In which Kate has the Magical Healing Powerz Of DisContinuity, Helen bluffs twice, and Will is whumped...again.
I wish I'd seen this episode before I'd done the dinner with Michael Shanks at Armageddon earlier this year. But, you know, can't be helped. Hindsight, etc.
"I love the hair!" That first meeting scene between Helen and Jimmy? Could just as easily be Amanda and Michael, or Sam and Daniel. There was a lot of meta going on in that little exchange.
Some nice backstory on Kate, although all the telling and not showing was a bit of a booboo, IMO. I liked the shades of grey in her history (and Jimmy's), and Kate taking responsibility for her choices in the end (although she's always struck me as someone who'll make the hard moral choices and then stick by them: no takebacks for Kate).
Uh. Did it bug anyone else that they didn't get her anything to bite on while Jimmy's digging out the bullet? Jeeze. Also - assuming that alcohol was in the flask? Should have been used to sterilise the wound. Along with the 1200F fire elemental for the blade. I'm just sayin'...
Bad Abnormal of the week with radioactive hands. Again, a little too 2D in evil. (I really really want a Michael in this show. Or an Admiral Helena Cain. I know, wrong genres, too complex for the storywriting, but...dood! Sometimes I think Helen needs a nemesis: Dana whatsis from the Cabal was...actually, no. She postured a bit too much, as well. But Helen needs someone her equal who is her antithesis. I don't think we've had anyone even vaguely worthy of the title yet.)
The writers really have a thing for whumping Will. If I didn't know better, I'd think that Martin Wood and Damien Kindler were the mods of![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
willwhumpers (or some comm like that). If it's not physical, it's emotional. (Although, I will say, Scruffy!Will from Pavor Nocturnus, as well as early S3, is rather hot.)
The plot choices annoyed me. Mostly because they told us the backstory about Kate, and from a distance, too, rather than showing it to us as the story unfolded.
I'd have linked Kate in with the mob boss somehow: she did runs for them once upon a time, and then they're after her as well as Jimmy and his cargo. I'd also have whumped Jimmy rather than Kate, putting her in the position of protector for this guy she hardly knows, and then has the conflict between her personal/childhood desire to see him dead for her father, and her professional/adult need to get him back to Magnus. It changes the story landscape: puts her in even more of a position of power and the possibility of abuse, and makes her the forward thinker and planner (which I think are her skills) for getting them back to the Sanctuary.
Of course, that would have put a lot of the acting chops firmly on Agam Darshi's shoulders, and left the Sanctuary crew as background to her running of the op. Which we (apparently) can't have.
I think this is part of my issue with the plots of Sanctuary (and, TBH, was also my issue with the plots of SGA; although, oddly, not with the plots of SG1). The plots themselves seem awkward vehicles for the characters as they're played out. A few careful changes in what happens to whom, and the concepts remain the same, while complicating what's otherwise a little too simplistic - or retreading ground that's already been trodden. We know Will whumps pretty: what about whumping on, say, Big Guy, and having prejudices against non-humanistic abnormals (side note: Victorian as it may be, that term is very problematic) coming into the picture - the mob boss' hatred of what he is and his need to restrain it? It gives the bad guy another layer, and lets us show how Big Guy deals with the prejudice against his looks (and, come on, there'd surely be prejudice between abnormals based on appearance).
Also...a part of me wanted Jimmy to survive and hook up with Kate. I'm just sayin'...
Anyway, too much telling, not enough showing.
My big beef this month is people telling me what happens rather than showing me what happens. I'm tired of it. DO NOT WANT.
I wish I'd seen this episode before I'd done the dinner with Michael Shanks at Armageddon earlier this year. But, you know, can't be helped. Hindsight, etc.
"I love the hair!" That first meeting scene between Helen and Jimmy? Could just as easily be Amanda and Michael, or Sam and Daniel. There was a lot of meta going on in that little exchange.
Some nice backstory on Kate, although all the telling and not showing was a bit of a booboo, IMO. I liked the shades of grey in her history (and Jimmy's), and Kate taking responsibility for her choices in the end (although she's always struck me as someone who'll make the hard moral choices and then stick by them: no takebacks for Kate).
Uh. Did it bug anyone else that they didn't get her anything to bite on while Jimmy's digging out the bullet? Jeeze. Also - assuming that alcohol was in the flask? Should have been used to sterilise the wound. Along with the 1200F fire elemental for the blade. I'm just sayin'...
Bad Abnormal of the week with radioactive hands. Again, a little too 2D in evil. (I really really want a Michael in this show. Or an Admiral Helena Cain. I know, wrong genres, too complex for the storywriting, but...dood! Sometimes I think Helen needs a nemesis: Dana whatsis from the Cabal was...actually, no. She postured a bit too much, as well. But Helen needs someone her equal who is her antithesis. I don't think we've had anyone even vaguely worthy of the title yet.)
The writers really have a thing for whumping Will. If I didn't know better, I'd think that Martin Wood and Damien Kindler were the mods of
willwhumpers (or some comm like that). If it's not physical, it's emotional. (Although, I will say, Scruffy!Will from Pavor Nocturnus, as well as early S3, is rather hot.)The plot choices annoyed me. Mostly because they told us the backstory about Kate, and from a distance, too, rather than showing it to us as the story unfolded.
I'd have linked Kate in with the mob boss somehow: she did runs for them once upon a time, and then they're after her as well as Jimmy and his cargo. I'd also have whumped Jimmy rather than Kate, putting her in the position of protector for this guy she hardly knows, and then has the conflict between her personal/childhood desire to see him dead for her father, and her professional/adult need to get him back to Magnus. It changes the story landscape: puts her in even more of a position of power and the possibility of abuse, and makes her the forward thinker and planner (which I think are her skills) for getting them back to the Sanctuary.
Of course, that would have put a lot of the acting chops firmly on Agam Darshi's shoulders, and left the Sanctuary crew as background to her running of the op. Which we (apparently) can't have.
I think this is part of my issue with the plots of Sanctuary (and, TBH, was also my issue with the plots of SGA; although, oddly, not with the plots of SG1). The plots themselves seem awkward vehicles for the characters as they're played out. A few careful changes in what happens to whom, and the concepts remain the same, while complicating what's otherwise a little too simplistic - or retreading ground that's already been trodden. We know Will whumps pretty: what about whumping on, say, Big Guy, and having prejudices against non-humanistic abnormals (side note: Victorian as it may be, that term is very problematic) coming into the picture - the mob boss' hatred of what he is and his need to restrain it? It gives the bad guy another layer, and lets us show how Big Guy deals with the prejudice against his looks (and, come on, there'd surely be prejudice between abnormals based on appearance).
Also...a part of me wanted Jimmy to survive and hook up with Kate. I'm just sayin'...
Anyway, too much telling, not enough showing.
My big beef this month is people telling me what happens rather than showing me what happens. I'm tired of it. DO NOT WANT.
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