The Killing - a review.

Spent a lazy day at home playing with my ipod touch device. Only draw back is the only way I can charge the thing is through my home computer. My speakers won't charge it the same way it charged the nano, not supported.

Also, watched two more episodes of the new AMC series, The Killing. I've now seen enough episodes to write a fairly decent or at least informed review of the series. [ETA & Clarification: The Killing is a based on the Danish series The Forbydelsen which aired overseas but has yet to air in the US. Having not seen the original Danish series, I can't comment on how faithful it is to the original. ]

Without going into too much spoilery detail, AMC's original series The Killing takes place in Seattle. On the eve of her going away party, the ranking homicide detective is pulled into one last case. Her replacement just arrived, but the Chief doesn't like or trust him to handle things so requests that she stay on just until it is resolved, a few more days. The case is that of a missing girl - who has been murdered. The story is about the investigation, but the focus is on the people touched and/or affected by her murder. It's not your standard who-dunnit.

It is rather bleak. There's little to no humor in it and the landscape is unlit and gray. It really does rain all the time. But it is worth noting that the bleakness and gray setting are ingredients of this specific trope within the mystery genre/police procedural - which was more or less started with the British series Prime Suspect - or at least that's my first memory of it. It's a rather popular trope in the US, and I'm guessing Britain and Denmark. Northern Europe loves it at any rate. Not sure about elsewhere. As much as I like the trope, clearly because I've watched and read quite a bit of it, over time...it does wear thin and you start to wonder if there are any new ideas or innovative approaches. I'm guessing David Lynch stretched it about as far as it could go with Twin Peaks, because everything else feels a bit like a pale copy of Prime Suspect. That's not to say, The Killing isn't well written and engrossing, it is, just that it makes me miss Prime Suspect.

That said? Critiquing it solely on its own merits? The Killing, like most of AMC's efforts to date, is rather well-written and understated. It's realistic noire - where we see the dirty, grungy, side of life. It's saying something when the only two tv series on AMC that don't leave you depressed or cringing are The Walking Dead and Mad Men. Comfort tv this is not. It's dark and gritty, with
depressed characters, and a tired atmosphere of fog and skies the look like dirty socks.

( Read more... )

Vamp Diaries - Klaus

First off - the Buffy marathon is NOT running on the Syfy channel in NYC area. Some movie called Petrodactyle is. Nor is it listed to run. Sci-Fi lies. Not that this is a big issue, I mean, it's not like I don't have every episode on DVD. If I really wanted to do a marathon - I could hold my own. Although, admittedly there's a disc in S2 that has issues. It's the one with School Hard - apparently someone watched and rewound and watched and paused and rewound the disc too many times...can't think who would do such a thing. Note - I'm about as hard on my DVD's as I am on certain books, apparently. But still...if you tell me there's a marathon and you show a bad sci-fi film instead...

Watched Vamp Diaries yesterday. It's sort of pouring today, so chose not to do the laundry thing. Might try to bring in the laundry tomorrow - not sure if they will have the day off or not. Easter is a funky holiday, half the town celebrates it, the other half ignores it completely. I'm in the second half this year more or less. Not a holiday I like and I don't need the sugar buzz. There's a lull now - so suppose could do it now or try to go food shopping.

But you don't care about what I'm doing. Do you? You want to hear about Vamp Diaries, far more interesting.

Vamp Diaries is guilty pleasure tv at its best. I don't compare it to Buffy, because it's nothing like it nor does it want to be. Actually, nothing on tv is like Buffy. Whedon's shows tend to stand out a bit like a thorny sunflower in a field of daisies or a bird of paradise flower in a field of primroses. He didn't follow formulaic television rules, he either made fun of them or blatantly broke them. And he liked to work within genres which he could get away with that.

Vamp Diaries in direct contrast is basically a fun soap-operaish gothic horror thrill ride that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a lot like True Blood in that respect, except I think True Blood is smarter and has a better overall production value - ie. better actors, dialogue, film-making, etc. Also it's fun to analyze True Blood - since Alan Ball is quite good at social and political satire (better than Ryan Murphy, but the British tend to be better at this than the Americans for some odd reason.) Vamp Diaries is sort of the teen version or PG-14 version of True Blood. Will state Vamp Diaries is better paced and the plot is more entertaining. Also it's more quotable. But - you don't want to over-analyze the metaphors...because ugh. I did. I regretted it. I stopped. (Suffice it to say - the head-writer/show-runner has some serious Mommy!Issues. Since it's Kevin Williamson, more or less - and all of the things he's done sort of reflect that, this shouldn't come as a big surprise.) There's just some shows that one should watch the same way one might jump on an amusement park ride - whee! Leave the brain at home, please, otherwise you may get motion sickness.


That said, I rather like Vamp Diaries take on the whole werewolf bit. Although it does feel like its been borrowed hook, line, and sinker from Underworld (a series of gothic horror action flicks starring Kate Beckinsal and directed by her husband, or am I confusing that with Mila Kovinisch and her hubby who did the Resident Evil films?) Let's face it - all these shows borrow from each other, there really are no new ideas out there, just new variations.

This week's episode delved into the mythology and provided a great deal of exposition. Now, exposition folks, is hard to pull off. Not everyone does it well. Whedon (and his writers) sucks at it - unless of course you thought Giles lectures in the library were entertaining. (They sort of were, but that had less to do with Whedon and everything to do with Anthony Stewart Head - having read the comics and watched S7, I know whereof I speak). Kevin Williamson, on the other hand, and his group of writers are actually rather good at this sort of thing. Say what you will about the Scream flicks - the exposition was delivered in a hilarious and entertaining manner.
(In the first film - it was delivered by Jaime Kennedy, Billy Cruddup and Mathew Lillard as rules you must follow to survive a horror film.) And say what you will about Vamp Diaries - it excels at exposition. Actually it is worth watching Vamp Diaries just to see how exposition can be done in an entertaining manner. The trick is to show the reader or audience what happened, and intrigue them, not lecture them as one might their American history class on the Civil War. (Actually a few teachers might benefit from this - there's nothing more sleep-inducing than someone sitting in front of you and lecturing - you think high school is bad, try law school - 85% of it was basically that. Socratic method, my foot.)

( Spoilers within...review of this week's episode of Vamp Diaries )

Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut and an innovative take on time travel

Oh, I rather enjoyed that. Just watched the season premiere of Doctor Who on BBC America. Apparently they've decided to show the episodes at the same time that they air in the UK - to avoid losing customers to the internet sites.

Since I'm not entirely sure what constitutes spoilers - I'm hiding all my comments behind the requisite cut tag.

( The Impossible Astronaut )