Sep. 23rd, 2011

seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
I caught up on the latest Covert Affairs halfseason. And duh, Ben's not dead. We all knew that. But I'm surprisingly ok with that. This show remains, for all its ludicrousness and surreality, the most adult, mature, believable show about the CIA I've seen.

Secret identities! As things you do for your job, because of safety, but as things that tear you apart. And yet... not things you keep needlessly secret, but instead things where you evaluate their usefulness and ditch when they stop being useful.

I loved Auggie explaining why working for the "Smithsonian" is so rewarding to Danielle. It really testified to the power of this show, its ability to tell stories about action and adventure in a exotic environment that still resonate as classic workplace stories.

But most of all I love the episode where Annie tells Danielle the truth, because I loved the way she balanced the pros and cons of her choice before coming down at last on the irrevocable side of honesty. And they were all grown-ups about it! Not in the sense of instantly forgiving, because that's not what being grown-up is about. But in the sense of working through new information together, suffering through the feelings of betrayal and frustration and fear together and overcoming it because of shared love, and finding a solution to the problem that causes the least pain for all involved. I loved Annie's look at the end of the episode, thinking something like "Ok, it's going to suck a lot to not live with Danielle, but as long as we're still sisters I can live with this." Grown-up!

Of course, this sort of emotional maturity is counterbalanced by the absolutely ridiculous geopolitical understanding. At least C.H.A.O.S. did it with a wink, but Covert Affairs tries to pretend that its dalliances with Bulgarian dictators are about vital state secrets. I guess spy shows can never leave the Cold War behind.

I was confused by the Jai plot all season, though. He rarely got involved in a meaningful way with the Annie plot and the finale ships him off to Arizona. What, did they decide that since he wasn't going to be in a relationship with Annie they didn't need to tell stories about him? C'mon, people, Spy!Mohinder!
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
And finally I catch up on AotW reviews.

Fogarty's Cove is a collection of folksongs- Canadian folksongs. Stan Rogers is so apparently beloved in Canada that when another Canadian-originating friend saw that Rogers had been recommended to me, he starting furiously campaigning me to make sure that I listened to the correct Rogers album to properly appreciate his music. Fogarty's Cove was the consensus choice that eventually emerged.

I mean, what can you say against music like this? It rankles no feathers. There's merry guitar, cheerful and enthusiastic singing, and lyrics that are charming if more than a little hokey. There are overdone ghost stories and lurid tales of shipwrecks and more sedate pictures of life on the shores of Nova Scotia. It's campfire music. I didn't feel that it quite held together as an album. Its momentum flagged at times, especially in the middle with "Fisherman's Wharf" and "Giant." But "Rawdon Hills" is lovely and "Plenty of Hornpipes" is an excellent fun instrumental to pick things up again.

The most hyped song on the album, "Barrett's Privateers", I didn't feel lived up to the hype. Wikipedia has quite the lengthy article on the song, documenting both its attention to historic detail and its occasional failures of accuracy. But for all that obvious care, its narrator's self-pity didn't capture me at all. I found the song dreary and lacking in drama, and I'd rather not say those things about a song involving privateers. I did like the amateur sea-shanty feel, though. I enjoy sea shanties, generally speaking. I have a suspicion this song is more fun live.


<-- I've been holding on to the above post for a while. I was hesitant to post it, as I often am about AotW albums where I didn't like it as much as the recommender did. This is a problem with AotW that I haven't quite solved. But let me add this one addendum and post the damn thing: I have discovered that I like "Barrett's Privateers" when I'm drunk. It is a delightful song to sing when you've been drinking with friends, but as I started to sober up, I stopped liking it again.

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seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
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