somewhere i have never travelled

doctor who finale

2013-05-18T21:37:48Z

I... don't... really know what to say about this one.

I'll be honest up front and say I actually liked it more than I anticipated -- I might almost say "enjoyed", but that might be too strong a word. I didn't hate it, which these days from a Moffat script feels an awful lot like loving? How the turntables, etc. My expectations were as low as they could possibly be, so I guess it's not hard to believe the show sort of... failed to be as utterly terrible as it possibly could be.

In other words, it wasn't "The Wedding of River Song".

There were lots of bits that made me roll my eyes, but none that struck me as outright morally heinous, so that's always nice. Clara's "impossibility" was what I'd predicted since BOSJ, so I felt validated, and even better it was something she chose to do (in as much as one can choose something they've already chosen) rather than something that happened to her by force (like River) or by coincidence (like Amy and the cracks). So... baby steps, right? And it was fun to see the TERRIBLE cgi of Clara blitzing through Classic Who.

Like all Moffat finales though, it falls apart if I think too closely about it. If Simeon (somehow, and irrationally) made "all of the Doctor's victories a failure" and Clara fixed that, this implies that Clara did literally everything that ever happened in Doctor Who. All of it. And that's silly. And we KNOW he "never heard her" or noticed until AOTD and The Snowmen. So if I just ignore the logical implications and assume that the only Claras who ever meaningfully interacted with the Doctor were Oswin and Victorian Clara, uhhh that's fine, I guess. (Also, lots of opportunity for jokes: was the woman in the shop who gave Clara her number a Clara herself? Susan's friend and classmate from 1963, Clara Sandiego?)

Eleven/River remains hilarious to me -- so she's been dead since TATM? What the fuck? Since when? If I shipped it or cared I'd be outraged that we never saw the Singing Towers of Whatsitcalled, and that we never had any indication until now that Eleven considered her dead and gone and mourned her. But Eleven/River shippers and I rarely agree, so I imagine they're quite happy they got a poignant goodbye and a kiss. Is this the last we see of River? Praying to the old gods and the new, personally, but I don't understand logically how we can know that, because surely he could run into another River at any time. (They're not running backwards, despite what Moffat wants me to believe.)

AND of course... the "big reveal" in the end. I can think of several ways John Hurt as this lost, alternate, whatever version of the Doctor who did something terrible and secret might be very interesting. Unfortunately I can almost assuredly count on Steven Moffat to choose the worst of all possible scenarios, so stay tuned for November.

For those who don't frequent Tumblr and may not have seen it immortalized in gif form yet, they also released this:

Much as I may fear what Moffat has in store, I can't say no to an interview where David Tennant talks about Doctor Who while dressed as the Tenth Doctor on a surprisingly flat hair day.

the napoleon of crime

2013-05-18T03:43:06Z

In other TV finale news, let's talk about Elementary.

oh my godddddddd

I want to talk about the finale but at the same time I can't really find words, beyond "!!!!!!!!" For the past couple weeks I've tried to avoid Elementary news because I didn't want to be spoiled for anything, and I'm glad I did, because while I remember the Irene=Moriarty theory being floated quite early in the season, I'd mostly forgotten about it and definitely hadn't given it any weight recently.

I think what I liked most about the reveal was the way it played on my expectations as the audience, and the way they lined up their dominoes. When Sherlock told us last episode that Irene was American, I wondered why they'd cast Natalie Dormer; when we met Irene in flashbacks, I thought she was interesting but somehow not quite right, that like Dormer's American accent something felt just the slightest bit off. And of course, in retrospect, it all adds up -- Irene feels shallow because she's a fiction, and it's not (necessarily) Dormer's American accent that's off, it's Moriarty's. That the show subverted not one or two but three different tropes through Dormer -- first Irene in the fridge, and then Irene as the mere victim in a game between two men, and then Irene as Moriarty's pawn or minion -- just utterly delights me. I'm not sure the writers know precisely what they've done -- the way they started with a female character we assume to have no agency and gradually pulled back layers to reveal more and more and more -- or whether it's a happy coincidence. To be honest, I find it too good to be true. Either way, the result is excellent.

The other thing I appreciated about the episode and about Dormer's character in general was that she was Sherlock's better. She outsmarted or outmaneuvered him every step of the way, and played him like a damn drum. He calls Irene his "blindspot" affectionately in one of the flashbacks, and it holds true -- but what makes the pair of them such a good nemesis pairing is that he's her weak spot too, perhaps not a "blindspot" as such, but her twisted fondness for him that makes her keep him alive is the reason she can't be rid of him entirely. I saw some criticism of Irene/Moriarty's downfall being her feelings, but I wouldn't say that's quite the case -- it's their (convoluted, twisted) feelings for each other that leave them at a stalemate.

So of course it takes someone outside the situation, with that extra clarity, to come in and riddle it out. ENTER JOAN WATSON, CHAMPION OF FANDOM MARCH MADNESS, QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE, MOTHER OF BEES

I mean, remember when Lucy Liu was cast and everyone was worried female Watson would be little more than a sidekick? And then s1 happened and the series has been arguably more about Joan's story than Sherlock's, and in the finale we have Watson solve, outsmart and take down Moriarty when Sherlock Holmes can't. How fucking baller is that, really? Joan Watson, dismissed earlier as a "mascot", cracks Moriarty. We've spent so much of this series following Joan's growth as a detective, first unofficially and then in greater measure, until it finally comes to a head as she takes down season one's franchise-iconic Big Bad.

And then she gets a bee named after her.

Awesome.

sometimes goodbyes are a bitch

2013-05-17T02:43:59Z

I want to go track down Elementary shortly, but first a brief note on The Office's series finale:

i started crying when Pam gave her speech about how the documentary was hard to watch and she hopes she inspires other people to go for what they want overtop footage from the Beach Games coal walk

and then i pretty much cried all the rest of the way through

(it's possible i'm still crying now)

The Office might not be the show I love the most, but it is absolutely the show I've loved longest, and I am way more emotional than I anticipated about it coming to an end. The Office was the first show I started watching week by week, the first show I talked about with friends and classmates in high school, and the first show I liked enough to dig out illegal online streams of every episode I'd missed. I started watching The Office in my formative teen years, and it played a big role in shaping my expectations for comedy and television in general. It ushered in an era of television that produced almost all of my favourite shows, and while there were seasons and story arcs where the quality dipped and it was certainly time for the show to end, I'm sad to see it go.

So goodbye, The Office. You always — well, usually — left me satisfied and smiling.

nightmare in silver

2013-05-12T19:53:37Z

I tend to wind up more frustrated by stories that I think had potential and didn't capitalize on them than stories that are just through-and-through terrible. That's why "Hide" bothered me so much, and it's definitely why I'm feeling so bitter towards "Nightmare in Silver".

The thing is that there were a lot of ideas or moments in NIS that had potential, and with the exception of the Doctor/chess game thing, none of them lived up to that potential. The theme park idea was great, so naturally all we saw was a bad castle replica -- nothing even fun about the "comical" castle, nothing comical at all, any castle set would've sufficed. The full moral and philosophical ramifications of the Cyber Wars weren't illuminated or discussed, nor was the Porridge/Doctor comparison, nor was the implications of the platoon of incompetent soldiers whose crime was not wanting to commit genocide. I mean, we don't even have the Doctor or Clara empathize with that or anything. They exist to be redshirts and comic relief. All these things that never got fully explored left the episode feeling quite empty.

For me though by far the most annoying part was how empty Clara felt.

I like Clara! I like Clara a lot. Clara has consistently been my favourite part of episodes. But she was by far my least favourite part of Nightmare in Silver, not so much because of anything she did as what she didn't do: have any kind of emotional response to anything. She just floats through the plot, making military decisions with inexplicable ease. (Except, of course, when she's silly enough to toss a bomb-detonator in the air, or wave it around within the Doctor's reach when she knows he's possessed.)

I mentioned in my reaction post that I knew I'd hate the episode when she doesn't respond to Angie being kidnapped. She doesn't seem very concerned about the Doctor, she doesn't particularly connect with any of the extra characters, nor express worry when they die. (Ginger Kid tells her so-and-so on the comm saw something and went quiet, and she's like "welp that means they're here".) We have her say she's alive because "I do what the Doctor says" --- what? She doesn't worry for the children the way you'd expect, and she doesn't even seem to register the fact that these children in her care are in danger because she brought them here. Why not parallel Clara's guilt over bringing them into danger with the Doctor's guilt over what he does to companions? Would that be too interesting?

I like Clara, but I did not care for the person we had in Nightmare in Silver. She didn't really feel like a person at all.

_thirty2flavors @ 2013-04-26T23:49:00

2013-04-27T03:48:29Z

I'm off to the oft-discussed destination wedding this weekend, btw, so I won't be around. Not that I post particularly often on LJ these days, but anyhoo, I'm back on the 6th. Don't burn down the internet in my absence! At least, not without good cause.

broadchurch finale, who knew this man also wrote "cyberwoman"

2013-04-23T06:40:19Z

My previous post on the matter suggested there aren't many of you actually watching Broadchurch but I'M GOING TO TRY AGAIN.

THAT WAS THE MOST HORRIBLE THING

I WANTED TO BE RIGHT BUT IT WAS STILL HORRIBLE UGHHH GOD

ELLIE :(

ELLIE I AM SO SAD UGH

Olivia Colman did so well but it was so hard to watch. I kept awkward-laughing to Hannah saying "THIS IS HORRIBLE" because it really was just like 50 minutes of unending horror omg. We barely even made fun of Hardy the whole episode, which says a lot.

Before we started the ep we ran through our final predictions. As follows:

Joe did it -- we were half right. We were right, of course, that he did it -- we had the motive wrong. We thought it would relate to him protecting Tom from something, maybe Danny's secret drug ring. EXHIBIT A: EVERYTHING IS WORSE THAN EXPECTED
We also predicted that Tom knew, which he did not. Exhibit B: everything is worse than expected.
Hardy dies -- we decided to predict this with the reasoning that we didn't want him to die, and this way we'd have something to be happy about either way. So I am not sad to be wrong on this. Good job buddy! No strong winds took you out! You crossed that whole field all on your own! Everything turned out better than expected in this one isolated instance.
This is less specific but I remember posting back after ep 1 that clearly at some point in ep 8, he would call her "Ellie" instead of "Miller". This happened, AND IT WAS THE WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN ughhhhhh. Also MILLER IS HER MARRIED NAME so it is Joe's name she gets called by like the whole series ughhhhhhhhhhhhh exhibit c everything is worse than expected

In general I thought it was quite a good finale, there were a couple things left hanging (LOL HARDY WHAT IS YOUR DAMAGE WITH WATER) but not many, and I thought the "twist" was good in that it was shocking but it was still something you could see coming if you paid attention and pieced things together, which is frankly how twists should be. Every scene with Hardy and Ellie was excellent ugh I am so fond of both of them and now they are both so miserable, you guys should move out of town together and be grumpy roomies and have a sitcom.

And there's going to be a s2, apparently? Focusing on...???? TBH I'll be really disappointed if Ellie and Hardy aren't in it, despite the fact that they both seem pretty clearly on their way out of the titular town. FREELANCE DETECTIVE AGENCY IN SOME OTHER RANDOM SMALL TOWN PLZ & TY

hide!

2013-04-21T04:08:08Z

I wrote my reaction before I read anyone else's and... it... seems I am on sad minority island this week? :( I WANT TO WATCH THE EPISODE YOU GUYS WATCHED BECAUSE YOU ALL LIKED IT AND I WAS SITTING THERE LIKE 'oh'. Maybe I'll try tomorrow and see if my opinion changes when I am more awake. But here were my thoughts:

hardly the worst ep ever but iw as really disappointed because i had such high hopes :(

lesson learned, never expect quality from this show

anyway, it was... pretty meh

i kind of liked the idea of the ghost as a time traveler who got lost

but the rest of it with thebubble universe full of a collapsing forest with crab demon monsters was ?????????????

the love story between the professor and mary-ann was blah

the second love story being between two crab monsters was hILARIOUS

i haven't checked my dash but i can already promise there are 396293626 posts on tumblr flipping out about lovers in parallel worlds, i feel it in my bones

this episode aired like 10 hours ago so has anyone yet written angsty ten redesigning his spacesuit, because LOL

clara felt underused/used poorly, she was just kind of there and she didn't even offer to go with the doctor or anything which seemed odd and uncompanionish

the tardis/clara thing has officially reached the realm of terribleness

it's basically all those fics where the tardis hates martha because reasons

i guess the tardis can talk directly to companions now

i guess she can also fly herself to save the doctor from danger

i guess this aspect will never, ever, ever be discussed in subsequent episodes, just as it was apparently never ever ever discussed in previous episodes

seriously it invalidates like... 90% of episodes. i was thinking of POTW specifically, but there's a trillion more

stay tuned next week for the tardis trying to literally murder clara

in summary, what the fuck

i wanted more from the scene where clara muses on the doctor being ancient and forever vs humans. it was like a poorly done "you look like giants" or "you are enormous parts of my life". eleven could've been 50000% more comforting than he was but then lol nothing new there i guess

i was surprised by the context of "you are the only mystery worht solving" though -- it was in response to clara asking about how he sees humanity in general, not how he sees her. i think you can potentially abstract it to some interesting implications there if we assume he's not ONLY talking about clara

still though, that scene should've been more than it was and i was disappointed. i kept waiting for a line to nail it and it never came

in general i guess that's how i felt about the whole ep: kept waiting for it to all come together, but it didn't

alec hardy, human disaster

2013-04-18T16:35:51Z

AHHHHHH TEN BABY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

More rationally, I am still of the opinion the script for this thing is most likely going to suck. But there are some things that Steven Moffat's writing cannot take from me, and set photos like this are one of them, so I am going to revel in it. Gimme a couple nice ones of Billie to work with too, ty. (If you were wondering, other things on the list: Murray Gold music and press rounds. People I love complimenting each other! While I vomit rainbows!)

In slightly different news, is anyone on this side of the internet watching Broadchurch? Frances accused me of liking it merely because David Tennant is in it, but let me tell you, I have watched many a thing because David Tennant is in it, and that is really not a guarantee of my praise. Also, Broadchurch is by Chibnall, so admitting I am loving it means admitting Chris Chibnall wrote something good, and I think you can all appreciate what an effort that is for me.

But it is good! I got super into it! It's a nice balance of decent drama and total hilarity (unintentional most of the time) that keeps me entertained through every episode, which is basically all I want from TV. I really love Ellie, feel quite awful for Beth, and for once I am actually super fond of David Tennant's character, even if (naturally) I express that fondness with sheer unadulterated mockery.

Anyway consider this long endorsement my way of saying that if you were considering watching it but unsure, go for it. And if you are watching, come talk to me. Theories! Thoughts! etc!

IT WAS TOTALLY ELLIE'S HUSBAND, WHICH IS TERRIBLE BECAUSE I LOVE ELLIE. For like the past seven weeks people on Tumblr have been mixing up Ellie's husband (Joe?) and Nige, because they are both bald, and I found it hilarious that no one could tell bald guys apart, but now in the biggest plot twist of all I think Tumblr's incompetence might actually be a clue? Susan thinks she saw Nige because from the distance she saw some tall skinny bald white guy, and she'd be thinking of Nige already anyway -- but that describes Joe too. And if they're similar builds they probably have the same shoe size anyway. Also all the stuff about Susan’s ex, and Ellie being all “how could you not know?” is anvil-sized hints. If we assume Paul is telling the truth when he says he told the parents about the Danny/Tom fight,it might be that he spoke to Joe who never passed on the message to Ellie. (Or she could be lying. She didn’t seem like she was lying but she did say to Susan she’d do whatever to protect her son, so…)

I saw some people saying other things like — if it was Ellie’s husband that she and Hardy were chasing that one night, it might make sense that she got a phone call conveniently; he’d know her number and could use it to locate/distract her. And the texts Tom deletes, some of them are from “Mom” just around the time Danny was killed — so maybe Joe was using her phone.

Anyway if this is all true EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE because Ellie is so lovely and now she will be even sadder than Alec Hardy.

...who is, like, comically miserable, btw. Every time they demonstrate his utter lack of understanding human society I just die laughing. "Do you want to ...relax.... with me....", "I have no idea what to bring to a dinner party so I bought everything in the convenience store", "here's 5 quid go buy a round", et cetera. Dude, who ARE you? Some friends and I were playing "guess the tragic backstory" the whole time and then what they delivered is more hilarious than anything we could've imagined lmao. Of course this miserable sod is actually not guilty of anything at all beyond an unreasonable desire to martyr himself, of course. Ugh it's so funny. Somewhere under all the hilarity I do feel bad for him and just want to, like, sit him down and feed him some heart healthy soup, but there's a lot of hilarity on top, which is my favourite combination. Too bad he's totally going to die on Monday.

mark gatiss does it again!!

2013-04-14T17:10:29Z

god that was awful

fuck mark gatiss' friendship with moffat that ocntinues to get him contracts because he is awful

just awful

so boring

no suspense

i would have enjoyed reading the butter battle book more

not nearly enough clara imo

she was cute with 'the professor' though, i thought her singing would be relevant b/c of the sonic stff and because of the guy's daughter but i guess not!!!!!! ok gatiss

unless i am meant to assume skaldak heard clara half-whisper sing one single line of the song from up in his martian ship and that's what made him decide to show mercy, which if so: ok gatiss

i've come to realize i enjoy episodes more when we start with team tardis and follow them to a place, rather than when we open with random extras in crisis and the tardis materializes. i was wondering if there's an exception to this rule but i couldn't name any.

i'm also bored of bringing back classic monsters and then doing fuck all interesting things with them. like, okay, ice warriors, gr8. but that was p much all this episode had to offer, "look it's an ice warrior". like.. k

dead @ the scene where the doctor is negotiating with a pair of red glowing eyes what the fuck

the triggerhappy russian guy was irrelevant omg i thought he was going to team up with skaldak or something, all he did was teach him a new word

"soon there will be another red planet, red with the blood of humanity" your honour i rest my case

OH AND: THE TARDIS IS AT THE SOUTH POLE. 'CAN YOU GIVE US A LIFT'. TO THE SOUTH POLE. fuck everything this ep was a travesty

can we just pretend this was 7x02 and forget s7a ever happened okay sure

2013-04-06T19:16:22Z

Easily the best ep of s7 so far

I really thoroughly enjoyed it

Clara has PARENTS. street-corner-at-2-in-the-morning type parents! and she lost her mom but that is important to her instead of a passing thought! her mom inspired her to want to travel! ahhhhhh

The alien world was really well done -- I loved seeing all the different species and the alien fruit and Clara's wonder and nervousness and stuff, it was just great. great first alien planet for the new companion. Why didn't the TARDIS translate, though? ...is it because she doesn't like Clara? LOL

The alien culture was interesting as well for the most part -- loved the idea that currency is items of sentimental value, rather than monetary value. very unique, very neat (calling BS on eleven only having a sonic screwdriver EXCUSE ME MR I-STILL-WEAR-AMY'S-HARRY-POTTER-GLASSES). I also liked when Clara asked if it was true that this was where life began and the Doctor was like "it's what they believe" ...though in the end the episode undermined their faith a little

Susan reference! :') sweet

Clara's scene with mary behind the tardis was wonderful. it touched on the underlying element of humanity that i think gets lost in some of the recent episodes, the idea that although Mary and Clara were raised in such different circumstances on such different planets they can relate to each other and the idea of being a child and being afraid. and because we know Clara is a governess/nanny and she's good with children it makes sense to have her first off-world connection be with a child

the biggest complaint I have is that I think the ep got a bit lost in the middle -- the scenes in front of the alien in the glass box, where mary was restaining clara with her mind and stuff, and then eleven vs the vigil with priori incantatem was just... ehhhhhhh...

but I really liked the final showdown -- I loved eleven's speech to the sun god, I liked it overtop of the people singing their hymn, and of course (because i spent most of the climax going COME ON CLARA BB DO SOMETHING) I loved that it was Clara who saved the day by being willing to give up the most important leaf in human history

(sidenote ARE YOU REALLY ASKING ME TO BELIEVE THAT MAPLE LEAF FROM EP 1 IS THE SAME LEAF AS THE ONE IN THIS EP COME ON I AM CANADIAN I CANNOT I KNOW WHAT A MAPLE LEAF LOOKS LIKE)

and clara got her ring back! which is nice

also YES CLARA GO CLARA WITH THE SPEECH ABOUT NOT BEING THE SAME AS THE DEAD GIRL. i mean i don't know if we're meant to totally side with her, since we know the claras are more connected than that, but STILL. YOU TELL 'IM GIRL

which leads me to the one thing i didn't care for -- the idea of eleven like, stalking through her history, and also his refusal to tell her what the mystery is. i don't like the idea of the doctor investigating the companion's lives without their knowledge or consent, i find it creepy; he did it to amy twice and now he's doing it to clara too and it's just a bit ick.

but otherwise clara and eleven are precious so i am trying to move past that

so i guess he just picks her up daily? hmm. okay i guess. i want her to just stay on board but i guess this keeps it different

looks like the readthrough was today

2013-04-01T21:32:08Z

two doctor who posts in one day? what is this, 2009?

2013-03-30T20:50:50Z

overall I liked it, it was entertaining, i was pretty into it. probably the fact that my interest in the show has been unexpectedly ratcheted up as of today helped, but w/e

The alien plot was silly but fine. Matt Smith's ~hacking~ typing was Dan Humphrey Gossip Girl levels, though. And you could tell it was written by someone who is only vaguely familiar with the internet.

Clara!! lbr we're all here for Clara. SO... I like JLC. I think she's really fun to watch and has a lot of screen presence. I like the little bit of backstory we've got for Clara so far, the wanting-to-travel-but-hasn't-made-it-happen thing; I can relate. Also interesting that she didn't immediately hop to the suggestion of leaving -- will she keep doing that or will she stay in the TARDIS? Hmmm.

more emphasis on the time-travel aspect of the TARDIS. I think Donna was the only one where that wasn't a factor, was she? Rose obviously hesitated, with Martha there was the same idea of "I'll have you right back", and ofc Amy in s5 it was "back by tomorrow morning".

Was NOT a fan of the idea that Clara's computer genius comes from sinister aliens invading her mind, lord, rme. Not only that but she was unbelievably computer illiterate for a 24-year-old who (according to JLC) went to university. Like, a Twitter joke tips you off that she's a genius? She doesn't know how to use Wifi? Plz

Relatedly -- the girl in the shop gave her the phone number. that's an impending time loop, right? The girl at the shop is going to be River or something. Lord.

It seems like Oswin and Clara 2.0 are sort of two separate traits of Clara 3.0 being scattered~ into time or whatever, especially since this Clara apparently isn't named Oswin at all. Plus the wifi password being her ...motto. So... more time loop? Oswin/Clara2.0 exist as a result of her meeting the Doctor and Something happening in the finale? That is my guess, and lol colour me surprised~~

the monk stuff was stupid but w/e

Eleven is so into Clara trolololo

some of the flirty-flirty dialogue would irritate me on paper I think but so far the novelty of JLC/Matt Smith's delivery is keeping it fresh. I suspect this won't last

Anyway, I liked it? More than "The Snowmen", definitely, and probably more than the rest of s7

Oh yeah speaking of -- the Great Intelligence is back. Uh, k. Big Bad, I guess, w/e.

lollllll welp we knew this day would come

2013-03-30T14:17:15Z

for those who don't live on tumblr

2013-03-16T18:34:03Z

THE SPACE SUIT!!!!! I can't tell if I am excited by its mere presence or strangely possessive over the idea of Eleven wearing it. Jury's out. I'll get back to you. It reminds me a bit of the glimpse of coral TARDIS from Doctor's Wife -- simultaneous "OMG!!!!!!!!" and ":( no this reminds me of better times"
"Run you clever boy" SHUT YOUR MOUTH CLARA OSWALD DON'T YOU DARE DIE A THIRD TIME
Impressive sfx as always for the Moff era. Is that why you guys can't afford 13 episodes a year? I bet it is.
lol there's not much else happening in this trailer it's just a lot of noise. Maybe that's better; forever bitter that the s6 trailer made it look and sound so interesting and then it was ...what it was.
"I'm the Doctor and I am... afraid." Oh Matt Smith, sometimes I love your delivery, too bad Eleven is so shoddily written.

They also released a couple more hilarious posters:

"Hide" is like straight-up C-list horror movie... and I fucking love C-list horror movies. Is that episode by the Luther guy, or by Mark Gatiss? Anyone know?

Also there's a different BBCA trailer here, if you want more suspense about how magical and mysterious and impossible Clara is.

don't worry, this is probably the last time

2013-03-15T19:11:17Z

but since she's more or less doomed to lose, might as well make it close as possible:

Vote for Martha!

_thirty2flavors @ 2013-03-14T13:53:00

2013-03-14T17:52:52Z

your daily reminder to vote for this queen:

lmao someone got mad at me for joking about the fauxlivia plotline trololo

Also, I was not aware so many people had a deep hatred for Hermione Granger. The more you know, I guess.

god round 2 was intense, onto the sweet 16!

2013-03-13T19:28:11Z

VOTE MARTHA

(x)

also martha jones is the best so

2013-03-12T17:18:16Z

plz vote for Martha this is not a drill

i wavered between natasha and martha winning sci-fi and ended up switching last minute to martha so this is super important obviously

it begins

2013-03-02T04:54:59Z

If you want on my FMM filter for 2013 speak now or forever... be filtered out of my posts. Please note that by deciding to partake in this filter you are acknowledging that FMM is srs fucking bsnss.

in other news, the way LJ deals with expired icon slots is super annoying. you mean i can't rearrange them at all unless i pay you more money? rude, lj. rude.

BRIAN IS GOSSIP GIRL

2013-02-01T03:52:27Z

THE OFFICE OMG

K SO

ONE OF THE ONLY THINGS I KNOW ABOUT THIS SEASON i’m gonna stop using caps now this might be longwinded

but anyway one of the things i kept hearing about this season is that greg daniels wanted to explore what would’ve happened if jim/pam hadn’t worked out

obviously, i don’t think jim/pam are going to not work out, so this must mean exploring it through other characters

enter s9 and “new jim”, pete, and his thing with erin, the receptionist who’s in a rocky relationship and a boyfriend who neglects her while she has fun with the young guy etc etc

so i figured it was that

BUT NOW I SEE

IT’S NOT PETE/ERIN

IT’S BRIAN/PAM

BRIAN IS CLEARLY IN LOVE WITH PAM WHILE SHE IS WITH SOMEONE ELSE

BUT THIS TIME IT WON’T WORK OUT BECAUSE PAM WON’T LEAVE JIM FOR BRIAN

shameless advertising so maybe some other people will play this and talk to me about it

2013-02-01T01:37:49Z

fyi the walking dead game is half off on steam today

so if you enjoy puzzle-y decision-based games with a+ character development and story, you should go buy it. obviously there is zombie killing involved but it's not like a shooter game or anything where the main goal is killing things, it's mostly solving puzzles and interacting with the AI characters and stuff

I have enjoyed video games in the past but not the same way I enjoyed this stupid game, which was on a very emotionally-invested level.

look this is clementine and lee and it is the most adorable orphan/convicted killer relationship you ever did see

i've got an application that can throw a grenade into people's dreams

2013-01-17T00:56:10Z

This post is going to be even more echo-chamber-y than usual since it's about a show I think only two of you watch but I wanted to take a break from reblogging a trillion gifsets to come over to LJ and express my appreciation for the fourth (final?) season of The Thick Of It, which I mainlined over the last two days.

(x)

WHAT AN EXCELLENT SERIES. I enjoyed the first three seasons plenty but I don't remember being quite as involved in the actual political drama/wankery as I was in s4, and the dialogue was as sharp and hilarious as ever. I read the actors weren't given any time to rehearse for the inquiry ep to make it more "real", which is pretty interesting -- I don't know if that means it was all unscripted or what, but either way it worked well.

I also find it impressive that a show mostly populated by assholes, politicians and asshole politicians, the characters remain... I don't know if I'd say "likable" or even "sympathetic" but they're definitely compelling. Nicola's growing inability to lead was pitiable and there was even something sort of sad about Malcolm's downfall, long-coming and perhaps well-deserved as it may have been.

(Also, predictably, when I went looking for gifs in the Tumblr tag I found at least one stan determined to woobify Malcolm Tucker which LOL FOREVER.)

Anyway, I guess consider this a recommendation I doubt anyone will take. Great show. I still need to track down "In the Loop" and might try out Veep again, although I remember being not so dazzled by the first ep and TTOI has the advantage of featuring a parliamentary system I understand. (Though tbf I don't know how much actual politics and political machinations play into Veep, lol.)

christmas and such

2012-12-26T15:45:59Z

Greetings internet! I'm at my aunt's house now which is in the 21st century, so I have wifi and I figured while everyone is showering and stuff I would check in. I had a good Christmas, very unlike other Christmases I've had. It was nice to see all my cousins at once, which basically never happens.

My aunt's house has a satellite, so I ended up recruiting the TV in the basement to watch the DW Christmas special. My cousin and her boyfriend joined me, and since neither of them have seen Doctor Who before, it involved a lot of explaining. Anyway, I saw the ep at least.

this episode was okay

i did not hate it. i did not love it either. it was hard to get a good reading on it anyway when i had to explain stuff constantly to my cousins

strax is mostly annoying but like that dw comic pointed out he could've solved it with a grenade tbh

the sherlock holmes nods were meh

jenny and vastra were nice i guess but essentially useless. lol @ vastra whipping out her impressive sword only to get knocked over and out of commission by a 60 year old man
eleven's pain -- lol. I like that when Eleven gets hurt, his reaction is to say FUCK EVERYONE Y'ALL CAN DIE IDGAF!!!!! It seems appropriately five-year-old-in-a-strop for Eleven who generally behaves like a selfish immature brat. Anyway to be fair I guess him being in a strop made him less like he'd snorted pixie stix, and I appreciated that.

New TARDIS was better in motion than in stills, but still meh.
Clara! She was... I dunno. I liked her, I liked Jenna Louise Coleman. I was right about the twist of her death and such. But because she was disposable I was left with a lot of questions -- WHY the double life? How did she get the governess job with that background? Etc. And then she dies, so we don't know. I'm interested to meet Modern Clara, and I am praying to the old gods and the new that she is the final version of Clara we have, and that we don't get rid of a Clara every week or something LORD.

lol @ the Doctor's guilt, then he realizes he killed not one but TWO Claras and that makes him want to go find a third one to totallydefinitelynot kill

the villain stuff was so ????????????????????????????????????????? btu we were all here for Clara lbr so w/e

lol @ the guy clara worked for being such a jackass, i am glad there was no mutual him/clara

eleven/clara lol lol lol lol lol lol popcorn.gif

laughing @ everyone who was excited for a Victorian companion WHOOPS NOPE SHE'S FROM THE MODERN DAY HA HA HA
I really hope we max out at 3 Claras, at least 3 Claras we spend time with, so that we can focus on Modern Day Clara and developing her. But it's Moffat so lol we'll probably get a new Clara every ep and she'll die every ep and Eleven will give not a single shit because now he's found a friend who comes in copies hooray!
I still read "Clara" as Claire-uh, can't be tamed
Anyway I guess I'm interested to see more Clara but I am sure it'll be a hot mess, what can you do. Good thing JLC is super charming.

After that Space played Christmas Invasion, and we watched that too. My cousin decided like a minute into the Sycorax ship scene that she much preferred David Tennant, and her boyfriend said coral TARDIS was better because it was more homey and that Ten's outfit was great. So validation! Hooray. Except they both found Rose annoying. Poor Rose, TCI is understandable in context but really not a great first ep.

BTW HAPPY BIRTHDAY rose_dawson! I essentially had time to copy/paste this post from Tumblr and now I have to go be social but I hope your day is decent.

music and cookies and liquor and trees that's what christmas is for

2012-12-23T03:57:33Z

We're leaving bright and inexplicably early tomorrow to go visit family for Christmas, so I won't be around much -- at least for the first couple days where I won't have wifi. Living in the dark ages, man.

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So, happy holidays everyone, merry Christmas if you celebrate it. Save some Christmas special wank for me! I should be back properly on the 28th.

it's baaaaaaack

2012-12-07T04:57:37Z

holiday love meme 2012
my thread here

In related news, since it's that time of year again, I'm going to a cookie exchange next weekend and was wondering if anyone had some easy-ish recipe recommendations to share. Last year I made fauxkaren's cakemix cookie recipe and they were delicious even if I am pretty sure they were not supposed to be the shape that they were. I might make those again (and try to perfect the shape) BUT I remember getting lots of good suggestions last year so I thought I'd ~open the floor~.

Plz keep in mind I am a total novice baker, and also unemployed so ideally there will be no super obscure expensive ingredients that can only be purchased on a full moon from one specific convenience store on a mountaintop.

(PS: Wow this icon selection I have rn is terrible. How do I adequately express myself in 100x100 images with this? I only have one icon of Rose Tyler? :O)