Alphas: use a dictionary!
Jan. 13th, 2012 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe misuse of words on Alphas is beginning to wind me up. So far we've had synaesthesia, hyperkinetic, and now proprioception, that all jumped out as being totally misapplied. Proprioception is not the sense that someone is looking at you, proprioception is the sense of one's own body. It's right there in the roots of the words. It's about your own internals. It's totally misapplied to use the other way. And when the main guy who is allegedly a really smart doctory type person keeps misusing the words? It makes him look like an idiot. This isn't like Starfleet and warp drive - though once you've invented a made up label you have consistent rules about it or you make your characters look stupid again. This is real words from the real world and they're being wrong wrong wrong about them.
It's possible I'm reacting disproportionately. A teensy bit.
I stopped the episode in teh middle to write this.
Also today I watched one with Peter Wingfield and one with Summer Glau and one with that guy that was a Terminator. I liked the plots that didn't involve evil crazy people. I was kind of frustrated with the one that started with a guy saying he'd never fired a gun. This is American TV, because tada, the story manufactures a situation where he has to learn to kill and then feel okay about it afterwards. It's annoying and boring. There's more than one way to solve problems. Conversation has been known to work. But no, it sets it up so violence is the answer. Ugly.
Gary's continued assertiveness and competence and being right quite a lot, mixed in with perfectly reasonable amounts of error, I like. I kind of like it that his mum tried to get him to quit but only because it didn't work. I mean, she's trying to protect him with bubble wrap there, but she's his mum, it's her job. And he just gets a taxi and does his job and tells her he'll keep doing his job.
I am a little... I don't know precisely, concerned, conflicted, creeped out maybe... Their boss is their pshrink and their pshrink is their boss and he sends them into situations where they get shot at. Thus far it hasn't been mentioned on screen that that's kind of... awkward. I was thinking of him as part of the team to start with, but he's not, he's the boss, he says so and nobody objects to that. And then it's like, how can he be doing all the jobs? Like they're doing group therapy in the morning and getting shot at by terrorists in the afternoon. Okay, so he's looking after them. I mean, if he was their boss who is also making sure they get the psych help they need, then that's kind of cool. But if he's their pshrink who is using them to do work for him, that's not cool. You know? I don't know, I'm still trying to make this thought shape up. It's like that one with the cult leader, he has this group he's shaping and it's... worrying. But I think maybe the story knows? But now he's trying to tell people who they should date, or not date, and he's speaking as their pshrink and their boss. Can your boss tell you not to date someone? I guess your pshrink can give advice but it still seems weird. But there's quite a lot about the tangle he's in where he sets out to help people but his working for the defence people means he catches people and they get sent to a possibly bad place. He doesn't know what goes on in the possibly bad place. That doesn't seem ethical. Basically, he's not Professor X here, and he may well be working for the weapons people. It's interesting though because all the parts and pieces seem reasonable kind of sort of. It's just added together you have to worry what side he's on. And the story clearly knows that and wants to worry him. It's interesting.
So the only thing the story did that irritates me flat out is that bit with the gun.
The bit with the shagging while under the influence of a power explicitly compared to really strong drugs is kind of creepy. But the two involved don't seem to think it's creepy, which is itself sort of creepy. I don't think there's much room to think of it as romantic though when it was cut together with that guy nearly dying. It's just different poles of being messed up. But even without the drug power they're still kind of messed up. They seem to not so much have a relationship as have a sticky need tangle, like they've both got vulnerabilities and fear and think they're screwing up in other areas, so hey, stick to this person. They could get better. Or screw each other up.
I like the story thread about the guy worrying about if his kid will be an alpha, and how it hasn't been a big clunky conversation. I'm not sure, does his wife not know at all about him? And now he lost his power, and seems happy about it. It's an interesting arc. The wanting a cure arc without the saying so. His get angry and hit someone power is pretty easy to see as a problem.
The Sentinel girl's arc is about moving out from her parents and getting them to see she's cool. Okay. And the bit where they keep trying to marry her off is creepy but is meant to be. It's like they start out thinking of it as a condition and then she shows them its a superpower. Cool.
now I'm wondering about long term story arc. I mean, if her issue is not being assertive or standing up to her family, and then she does, then what happens with the character? return to status quo would be really annoying.
Okay, so nine episodes in, that's what I'm thinking on. Lots of interesting stuff going on.
But I stopped half way through the episode because they really need to learn the right words.
Finished episode and the guy got his powers back and is happy with it. Surprise.
I was not convinced by the 'throw everything around' plan to seeing an invisible person whose talent is about attention. I mean, if she's making them not notice her, why would the background matter? And random goo is no more busy than they've already got. So it's silly.
I did like that the girl saved herself and Gary. Everyone had a turn. The show is good at that.
Wait, the announcer guy said 'Next, more Alphas' but there is no more Alphas. My box didn't get it? :-(
Hang on, maybe it was clever and it was one of the eps it has already. There's two left 'New' from other weeks, if they're actually new that would be the whole season. *watches*
It's possible I'm reacting disproportionately. A teensy bit.
I stopped the episode in teh middle to write this.
Also today I watched one with Peter Wingfield and one with Summer Glau and one with that guy that was a Terminator. I liked the plots that didn't involve evil crazy people. I was kind of frustrated with the one that started with a guy saying he'd never fired a gun. This is American TV, because tada, the story manufactures a situation where he has to learn to kill and then feel okay about it afterwards. It's annoying and boring. There's more than one way to solve problems. Conversation has been known to work. But no, it sets it up so violence is the answer. Ugly.
Gary's continued assertiveness and competence and being right quite a lot, mixed in with perfectly reasonable amounts of error, I like. I kind of like it that his mum tried to get him to quit but only because it didn't work. I mean, she's trying to protect him with bubble wrap there, but she's his mum, it's her job. And he just gets a taxi and does his job and tells her he'll keep doing his job.
I am a little... I don't know precisely, concerned, conflicted, creeped out maybe... Their boss is their pshrink and their pshrink is their boss and he sends them into situations where they get shot at. Thus far it hasn't been mentioned on screen that that's kind of... awkward. I was thinking of him as part of the team to start with, but he's not, he's the boss, he says so and nobody objects to that. And then it's like, how can he be doing all the jobs? Like they're doing group therapy in the morning and getting shot at by terrorists in the afternoon. Okay, so he's looking after them. I mean, if he was their boss who is also making sure they get the psych help they need, then that's kind of cool. But if he's their pshrink who is using them to do work for him, that's not cool. You know? I don't know, I'm still trying to make this thought shape up. It's like that one with the cult leader, he has this group he's shaping and it's... worrying. But I think maybe the story knows? But now he's trying to tell people who they should date, or not date, and he's speaking as their pshrink and their boss. Can your boss tell you not to date someone? I guess your pshrink can give advice but it still seems weird. But there's quite a lot about the tangle he's in where he sets out to help people but his working for the defence people means he catches people and they get sent to a possibly bad place. He doesn't know what goes on in the possibly bad place. That doesn't seem ethical. Basically, he's not Professor X here, and he may well be working for the weapons people. It's interesting though because all the parts and pieces seem reasonable kind of sort of. It's just added together you have to worry what side he's on. And the story clearly knows that and wants to worry him. It's interesting.
So the only thing the story did that irritates me flat out is that bit with the gun.
The bit with the shagging while under the influence of a power explicitly compared to really strong drugs is kind of creepy. But the two involved don't seem to think it's creepy, which is itself sort of creepy. I don't think there's much room to think of it as romantic though when it was cut together with that guy nearly dying. It's just different poles of being messed up. But even without the drug power they're still kind of messed up. They seem to not so much have a relationship as have a sticky need tangle, like they've both got vulnerabilities and fear and think they're screwing up in other areas, so hey, stick to this person. They could get better. Or screw each other up.
I like the story thread about the guy worrying about if his kid will be an alpha, and how it hasn't been a big clunky conversation. I'm not sure, does his wife not know at all about him? And now he lost his power, and seems happy about it. It's an interesting arc. The wanting a cure arc without the saying so. His get angry and hit someone power is pretty easy to see as a problem.
The Sentinel girl's arc is about moving out from her parents and getting them to see she's cool. Okay. And the bit where they keep trying to marry her off is creepy but is meant to be. It's like they start out thinking of it as a condition and then she shows them its a superpower. Cool.
now I'm wondering about long term story arc. I mean, if her issue is not being assertive or standing up to her family, and then she does, then what happens with the character? return to status quo would be really annoying.
Okay, so nine episodes in, that's what I'm thinking on. Lots of interesting stuff going on.
But I stopped half way through the episode because they really need to learn the right words.
Finished episode and the guy got his powers back and is happy with it. Surprise.
I was not convinced by the 'throw everything around' plan to seeing an invisible person whose talent is about attention. I mean, if she's making them not notice her, why would the background matter? And random goo is no more busy than they've already got. So it's silly.
I did like that the girl saved herself and Gary. Everyone had a turn. The show is good at that.
Wait, the announcer guy said 'Next, more Alphas' but there is no more Alphas. My box didn't get it? :-(
Hang on, maybe it was clever and it was one of the eps it has already. There's two left 'New' from other weeks, if they're actually new that would be the whole season. *watches*
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 10:10 pm (UTC)Rosen talks a good game on morality but things don't seem to work out that way much.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-14 11:23 am (UTC)