So, I'm Han. It's obvious a reference very few would bother to take, and as such confirms the Solo in me. For those of you not into the whole Google-thingy, the Han reference is from Fringe. For the few of you who might remember that particular sentence; I feel for you.
I kind of like Christmas. It's got nothing to do with presents, very little to do with family (especially as my older brother tends to be AWOL at Christmas these days) and I HATE the shopping-commercial-pshyco side of it all. I always has, I always will.
If you got any kind of network, Christmas is a great time to spend with family and friends. If you're anything like me, you got to search elsewhere. It seems every Christmas I return to the closest thing I got; TV-shows. This year wasn't any different, and I've so far spent the past week diving back into re-visiting familiar shows like The Unusuals (one season show starring Amber Tamblyn and Jerery Renner), Moonlight (one season show starring Alex O'Loughlin and Sophia Myles), Dark Angel (starring Jessica Alba and Micheal Weatherly) and now I'm about to take on the still ongoing world of Fringe (starring Anna Torv, John Noble and Joshua Jackson). Of these three, only Fringe is good enough and long-running enough to come close to the usual familiar feeling, but the first two was chosen on being good enough to do the trick as I wasn't quite up for re-visiting more familiar friends like Dawson's Creek, Veronica Mars, Firefly, The West Wing and the likes. When it comes to Dark Angel, it was one of those typical bad judgment calls of the station. It shouldn't have been canceled, and exceeds a lot of the other crap we're fed with on regular basis. Shame on them, as Weatherly went on to be successful in NCIS and Alba became the sex-icon she was always destined to become.
Dark Angel also gave me a couple of refreshed ideas on my own projects, handing me Sam as a character I'm about to give birth into a future post-apocalyptic world. In fact, it seems Sam is about to come to life before my originally intended story on Jonah. I might also mention I'm a little inspired by Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games when I think about Sam. This won't mean much to you at the moment, but maybe some day it will make all kind of sense. Who knows?
Anyways. I'm rambling on because I just can't believe Fringe isn't even bigger than it is. Everyone should watch this show. It's highly entertaining, and it might just open your eyes to possibilities you could hardly imagine. That's quite a feat, at least in my book. However. It's still a work in progress, so who knows how I'll remember it when the day comes they cancel it. for now it's well worth nothing Joshua Jackson is written into my personal history as one of a very few selective actors whom are present in more than one great Tv-show. The only other one who comes to mind is Bradley Whitford (The West Wing and Studio 60 on Sunset Boulevard). I mention this because my current idea of a pseudonym is P.J. Witterly, which obviously relates to Jackson's character Pacey J. Witter in Dawson's Creek.
Last year I took a 6 weeks break from movies between December 27th and late February. This year I haven't watched a movie since December 23rd. I'm pretty sure I'll watch In Search of a Midnight Kiss on New Year's Eve, but beside that one I don't think movies will be much of a priority in the coming months. I'll hopefully be writing, and in between I'll be spending time with my friends, familiar TV-shows. It's a somewhat sad statement, but it's the truth. Why deny it?
Good TV-shows have a specific value, much like good books or book-franchises. They give you a certain insight into characters that movies can never manage. That's invaluable, and that's my Christmases ticking away like a clock. You can't have to many old friends like Fringe, Dawson's Creek and Firefly when you're socially in-adapt like me.
By the way. There's this one girl I always miss, but especially so every Christmas. She'll never read this, but I think I'll never really get past the memory of her as long as I live. At Christmas it becomes an even closer bond because of history. I wish her everything good possible in this world, and have to live with the knowledge I'm never again even gonna be her friend. That sucks on more levels than I care to think about, but I guess love is funny that way.
Happy holidays, and an intriguing new year,
Zapper
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
"Drive" (2007)
On the back of my recent revisit of "Firefly", it came natural to finally catch up with the show that reconnected Tim Minear and Nathan Fillion; "Drive". It also put them back together with Fox, and that's something of a disaster. Anyways. Nathan Fillion and Emma Stone are reasons enough to at least run through the 6 episodes they got to make. Got to admit Emma Stone (whom I recently watched in Paper Man; and scored 74/100 @ Criticker) is fast becoming a new favorite of mine.
Unlike the case of "Firefly", there's plenty of reasons why "Drive" never caught on. The story is a bit all over the place, there's way too many uninteresting characters and there's too many actors and actresses claiming their stereotypes as acting. You can hardly make a really good case against Fox in this case, especially as the ratings wasn't much to brag about either.
Well. At least I've been there and seen that. One more check-box checked at both Fillion's and Stone's end.
★★☆☆☆ Overall Quality
Unlike the case of "Firefly", there's plenty of reasons why "Drive" never caught on. The story is a bit all over the place, there's way too many uninteresting characters and there's too many actors and actresses claiming their stereotypes as acting. You can hardly make a really good case against Fox in this case, especially as the ratings wasn't much to brag about either.
Well. At least I've been there and seen that. One more check-box checked at both Fillion's and Stone's end.
★★☆☆☆ Overall Quality
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
RtC: "Firefly" and Serenity
For the past three days I once again ran from the Alliance with Captain Mal Reynolds and his Serenity-crew. Here's when I last wrote about "Firefly" back in March.
The story of "Firefly" is interesting. It aired back in 2002, while Fox spent two months ruining it back then, amongst other failures airing it in the wrong order, and that should have been it from Joss Whedon's Sci-Fi Western-ish-outlaws. Ah, well... The Browncoats aren't likely to lay down without a fight. The devoted fan-base made numerous attempts to resurrect it, and in 2005 a movie was made to tie up some lose ends.
I didn't watch it until earlier this year for the very first time. There had been rumors all over the 'verse about this show; word of mouth speaking about the greatest mistake ever made in Television, the worst cancellation ever, best show ever made and so on. I kept saving it for a rainy day, somewhat reluctantly as these kind of word of mouth usually tend to be exaggerated. Boy... was I ever wrong.
This time I went into another rerun remembering it as one of the greatest shows ever made, if not the very best. For the first time in my life I've had to get hold of a TV-show in BluRay-quality. It's worth every disc or GB to have it available in the very best possible quality. I walked into it with a maximum score of 6 on my old TV-show dice, a ranking system I'll leave behind forever from this day despite not having decided on which to begin with, and a 10.0 on TV.com (as one of just two shows). In other words. This is the shit.
Whatever "Firefly" lose in surprises and suspense on reruns, it takes back tenfold in how well the characters stay true to their core throughout the short-lived series. There's no doubt creator Joss Whedon knew his characters very well, and used that to the advantage of the show as often as possible. It comes natural when Jayne changes his mind about helping strangers, as soon as he's told they're whores, it comes natural when Simon talks about another kind of life and Kaylee feels insulted when Serenity is spoken ill of. It comes natural when the patron says the girl is a witch and our Captain replies: "Yes, but she's our witch." "Firefly" is packed with excellent writing and a cast that delivers in every role.
There are some highs that far surpass most others; like The Hero of Canton in Jaynestown or River's dance quickly learned in Safe. Scenes where the creator and writers show a sublime understanding of their created 'verse as well as characters. Moments that last in memory long after the final end credits.
Whedon did so much correct with this show, it's a mystery anyone could pull their plug. The futuristic worlds and moons, the dual language of English and Chinese, the moving home giving them endless opportunities thanks to their created 'verse, reavers, war veterans, outsiders, a wide range of diverse characters, and arch mysteries surrounding several of the leads, just to mention a few of the highlights.
There were plenty of brilliant choices made to assure the possibility of a long lived show that could keep the quality high, and most important of them all was the melting of a familiar setting in Serenity with the endless possibilities within terraformed moons and planets. The fans would always feel home with the bridge, the cargo area or Kaylee's machine-room, but only the imagination could stop them from doing whatever they liked on a moon far far away. That's just impossible to do in any other genre than Sci-Fi.
Not all characters got to blossom, and we'll forever have to wonder what kind of stories Shepherd might have got into with his mysterious status and knowledge. Wash got to fly impressive and even be jealous, but what kind of story was in his past? Mal, Zoe and Jayne got to be the catalysts, the fighters and the leading trio most of the time, but every member of the crew filled important roles, both with the storytelling and the possibilities. It's a shame Whedon & Co never got to explore more of the possibilities.
When it comes to the 2005-movie ending the story of our beloved crew; Whedon took on an impossible job to give his fans some sort of closure. It couldn't possibly be done in a single movie, and he stumbled (as had to be expected), but he got there. That's an impressive feat. He managed to take the reavers into the story, tie up the mystery of River and deliver a couple of fighting scenes that are remarkable in several ways. I've rated the movie on its own earlier, which isn't easy on the back of a TV-show storyline, but I think it's much fairer to rank it along with the episodes we got from the show and keep in mind Whedon never got a fair chance to develop it as it should have been.
"Firefly" isn't perfection, all episodes aren't amazing and all stories aren't able to keep you on the edge of your seat, but overall all we can do is rate it based on what we got served and don't blame Whedon for Fox' mistakes. It might not be perfection, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is as close as we'll ever get in my lifetime. It's the show every other show have to compare against, and the best evidence quality doesn't ensure a long healthy life.
★★★★★ Overall Quality
★★★★★ Revisit Value
The story of "Firefly" is interesting. It aired back in 2002, while Fox spent two months ruining it back then, amongst other failures airing it in the wrong order, and that should have been it from Joss Whedon's Sci-Fi Western-ish-outlaws. Ah, well... The Browncoats aren't likely to lay down without a fight. The devoted fan-base made numerous attempts to resurrect it, and in 2005 a movie was made to tie up some lose ends.
I didn't watch it until earlier this year for the very first time. There had been rumors all over the 'verse about this show; word of mouth speaking about the greatest mistake ever made in Television, the worst cancellation ever, best show ever made and so on. I kept saving it for a rainy day, somewhat reluctantly as these kind of word of mouth usually tend to be exaggerated. Boy... was I ever wrong.
This time I went into another rerun remembering it as one of the greatest shows ever made, if not the very best. For the first time in my life I've had to get hold of a TV-show in BluRay-quality. It's worth every disc or GB to have it available in the very best possible quality. I walked into it with a maximum score of 6 on my old TV-show dice, a ranking system I'll leave behind forever from this day despite not having decided on which to begin with, and a 10.0 on TV.com (as one of just two shows). In other words. This is the shit.
Whatever "Firefly" lose in surprises and suspense on reruns, it takes back tenfold in how well the characters stay true to their core throughout the short-lived series. There's no doubt creator Joss Whedon knew his characters very well, and used that to the advantage of the show as often as possible. It comes natural when Jayne changes his mind about helping strangers, as soon as he's told they're whores, it comes natural when Simon talks about another kind of life and Kaylee feels insulted when Serenity is spoken ill of. It comes natural when the patron says the girl is a witch and our Captain replies: "Yes, but she's our witch." "Firefly" is packed with excellent writing and a cast that delivers in every role.
There are some highs that far surpass most others; like The Hero of Canton in Jaynestown or River's dance quickly learned in Safe. Scenes where the creator and writers show a sublime understanding of their created 'verse as well as characters. Moments that last in memory long after the final end credits.
Whedon did so much correct with this show, it's a mystery anyone could pull their plug. The futuristic worlds and moons, the dual language of English and Chinese, the moving home giving them endless opportunities thanks to their created 'verse, reavers, war veterans, outsiders, a wide range of diverse characters, and arch mysteries surrounding several of the leads, just to mention a few of the highlights.
There were plenty of brilliant choices made to assure the possibility of a long lived show that could keep the quality high, and most important of them all was the melting of a familiar setting in Serenity with the endless possibilities within terraformed moons and planets. The fans would always feel home with the bridge, the cargo area or Kaylee's machine-room, but only the imagination could stop them from doing whatever they liked on a moon far far away. That's just impossible to do in any other genre than Sci-Fi.
Not all characters got to blossom, and we'll forever have to wonder what kind of stories Shepherd might have got into with his mysterious status and knowledge. Wash got to fly impressive and even be jealous, but what kind of story was in his past? Mal, Zoe and Jayne got to be the catalysts, the fighters and the leading trio most of the time, but every member of the crew filled important roles, both with the storytelling and the possibilities. It's a shame Whedon & Co never got to explore more of the possibilities.
When it comes to the 2005-movie ending the story of our beloved crew; Whedon took on an impossible job to give his fans some sort of closure. It couldn't possibly be done in a single movie, and he stumbled (as had to be expected), but he got there. That's an impressive feat. He managed to take the reavers into the story, tie up the mystery of River and deliver a couple of fighting scenes that are remarkable in several ways. I've rated the movie on its own earlier, which isn't easy on the back of a TV-show storyline, but I think it's much fairer to rank it along with the episodes we got from the show and keep in mind Whedon never got a fair chance to develop it as it should have been.
"Firefly" isn't perfection, all episodes aren't amazing and all stories aren't able to keep you on the edge of your seat, but overall all we can do is rate it based on what we got served and don't blame Whedon for Fox' mistakes. It might not be perfection, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is as close as we'll ever get in my lifetime. It's the show every other show have to compare against, and the best evidence quality doesn't ensure a long healthy life.
★★★★★ Overall Quality
★★★★★ Revisit Value
Revisiting the Classics: An Intro
Once upon a time I dedicated time to keep blogs running about the movies I watched and the TV-shows I followed, but I finally gave in to the reality of too much time being spent writing rather than experiencing. For those interested in a walk down memory lane my thoughts can still be found in Motion Pictures on the fly and Zap Zapper ZapperLife. I'll never go back to that, but it's still easy to follow my movie-ratings thanks to My Criticker-account. When it comes to TV-shows, the few worthy of special mention will be written about here sooner or later. TV.com, IMDB.com or the likes just doesn't seem good enough to keep up all the TV-show scores on.
I do however spent quite some time revisiting movies and TV-shows I love, and from now I'll give back something about those in a new column simply named Revisiting the Classics. I'll give an introduction including how many times I've seen it, how it scored previous to the revisit in mention and so on and so forth. It might be somewhat more spoiler-ish than my former reviews ever were, but then again these are already classics in my book and you should visit them prior to me writing about them.
There won't be a minimum requirement for me to include something into this column. Not a minimum Criticker score, not avoiding extreme guilty pleasures or genres that generally suffers in quality. These classics are all in my mind well worth your time, but not all of them will be a new "The Wire", "The West Wing", M, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the likes, but some might rather be just another trip down to "Dawson's Creek".
I do however spent quite some time revisiting movies and TV-shows I love, and from now I'll give back something about those in a new column simply named Revisiting the Classics. I'll give an introduction including how many times I've seen it, how it scored previous to the revisit in mention and so on and so forth. It might be somewhat more spoiler-ish than my former reviews ever were, but then again these are already classics in my book and you should visit them prior to me writing about them.
There won't be a minimum requirement for me to include something into this column. Not a minimum Criticker score, not avoiding extreme guilty pleasures or genres that generally suffers in quality. These classics are all in my mind well worth your time, but not all of them will be a new "The Wire", "The West Wing", M, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the likes, but some might rather be just another trip down to "Dawson's Creek".
Monday, October 3, 2011
I didn't come here to impress none of you motherfuckers
I'm brilliant, lazy and arrogant, but not necessarily in that order, and have come to realize that's just the way it is. At least i don't need anyone making a point of this for me to realize the truth. Anyhow. I don't give a damn if you think I'm wrong. This is my sandbox, I'm the one building this castle and you don't impress me much by building a better one elsewhere or by handing me a recipe to make mine a better one here.
I've got stories to tell, but I'm not sure I've got the voice to ever get them told. Hopefully I do, but there are no guarantees shining an optimistic light towards such a future. Don't be surprised if this is as humble as I'll ever appear here, but then again don't be surprised if you one day read one of my stories or watch a movie or TV-show based on a screenplay written by me. I need structure and time, and both are rare commodities. Time especially so. If I ever won the lottery I wouldn't enjoy the freedom to buy luxury items half as much as I'd enjoy the time I could waste at my own rate without worries.
To be honest I'm quite uninspired these days. I watch the new TV-episodes without much anticipation, I haven't been taking pictures in weeks and I can't get myself to watch any of the new movies I've got laying around. It might very well be the autumn, but it's not like I get depressed by the shorter days and the cold and dark winter coming my way. I do believe it's more about the work moving very slowly, much slower progress than anticipated, and as a result the hard work put into it doesn't feel as rewarded. It might also be a certain new acquaintance reminding me once again what I do lack in life. The big bed feels colder and bigger than ever.
And I'm not young anymore, and I haven't got that boyish charming look reflecting my inner child (or at least I don't think so). If I keep up this train of thoughts I'm just gonna get more uninspired.
I do love my T-shirts, and that's where I got my title. I highly recommend T-shirt Hell, and I keep wasting my hard earned money on more laughable classy shirts. I have no fashion sense whatever, and might as well rather enjoy my childish ways. You might even smile as you stumble upon me and read one of them.
Speaking of reading, I'm still on The Chronicles of Narnia. Still got very little time and inspiration to read much, so there's quite a few books left to get around to. I tend to read more as the days get shorter, and have enough unread material in my library to get me through the winter. Hopefully I'll get a few great experiences along the way.
I do have a promising future as a cyber-stalker, but that's for another time and place...
I've got stories to tell, but I'm not sure I've got the voice to ever get them told. Hopefully I do, but there are no guarantees shining an optimistic light towards such a future. Don't be surprised if this is as humble as I'll ever appear here, but then again don't be surprised if you one day read one of my stories or watch a movie or TV-show based on a screenplay written by me. I need structure and time, and both are rare commodities. Time especially so. If I ever won the lottery I wouldn't enjoy the freedom to buy luxury items half as much as I'd enjoy the time I could waste at my own rate without worries.
To be honest I'm quite uninspired these days. I watch the new TV-episodes without much anticipation, I haven't been taking pictures in weeks and I can't get myself to watch any of the new movies I've got laying around. It might very well be the autumn, but it's not like I get depressed by the shorter days and the cold and dark winter coming my way. I do believe it's more about the work moving very slowly, much slower progress than anticipated, and as a result the hard work put into it doesn't feel as rewarded. It might also be a certain new acquaintance reminding me once again what I do lack in life. The big bed feels colder and bigger than ever.
And I'm not young anymore, and I haven't got that boyish charming look reflecting my inner child (or at least I don't think so). If I keep up this train of thoughts I'm just gonna get more uninspired.
I do love my T-shirts, and that's where I got my title. I highly recommend T-shirt Hell, and I keep wasting my hard earned money on more laughable classy shirts. I have no fashion sense whatever, and might as well rather enjoy my childish ways. You might even smile as you stumble upon me and read one of them.
Speaking of reading, I'm still on The Chronicles of Narnia. Still got very little time and inspiration to read much, so there's quite a few books left to get around to. I tend to read more as the days get shorter, and have enough unread material in my library to get me through the winter. Hopefully I'll get a few great experiences along the way.
I do have a promising future as a cyber-stalker, but that's for another time and place...
Friday, September 9, 2011
A Merged ZapperLife
I've come to realize it takes up way too much of my precious time to keep up blogs on all TV-shows or all movies I watch, rate them, recommend them and so on and so forth. Time I could've used watching more, writing or doing something else entirely. As a result Lost in Transcript will become my new sandbox; a place to collect all my interests, thoughts and my reactions towards whatever I've read, watched or listened to lately. At least what's worth a reaction, input, review or recommendation, but I'll never go back trying to give reactions to everything. My Criticker-ratings will speak loudly enough for those of you who take the time to check them out. When I get around to it I'll post links to my older blogs concerning Movies and TV-shows, as all my thoughts are worth preserving in their initial form. I'll probably just never post anything new there anymore. Your loss.
As I'm rather busy these days, the starting transcripts will probably be few and far apart. As my days again become normal, I'll probably lift-off once again into time consuming writing.
I'll try to make up some usable tags to keep track of what each post is about, but don't expect it to happen until there's posts enough to find out how I should divide them.
As I'm rather busy these days, the starting transcripts will probably be few and far apart. As my days again become normal, I'll probably lift-off once again into time consuming writing.
I'll try to make up some usable tags to keep track of what each post is about, but don't expect it to happen until there's posts enough to find out how I should divide them.
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