In Hargitay's defense, I think the guy taking her hostage had just gotten shot by Vincent Spano; I'd make that face too. On the other hand, she could have just read yet another script in which a member of the Stabler family is kidnapped, arrested, or pinned in a wrecked car while delivering a baby. Because: seriously.
I just said a mouthful!
An odd and an end first: 1) my review of Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is up on Monkey See — great read, as usz (Kinney, not my piece, although that's ah-ight); and 2) for those of you sending me contest receipts from PayPal, please note whether they should qualify you for a mini-prize (PayPal does not note the project name for me, so I can't tell from the forward alone).
And now: The Great And Powerful Asirda.
I've struggled somewhat with the introduction here, because she modestly objected to the "great and powerful" part, but let's start with the numbers: as you know, Asirda matched 3K worth of projects when we hit 60K — and she's prepared to do it again when you hit other key benchmarks. Yes, "benchmarks" plural. She believes in the power of the many of you, and she's more generous than words can describe in (green-)backing up that faith — but, while generous, she also enjoys cheap beer and cheap humor. Which is what makes her my people.
Asirda may appear in the comments; like all the best great and powerful people, she's easy to talk to. If she doesn't appear, she's watching — and, like our little smiley friend, she's well pleased. (She may also look really cute in a bear outfit; I have no data on that. Hee.)
…By the way? $67,243. Less than 8K to our next match; at 75K, $ and the Mysterians ante up with 5K more. We can do this.
Okay, I think that's everythi– OH WAIT WAIT did you guys watch SVU this week? How BONKERS is that? Killer Noel? Slurstine Lahti? Man. I loved it AND I couldn't watch. Amazing. Discuss.
"As a matter of fact, I've ALREADY eaten a bee."
Law & Order: SVU. Really? A cockroach? Just going to rip Papillon and Brazil off, but without the insight?
Meloni's "the walls, they breeeeeeathe" acting choices looked a lot like the ones he made while humping a fridge in Wet Hot American Summer, but WHAS is a comedy. …Well, an intentional comedy.
And has Christine Lahti always done that thing where she arranges her upper lip over her teeth like an awning? Or is that Botox? I've never liked Lahti — either every character she plays is supposed to be haughtily unlikable, or that's how she chooses to play them, but the end result is the same — but I feel sorry for her here; this character, on top of the hauteur, is a basket of dated neurotic signifiers and cliched responses that few actors could hope to rescue. I doubt we're supposed to like her, but I don't think the writing is having the effect it thinks it is. You actually can spell "credible antagonist" without "annoying."
The Office. Does anyone else really not care about Jim and Pam, or their wedding, at all? Anyone look at that trending tag on Twitter and say aloud, "But…with baseball on?"
Anyone think I'm a hypocrite, since I'm one of the 16 people still watching Survivor? Hee.
Trauma. The steam coming off this week's pile almost obscured the screen. Old guard harasses the newbie? Check. Precocious kid wins over kid-averse cowboy? Check. Failure to save apparent slam-dunk patient leads to hackneyed, "some days you're the hydrant" brooding over good days and bad days? Check. Defensive know-it-all has a lot to learn? Chfphpp…zzz.
What happened? I liked the pilot fine; it didn't do anything Third Watch hadn't done better — and the show we TWoP editors cheerfully referred to as Turd Watch didn't do anything very well to start with — but it had some promise. Did I get distracted by all the shiny explosions and the thrill of the new? Do I put too much faith in the fact that that one guy played Herc on Friday Night Lights, and has foxy sideburns?
I think it's possible to do the paramedics/FD action drama in a fresh way — but while I don't know what that way is, I do know that this is not it. One more week and I'm out.
America's Next Top Model. When did Mr. Jay become kind of rad? Or have I started identifying with my captors? Has Tyra herself become so unbearable to me that anyone who ever makes a shred of non-self-aggrandizing, non-smug sense seems like BFF material?
Do you think Mr. Jay doesn't get to come to panel because he won't play along with shit like "smize-ing," but Miss Jay and Nigel will? Do you think that, years ago, the Jays flipped a coin to see who would have to pretend that Tyra's dippy season themes and Soviet-quality costumes don't suck an egg? "Heads, I win; tails, you have to sit with the other judges and pretend that when Tyra makes the same face twice in a row, there's an instructive difference between the two"?
I miss She's Got The Look. Kim Alexis is more natural on-camera, doesn't suffer from pathological narcissism, and runs a sensible panel whose advice is logical and occasionally funny on purpose. But nobody watched that show except me and a few stoners who switched to TV Land expecting a Barney Miller rerun. Sigh.
Brothers & Sisters. I said at some point that I would give it two or three episodes to win me back over this season; then I heard that they'd cast Amy "Toni Pavone" Aquino, which annoyed me, because I love her and I'd have to stick with it.
But why did they have to stash her in a plotline I can already tell I will despise? Kitty is still treating Robert like he left a skidmark on their sheets, which I think the audience is supposed to support her in, and in theory, that's fine, but in practice, she's not sympathetic — the writing and the acting choices both make me want to slap her. Now we have to "worry" that she has cancer? The character has become utterly unlikeable in the last year, and we've seen this done much better — via Patricia Wettig's Nancy on thirtysomething, among others.