![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tellitslantSo, here's my problem: I watched the first three seasons of Scott & Bailey on sophiagratia's rec, meaning that she'd watched them all and I knew that even though terrible things happened, none of those things were things that would make me want to stop watching the show. And now that s4 has started and I'm watching it blind, I am really stressed out that something is going to happen that will destroy the show for me forever.
(I, ah. Upon reflection, I may have some slight trauma from the end of Warehouse 13.OH GOD I WILL NEVER TRUST TELEVISION AGAIN *ahem*)
Anyways so apparently I should just plan that my Wednesday nights for the next two months are going to be completely taken up with this show, what with the pausing and the whimpering and the hiding-in-my-hoodie breaks that meant I just spent nearly three hours watching the 45-minute ep. And now I'm going to re-watch it, like, of course I am, because now I can enjoy it without stress. Commentary behind the cut; also includes some stressing about a point that has not yet been revealed in the show but was teased in the trailer. I'll put that behind an extra cut on DW, but if you're on LJ you'll just have to deal, now won't you.
First: FUCKING HELL GILL AND HER CAR. *flails around all over the place* I mean I knew that was coming, because I read the press pack, and that's probably a good thing because I could NOT have coped with it unexpectedly. God damn. One of my biggest fears about this season has been that they would let Gill's abduction just... be in the past. NOPE, in fact they are going to TRAUMATISE ME FURTHER by exploring that quite thoroughly, it would appear. I was also a little worried that Amelia Bullmore would, as she has said she does in the past, find writing for herself somewhat trying. NOPE AGAIN, all the little Gill bits in this were fucking perfect. She is just that slight bit off still. I am torn between being thrilled that she's clearly going to get some serious screentime and wanting to hug her a lot.
*breathes*
Loved the way that Rachel and Janet got to demonstrate their very different competencies for the promotion board - and loved, too, all the effort put in to demonstrate that they're doing different things with their friendship now. The phone call, the cooking advice, and the way they very deliberately emphasize/lean on their connection (where before it was, perhaps, more casual - now they're working on it) - it reads as very much a response to Janet's heartcry in 3.07 that maybe she and Rachel weren't actually meant to be friends. Now that they almost lost each other, they each know how valuable the other is, and they're fighting for that.
Having Janet refuse the promotion is the best way I can think of to deal with the problem where, really, she is way more likely to get the job, but dramatically, having Rachel as the sergeant is more interesting. I am also OVER THE MOON about the fact that Rachel is now going to be Gill's right hand woman. Oh, they will rub along well enough, at least until one of them gets prickly with the other - see just in that brief interaction, where they're just so defensive, both of them together. *rubs hands in glee* But Rachel's going to grow so much - she already has - and Gill, is Gill going to be able to open up a little? eee. I mean she's already been chattier with usual with Rob, so.
Of course it's inevitably going to get out that Rachel wasn't the first choice - if there's one thing that does bug me about Bullmore's writing, it is that sometimes she can be a bit heavy-handed, and htat Janet and Gill exchange was just a bit too pat - and I actually think that Gill really wnated Janet in the position for personal reasons. I think she wanted someone who's steady, yes, but who she's friends with, someone she could lean on and whose judgement she trusts implicitly, because she's not entirely certain of her own any longer. She was practically begging Janet to throw her family's problems under the bus to be Gill's sergeant! So I think that'll be interesting.
I am, however, not in love with the whole thing where pressures at home cause Janet to step back in her career - I thought this show was better than that! - but what are you going to do, and I think it is very Janet.
But OH Rachel and processing that she's got the promotion. DARLING. *hugs for her*
One of the things that I read in the press pack or in some interview was that this season was going to have only standalone plots. I am pleased to find that this not the case already! Maybe it won't be quite as interconnected as the Bevan case, but still, there is clearly going to be followthrough in both character and plot terms.
Speaking of plot, then, here's the thing that I am the most stressed about regarding this season: the threat of Gill's retirement. There's a clip in the trailer where she says straight out she's retiring, and she's talked about it in the past, PLUS it came up here in ep 1 when Rob asks her if she'd ever consider running a pub after she retires - does that mean she's been talking about it already? On the rational side, I find it incredibly hard to believe that they'd take Gill out of the equation. She's one of the major cornerstones of the show - what on earth would it be like if they had a different DCI? That holy trinity of the three of them is the most important thing the show has going for it, and surely they wouldn't promote Rachel in order to play with that side of the triangle and then knock it down right away? Plus whenever she has talked about retirement, it's been on the bad days - and I don't think that it makes sense for the character, who is, like Rachel, bloody brilliant at her job and bloody in love with it. I really want to think that it's another element of that trauma reaction coming through for her - that she's running away and that she will, with help, get through it. But I am kind of terrified that I'm wrong and that they are going to pull some sort of a massive shakeup and let her retire. AUGH. I don't want the show without her! So that is my major source of stress at the moment, with the show, and why I keep hiding in my shirt and watching through my fingers. :P
On the other hand, I love that they are so firmly committed to the ideals of this show that they built a second ladies' toilets set.
Just... stay good to me, show, okay? Please? :P
sophiagratia's rec, meaning that she'd watched them all and I knew that even though terrible things happened, none of those things were things that would make me want to stop watching the show. And now that s4 has started and I'm watching it blind, I am really stressed out that something is going to happen that will destroy the show for me forever.(I, ah. Upon reflection, I may have some slight trauma from the end of Warehouse 13.
Anyways so apparently I should just plan that my Wednesday nights for the next two months are going to be completely taken up with this show, what with the pausing and the whimpering and the hiding-in-my-hoodie breaks that meant I just spent nearly three hours watching the 45-minute ep. And now I'm going to re-watch it, like, of course I am, because now I can enjoy it without stress. Commentary behind the cut; also includes some stressing about a point that has not yet been revealed in the show but was teased in the trailer. I'll put that behind an extra cut on DW, but if you're on LJ you'll just have to deal, now won't you.
First: FUCKING HELL GILL AND HER CAR. *flails around all over the place* I mean I knew that was coming, because I read the press pack, and that's probably a good thing because I could NOT have coped with it unexpectedly. God damn. One of my biggest fears about this season has been that they would let Gill's abduction just... be in the past. NOPE, in fact they are going to TRAUMATISE ME FURTHER by exploring that quite thoroughly, it would appear. I was also a little worried that Amelia Bullmore would, as she has said she does in the past, find writing for herself somewhat trying. NOPE AGAIN, all the little Gill bits in this were fucking perfect. She is just that slight bit off still. I am torn between being thrilled that she's clearly going to get some serious screentime and wanting to hug her a lot.
*breathes*
Loved the way that Rachel and Janet got to demonstrate their very different competencies for the promotion board - and loved, too, all the effort put in to demonstrate that they're doing different things with their friendship now. The phone call, the cooking advice, and the way they very deliberately emphasize/lean on their connection (where before it was, perhaps, more casual - now they're working on it) - it reads as very much a response to Janet's heartcry in 3.07 that maybe she and Rachel weren't actually meant to be friends. Now that they almost lost each other, they each know how valuable the other is, and they're fighting for that.
Having Janet refuse the promotion is the best way I can think of to deal with the problem where, really, she is way more likely to get the job, but dramatically, having Rachel as the sergeant is more interesting. I am also OVER THE MOON about the fact that Rachel is now going to be Gill's right hand woman. Oh, they will rub along well enough, at least until one of them gets prickly with the other - see just in that brief interaction, where they're just so defensive, both of them together. *rubs hands in glee* But Rachel's going to grow so much - she already has - and Gill, is Gill going to be able to open up a little? eee. I mean she's already been chattier with usual with Rob, so.
Of course it's inevitably going to get out that Rachel wasn't the first choice - if there's one thing that does bug me about Bullmore's writing, it is that sometimes she can be a bit heavy-handed, and htat Janet and Gill exchange was just a bit too pat - and I actually think that Gill really wnated Janet in the position for personal reasons. I think she wanted someone who's steady, yes, but who she's friends with, someone she could lean on and whose judgement she trusts implicitly, because she's not entirely certain of her own any longer. She was practically begging Janet to throw her family's problems under the bus to be Gill's sergeant! So I think that'll be interesting.
I am, however, not in love with the whole thing where pressures at home cause Janet to step back in her career - I thought this show was better than that! - but what are you going to do, and I think it is very Janet.
But OH Rachel and processing that she's got the promotion. DARLING. *hugs for her*
One of the things that I read in the press pack or in some interview was that this season was going to have only standalone plots. I am pleased to find that this not the case already! Maybe it won't be quite as interconnected as the Bevan case, but still, there is clearly going to be followthrough in both character and plot terms.
Speaking of plot, then, here's the thing that I am the most stressed about regarding this season: the threat of Gill's retirement. There's a clip in the trailer where she says straight out she's retiring, and she's talked about it in the past, PLUS it came up here in ep 1 when Rob asks her if she'd ever consider running a pub after she retires - does that mean she's been talking about it already? On the rational side, I find it incredibly hard to believe that they'd take Gill out of the equation. She's one of the major cornerstones of the show - what on earth would it be like if they had a different DCI? That holy trinity of the three of them is the most important thing the show has going for it, and surely they wouldn't promote Rachel in order to play with that side of the triangle and then knock it down right away? Plus whenever she has talked about retirement, it's been on the bad days - and I don't think that it makes sense for the character, who is, like Rachel, bloody brilliant at her job and bloody in love with it. I really want to think that it's another element of that trauma reaction coming through for her - that she's running away and that she will, with help, get through it. But I am kind of terrified that I'm wrong and that they are going to pull some sort of a massive shakeup and let her retire. AUGH. I don't want the show without her! So that is my major source of stress at the moment, with the show, and why I keep hiding in my shirt and watching through my fingers. :P
On the other hand, I love that they are so firmly committed to the ideals of this show that they built a second ladies' toilets set.
Just... stay good to me, show, okay? Please? :P
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 04:51 am (UTC)more tomorrow, once I've slept and watched it again.
shooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 05:03 am (UTC)god, I can't believe how little I talked about Janet here - because I loved SO MUCH of her! And I think this ep very deliberately gave us her doing her brilliant best in the interview room as a reminder that that really is her greatest skill... but that doesn't make it any less devastating that she doesn't get to stretch and grow into the sergeant's job. JANET.
I might need to re-up my account here just so I can get icons for this show. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-12 01:58 am (UTC)Except also my FAVORITE THING was how Janet and Rachel both already knew they were both interviewing one right after the other. Other shows would have had them crossing paths outside the interview room be a dramatic surprise. And then when they both just frankly acknowledge they want the same job. <3
Except then I had to rewatch Janet turning Gill down, and Gill's little FACE about it, and JANET. *cries quietly in the corner*.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-12 04:01 am (UTC)And yes, I have spent a lot of time stressing about how the competition might play out and I am so thrilled that it's being played off, that they're both so invested in each other. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 11:18 am (UTC)-J
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 01:07 pm (UTC)Also I hope you didn't READ any of this post *pointed glare* ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 01:08 pm (UTC)Finished the season two finale this morning!
-J
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 01:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 06:11 pm (UTC):D :D :D What a good show, seriously.
I loved loved loved the bit with Gill and her car, omg. She is the best, and I love that her off her game is still pretty damned amazing.
I also ADORE how they decided to go for such a genuinely police-work-y plot for this episode, with pretty much zero dramatic tension and a fundamentally unsatisfying result -- it's not that I'm not super into the more epic plots, but I love that their season-opener, starts-with-a-bang, reel-them-in-and-keep-them-hooked A-plot was everyone doing a hell of a lot of hardwork and showcasing a hell of a lot of skill to get to the bottom of a sad but unsurprising story.
Now that they almost lost each other, they each know how valuable the other is, and they're fighting for that.
Yesss! It really worked for me, but I hadn't put my finger on why -- this is exactly it, they are tending to their friendship, they're nurturing it, they're treating it as a real and potentially breakable thing that matters.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-12 03:56 am (UTC)YES, THIS. Like, her personal life is suffering, but she is still there for worklife (although I would not be surprised to see that start to suffer a bit too - but even then, like, she is Gill Fucking Murray, her suffering is still waaaay above most people's mad skillz).
And yes, you're totally right, this is just good old-fashioned policing - it's everybody plugging along and doing what they do best. It has the potential to blow up, but as it is it's just... getting good and stuck in. <3
ugh I just love them SO SO MUCH.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-11 08:22 pm (UTC)I do not blame you for being worried, but this episode reallyreally relieved my mind that they're going to do Gill justice. Whatever happens with Gill, it's clearly not going to just be retirement and that's it and fine then. It might well be heartbreaking, but I think it'll be great. I think the trauma is 100% part of that story, and it's not at all the sort of story where you then pull out a random shakeup from on high and have that be the resolution.
I love that Janet and Rachel are so clearly explicitly working on their friendship thing right now. I love that. I like to think that Janet's epic communication skills can do miracles like that, and here I think they have. ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT ALL THE WAYS THE EXPLICIT VALUING OF WOMEN AND WOMEN'S WORK AND WOMEN'S FRIENDSHIPS MAKES MY LIFE, BECAUSE IT DOES. OMG.
(Incidentally, I think that's going to be the angle they take on the Janet turning down the promotion thing: in terms of promotion it's a bad move, but accepting it would probably also have taken her away from the interview room, which is where her true genius lies. There's a lot to be said for being there for your kids AND getting to use your skills. I mean, I think she's still going to have moments of being sad or pissed off, and rightfully so, and I do in many ways think she ideally shouldn't have turned it down... but I can see an argument.)
AND YOUR LADIES TOILETS COMMENT MAKES ME SO HAPPY, IT'S SO TRUE. Many important scenes in literally the most ladies place you can have. I love it. I love it SO MUCH.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-12 04:30 am (UTC)I am fairly convinced rationally that nothing horrid is going to happen to Gill, like retirement, but I'm also pretty sure that until the end of the series or something definitive, I am going to be STRESSING MY FACE OFF nonetheless. So. Welcome to my Gill Murray Feels Email Chain! More than usual, I mean. :P
I totally agree about the promotion - Janet is so so brilliant in the interviews, and that is her natural skill, so I hope that she gets to glory in that a lot this season. But I do love that we're getting her mourning for it too - she's not just blithely going on happy for herself, but she's properly upset, as she should be!
ALSO LADYFRIENDSHIPS :D :D :D
i need icons!