We're heading off to Lincolnshire aka the land of no internet this weekend, so I'm going to do two of these as I probably won't be able to post another until Tuesday.
Day 11 - A show that disappointed youThe disadvantage of being a fan of
Buffy,
Angel and, to a lesser extent,
Firefly, was that I had high hopes of
Dollhouse. I wasn't totally keen on the concept of "dolls" who existed to fulfill the needs of rich people, but I expected Joss Whedon to entertain me. Unfortunately I was very disappointed as I just didn't like
Dollhouse. I'm sure I was supposed to find the concept uncomfortable but it came across as Joss having his cake and eating it by being able to show the "dolls" being used for entertainment, whilst all along maintaining it was a critique. We watched the first series without being engaged by any of the characters apart from Adelle and Topher. I hoped the second series would pick up but after watching an episode or two we both agreed to give up. Joss had committed the cardinal sin of making me "
paralysed by not caring very much" from sheer boredom. Dollhouse wasn't just a huge disappointment, it was a boring disappointment, which I never expected from Joss.
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 timesThere are several of them for my favourite shows so I'll pick one from a TV series I haven't talked about yet.
Highlander: the Series was hugely important to me because it was my first online fandom and I met some of my oldest online friends through it (waves at
👁 Image
selenak).
Highlander was one of those shows that got stronger as it went along and by its 5th series it was really rocking.
The Valkyrie is a fifth season episode and one of the strongest, so it has definitely found its way into my DVD player more than five times. To use Highlander fan terms the "k'immie" of the week is Ingrid, an old friend of MacLeod's, who was so traumatised by her failure to kill Hitler in 1944 that she has set about systematically eradicating every fascist demagogue she comes across just in case they turn into someone like Hitler. As is usual with HL we see part of the story through flashbacks with MacLeod and Ingrid involved in Adam von Stauffenburg's genuine plot to kill Hitler, and we do see the moment where Ingrid's hesitation means Hitler's life is saved. This is a chilling scene and gives a very believable motivation to what Ingrid is doing. Neither MacLeod or the policeman hunting Ingrid can entirely disagree with her motives but it soon becomes apparent that she's prepared to kill innocents to reach her target. In the end MacLeod finds himself with no choice but to kill Ingrid to prevent her setting off a bomb and killing several hundred people. As Ingrid's quickening hits MacLeod there is a montage of images intercutting the people whose lives he has just saved with crowds cheering Hitler.
The Valkyrie is a very powerful, interesting episode which raises lots of questions. At the end Methos (who has been taking a wholly pragmatic view about the whole thing and laughing at MacLeod "
tussling with moral dilemmas") says to MacLeod
"Wilkinson killed and Ingrid judged him. Ingrid killed and you judged her." MacLeod's response
"Who judges me?" is left hanging by Methos who has no answer. The whole episode and the series at this point is summed up by the policeman
"when I was a child I thought everything was black and white, you see. Then I grew up and discovered only grey".On the subject of my current fandom obsession there's an interesting parallel between this and the Merlin episode
"The Beginning of the End".
( Spoilers for Merlin S5Collapse ) I think both episodes ask can killing someone be for the greater good and neither of them can quite answer the question, which is more relevant today than it was when
Highlander asked it back in 1997
( The other daysCollapse )Signing off now to battle tomorrow with ice, snow, rail delays and whimsical central heating. Oh joy!
