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Repetition in Life on Mars (plus general squeeing of course)
So, the new series of LoM started this evening - I watched the second ep as well when it was shown on BBC4 - and I noticed something that struck me as interesting. Because I'm a dork, and all that. Also, I must remember to ask my brother if he noticed too, because he does take note of that sort of stuff - that's part of what his degree is all about. Or perhaps this is only the kind of thing you'll spot if you're an obsessive fan who has watched the first season seventy billion times, and spent hours looking at screencaps and making icons, etc etc etc.
Anyway, my point is, I think lots of people commented last year that they seem to have a very specific way of framing shots on the show. But from watching just the first episode of the second season, it seemed to me that they're not only framing shots the same way as last year... they're using the exact same set-ups. If you took a screencap, you couldn't tell it from certain season 1 screencaps. The actors are dressed the same, posed in the same way, standing or sitting in the same way in relation to one another. It's downright spooky! And then there are verbal repetitions from season 1 as well. When Sam is talking to Eve in 2x01, he finds himself repeating Gene's line of "I'd never fit up anyone who didn't deserve it" from 1x02, and then in the trailer/ep 2x02, Gene repeats his "You are surrounded by armed bastards!" line from 1x03. Also, within the episode Sam repeated the words that the mental patient had said to him about having visions. I'll have to listen out and see if it's a trend that continues!
I do wonder if this is a really sneaky way of harking back to Sam's original idea right back in the first episode that he should walk out of the police station and just keep going until his brain stopped being able to make up new details. Because it threw me while I was watching 2x01 - gave me just the tiniest moments of "hang on here, which episode am I watching?!" - and it was reinforced all the more in 2x02 when the visual repetitions from the first season seemed to continue. Another subliminal way of questioning the reality of the 1973-verse, perhaps? So, definitely something I'm going to watch out for over the rest of this season. And try not to be too freaked out by, because, woah stoppitnow, dizzy! ;-)
Huh, check that out... did I actually make some meta observations that I got around to typing up and posting? I think I might have done!
***
And now that I'm done with the somewhat serious thoughts.... OMG LIFE ON MARS OMG OMG OMG SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!11111111111111 ad infinitum. Oh, damn, that was good. Marc Warren, you delightfully slashy man, I love you, pls come again with your weird UST with Sam. Gene/Sam 4evah, but that was hot. Um... what was I going to say? I think I'll have to be completely out of order, since watching the second ep as well has mixed my thoughts right up.
So, I loved loved loved the Sam's-a-nutter reveal /admission at the end... nicely tense, especially after having seen the grim way mental patients were treated back then. Ouch. But then, like Tony Crane said, they all already knew he wasn't right in the head. And that is, after all, indisputable: whatever really is going on (hah, unless there's the other option that I've only just thought of but that I'm sure has come up: that he's a brainwashed 'sleeper' (although why he would be, I have no idea, but there's that mysterious phone call now) ... and even that applies), all is not right in poor Sammy's brainbox. But he's managing to be mostly functional and a good copper along with it, so wheeee, of course Gene and the team stick by him. Despite his extreme cracked-in-the-head-ness, he's one of them. :-) "Our team." ♥♥♥
Gene's mentor and boss, the Chief Superintendent... I liked him muchly. And yum, he has one of those voices that just sound like really good hot chocolate with thick fresh whipped cream. I also liked his appreciation of Sam's sarcasm over the joy of working with / for Gene. Hee! Yes Sam, you wake up singing with joy every morning because you work for Gene... except for the mornings he's just woken you by kicking your door in. (Does he not have his own key by now? Would that not be simpler and cheaper?) Speaking of mornings, did Gene say towards the end that Sam looked no worse than he did "every Sunday morning"? Because I'm pretty sure he did, and I squeed accordingly. Mwahahahah!!
Hmm, what else? Gene and Sam quoting each other was fabulous - Sam with the line about not fitting anyone up who didn't deserve it was especially cute when he realised half way through exactly what he was saying and where he'd heard it before. Although Gene "I can't believe I just said that!" after he'd declared they weren't bringing Crane (?) in for questioning because they didn't have any evidence was also great. Rubbing off each other, are we? (Double entendre completely intentional) And... well, pretty much every other second that Gene and Sam spent on-screen together made me happy. Them fighting the goons together (double punch!) was great, but the helping each other up and away afterwards, especially Gene's concern when Sam collapsed outside the building where Crane was going to have them chucked off the roof... *g*
I won't comment on Sam's visions / dreams, because I have no fecking clue. Although I do think that we might come back to the "having visions" thing, because Nelson had said that Sam needed to look to the people around him... which I thought meant he was supposed to go and talk to the mental patient guy. Which he didn't. Or maybe I just completely read that wrong.
Anyway, just like last year, it really managed to hold my attention the entire way through with the absolute perfect mix of drama and action and wtf and slash, mwahah! Perfect for me, anyhow. When Sam was going off on one deciding to bust into Crane's club without a warrant or even telling Gene, it gave me just a little bit of stomach-clenchy tension (and the Guv is there anyway to back him up, yay!), as it did at the end when Sam told them all that he's from the future. Also, despite my Sam/Gene shipping, I loved the Sam/Annie interaction in this ep, and I think she's going to make a kickass "WDC".
Yup, this show pretty much fills my little heart with fannish joy, both on the character love and shipper level. It's all good as far as I'm concerned.
I may have more to say when I can watch it again. Happily, I've had a call from the aerial man about coming to fit the TV point, so hopefully by next week, I'll be able to video it to watch again at my leisure. Don't ask me why I can just about get the telly tuned in but not the video, but I'm just thankful I've got that much since I had no signal at all to start with. It's taken much dragging around of the telly, addition of extension leads, and precarious balancing of the booster aerial to get this much. But anyway. Shutting up now!
(Why yes, I am listening to my unofficial complete LoM S1 music soundtrack. Wheeeee!)
Anyway, my point is, I think lots of people commented last year that they seem to have a very specific way of framing shots on the show. But from watching just the first episode of the second season, it seemed to me that they're not only framing shots the same way as last year... they're using the exact same set-ups. If you took a screencap, you couldn't tell it from certain season 1 screencaps. The actors are dressed the same, posed in the same way, standing or sitting in the same way in relation to one another. It's downright spooky! And then there are verbal repetitions from season 1 as well. When Sam is talking to Eve in 2x01, he finds himself repeating Gene's line of "I'd never fit up anyone who didn't deserve it" from 1x02, and then in the trailer/ep 2x02, Gene repeats his "You are surrounded by armed bastards!" line from 1x03. Also, within the episode Sam repeated the words that the mental patient had said to him about having visions. I'll have to listen out and see if it's a trend that continues!
I do wonder if this is a really sneaky way of harking back to Sam's original idea right back in the first episode that he should walk out of the police station and just keep going until his brain stopped being able to make up new details. Because it threw me while I was watching 2x01 - gave me just the tiniest moments of "hang on here, which episode am I watching?!" - and it was reinforced all the more in 2x02 when the visual repetitions from the first season seemed to continue. Another subliminal way of questioning the reality of the 1973-verse, perhaps? So, definitely something I'm going to watch out for over the rest of this season. And try not to be too freaked out by, because, woah stoppitnow, dizzy! ;-)
Huh, check that out... did I actually make some meta observations that I got around to typing up and posting? I think I might have done!
***
And now that I'm done with the somewhat serious thoughts.... OMG LIFE ON MARS OMG OMG OMG SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!11111111111111 ad infinitum. Oh, damn, that was good. Marc Warren, you delightfully slashy man, I love you, pls come again with your weird UST with Sam. Gene/Sam 4evah, but that was hot. Um... what was I going to say? I think I'll have to be completely out of order, since watching the second ep as well has mixed my thoughts right up.
So, I loved loved loved the Sam's-a-nutter reveal /admission at the end... nicely tense, especially after having seen the grim way mental patients were treated back then. Ouch. But then, like Tony Crane said, they all already knew he wasn't right in the head. And that is, after all, indisputable: whatever really is going on (hah, unless there's the other option that I've only just thought of but that I'm sure has come up: that he's a brainwashed 'sleeper' (although why he would be, I have no idea, but there's that mysterious phone call now) ... and even that applies), all is not right in poor Sammy's brainbox. But he's managing to be mostly functional and a good copper along with it, so wheeee, of course Gene and the team stick by him. Despite his extreme cracked-in-the-head-ness, he's one of them. :-) "Our team." ♥♥♥
Gene's mentor and boss, the Chief Superintendent... I liked him muchly. And yum, he has one of those voices that just sound like really good hot chocolate with thick fresh whipped cream. I also liked his appreciation of Sam's sarcasm over the joy of working with / for Gene. Hee! Yes Sam, you wake up singing with joy every morning because you work for Gene... except for the mornings he's just woken you by kicking your door in. (Does he not have his own key by now? Would that not be simpler and cheaper?) Speaking of mornings, did Gene say towards the end that Sam looked no worse than he did "every Sunday morning"? Because I'm pretty sure he did, and I squeed accordingly. Mwahahahah!!
Hmm, what else? Gene and Sam quoting each other was fabulous - Sam with the line about not fitting anyone up who didn't deserve it was especially cute when he realised half way through exactly what he was saying and where he'd heard it before. Although Gene "I can't believe I just said that!" after he'd declared they weren't bringing Crane (?) in for questioning because they didn't have any evidence was also great. Rubbing off each other, are we? (Double entendre completely intentional) And... well, pretty much every other second that Gene and Sam spent on-screen together made me happy. Them fighting the goons together (double punch!) was great, but the helping each other up and away afterwards, especially Gene's concern when Sam collapsed outside the building where Crane was going to have them chucked off the roof... *g*
I won't comment on Sam's visions / dreams, because I have no fecking clue. Although I do think that we might come back to the "having visions" thing, because Nelson had said that Sam needed to look to the people around him... which I thought meant he was supposed to go and talk to the mental patient guy. Which he didn't. Or maybe I just completely read that wrong.
Anyway, just like last year, it really managed to hold my attention the entire way through with the absolute perfect mix of drama and action and wtf and slash, mwahah! Perfect for me, anyhow. When Sam was going off on one deciding to bust into Crane's club without a warrant or even telling Gene, it gave me just a little bit of stomach-clenchy tension (and the Guv is there anyway to back him up, yay!), as it did at the end when Sam told them all that he's from the future. Also, despite my Sam/Gene shipping, I loved the Sam/Annie interaction in this ep, and I think she's going to make a kickass "WDC".
Yup, this show pretty much fills my little heart with fannish joy, both on the character love and shipper level. It's all good as far as I'm concerned.
I may have more to say when I can watch it again. Happily, I've had a call from the aerial man about coming to fit the TV point, so hopefully by next week, I'll be able to video it to watch again at my leisure. Don't ask me why I can just about get the telly tuned in but not the video, but I'm just thankful I've got that much since I had no signal at all to start with. It's taken much dragging around of the telly, addition of extension leads, and precarious balancing of the booster aerial to get this much. But anyway. Shutting up now!
(Why yes, I am listening to my unofficial complete LoM S1 music soundtrack. Wheeeee!)
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I was wondering, do you still want to read my fanfic? Would you still like a rough outline/introduction? :-)
And Gene truely is awesome, don't you think?
Actually I'd like to punch him in the face every now and then,but he has his moments and he sort of growing on me :-) A lot of characters have to grow on me first, and often it's a very slow process...*lol* It took me four seasons until I got to like Rygel on Farscape :-)
Annie is lovely too - can't help you with who she might remind you of, mind you.
I've figued it out - she reminds me of Carol from Growing Pains, which was my fave show when I was younger, hehe. Oh yes, Phyllis is great. Actually - I'm in the process of writing a children's sci-fi novel and one of my main characters is called Phyllis O_O
And yet I adore it beyond everything else because it has a scene in it that was incredibly similar to a scene I'd written in a fanfic I was doing at the time
That happened to me with SPN - I wrote a post-seaso finale fanfic and then the first episode of the next season had a very similar scene O_O
Oh, I also really oved the Manchester United/Manchester City episode. I live in an area not unlike the Manchester one, and football is a big issue over here, too. Now, the fans don't actually hate each other but yes, you tend to get funny looks when you state which team you support in the wrong company *laughs*