Irresponsible

[thegrrrl2002]

I'm on the tail end of an icky, icky cold and I'm headachy and tired and very sulky about it. But at least I have nothing much going on this weekend so I guess it's as good a time as any to be sick.

::sulks::

Since I'm kind of bored, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on "Irresponsible".

This was certainly my least favorite episode of the season. I only watched it once when it first aired, and after rewatching--yup, a sucky, sucky ep. Good lord, what a mess. And I actually loved "Irresistible". Sure, Lucius was annoying and creepy but the whole point of that ep was the crew's reaction to him. I enjoyed watching everyone fall under his spell, to see everyone be terribly silly and out of character with poor John the only one remaining lucid. (And yes, it was the episode of adorable John faces, wasn't it?) I thought that ep was well-written and quite enjoyable.

But Irresponsible missed the mark completely. Too much Lucius. They tried to make the ep about Lucius this time, and quite frankly, who cares? It was all about him and the villagers. (If I never ever saw another medieval-type village on SGA again I'd be very happy.) And they take the most sinister and effective villain they have and off him in the most trite manner possible. Not to mention the total disregard for canon when it came to the shield itself. All I wanted was one little throw-away line of 'hey, this one works differently' and I would have been okay with that. Seriously sloppy writing. And John spends half the ep wandering around with Lucius. Who we don't care about. Actually, there was an awful lot of walking around in this ep, wasn't there? I guess they couldn't figure out any other way to fill out the ep, since the plot was so lame. Even the actors seemed uncomfortable. The high point was the beginning, with John talking about Evel Knievel (he's not really evil) and Rodney going on about Batman. But that was about it.

Still, there was the pretty. John was especially dorky cute dorky in this ep:




Yes, we all love Sheppard's oral fixations.




Here he is describing the heft of Rodney's ass.


Colonel Smartypants.


Teeth!


And these were so goofy...


That I had to include two of them.

Other highlights:

Rodney looks hot.


Ronon eats a big slab of meat.


And Rodney looks really hot.


Teyla looks dangerous.


They're all rather pretty behind bars, aren't they?


And last but certainly not least, a close-up of JF's pretty, pretty crows-feet. *g*

Comments

This episode...

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

...looks much better when you screencap it. :) Thanks!

Re: This episode...

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I'm all for looking at the pretty and ignoring the story that goes with them. I'd much rather make up my own. *g*

I think this ep exists solely to make all the others look better.

[iamrosalita.livejournal.com]

SG writers just love to waste our time with episodes centering on characters we care nothing about, i.e. Lucius, Felger, Martin, ad nauseum.

What's up with that?

[ansku]

Oh, if only there had been more of this and less of Lucius... it looks much better without him :)

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

I refuse to believe Kolya's dead. Yes, John shot him, and yes, it's teevee, but NO BLOOD. The Genii's level of technology does not preclude primitive bulletproof vests (usually metal-lined), and...and...

Just no. Kolya was, as you said, too effective, and it wasn't Sheppard's team that rushed to him after he fell, it was one of his own men.

So I say he was wearing a vest and survived. Hell, the clothes were bulky enough.

Why yes, the weather is *quite* nice in Egypt this time of year...

[nialla]

I agree with justalurkr, it's much better when you screencap it. ;)

Too much Lucius. They tried to make the ep about Lucius this time, and quite frankly, who cares?

Apparently TPTB do. They seem to think Lucius was the reason we watched the ep with him the first time around, even referring to him as a "fan favorite." He's a creepy guy who roofied an entire city as well as the city of Atlantis to get what he wanted, and I'm pretty sure that would include sex with people who normally would not consent. Yeah, that's amusing stuff there. I'm just feeling the love of Lucius. The kind of love that would include feeding him to a Wraith.

Did you see Flanigan's comments about it? You could tell he wasn't too thrilled about it, but he didn't outright say it, instead saying that sometimes he was surprised by things turning out better than he thought they would. I get the impression Joe's a pretty good judge about such things, and he was dead-on about this one being bad.

[feather-autant.livejournal.com]

{{{{{{{{Grrrl}}}}}}}} I'm with you on the cold thing! I fought mine the whole time I was in the UK but now that I'm home it's decided to make me pay. :( Viruses are the bane of human existence.

How could they off Kolya like that? He was the best bad guy ever! It seemed so trite and trivial. He deserved better-- so did we. The caps are wonderful, though. :)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I know! We don't tune in to see Random Character Number 5, we want to see our team! Being all teamy! And cute! With each other!

So clueless.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

It does, doesn't it? I wish the writers had a clue. I mean, they do, most of the time, but certainly not this time.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

*g* I'd be very happy if he were still alive, too. Hey, you never know! This is scifi, after all.

And if they were going to kill him, I think it would have been much better if John did so in "Common Ground".

[tex.livejournal.com]

I'm with Rose. Kolya's buddies dragged him out of the town square while he still had a pulse and he's going to come back and he and Sheppard are going to have a confrontation that worthy of us.

And I am heartened by the fact that the new producers, Mallozzi and the other guy (i can never remember his name) were as disappointed in Irresponsible as we were. Which I don't get because they are WRITING the fucking episode, how can they get it so wrong and then act surprised when its a trainwreck.

But *serenity now* I know things will be great next year. I just know it.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

I was thinking. Using the elements we where handed in this episode, if it where mixed together DIFFERENTLY, what WOULD have made a good episode.

My first thought? They find Lucius in jail. Not having conned his way back into the good life, because honestly, he's not really that good of a con, mostly he falls over lucky technology and is smart enough not to be afraid of it.

I think maybe he tried to con a genii owned or allied world. And in Lucius's particular brand of babble, of COURSE he mentions Atlantis or the gene or something.

THEN enter Kolya.

See? Already, I think that would have been a MUCH better episode.

Also? Yes. Just looking at the pretty helps.

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

I still say, we saw the hole in his clothes but we saw no blood. So there you have it. No blood = no death. *wills it so*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Jeeze, a 'fan favorite'? He's as creepy as hell. I think we were expected to sympathize with him or something in this ep, but, um, no. And the village people were just downright annoying and over-stupidified.

And I did read JF's comments about this ep. I love how he makes his point about episodes he doesn't like. *g* He is indeed a good judge of such things, and seems like he's not afraid of ruffling feathers, too.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Aw, you poor thing! But your vacation sounded like great fun, I enjoyed the posts about it. And if you're sick when you get home, I think it means you did vacation right. *g*

::gives you tea and tissues::

I totally agree about Kolya. He was so damn menacing. How are they going to top that?

[sffan.livejournal.com]

I like to use this episode to tease my anti-McShepper friends:

In 99.9% of these situations (at least in my reading/viewing experience), the female character gets threatened with horrible acts and the hero comes out of the woodwork to save her because he *hearts* her (either secretly or acknowledged) and can't live with the idea of her being hurt on his behalf. Did Kolya pick Teyla? No. He picked Rodney. The ONE person on John's team that he actually would have a use for. It makes no sense that Rodney would be the first one Kolya would kill - unless he senses the true nature of their relationship. ;)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to next season. The spoilers are very intriguing. And yeah, it is heartening to know that the writers (Mallozzi and Mullie) were also disappointed in it. I think they said it was supposed to have a western theme, but they didn't have the budget for it. I'm not sure how that would have improved things, but I assume there maybe other aspects that didn't get mentioned? ::shrugs::

But you're right, they're writers, and they've been doing this for quite some time, so they should be able to recognize a stinker when they see one.

[morena-donn.livejournal.com]

My immeadiate reaction to this ep was "Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good villain" - but your caps made it all better. Especially the second one. Eyebrows! Above the sunglasses!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Straw sex indeed. *g*

Yes, that would have been a better way of going about it. It would have been a little more interesting than finding Lucius in the same position as before. And not quite so goofy. The mix of humor and angst in this ep so did not work.

I still think John should have simply shot Koyla the first time he saw him. And what's with our team getting ambushed? Come on, they're better than that.

::grumbles::

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

That was a very nice moment, wasn't it? *g* That, and when everyone stepped in front of Rodney. Aw!

[rivier.livejournal.com]

That was better times infinity than watching Irresponsible again, definitely. All of the pretty, none of the exasperation.

And hey, the dialogue is suddenly all witty and McSheppy and to the point - oh, that was yours!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

He's so very pretty, isn't he? *g* Making all those adorable faces. Hee!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

This is an ep that needs to be watched with the sound off. We can make up our own dialog!

And then afterward, John and Rodney are so traumatized by seeing Kolya again and being reminded of the life-sucking thing that they have to have lots and lots of comfort are-you-really-alive/yes-I'm-still-alive sex. In every position possible.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said in my post, if they had to do it like that, if John had simply shot after his line without the stupid fake tension build up, it would have really worked. Ala Indiana Jones.


Yeah the Humor/Angst buttons didn't work because it wasn't internal enough. It's much better if you let the main characters crack tension breaking jokes rather than have the OC blabber on proving over and over again how useless he is without a huge advantage.

Like okay, if there'd be a running gag about John while he was trying to rescue his team, even if it was simply the Universe Against Him, that really would have worked. And I don't view being stuck with Lucius as the Universe being against him. *G*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Yup. And considering what they all went through in "Common Ground", I think they all should have pulled their guns out and shot Kolya at the same time, without hesitation. Heck, I would have.