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Six Things Before Bed, and some lists
1. There's mini-websodes of Doctor Who on the internet? Where?
2. According to EW, comic book writer and artist - Frank Miller ditzes the OWS Movement. Not surprising. Miller is a conservative libertarian ..all you have to do is read his comic books to figure that out. (You can blame/or thank Frank Miller for the Spike killing and wearing Nikki's jacket arc in Buffy - that idea was taken directly from hismale romance novel Sin City. I know, I looked it up at a book store once after it was mentioned in the Fool for Love commentary - apparently Doug Petrie and Whedon were fans of Sin City. But you can also rent the movie...I think Clive Owen played the role, no wait, it was Michael Rooker.) (A friend of mine (also a conservative libertarian - we get along quite well, as long as we veer slightly away from politics) dated him for a while, yes, while he was and is to my knowledge still married. She asked me to show her his work and explain who he was, because she was unfamiliar with it. Bwahaha. She said he was nice but a bit of an ass. Yep - again, see the comic books. Hmm...I've since come to the conclusion that with the exception of Neil Gaiman and a few others, most comic book writers of the male persuasion are asses, or at least their public persona is.)
3. Is Television criticism a lost art? I think it is. Along with film criticism. [EW did a review of the Good Wife. The less said about that, the better.)
4. Once Upon a Time has a lengthy article in EW, apparently there's a fandom. (looks around...where???) And as intense as Lost's. (looks around some more...uh, where? I mean I'm fannish about it - but as far as I can tell, I'm the only one. A fandom in of myself. I don't know, doesn't seem violent enough to get a fandom or for that matter sexy enough.) The article said two things that struck my fancy:
* Kitsis said: "One thing we learned on Lost that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse really put into us is : Character first, mythology second. At it's core, Once Upon a Time is about the characters. It's about the journey of Snow White to find love. It's about the journey of Jiminy Cricket to regain his conscience. This is more important than anything else." [I guess it depends on what turns people on? For me? It's characters. Plots should be character driven, otherwise they feel rudderless.
Mythology while cool and all, is basically nothing more than setting and atmosphere - that can't drive plot. A story that is myth driven with cypher like characters, feels a bit empty to me. It is a problem I have with a lot of popular fantasy and sci-fi writers and goes all the way back to that BA in English Lit, with the Myth, Epic, Folklore minor...as one professor put it, don't write fantasy or sci-fi until you master the art of character development, plot, and story - otherwise all you will do is create a world with themes, but no emotional resonance or truth to it. But mileage varies, for some people it's all about the mythology - they really don't care who is wandering about in it. I should add? That I do care about the mythology. It annoys me when it makes no sense, or the writer decides to drop it mid-stream, or develops it poorly. If you are going to write genre fiction - fantasy, science fiction or sci-fantasy - then at least get the rules of your world down and stick to a mythology and use it in an interesting and innovative way. Otherwise it becomes little more than a gimmick and I get annoyed. (I won't provide negative examples, you know them already, if not? make up your own. Much safer that way. ;-) A positive example? Ron Moore's BSG, Doctor Who, Farscape, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games..all used mythology in an interesting way, without dropping the ball too often. (I'll concede that Moore sort of did, copting out on the ending - but as the Momster pointed out to me tonight - so did I in my last novel, which I keep trying to revise. And so do the vast majority of writers. Her theory? You got tired of writing the thing and just wanted it to end! What can I say? Endings are hard...you have to wrap everything up and stuff.)
"The idea of course is for everybody to find their happiness or their hope", says Kitsis, but he cautions that the happiness the characters find may not necessarily lead them back to the fairy-tale world. "One of the questions we explore on the show is, What is a happy ending? What does that mean?" explains Horowitz. "We started the show with what we felt was one of the most iconic happy endings, which was Prince Charming waking up Snow White. We then showed you that what you thought was a happy ending actually was the beginning of something more." [I rather like this. The idea that happily ever after isn't what we planned or expected. And it's not necessarily found in a fairy tale. Also the idea that a story is about hope, about a journey towards happiness...is a positive thing. Too many of our stories are the opposite. I've grown weary of the anti-hero tales or war stories.]
And finally..."We're really focused on the season we have and making that great. A lot of shows are like, 'Oh, we have to have five seasons planned right away,'[but] a lot of things you think of in season 1, by the time you get to season 3, they're no longer exciting or relevant. We want to be able to have a road map so the show is not rudderless, but at the same time have the creative freedom to push the show in different directions." [This is promising. Too many shows go one way or the other.
They haven't thought it through at all, or they've gotten too detailed - which is dangerous, because too many things can go wrong and screw you up. In the wonderful world of television - flexibility is key. Unless of course you are on HBO and everyone is contracted for five seasons and there's no threat of cancellation. (*cough*The Wire*cough*). ]
5. EW has a huge article on the latest Twilight film - Breaking Dawn (I want to call it Breaking Bad...because that would be funny. ( No offense to the tv series or fans of the tv series Breaking Bad).) The appeal of these films and books is completely lost on me. But, I admittedly don't have much tolerance for the whole damsel in distress/endless love story trope...and you sort of have to in order to love the Twilight series. (EW is always amusing regarding this series, they back away from giving it an honest review. And continue to shamelessly gush over it. Oh, well, at least they shamelessly gush over The Hunger Games and Harry Potter too. Equal Opportunity Gushing.)
As an antidote:
* Top Five Vampire Films: 1) The Lost Boys, 2)Innocent Blood 3) Let the Right One In, 4) Shadow of the Vampire, 5) Frank Lagenlla's Dracula based on the Broadway Play.
* And top vampire tv shows: 1) Buffy, 2) Vampire Diaries, 3) Angel, 4) Being Human
5) True Blood.
* Top TV Vampires: 1) Spike, 2)Angel, 3) Darla, 4)Eric on TrueBlood, 5)Damon on Vamp Diaries
* Top Vampires: 1) Spike, 2) Ivy (Kim Harrison Series and living vampire, don't ask)
3)the vampire girl in Let the Right One In, 4) David - the punk leader of The Lost Boys played by Keifer Sutherland (the inspiration for Spike). 5)Lestate from Anne Rice (sorry Angel, but Lestate was more fun and better looking).
* Top Vamp Books: 1) Sunshine by Robin McKinely, 2) Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan Series 3) Obsiddian Butterfly by L.K. Hamilton (although not sure any vamps are in that book), 4) Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (best of her vamp books, although I do have a fondness for the Vampire Lestate). 5) The Blood Countess by Andrei Codescru.
6. Top Five Favorite Sci-Fi Films - (JJ Abhrams did this in EW.)
Abrhams picks: 2001 A Space Odysessy (yes, but way overrated in my opinion), Aliens (okay, will go with that one - it created Ripley), Blade Runner (I'd have put that first), The Fly ( I can't watch it), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (He didn't put Star Wars because it's so damn obvious. Can't say I disagree.)
My picks: 1) Blade Runner. 2)A Clockwork Orange (better film than 2001 in my opinion, more about character less about special effects...I got bored in 2001. Best part was HAL). 3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I always re-watch, I love Richard Dreyfuss' arc and the mother hunting her son. Those two arcs...are brilliant.) 4) A.I. : Articial Intelligence - that movie continues to haunt me. I saw it ages ago...but there's this scene in the junkyard with all the robots...also it's so innovative in places. In some respects I think it is Spielberg's best sci-fi next to Close Encounters.. 5) Empire Strikes Back...the only Star Wars film that I've been known to return to over and over again. (yes, I like Aliens...and Ripley is kick ass, but ugh spiders. Terminator II - is my favorite of the Terminator series. And of Cameron's films.)
Off to bed, and work tomorrow.
2. According to EW, comic book writer and artist - Frank Miller ditzes the OWS Movement. Not surprising. Miller is a conservative libertarian ..all you have to do is read his comic books to figure that out. (You can blame/or thank Frank Miller for the Spike killing and wearing Nikki's jacket arc in Buffy - that idea was taken directly from his
3. Is Television criticism a lost art? I think it is. Along with film criticism. [EW did a review of the Good Wife. The less said about that, the better.)
4. Once Upon a Time has a lengthy article in EW, apparently there's a fandom. (looks around...where???) And as intense as Lost's. (looks around some more...uh, where? I mean I'm fannish about it - but as far as I can tell, I'm the only one. A fandom in of myself. I don't know, doesn't seem violent enough to get a fandom or for that matter sexy enough.) The article said two things that struck my fancy:
* Kitsis said: "One thing we learned on Lost that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse really put into us is : Character first, mythology second. At it's core, Once Upon a Time is about the characters. It's about the journey of Snow White to find love. It's about the journey of Jiminy Cricket to regain his conscience. This is more important than anything else." [I guess it depends on what turns people on? For me? It's characters. Plots should be character driven, otherwise they feel rudderless.
Mythology while cool and all, is basically nothing more than setting and atmosphere - that can't drive plot. A story that is myth driven with cypher like characters, feels a bit empty to me. It is a problem I have with a lot of popular fantasy and sci-fi writers and goes all the way back to that BA in English Lit, with the Myth, Epic, Folklore minor...as one professor put it, don't write fantasy or sci-fi until you master the art of character development, plot, and story - otherwise all you will do is create a world with themes, but no emotional resonance or truth to it. But mileage varies, for some people it's all about the mythology - they really don't care who is wandering about in it. I should add? That I do care about the mythology. It annoys me when it makes no sense, or the writer decides to drop it mid-stream, or develops it poorly. If you are going to write genre fiction - fantasy, science fiction or sci-fantasy - then at least get the rules of your world down and stick to a mythology and use it in an interesting and innovative way. Otherwise it becomes little more than a gimmick and I get annoyed. (I won't provide negative examples, you know them already, if not? make up your own. Much safer that way. ;-) A positive example? Ron Moore's BSG, Doctor Who, Farscape, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games..all used mythology in an interesting way, without dropping the ball too often. (I'll concede that Moore sort of did, copting out on the ending - but as the Momster pointed out to me tonight - so did I in my last novel, which I keep trying to revise. And so do the vast majority of writers. Her theory? You got tired of writing the thing and just wanted it to end! What can I say? Endings are hard...you have to wrap everything up and stuff.)
"The idea of course is for everybody to find their happiness or their hope", says Kitsis, but he cautions that the happiness the characters find may not necessarily lead them back to the fairy-tale world. "One of the questions we explore on the show is, What is a happy ending? What does that mean?" explains Horowitz. "We started the show with what we felt was one of the most iconic happy endings, which was Prince Charming waking up Snow White. We then showed you that what you thought was a happy ending actually was the beginning of something more." [I rather like this. The idea that happily ever after isn't what we planned or expected. And it's not necessarily found in a fairy tale. Also the idea that a story is about hope, about a journey towards happiness...is a positive thing. Too many of our stories are the opposite. I've grown weary of the anti-hero tales or war stories.]
And finally..."We're really focused on the season we have and making that great. A lot of shows are like, 'Oh, we have to have five seasons planned right away,'[but] a lot of things you think of in season 1, by the time you get to season 3, they're no longer exciting or relevant. We want to be able to have a road map so the show is not rudderless, but at the same time have the creative freedom to push the show in different directions." [This is promising. Too many shows go one way or the other.
They haven't thought it through at all, or they've gotten too detailed - which is dangerous, because too many things can go wrong and screw you up. In the wonderful world of television - flexibility is key. Unless of course you are on HBO and everyone is contracted for five seasons and there's no threat of cancellation. (*cough*The Wire*cough*). ]
5. EW has a huge article on the latest Twilight film - Breaking Dawn (I want to call it Breaking Bad...because that would be funny. ( No offense to the tv series or fans of the tv series Breaking Bad).) The appeal of these films and books is completely lost on me. But, I admittedly don't have much tolerance for the whole damsel in distress/endless love story trope...and you sort of have to in order to love the Twilight series. (EW is always amusing regarding this series, they back away from giving it an honest review. And continue to shamelessly gush over it. Oh, well, at least they shamelessly gush over The Hunger Games and Harry Potter too. Equal Opportunity Gushing.)
As an antidote:
* Top Five Vampire Films: 1) The Lost Boys, 2)Innocent Blood 3) Let the Right One In, 4) Shadow of the Vampire, 5) Frank Lagenlla's Dracula based on the Broadway Play.
* And top vampire tv shows: 1) Buffy, 2) Vampire Diaries, 3) Angel, 4) Being Human
5) True Blood.
* Top TV Vampires: 1) Spike, 2)Angel, 3) Darla, 4)Eric on TrueBlood, 5)Damon on Vamp Diaries
* Top Vampires: 1) Spike, 2) Ivy (Kim Harrison Series and living vampire, don't ask)
3)the vampire girl in Let the Right One In, 4) David - the punk leader of The Lost Boys played by Keifer Sutherland (the inspiration for Spike). 5)Lestate from Anne Rice (sorry Angel, but Lestate was more fun and better looking).
* Top Vamp Books: 1) Sunshine by Robin McKinely, 2) Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan Series 3) Obsiddian Butterfly by L.K. Hamilton (although not sure any vamps are in that book), 4) Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (best of her vamp books, although I do have a fondness for the Vampire Lestate). 5) The Blood Countess by Andrei Codescru.
6. Top Five Favorite Sci-Fi Films - (JJ Abhrams did this in EW.)
Abrhams picks: 2001 A Space Odysessy (yes, but way overrated in my opinion), Aliens (okay, will go with that one - it created Ripley), Blade Runner (I'd have put that first), The Fly ( I can't watch it), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (He didn't put Star Wars because it's so damn obvious. Can't say I disagree.)
My picks: 1) Blade Runner. 2)A Clockwork Orange (better film than 2001 in my opinion, more about character less about special effects...I got bored in 2001. Best part was HAL). 3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I always re-watch, I love Richard Dreyfuss' arc and the mother hunting her son. Those two arcs...are brilliant.) 4) A.I. : Articial Intelligence - that movie continues to haunt me. I saw it ages ago...but there's this scene in the junkyard with all the robots...also it's so innovative in places. In some respects I think it is Spielberg's best sci-fi next to Close Encounters.. 5) Empire Strikes Back...the only Star Wars film that I've been known to return to over and over again. (yes, I like Aliens...and Ripley is kick ass, but ugh spiders. Terminator II - is my favorite of the Terminator series. And of Cameron's films.)
Off to bed, and work tomorrow.
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Not webisodes, DVD extras - mini episodes penned by Moffat. I've not got a link handy, but check
ETA: I have not seen them yet (am waiting for my DVDs) so please don't spoil me at all!
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Amy eps:
Bad Night
Good Night
River eps:
First Night
Last Night
If you want to hunt them down. :)
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Thank you!!
They are quite wonderful. Especially together. I adore Stephen Moffat's writing.
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Also, Shadow of the Vampire! I really need to get around to watching both Nosferatus and Shadow back-to-back.
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Still love the first hour of it.
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I have to admit I've never actually seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I loved Langella's Dracula, too! It was the movie that introduced me to - or at least made me love - Dracula and vampires, when I was 11 and saw it on TV. I love Let the Right One In, too, but I haven't seen all the vampire movies on your list.
For TV shows, I've only seen season 1 of True Blood, and I've only started watching The Vampire Diaries... so far TVD seems just like a poor man's Buffy. True Blood is fun, but I prefer Being Human to both.