Oh, it's already December

[xerinmichellex]

Some randomness updates, I guess:

1. We can downgrade from Level Green to Level Yellow because I didn't have to go into jury duty!



#blessed

Relatedly: I'm in Level High Purple because I have to miss the Homeland finale due to the family's Christmas get together on December 21st. One thing people should know about me: Don't fuck with my television schedule. Ever. Secretly, I'm hoping I can flounce out of there before 8pm; but my mom only wants to take one car up to my uncle's house; and while I could leave her and my brother behind, I don't think she'd appreciate that.

Also:
2. It's the series finale of Gracepoint tonight and I guess I'll reveal who I think is the murderer for prosperity. I think it's Tom Miller. I have my reasons (which I won't get into because they're connected to the original series). If you want to know, I can either reveal them after the finale or in the comments.

I will say, as much as I laughed about FOX remaking the show nearly shot-for-shot, I think the US version has done a better job of laying out the evidence and fleshing out the mystery. Broadchurch, the original series, had a better atmosphere and I prefer most of the characters in their UK version (Ellie, DI Hardy (Detective Carver in the US), Jack, Nigel (Vince in the US), Paul). Renee and Susan in all forms can DIAF; but I think US!Susan is much more menacing. US!Beth has grown on me so she's pretty even with UK!Beth and both Marcs don't deserve their Beths. I also like US!Tom: UK!Tom is barely a blimp on my radar. Everyone else I don't care about.

3. I am finished with my Christmas shopping. (Okay, so I was officially done in November shhh!) The only thing I need to do is help my brother with his gift for our mom because she is being difficult this year. She tells us she needs something. . .and then she goes out and buys it. ("I needed to add something to my Amazon cart for the free shipping, so I bought a hair straightener!" "Mom, [Brother] was going to get that." "Well. . .he can still wrap it up." "Mom, that defeats the purpose of buying someone a present IF THEY ALREADY KNOW WHAT THEY BOUGHT/THEY BOUGHT IT FOR THEMSELVES.")

She just bought herself an iPad mini so I think my brother will get her a case or a cleaning kit or something. (Which my mom has already suggested.) If anyone has any suggestions for an iPad accessory or something, I'm all ears. Providing my mom doesn't go out and get the same thing.

4. Instead of writing, I've been suckered into the Serial Podcast. It's interesting. . . I mean, I find it interesting because I'm all about real life crime and how the police and prosecution put the scrapes of information together into a "story". I'm using "story" purposefully because--without getting too much into what Serial is about--I don't think what was told to the jury and public about why this murder happened, how it happened, and even who was involved was the whole truth. But it is frustrating at times and I feel like anyone going into the podcast expecting to find the TRUTH is going to be majorly disappointed. Plus, these last few episodes have been scarce on information; and if you've already come to a conclusion about the case--as I have (shocking, I know)--it's like the reporter is padding the episodes because she's run out of material for the 12 episode arc she started.

Anyway, the final episode goes live next Thursday and I may have some things to say on the podcast as a whole. It has made me think about my own "story" in The Book and the idea of different perspectives and how those muddle the truth. That's something, I guess.

Comments

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

1. Yay for no jury duty! Woooo! Is the weather at least behaving itself somewhat better? I know that was one of your worries before. Relatedly: I did not get to the second season of Homeland the way I'd planned. It's a long holds queue, and I just couldn't get to it in time. (Things in the holds queue can't be renewed, because people are waiting.) One day!

2. I have a couple theories on Gracepoint, but mostly I'm just sure it's not Crazy Dog Lady, because she's clearly fucked up, but that's too easy. Or Dad, because they Red Herring'd the hell out of him way too early. I don't think it's Sister's Boyfriend, because he's the only black man in the whole town and I know even Fox isn't that stupid. Priest Guy, possibly, because he's effing creepy and up to no good. But why? What would his motivation be? Killing Danny in order for Beth to come to him for comfort and then sneaking in her pants? *shrug* That's literally all I've got. I wish I liked Renee better, because Jessica Lucas needs to be in more things.

3. See, this is why I self-bar from shopping. If I see something I want, I can ask someone to get it for me--better to give them a list, or at least ask for gift cards or something. Buying it myself this time of year just makes it harder on everyone else.

Oh! Oh! We just picked Secret Santas at work, by the way. *excite!* I love secret shopping--it is so much fun! And the person I picked is awesome, so I'm going to enjoy finding something for her. Yay!

4. I believe Podcasts are the new Talk Radio. I thought that sort of thing would fade altogether, and it kind of did for a couple of decades, but it's totally back now--just in a different medium. I don't follow any of that stuff myself, but I think it's fascinating how that happened.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

1. Yes, for the most part. It's cold as balls, but luckily no snow storms or--even worse--freezing rain. Since I drove down to the courthouse for a test run, I now know that it'll take me 90 minutes if I ever have to go down to that particular courthouse.

2. Let me know when you finish Gracepoint because, having seen the finale, I really don't want to say anything that will spoil you.

Priest Guy--or Paul--is extra creepy in the US version. If I remember correctly, UK!Paul didn't have any connection to Beth other than being her spiritual adviser. For Renee, this is just a personal thing, but I really, really hate this blasé, I must know the TRUTH and I don't care who gets hurt attitude that a lot of fictional reporters have. I'm sure that was the point to her characterization, so congrats there, show.

3. Awesome about the Secret Santa. Heh. My mom's work is doing Secret Santa, too, and she was asking me help. I'm pretty helpless with coming up with ideas unless I have an actual list of what people want. Good luck with your gift hunt!

4. I listen to two podcasts. Serial is the only one I've listed episode to episode because you HAVE TO. A Matter of Taste (http://amatteroftastepodcast.blogspot.com/) is the only other one; but usually for the Hannibal episodes when Cleolinda's on.

I find I don't have the patience to listen to an hour long podcast. I need the visual simulation tbh.

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

1. Freezing rain is the WORST. Terrifying. And wow, 90 minutes is a long time. How can you be in the right district to be called for that? Jeez.

2. I will! Mom likes to watch it with me, so we'll probably sit down either tonight or tomorrow to see the OnDemand episode.

I really, really hate this blasé, I must know the TRUTH and I don't care who gets hurt attitude that a lot of fictional reporters have.
That seems to happen a lot, doesn't it? How many real life reporters are like that, I wonder? A few, I suppose, with tabloids being what they are... But for a respected newspaper?

Unrelated: HOW did you get that accent on "blase?" Is there a keyboard shortcut to do that on here, or did you just copy-paste it from Word the way I do?

3. Oh, we made lists! The Reference department put together a "survey" of favorite things (music, books, shops, food, etc.) for everyone to fill out and uploaded the answers onto the network drive, so we all have some ideas to work with.

4. I find I don't have the patience to listen to an hour long podcast. I need the visual simulation tbh.
Yeah, that, and they can get a bit rambly if they don't have a specific theme. I should check out more, but it's a big time commitment.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

1. I was driving at the height of morning rush hour into Chicago. WITHOUT traffic, the trip should've only been 45 minutes. Don't know how they do things in Virginia, but in Illinois we go by our counties. Cook County, the one I live in, is massive and includes Chicago, which has a few courthouses scattered within its city limits.

2. I was thinking earlier about why I hated Renee, but like Freddie Lounds, even though they're sorta similar, and I came to the conclusion that Freddie owns her awfulness and knows she's does what she does for the controversy. Renee, I think, just wanted the story and notoriety and unintentionally forgot that these are people, too.

I can't really talk because there is a sneaky reporter in The Book who creates a larger mess. It's an interesting trope to play with; I just don't like it when we're suppose to side with the shady reporter or feel sympathy for them after they mess up.

HOW did you get that accent on "blase?"

On a regular, desktop keyboard you hold down ALT and type 1-3-0 on the NUMBER PAD right of the main keyboard. (If you have a "Number Lock" option on the keyboard, it needs to be turned "ON".) The method may be a little different on a laptop. For mine, you have to press ALT and like a blue sunburst thing, and the "number pad" corresponds with the far right letters on the keyboard. (The numbers for the pad are in blue, in the right corner of the keys.) 5 years of Spanish teaches you where all the "extra" letters are on a keyboard.

3. Well, your library is a hell of a lot more organized than my mom's place of work. I did ask if they had lists of what people wanted and she said, "No." So I suggested for next year they create a master list like the one your library did.

4. Yeah, Serial gets ramble-y and the narrator focuses on a few details that seem so tedious, just to dismiss them 10 minutes later. I usually play solitaire or hearts on the computer if I'm listening, just to keep my mind active but not too active where I miss something.

Lots of people listen to Serial/podcasts on their commutes; so if you have a long one I can see that as one way to get into them. I did intend on bringing Serial to the courthouse if I had to go (which was my main reason for getting into it the first place). Don't know how well that would've gone over, though, if I had been placed on a jury for a murder trial. . . .

[rhoda-rants.livejournal.com]

Okay, caught up on Gracepoint, dropping all other talking points for now. And also let's say SPOILERS!!!! because I don't feel like dealing with the effing code.

*taking three minutes to remember whether Tom is the kid or the dad*

*okay, ready*

*too many names, I swear*

How do you do that? I mean, I know you said something about the original series, but you've said you're good at figuring out twist endings, but how? What made you think so this time? I personally have been wading through this endless vat of "Everybody's nuts and hiding something, what threads should I even be following now?" pretty much from the first episode onward. I will say I'm choking a bit on the irony of what happened with Dad Miller, considering that vampire book I just put back on the shelf. SO. MUCH. NOPE. Not quite sure what else to say at this point.

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

*cackling*

A few things:

1. The US creators mentioned that they changed the murderer. (Actually, they specifically said "ending", but whatever.)

2. They kept all of the character arcs the same from the UK version: Mark cheating on Beth w/ Gemma, Jack's background, Susan's story and connection to Vince, etc. Tom even smashes his computer to hide the email exchanges.

Now BROADCHURCH SPOILERS In Broadchurch, it was Joe, the dad, who killed Danny. And yes, he was still a pedophile and had a "special" relationship with Danny. The big AHA! moment for most of the Broadchurch viewers was when Ellie says to Susan "how could you not know what was going on inside your own home?" Because the US creators swore Gracepoint would have a different ending AND with the characters being set as the same from Episode 1, I knew it had to be a Miller--and the only plausible suspect was Tom, after Joe.

After they kept Ellie's line to Susan, I KNEW it was going to be Tom. It's very telling, actually, that they changed the line to include "your husband and your child".

A few other things:

--They changed the Cause of Death in Gracepoint. In Broadchurch, Danny was strangled and they specifically mentioned the killer was a male. Here, it's blunt force trauma, which doesn't require a lot of strength, normally.

--I can't remember if this happened in BC, but when Beth asked Tom for a hug I was like, "hmm, that'll suck if Tom killed Danny and now Beth is hugging her son's killer." YIKES

--Tom's "escape" or disappearance. My crack!theory was that he meant to plant Danny's crossword book in the hiker's cabin to throw the police off his dad and his trail. This came right after Carver tried to talk to Tom and delve deeper into Tom's relationship with Danny.

--Tom's overall grief read more hostile and he acted more cagey than UK!Tom. But that could just be me zeroing on Tom from the word "go".

Honesty? It helped that I'd already seen BC; otherwise I agree that there were so many threads and suspicious characters and I probably wouldn't have latched onto Tom since the first episode. Since Gracepoint kept all the same characters, I knew how Jack, Susan, and Vince's stories would end. Keeping Ellie's line to Susan cinched the whole thing. To be fair, though, I expected the death to be more malicious and not as "accidental" as it was. And I didn't connect that Joe would help Tom cover up the crime until the previous episode. I also didn't think 1. Joe would gladly take the fall and 2. Ellie would let him.