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revdorothyl at 05:34pm on 12/04/2010
revdorothyl at 05:34pm on 12/04/2010I've been recording the episodes of Paul Gross' addictive series "Slings & Arrows" on Friday nights, ever since I found out that the "Ovation" channel was running them (for anyone who gets this channel and is interested, I see they're starting to show a season 1 episode every weekday, with opportunities to view it at something like 11AM and 3PM Central Time, starting with "Oliver's Dream" today).
So, over the weekend (when not working in the garden, etc.) I finally took the time to sit down and watch the first two seasons (12 episodes) pretty much straight through. I've only got the first two episodes of the 3rd "King Lear" season recorded so far, and I hate having to wait, so I won't re-watch those episodes until I can see the full set of six altogether, if I want to.
And what struck me most from watching those first 12 episodes pretty much back-to-back over the course of three days (besides the talent of Paul Gross, of course, which is a given)? It's the almost-redemption of Richard, the business administrator (I say 'almost' because, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
missmurchison and her offspring, I've seen how season 3 ends for him). At the very end of season one, he finally 'gets it' while watching "Hamlet" from back-stage, and by the end of season 2 I honestly rejoiced with him that his head didn't end up on the chopping block, after all (the con-man's totally offensive ad campaign did attract a youthful audience in droves, at the eleventh hour). But then . . . he's going to sell his almost-restored soul and birthright of humanity by the end of season 3 for the ego-stroking of musical theater and a mess of not-very-nourishing pottage.
I guess it always saddens me when there's that "missed it by that much!" moment in any character's development, and the slight gloom of wasted potential or wrong choices.
It almost reminds me of my disappointment when Gul Dukat (who almost seemed to be on a redemption arc, for a while there on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") returned to the 'Dark Side' -- if he ever truly left it -- and then went completely EVOL (and functionally insane, quite a bit of the time) in seasons 6 and 7. Yes, I know Gul Dukat was the butchering mass-murderer of the Bajoran occupation, but there were a few episodes involving his half-Bajoran daughter which seemed to suggest he might become the Cardassian equivalent of "a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth" (Spike's description of Angel in AtS 1.3).
And I was a Kira/Odo 'shipper from pretty early on, so it wasn't Dukat's 'interest' in Kira which made me hope he might actually become a decent person.
Although . . . I could argue that Damar was actually Dukat's other side, split off and projected onto a semi-separate character, and that therefore Damar's 'redemption' at the end of season 7, while Dukat himself was working towards the destruction of all life in the universe, could be read as an 'AU' ending for Dukat. But never mind!)
Oh, well . . . .
I keep hoping that "redemption is for everybody" -- but a lot of RL people and fictional characters make that a very tough case to argue!
[I'm off to the fitness center, now that I've waited long enough for everybody else to have vacated it -- still not ready to exercise with a crowd, yet!]
So, over the weekend (when not working in the garden, etc.) I finally took the time to sit down and watch the first two seasons (12 episodes) pretty much straight through. I've only got the first two episodes of the 3rd "King Lear" season recorded so far, and I hate having to wait, so I won't re-watch those episodes until I can see the full set of six altogether, if I want to.
And what struck me most from watching those first 12 episodes pretty much back-to-back over the course of three days (besides the talent of Paul Gross, of course, which is a given)? It's the almost-redemption of Richard, the business administrator (I say 'almost' because, thanks to
missmurchison and her offspring, I've seen how season 3 ends for him). At the very end of season one, he finally 'gets it' while watching "Hamlet" from back-stage, and by the end of season 2 I honestly rejoiced with him that his head didn't end up on the chopping block, after all (the con-man's totally offensive ad campaign did attract a youthful audience in droves, at the eleventh hour). But then . . . he's going to sell his almost-restored soul and birthright of humanity by the end of season 3 for the ego-stroking of musical theater and a mess of not-very-nourishing pottage.I guess it always saddens me when there's that "missed it by that much!" moment in any character's development, and the slight gloom of wasted potential or wrong choices.
It almost reminds me of my disappointment when Gul Dukat (who almost seemed to be on a redemption arc, for a while there on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") returned to the 'Dark Side' -- if he ever truly left it -- and then went completely EVOL (and functionally insane, quite a bit of the time) in seasons 6 and 7. Yes, I know Gul Dukat was the butchering mass-murderer of the Bajoran occupation, but there were a few episodes involving his half-Bajoran daughter which seemed to suggest he might become the Cardassian equivalent of "a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth" (Spike's description of Angel in AtS 1.3).
And I was a Kira/Odo 'shipper from pretty early on, so it wasn't Dukat's 'interest' in Kira which made me hope he might actually become a decent person.
Although . . . I could argue that Damar was actually Dukat's other side, split off and projected onto a semi-separate character, and that therefore Damar's 'redemption' at the end of season 7, while Dukat himself was working towards the destruction of all life in the universe, could be read as an 'AU' ending for Dukat. But never mind!)
Oh, well . . . .
I keep hoping that "redemption is for everybody" -- but a lot of RL people and fictional characters make that a very tough case to argue!
[I'm off to the fitness center, now that I've waited long enough for everybody else to have vacated it -- still not ready to exercise with a crowd, yet!]
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Personally, I'm a sucker for redeemed bad boys.
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And yes, Sisko's "I will fear no evil" seemed like too pat a summation of his time with Dukat at the end of that episode, since Dukat's desire for self-justification was all too 'human' and easy to understand. He was certainly twisted up inside, but he hadn't yet sold his soul to the Pah-Wraiths in order to get the 'love' and approval he so desperately wanted (and too often tried to get in the way least likely to succeed!).
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And I've seen/met/known people like Richard. It's so easy to get sucked in the way he was and I actually like his story arc because of it. *shrugs* Maybe it's because I've spent 15 years either in school for or in the business that seeing things be true to life and done so well makes me love the show even more.
And Paul Gross, absolute sheer genuis. I've loved him in everything I've ever seen him in. And when they actually "show" us the final product of the Shakespeare shows, I get chills. The only other time I get chills watching Shakespeare is when I get to see the American Shakespeare Company's touring show every year.
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Me, too! And I always have to go back and re-watch several times those scenes in which Paul Gross' character explains the interior life of some character (what lies behind the words) to someone, starting with Terry the accountant in that first corporate workshop. Like Richard at the end of season 1, everytime I watch those scenes I feel like I can finally say, "I GET it now!"
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I just took my 11 year old niece to see "All's Well That Ends Well". And never having been exposed to Shakespeare before she did understand the basic plot and some of the interaction because of the blocking, etc. I think, sadly, that most people shy away from seeing the shows because they don't think they'll understand them, when it's actually much easier that way, especially the comedies.
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I remember seeing a very young Marc Singer ("Beastmaster" -- yum!) as Petruchio in a commedia dell'arte style staging of "The Taming of the Shrew", broadcast on PBS along about 1976 or '77 (I was a High School freshman, I think), and the acrobatic blocking (not to mention the shirtless Petruchio!) combined with the rapid-fire delivery of the dialogue made the words on the page in our Freshman English class come alive in the most wonderful way.
After that particular "Taming of the Shrew" (which I had to buy on DVD and re-watch frequently), my next favorite film version of a Shakespeare comedy has to be the 1993 "Much Ado About Nothing" starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh as Beatrice and Benedick, although that might have as much to do with the incredibly beautiful, sun-drenched Italian country villa setting and the music as it did with the cast's wonderful performance.
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Probably so. Dukat wanted to be loved (and his daughter DID love him, which may've been a major factor in his decision not to kill her, in addition to the fact that Kira was watching and might feel honor bound to kill him in turn), but he didn't want to have to put himself out at all in order to gain that love, so there was a focus on the surface of things.
Damar, meanwhile, starts out as Dukat's loyal shadow, and then reluctantly fills his shoes after Zial's death (at his hands) sends Dukat off the deep end. Perhaps his ability to feel guilt over that (over what it did to Dukat, rather than over Zial's death) laid the groundwork for him to eventually 'get it' when Kira points out that the grief and outrage he feels over the Dominion killing HIS family is no different than what too many Bajorans had experienced at the Cardassians' hands. Damar learns, eventually, to empathize with someone outside his own circle and species.
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As for DS9 *deposits 2 cents* I watched for Garak and Bashier, with a not insignificant side of O'Brien, Kira/Dukat was just stuff that happened ;-)
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And Garak just got better and better (though he kept on taking emotional hit after emotional hit -- I think after 'torture O'Brien', 'torment Garak' must've been one of the writers' favorite fall-backs!). By the end of the series, he'd lost his twisted father Enabran Tain, the half-Bajoran daughter of his worst enemy who insisted on being in love with him, the housekeeper who'd been like a mother to him, and even his family's house, but he kept on keeping on.
I'm very shallow
Re: I'm very shallow
How about Bashir and O'Brien? Best 'bro-mance' ever?
Re: I'm very shallow
I also adore Benjamin. And Nog. And Quark. And Rom. And Cassidy. And Garak. And who Damar became. And Vic. And Ezri. And the alternate universe. And all of S7. And all the stuff I've forgotten to mention.
Re: I'm very shallow
I'm so there with you, sister!
Plus, I even enjoyed the Jadzia-Worf thing during episodes like "Looking for Par'Magh in All the Wrong Places". Somehow, all the Klingons seemed much more three-dimensional and fun to party with on DS9 than on any of the other series!