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tellitslant) wrote2014-09-10 08:18 pm
tellitslant) wrote2014-09-10 08:18 pm
Entry tags:
[life's too short to spend chopping something that makes you cry]
So, 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
more tomorrow, once I've slept and watched it again.
shooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!
no subject
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
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
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