Entry tags:
and we are all together
2x07 Juliet is Bleeding
Every time I see this episode I am surprised, all over again, by Carrie-Anne Moss. Irene's awesome. And not to knock the first Matrix, which I kind of adore, but I'm becoming steadily more convinced that key people involved in the production just went, "You know what? Neo and Trinity should never express emotion! That'll be the most awesome way ever to showcase the cyberpunk aesthetic." Happily the due South aesthetic calls for pretty awesome chemistry between Irene and Ray, and I buy it. (Parenthetically I now have an overwhelming desire to watch Fraser and the Rays wearing leather trench coats and blowing shit up and dodging bullets and things.)
Ray is apparently [a] very good with kids and [b] not a good dancer. The latter makes me beam because I am always up for more Kowalski Teaches People To Dance fic (& makes me beam all the more because Vecchio obviously can dance, no matter what Irene says, which means that he and Kowalski should just be able to dance, lessons or not!), and the former makes me facepalm because if I'm not careful my OT3 is going to grow kidfic. Noooo. (This show practically demands domestic fic, and I have no. idea. why. It's about COPS, self.)
...Bye, Louis. :( I gotta say, I like Huey better without his influence, and to all appearances the guy who played him was kind of a jerkwad, but he was still a fun character to have around. And ohhh I want to give Huey a hug. Don't worry, Huey, next season you'll get ... Dewey ... uh. I love Dewey despite his fish smell and I'm pretty sure that he and Huey end up being friends -- you don't open up a comedy club with someone you dislike, I imagine -- but they're not friends the way he was with Louis.
I love Fraser being so damn clear in his principles. Of course he wants to see Zuko in prison! But catching the real killer is more important, even if it means Huey and Ray (especially Ray! oh Fraser) are going to hate him. And I love that Fraser's talking with Charlie, the guy who in The Deal had Fraser beaten and then nearly shot him. Seriously, Frase? It's kind of amazing.
Oh, the glimpse of teenage!Ray. I'm guessing perhaps he was on the basketball team, considering Irene makes a joke about Ray telling them about her. I like that we know they had a thing in high school, and also Ray with Sister Ann in a couple episodes; combine this with his semi-perpetual font of advice and wisdom to Fraser about women, and I think we can conclude he was pretty sure of himself as a teenager, and probably also fairly popular, although not in that negative way 'popular kid' tends to be used. This is another of the reasons I suspect he doesn't get Fraser so well sometimes; Fraser has been the nerdy awkward loser kid his whole life. (This is another thing that I love about Fraser and Kowalski; Kowalski is also the nerdy awkward loser kid, although instead of owning it he decided to -- well, he decided to get all badass and try to blend via Stella, which -- hey, I already understood why RayK and Stella did not work out, but now it makes even more specific sense. Anyway in conclusion I love the idea of Fraser and Kowalski being losers together.)
Ray. Maybe going through the episodes carefully was a bad idea, because Victoria hurt a lot worse than usual, but I'm really aching for Ray this time too. The amazing thing is that this show manages to be funny and quite light a lot of the time, even when it's full of thefts and murders, and it is full of hope at almost all times, but god -- these two guys, they really need a lot of love, and not to be emotionally beaten just once in a while.
This episode also comes with a couple of bonus episode-specific fanwork links at the end!
i. Valencia, a vid to the Decemberists song of the same name, to lyrics that are a remarkably apt summary of Juliet is Bleeding.
ii. Heart Held Out Like A Tin Cup, Fraser/Vecchio comfort!porn that is pretty much exactly what is called for after a season and change of putting these guys through the ringer.
2x08 One Good Man
Ray is absolutely rolling in women! Okay, well, not quite but I find it a little startling that we whiplash right from dead-Irene-the-childhood-sweetheart to Ange-the-ex. (I am guessing that this is something Fraser would not really get about Ray, Mr. Only-Woman-I-Ever-Loved, whether or not he is having Feelings for Thatcher now. I think Kowalski is also basically on Fraser's end of that continuum; he married the girl he had a crush on at thirteen, f'rcrissakes, and I suspect the hitting on women that he does for the first few episodes is part of the Vecchio Act.) Vecchio is SO GOOD at not stalking Ange, too! I kind of love that I watch a show wherein a guy wistfully gazing after a woman he loves rather than running after her like a maniac is something deserving of special praise. (Another thing Fraser and Kowalski have in common: NUTCASES.)
I am actually quite fond of The Other Mackenzie King. I find her more attractive and more likable, and ... sassy instead of bitchy, I guess? I don't know. A large part of the reason I like her, though, is the way that Fraser, quite comfortably and innuendo-ladenly (what is the world coming to) asked her out to lunch. I'm really digging the way that post-Victoria he seems a lot less uncomfortable around women.
Sldfs Fraser's seen It's A Wonderful Life THIRTY-TWO TIMES. *rings a little bell at him* Some dude on the stairs in Racine says "Good evening, Mr. Fraser," to him, which is lovely, and then he stands around cooking dinner in a flannel shirt and I am pretty sure this episode is pretty much the purest fifty minutes straight on Why Fraser Is Amazing in the entire run of the show. (And look, the appearance of the straight razor Fraser uses to shave! I am very fond of fandom's fondness for the straight razor.)
Haha god I adore Fraser's filibuster. Feeding a toy bulldozer to a passing walrus? And how he wanted toys for his birthday but instead got seditious books. Part of me is annoyed with Grandma Fraser for not ever giving Benton what he wanted, but part of me is also going hell yes, seditious reading material! I also just adore on principle Fraser refusing to step down, absolutely refusing to yield even though in this particular instance the law really isn't on his side. I think in this case he's able to Do The Right Thing before Adhering To The Law simply because [a] he knows how absolutely tenuous that legality is and [b] he's not really doing it for himself. He's not deciding that any one of his neighbors deserves more than any other, but that a very rich man should not be allowed to take people's homes from them. Ahh Fraser.
Ahhh Ray, too, being willing to turn the Riv into money and buy people to listen to Fraser. He doesn't even care that much about the building, or really believe Fraser can do it, but he does this thing for Fraser anyway. <333
And the story about Grandma Fraser saving the schoolchildren by hanging onto a burning tree! By then everyone's listening, and on his side, and how does he do it. It's the best kind of magic ever. I, um, it didn't happen this time because I knew it was coming but sort of the same way that I started crying at the end of Victoria's Secret because I'd just been blindsided with the knowledge that Fraser couldn't always make everything okay, so I started crying near the end of the city hall scene because I knew Fraser could do amazing things but I hadn't known he could do that. (Parenthetically, I have a friend who likes dS very much but refuses to understand why I love Fraser so much; I think she's under the impression that he's boring. This episode specifically might cure her.)
...Of course this makes the part where the apartment burns down in Burning Down the House that much worse. La la all the tenants got good places to live when that happened! The more I think about it, the more I have sheer horror for Fraser's living arrangements in s3/4. I mean, yes, logistically I'm guessing they just didn't have the set anymore and had other stories lined up, but in practice it means that after Fraser's world goes crashing down again, he chooses to make no community beyond the people with whom he works, and instead beats a hasty retreat to Canada (or at least the tiny Consular part of it). Oh Frase.
I'm skipping 2x09 The Edge, not for any particularly good reason but because [a] I can't actually find it on my external hard drive, possibly as a result of [b] I got partway through, Fraser and Dief started having anxiety dreams about being old and inept, I went "Gosh, this is ridiculous, can't I get to that apparently slashy Kowalski fellow soon?" and I went on. I also skipped the following episode, I confess to my shame, because I looked up a quick summary, thought, "Thatcher's in this episode a lot? But I don't get her! Now about that Kowalski guy ..." and moved on again. My Meg-loving soul repents that now, so I bring you an actual first viewing of
2x10 We Are the Eggmen
Fraser trying to coach Diefenbaker in wolf tracking techniques! I'm not sure if there is anything more adorable.
Other things I like: s2 Frannie! I have mentioned this before, but it is worth saying again. Grabbing Fraser's arm and saying "[Ray's] my brother! I have to put up with him! What are you thinking?" Indeed, Frannie! Also I am weirdly endlessly charmed by the way she calls Fraser 'Benton'; I kind of wish she'd kept at it in s3/4, but I suppose 'Frase' is okay too. Meanwhile she tells him that he gets a Good-Looking Eligible Bachelor discount on his sandwiches, and he just thanks her kindly and takes it, sans discomfort. I am really digging this not-awkward-around-women Fraser.
BUXLEY HAS CONVERSATIONS WITH HIS CHICKENS. I officially adore absolutely everything about this damn show. And Grandpa Fraser raised chickens recreationally! Oh man.
(Warning: this paragraph started out somewhere sane and dissolved into Fraser/Thatcher fangirling. I don't even think I'm sorry.) Cloutier gives me major creeper vibes. As well he is supposed to! Meanwhile I love Meg with all my heart, and moreover I just had this completely unexpected moment of YAY SHIP when she calls "Ben!" after Fraser. What is the world coming to, me supporting the explicit canon and everything. I imagine Meg is actually relieved when Fraser ends up moving into the Consulate; it's not that she has any creepy desire to have him on hand at all times (although that must be nice!) but rather that I just got the strong impression she thinks he deserves better than Racine. My god, my god, I want to draw little ... not hearts, I don't know what I want to draw around them. Little eggs and little trains that are heading for nuclear disaster? Something like that. Ohh, and Fraser tries so hard to save Meg at dinner! He does a rubbish job but she tells Cloutier off anyway and I LOVE THEM. No but and when they're stuck in the incubator and Meg tells Fraser to take off his tunic I started hyperventilating with joy a little, and it only got worse when he pretended to get electrocuted as a joke. FLIRT LIKE THIS ALWAYS YOU TWO.
Actually I think in general Paul Gross just has this magical ability to turn chemistry with someone on like a freaking switch. Or, well, he has good chemistry with nearly everyone anyway, but when he makes an effort I start gibbering a little.
I absolutely repent for skipping this one! I just finished it with a huge grin on my face. Possibly it is one of my favourites for the principle character interactions alone. <3
Which may be it for a little while! I will probably have not much opportunity to do any srs biznes due South-watching at WisCon (although
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oliviacirce expressed some interest in watching MotB with me given sufficient time; sure I'll watch MotB again, I've only seen it EIGHT TIMES). I will reliably be back on the face of the internet next Tuesday or Wednesday, although there may be con things to talk about before then.
no subject
I'm sad you skipped The Edge, because you missed this scene at the end:
In which I want to squeeze them both. Aww. Also, Thatcher wiping paint off Fraser's neck with a curt "Thank you. We clean our own personnel here."
Commenting on these in reverse order, apparently, I want to add that Maria Bello (whom I love in anything - she could do insurance commercials and I'd watch them) does a great Mackenzie King.
Finally, to Juliet is Bleeding I can only really say, Oh, Ray. Climbing in windows! Rekindling old flames! And then being totally heartbroken. Oh, Ray.
no subject