Tabula Rasa lj

TV round-up

ashamel — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:47:01 GMT

I do an occasional round-up of my TV shows, so here it is for the last six months or so.

Nikita (S4): This was the half season they were given to wrap things up, and I think they did a pretty good job. It does show the difficulty of mixing mind-twisty spy tropes with satisfying character resolution -- which is sort of to say it didn't achieve the awesome finale of the original Nikita TV show (in its own half-season-to-wrap-things-up). But it was all clever enough (full of competing spy agencies going 'well, they did this because they want us to think that') and cool enough (Maggie Q!) and even respectful enough (Alex is a tricky character, but I think they did her well) to make it all worth the trip.

Doctor Who (various): We recently bought the 50th anniversary boxed set and decided to go through it in chronological order. This would presumably be quicker if we didn't go from Day of the Doctor to Rose. The modern show remains a bit too fast and hand-wavey for me (not to mention the farting aliens), but Christopher Eccleston really is excellent, and I'd forgotten how good Billie Piper was, before it all went a bit strange.

True Detective (S1): Truthfully I was never quite sure what the mass appeal of this was. Certainly it had moments of hellacious beauty, and Rustin Cohle was a cool guy, but the plot was a bit of a mess, and the characters in general under-cooked. Just one of those things.

The Tunnel (S1): Stannis Baratheon and Fleur Delacour fight crime! We hadn't seen either of the preceding versions of this, and just started watching it randomly on iView (I wanted to confirm it had nothing to do with the Aussie movie of the same name). It was very good, but I do think that as the 'truth terrorist' plot wound tighter and tighter towards the personal, it lost a lot of the scope and ambition that marked the early episodes.

Young Dracula (half of S4): those halcyon days of early seasons are long gone, wherein Van Helsing's main method of fighting vampires was dressing in drag (just noticed he was in Edge of Tomorrow!). Now it's all political negotiations and murder and traumatic love. It's an odd fit but so far it retains enough charm to work -- and enough of an audience that the S5 dvds are already on their way. Chloe should turn up again and sort them all out (or not).

Elementary (S1): For most of this season I was saying it was all cool, but didn't feel like Sherlock Holmes at all. By the end that had dissipated somewhat, although I suspect that is more because I had just gotten used to it, rather than Moriarty, Irene Adler etc. So yes, whatever it is, is worth watching. They made Watson's eclipsing of Holmes in certain matters believable enough to carry that off as well. (Lucy Liu is of course cool.)

Legend of the Seeker (S2): this seems mostly a joke these days (and probably always was), the Xena producers doing a more 'serious' fantasy, before Game of Thrones showed people how far the envelope could be pushed. The first episode of season 2 was indeed the most generic thing ever -- prophecies, object quests, undead beasties, lesbian warrior nuns with their dildos of pain (huzzah) -- but after that they do manage to take the various types of magic and mix them up in interesting ways. It eventually meanders a bit too much, but the characters make it worth the trip. (Though if someone had explained the concept of blind-folds to Richard and Kahlan, they would have saved a lot of trouble.)

The Dresden Files (most of): As I said recently I watched the first Constantine ep, and found it a little wanting in comparison to this, even though I believe a lot of book fans dislike it, and it never found its own niche. It's all a bit mystical-case-of-the-week, with powers-as-needed, and vast-magical-society-we-can't-really-afford, but it's all so watchable -- Dresden is great, Bob is great, Murphy is great. Claudia Black turns up for an episode and is great. It's all good.

Fringe (S4): What a weird season. Everyone is an alternate version of themselves, even those who were already parallel versions. I thought they were pushing it too far, into irrelevance, but there was still lots of good stuff and then... well, it's weird. So they manage to skate that line pretty well, and it all falls apart a bit at the end. The ideas are there and are mostly consistent, but they are dealt with too fast and too perfunctorily for proper impact. Meanwhile, S5 looks even weirder, but we shall see.

Doctor Who (S8): Did I mention too fast and hand-wavey? My barriers are up, so I think this is all good enough, without being too excited or shocked by it all (as an old school fan who met Nick Courtney at a convention, I'm not quite seeing the outrage other people are reporting). Also, compared to the nonsense of Fringe, even the science isn't that bad (yeah, still pretty bad but oh well). Capaldi is good without being definitive, and I like the ideas around Clara and Danny, even if the execution is a bit woolly. Also, some genuinely creepy bits help as well.

La Femme Nikita (bits of S1): so good! After finishing the new show I went back and watched some of the original, and discovered my liking of it had not been misplaced. It's fascinating to see just how quickly things fall into place (even though the producers say they didn't know what they had, especially with Micheal), and also how good at spycraft Nikita is, right from the start. Makes latter events somewhat more plausible. I even found some more potential in-jokes between the two series (Ari Tasarov's back story! Maybe). Alas, I am destined to confuse the names Section One and Division forever. If I start getting versions of The Shop mixed up, I'll be in real trouble.

Next up: Orphan Black? Twin Peaks? Hannibal? Spartacus? We shall see.

ashamel — Thu, 22 May 2014 11:20:49 GMT

I put this together quickly on Facebook, but since that's an 'orrible medium to store anything for later reference, I'll put it here as well:

A lot of people say Stephen King is weak on endings, but I never saw it as a consistent problem. So just for fun, here's a quick and incomplete survey to see if the complaint holds up.

Since a good ending should be memorable, I won't consult any material except for the wiki bibliography. I shall keep spoilers to a minimum.

---

Carrie: It's a short novel, and the ending fits it very well. Not so sure about the whole "Meanwhile, over here" thing, but it also fits in with the newspaper infrastructure.

The Shining: Y'know, the first time I read this, the climax really annoyed me. I was going "Not the [SPOILER], how bloody obvious", or words to that effect. On a reread it struck me as really fitting and powerful, so I'm going to stick with that.

Rage: the ending where Stephen removes it from circulation completely is a bit sad, but the novel itself ends perfectly well.

The Stand: I promised I wouldn't go look up stuff, so I _think_ the whole Hand of God thing is fairly momentary and understated. That seems to be the main complaint, which does ignore the fact the presence of the [SPOILER] is set up over the entire book (bumpity bump). I had a greater problem with the huge amount of pages between that and the actual end of the book, which may just be in the expanded edition (like Dark Tower 1, I prefer the lean mean original). The bit on the beach seems a bit dodgy too.

The Long Walk: is very good.

The Dead Zone: is brilliant!

Firestarter: I liked this ending a lot. Despite similarities with Carrie and Rage (young person much put upon), the ending goes in a completely different direction which fitted in with the more expansive political focus.

Cujo: Sadly, I mostly remember the movie ending, but I'm pretty sure it's similar and I don't remember having any problems with either.

The Running Man: rather different from the movie, and pretty neat. It would have a bit of a different effect these days.

Christine: the whole final battle seems fine, and I remember liking the epilogue. Was there some problem with Gaunt being a bit of an anticlimax? Hmmm.

Pet Sematary: not unexpected, but very good.

The Talisman: I remember it being good, mostly the melancholy bits.

The Mist: I'm cheating on criteria a bit, and my memories of the printed version are very hazy. It must be said that the movie ending is really ballsy, and I thought they sold it convincingly. Others disagree strongly.

It: the archetypal disappointment -- with It's final form and with an undercurrent of squickiness at the, um, group bonding. I didn't mind either particularly at the time, although I understand the arguments. Strangely, I think The Dark Tower series actually improves this ending, by putting it all (especially the Turtle, ain't he keen?) in a wider context.

Misery: Um. Good? I'm sure I should remember more of it.

vivid

Needful Things: perhaps it would have been better if the ending had done what King promised it would. On its own, it was all a bit unexciting.

Gerald's Game: The ending of this is really weird. It's like an anti-twist, which was sort of interesting, but not really effective. (I see they are starting to film it. That just seems uncomfortable for all concerned.)

Insomnia: Mostly I remember some aircraft wreckage decapitating some noted feminist!? Not sure that was right at the end though.

The Green Mile: The ending of the main story was pretty much in keeping with it all. I seem to remember a neat melancholy epilogue as well.

Bag of Bones: The ending (ie, the actual bag in question) is about the only thing I do remember clearly. Sort of made sense.

Hearts in Atlantis: Brilliant! I loved this greatly, especially how it all ended up (and have railed at the movie for betraying that ending on more than one occasion).

Black House: I was liking this, until they actually enter the Black House itself, at which point it all went downhill rapidly -- since that's the last third of the book or so, I'm not sure it entirely counts as 'the ending'.

From A Buick Eight: I remember being a bit annoyed at the final bit, which could have been a little less pat considering the subject matter. Still, pretty good.

The Dark Tower: the whole ending of this series was rather disappointing to me, and by that I mean the last few books. Gathering the ka-tet was wonderful; giving them appropriate drama and challenge once they were together was trickier. However I will still defend the actual last page of it all as most excellent.

The Colorado Kid: Oh God, all I can envisage is Haven -- and I hope that ends well. From memory I had the same complain as Buick Eight, only more so; I don't think Sai King trusts anarchy, even when it is his main theme.

Cell: The gets a special mention because Steve came out later and 'explained' the ending. That was not only unnecessary but may even weaken the book. Anyway, mostly fitting for what it was.

Under The Dome: the explanation of what is really going is just... silly. The very definition of arbitrariness. But I do really like the entire direction of events under the Dome (and especially now in comparison to the TV show) so I am favourably inclined to where it ends up.

11/22/63: I think this is an alright novel that ties up a lot of loose ends much better than I was expecting it too -- and then undermines it all at the very end with political theorising that is entirely beside the point. (And for the record, I don't think this improved It as much as the Dark Tower did.)

The Wind in the Keyhole: Did this even have an ending?

Doctor Sleep: when I get there... Is pretty good so far.

---

It all goes downhill a bit at the end(!), but Hearts in Atlantis really is the last book of his I loved fully and joyfully. However, there are more than enough excellent books with excellent endings to be getting on with. He is not much into radical endings that make you rethink everything, and sometimes the action is a bit arbitrary, but I also reckon he rounds out his events with a minimum of loose threads and deus ex. The Dead Zone strikes me as the cleverest ending (and a clever book in general), and there are a fair few melancholy epilogues I am inclined to like.

None of which will probably sway the common perception, but it's nice to at least justify my own opinions.

ashamel — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:42:25 GMT

City of Heroes is closing down. It was never really my game, but it did some things very well -- most notably character customisation and scaled missions. Here are my toons, in memoriam.

Hananobi: It never seems particularly heroic to chase down thugs in sewers, with a katana, but that seemed to be her MO, and she was damn good at it. Although here she is fighting herself

and with her new jacket

My main regret is I never got her a fireworks aura. I think it was just a limited-time thing. Her fire aura was pretty impressive though.

King Ink: I've always liked the idea of healing, but in WoW it's always stressed me out. King Ink was my character for grouping, and for the most work it worked really well.

(Which is good because as a solo toon he was pretty painful.)

The rest are just short-lived characters I came up with but never really played.

The Cruciverbalist. He specialised in speed and pain, and I was happy at being able to make him almost entirely B&W.

Sans Seraphim and Cherub Falls.

Orange Crush: This is almost exactly the result of a random costume selection, but I liked it. I'm not sure he ever even fought anyone though (and the real name was already taken, so I guess there's actually an ape head under that helmet).

ashamel — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:54:55 GMT

This isn't my screenshot:

Writer's Block: Love Me Tender

ashamel — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:22:13 GMT

Would it be cheating to say Tupelo, which is about Elvis Presley?

Bad Dreams

ashamel — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:11:33 GMT

Kyla launched her book of poetry, The Land of Bad Dreams a few weeks ago, and now we have a page up with videos from the launch: The Performances.

Here's the introduction:

ashamel — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:04:45 GMT

We saw Neil Marshall's Doomsday last night, which is more or less completely mad. With barely a whiff of credibility it throws a cyberpunk heroine into battles against apocalyptic road gangs and medieval knights, with a bit of Aliens and Twenty Eight Days Later thrown in for kicks. And it works, though it takes a while for the build-up of absurdity to reach critical mass (the precise moment is marked with the song Good Thing, for those taking notes).

I'm not sure it works really well, given the flatness of some of the dialogue and plotting in general, but it rides it through on audacity and good production values.

Speaking of which, I also saw Sucker Punch recently, which actually has very similar goals (cyberchicks vs knights, in broad terms); even more audacious, even less sane, somewhat more tedious. I wouldn't call it good, but it had enough in common with, say, Terry Gilliam to be interesting.

ashamel — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:29:50 GMT

Here are some photos from the (spectacular) launch of Kyla's book this week:

The Land of Bad Dreams

If you're on Facebook, hopefully you've seen Leigh Blackmore's set as well, which is great.

In the meantime, everyone have fun at Conflux. Kyla is heading down their now, and there will be books.

ashamel — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:52:36 GMT

Have just returned from Kyla's book launch / burlesque sword-fighting magic thing. It was awesome. Photos and video to come.

ashamel — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:08:48 GMT

I have only just noticed now that there is a comic coming out called Justice League Dark, featuring the wacky(?) adventures of John Constantine; Shade, the Changing Man; Madame Xanadu; Deadman; Zatanna; Mindwarp and Enchantress. Tha hell?

ashamel — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:16:11 GMT

Last week we watched Your Highness, so in reparation for our sins it was The Big Sleep this time round. I really don't think I followed it all, but it was certainly awesomely cool on the way.

ashamel — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:17:13 GMT

We've just come back from jack_ryder's new experimental-improv-theatre-thing, Tweatre wherein live tweets (in one case, actual spam) get turned into performance. It's on most of this week for those in Sydney.

Likewise, for those so blessed, come along to kylaw's book launch next week, for The Land of Bad Dreams. And by 'book launch', I mean performances by people like Venus Vamp and The Surgical Sideshow, at the World Bar in Kings Cross, so get in quick.

ashamel — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:22:31 GMT

Saw Griff the Invisible this evening -- more Aussie weirdness, this case in the cause of superheroics. Probably best not to delve too deeply (and the trailer on the main site seems to give most of it away), but it was fun, and charming.

ashamel — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:57:07 GMT

I'm going mad. Well, I saw the latest episodes of The Guild and Death Valley, and thought they were pretty funny, which is probably the same thing.

ashamel — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:02:06 GMT

We've just seen The Square, in the fine tradition of weird Aussie crime flicks. Having said that, it all turns out a bit muddled, so lacks the power of some of its compatriots -- but there's some fine stuff on the way. The fact it was shot down in the Woronora Valley near us was also neat.

ashamel — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:18:34 GMT

We've watched the first half of the new Underbelly, after making the (there-is-a-precedent-but-not-for-a-while) step of connecting up our TV receiver. Not quite convinced yet, although it certainly has some style. Putting Mental as Anything in a 1920 saloon seemed to work.

I also spotted K walking down a 1920s street, so that was all good.

ashamel — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:51:25 GMT

More strangeness: last week I saw (500) Days of Summer. I saw 'I' because K took debunked on the flimsy prefix that one of her friends has Othello on (no doubt I should have gone, but am still sickly).

Anyway, the movie is very odd, being not really a romance, and not really a comedy -- it's quite possible I don't really understand these concepts in conjunction anyway. It's certainly interesting, with lots of cool things and quite a few geeky things as well (bonding over the Knight Rider theme, for a start). But the narrative focus was a bit off-putting, and in the end it was more interesting than actually affecting.

ashamel — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:42:54 GMT

Last night we saw Summer Wars, upon recommendation. It's a strange anime of family solidarity and cyber-warfare. From a traditional daimyo homestead, Kenji and Natsuki must defend OZ (ie, the internet if Second Life ever took off) and the world from an AI super-villain called Love Machine.

This mesh of cultures was didn't always come off, but there was a lot of genuine emotion in the contrast, and the battle. As K said, it at least provides as good a justification for cute bunnies battling demons as any; and the human characters ground it all beautifully.

ashamel — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:31:10 GMT

We saw Limitless, which is well made and pretty cool -- though full of frustrating bits where we were berating the main character for being stupid. Given the nature of the movie, that's a bit sad.

Also, this is somewhat unrelated to the movie itself, but I'd just like to note that watching alternate endings (yes, apparently plural) to a movie directly after watching the thing itself dilutes the very point of movie-watching. So, well, I didn't.

Not finishing things

ashamel — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:59:17 GMT

I had high hopes for Portal 2 co-op, but we didn't quite make it. We got to test 7 (of 8) in the last category, but then got stuck, and back to the shop it goes. Given the sudden insane timing needed I'm not sure we would have got it in any reasonable time anyway (or there was some other solution I was overlooking).

I'm sure there are many, many other things I'm not finishing, but that will do for now.

ashamel — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:26:16 GMT

We went off to see Dungeon Crawl last night, in one of their rare Sydney shows. Our stoic heroes (the interior decorating orc, the magical-component addicted wizard, the thief who regrets everything and the plumber who regrets nothing) quest to save the villagers of Spiderman Keep. Along the way dire wombats are traumatised, yuan-ti's interiors are redecorated, a boulder is slain by recitation of Twilight and the thief regrets stealing the GM's dice and rolling a 1. She also regrets stealing the villagers from the dragon, and returns them post-haste.

Funny stuff, and certainly an accurate representation of the game. They have more regular Melbourne shows, for those so inclined.

Finishing things

ashamel — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:26:58 GMT

True Blood S3: What a mess. In the last half, the season started getting a nice pace and tension, and then it all collapsed again.

Portal 2 (single player): all a bit linear and stretched, and the final song isn't a patch on Still Alive. But it had some style and the end sequence (especially the turrets) is great.

Buffy S8: da hell. Suddenly it's gone all Lucifer without anyone slowing down enough to provide context or sense. Bad things happened. I think.

ashamel — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:25:25 GMT

We saw Enigma, a Bletchley Park movie about which I didn't know many specifics. It was quite odd to go in thinking it was probably about Alan Turing, and have our dashing young hero chasing skirt all movie. But it had some interesting stuff to say about the war and code-breaking along the way.

ashamel — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:14:11 GMT

I wasn't so impressed by Underbelly: Infiltration, which seemed a bit... ordinary. Perhaps because there was little actual crime going on -- although the background story of the guy who went undercover in the Australian Mafia, and now does travel tours of Italian crime spots, was a bit freaky.

We just saw The Man Who Got Away special, and that was better -- a bit of the old Underbelly madness. The execution was still seemed a bit stilted (so to speak), but there were great moments and again the background was extraordinary. I guess such surprises are what happens when I ignore true crime, for the most part.

ashamel — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 06:34:34 GMT

Harry Potter 7b was pretty cool. It continued the tradition of improving the book in several instances, and at least hinted at a lot of the extra complexity -- along with its own cinematic power. It looks beautiful and the action set-pieces deliver.

Having said that, I found the progression a bit too jumpy and, yes, there were bits I wish they had kept ("try for some remorse, Riddle"). I reckon 7a was the better of the two halves (splitting them was totally a good idea), and 3 remains the most elegant. But really, eight good films in a row is a pretty fine thing.

ETA: I can't comment on the 3D, as we saw it in glorious 2d. But whoever decided to put a short behind-the-scenes doco before the movie was mad.