1) Watched the "White Collar" finale last night! I enjoyed it and thought it was close to the best ending possible. There was a second - a second! - when I wondered if they'd really gone and killed off Neal, but it was an improbable finish for that show, and so it went. But everyone played it very well (Mozzie going off in full conspiracy panic mode was particularly effective). The baby being named Neal was telegraphed way ahead, though I did enjoy the timely reminder of Theo's existence so that we could all realize that both FBI babies are namesakes of con men.
2) I've been watching "Luther" in down time (there were some headaches last week) and like it a lot at least through the beginning of the second season where I am now, although there's a sort of pile-on mentality with regard to tragedy and conflict that gets exhausting. So much happens to DCI Luther in the course of a few episodes that you don't wonder he keeps throwing things, though that doesn't make him less of a jerk (toward the maintenance staff if no one else) or paradoxically less lovable. The hero with anger management issues is a bit of a cliche by now, but Idris Elba pulls it off beautifully, and all the supporting cast is great too. I particularly enjoy Saskia Reeves, and Indira Varma (who keeps dying in everything I see her in, although to be precise that's only been "Rome" and "Torchwood" so far. I bet she dies in "Game of Thrones" too, though. I gather there'd be a smaller chance she didn't), and of course Paul McGann. I think the show does men better than women, though, including the creepy second lead (who is a spoiler unto herself), though perhaps not if you view her as a sort of metaphor for guilt or a twisted guardian angel.
3) And I did read Code Name Verity and predictably loved it. What is this "young adult" business though, OMG. No, I suppose I would have loved it as a teenager too, but it would have haunted my dreams; I'm used enough to unreliable narrators and tragic twists to be immune to that now, but the power's still there. It was odd reading it after seeing so many spoiler cuts regarding it - - because I was expecting some enormous twist and kept muttering "but is that really Verity? But it couldn't be Maddie or Jamie or…" and everything turned out to be rather more straightforward than that. Julie could never have been as cowardly as she presents herself, not in that sort of book, and though I didn't catch the details of her fibs (eleven code sets, ha!) I knew they had to be there, and that someone else had done the underlinings, so the account was meant to be read and had been. I really liked the American radio interviewer (and all the "truth" plays on words and ideas), and Fräulein Engel (another twisted guardian angel). And Maddie having to shoot Julie is exactly the sort of horrible ending I enjoy the hell out of, along with the suicide of the Gestapo officer and his parallels with the representative of British intelligence. Of course I ran off when I was done and found![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raven's long-ago review, and ha! I hadn't thought about "Sir John Balliol" being Peter Wimsey, but I bet that was meant to be the implication, and it's lovely.
2) I've been watching "Luther" in down time (there were some headaches last week) and like it a lot at least through the beginning of the second season where I am now, although there's a sort of pile-on mentality with regard to tragedy and conflict that gets exhausting. So much happens to DCI Luther in the course of a few episodes that you don't wonder he keeps throwing things, though that doesn't make him less of a jerk (toward the maintenance staff if no one else) or paradoxically less lovable. The hero with anger management issues is a bit of a cliche by now, but Idris Elba pulls it off beautifully, and all the supporting cast is great too. I particularly enjoy Saskia Reeves, and Indira Varma (who keeps dying in everything I see her in, although to be precise that's only been "Rome" and "Torchwood" so far. I bet she dies in "Game of Thrones" too, though. I gather there'd be a smaller chance she didn't), and of course Paul McGann. I think the show does men better than women, though, including the creepy second lead (who is a spoiler unto herself), though perhaps not if you view her as a sort of metaphor for guilt or a twisted guardian angel.
3) And I did read Code Name Verity and predictably loved it. What is this "young adult" business though, OMG. No, I suppose I would have loved it as a teenager too, but it would have haunted my dreams; I'm used enough to unreliable narrators and tragic twists to be immune to that now, but the power's still there. It was odd reading it after seeing so many spoiler cuts regarding it - - because I was expecting some enormous twist and kept muttering "but is that really Verity? But it couldn't be Maddie or Jamie or…" and everything turned out to be rather more straightforward than that. Julie could never have been as cowardly as she presents herself, not in that sort of book, and though I didn't catch the details of her fibs (eleven code sets, ha!) I knew they had to be there, and that someone else had done the underlinings, so the account was meant to be read and had been. I really liked the American radio interviewer (and all the "truth" plays on words and ideas), and Fräulein Engel (another twisted guardian angel). And Maddie having to shoot Julie is exactly the sort of horrible ending I enjoy the hell out of, along with the suicide of the Gestapo officer and his parallels with the representative of British intelligence. Of course I ran off when I was done and found
raven's long-ago review, and ha! I hadn't thought about "Sir John Balliol" being Peter Wimsey, but I bet that was meant to be the implication, and it's lovely.
