On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:10:32 -0700, "George Avalos"
<georgeavalos0@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>"Fated to Pretend"
>4-25-08 Moonlight
>
>5 stars (Elizabeth Tudor)
>
>0-1 stars (Jane Grey)
5.0 -- The Man of 1,000 Faces.
* Clearly, their budget was raised for at least this episode, if not
for the rest of the episodes for the season, too. Resulted in the
mult-vamp fight scene and full vamp makeup for Jozef, too. Plus
Mick's gratuitous leap onto that roof castellation at the end.
* IIRC, there's a new showrunner now, but whether or not IRC, there's
been a noticeably welcome change in the storytelling. The plot is --
I don't want to say simpler because that incorrectly suggests that it
was dumbed down. I think that in the inital episodes, the cases were
excessively overplotted, crunching cases that could have stretched
over two episodes into one. That left the characters, particularly
Beth, no room to breath and as a direct result, Sophia Myles had to
deliver exposition and even character moments at breakneck speed that
allowed her little room to actually build a character. This episode
had a case that was just as complex as the show normally is, but it
wasn't overplotted. Myles had room to breath as Beth and so her
active pursuit of Mick both as human and vampire made a LOT more sense
emotionally than they did in any previous episode except for, well,
the next-to-previous one (ie: last week's repeat). Myles was finally
given the opportunity to give the great kind of performance that she
gave in both Doctor Who and Tristan + Isolde -- and *that's* exactly
what the show needed to give it a shot in the arm.
* I still find it amusing that Mick's go-to computer geek is named
Logan, given the presence of Jason Dohring on the show. Matt Czuchry
should guest star at some point.
* Loved the contrasting imagery of the midday beach lunch versus the
nighttime roof dinner. It's a natural, unforced, organic metaphor,
particularly for younger viewers in the audience.
* Interesting implicit plot point: It's already been established in
the series that sires can and do have influence over those that
they've turned, so Jozef should now have that sort of influence over
Mick. It's also possible that since Mick has already been a vampire
that Jozef can't have any influence over him or Jozef will have
difficulty having any influence over him or it'll just be a non-issue
because of their mutual respect. I'd be interested to see if they
were to address this situation directly.
* I think that implicit in the potential of the series is that Mick is
going to *have* to turn Beth at some point to save her for whatever
reason. Her continuing interest in the vampire lore and just being
around them, even around Jozef, Logan and Guillermo shows her becoming
addicted to being a part of this underworld, even if only an observer
or human who Mick's circle considers an ally (for at least the
present). She clearly seems to like the vampire culture as she sees
it and doesn't understand the change that Mick suffers, so that even
with the Black Crystal drug (or whatever it was called), she doesn't
really emotionally or intellectually connect to the danger or even the
spiritual depression that the vamp culture represents even to, say,
Jozef, who seems to be a hedonist more out of boredom than due to any
relishing of his powers and vampiric state. I'd actually *like* to
see this potential, logical storyline of Mick having to turn Beth
happen sooner rather than later given the problems that sires can have
with controlling and guiding their offspring and what that would/could
mean for Mick and Beth's relationship. Seems like Beth being turned
would even give Mick an even more urgent need to search for Coraline's
Cure, particularly if being turned turns out to be waaaaaaaaaay more
than Beth bargained for.
* Jozef seems to be so over his powers and upholds the image more than
anything, seeming to be interested in maintaining his interests and
cultivation of the vampire underground over a longer period of time.
His connection to Mick seems to humanize him, which suggests that he
*could* grown into a great elder vampire, one who would maintain the
spiritual and instinctual needs to protect the vampire culture from
the humans, the humans from the vampire culture and leave as bare
minimum a footprint in the overall society over time if given a
chance.
* Great episode. The changes that I saw were definitely improvements
to the show that are popping at the time in a new show's life where
such changes are supposed to pop. If these improvements are sustained
over the course of the rest of the new episodes for this season, I
can't see the show not being renewed due to its respectable ratings in
its target demos and the related compatibility with lead-in Ghost
Whisperer.
-- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.
It never works. I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work
and what I could've done differently. I'm analyzing all my shortcomings
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent
victim of my own stupid plans. God, I need some coffee.
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