Body of Proof: "Society Hill"
Apr. 26th, 2011 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixie...Hmm. I am unsure exactly how to feel about this episode. There were little germs of things that could've been really great, but they never really developed them. (Much like the show as a whole has been going so far. Dear ABC: Please renew this show and replace all the writers with better ones!)
But before any of that, allow me to SQUEE HEARTILY for a moment over how very well this show is playing to my narrative kinks. Ahahahaha, I loved how NO ONE at the party believed that Megan and Peter were just colleagues. No one! Not even her mom! Well, I guess she probably figured it out when Megan ambushed the old dude. Still. In my headcanon, a large chunk of their dinner conversation at the end rested on how Megan should really start dating again, and Peter is very attractive, and obviously they share some common interests if they work together and really, how about it?
And then he asked her out!
...Okay, even I can't quite convince myself that "out to a bar with almost the entire cast" is a date, per se, but awwww, he "just want[s] to hang out with [her]"! He wants to be her friend! Because that doesn't line up very neatly with a plot thread or anything, oh, no.
Speaking of that scene, what the hell was she about to do to his face before she stopped herself? I can't decide if it looked more like she was going to kiss him or pinch his cheeks. Either way, it was pretty adorable.
Circling back to the party before I move on to the rest of the episode, I'm kind of in love with the way Megan was totally okay with letting everyone assume she and Peter were together. I've never heard "colleague" sound so much like a very different word. And poor Peter was kind of like, "Do I play along? Will I find a scalpel in a very unpleasant place if I do? ...Is there some possibility that I would enjoy that? Um. Can we just talk to the suspect now, please?" Awwwww.
Anyway. The rest of the episode, which was significantly less squeeful. The ham-handed attempts at feminism were eye-roll inducing. Show, seriously, almost half your cast is made up of very cool women who are smart and professional and In Charge, and one of them is already getting basically all the character development. I promise, you were doing okay on this front. Unfortunately, the plot of this one kind of blew it. Either have the guts to make a statement about how women in power are viewed or don't, but don't give us a simple mystery where every single suspect's motive was basically, "she's a pain in the ass," and, "I wanted to win that writing contest," and then shoehorn in some Grrrl Power rhetoric and expect us to think you're really progressive for it.
That was dropped ball the first. Dropped ball the second was Megan and her mother. I know Megan's mom is coming back in future episodes, so we might not be done with this plotline, but there were interesting things that could've been developed. Why does Megan resent her privileged childhood?* (If she does, why does she still dress like she's a part of it?) If her mother really did ignore her after her accident because Megan's loss of standing embarrassed her (and we only really have Megan's side on that, so maybe she did, maybe she didn't), that is fascinating, and needs to be delved into. And how much did her social status as a neurosurgeon matter to Megan, anyway? Obviously she was embarrassed to be thought of as a mortician.
This could, possibly, have been dealt with in the "truce" dinner at the end, but we got absolutely no dialogue for it. Instead, the time was used to have Megan walk to the restaurant with the song of the week playing in the background. Writers, pleeeeeease don't get into the habit of letting the Random Annoying Pop Songs you end each episode with speak for you, because largely they have nothing to do with the show. Honestly, between this and the ones that end practically every episode of Castle, I wonder if ABC has some kind of ownership in a music label, and has someone from that end chose a song to stick at the end of each episode of every scripted show the network runs, whether it fits the show or not. Much as I do in fact like Ingrid Michaelson, she does not need to be on the soundtrack to this show, dear god.
Still, I want to know more about whether in fact everyone dropped Megan after her accident, or if she was just so depressed and angry that she cut everyone off. Probably it was a combination of both. I sort of doubt that she's never had friends, as her mother accuses her of; I think, rather, her mother hasn't known her well enough to know her friends.
One more bad thing, then I'll get to the good: Kate's personal life. I am totally spoiled for exactly what's going on there, and I am SO NOT HAPPY. OH MY GOD. I THINK THIS SHOW IS RUN BY MORONS. On the other hand, Kate was sort of cute with her little secrets.
So. Good stuff! I cringed when Megan started accompanying Bud to the magazine office (show, please just give us some kind of handwavey acknowledgment of the fact that this is so out of line for a regular medical examiner. Say she has some kind of special dispensation from someone higher up in the chain of command. I beg you); however, I liked that the rest of the investigation focused on reasonably medical-ish stuff, like the amber flecks in the businessman's eyes and those of his son.
I missed Sam, but I liked Bud better than usual this time around. It's nice that he's thawed a bit towards Megan (I guess it helps that she sewed up his jacket--although I think the original filming order, that hasn't happened yet). The, "Promise me when you tell him that, it'll make sense," was funny, and I liked them bonding-through-bitching over the difficulty of pinpointing time and cause of death. Her barging into the interview room and Bud turning to the one-way mirror to give Peter the fisheye for not stopping her was pretty hilarious too.
Kate has a specialty! And it's bones, teeth, and hair. Very interesting. I like when she gets involved in the cases rather than spending her day administrating. And Curtis's specialty is bugs. Awww. His song was cute for about five seconds, then it became about as annoying to me as it was to Ethan.
I question whether the quartet of Bud, Peter, Ethan, and Curtis would be so thrilled at hanging out together (does Bud even KNOW Ethan and Curtis?), but whatever, that was pretty amusing. Perhaps one day we will get a scene with all of them and the girls at the bar!
* Peter was obviously very uncomfortable at the party. Presumably his background is nothing like Megan's. Potential conflict? Potential storyline for the future? Heh, they really are a gender-reversed Beckett and Castle. Who were themselves a gender-reversed Booth and Brennan. Oh, TV-land, such a shallow well of creativity you draw from.
But before any of that, allow me to SQUEE HEARTILY for a moment over how very well this show is playing to my narrative kinks. Ahahahaha, I loved how NO ONE at the party believed that Megan and Peter were just colleagues. No one! Not even her mom! Well, I guess she probably figured it out when Megan ambushed the old dude. Still. In my headcanon, a large chunk of their dinner conversation at the end rested on how Megan should really start dating again, and Peter is very attractive, and obviously they share some common interests if they work together and really, how about it?
And then he asked her out!
...Okay, even I can't quite convince myself that "out to a bar with almost the entire cast" is a date, per se, but awwww, he "just want[s] to hang out with [her]"! He wants to be her friend! Because that doesn't line up very neatly with a plot thread or anything, oh, no.
Speaking of that scene, what the hell was she about to do to his face before she stopped herself? I can't decide if it looked more like she was going to kiss him or pinch his cheeks. Either way, it was pretty adorable.
Circling back to the party before I move on to the rest of the episode, I'm kind of in love with the way Megan was totally okay with letting everyone assume she and Peter were together. I've never heard "colleague" sound so much like a very different word. And poor Peter was kind of like, "Do I play along? Will I find a scalpel in a very unpleasant place if I do? ...Is there some possibility that I would enjoy that? Um. Can we just talk to the suspect now, please?" Awwwww.
Anyway. The rest of the episode, which was significantly less squeeful. The ham-handed attempts at feminism were eye-roll inducing. Show, seriously, almost half your cast is made up of very cool women who are smart and professional and In Charge, and one of them is already getting basically all the character development. I promise, you were doing okay on this front. Unfortunately, the plot of this one kind of blew it. Either have the guts to make a statement about how women in power are viewed or don't, but don't give us a simple mystery where every single suspect's motive was basically, "she's a pain in the ass," and, "I wanted to win that writing contest," and then shoehorn in some Grrrl Power rhetoric and expect us to think you're really progressive for it.
That was dropped ball the first. Dropped ball the second was Megan and her mother. I know Megan's mom is coming back in future episodes, so we might not be done with this plotline, but there were interesting things that could've been developed. Why does Megan resent her privileged childhood?* (If she does, why does she still dress like she's a part of it?) If her mother really did ignore her after her accident because Megan's loss of standing embarrassed her (and we only really have Megan's side on that, so maybe she did, maybe she didn't), that is fascinating, and needs to be delved into. And how much did her social status as a neurosurgeon matter to Megan, anyway? Obviously she was embarrassed to be thought of as a mortician.
This could, possibly, have been dealt with in the "truce" dinner at the end, but we got absolutely no dialogue for it. Instead, the time was used to have Megan walk to the restaurant with the song of the week playing in the background. Writers, pleeeeeease don't get into the habit of letting the Random Annoying Pop Songs you end each episode with speak for you, because largely they have nothing to do with the show. Honestly, between this and the ones that end practically every episode of Castle, I wonder if ABC has some kind of ownership in a music label, and has someone from that end chose a song to stick at the end of each episode of every scripted show the network runs, whether it fits the show or not. Much as I do in fact like Ingrid Michaelson, she does not need to be on the soundtrack to this show, dear god.
Still, I want to know more about whether in fact everyone dropped Megan after her accident, or if she was just so depressed and angry that she cut everyone off. Probably it was a combination of both. I sort of doubt that she's never had friends, as her mother accuses her of; I think, rather, her mother hasn't known her well enough to know her friends.
One more bad thing, then I'll get to the good: Kate's personal life. I am totally spoiled for exactly what's going on there, and I am SO NOT HAPPY. OH MY GOD. I THINK THIS SHOW IS RUN BY MORONS. On the other hand, Kate was sort of cute with her little secrets.
So. Good stuff! I cringed when Megan started accompanying Bud to the magazine office (show, please just give us some kind of handwavey acknowledgment of the fact that this is so out of line for a regular medical examiner. Say she has some kind of special dispensation from someone higher up in the chain of command. I beg you); however, I liked that the rest of the investigation focused on reasonably medical-ish stuff, like the amber flecks in the businessman's eyes and those of his son.
I missed Sam, but I liked Bud better than usual this time around. It's nice that he's thawed a bit towards Megan (I guess it helps that she sewed up his jacket--although I think the original filming order, that hasn't happened yet). The, "Promise me when you tell him that, it'll make sense," was funny, and I liked them bonding-through-bitching over the difficulty of pinpointing time and cause of death. Her barging into the interview room and Bud turning to the one-way mirror to give Peter the fisheye for not stopping her was pretty hilarious too.
Kate has a specialty! And it's bones, teeth, and hair. Very interesting. I like when she gets involved in the cases rather than spending her day administrating. And Curtis's specialty is bugs. Awww. His song was cute for about five seconds, then it became about as annoying to me as it was to Ethan.
I question whether the quartet of Bud, Peter, Ethan, and Curtis would be so thrilled at hanging out together (does Bud even KNOW Ethan and Curtis?), but whatever, that was pretty amusing. Perhaps one day we will get a scene with all of them and the girls at the bar!
* Peter was obviously very uncomfortable at the party. Presumably his background is nothing like Megan's. Potential conflict? Potential storyline for the future? Heh, they really are a gender-reversed Beckett and Castle. Who were themselves a gender-reversed Booth and Brennan. Oh, TV-land, such a shallow well of creativity you draw from.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 07:06 pm (UTC)Bwahahahahaha! "Megan, I'm a surgeon too, and I promise I will cut your fingers off if you try to pinch my cheeks again."
Flash! That's another thing! "You can see in this photo that the suspect has glowing red eyes! And here is a photo of another person-of-interest, who COINCIDENTALLY also has glowing red eyes??? THEY ARE TOTALLY RELATED."
But...but...but... OKAY, FINE, IT WAS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE. (Although I must point out that my new camera is decent at avoiding red-eye. But Megan's camera was a tiny little point and shoot that's probably bad at it.)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 04:43 am (UTC)"I'm sorry to say, Megan, but this paresthesia thing is FINGER KARMA."
But Megan's camera was a tiny little point and shoot that's probably bad at it.
SHUT UP IT'S TOTALLY A SPECIAL-ISSUE MEDICAL EXAMINER HIGH-TECH RECORDER DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR STALKING SUSPECTS AND THEIR EYEBALLS DON'T CRITICIIIIIIIIIIZE.
(Oh no, I have no alcohol in my apartment this week! However will I watch tv??)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-03 10:03 pm (UTC)"God has done this to show you the ERROR OF YOUR WAYS."
Oh no, I have no alcohol in my apartment this week! However will I watch tv??
Oh noes! Quick, make a run for the vodka! Um, FYI, you'll need it for Castle. And I'm sure for this show too.