shadowkat: (tv slut)
[personal profile] shadowkat
I have a bone to pick with you, flist. You did not warn me that Merlin was premiering on Syfy on Jan 6. How am I supposed to remember this on my own? Without my reliable tv prompters? See? THIS is the problem when everyone watches the show via the internet or overseas (I live in NYC - overseas is outside the US. Hey, if you think that's annoying I could be worse, a lot of New Yorkers define overseas as everyone who lives on the opposite side of the Hudson River and The Atlantic Ocean or the East River (if they are Manhattanites). I'm not kidding. This is true.]

That said, I did manage to find it on my own - online, took a little bit of hunting.

Here: http://stream-tv-shows-online.com/merlin-season-4-episode-1-the-darkest-hour-part-1/

Gotta love the information age. Particularly if you are a information/cultural junkie like myself. Time was you'd have to wait until the tv show got re-run in the summer, or if it didn't deal. Now..not a problem.

Damn, that was a good episode. What happened? They suddenly hire some really good writers, directors and cinematographers or something? Best episode I've seen. Special effects were even good. Plus we have a new and somewhat complicated villain. And Anthony Stewart Head's brief appearances were quite brilliant, he truly is a gifted actor when he's given something to do.

And Bradley James is getting really good in this role. His eyes really got across fear and vulnerability. I'm impressed. Actually everyone is getting good...even Morgana, who was admittedly the weak link for a while there.

We also have layers now. And metaphor! And it's not just monster of the week or problem of the week. It's actually become a serial. YAY! I have a feeling I'm going to love the 4th Season, which is nice...since S2 and 3 drug a bit.

[Oh - almost forgot...Violence-a-meter...about 20 deaths, lots of fighting, and a human sacrifice...but hey all in a good days work. And it was a willing human sacrifice, so there's that. A willing, already dying, somewhat morose human sacrifice.
The other deaths were all by ghost not sword...so maybe they don't count?]

Fringe - whoa...we are following Faux!Olivia or NEw!Olivia or Amber!Olivia in the Amberverse and everyone in it as well as Olivia in the Regular verse. I've never seen anyone follow two separate verses in multiple episodes on a tv series. Usually it's just an one-shot sort of deal. This is new. Even Farscape - which had two John Crichton's ended didn't quite do that. We have new characters, we have different versions of existing or dead characters. It's bloody brilliant and incredibly complicated and difficult to do. I applaud the ambition and risk involved.

I expected them to stop exploring both universes when Blue!Olivia made it back to the Blue verse and Amber!Olivia made it back to the Amber verse. But they didn't do that.
We are still following both characters and the subsidiary characters in both verses.
The attention to detail is astounding. For example? Sheep died off ten years ago in the amber verse and there's no FBI. Also they travel by hydrogen balloon ships, not airplanes. It's the little touches. I really appreciate attention to detail in tv series, particularly when it is consistent. That's hard to do. A lot of tv shows aren't very good at this.

Date: 2012-01-09 06:22 pm (UTC)
ext_15252: (merlin)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
Just wanted to also mention a writer of Merlin reviews that is rather good. She of course has seen all of Season 4 at this point, but the reviews occured as she watched the season, so are future-spoiler-free (although I'm not 100% sure about the comments made below the reviews):

http://zahrawithaz.livejournal.com/31919.html#cutid1

Date: 2012-01-10 12:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Oh thanks! No time to do reviews myself. Work's been busy. And I want to start making time to write fiction again.

Date: 2012-01-10 02:40 am (UTC)
ext_15252: (boring)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
Yes, TV viewing and the talking about TV often interferes with my fiction as well.

Like, the all-important first page of my old novel sucks worse and worse the more I try to fix it. Much easier to flip through the DVR and see what's on.

Date: 2012-01-12 12:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
The other problem I have is blogging in lj and on the internet had made me increasingly self-critical, to the point that it is very hard to write fiction. I'm so critical of my own fictional writing.

Date: 2012-01-12 01:16 am (UTC)
ext_15252: (Default)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
You need one of those Unconditional Support Dear Readers like I've managed to find. Although when I do receive critiques on stuff she's praised, it bristles a bit more. But it helps me get the first draft finished to have that sort of encouragement.

Date: 2012-01-12 02:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Oh I have one. The Momster. She's always been effective in that category, albeit a bit more critical than I might like...but usefully so.
She just keeps prodding me to skip the fantasy, genre stuff and write more literary which she thinks I'm a lot better at.

Date: 2012-01-12 02:54 am (UTC)
ext_15252: (alias will)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
I would *never* let my mom read something (that wasn't polished and published). Yikes. Nothing would squelch my flow more than the mere notion my mom might see it.

Date: 2012-01-12 07:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Yeah, well, it's probably worth mentioning that my Mom has been my Dad's unconditional reader for 20 years, and mine since I can remember.
Granted, it may also explain why I'm not comfortable writing explicit sex scenes. Did run into some issues with foul language in my novel - which bugged them.

I've had various readers over the years, but none that I would call "unconditionally supportive"...in that they aren't critical. The Momster is critical.

Hmmm...this may explain the writer's block and my inability to write an explicit sex scene. LOL!

Date: 2012-01-12 08:09 pm (UTC)
ext_15252: (Default)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
I used to *never* let a living soul read the first draft of a story, especially if it was a WIP. I had to abstain from my writer's group because we were supposed to be sharing bits, and just the thought that I might have to share something with the others prevented me from writing it, or (worse?) made me change what I wrote.

The diff this time is the reader is my GF, and she's not a naturally critical person. She did make one stray comment the other week about what she'd like to see more of in the story, but jeeps, if that's the worst it ever gets, it's like writing to a blank wall in terms of its impact on what I say, and sometimes encourages me to say it a bit more effectively.

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