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three dollars and fifty cents, canadian
If there were things I did today besides get as much of this show watched as possible, I don't know what they were.
1x13 An Eye for an Eye
Another point for the show: not everyone is young and pretty! This episode is about old people! (Actually, hell, in general not everyone on this show is pretty. I mean, I've ended up finding most of the regulars attractive just because I love them, but only Fraser is actually pretty. And maybe also Kowalski, but he's not around for quite a while yet.)
OH MY GOD, THE TINY CHILD WITH THE BASEBALL BAT. There are plenty of adorable children of various ages on this show, but the little boy who wants a hundred bucks and calls Ray a creep pretty much takes it. <3
Fraser has taken the liberty of officially reprimanding himself, and Welsh says, "Good, good, put it in the file with the rest of them." It sort of breaks my heart and charms me at the same time that Fraser does this. It mends my heart a little to see that Welsh doesn't give a damn and kind of likes Fraser already.
Something that Fraser does that is not healthy but makes me love him more anyway: he takes everyone on. And I don't mean that in the sense that he's willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, or that he wants to help everyone he can, I mean that if someone has hurt or anger, even if he had nothing to do with it and couldn't possibly have prevented it, he will take it on, he will make it his. It's empathy taken really far, and maybe it's why he has to help people and expect the best of them: he feels deeply, for nearly everyone. It probably helps to explain his utter ineptitude at understanding people like Francesca, or really any of the women who have a thing for him: because he feels everything so deeply, he puts up ... emotional barriers around himself, I guess? When someone's problem is actually about him, he becomes entirely emotionally inarticulate. (This even explains how he can be so understanding of people and still not get it when Ray Kowalski threatens to punch him in the face! Thank god that makes sense now.) It also probably means that he's completely incapable of taking care of himself -- by which I don't mean self-sufficiency, I mean understanding when it's time to not jump off the roof or on top of the car or in front of the big gun, I mean paying enough attention to his own emotional state that he doesn't end up chasing after Victoria on a train platform because something finally broke. So, um, that is my Theory of Fraser's Empathy, and I imagine that there are lots of other ways to read him that make sense, but this one works well for me.
(Incidentally, I wish that Fraser would chase criminals while wearing his pea coat more often. It has red lining on the inside and a flash of fluttering red is actually a lot more awesome at signposting 'Superman' than the serge is.)
Sdzldfj Ray writing reports on a TYPEWRITER. *_* And Fraser correcting his typos by sound. And Ray going "What's a zed?!" I love the two of them.
Oh god, and I just realized something, which is that there is a very good and very specific reason that Fraser is so damn respectful of the law all the time, and it has everything to do with the speech that he gives Herb Colling when he's going to shoot the mugger, the speech about how if Mr. Colling starts deciding who should be allowed in a good neighborhood, he's going to start deciding all sorts of things, like what should be done with the people who get in the way when he's doling out justice, and ... Of course Fraser probably feels like this all the time. Of course that's why he has to make sure that it's the crime and not the person that he's trying to get, and why he has to let everyone make their own decisions, because he does have a very precise idea of what the right answer is, and he has to make sure that even when he doesn't agree with the law, he still absolutely has to have faith in it. *lightbulb*
1x14 The Man Who Knew Too Little
Things I love about Fraser, continued: he gave change to a homeless person so smoothly and efficiently that I almost missed it; natural gesture. He laughs at his own dumb jokes about the sled the Canadians will have on hand in case the Riv breaks down. The way Fraser is sort of astonishingly happy this episode -- maybe because he gets to go to Canada for a little while, maybe because even though Ray is bitching him out the whole time he's confident enough in their friendship that he kind of enjoys Ray's neuroticisms, I don't know.
And really I did not have a lot to say about this episode, so instead I have a couple of screencaps! Exhibit A: Turnbull's outlaw cousin Laurier!
Exhibit B: I irrationally want there to be Fraser/Ian (or just Ian-crushing-on-Fraser) fic out there somewhere in the world based solely on this moment. And I suppose on the fact that Fraser actually understands Ian.
1x15 The Wild Bunch
I love how Fraser is absolute shit at making Ray feel better about the Riv, though. He doesn't actually understand the guy-car bond, so there's nothing in his repertoire that will be any help at all. <3
I also kind of love how this episode is weirdly like a Disney film with all the animals jumping out of dumpsters to follow Diefenbaker. Seriously, if Dief and his followers had suddenly started a song-and-dance number I would not have been overly shocked. And, uh, this sounds ridiculous, but I ship Dief/Maggie-the-husky enough that I always feel mildly betrayed with Dief hooks up with Lady Shoes' poodle Ante. Yeah, IDEK.
And here is the return of the Right Choices Are Rewarded thing! Like, Fraser knows Diefenbaker might be put down, but he still trusts justice over bribery despite that the ready facts are completely stacked against him, and because of this he catches Benedict trafficking stolen pets, rescues Maggie and her unborn puppies, and even (an unintended side benefit!) gets Ray to forgive him about the Riv, because the course of events conspire to make Ray be the empathetic one for once.
1x16 The Blue Line
...Wow, I forgot what a jerk Smithbauer is. I think for the sake of my own continued sanity (because I already feel like snuggling Fraser half to death) I am going to ignore the vague fanon that they fooled around as teenagers. Because, seriously, there's no need to compound a tragedy. No, well, except, the vague fanon feels ... all sorts of justified, at least re: the scene where they're having a sleepover in Fraser's apartment and reminiscing; there are all sorts of hovering things they're not actually saying.
For some reason, in the scene where Fraser's cueing Ray so he can explain to Welsh how the liquor store robbery wasn't actually a robbery, Ray delivers his lines in a way that reminds me powerfully of Frannie. And I believed they were siblings before, but now I really believe they are siblings.
Argh, I love how Ray seriously fails at undercover with small-time crooks, but hook him up with a bunch of corrupt bookies in a smoky club and he can work it. HOW SO KINDA MOB BOSS ALREADY, RAY.
It is crazy heartwarming to see Fraser just horsing around, by the way. And able to believe in Mark like he does even after the original reception he got. And how Ray understands this and therefore doesn't immediately tell Fraser what Mark's been up to. <3
I am irrationally in love with FRASER ON ICE. (I mean, I love Fraser doing anything, and the skating is a novel bonus. That, and for reasons I don't fully understand I find Paul Gross especially attractive in Men With Brooms, so basically him + ice = instant yay.) In fact I am irrationally in love with the entire final chase sequence; "Officer in pursuit of black Cadillac in pursuit of two guys on skates! Why is that so hard to believe?" Indeed, Ray.
And the final scene! With the snow banks! and the Riv's headlights! and the pond! *hands*
I would say "Why am I still awake," but in fact the answer is "Hell yes, I am going fast enough that I will get to the Victoria episodes tomorrow."
1x13 An Eye for an Eye
Another point for the show: not everyone is young and pretty! This episode is about old people! (Actually, hell, in general not everyone on this show is pretty. I mean, I've ended up finding most of the regulars attractive just because I love them, but only Fraser is actually pretty. And maybe also Kowalski, but he's not around for quite a while yet.)
OH MY GOD, THE TINY CHILD WITH THE BASEBALL BAT. There are plenty of adorable children of various ages on this show, but the little boy who wants a hundred bucks and calls Ray a creep pretty much takes it. <3
Fraser has taken the liberty of officially reprimanding himself, and Welsh says, "Good, good, put it in the file with the rest of them." It sort of breaks my heart and charms me at the same time that Fraser does this. It mends my heart a little to see that Welsh doesn't give a damn and kind of likes Fraser already.
Something that Fraser does that is not healthy but makes me love him more anyway: he takes everyone on. And I don't mean that in the sense that he's willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, or that he wants to help everyone he can, I mean that if someone has hurt or anger, even if he had nothing to do with it and couldn't possibly have prevented it, he will take it on, he will make it his. It's empathy taken really far, and maybe it's why he has to help people and expect the best of them: he feels deeply, for nearly everyone. It probably helps to explain his utter ineptitude at understanding people like Francesca, or really any of the women who have a thing for him: because he feels everything so deeply, he puts up ... emotional barriers around himself, I guess? When someone's problem is actually about him, he becomes entirely emotionally inarticulate. (This even explains how he can be so understanding of people and still not get it when Ray Kowalski threatens to punch him in the face! Thank god that makes sense now.) It also probably means that he's completely incapable of taking care of himself -- by which I don't mean self-sufficiency, I mean understanding when it's time to not jump off the roof or on top of the car or in front of the big gun, I mean paying enough attention to his own emotional state that he doesn't end up chasing after Victoria on a train platform because something finally broke. So, um, that is my Theory of Fraser's Empathy, and I imagine that there are lots of other ways to read him that make sense, but this one works well for me.
(Incidentally, I wish that Fraser would chase criminals while wearing his pea coat more often. It has red lining on the inside and a flash of fluttering red is actually a lot more awesome at signposting 'Superman' than the serge is.)
Sdzldfj Ray writing reports on a TYPEWRITER. *_* And Fraser correcting his typos by sound. And Ray going "What's a zed?!" I love the two of them.
Oh god, and I just realized something, which is that there is a very good and very specific reason that Fraser is so damn respectful of the law all the time, and it has everything to do with the speech that he gives Herb Colling when he's going to shoot the mugger, the speech about how if Mr. Colling starts deciding who should be allowed in a good neighborhood, he's going to start deciding all sorts of things, like what should be done with the people who get in the way when he's doling out justice, and ... Of course Fraser probably feels like this all the time. Of course that's why he has to make sure that it's the crime and not the person that he's trying to get, and why he has to let everyone make their own decisions, because he does have a very precise idea of what the right answer is, and he has to make sure that even when he doesn't agree with the law, he still absolutely has to have faith in it. *lightbulb*
1x14 The Man Who Knew Too Little
Things I love about Fraser, continued: he gave change to a homeless person so smoothly and efficiently that I almost missed it; natural gesture. He laughs at his own dumb jokes about the sled the Canadians will have on hand in case the Riv breaks down. The way Fraser is sort of astonishingly happy this episode -- maybe because he gets to go to Canada for a little while, maybe because even though Ray is bitching him out the whole time he's confident enough in their friendship that he kind of enjoys Ray's neuroticisms, I don't know.
And really I did not have a lot to say about this episode, so instead I have a couple of screencaps! Exhibit A: Turnbull's outlaw cousin Laurier!
Exhibit B: I irrationally want there to be Fraser/Ian (or just Ian-crushing-on-Fraser) fic out there somewhere in the world based solely on this moment. And I suppose on the fact that Fraser actually understands Ian.
1x15 The Wild Bunch
I love how Fraser is absolute shit at making Ray feel better about the Riv, though. He doesn't actually understand the guy-car bond, so there's nothing in his repertoire that will be any help at all. <3
I also kind of love how this episode is weirdly like a Disney film with all the animals jumping out of dumpsters to follow Diefenbaker. Seriously, if Dief and his followers had suddenly started a song-and-dance number I would not have been overly shocked. And, uh, this sounds ridiculous, but I ship Dief/Maggie-the-husky enough that I always feel mildly betrayed with Dief hooks up with Lady Shoes' poodle Ante. Yeah, IDEK.
And here is the return of the Right Choices Are Rewarded thing! Like, Fraser knows Diefenbaker might be put down, but he still trusts justice over bribery despite that the ready facts are completely stacked against him, and because of this he catches Benedict trafficking stolen pets, rescues Maggie and her unborn puppies, and even (an unintended side benefit!) gets Ray to forgive him about the Riv, because the course of events conspire to make Ray be the empathetic one for once.
1x16 The Blue Line
...Wow, I forgot what a jerk Smithbauer is. I think for the sake of my own continued sanity (because I already feel like snuggling Fraser half to death) I am going to ignore the vague fanon that they fooled around as teenagers. Because, seriously, there's no need to compound a tragedy. No, well, except, the vague fanon feels ... all sorts of justified, at least re: the scene where they're having a sleepover in Fraser's apartment and reminiscing; there are all sorts of hovering things they're not actually saying.
For some reason, in the scene where Fraser's cueing Ray so he can explain to Welsh how the liquor store robbery wasn't actually a robbery, Ray delivers his lines in a way that reminds me powerfully of Frannie. And I believed they were siblings before, but now I really believe they are siblings.
Argh, I love how Ray seriously fails at undercover with small-time crooks, but hook him up with a bunch of corrupt bookies in a smoky club and he can work it. HOW SO KINDA MOB BOSS ALREADY, RAY.
It is crazy heartwarming to see Fraser just horsing around, by the way. And able to believe in Mark like he does even after the original reception he got. And how Ray understands this and therefore doesn't immediately tell Fraser what Mark's been up to. <3
I am irrationally in love with FRASER ON ICE. (I mean, I love Fraser doing anything, and the skating is a novel bonus. That, and for reasons I don't fully understand I find Paul Gross especially attractive in Men With Brooms, so basically him + ice = instant yay.) In fact I am irrationally in love with the entire final chase sequence; "Officer in pursuit of black Cadillac in pursuit of two guys on skates! Why is that so hard to believe?" Indeed, Ray.
And the final scene! With the snow banks! and the Riv's headlights! and the pond! *hands*
I would say "Why am I still awake," but in fact the answer is "Hell yes, I am going fast enough that I will get to the Victoria episodes tomorrow."
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Actually I think Frannie is pretty gorgeous! And Thatcher might be, under all the Iron Lady.
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Also, in MWB he's kind of this amalgam that satisfies everything - he's a bad boy who screwed up his love life in the past AND the present! He's haunted by ghosts, although not literally this time! He's going to Do The Right Thing while simultaneously angsting over having Done The Wrong Thing in the past! He's in a hot love triangle with two sisters! AND there's physical comedy, which should not be funny ... and yet, when Paul Gross walks into a stop sign, I laugh.
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Holy shit, obviously yes, because I just flashed back to that part and actually laughed out loud.
I think I pretty much agree with you on all counts on this one. :DDD