Monday night broke my brain, Part II

[dealan311]

Okay see now that? That should have been the season opener.

1. MUCH better showing of layers and complications for Hassan's family, Hastings and Cole. Hastings is now a character rather than an obstacle, and I now look forward to the Chloe and Hastings snarkfest to come, since Hastings is probably the closest to George Mason than any other CTU director so far. Cole is still Captain America giving dork speeches, but I liked that he showed more steel.

And I like how, despite the fact that Hassan's wife doesn't love him anymore, she also doesn't want to see him die. Also, I found myself caring a lot more about Hassan because he owned up to his affair and because he ended it with Reed. Nothing is simple and everything has contradictions. Nice improvement, writers.

2. Likewise, I think they're doing a good job with the rotating villains and collateral damage. Reed served her part and now it's over and I hope never to see her again. It's not that hate the character, just that her function in the storyline is done. Same goes for Eugene Tooms Davros. Good run, but now it's over and we get OMG David Anders. Sans accent but I had to do a little dance of squee. I love him and not just because he and I share the same birthday. Also kudos to the writers for Officer Phil, both because it's nice to see a rookie's loyalties get tested and because we got an incidental minority. Yay for blind casting.

3. However, the writers are still lagging in developing some of the other characters. Arlo is still useless. Please make him stop. Also, I'd be interested in finding out why Farad is so willing to take out his brother other than just regime change. It's still his brother. What is their history that he's so willing to betray a brother that clearly loves and trusts him? I need to know these things if I'm supposed to care, because an action story is only as good as its villains, after all.

4. Also, the writers are totally mishandling with Dana's backstory.

The thing that pisses me off is, I actually *like* Dana the agent. In my rewatch, I can see why she and Cole work, both as a couple and as field ops/analyst team. They always gravitate toward each other, they bounce ideas off each other and consider new points of view, and you know, she was right that Reed was withholding something. It just wasn't what she thought, and I chalk up her not seeing the frame up job to the fact that Chloe has more experience in the field. And if that threat had been real, well, she certainly handled it correctly and efficiently. I'd really like to see how she'd perform if she was supporting Jack with Chloe. (Also, she worked the tattoos lead and was the one who brought in Renee, so I can't hate on her skills.)

HOWEVER, the stupid backstory they're giving us is a) dragging, b) irrelevant to the plot and c) too soon for her to be carrying a storyline all by herself. It's not even that they're making her act like an idiot around her Redneck Past, because I was expecting that and it's okay to flaw her up a bit. But I think it reeks of laziness on the writers' part to expect us to like Dana just because she's played by Starbuck instead establishing her likability within the show first before handing her so much screentime. And to be clear, I don't blame Katee for this. She's doing the best she can with the stuff she's given, and I can't think of any actor who would refuse airtime when given it. But there's no reason why I should care about Dana's drama in the season opener, when I don't know the character yet and it's doubly hard to care when they make us wait so long for Renee, whom they KNOW we love.

On top of that, they aren't even including Cole into the mix. 24 is all about the clash between the personal and the professional, and I'm actually curious now to see what Cole's reaction will be when these things comes to light, both professionally and personally. Because like I said above, they have a good working dynamic, and I WANT to see that tested, much like the way they tested Larry and Renee last season, the way they tested Tony and Michelle in S3.

When I step back and analyze where I think they're going with this, then yes, this backstory has potential to bring about some interesting repercussions on how Cole and Dana interact in their support of Jack, Renee, and Chloe. And it could even tie in with themes of debt and penance for past mistakes with Dana's character. But right now, they're going about it the wrong way by isolating her too soon, and it's only serving to test my patience. Fix this writers. Now. I'd much rather have 3 awesome female characters instead of just two.

5. Thankfully, that was balanced out by the arrival of my girl, Renee. And holy shit, did she arrive with a bang. I guess "I'm not gonna cut the bracelet" is the new "I'm gonna need a hacksaw." Also, it's wrong that the overriding thought in my head as Jack was all aghast in horror at Renee chopping off some dude's thumb was OMG HOW CUTE IS HE WHEN HE'S ALL FLABBERGASTED, right? Hehe.

But wow. She's a lot darker now, and I'm not just saying that because of the heavy eyeliner. The scars, guys. And how she totally misinterpreted Jack's "this is too important" and thought that he was expressing his concern not because of her but for the mission. And how all she wants is for Jack to tell her that it's gonna be okay and that he thinks she's going to make it, like he did last season, because she's totally scared that she's not in the clear yet and she needs to borrow faith from him.

And when he didn't give that for her, she got pissed off because she doesn't want it to be true. She just wants to be better, and she's out to prove it, which I can't help but think is part of why she chose such an extreme act of cutting a guy's thumb off with seemingly no remorse. It reeks of overcompensation, but it does send a very strong message that she's in it to win it, despite the flair of her dramatic walkaway. She's turned into such a woobie, guys, and my heart can barely take it. I can't wait to see where they're going to take her next.

On a final note, I'm also happy to see her back because I really do think she brought back that missing element of unpredictability that makes the show stand out from the rest. From a storyteller's POV, you need to have that wild card in the mix, and now that Jack's so happy and whole again, he doesn't serve that function anymore. She does, and I like that nice reversal of him handling her instead of her handling him [insert obligatory joke about them handling each other here]. I'm curious to see how Jack will play the sane man to Renee's lone wolf act.

All in all, much better than the first two episodes. My dream team is back, and I'm officially excited about the rest of the season, even if Monday night programming proves to be my downfall.

Comments

[anne63.livejournal.com]

i completely agree with u on them bringing renee back the way that they did. i also can't wait for monday's now . i am hoping that jack can help her through this tough part that she is going through.

[marinw.livejournal.com]

I like the President of Fakestan too. I wish they would give POTUS Taylor more to do, perhaps it will when things play out as they are fotold in one of the few spoliers I've read.

I LOVE CTNew. Very swank.

Also love Happy!Jack. He does seem a lot older all of a sudden. Is that just me?

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

WARNING: I've already talked about this so much that anything I say here is going to be both repetitive and random, but since of course I can't shut up now that Renee is back, I'll talk anyway!

First, I'm all good with both Cole and Hastings, although I did have to die laughing reading the TWOP recap of 8x04 where the guy said of Freddie Prinze, Jr. "Because here's a man who looks like he's in the market for weapons grade uranium." Yeah. I mean that was kinda silly, since he looks like the leader of a Boy Scout troop. I think Jack is probably a much more solid choice. *snerks* In any case, at least Cole and Hastings don't bore me at this point, and they don't annoy me either. Anything could clearly happen, but at the moment they're the two new people of whom I am most fond.

President Hassan has very tall hair. (But then again, Renee looks as if she hasn't shampooed in two weeks, so I can't really have hair quibbles, huh? At least Hassan washed his tall hair?) I'm really glad that he didn't sell out his silly blond gf, but holy crap can I not get myself invested at ALL in the UN plot. Honestly I feel a little fail for this, but it's the truth.

Also, word to what you said about Katee Sackhoff doing everything she can with what she's given. I don't know and love the actress the way all you BSGers do, but I need to be a lot more careful about harshing on Dana and not Katee. I am bored out of my MIND with that plot, but it's entirely not her fault. Please let them connect this shit to the rest of the show at some point. Also though, as I've said in like eight thousand other places, I think it was such a tactical mistake to withhold Renee for as long as they did, because NO we're not going to get all invested in some chick we just met five minutes ago when a fav character is nowhere to be found. Fail.

Also, it's wrong that the overriding thought in my head as Jack was all aghast in horror at Renee chopping off some dude's thumb was OMG HOW CUTE IS HE WHEN HE'S ALL FLABBERGASTED, right?

*giggles* Totally not wrong at all. I was thinking exactly the same thing. His little face! *squishes Jack*

I'll spare you any more Renee diatribes, because we all know I could yap about her until the end of time. Just thank god she's fucking back and I have rediscovered my ZOMG TOTAL FUCKING FLAIL. God I heart her so hardcore it hurts. And it's going to hurt like a mofo to watch this storyline. Meh.

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

Awesome post!

I loved seeing Renee again, and how dark she has become. I think she's become the Jack of former seasons, sort of moving on automatic pilot through her own life, until something so horrible comes along that it forces her into taking action. Only in this instance, I'm not so sure that she cares if she lives or dies, only that she succeeds. Whereas with Jack, I never felt he had a deathwish, no matter how bad things got for him.

I too was quite pleasantly surprised when Hassan owned up to the affair -- and then ended it. My feelings for his character leaped miles when that happened, and suddenly I found myself caring about what happened to him.

Dana...*sigh* I'm still suspending judgement on this storyline, but frankly I'm not feeling very optimistic about it.

But I can forgive that all for the wonderful surprise of having David Anders appear so early. For some reason I thought he wasn't going to arrive until later in the day, so when I saw his name in the credits, I let out a squee of delight that my neighbors probably heard. XD

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with everything you said :D

[cybertoothtiger.livejournal.com]

I always love the depth of analysis in your posts. As opposed to my "OMG!!!! EEEEEE!!!" reactions. Ahem. I totally agree with everything you said, especially about it being too early for Dana to have her own sub-plot. Particularly one as re-hashed as this one.

Oh, man, I loved officer Phil! He was a shining example of how throw-away characters can totally rock on this show. I kept thinking how he would go back to the precinct and do some research on Jack and think "Holy shit!" Good career move on his part to help Jack out. It was risky, because all to often local law enforcement gets killed when helping Jack, but he had no way of knowing that. ;)

I love Dark Renee mostly for where it puts Jack's character. But I'm not sure that I believe Renee was undercover with the Russian mob 6 years ago. Her character last year was too innocent for that. I'm thinking of the baby scene in particular. I'm expecting her to have to do some very dark things as part of this mission, and I'm kinda not buying that she was carrying that sort of baggage at the beginning of S7.

Also, I'm kinda doubting Jack's usefulness as an undercover operative after the Senate hearings. Surely there is a risk someone will recognize him? I do think he's a more believable choice than Cole.

Oh well. I have a handy-dandy hoist with which to suspend my disbelief because I love this storyline so much.

[century-fox.livejournal.com]

I loved Officer Phil, too! :D I have so much love for characters who have really small roles but do awesome things, hehe.

I'm not feeling the Dana Walsh storyline, either. Like you said, we don't know her character so it's hard to care about/be interested in her backstory, especially since we were all really looking forward to seeing Renee again. The writers definitely should have spent more time getting us to know Dana's character first before getting into this subplot- it's frustrating to me that they made her almost entirely about this mysterious past she wants to be kept secret. Hopefully they'll be able to come up with a good way to integrate it into the main plot, though. Until then, I'll just sing 867-5309 in my head every time her sleazy ex-boyfriend calls her Jenny :P

RENEE. Holy fuckcakes I've been flailing and keymashing ever since Monday night about 8x04. I'm SO fucking excited that she's back and I can't wait to see more of how Jack's going to try to do whatever he can to help Renee, even though, like you said, it's not his help that she wants right now- she just wants him to have faith in her abilities out in the field, and it's hard for her to deal with the fact that he doesn't think she can handle things on her own.

And how she totally misinterpreted Jack's "this is too important" and thought that he was expressing his concern not because of her but for the mission. THIS. GAHHHH I just wanted to hug her there.

[catch22girl]

I wanted to answer this about 12 hours ago but had to run to work.

1. I loved Cole after he risked his life to save Hassan! He's really grown on me although I liked him right away I now see he's more than a pretty face. I also like that his inexperience is part of the storyline. I liked that Hastings was trying to use it against him and the way that part of the plot is working out.

I agree that they did a better job on Hassan's family. I also loved when he admitted to the affair. I started shipping them right before they had to break up. Yeah, I'm easy. As far as Farad goes, I think they did a better job explaining Omar's brother betrayal's than Graem's (yeah I went there). Farad hates the West and doesn't trust them, it's not just regime change, at least that's what I think. Plus it puts him in the same category as the villains of season two, at least the ones who were afraid that Palmer was too "soft". I'm totally ready to be proved wrong.

Arlo is skirting the sexual harassment edge *way* too close - Dana should be putting him down harder. I find Dana/Jenny's ex creepy as hell. I want to know what she did, and I'm hoping that the ending involves that guy dying a slow horrible death. It doesn't bother me as much as it does a lot of other people, as I want to see where it's going. Katee's totally selling it, whatever is going on. And I really like her and Cole together, I want to see them kiss, dammit.

What you said there about Jack no longer being the wild card is so so so true. I think that's why the first few hours felt so weird because he wasn't going to do anything crazy. We have Renee for that now. I actually think the further she goes into the darkness the more Jack will follow her.

I don't think it's being better, I think it's more that she's willing to do whatever it takes. I was thinking about season seven in light of her undercover time. I think you're right what you said above, that it does work. I think of it as her seeing the Russians doing awful things to people and they're the bad guys. Except when she met Jack, he wasn't bad, he was doing it for "good reasons". Larry's whole speech about the laws and what makes them different and what she'd clung to during her undercover time suddenly isn't so clear cut.

It explains why Larry almost babysat her - and omg I loved that line last Monday "me and the babysitter." Oh she's so angry that Jack's treating her like a child, telling her she's not up for the field (would he do the same thing to a male agent? Wait, we already saw season four...). Uh also healed Jack tends to get kind of 'holier than thou' when giving advice to the ones left behind. Renee isn't his student anymore, she's not anyone's anything anymore. She's dangerous. I love it. I can't wait to see more. I look forward to her eating my brain whole.