The Week in Entertainment
Live: Turandot at the Met - a glorious performance - wonderful, opulent, gorgeous sets; so complex that the first intermission was actually longer than the first act. Lovely singing, too.
TV: Doctor Who's mid-season finale, while not perhaps brilliantly plotted, was still wonderful. Goodbye to Rory and Amy. Doctor: "It would take almost unimaginable power. What have we got? C'mon, tell me. What?" Amy (takes Rory's hand): "I won't let them take him. That's what we've got." And oh my god the two of them on the roof. And what an ending. Wow. Also The Middle and Modern Family new season premieres. Loved Sue's attempt to get lost. Gave The Neighbors a shot - it was amusing and I'll try it again. Also tried Elementary, but I'm not sure I'll go back to it.I like Lucy Liu, but I'm not crazy about her costar, and the whole premise seems unmotivated to me.
Read: Calling Bernadette's Bluff, an intriguing book about an atheist philosophy professor at a Catholic women's university. Began The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Saramago - it's not about the siege of Lisbon, actually, it's about a proofreader. And it's marvellous.
Labels: entertainment
4 Comments:
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At 12:53 AM, October 07, 2012
Adrian Morgan had this to say...
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At 1:40 AM, October 07, 2012
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 9:09 AM, October 07, 2012
Adrian Morgan had this to say...
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At 9:57 AM, October 07, 2012
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->I hated the Doctor Who mid-season finale. Actually, Season Seven as a whole has been pretty terrible, which is particularly disappointing given that Season Six was easily the best since the show was revived.
I only had a few reservations about Season Six. One, it made no sense that River could regenerate -- the TARDIS has enough magic powers already, and letting it bestow regenerative powers upon an unborn human baby just comes across as making a mockery of itself. Two, "Closing Time", with its ridiculous notion that a crying baby could prevent cyberneurosurgery. I hate that kind of stupid sentimentality in a plot. Plus several lesser reservations, such as misuse of the word "psychopath". But overall, two major reservations plus several lesser ones counts as an excellent score.
Season Seven has disappointed more often than not. Take the episode with the cubes -- it built up lots of suspense, but seconds after we learn who the villains are, the Doctor waves the sonic screwdriver and the whole world is fixed. And now, the mid season finale -- several scenes offended me, not least of which was the Doctor healing River's hand. The Doctor has never been able to heal wounds by willpower (otherwise it would be a VERY different show) but they put that in merely for the sake of some sentimental lines of dialogue.
As Tom Baker once said, "I always have major reservations."
I expect that Moffat thinks River is the only person (except perhaps another Time Lord) he could heal. I have serious reservations about River all the way around, so I try not to judge eps with her in them too harshly. I rather liked The Power of Three, myself ... but I had some plot problems with The Angels Take Manhattan - perhaps most strongly with (a) how and why did Rory end up taken the first time; (b) did we know the Angels could inhabit other statues, like giant hollow ones? (c) how the hell does Liberty ever not have eyes on her? and finally (d) did we ever know the Angels sent people back in time? Plus, of course why can't the TARDIS land in New York again? But I forgive it all for the gorgeous character moments, especially Amy's choice to risk everything for a chance at Rory.
I think perhaps a disadvantage of season arcs (as they tend to do a lot of in the new series) is that a deficiency in plotting can infect the whole season, whereas in classic Doctor Who, there were at least as many bad stories, but each adventure was relatively isolated so in a sense it didn't matter. One remembers the stories one likes.
As for your points above, I agree with (b) among others, but the answer to (d) is "yes" -- that angels could send people back in time was established in "Blink", the very first Angel story.
Now I come to think of it, you're right about "Blink". I'd forgotten just what they did to you when they caught you.
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