caught between laughter and tears

[tielan]

Sent out the john_teyla_fic assignments. Phew!

I should probably have asked for people to email back that they'd received their assignment, shouldn't I? Bah.

Anyway, that's done.

--

Bones is watched.

I'm very ambivalent about Zack as the Gormagon's apprentice. Mostly because it felt a little too "we need shock value so we'll have one of the regular cast characters be in the Gormagon plot" than I liked. It would have been nice to have a few more ducks lined up before they gunned Zack down.

I can believe that Zack would over-rationalise things, that he would take too much of Hodgins' conspiracy theories to heart, that he hasn't made the emotional connection that Brennan has. But there's more to a person than the disconnects and dysfunctions - and, for me, they didn't show enough disconnect between Zack-as-part-of-the-team and Zack-as-the-rationally-thinking-being-who-is-okay-with-murder-for-the-good-of-mankind.

*sigh*

It makes more sense for Zack than anyone else on the team. The only person I could have otherwise believed would have been Sweets. And that was just a little too obvious. Hodgins might believe that secret societies devalue the human experience, but he'd act very differently in order to counteract their influence.

Ultimately, although Zack is the best candidate to willingly assist Gormagon out of the regular team, I still don't think it was presented well-enough to satisfy me - at least, not on a show where I've been admiring the degree of interpersonal connection and development that's shown from week to week.

The big downside of Zack as the Gormagon's apprentice is that it'll be real difficult to backwatch episodes now and not think, "You're going to take a sharp left at psychosisville."

--

sgabigbang has been put on hiatus while I try to deal with reel_sga. It's proving more difficult than I expected. They always do.

Oh, and greenconverses? This should be right up your alley: ontd_twatlight! Prepare to be dazzled! (Although the sparkly font is making me want to kill-kill-kill-kill-kill...)

Comments

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

You know, I usually am right on board with the 'they just did it for shock value, rar' reaction r.e. stuff like what happened on Bones, but this time...I'm really not. Ironic, because they've as much as admitted that part of the reason they did it was to shake things up.

I mean, I'm not deeply invested in Zack as a character, but I am invested in the team as a whole, of which he has been a significant part. I think...on one hand, I'll miss him least of all; but on the other hand, if any of them was going to fall victim (in that way) to a serial killer, Zack is the one I'd believe it would happen to. He does not connect emotionally with the dead who pass through their lab, and never has; he relies more and more on strict logic, even when that means discounting elements of life or a situation that are totally obvious to everyone else just because they don't fit the logic model he has in his head; and that thing Carolyn said about the serial killer preying on a weak mind? Yeah. That's Zack. Sweet kid, but completely socially inept/verging on anti-social + always being buffeted about by personalities more forceful than his. Sprinkle in what looked, at the very, very beginning of the season anyway, like a bit of shell-shock/PTSD from whatever happened in the Middle East, and to me he's practically got a sign on his back that says "fuck with my head! I'll let you! Especially if you can convince me that I would be doing something for the greater good!"

Poor Zack.

The big downside of Zack as the Gormagon's apprentice is that it'll be real difficult to backwatch episodes now and not think, "You're going to take a sharp left at psychosisville."

Hee. I was thinking about that, too. On one hand, the prospect makes me feel a wee bit uncomfortable; on the other hand, it's kind of a fascinating prospect and now I kind of want to go back and marathon all three seasons just to watch him in this new light. :P

*

Also, I got the thingathon email.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Got my assignment...

I might have bought Zach if I could a moment believe that he was approached by Gormagon only three months before hand....I've read that the last few eppys were heavily re-written, taking OUT Gormagon stuff that would have made more sense to it being Zach.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have said no to more foreshadowing, but in this case I didn't need it. Which is odd, because usually I'm right there with my torch and pitchfork, irate at writers for taking shortcuts to service a plot, but yeah, not so much this time. *shrug*

[tielan]

I've read that the last few eppys were heavily re-written, taking OUT Gormagon stuff that would have made more sense to it being Zach.

Yes. They needed more setup for me to accept it was Zack. They needed to more clearly show Zack's disconnect with his team after his return from Iraq, if that's what they were going to attribute his 'turning' to.

Nothing big, just a few more points where his opinion is shown most clearly to be non-consonant with general society - where the audience really got to see that Zack wasn't the same guy they'd worked with in S1 and S2.

[tielan]

if any of them was going to fall victim (in that way) to a serial killer, Zack is the one I'd believe it would happen to.

I've bolded my qualifier.

If anyone was going to end up swayed by a murderer, it would be Zack, yes. But I have trouble believing that he'd disconnect from his workmates as well - that he wouldn't at least ask himself what the opinion of these people with whom he works would be, especially since he's seen their reactions to Gormagon.

Logically, I can point to the fact that he spent time in Iraq and that he drifted from his team-mates. And if this were Stargate, I would.

But this is Bones. They don't tell you things so you have to go extrapolating reasons after the fact - they show you what's happening, they give you a why.

This time, they didn't give me enough why - not the way 'Bones' usually does.

And now I'm not sure if I'm more offended by the idea of Zack as a serial killer's assistant, or the idea that the Bones writers/producers didn't set this up appropriately.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, all I can really say is, it didn't bother me. I figure they would have led up to it more neatly if they'd had the time, but they went ahead with it despite not being able to foreshadow, and...it really didn't bother me.

[tielan]

Oh, I get that it didn't bother other people as much; this is just my reasons for being iffy with it.