Confession

Filed under:Reviews,Television — posted by Anwyn on November 29, 2007 @ 11:04 pm

I’m watching Moonlight, that vampire show with Jason Dohring in a supporting role (for anyone whose brain is so full up with characters that she forgets the actors’ names, that means Logan’s in it) and Sophia Myles, David Tennant’s girlfriend (sob), as the female lead. The Whedonesquers were outraged upon first hearing of it, since a vampire P.I. is a disrespectful ripoff of one of their cancelled sacred cows. Ace and Petitedov both turned up their noses at it, and they have a point about some of the writing and some of the acting–but it’s the “some” that makes it interesting. If you keep yourself thinking “noir” instead of “wooden,” it really starts to work. The lead actor, Alex O’Loughlin, is pretty slick in a dry, straight-on D.B. Sweeney kind of way that I enjoy, and come on, how could anybody not love this exchange:

Girl Who’s Just Been Attacked: “Shouldn’t we call the police?”

Beth, whose apartment it is, hearing thumping and hollering from the bathroom: “I think Mick wanted to talk to him alone.”

***

Disgusting Bad Guy, chained to the bathroom sink after being roughed up a little: “You can’t do this. I have rights.”

Mick, Kick-Ass Vampire P.I.: “Yeah? You broke into a private home. I have the right to shoot you. I’m still considering that option.”

DBG: “You’re not a cop.”

Mick: “That’s right, so I don’t have to fill out paperwork in triplicate when I kick your ass again.”

See? Even Dawn Summers would like that. Oh yeah, no more TV for her, though.

I haven’t quite decided yet whether it hurts or helps that the show shares a producer with Veronica Mars and bears a strong affinity to it in terms of sets (Mick’s apartment is basically Duncan and Logan’s room in the Neptune Grand, and Mick’s office is more or less Keith’s) and even callbacks (a murdered girl from the pilot was a student at Hearst College). It’s nice but also a little melancholy, although I admit Chuck is helping me get over Veronica in record time.

Anyway, guilty pleasure it may be, but a few hack lines here and there don’t stop the plots from being fairly well wound and properly sprung. It’s about as different from Angel as any show about a vampire P.I. could reasonably be expected to be. And because I’m a sucker for the love story, kudos to the writers for not pulling the now overused “put ’em together then break ’em up quick” method of having cake and eating it too–they’re taking it comparatively slow and letting that part of it play out over time.

It certainly holds its own for a Friday night show.

Useless

Filed under:Jerks,Politics,Priorities — posted by Anwyn @ 5:39 pm

So, CNN, you haven’t heard anybody say the questions from Democratic plants at last night’s debate were not useful? Allow me to fill that yawning void for you.

The questions were not useful. They were useless because this is not yet the general election, where the candidates need to face the monumental task of swaying voters either undecided on some of the core split issues between Democrats and Republicans or else outright committed to the opposite side. Last night’s debate was supposed to be about showing Republicans why one Republican candidate might be a better choice for their Republican primary vote than another Republican might be. It was not about giving Democrats face time to whine and badger the candidates about issues that Democrats may want to hear Republicans answer so they can point and laugh, but about which your average Republican doesn’t give much of a rat’s tail. I actually thought you might have realized this simple fact, seeing that you were hosting a debate for the Republican primary candidates, but since it seems to have escaped you: This was not supposed to be a platform for self-important Democrats with their panties in a wad to try to pin Republican candidates under their thumbs. That comes later. Not to mention that little point that the “populist” approach of YouTube was supposed to be about ordinary voters submitting questions they’d like to hear answered, not paid agendists.

I’m starting to think that by “a debate of their party” you really meant “Let’s see if we can’t turn it into a debate about their party.” But hey, if your intent was to piss our party off even more at yours, maybe they weren’t so useless after all. The saying is useful idiots, isn’t it?

Update: Because whatever you may have convinced yourselves of the intelligence level of Republicans, I assure you most of us will not look at a questioner like Gen. Kerr and say, “Hmm! There is a Republican who is angry about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!’ Wow, maybe I should vote Democrat after all!”



image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace