Orphan Black Season 1, Episode 6: Variations Under Domestication

 

Allison wakes up before her husband and checks the memory card on the hidden camera to see what happened during the night. There’s a moment in the early hours of the morning when he gets up and looks at her then leaves – but then the card is full.

Actually starting the day he’s a lot less patient than usual and snaps at Allison over various things that haven’t been done around the house. She asks him where he was in the night but he snaps at her about how busy they are and how much they have to get done right now. He leaves to do some shopping still snarking at her – and she hits him with a golf club.

Ok then. That was rather disproportionate.

Sarah is having an easier time talking to Paul because he’s not unconscious from a severe head injury. He’s very quick to point out her own lies and conning him – about having sex with him without being who she said she was which means both quickly put aside some of the moral outrage. They – whoever they are – have leverage over him and he knows very little about the whys of what he’s been made to do. Sarah doesn’t trust him – and does a runner out of the bedroom window. Hey at least he’s conscious

Sarah calls Cosima about Paul and she says from a scientific point of view that it makes sense that the monitors know so little so they can’t skew the results. She’s also concerned about Delphine being friendly since it may be her own monitor. Hmmm… maybe but Cosima was the one who made friendly overtures to Delphine… Sarah advises her to keep away which irritates Cosima since she is being treated as the “science monkey” and Sarah isn’t following her own advice. Cosima goes on to talk to Delphine, saying she’s bored, and gets an invitation to a “Neolution” lecture from her

Allison, with her concussed husband, then decides to interrupt to call in Sarah to help with her whole assault and battery thing. Getting rid of the kids she then drops her husband down the stairs. Oops. On a far creepier note, Paul has a bug in Beth/Sarah’s car and is tracking her. And then he starts grinding pills up into one of the booze bottles.

Fangs for the Fantasy Books of the Week

 

 

Every week on the Fangs for the Fantasy podcast (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show. The review for the book of the week always goes up on a Monday

Our podcast now broadcasts at 6:30pm EST, which is 11:30pm GMT

To give people a chance to read along with us, every Monday we’re also going to include a list of our planned books of the week for the next few shows, so people can get the books, read them and join in the conversation.

 

29th April - 6th May: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

6th May - 13th May: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

13th May - 20th May: Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

20th May - 27th May: The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

27th May - 3rd June: Shapeshifted by Cassie Alexander

Warehouse 13 Sneak Peak

Warehouse 13 sneak peak!

Defiance shinies

Defiance Sneak peak for next episode

Interview with Stephanie Leonidas (Irisa)

Behind the scenes look at Defiance's special effects

The Vampire Diaries, Season 4, Episode 21: She's Come Undone

 

The recapping of Vampire Diaries means most episodes now start with Elena falling to her knees wailing. I’m beginning to think this is some kind of warning label – not “this may contain sex and violence” but more “this show contains excessive angst, melodrama, terrible acting and epic self-centredness. Viewer’s discretion is advised.”

Alas, no discretion for me. And we start with Elena in high school but it’s all a fake hallucination (you can tell because there’s probably more POC in that crowd than has ever appeared in Vampire Diaries – the mole people have arrived!)  This is actually a dreamscape – Damon has been in her head creating dream worlds for her to try and provoke nostalgia.

Wait… what? Since when can he do that?

It doesn’t work so they continue to starve Elena and keep her in a small cupboard until she starts to care again. After a few days of cupboard time, Caroline arrives to talk to her for an earnest friend talk. Oi, no, bring on the thumb screws, please! Caroline is all earnest, Elena is all snarky though she has a point about how silly it is for vampires to get all excited about graduation. Caroline snaps Elena’s neck and adds her endorsement for the torture therapy.

Since we’re looking for emotional responses, wouldn’t parading the guys around naked be a useful tactic? No? Well we could hope.

Let’s drop in on some characters no-one cares about. Rebekah is getting drunk and being sulky because she doesn’t have her cure and her brothers have gone and Matt is there being the totally-not-going-to-be-love-interest-honest. He dislikes her and how she likes evil!Elena so they’re definitely falling in love. It’s a rule. He also wants to know why she hasn’t left town. He and me both.

Caroline is worried about Elena and calls Bonnie – who is actually doing school work for exams. Exams?! Yes they actually have exams! First I heard about it, I thought Mystic Falls just had a never ending run of parties! Bonnie isn’t ready to run around playing nice for Elena who tried to kill her. Instead she’s meeting with Katherine which makes so much sense, apparently she has an offer for Katherine and it’s all about Bonnie and doesn’t involve Elena at all. Yeah, why do I doubt it.

The Salvatores are playing torture Elena into goodness again, this time with sunlight and no shiny witch ring. More posturing, more snark. Outside Caroline and Matt are talking with her angsting about Elena all over him. And Rebekah has bought food for Matt since there’s only blood and booze in the Salvatore house. Behold the clumsy romance between pointless side characters develop. Also Matt is failing many of his classes – study date!

Back to Bonnie and Katherine – Bonnie wants Silas’s tombstone which she thinks Katherine took; she needs it to stop Silas. She’s been hiding from Silas until she’s able to deal with him

I’m glad SOMEONE cares about Silas trying to end the world. But this does mean she’s acting less for her own agenda and more nobly trying to save the world while everyone else is self-absorbed.

Back to Elena sunbathing and torture and it’s not working except Elena’s finding more mean things to say. Why, every other vampire has done it and it does (because she’s so special)? Stefan says she has nothing to come back to since she’s shredded all her relationships and Damon adds that Elena isn’t feeling fear (therefore emotion therefore humanity) because she knows Damon and Stefan won’t really cause her damage. So who do they need? Katherine, because Elena has every reason to hate her. Yay let’s draw more people into the Elena net.

Meanwhile in plotlines that actually matter- Klaus drops in to see Caroline - but it’s not Klaus, it’s Silas. And he’s very very annoyed with Bonnie hiding from him – he expresses his irritation by staking her.

Da Vinci's Demons, Season 1, Episode 4: The Magician

We open with Leonardo’s backstory told by Andrea – how Pierro, Leo’s father, recognised Leo’s talent and “sold” him to Andrea. He tells the story to a jealous Botticelli (oooh another Renaissance painter – let’s see how straight this one turns out, since he’s more ambiguous than the gay Leonardo Da Vinci, he’s almost certain to be straight in this show).

Leo is painting Lucrezia and obsessing over the statue again, she comments on it and lots of flirting follows.

Meanwhile the pope is plotting against Florence, as he does, while making plans for the Sistine Chapel and competing for the most gaudily tasteless clothing in history award. They’re plotting  more subtle attack on Florence that doesn’t involve everyone being turned to goo by cannon.

In Florence, Lorenzo and Guiliano are arguing over Becchi, who Lucrezia set up as a traitor. Guiliano doesn’t believe it and there is much tantrumming. Lorenzo is adamant, pointing to Becchi’s family’s severe debts as motive

Riario decides to have his own little Bible quiz where he kills people who get the wrong answer. And lo, we now know why Riario gave up his career as a school teacher after the Unfortunate Spelling Bee Incident. After one person gets the answer right, he dispatches the guy to Florence with a note about the many many many people they killed. Riario also reflects on the Medici’s wealth, including the alum mines Florence controls – which Riario has just taken over and massacred the miners.

Leo is getting bored making the same thing over and over, which makes it probably fortunate when his dad comes to take him to the palace – a bored Leo is a dangerous thing. To a secret council chamber with Lorenzo for him to pontificate at length. Between the flowery language it’s basically “we’re at war with Rome, last chance to run” with extra “traitors will be stabbed repeatedly in the face.”  And then he loses his ever loving mind and decides to have a messenger tortured for reading the scroll the miner was sent with by Riario; he blames the man for the spread of the news of Riario’s army. More rousingly awful speech before everyone shows off their awful Italian. When everyone leaves, Guiliano remains behind to remind Lorenzo that his rousing speech was a direct quote from Becchi. He says there’s a difference between strength and cruelty and the people will rise against them

Outside in the street, Andrea talks to Lucrezia about the crowd gathering for the servant’s brutal public execution on the wheel. It’s very very nasty, and Lucrezia has to stay and watch to prove how she is against those awful awful spies.

Beauty and the Beast, Season 1, Episode 20: Anniversary

Awww, Vincent is romantically watching Catherine sleep by sneaking in her window.

I blame Stephanie Meyer for this creepy creepy behaviour becoming a romantic staple. I don’t know about anyone else but if I woke up and found the guy I’m sleeping with staring at me I’d find it faintly creepy – let alone knowing they’ve actually sneaked into my bedroom to do so. Besides, no-one is sexy first thing in the morning – with wild bed-head hair and that wrinkle on your cheek from the pillow and morning breath. Then there’s snoring and dribbling and horrible mucus bubbles, talking in their sleep revealing they’re actually having sexy dreams about someone else. Seriously, sleeping humans are nasty nasty things.

Anyway, the reason for this creepiness is that it’s the anniversary of Catherine’s mother’s death. We get a quick recap about the death, Muirfield et al. And how her mother lied to her and was part of something so evil (and she liked pineapple on her pizza. I can forgive the whole experimenting on people for funsies, but defiling good pizza with pineapple? She was evil!) Of course it’s also the anniversary of Catherine meeting Vincent – so she decides to bail on her sister and dad mourning her mother’s death and instead spend time having sexy times with Vincent.

Even Vincent realises how totally not-ok that is and how, even if she’s not happy with her mother’s memory, it’s quite like kicking her sister and father in the stomach.

At work Tess meets Joe and they discuss their ongoing affair and Joe has an idea – go public about it! And in preparation for that he has found another precinct for her to transfer to. Yeah, Tess isn’t mad pleased about him assuming she would be the one to transfer. (I can kind of see her point – certainly at the assumption rather than discussing it – but isn’t there going to be more chances to transfer at her rank than his?)  He points this out but she adds that she’s worked to gain respect in this precinct; which he says she’ll lose if they go public, then rapidly amends to “we” when Tess protests. He leaves going public in her hands.

When Vincent and Catherine go to the cemetery they find that Gabe is already at her mother’s grave. And Vincent gets jealous (oh, really? Can we not, even if the man is gorgeous can we just move away from love triangles and jealousy with this couple. Stop flogging this zombie horse).  Talking to Gabe, he tells Catherine how he knew her mother, and he reassures Catherine that her mother was a wonderful, awesome doctor who was caring and loving while other doctors did the cruel, unethical experiments. Uh-huh, being nice and turning a blind eye isn’t winning her any ethics points. He and Catherine bond over her old videos that Catherine’s mother brought in to Muirfield and she invites him to their family anniversary commemoration. He offers to replace her headstone which is cracked. And Vincent gets all jealous and beasty about it.

Requiem for Blood by Alexandra Hope

 

Olivia grew up in a cult – a cult lead by her mother, Mar, and is dedicated to becoming vampires. Subsisting nearly entirely on a diet of human blood, they enjoy many advantages, but the final goal of changing and becoming a true vampire still eludes them, they need that one last key.

Olivia and her friend have many doubts about the lifestyle the cult espouses and even more trouble with the daily life and the combat regime until Olivia finally reaches her 17^th birthday and her rite of passage- hunting a human.

Which is when Erika the Kitsune gets involved, Olivia achieves her cult’s goal, bodies start dropping and she’s briefly reunited with her estranged sister and her compelling fiancé. Then more bodies start hitting the ground and it’s a very steep learning curve.

This book has a really unique premise and world setting – which is always refreshing to see and doubly so with any book about vampires. There are so many vampire books out there that someone could write a book with vampire were platypus which cruelly beak their victims to death and it’s probably already been done 3 times.

So to mix up the kitsune and the vampires, to have this unique origin story and this truly odd concept of a human vampire cult, surviving on drinking blood and slowly developing minor vampire like abilities while seeking their end goal of finally finding a way to transform and you have a really unique concept.

This kept me reading the book for a long time because it was so refreshing and so imaginative.

But, in the end, I stopped at 70% and couldn’t go any further. Yes, I was defeated and this book became a DNF. There were several reasons – none of which would probably have defeated me on their own but together it was too much to tolerate