newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2009-02-22 02:25 pm
newnumber6) wrote2009-02-22 02:25 pm
Entry tags:
Mostly TV thoughts, some other stuff
So, the computer's still doing well. Haven't got an IDE enclosure yet to attempt to restore my old data, but I'm making slow progress on getting my other stuff up to speed or better than up to speed. For example, now I don't need to watch TV, sitting in my uncomfortable chair with dollar store earphones in my ears! My old PC had an internal speaker that was good for watching, this one doesn't. Luckily my brother had recently upgraded his speakers (he's one of you 'tunie' freaks who listens to 'music' for 'pleasure', and so the quality matters to him... weirdos) and still had the old ones around. With some kajiggering that left me completely soundless for a while (oops), I managed to get 'em up and working.
So, what have I been watching lately? Well, the Dead Like Me direct to DVD sequel-movie "Life After Death", for one. (some spoilers)Daisy Adair's replacement by another actress was actually more jarring than Rube's abscence. Rube being gone sucked, but I could understand it. But every time Daisy appeared, I thought, "that's not Daisy!". Meh.
Plotwise, it was okay. Seemed like there were pacing problems, some characters felt short-shifted on development time, and not much really got resolved. I know the movie was planned and probably written with the idea that maybe it might return some day as a series (which is possibly why Rube was just missing and replaced one day as opposed to having a more definitive reason given - it could easily be explained away if they got the actor back), but let's be honest, it _probably_ won't happen (though I'd be happy to be wrong). So it's the kind of thing that felt more like a couple episodes of the ongoing series, just a few years in the future, as opposed to a big movie plot, and that's a bit disappointing. There is one exception: the dealing of George and her family, one of my favorite subplots in the series, finally gets some sense of 'conclusion', and that's good and was pretty satisfying.
I enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans.
Wolverine and the X-Men wasn't bad this week, though a bit low on the funny. And a NM cameo!
Terminator... From what I understand, the show has slipped severely in the ratings its first week out on the Friday Death Slot, so I'm not optomistic about it surviving another year. And judging by the last couple eps, I'm not as broken up as I would. I dunno, the writing seems to be getting more and more stilted (spoilers ahoy) Sarah and company go to the big mass funeral for the destroyed plant. There Sarah happens to find the widow of the man she personally killed. Reasonable enough, no complaints there. This woman is broken up, of course. And then she has a key to a storage facility she didn't know she had, and cries about it to Sarah, and then _gives_ the key to Sarah to go check out, ALONE, (where of course she finds evidence of him being up to something shady), despite being more or less a sympathetic stranger. It didn't flow well to me. It just all felt like "okay, we need to fill some time here and give her an excuse to investigate". Likewise the previous week with John Henry happening to bring up a telephone conversation that makes Weaver realize the plant nees to be blown up.. for no particular reason, he apparently happens to monitor the phone calls and, I guess, the writers told him that one was important to bring up in conversation.
There's still good here, but I kinda feel the writing team is schizophrenic.
And I'm _still_ missing Cameron getting development. Hell, there was a golden chance for some nice parallel development over the last few eps: Weaver, improving in her attempts to simulate people, John Henry trying to understand them in a simplistic, Skynet way, and Cameron _really_ starting to understand them. Instead, it seems like they're just using her to beat things up and stare creepily at people. I want the writing team from Season 1 back. They had flaws but were at least writing a show I was really enjoying.
And speaking of Friday night deathslots, Dollhouse. Dollhouse, Dollhouse, Dollhouse. I'm not feeling it. It's slightly enjoyable. I mean, I think I could really dig a hypothetical third season where (slight spoilers and longer discussion of the show ahead)Echo, keeping several different personalities and skillsets in her mind, and her handler go on the run from the Dollhouse, while Alpha is still after her, but I don't think the show's going to last that long, and in the meantime I think the premise isn't going to engage me much more than it already has. And I love Eliza, but I'm worried all of her 'relatively normal person'/'going out on a date' personalities feel exactly the same (and, for that matter, from her pre-Dollhouse persona). We've been 2 episodes in and I feel I've seen her play the same character 3 different times. She strikes me as the kind of actress that isn't great at subtle differences. She can go between Echo and, say, the hostage negotiator and do a decent job, but this is the kind of role that I feel really needs someone who can play 50 different 'normal' people that are pretty distinct, down to the way they speak and move, and I don't feel she's up to that.
Plotwise, it's okay, skeevy at times, and I realize it's meant to be, but when pretty much the entire main cast (and pretty well everyone who hires them) are people that, in real life, I'd hate and wish bad things on, is not a selling point for me. Even the sympathetic characters are still exploiters and/or casual murderers, with the exception of the cop investigating them. So I'm thinking this is a slight misfire for Joss. I _almost_ wish it gets cancelled so that he can move on to doing something else awesome. But I won't add any bad wishes to it. I'll still watch but I don't think it'll be must-see for me anymore.
BSG I'm still worried has lost the plot. They're at the stage where people seem to be changing their minds and allegiences suddenly for no good reason, and (spoilers for most recent) Resurrected Cylon Ellen being just as bat$@! crazy as pre-Cylon Ellen is disappointing. I feel like they've decided to just drop plots rather than really build towards a resolution, and there's so few episodes and so much left unexplained that I doubt they're going to be able to do it. The Cylons had a plan, I can't help but think the show would have been much better if the writers did, too.
Lost has been fairly enjoyable... not super exciting, but good.
What's up other than TV? Not a whole lot. My Dad, who's been out of work about two months or so, got a new job that pays much more than his previous ones, + benefits, so that's nice.
Writing-wise I should be on a writing cycle this week, but since I lost my last weekend trying to sort out my computer and otherwise not being able to enjoy myself much until I got the new one, I'm taking this one off, from my normal metered writing at least. I find I need a certain amount of unproductiveness and I lost that. However, I'm not abandoning writing entirely, I've just decided to work on unproductive writing and dipping my toe into fanfic for the first time in quite a while. Specifically, Runaways fanfic (well, sorta a crossover), set between the Secret Invasion mini and the 1st issue of vol 3. I may not actually get past the outlining stage (since for some reason I can't write comic fanfic as prose, I have to structure it as though I'm actually writing a comic script), but at least unlike my other Runaways ideas (like the What I'd Do With one, even though my ideas have moved far beyond what I have in that one entry) it's unlikely my ideas can become incompatible with the real storylines, I can actually work on it slowly without the fear that I should chuck it all into the 'why bother, it's not even theoretically possible anymore' bin. Shrug.
So, what have I been watching lately? Well, the Dead Like Me direct to DVD sequel-movie "Life After Death", for one. (some spoilers)Daisy Adair's replacement by another actress was actually more jarring than Rube's abscence. Rube being gone sucked, but I could understand it. But every time Daisy appeared, I thought, "that's not Daisy!". Meh.
Plotwise, it was okay. Seemed like there were pacing problems, some characters felt short-shifted on development time, and not much really got resolved. I know the movie was planned and probably written with the idea that maybe it might return some day as a series (which is possibly why Rube was just missing and replaced one day as opposed to having a more definitive reason given - it could easily be explained away if they got the actor back), but let's be honest, it _probably_ won't happen (though I'd be happy to be wrong). So it's the kind of thing that felt more like a couple episodes of the ongoing series, just a few years in the future, as opposed to a big movie plot, and that's a bit disappointing. There is one exception: the dealing of George and her family, one of my favorite subplots in the series, finally gets some sense of 'conclusion', and that's good and was pretty satisfying.
I enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans.
Wolverine and the X-Men wasn't bad this week, though a bit low on the funny. And a NM cameo!
Terminator... From what I understand, the show has slipped severely in the ratings its first week out on the Friday Death Slot, so I'm not optomistic about it surviving another year. And judging by the last couple eps, I'm not as broken up as I would. I dunno, the writing seems to be getting more and more stilted (spoilers ahoy) Sarah and company go to the big mass funeral for the destroyed plant. There Sarah happens to find the widow of the man she personally killed. Reasonable enough, no complaints there. This woman is broken up, of course. And then she has a key to a storage facility she didn't know she had, and cries about it to Sarah, and then _gives_ the key to Sarah to go check out, ALONE, (where of course she finds evidence of him being up to something shady), despite being more or less a sympathetic stranger. It didn't flow well to me. It just all felt like "okay, we need to fill some time here and give her an excuse to investigate". Likewise the previous week with John Henry happening to bring up a telephone conversation that makes Weaver realize the plant nees to be blown up.. for no particular reason, he apparently happens to monitor the phone calls and, I guess, the writers told him that one was important to bring up in conversation.
There's still good here, but I kinda feel the writing team is schizophrenic.
And I'm _still_ missing Cameron getting development. Hell, there was a golden chance for some nice parallel development over the last few eps: Weaver, improving in her attempts to simulate people, John Henry trying to understand them in a simplistic, Skynet way, and Cameron _really_ starting to understand them. Instead, it seems like they're just using her to beat things up and stare creepily at people. I want the writing team from Season 1 back. They had flaws but were at least writing a show I was really enjoying.
And speaking of Friday night deathslots, Dollhouse. Dollhouse, Dollhouse, Dollhouse. I'm not feeling it. It's slightly enjoyable. I mean, I think I could really dig a hypothetical third season where (slight spoilers and longer discussion of the show ahead)Echo, keeping several different personalities and skillsets in her mind, and her handler go on the run from the Dollhouse, while Alpha is still after her, but I don't think the show's going to last that long, and in the meantime I think the premise isn't going to engage me much more than it already has. And I love Eliza, but I'm worried all of her 'relatively normal person'/'going out on a date' personalities feel exactly the same (and, for that matter, from her pre-Dollhouse persona). We've been 2 episodes in and I feel I've seen her play the same character 3 different times. She strikes me as the kind of actress that isn't great at subtle differences. She can go between Echo and, say, the hostage negotiator and do a decent job, but this is the kind of role that I feel really needs someone who can play 50 different 'normal' people that are pretty distinct, down to the way they speak and move, and I don't feel she's up to that.
Plotwise, it's okay, skeevy at times, and I realize it's meant to be, but when pretty much the entire main cast (and pretty well everyone who hires them) are people that, in real life, I'd hate and wish bad things on, is not a selling point for me. Even the sympathetic characters are still exploiters and/or casual murderers, with the exception of the cop investigating them. So I'm thinking this is a slight misfire for Joss. I _almost_ wish it gets cancelled so that he can move on to doing something else awesome. But I won't add any bad wishes to it. I'll still watch but I don't think it'll be must-see for me anymore.
BSG I'm still worried has lost the plot. They're at the stage where people seem to be changing their minds and allegiences suddenly for no good reason, and (spoilers for most recent) Resurrected Cylon Ellen being just as bat$@! crazy as pre-Cylon Ellen is disappointing. I feel like they've decided to just drop plots rather than really build towards a resolution, and there's so few episodes and so much left unexplained that I doubt they're going to be able to do it. The Cylons had a plan, I can't help but think the show would have been much better if the writers did, too.
Lost has been fairly enjoyable... not super exciting, but good.
What's up other than TV? Not a whole lot. My Dad, who's been out of work about two months or so, got a new job that pays much more than his previous ones, + benefits, so that's nice.
Writing-wise I should be on a writing cycle this week, but since I lost my last weekend trying to sort out my computer and otherwise not being able to enjoy myself much until I got the new one, I'm taking this one off, from my normal metered writing at least. I find I need a certain amount of unproductiveness and I lost that. However, I'm not abandoning writing entirely, I've just decided to work on unproductive writing and dipping my toe into fanfic for the first time in quite a while. Specifically, Runaways fanfic (well, sorta a crossover), set between the Secret Invasion mini and the 1st issue of vol 3. I may not actually get past the outlining stage (since for some reason I can't write comic fanfic as prose, I have to structure it as though I'm actually writing a comic script), but at least unlike my other Runaways ideas (like the What I'd Do With one, even though my ideas have moved far beyond what I have in that one entry) it's unlikely my ideas can become incompatible with the real storylines, I can actually work on it slowly without the fear that I should chuck it all into the 'why bother, it's not even theoretically possible anymore' bin. Shrug.