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shadowkat[Trying not to vent about real estate and apartment hunting. It is what it is. Must think positive thoughts. Last week started out shitty, afterall, and turned out great. So who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Did manage to clean out my apartment this weekend and get rid of a lot of stuff. Threw out more old journals and papers. It's the cleanest its been in five years. We'll see how long that lasts. Put out on the street my remaining comics and graphic novels, keeping only the quality stuff - Watchmen, Persepolis, Dark Knight, Superman/Red Sun, Batman- Year One, and Whedon's hardcover of Astonishing X-Men. Can't quite bring myself to get rid of DVDs. ]
Saw a few new series this weekend. Three appear to be keepers or I've decided to DVR for the season, at any rate.
1. Extant
This is a rather interesting series, it delves a bit further into some of the issues initially raised by the flick A.I. Including the concept of a soul. Molly's husband, portrayed by Goran I, whose name I think is Ethan, doesn't believe in a soul. He's a scientist who does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. To him, a child who is mechanical and created from robotics can be the same as a human child that is biologically created. Both can be taught. The soul from his perspective is a human construct that is not real. One of the board members of the corporation in which he's attempting to obtain funding - vehemently disagrees. She states that a mechanical child or robotic one can never be human, can never feel - or know the difference between right and wrong, or be able to make that choice - because no soul. They are hollow. The love they provide is not real. Reminds me a lot of some of the soul discussions that I've had online.
It does have the typical corporate conspiracy trope, with the potential alien invasion or aliens conquering humans in the background - which admittedly has been done to death in sci-fi. But because it is a television serial - there's time to explore the other issues, which are more interesting. It's also character centric which helps.
Odd choice for CBS, which normally just does procedurals.
2. The Strain - this is the television series that the iconic horror filmmaker, Guillermo Del Toro, of Pan's Labrynthe, amongst others, teamed up with Carlton Cuse (Lost) to develop. Got tabled. So they wrote a best-selling series of books. Then FX grabbed it, on the caveat that it wouldn't be made into a tv series until the book series was completed.
What's it about? A vampire comes to the states by plane - and infects the entire plane with the vampire virus. It goes the route of Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND. Where vampires are created via a parasitic virus. Here the virus is "worms" which congregate at the victim's heart and corrupt the heart or take it over completely - and by doing so, take over the human being, their brain = etc.
Love, we're told in voice over narrative, is the greatest hunger of all and the most important. Without love we are hollow shells, never satisfied, always craving, and life is meaningless.
Vampirism in this series is a metaphor for the corrupting influences that remove love from our loves or what we become without it. The parasites attack the heart - traveling to it through the arteries and sucking it dry, then changing it, and the brain with it.
The lead characters are rather compelling and since it was directed by horror master Guillermo De Toro - the visuals were as well. The lead, is your typical over-worked 40 something guy who has put his job above his family more often than he should - to the point that he is beginning to lose his family. He's supported by Scean Astin, of LoTR fame, and a female colleague. There's also an old guy who hunts vampires along for the ride. But they are well-cast and fun to watch, even if the trope is a wee bit well-traveled.
At any rate, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected - considering I'm beginning to get burned out on vampires and the trope in general. I don't know about anyone else?
But I think it's been done to death by now. That and zombies. Bloody tired of zombies. This one feels a bit like a hybrid of the two genres - and quite similar to Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND - which inspired most zombie movies. What I like about it is the focus on vampirism as a contagion or infection - caused by a parasite that needs to be contained. The protagonist is not a mythical vampire slayer, but a CDC pathologist sort of similar to Brad Pitt's character in World War Z. In short, he's a scientist dealing with the inexplicable - which I've always found rather fascinating.
I like the disease angle. It's actually why I watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead - the disease angle fascinated me. When they flipped to just killing people in increasingly gruesome and sadistic ways, I got bored. Because eww. It's also why I enjoyed the film version World War Z but wasn't all that interested in the book.
I'm not interested in vampires and zombies as monsters, but the idea of disease as a monster or a metaphor for a diseased society feeding off of itself, until it rots from within - fascinates me.
So, I'll stick with it. It's scary, but it doesn't bug me. The gore, so far, isn't that bad. No where near the level of the Walking Dead. I think people who had problems with the Walking Dead would actually be able to watch this, while Walking Dead fans may find it a bit on the tame side. Definitely creepy though. And the vampire/monster - reminded me of a HP Lovecraftian monster in design - which is Guillermo De Toro's signature style. (And yes, I know, I'm probably misspelling his name - too lazy to look it up.)
3. Satisfaction
This is on USA. It's different. The set-up? A financial manager finally gets fed up with his job. Mainly because all he does is work and he's spending less and less time with his family (reminds me a bit of the guy on The Strain). And it's all about making money, moving funds, managing money - is there any point. (At least the guy on the Strain was saving lives.) The only problem is he's too damn good at it - so his boss doesn't take him seriously when he tells him that's he's quitting. Instead he laughs at him, tells him what a great joke, and sends him off to NY. As a result, he gets stuck in a plane, on a runway for five hours, with no water, bathroom breaks, or air conditioning...when he sees the airline stewadress sipping bottled water, he loses it. Grabs her microphone - and rants about how horrible everything is, then exits the plane, along with the rest of the passengers, who follow him as an united front.
Furious, his boss reads him the riot act and tells him to sign an apology and take a leave of absence. He rips it up and quits. Goes home to see his wife - who is staging a home, she's an interior designer. Decides to surprise her at the staged home - and instead witnesses her fucking another guy. He follows the other guy, attempts to beat him up, fails miserably - the other guy turns out to be a male prostitute or escort.
That his wife has been paying to have sex with her. For some reason or other, the male escort (named Simon) hands our hero, his jacket and phone. Our hero, Neal, throws out the jacket but takes possession of the phone. And Simon's contact list. He decides to screw both his wife and Simon - by taking over Simon's life for a bit. In other words, he decides to become a male escort.
So it's basically series about a financial manager who in the midst of a mid-life crisis and in a last ditch effort to save his marriage, decides to moonlight as a prostitute. Sort of fun, or at least the pilot was. And a bit subversive - ie. focusing on the male prostitute. Although from the previews - it looks like its going the typical route and has a Nip/Tuck feel to it, except less graphic. But we'll see.
4. True Blood
So, are they planning on killing everyone off this season? Just curious.
The flashbacks, however, are sort of worth it.
*Alicide...I can't say I'll miss you, except that you were definitely pretty and easy on the eyes. But overall? An annoying character - who I wanted to smack 98% of the time.
I thought when he got shot: whoa, that was fast, they killed Alcide? Then, hmmm, don't care.
*Arlene on the other hand managed to make it. Which is good, I suppose, I liked Arlene better than Alcide. Not as pretty on the eyes, but far less annoying.
* Best thing to date? The flashbacks of Pam and Eric coming to Shreveport, starting a video business, and meeting up with Ginger - a vampire groupie, who gives Pam the idea to open Fangtasia. I adore Pam and Eric. Actually, the only characters I've shipped in this series are Pam and Eric, Eric and Bill, and Pam and Tara.
* Holly also got out - which I was happy about - because I don't mind Holly.
* We finally got rid of the too stupid to live vampire hunters who have plagued us for five episodes now, and needed to die yesterday.
* Is it wrong to root for Pam/Eric and Willow to kill Sarah Newlin?
* I'm guessing Bill and Sookie are the end game? Is this why they put her briefly with Alicide, so I'd root for her to get back with Bill - because in comparison to Alcide, Bill is actually appealing as a romantic love interest? Granted, he's not as pretty on the eyes (the only one who is prettier than Alicide is Eric), but he's also less annoying.
Loved Eric's comment regarding Sookie's relationship with Alicide:
"I gave you back your house so you could get control over your life and being independent...and you hooked up with the wolf? How exactly is that getting control over your own life and being independent?"
My thoughts exactly.
* Sookie to Jessica: "I don't care if you try to kill me or if you killed three fairy girls. So what. Everyone I've ever known or care about is dead."
Well not quite yet, but give the writers time and that will be the case, most likely the end of this season.
Hmmm, is it just me or did the series improve after they got rid of Alicide and focused more on Eric and Pam?
Did manage to clean out my apartment this weekend and get rid of a lot of stuff. Threw out more old journals and papers. It's the cleanest its been in five years. We'll see how long that lasts. Put out on the street my remaining comics and graphic novels, keeping only the quality stuff - Watchmen, Persepolis, Dark Knight, Superman/Red Sun, Batman- Year One, and Whedon's hardcover of Astonishing X-Men. Can't quite bring myself to get rid of DVDs. ]
Saw a few new series this weekend. Three appear to be keepers or I've decided to DVR for the season, at any rate.
1. Extant
This is a rather interesting series, it delves a bit further into some of the issues initially raised by the flick A.I. Including the concept of a soul. Molly's husband, portrayed by Goran I, whose name I think is Ethan, doesn't believe in a soul. He's a scientist who does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. To him, a child who is mechanical and created from robotics can be the same as a human child that is biologically created. Both can be taught. The soul from his perspective is a human construct that is not real. One of the board members of the corporation in which he's attempting to obtain funding - vehemently disagrees. She states that a mechanical child or robotic one can never be human, can never feel - or know the difference between right and wrong, or be able to make that choice - because no soul. They are hollow. The love they provide is not real. Reminds me a lot of some of the soul discussions that I've had online.
It does have the typical corporate conspiracy trope, with the potential alien invasion or aliens conquering humans in the background - which admittedly has been done to death in sci-fi. But because it is a television serial - there's time to explore the other issues, which are more interesting. It's also character centric which helps.
Odd choice for CBS, which normally just does procedurals.
2. The Strain - this is the television series that the iconic horror filmmaker, Guillermo Del Toro, of Pan's Labrynthe, amongst others, teamed up with Carlton Cuse (Lost) to develop. Got tabled. So they wrote a best-selling series of books. Then FX grabbed it, on the caveat that it wouldn't be made into a tv series until the book series was completed.
What's it about? A vampire comes to the states by plane - and infects the entire plane with the vampire virus. It goes the route of Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND. Where vampires are created via a parasitic virus. Here the virus is "worms" which congregate at the victim's heart and corrupt the heart or take it over completely - and by doing so, take over the human being, their brain = etc.
Love, we're told in voice over narrative, is the greatest hunger of all and the most important. Without love we are hollow shells, never satisfied, always craving, and life is meaningless.
Vampirism in this series is a metaphor for the corrupting influences that remove love from our loves or what we become without it. The parasites attack the heart - traveling to it through the arteries and sucking it dry, then changing it, and the brain with it.
The lead characters are rather compelling and since it was directed by horror master Guillermo De Toro - the visuals were as well. The lead, is your typical over-worked 40 something guy who has put his job above his family more often than he should - to the point that he is beginning to lose his family. He's supported by Scean Astin, of LoTR fame, and a female colleague. There's also an old guy who hunts vampires along for the ride. But they are well-cast and fun to watch, even if the trope is a wee bit well-traveled.
At any rate, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected - considering I'm beginning to get burned out on vampires and the trope in general. I don't know about anyone else?
But I think it's been done to death by now. That and zombies. Bloody tired of zombies. This one feels a bit like a hybrid of the two genres - and quite similar to Robert Matthieson's I AM LEGEND - which inspired most zombie movies. What I like about it is the focus on vampirism as a contagion or infection - caused by a parasite that needs to be contained. The protagonist is not a mythical vampire slayer, but a CDC pathologist sort of similar to Brad Pitt's character in World War Z. In short, he's a scientist dealing with the inexplicable - which I've always found rather fascinating.
I like the disease angle. It's actually why I watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead - the disease angle fascinated me. When they flipped to just killing people in increasingly gruesome and sadistic ways, I got bored. Because eww. It's also why I enjoyed the film version World War Z but wasn't all that interested in the book.
I'm not interested in vampires and zombies as monsters, but the idea of disease as a monster or a metaphor for a diseased society feeding off of itself, until it rots from within - fascinates me.
So, I'll stick with it. It's scary, but it doesn't bug me. The gore, so far, isn't that bad. No where near the level of the Walking Dead. I think people who had problems with the Walking Dead would actually be able to watch this, while Walking Dead fans may find it a bit on the tame side. Definitely creepy though. And the vampire/monster - reminded me of a HP Lovecraftian monster in design - which is Guillermo De Toro's signature style. (And yes, I know, I'm probably misspelling his name - too lazy to look it up.)
3. Satisfaction
This is on USA. It's different. The set-up? A financial manager finally gets fed up with his job. Mainly because all he does is work and he's spending less and less time with his family (reminds me a bit of the guy on The Strain). And it's all about making money, moving funds, managing money - is there any point. (At least the guy on the Strain was saving lives.) The only problem is he's too damn good at it - so his boss doesn't take him seriously when he tells him that's he's quitting. Instead he laughs at him, tells him what a great joke, and sends him off to NY. As a result, he gets stuck in a plane, on a runway for five hours, with no water, bathroom breaks, or air conditioning...when he sees the airline stewadress sipping bottled water, he loses it. Grabs her microphone - and rants about how horrible everything is, then exits the plane, along with the rest of the passengers, who follow him as an united front.
Furious, his boss reads him the riot act and tells him to sign an apology and take a leave of absence. He rips it up and quits. Goes home to see his wife - who is staging a home, she's an interior designer. Decides to surprise her at the staged home - and instead witnesses her fucking another guy. He follows the other guy, attempts to beat him up, fails miserably - the other guy turns out to be a male prostitute or escort.
That his wife has been paying to have sex with her. For some reason or other, the male escort (named Simon) hands our hero, his jacket and phone. Our hero, Neal, throws out the jacket but takes possession of the phone. And Simon's contact list. He decides to screw both his wife and Simon - by taking over Simon's life for a bit. In other words, he decides to become a male escort.
So it's basically series about a financial manager who in the midst of a mid-life crisis and in a last ditch effort to save his marriage, decides to moonlight as a prostitute. Sort of fun, or at least the pilot was. And a bit subversive - ie. focusing on the male prostitute. Although from the previews - it looks like its going the typical route and has a Nip/Tuck feel to it, except less graphic. But we'll see.
4. True Blood
So, are they planning on killing everyone off this season? Just curious.
The flashbacks, however, are sort of worth it.
*Alicide...I can't say I'll miss you, except that you were definitely pretty and easy on the eyes. But overall? An annoying character - who I wanted to smack 98% of the time.
I thought when he got shot: whoa, that was fast, they killed Alcide? Then, hmmm, don't care.
*Arlene on the other hand managed to make it. Which is good, I suppose, I liked Arlene better than Alcide. Not as pretty on the eyes, but far less annoying.
* Best thing to date? The flashbacks of Pam and Eric coming to Shreveport, starting a video business, and meeting up with Ginger - a vampire groupie, who gives Pam the idea to open Fangtasia. I adore Pam and Eric. Actually, the only characters I've shipped in this series are Pam and Eric, Eric and Bill, and Pam and Tara.
* Holly also got out - which I was happy about - because I don't mind Holly.
* We finally got rid of the too stupid to live vampire hunters who have plagued us for five episodes now, and needed to die yesterday.
* Is it wrong to root for Pam/Eric and Willow to kill Sarah Newlin?
* I'm guessing Bill and Sookie are the end game? Is this why they put her briefly with Alicide, so I'd root for her to get back with Bill - because in comparison to Alcide, Bill is actually appealing as a romantic love interest? Granted, he's not as pretty on the eyes (the only one who is prettier than Alicide is Eric), but he's also less annoying.
Loved Eric's comment regarding Sookie's relationship with Alicide:
"I gave you back your house so you could get control over your life and being independent...and you hooked up with the wolf? How exactly is that getting control over your own life and being independent?"
My thoughts exactly.
* Sookie to Jessica: "I don't care if you try to kill me or if you killed three fairy girls. So what. Everyone I've ever known or care about is dead."
Well not quite yet, but give the writers time and that will be the case, most likely the end of this season.
Hmmm, is it just me or did the series improve after they got rid of Alicide and focused more on Eric and Pam?
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-22 12:48 am (UTC)Although this was a great line:
Mother: All the monsters keep telling me they want to save the world.
Sarah: But I'm not a monster, I'm a Buddhist.
LOL!
no subject
Date: 2014-07-22 12:51 am (UTC)