Saving Hope thoughts
Aug. 2nd, 2012 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthOkay, I assume Saving Hope is on hiatus during the Olympics so it’s a good time for me to update my thoughts on the show (with more detail than I had before).
I still can’t say I exactly *like* the show. I enjoy it, and it’s about the only thing airing right now that I’m watching (I plenty of things I could be watching many of which are new to me) so I tend to look forward to it each week. But while I am coming to enjoy it for reasons beyond the eye candy, I still can’t say Id keep watching it if it didn’t have a couple of actors I love in it
Also, I suck at character names, it gets particularly confusing since I sort of file both MS and DG characters under “Daniel”; it took me until ep 4 or 5 to have it register that DG was Joel, maybe not quite so long to figure out Charlie, but it took a while to stick. I’ve figured out Shaheer (probably not spelled properly) and Maggie, but then there’s people like “Maggie’s friend” “Shaheer’s boyfriend” “the chief or surgery lady” and I don’t feel like looking them up for this review so if referring to people like that bugs you well, I’m warning you up front.
My ultimate opinion of the show still remains “okay, solid enough, but not worth keeping DG from TVD, while I need more MS and his oh so pretty eyes on my TV I’m sure he can find something else, but I need Elijah.”
Let’s get the bad or meh out of the way first then I’ll talk about what I do like about the show.
-It’s still a hospital show, and I just don’t care about hospital shows very much. There’s a reason I never watched House or Grey’s Anatomy or anything like that and that’s that the fact that I even though I like Scrubs it didn’t win me over to the hospital show category. Some of the cases of the week are interesting, but I only get into them at all for the effect they may have on the show’s actual characters.
-They seem to be stumbling rough the supernatural element of the show. I kind of don’t feel like it adds anything to the story most of the time, and aside from the one psychic/hypnotist guy they really haven’t done anything with it. And that’s the one thing that separates the show from most other hospital shows (aside from the fact that the eye candy was so appealing to me. That there’s eye candy it hardly special to this show though). It’s not really interested in exploring it, and not just because they don’t want to get into the spiritual implications, they just don’t seem to want to develop that side of the story. Effectively it’s just a different way to discuss the patients of the week, when they could do so much more.
-In a chicken and the egg problem, part of the issue is that...Charlie is a really uninteresting ghost. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, I think he’s a good character (if maybe a touch too perfect to be terribly interesting), and exactly the type of guy I love both as a character and in real life But...what does him being a ghost DO for the story? He’s a smart, kind, well-loved, and well-adjusted guy who happens to find himself in a coma; what exactly does it do for the story to watch *his* story? It hasn’t brought about huge changes in his character, be it his opinions about prolonged comas, thoughts on the people around him, his place in the world, or anything. He didn’t think himself the center of the universe (he’s confident but not self-centered) only to be shown the world would go on without him; or the opposite of being overly self-effacing only to find out he really was beloved by those around him; being able to see the private moments people didn’t include him in hasn’t led to any grand revelations (about the closest is Dawn revealing that she still loves him but that’s more brought out by circumstance rather than him hearing it because he’s a ghost); and even if it had, considering the was the show doesn’t want to deal with the supernatural side of itself, none of it would matter if and when he wakes up.
-I have mixed feeling on the love...hexagon at this point? that they’re working toward. Maggie’s friend likes Maggie, who likes Joel, who still has feelings for Alex, who loves Charlie, who Dawn also apparently still loves. One thing I like about the show early on was that the pilot made it look like Alex was going to be torn between coma-Charlie and previously minor feelings for Joel and then the show DIDN’T go there as soon as Charlie was in the coma. However, I think it is still handling it...relatively adultly so I’m not throwing up my hands in frustration yet.
I have more to say on that topic in the positives section, so let’s get to it.
-I think I’ve been too mired in TVD angst of late, so I appreciate that these characters are competent adults more than I probably should. But appreciate it I do.
-Which is kind of tied in with why I so appreciated that the show didn’t go for the immediate love triangle route. And even though it’s become clear that there are Joel->Alex feelings Alex so far hasn’t been the least bit conflicted, so I approve. And I actually don’t mind the Joel/Maggie/Maggie’s friend slice of the love polygon pie, because it’s been clear from the start that Joel and Maggie had different desires for their relationship so I understand way there might be some complicated feelings going on with those three.
-I have always approved of the fact that Maggie looks at character played by DG and basically thinks “I want to hit that thang.” This seems like an appropriate reaction to me. I may not think Maggie/Joel works but I can definitely get behind her wanting a piece of that. Though why Charlie doesn’t have interns throwing themselves at him however is something of a mystery.
-That the show is really Alex’s story. As much as I take issue with how little the show does with Charlie exploring and dealing with his situation, that that side of the plot has been so underutilized has left room for the show to really be Alex dealing with the situation facing her.
-I want to be Shaheer’s friend, I’d never make him go out to large crowded events and he’d never make me go to them either. I totally get how anxiety-inducing crowds are buddy, and I’m willing to deal with your issues about sharing food even if I don’t completely share that one. (Although I *may* want to see Joel in a best ass competition, got to say.)
Hmm, I had a lot more to say on the negative side, but that’s not so much because I feel more negatively about the show than positively, it’s just that the things I dislike are kind of big concept things that the show hasn’t developed to my satisfaction. While I like the characters and think there’s been some really good performances (especially from ED) and most of the episodes are enjoyable the things I dislike are pretty big problems.
I’ll keep watching it for the rest of the season, but once it’s over I probably won’t think of it again, aside from cursing it for keeping DG away from TVD if it happens (if Daniel has room in his schedule for both more power to him, but TVD needs more Elijah next season). It’s just...okay, which is maybe even a little more than I expected it to be quite frankly, but it’s definitely as high as I can go.
I still can’t say I exactly *like* the show. I enjoy it, and it’s about the only thing airing right now that I’m watching (I plenty of things I could be watching many of which are new to me) so I tend to look forward to it each week. But while I am coming to enjoy it for reasons beyond the eye candy, I still can’t say Id keep watching it if it didn’t have a couple of actors I love in it
Also, I suck at character names, it gets particularly confusing since I sort of file both MS and DG characters under “Daniel”; it took me until ep 4 or 5 to have it register that DG was Joel, maybe not quite so long to figure out Charlie, but it took a while to stick. I’ve figured out Shaheer (probably not spelled properly) and Maggie, but then there’s people like “Maggie’s friend” “Shaheer’s boyfriend” “the chief or surgery lady” and I don’t feel like looking them up for this review so if referring to people like that bugs you well, I’m warning you up front.
My ultimate opinion of the show still remains “okay, solid enough, but not worth keeping DG from TVD, while I need more MS and his oh so pretty eyes on my TV I’m sure he can find something else, but I need Elijah.”
Let’s get the bad or meh out of the way first then I’ll talk about what I do like about the show.
-It’s still a hospital show, and I just don’t care about hospital shows very much. There’s a reason I never watched House or Grey’s Anatomy or anything like that and that’s that the fact that I even though I like Scrubs it didn’t win me over to the hospital show category. Some of the cases of the week are interesting, but I only get into them at all for the effect they may have on the show’s actual characters.
-They seem to be stumbling rough the supernatural element of the show. I kind of don’t feel like it adds anything to the story most of the time, and aside from the one psychic/hypnotist guy they really haven’t done anything with it. And that’s the one thing that separates the show from most other hospital shows (aside from the fact that the eye candy was so appealing to me. That there’s eye candy it hardly special to this show though). It’s not really interested in exploring it, and not just because they don’t want to get into the spiritual implications, they just don’t seem to want to develop that side of the story. Effectively it’s just a different way to discuss the patients of the week, when they could do so much more.
-In a chicken and the egg problem, part of the issue is that...Charlie is a really uninteresting ghost. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, I think he’s a good character (if maybe a touch too perfect to be terribly interesting), and exactly the type of guy I love both as a character and in real life But...what does him being a ghost DO for the story? He’s a smart, kind, well-loved, and well-adjusted guy who happens to find himself in a coma; what exactly does it do for the story to watch *his* story? It hasn’t brought about huge changes in his character, be it his opinions about prolonged comas, thoughts on the people around him, his place in the world, or anything. He didn’t think himself the center of the universe (he’s confident but not self-centered) only to be shown the world would go on without him; or the opposite of being overly self-effacing only to find out he really was beloved by those around him; being able to see the private moments people didn’t include him in hasn’t led to any grand revelations (about the closest is Dawn revealing that she still loves him but that’s more brought out by circumstance rather than him hearing it because he’s a ghost); and even if it had, considering the was the show doesn’t want to deal with the supernatural side of itself, none of it would matter if and when he wakes up.
-I have mixed feeling on the love...hexagon at this point? that they’re working toward. Maggie’s friend likes Maggie, who likes Joel, who still has feelings for Alex, who loves Charlie, who Dawn also apparently still loves. One thing I like about the show early on was that the pilot made it look like Alex was going to be torn between coma-Charlie and previously minor feelings for Joel and then the show DIDN’T go there as soon as Charlie was in the coma. However, I think it is still handling it...relatively adultly so I’m not throwing up my hands in frustration yet.
I have more to say on that topic in the positives section, so let’s get to it.
-I think I’ve been too mired in TVD angst of late, so I appreciate that these characters are competent adults more than I probably should. But appreciate it I do.
-Which is kind of tied in with why I so appreciated that the show didn’t go for the immediate love triangle route. And even though it’s become clear that there are Joel->Alex feelings Alex so far hasn’t been the least bit conflicted, so I approve. And I actually don’t mind the Joel/Maggie/Maggie’s friend slice of the love polygon pie, because it’s been clear from the start that Joel and Maggie had different desires for their relationship so I understand way there might be some complicated feelings going on with those three.
-I have always approved of the fact that Maggie looks at character played by DG and basically thinks “I want to hit that thang.” This seems like an appropriate reaction to me. I may not think Maggie/Joel works but I can definitely get behind her wanting a piece of that. Though why Charlie doesn’t have interns throwing themselves at him however is something of a mystery.
-That the show is really Alex’s story. As much as I take issue with how little the show does with Charlie exploring and dealing with his situation, that that side of the plot has been so underutilized has left room for the show to really be Alex dealing with the situation facing her.
-I want to be Shaheer’s friend, I’d never make him go out to large crowded events and he’d never make me go to them either. I totally get how anxiety-inducing crowds are buddy, and I’m willing to deal with your issues about sharing food even if I don’t completely share that one. (Although I *may* want to see Joel in a best ass competition, got to say.)
Hmm, I had a lot more to say on the negative side, but that’s not so much because I feel more negatively about the show than positively, it’s just that the things I dislike are kind of big concept things that the show hasn’t developed to my satisfaction. While I like the characters and think there’s been some really good performances (especially from ED) and most of the episodes are enjoyable the things I dislike are pretty big problems.
I’ll keep watching it for the rest of the season, but once it’s over I probably won’t think of it again, aside from cursing it for keeping DG away from TVD if it happens (if Daniel has room in his schedule for both more power to him, but TVD needs more Elijah next season). It’s just...okay, which is maybe even a little more than I expected it to be quite frankly, but it’s definitely as high as I can go.
