started the journey and I’ll finish it, you know? But I don’t actually care. The only thing I actually really liked about this week’s episode was Sam finally admitting that he’s not actually Sam and he doesn’t actually care. Like, I know they could go pretty dark with that, and knowing this show they will. But they can also make it kinda funny. Like Sam teasing the skinwalker. It has it’s merits, and it also means that the Sam we know, the Sam that’s done a lot of growing up in the past five-or-so years, isn’t actually gone for real.
But right now, show, you are boring.
I’m re-watching Battlestar Galactica again. Just because.
It was a treat to myself because I just don’t have the energy for real-life men at the moment. And sometimes we all just need a fictional boyfriend, you know?
I re-watched Donnie Darko (the original release because I prefer its soundtrack to the one they used for the director’s cut), Bubble Boy (ahhh, memories of being sixteen and finding wee!Jake adorably hilarious), Jarhead, Proof (I actually enjoyed and appreciated this more on second viewing), The Day After Tomorrow, Brokeback Mountain (still a little too long for me) and The Good Girl (this film did not get better on second viewing; it’s just thoroughly depressing).
I then watched (for the first time) Rendition (I actually really enjoyed this and I liked the “twist” at the end), Lovely & Amazing (a nice little film that may have made me cry a little), Zodiac (long) and Brothers (I wasn’t quite invested enough in the characters to care).
And then I watched the SNL episode he did and dear God, totally late to the party, but I prefer Gyllenhaal when he’s not taking himself seriously at all. Like, I don’t think it’s possible to embarrass or humiliate this guy in any way.
I must say that I still have a fondness for the films in which Gyllenhaal plays the socially awkward, the socially inept or the just plain insane. I guess that comes from the sixteen-year-old fangirl me who was also, at that time, socially awkward and definitely socially inept. Donnie Darko was the kind of film that really nailed how alien being a teenager can be. You don’t fit in your own skin, your body isn’t yours, the world just keeps getting more complicated and you sometimes feel like you’re in constant panic mode.
So I guess as an actor, Gyllenhaal has always been less Hollywood Heartthrob and more alienated-but-cute weirdo for me. And then I saw him in Prince of Persia, which, you know, it’s been said… that film is whitewashed to hell. But the actual film aside, it’s just a little bit bizarre to see Gyllenhaal playing the heart throb and the hero in such a blatantly direct way. He did it in The Day After Tomorrow, but that was more subtle. Here, not so much.
And now he’s doing a rom-com. It’s weird. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the guy’s funny and dude, kudos for trying to hit every branch on the acting tree. I guess I’m just starting to realise that hey, I’m not sixteen anymore, and Jake Gyllenhaal is kind of beyond that stage where he can play the alienated boy-man.
Not that I particularly miss being sixteen. I’m just feeling nostalgic.
A few months ago I decided that since I was turning 25 this year, it really was about time I learned how to drive. I never felt it was necessary when I was at uni. The city I lived in, being a student city, had enough buses and trains running for me to get around pretty easily.
Now I’m finding I’m getting itchy for my own set of wheels. Which I have. Yeah, I’m only half way through my driving lessons (they’re going well, thanks for asking) but I have a car! An Inbetweeners car (apparently). It was officially christened Tez on Saturday (short for Terry, as in Terry’s Chocolate Orange, because though the colour is more of a yellow-gold, my car looks like it’s been Tango’d in the dark). When it pisses me off, which I’m sure it will, it will be called Terence.
Speaking of … how much am I loving this show right now? I mean, I had my issues with it from the beginning, but not the usual book vs. show issues I was expecting. No, the characters are not who they’re supposed to be (I think the only character who comes anywhere close is Stefan), but I’m okay with that because their TV counterparts are pretty awesome themselves.
The only problem I’ve ever had with this show is the way the writers naturally assume we either have a short memory or a superficial disposition, because now Damon’s inching his way towards his redemption (something that’s key to the books themselves, so I see why the writers are choosing to go down this route), every seriously shitty thing he’s done isn’t even mentioned.
I mean, Elena’s breaking point with Damon was him killing Jeremy. My breaking point with Damon would have been his obvious and downright cruel abuse of Caroline. Heap on killing Stefan’s best friend, trying to kill Bonnie and just being an all-around bastard and you’ve got a character that’s not even worth redeeming.
But I can settle into a nicely-superficial disposition if I so please, and I do it quite easily for this show. Because it’s a beautiful thing, people. It restrains itself from being a complete and utter Stefan-and-Elena whine-fest. The pacing is brilliant, the plots are tight and well-balanced, the cast is spot on, and every scene is… well, let’s just say I don’t feel like I’m watching teenagers chewing scenery when I watch this show.
My wish list for this show is for it to continue being awesome, but most of all I still want someone to call Damon out on his bullshit. At this moment I feel it needs to be Caroline. I think she has majority rights, especially because Damon is still being a complete and utter prick to her. Kick his ass, Caroline! I know you’re badass enough to do it.
Also? Nina Dobrev? You. Are. The Bomb. That shit you pulled off in the Katerina episode was more versatile than I originally expected of you coming into this show. I guess I got the same shock when I realised I actually like Paul Wesley as Stefan. I haven’t had many nice things to say about Wesley or his roles in the past, and I honestly never believed it would be this one that endeared him to me.
I do think that Ian Somerhalder should play down the crazy eyes a little, though. As it is, there’s a part of me that never quite manages to take his character seriously, which… yeah, I get that he’s the carefree, conscience-free brother and anything he does is just so damn unpredictable. But the kookiness has its time and place and I think we viewers need to see a slight shift in that devil-may-care exterior. The locket scene with Elena proved he’s capable of it. I want to see this same sincerity when he’s with Caroline, because she is his childe and a girl he used and abused and manipulated, a girl he is still bullying despite the fact that she died and her entire existence has changed.
Although, on that note, Stefan and Caroline as BFFs? I’d totally watch that spin-off.
Is it bad that I’ve stopped caring about Supernatural? I mean, if this is really the last season, I’ll watch it, just because I started the journey and I’ll finish it, you know? But I don’t actually care. The only thing I actually really liked about this week’s episode was Sam finally admitting that he’s not actually Sam and he doesn’t actually care. Like, I know they could go pretty dark with that, and knowing this show they will. But they can also make it kinda funny. Like Sam teasing the skinwalker. It has it’s merits, and it also means that the Sam we know, the Sam that’s done a lot of growing up in the past five-or-so years, isn’t actually gone for real.
But right now, show, you are boring.
I’m re-watching Battlestar Galactica again. Just because.
It was a treat to myself because I just don’t have the energy for real-life men at the moment. And sometimes we all just need a fictional boyfriend, you know?
I re-watched Donnie Darko (the original release because I prefer its soundtrack to the one they used for the director’s cut), Bubble Boy (ahhh, memories of being sixteen and finding wee!Jake adorably hilarious), Jarhead, Proof (I actually enjoyed and appreciated this more on second viewing), The Day After Tomorrow, Brokeback Mountain (still a little too long for me) and The Good Girl (this film did not get better on second viewing; it’s just thoroughly depressing).
I then watched (for the first time) Rendition (I actually really enjoyed this and I liked the “twist” at the end), Lovely & Amazing (a nice little film that may have made me cry a little), Zodiac (long) and Brothers (I wasn’t quite invested enough in the characters to care).
And then I watched the SNL episode he did and dear God, totally late to the party, but I prefer Gyllenhaal when he’s not taking himself seriously at all. Like, I don’t think it’s possible to embarrass or humiliate this guy in any way.
I must say that I still have a fondness for the films in which Gyllenhaal plays the socially awkward, the socially inept or the just plain insane. I guess that comes from the sixteen-year-old fangirl me who was also, at that time, socially awkward and definitely socially inept. Donnie Darko was the kind of film that really nailed how alien being a teenager can be. You don’t fit in your own skin, your body isn’t yours, the world just keeps getting more complicated and you sometimes feel like you’re in constant panic mode.
So I guess as an actor, Gyllenhaal has always been less Hollywood Heartthrob and more alienated-but-cute weirdo for me. And then I saw him in Prince of Persia, which, you know, it’s been said… that film is whitewashed to hell. But the actual film aside, it’s just a little bit bizarre to see Gyllenhaal playing the heart throb and the hero in such a blatantly direct way. He did it in The Day After Tomorrow, but that was more subtle. Here, not so much.
And now he’s doing a rom-com. It’s weird. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the guy’s funny and dude, kudos for trying to hit every branch on the acting tree. I guess I’m just starting to realise that hey, I’m not sixteen anymore, and Jake Gyllenhaal is kind of beyond that stage where he can play the alienated boy-man.
Not that I particularly miss being sixteen. I’m just feeling nostalgic.
A few months ago I decided that since I was turning 25 this year, it really was about time I learned how to drive. I never felt it was necessary when I was at uni. The city I lived in, being a student city, had enough buses and trains running for me to get around pretty easily.
Now I’m finding I’m getting itchy for my own set of wheels. Which I have. Yeah, I’m only half way through my driving lessons (they’re going well, thanks for asking) but I have a car! An Inbetweeners car (apparently). It was officially christened Tez on Saturday (short for Terry, as in Terry’s Chocolate Orange, because though the colour is more of a yellow-gold, my car looks like it’s been Tango’d in the dark). When it pisses me off, which I’m sure it will, it will be called Terence.