The Librarians

[Christopher]

On Christmas, the pope blesses everyone in the world. The Dalai Lama routinely blesses everyone in the world too, as do major religious figures in every religion. Sandra Bullock, as Miss Congeniality, wished for world peace. A blessing is simply a human being wishing well for other human beings. Why would I be offended by any of that?

My race is Chinese. I'm born in Singapore, a multicultural, multireligion society. Since birth, I have been exposed to various schools of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism and more. Interfaith religious celebration on Babylon 5 may be science fiction, but here in Singapore it is a real world fact. If you like, have a look at this wikipedia article on freedom of religion in Singapore. On every major religion's holy day, there is usually a few interfaith religious ceremonies being conducted jointly by pastors, monks and priests. At least for myself, rejecting a blessing simply because the person giving it is from a different religion... well that's a form of discrimination that is as serious as racism.

I'm not "rejecting" anything, just saying it was too narrow. Of course I'm all in favor of interfaith celebration, but that's just my point -- this wasn't multicultural, it was saying that one culture's particular mythology and calendar were the only correct answer for the entire world. And I find that unthinkingly ethnocentric, no matter how well-intentioned it was. If this guy is really a global spirit of goodwill, then he shouldn't release that goodwill only on December 25, but on every culture's holidays of renewal and hope. Granted, a lot of cultures have winter solstice festivals, but there's a fair amount of flexibility about the actual date. And the Chinese New Year is generally in late January or February. I'd rather they'd said it was a whole season of renewal rather than being December 25 exactly. Or that Santa was just one of multiple mythological spirits of hope and goodwill, rather than the only one. It's a basic question of inclusion, of treating the West as just one culture out of many rather than the only one that gets it right.

 

[RJDiogenes]

But the protesters were holding signs in Arabic and wearing headscarves. I doubt they were intended to be Christians.

Why would they need to be Christian? Jenkins specifically said that "Santa" represented a force common to all humanity. That's why he was shifting through various incarnations, including Odin.

 

[intrinsical]

Yup, there's Odin and there's Saint Nick who used magic to hide toys in children's shoes. And frankly if there's one show that's unthinkingly ethnocentric in pushing western cultural dominance on the rest of the world, its definitely not The Librarians. Touched By An Angel wins by a mile.

 

[Christopher]

^I wouldn't call Odin and Nick non-Western.

And yes, there are definitely shows that are far worse about inclusion than this one. I just saw a rerun of the 2003 Ninja Turtles cartoon in which the Turtles discovered an ancient underground city beneath New York, and the sole surviving member of the (very pale-skinned) subterranean race said they lived there alone until they discovered new people inhabiting the surface -- and the flashback visuals depicted European settlements as the first occupation of the formerly "empty" land of Manhattan. That got me kind of steamed.

 

[kirk55555]

I just got caught up on the show. episode 3 was ok, but weak compared to the first two episodes. Episode 4 was great. I'm a big Bruce Campbell fan, and he was great as Santa Claus. The story was fun, and Matt Frewer continues to be a good villain. I can't wait for the next new episode.

 

[JD]

I watched the Christmas episode a couple days ago, and I thought it was a lot of fun. Bruce Campbel was a blast as Santa Clause, and we got some nice character stuff for Eve.
Apparently Flynn returns to help the team find sleeping dragon's hidden treasure tonight. Should be fun, and it's rather appropriate since the last Hobbit movie came out last week.

 

[Admiral2]

Is it just me or does Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa look weird without all the hair?

And Bad Cassandra?

 

[Christopher]

This week's episode was cowritten by Star Trek novelist and erstwhile TrekBBS member Geoffrey Thorne, who was also a staffer on Leverage.

And it was a lot of fun. They are absolutely writing Flynn as if he were the Doctor. It made him almost palatable. At least until he turned evil and started overacting horrifically, and then I loathed him all over again.

But wow, John Larroquette is amazingly good. He had some remarkable moments here. And there's definitely a history with Dulaque. At first I thought maybe they were brothers, but I think there was more of a romantic vibe there.

The World Crime League! And Wold-Newton!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Noah has been asleep through the worst of it in Falling Skies.

He was given too large a stage to act on today, and still fell off it.

It wasn't unforgivable.

How Flynn rends his voice, reminds me of Richard Castle.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Wold-Newton? Can't wait to see this one.

 

[Christopher]

^It's just a brief Easter-egg mention.

 

[kirk55555]

The last episode was ok, although probably the weakest so far in my opinion. Seeing evil versions of the characters was interesting (especially Cassandra), but evil Flynn was a bit too annoying. I'm definitely interested in learning more about whatever history Jenkins and Dulaque have eventually. The whole conclave thing was intriguing, I hope we get to see a bit more from some of these groups in the future. Overall, while this was the weakest so far this season to me, it was still a decent episode.

 

[JD]

I thought this one was a blast. I do agree that Evil Flynn was a little overdone, but I really enjoyed the rest of it. I have to admit I was a little surprised to see that fantasy races like Djinn, and the Fae to be around in this world, but I guess if they have Minotaurs and Santa Clause those kind of things shouldn't be surprising. The stuff at the Conclave was fun, and I am curious who some of the people who weren't specifically identified were.
I also thought the stuff with the apple was pretty good, except evil Flynn. I did like Evil Cassandra, and Evil Stone though, they were fun. I also got kick out of how they were all so worried about Ezekiel getting a hold of it, and then when he did, nothing happened.
We also got some nice development for Jenkins. I have to admit, I was already starting to suspect that Dulaque was immortal, but I did not expect Jenkins to be one or for them to have a connection. I'm very curious to see when we'll get an explanation for all of that.

 

[Guy Gardener]

By the way, my gaydar went DING!.

Did I just watch Jenkins and Dulaque admit that they used to be bone buddies?

OH!

(Thank you The Interview!)

Was the writer playing Gay peekaboo!?

No seriously, I honestly thought that they were going to kiss, and then I was sad that they didn't.

 

[JD]

I had thought brothers at first, but I could see them having been lovers instead.

 

[Skywalker]

The Fae representative referred to Dulaque as "the son of Ban." King Ban was the father of Lancelot, whose surname was du Lac. Could Dulaque actually be Lancelot? I suppose it's not entirely impossible for Lancelot to become a villainous character, but if he is Lancelot, I'd have expected him to make some kind of reference to Excalibur back in the pilot (unless he did and I just can't remember). And that also makes me wonder what exactly his relationship with Jenkins is and who Jenkins used to be. Jenkins mentioned some important choice they made one thousand years ago, while the Arthurian era supposedly took place around 1500 years ago, though Jenkins could have just been rounding.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Maybe Jenkins is Lancelot and Dulaque is his evil twin brother or something. Although it definitely seemed like a Gay vibe going on there. John Larroquette gave a great performance overall.

I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get any real dragons (except for the big eye), but it was still a good episode. The evil versions of the characters were fun. I got a kick out of evil Cassandra expressing her evil by taking off her clothes-- it's 2014 and people still equate sexuality with evil.

They're really expanding the fantasy elements beyond what was portrayed in the movies. It's starting to remind me a little bit of Lost Girl or Sanctuary.

 

[Greg Cox]

The Fae representative referred to Dulaque as "the son of Ban." King Ban was the father of Lancelot, whose surname was du Lac. Could Dulaque actually be Lancelot? I suppose it's not entirely impossible for Lancelot to become a villainous character, but if he is Lancelot, I'd have expected him to make some kind of reference to Excalibur back in the pilot (unless he did and I just can't remember). And that also makes me wonder what exactly his relationship with Jenkins is and who Jenkins used to be. Jenkins mentioned some important choice they made one thousand years ago, while the Arthurian era supposedly took place around 1500 years ago, though Jenkins could have just been rounding.

Note also that Dulaque name-dropped Morgan Le Fay a few episodes back. "Morgan Le Fay would be proud" or something like that . . . .

 

[Christopher]

Well, I'd rather have characters from Arthurian lore portrayed by actors of the caliber of John Larroquette and Matt Frewer than the movies' conceit of having Excalibur be a "character" that flew around of its own volition and acted like Flynn's pet dog. God, those movies were so stupid.

 

[Admiral2]

Well, I'd rather have characters from Arthurian lore portrayed by actors of the caliber of John Larroquette and Matt Frewer than the movies' conceit of having Excalibur be a "character" that flew around of its own volition and acted like Flynn's pet dog. God, those movies were so stupid.

Hey, they were produced by the guy who gave us 1998's Godzilla. He should get props for actually convincing someone to let him make three of them.