delga | { You have the right to remain silent, I'll get the light, You get that smile }

Today I woke at seven, got angry at a fly, went back to sleep until ten forty. This is good, I assure you because it's so much cooler in the morning than it is at night. I am reading The Curious Incident... and I made a bracelet. Then I sewed the hem of one of my saris and realised that the reason I passed textiles in year 11 was because (a) we were allowed to use sewing machines and (b) I'm damn good at written papers as long as I've done the revision beforehand. Now I am going to flist check and type up some stuff that I wrote two nights a go. Before that: fandom, woo!

Last night's CSI: NY was one of those odd phenomenon when you think the writing's really going to blow but the actors pull it off anyway. As soon as The Sister and I heard the pre-credit-quip, we knew that the dialogue was going to be pretty shitty. ("People don't just come out of thin air." Oh, really?) As it turns out, Gary Sinise and Melina Kanakaredes are actually good at their jobs and saved the majority of the dialogue. On a side note, Gary Sinise was local with his band this week and we totally missed it! Oddly, the writer totally brought the funny so I'm not sure how that works.

Amusing scenes included Danny and the baseball ("Oh, I have to do the hard work?" "You're the baseball player and I'm the boss,") and when Stella arrived with the automated pitcher ("Where were you earlier?!"). All the scenes that had Sheldon in them were fantastic; he's a lovely character and (my obsession aside) his humour is genial. I loved it when Stella was all, "You're not going to make me hold something again?" and when she asked Sheldon if he wanted to swap jobs with her and he told her that she'd need a couple of saws to hack off this dead guy's limbs - hee! There was a very sweet moment when she pinched his cheek before she left. Very, very cute. Also very cute was Aiden's hair. I want Vanessa Ferlito's hair. I do not want Flack's wardrobe. Please ditch that awful tie. /shallow

Mac's obsession with the court case was nicely played out to start off with although whoever wrote Stella's line ("We don't mistakes. At least I don't, not with evidence,") is just a ridiculous person because the woman has integrity and modesty, you know? It sometimes annoys me that the writers don't seem to know the characters all that well. It made sense that Stella would come to Mac a day post hoc in a bit of a mood; it makes sense that Mac had a sense of duty and obligation that stretched back to injustice. that whole scene made sense. It was still written really poorly. Um, show don't tell? I can't remember the exact construction used but Mac sounded like a teenager when he delivered the line. Thankfully, Sinise made it plausible. Kanakaredes was awesome in that scene because when she wasn't speaking, her face was doing it for her; it was very emotional.

The other scene that was actually done brilliantly on both sides (writing and acting) was when Mac is excited about the case and Stella calls him on it. The awkwardness was a nice touch and you got the sense that these two characters are fond of each other in a platonic way but that 9/11 changed their lives completely. It says something that Stella could turn around and ask Mac so innocently and truthfully why he still wears his wedding. His reply, for once, was perfect: "I don't know. I don't want to [take it off]". It was so simple but it indicated the character's vulnerability. Really well played.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode, regardless of those moments when i wanted to throttle the writer. I shouldn't crit. really because I can't write 99% of the time but I have expectations with the characters and of the writers that I feel they have an obligation to fulfil. Anyways, thumbs up.

What was next? Oh yeh, SVU. Awesome episode. Really, truly brilliant. Once again, as ever, Much and Fin were sorely underused but I'm so used to that I can overlook it. A minor point: B.D. Wong (is that the character or the actor? I can't remember, lol!) was amusingly not annoying. More than that, he was bearable. I really liked his scene with Benson. [Note to self: scan and put up article about Mariska].

The case was well put together, well-paced. Olivia's anger towards Eliot played out really well ("Don't you come near me") and I think it's a credit to both Hargitay and Meloni that they can make that sort of conflict totally plausible without going CSI-angst on our asses. The ending was so taut that I'll put aside the fact that Olivia turned out to be a bigger idiot than I ever give her credit for. This was another one of those instances when the audience was totally played because the writers know that we're emotionally invested in her as a character. As a result, Livia going off on her own as opposed to actually having the sense to step back was something that made that last scene (the confrontation) a little too contrived. What would have made for a better plot was if the guy had actually sought her out; if Livia had walked in on a situation that she had no control over. That being said, Mariska Hargitay played the role so well that I really am going to let it go. I have a lot of fun with this series and with NY even though in terms of the franchises, I tend to prefer the original versions. Now let's have some more Munch and Fin!

No fandom today. Off to flist and type. (Still love this song).

Edited: And now things are behind cuts because it's easier on the eye if I hide the rantage/love.