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Saw a few new series this weekend. Three appear to be keepers or I've decided to DVR for the season, at any rate.
1. Extant
This is a rather interesting series, it delves a bit further into some of the issues initially raised by the flick A.I. Including the concept of a soul. Molly's husband, portrayed by Goran I, whose name I think is Ethan, doesn't believe in a soul. He's a scientist who does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. To him, a child who is mechanical and created from robotics can be the same as a human child that is biologically created. Both can be taught. The soul from his perspective is a human construct that is not real. One of the board members of the corporation in which he's attempting to obtain funding - vehemently disagrees. She states that a mechanical child or robotic one can never be human, can never feel - or know the difference between right and wrong, or be able to make that choice - because no soul. They are hollow. The love they provide is not real. Reminds me a lot of some of the soul discussions that I've had online.
It does have the typical corporate conspiracy trope, with the potential alien invasion or aliens conquering humans in the background - which admittedly has been done to death in sci-fi. But because it is a television serial - there's time to explore the other issues, which are more interesting. It's also character centric which helps.
Odd choice for CBS, which normally just does procedurals.
2. The Strain - this is the television series that the iconic horror filmmaker, Guillermo Del Toro, of Pan's Labrynthe, amongst others, teamed up with Carlton Cuse (Lost) to develop. Got tabled. So they wrote a best-selling series of books. Then FX grabbed it, on the caveat that it wouldn't be made into a tv series until the book series was completed.
What's it about? A vampire comes to the states by plane - and infects the entire plane with the vampire virus. It goes the route of Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND. Where vampires are created via a parasitic virus. Here the virus is "worms" which congregate at the victim's heart and corrupt the heart or take it over completely - and by doing so, take over the human being, their brain = etc.
Love, we're told in voice over narrative, is the greatest hunger of all and the most important. Without love we are hollow shells, never satisfied, always craving, and life is meaningless.
Vampirism in this series is a metaphor for the corrupting influences that remove love from our loves or what we become without it. The parasites attack the heart - traveling to it through the arteries and sucking it dry, then changing it, and the brain with it.
The lead characters are rather compelling and since it was directed by horror master Guillermo De Toro - the visuals were as well. The lead, is your typical over-worked 40 something guy who has put his job above his family more often than he should - to the point that he is beginning to lose his family. He's supported by Scean Astin, of LoTR fame, and a female colleague. There's also an old guy who hunts vampires along for the ride. But they are well-cast and fun to watch, even if the trope is a wee bit well-traveled.
At any rate, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected - considering I'm beginning to get burned out on vampires and the trope in general. I don't know about anyone else?
But I think it's been done to death by now. That and zombies. Bloody tired of zombies. This one feels a bit like a hybrid of the two genres - and quite similar to Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND - which inspired most zombie movies. What I like about it is the focus on vampirism as a contagion or infection - caused by a parasite that needs to be contained. The protagonist is not a mythical vampire slayer, but a CDC pathologist sort of similar to Brad Pitt's character in World War Z. In short, he's a scientist dealing with the inexplicable - which I've always found rather fascinating.
I like the disease angle. It's actually why I watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead - the disease angle fascinated me. When they flipped to just killing people in increasingly gruesome and sadistic ways, I got bored. Because eww. It's also why I enjoyed the film version World War Z but wasn't all that interested in the book.
I'm not interested in vampires and zombies as monsters, but the idea of disease as a monster or a metaphor for a diseased society feeding off of itself, until it rots from within - fascinates me.
So, I'll stick with it. It's scary, but it doesn't bug me. The gore, so far, isn't that bad. No where near the level of the Walking Dead. I think people who had problems with the Walking Dead would actually be able to watch this, while Walking Dead fans may find it a bit on the tame side. Definitely creepy though. And the vampire/monster - reminded me of a HP Lovecraftian monster in design - which is Guillermo De Toro's signature style. (And yes, I know, I'm probably misspelling his name - too lazy to look it up.)
3. Satisfaction
This is on USA. It's different. The set-up? ( Read more... )
So it's basically series about a financial manager who in the midst of a mid-life crisis and in a last ditch effort to save his marriage, decides to moonlight as a prostitute. Sort of fun, or at least the pilot was. And a bit subversive - ie. focusing on the male prostitute. Although from the previews - it looks like its going the typical route and has a Nip/Tuck feel to it, except less graphic. But we'll see.
4. True Blood
So, are they planning on killing everyone off this season? Just curious.
The flashbacks, however, are sort of worth it.
( spoilers )
Saw a few new series this weekend. Three appear to be keepers or I've decided to DVR for the season, at any rate.
1. Extant
This is a rather interesting series, it delves a bit further into some of the issues initially raised by the flick A.I. Including the concept of a soul. Molly's husband, portrayed by Goran I, whose name I think is Ethan, doesn't believe in a soul. He's a scientist who does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. To him, a child who is mechanical and created from robotics can be the same as a human child that is biologically created. Both can be taught. The soul from his perspective is a human construct that is not real. One of the board members of the corporation in which he's attempting to obtain funding - vehemently disagrees. She states that a mechanical child or robotic one can never be human, can never feel - or know the difference between right and wrong, or be able to make that choice - because no soul. They are hollow. The love they provide is not real. Reminds me a lot of some of the soul discussions that I've had online.
It does have the typical corporate conspiracy trope, with the potential alien invasion or aliens conquering humans in the background - which admittedly has been done to death in sci-fi. But because it is a television serial - there's time to explore the other issues, which are more interesting. It's also character centric which helps.
Odd choice for CBS, which normally just does procedurals.
2. The Strain - this is the television series that the iconic horror filmmaker, Guillermo Del Toro, of Pan's Labrynthe, amongst others, teamed up with Carlton Cuse (Lost) to develop. Got tabled. So they wrote a best-selling series of books. Then FX grabbed it, on the caveat that it wouldn't be made into a tv series until the book series was completed.
What's it about? A vampire comes to the states by plane - and infects the entire plane with the vampire virus. It goes the route of Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND. Where vampires are created via a parasitic virus. Here the virus is "worms" which congregate at the victim's heart and corrupt the heart or take it over completely - and by doing so, take over the human being, their brain = etc.
Love, we're told in voice over narrative, is the greatest hunger of all and the most important. Without love we are hollow shells, never satisfied, always craving, and life is meaningless.
Vampirism in this series is a metaphor for the corrupting influences that remove love from our loves or what we become without it. The parasites attack the heart - traveling to it through the arteries and sucking it dry, then changing it, and the brain with it.
The lead characters are rather compelling and since it was directed by horror master Guillermo De Toro - the visuals were as well. The lead, is your typical over-worked 40 something guy who has put his job above his family more often than he should - to the point that he is beginning to lose his family. He's supported by Scean Astin, of LoTR fame, and a female colleague. There's also an old guy who hunts vampires along for the ride. But they are well-cast and fun to watch, even if the trope is a wee bit well-traveled.
At any rate, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected - considering I'm beginning to get burned out on vampires and the trope in general. I don't know about anyone else?
But I think it's been done to death by now. That and zombies. Bloody tired of zombies. This one feels a bit like a hybrid of the two genres - and quite similar to Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND - which inspired most zombie movies. What I like about it is the focus on vampirism as a contagion or infection - caused by a parasite that needs to be contained. The protagonist is not a mythical vampire slayer, but a CDC pathologist sort of similar to Brad Pitt's character in World War Z. In short, he's a scientist dealing with the inexplicable - which I've always found rather fascinating.
I like the disease angle. It's actually why I watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead - the disease angle fascinated me. When they flipped to just killing people in increasingly gruesome and sadistic ways, I got bored. Because eww. It's also why I enjoyed the film version World War Z but wasn't all that interested in the book.
I'm not interested in vampires and zombies as monsters, but the idea of disease as a monster or a metaphor for a diseased society feeding off of itself, until it rots from within - fascinates me.
So, I'll stick with it. It's scary, but it doesn't bug me. The gore, so far, isn't that bad. No where near the level of the Walking Dead. I think people who had problems with the Walking Dead would actually be able to watch this, while Walking Dead fans may find it a bit on the tame side. Definitely creepy though. And the vampire/monster - reminded me of a HP Lovecraftian monster in design - which is Guillermo De Toro's signature style. (And yes, I know, I'm probably misspelling his name - too lazy to look it up.)
3. Satisfaction
This is on USA. It's different. The set-up? ( Read more... )
So it's basically series about a financial manager who in the midst of a mid-life crisis and in a last ditch effort to save his marriage, decides to moonlight as a prostitute. Sort of fun, or at least the pilot was. And a bit subversive - ie. focusing on the male prostitute. Although from the previews - it looks like its going the typical route and has a Nip/Tuck feel to it, except less graphic. But we'll see.
4. True Blood
So, are they planning on killing everyone off this season? Just curious.
The flashbacks, however, are sort of worth it.
( spoilers )