Television Round-UP

1. Finally saw Agent Carter - which was better than expected. It's improved from the first season. Has a broader array of female characters. Also, they resolved the love-interest issues regarding Carter and her relationships with her current boss and Jarvis, both of whom have significant others. Rather like the LA setting -- too many television series take place in NYC. Seriously, the US is a big country, spread the wealth.

They also appear to be connecting Agent Carter to Marvel Agents of Shield, again, and the rest of the Marvel Universe's current plot arc on the Terrigen Mists and portal. Although I'm not completely sure about that.

I like the commentary on the time period and while the series still explores the sexism, it's less over the top, and male characters a tad less bungling. Although not by much.

I do adore the lead characters. Carter, Jarvis, Jarvis wife, and Suza (I think that's he's name.).

Enjoyed it quite a bit - like I said, more than I expected. While the first season was fun, it drug in places. This one seems a bit better paced?

2. Mercy Street -- a wee bit on the preachy side. This is the PBS original series with Ridely Scott, Lisa Wolginzer, and Zabel. It's an adaptation of the novel - The Heroines of Mercy Street - and views the Civil War via the eyes of various women in a town in Virgina. Has a decent cast, Broadway vet Donna Murphy, Norbert Leo Butz, Peter Gerety, Gary Cole...and focuses mainly on the hospital. It's realistic, bloody, and a bit preachy and sentimental in places - so we shall see how long I stick with it.

3. Shadowhunters - based on The Mortal Instruments series, which was rather controversial a while back. Apparently the writer was accused of plagiarizing someone else's fanfic in her creation of it? No, wait, she retooled her own fanfic? No, she retooled portions of a fanfic role-playing game that she wrote with other people? Go HERE for the convoluted and confusing details. I scanned it and near as I can figure, she made some enemies in the fandom who don't know a heck of lot about copyright law (most people don't -- it's a confusing area of the law, so confusing, copyright lawyers are confused by it).

As a former copyright specialist? I can tell you that it's not plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you copy someone else's style and work. It's not when you write fanfic about it. That's copyright infringement, completely different animal. Also, copyright infringement is difficult to prove - because you can't copyright plots - there is no such thing as an original plot, it's how the plot unfolds that is copyrightable, the characters, the world, the narrative structure. For example? A female vampire slayer is not copyrightable. However Buffy the Vampire Slayer, featuring a blond valley girl, who slays vampires with friends named Xander, Willow, and Giles, and has a Watcher - is copyrightable. It's not copyrightable to have a guy traveling through space and time with a female companion. Any more than it is copyrightable to be a time lord who travels through space or time. It is, however, copyrightable to have a guy traveling in a spaceship disguised as a British Phone Box with a female companion, who can regenerate and is called a Time Lord. Also the names Doctor Who and Tardis are copyrightable brand names. But the names River, Amy, Clara, Jack, Spike, Buffy, Angel, Xander, and Rory are not. It's important to understand the distinctions.

You can quote other works up to a point. Just can't go over the limit -- and you need to credit your source. Otherwise, no one could review or analyze anything. Full works you cannot quote. (ie. you can quote a line from a Philip Larkin poem, but not the entire poem, unless of course it is in the public domain, then anything goes.)

I'm certain, Claire's editors went through her book with a fine-tooth comb prior to publishing it.
The publishing industry is paranoid when it comes to plagiarism. That's why professional writers, novelists, and television show writers refuse to look at a fan's fanfic. They won't read it. Actors might, but writers' won't.

And it is not a crime to take a story that was once a fanfic, retool, remove all semblance of the verse or infringeable material, and turn it into a novel. If this were the case - a lot of books that we love would never be published. Because people do steal from other writers - we are inspired by them, we don't write in a vacuum.

Anyhow...the series isn't very good. Haven't seen the movie. Guessing the problem may be a combination of things - the source material, casting, and writing. I'm intrigued by a few tropes - the heroine's father is the villain, that's interesting. He's also the adoptive father of her love interest and she appears to have a demonic brother out there somewhere. So, I'm curious as to how that will play out.

Sorry, the lawyer in me, won't die.

4. The Chronicles of Shannara - slightly better than Shadowhunters, although not crazy about the cast or the dialogue. Great special effects and visuals. It's filmed in New Zealand - so, the visual are bound to be fantastic. It may grow on me. Has some cool female characters, the male characters are a bit lacking...but that could change.

The world for the most part is interesting and has promise. The plot, sigh, it's the old demons vs. elves/humans bit. I really wish they'd come up with an enemy that wasn't a demon. Someone a bit more complex. Shadowhunters also has demons, but at least Valentine is complex. Drago in this series is your boilerplate ugly power-hungry bad guy. Stolen out of Lord of the Rings.

So, if they move away a little from the plot and develop the characters a bit more -- it might grab me.

But at the moment, it, like Shadowhunters, just make me miss Buffy and appreciate Vampire Diaries more than I should -- if only for the complex and innovative villains. Also decent banter and dialogue. Shadowhunters and Shannara take themselves far too seriously.