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Okay, first fannish project of the summer: rewatching due South! I want to do it in part because I know s3/4 a lot better than 1 & 2; I may find Kowalski freakishly easy to write, but I'd like to reacquaint myself with Vecchio -- and also Fraser, honestly, because dS may be nicely episodic but I still have suspicions of character arc. (At the very least, like with Doctor Who, I can do the fun thing the human brain does of making up patterns, and manufacture theories of character arc.)
I seriously hope my commentaries for the actual series are more concise (and have more than one episode to an entry, so as to keep down the clutter), but since this is the pilot, I'm continually getting ahead of myself, and even shamefully talking a lot about Kowalski despite the conspicuous absence of any Kowalski in said pilot.
Bob's death scene: pretty fucking awesome, actually. It means pretty much nothing at all when you first see it, and actually it means not very much if you've only seen first season: I think it's probably best after the whole Bob Fraser Experience, which is the whole show. There's just something weirdly ... magnificent about Bob calmly standing and facing death. Which is of course exactly what Benton Fraser would also do. <3
What I really love is that our introduction to Fraser is seeing this nut on a dogsled in fifty below, whilst all his colleagues at the outpost discuss what a total freak he is. I mean, as the show goes on (and especially when they let Paul Gross get his hands on it) everyone becomes a total freak -- see particularly Turnbull and the evolution of Buck Frobisher -- but I love that at the core of this show we do essentially just have a guy who is a complete fish-out-of-water nutcase whose best friend is a half-wolf with whom he holds serious conversations.
Relatedly, as of the pilot Fraser's been on the force thirteen years. He had to transfer out of Moose Jaw because he couldn't adapt to the urban lifestyle -- and I really like that line, and wish there was more interesting fic about it (there are a few stories, most of which are awesome). Because, seriously, he couldn't adapt? Me, I'm from a small town that had a national park attached, and Chicago scares the hell out of me, but Fraser and Chicago are good. I mean, the assumption that people will do the right thing because it's the right thing to do is a bad assumption in a place like Chicago, but Fraser really manages admirably well. I think he just needs to be in a place with friends. I'm getting way ahead of the pilot here, but: when Fraser knows he's been indefinitely exiled to Chicago, he's immediately willing to call Ray Vecchio his best friend. When Vecchio vanishes and Kowalski turns up, Kowalski actually does the best possible thing in working really hard to convince Fraser that they're definitely buddies and partners -- I mean, hell, he does a good enough job that even after he punches Fraser, Fraser turns down a transfer back to Canada. (That it's Ottowa instead of the Territories might have something to do with it too.) Basically, if Fraser is in the middle of nowhere with only his dogs for company, he can be perfectly happy: he's in charge of the situation and making all his own choices, and if he chooses to have only dogs for company, he can't possibly be lonely. I think he probably transferred out of Moose Jaw both because he prefers the great outdoors to a city, but also because it's sometimes a lot easier to feel completely alone when surrounded by people.
I'm also having a good time with this pilot because I have seen Burning Down the House so many times I can recite the entire damn episode, so it's fun to catch the callbacks. Fraser tracking suspects three hundred kilometers because they fished/littered/whatever way over the limit: totally a normal Fraser thing to do! It's how he spends his vacations. You'd think he'd be sort of wary about phone calls from tribal elders that have another message attached, though. The first time, his father's just died; the second time, Vecchio goes away to Vegas. That's ... actually really awesome mirroring and I shouldn't mock Paul Gross's ridiculousness when he also does really awesome mirroring.
I am completely distracted by Diefenbaker's totally different colouring, by the way. Black back, blue eyes! YOU ARE NOT MY DIEF. Poor first Dief.
The pemmican-for-the-nuns-at-the-airport scene is pretty fantastic. If that scene took place anytime after ... Victoria, maybe? I don't know, one of the things I'm going to be doing is tracking Fraser's relative naiveté. If the pemmican scene took place after a certain point I would know that Fraser understands the nuns are asking for money, and if he gives them pemmican instead it's because he's in a particularly snarky mood. Here, though, he just really honestly doesn't know. Oh tiny Fraser.
Things that Fraser is good at: blowing Vecchio's cover. Things that I am good at: getting this enormous dorky beaming smile on my face because VECCHIO. I think I have missed this Ray. I also think that a requirement for being a Ray on due South is having one of the most infectious smiles ever. <3
I am not actually sure where I am going with this but I like that "being undercover" is one of the big themes in this show; that like you, he is pretending to be someone he is not thing. I like that the Vegas gig isn't the first time we see Vecchio doing something kind of undercover. There's Ray's failure to blend with the criminal underbelly in a bar later in the pilot, there's the hilarious used-car-salesman thing in a couple of episodes, there's the Ms. Fraser one (<333xaMILLION), there's the fact that Vecchio's s1 love interest is an undercover agent and the fact that Victoria Metcalfe is the world's best con job. The swapping of Rays may be a little convoluted but mostly it's really apt, and undercover as a thematic symbolic thing that's only literal when it needs to be makes at least Kowalski a bit more coherent, especially with that scene in CotW where he talks about not knowing who you are if you're not around a certain person. Basically this whole thing makes me ache for both Rays. Despite the car salesman and the Ms. Fraser and the Henry Allen undercover things, though, I don't think Fraser's issues are identity issues. He's too honest and centered for that? I don't know. Hopefully I will figure out where I am going with this eventually.
I am sad that Inspector Moffatt exists. WHERE IS THATCHER. I mean, I know where she is, she is in s2. I am also a little sad that Leann Brighton never turns up after the pilot; she could have been interesting, although she is ... a lot of the bad qualities of many of the dS women (trying to be take-charge and independent but coming off as sort of neurotic and sometimes ridiculous, specifically). I will probably have to think at greater length about the women on dS: I adore Frannie but she's a total nutcase, Thatcher I ... have yet to figure out but she is a particular trope of the high-powered woman who is easily threatened, I have no idea what to do with Stella, and Victoria is her own special kettle of fish. This is not to say that there are not also uniformly awesome women on this show -- Elaine immediately comes to mind, and I remember liking her and sympathizing with her a little in her Frasercrush rather than cringing like most of the women who throw themselves at him make me do -- and I am really fond of Sister Ann (and all the women in Some Like It Red, actually), and I like Irene Zuko, and I love the little old lady in Eclipse, and Beth Botrelle is one of my favourite one-shot characters, and s4 even has some really good love interests, since I like both Luanne Russel and Lady Shoes in their own right. But I don't know! The Women is another one of those things I want to track.
Wow, Fraser and Ray really have NO PERSONAL SPACE. Or um specifically Ray has no personal space; I imagine it takes Fraser a couple of episodes to loosen up. (And then of course when they brief Kowalski, they tell him, "Fraser and Vecchio have no personal space" and so he does the No Personal Space thing and then they are ALWAYS TOUCHING.) I think I might intentionally get some Fraser/Vecchio squee on this time through, by the way. And if I go "LA LA LA" loudly re: Vecchio's ending in CotW and instead assume an OT3, I can even be happy about it. (Not that I am not tempted to like Stella/Vecchio, but see above re: me needing to figure out what the hell is going on with Stella.)
I like that Ray doesn't want to do Fraser's case because he's worried about his career; Ray, sweetie, it's going nowhere fast -- although it goes some way to explaining the Vegas gig. I think part of it is that he caught a sense of duty from Fraser, but it's also partly, undercover as a mob boss, that has to secretly be pretty awesome, what with the limo and the butler named Nero.
Vecchio's first scene with Diefenbaker: mildly less awesome than Kowalski's first scene, because Vecchio's "GET OFF ME" does not come with bonus spoken punctuation (my favourite single line of Kowalski's? shamefully, the answer is probably yes) but I love Vecchio being flaily and neurotic as per usual. Also: Diefenbaker saved Fraser from Prince Rupert Sound and went deaf two years prior to the pilot; also also, Fraser's guileless earnest look as he tells Ray that Diefenbaker doesn't always save you, but only saves you if he hears you, is probably the first real instance of Fraser!humour. Fraser, you are a total freak.
Oh god Ray has a black vintage car instead of the Riv. I think I may have just died a little inside. With laughter.
Apparently Vecchio's boss in the pilot, according to the IMDb and such, is a Captain Walsh. I think I am fond of proto-Welsh, although I love Welsh to absolute little pieces; Captain Walsh has a green lava lamp, you see, and I wish Welsh had a lava lamp too. And one of those weird wave machines. It would lend him an air of indefinable mystery.
Something I think I really like about the pilot is how grounded in reality it is. That's not to say that the sheer absurdity of due South isn't one of my favourite things about it, because it is -- I just like that there's a base point of reference if you want your realism. I'm probably thinking here of how gravity mostly works the right way, and all Bob Fraser's advice is bound up in dozens of notebooks, but for some reason what sparked this thought was Fraser asking the cab driver to walk Leann Brighton to her door. Again it is maybe something about the women on this show that ping my absurdity meter in the not-so-good way, and though I am willing to buy the conjunction of Fraser's chivalry and deliberate cluelessness, I like that in the pilot at least he mostly does the chivalry without the absurdity. Oh, and that Frannie is after him without me wanting to hide under tables because of it.
Speaking of Bob's diaries, by the way, they kind of make me want to wail. The sheer affection he has for Fraser. BOB YOU WERE RUBBISH AT BEING PRESENT AND ALIVE AT THE SAME TIME. This sort of genuinely upsets me.
Vecchio's dad has only been dead for five years at the time of the pilot. That's funny; for some reason I thought it'd been longer. It probably says a lot about Vecchio: as far as I can remember, the show makes pretty light of the fact that Ray's dad was a horrible father, and when he turns up a couple of times as a ghost it's made light of also -- the ghosts are more or less always figures of at least some fun -- but that Ray's dad only died recently can't be good for any for the Vecchios' mental health. It's interesting, actually, because the show never ever glosses over Fraser's pain, even or especially when it's subtle, and it certainly doesn't gloss Kowalski's either, see: Stella, Beth Botrelle, the fact that Kowalski can be a little inarticulate about it but is basically at all times in touch with and fairly vocal about his feelings -- but Vecchio had an abusive father and can actually be pretty scary (Francesca thought he killed a guy that one time! good vote of confidence there, Frannie) and is probably more cynical than Fraser and Kowalski put together and pulled off being a mob boss for a year and change, but all of that is ... implications. I am sure there is a good and specific reason for it that is bound to his character, but I can't quite articulate what the reason is.
And I think Fraser swearing goes funny things to me. Actually the entire sequence with Gerrard, starting with Gerrard shooting Drake and going through to when Fraser pulls a gun on him, is just lovely, because you can see how completely blindsided and emotionally wrecked it's making Fraser, even though it's just him being quieter than usual and breathing in a really controlled way. I KIND OF LOVE FRASER, HAVE I MENTIONED THIS. Especially when he says things like, "He was your friend, you son of a bitch." Oh and the CARIBOU ON THE DESK. I fucking love how Fraser goes all Godfather on them.
I may be kind of in love with Ray's insane determination to solve the case while convalescent, come up to Canada before he's actually better, bitch Fraser out, and lend lots of guns and explosives. What is it about Fraser that inspires Rays to drop everything, arguably including self-preservation, in order to help him out? I don't know, but I adore it. Oh and I adore the SYNCHRONIZED POLICING. By "synchronized policing" I mean "Life On Mars conditioned me to be deeply excited whenever cop-type partners punch someone at the same time" but oh it makes me happy.
I also really love the Inuit hunter. He's so matter-of-fact and droll about everything. "Thought he was a caribou." <3 I wish we'd see more of him -- or more Quinn, or more Eric (and David and all their extended family who flood Fraser's apartment that one time) because ... mm, I know it is mostly set in Chicago but they found excuses for Quinn and Eric to be there, and how often does a show's premise allow you to have recurring Inuit guest stars? I just wish they were around more.
The pilot also makes me want more questfic. Sweeping snowy vistas! SLED DOGS! I love the amount of Actual Canada there is in the pilot.
Next: Fraser gets an apartment, makes a new friend, and causes the slow but inevitable rise in Ray's blood pressure.
I seriously hope my commentaries for the actual series are more concise (and have more than one episode to an entry, so as to keep down the clutter), but since this is the pilot, I'm continually getting ahead of myself, and even shamefully talking a lot about Kowalski despite the conspicuous absence of any Kowalski in said pilot.
Bob's death scene: pretty fucking awesome, actually. It means pretty much nothing at all when you first see it, and actually it means not very much if you've only seen first season: I think it's probably best after the whole Bob Fraser Experience, which is the whole show. There's just something weirdly ... magnificent about Bob calmly standing and facing death. Which is of course exactly what Benton Fraser would also do. <3
What I really love is that our introduction to Fraser is seeing this nut on a dogsled in fifty below, whilst all his colleagues at the outpost discuss what a total freak he is. I mean, as the show goes on (and especially when they let Paul Gross get his hands on it) everyone becomes a total freak -- see particularly Turnbull and the evolution of Buck Frobisher -- but I love that at the core of this show we do essentially just have a guy who is a complete fish-out-of-water nutcase whose best friend is a half-wolf with whom he holds serious conversations.
Relatedly, as of the pilot Fraser's been on the force thirteen years. He had to transfer out of Moose Jaw because he couldn't adapt to the urban lifestyle -- and I really like that line, and wish there was more interesting fic about it (there are a few stories, most of which are awesome). Because, seriously, he couldn't adapt? Me, I'm from a small town that had a national park attached, and Chicago scares the hell out of me, but Fraser and Chicago are good. I mean, the assumption that people will do the right thing because it's the right thing to do is a bad assumption in a place like Chicago, but Fraser really manages admirably well. I think he just needs to be in a place with friends. I'm getting way ahead of the pilot here, but: when Fraser knows he's been indefinitely exiled to Chicago, he's immediately willing to call Ray Vecchio his best friend. When Vecchio vanishes and Kowalski turns up, Kowalski actually does the best possible thing in working really hard to convince Fraser that they're definitely buddies and partners -- I mean, hell, he does a good enough job that even after he punches Fraser, Fraser turns down a transfer back to Canada. (That it's Ottowa instead of the Territories might have something to do with it too.) Basically, if Fraser is in the middle of nowhere with only his dogs for company, he can be perfectly happy: he's in charge of the situation and making all his own choices, and if he chooses to have only dogs for company, he can't possibly be lonely. I think he probably transferred out of Moose Jaw both because he prefers the great outdoors to a city, but also because it's sometimes a lot easier to feel completely alone when surrounded by people.
I'm also having a good time with this pilot because I have seen Burning Down the House so many times I can recite the entire damn episode, so it's fun to catch the callbacks. Fraser tracking suspects three hundred kilometers because they fished/littered/whatever way over the limit: totally a normal Fraser thing to do! It's how he spends his vacations. You'd think he'd be sort of wary about phone calls from tribal elders that have another message attached, though. The first time, his father's just died; the second time, Vecchio goes away to Vegas. That's ... actually really awesome mirroring and I shouldn't mock Paul Gross's ridiculousness when he also does really awesome mirroring.
I am completely distracted by Diefenbaker's totally different colouring, by the way. Black back, blue eyes! YOU ARE NOT MY DIEF. Poor first Dief.
The pemmican-for-the-nuns-at-the-airport scene is pretty fantastic. If that scene took place anytime after ... Victoria, maybe? I don't know, one of the things I'm going to be doing is tracking Fraser's relative naiveté. If the pemmican scene took place after a certain point I would know that Fraser understands the nuns are asking for money, and if he gives them pemmican instead it's because he's in a particularly snarky mood. Here, though, he just really honestly doesn't know. Oh tiny Fraser.
Things that Fraser is good at: blowing Vecchio's cover. Things that I am good at: getting this enormous dorky beaming smile on my face because VECCHIO. I think I have missed this Ray. I also think that a requirement for being a Ray on due South is having one of the most infectious smiles ever. <3
I am not actually sure where I am going with this but I like that "being undercover" is one of the big themes in this show; that like you, he is pretending to be someone he is not thing. I like that the Vegas gig isn't the first time we see Vecchio doing something kind of undercover. There's Ray's failure to blend with the criminal underbelly in a bar later in the pilot, there's the hilarious used-car-salesman thing in a couple of episodes, there's the Ms. Fraser one (<333xaMILLION), there's the fact that Vecchio's s1 love interest is an undercover agent and the fact that Victoria Metcalfe is the world's best con job. The swapping of Rays may be a little convoluted but mostly it's really apt, and undercover as a thematic symbolic thing that's only literal when it needs to be makes at least Kowalski a bit more coherent, especially with that scene in CotW where he talks about not knowing who you are if you're not around a certain person. Basically this whole thing makes me ache for both Rays. Despite the car salesman and the Ms. Fraser and the Henry Allen undercover things, though, I don't think Fraser's issues are identity issues. He's too honest and centered for that? I don't know. Hopefully I will figure out where I am going with this eventually.
I am sad that Inspector Moffatt exists. WHERE IS THATCHER. I mean, I know where she is, she is in s2. I am also a little sad that Leann Brighton never turns up after the pilot; she could have been interesting, although she is ... a lot of the bad qualities of many of the dS women (trying to be take-charge and independent but coming off as sort of neurotic and sometimes ridiculous, specifically). I will probably have to think at greater length about the women on dS: I adore Frannie but she's a total nutcase, Thatcher I ... have yet to figure out but she is a particular trope of the high-powered woman who is easily threatened, I have no idea what to do with Stella, and Victoria is her own special kettle of fish. This is not to say that there are not also uniformly awesome women on this show -- Elaine immediately comes to mind, and I remember liking her and sympathizing with her a little in her Frasercrush rather than cringing like most of the women who throw themselves at him make me do -- and I am really fond of Sister Ann (and all the women in Some Like It Red, actually), and I like Irene Zuko, and I love the little old lady in Eclipse, and Beth Botrelle is one of my favourite one-shot characters, and s4 even has some really good love interests, since I like both Luanne Russel and Lady Shoes in their own right. But I don't know! The Women is another one of those things I want to track.
Wow, Fraser and Ray really have NO PERSONAL SPACE. Or um specifically Ray has no personal space; I imagine it takes Fraser a couple of episodes to loosen up. (And then of course when they brief Kowalski, they tell him, "Fraser and Vecchio have no personal space" and so he does the No Personal Space thing and then they are ALWAYS TOUCHING.) I think I might intentionally get some Fraser/Vecchio squee on this time through, by the way. And if I go "LA LA LA" loudly re: Vecchio's ending in CotW and instead assume an OT3, I can even be happy about it. (Not that I am not tempted to like Stella/Vecchio, but see above re: me needing to figure out what the hell is going on with Stella.)
I like that Ray doesn't want to do Fraser's case because he's worried about his career; Ray, sweetie, it's going nowhere fast -- although it goes some way to explaining the Vegas gig. I think part of it is that he caught a sense of duty from Fraser, but it's also partly, undercover as a mob boss, that has to secretly be pretty awesome, what with the limo and the butler named Nero.
Vecchio's first scene with Diefenbaker: mildly less awesome than Kowalski's first scene, because Vecchio's "GET OFF ME" does not come with bonus spoken punctuation (my favourite single line of Kowalski's? shamefully, the answer is probably yes) but I love Vecchio being flaily and neurotic as per usual. Also: Diefenbaker saved Fraser from Prince Rupert Sound and went deaf two years prior to the pilot; also also, Fraser's guileless earnest look as he tells Ray that Diefenbaker doesn't always save you, but only saves you if he hears you, is probably the first real instance of Fraser!humour. Fraser, you are a total freak.
Oh god Ray has a black vintage car instead of the Riv. I think I may have just died a little inside. With laughter.
Apparently Vecchio's boss in the pilot, according to the IMDb and such, is a Captain Walsh. I think I am fond of proto-Welsh, although I love Welsh to absolute little pieces; Captain Walsh has a green lava lamp, you see, and I wish Welsh had a lava lamp too. And one of those weird wave machines. It would lend him an air of indefinable mystery.
Something I think I really like about the pilot is how grounded in reality it is. That's not to say that the sheer absurdity of due South isn't one of my favourite things about it, because it is -- I just like that there's a base point of reference if you want your realism. I'm probably thinking here of how gravity mostly works the right way, and all Bob Fraser's advice is bound up in dozens of notebooks, but for some reason what sparked this thought was Fraser asking the cab driver to walk Leann Brighton to her door. Again it is maybe something about the women on this show that ping my absurdity meter in the not-so-good way, and though I am willing to buy the conjunction of Fraser's chivalry and deliberate cluelessness, I like that in the pilot at least he mostly does the chivalry without the absurdity. Oh, and that Frannie is after him without me wanting to hide under tables because of it.
Speaking of Bob's diaries, by the way, they kind of make me want to wail. The sheer affection he has for Fraser. BOB YOU WERE RUBBISH AT BEING PRESENT AND ALIVE AT THE SAME TIME. This sort of genuinely upsets me.
Vecchio's dad has only been dead for five years at the time of the pilot. That's funny; for some reason I thought it'd been longer. It probably says a lot about Vecchio: as far as I can remember, the show makes pretty light of the fact that Ray's dad was a horrible father, and when he turns up a couple of times as a ghost it's made light of also -- the ghosts are more or less always figures of at least some fun -- but that Ray's dad only died recently can't be good for any for the Vecchios' mental health. It's interesting, actually, because the show never ever glosses over Fraser's pain, even or especially when it's subtle, and it certainly doesn't gloss Kowalski's either, see: Stella, Beth Botrelle, the fact that Kowalski can be a little inarticulate about it but is basically at all times in touch with and fairly vocal about his feelings -- but Vecchio had an abusive father and can actually be pretty scary (Francesca thought he killed a guy that one time! good vote of confidence there, Frannie) and is probably more cynical than Fraser and Kowalski put together and pulled off being a mob boss for a year and change, but all of that is ... implications. I am sure there is a good and specific reason for it that is bound to his character, but I can't quite articulate what the reason is.
And I think Fraser swearing goes funny things to me. Actually the entire sequence with Gerrard, starting with Gerrard shooting Drake and going through to when Fraser pulls a gun on him, is just lovely, because you can see how completely blindsided and emotionally wrecked it's making Fraser, even though it's just him being quieter than usual and breathing in a really controlled way. I KIND OF LOVE FRASER, HAVE I MENTIONED THIS. Especially when he says things like, "He was your friend, you son of a bitch." Oh and the CARIBOU ON THE DESK. I fucking love how Fraser goes all Godfather on them.
I may be kind of in love with Ray's insane determination to solve the case while convalescent, come up to Canada before he's actually better, bitch Fraser out, and lend lots of guns and explosives. What is it about Fraser that inspires Rays to drop everything, arguably including self-preservation, in order to help him out? I don't know, but I adore it. Oh and I adore the SYNCHRONIZED POLICING. By "synchronized policing" I mean "Life On Mars conditioned me to be deeply excited whenever cop-type partners punch someone at the same time" but oh it makes me happy.
I also really love the Inuit hunter. He's so matter-of-fact and droll about everything. "Thought he was a caribou." <3 I wish we'd see more of him -- or more Quinn, or more Eric (and David and all their extended family who flood Fraser's apartment that one time) because ... mm, I know it is mostly set in Chicago but they found excuses for Quinn and Eric to be there, and how often does a show's premise allow you to have recurring Inuit guest stars? I just wish they were around more.
The pilot also makes me want more questfic. Sweeping snowy vistas! SLED DOGS! I love the amount of Actual Canada there is in the pilot.
Next: Fraser gets an apartment, makes a new friend, and causes the slow but inevitable rise in Ray's blood pressure.
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(but! What about that $100 incident? -waggles eyebrows-
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Ohhh the $100 incident! I don't know, I sort of think the awesomeness of that goes without saying? (& also I didn't want to use up all my Fraser observations already, and the $100 incident is bound up with the way he treats and understands people, which I'm babbling on about now in a Word doc while I watch 1x01.)
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You are not inarticulate! but I am mad happy that you think this is interesting. I mean, I would probably post the dS rewatch into a void if no one was interested, because I still want to get my thoughts in order, but that people are is happy-making. :D
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THIS IS ME IN AN UNCONTROLLABLE FIT OF GIGGLING. AHAHAHA OH MY GOD.
Also, your episode reactionary posts are always so interesting, because I usually just pay attention to what is going on in a show without paying any attention at all to what is really going on (does that make sense, even?), so it is kind of nice to come here and find all these Srs Thoughts and rethink what I've just seen. &c.
Oh, and, SYNCHRONIZED POLICING. That is the first thing I thought when I watched that scene, so clearly LOM conditioned me that way too. :D
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\o/! Actually yes, the paying attention to what's going on without paying attention to what's going on thing makes perfect sense; 's why I want to do this rewatch at all, because I am pretty sure I have Thoughts but I don't know what they are and then I watch whatever episode again and can suddenly articulate them! :D
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1. Re: Thatcher - Oh man, do I have thoughts about Thatcher. She reminds me a lot of me, when I was in college. (Which assumes that I am now substantially different ... which is impossible to objectively determine.) Anyway, if you are in the mood for my Thatcher analysis via overidentification, I shall be happy to lay some on you.
2. Re: Vecchio - I think you hit the nail on the head without knowing it. Fraser and Kowalski are the sons of distant fathers, so they never had to hide anything from their dads. Vecchio is the son of a very much present and abusive father who probably learned to hide everything from his dad. And Vecchio doesn't strike me as the guy who later, in adulthood, says "Huh, now that I've survived my abusive childhood, maybe I should consider therapy." He seems like the guy who keeps on evading and deflecting and, sometimes, using those behaviors he learned. See: Vecchio and Zuko in "The Deal" - I mean, we the audience are really satisfied by seeing Vecchio take down Zuko because for us it's good guy vs. bad guy. But the language and the moves and the beating up a guy who's cowering before you? Yeah, Vecchio learned that somewhere.
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2. YES. Thank you. I think Kowalski is probably in some middle ground re: distance of fathers, though -- his relationship with his dad got pretty strained, but the second episode with his father in (Mojo Rising, I think?) his dad seemed like a fairly nice guy, who'd allowed his and Ray's disappointment with each other get out of proportion. But as far as hiding anything from his dad goes, I think you're right about that -- they really didn't have to, and Vecchio did. I think I want to give Vecchio a hug and tell his superiors to send someone else to go get screwed up being a Vegas mob boss.
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2. Oh, yeah, Mojo Rising is a fantastic point of comparison - look how awkward Kowalski is about hiding the lost GTO from his dad! This is not a guy who knows how to be evasive or give his father the brush off.
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2. Oh god, yes. I think all the sections with his father in that episode can be called "emotionally inarticulate people who love each other," which is probably a blanket description for most of Kowalski's relationships.
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