Day one of extended meme-ness
Inspired by the efforts of pintsizeninja, and because I need something to post about on a regular basis, I have decided that I will do both the 30 Day TV Meme and the 30 Day Movie Meme, simultaneously, but probably not at the rate of exactly one post every day cause that's messed up, yo.
[A show that should never have been canceled: Carnivale, HBO, 2003-2005]
As pintsizeninja already mentioned, Firefly would be the obvious choice here, but you know, I'm pretty much okay now with how that wound up in the end. Carnivale, on the other hand, was both abruptly canceled after two of six planned seasons and then apparently consigned to the mists of time, whereas Firefly at least found its audience on DVD. Exhaustively researched, painstakingly crafted, and unabashedly weird, Carnivale was the story of a Depression-era traveling carnival and sideshow that just so happened to be the setting for a brewing final showdown between Good and Evil, as personified by taciturn escaped convict Ben Hawkins and firebrand preacher Brother Justin Crowe. Just who represents what side of this conflict, and the stakes for which they compete, are matters of considerably more subtlety and obfuscation than you might expect from a show that literally begins with a fourth-wall-breaking monologue declaring it to be about light versus darkness.
Over the course of 24 episodes which conclude with probably the most upsettingly unresolved cliffhanger I can ever remember seeing on TV, Ben and Brother Justin both gain supernatural powers as they embrace and/or fight against and/or test the limits of their roles as Creature of Light and Creature of Darkness (and no, I won't tell you who is who). This occurs amidst a large and bizarre ensemble cast that includes a young tarot reader and her comatose and telepathic mother, Brother Justin's alarmingly devoted older sister Iris, a tight-knit family of burlesque dancers and prostitutes whose bonds to each other are tested by tragedy, and the ridiculously awesome dwarf in charge of the entire carnival. It could get unspeakably weird at times (flashbacks! flash forwards! dream sequences! foreshadowing! symbolism! allegory! spooky coincidences! random encounters with people and things that can only be described as, well, random! and I still don't know WTF was up with that bear), but one of the cool things about the show is that very little of the weirdness is there for weirdness' sake - pretty much everything you see on the screen is there for a reason, and references something important within the story and the metaplot. Babylon 5 is the only other show I know that was this carefully planned or tightly plotted, or that rewards repeated viewings this much.
Unfortunately, HBO began to balk at the massive cost of producing an hour-long period drama with supernatural elements and an ensemble cast with more than 20 regulars (and let me tell you, you see every cent that was spent on screen - this show is gorgeous to look at), and the show was canceled without warning 1/3 of the way through. Carnivale fans staged a "save our show" campaign (which creatively involved sending telegrams to HBO's corporate headquarters, in keeping with the show's 1930s-era setting) to no avail. A wrap-up movie was rumored, but five years have passed and it doesn't look likely. Still, if you're prepared for an abrupt ending, I'd recommend this show to anybody with a taste for the creepy, the surreal, and the bizarre.
[The best movie you saw during the last year: District 9, dir. Neill Blomkamp, 2009]
Let me attempt to count the ways in which I love this movie: It's a smart science fiction movie with a social conscience and a brain that also just happens to have some pulse-pounding action sequences and great special effects. It's an allegory for racism and colonialism that, despite some seriously problematic portrayals of Nigerians and a bit of subliminal ick in the Christopher Johnson character, eschews moralizing and pat answers and "can't we all just get along?" and "what these people need is a white guy!" and other unpleasant race tropes to point out how incredibly hard it is to overcome our own ingrained racist thought patterns when all of us are bathing in it all the time. Its lead actor, Sharlto Copley, gives an astonishingly natural and believable performance in what was essentially his first ever film role. There's a major alien character who is a triumph of CGI and who you will desperately want to hug. It's shot partly in documentary style, which I am always a sucker for. It is thought-provoking, exciting, shocking, cathartic, and hilarious, and greatly deserved its Best Picture nomination. Please see it if you haven't already.
So that's day one! Stay tuned for 29 more just like it over the course of the summer. If anybody wants to join me, I would love to read your answers to these prompts. (c:
(Now if I could only be so diligent on my real fandom and music projects...but nah, I'm gonna sit on the couch and watch the Sherlock Holmes movie tonight instead.)
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/556080.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth:
[A show that should never have been canceled: Carnivale, HBO, 2003-2005]
As pintsizeninja already mentioned, Firefly would be the obvious choice here, but you know, I'm pretty much okay now with how that wound up in the end. Carnivale, on the other hand, was both abruptly canceled after two of six planned seasons and then apparently consigned to the mists of time, whereas Firefly at least found its audience on DVD. Exhaustively researched, painstakingly crafted, and unabashedly weird, Carnivale was the story of a Depression-era traveling carnival and sideshow that just so happened to be the setting for a brewing final showdown between Good and Evil, as personified by taciturn escaped convict Ben Hawkins and firebrand preacher Brother Justin Crowe. Just who represents what side of this conflict, and the stakes for which they compete, are matters of considerably more subtlety and obfuscation than you might expect from a show that literally begins with a fourth-wall-breaking monologue declaring it to be about light versus darkness.
Over the course of 24 episodes which conclude with probably the most upsettingly unresolved cliffhanger I can ever remember seeing on TV, Ben and Brother Justin both gain supernatural powers as they embrace and/or fight against and/or test the limits of their roles as Creature of Light and Creature of Darkness (and no, I won't tell you who is who). This occurs amidst a large and bizarre ensemble cast that includes a young tarot reader and her comatose and telepathic mother, Brother Justin's alarmingly devoted older sister Iris, a tight-knit family of burlesque dancers and prostitutes whose bonds to each other are tested by tragedy, and the ridiculously awesome dwarf in charge of the entire carnival. It could get unspeakably weird at times (flashbacks! flash forwards! dream sequences! foreshadowing! symbolism! allegory! spooky coincidences! random encounters with people and things that can only be described as, well, random! and I still don't know WTF was up with that bear), but one of the cool things about the show is that very little of the weirdness is there for weirdness' sake - pretty much everything you see on the screen is there for a reason, and references something important within the story and the metaplot. Babylon 5 is the only other show I know that was this carefully planned or tightly plotted, or that rewards repeated viewings this much.
Unfortunately, HBO began to balk at the massive cost of producing an hour-long period drama with supernatural elements and an ensemble cast with more than 20 regulars (and let me tell you, you see every cent that was spent on screen - this show is gorgeous to look at), and the show was canceled without warning 1/3 of the way through. Carnivale fans staged a "save our show" campaign (which creatively involved sending telegrams to HBO's corporate headquarters, in keeping with the show's 1930s-era setting) to no avail. A wrap-up movie was rumored, but five years have passed and it doesn't look likely. Still, if you're prepared for an abrupt ending, I'd recommend this show to anybody with a taste for the creepy, the surreal, and the bizarre.
[The best movie you saw during the last year: District 9, dir. Neill Blomkamp, 2009]
Let me attempt to count the ways in which I love this movie: It's a smart science fiction movie with a social conscience and a brain that also just happens to have some pulse-pounding action sequences and great special effects. It's an allegory for racism and colonialism that, despite some seriously problematic portrayals of Nigerians and a bit of subliminal ick in the Christopher Johnson character, eschews moralizing and pat answers and "can't we all just get along?" and "what these people need is a white guy!" and other unpleasant race tropes to point out how incredibly hard it is to overcome our own ingrained racist thought patterns when all of us are bathing in it all the time. Its lead actor, Sharlto Copley, gives an astonishingly natural and believable performance in what was essentially his first ever film role. There's a major alien character who is a triumph of CGI and who you will desperately want to hug. It's shot partly in documentary style, which I am always a sucker for. It is thought-provoking, exciting, shocking, cathartic, and hilarious, and greatly deserved its Best Picture nomination. Please see it if you haven't already.
So that's day one! Stay tuned for 29 more just like it over the course of the summer. If anybody wants to join me, I would love to read your answers to these prompts. (c:
(Now if I could only be so diligent on my real fandom and music projects...but nah, I'm gonna sit on the couch and watch the Sherlock Holmes movie tonight instead.)
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/556080.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth: