Thoughts on House and BSG

[vilakins]

I saw the first ep of House last night. Hugh Laurie is wonderful in it; you'd hardly think he was a British actor I mainly think of in the role of Bertie Wooster. I think I'm going to like this series a lot: snark, cynicism, interesting characters, and CGI insides (urk). It was interesting that the female doctor was chosen for being beautiful but working hard anyway. It does however bring me to something I dislike about US programs. Apart from House himself, everyone is impossibly good-looking. Is there some sort of rule over there that you're only allowed one real person per show?

On to BSG. Spoilers for the second ep, Water

Boomer. Wow, they're picking up the pace on this. She must know she planted those explosives in the water tank since she was dripping wet at the start, even if she had no memory of it. I'm not sure what happened when she realised there was a bomb under her console, or why she turned it off and said she'd detected water, but my theory is this: she's fighting her Cylon programming. She wanted to report the water but couldn't override her orders, but when she realised there was a bomb, she also wanted to live and this gave her the strength. I'm not too sure about this last bit as another Boomer is also on Caprica and obviously shares her personality and memories so she'd still survive in that form. A part of her must still be very 'human' and loyal to her crewmates.

Keyboards. Or more specifically, the one Boomer uses. Now I could do another rant about them independently developing English and even the same letters for the elements (H2O) but I won't. I will instead comment on something rather cool. When the camera pans across her keyboard, I said, "Bet it's QWERTY," and went back and freeze-framed it. Guess what: it wasn't. The letters were in alphabetic sequence (which is apparently more efficient than the old QWERTY) but what I loved was the grime. The keys were dirty and in all the right places. I love that attention to detail when no-one but sad people like me would have even seen it.

Handheld Cameras. No sir, I don't like 'em. I hate the wobble, the deliberate lag in focussing, and the off-centre close-ups on parts of people's faces. I find it disconcerting and it also erects a barrier between me and the scene, reminding me that it's not real. I like believing it is, dammit. And why reproduce that effect in the CGI shots of ships in space? That's just self-conscious and rather pretentious.

But hey, I love this show anyway. Can't wait to see the next ep. And they don't have that really annoying fast-then-slow camera crap that plagues Green Room.

All this excellent TV at once, though! I've got no time to watch all the DVDs I bought. I'm still stuck in Farscape S4, no closer to PKW.

Comments

[kernezelda]

That's neat about the keyboard. I do love it when that level of care is taken in a program.

And yes, most US television doesn't admit that real people exist.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that they sometimes have a token real person: e.g. one overweight character who is also purely comic relief. I rather like 'Less Than Perfect' for having a plump star with quirky non-plastic co-workers, and the two beautiful people are also the shallow and nasty ones.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

What I find disappointing about 'Less Than Perfect' is that said plump star isn't really all that plump; her dress size is actually quite small. She just looks plump, compared to all her ultra-skinny Hollywood co-stars. It makes me sad.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Much the same way people kept saying Tara from Buffy was fat, and Joss Whedon kept having to say that, no, she isn't.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I haven't met Tara yet. But I hope she really is coz Buffy needs more real-looking students.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

She's not fat. She's normal-sized. Next to loads of size 0's, that looks fat, apparently.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't know about which season you're in, but she looks quite plump to me (mind you, she usually wears really unflattering cardies and flouncy dresses) and her friends are a large black woman with heaps of self-esteem (go, her!), a skinny dork, and a big lumbering bald guy. The two skinny beautiful ones are also not at all likeable. This is rare.

Another show I like is Malcolm in the Middle. They all look fairly real and the family is poor and find it hard to make ends meet. This is also rare.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I only watched a few episodes at the very beginning, because I almost never watch sitcoms. It's just that I remember reading an article about this when the show first came out. Sara Rue wears 'medium' size (8-10); that's considered a normal, healthy weight. The average US woman wears a 14. The average Hollywood actress wears 0-1 and freaks out if she hits size 2. You accustom the TV audience to skinnies and then drop in a normal person, yes, they're going to look fat.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I read an interview with her in which she said she was a size 14. Naybe they translated to our sizes, in which case a 14 is only one size over what's considered ideal. She looks more, possibly due to the awful and unflattering things she wears.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Eek. Well, it's always possible I've completely misremembered. But if she wore one of our 14s, I'd expect her to look a lot bigger then she does.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind being a 14 here. 10 is skinny and beyond my reach, 12 is thought to be ideal, but 14 is fine. She's got a definite tummy though, which is unusual on US TV shows.

I do like that her size is never mentioned.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen either BSG or House so no substantive comments, but as for grimy keyboards...well, as soon as TV moved from being an ephemeral medium that vanished into the air to something that was captured on tape and DVD, there is *no* detail that will not be freeze-framed, examined, and possibly interpreted as a matter of the most profound meaning.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Hugh Laurie is good looking. See by no means the best pic I've seen of him, but the first that came to hand (http://www.nndb.com/people/283/000051130/hugh-laurie.jpg).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've never considered him particularly good looking, sorry. But he's an excellent actor and comedian so he's always a delight to watch; I've never seen good looks as particularly relevant anyway. In fact they're usually a turn-off enless there's lots of personality there too.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I had an exciting dream about My Turbulent Love Affair With Hugh Laurie last night. Could you mention, say, Chris Eccleston not being very good-looking tonight?

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

He is, but he's not done up to be good-looking in House. He's done up to be scruffy and tired.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Ah, so it's one of those shows where even the bad-looking characters are played by good-looking actors.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Or, alternatively, a show willing to show people getting significantly scruffy and tired, regardless of how good-looking they are.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much my theory, too, about what was going on with Boomer. I don't think she was consciously aware of it, but I do think the "human" part of her was struggling with the Cylon-programmed part, trying to see what was actually there instead of what she was "supposed" to see.

And that is a neat detail on the keyboard. Never noticed that!

Btw, if you haven't Sci-Fi's BSG website (http://scifi.com/battlestar/), be sure to do so. They've got all kinds of cool stuff, including deleted scenes from the first episode. (Though you'll want to be careful what you look at, I guess, since we're 8 epsiodes ahead of you.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's always good to have a site recced. Duly bookmarked to look at, and carefully. :-) I can resist spoilers.

So you don't think Boomer suspects? And that the one on Earth thinks she's human too and really did go back to be with Karl? Admittedly Boomer isn't one of the five who know that Cylons look like humans, but she must realise she was the one who sabotaged the water tanks.

Almost forgot: what's with the test Baltar developed? Was it a fake that just happened to catch a Cylon in the mini?

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Given that you're resisting spoilers, I can't actually answer any of those questions. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, so I find out. Good.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Well, there's at least one of those questions that I think they've just started seriously hinting that there might be an answer to at the point where we US viewers are. I think the others have been answered, though. :)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I'm having a knee-jerk reaction to the excess of good-looking people on TV in my writing. James is the only *really* pretty one in the novel -- Richard's got the bone-structure, but he also has the scars and the twisted fingers; Imogen's actually quite plain; Andrew's creepy; the minor characters all have at least one obvious flaw that singles them out from the rest, or are remarkable only for their total ordinary-ness.

Gina

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Good for you! :-D

[trixieleitz]

I enjoyed House, too. I was worried that the snark as shown in the ads would be too much to enjoy after a while, but with the lines placed in context, they were just beautiful. Although I would have liked to have seen him get really stuck in to AsthmaMom!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yes! She deserved more than she got.

My main problem now is wallowing in all this good TV and having no time for all the DVDs I bought during the long draught. Must make time for Farscape