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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2011-04-27 06:16 am (UTC)I thought of you throughout because Peter and Megan was adorable, although I really think Megan was just using him at the party and letting people assume he was a COLLEAGUE-WINK-WINK so they wouldn't ask her about her husband / mention their second cousin who's really quite nice once you get to know him and could use a lovely woman like you. ETC. Megan is kind of selfish, you must admit, and she doesn't really think about how things might come across, so I can totally see Peter getting a little sucked in by all this and then asking her to hang out and I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGGGGS about this pairing and how I want to like them and am almost there but not quite. (PETER/KATE? CAN I HAVE THAT SINCE MEGAN/MEGAN IS KIND OF HER OWN OTP? I COULD GO WITH THAT.)
I LOVE SO FUCKING HARD THAT THEY ALL GO HANG OUT TOGETHER. LOLZ. And the way Peter asks her it's like they all do it all the time, and I'm just giddy at the idea of Kate hanging out with the lab rats. And Bud! Presumably if they all hang out together every now and again (it totally sounded like a regular thing which gives me ENDLESS JOY, haha, even though it makes no sense that Ethan would be so terrified of Kate if they all party together). And when they hang out, Kate and Sam probably sit back and watch everybody and smirk to each other about their shared superiority.
BUD <3. I like the way he squabbles with Megan. It's got a kids-at-the-playground feeling which I enjoy.
UGH KAAAATE WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE WHEN YOU'RE FORWARDING A MORONIC PLOTLINE. BECAUSE SHE WAS SO CUTE, SHE ALMOST SOLD ME ON IT. Uhhnnnnggg. Let's pretend this is a different guy and she just sleeps around a lot, so we can appreciate the cute without wanting the world to end. Also, my imaginary headship between Kate and the Mayor got more complicated when the Mayor got A WIFE in an offhanded comment.
I have to love Megan's mom, because she's Joanna Cassidy, and because she's so perfect as the woman who would have created Megan, you know? And it suddenly makes a lot more sense why Megan can't figure out how to relate to Lacey. I really don't know if Megan's fall from grace embarrassed her mom, because I think Megan probably projected her own embarrassment onto everyone around her.
And can I get a big hearty WHAAAAAAT for next week's previews? JESUS this show is fishing in shallow plot waters. Is it a television LAW that Megan has to have an even more tragical past where her father died under mysterious circumstances and that's why she cares about dead people and the truth?? I mean, it's not like she chose this profession as her first choice.
Maybe I should just stop watching TV after the pilot and imagine the rest of the episodes in my head. >_<
ILU FOR PROBABLY UNDERSTANDING 90% OF WHAT I JUST BABBLED.
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Date: 2011-05-01 01:43 am (UTC)IMMINENT CHEEK-PINCHING. (And perhaps another clue of How Megan Is Not Good At Maternal.)
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.
Yeah, Making A Point about how Powerful Women =/= Bitches is one thing, but trying to make that point about a victim of the week that you aren't really putting any effort into making sympathetic... no.
Why does Megan resent her privileged childhood?* (If she does, why does she still dress like she's a part of it?)
And why does she attempt to buy her own child $1100 pumpkin-tutu bags? WHYYYYYYY???
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.
Maybe peddling music at the audience is the only revenue that's keeping scripted tv afloat? Noooooooooooooooo every network is now the CW noooooooooo!!!
(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)
STOP IT WITH YOUR CRAZY DREAMS!
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.
Um, I questioned how a surprise snapshot of a moving target resulted in a) enough detail to pick out eye flecks, and b) not a giant blur altogether. Wait, wait, MORE VODKA, STAT!
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