Ryan's Hope squee

[gwynnega]

So much goodness this week. Jack reciting lines of opera in Italian to Mary and translating. (A scene that will later be echoed by the classic Jack/Siobhan La Traviata scene.) I loved the scene of Jack and Mary out on the balcony of his apartment, with his typewriter, and Mary pouring espresso from the little Italian coffee pot, and Jack talking about how the best stopping point in writing is in the middle of a sentence ("Hemingway and I both figured that out independently"). Such a great sense of everyday life in that apartment on Weehawken Street. And then ack!! Jack has to fuck it up by throwing the natural childbirth book off the balcony and pushing Mary away and being an utter creep.

Mary's first scenes with Tom Desmond! Too bad their first meeting had to be with awful Temp!Mary, but the first scenes between Mulgrew and Tom MacGreevy were lovely, and reminded me of how much I liked those two together, and how good their chemistry was. And it's so nice to see a man treating Mary kindly after Jack's horrible behavior.

I'd remembered well, and was looking forward to seeing again, the wonderful scene of Mary going into labor, and her excitement and Maeve's as they anticipate the new baby. What a classic scene.

Roger's Satanic grin when he blackmails Seneca into getting his job back, and when he tells Delia he still wants her back. The lip-pillows on Delia's bed! Pillows shaped like lips, on the pink round velvet bed with cherubs!! Heeeeee.

Comments

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

Right after the episode that ends with Kate Mulgrew asking Jack if she can stay . . .. "Please?" . . .. I turned on the next one, and it was horrible temp!Mary! She was really beyond awful. I had to turn the TV off and haven't had time to catch up since.

I do remember Mary and Tom D. having pretty good chemistry together. But no matter how nice he is on his own time, Tom is such a slimy weasel on the job, there was no way I could root for him. He's also got to be the worst PR guy in the history of PR guys. In what PR school do they teach you to convince a columnist not to write an unflattering column about your organization by yelling at him?

[gwynnega]

As I recall, the writers backed off from the slimy weasel angle pretty quickly in favor of the charming Irishman angle--maybe when they figured out that Mary and Tom had chemistry (unlike the previous guys they'd tried to use as romantic rivals for Jack). The writers did seem to flail around a lot where Tom was concerned, though, especially after Mary and Jack's reunion. Tom had some pretty wacky storylines after that. But I really liked him with Mary...

[herself_nyc]

I'm making my way through the eps … substitute Mary played her scenes like she was a psychotic stalker!

[gwynnega]

So true!! I always feel so sorry for Michael Levin, having to do scenes with the non-Mulgrew Marys...

[herself_nyc]

The way she behaved in that scene in the apartment -- her first scene -- I wanted him to STAKE her. :)

[gwynnega]

Hahaha! "You're not Mary...you're an evil thing!"

[herself_nyc]

"That thing -- it's not Mary anymore!"

[gwynnega]

At which point it would be revealed that Father McShane and Sister Mary Joel are auxiliary members of the Watchers' Council.

[herself_nyc]

It makes an eerie kind of sense ....

[gwynnega]

Maeve: [brandishes rosary]

Vampire!Mary: [cringes]

Delia: Oh, this is just great. Mary Perfect Ryan is a soulless thing, and I bet you still like her better than me, Maeve.

Maeve: Well...

Delia: I knew it! You're still going to take her side. I may have done a lot of awful things, but I've never been a vampire!

[herself_nyc]

Hahahahahahahahaha.