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

[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.