(no subject)

1. Finished my marathon of the first two seasons of Falling Skies via TNT. It's a bit of a smash-up of the 1980s Battle Star Galatica, The Walking Dead, War of the Worlds, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a touch of Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Fantastic special effects - not quite the same level as Caprica and BSG, but close. Also some interesting guest stars - to date? Blair Brown, Terry Quinn, Dwight Schultz, and Matt Czerchny. All without exception have played complex villains. Actually, they've become type-cast as such, we sort of know they are going to be playing complicated villains when they pop up.

It's a fun series. Far better written and produced than most of the sci-fi series on at the moment. Which admittedly isn't saying all that much. Helps if you like the characters and actors. But then it always does. Can anyone watch a series where they don't?

Falling Skies is about Tom Mason (Noah Wylie), an American History professor at Boston University, who finds himself widowed and strapped with three sons, during a devastating alien invasion. The sons, Hal, Matt and Ben, rang in age between 8-16. One of the sons has been taken by the aliens. Desperate to survive he joins the Second Mass. Resistance Force, lead by Captain Weaver (Will Patton) and Col. Porter. Col. Porter names Mason Weaver's second in command, before taking off to lead the 4th and 5th Mass. Resistances. While on a scouting mission for food, Mason and his son Hal see Ben, the son who was taken by the aliens. The boy wears a harnass, which appears to be biological in origin. Mason wants to save his son - but can't do it, until he's certain it won't put the 300 civilians he is now co-leading with Captain Weaver in jeopardy. He is also involved with a doctor, Ann Glass (Moon Bloodgood), who has suffered her own traumas, and struggles to give the civilians more of a voice in the increasingly militarized set-up.
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Overall rating to date? B

It's worth a watch. Plus a heck of a lot of fun to marathon.



2. Been thinking lately off and on about what it is that grabs me in a story, why I continue to watch it? Also which characters turn me on or off. It's odd because what I enjoy in fiction does not always translate to reality or vice versus. For example? A character that I find fascinating in fiction and love to pieces, I could not run faster away from - if I met them in real life.

Characters in fiction that I can't abide or find grating? Often have these characteristics:
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(no subject)

1. oh dear, the Tony's are boring. And I really don't know why Matilda the Musical and Bring it On were nominated, except there isn't much in new musicals on Broadway at the moment. The only one I have any interest in is the Pippin revival.

That said, I rather like the acts from Motown the Musical - which is saying something because I usually despise jukebox musicals. Although they can be a lot of fun at times.

2. Finished watching the season finale of Revolution today and...this series is really bad. After watching the far superior Falling Skies - I can see what they are doing wrong. Falling Skies builds the characters organically, and when a character does something crazy - you know why, they've built it up and set-it up, while on Revolution when a characters does something crazy, we get a flashback that drops in out of nowhere, with no transition to explain it. And it doesn't always. The plot is all over the place, the plot-twists jarring, and it is difficult to care about anyone.

This is a shame. This series is tailor made to hit my story kinks and hard.
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Eh..don't wast your time. Trust me, this baby is skippable. Watch BSG, Caprica, Falling Skies or Defiance instead. Or just rent the Hungar Games.

Overall rating? D-

UGh...working on a contract this weekend has apparently ruined me for this sort of thing. Chockful of typos. And no interest in fixing at the moment.