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Oct. 3rd, 2006 12:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatOkay Heroes is improving, actually I think it's going to be quite good. Really unnerved me in a couple of places tonight. Nice and creepy in just the right spots. Although this does pose a question - why is it that every science fiction/fantasy show that appears on film or tv has to be creepy, violent or have elements of horror? Can anyone out there think of an example, that is not horror on some level? (It's not rhetorical, nor meant as a criticism, just curious.)
Am close to giving up on Brothers and Sisters. Tried The Amazing Race and just don't like the people that much, also, well, watching far too much tv right now. Desperate Housewives may be the only one I watch Sundays, while it wasn't as funny or entertaining as last weekend, it didn't annoy me as much either. Also long-time Kyle McLachlan fan - yes he's on the list of actors I've wasted time watching in horrid movies. I grew up with Kyle - I remember being first in line to see him in David Lynch's Dune way back in Junior High, at least I think it was Junior High.
1. Anthony Stewart Head (started with his performance in England in Chess in 1988.)
2. Anthony Hopkins (performance in King Lear in 1987 on London Stage. )
3. Kevin Spacey (Clarence Darrow on American Playhouse, then of course Mel Profit on WiseGuy)
4. James Spader (a very old Kim Richards film no one but me has probably seen, that aired in the early 80's prior to Pretty in Pink)
5. Kyle McLachlan (Dune, then well, Twin Peaks...and many others.)
6. James Marsters (guess?)
And eventually I give up. I gave up on ASH with Manchild, Hopkins with Meet Joe Black, Spacey with David Gale, Spader with Boston Legal, MacLachlan with Sex in the City, and Marsters with Smallville.
Sooner or later, you realize uhm, okay, maybe we should pay more attention to directors and writers instead of cast?
Then again, you never know they might surprise you.
Regarding Studio 60 it's reminding me more and more of Sports Night and less and less of West Wing, which I'm hoping is a good thing. Not as funny as last weeks. Course I saw last weeks on the internet, so there's that. Also last weeks debate over the show tainted my watching of it. Making me realize something -maybe I don't want to analyze and critique tv shows that much anymore. Nor do I want to worry about seeing every episode. I just want to sit back and enjoy the things when I find the time for them, that's what they're for after all. To distract, entertain, and possibly inform. If I hate it? I'm switching it off and going to bed or writing. One of the nice things about not having a roommate is not having to fight over what to watch on the tv set. Or for that matter defending what you want to watch to another person. There's something oddly freeing about that.
Oh, one more thing - on 60 Minutes Sunday night they had an entry about a new procedure being tried in Canada (I believe) that relieves depression for people who've tried everything under the sun. Apparently electrode are inserted in area 25 of the brain, the frontal lobe, and charged for a couple of seconds - they stimulate the brain. Severe depression apparently causes this area of the brain to slow down or the neurotransmitters not to transmit, so colors are subdued, everything is sort of drab, bit like living in a world with nothing but gray, overcast days. It doesn't last and it isn't a cure, but it can relieve the symptoms for a while and for lengthy periods. Anyone else heard of this? Was sort of interesting. May be worth looking into for the folks out there who can't get relief through any other means.
Am close to giving up on Brothers and Sisters. Tried The Amazing Race and just don't like the people that much, also, well, watching far too much tv right now. Desperate Housewives may be the only one I watch Sundays, while it wasn't as funny or entertaining as last weekend, it didn't annoy me as much either. Also long-time Kyle McLachlan fan - yes he's on the list of actors I've wasted time watching in horrid movies. I grew up with Kyle - I remember being first in line to see him in David Lynch's Dune way back in Junior High, at least I think it was Junior High.
1. Anthony Stewart Head (started with his performance in England in Chess in 1988.)
2. Anthony Hopkins (performance in King Lear in 1987 on London Stage. )
3. Kevin Spacey (Clarence Darrow on American Playhouse, then of course Mel Profit on WiseGuy)
4. James Spader (a very old Kim Richards film no one but me has probably seen, that aired in the early 80's prior to Pretty in Pink)
5. Kyle McLachlan (Dune, then well, Twin Peaks...and many others.)
6. James Marsters (guess?)
And eventually I give up. I gave up on ASH with Manchild, Hopkins with Meet Joe Black, Spacey with David Gale, Spader with Boston Legal, MacLachlan with Sex in the City, and Marsters with Smallville.
Sooner or later, you realize uhm, okay, maybe we should pay more attention to directors and writers instead of cast?
Then again, you never know they might surprise you.
Regarding Studio 60 it's reminding me more and more of Sports Night and less and less of West Wing, which I'm hoping is a good thing. Not as funny as last weeks. Course I saw last weeks on the internet, so there's that. Also last weeks debate over the show tainted my watching of it. Making me realize something -maybe I don't want to analyze and critique tv shows that much anymore. Nor do I want to worry about seeing every episode. I just want to sit back and enjoy the things when I find the time for them, that's what they're for after all. To distract, entertain, and possibly inform. If I hate it? I'm switching it off and going to bed or writing. One of the nice things about not having a roommate is not having to fight over what to watch on the tv set. Or for that matter defending what you want to watch to another person. There's something oddly freeing about that.
Oh, one more thing - on 60 Minutes Sunday night they had an entry about a new procedure being tried in Canada (I believe) that relieves depression for people who've tried everything under the sun. Apparently electrode are inserted in area 25 of the brain, the frontal lobe, and charged for a couple of seconds - they stimulate the brain. Severe depression apparently causes this area of the brain to slow down or the neurotransmitters not to transmit, so colors are subdued, everything is sort of drab, bit like living in a world with nothing but gray, overcast days. It doesn't last and it isn't a cure, but it can relieve the symptoms for a while and for lengthy periods. Anyone else heard of this? Was sort of interesting. May be worth looking into for the folks out there who can't get relief through any other means.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 08:06 pm (UTC)But the focus seems to be on those resolutions. I remember that I did not like science fiction until I saw Star Wars - which was more space opera than horror movie. Granted it was violent, sort of a WWII movie meets a Western but in Space. But it wasn't scarey. At the same time, Alien came out by Ridely Scott, considered by many to be true sci-fi.
I'm not sure why the majority of films and series : Smallville, Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, Lost, The 4400, The Dead Zone, Heroes, BattleStar Galatica, Star-Gates - go for the scarey.
What is it about the genre that takes it to that place repeatedly?
Don't get me wrong - it's not necessarily a criticism or a bad thing. Just curious as to why. Is it how the audience is perceived? If so that makes sense, since every time I tell someone I love sci-fi, they immediately assume I want to see "Child's Play", "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Descent", all the Alien movies, and The Grudge. No. Really would rather not.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 02:25 pm (UTC)because I find my threshold is somewhat I higher than most people for
gore and violence. Although, oddly much lower for comedy. I found,
"Snakes on a Plane" funny, while Seinfeld depressed(s) me. When I see
people injured on screen, mostly I think about how the effect was
done, when people get their feelings hurt, I feel bad. But I digress.
It's a question my friends and I have been discussing a lot
recently, because it seems like more and more on the Sci Fi channel,
they play horror, rather than straight Science Fiction. Certainly more
so than their mix of Fantasy to Science Fiction.
"I'm not sure why the majority of films and series : Smallville, Buffy,
Angel, Supernatural, Lost, The 4400, The Dead Zone, Heroes, BattleStar
Galatica, Star-Gates - go for the scarey. What is it about the genre
that takes it to that place repeatedly?"
Well, I don't watch a lot of non-genre shows, so I don't know, is their level of violence/scary up as well?
I'm inclined to think that the fashion is not for character pieces and moral dillema's these days. Shows certainly have done them, but I'm not sure how well a post I want my MTV, excitement heavy television show would do. That lot seems to fall more to books.
But yeah, interesting question.