"it's attack of the one-eyed squiddy things!"

i've gotten behind on prepping posts to go up through the week, so this week and, probably, next week are going to be a bit catch-as-catch-can. i'm hoping to have something exciting and meaningful to post about the new hunger movie that just arrived in the post from netflix, but i don't have the strength to deal with ira hunger strikers tonight, so that's not going to be happening.

instead, i offer up some thoughts about the end of the second season of the sarah jane adventures which anna and i watched last night after putting it off for an ungodly amount of time due to the presence in the second to last episode of one of the nastiest villains -- named the trickster -- the series has produced.
it says a lot that, for most of the first and second series, i have total faith that sarah jane can handle just about anything. she's on top of pretty much anything the who universe can throw at her -- and as soon as this guy shows up, i'm praying silently for the doctor to show up and save the day so i will never have to see the trickster and his creepy little sidekick ever ever again.

the trickster has a whole bunch of nasty, well, tricks up his sleeve, but the most unpleasant is his habit of erasing people from time. he's rather like a more proactive version of the blink angels -- with a little handyman, the graske there on the left, to run around and find victims for him. and he looks like that dude down there from pan's labyrinth. which is not okay with me. eyes should be visible at all times. not in palms of hands or hidden behind veils of skin. or whatever it is the trickster has going.

anyway, the second season of sarah jane is pretty kickass. one of our original team members leaves which is very sad, but the new girl, rani, is very awesome. clyde is stepping up in a big way and i'm very glad that he's stayed on as a regular character. luke, too, is turning out to be a great kind of lesser ianto -- i also wish the doctor would show up to meet him. i think they'd probably get on like a house on fire.

if the show has a fault, it's that it tends to get a tad didactic. each show has a message. the quickwitted viewer can pretty much figure it out in the first ten to fifteen minutes and it's never a bad message -- trust yourself; listen to people who love you -- but sometimes it gets a bit heavyhanded. there was an episode with clyde and his father -- heretofore an absent character -- this season which just got to be quite leaden with moral heartiness.

still, for all that, there's often a lesser idea behind the "I learned something today..." lesson that's valuable, too. the episode with clyde, for example, featured his hitherto absentee father turning up and suddenly deciding that he wants clyde's attention and respect -- and manages to inveigle his way into sarah jane's attic and steal a bit of alien tech to do it. this doesn't end well, but it doesn't end awfully either -- it could have been worse. and inside the "your parents love you no matter what" idea was also the "you can rely on yourself, too" idea. it didn't get the premiere place in the show, but it was there.

and, on the whole, the show is a blast to watch. it's fun; it's shiny; it's fast; there are some great villains -- in the sense of being campy fun; and there are some great villains -- in the sense of being quite frightening, too.