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shadowkat1. Doctor Who Episodes 9.1.5-9.2 or rather "Meditation for the Doctor", "Magician's Apprentice", and "The Witch's Familiar".
The problem I had with these was the damn commercial interruptions. Can't help but wonder what it would be like if I wasn't constantly fast-forwarding through commercials every 15 or 10 minutes. As a result of the commercials, some of which were flash-forward previews regarding what will happen next in between commercials, so you don't give up, I found it hard to follow. Not to mention jarring.
Note to television writers producing shows for "commercial" television - out of order narratives or jumpy narratives are hard to follow when you are interrupted by commercials. It interrupts the flow.
I felt I should get that out of the way first. My main issue with Doctor Who, and probably the reason I was never "fannish" about it - is it is geared more towards "horror" than really speculative science fiction/fantasy/adventure. Basically the writer is interested in examining what scares us. This has never had a great deal of appeal for me. I'm not a big fan of horror. I like it, but sparingly. If you aren't a horror fan -- you probably don't like Doctor Who all that much.
Ignoring both of those quibbles? (Because one, let's face isn't the writers fault, he wrote the series for non-commercial television, and two, it's a horror series. Hello. Sort of know that going into it.) It was an interesting series of episodes. Playing around once again with the idea of mercy and war. And enemies vs. friends. The Doctor at the end of it, chooses to save the child who will one day become he's most dreaded enemy, to show mercy, as opposed to the more tempting choice - to kill him.
Hmmm...this seems to be an on-going theme in the items that I've been reading lately. The protagonist is given a chance to kill a horrible enemy who is responsible for mass genocide prior to it happening, or the enemy either rising to power, or making that choice. In both cases, the protagonist makes the choice to either kill the enemy or abandon them to certain death. But it doesn't work. So, in the end they don't give in, and either save the enemy, or don't cause their death.
There's a rather long scene, made longer by commercial interruptions, where the Doctor and Davros (sp?), the creator of the Daleks or Father of the Daleks, chat. Davros is apparently dying and wants to see the sunrise one last time. He wonders if at the end of the day, is he a good man? Did he do the best he could for his people? His people had so many invasions and so many battles that they eventually encased themselves in tanks or machines of warfare as protection. The Doctor wonders much the same thing - is he a good man? Then, in a moment of compassion, the Doctor decides to share his life force with his enemy, so that his enemy can see the sunrise. That moment - gives his enemy the upper hand and the enemy attempts to steal the Doctor's energy, turning himself into a hybrid.
The Master/Missy stops it in time (although that's not exactly clear...), and the Doctor hunts down Clara, only to find a Dalek, which Missy claims killed Clara. (It is in reality, Clara - which is reminiscent of Clara's first appearance on the series, where she was in fact a Darlek. Except this time around she can escape the casing of the Darlek, it's not permanent.) The Doctor figures out that it is Clara, when the Dalek she's inside interrupts her pleas as "Mercy".
"Would you kill me?" The Doctor asks.
"Mercy. Do not kill. Mercy." Clara, the Darlek, responds.
Which gives him pause. How did it learn mercy? And that enables him to find Clara, and motivates him to go back in time to save the child who is to become Davros. To show the child mercy, in the hope that he will somehow remember it and instill it in his creations.
Davros tells the Doctor that his weakness, his fatal flaw is his compassion. Yet in reality it is his compassion that saves Clara and himself.
Overall not bad. Just difficult to follow and bit dull in spaces, partly due to the commercials.
2. New American Television Series
* Scream Queens -- I gave up halfway through, around the 30 minute mark. I'd read good reviews of it. But here's the thing, Ryan Murphy's unique and rather flamboyant (read over the top) brand of cultural satire/parody either works for you or it really doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I didn't find it offensive so much as boring. I didn't care about any of the characters. And I kept wondering why all these rich entitled college kids weren't using smartphones 24/7 like their real life counterparts? In short, I was taken out of the story intermittently by the thought - why aren't they taking pictures of that with their cell phones? Why don't they have their cell phones on them? Clearly Murphy and Falchuck are of my generation and don't seem to realize that everyone under the age of 30, with few exceptions, has a cell phone as a third appendage.
But my main difficulty, was none of the characters was relateable, interesting, charming, or compelling. Not one. I need at least someone to care about and root for. In Glee, I had five people, plus nifty musical numbers. This...I don't even have the musical numbers, just gory death scenes, and seriously who wants that?
* Blindspot --- has potential. My co-worker loves it. I find it a bit boiler-plate, but I admittedly have watched too many tv shows in my life-time. It feels a bit like Orphan Black meets the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. A woman has her memory completely wiped, and her skin covered with tattoos, then she's dumped naked in a duffel bag in the middle of Times Square. The duffel has a tag stating that they should "CAll the FBI". Oh and on her back is the name of a top level FBI agent, Kurt Weller. Apparently each of her tattoos holds a clue to her identity and to various terrorist attacks around the city or country. It's a treasure map of sorts.
So, each episode will be unraveling the mystery behind each individual tattoo. The case of the week is the terrorist or criminal action that the tattoo is a clue to, and the back plot is who is this woman and what does the tattoo and the case reveal about her.
She's clearly a trained fighter, with awesome shooting and kung fu skills. (And has a Navy Seals Special Ops Tattoo hidden under a new tattoo.) We're also shown the man who trained her and did this to her - but no clue if he is a villain or what exactly.
Like I said, it has potential, but it's nothing new or that we haven't seen before, exactly.
3. ) I've finished Grant Morrison's New X-men - which overall, was quite good. Got a bit weak towards the end. And the art was uneven. Morrison, unfortunately, didn't get to choose or keep his pick of the artists, which caused problems. Graphic novels work best if the art remains consistent throughout, and there's a true collaboration between artist and writer. (Which is why the best graphic novels are either written and drawn by the same person or have a collaborative team.)
That said, even though Frank Quitely's run was most likely the best. My favorite part of the series was the Wolverine/Cyclops buddy trip, against Cyclops better judgment (Wolverine basically gets Cyke blind drunk, throws him over his shoulder and dumps him at the facility that he wants him to investigate at his side, as back-up.). This had some of the best character moments of the series.
I honestly don't think male comic book writers handle male/female romantic relationships that well.
Cyke and Wolverine have the best character arcs in this series. Although Wolverine is stretched a bit thin at this point (the character is in literally every single X-men comic book). Cyke hits rock bottom. He loses everything - his wife, his self-esteem, his world-view, his ideology, and his friends. He comes thisclose to permanently leaving the X-men. Actually he does, but 150 years later, a resurrected Jean Grey/Phoenix decides to send a thought message back in time to change his mind - because otherwise the world will blow apart in the distant future. So she pushes him into Emma Frost's arms. This whole story arc, entitled "Here Comes Tomorrow" feels rather contrived. The writer is clearly attempting to justify and sell Scott/Cyke's new love relationship with Emma, even though the love of his life and his wife just died, and keep him on the team. It's not surprising that Hank, Wolverine, Rachel and various other team mates take issue with this development.
I also found the death of Jean Grey rather contrived. I don't think the writers know what to do with the character. They keep killing her off. It's annoying because her relationship with Cyke had finally gotten interesting. Complicated, messy, and interesting. I would have liked to see if they could have worked it out, or worked through it a bit. Serial writers, particularly male serial writers, for some reason or other have problems writing long monogamous romantic relationships. I don't know why. For some reason they find writing battle scenes more interesting. (And we wonder why there are so many wars.)
Anyhow. Now re-reading Joss Whedon and John Cassiday's Astonishing X-men, which is much better than I remembered. Whedon apparently learned something from Grant Morrison's run and insisted on two things - the same artist and team collaborating with him all the way through, and a limited run of about 22 issues or thereabouts. Smart. I wish he was smart about the Buffy comics. (oh well). Whedon made it clear that writers and artists needed to collaborate, and switching the team up, was jarring to everyone involved including the readers.
I'm enjoying Whedon's take more this go-around than I did the last time. In part because I'm not shipping the same characters/relationships that I did back then, and because I'm fascinated by the same character arc and themes that Whedon is fascinated by -- at least when he was writing it.
It helps greatly if you are on the same page as the writer.
The first go-around, I was shipping Wolverine, who Whedon felt had been overdone and couldn't resist poking fun at. And Kitty Pryde with some guy, who I've since forgotten. I can only vaguely picture the character. And his name escapes me. (I think it was Peter something, which can't be right because that was also Colossus first name. I just know he shot knives out of his wrists and had a razor sharp wit and a long duster.) At the time this character, whose name I've forgotten, that I was shipping Shadowcat aka Kitty Pryde with, reminded me of Spike (probably the razor sharp wit and leather jacket), and Colossus reminded me of Angel (the brooding demeanor, thick body, dark hair, and the lack of a neck). And had decided like many other fans that this was evidence that Whedon shipped Bangle over Spuffy. (I've since come to the conclusion this isn't true. And Whedon like most male serial writers could not care less about romantic relationships...and does whatever he thinks will make the characters or plot intriguing or fit his theme. Also, they won't stay together anyhow, because he thinks that's boring. One or the other will be killed off, or something incredibly tragic and angsty. In short, he goes for the relationship that is bound to be the most tragic. The man has read too many Shakespearean tragedies.)
At any rate, these aren't problems now. I tend to agree with Whedon, Wolverine has been overdone and the character stretched far past his limit. (Serial writers have a tendency to do this - when they inherit the characters/story, they decide to re-interpret it to fit whatever theme or plot arc they've dreamed up. Often at the expense of the character. Wolverine is sort of easy to do this with, because there's built in loop-holes. He had memory implants and he's immortal, and dates back to the 1800s. So basically the skies the limit - as long as you write him as the tough badass thug with a heart of gold, you're okay. So to date they've managed to explore every possible cliche, stereotype and angle on that trope that exists.) Whedon kept poking fun at the trope, often with jokes at Wolverine's expense, which I'm finding hilarious now -- but didn't when I first read it. Mainly because I no longer care all that much about Wolverine.
Nor do I care who Kitty Pryde winds up with. For one thing, I already know she's not going to end up with Colossus. In 2015, she was dating Iceman. Whedon just put them together for maximum angst.
This is of course aided by the fact that I can't remember the romantic relationship she was in that I'd been shipping.
All of this just goes to show you how shipping characters/relationships can if you aren't careful get in the way of your overall enjoyment of story arc.
Whedon's take on the X-men is rather interesting. He's exploring the problematic nature of leadership.
And much like Morrison before him, focusing his attention of Cyclops. Actually, the characters who get the most attention during Whedon's arc are Kitty Pryde, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Hank. And he does an adept job of psychologically breaking down the character of Cyclops then building him up again into a tough badass, take no prisoners, leader that others respect. And..Whedon is good at dialogue. Much better than a lot of comic book writers are, unfortunately.
So far so good.
The problem I had with these was the damn commercial interruptions. Can't help but wonder what it would be like if I wasn't constantly fast-forwarding through commercials every 15 or 10 minutes. As a result of the commercials, some of which were flash-forward previews regarding what will happen next in between commercials, so you don't give up, I found it hard to follow. Not to mention jarring.
Note to television writers producing shows for "commercial" television - out of order narratives or jumpy narratives are hard to follow when you are interrupted by commercials. It interrupts the flow.
I felt I should get that out of the way first. My main issue with Doctor Who, and probably the reason I was never "fannish" about it - is it is geared more towards "horror" than really speculative science fiction/fantasy/adventure. Basically the writer is interested in examining what scares us. This has never had a great deal of appeal for me. I'm not a big fan of horror. I like it, but sparingly. If you aren't a horror fan -- you probably don't like Doctor Who all that much.
Ignoring both of those quibbles? (Because one, let's face isn't the writers fault, he wrote the series for non-commercial television, and two, it's a horror series. Hello. Sort of know that going into it.) It was an interesting series of episodes. Playing around once again with the idea of mercy and war. And enemies vs. friends. The Doctor at the end of it, chooses to save the child who will one day become he's most dreaded enemy, to show mercy, as opposed to the more tempting choice - to kill him.
Hmmm...this seems to be an on-going theme in the items that I've been reading lately. The protagonist is given a chance to kill a horrible enemy who is responsible for mass genocide prior to it happening, or the enemy either rising to power, or making that choice. In both cases, the protagonist makes the choice to either kill the enemy or abandon them to certain death. But it doesn't work. So, in the end they don't give in, and either save the enemy, or don't cause their death.
There's a rather long scene, made longer by commercial interruptions, where the Doctor and Davros (sp?), the creator of the Daleks or Father of the Daleks, chat. Davros is apparently dying and wants to see the sunrise one last time. He wonders if at the end of the day, is he a good man? Did he do the best he could for his people? His people had so many invasions and so many battles that they eventually encased themselves in tanks or machines of warfare as protection. The Doctor wonders much the same thing - is he a good man? Then, in a moment of compassion, the Doctor decides to share his life force with his enemy, so that his enemy can see the sunrise. That moment - gives his enemy the upper hand and the enemy attempts to steal the Doctor's energy, turning himself into a hybrid.
The Master/Missy stops it in time (although that's not exactly clear...), and the Doctor hunts down Clara, only to find a Dalek, which Missy claims killed Clara. (It is in reality, Clara - which is reminiscent of Clara's first appearance on the series, where she was in fact a Darlek. Except this time around she can escape the casing of the Darlek, it's not permanent.) The Doctor figures out that it is Clara, when the Dalek she's inside interrupts her pleas as "Mercy".
"Would you kill me?" The Doctor asks.
"Mercy. Do not kill. Mercy." Clara, the Darlek, responds.
Which gives him pause. How did it learn mercy? And that enables him to find Clara, and motivates him to go back in time to save the child who is to become Davros. To show the child mercy, in the hope that he will somehow remember it and instill it in his creations.
Davros tells the Doctor that his weakness, his fatal flaw is his compassion. Yet in reality it is his compassion that saves Clara and himself.
Overall not bad. Just difficult to follow and bit dull in spaces, partly due to the commercials.
2. New American Television Series
* Scream Queens -- I gave up halfway through, around the 30 minute mark. I'd read good reviews of it. But here's the thing, Ryan Murphy's unique and rather flamboyant (read over the top) brand of cultural satire/parody either works for you or it really doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I didn't find it offensive so much as boring. I didn't care about any of the characters. And I kept wondering why all these rich entitled college kids weren't using smartphones 24/7 like their real life counterparts? In short, I was taken out of the story intermittently by the thought - why aren't they taking pictures of that with their cell phones? Why don't they have their cell phones on them? Clearly Murphy and Falchuck are of my generation and don't seem to realize that everyone under the age of 30, with few exceptions, has a cell phone as a third appendage.
But my main difficulty, was none of the characters was relateable, interesting, charming, or compelling. Not one. I need at least someone to care about and root for. In Glee, I had five people, plus nifty musical numbers. This...I don't even have the musical numbers, just gory death scenes, and seriously who wants that?
* Blindspot --- has potential. My co-worker loves it. I find it a bit boiler-plate, but I admittedly have watched too many tv shows in my life-time. It feels a bit like Orphan Black meets the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. A woman has her memory completely wiped, and her skin covered with tattoos, then she's dumped naked in a duffel bag in the middle of Times Square. The duffel has a tag stating that they should "CAll the FBI". Oh and on her back is the name of a top level FBI agent, Kurt Weller. Apparently each of her tattoos holds a clue to her identity and to various terrorist attacks around the city or country. It's a treasure map of sorts.
So, each episode will be unraveling the mystery behind each individual tattoo. The case of the week is the terrorist or criminal action that the tattoo is a clue to, and the back plot is who is this woman and what does the tattoo and the case reveal about her.
She's clearly a trained fighter, with awesome shooting and kung fu skills. (And has a Navy Seals Special Ops Tattoo hidden under a new tattoo.) We're also shown the man who trained her and did this to her - but no clue if he is a villain or what exactly.
Like I said, it has potential, but it's nothing new or that we haven't seen before, exactly.
3. ) I've finished Grant Morrison's New X-men - which overall, was quite good. Got a bit weak towards the end. And the art was uneven. Morrison, unfortunately, didn't get to choose or keep his pick of the artists, which caused problems. Graphic novels work best if the art remains consistent throughout, and there's a true collaboration between artist and writer. (Which is why the best graphic novels are either written and drawn by the same person or have a collaborative team.)
That said, even though Frank Quitely's run was most likely the best. My favorite part of the series was the Wolverine/Cyclops buddy trip, against Cyclops better judgment (Wolverine basically gets Cyke blind drunk, throws him over his shoulder and dumps him at the facility that he wants him to investigate at his side, as back-up.). This had some of the best character moments of the series.
I honestly don't think male comic book writers handle male/female romantic relationships that well.
Cyke and Wolverine have the best character arcs in this series. Although Wolverine is stretched a bit thin at this point (the character is in literally every single X-men comic book). Cyke hits rock bottom. He loses everything - his wife, his self-esteem, his world-view, his ideology, and his friends. He comes thisclose to permanently leaving the X-men. Actually he does, but 150 years later, a resurrected Jean Grey/Phoenix decides to send a thought message back in time to change his mind - because otherwise the world will blow apart in the distant future. So she pushes him into Emma Frost's arms. This whole story arc, entitled "Here Comes Tomorrow" feels rather contrived. The writer is clearly attempting to justify and sell Scott/Cyke's new love relationship with Emma, even though the love of his life and his wife just died, and keep him on the team. It's not surprising that Hank, Wolverine, Rachel and various other team mates take issue with this development.
I also found the death of Jean Grey rather contrived. I don't think the writers know what to do with the character. They keep killing her off. It's annoying because her relationship with Cyke had finally gotten interesting. Complicated, messy, and interesting. I would have liked to see if they could have worked it out, or worked through it a bit. Serial writers, particularly male serial writers, for some reason or other have problems writing long monogamous romantic relationships. I don't know why. For some reason they find writing battle scenes more interesting. (And we wonder why there are so many wars.)
Anyhow. Now re-reading Joss Whedon and John Cassiday's Astonishing X-men, which is much better than I remembered. Whedon apparently learned something from Grant Morrison's run and insisted on two things - the same artist and team collaborating with him all the way through, and a limited run of about 22 issues or thereabouts. Smart. I wish he was smart about the Buffy comics. (oh well). Whedon made it clear that writers and artists needed to collaborate, and switching the team up, was jarring to everyone involved including the readers.
I'm enjoying Whedon's take more this go-around than I did the last time. In part because I'm not shipping the same characters/relationships that I did back then, and because I'm fascinated by the same character arc and themes that Whedon is fascinated by -- at least when he was writing it.
It helps greatly if you are on the same page as the writer.
The first go-around, I was shipping Wolverine, who Whedon felt had been overdone and couldn't resist poking fun at. And Kitty Pryde with some guy, who I've since forgotten. I can only vaguely picture the character. And his name escapes me. (I think it was Peter something, which can't be right because that was also Colossus first name. I just know he shot knives out of his wrists and had a razor sharp wit and a long duster.) At the time this character, whose name I've forgotten, that I was shipping Shadowcat aka Kitty Pryde with, reminded me of Spike (probably the razor sharp wit and leather jacket), and Colossus reminded me of Angel (the brooding demeanor, thick body, dark hair, and the lack of a neck). And had decided like many other fans that this was evidence that Whedon shipped Bangle over Spuffy. (I've since come to the conclusion this isn't true. And Whedon like most male serial writers could not care less about romantic relationships...and does whatever he thinks will make the characters or plot intriguing or fit his theme. Also, they won't stay together anyhow, because he thinks that's boring. One or the other will be killed off, or something incredibly tragic and angsty. In short, he goes for the relationship that is bound to be the most tragic. The man has read too many Shakespearean tragedies.)
At any rate, these aren't problems now. I tend to agree with Whedon, Wolverine has been overdone and the character stretched far past his limit. (Serial writers have a tendency to do this - when they inherit the characters/story, they decide to re-interpret it to fit whatever theme or plot arc they've dreamed up. Often at the expense of the character. Wolverine is sort of easy to do this with, because there's built in loop-holes. He had memory implants and he's immortal, and dates back to the 1800s. So basically the skies the limit - as long as you write him as the tough badass thug with a heart of gold, you're okay. So to date they've managed to explore every possible cliche, stereotype and angle on that trope that exists.) Whedon kept poking fun at the trope, often with jokes at Wolverine's expense, which I'm finding hilarious now -- but didn't when I first read it. Mainly because I no longer care all that much about Wolverine.
Nor do I care who Kitty Pryde winds up with. For one thing, I already know she's not going to end up with Colossus. In 2015, she was dating Iceman. Whedon just put them together for maximum angst.
This is of course aided by the fact that I can't remember the romantic relationship she was in that I'd been shipping.
All of this just goes to show you how shipping characters/relationships can if you aren't careful get in the way of your overall enjoyment of story arc.
Whedon's take on the X-men is rather interesting. He's exploring the problematic nature of leadership.
And much like Morrison before him, focusing his attention of Cyclops. Actually, the characters who get the most attention during Whedon's arc are Kitty Pryde, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Hank. And he does an adept job of psychologically breaking down the character of Cyclops then building him up again into a tough badass, take no prisoners, leader that others respect. And..Whedon is good at dialogue. Much better than a lot of comic book writers are, unfortunately.
So far so good.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-04 02:59 pm (UTC)Apologies.