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Jul. 7th, 2009 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaHave had a letter from the dental hospital telling me I have an appointment in August to discuss pulling out my impacted wisdom tooth. Fun!
Also received a cheque for £450 from my old landlord - return of my bond, and slightly more than I thought it would be! Also pretty prompt. Very nice.
I think a random cat got into the house last night, what with the catflap being unlocked and all. Poppy woke me up in the we sma's growling, so I got up to see what the problem was and heard the catflap going downstairs as whoever it was scarpered. Great. That's all I need. Poppy has already decided that the catflap is Public Enemy Number One. She'll come in through it if she's out, but won't go out through it in the first place, at least not by herself. She wants me to open the door for her. Sometimes she'll go through it if I hold it open, but other times she just stares at me in dismay, backs away, and then runs upstairs as fast as she can! Still, using it to come in is the most important thing – means I can let her out and then not have to worry about getting her back in again.
Small steps, eh.
So, the first part of the Torchwood mini-series aired last night, and it was actually rather excellent! It feels weird to be saying that about Torchwood, which started out so unpromisingly, but it has been steadily improving since those dodgy early days, and this new instalment was great stuff.
Team Torchwood were on great form here – Jack, Ianto and Gwen work so well together as a tight little unit that I didn't miss Owen or Tosh at all, although it was lovely to see little nods in their direction from their grieving colleagues. Loved Rhys, being solid and awesome, as usual. And then there were all the other characters, the various family members we met – Jack's estranged daughter and grandson, Ianto's sister and her family – the wannabe spy doctor Rupesh, the governmental group up in London; they all worked well, felt like real people, and each served a purpose in driving the plot forward or offering us background on our leads.
The story felt both increasingly creepy and compelling. There's something about kids, isn't there, that really adds something to a storyline – depth, poignancy and creepiness. And the dialogue and character interactions were great fun.
Ianto's going to get his heart broken, isn't he - and he knows it. And Gwen and Rhys have become so solid since the rocky days of Gwen's early career with Torchwood, I want to wrap them both up in cotton wool and stash them away somewhere safe together! Baby!
Eve Myles found out she was pregnant shortly after filming this - talk about life imitating art!
Looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds over the course of the week!
I've also been watching Hope Springs on the Beeb of a Sunday night. It's tremendous fun! For those who don't know, which is probably just about my entire f-list, it is an 8-part series about four female ex-cons who steal £3mill from the gangster husband of their ringleader, Ellie, and then go on the run, intending to use the money to buy a new life and go straight…only for a series of mishaps to leave them stranded in a tiny village in a remote part of Scotland, trying desperately to remain under the radar despite having managed to land themselves in the middle of an ongoing murder investigation.
Some of the Scottish accents are a bit dodgy (Annette Crosby, I'm looking at you) but the cast is fantastic, and the show in general is hilarious, farcical fun – with unexpected moments of real depth, as the runaways slowly, reluctantly find themselves forming real bonds with the villagers around them.
Three episodes left, and the plot is thickening fast. Great stuff.
And then there's Harper's Island, which has been the most fun of all the shows I'm watching at the moment. I've just indulged in a marathon re-watch of the first 11 episodes, in readiness for the final two this weekend, and have decided on Henry as my Number One Suspect. I think I might actually be really disappointed if it isn't him, now, because I'd have to go back and re-evaluate everything all over again!
It isn't as if there is any definite evidence, of course – the show has been far too clever for that. It's all circumstantial stuff that makes me suspicious of Henry, with the benefit of hindsight – mostly stuff that made him look like Mr Nice Guy at the time, doing the right thing, taking a strong lead and trying to keep everyone alive, and maybe that's all it is…but then when you look at how all those small things turned out, and add them all together with the fact that someone among the group is a killer, and there aren't many suspects left…well, I've got my money on Henry.
He's the right age to be Wakefield's child. We know that Abby's mother, Sarah, was involved with Wakefield before she married the Sheriff, and that she had his child. Presumably that child was given up for adoption, which is probably one of the reasons Wakefield was so furious. Henry is at least a year older than Abby, maybe more – she was 18, just finishing school and about to go off to college when the first killings happened, but Henry had already gone to college by then, so the age fits. And if he is the child of Wakefield and Sarah, that would make him Abby's half-brother, and if he knows that it could explain the close friendship he has maintained with her – and his more antagonistic relationship with JD.
The fortune teller told Trish she would be betrayed by someone she loves. She automatically thought it was a reference to Katherine and Richard's affair. We automatically thought it referred to her father paying Hunter to try and break up the wedding. But maybe it meant Henry, the man she loves and trusts and intended to marry.
Mr Wellington was pretty adamant that he didn't trust Henry and that his gut instincts are usually correct. He changed his tune when Trish told him about Katherine and Richard, but maybe he was right all along. Henry comes across as being such a nice guy, mild-mannered and supportive and always doing the right thing…but we also catch numerous glimpses of a violent and vengeful temper lurking just beneath the surface. He was overly-aggressive toward both Shane and JD, at varying times. Maybe justified, given the stress he is under – or maybe he's not such a nice guy after all.
We were never told what happened to Henry and JD's parents, were we? Just that their deaths saw the beginning of the rift between Henry and JD. And we were never told why Uncle Marty had that gun and bag stuffed with money, either. Mysteries abound!
There's something, I dunno, off about Henry's reaction when he finds the dead raccoon in the church – it's different to his reaction to the deer's head in the bathtub. That one he wasn't expecting at all and it freaked him out, he was scared that it might be Trish, maybe that something had gone wrong, but he doesn't seem surprised by the raccoon, more frustrated than anything else, because it's gross. His whole manner during the conversation in the church with the Sheriff, I dunno, it can be rationalised, might mean nothing…but it seems off to me. It's on my list of clues that might mean something when the truth comes out.
It was Henry who asked the group to stay and help look for Madison, very subtly passive-aggressively guilt-tripping them into staying on the island instead of making an early escape. And he repeatedly insisted that no one should leave. It came across as Mr Nice Guy trying to find his fiancée's niece, trying to do the right thing…but the net result is that a group of victims was retained on the island for the killer to pick off. A group of victims who were all friends and/or family – and remember what the Sheriff said to Abby about Wakefield, that he takes what you love most and uses it against you. It is important that the victims are all people who care about each other, rather than being picked off more randomly.
It was Henry who found Richard's corpse. Could have been sheer coincidence…or he might have already known where it was and subtly led Abby and Katherine there on purpose, to ensure that it was found – and making sure he had witnesses to his discovery.
Henry was covered in blood after JD's death and had scratches up his arm that he couldn't account for.
It was Henry who insisted that they search the tunnels for Beth, again applying a subtle passive-aggressive guilt-trip that pushed anyone reluctant into agreement. On finding the smaller tunnel, it was Henry who immediately said that they wouldn't fit in there – sowing the seed of the idea that he and Jimmy, the men, were both too big (although neither Sully nor Danny seemed to think they couldn't get into their tunnel, which was the same size). Jimmy and Abby automatically believed him, and that gave Abby the idea that she could fit, being smaller – which sent her off in the right direction to find Madison, and thus ensure that she got the message that would incriminate the Sheriff. If you watch those scenes, between the gate coming down and someone – presumably Wakefield – grabbing at Abby's heels, she is very definitely herded in the right direction. All part of the game.
It was Henry who asked Jimmy to take everyone to the mainland in his boat after Madison was found. Sensible, sure, again could just be Henry taking charge and trying to keep everyone alive. But the result was that the group got to the marina just in time for it to explode, stepping the game up to the next level. Could have been deliberate.
Henry stopped Abby from going after Wakefield after their first encounter. It looks sensible, protecting Abby – but it also ensures Wakefield's escape, delays any further showdown.
There's that speech Henry made to Abby about Wakefield: "maybe he wants people to know – that he's alive, that he's responsible." Could just be pop psychology, trying to make sense of what's going on. Or it could be that he knows, that he is explaining, speaking absolute truth.
It was Henry who sent Cal off on his own to get Chloe, instead of sticking together in the safety of the group. Maybe that was sensible, or seemed so at the time, as Chloe was in danger and Abby was determined to follow Wakefield…or maybe it ensured that Cal and Chloe were left alone and vulnerable, pawns in one of Wakefield's games. Their deaths were a direct result, and maybe that was inevitable, maybe it couldn't have been prevented – or maybe between them Henry and Wakefield carefully steered Abby in the wrong direction, allowing Wakefield to double back and kill the others.
I dunno. None of it might mean anything, I could be barking up completely the wrong tree. I've just been getting a feeling. There aren't many suspects left now, though. The last couple of episodes worked hard to implicate Jimmy, but that seems too simple – and the show has played similar tricks in the past, only to twist back around on itself with another reveal. Jimmy and the Sheriff were good friends, I can't see that happening if the Sheriff knew or suspected Jimmy had any connection to Wakefield. I can't find it in me to suspect Trish, Sully or Danny – and anyway, Sully and Danny had never been to the island before, and the killer is someone who knows the island well. Abby seems pretty definitely ruled out. There's always Shea, I suppose, the quiet dark horse in the background…but my money is on Henry!
And damn, but Cal and Chloe's deaths hit me hard! They had become my favourites, so I was gutted to lose them – theirs were the first deaths that were really, truly meaningful, the first time we lost characters that we'd spent that amount of time getting to know really well. A lot of effort and screentime had been invested in making us care about them, both as individuals and as a couple, which few of the previous victims had enjoyed – not to mention time spent building up bonds with other characters, especially Sully. Add that to the protracted nature of their deaths…yeah, it was all carefully calculated to hit us hard.
I've loved the throwaway nature of most of the deaths, with a large cast providing an equally large bank of potential victims, all the deaths significant but few of them characters we'd had time to get to know or care about – it has meant an action-packed plot, with each death building on the last. But I really love that we have finally reached the stage of the season where every death really, really counts, because the characters left are the ones we've spent the most time with, have got to know and feel invested in. There aren't many left. Every death from here on in is going to hurt.
Ultimately, I'm not sure all the pieces are going to fit together perfectly – in fact, the chances are that they won't! The show isn't perfect, starting out as slowly as it did, with the clueless wedding party taking far too long to notice that their fellows were disappearing one by one. But it has never failed to entertain.
It's been a tremendously fun ride. I look forward to the final twists – and to finding out if I'm right or not!
Also received a cheque for £450 from my old landlord - return of my bond, and slightly more than I thought it would be! Also pretty prompt. Very nice.
I think a random cat got into the house last night, what with the catflap being unlocked and all. Poppy woke me up in the we sma's growling, so I got up to see what the problem was and heard the catflap going downstairs as whoever it was scarpered. Great. That's all I need. Poppy has already decided that the catflap is Public Enemy Number One. She'll come in through it if she's out, but won't go out through it in the first place, at least not by herself. She wants me to open the door for her. Sometimes she'll go through it if I hold it open, but other times she just stares at me in dismay, backs away, and then runs upstairs as fast as she can! Still, using it to come in is the most important thing – means I can let her out and then not have to worry about getting her back in again.
Small steps, eh.
So, the first part of the Torchwood mini-series aired last night, and it was actually rather excellent! It feels weird to be saying that about Torchwood, which started out so unpromisingly, but it has been steadily improving since those dodgy early days, and this new instalment was great stuff.
Team Torchwood were on great form here – Jack, Ianto and Gwen work so well together as a tight little unit that I didn't miss Owen or Tosh at all, although it was lovely to see little nods in their direction from their grieving colleagues. Loved Rhys, being solid and awesome, as usual. And then there were all the other characters, the various family members we met – Jack's estranged daughter and grandson, Ianto's sister and her family – the wannabe spy doctor Rupesh, the governmental group up in London; they all worked well, felt like real people, and each served a purpose in driving the plot forward or offering us background on our leads.
The story felt both increasingly creepy and compelling. There's something about kids, isn't there, that really adds something to a storyline – depth, poignancy and creepiness. And the dialogue and character interactions were great fun.
Ianto's going to get his heart broken, isn't he - and he knows it. And Gwen and Rhys have become so solid since the rocky days of Gwen's early career with Torchwood, I want to wrap them both up in cotton wool and stash them away somewhere safe together! Baby!
Eve Myles found out she was pregnant shortly after filming this - talk about life imitating art!
Looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds over the course of the week!
I've also been watching Hope Springs on the Beeb of a Sunday night. It's tremendous fun! For those who don't know, which is probably just about my entire f-list, it is an 8-part series about four female ex-cons who steal £3mill from the gangster husband of their ringleader, Ellie, and then go on the run, intending to use the money to buy a new life and go straight…only for a series of mishaps to leave them stranded in a tiny village in a remote part of Scotland, trying desperately to remain under the radar despite having managed to land themselves in the middle of an ongoing murder investigation.
Some of the Scottish accents are a bit dodgy (Annette Crosby, I'm looking at you) but the cast is fantastic, and the show in general is hilarious, farcical fun – with unexpected moments of real depth, as the runaways slowly, reluctantly find themselves forming real bonds with the villagers around them.
Three episodes left, and the plot is thickening fast. Great stuff.
And then there's Harper's Island, which has been the most fun of all the shows I'm watching at the moment. I've just indulged in a marathon re-watch of the first 11 episodes, in readiness for the final two this weekend, and have decided on Henry as my Number One Suspect. I think I might actually be really disappointed if it isn't him, now, because I'd have to go back and re-evaluate everything all over again!
It isn't as if there is any definite evidence, of course – the show has been far too clever for that. It's all circumstantial stuff that makes me suspicious of Henry, with the benefit of hindsight – mostly stuff that made him look like Mr Nice Guy at the time, doing the right thing, taking a strong lead and trying to keep everyone alive, and maybe that's all it is…but then when you look at how all those small things turned out, and add them all together with the fact that someone among the group is a killer, and there aren't many suspects left…well, I've got my money on Henry.
He's the right age to be Wakefield's child. We know that Abby's mother, Sarah, was involved with Wakefield before she married the Sheriff, and that she had his child. Presumably that child was given up for adoption, which is probably one of the reasons Wakefield was so furious. Henry is at least a year older than Abby, maybe more – she was 18, just finishing school and about to go off to college when the first killings happened, but Henry had already gone to college by then, so the age fits. And if he is the child of Wakefield and Sarah, that would make him Abby's half-brother, and if he knows that it could explain the close friendship he has maintained with her – and his more antagonistic relationship with JD.
The fortune teller told Trish she would be betrayed by someone she loves. She automatically thought it was a reference to Katherine and Richard's affair. We automatically thought it referred to her father paying Hunter to try and break up the wedding. But maybe it meant Henry, the man she loves and trusts and intended to marry.
Mr Wellington was pretty adamant that he didn't trust Henry and that his gut instincts are usually correct. He changed his tune when Trish told him about Katherine and Richard, but maybe he was right all along. Henry comes across as being such a nice guy, mild-mannered and supportive and always doing the right thing…but we also catch numerous glimpses of a violent and vengeful temper lurking just beneath the surface. He was overly-aggressive toward both Shane and JD, at varying times. Maybe justified, given the stress he is under – or maybe he's not such a nice guy after all.
We were never told what happened to Henry and JD's parents, were we? Just that their deaths saw the beginning of the rift between Henry and JD. And we were never told why Uncle Marty had that gun and bag stuffed with money, either. Mysteries abound!
There's something, I dunno, off about Henry's reaction when he finds the dead raccoon in the church – it's different to his reaction to the deer's head in the bathtub. That one he wasn't expecting at all and it freaked him out, he was scared that it might be Trish, maybe that something had gone wrong, but he doesn't seem surprised by the raccoon, more frustrated than anything else, because it's gross. His whole manner during the conversation in the church with the Sheriff, I dunno, it can be rationalised, might mean nothing…but it seems off to me. It's on my list of clues that might mean something when the truth comes out.
It was Henry who asked the group to stay and help look for Madison, very subtly passive-aggressively guilt-tripping them into staying on the island instead of making an early escape. And he repeatedly insisted that no one should leave. It came across as Mr Nice Guy trying to find his fiancée's niece, trying to do the right thing…but the net result is that a group of victims was retained on the island for the killer to pick off. A group of victims who were all friends and/or family – and remember what the Sheriff said to Abby about Wakefield, that he takes what you love most and uses it against you. It is important that the victims are all people who care about each other, rather than being picked off more randomly.
It was Henry who found Richard's corpse. Could have been sheer coincidence…or he might have already known where it was and subtly led Abby and Katherine there on purpose, to ensure that it was found – and making sure he had witnesses to his discovery.
Henry was covered in blood after JD's death and had scratches up his arm that he couldn't account for.
It was Henry who insisted that they search the tunnels for Beth, again applying a subtle passive-aggressive guilt-trip that pushed anyone reluctant into agreement. On finding the smaller tunnel, it was Henry who immediately said that they wouldn't fit in there – sowing the seed of the idea that he and Jimmy, the men, were both too big (although neither Sully nor Danny seemed to think they couldn't get into their tunnel, which was the same size). Jimmy and Abby automatically believed him, and that gave Abby the idea that she could fit, being smaller – which sent her off in the right direction to find Madison, and thus ensure that she got the message that would incriminate the Sheriff. If you watch those scenes, between the gate coming down and someone – presumably Wakefield – grabbing at Abby's heels, she is very definitely herded in the right direction. All part of the game.
It was Henry who asked Jimmy to take everyone to the mainland in his boat after Madison was found. Sensible, sure, again could just be Henry taking charge and trying to keep everyone alive. But the result was that the group got to the marina just in time for it to explode, stepping the game up to the next level. Could have been deliberate.
Henry stopped Abby from going after Wakefield after their first encounter. It looks sensible, protecting Abby – but it also ensures Wakefield's escape, delays any further showdown.
There's that speech Henry made to Abby about Wakefield: "maybe he wants people to know – that he's alive, that he's responsible." Could just be pop psychology, trying to make sense of what's going on. Or it could be that he knows, that he is explaining, speaking absolute truth.
It was Henry who sent Cal off on his own to get Chloe, instead of sticking together in the safety of the group. Maybe that was sensible, or seemed so at the time, as Chloe was in danger and Abby was determined to follow Wakefield…or maybe it ensured that Cal and Chloe were left alone and vulnerable, pawns in one of Wakefield's games. Their deaths were a direct result, and maybe that was inevitable, maybe it couldn't have been prevented – or maybe between them Henry and Wakefield carefully steered Abby in the wrong direction, allowing Wakefield to double back and kill the others.
I dunno. None of it might mean anything, I could be barking up completely the wrong tree. I've just been getting a feeling. There aren't many suspects left now, though. The last couple of episodes worked hard to implicate Jimmy, but that seems too simple – and the show has played similar tricks in the past, only to twist back around on itself with another reveal. Jimmy and the Sheriff were good friends, I can't see that happening if the Sheriff knew or suspected Jimmy had any connection to Wakefield. I can't find it in me to suspect Trish, Sully or Danny – and anyway, Sully and Danny had never been to the island before, and the killer is someone who knows the island well. Abby seems pretty definitely ruled out. There's always Shea, I suppose, the quiet dark horse in the background…but my money is on Henry!
And damn, but Cal and Chloe's deaths hit me hard! They had become my favourites, so I was gutted to lose them – theirs were the first deaths that were really, truly meaningful, the first time we lost characters that we'd spent that amount of time getting to know really well. A lot of effort and screentime had been invested in making us care about them, both as individuals and as a couple, which few of the previous victims had enjoyed – not to mention time spent building up bonds with other characters, especially Sully. Add that to the protracted nature of their deaths…yeah, it was all carefully calculated to hit us hard.
I've loved the throwaway nature of most of the deaths, with a large cast providing an equally large bank of potential victims, all the deaths significant but few of them characters we'd had time to get to know or care about – it has meant an action-packed plot, with each death building on the last. But I really love that we have finally reached the stage of the season where every death really, really counts, because the characters left are the ones we've spent the most time with, have got to know and feel invested in. There aren't many left. Every death from here on in is going to hurt.
Ultimately, I'm not sure all the pieces are going to fit together perfectly – in fact, the chances are that they won't! The show isn't perfect, starting out as slowly as it did, with the clueless wedding party taking far too long to notice that their fellows were disappearing one by one. But it has never failed to entertain.
It's been a tremendously fun ride. I look forward to the final twists – and to finding out if I'm right or not!
