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penguin to stallion
If I do nothing else with my day (likely; I'm sitting anxiously by my email waiting for potential employers to get back to me) I will probably get some more dS watched and commented on, but just as I do not want to create clutter by only doing one episode an entry, so I do not want to create novel-length posts about ten episodes in a row. Thus, 1x03 - 1x05!
1x03 Manhunt
Hello, srs biznes Buck Frobisher! We hardly knew ye. (I mean, it is Leslie Neilson, so when I say 'srs biznes' I actually mean 'Buck is having a bad week but is kind of a crazyface even now;' but still.) I'm mad fond of his daughter Julie, by the way -- it would have been awesome if she was recurring too. She seems smart and determined and lots of other good things, including not putting Fraser on the spot about being in love with him, and he's as comfortable as he could possibly be around a woman at this point. I do not think I have seen a single story about them being awkward teenagers at each other while their dads were off being awesome. Why are there no stories like this?
A friend is someone who won't stop until he finds you and brings you home. Oh god I love Bob's ability to make good insights. And I love that whole sentiment. And I think ... a large part of this show is about that, and specifically about how friends = home, how Fraser is able to cope and thrive in Chicago because of the Rays. This is another thing I hope can be picked up more later.
Oh, Fraser actually calls the apartment on Racine home. Does he ever do that with the Consulate? Once? Apparently his s3/4 living situation upsets me. I do like that wherever he is he'll make a bedroll on the floor, though. Willie gets the bed. Dief gets the bed.
I think Fraser left in the middle of his shift to go catch Geiger! Now we know what lengths it takes to make Fraser abandon his Consular post.
And I -- I just love how much love there is in this show. Ray joking around with Fraser and offering to pick him up a Yukon Gazette or Toboggan Today. Buck's story about Bob carrying around a wallet baby!Fraser stitched him for years. RAY GETTING FRASER A BUNCH OF YELLOW FLOWERS. All the heaps of genuine affection. <3
The entire fight sequence in the warehouse makes me cringe a little, because Fraser's leg. My god, man, stop running around and kicking people and being a stoic action superhero and let your leg heal. Not that we didn't already know Fraser's completely insane and has no real regard for his self-preservation.
This episode is particularly good. Maybe because it's really engaging the whole way through? I bet it has a lot to do with the heaps of genuine affection also.
1x04 They Eat Horses, Don't They
I love that Ray and Fraser are going shopping together. Oh my god. I mean, it is an opportunity for Ray to monologue at Fraser about picking up women, but I don't care, they're GOING SHOPPING TOGETHER. I'm also quite fond of the way Ray is an endless font of wisdom about women and relationships. I suspect he's pleased he knows more about a subject than Fraser does, and therefore enjoys lecturing Fraser about it? I don't know, but Vecchio is really charming me this time around.
You know what else I like about this show? Unlike every damn TV show set in California, where the sizable population of blacks and Latinos and Asians have just mysteriously vanished (seriously, even Veronica Mars kind of sucks at this), due South's Chicago has this tendency to demographically behave like a real American city. Oh, and I also like that in this episodes when the doctor makes assumptions about Mrs. Gamez, Fraser gets that frozen look on his face and Ray calls to check if the guy has any outstanding parking tickets and it does not push this stuff under the rug and A+, show.
Ahhh. "You can reach me or the world's nicest person through this number." And Ray completely means that, too, and is so matter-of-fact about it.
The first real instance of Fraser's freaky superpowers: he does not get covered in garbage whilst in a dumpster. He's just always been that way! Meanwhile Ray apparently wanted to be a cop when he was growing up, which is pretty cool -- we don't know when Kowalski got a coherent idea about it, but he at least started wanting to when he was thirteen, and I think it just never really occurred to Fraser to be anything else. That's kind of wonderful.
...Wow Ray is completely comfortable taking a shower with Fraser in the room. How did they get so married so quickly?
WHOA APPARENTLY WELSH HAS A WIFE. I mean, she is a one-line-mention wife and I am pretty sure he has a thing for some DA later, and I secretly kind of think he and Francesca should end up together, but for some reason my brain never thought that Welsh had a wife. That seems to be kind of a pattern, though, doesn't it? Everyone's had a wife at some point. Except Fraser, of course, and possibly Huey and Dewey. Even Francesca used to be married, and Julie Frobisher the previous episode. Is the show trying to say something about impermanence? Is it doing the Buffyverse thing where the take-home lesson is "friendship is more powerful/important/undamaging/lasting than romance"? Because there is no real reason that any of these characters has to have been married in the first place -- except arguably Kowalski, because Stella was definitely part of his life for longer. Anyway.
The camera briefly pans over a book by Fraser's alarm clock; paused, it reads The Spirit of Solitude. I think I said, "Oh, Jesus, Fraser," out loud. I mean, seriously? But then Stephanie Cabot comes to take him for a ride. :D The lovely episode guide (my font of all information re: names I do not catch and songs I want to know; and it has a picture of the Rays on the main page, so I can nearly forgive its awful habit of referring to Kowalski as 'Stan') tells me that a Sarah McLachlan song plays as they go riding. I will now assume that anything with both Fraser and romantic things necessitate a Sarah McLachlan soundtrack. I'm also kind of sad that there is not more Stephanie. Whence so many good one-shot characters, show?
I've got to say, though, if you're freezing to death in a giant meat-packing freezer, and the two options Benton Fraser gives you are to wrap yourself in meat or to get into close body contact with him to exchange heat, I'm sorry, I'm going with the every-quest-fic-where-the-cold-gets-them-into-bed option. I guess at this point Ray needs to be secure in his manliness and he may love Fraser but full-body contact is not an option that has occurred to him.
In conclusion, s1 needs moar Stephanie. Oh well.
1x05 Pizza and Promises
There's this thing that Fraser does, the thing where he assumes basic goodness of the people around him and somehow makes them good by this assumption, and it works even with Ray; when Ray tells him that the kid's stolen car isn't his problem, Fraser simply agrees and says that everyone should follow their own moral code, and the thing is, he means it. He's not trying to guilt Ray into helping him. He just has an amazing moral code himself and those words are a mirror of Ray's, so Ray gets guilted anyway. It's kind of magical.
It's also quite nice to go back and watch the early stuff after getting a fairly intimate knowledge of (parts of) s3/4, because clearly remembering what the characters are like later helps with tracking their growth. I'm specifically thinking of Welsh here: he has the same dry sense of humor throughout, but in s1 he seriously cannot believe the stuff that Fraser and Ray are bringing to him. Somehow in the course of things he becomes someone who explains to the other bewildered people that Constable Fraser never lies, and is pleased to see Fraser return, and manages to bond with Kowalski and Frannie and even a little with Thatcher, and wow I love Welsh. I'm curious to see if he ever gets beyond the sarcastic-lieutenant-embarrassed-detective relationship with Vecchio, though. (Kind of a shame if he doesn't.)
OhmyGOD tiny Fraser is bad at the concept of undercover. Observe his innocent pleased look at his ideas of the sort of questions you ask while undercover! His faaaace.
"Rule number one: if you don't believe it, they don't believe it. We're not pretending to be used car salesmen, we are used car salesmen." Oh Ray! It is good in theory, and I am glad your current godawful wardrobe supports it, but I think of him applying that philosophy to Armando Langustini and I want to sneak into the screen and protect Ray from himself. Meanwhile Fraser cannot lie to save his life (I am pretty sure I mean this literally) and he gets this horrible fixed smile and then tells complete absurdities. When did a man in a hideous suit and sunglasses telling complete absurdities come to be so attractive?
I like how Ray knows that Fraser can be the distraction. It's so gloriously opportunistic of him, noticing that certain women are mad attracted to Fraser and using that for his own nefarious purposes. Seriously, in the main Fraser is really lucky with the Rays; Vecchio has enough confidence in the fact that he knows what the hell he's doing and Fraser doesn't that he isn't threatened, and even though Kowalski has a tendency to get tied up in knots about Fraser and women in s4, it is ... slightly more complex than "Fraser's the pretty one, why don't I get the girls." Maybe this is one of the reasons Fraser and Vecchio ping me as an epic bromance instead of gay for each other. (Although ... at the end of the episode they do some of the gazing-soulfully-at-each-other thing. I don't know!)
The show is also making me laugh hysterically this time around, probably because it's a lot more amusing to watch people you know and love be hilarious? On the other hand, it means that while last time around I was mostly mildly amused at Tammy Markles' throwing herself at Fraser and Fraser's quiet frozen terror, this time I know and love him enough that I want to shake him a little and tell him that he does not have to put up with this bullshit. (Wait, I think Speranza wrote a story like that once. I can't believe I didn't go "YES, THAT" when I read it, but seriously. Someone needs to explain the bounds of polite behavior to Fraser, beyond which he does not have to put up with these things.)
Fraser believes in destiny, but it's a destiny of your own choosing! I'm not sure exactly what's supposed to be meant by that -- maybe, certain events are going to happen, but the important thing is the way you deal with them? If so it is a good Fraser life philosophy, and explains why he's still reasonably sane. Anyway, I really like the sentiment.
Next: Ray and Fraser go on a date in Chinatown!
1x03 Manhunt
Hello, srs biznes Buck Frobisher! We hardly knew ye. (I mean, it is Leslie Neilson, so when I say 'srs biznes' I actually mean 'Buck is having a bad week but is kind of a crazyface even now;' but still.) I'm mad fond of his daughter Julie, by the way -- it would have been awesome if she was recurring too. She seems smart and determined and lots of other good things, including not putting Fraser on the spot about being in love with him, and he's as comfortable as he could possibly be around a woman at this point. I do not think I have seen a single story about them being awkward teenagers at each other while their dads were off being awesome. Why are there no stories like this?
A friend is someone who won't stop until he finds you and brings you home. Oh god I love Bob's ability to make good insights. And I love that whole sentiment. And I think ... a large part of this show is about that, and specifically about how friends = home, how Fraser is able to cope and thrive in Chicago because of the Rays. This is another thing I hope can be picked up more later.
Oh, Fraser actually calls the apartment on Racine home. Does he ever do that with the Consulate? Once? Apparently his s3/4 living situation upsets me. I do like that wherever he is he'll make a bedroll on the floor, though. Willie gets the bed. Dief gets the bed.
I think Fraser left in the middle of his shift to go catch Geiger! Now we know what lengths it takes to make Fraser abandon his Consular post.
And I -- I just love how much love there is in this show. Ray joking around with Fraser and offering to pick him up a Yukon Gazette or Toboggan Today. Buck's story about Bob carrying around a wallet baby!Fraser stitched him for years. RAY GETTING FRASER A BUNCH OF YELLOW FLOWERS. All the heaps of genuine affection. <3
The entire fight sequence in the warehouse makes me cringe a little, because Fraser's leg. My god, man, stop running around and kicking people and being a stoic action superhero and let your leg heal. Not that we didn't already know Fraser's completely insane and has no real regard for his self-preservation.
This episode is particularly good. Maybe because it's really engaging the whole way through? I bet it has a lot to do with the heaps of genuine affection also.
1x04 They Eat Horses, Don't They
I love that Ray and Fraser are going shopping together. Oh my god. I mean, it is an opportunity for Ray to monologue at Fraser about picking up women, but I don't care, they're GOING SHOPPING TOGETHER. I'm also quite fond of the way Ray is an endless font of wisdom about women and relationships. I suspect he's pleased he knows more about a subject than Fraser does, and therefore enjoys lecturing Fraser about it? I don't know, but Vecchio is really charming me this time around.
You know what else I like about this show? Unlike every damn TV show set in California, where the sizable population of blacks and Latinos and Asians have just mysteriously vanished (seriously, even Veronica Mars kind of sucks at this), due South's Chicago has this tendency to demographically behave like a real American city. Oh, and I also like that in this episodes when the doctor makes assumptions about Mrs. Gamez, Fraser gets that frozen look on his face and Ray calls to check if the guy has any outstanding parking tickets and it does not push this stuff under the rug and A+, show.
Ahhh. "You can reach me or the world's nicest person through this number." And Ray completely means that, too, and is so matter-of-fact about it.
The first real instance of Fraser's freaky superpowers: he does not get covered in garbage whilst in a dumpster. He's just always been that way! Meanwhile Ray apparently wanted to be a cop when he was growing up, which is pretty cool -- we don't know when Kowalski got a coherent idea about it, but he at least started wanting to when he was thirteen, and I think it just never really occurred to Fraser to be anything else. That's kind of wonderful.
...Wow Ray is completely comfortable taking a shower with Fraser in the room. How did they get so married so quickly?
WHOA APPARENTLY WELSH HAS A WIFE. I mean, she is a one-line-mention wife and I am pretty sure he has a thing for some DA later, and I secretly kind of think he and Francesca should end up together, but for some reason my brain never thought that Welsh had a wife. That seems to be kind of a pattern, though, doesn't it? Everyone's had a wife at some point. Except Fraser, of course, and possibly Huey and Dewey. Even Francesca used to be married, and Julie Frobisher the previous episode. Is the show trying to say something about impermanence? Is it doing the Buffyverse thing where the take-home lesson is "friendship is more powerful/important/undamaging/lasting than romance"? Because there is no real reason that any of these characters has to have been married in the first place -- except arguably Kowalski, because Stella was definitely part of his life for longer. Anyway.
The camera briefly pans over a book by Fraser's alarm clock; paused, it reads The Spirit of Solitude. I think I said, "Oh, Jesus, Fraser," out loud. I mean, seriously? But then Stephanie Cabot comes to take him for a ride. :D The lovely episode guide (my font of all information re: names I do not catch and songs I want to know; and it has a picture of the Rays on the main page, so I can nearly forgive its awful habit of referring to Kowalski as 'Stan') tells me that a Sarah McLachlan song plays as they go riding. I will now assume that anything with both Fraser and romantic things necessitate a Sarah McLachlan soundtrack. I'm also kind of sad that there is not more Stephanie. Whence so many good one-shot characters, show?
I've got to say, though, if you're freezing to death in a giant meat-packing freezer, and the two options Benton Fraser gives you are to wrap yourself in meat or to get into close body contact with him to exchange heat, I'm sorry, I'm going with the every-quest-fic-where-the-cold-gets-them-into-bed option. I guess at this point Ray needs to be secure in his manliness and he may love Fraser but full-body contact is not an option that has occurred to him.
In conclusion, s1 needs moar Stephanie. Oh well.
1x05 Pizza and Promises
There's this thing that Fraser does, the thing where he assumes basic goodness of the people around him and somehow makes them good by this assumption, and it works even with Ray; when Ray tells him that the kid's stolen car isn't his problem, Fraser simply agrees and says that everyone should follow their own moral code, and the thing is, he means it. He's not trying to guilt Ray into helping him. He just has an amazing moral code himself and those words are a mirror of Ray's, so Ray gets guilted anyway. It's kind of magical.
It's also quite nice to go back and watch the early stuff after getting a fairly intimate knowledge of (parts of) s3/4, because clearly remembering what the characters are like later helps with tracking their growth. I'm specifically thinking of Welsh here: he has the same dry sense of humor throughout, but in s1 he seriously cannot believe the stuff that Fraser and Ray are bringing to him. Somehow in the course of things he becomes someone who explains to the other bewildered people that Constable Fraser never lies, and is pleased to see Fraser return, and manages to bond with Kowalski and Frannie and even a little with Thatcher, and wow I love Welsh. I'm curious to see if he ever gets beyond the sarcastic-lieutenant-embarrassed-detective relationship with Vecchio, though. (Kind of a shame if he doesn't.)
OhmyGOD tiny Fraser is bad at the concept of undercover. Observe his innocent pleased look at his ideas of the sort of questions you ask while undercover! His faaaace.
"Rule number one: if you don't believe it, they don't believe it. We're not pretending to be used car salesmen, we are used car salesmen." Oh Ray! It is good in theory, and I am glad your current godawful wardrobe supports it, but I think of him applying that philosophy to Armando Langustini and I want to sneak into the screen and protect Ray from himself. Meanwhile Fraser cannot lie to save his life (I am pretty sure I mean this literally) and he gets this horrible fixed smile and then tells complete absurdities. When did a man in a hideous suit and sunglasses telling complete absurdities come to be so attractive?
I like how Ray knows that Fraser can be the distraction. It's so gloriously opportunistic of him, noticing that certain women are mad attracted to Fraser and using that for his own nefarious purposes. Seriously, in the main Fraser is really lucky with the Rays; Vecchio has enough confidence in the fact that he knows what the hell he's doing and Fraser doesn't that he isn't threatened, and even though Kowalski has a tendency to get tied up in knots about Fraser and women in s4, it is ... slightly more complex than "Fraser's the pretty one, why don't I get the girls." Maybe this is one of the reasons Fraser and Vecchio ping me as an epic bromance instead of gay for each other. (Although ... at the end of the episode they do some of the gazing-soulfully-at-each-other thing. I don't know!)
The show is also making me laugh hysterically this time around, probably because it's a lot more amusing to watch people you know and love be hilarious? On the other hand, it means that while last time around I was mostly mildly amused at Tammy Markles' throwing herself at Fraser and Fraser's quiet frozen terror, this time I know and love him enough that I want to shake him a little and tell him that he does not have to put up with this bullshit. (Wait, I think Speranza wrote a story like that once. I can't believe I didn't go "YES, THAT" when I read it, but seriously. Someone needs to explain the bounds of polite behavior to Fraser, beyond which he does not have to put up with these things.)
Fraser believes in destiny, but it's a destiny of your own choosing! I'm not sure exactly what's supposed to be meant by that -- maybe, certain events are going to happen, but the important thing is the way you deal with them? If so it is a good Fraser life philosophy, and explains why he's still reasonably sane. Anyway, I really like the sentiment.
Next: Ray and Fraser go on a date in Chinatown!