Television Update
Nov. 5th, 2021 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaggedwolfMay have watched more television in the past couple of months than I did the year prior to it, random thoughts recorded...
Brooklyn Nine Nine S8
The Holt-Kevin arc was the best part of the season and their reconciliation was very sweet <3
Squid Game
Solidly entertaining entry in the death game genre. Sae-byeok was my favourite character. As usual with the genre, I enjoyed players trying to out-think the games and the behind-the-scenes workings of the games (uh, until the English-speaking VIPs showed up XD). Only real downers were the last couple of episodes weighed down by setting up a second season, and the obligatory "posh villain is gay and rapey to show extra sexual deviance" moment.
Ted Lasso S2
Fun watch! Less tight than S1, but sophomore installments tend to be like that. Everyone was great, except Nate, who was greatly terrible and you could see it happening from the start. Roy and Rebecca talking about how to interact with children was delightful. Loved Ted and Sharon bouncing against each other. Am happy no tabloids happened to Rebecca and Sam, for I was very stressed about that. (Now I'm only stressed about the ambiguous state of Roy/Keeley.)
Finally, I had far too many feelings about one (1) Trent Crimm, The Independent, and his final choice. What a thing to do! For Ted! Am going to dive into fics for this ship, probably.
Survivor: Pearl Islands
The pirate theme was super fun here. I was spoiled for the winner and a couple of the big moments of the game, but it was still great to see it unfold. They should bring back some of these challenges to replace the Nth copy of "do an obstacle course, then solve a puzzle".
Sandra is a great winner - making use of being the least threatening of a trio, playing loyal until she switches to "anyone but me", the fish coverup, all amazing. The contrasts in social game between Lil and Sandra are also so evident in that F2. Lil, forever second-guessing herself and caring about appearing nice, vs Sandra, who as the host says, was "the lippiest mother we've ever had on the show", who got in people's faces (okay mostly Fairplay's), was always blunt. It's the latter that the jury fundamentally respects more, it turns out. And likes more too. I once read that the jury always gives the money to whoever they collectively like the most, and everything else is post-facto justification. Honestly, the way human brains work? I buy it!
Also, I'd heard Fairplay was an asshole because dead grandma lie (though from the reunion it seems the cast all thought it was fair play, hah), and he is an asshole, but he was a really good strategist too, flipping between alliances as he wanted. And honestly, must have some kind of social game, because people didn't try hard to vote him out until the end. I love the climax of that final immunity challenge, possibly physically weakest F3 the game has ever had, the oldest of them winning. Going from 4 people to 3 is so much less dramatic in modern seasons, especially with the forced firemaking, but I digress.
Brooklyn Nine Nine S8
The Holt-Kevin arc was the best part of the season and their reconciliation was very sweet <3
Squid Game
Solidly entertaining entry in the death game genre. Sae-byeok was my favourite character. As usual with the genre, I enjoyed players trying to out-think the games and the behind-the-scenes workings of the games (uh, until the English-speaking VIPs showed up XD). Only real downers were the last couple of episodes weighed down by setting up a second season, and the obligatory "posh villain is gay and rapey to show extra sexual deviance" moment.
Ted Lasso S2
Fun watch! Less tight than S1, but sophomore installments tend to be like that. Everyone was great, except Nate, who was greatly terrible and you could see it happening from the start. Roy and Rebecca talking about how to interact with children was delightful. Loved Ted and Sharon bouncing against each other. Am happy no tabloids happened to Rebecca and Sam, for I was very stressed about that. (Now I'm only stressed about the ambiguous state of Roy/Keeley.)
Finally, I had far too many feelings about one (1) Trent Crimm, The Independent, and his final choice. What a thing to do! For Ted! Am going to dive into fics for this ship, probably.
Survivor: Pearl Islands
The pirate theme was super fun here. I was spoiled for the winner and a couple of the big moments of the game, but it was still great to see it unfold. They should bring back some of these challenges to replace the Nth copy of "do an obstacle course, then solve a puzzle".
Sandra is a great winner - making use of being the least threatening of a trio, playing loyal until she switches to "anyone but me", the fish coverup, all amazing. The contrasts in social game between Lil and Sandra are also so evident in that F2. Lil, forever second-guessing herself and caring about appearing nice, vs Sandra, who as the host says, was "the lippiest mother we've ever had on the show", who got in people's faces (okay mostly Fairplay's), was always blunt. It's the latter that the jury fundamentally respects more, it turns out. And likes more too. I once read that the jury always gives the money to whoever they collectively like the most, and everything else is post-facto justification. Honestly, the way human brains work? I buy it!
Also, I'd heard Fairplay was an asshole because dead grandma lie (though from the reunion it seems the cast all thought it was fair play, hah), and he is an asshole, but he was a really good strategist too, flipping between alliances as he wanted. And honestly, must have some kind of social game, because people didn't try hard to vote him out until the end. I love the climax of that final immunity challenge, possibly physically weakest F3 the game has ever had, the oldest of them winning. Going from 4 people to 3 is so much less dramatic in modern seasons, especially with the forced firemaking, but I digress.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-06 02:52 am (UTC)I felt the same way about Squid Game! I thought it would've worked well as a standalone and wish that last half hour of the show hadn't happened. Sae-byeok was the best and I was delighted to see while fucking around at work that her jumpsuit did really well on Amazon (poor Gi-hun's was very unloved).
Am going to dive into fics for this ship, probably if you end up reading the 85k Ted/Trent fic that is the most kudos'd fic in the Ted Lasso tag, please let me know how it is XD I am also stressed about Roy/Keeley and would've liked to have seen a temporary breakup for them, as someone who loved them in S1.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-06 02:18 pm (UTC)It would've been a great standalone! And that wouldn't have necessarily precluded a season two. Aw at poor Gi-hun, he was probably my second-favorite of the mains, even though I was yelling at him to go visit his daughter at the end.
Looking at that fic, I might've actually read it a while ago before it was completed? I remember it being cute. I definitely need to revisit it and I'll let you know. I am a sap who wants Roy/Keeley to be happy forever but yeah, I might've preferred that over my wild speculation over what's going on in their noggins.