Excuse me while I put on my philosopher's hat for a bit, and squee over a book

I was blown away by last night's Dollhouse. If you gave up on this series and missed last night's episode? Well, it would have been akin to giving up on Buffy after watching Harvest, which was admittedly horrid. Rare that a tv show surprises me, but this one did repeatedly last night. I'll write a review later.

The other thing that is blowing me away at the moment? Iron Dragon's Daughter.

Here's a passage from the novel that I read last night in bed, which gave me one of those a-ha, epiphany moments. In which everything that's been plaguing me of late, suddenly made sense. Sort of like when you are struggling to find the answer to mathematical equation and suddenly see it? Or writing a story and struggling with a plot bunny and then you figure it out?

The passage is a conversation between the protagonist, a young human teenager named Jane, and her tutor, a pale elf, that she calls the Pale Man. He has just informed her that her scholarship application was rejected by the school secretary and she has asked him why. Why would she be rejected and what can she do about it.

"There is a logic to the shapes of lives and relationships, and that logic is embedded in the stuff of existence. The lover does not awake one morning convinced he would rather be an engineer. The musician does not abandon her keyboard without regrets. The CEO does not surrender wealth. Or if he does, he will find it easier to give up everything, find a cave in the mountains and become a philosopher than to simply downscale his lifestyle. You see? We are all of us living stories that on some deep level give us satisfaction. If we are unhappy with our stories, that is not enough too free us from them. We must find other stories that flow naturally from those we have been living."
( Read more... )

Dollhouse - A Spy in the House of Love

Dollhouse has been building lately, and I'm finding myself hoping it does get picked up for at least a second season. [ETA: Am tempted to tell you to forget this entry and read this instead: http://fresne.livejournal.com/152895.html?style=mine#cutid4 -
I liked fresne's take on Dollhouse more than my own. ]

Like Lost this week, Dollhouse played with perception, and how what we think we see or know, may not be true. [I haven't watched Sarah Connor Chronicles yet, because it has gotten really bleak and I'm trying to avoid things like that at the moment. House was bad enough. I was sobbing during this week's House, and last week's Sarah Connor just depressed me. Not shows you want to watch after you've lost your best friend.]

When this week's Dollhouse episode began, I found myself thinking, okay not another one of these - rewind episodes. I've lost count of how many tv shows have done the old "Twelve Hours earlier" or "Six Hours Earlier". It's headache inducing if done poorly, trippy if done well. Here it was, thankfully, done well. Also the always tricky muliple perspective tactic - we start with Echo...follow her for a bit, then rewind and go to November, follow her, then rewind and go to Sierra, follow her, then rewind again and go to Victor - follow him and finally back to Echo and real time. Another tactic that if done poorly gives the viewer a migraine, but if done well is rather cool.

Whatever happens to Dollhouse? Andrew Chambliss - the writer of this episode is someone I going to keep an eye on. So for that matter are Olivia Williams (Adelle), whomever is playing Sierra and whomever is playing Victor.

Here, Chambliss kept all his balls in the air and did not drop a single one. As did the three actors I mentioned above, who made the episode believable.
( spoilers below )

Sarah Connor Chronicles...is this how it ends..with a beginning?

Well, I got curious and watched the season, and I'm thinking series finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

( Spoilery )

I'm going to miss Sarah Connor Chronicles - it was great sci-fi, albeit short-lived. I don't think it will be renewed next year, could be wrong of course - but somehow I doubt it. It's a bit too good for tv.