Couch Potato Chronicles: the Ponds and the Winchesters

I haven't blogged about TV in a really, really long time, and I'm pretty darn sure that I shouldn't be doing it now, but I'm tired, I've been working a lot, and if I want to take a study break by talking about TV, well, it's my life.  Anyway, you may remember how a couple seasons ago I got tired of "Supernatural" and turned to "Doctor Who" instead.  The new seasons of both shows have hit the airwaves, and this time around, things have turned out a little differently.  The short version: given the choice between the Doctor and Dean Winchester, I'm going with Dean.  What, all of shiny time and space versus grim demon-hunting and family issues?  The TARDIS versus a black 1967 Impala?  A  Gallifreyan Time Lord versus a Kansas native with a GED and a snarky attitude?  I'll tell you why if you really want to know.

Couch Potato Chronicles: "Doctor Who" Is Back!

There's so much to love (and be utterly freaked out by) in the season premiere that aired tonight on BBC America!  Oh, I've got high hopes for a great new season ahead!  Suffice it for now to say that I'm ecstatic to see Alex Kingston back as awesome nerd-babe River Song and to welcome Mark Sheppard as a guest star to the Whoniverse.  Sheppard's one of my favorite sci-fi character actors; from playing the rogue-ish Badger in "Firefly" to a slimy lawyer in "Battlestar Galactica" to a deliciously evil demon in "Supernatural," Sheppard has a gift for being memorable.

I'll do a full episode in a little bit.  Here's a cast photo for now, though.  I'm loving the Stetson hat on Eleven and River's rootin', tootin', latter-day Annie Oakley vibe.

Geronimo!

Couch Potato Chronicles: "Doctor Who" Season 5 Retrospective: the TARDIS

I told fellow Whovians La Parisenne and California Dreamer that I would do a massive end-of-season "Doctor Who" writeup, but now I'm thinking that the post would be just too long.  So I'm going to take each bit I had planned to cover in it, and I'll make each bit a separate post.  In the end, I'll do a post that links to all the other posts, K?

Focus today: the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space)

Doctor Who Episode Review: Season Finale, Part 1 -- "The Pandorica Opens"

Art imitates life?

Now that the initial shock of watching part 1 of the season finale has finally worn off, now that my Whovian buddies and I have talked for hours about it, I'm all set to write up a full review in the same fashion as I did for "Vincent and the Doctor" and "The Lodger."

But, as it turns out, I don't have to because someone else has done a review that looks and feels almost exactly like I was planning to do mine. Read this -- it is a beauty! I'll just add that it ended with the best and boldest cliffhanger I've seen yet in the new Who. (OK, it was really 3 cliffhangers. Really!)

Obligatory Spoiler Warning: Oh, don't read any of this if you haven't already seen "The Pandorica Opens."

I'll just jot down what is arguably the coolest bit of fraught exposition in the episode:

There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless terrible thing soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the Cosmos. And nothing could stop it or hold it or reason with it. One day, it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.

Dang. And now just stop for a moment and think about that statement.

The best line of the episode, though, has to be River Song's: "Oh, Doctor. Why do I let you out?" River is so fantastic. She's like a butt-kicking, space/time-traveling female version of Indiana Jones. I want to be like River when I grow up ... aside from the whole killing someone and getting imprisoned for it kind of thing, I mean!

Part 2 of the season finale (entitled "The Big Bang") airs tomorrow, and I'm ludicrously excited. We've come a long way since the midterm exam for this season, I daresay.

Public Service Announcement: You can expect plenty of obsessive if desultory Who-blogging this summer as a work-avoidance strategy since I have a million researchy things to do!

Couch Potato Chronicles: Part 1 of the "Doctor Who" Finale: "The Pandorica Opens"

HOLY CR*P!

Cliffhanger-mania! Can't wait for next week's conclusion.

I'll do a real review soon. For now, suffice it to say that the awesomeness of the previous two episodes finds itself repeated and amplified to the nth degree here. My head is still spinning. Now this is good TV!

Here's the BBC trailer. (Oh, and in Britspeak, "series" = "season," not "the entire show.")




UPDATE 1: Got some screencaps from the Medusa Cascade to help me communicate my double-natured response to the episode...

Sheer delight: "YAY!"




"HOLY CR*P!"
THERE's the emotional investment and roller-coaster freaking out!
And it hurts so good. Notice Amy's thumbs-up.

UPDATE 2: Flick Filosopher has a good analysis of/response to the episode, but it is full of spoilers, so if you haven't yet seen "The Pandorica Opens," then for goodness sake, don't read the post.

Couch Potato Chronicles: OK, Eleventh Doctor, You Win (Part 2: "The Lodger")

Episode 10, "Vincent and the Doctor" paved the way, but it was really this 11th episode, "The Lodger" that got me.

It was in many ways the show at its most charming and most fun. It was a celebration of the ordinary and of the pleasures and value of "an ordinary life." It was a story of how the Doctor can make a difference in the particular lives of ordinary people and that this is just as legitimate and worthy a cause as abstractly saving the planet/galaxy/universe. It was, at its heart, a story about people (Time Lords are people too, right?), people living their everyday lives. After all, the whole point to saving the universe/galaxy/planet is so ordinary people can live their lives, right? (Ignore Peter Singer on this one. Trust me.) Besides, you don't have to do something massively spectacular in order to make a difference or a good story (take note, Russell T. Davies, who sometimes forgot this).

"The Lodger" was also a Time Lord version of "The Odd Couple," and there is something simply, inherently appealing about the idea of the Doctor masquerading as a human and having a flatmate (Craig, beautifully and winningly played by James Corden). Danger aside (there's a creepy room upstairs that apparently eats people), the entire setup is geared for laughs as poor Craig finds his new flatmate rather ... odd and as the Doctor flails about trying to fit in.

Then, because the show is apparently out to get me, it threw in all sorts of details and developments that were basically guaranteed to push my buttons. Take a look at a few examples:

1. Craig's refrigerator. Do you notice a clever little detail?

Bonus: the magnetic letters spelling "Craig Rocks." Besides, I love the messy fridge door. It's so ... realistic. My fridge door is a mess of magnets and pictures and postcards and papers too.


2. Technophiliac fiddling. Just look at this loopy machine that the Doctor jury-rigged in his room! He MacGyvered it out of junk and spare parts. And that's pretty awesome.

3. The sonic toothbrush ... I mean, screwdriver.

I'm back to obsessing happily over attention to detail. The Doctor's in the shower and he reaches blindly for ... Hey, look!

What's even better is that he rushes out of the bath in an attempt to sonic a perceived threat ...

... but, much to Craig's amusement (just look at Corden's expression!), the Doctor's actually grabbed the electric toothbrush instead. I laughed out loud, and I'll never look at my Sonicare toothbrush in quite the same way again. The entire little interlude was a great shout-out to ordinary objects in everyday life (and how they can slam up against the Doctor).

You're the DOCTOR, not the DENTIST.

4. Cooking. You know I love cooking. This darn episode! Must it appeal to the cooking fan in me too? Apparently, YES. The Doctor makes an omelet for Craig and mentions along the way that he learned how to cook in Paris in the 19th century. Did he go to the Cordon Bleu? Did he learn from Escoffier? We don't know. But what a thought!

5. Soccer. I mean, FOOTBALL. Oh, and right during the World Cup, so you know this is no accident! Craig recruits the Doctor for his pub league team, and we get a whole wagonload of goodies out of it. For one thing, in terms of sporting tie-ins, this works SO MUCH BETTER than Season 2's "Fear Her" and its horrible London Olympics plot device.

Anyway, the Doctor changes into his kit, and right from the start it made me smile. He's put the jersey on backwards at first, yes, but notice the number on it. Also: when was the last time we saw a Doctor in shorts? Never, that's when. Nine and Ten never did (and, I have to say, Ciao Bello opined with crushing candor that nobody should ever have to see Tennant in shorts, and even lovely California Dreamer couldn't help poking fun at his legs after they saw this "Doctor Who Confidential" segment, *giggle*). But somehow shorts seem to dovetail perfectly well with Eleven's goofy -- and, let's be honest, dorky -- charm. The hair just adds to the effect.

Hilariously, at first the Doctor doesn't quite understand football -- and isn't even clear on which sport it is. In an earpiece exchange with the absent, TARDIS-bound Amy, he says, "Football ... I'm good at football, I think ... Football, all outdoorsy ... that's the one with the sticks, isn't it?"

And of course he's good at it. (I heard a tale that before he went into acting, Matt Smith did want to play football before an injury ended that.)

You'd have to have a heart of stone not be moved by this face when he scored. GOOOOOOAL! The other team's goalie isn't too happy, but there is something really sweet about Eleven right here.

"Yesssss!"

"What?!" *

* = OK, so I was just kidding around. The image from "Fear Her" was too perfect not to use! Come on, it's Ten in front of a goal net, for goodness sake, with that look of dismayed, annoyed surprise. It could belong to any goalie caught off-guard!

Sophie (an adorable Daisy Haggard, whom you may recognize from the delightful "Man Flu" comedy video) approves. She's Craig's friend, and he fancies her but can't quite communicate that. "The Odd Couple" vibe takes on a rom-com vibe too.

6. You just had to, didn't you, show? You just had to bring in a montage of past Doctors and hurl David Tennant's face all over my TV, didn't you? Maybe it was meant as an homage, but I caught by surprise and it was like someone jammed an icicle into my heart. But it hurt so good to see Ten, darling dearly departed Ten, so I guess Aristotle was right about catharsis and whatnot. Darn it, show, for manipulating my apparently easily manipulated emotions.

7. Remember what I said at the beginning of this post about how the story is about people? I've banged on before (and at terrible length) about characters, and the episode ended delightfully on the human level. We resolved the issue about the mysterious people-eating upstairs room, but what brought the resolution wasn't the sonic screwdriver or some tech toy or something that only the Doctor could do. Actually, it was Craig and Sophie who ended up turning the tide ... by taking the leap and confessing their love for each other. In the end, they and the Doctor emerge as friends having shared an adventure.

Three's company.

So in the end, Craig and Sophie and I can say with happy honesty ... Well, why don't I just let Craig's fridge do the talking as it appears at the end of the episode?

He does indeed.

Bonus: Look at what reappears at the end, in the wall beside Craig's refrigerator? The crack is back, a reminder now that next week and the week after will be the oh-so-important finale of the season. What's going to happen when the Pandorica opens next week?

Screencap credit to Sonic Biro. Also, you can catch the episode (and all of the current season's episodes) here.

BONUS: Take a look at this absolutely fabulous bit from this episode's "Doctor Who Confidential."

Couch Potato Chronicles: OK, Eleventh Doctor, You Win, Part 1 ("Vincent and the Doctor")

Last week I did a big fat fangirly post about the current series of "Doctor Who." I said it was good but that it just wasn't really captivating me the way I wanted it to. I don't want to just "like" it (which I do). I want to LOVE it. I want to ADORE it.

And then, wonder of wonders, with the most recent two episodes, the show took a huge leap in that direction. Last night's episode, "The Lodger," basically did it, but it had gotten a huge assist from the 10th episode last week, "Vincent and the Doctor." Yes, Vincent. As in Van Gogh.

So what great stuff did that episode get right? Well, plenty, actually.

The episode opens with the Doctor being extra nice to Amy (after the horrible loss of Rory, which she can't even remember). And in his attempt to -- somehow -- be good to her (as well as to himself too, for the guilt must be dreadful), he takes her to all sorts of places, including a museum. A MUSEUM! A man after my own heart!

Then it gets even better. Whom do we run into in the gallery but the art expert and guide, who is played by none other than the delightful Bill Nighy! Bonus: he's wearing a bowtie. Double bonus that made me smile: He and the Doctor share a charming moment admiring each other's bowties. It was a tiny moment, but it was wonderful, and it was the sort of touch that elevates an episode from merely "good" to "great" or even in some cases, "awesome."

As it turns out, one of the Van Gogh paintings in the gallery contains the image of an alien monster, so Eleven and Amy race to the TARDIS and to 19th-century Provence to find Vincent and the alien threat. That's the plot. What follows now in this post is not about that, really, but about the fantastic little details that enrich it. The episode turns out to be a massive love letter to Vincent Van Gogh and his art. Now, to be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge Van Gogh fan, even though I know his art and I do appreciate it. (Well, OK, my favorite thing of his is "Starry Night.") But as it turns out, you don't have to be a Van Gogh fanboy/girl in order to appreciate the loving attention to detail and dedication to him that went into this episode. I was utterly charmed.

Take a look at this cafe where the Doctor and Amy go to look for the artist. It should look familiar if you recall your art history:

Oh, it gets better. Once we're there, we run into a certain troubled (and troublesome) artist who's attempting to pay his bill with a painting. And not just any painting.

What a great touch that in our first encounter with Vincent (fantastically embodied by Scotsman Tony Curran), when we see him for the first time, he's carrying that painting! Later on, Curran will even wear that same straw hat.

In his little house, we see something else hanging on the wall as the Doctor and Amy come to call, while Van Gogh apologizes for the "clutter."

Oh, yes, it is! There's "Starry Night"! In fact, the entire house is evocative, and if you have even a passing acquaintance with Van Gogh's body of work, you might be amused to see what his room looks like:

In this episode, we don't spend a lot of time gallivanting around strange alien landscapes. We're on Earth, but in a lovely approach, the show gives us some gorgeous visual setpieces. This episode is largely a confection for the eyes in all sorts of ways. Just look at this scene, in which Amy attempts to inspire Van Gogh to paint sunflowers. It's absolutely beautiful. And Amy's expression is just so much fun.

Then at episode's end, we see this when Amy and the Doctor return to the museum. Click to enlarge to see the lettering:

Visuals infuse this episode, and I'll end with two more great little examples. Take a look at what happens to the TARDIS when it's left in an alley for a few days. Yes, the locals use it as a billboard for pasting up announcements and advertisements!

Then there's the Doctor's new gizmo, a device to show you what is really there (thus enabling him to see the invisible alien that is prowling the town).

Sorry, I can't help myself:
"Monsters in the mirror may be closer than they appear"!

I would be remiss, though, if I didn't mention the themes of emotion and character that run through the episode: Amy, Vincent, the Doctor ... especially, at the end, and in the final analysis, the Doctor. And there is always that poignant something about the fragility of life and art and seeing the world around you in all its horror and wonder. And how much you can affect events too.

Next time: How episode 11 (how fitting a number) finally won me over. By apparently pulling out all the stops ever.

UPDATE: Part 2 is now online.

Screencap credit to Sonic Biro. Also, you can catch the episode (and all of the current season's episodes) here.

Couch Potato Chronicles: Midterm Grade for Series 5 Doctor Who, Updated

OK, this is really for La Parisienne, the Kamikaze Editor, and other bibliophiles. I made and added a little something demotivator-ish to the mid-series review. There's a touch of Greek, a dash of Hemingway, and a hint of Williams, ha!

(See, this is what happens when a crowd of cheerful literature enthusiasts are also sci fi fanatics.)

Oh, and I added more images too for the Cine-Sib, who complained that "there are too many words." How very .... Onion-y!

Couch Potato Chronicles: Midterm Exam for Series 5 "Doctor Who"

Alas, poor Ten! I knew him, gentle reader,
a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy hairstyles.

It's summer, and even if I have a mountain of nerd work to do, I simply can't do ONLY nerd work, because that will drive me mad.

So ... I'm launching the "Couch Potato Chronicles" tag for the blog, for me to use when I'm blogging about TV (and not just any TV, but my own TV fixations). Don't tell the Nerd Lords, mmmmkay? And summer TV this time means lots of "Doctor Who" (and World Cup soccer action -- but that doesn't start until later).

Having said all that, let's get down to business and talk about the Eleventh Doctor and the fifth season of the show.

"Bowties are cool."
But how is the SHOW?

We've reached the halfway point of the new season (or "series," in Britspeak), so it is -- in academic terms -- midterm exam time. I stumbled across this discussion, and it made me stop and think.

So how IS the new Who doing? I was enthralled by the fabulous first episode, and it did give a fresh colorful start to everything. For the briefest moment, I could imagine I was watching a brand-new and attention-grabbing sci fi show, meaning that I for that briefest moment appreciated the new Who for being itself, not for the absence of the Tenth Doctor. (You know I adore Ten, so that was a darn good achievement. Eleven having to win the trust of Amy was the perfect metaphor for him having to win the trust of the legions of Ten fans, for many of whom Ten was the ONLY Doctor.)

Going on. The stories this season have been fun (well, mostly, with some uneven patches), but now that we're at the midpoint, I'm looking back and assessing, and I just have to say, something seems to be missing. (No, not Ten! Something else.)

Then earlier today, because I'm apparently a masochist, I re-watched Tennant's finale, "The End of Time." I couldn't finish it. It was literally making me choke up all over again (that cafe scene with Wilf --!). So I went over to the DVD's Special Features instead and thought, oh, I'll just take a peep at Tennant's video diaries, since they're always funny. I had forgotten that Tennant himself choked up trying to talk about his last day filming, and then I had to stop. I turned everything off and went grocery shopping. Really.

But I'm sitting here now, on a break from reading yet another gigantic nerd-tome, and I'm thinking, Hm. So that's what's missing. Not the sobbing and heartbreak in themselves, but the real sense of emotional investment in the story and the characters.

Life's a beeyotch when you have TWO hearts to break.
IN THE RAIN.

Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) remains a cipher halfway into the season, and she seems as slippery as ever. One of my Who-fanatic friends absolutely hates Amy, and I can't say that I'm too fond of her myself. (The Cine-Sib likes her, though.) Rose Tyler and Martha Jones and Donna Noble ... so what if sometimes they seemed TOO emotional? They came across as actual people.

This time around, the character who actually seemed to grow on you a bit (i.e., Rory) ... well. Anyway. Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor is quirky and odd in all the right ways, but I can't seem to get a hold of him as a personality. There have been moments where you get a flash of his personhood, but his individuality isn't quite formed. I'll even quote him in the first episode ("I'm still cooking") to describe him even now, and we're halfway done with the season already.

Yes, I know he's a Time Lord and alien and not-human and all, but he's still a character, and you have to be able to connect in some visceral way with your character or you won't really care about what happens to him or what he does. Example: OK, I admit it, me screaming at the TV during Tennant's turn in "The Waters of Mars" -- "Don't do it! Don't you dare! Don't you dare! ... DAMMIT! Now we're all screwed!" (That was a difficult hour for me to watch, to be honest; it was like watching someone you love turn into someone you didn't know anymore. Even if it's only for a moment, it's horrifying ... and in TV terms, gorgeously riveting.) Tennant at his best, and he usually was, made you invest in his Doctor and all his joys and sorrows, triumphs and disasters. Ten could break your heart or scare you silly or drive you crazy all in the same episode (or, shoot, even in the same five minutes).

This season with Eleven saw me saying, "Oh, that's interesting. Hmmmm." The closest it's ever come to making me really invest was "Amy's Choice" making me wonder how much the Doctor actually hates himself. But even that question doesn't have quite the emotional punch that it should have.

He dreamed himself into this fugly sweater.
Somebody needs therapy, clearly.

The new Moffat Who simply hasn't gotten under my skin or into my gut the way the Davies one did. Some of the best episodes of the Ten era really made you think and feel; they pushed your buttons. They provided fodder for some great conversations among my Whovian friends and me. (Of course, some episodes were just awful. Don't even get me started on "Planet of the Dead." Boooo!) Anyway, as I've said, I like Eleven very much, but he's got a long way to go before he can enjoy the same affection that I give Ten. Still, Ten had to earn that over time with moments like this. There's plenty of time for Eleven to earn the same.

Of course, maybe I'm too demanding. Besides, maybe I'm also a sadist in terms of screenwriting. I love Joss Whedon, after all, and you remember the Joss Whedon School of Character Development, right? Torment your character and see what happens. Just watch the finale of "Buffy" season 2.

So if I had to grade the new Who season so far? A good solid B. Season premiere gets an A. The season hasn't quite followed it up, but I'm watching! And hoping. And I'm having fun, just not as much fun as I think is possible in the Whoniverse. Still, funniest moment so far: the Doctor fending off the Daleks with a Jammie Dodger cookie. Oh, and best guest star so far: Iain Glen as Father Octavian in "Flesh and Stone," whose last moments were glorious. I'm really sorry he's gone; I wanted more of him.

In the end, Eleven's off to a good start, and it's not fair to say that he's not Ten. But, I don't think anybody's going to shout at me TOO much for missing Ten, that impossible, adorable man Time Lord.