Let's talk about TV!
Oct. 30th, 2014 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalI was just lamenting to per_aspera_ad_astra how I never talk about TV anymore, and all I post are linkspams, and lately I find myself having things to say, so let's talk superhero TV shows!
First, The Flash, which got Felicitified this week. I actually really liked that Felicity had no particular reason to come to Central City except that she wanted to visit Barry. Most of the time with these crossovers - especially on shows that have a Villain of the Week - it's because someone's working on a case and they need help that only someone on the other show can provide, so one of them ventures over to visit the other. But this was just... let's send Felicity to hang out with Barry and see what happens? And she sort of gets involved in the Captain Cold stuff, but really you could've taken her out of the ep completely and not changed that plotline. Which seems weird to say, because typically good storytelling involves necessity, but I liked that the point of the crossover is simply that they're friends, and nothing more.
...Or possibly more! Because THEY KISSED OMG. LOL you have no idea, I was already shipping Barry/Felicity before I even saw them interact - just the very idea of these two perfectly adorable people being perfectly adorable at each other! But then they basically said what EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is thinking and explicitly were like, "HEY WE ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER. Too bad we're stuck on these losers who don't love us."
And really, more than anything, this episode made me want to watch Arrow season 2 SO BAD because now I want to see how they met. (I'm also really curious how pre-superpowers CSI nerd Barry fits in on Arrow, but frankly, Barry and Felicity are the epitome of adorableness, so who cares how he ended up there.)
At the same time, though, I was kind of cringing pretty hard at the fact that Barry is still pining over Iris despite their having ZERO chemistry. It was bad enough last week, when Barry had friendly bonding scenes with Caitlin that had more sparks, but letting Felicity interact with Barry makes it even more painfully obvious how non-sparky Barry/Iris is in comparison.
Four episodes in, it's clear they aren't clicking as a couple (not least of which because Iris - reasonably - sees him as her brother and exudes a really strong sibling vibe, which frankly just makes Barry's crush seem kinda creepy the longer it goes on), and it's made all the more obvious when they keep putting Barry around these women who are much better matches and you can't help but think BARRY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD that he doesn't see it. But the show is apparently committed to the Barry/Iris ship because she's his one true love in the comics or whatever, which... you'd think they'd have learned this lesson from Arrow, y'know?
I mean, I haven't really gotten into the throes of Olicity yet - at this point (the end of season 1, which is as far as I've watched), I don't get the sense that Felicity is ~in love~ with Oliver, nor do I have a particular desire to see them together, except in the sense that Oliver is super fucking cut and who wouldn't want to lick those abs...
...er, what? Sorry, I started drooling a bit on my computer just then. THE POINT IS, thanks to fandom osmosis (and really just experience, because even if I knew nothing about the series going in, you could see this coming a mile away if you have any exposure whatsoever to TV love triangles and those pesky fan favorite characters, lol) I know the Olicity feels are coming. And clearly, it was supposed to be an Oliver/Laurel OTP and then Felicity came in and screwed it up by being adorable and everyone wanted Oliver with her, so you'd think they'd have learned that Felicity is a canon-wrecker of epic proportions.
But, as I mentioned in my earlier Arrow post, at least Laurel has something to do on the show besides be the bland love interest. Her job and her interactions with Hood Guy (snerk) at least give her meaningful conflicts with her dad (unlike Iris, who basically only pisses her dad off by dating his partner, who is a total non-character), and she's had relationships with Tommy and with Thea that aren't entirely about Oliver, lol. But Iris has NOTHING to do. Literally everyone in the entire show knows Barry's secret identity except her, so she's just there to make Barry jealous with her cop boyfriend and occasionally be in peril. I feel like they are trying to Lois Lane her with this "blogging about the Red Streak" thing, but so far she's spent more time talking about how she's going to be a blogger than actually doing any investigating into the Streak's identity.
I don't know, maybe it's too soon to be concerned about it, and who knows, they could have grand plans for Iris as an investigative journalist dogging Barry's every move, but I only criticize because the rest of the show has been SO DELIGHTFUL that any Iris scene is the equivalent of a big WAH-WAAAH sad trombone noise.
I was going to get into my Agents of SHIELD feels, too - in that it's gotten to be a much better show, but in a way that proves they should've just done what they're doing now from the beginning - but this is already rather long and capslocky, so maybe we'll save that for tomorrow, along with all the Marvel previews and leaked videos from this week's announcement.
per_aspera_ad_astra how I never talk about TV anymore, and all I post are linkspams, and lately I find myself having things to say, so let's talk superhero TV shows! First, The Flash, which got Felicitified this week. I actually really liked that Felicity had no particular reason to come to Central City except that she wanted to visit Barry. Most of the time with these crossovers - especially on shows that have a Villain of the Week - it's because someone's working on a case and they need help that only someone on the other show can provide, so one of them ventures over to visit the other. But this was just... let's send Felicity to hang out with Barry and see what happens? And she sort of gets involved in the Captain Cold stuff, but really you could've taken her out of the ep completely and not changed that plotline. Which seems weird to say, because typically good storytelling involves necessity, but I liked that the point of the crossover is simply that they're friends, and nothing more.
...Or possibly more! Because THEY KISSED OMG. LOL you have no idea, I was already shipping Barry/Felicity before I even saw them interact - just the very idea of these two perfectly adorable people being perfectly adorable at each other! But then they basically said what EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is thinking and explicitly were like, "HEY WE ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER. Too bad we're stuck on these losers who don't love us."
And really, more than anything, this episode made me want to watch Arrow season 2 SO BAD because now I want to see how they met. (I'm also really curious how pre-superpowers CSI nerd Barry fits in on Arrow, but frankly, Barry and Felicity are the epitome of adorableness, so who cares how he ended up there.)
At the same time, though, I was kind of cringing pretty hard at the fact that Barry is still pining over Iris despite their having ZERO chemistry. It was bad enough last week, when Barry had friendly bonding scenes with Caitlin that had more sparks, but letting Felicity interact with Barry makes it even more painfully obvious how non-sparky Barry/Iris is in comparison.
Four episodes in, it's clear they aren't clicking as a couple (not least of which because Iris - reasonably - sees him as her brother and exudes a really strong sibling vibe, which frankly just makes Barry's crush seem kinda creepy the longer it goes on), and it's made all the more obvious when they keep putting Barry around these women who are much better matches and you can't help but think BARRY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEAD that he doesn't see it. But the show is apparently committed to the Barry/Iris ship because she's his one true love in the comics or whatever, which... you'd think they'd have learned this lesson from Arrow, y'know?
I mean, I haven't really gotten into the throes of Olicity yet - at this point (the end of season 1, which is as far as I've watched), I don't get the sense that Felicity is ~in love~ with Oliver, nor do I have a particular desire to see them together, except in the sense that Oliver is super fucking cut and who wouldn't want to lick those abs...
...er, what? Sorry, I started drooling a bit on my computer just then. THE POINT IS, thanks to fandom osmosis (and really just experience, because even if I knew nothing about the series going in, you could see this coming a mile away if you have any exposure whatsoever to TV love triangles and those pesky fan favorite characters, lol) I know the Olicity feels are coming. And clearly, it was supposed to be an Oliver/Laurel OTP and then Felicity came in and screwed it up by being adorable and everyone wanted Oliver with her, so you'd think they'd have learned that Felicity is a canon-wrecker of epic proportions.
But, as I mentioned in my earlier Arrow post, at least Laurel has something to do on the show besides be the bland love interest. Her job and her interactions with Hood Guy (snerk) at least give her meaningful conflicts with her dad (unlike Iris, who basically only pisses her dad off by dating his partner, who is a total non-character), and she's had relationships with Tommy and with Thea that aren't entirely about Oliver, lol. But Iris has NOTHING to do. Literally everyone in the entire show knows Barry's secret identity except her, so she's just there to make Barry jealous with her cop boyfriend and occasionally be in peril. I feel like they are trying to Lois Lane her with this "blogging about the Red Streak" thing, but so far she's spent more time talking about how she's going to be a blogger than actually doing any investigating into the Streak's identity.
I don't know, maybe it's too soon to be concerned about it, and who knows, they could have grand plans for Iris as an investigative journalist dogging Barry's every move, but I only criticize because the rest of the show has been SO DELIGHTFUL that any Iris scene is the equivalent of a big WAH-WAAAH sad trombone noise.
I was going to get into my Agents of SHIELD feels, too - in that it's gotten to be a much better show, but in a way that proves they should've just done what they're doing now from the beginning - but this is already rather long and capslocky, so maybe we'll save that for tomorrow, along with all the Marvel previews and leaked videos from this week's announcement.
