Randomly, before shabbat:
He's so
broken he can't even blog, the poor baby.
Where was I? Oh, yeah.
Penny
didn't have much of a personality other than being sweet and pretty before the first song of the second part, but in that, I just loved her - so sweet and open to the people around her (especially when compared to NF's perfect recoiling away from every person or gesture - or duck! - which wasn't about him. And the lyrics, about trusting the goodness in the world, painted the whole volunteering thing in a light that was lovely, in my eyes - not as a person who wants to change the world, like Billy - or, rather, Horrible - but as one for whom the world is already different, and she just wants to implement that difference, that goodness she found, in a way. So her innocence and simple-mindedness in going with the whole petition thing wasn't so far fetched for her, after all, you know?
That first song was amazing. How
both Billy and Penny sang about the exact same thing and the exact opposite, at the exact same time, and it wasn't just in the words that combined in the song, but actually in its subject, too - finding your place among people versus feeling so detached from it and betrayed by it. Even the lyrics, overlapping and playing with each other: "turning a life around" - from the inside - compared with "the world filled with filth and lies", from the outside. "Everybody has good inside" on he one hand, and "the human race has gone insane", on the other. They both speak of hearts - finding good in them, or being broken (and again, against being "safe and sound"). Taking a part in something, and that similar word, apart, with "falling apart". I need to hear it again. Like seventeen times in a row.
Oh, and then,
"I'm a fan of laundry".
Hey, *I* am
a fan of laundry! From just the reason she stated! OK, I love her.
I liked
Billy bringing Penny something he knows she likes - yes, lying about it, and knowing it because he stalked her on her date, but at least he dared to try something on his own, the poor dear (the Jewish grandmommies will call me any minute now to ask me for a membership card, I'm sure. Oy vey).
And she's not just
some idiot who fell for a pretty face (And, well, it *is* pretty) and big, um, gloves - she thought he was cheesy at first, she actually didn't "love him to death" on first glance. Go Penny! I like her more at every minute.
Oh, and the
layers thing - it's true for Billy himself! With his "Billy" and "Horrible" personas, the confidence and lack of it, the ability and lack of ability to believe in it. And at the first part he chose the Horrible part of the pie (can you have pie with frozen yogurt?), but that's the same Horrible who wouldn't do anything to harm little kids, so.
Captain Hammer
has just the one personality - no hero and regular man. He's always wearing his marked-t-shirt and gloves. That's the one thing he has - no wonder it's the world to him. Even though Penny says he has layers. Maybe because he has just the two - the egotistical look-at-me that he is, and the I'm-a-good-guy he tries to show in order to win her? Which cake will work best here? Just one with some nice topping that can't hold on its own, and without a cherry on top? Food metaphors made me hungry.
(OK, sorry, I have to make sure I got this right: a
spork
is that
little plastic spoon that has the separate edges so it's also like a fork,
right? That's why it's called that way? English is so flexible. I love it. Not as much as
laundry,
because there's no
scent and warmness
involved, but still. Thanks.)
Again, Billy's actor is wonderful - how he
wanders, inside his Horrible persona, into Billy ("sweet?"), changes even his voice, let alone his whole body language, and pulls himself back again. His expressions just keep getting richer and more fun and more actually emotional (and therefore even more fun!) each time. Just the way he looks at Penny when she's singing to him at the laundromat alone! He's so serious, after wanting to join a bad horse with a, um, evil winnie? (I'm sure there's a pun somewhere in there that I've lost, and I'm pretty sure I'll be embarrassed when it's explained to me). I keep wanting to hug him and give him soup and promise him all will be well. I don't think that this is what I was supposed to feel, maybe it's because it's shabbat in a few minutes, or the lack of sleep, I don't know. Oh, well. (continued...)
( continues...)
I love the
messages from "bad horse". It's just a fun way to make a plot-forwarding device more, well, fun. Again, there's probably a world of background and jokes I'm missing, with the horse and the westerns and all, but still - it was so fun, in and of itself.
And I loved how
Billy goes to Penny for understanding instead of his former not-so-super-villain friend. That's so sweet - how their relationship is based on trying to understand each other and really getting to know each other, almost the exact opposite of all the "love at first sight"great romances. Fun.
And she's even better with the
"everything happens" line, because it's true. Forget the reasons (unless you're really into getting into a deep everlasting theological debate) , just deal with the situation at hand. She's great! By the time she called him "Billy Buddy" I was willing to look for vans to save her from, myself (not that she needs that). I love how she has all that personality of her own, other than being pretty and a damsel and in distress and adorable.
Oh, and did you notice how
the actor's hands are almost always in his pockets when he's Billy, all trying to protect him and not bother the world around them. And then when Penny's singing to him, and reaches out to him, and her hand touches his leg, and it takes him a couple of verses to even realize that it actually happened to him - yeah, hugging and soup and Jewishmommying unite, all over again.
NF is hilarious.
"I'm just naturally like this"! (and his expression!), how he got confused with phrasing his fist inside the "sign the house" sentence - NF must have had the time of his life , and I can't stop laughing each time he's on my screen. I love how he doesn't have any other sides (OK, so no cake. Maybe *he* is the frozen yogurt?).
I had to go back a few seconds to make sure I heard correctly the
"the hammer is my penis", and then I had to stop again until I finished laughing. I mean, he insinuated a line earlier (the sort of vague hints that are always lost on the more-vanilla-than-any-yogurt me), and usually he had to stop at that. And then, with that deadpan delivery (did I mention already how much I enjoy NF in this?), he came back to explain. Because he could. What a great way to say "we're in the internet, not a tv station, so we can say such things!".
And then,
meeting Hammer for the first time as *Billy*, not Horrible, made that change - the apparent physical change (did I mention already that the actor is great?) in Billy, to get Horrible's face, and singing about a "new me". And now there's a whole shabbat before I can find out what that means. And even the anticipation is fun.
And, again, the little things:
"lost and found" (I'm not sure why, but I just loved that line, and not just because it rhymes!); Billy in the homeless shelter, spying the date, wearing a silly little mustache and so into what going in from of him with Penny that he doesn't seem to put the soup into the plates of the homeless in line; Penny saying "glow" and showing her in the sun right afterwards; "crazy random happenstance", "trust your instincts", "peace - but not literally" (goodness, so many great lines!); Hammer watching the blog, Moist being unable to open the can because of his hands; "Do I even know you?", Billy calling Hammer "cheesy on the outside"; "look at my wrist", "I don't love these" (man, that was a fun scene!), "I get what you want"; the change in Hammer's expression, in a matter of a blink of an eye, when Penny turned to him; how Billy didn't hit with all the darts at Hammer's face, but then collected them all and stuck them there; the home videos of hitting Horrible (complete with Santa); "a shiny new Australia" (I heard it right? I hope I did!); Hammer's expression when he was squashed. (continued...)
( continues...)
Oh, and you know?
The first notes or whatever of the first song in the first part had a OMWF feeling, like in the part after Buffy's first song. And "evil inside of me is on the rise" at the beginning of the second part, with the fire of the homeless in the back reminded me a bit - in tone and the song, not just the fire connection - of "walk through the fire". Can anybody please explain these similarities in musical terms for me? Or are they only in my not-understanding-this-well head?
Oh, and one quick shred-of-a-beginning-of-a-thought before shabbat:
it's totally the geeky science guy who doesn't know how to express himself being pushed aside by the handsome popular athlete. And we're back to the outsiders who were Buffy, her friends, Angel, his team, and all the crew of "Serenity".
Only everybody gets to have more fun here. So it's
a common part of superheroes stories
?
Yay, fun.
Shabbat shalom!
Aww, bless! Nilly's the Nilly-est.
Nilly!
Two things:
1. I totally missed seeing
DH with the mustache in the soup kitchen!
2. Yes, Nilly your definition of
a spork
is spot on.
I can see, as usual after a Nillynalysis, that I'm going to have to rewatch part 2 at least 16 more times. I know it will take me that many to find everything she saw in only one viewing.
NILLY!
I think the simple answer to your question about the music is a matter of composer's style. The music sounds similar because it sounds like Whedon's writing style. Like how things by John Williams all have similar characteristics.
There's probably more specificity to find there, in piano styles and whatnot, but my brain is not nearly that spicy today.
