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shadowkatYesterday was a warm fall day, sky a crystal blue, so I took a long walk in Prospect Park and watched children feeding geese, swans, and ducks in the lake. Today, is much cooler and a bit overcast - it feels like it wants to rain, the clouds are looming heavy and dark overhead.
Been quite irritable of late - due to a high sugar count, so am attempting to detox. I'm highly sensitive to sugar - so need to be more careful than most. Probably should just treat it as an addiction and go off entirely, but that's easier said than done. It's in everything. And well, I also suffer from low-blood sugar - so feel ill when I don't have any. So scaling back to just nuts, occasional fruit, and carrots for sugar.
No baked goods and no more chocolate.
On the television front?
1. I've caught up on Marvel Agents of Shield, which while better than expected in some respects, is still a wee bit disappointing in others. I keep wishing television writers would be a bit more clever and innovative in their narratives and less into rehashing old tropes. It's a shame, but the most innovative of the Mutant Enemy series was probably either Dollhouse or Firefly, while the most entertainingly innovative was Buffy. SHIELD just can't quite break out of the safe model its stuck in.
While there are few tropes that Mutant Enemy does well and/or I apparently have a big weakness for, they don't seem to have anything new to say about them. I'm hoping I'm wrong about this - ...in regards to Agent Grant Ward - who appears on the surface to be yet another take on Benedict Arnold trope. Or the wolf in sheep's clothing. Turns out by the end of S1, that Ward is a bit worse than Hydra, he was working as Garret, a deranged narcissist's thug. Devoted to Garret, because Garret pulled him out of juvenile detention and saved him from life imprisonment for burning down his family home. From Ward's perspective at least, Garret was the lesser of two evils, and a much better alternative to his monsterous parents and brutish older brother - who'd bullied him into beating his younger brothers. As a result of years of training with Garrett, who pretty much raised him and that early childhood with the nasty parents,
Ward is a sociopath, who seems to only care for one person -outside of himself, Skye.
Although he does balk at killing Fitz and Simmons outright, he does ensure their potential death. Sound familiar? He should - he's yet another take on Faith, Darla, Spike, Angel, the character Adam Baldwin played on Firefly, and to some degree the character of Boyd on Dollhouse. I'm somewhat curious to see if they plan on: a) redeeming Ward through death (a tried but true method in this genre - see Darla), b) showing he's an irredeemable monster (Boyd), c) ambiguous middle ground (Angel) or d) redeeming him slowly through punishment - a la Faith and Spike. It'll probably be a or b. But I'm hoping for c and d, just because they are lot more interesting.
The other trope is the monster father, mystical lost daughter - although Kyle McLachlan is an interesting choice for a monster father...and a bit fun. I'm hoping the father isn't irredeemably evil. It could be that he was part of the Tahiti project or Sky's parents were initially dosed with the miracle drug, which drove them insane, prior to Sky's birth. I'm guessing that's probably the case. That he's a monster similar to Mike Peterson, made not born. Certainly a lot of foreshadowing there. With Sky, being yet another take on River, Buffy, and Echo - the magical girl with the father figure mentor (Coulson, Malcolm Reynolds, Giles, and Boyd (who turned out to be evil)). I'm hoping Sky doesn't develop magical powers. But remain curious as to who Raina is and how she's connected to Sky - I want Raina's back story. And a bit more on Ward's family (although I doubt I'll ever get that). We will however get Sky and her parents back story - no doubt about that. My guess is that they experimented on themselves, things got out of hand, and well...voila.
I'm intrigued because of those tropes. Well that and the introduction of some interesting new characters - Bobby Morris (Mockingbird from the Avengers), her ex-hubby - who is a bit of mercernary, Trip, and the other guy whose name escapes me.
Broadening the cast was a wise move. Brett Dalton no longer appears to be a contract player - feel for the actor, that must have been an odd surprise. Wondering what that means for the character - Grant Ward.
2. Constantine - closer to the DC comics version than the Keanu Reeves film of the same name, as result a heck of a lot more interesting. He reminds me a bit of Spike or Bryan Lynch and James Marster's version of Spike. Definitely one of my favorite character tropes - plus, I like the actor and the look of the character (which is right out of the Hellblazer comics.). The mythology and other characters, however, not so much. Although Jeremy Davis - is interesting. Not a fan of Judeo/Christian mythology - aka Angels/Demons, find it to be a bit silly and overdone. Seriously there's only so much you can do with this trope before you fall into cliche territory. It is my main problem with SPN and Sleepy Hollow - and why I couldn't quite fall in love with either. The only two series that handled the demon thing well in my opinion were Buffy and Angel, in part because they kept away from angels, which is when things get silly. To be fair - SPN had a nice dark, noirish take on Angels reminiscent of Phillip K. Pullman's His Dark Materials series. But that show also has a rather dark and noirish take bordering on misogynistic towards women. Which after a while, became problematic and I gave up. That's the problem with the noir horror genre - (the misogyny) it doesn't handle/depict female characters well. Also, there's all the manpain, which gets wearing after a bit.
Anyhow, it's too soon to tell which direction Constantine will go. I know they retooled the series after the pilot. Apparently they discovered the female character introduced in the pilot episode didn't work, and decided to write her out in the first episode - and introduce a new female character based more closely on the comics.
And since the main character hits my story kinks hard and I sort of like the actor portraying him - I'll probably stick with it for a while. Like I said, he reminds me of Angel S5 and Buffy S7 Spike, and I have a huge weakness for that character trope. As well as Ripper(Giles) and Dark Wesley -another character trope that I have a weakness for.
What's it about? Constantine is an exorcist, demonologist, and practioner of the dark arts. His mother died giving birth to him. His father instead of stepping up and loving his son, decided to blame the poor kid for his mother's death. And called Constantine - "Killer". His father was obviously a bit on the weak side and not worth all that much. Anyhow, Constantine became obsessed with speaking with or conjuring his dead mother - so he could meet her. And in order to do this - learned everything he could about the occult and every spell imaginable. One day he and his buddy are called to exorcise a demon from a little girl in Newcastle England. Constantine decides to conjure a bigger more powerful demon to drag the weaker demon away. The bigger demon decides to tear the other demon along with the little girl apart, and take the little girl's soul - damning her to hell, along with Constantine. That's the back story. We find Constantine in an insane asylum undergoing shock therapy to exorcise guilt and memories of the little girl from his head. He doesn't want to help anyone, he wants to forget. But alas, the spirits won't let him nor will the Angel's...He's a reluctant hero, the typical noir hero, wants to save his soul - but in order to do that he has to care about the world outside of himself and like himself a bit more than he does - both are a problem.
Has great special effects, set design, costumes, and the acting is good - with the exception of the female character who is out by the next episode, so not a problem. And no, they didn't fridge her - thank heavens. Apparently damning one girl to hell per episode is enough.
3. Doctor Who - hmmm... the preview for next week looked more interesting than this week's episode, which felt a bit silly. I have to remind myself that this is a television series that is directed towards children and families after all. The Eleven Arc made me sort of forget that, it was more adult.
The comparison between the Doctor and Mr. Pinkman...continues, and Pinkman is winning in Clara's estimation. He's similar to previous companion boyfriends in that he wants to stay home, raise a family, and not travel around in the Tardis.. he has no need to see the universe or know it. Odd pattern that. Curious as to why the writers keep playing with that trope?
And there's a bit of a sly twist on "Little Red Riding Hood" - except in this case The Doctor and the Tardis - are the big bad wolf..ie, the joke, "it's bigger on the inside". (Or what great big teeth you have Granny). Maeve is little red riding hood, complete with red hood and cape, lost in the forest, hunting her mum and running from something.
The other twist is that once again the perceived villain isn't really a villain - the trees aren't the bad-guy, they are actually working to protect the earth from a solar flare (some interestingly wacky science this season). Similar to the beast inside the moon not being a problem, but a benefit - an inspiration. What we fear isn't always something to be feared. This appears to be an on-going theme - in each episode, the audience and characters are mislead into fearing something that is actually good or helpful. In Listen, the person under the bed that the young Doctor Who fears, is actually Clara. In the moon episode, the monster in the moon everyone fears is actually a bird who hatches and lays another moon size egg. And the trees that the Doctor and everyone believes are invading and taking over the planet, are actually protecting it from a natural phenomenon.
The third theme - is the Doctor isn't as all-knowing as he'd like us to believe. He gets quite a few things wrong. And he's not certain. So much of his act has become bravado. He is quite out of his depth, most of the time. It's actually others on his team who figure it out.
Been quite irritable of late - due to a high sugar count, so am attempting to detox. I'm highly sensitive to sugar - so need to be more careful than most. Probably should just treat it as an addiction and go off entirely, but that's easier said than done. It's in everything. And well, I also suffer from low-blood sugar - so feel ill when I don't have any. So scaling back to just nuts, occasional fruit, and carrots for sugar.
No baked goods and no more chocolate.
On the television front?
1. I've caught up on Marvel Agents of Shield, which while better than expected in some respects, is still a wee bit disappointing in others. I keep wishing television writers would be a bit more clever and innovative in their narratives and less into rehashing old tropes. It's a shame, but the most innovative of the Mutant Enemy series was probably either Dollhouse or Firefly, while the most entertainingly innovative was Buffy. SHIELD just can't quite break out of the safe model its stuck in.
While there are few tropes that Mutant Enemy does well and/or I apparently have a big weakness for, they don't seem to have anything new to say about them. I'm hoping I'm wrong about this - ...in regards to Agent Grant Ward - who appears on the surface to be yet another take on Benedict Arnold trope. Or the wolf in sheep's clothing. Turns out by the end of S1, that Ward is a bit worse than Hydra, he was working as Garret, a deranged narcissist's thug. Devoted to Garret, because Garret pulled him out of juvenile detention and saved him from life imprisonment for burning down his family home. From Ward's perspective at least, Garret was the lesser of two evils, and a much better alternative to his monsterous parents and brutish older brother - who'd bullied him into beating his younger brothers. As a result of years of training with Garrett, who pretty much raised him and that early childhood with the nasty parents,
Ward is a sociopath, who seems to only care for one person -outside of himself, Skye.
Although he does balk at killing Fitz and Simmons outright, he does ensure their potential death. Sound familiar? He should - he's yet another take on Faith, Darla, Spike, Angel, the character Adam Baldwin played on Firefly, and to some degree the character of Boyd on Dollhouse. I'm somewhat curious to see if they plan on: a) redeeming Ward through death (a tried but true method in this genre - see Darla), b) showing he's an irredeemable monster (Boyd), c) ambiguous middle ground (Angel) or d) redeeming him slowly through punishment - a la Faith and Spike. It'll probably be a or b. But I'm hoping for c and d, just because they are lot more interesting.
The other trope is the monster father, mystical lost daughter - although Kyle McLachlan is an interesting choice for a monster father...and a bit fun. I'm hoping the father isn't irredeemably evil. It could be that he was part of the Tahiti project or Sky's parents were initially dosed with the miracle drug, which drove them insane, prior to Sky's birth. I'm guessing that's probably the case. That he's a monster similar to Mike Peterson, made not born. Certainly a lot of foreshadowing there. With Sky, being yet another take on River, Buffy, and Echo - the magical girl with the father figure mentor (Coulson, Malcolm Reynolds, Giles, and Boyd (who turned out to be evil)). I'm hoping Sky doesn't develop magical powers. But remain curious as to who Raina is and how she's connected to Sky - I want Raina's back story. And a bit more on Ward's family (although I doubt I'll ever get that). We will however get Sky and her parents back story - no doubt about that. My guess is that they experimented on themselves, things got out of hand, and well...voila.
I'm intrigued because of those tropes. Well that and the introduction of some interesting new characters - Bobby Morris (Mockingbird from the Avengers), her ex-hubby - who is a bit of mercernary, Trip, and the other guy whose name escapes me.
Broadening the cast was a wise move. Brett Dalton no longer appears to be a contract player - feel for the actor, that must have been an odd surprise. Wondering what that means for the character - Grant Ward.
2. Constantine - closer to the DC comics version than the Keanu Reeves film of the same name, as result a heck of a lot more interesting. He reminds me a bit of Spike or Bryan Lynch and James Marster's version of Spike. Definitely one of my favorite character tropes - plus, I like the actor and the look of the character (which is right out of the Hellblazer comics.). The mythology and other characters, however, not so much. Although Jeremy Davis - is interesting. Not a fan of Judeo/Christian mythology - aka Angels/Demons, find it to be a bit silly and overdone. Seriously there's only so much you can do with this trope before you fall into cliche territory. It is my main problem with SPN and Sleepy Hollow - and why I couldn't quite fall in love with either. The only two series that handled the demon thing well in my opinion were Buffy and Angel, in part because they kept away from angels, which is when things get silly. To be fair - SPN had a nice dark, noirish take on Angels reminiscent of Phillip K. Pullman's His Dark Materials series. But that show also has a rather dark and noirish take bordering on misogynistic towards women. Which after a while, became problematic and I gave up. That's the problem with the noir horror genre - (the misogyny) it doesn't handle/depict female characters well. Also, there's all the manpain, which gets wearing after a bit.
Anyhow, it's too soon to tell which direction Constantine will go. I know they retooled the series after the pilot. Apparently they discovered the female character introduced in the pilot episode didn't work, and decided to write her out in the first episode - and introduce a new female character based more closely on the comics.
And since the main character hits my story kinks hard and I sort of like the actor portraying him - I'll probably stick with it for a while. Like I said, he reminds me of Angel S5 and Buffy S7 Spike, and I have a huge weakness for that character trope. As well as Ripper(Giles) and Dark Wesley -another character trope that I have a weakness for.
What's it about? Constantine is an exorcist, demonologist, and practioner of the dark arts. His mother died giving birth to him. His father instead of stepping up and loving his son, decided to blame the poor kid for his mother's death. And called Constantine - "Killer". His father was obviously a bit on the weak side and not worth all that much. Anyhow, Constantine became obsessed with speaking with or conjuring his dead mother - so he could meet her. And in order to do this - learned everything he could about the occult and every spell imaginable. One day he and his buddy are called to exorcise a demon from a little girl in Newcastle England. Constantine decides to conjure a bigger more powerful demon to drag the weaker demon away. The bigger demon decides to tear the other demon along with the little girl apart, and take the little girl's soul - damning her to hell, along with Constantine. That's the back story. We find Constantine in an insane asylum undergoing shock therapy to exorcise guilt and memories of the little girl from his head. He doesn't want to help anyone, he wants to forget. But alas, the spirits won't let him nor will the Angel's...He's a reluctant hero, the typical noir hero, wants to save his soul - but in order to do that he has to care about the world outside of himself and like himself a bit more than he does - both are a problem.
Has great special effects, set design, costumes, and the acting is good - with the exception of the female character who is out by the next episode, so not a problem. And no, they didn't fridge her - thank heavens. Apparently damning one girl to hell per episode is enough.
3. Doctor Who - hmmm... the preview for next week looked more interesting than this week's episode, which felt a bit silly. I have to remind myself that this is a television series that is directed towards children and families after all. The Eleven Arc made me sort of forget that, it was more adult.
The comparison between the Doctor and Mr. Pinkman...continues, and Pinkman is winning in Clara's estimation. He's similar to previous companion boyfriends in that he wants to stay home, raise a family, and not travel around in the Tardis.. he has no need to see the universe or know it. Odd pattern that. Curious as to why the writers keep playing with that trope?
And there's a bit of a sly twist on "Little Red Riding Hood" - except in this case The Doctor and the Tardis - are the big bad wolf..ie, the joke, "it's bigger on the inside". (Or what great big teeth you have Granny). Maeve is little red riding hood, complete with red hood and cape, lost in the forest, hunting her mum and running from something.
The other twist is that once again the perceived villain isn't really a villain - the trees aren't the bad-guy, they are actually working to protect the earth from a solar flare (some interestingly wacky science this season). Similar to the beast inside the moon not being a problem, but a benefit - an inspiration. What we fear isn't always something to be feared. This appears to be an on-going theme - in each episode, the audience and characters are mislead into fearing something that is actually good or helpful. In Listen, the person under the bed that the young Doctor Who fears, is actually Clara. In the moon episode, the monster in the moon everyone fears is actually a bird who hatches and lays another moon size egg. And the trees that the Doctor and everyone believes are invading and taking over the planet, are actually protecting it from a natural phenomenon.
The third theme - is the Doctor isn't as all-knowing as he'd like us to believe. He gets quite a few things wrong. And he's not certain. So much of his act has become bravado. He is quite out of his depth, most of the time. It's actually others on his team who figure it out.