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healingmirthThis is me, starting off my month of reflecting on fannish stuff by heading off in a completely different direction. I am awesome easily distracted like that.
I'm catching up on the episodes of Numb3rs that I have been clogging up my Tivo while I've been doing other things. This includes the season 4 finale that I managed to not watch somehow. It turns out that this is not the chore that I expected it was going to be.
You might ask why I watch a show that I don't expect to enjoy. I watch Numb3rs for possibly the lamest of reasons: I like watching the scenes on the Caltech campus. I don't think I'm invested in any of the characters, I'm not particularly interested in the math. I'm not even all that fond of math-as-gimmick. So, to sum up, my standards are not high, and I'll take my joy where I can.
For instance, the season 4 finale totally name-drops Caltech faculty. They reference talking to Dr. Baltimore to look over a terror suspect's suspicious research, and then one of the fish in the Eppes koi pond is named Tombrello. "He's an old fish. He likes to hide a lot." I was expecting that to be the high point of the batch of episodes, until I got to the October 17 episode, Blowback.
I'd be really interested to see some creator commentary on this ep, because I'd love to know where they intended to go with it, and whether the noir-y thing was intentional. Last season's theme seemed to be pushing the boundaries of FBI rules/laws/civil liberties in a sort of ends justifies the means sense, featuring the increasing disillusionment of their resident profiler as people got lost to the system (and some off-screen Really Questionable Government Activities that she was required to be involved in). This season, there's a new kid on the team, and so far they seem to be poking at The Difference/Tension Between Cops and FBI Agents, and There Is A Mean Administrator With A Grudge, sort of like that season on House.
So right, anyway, the episode: lots of dead people in a diner, including one or more questionably honest cops, a man running the investigation who turns out to be a suspect, a man running investigations of both Charlie and Don with an opaque motive and transparently manipulative tactics, a femme fatale (who was watching LA Confidential the night before the murders... okay, that's laying it on a bit thick) who ensnares one of the investigating agents, an idealistic rookie (sort of) who ends up investigating and arresting someone who she reflexively defended at the outset. Questions of loyalty and honor all around.
And best of all? At the end of the episode Don, for the first time I can remember, seemed genuinely happy, and it wasn't even in the ubiquitous family scene wrap-ups they tack on. Also, he's way hotter when he's not scowling.
I'm catching up on the episodes of Numb3rs that I have been clogging up my Tivo while I've been doing other things. This includes the season 4 finale that I managed to not watch somehow. It turns out that this is not the chore that I expected it was going to be.
You might ask why I watch a show that I don't expect to enjoy. I watch Numb3rs for possibly the lamest of reasons: I like watching the scenes on the Caltech campus. I don't think I'm invested in any of the characters, I'm not particularly interested in the math. I'm not even all that fond of math-as-gimmick. So, to sum up, my standards are not high, and I'll take my joy where I can.
For instance, the season 4 finale totally name-drops Caltech faculty. They reference talking to Dr. Baltimore to look over a terror suspect's suspicious research, and then one of the fish in the Eppes koi pond is named Tombrello. "He's an old fish. He likes to hide a lot." I was expecting that to be the high point of the batch of episodes, until I got to the October 17 episode, Blowback.
I'd be really interested to see some creator commentary on this ep, because I'd love to know where they intended to go with it, and whether the noir-y thing was intentional. Last season's theme seemed to be pushing the boundaries of FBI rules/laws/civil liberties in a sort of ends justifies the means sense, featuring the increasing disillusionment of their resident profiler as people got lost to the system (and some off-screen Really Questionable Government Activities that she was required to be involved in). This season, there's a new kid on the team, and so far they seem to be poking at The Difference/Tension Between Cops and FBI Agents, and There Is A Mean Administrator With A Grudge, sort of like that season on House.
So right, anyway, the episode: lots of dead people in a diner, including one or more questionably honest cops, a man running the investigation who turns out to be a suspect, a man running investigations of both Charlie and Don with an opaque motive and transparently manipulative tactics, a femme fatale (who was watching LA Confidential the night before the murders... okay, that's laying it on a bit thick) who ensnares one of the investigating agents, an idealistic rookie (sort of) who ends up investigating and arresting someone who she reflexively defended at the outset. Questions of loyalty and honor all around.
And best of all? At the end of the episode Don, for the first time I can remember, seemed genuinely happy, and it wasn't even in the ubiquitous family scene wrap-ups they tack on. Also, he's way hotter when he's not scowling.
