TV and book commentary: Vamp Diaries, Walking Dead, Doctor Who, and Captive Prince

Happy Easter, Passover, or Rite of Spring...whichever you celebrate (as a UU, I celebrate all three and at the same time, equal opportunity and all that.) Personally, I like it as the metaphor of letting go of the old self, the fears, and demons of yesteryear, and being reborn into a new self for a new year. I think many of our religious rituals are mainly about renewal of hope.

Between reading The Captive Prince by SU Paget (freece) and tv shows, been having a relaxing three day holiday. Went out for Easter Brunch with MD and friends.
One of the friends, a bass player and paralegal, asked me what the definition of "meta" was, which I explained was a commentary on your own work. It's basically when a work comments on itself. Or comments on other related works within the genre or that the writer has done before. Very popular right now. Example - writing a song that comments on itself is meta.
On the net the definition has been broadened to include commenting on other works, and media essays.

The tv shows have been ranging from admittedly more pedesterian fare such as General Hospital and Dallas to far better written yet gritty fare such as Justified, Walking Dead, and Doctor Who. Why is it that the better fare is more violent? There's quite a few tv shows on right now that are extremely violent - which I can't rec to people - because their tolerance threshhold for fictional violence is not as high as mine. This is not a gender thing - by the way, since my father recently turned to my mother while watching an episode of Justified, and said "You like really violent tv shows." I found this sort of amusing coming from a guy whose favorite tv shows back in the day were MASH and The A Team and is currently NCIS. But whatever.

Here's a brief run-down of the one's worth mentioning:

1) Vampire Diaries - enjoying the brother dynamic, which appears to be the writers current obsession. Making me wonder if they have the same issues that I have with my brother?
Writers always have their favorite story kinks, tropes, which they feel an odd need to keep revisiting. If the kinks/tropes fit the audience's - it's basically golden. If they don't, well you are dead in the water. And audience's are fickle creatures - so there is no knowing what will turn them on. That said - safe story kinks tend to be family, sibiling rivalries, and unrequited love triangles. Also anything regarding redemption. Depending of course on how it is written.

Vamp Diaries does the brother bit pretty well. Actually they are better are that relationship than the romantic ones - which appear to hit a dead end once the two characters have sex. That's when in typical soap opera form, they decide to break the two lovers up.
Apparently there's a television taboo somewhere that no one can have a happy sexual relationship. I know there is a taboo regarding healthy/happy sexual relationships in the horror genre, the moment you have sex with someone (doesn't matter who) in the horror genre, you are basically dead. Both Joss Whedon and Kevin Williamson have done meta horror flicks that made fun of this particular trope.

Anyhow...this week's Vamp Diaries focused on two brother relationships, which were sort of splintered due to the love of a woman or obsession with one. The conflict was between power and love. Or power over someone else and love. Rather like the direction they are going with Elena, which I hadn't expected. They are taking that character down a rather dark place.
It's also about brotherly love. ( eh spoilers )

* The Walking Dead - much better written this year than in previous years, and better filmed. Very haunting and creepy in places. Also the parallel structure of Woodbury/Governor with Rick/Prison is effective. They are almost weird mirror images of each other.
The series is also admittedly amongst the best written on television at the moment, not to mention best acted and cast - unlike most series, they didn't cast pretty people, but good character actors in the roles. The characters of Grace, Darryl, Glenn, Andrea, and Michonne are amongst my favorites. I also have an odd fondness for red-neck asswipe Merl (Darryl's brother). And David Morrissey's Governor is work of genius - understated, and creepy, while even-handed and realistic. A perfect foil for Rick.

Sort of takes the zombie genre to a whole new level, that is if you can handle the grimness and unrelenting violence. Although, if you can watch Game of Thrones or Justified, you can watch this. They are about even. Right now the critically acclaimed, violent, gritty, anti-hero tv series are:

* Breaking Bad (hyper-realism - sort of the Sopranos by way of New Mexico, but more violent and a darker sense of humor. I actually think it is better written than the Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire. Less atmospheric, soap operish, and more plot-character driven. What it reminds me of is a modern day version of MacBeth. Can't rec it to anyone in my life though, too bloody violent - you have to have a really high violence threshold, plus like anti-heroes, to watch this.)
* Walking Dead (zombie disaster flick, with humans being the worst)
* Justified ( a modern day western...with an Elmore Leonard twist)
* Game of Thrones (a complex hyper-realistic AU medieval fantasy war epic based on the War of the Roses with well zombies and dragons)
* Boardwalk Empire (which is basically the Sopranoes but back in time...I've tried to watch it, but it puts me to sleep - too atmospheric)
* Copper (Justified in 1800 NYC by way of Homicide Life in the Streets - also overly atmospheric).

( eh spoilers )

* Doctor Who - The Bells of St. Marys.

I rather like the Moffat arcs of Doctor Who, but that's because what fascinates Moffat also fascinates me. The idea of time travel and how it can drive you a bit mad - the ability to always be on time, to be able to go to any time, and to run into someone at various moments in their life-time. To see someone die in multiple ways and multiple time threads - because if you change one thread, you create another one, and another one. The price of time travel - the cost. And ultimately...the loniliness of being able to live outside time and space,
while everyone else lives within it.

I'm not a fan of the time-travel genre, generally speaking, because too often people ignore...well the price and consequences.

This episode had the added bonus of playing with our fears of becoming lost in the internet. Moffat does a great job of playing with modern fears or rather post-modern fears.

( eh spoilers )

* Captive Prince Vol 1 and Vol 2 - not a full review quite yet. Haven't finished. About 67% through. ( Read more... )