Reviews: Doctor Who S2/S3, Sacred Sounds, & Jekyll
Yes, I know. Breaking my standards of two, one TV show one book, but so goes life.
Name of Canon: Doctor Who
Length of Time To Complete: A week.
How Did You Watch It?: Downloaded like a mad downloading thing.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh goodness, he's adorably goofy.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh goodness, he's adorably goofy and BADASS; how did you know my favorite character combination, you crazy people?
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): The Doctor
Favorite Characters (By The End): The Doctor, Jack, Martha, Harold Saxon, Shakespeare
Least Favorite Character: Martha's mother
Overview: I've got this thing, you see, where one of my favorite character types is the one where they're sweet and a little goofy and adorable... until you piss them off, at which point they prove themselves capable and also, more than willing to kick your ass. I think it has something to do with watching Bill Bixby on Sci-Fi channel growing up. *points at Ten* Yeaaaaaah. On the flip side, the seasons I'm reviewing have Rose and Martha both an while I really like both of them, Martha really stuck on me. I really liked her, from being a medical student (smart and competent) to all the stuff required of her in the season (he really asked a lot of Miss Jones). Jack's reappearance made me giggle for a straight five minute jag and he brought a grin to my face almost his entire time on screen (uh, 3X13 not so much for good reason). The writing these seasons was, I thought, a little more comfortable in the space than the previous one, like they'd gotten into the groove a little further. And did I mention Ten rocks my socks? All in all, pretty damn awesome.
Continue to Watch?: Yes. Yes, so very much yes.
Name of Canon: Sacred Sounds by Ted Andrews
Length of Time To Complete: A week.
How Did You See It?: Bought for me as a gift.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): Interesting... an I've always wanted to learn more about the use of drums in holistic healing.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): Wow and lots of wow because everything in here is spot on about tone and pitch and wow this is NEAT.
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): no characters
Favorite Characters (By The End): no characters
Least Favorite Character: no characters
Overview: The book is hard to describe. It's not actually fiction, but I felt strongly enough about it to review it here. It's a book on the power of sound and word on the energy systems of the body. If you're not any kind of thaumaturgist or natural/holistic healer or even just a writer type, you might want to skip down to Jekyll. That said, the sections on tone and pitch and timbre an such as they affect the mind and body is just amazing (and if you even think about it, you'll realize that it's so spot on). Then the sections that dealt with bardic tradition just really smacked me in the face as a very sort of "open source" way to think about writing in general. Storytelling, using the oldest techniques. It was really eye-opening to read as I'm writing both an original novel-length work and a giant fanfic-o-doom.
Continue to Watch?: Uh, I'm looking for more from this man. So good.
Name of Canon: Jekyll
Length of Time To Complete: 2 days.
How Did You Watch It?: Downloaded like a mad downloading thing.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): ...going from incredibly crazyevilcreepy to flamingly gay is surprisingly effective.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh my god, you killed Wedge Antilles! You bas--, okay, no he had it coming.
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): Hyde
Favorite Characters (By The End): Jekyll, Hyde, and Clare
Least Favorite Character: Syme
Overview: I downloaded it on a whim, knowing that I like beserker/two-sided type characters and the original is always gonna be Jekyll and Hyde. A newcomer to James Nesbitt, I think the man's a terrific actor because those two characters are ENTIRELY separate. There are physical markers of course, as there were in the original book, but those take a back seat to the movement and the eyes and the voice and everything else. What was really brilliant, of course was that Clare (Jekyll's wife) managed to be incredibly badass. She was cool and she did things and I love it when female characters that could have just been setpieces end up shining. Jekyll is so human and Hyde is a twisted laugh riot. It's great fun and incredibly creepy at certain points. At other points it hurts to watch because yeah... evocative. I like the update to the old "good" and "evil" issue. All in all, very very cool and very worth watching if you enjoy bouncing psychopaths.
Continue to Watch?: Don't think there is more, but it was good.
Next up? Life on Mars, Empathy, and Swordspoint.
Name of Canon: Doctor Who
Length of Time To Complete: A week.
How Did You Watch It?: Downloaded like a mad downloading thing.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh goodness, he's adorably goofy.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh goodness, he's adorably goofy and BADASS; how did you know my favorite character combination, you crazy people?
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): The Doctor
Favorite Characters (By The End): The Doctor, Jack, Martha, Harold Saxon, Shakespeare
Least Favorite Character: Martha's mother
Overview: I've got this thing, you see, where one of my favorite character types is the one where they're sweet and a little goofy and adorable... until you piss them off, at which point they prove themselves capable and also, more than willing to kick your ass. I think it has something to do with watching Bill Bixby on Sci-Fi channel growing up. *points at Ten* Yeaaaaaah. On the flip side, the seasons I'm reviewing have Rose and Martha both an while I really like both of them, Martha really stuck on me. I really liked her, from being a medical student (smart and competent) to all the stuff required of her in the season (he really asked a lot of Miss Jones). Jack's reappearance made me giggle for a straight five minute jag and he brought a grin to my face almost his entire time on screen (uh, 3X13 not so much for good reason). The writing these seasons was, I thought, a little more comfortable in the space than the previous one, like they'd gotten into the groove a little further. And did I mention Ten rocks my socks? All in all, pretty damn awesome.
Continue to Watch?: Yes. Yes, so very much yes.
Name of Canon: Sacred Sounds by Ted Andrews
Length of Time To Complete: A week.
How Did You See It?: Bought for me as a gift.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): Interesting... an I've always wanted to learn more about the use of drums in holistic healing.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): Wow and lots of wow because everything in here is spot on about tone and pitch and wow this is NEAT.
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): no characters
Favorite Characters (By The End): no characters
Least Favorite Character: no characters
Overview: The book is hard to describe. It's not actually fiction, but I felt strongly enough about it to review it here. It's a book on the power of sound and word on the energy systems of the body. If you're not any kind of thaumaturgist or natural/holistic healer or even just a writer type, you might want to skip down to Jekyll. That said, the sections on tone and pitch and timbre an such as they affect the mind and body is just amazing (and if you even think about it, you'll realize that it's so spot on). Then the sections that dealt with bardic tradition just really smacked me in the face as a very sort of "open source" way to think about writing in general. Storytelling, using the oldest techniques. It was really eye-opening to read as I'm writing both an original novel-length work and a giant fanfic-o-doom.
Continue to Watch?: Uh, I'm looking for more from this man. So good.
Name of Canon: Jekyll
Length of Time To Complete: 2 days.
How Did You Watch It?: Downloaded like a mad downloading thing.
First Impressions (In a Sentence): ...going from incredibly crazyevilcreepy to flamingly gay is surprisingly effective.
Last Impressions (In a Sentence): ...oh my god, you killed Wedge Antilles! You bas--, okay, no he had it coming.
Favorite Characters (In the Beginning): Hyde
Favorite Characters (By The End): Jekyll, Hyde, and Clare
Least Favorite Character: Syme
Overview: I downloaded it on a whim, knowing that I like beserker/two-sided type characters and the original is always gonna be Jekyll and Hyde. A newcomer to James Nesbitt, I think the man's a terrific actor because those two characters are ENTIRELY separate. There are physical markers of course, as there were in the original book, but those take a back seat to the movement and the eyes and the voice and everything else. What was really brilliant, of course was that Clare (Jekyll's wife) managed to be incredibly badass. She was cool and she did things and I love it when female characters that could have just been setpieces end up shining. Jekyll is so human and Hyde is a twisted laugh riot. It's great fun and incredibly creepy at certain points. At other points it hurts to watch because yeah... evocative. I like the update to the old "good" and "evil" issue. All in all, very very cool and very worth watching if you enjoy bouncing psychopaths.
Continue to Watch?: Don't think there is more, but it was good.
Next up? Life on Mars, Empathy, and Swordspoint.