reinforce my clarity

The fifth series of Merlin started tonight and so I duly watched. Is it just me, though, or is the plotting getting repetitive? Stop me if this list sounds familiar...

Cryptic threat to Arthur: check
Merlin worries: check
Arthur dismisses Merlin's worries: check
Arthur and Merlin insult each other: check
Arthur is noble: check
Arthur and Merlin have a moment of affirming mutual loyalty at night: check
Merlin summons Dragon: check
Merlin is Arthur's only hope of safety: check
Knights get their shirts off: check
Morgana plots: check

I had an enormous sense of deja vu all through the episode. The traitor was obvious almost on first appearance, nothing got said in dialogue that I hadn't heard from the characters before (apart for the one exception of Gwen being brilliantly ruthless that was the only bit that felt like it wasn't a retread)... It feels like it's stuck in stasis, and nothing feels more like that than the relationship between Merlin and Arthur who have been dancing the same steps in it for about the last 3 series. I don't know - I feel like Uther dying last series should have been this huge game changer, but instead it's more like it just changed the details around the edges and the centre stayed exactly the same.

Come on, Merlin writers! Shake it up a bit - do something different! (And that does not mean fart jokes, you already did those.)

and fans' eagle eyes.

Check out the apparent canonical crossover between the Moff's two shows...

I think I'll go watch "A Study in Time" again now!

It took me a while to watch the second and third episodes, which I guess illustrates how grabbed I was by the first one. Once I was watching though I certainly felt the urge to keep going and find out what happens.

It's definitely a different feeling to the series though. Someone (I think it was rivier) made a very interesting post about that and I think it hits the nail on the head. It boils down to a distinction - TW, up until now, was always about the people on the team and the plots or the monsters of the week were (mostly) there to show how those characters were affected and changed by them. But now the emphasis is all in the opposite direction - it is about the plot, not the characters, and so it feels a lot more distant than it used to ( CoE was like the bridge between the two styles in a way). Three episodes in and what have we learned about Rex and Esther, or Jilly? Not much, and I expect Jilly is meant to be an enigma right now but the other two shouldn't be.

Not that I haven't enjoyed the episodes so far, but it is nice to be able to go "ah, that's what feels different".

Not much to say about either episode because I still don't really know what is going on. But it did annoy me that the much-vaunted sex scenes were a result of the two male team members buggering (ha) off for some R&R while Esther and Gwen got left behind being serious and responsible. Rex at least got to storm off in a temper but Jack just came off as having ADHD... "Hmm, possibly world-ending crisis, we should... ooh, gay bar! See ya!"

Anyway, Oswald Danes is fascinating in a horrible kind of way, Dr Juarez is brilliant and I'm curious about the cult with the Cybermen-ish masks. Though I hope there is something behind the plot other than "big pharma companies are EVIL" because I happen to work in pharmaceuticals (though not for a big one) and I am not evil, thank you very much.

I have now watched the prepenultimate and penultimate episode of Highlander series one and... yeah. Not really running up to the finale with a bang! They're probably the ones I've enjoyed least so far.

( Der Racheengel )

( Flucht ohne Ausweg )

I think one thing I am missing in this series is an arc. Here I am, with just one episode to go but there's no thread to pull me into it with anticipation. All the episodes have been standalones and while they have (mostly) been entertaining and enjoyable, it does lose something from not having that plot tying them together and from not having a build up to the finale.

Gone a bit mad with the HL iconnage, but damn there are some pretty ones out there. So I'm using Darius since he keeps popping up in the episodes, much to my delight.

And in this week's exciting episodes we have: why absinthe is bad for you, a very nice hat on a very bad man, why being a diva is bad plan, and the sideburns that ate Paris.

( Masken des Todes )

( Beichtgeheimnis )

( Der Damon des Waldes )

( Der Konig von Amazonas )

Right, I'm off to look for more icons...

The rewatch continues:

( Der Todesengel )

( Der Russe )

( Das verlorene Schwert )

And on a final note, I want Duncan's hair tie.

I really don't think my reaction to that is conveyable in words...*hyperventilates*

( But I'll give it a shot: )

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever:

1. Bold the shows you watch/used to watch.
2. Italicize the shows you've seen at least one episode of.
3. Strikeout the shows you've never seen.
4. Post your answers.

( I think I've seen an awful lot of these, really... )

The second season of Dollhouse is creeping the shit out of me. I assume this is its intent but oh my lord does it make for some uncomfortable viewing. Addictive though, kind of like a car crash where I can't look away because I need to know where it goes. (I'm guessing somewhere bad.)

There has been at least one episode where I felt a need to take a bath afterwards and the rest are making me clutch cushions and go 'meep' in horror a lot. I mean the first season had its moments but they have turned the disturbometer up to 11 for this one.

*shivers*

I was randomly flicking channels when an extremely cool shot of a barrel wave from underneath caught my eye so I stopped on BBC4 for South Pacific. And two minutes later I went "hey, I recognise that voice..." for lo, it was the lovely Benedict Cumberbatch narrating. So I watched the whole hour (I probably would have anyway, because the whole thing was gorgeous and interesting, but it certainly helped).

I think the BBC has a secret contract where any actor with a sexy voice is immediately made to do documentary voiceovers. The amount of times I spend an entire programme going "damn, who is that talking?" and it turns out to be Jack Davenport or Mark Strong or, now, Benedict Cumberbatch. I ♥ Auntie Beeb.