The Marci Rating System

Sleepy Hollow is back! I have actually only seen the season opener, because I haven’t been keeping up. (The second ep should be up on Hulu by now; it’s on my list of things to see, at some point.)

Anyway, the point is: tumblr has shown me pictures of the new character Nick Hawley, and all I could think was, “RJ? Is that you?”

There were some serious Power Rangers Jungle Fury flashbacks, is what I’m saying, to the point where I actually checked actor names. (Not the same person. I think it’s the shirt. And the expression. Possibly the hair.)

Basically I just figured any time you can get a Power Rangers reference worked into the daily blog, why not go for it?

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Sleepy Hollow (the one with the golem, which Abbie apparently heard about at Sunday school, but I helpfully learned about from fanfic)

*bickering about language #1: Scrooge, Christmas trees, & eggnog

*”You strangled me!” “He means thank you.”

*guest star: Henry! (‘hey, so you don’t have much family, and we don’t either, so we could maybe hang out together’ I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ACTUALLY WORKED)

*bickering about language #2: sex, dating, & crossword puzzles

*Captain Irving and Macey being adorable (“You’re getting hot chocolate, not a puppy.”)

*bickering about language #3: waiting by the car (I guess at least Crane didn’t have an ax this time?)

*”Ah! What hellish form of torment is this?” “Funhouse mirrors.” “When did irony become a national pastime?”

*the Christmas stocking

Really, the key takeaway from this episode was ‘why wasn’t Katrina better at arts and crafts?’ Seriously, she couldn’t have knitted the kid a kitten or something?

Other thoughts: I’m totally willing to go the ‘Jeremy’s not dead’ route. That was the whole point of the crossword misdirection conversation, right?

Quip-Off Tally For The Week:
Neither episode was particularly light-hearted, but Sleepy Hollow did have the benefit of including more Christmas, which I liked. Plus, Sleepy Hollow took two extremely creepy concepts (circuses, dolls coming to life) and made them not very scary, while Almost Human took a not not too scary concept (cloning) and made it super creepy. Sleepy Hollow comes out the winner for the week in my book.

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Monday night brought two new eps (Almost Human and Sleepy Hollow) that I didn’t watch right away, since clearly Dancing With The Stars took up all my early-in-the-week viewing energy. (It was the finale!)

Both shows have essentially the same premise: Cop with troubled past suddenly gets an unusual partner. Together, they fight crime and trade quips while battling a *mysterious* larger danger.

And so: a quip-off. Let the quippiest episode reign supreme!

1. Car bickering vs. MacDonalds bickering

2. Stair climbing phone answering vs. “not to be an alarmist” haunted house team-up

3. Stair climbing ice fishing story vs. who goes first down the creepy staircase debate

4. Bubble gum brain surgery vs. stolen gun return

5. Elevator heart to heart vs. baby heart to heart

6. Busting in to the rescue vs. busting out the flares

7. Noodles invite vs. Thanksgiving dinner invite

8. Name calling vs. drinking rum together

Sleepy Hollow gets a few bonus points because more people were involved in the sass-fest (Jenny, Captain Irving, Macy), but overall winner for the week is Almost Human!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Um, I liked it? I mean, I’ll definitely watch the second episode. But it was very full of plot. (And shooting.)

Here’s the thing, when it comes to tv, I’ve been watching two shows recently. Dancing With the Stars (zero plot, everyone actually can be a winner in terms of the PR boost) and — somewhat reluctantly — Sleepy Hollow. (There’s a plot, but it’s not exactly worrisome, right? Seven episodes, seven wins. And so far it’s getting less scary, not more scary, which is perfect. It’s less ‘horrible apocalypse that destroys everything you love’ and more ‘how to handle the 21st century while occasionally fighting supernatural bad guys.’)

And with movies, mostly I watch stuff I’ve already seen. (Just rewatched ‘Meet the Robinsons.’ Much better the second time through!)

Basically, I don’t love being surprised. Or in suspense. Or worried. So even though I thought Almost Human was a good show, I’m not sure I’ll like it. (Then again, I was way more negative than that about Sleepy Hollow, and here we are.)

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Yesterday I watched the second episode of Agents of SHIELD, because a reviewer said it took place mostly on the plane, and the plane is cool. And I started to get this feeling of deja vu. Something tickled at my memory.

Decades ago, there was an episode of MacGyver, on a boat. (Googling ‘macgyver coma episode’ tells me the year was 1990, and the episode was called ‘Passages.’ I love the internet.) So yeah, he was in a coma, and in his head he was on a boat. And he met people from his past. (Dead people, mostly.) And he managed to solve an actual non-coma crime while he was unconscious. (I think. My memories of the episode are not crystal clear.)

This is my prediction about Agents of SHIELD. Coulson is not awake. He is, presumably, in ‘a magical place.’ The people and places we see are representations of what is happening to him in the ‘real world’ as he works through his inner demons in coma-land. This will become increasingly clear through cryptic hints and bizarre cameos as the season continues. If the show is successful, Coulson will eventually recover and become a recurring guest star, and the show will follow the real-world counterparts of his coma-team. If the show isn’t successful, they will use it to promote the heck out of upcoming movies until it is cancelled, and the final episode will end with Coulson waking up.

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I try not to go back and re-read stories I’m in the middle of writing, because one of two things always seems to happen:

1. The stuff I’ve already written seems awful, which makes continuing on seem pointless.

OR…

2. The stuff I’ve already written seems good, and then I feel this pressure to maintain a certain level of goodness.

BUT!

In trying to shuffle around the order of some of the season two IMAA episodes, I thought to myself, ‘yeah, it totally makes sense to delay getting the eighth ring until later.’ And then I thought, ‘wait…’

I THINK I SKIPPED THE 7TH RING.

BUT I CAN’T TOTALLY REMEMBER.

ACK.

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The best thing about re-watching Iron Man: Armored Adventures is paying more attention to the background explanations for things. For instance, this A+ plan shows up in episode 2:

Zheng, who has one of the Mandarin’s rings, plots to steal a second ring from Obadiah Stane (who’s currently wearing it). He somehow takes control of a train / sabotages the train tracks (this bit is unclear) so that the train will crash into the Stark International tower.

That’s it. That’s the plan. How he was going to get from “devastating train crash” to “stealing a ring off a man’s hand” is never explained.

What makes it EVEN BETTER is that one episode later, Zheng’s poor planning skills have landed him in a dungeon, and the person who took his ring just walks up to Stane, roughs up his bodyguards, and demands he hands over the second ring. Which he does.

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For reasons somewhat beyond my understanding, I have been watching some episodes of Iron Man: Armored Adventures. (It’s the Marvel-approved animated high school AU.)

And it seems like every time I watch an episode, I want to re-read this story:

Living In The Future, by Closer

“It’s not like a guy who’s been in the ice for seventy years and is now in SHIELD top-secret custody has a lot of chips on the table. Did he threaten to hold his breath?”

[Note: I liked this story before I'd seen any Armored Adventures eps, but the voices and everything are even more enjoyable post-viewing.]

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words written: 1681

quote of the day: Not that kids couldn’t be a) dangerous, or b) neighbors.

song pick: Mr. Brightside (The Killers)

media procrastination choice: ep 2 (okay, and 3) of Arrow (thanks a lot, hulu!)

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What can I say, my weekends are jam-packed with adventure. [Fun fact: My horoscope today said I would be "embarking on an adventure into unknown territory" today; I'm trying to convince the universe that watching three episodes of 'The Unusuals' totally counts.]

But first, weather! Just for the sake of record-keeping, I’m interested to note that the first weekend of October had temps in the 70s(F). Second weekend? 30s(F). Third weekend? Back to the 70s(F)! We had a thunderstorm last night. Weather — it’s a mystery!

And second, tv! Netflix sent me the first 5 eps of The Unusuals, which stars Amber Tamblyn (the girl who talked to god in Joan of Arcadia) and Jeremy Renner* (Hawkeye). I really thought Amber’s dad was being played by Lionel Luther from Smallville, but the internet tells me they are totally different people.

After the first ep, I was lukewarm. This is a seriously odd amalgamation of soap opera and cop drama. And it seems to take place in some dystopian AU that doesn’t have internet search capabilities.

But after five episodes, it’s kind of growing on me. I started just fast-forwarding over all the scenes featuring the characters I don’t care about (Cole — sorry, buddy), and it was much better. I’m actually looking forward to the rest of the show!

(Which wikipedia informs me is just five more episodes and ends in a cliffhanger. Ah, well. In my book, that’s still more appealing than having five or six — or more — seasons to wade through. Ten episodes is a manageable number.)

[*This show seems to be where all the tumblr pics of Jeremy Renner in plaid come from. The man's got a serious thing for plaid in this show.]

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.