Settle Down, This Won't Last Long.

Despite the fact that I mostly use this blog to talk about t.v. shows and movies and other random frivolous topics, it was, oddly enough, actually born out of some rather tragic and effed up circumstances.  I created it to basically vent to no one at the time, knowing that it wouldn't likely be viewed by many people other than myself.  Kind of like the internet version of screaming into a pillow or punching a punching bag till you're blue in the face.  I'm glad I've moved onto these frivolous and happier topics these days though, because it means I'm no longer trapped within that vortex of misery.  But as we know, life likes to throw random curve balls every so often, and so it goes, I've been brought back to a darker topic again for this entry.  The curveball in this case was actually thrown at a good friend of mine.  And once again I have some shit swirling around in my head that I feel the need to get out, and I also want to pay tribute to my friend, as a great person who greatly deserves to be paid tribute to.

I met Jaspreet in 2008, at work.  That was when she first came to work with us in my previous group.  We had beefed up the team at the time with several new contractors, due to some large projects that were in flight that needed coverage.  She was an analyst like me, so we reported up to the same manager and we were in all the same team meetings.  We didn't work on the same project at the time though, so my interactions with her beyond our team meetings mostly involved breakroom chats, hallway chats, team lunches, etc.  She was a really fun person to talk to and joke around with.  Eventually she became pregnant with her first child, and we all were able to see her through until she was just about ready to pop.

From Left to Right: Me, Brad, Jaspreet, Ramya, Shikha, Charu

Shortly before she had the baby, she left our team to go on maternity leave (as a contractor, there is no such thing as maternity leave, so this basically meant that she left our team).  This was in maybe early 2010 if I recall.  We had a goodbye lunch and also held a big baby shower at work for her and another coworker who was also pregnant at the time.  Jaspreet then left to have Sidak, and from there I pretty much just kept in touch with her on Facebook.

O.k., I Caught Up on Covert Affairs Seasons 1 & 2.

So ... my last blog post convinced me that I should go ahead and catch up on seasons 1 and 2 of Covert Affairs.  That's usually how these things tend to go for me.  I try as hard as I can to resist, but eventually I give in and watch the backseasons, and I always wind up being glad I did.  Even in situations where the previous seasons are not as good as the current one, they are usually still entertaining and they fill in the backstory, and help me get to know the characters better.  And that allows me to enjoy the current and future episodes more.

Now that I've officially done that for Covert Affairs, I don't think it changes any of my opinions from my original blog post on season 3, but it definitely gives me added perspective on the series as a whole.  So I'm writing this post just to call out some extra points that I learned from catching up.  I'll split them up by season:

Season 1

• First off, I will say that despite its issues, the show is still thoroughly entertaining in season 1.  I rarely felt myself getting bored and I always looked forward to the next episode.  But the problem is, well, keep reading, I'll get to it.
• What I heard about the episodic nature of Covert Affairs is exactly right in season 1.  The A.V. Club article was dead on.  Annie goes on various disconnected missions, and everything gets tied up neatly with a bow at the end of each episode.  Annie sometimes gets bummed out at stuff that happens on the missions or having to hide stuff from her sister Danielle, but then the next episode comes along and we're on to the next thing.  I mean yes, you can feel some sense of her experience and reactions building as it goes along, but that kind of plays very slowly and it focuses much more on the mission of the week.  The only other major ongoing arcs are:
• The Liza Hearn leak and Auggie sleeping with Liza.  Mildly entertaining I guess; not the most riveting thing I've ever seen.
• The Ben Mercer storyline - UGGH.  Almost EVERY part of this storyline is like nails on a chalkboard for me.  Every single time that camera would focus in on that freaking seashell bracelet thingy, I wanted to blow up my t.v.  It's just too ... I mean I like romance storylines, don't get me wrong, but this one seemed too teen-soapy to me and we never knew enough about Ben to give a shit about him.  I actually found the season finale to be pretty blah because it was all focused around whether Ben was a good guy or a bad guy and whether he could redeem himself with Annie, and I just did not care. at. ALL.
• My favorite episode was probably 1.4 "No Quarter," because a) it was just a really fun episode in general (and I kinda loved the fact that the characters never found out what was in their briefcases), and b) Eyal.  LOVE this guy, and THIS is what chemistry looks like.  I don't even necessarily mean romantic chemistry either, just chemistry in general between the two characters and the two actors.  It jumps off the screen.  Let's keep the Eyals coming back and dump the Ben Mercers, please!!
• Piper Perabo has quite a talent (at least in the first few eps of season 1) for slipping almost-F-bombs past the censors by kind of mumbling the word and not quite finishing it.  You get the "ffuuhh" without quite getting the full "ck" at the end.  This is very amusing.