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
Friday, October 14, 2011
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...
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