Entry tags:
didn't ask for that
I am going to finish s1 today! Unless my parents watch the rest of the BSG pilot with me. But, um, I love watching homages to Rear Window at midnight! so that's okay.
1x17 The Deal
Active attempt the first by Francesca to sleep with Fraser! I love her monologue that sort of goes "Ask him out to dinner? Ask him out for a drink? Nah, just ask him straight up for sex!" Because, seriously, Frannie? You do not understand this man at all.
I love Welsh's vague paternalistic concern for Fraser. I mean, he does couch it in terms of "Haven't you got anything better to do than hang around my police station and help us solve crimes?" but honestly I think he knows exactly how good Fraser is for Ray and he's kind of genuinely bewildered by Fraser's apparent lack of social life. It's okay, Welsh, Fraser is at least mildly content!
OH MY GOD RAY. When Joey Paducci explains why he took the money back from Zuko, and says "That's fair, isn't it?" Ray replies, all quiet, "Maybe, but it's also against the law," and that is such a Fraser response. I mean, Ray is already inclined to be understanding, because it's Frank Zuko they're talking about, but still. I think Ray's learning things.
You know who else is learning things? All of Fraser's neighbors on Racine. Now when he walks down the hall doing his polite greeting recitation of "Mr. Mustafi; Mr. Campbell" they nod instead of slamming their doors. <3
Ahh I want Ray to get angry and shove vending machines more often! I think this reaction is mostly a Pavlovian response to the fact that hitting furniture (and, uh, people) is always what Kowalski does in stressful situations and thus I want Vecchio to do it too, but I also -- I just love Ray in this episode. I love it because it's the first time we really see him internalize this stuff (like Fraser does always) and it is not happy and probably not even really healthy but it is good. I'm pretty sure he would've had this reaction even without prolonged exposure to Fraser, but I'm also pretty sure the solution wouldn't have occurred to him, or he wouldn't have talked it through with Fraser and then decided to do something -- I suspect that Frank Zuko and Ray's father and plenty of other things Ray just let happen are all of a piece, and that he decided to be a cop when he grew up because of that vague rationale I suspect lots of kids have, that "Things will work out when I'm older, because I'll be a grown-up and grown-ups know what to do," so he was able to make detective based on some determination like that, but he's still tired and he still has this reflex of just standing by unless he's specifically assigned to do otherwise -- until Fraser comes along. So Ray going and facing Zuko down, that is something really important.
Of course the way he does it, um, leaves something to be desired. Possibly like sanity? Actually, I think![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wintercreek said it best here: 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. So I am very proud of Vecchio for finally doing something, but I think the guy really needs a big hug and some therapy. And to not be sent to Vegas, dear god, no matter how demonstratably good he already is at being a scary mob boss.
I do love that he tells Fraser he's scared to death. He just -- he did as well as he could and he's human. <3
I'm skipping 1x18 An Invitation to Romance, because I have very little embarrassment squick but that Katherine Burns woman set it off bad. I am a little sad I never got all the way through it -- apparently it features Ray in the red serge, which is kind of priceless, and it also features the second Victoria speech, the one about confusing love with an inner ear imbalance and high-speed particles from the sun bursting in the air -- but even for those things I cannot bring myself to skim. Sorry, Katherine, your complete inability to even attempt to understand Fraser makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
1x19 Heaven and Earth
I think this episode is the second time due South does the magical realism/supernatural element/what-have-you thing for real (the first being Bob's first ghost-appearance). It's pretty awesome that this guy Garret cannot only see the past, but little flashes of a (potential?) future also.
Holy shit, Fraser books it out of there after confessing to Ray that Frannie came to convince him to sleep with her. I think I laughed so hard I pulled something. I also love the way it is always Elaine who walks in on Fraser and Ray in the supply closet. And the way Fraser's code of chivalry or whatever the hell it was his grandmother taught him means that not only can he not kiss and tell, he can't not kiss and tell. He can't even tell Ray or Elaine that nothing happened! Bless.
Aaaah, and Welsh and Frannie go past, Welsh saying, "Out of curiosity, where was the wolf during all this time?" I love that Welsh has submitted to the weird soap opera of his station, and I love more that he and Frannie are talking, because I have a secret s3/4 Welsh/Frannie OTP, and if the epilogue is telling the truth about Frannie, I firmly maintain that they are Welsh's babies.
"You see, Ray, Hamlet sees his father's ghost." "Yeah, he also kills his uncle and spends entirely too much time talkin' to skeletons." "Well, I suppose that would follow." OH GOD I LOVE THEM. And this show's insistence on making Paul Gross quote Hamlet. I love also that Fraser doesn't assume Garret did actually witness the attack and then sublimated it somehow so that it comes out kind of crazy and with an insistence of vision; because Garret saw him, he accepts the story about the vision, and genuinely needs to know that he didn't, what, kidnap the girl in his sleep or something? I don't know, but Fraser's faith in people is still wonderful. (HA AND ELAINE CALLED THE FBI GUYS ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN. How brilliant is that. <3)
Oh god, Garret makes a speech at Fraser about how he can feel everyone else's pain, and they make him lose track of who he is, and they crush him, and he wants them to stop; and Fraser very quietly says, "But they won't," and I like -- I like that Fraser knows. He might not literally have other people inside his head, but he gets it. Interestingly enough in this particular instance he doesn't have some Inuit story or other psychological trick up his sleeve: he straight out tells Garret he has to help them find this girl. Which is interesting: maybe because he understands Garret, he can't understand how simply standing by is an option for him?
And the scene at the end with Ray and Frannie! You know what your problem is, Ray? You're afraid to dream. You're afraid to really reach for something that you want. You know what happens to people like you? They get old, they get alone, and then they die, and they never know ... That's not me. First, it makes me love Frannie a lot; in s3/4 she doesn't always become a caricature, but she comes close sometimes, and I like the quiet maturity she's allowed here. More, though, I like that her speech basically applies to Ray and Fraser equally -- and oh god it makes me want there to be Fraser/Vecchio, because that means that even if Vecchio goes away to Vegas, they had some not-alone beforehand. (This is also one of the reasons why Fraser/Kowalski makes sense to me; RayK may be a little beat up and jaded by the spectacular Stella failure, but afraid to dream he is not.) Of course sometimes really reaching for something you want is not a good thing, which brings us to ...
Victoria's Secret, which grew a whole page in the first fifteen minutes, so it and Letting Go can be in the next post. Oh boy.
1x17 The Deal
Active attempt the first by Francesca to sleep with Fraser! I love her monologue that sort of goes "Ask him out to dinner? Ask him out for a drink? Nah, just ask him straight up for sex!" Because, seriously, Frannie? You do not understand this man at all.
I love Welsh's vague paternalistic concern for Fraser. I mean, he does couch it in terms of "Haven't you got anything better to do than hang around my police station and help us solve crimes?" but honestly I think he knows exactly how good Fraser is for Ray and he's kind of genuinely bewildered by Fraser's apparent lack of social life. It's okay, Welsh, Fraser is at least mildly content!
OH MY GOD RAY. When Joey Paducci explains why he took the money back from Zuko, and says "That's fair, isn't it?" Ray replies, all quiet, "Maybe, but it's also against the law," and that is such a Fraser response. I mean, Ray is already inclined to be understanding, because it's Frank Zuko they're talking about, but still. I think Ray's learning things.
You know who else is learning things? All of Fraser's neighbors on Racine. Now when he walks down the hall doing his polite greeting recitation of "Mr. Mustafi; Mr. Campbell" they nod instead of slamming their doors. <3
Ahh I want Ray to get angry and shove vending machines more often! I think this reaction is mostly a Pavlovian response to the fact that hitting furniture (and, uh, people) is always what Kowalski does in stressful situations and thus I want Vecchio to do it too, but I also -- I just love Ray in this episode. I love it because it's the first time we really see him internalize this stuff (like Fraser does always) and it is not happy and probably not even really healthy but it is good. I'm pretty sure he would've had this reaction even without prolonged exposure to Fraser, but I'm also pretty sure the solution wouldn't have occurred to him, or he wouldn't have talked it through with Fraser and then decided to do something -- I suspect that Frank Zuko and Ray's father and plenty of other things Ray just let happen are all of a piece, and that he decided to be a cop when he grew up because of that vague rationale I suspect lots of kids have, that "Things will work out when I'm older, because I'll be a grown-up and grown-ups know what to do," so he was able to make detective based on some determination like that, but he's still tired and he still has this reflex of just standing by unless he's specifically assigned to do otherwise -- until Fraser comes along. So Ray going and facing Zuko down, that is something really important.
Of course the way he does it, um, leaves something to be desired. Possibly like sanity? Actually, I think
wintercreek said it best here: 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. So I am very proud of Vecchio for finally doing something, but I think the guy really needs a big hug and some therapy. And to not be sent to Vegas, dear god, no matter how demonstratably good he already is at being a scary mob boss.I do love that he tells Fraser he's scared to death. He just -- he did as well as he could and he's human. <3
I'm skipping 1x18 An Invitation to Romance, because I have very little embarrassment squick but that Katherine Burns woman set it off bad. I am a little sad I never got all the way through it -- apparently it features Ray in the red serge, which is kind of priceless, and it also features the second Victoria speech, the one about confusing love with an inner ear imbalance and high-speed particles from the sun bursting in the air -- but even for those things I cannot bring myself to skim. Sorry, Katherine, your complete inability to even attempt to understand Fraser makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
1x19 Heaven and Earth
I think this episode is the second time due South does the magical realism/supernatural element/what-have-you thing for real (the first being Bob's first ghost-appearance). It's pretty awesome that this guy Garret cannot only see the past, but little flashes of a (potential?) future also.
Holy shit, Fraser books it out of there after confessing to Ray that Frannie came to convince him to sleep with her. I think I laughed so hard I pulled something. I also love the way it is always Elaine who walks in on Fraser and Ray in the supply closet. And the way Fraser's code of chivalry or whatever the hell it was his grandmother taught him means that not only can he not kiss and tell, he can't not kiss and tell. He can't even tell Ray or Elaine that nothing happened! Bless.
Aaaah, and Welsh and Frannie go past, Welsh saying, "Out of curiosity, where was the wolf during all this time?" I love that Welsh has submitted to the weird soap opera of his station, and I love more that he and Frannie are talking, because I have a secret s3/4 Welsh/Frannie OTP, and if the epilogue is telling the truth about Frannie, I firmly maintain that they are Welsh's babies.
"You see, Ray, Hamlet sees his father's ghost." "Yeah, he also kills his uncle and spends entirely too much time talkin' to skeletons." "Well, I suppose that would follow." OH GOD I LOVE THEM. And this show's insistence on making Paul Gross quote Hamlet. I love also that Fraser doesn't assume Garret did actually witness the attack and then sublimated it somehow so that it comes out kind of crazy and with an insistence of vision; because Garret saw him, he accepts the story about the vision, and genuinely needs to know that he didn't, what, kidnap the girl in his sleep or something? I don't know, but Fraser's faith in people is still wonderful. (HA AND ELAINE CALLED THE FBI GUYS ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN. How brilliant is that. <3)
Oh god, Garret makes a speech at Fraser about how he can feel everyone else's pain, and they make him lose track of who he is, and they crush him, and he wants them to stop; and Fraser very quietly says, "But they won't," and I like -- I like that Fraser knows. He might not literally have other people inside his head, but he gets it. Interestingly enough in this particular instance he doesn't have some Inuit story or other psychological trick up his sleeve: he straight out tells Garret he has to help them find this girl. Which is interesting: maybe because he understands Garret, he can't understand how simply standing by is an option for him?
And the scene at the end with Ray and Frannie! You know what your problem is, Ray? You're afraid to dream. You're afraid to really reach for something that you want. You know what happens to people like you? They get old, they get alone, and then they die, and they never know ... That's not me. First, it makes me love Frannie a lot; in s3/4 she doesn't always become a caricature, but she comes close sometimes, and I like the quiet maturity she's allowed here. More, though, I like that her speech basically applies to Ray and Fraser equally -- and oh god it makes me want there to be Fraser/Vecchio, because that means that even if Vecchio goes away to Vegas, they had some not-alone beforehand. (This is also one of the reasons why Fraser/Kowalski makes sense to me; RayK may be a little beat up and jaded by the spectacular Stella failure, but afraid to dream he is not.) Of course sometimes really reaching for something you want is not a good thing, which brings us to ...
Victoria's Secret, which grew a whole page in the first fifteen minutes, so it and Letting Go can be in the next post. Oh boy.
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I have similar trouble with An Invitation to Romance (I just get so mad watching it! Poor Mr. Creek has had to listen to me being mad at Katherine Burns for totally refusing to just frickin' listen.), but I watch it anyway because of the Ray and Dief bits and, more notably, for the second Victoria speech. I love the succinctness of that one - it's so spare, and still so weighted with meaning. Fraser's conception of his own narrative hinges on that night on the mountain in so many ways. His whole "The first is, that it's easier to think you're in love than it is to accept that you're alone. And the second is, that it's very easy to confuse love with subatomic particles bursting in the air." reads to me as total cover for the fact that he's still hung up on Victoria and doesn't even know if it's love or obsession or what ... so he makes a little lesson out of it, about being taken in by the situation and one's own desire to deny being alone, and puts it all away in a box
marked 'Done'that he doesn't dare open. Oh, Fraser.P.S. Can you tell I just got home? I am a reading and commenting machine! :D
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*hands!* I definitely babbled about that in the Victoria commentary! Yay, I am getting it from a real place instead of just the inside of my own head. :D
I love it when you are a reading and commenting machine. <3
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