Archive for November, 2009

So I am doing NaNoWriMo this month. This is a peculiar form insanity which makes you attempt to write a novel of 50,000 words in a single month. To make matters more interesting we choose November, perhaps the most inconvenient of months to do said writing. I am 14,637 into that 50,000 and may make my head explode before it is all said and done.

That said of course I am going to make a few random observations related to my fields of interest.

V, the Reboot
Meh. I mean it looked pretty and I like many of the cast members. I don’t hate it. I just couldn’t find it in me to love it either. The characters are all too….fanfic Mary Sue. The story in the first episode should have taken a week of mini series to get out. We had the arrival of the ships, the revelation they are lizards, secret plots, and the human resistance in one episode. So far my favorite scene was between the Reporter and Anna the leader of the visitors. If the rest of the show had that sort of ethical challenge to it I would have been more interested.

Flash Forward
Science Fiction literature has often suffered from being more about the idea than the characters. They start with a premise usually based on some technical or scientific change and show you how those things change almost everything. Flash Forward is like that. I could care less about the former alcoholic FBI guy and his marriage problems or the closeted lesbians agents intimacy issues. The ideas these characters are used to explore do interest me, though. How would the world change if we all got a glimpse of our future? How would you live your life if you knew you were going to die in the next six months or you knew your wife was going to be with someone else in six months? How would you disprove this? How would you act against it? Would acting against it make it happen? That portion of the show is working and it is compelling enough for me to forgive the characters not being strong enough on their own.

7th son
Have you picked up your copy?

Fringe
Strangely I have grown to love this show. The first half of the first season is shaky but once I sank into this show I became addicted. If you watch the first 10 minutes of each episode you will have to stick around and see whats going on. The meta plot is really confused and not real well defined but each episode is a kind of weird I forgot I was missing.

Smallville
Yes i am still watching this show. Yes more than a few episodes have made me question why. Then they introduce Speedy or the Wonder Twins and I sit back and enjoy.

Dragon Age
I want it.

Castle
Is there nothing that Nathan Fillion can’t improve? Take a formula mystery show, add a really good cast, occasionally self aware and very clever dialog, and mix till all the lumps are out and you get a show like Castle. It is not going to blow your mind but it will make you smile.

Wire in the Blood
Just found this one on Netflix. The criminal profiler has been done before and in some cases quite well done. Millennium stands out in my mind as probably the best for managing to creepy you out with the evil that is around us. This British take on the idea is pretty standard fair story wise. The first one is a riff on Silence of the Lambs essentially. What makes the show work for me is the hero. He is terribly flawed. He takes an interest in serial killers and he maintains relationships with the ones he catches. You are never quite clear if that is because he thinks he will learn more about them or because he is messed up inside and kind of admires them, wants to be them. At least in the first season I could never peg for sure. Also he is imperfect. He fails at certain points. He is not terribly strong or even witty. He is a man with flaws and I kind of love him for them. I do occasionally get tired of perfect people always saving the day. Let my heroes be human and flawed.

That is it for now. More word count to be had tomorrow.