most of POI S3
May. 8th, 2014 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI've seen all of S3 except 3x22, which I'll be watching later today (I just don't have it yet).
The season improved considerably after the low point that was 3x09, "The Crossing." I miss Carter, but I think it had been a while since the show really knew what to do with her--they kept pushing her into more and more extreme situations that perhaps crossed the line into out of character behavior, and I think that the fact that they planned to kill her off was why the early part of S3 felt so disjointed and strange. The show was marking time until it was far enough into the season for a major plot development.
It felt like recognizable characterization came back as soon as Carter was dead, which is . . . weird. The follow-up episodes did a pretty good job dealing with the fallout of her death. John's despair and running away made sense (I notice the idea of him being in love with Carter was dropped like a hot potato), and I liked Fusco refusing to kill Simmons, though I'm not sure I believe he could have won their fight. I'm not sure what I think about Elias killing Simmons--it makes sense as something Elias would do, but I worry that it was there mostly to serve the audience's desire for revenge. Anyway, I also really liked the flashbacks in "The Devil's Share" of various characters in therapy sessions. Poor Finch and his survivor's guilt.
Characterization-wise, the second half of S3 has (a) remembered that Finch exists and is one of the main characters, (b) remembered that Finch and Reese really really care about each other, and (c) remembered that they have plenty of reason to distrust Root, so that's all good. I'm much more comfortable with the level and kind of Shaw's inclusion in the team now than I was before--everyone has drawn closer together, as witness them all in the safehouse at the end of 3x14, "Provenance," drinking a toast to Carter's memory, but Shaw is no longer between Reese and Finch the way she was. There's a moment in one episode, I forget which, at the end of a big scene, when Finch and Reese are standing close together by a car, and Shaw comes over to stand with them, but there's a little distance between them and her. It felt to me like a parallel and corrective to the earlier scene I raged about where the walks between them (though she still does that occasionally, but I don't mind it as much now that the Reese-Finch emotional dynamic is restored).
I didn't find Reese's anger against Finch and his leaving at the end of 3x12, "Aletheia" entirely plausible, but it paved the way for their reconciliation in the next episode, "4C," so I'll accept it. I love a good bottle episode and "4C" was definitely that. Plus the whole last sequence, in which Finch turns up and is stealthily jealous of Reese having a drink with the flight attendant, and then he's going to go brood about Grace in an art gallery but is extremely happy to give that up as soon as Reese says he wants to come back, and then they go off to get Reese some nice new Italian suits made by a tailor Finch knows on a first-name basis and fly back together--that made me happier than anything previously in S3.
And then there were those bits in 3x14, "Provenance." At first I thought Finch's early remarks (along the lines of "Oh, welcome back, Mr. Reese, long time no see, I like your new suit!") were a continuity error, but then it occurred to me that Shaw is in the room when he says all that, whereas later when he and Reese are alone he makes a reference to Gianni's tailoring skills. So we must assume that Reese and Finch are deliberately deceiving Shaw about having spent time together in Italy and come home together. What exactly don't you want Shaw to know, boys? And I'm not sure you're doing a fantastic job of covering it up if, when you all need to get into a museum gala, Finch sends Shaw in by herself and takes John as his date. <3 <3 <3 <3 to infinity. The reaction of the woman at the museum is priceless. I'd thought that the sequence at the end of Astolat's Big Spender vid was clever editing, but no, that woman congratulating Finch on his hot boyfriend is really there in the episode. I could perhaps have done without Shaw's lampshading of the dressing scene as a "mildly erotic moment" (and I must dissent about the "mildly" because goddamn), as it made things feel a little queerbaity, but if I had to pick five minutes of television to watch on an endless loop for the rest of my life, I could do worse than these scenes. I note that Sean Hennen, the writer of this episode, also wrote "Proteus," which gave us Finch and Reese going to the movies together on their downtime, and the umbrella business. And there was more umbrella business in "Provenance," except Finch held it this time. (In a modern egalitarian relationship, either person can hold the umbrella, it seems.) I still feel the loss of writer and exec producer Patrick Harbinson, who wrote some great Reese-Finch, but I take comfort in knowing that Sean Hennen ships them.
In other characterization matters: I have mixed feelings about the backstory we've gotten for Harold this season. Arthur Claypool's revelations about Finch at MIT I'm inclined to disbelieve--Harold as wild-n-crazy guy doesn't fit anything we've seen about his personality, nor does Finch the ladykiller. My interpretation is that Nathan had a wide circle of friends including Arthur, and got them all into some scrapes, so of course Harold was involved because where Nathan went, Harold went. The stuff about Harold as chick magnet is completely untrue and is based entirely on stories Nathan used to make up and tell Arthur when Harold wasn't around. The family backstory is okay if not terribly interesting, though it does mean that Finch must have been lying when he told Carter that story about his older brothers throwing him into the deep end of the pool. It's pretty clear there were no siblings in the picture. Anyway, Harold as isolated boy genius makes sense. It surprised me that we saw him with high school friends, because people like Harold don't have high school friends, but I'm interpreting them as a couple of other misfit kids branded "losers" who all stuck together.
The backstory episode "RAM" is somewhat challenging to fit into the timeline (for one thing, how did Finch know Reese was CIA before Jessica's death? and is it plausible that Reese was having serious enough doubts to let a suspect go, months before Ordos?) but interesting enough, mostly for how it highlights by contrast how well Reese and Finch work together and how compatible they are. I don't know whether to be creeped out or amused that Finch dressed Dillinger in exactly the same kind of suits John wears. Finch, my dear, your kinks are showing.
With luck, we are finally rid of Grace Hendricks. I always thought she was implausible as the kind of person Finch might love--she's too drippily emotional and not smart enough--and her hopelessly naive interactions with Greer in 2x21, "Beta" prove it. Go off to Italy, live a long and happy life, and never darken my screen again.
As for plot: the Samaritan stuff has been interesting, though I kind of wonder why the machine can't just feed it a virus to kill it off while it's still new and not very powerful. My speculation for the future is that this season's plot resolution will involve Daniel Casey (the guy who security-tested the machine, the one Root evacuated from his Canadian shack at the end of "RAM") and possibly Vigilance being persuaded to attack Decima. Probably we won't hear from our latest background villain, he of the 911 call, until next season, just like the moral dilemma of the machine trying to get Finch and co. to kill the Congressman will linger on. We may get a sharper split in the team, though. Reese likes saving people and he doesn't like to kill, but for him it's all ultimately about Finch himself, and he might be willing to go further to save Finch from Decima than Finch would like. (I was actually a little surprised that neither Finch nor Shaw proposed just not telling Finch that Decima had Grace--of course it turned out that Finch had already figured it out himself, but before then it seemed like a feasible, if ruthless, solution.)
Eep, a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that this season will have 23 episodes, so there'll be one more to go yet. One more cliffhanger, one that I'll actually have to wait to see resolved. Hopefully the season won't end on a cliffhanger--I hate and was glad they chose not to do it last time.
The season improved considerably after the low point that was 3x09, "The Crossing." I miss Carter, but I think it had been a while since the show really knew what to do with her--they kept pushing her into more and more extreme situations that perhaps crossed the line into out of character behavior, and I think that the fact that they planned to kill her off was why the early part of S3 felt so disjointed and strange. The show was marking time until it was far enough into the season for a major plot development.
It felt like recognizable characterization came back as soon as Carter was dead, which is . . . weird. The follow-up episodes did a pretty good job dealing with the fallout of her death. John's despair and running away made sense (I notice the idea of him being in love with Carter was dropped like a hot potato), and I liked Fusco refusing to kill Simmons, though I'm not sure I believe he could have won their fight. I'm not sure what I think about Elias killing Simmons--it makes sense as something Elias would do, but I worry that it was there mostly to serve the audience's desire for revenge. Anyway, I also really liked the flashbacks in "The Devil's Share" of various characters in therapy sessions. Poor Finch and his survivor's guilt.
Characterization-wise, the second half of S3 has (a) remembered that Finch exists and is one of the main characters, (b) remembered that Finch and Reese really really care about each other, and (c) remembered that they have plenty of reason to distrust Root, so that's all good. I'm much more comfortable with the level and kind of Shaw's inclusion in the team now than I was before--everyone has drawn closer together, as witness them all in the safehouse at the end of 3x14, "Provenance," drinking a toast to Carter's memory, but Shaw is no longer between Reese and Finch the way she was. There's a moment in one episode, I forget which, at the end of a big scene, when Finch and Reese are standing close together by a car, and Shaw comes over to stand with them, but there's a little distance between them and her. It felt to me like a parallel and corrective to the earlier scene I raged about where the walks between them (though she still does that occasionally, but I don't mind it as much now that the Reese-Finch emotional dynamic is restored).
I didn't find Reese's anger against Finch and his leaving at the end of 3x12, "Aletheia" entirely plausible, but it paved the way for their reconciliation in the next episode, "4C," so I'll accept it. I love a good bottle episode and "4C" was definitely that. Plus the whole last sequence, in which Finch turns up and is stealthily jealous of Reese having a drink with the flight attendant, and then he's going to go brood about Grace in an art gallery but is extremely happy to give that up as soon as Reese says he wants to come back, and then they go off to get Reese some nice new Italian suits made by a tailor Finch knows on a first-name basis and fly back together--that made me happier than anything previously in S3.
And then there were those bits in 3x14, "Provenance." At first I thought Finch's early remarks (along the lines of "Oh, welcome back, Mr. Reese, long time no see, I like your new suit!") were a continuity error, but then it occurred to me that Shaw is in the room when he says all that, whereas later when he and Reese are alone he makes a reference to Gianni's tailoring skills. So we must assume that Reese and Finch are deliberately deceiving Shaw about having spent time together in Italy and come home together. What exactly don't you want Shaw to know, boys? And I'm not sure you're doing a fantastic job of covering it up if, when you all need to get into a museum gala, Finch sends Shaw in by herself and takes John as his date. <3 <3 <3 <3 to infinity. The reaction of the woman at the museum is priceless. I'd thought that the sequence at the end of Astolat's Big Spender vid was clever editing, but no, that woman congratulating Finch on his hot boyfriend is really there in the episode. I could perhaps have done without Shaw's lampshading of the dressing scene as a "mildly erotic moment" (and I must dissent about the "mildly" because goddamn), as it made things feel a little queerbaity, but if I had to pick five minutes of television to watch on an endless loop for the rest of my life, I could do worse than these scenes. I note that Sean Hennen, the writer of this episode, also wrote "Proteus," which gave us Finch and Reese going to the movies together on their downtime, and the umbrella business. And there was more umbrella business in "Provenance," except Finch held it this time. (In a modern egalitarian relationship, either person can hold the umbrella, it seems.) I still feel the loss of writer and exec producer Patrick Harbinson, who wrote some great Reese-Finch, but I take comfort in knowing that Sean Hennen ships them.
In other characterization matters: I have mixed feelings about the backstory we've gotten for Harold this season. Arthur Claypool's revelations about Finch at MIT I'm inclined to disbelieve--Harold as wild-n-crazy guy doesn't fit anything we've seen about his personality, nor does Finch the ladykiller. My interpretation is that Nathan had a wide circle of friends including Arthur, and got them all into some scrapes, so of course Harold was involved because where Nathan went, Harold went. The stuff about Harold as chick magnet is completely untrue and is based entirely on stories Nathan used to make up and tell Arthur when Harold wasn't around. The family backstory is okay if not terribly interesting, though it does mean that Finch must have been lying when he told Carter that story about his older brothers throwing him into the deep end of the pool. It's pretty clear there were no siblings in the picture. Anyway, Harold as isolated boy genius makes sense. It surprised me that we saw him with high school friends, because people like Harold don't have high school friends, but I'm interpreting them as a couple of other misfit kids branded "losers" who all stuck together.
The backstory episode "RAM" is somewhat challenging to fit into the timeline (for one thing, how did Finch know Reese was CIA before Jessica's death? and is it plausible that Reese was having serious enough doubts to let a suspect go, months before Ordos?) but interesting enough, mostly for how it highlights by contrast how well Reese and Finch work together and how compatible they are. I don't know whether to be creeped out or amused that Finch dressed Dillinger in exactly the same kind of suits John wears. Finch, my dear, your kinks are showing.
With luck, we are finally rid of Grace Hendricks. I always thought she was implausible as the kind of person Finch might love--she's too drippily emotional and not smart enough--and her hopelessly naive interactions with Greer in 2x21, "Beta" prove it. Go off to Italy, live a long and happy life, and never darken my screen again.
As for plot: the Samaritan stuff has been interesting, though I kind of wonder why the machine can't just feed it a virus to kill it off while it's still new and not very powerful. My speculation for the future is that this season's plot resolution will involve Daniel Casey (the guy who security-tested the machine, the one Root evacuated from his Canadian shack at the end of "RAM") and possibly Vigilance being persuaded to attack Decima. Probably we won't hear from our latest background villain, he of the 911 call, until next season, just like the moral dilemma of the machine trying to get Finch and co. to kill the Congressman will linger on. We may get a sharper split in the team, though. Reese likes saving people and he doesn't like to kill, but for him it's all ultimately about Finch himself, and he might be willing to go further to save Finch from Decima than Finch would like. (I was actually a little surprised that neither Finch nor Shaw proposed just not telling Finch that Decima had Grace--of course it turned out that Finch had already figured it out himself, but before then it seemed like a feasible, if ruthless, solution.)
Eep, a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that this season will have 23 episodes, so there'll be one more to go yet. One more cliffhanger, one that I'll actually have to wait to see resolved. Hopefully the season won't end on a cliffhanger--I hate and was glad they chose not to do it last time.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 11:29 am (UTC)I forgot about Finch mentioning siblings, but maybe it was part of keeping his background and identity a secret.
[bites nails instead of tongue] I'll miss it when it's off the air.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 10:31 pm (UTC)and also
Date: 2014-05-09 09:29 pm (UTC)Re: and also
Date: 2014-05-09 10:36 pm (UTC)It was surprisingly easy and almost as good as I remember but I suspect the breadcrumbs were a bit stale. I'll try a little matzo meal or maybe all ground almonds next time.
Oh, I love that icon! Where did you find your POI icons? I should go looking or maybe make some.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-10 12:07 am (UTC)My other POI icon, the one I used on the main post, was made by
no subject
Date: 2014-05-11 03:41 am (UTC)