Perception

[arduinna]

I have a whole long thing in my head going into the things I like about TNT's shows, the things I used to like about Perception, and the way Perception has annoyed me this season -- minor enough to let me keep watching, right up till the end of the season.

But it's 11:47 and now this is stuck in my head as the thing I want to post today, so I will be very brief and say:



I can't bring myself to watch the final ep. I stuck it out through their really frustrating handling of Daniel's schizophrenia ("Hey, responsibly committing myself when I realized I'd lost complete control worked! I'm on meds now, and my life is good, I'm happy, I'm in a relationship, all of which happened offscreen for several months. Oh but wait, side effects of the drugs. I must go off them instantly! And now here it is the second episode, and I'm back exactly where I was last season as though nothing had ever changed, except I'm lying to my girlfriend about it." Seriously, I was so pissed. I completely get that the show wants to use his hallucinations as a vehicle for crime-solving. I think that's cool! But jfc, don't tell us he was happy offscreen but now he can't be. Just leave him off the damn meds completely!)

... ahem. Anyway, so I sucked it up and got through that, and have suffered through all of the Kate storyline with her skeevy ex-husband who wants her back, and gritted my teeth through Daniel and the ex posturing at each other and jockeying for best-Kate-owning-position. Which would probably annoy me a lot more if I cared about Kate at all, but I don't, because she's mostly a cipher to me, even with the ex-husband storyline.

But then in the second to last episode, out of nowhere she goes completely off the rails, and shoots someone, while Daniel and the ex run around white-knighting to try to save her from herself. And the last episode is all about her facing charges while the two of them (Donnie, that's the ex's name) try to clear her name.

And a) wow how much do I not want this to be about two guys working to save the woman (who is a perfectly capable FBI agent, or so we're told), but b) and way more important: wtf, why is this happening, and why am I supposed to care?

When Brenda went off the rails in The Closer, it had been building up for years. It was part of her characterization from day one, and we got to see how different things affected her, and how her actions put this or that in motion. It made sense, and I was massively invested in the outcome.

This? This is just cheap, stock manipulation, and I'm so annoyed with myself for giving the season a chance after I was so put off by the first two episodes.

And I'm ten times more frustrated because dammit, TNT usually does women pretty well, so there's actual real characterization involved. Bah.

And now it's 11:59 and I'm just gonna hit post, even though I could spend hours reworking this to something more coherent. Here, have incoherent reaction.

Comments

[wyomingnot]

So much TV I just have to (mostly) shut my brain off to watch. If I think about pretty much any show too much, ugh.

I felt that Daniel's relapse was reasonably handled. From my experience, actually realistic. *shrug*

Yes, the whole Kate thing was out of nowhere. Which I actually didn't notice until you pointed it out. Not that I've ever cared about that character. Everyone else is more interesting.

...and hey, it's not like you invested a ton of time. 10 episode. Feh. ..which reminds me that I need to get back to Person of Interest. Oops.

[arduinna]

Oh, I agree about the way they handled the relapse itself; that's probably what kept me invested. and I love that the show is about respecting someone with a mental illness to make their own decisions about their life, and living a really pretty damn fulfilled, productive life - that's amazing.

But it was the fact that we only ever got to see, what, half an episode of him being actively, safely, and happily on his meds before the side effects started hitting? After he'd been on them for six months in show time. It's a narrative thing for me, I think. We never even got a chance to see how he helped on cases without his hallucinations, despite the fact that he clearly had been doing so successfully for months. And that's fine! Except they gave us just enough information to let us know he'd been happy and settled, then went back to their formula without a blink.

... My god that's a lot of words to circle around a thing without managing to explain it. *shakes head, tries again after thinking it out more*

It's a bait-and-switch, sort of. They convinced me to get invested in his character, made me care about him and his life, then told me that I didn't get to see a big part of that life because he was happy and content in it, and they don't actually want me to enjoy him as a character: they just want me to enjoy watching him have hallucinations.

The entire show tells us over and over that it's about understanding that Daniel is a whole person who happens to have schizophrenia that he handles in various reasonable, adult ways, which, wow, is fabulous. But what it literally showed by making that narrative choice is that it's really about Daniel-The-Schizophrenic, who can only be interesting in the grip of his illness.

Which is way too much analysis of something that should just be mental popcorn, honestly, but there you go. *g*

And yeah; I have a sneaking suspicion the sudden focus on incredibly boring Kate this season is that TPTB realized she was a cipher, and really, in TNT's favor, that just doesn't happen much on that network. It was a nice thought, trying to flesh her out, but she was just never that interesting a character and it fell completely flat.

which reminds me that I need to get back to Person of Interest. Oops.

\o/ That is worth all the time!

[blueswan]

Sorry to hear it kept heading in this direction. I gave up on it earlier this season. The first season was interesting, but when my favourite character is a hallucination, I think maybe it was not meant to be. I never could pinpoint what was less appealing to me, but possibly the cases felt more formula driven and less character driven this season.

[arduinna]

*nods*

It feels sorta like they never expected to get a second season, and just flailed their way through it, but man, it just lacked most of the charm of first season all around. Pity!

[greerwatson]

See, I thought the reason they added the irritating ex-husband—and, more recently, the ex-girlfriend—was because they were trying desperately with both hands (and both feet) to avoid having anyone assume Daniel/Kate. Which, let's face it, is fairly unusual for TPTB. Usually they love to punch the viewers' romance buttons with a bit of UST.

[arduinna]

I stared and stared at this, trying to figure out what you meant by "the ex-girlfriend", until it finally hit me: oh yeah, there's a musician involved now, right. *shakes head at self* She's that much of a shoehorned-in character to me, she's not even particularly real. Although I like that we got some flashbacks to Daniel and baby Levar Burton, at least.

And yeah, I can totally see that they're going for that, but it's so heavy-handed and awkwardly done that it had the exact opposite effect on me; I started thinking "oh great, they're setting up conflict so Daniel and Kate can realize that no, really, they belong together".