Kitchen sink post - fan meme, Ringer, Memphis, books

[shadowkat]

1. So, I'm trying to watch Ringer again. This is what I'd call an example of a bad soap opera. Where the plot is imposed on the characters as opposed to the other way around and twists are used for shock effect. I don't know why I'm still with it - curiousity I suspect. Also...it's fluffy and I can do other stuff during it. Oh and this episode they have both Jason Dohring and Misha Collins guesting. Plus this is the episode where they explain why Siobhan (Shiv) hates Bridget and is seeking revenge. And it makes no sense. None. Siobhan doesn't have a good reason. Is she insane?

So, Bridget allowed the father, Dylan to take her and Siobhan/Dylan's kid Scean to the fair, after Siobhan told her not to let him anywhere near Scean, because he apparently got her pregnant and left her. After the fair, driving home in the rain, while they are talking, a truck barrels into them. The Trucker fell asleep at the wheel. How is that Bridget's fault? Is Siobhan nuts? And while I can see blaming her initially...for seven years? Also it's no where near as bad as the horrible things Siobhan has done to Bridget and everyone else. Talk about nasty irredeemable anti-heroes.

This is just stupid. I can understand hating Dylan. But Bridget? Also it was an accident. If it was deliberate...but it was an accident.

And so the Mother's the plotter behind the cry-rape scam on Andrew? Alrighty then.


Still half-way wish they'd bring in James Marsters - maybe as their father because that would be hilarious. What? It's not worse than anything else he's done. This is my problem with doing the mindfulness exercises - I multi-task all the time. Focusing on one thing is hard for me to do after a week of multi-tasking.

2. Missed this week's Merlin because the dang DVR (setup) refused to tape it for some reason. I called the Momster who told me it was skippable. She said halfway through, she felt she'd seen this story before. She had, just not on Merlin. It's the quintessential spiderwoman episode that every single sci-fi/fantasy show this side of the Pecos has done. Even Doctor Who and Star Trek and Space 1999. You know the trope, spiderwoman shape-shifts into a beautiful woman, seduces the men, then turns into a nasty creature. Even Buffy did it in S1. It's an annoying overdone trope that symbolizes the male fear of women, and I wish writers would stop doing it. So I decided not to spend $3 to grab Merlin on itunes, due to it not being taped. Oddly Lost Girl, which I gave up on, sort of has that character at its center...a succubus.

3.Just made the turnip/leek soup with apples and bacon again. Quite tasty. Especially for a cool windy day. And watched the Broadway musical Memphis via PBS Great Performances this morning. It's good. The songs catchy. But the male lead's voice grated on my nerves, an exaggerated Southern nasal accent. Spoke with the Momster who lives in South Carolina and she said - that this was not a southern accent, it was too nasal and sounded more Northern. I'd agree. It was exaggerated hillbilly and I found it grating and offensive. I think, if I saw it now, on Bway with Adam Pascal, I might like it better. He had a great singing voice but his regular voice was hard to listen to. It's a realistic bio-pic musical about the DJ (Dewey Phillips and Alan Freed intermixed) who introduced rock and roll to the airwaves in the 1950s. He was the first to put white and black singers on the radio and on television. In the musical he falls for a beautiful black singer. It's a story about the creation of rock and roll, but also about racism in the US. I'm wondering if it would be better on stage.

4.As a follow-up to that meme regarding favorite episodes from each season of you favorite tv series (ie the one you can actually remember episodes from which for me is just Buffy for some reason), come up with a list of no more than five episodes from each season that you loved. It can be anywhere from 1 -5. Best way to do it, is not to think too hard, just pick the one's you'd love to rewatch several times right now.


1. Season 1:

* Nightmares
* The Pack
* Angel
* Welcolme to the Hellmouth
* Prophecy Girl

2. Season 2
* School Hard
* Lie to Me
* Innocence
* Passion
* Becoming Part II.

3. Season 3
* Lover's Walk
* The Wish
* Dopplegangland
* Enemies
* Graduation Day Part II

4. Season 4
* Something Blue
* Hush
* Who are You
* The Initiative
* Restless

5. Season 5
* Out of my Mind
* Fool for Love
* Intervention
* The Body
* The Gift

6. Season 6
* Afterlife
* Once More with Feeling
* Tabula Rasa
* Dead Things
* Villains

7. Season 7
* Beneath You
* Selfless
* Conversations with Dead People
* Sleeper
* Lies My Parents Told Me



Now for a bit of fun, the least favorite episodes of each season or the one's you didn't like. Up to 5, no more than 5. You can do under 5. Also best way is to pick the one's you'd skip if you were rewatching or have little interest in seeing again any time soon.



1. Season 1
* Teacher's Pet - sigh, the evil bug lady who kills men to forward her race is annoying misogynistic trope that must die! (Every sci-fi/fantasy series on the planet does it. Merlin just did. Guy's - are you really that afraid of us? )
* I Robot You Jane
* Puppet Show
* Out of Sight Out of Mind
* The Harvest

2. Season 2
* Some Assembly Required
* Bad Eggs
* Ted
* Go Fish
* Inca Mummy Girl

3. Season 3
* Dead Man's Party
* Beauty and the Beasts
* Gingerbread
* Revelations
* Amends

4.
* The I in Team
* Living Conditions
* Where the Wild Things Are
* Superstar
* Goodbye Iowa

5.
* Shadow
* Buffy vs. Dracula
* Family (actually this may be my least favorite episode of the entire series)
* I Was Made to Love You
* The Weight of the World

6.
* Wrecked
* Doublemeat Palace
* Older and Far Away
* As You Were
* Seeing Red (except for the Spike/Clem scene and only if I can get rid of the flashbacks)

7.
* Bring on the Night
* Showdown
* Get it Done
* Storyteller
* Empty Spaces

I won't explain why. Figure it out on your own. ;-) Although I clearly didn't like Andrew or Jonathan that much.


Hmmm..Whedon managed to write my favorite and least favorite episodes of the entire series.

5) Reading the latest Rachel Morgan novel at the moment, entitled A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison, who while not as technically good at writer as Butcher is a lot better at world-building and character development. She also is a bit more innovative on the fantasy front and a little less black and white in her mythology.
In some respects I find Harrison's stories to be less derivative and more surprising.
She blends science fiction in with the fantasy, which most urban fantasies don't do.
And her characters continue to evolve along with the world. Plus she introduces bi-sexuality and homosexuality without issue. As much as I love Butcher, there's an underlying and somewhat unsettling religious undertone and sexism that bugs me.
So one is better "technically", while the other is better story wise.

Interesting. Both are noir in some respects. But one is more...boilerplate noir and less ambitious - Butcher's, which explains why the plot is tighter, and more consistent and technically better. He doesn't try to do as much as Harrison or take as many risks.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yep, for me as well - mix between what I actively dislike and one's that bore me.