Hey, Due South? Emotional continuity called.
Hey, Due South? Emotional continuity called. It wants to remind you that it, uh, exists.
What the hell was that? Ray has a long lost true love who’s never been mentioned before? And who will undoubtedly never be mentioned again? And who, of course, looks ten year younger than him even though they supposedly grew up together.
And she has no story of her own, and all her positive personality traits are just there to justify why Ray would love her, not because they’re actually telling any kind of arc about her. And then of course she dies tragically to make a point to the men.
And then in the next episode everyone is bouncing around like nothing happened, and Ray is mooning over yet another woman that we’ve never even seen before.
Steven Moffat, did you secretly write this? :P
Okay, I actually did like aspects of the episode. Carrie-Anne Moss is wonderful, which is why it’s such a shame that her character was so pointless. She and David Marciano had great chemistry–he really shone as an actor in their scenes, and it was nice to see a more serious and romantic side of Ray. And his heartbreak at her death was beautifully acted, even though the story itself was inane.
Gardino’s death was done really well–it actually shocked me that such a generally light-hearted show would kill off a recurring character so violently and suddenly. And I’m pleased they didn’t do the Joss Whedon style “very special Gardino moment” pre-death. I’m sure it was just some issue where the actor decided to leave, but they handled it in an interesting way. And it finally gave Huey something to do other than glare and snark; his reaction to the loss of his partner was dark and realistic and moving.
AND THEN THE NEXT EPISODE DOESN’T EVEN MENTION ANY OF IT. ARGH.
Okay, I know I’m bitching, but I actually am enjoying the season so far. I think “Bird in the Hand” is the best one yet, because it’s got brilliant and hilarious Fraser/Ray banter, some powerful friendship moments between them (I love Ray telling Fraser he’ll cover for him if he kills Gerard), great exploration of Fraser’s issues with his father and his conflict between his duty and his own desires (this time for vengeance against Gerard–it’s really cool to see the bits of Fraser’s dark side that do come through).
The show continues to have the strangest issues with female characters, though. You get the sense someone gave them a note after the first season that they need more strong female roles, and they responded by creating these terrifying dominatrix women to be the characters’ bosses. Uh, not the way to write a strong woman. Just write us as people! Regular people! Not a mysterious, inexplicable, and vaguely terrifying foreign species!
Current Mood: 
frustrated
5 Responses to “Hey, Due South? Emotional continuity called.”
butterfly on August 5, 2008 1:42 am | Link
I am of the opinion that gender issues on the show definitely improve once Paul Gross takes over in S3 — I’m curious as to whether or not you’ll agree with me once you get there (there are still some episodes that are kinda eeek, but there are also some where it feels like the women are written as *people* first).
Because I love Fraser to bits… but, wow, some of those earlier episodes in particular… I actually do like pretty much all of the women in dS, but I wonder how much of that is out of self-defense.
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rusty-halo on August 5, 2008 6:00 pm | Link
I’m looking forward to seeing how the show changes when Paul Gross takes over.
I like some of the female characters, but it’s definitely in *spite* of the way they’re presented. Some of them have interesting situations and are portrayed by good actresses, but the show never shows us them as individuals. We only see them in terms of how they relate to men, so it takes some fanwanking to see them as actual three-dimensional people with their own hopes and dreams and lives. *sigh*
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butterfly on August 5, 2008 9:30 pm | Link
One of the things that he did was cut down on the sheer overwhelming number of random women that find Fraser irresistibly hot. I appreciated that change.
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a_white_rain on August 5, 2008 1:53 am | Link
Just write us as people! Regular people! Not a mysterious, inexplicable, and vaguely terrifying foreign species!
I’m not sure why that’s such a hard thing to get.
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rusty-halo on August 5, 2008 6:02 pm | Link
I think it’s because a lot of guys really do only see us in relation to them. You definitely get the sense that these writers are thinking “How do I write a woman?” rather than “How do I write an interesting character?”
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