(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Eh..there are things I should be doing today, did manage to get the laundry in to the mat, and do my delicate items (such as the cashmere/cotton blend sweaters which cannot be put in the dryer). Got up at 7.

Watched Merlin S3 Finale, and the series finally progressed. It's no longer this episodic series that ends the same way each time. It actually pulled all its errant plot threads together. My quibble? Same as the last two seasons, we have one nice female character and two evil ones, or a series of evil female guest-starring characters..aka witches, and all the true heroes are guys. Campbell's Heroes Journey at it's shiny best. Watching it I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to switch all the gender roles. To be fair, this has always been my quibble with the Arthurian Legends. So it really isn't Merlin's fault - the legend the show is based on - is sexist. Also what's with all the Arthurian reboots? Makes me want to rent Mists of Avalon.

That said? The finale was rather enjoyable. And I agree Bradley James is quite good as Arthur. He manages to get across a great deal with his eyes.

While at the mat, doing the delicates, I was reading about the making of Scream 4 in EW, and realized once again that being a writer in Hollywood must really suck at times. Even if you are a fairly well-known and highly paid one. No wonder so many of them go do comic books as a sideline or high-tail it to tv. Poor Kevin Williamson (you know him as the scribe of Dawson's Creek and Vamp Diaries, along with the original Scream film). He comes up with this brilliant idea for Scream 4, so brilliant he's penned Scream 5 and 6 off of it in quick outlines. Calls up the producer - Weinstein, who also thinks it is brilliant, and manages to get all the original stars of the series to sign on plus horror auteur Wes Craven - because they see it as brilliant. BUT. Somewhere along the line the producer, Weinstein, decides the writer's vision isn't good enough and tinkers with it. He doesn't trust his writer to deliver a good script on time. The film is slated to go in less than two years. They fight constantly, the producer decides to hire another writer to punch up the dialogue (the writer who had written Scream 3), the producer forces Williamson to rewrite portions of the script, change whole sections, at one point the director is rewriting sections. And to date? The original script-writer, Williamson has not seen a finished version of the film and is not talking to his former friend, the Producer (Weinstein). Unfortunately, this happens all the time, apparently. It's standard operating practice.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Hee, I'm trying to watch camelot at the moment (as brain bubblegum while doing late night formating) and I have the same problem. Only that Merlin is at least funny (and slashy)

Camelot is going to move more I bet, but most of the actors are soap opera material and the misogny is gagworthy.

I'm not really one for counting how many good or bad guys there are and in the end I prefer men going up against women, instead of those gender segregated fights (you know where the good chick battles the bad chick, while the good guy battles the bad guy), but I hate it when the female villains get drawn as incompetent and I feel that both on Merlin and on Camelot Morgana gets to be a dumb villain. If you have a bunch of guys ganging up on one woman, you have to make her competent or it just becomes ridiculous.

I think my favorite villains of all time is Lady de Winter from the three musketeers which is a similar character and always suffers in the movies because they never really dare to stick with book on moral ambiguity.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

That almost makes me want to forgive Kevin Williamson for writing/directing some movies that were not only utter crap - I Know Why You Killed Mrs Tingle Last Summer etc - but also were so successful that almost every US horror movie in the last 15 years has either tried to emulate them (PG13 rating, predictable storylines, awful television actors, etc) or been forced to go to the other extreme (hard R rating, gore for gore's sake, torture porn) essentially turning the entire US horror movie industry into a toothless zombie where the people with actual ideas can hardly even get a film made anymore. I know it's wrong to hold Williamson responsible for that, especially since I actually like Scream 1&2 a lot, but... In 1996, he was the right person at the right place at the right time. I don't know if he had any other tricks in him. Though in fairness I hated Dawson's Creek and never watched Vampire Diaries.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy the finale!

I'm actually quite impressed by Bradley James, and it isn't only because of his good looks (although that bone structure, that mouth and those eyes are really something!).

Yes the Arthurian legend is sexist and male-oriented, like so many many stories and classics (or even more recent works like Tolkien's). I don't mind so much as long as it's well done and creative in some way.

As for this version, well, the show isn't essay material, it's still a mere guilty pleasure but I think that the writing became better in season 3, and Tony Head was wonderful as broken Uther. What bothers me the most in Merlin is that the actress playing Morgana is beautiful but she isn't very good, or at least most of the time she is not as good as the males or the girl playing Guenevere, so the character looks so caricatured (I couldn't bear constant her smirking to show that she was bad now!), although her last scene was fine.

Mists of Avalon is a poor tv movie and a bad adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's book. She must have rolled over in her tomb!

Anyway there's one common thing in all the version of Arthurian legend I have seen, it's Lancelot being boring, annoying and uptight.