Awesome women being awesome

[starlady]

They're all white women so far, but the books on which R&I is based are by Tess Gerritsen, who is Chinese-American (and an M.D.).

Rizzoli & Isles 1x01, "See One, Do One, Teach One"

Nothing says femmeslash like turtles, apparently. Detective Jane Rizzoli is a Boston cop with some very close calls in her past career, and Dr. Maura Isles is a brilliant forensic scientist working for the force. Together, they fight crime!

I wish I could be surprised that a women-centric show opens with a case that focuses on sexual violence against women (with bonus necrophilia) and quickly escalates that to the threat of sexual violence against the female detective herself--every female LEO needs a Hannibal Lecter figure, apparently. I could do without the show showing the runup to the rape and murder, and at the end when Rizzoli shoots the serial killer in the hands (stigmata, anyone?) I was reminded of the truism that cops and criminals are fundamentally the same, they just channel their impulses differently. Since the serial killer is dealt with again (though not dead), I'm more inclined to focus on Rizzoli and Isles themselves; they are pretty awesome. And there is totally a Holmes & Watson dynamic here, anytime you have a doctor and a detective you are channeling that, and it's interesting me on the heels of actual Holmes fandom to see the detective be the emotional one (like Creeper tells Rizzoli, she lets her heart rule her head). Isles of course has the opposite problem. (Also, OMG, Sasha Alexander! There totally needs to be NCIS crossover fic featuring Isles and Kate now.)

That's about it really. I liked the show, I liked the characters, I liked that they talked about Rizzoli getting second-degree burns while saving herself. I will probably keep watching.

Covert Affairs 1x01, "Pilot"

This show is a lot like watching Alias, but with (more) realism. Piper Perado even looks a bit like Jennifer Garner.

I will be honest, my thought in watching this was, "female spy + Doug Liman + Florence & the Machine in the ads = awesome", and this formula proved true. Annie Walker, who is 28 and speaks 6 languages, joins the CIA to get over a bad breakup in Sri Lanka and finds herself yanked out of training early and brought back to Langley, where the director is obsessed with finding out who's talking to a savvy reporter and dealing with his wife, who also works at the Agency and is convinced he's having an affair. There are car chases! There are actual fight scenes with women fighting men! There is a bind character who works at the Agency and whose blindness is secondary to the fact that he's great at his job! (He even cracks a joke about ablism at one point; it's played for laughs, but it's there.)

So, yeah. I want to drive cars like Annie. Also, I don't care about Ben Mercer at all, except that I was angry that Annie didn't fully save herself at the end. Also, this is not news, but I ♥ D.C.

Comments

[seekingferret]

Covert Affairs sounds awesome.

[starlady]

I liked it a lot.

[seekingferret]

I liked it, too! And I'm agreed with you about Ben Mercer. I'm hoping they don't spend too much time on that nonsense.

Also, apparently Sendhil Ramamurthy is going to be joining the show, replacing the Conrad character?

[starlady]

Works for me! The Conrad character seemed like a generic asshat. Maybe at least he'll die cool.

[ninj]

I don't know about Rizzoli and Isles yet. I ended up watching the first half and losing interest and coming back to watch the second half the other night. I was at least glad that Rizzoli saved herself through the flare gun vs. FBI guy showing up to rescue her.

I might have to give Covert Affairs a try though.

[starlady]

I watched the first episode while doing things on the computer; I definitely agree that it's less than fully engrossing. But I will definitely watch a few more episodes, since I like Sasha Alexander and the premise.

Covert Affairs is great so far. We watched it again last night and I enjoyed it again.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Hey, I posted that I might have to check out Covert Affairs sometime, as I've been interested in the promotions I've seen, so your thoughts are much of interest. It sounds like fluffy fun, though the boyfriend plot sounds dumb.

I've never seen Alias, so I haven't gotten the comparisons--I take it they have more in common than just the female spy as main character?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

We-e-ell, there aren't too many other similarities, thinking about it seriously, but "female spy being awesome" is enough. Alias was a) completely implausible and b) silly by the end and c) all about characters multi-crossing each other. It seems like Covert Affairs takes the more realistic "plots within plots" approach to spying.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

It's funny--the little I've seen so far reminds me of Chuck, in that the lead is goofy on the surface and surrounded by Very Serious Spies, and all the plot revolves around exes. And I have distinct Scarecrow and Mrs. King flashbacks at times too. Maybe the spy genre is pretty consistent...

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Just back again to say how right you are--there's absolutely no reason to care about Ben Mercer. But I must agree that the car chases and fight scenes were great.