TV stuffs

[ivyfic]

I spent most of this lovely long weekend sleeping and watching TV (and cooking really delicious beets). Given how much I slept, I think I needed that.

I rewatched the Matt Bomer bits of Tru Calling, since when I watched that initially, I didn’t know who Matt Bomer was. Now I don’t feel so bad for not recognizing him, since they gave him scruffy hipster beard and bad hair. Seeing just his scenes, though, it’s clear the writers made the classic mistake of only spending screen time on the way that Tru’s “calling” interfered with her relationship with Luc (Bomer). So you end up with really no reason why Luc is sticking around for this insanity. I mean, if a girl you’re dating runs off all the time when you’re talking to her, claims to have secrets, and then lies to your face and you find out she went to see her ex... I don’t really see that as ending in anything but a break-up. And yet when Luc points out all of this and attempts to dump her, she says something like, well, if you want complicated, stick around. And he does. ??? This leads me to only two possible conclusions:
1 – Luc is actually Neal Caffrey in disguise running some long, nonsensical con with no apparent goal in mind, or
2 – Tru is just that hot.

I also watched the first season of HBO’s Rome. It being HBO, the first notable thing is just how often the camera pans past people fucking. It’s like obligatory, to prove they’re on a premium channel. Also, the instances of random, not plot-related nudity drop off after the first few episodes.

I don’t know if it helped or hurt my enjoyment of the show that I know the history. For example, I knew that Pompey would be killed when he went ashore in Egypt. I also knew Ceasar spent a good year or two in Egypt, gallivanting with Cleopatra, which meant that I spent the first part of the season wondering how in heck they were going to fit all that in. Answer is, they condensed the hell of it.

That being said, in other respects, it seemed very historically accurate. Since they were filming outside of Rome, Italy looked like Italy. They paid a great deal of attention to Roman religion in a way that felt authentic, and also showed that a devout man, like Vorenus, could have morals completely alien to a Christian viewpoint. And you saw people frequently praying to Vesta and other house gods, which would have been central to daily life, though they rarely played a role in myths.

I also thought they did a very good job showing slaves. On the one hand, they showed that not even moral people (Vorenus again) blinked an eye at owning slaves. In fact, when Pollo kills one, Vorenus isn’t upset by the murder, just that Pollo disrespected his property. This felt very authentic to the Roman worldview. At the same time, you could see that some slaves had positions of great respect and authority as confidantes and advisors. It also felt like there was a clear implication that these slaves would be Greeks, as was usually the case.

I spent the season rooting for Octavian—Julius may have been a great military commander, but he didn’t know how to hold on to power. Octavian did. I’ll watch the next season, but I’m glad there’s only two. It’s just a wee bit too violent a show for me to completely enjoy. Next up, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (speaking of violent). :)

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I think it's a combination of "2 – Tru is just that hot." and "Apparently he's an idiot." I mean, really, his behavior in the season finale is chump-tastic to Glee levels.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I fully support this statement. :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I know nothing of Glee, but holy crap Bomer was saddled with some crap writing. I'm glad he eventually emerged from typecast dumb boyfriend to be the lead of his own show. He was so wasted on Tru Calling. That's why I think they gave him the scruffy beard of doom--so he wouldn't steal the spotlight whenever he was onscreen. That man, too pretty to live.

And for the record, if I had to chose between dating Matt Bomer and saving the world, I choose Matt Bomer.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

1 – Luc is actually Neal Caffrey in disguise running some long, nonsensical con with no apparent goal in mind

That makes me feel a bit happier about Bomer's abysmal role in that show. I loved watching Eliza bat her eyes around at everyone, and watching that show paid off when I became friends with Zach Galifianakis' girlfriend and knew who he was -- of course, now everyone knows who he is.

So I guess Eliza is the one whose career has now stalled while Bomer and Big G are going global. I ponder, I ramble. Sorry!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

In the same way that I can only watch the first season of Torchwood if I pretend Jack is just conning everybody so he has an excuse to sit on the Rift, I was trying to get through Bomer on Tru Calling by pretending he was also running a con. But...it just doesn't work. Luc is just too dumb. And earnest. And dumb. And any emotionally healthy person would have run far, far from Tru the first time she said she had secrets that she can never tell him and ran off in the middle of a date.

(However, if it was a con, it would explain why he dead body didn't ask her for help. Because he was faking it! Cause no one is that stupid! Plot hole solved.)

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

Oh, did he die? Geez, that character made an astounding impression on me, clearly.

I know! It was Neal after he'd been in a car accident and he had amnesia, and he couldn't remember who he was, so he had to make up this cardboard cutout named Luc, etc., and then fake his own death when he realized "oh shit, I'm Neal Fucking Caffrey and I have art to steal!"

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yes, clearly the trauma of Luc dying stupidly like a stupid person had a lasting impression on you. You know what? His death was so dumb it must have been a con. No one has bambi eyes like that in real life.

And hey, he was still an artist! A photographer...of crime scenes. (Also, I really love the scene in his dark room with the red light on where they show him developing things where Tru just barges in. Yet another reason to DUMP HER OMG DO YOU NOT SEE THE LIGHT ON THE DOOR THAT SAYS I AM WORKING???)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Also, who is Zach Galifianakis and why should I know him?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

He's the dude who plays Davis. Noteworthy for "The Hangover" last year and appearing opposite Robert Downey Jr. in "Due Date" later this year.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

Notable these days for The Hangover and Dinner with Schmucks, but was also the lab guy in Tru Calling and used to be a sort of underground super-funny avant garde type comedian. He's a great guy, really sweet, and though I'm not really in touch with my friend any more, I got to know him a bit and came to respect him quite a bit. Mostly because he was sort of embarrassed by the whole Tru Calling thing, LOL.

http://www.zachgalifianakis.com/main.htm

Oh, Rome.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

My friend moonlightalice reacted to Rome in the same way that you reacted to the Egyptian exhibit on Tut. Basically, while the whole thing wasn't offensively wrong, there was enough messed up in the details that it drove her (and her Classics professor) to distraction. Me, I was like, "Ooh, fun!" and spent two seasons merrily celebrating Atia's wickedness and fun. Season 2 Octavian still creeps me out, though.

Re: Oh, Rome.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

They monkey around a lot with the timeline and their portrayal of women's role in society is...wishful thinking, but as a portrait of what life was like in Ancient Rome? It's not that bad. At least, there are far, far worse.

[yourlibrarian]

I hadn't realized he was on Tru as I was never able to watch that show. They obviously had an eye for the pretty even if they didn't know what to do with them.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I watched the show a while ago and found some things in it to enjoy, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's pretty crap. And I love Eliza Dushku, but she just doesn't have the jobs to hold down a show. The writing is kind of painful, too, especially in the relationship scenes, because, despite the fact that Tru must lie all the time to everyone to hide her secret and manipulate people so she can save them, she sucks at it. I enjoy a Leverage or a White Collar where half the fun is watching the leads con people. But Tru lies worse than me.

Fast-forwarding through the eps to find the Bomer, I kept thinking oh, I remember that ep. That was a crappy ep. And that was a crappy ep. And that was a crappy ep with Callum Keith Rennie and the chick who played Callista on Xena. And that was a crappy ep with Joe Flanigan...

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

But Tru lies worse than me.

I think it was very early on that Jethrien and I noted that Tru was like an RPG character who never planned out her story in advance and didn't actually have a Bluff score.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

This is why I don't play characters who can bluff. Cause even if the stats say they can...I can't.

(Also--Tru lies. Heh.)