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Jul. 21st, 2008 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
javacatThe sister financial / real estate / legal stuff continues apace and OMG WTF BBQ it might kill me. Not really. But ARgHhh in general. Fielded atty. calls today and possible good results look like they won't pan out, drat. Repacked most of the stuff she left at my house in nice new copy paper boxes and got rid of the old stinky buggy boxes. Yay copy paper boxes. Life's small pleasures.
Had a great time with a friend on Sat. bike riding (after I drove her to bike shop when she discovered both her tires were flat) swam at her condo pool (note: nice! must do again), watched DVDs of my newest tv addiction: Big Love. Sunday, repacked aforementioned boxes, gardened a lot, weeded my out of control magazine stacks, ran an errand for mom, watched more Big Love, gulped Aleve for my gardening backache.
So, yeah, I like it. A lot. Oh, and the music! David Byrne is the show's music guy. The opening segment is WONDERFUL - the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," with the 4 characters joining each other on skates on ice which then cracks (death?), then shows them wandering through veils, then finding each other, and landing on, I don't know, Planet Big Love/the afterlife, together again. It's really good and the Beach Boys! woo hoo! Plus, each show ends with a marvelous, perfectly appropriate number.
Speaking of music: Weeds has 4 seasons of music for free here: http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/music.do?source=m_weeds4_email406_july08_music
Hmm. My fave shows have good music (IMHO; YMMV) over their opening segment, except for Entourage. I hate the opening sequence song and always fast forward through it.
Had a great time with a friend on Sat. bike riding (after I drove her to bike shop when she discovered both her tires were flat) swam at her condo pool (note: nice! must do again), watched DVDs of my newest tv addiction: Big Love. Sunday, repacked aforementioned boxes, gardened a lot, weeded my out of control magazine stacks, ran an errand for mom, watched more Big Love, gulped Aleve for my gardening backache.
Full disclosure: I was involved with 2 wonderful men at the time once, and it rocked. If there had been an acceptable, viable way to keep that going, I would have loved to. If they'd wanted to, which they wouldn't have, but anyway.
Also, once while backpacking in the Emigrant Wilderness for about a week with a female friend, on the last day, we stopped at the mt. lake closest to the trailhead and went swimming. While we were lying in the meadow near the shore warming up, a flock of people hiked in and sat not terribly far away from us having lunch. The women and girls were in pioneer garb - skirts! blouses! - and the men and boys dressed pioneer-y, too, though not so different from cotton or wool outdoor gear to have been noticeable were it not for the women's clothing. I could not stop sneaking looks at them, trying to work out the relationships. There were twice as many men as women, and lots of kids. The young women seemed to me to be too old to be part of the pack of children, and too young to be mothers or wives. Everyone was keeping an eye on the little kids, with the youngest adult women being the ones who actually chased after the kids when it was needed. I wondered what they thought about us, if they did at all: two single women in bathing suits (compared to them, half-naked ); did they pity us, or condemn us, or were envious of our freedom from men and obviously possessing our own means to go backpacking (gear, transportation, leisure time); or even notice us at all? I really wanted to go over and talk to the young woman nearest to us, and ask her, but didn't. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that this was a polygamous group even though it was RIGHT THERE, having thought of it as, I don't know, just an abstract concept until then So. It was INTERESTING and adds to the relate-ability of the show's situation.
About the show. I'm fascinated by the sister-wife relationship among Barb, Niki, and Margene, and their devotion to being married each not just to Bill Hendrickson, but to each other, non-sexually in their family, kind of like co-housing with benefits. (Two of Don Embry's wives play footsie with each other during a bridge party, so there's a bisexual relationship there.) Bill Pullman is sexy and charming. In Season 2, one episode is about the different ways he relates (in both senses of the word) to each of the women; it's really interesting and shows how well he reads who they are and relates to them with different parts of his personality. Obvious, I guess, and fascinating to watch.
The portrayal of the compound is not complimentary, mostly. Niki gets across the benefit, and the loss she sometimes feels, with her line, "I gave up 100 there to have 10 here." (Chloe Sevigny is very good.) Likewise, Barb gets across the opposite, "First I had to give up 7 nights with my husband for three and half, and then I had to give that up for 2 nights; I'm not giving up any more nights!" Margene is a puppy. Ginnifer Goodwin is perhaps the most interesting actress of the 3; she has the most expressive eyes and she's very good at tracking her character's growth. Niki has more room to grow this season; she was a bit one-note in Season 1. Barb is a more one-note in Season 2 than in Season 1; she rocked in Season 1. Also? Episode 5, Season 1 between Barb and Bill? HOTT. Mary Kay Place deserves a nomination and a win as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Adaleen Grant , especially in the Season 2 episode, Reunion, which is comic gold, OMG! The curry! The pig! The bread! She's *wonderful.* Grace Zabriski is completely weird in an effective way as Bill's mother, Lois.
I know we aren't meant to like him and I sure don't: Bruce Dern's Frank Harlow, Ugh! Can't stand him, but he's good in the role. I can't stand the character or the actor playing Ben Henrickson. His eyes are blank, the character's a spineless wimpy idiot. Good riddance. I hope her gets shot or poisoned, or grows something that lives behind his flat eyes. Harry Dean Stanton is FABULOUS as Roman, as are Matt Ross as Alby and Deveigh Chase as Rhonda. (I had to look her up in wikipedia: she was the voice of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, and of Chihiro in Spirited Away, and she has a legit singing career.) Remember the chick who played murdered Lily on Veronica Mars? She's here as Barb and Bill's oldest child, Sarah, and she's very good showing how her parents' lifestyle traps her into not being able to live her life freely. Tina Majorino is here also, playing Sarah's best friend, and also very good, and very different from Mac. I'm mostly annoyed by the character Ben, Barb and Bill's son and Sarah's brother. This is very shallow: the shape of the back of his head bothers me. The portrayal of his adolescent/tyoung adult sexual life and male empowerment is just creepy, which, I guess it's supposed to be/could be very realistic. ICK. Bill Hendrickson/Bill Paxton makes it work.
I'm interested in seeing where they go with Bill's ambitious business maneuvers in Season 2. Don Embry's take on the risk/advisability is correct, methinks, so I wish they wouldn't go down this path, but the plot movement gives them room to play up a ruthless side of Bill and affords LOTS of conflict. I hope Bill stays in the suburbs and runs the new biz from his Home Plus office.
I want to see Barb go back to work, though, or back to grad school, or both.
Also, once while backpacking in the Emigrant Wilderness for about a week with a female friend, on the last day, we stopped at the mt. lake closest to the trailhead and went swimming. While we were lying in the meadow near the shore warming up, a flock of people hiked in and sat not terribly far away from us having lunch. The women and girls were in pioneer garb - skirts! blouses! - and the men and boys dressed pioneer-y, too, though not so different from cotton or wool outdoor gear to have been noticeable were it not for the women's clothing. I could not stop sneaking looks at them, trying to work out the relationships. There were twice as many men as women, and lots of kids. The young women seemed to me to be too old to be part of the pack of children, and too young to be mothers or wives. Everyone was keeping an eye on the little kids, with the youngest adult women being the ones who actually chased after the kids when it was needed. I wondered what they thought about us, if they did at all: two single women in bathing suits (compared to them, half-naked ); did they pity us, or condemn us, or were envious of our freedom from men and obviously possessing our own means to go backpacking (gear, transportation, leisure time); or even notice us at all? I really wanted to go over and talk to the young woman nearest to us, and ask her, but didn't. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that this was a polygamous group even though it was RIGHT THERE, having thought of it as, I don't know, just an abstract concept until then So. It was INTERESTING and adds to the relate-ability of the show's situation.
About the show. I'm fascinated by the sister-wife relationship among Barb, Niki, and Margene, and their devotion to being married each not just to Bill Hendrickson, but to each other, non-sexually in their family, kind of like co-housing with benefits. (Two of Don Embry's wives play footsie with each other during a bridge party, so there's a bisexual relationship there.) Bill Pullman is sexy and charming. In Season 2, one episode is about the different ways he relates (in both senses of the word) to each of the women; it's really interesting and shows how well he reads who they are and relates to them with different parts of his personality. Obvious, I guess, and fascinating to watch.
The portrayal of the compound is not complimentary, mostly. Niki gets across the benefit, and the loss she sometimes feels, with her line, "I gave up 100 there to have 10 here." (Chloe Sevigny is very good.) Likewise, Barb gets across the opposite, "First I had to give up 7 nights with my husband for three and half, and then I had to give that up for 2 nights; I'm not giving up any more nights!" Margene is a puppy. Ginnifer Goodwin is perhaps the most interesting actress of the 3; she has the most expressive eyes and she's very good at tracking her character's growth. Niki has more room to grow this season; she was a bit one-note in Season 1. Barb is a more one-note in Season 2 than in Season 1; she rocked in Season 1. Also? Episode 5, Season 1 between Barb and Bill? HOTT. Mary Kay Place deserves a nomination and a win as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Adaleen Grant , especially in the Season 2 episode, Reunion, which is comic gold, OMG! The curry! The pig! The bread! She's *wonderful.* Grace Zabriski is completely weird in an effective way as Bill's mother, Lois.
I know we aren't meant to like him and I sure don't: Bruce Dern's Frank Harlow, Ugh! Can't stand him, but he's good in the role. I can't stand the character or the actor playing Ben Henrickson. His eyes are blank, the character's a spineless wimpy idiot. Good riddance. I hope her gets shot or poisoned, or grows something that lives behind his flat eyes. Harry Dean Stanton is FABULOUS as Roman, as are Matt Ross as Alby and Deveigh Chase as Rhonda. (I had to look her up in wikipedia: she was the voice of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, and of Chihiro in Spirited Away, and she has a legit singing career.) Remember the chick who played murdered Lily on Veronica Mars? She's here as Barb and Bill's oldest child, Sarah, and she's very good showing how her parents' lifestyle traps her into not being able to live her life freely. Tina Majorino is here also, playing Sarah's best friend, and also very good, and very different from Mac. I'm mostly annoyed by the character Ben, Barb and Bill's son and Sarah's brother. This is very shallow: the shape of the back of his head bothers me. The portrayal of his adolescent/tyoung adult sexual life and male empowerment is just creepy, which, I guess it's supposed to be/could be very realistic. ICK. Bill Hendrickson/Bill Paxton makes it work.
I'm interested in seeing where they go with Bill's ambitious business maneuvers in Season 2. Don Embry's take on the risk/advisability is correct, methinks, so I wish they wouldn't go down this path, but the plot movement gives them room to play up a ruthless side of Bill and affords LOTS of conflict. I hope Bill stays in the suburbs and runs the new biz from his Home Plus office.
I want to see Barb go back to work, though, or back to grad school, or both.
So, yeah, I like it. A lot. Oh, and the music! David Byrne is the show's music guy. The opening segment is WONDERFUL - the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," with the 4 characters joining each other on skates on ice which then cracks (death?), then shows them wandering through veils, then finding each other, and landing on, I don't know, Planet Big Love/the afterlife, together again. It's really good and the Beach Boys! woo hoo! Plus, each show ends with a marvelous, perfectly appropriate number.
Speaking of music: Weeds has 4 seasons of music for free here: http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/music.do?source=m_weeds4_email406_july08_music
Hmm. My fave shows have good music (IMHO; YMMV) over their opening segment, except for Entourage. I hate the opening sequence song and always fast forward through it.