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Sep. 28th, 2014 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWandered around new neighborhood a bit today, picked up groceries, and laid about munching and watching telly. Lovely day, with streaks of white clouds in the sky, unseasonably warm, with a soft breeze and twittering birds in the trees. The air wafting into my apartment smelled of sunshine...which apparently has a smell, warm and clean.
Read a review of the film Gone Girl in Entertainment Weekly - which I'm skeptical of, since the magazine adored the book and hyped the heck out of it solely because Gillian Flynn used to work as a television critic/book reviewer for the magazine. EW biased me against Gone Girl - I didn't read it as a reaction to EW's hype about it. Almost didn't read 50 Shades of Grey for the same reason - an interview with the witty and self-deprecating author changed my mind, while interviews with Flynn and Stephanie Meyer made me run screaming in the opposite direction of their novels. Not to mention the crazy hype. Interesting. Is it possible that hype, reviews and an author can prejudice you against their work? I usually withhold judgement until I see it for myself, but sometimes a review, word of mouth, hype or an author can turn me off a book or film. Just as a negative review or negative word of mouth can turn me onto a book or film or tv show. Depends on the critic, the review, and the marketing. Same thing happens with lj reviews - a friend can turn me on or off a show - without always intending to. Which makes me wonder how many times I've done the same.
Currently watching Mysteries of Laura - the second episode, which is slightly better than the first episode. It has a bit of staying power, plus you can watch it without seeing the previous episode. So no commitment required.
Forever - was better than expected. It's basically Elementary meets
Highlander by way Horatio Hornblower. The protagonist died over 200 years ago defending a slave - something weird happened, and he lived. Now he's immortal and can't die. Understandably obsessed with death and dying, because he's died multiple times in multiple ways, but always comes back through water, he becomes a forensic scientist - who investigates how people died. Also, having lived over 200 years - he's become an expert in deductive reasoning. But he's a lot more charming than Sherlock, not to mention better looking, and the show has mythology that reminds me a wee bit of Highlander.
Anyhow, I enjoyed it enough to continue with it. Also it has Judd Hirsch as the protagonist's friend/confident. On the fence about the female lead, a homicide detective, who reminds me a bit of Kate Beckett on Castle.
Scorpion - was just plain awful. Gave up on it after about 15 or 20 minutes. Didn't make it through the first episode.
Read a review of the film Gone Girl in Entertainment Weekly - which I'm skeptical of, since the magazine adored the book and hyped the heck out of it solely because Gillian Flynn used to work as a television critic/book reviewer for the magazine. EW biased me against Gone Girl - I didn't read it as a reaction to EW's hype about it. Almost didn't read 50 Shades of Grey for the same reason - an interview with the witty and self-deprecating author changed my mind, while interviews with Flynn and Stephanie Meyer made me run screaming in the opposite direction of their novels. Not to mention the crazy hype. Interesting. Is it possible that hype, reviews and an author can prejudice you against their work? I usually withhold judgement until I see it for myself, but sometimes a review, word of mouth, hype or an author can turn me off a book or film. Just as a negative review or negative word of mouth can turn me onto a book or film or tv show. Depends on the critic, the review, and the marketing. Same thing happens with lj reviews - a friend can turn me on or off a show - without always intending to. Which makes me wonder how many times I've done the same.
Currently watching Mysteries of Laura - the second episode, which is slightly better than the first episode. It has a bit of staying power, plus you can watch it without seeing the previous episode. So no commitment required.
Forever - was better than expected. It's basically Elementary meets
Highlander by way Horatio Hornblower. The protagonist died over 200 years ago defending a slave - something weird happened, and he lived. Now he's immortal and can't die. Understandably obsessed with death and dying, because he's died multiple times in multiple ways, but always comes back through water, he becomes a forensic scientist - who investigates how people died. Also, having lived over 200 years - he's become an expert in deductive reasoning. But he's a lot more charming than Sherlock, not to mention better looking, and the show has mythology that reminds me a wee bit of Highlander.
Anyhow, I enjoyed it enough to continue with it. Also it has Judd Hirsch as the protagonist's friend/confident. On the fence about the female lead, a homicide detective, who reminds me a bit of Kate Beckett on Castle.
Scorpion - was just plain awful. Gave up on it after about 15 or 20 minutes. Didn't make it through the first episode.
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Date: 2014-09-29 12:49 am (UTC)As for hype, I haven't read the book, but I asked my older daughter about it and she said both she and her sister were a bit disappointed with the book because the hype was so great. I'm kind of a contrarian anyway, so hype can turn me off. But I'll probably go see the movie.
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Date: 2014-09-29 01:56 am (UTC)Why wast $15-20 bucks, when you can pay $3.50?
As for the book? Various people on my lj Flist had similar issues with it - they said the characters were beyond nasty and somewhat one dimensional - and that the ending felt contrived. (So I think they agreed with your daughter?) Their reviews were not glowing. They liked Feast of Crows better actually, which is saying something.
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Date: 2014-09-29 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-29 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-29 11:05 pm (UTC)From what I read of the review of the Gone Girl flick - they said Fincher handled the ending better than Flynn did in the novel.
Also the big difference between movies and books - is you spend less time on/with a movie - it's what 2-3 hours of your time? While a book is often days, weeks of your time (if you are like me and don't read that fast and only in snippets while traveling to and from places). A movie is over quickly, a book is not. A book also stays with you longer. Book's like Gone Girl - I'd rather watch on screen, where it's fun, but over fast, and I don't have to spend too much time with the nasty characters.