icepixie | "Do you find me attractive?" (Reply)

So. Season Three(/Four) of Due South! (N.B. I'm just gonna call it the third season from now on. You know what I mean. All 26 episodes.)

First of all: Thatcher's new hair is tres awful. Every time I see her, it hits me how much better the longer, darker hair was on her. At least when it grows out a bit towards the end of the season it's not as heartstoppingly terrible as it is at the beginning. Ugh.

Second of all: Why did no one tell me RayK does ballroom? How did I not know this? Seriously, how did I not know this? That is awesome. And CKR and whoever plays Stella were doing a pretty good American Rumba in her apartment and on her balcony. I am impressed.

Third of all...oh, screw it. Bullet points from now on.

So, this season has introduced Cracktastic Dream Sequences With Weird Lighting. Ooookay.
Fraser seems...hmm. Different, inconsistent, weird, wrong? It's like he's acting the way he does around his father's ghost and Dief around everyone now. The innocence and from-another-centuryness feel kind of forced now, as if they're part of the facade he often wears (and I think much of his cluelessness in previous seasons was a facade) instead of stemming from his real personality. The version of the "it only takes a second to be courteous" scene with RayK didn't have the same ring as it did in the pilot.

Perhaps a lot more time elapsed between seasons than they indicated. I don't remember thinking this when I was watching a few episodes from later in the season, so perhaps it's just difficulties getitng back into the swing of things after a year off from everyone.
Speaking of vacations and hiatuses...ohhhh man. RayV's phone call was painful. Poor Ray. Poor Fraser. Ow.
Aside from that, "Burning Down the House" didn't do a whole lot for me. Undoubtedly if I didn't know all about the RayK-as-RayV thing, I would think differently. It wasn't a bad ep, it was just that much of the confusion wasn't confusing to me. Did like Fraser's window putty sandwich, though. (Although that's what I mean about the new Fraser. Old Fraser wouldn't have just taken Sven's sandwich; he would've asked permission, and gotten it by giving a complicated explanation of what was going on. Although perhaps he was a wee bit jealous of Sven, which leads me to my next point...)
Okay, one other thing I really liked about the episode was when Fraser mentioned to Thatcher that the green curtains "would go nicely with the woodwork, the wallpaper, and your eyes." Yeah, I'm a shameless Fraser/Thatcher fan in a fandom that's all about the slash. They're just...they're so cute! I can't help myself! (Now if only there were more than five or six good fics about them!)
Seriously, how did I not know RayK did ballroom? That is awesome. I think I might love him now. I previously had no opinion on the guy, having seen so few episodes with him in it, but dude. Awesome.
I love Ray and Stella. Not in a shipper sort of way, but in kind of a schadenfreude way. They are so beautifully screwed up. Well, Ray more than Stella, but still. Loved "Strange Bedfellows."
What was the point of "Eclipse," aside from Ray backstory? It seemed overly anvillicious ("Our relationship was based on a lie!"--although I did enjoy Fraser poking holes in the melodrama--and "You made me what I am today, even if you don't remember me!") and had a been-there-done-that quality to it. But I had multiple interruptions while trying to watch the thing, so maybe my judgement of it is impaired.
I'm guessing "I Coulda Been a Defendant" is a reference to something before my time or out of my usual interests. Maybe if I'd known what it was, I would've liked the episode more.
Did enjoy Elaine graduating. Sad we won't see her again, though. I liked her, and I have a feeling that while they're funny now, Frannie's malapropisms are going to get old pretty soon. (I keep wanting to call her Ramona, even though I know that's the actress's name, not the character's.)
Finally: so. Subtext, much? Whoa. Hee.