#obviously tbf it's also a very well written and emotional scene too like yes it is also intense | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lonelier-version-of-you · 2 months

Text

Well. There was once a time I would have said it was impossible to waste another well-known actor who's on a show for a year and playing a really interesting character with an implied tragic backstory more than Holby did with Paul McGann as John Gaskell.

I take it back. Congratulations, Casualty has wasted Nigel Harman as Max Cristie more than Holby wasted Paul McGann as John. At least John Gaskell's exit was sad in a well-done-story way and had been built up to. This was sad in an infuriating way and has come out of nowhere.

I don't believe this is in character for Max at all. This is just horrible and cold, him walking out on Jodie again like this. Even if he believes she's better off without him, which is the kindest to Max interpretation of his behaviour I can think of... how can he believe walking out while she's still recovering is what's best for either of them?

Look. Max Cristie is not and never has been a good man. He's a volatile, selfdestructive, emotionally dysregulated mess with anger issues who makes other people's lives worse as well as his because he has a terrible sense of judgement about what he should or shouldn't do. He runs away when things get tough and is frightened of emotional intimacy. He has also been a terrible dad to Jodie.

But he was trying to get somewhere with her and cared about her in some sort of messed-up repressed way. Maybe not enough, maybe not the way he should have done, but in some way. And I don't believe he could have done this if he cared about Jodie in any way.

As I say, Max running away when things get hard is something we've seen in him before. More metaphorically than Henrik - who I always think to compare him to because I think they're very alike in personality - perhaps, and more metaphorically than he did tonight, but it's not unheard of. But this was just terribly handled.

This would have been cold and hard to believe coming from Henrik. From Max, it makes no sense at all.

It might've done something if we'd heard anything about him wanting to work elsewhere before. Even a few lines, from Dylan maybe - "Max, you never could settle down for long" or something like that - would have done a lot to establish that he can't be expected to stay. Similarly, maybe if Max's backstory had been explained at any point - instead of vague implications of some sort of traumatic or difficult past that are never explained - this might be more believable. It's not forgivable, but it could have been written in such a way as to be understandable. As it is? I can't even say it's that.

I mean, seriously, Max gets three scenes in his last ep? Three scenes and that's it? All because about 90% of the time was going to Faith and Iain drama that I do not care about. Argh. I already felt unwell with a headache today, I didn't need this too.

There's definitely not going to be any aftermath for Jodie either, is there? She should be devastated by this, realistically. She should really struggle to trust others after this. But I don't think any of that will happen. We'll be lucky if we get one scene of her saying she's sad about it after this week.

The Faith and Iain stuff just really upsets me. The way Faith behaves towards and about Natalia is awful to see and I'm tired of the show pretending Faith isn't abusive. And now Iain's being awful too. Natalia is a grown woman - a young one, yes, but a grown woman nonetheless (she's, what, 19-ish? 18 at the youngest) - and yet they talk down to her and patronise her constantly. She's struggling, and they're just seeing her as a "problem" to put up with. I can't stand it. Obviously her behaviour towards Iain was also out of line, but it's understandable why she's misreading him and I don't think the way he's reacting will do anything good for her. Though tbf he did already try to let her down gently, I suppose. Also, I relate to Nat a lot so I can't be 100% sure I'm coherent on this. I might be projecting too much.

It was nice for Jacob to get screentime, but he can't bond with Siobhan soon enough - I'm tired of him being Iain's life advice counsellor.

There were some great patient storylines tonight. It was nice to see Dylan in Dylan Disability Advocacy Keogh mode again, and I thought the story with Charlie's patients was handled very sensitively.

I'm so glad Charlie apologised to Stevie. She deserved it, and it was a lovely scene. For once, I agree with Charlie - Stevie is great and I hope to see her back soon.

Next week, we get Zoe Hanna back! Yay!

#BBC Casualty #Max Cristie #Casualty spoilers #tw;abuse mention

3 notes · View notes

faejilly · 4 years

Note

1/2) I was wondering what you thought of the Malec sparring scene in 3b. I wanted to like it, thought I would cause I'm really kinda into that sort of thing, but instead it just, I don't know, upset me. I couldn't help but see it as just another instance of the show undermining Alec to makes another character look good and I hate when they do that. Not just because Alec's character is basically tailor made for me to take one look at and go "MINE" at (which it absolutely, 100% is) but also

2/2) it’s just really shitty writing to constantly diminish one character to prop up another. But I see so many people seemed to love it and am I being oversensitive?

Hey, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it, there’s no oversensitive. AND I HAPPEN TO AGREE WITH YOU, so. There is that. 😅

I dislike the Magnus training scene on about three (four?) different levels, tbqh, and I can headcanon all of them away, but it’s not… it does not, imo, work as is, and if you can enjoy the pretty regardless, that’s fine, but if you can’t… that’s fine too.

First: the scene at the end of the previous episode, where Magnus asks for help, is one of the most beautifully done Malec scenes in the show, imo, because Magnus is bad at asking for help, and here he does, and Alec is so gentle with him, and has one hell of a clunker of a terribly written line but he makes it work anyways because that’s what Alec does and the way Magnus pulls him in by the waist when they’re kissing there in the apothecary (in what is arguably the one place in the world that is most Magnus’, but he wants Alec there too) is just. Sublime.

But the training scene doesn’t follow on that note at all, so even if it was flawless I wouldn’t like it just because it’s ignoring how we got there. Especially since I liked how we got there. It was so lovely! And then. Completely different tone.

SECOND: The stated point of Alec training Magnus was, based on what we saw previously, to help him retrain his instincts. That is, if he’s in trouble, that he would react physically, so there’s not a stutter as he reaches for magic that’s not there, because that delay in reaction time is dangerous. THIS MEANS… that sparring isn’t actually much help for that, not initially. They need to be training the reaction, which is like katas, or a tai chi routine, or the damn heavy bag Alec likes so much. You pick the reaction you need to have and you practice it over and over and over again until your body does it without you having to think about it. (And then you practice fighting to make sure you’ve got it.) That’s what Magnus needs. There’s no argument that he knows how to move, that he probably knows how to fight, how to spar, but he needs to change his instinctive reaction.

Third disconnect! Magnus has spent 400 years learning things, sure, but he doesn’t train and practice and physically fight every single damn day like Alec does, so… there shouldn’t be any question who would win in a purely physical confrontation, even without runes. Sure, when Magnus had his magic it’d be a different story, (but tbqh Shadowhunters are trained how to fight magical creatures so it still shouldn’t be easy) but HE DOESN’T HAVE HIS MAGIC, AND HE SAID HE NEEDED HELP, THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT. LET HIM NEED HELP. LET ALEC HELP HIM.

aCTUALLy, this is 3rd & 4th, because let Magnus ask for help, that’s a very good character note and a very mature thing that he needs to be able to do, and doesn’t make him weak as a person or a character or something, come on show…

and also FOURTH: let Alec be good at the only things you’ve said he’s good at! LET HIM BE PHYSICALLY COMPETENT at fighting AND ALSO EMOTIONALLY/MENTALLY COMPETENT AT TRAINING. Like. This is a thing it is strongly implied he’d be good at? He’s good with kids, he practically raised his siblings, he’s in charge of an Institute and has been half-running things since he was a freaking teenager LET HIM BE GOOD AT KEEPING HIS PEOPLE UP TO SPEED?!?!!!

Now. ERM. Where was I?

Right. The actually training. Showing a guy stabbing a mannequin fifty times is probably not as entertaining as some sparring, I guess, but that’s lazy thinking because, honestly, Alec’s hands all over Magnus adjusting his stance and pushing him to do it over and over ‘til they’re both all sweaty is golden, wtf show, the tension build-up would be glorious, because each time they’d get a little closer to breaking form, but they wouldn’t do it.

Gah.

And then! Then you could have a legitimately fun switch to sparring because they already did the work and you wouldn’t have this jarring disconnect between Alec trying to be serious and Magnus (despite being the one who asked for help!) just playing. They could both be playing! It would actually be them obviously pushing each others buttons! Because what we got was more Magnus giving up after one exchange and then dismissing Alec’s help and then Alec eventually going, ah well, wtf, guess I can’t actually train him, let’s kiss. Which, tbf, he clearly always wants to kiss Magnus, but it’s still a really weird dynamic, because that’s not at all where he seemed to be during the sparring, he really wanted to help and Magnus wouldn’t let him and Alec shouldn’t have been okay with that dismissal.

So, honestly, wow, my italics abuse is off the charts today, sorry. Um. I don’t like the scene because it undermines Magnus, makes him look petty and disrespectful (ymmv! obviously!) in a way that I feel is out of character, and it also undermines one of the few chances the show gave Alec to be good at what he does. Like, it says he’s good at what he does, but then it only ever shows him failing and that’s… depressing and distressing on a couple different levels.

And it’s especially distressing, because a lot (not all, but a fair bit) of the training and fight scenes they’ve done for other characters/plots have been very in character, so the fact that this isn’t is, much like the other stuff I talked about in 3b earlier, even MORE annoying because they almost got there. They set it up so well, they’ve done emotional compelling choreography before, it should have been better.

NOW. If you ignore the context and are just watching them dance around the training room, yes it’s pretty, but it doesn’t (for me) fit the set-up the previous episode gave it, and it doesn’t do justice to either of the characters.

#shadowhunters #malec #alec lightwood #magnus bane #my sh rambling #sh critical #sh meta #Anonymous #jilly answers

128 notes · View notes