Beauty and the Beast 1x07, 1x08, 1x09 and Six Feet Under Season 3

I was so nervous that the show was going to spin off the rails from the 1x07 preview that I let a few episodes pile up. But I shouldn't have been nervous at all, I should trust this show! They've handled everything so well and it's been such a surprise and delight and continues to be just that.

Like, Cat and Vincent are the only couple I'm actively getting shippy, fluttery feelings in my stomach for on TV right now. (I still sort of passively ship Forwood on TVD, but Caroline's Stefan stanning and my growing love for Tyler as an individual character are kind of changing that.) And it's so fun, because that's EXACTLY how I'm supposed to be feeling, it's the heart and soul of the show! It's just nice to relax and enjoy the journey. I love how there's so much honesty between them, and also some angst and sadness and how they have legitimate issues they need to work out but they both just really want to be together. ♥ And lol, my friend was telling me she saw a lot of complaints about how they haven't kissed yet and it kind of makes me laugh because I don't even care? Like, there's so much emotional meat to their every interaction and so much chemistry that I can wait for the kiss. It's kind of nice in a way how much their relationship is rooted in other things. But the show is definitely teasing that moment, I don't blame other more normal people for being impatient for it!

Anyway, I was worried the rage blackouts were going to be a thing where Vincent hurt Cat and it was forgivable because he didn't know what he was doing (I've watched other shows on the CW okay, ahem TVD, ahem), but I can say now that I don't think THIS show will ever go there. I find Vincent's story increasingly compelling. A person's free will is a really important idea on the show as is honesty in relationships and I like that even though both Vincent and Cat end up doing some sketchy things (and it's totally sympathetic), the show never treats it like it's something other than it is. The lies Catherine tells WEIGH on her, the things Vincent does bother him. But anyway back to Vincent's journey...I think it was an interesting and brave choice for the show to make him a soldier that has been transformed and used and then discarded by the government. There's an obvious parallel there for vets suffering from PTSD and so watching Vincent try to figure out how to have a life after everything he's been through and all the ways he's been used makes his journey really easy to root for. And I like that even Catherine is tempted and DOES use his beastly side to her advantage when it works for her to (like with saving Evan). Like, I think it's just something that happens in life, that we sometimes use even the weaknesses of the people we love for our own advantage--to feel better about ourselves, to get stuff done, etc, but it does have an effect on them, and so I enjoyed that JT called her out on that.

Also, I was relieved they decided that she wasn't the one causing the blackouts. And I think it was a nice twist that her mom was all up to her eyeballs in this super secret government stuff. That moment when her father told her she was like her mother was so poignant because she was at a place where she actively didn't want to be like her mom. Aw, Cat ♥ So watching her also grow up with this new knowledge about her mother and what her mother did to Vincent is interesting to watch.

The way he just drops into her house might be construed as creepy, but I don't know she doesn't seem to mind. And of course the last episode before hiatus was filled with so much shippy goodness!! I couldn't help but love how they can't just go out on a date together, but while they are having this big conversation about how they can't just have this wedding date like normal people, she hands him her necklace to put on--like this super familiar, intimate gesture, aw. And I love how when he did show up, she knew that he was there immediately. And they danced! How very Beauty and the Beast. But, of course nothing lasts forever....the ending was kind of shocking, but I guess Evan will know now? and I mean like in any show like this, it's kind of a bummer how Catherine has had to lie to Evan because he does kind of deserve to know what happened that night the Beast saved him? But at the same time Vincent is supposed to be dead. So Evan knowing could be really good.

And I love Tess! I loooved the episode with the boy band singer, she was so cute and funny and they were cute together. I don't know this show just makes me happy and gives me positive feelings. The CW gets a lot of crap for having bad shows, but Nikita and Beauty and the Beast are actually two shows I really really enjoy right now!

Six Feet Under Season Three

Wow way to take a plot contrivance and drag it out forever, show! Actually, the whole marriage to Lisa thing with Nate ended up paying off really well for Nate's characterization, but I am slightly resentful the show never let us love Lisa in the same way. What did we know about Lisa? Super Type A personality, scared to death of losing Nate. It wasn't until she was missing we got to learn fun quirks like that she liked Dr. Pepper. And maybe this was intentional, we saw as much of Lisa as Nate did, but I don't know, it just kind of bugged me. Like on the one hand from a writing perspective I think they explored some really interesting things with Nate's character through his marriage to Lisa, but everything that Lisa was on the show was tied to Nate. Which is how I knew, even before they knocked me over the head with it in the sixth episode, that this was temporary and not meant to last. Nate/Brenda OTP, etc. And it's interesting how a show of this caliber can dismantle one of its central relationships all the while still assuring you that they really belong together. I've been thinking about this a lot, to be honest, because there is all this stuff that I liked, how Brenda said Nate never really loved her, all the meat of Nate choosing to love Lisa even when he didn't feel it. This whole idea that you can choose to be committed to someone even if you don't feel the same excitement you felt with someone else. And that's a valid choice! But I felt like it was slightly undermined by the show's framing. And this is a well written show, don't get me wrong, but the idea of Nate and Brenda was always there.

But it was just kind of sad that the times the show did choose to give Lisa point of view were heartbreaking. Like in the sixth episode when she admitted she wasn't having orgasms, and then they have great sex in the woods but we find out later it was because Nate was thinking of Brenda. Or when she went to the spa to see Brenda and ended up breaking down in front of her. What made Lisa like this? Why was she so insecure and as a result controlling? I don't know I just wish we'd been let in a bit more.

Watching Nate unravel after she went missing was interesting to watch, and I kind of wanted to wrap up a copy of A Monster's Call for him and assure him that our truth is more than that of our worst thought. His commitment to Lisa was worth more than all those times he resented her, sigh.

The whole Arthur/Ruth storyline was so unbearable to watch. I felt like it could have been one thing, a really beautiful story about two people connecting romantically across a huge age gap, but it wasn't anything like that at all, I don't even know what the point of it was. I'm sort of over Ruth as a character at the moment!

Claire and Russell and her teacher were so fascinating to watch, but I also felt like that story line kind of whimpered out? I thought they did a pretty good job of showing how at first a personality like that is so dynamic and interesting and they were both so drawn to him and then they started to realize the truth of who he was, but it was too late he'd already divided and conquered. But Russell's confession seemed oddly timed and then suddenly Claire was having an abortion, and I don't know, it was just odd.

David and Keith, sigh. I really liked Keith the first season, but I did not like him again through most of this season. I don't know, I just like David loads and think he deserves to be with someone who treats him well. I do think it's worth noting that the two characters with major anger problems are Rico and Keith, though. Rico won a few points with me for his tenderness with Vanessa while she was suffering from depression, but obviously that was ruined by the end of the season!

I really felt like Billy kissing Brenda was a huge plot contrivance meant to get her in a position where she had no one but Nate to turn to. So I thought it was a disservice to his character, but whatever. I have little to say about Brenda this season, except I was so happy when she finally showed up again!

All in all, I felt like Nate's story was the most interesting to me this season, and I can appreciate why they did it from a writing standpoint but ugh, I still had issues! Maybe my issues are just tied to having to recognize fiction as exactly that. Anyway, I'm probably going to start the fourth season soon. Oh I cried a lot in the finale when Claire was spending all the time with the people who had died, ugh, this show.

So now you are all caught up on my thoughts about my TV watching! I know you're thrilled, lol.