Sunday, November 11, 2012

Week Eight

Lundy Watches...
The theme of the week is being told what to do, who to be, and how to act, and the ways in which our characters deal with these suggestions. For some it is to ignore said advice, others blindly follow it, and a few very publicly defy it all.


Secret Diary of a Call GirlTabloid Journalism [4]

Hannah/Belle (Billie Piper) has gotten herself into quite the situation, having been spotted with a member of parliament as her client, and blackmailed into revealing her side of the story. Told that, should she decide to offer up whatever information she has, the press will take kindly to her and paint her in a more pleasant light, but she's left to consider the ramifications her choice will have for both her personal and professional lives.

Ultimately, Hannah chooses to respect the privacy of Belle's clients, and refuses to give any information to the press, even when it's revealed that a picture of her will be run, unaltered, should she not cooperate. She sticks to her guns, refusing to compromise her business ethics, stealing her family's newspapers just in case, and having everything work out in her favor in the end.

Likewise, Belle's new apprentice Bambi (Ashley Madekwe) badgers her for information and advice about getting into the business, and moments after being told to be careful, to choose her clients wisely, Bambi answers Belle's phone and snipes a customer without a second thought. The last we see of Bambi is her walk to work, defying everything that Belle had told her, determined to lead the life with or without a guide, and potentially destroying Belle's reputation in the process.


DariaToo Cute [3]

Having focused so much time and energy on her appearance, Quinn (Wendy Hoopes) is shocked to learn that there are "improvements" that could be made to her through surgical alteration. While Daria (Tracy Grandstaff) is remiss to tell her younger sister that she's anything other than irritating, she follows Quinn to her consultation, all the time worried that she's seriously considering going through with the surgery.

While Dr. Shar (Tracy Lee Bell) manages to convince Quinn that she needs a drastic change to her visage, Daria remains otherwise uninterested, though that doesn't stop the good doctor from providing an example of how she, too, could be changed. Daria disregards Dr. Shar's advice, leaving the office with Quinn more sure of herself than ever, and ultimately talking her sibling out of changing anything about herself. The Morgendorffer sisters share a moment with one another as Daria helps Quinn accept her natural beauty as the perfect look for her, and both soften toward the other ever so slightly.


Buffy the Vampire SlayerThe Puppet Show [3.5]

Forced to participate in the school's talent show, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finds herself on the trail of what appears to be a serial killer with a penchant for ritual sacrifice. While she would like nothing more than to find the culprit and stop him from continuing his murderous spree, she's forced again and again to focus on her upcoming talent in an effort to appease Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman) and avoid getting herself kicked out of another school.

Likewise, Morgan Shay (Rich Werner) is enlisted in Sid the Dummy's (Tom Wyner) quest for a demon, putting him directly in Buffy's warpath. Morgan's ailing health makes him all the more conspicuous to the slayer, and the two end up hunting for each other before realizing that they're fighting the same war. Morgan's involvement with Sid leads to his eventual death, a scenario that Buffy's all too familiar with and none too pleased to be caught up in herself, though she does indeed avenge her fallen ally by finding and stopping the real monster.


Life on MarsBring Me Sunshine [4.5]

Gene (Philip Glenister) has always made his own rules, followed his instincts and simply hoped that everything worked out for the best, often planting evidence and cutting corners to expedite the process. Here he sees how Sam's (John Simm) tactics can, at times, provide better results, and it makes Gene want to make an honest attempt to change, to take what works for his partner and see if it can work for him. What works for him, Gene absorbs into his act, and what doesn't work for him, he completely ignores and pretends as though he had never tried it in the first place. While he's incredibly resistant to change, he's not so far gone that he's unwilling to consider the possibilities, though he'd never admit to anyone that Sam Tyler was right about something.

Sam, on the other hand, has always strictly followed the letter of the law, only on the rare occasion straying from his chosen path, and only doing so if he thought he could find a way back home. Here he goes completely off the rails, using everything he's seen Gene do in an effort to take a criminal off the street; the issue is that his criminal, Tony Crane (Marc Warren,) has yet to commit the crimes that Sam wants to take him down for, and Sam plants evidence, lies about leads, and does everything in his power to put a currently innocent man behind locked doors.

Seeing how far from honest Sam has strayed, Annie (Liz White) tries to convince him to get his mental health in check, worried that he may become a danger to himself, and to others, should he continue on the way he has been. In the previous series her focus on his mental state had been primarily in regards to his own safety, but as time goes on she's starting to worry more and more about the dangers he could pose to other people, and her advice here is something of a veiled threat. Should he continue to refuse treatment, ignore whatever inconsistencies he has shown in his attitude and behavior, she might be forced to report him to an official, either to medicate him or take him off the streets entirely. Annie would never want to betray her friend, but if it were to keep him safe then she wouldn't hesitate to speak up, and what she's asking here is for him not to give her a reason to.


Better Off TedBioshuffle [4]

When everyone is forced to share their offices, Linda (Andrea Anders) takes refuge in Ted's (Jay Harrington) office, very quickly learning that she's not the employee he thought she was. Ted grows very irritated with his friend, eventually telling her that she needs to shape up, to work harder, and learn to focus her energy on something more productive. Linda, on the other hand, feels that she needs to goof off, she needs to let loose every now and then, otherwise the company's strict rules will break her down and no longer will she be the happy person that she is, but instead she will grow bitter and resentful, becoming something of a ghost of herself. Linda lashes out because she needs to take silent revenge against the company, something that she had thought Ted understood about her, but here, being told by her superior that she needs to conform, Linda lashes out once more, amplifying her grating habits in an effort to teach Ted a lesson about how the company treats its employees.

Lem (Malcolm Barrett) finds himself in a similar situation, though his focus is on his personal relationship with Lucy (Joy Osmanski) than on his work. Having not had many successful relationships in his adult life, Lem worries that his habits and personality might scare Lucy away, but instead she finds him incredibly endearing, and is more than patient with his personal tics. The issue arises when Lem steadily grows worried that she will find someone more attractive, superior to him physically, and he starts trying to find ways to sabotage Lucy's workmate Brody (Tom Hughes.) Lem's plans backfire, and Lucy ends up in Brody's arms, realizing only too late that, had he never gone through with his plans, Lucy and Brody never would have gotten into a situation where they really had a chance to know one another.

Where Linda is told to be a better worker, she challenges those criticisms and finds ways to maintain her productivity while creating an incredibly unprofessional appearance. Lem assumes that he needs to change who he is in order to keep a woman in his life, and, sadly, realizes only too late that the man he's trying to be is not the man she had fallen for.


FireflyOut of Gas [4.5]

In flashback we see that Zoë (Gina Torres) thinks that Mal (Nathan Fillion) is completely insane for investing his money in the Serenity, but Mal refuses to listen. Mal can see the possibilities of a life on board this ship, and while Zoë remains hesitant about his new purchase, he soldiers on, determined to become the captain of a crew. His attitude here is what will become his philosophy in running his ship, making a risky decision and sticking to his guns no matter the dissidence from those around him, certain that, given time, those who disagree with him will eventually come to see things his way.

Mal's attitude continues into the present day as he decides to send his crew away in shuttles as he waits alone on the ship to die. Despite Inara (Morena Baccarin) pleading with him to go with them, and the rest of the crew telling him that he needn't give his life for his ship, he remains steadfast in his decision, stating that some miracle will save his ship and bring them all back together again. His gamble pays off when the SS Walden comes to the rescue, but things very quickly turn sour when they turn on him, leaving him once more stranded and slowly bleeding out. Thankfully, it's the intervention of Zoë that sees Mal's life saved, as, just like her captain, she has difficulty with being told how to behave.


Winner of the Week • Firefly

Many of the shows watched during this week have had incredible characters, people with such depth that we truly feel for them and the situations they find themselves in, but Firefly's "Out of Gas" truly mastered the art of conveying what each member of his crew means to Captain Reynolds. Through the use of flashback we're treated to the stories of how these people came aboard the Serenity, and the connections that Mal makes with these people are at once completely opposed to their current relationships and absolutely compatible with who they once were.

While Mal often disagrees with his crew's tactics, and sometimes opposes them completely, the story here truly helps the audience understand that, despite whatever argument he might be having with them, he deeply cares for each and every one of the people aboard his ship. Where many protagonists would be written to zero in on the flaws of others, to use those imperfections against them later, Mal instead acknowledges that no one is perfect and accepts them for who they are, and it's refreshing that, in light of their differences, no matter how frustrating they can all be to one another, they will always come together in the end to help each other out.

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