On to the important stuff - TV!
Perhaps it wasn't noticeable - or perhaps it was to your relief! - but I've been away from internet access for most of the past 10 days, after a couple of weeks of slammed deadlines. It was...interesting. It wasn't so much that I missed it when I was gone as that there was this intense "catching up" period yesterday when I surpassed the system's "?skip=1000" capability! But it was nice, in a way, to have a break, and I enjoyed driving 2500 miles with my radio blasting everything from Ligeti to The Darkness. I listened to Wicked three times straight through on the way back on Wednesday, amused by the concept of the musical as fanfic - let's face it, it is. Was also fascinated to listen closely to the musical details for the first time and realize that Schwartz has had such a consistent style for over 40 years - more impressed that it emerged practically full-blown in Godspell, and that the only significant change seems to be a better sense of structure, which probably rubbed off from Leonard Bernstein. In a couple of moments, I can hear Mass so clearly in Wicked - no bad thing. I wish we had a recording of Mass with singers like this - both the original recording and the more recent Nagano version fail to realize that they need flexible Broadway-style voices. Jerry Hadley, ironically, does the best job of capturing the tone, although I still would like to hear Mandy Patinkin as the Celebrant.
Which takes me (finally) to the season finale of
There is a real art to doing something completely predictable and still making it dramatically satisfying and emotionally resonant. The Doctor Who episode "Father's Day" is perhaps the best example of this, but this is is both a smaller and a bigger task. It's smaller because the stakes are not the end of the world, nor are the emotions as finely-balanced. But it's bigger because of the various character threads and the use of West Side Story, which could easily have been heavy-handed. The writing and direction kept that nicely ticking along in the background by concentrating on Justin's All About Eveing - it was a daring choice to make our boy a manipulative, scheming bitch, but it was lightly and adorably executed. I could have done without the Amanda revelation because its not necessary, but then "not necessary" is a staple of the telenovela, isn't it? As the last act started to build, all I could think was...Santos never watched West Wing, did he? I also think it's the fragility of the orchestration at the climax of West Side Story that makes it so breathtaking. Bernstein was at his most Mahlerian there - huge orchestra generating remarkable power in the voice-leading, and yet so delicate that breathing might break the spell. I once saw WSS at the art theatre in Ann Arbor, and not only was there raucous applause at the end of "America", it's one of only two movies (the other was Jude), where almost the entire audience sat still for the entire end credits. In both cases, I think the music was a big part of what held people in their seats. You'd think that movies like Sophie's Choice or Schindler's List would have a similar impact, but the orchestral scores seem to cushion the impact, whereas both Bernstein and Adrian Johnston leave you feeling like an exposed nerve at the end of an emotional pummeling.
The last few episodes have been extremely good, particularly in the writing and directing (and, um, are Doctor-lite). There has also been some exceptional acting. The "Family of Blood", particularly Harry Lloyd, and Jessica Stevenson-Hynes were extraoardinary, Martha showed some spine (and bones of the hand), and Carey Mulligan was f'ing brilliant in "Blink", one of the best episodes to date, despite not being, IMO, particularly scary. Steven Moffat is batting .800 - out of four episodes, "The Girl in the Fireplace" is definitely the weakest, with a Swiss cheese plot, although it gets a few points for some interesting ideas - and it's not his fault that Sophia Myles is the worst actress I've ever seen get paid for her work. Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, may be the new Cate Blanchett; she's got that luminously-beautiful-but-not-particularly-pretty look, and a remarkably expressive face. She and Michael Obiora as young Billy had fantastic chemistry, the best I've seen since Piper and Eccleston (not quite in that league, but then they only had one scene), and Martha was better in her 10 seconds onscreen in the Easter Egg than she's been all year. Alas, the weakest part of the episode was the Doctor. David Tennant is not as boring as David Boreanaz, for instance, nor is he entirely incompetent - his performance as John Smith was the best (and smallest) thing I've seen him do, though his performance as the Doctor continues to be the worst. I find him technically deficient, lazy, and dead-eyed. He communicates nothing except an unpleasant self-centeredness, and all those mannerisms that others apparently find squeefully adorable just rub me entirely the wrong way. I get so angry when he talks through his clenched teeth that I want to break his smug jaw. In several places, preferably. At this point, I'm just resigned to waiting for the Eleventh Doctor to reconnect to the character. The show is well-made enough to keep me interested, but the Tenth Doctor can't regenerate fast enough for me.
Utopia was a mixed bag - I'm not nearly as thrilled by it as everyone else seems to be, in part because of Tennant, although he gets some competition in the scenery-chewing stakes by the Future Kind. Oh, dear. They were clichéd by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and that was twenty years ago! That said, the androgynous infiltrator (Abigail Canton?) into the silo was a gorgeous physical performance - just lovely body-awareness that you really don't see in many actors. I wonder if she is one of the people who does rubber suit work for them. Chipo Chang was wonderful as Chantho, although I did find the part had some disturbing undercurrents of racism; still, the performance was exquisitely realized. Derek Jacobi was excellent as the vaguely absent-minded Professor, though I never buy him entirely as scheming, powerful, and intelligent, so I found the Master a bit less engaging (I found him a weak Claudius in Hamlet - although obviously, a stunning Claudius in I, Clavdivs). From the minute S3 casting was announced, I'd figured that Derek Jacobi would regenerate into a John Simm!Master. Honestly, how are people surprised by this? The watch was a nice touch, though, and when Simm does his imitation of Ten, he feels more like a real character than Tennant does. He can go over the top because he's grounded. His hyperactivity goes all the way through, rather than dispersing on the surface.
The return of Jack was, so far, slightly anticlimactic. Although they talked and I can see the discomfort to some extent, I still see the Doctor's abandonment of Jack as dickish - which is in character for Ten, but not so much Nine, although he may have been suffering from the regeneration at that point. It makes more sense that in seeing all the timelines, the Doctor realized he needed to leave Jack behind to save him. I know some are arguing that it's part of Ten's "alienness", but it strikes me as entirely human and petty. On the plus side, Barrowman surprisingly seems to calm Tennant down a little (maybe they're so similar, they cancel each other out a little), and although they have an easy rapport, it does seem to lack the spark that Barrowman had with Eccleston - as with Billie PIper, just because you like someone better, doesn't mean you necessarily have better chemistry. Barrowman has been shooting his mouth off about how "sad" Eccleston was and how he "couldn't handle" Barrowman who "doesn't change for anybody", which apparently includes flashing anyone and everyone during shooting. I'm all for a little tension breaker, but frankly, I'm of the camp who finds these comments a little disappointing not because they're potentially derogatory about CE but because they reveal an immaturity and lack of professionalism on Barrowman's part. I'd rather not know he's 40 going on 12, thanks very much! I noticed that there was a bit of a flare-up on TWoP about this, where most of the posters on the "he's entitled to his own opinion" side tended to miss the argument from the "it's about JB being adolescent" side. Ironically, this reflected a parallel discussion about how extroverts tend to misunderstand introverts. Well, quite. No matter how many times the "it's not about hurting CE's feelings, it's about being disappointed in JB" argument was put forward (by several different posters), the response was "CE's a big boy and can take a little criticism." People, people, you aren't getting it!
Which neatly brings me back to Wicked, which is really about that kind of not getting it, as encapsulated by these lyrics from "Popular":
Whenever I see someone
Less fortunate than I
(And let's face it - who isn't
Less fortunate than I?)
My tender heart
Tends to start to bleed
And when someone needs a makeover
I simply have to take over
I know I know exactly what they need
Kristin Chenoweth does a brilliant job of betraying the benevolent viciousness of this kind of controlling behaviour with her little growl on "take over". Idina Menzel has a voice I like more, and she does a brilliant job (and obviously, I identify far more with Elphaba than Galinda), but Chenoweth is, like Victor Garber, such a great actor within her singing. If you've never heard Garber sing "The Ballad of John Wilkes Booth", you are missing a transcendant musical-theatrical experience.
Having come full circle, I guess I'll stop! I have a couple of things I'll be posting in the next few days, including part one of the Jabe/Nine fic. I know. I'm just as surprised. Believe it or not, it's all planned out, and one part is even written, with my lovely beta at the moment.
Which takes me (finally) to the season finale of
There is a real art to doing something completely predictable and still making it dramatically satisfying and emotionally resonant. The Doctor Who episode "Father's Day" is perhaps the best example of this, but this is is both a smaller and a bigger task. It's smaller because the stakes are not the end of the world, nor are the emotions as finely-balanced. But it's bigger because of the various character threads and the use of West Side Story, which could easily have been heavy-handed. The writing and direction kept that nicely ticking along in the background by concentrating on Justin's All About Eveing - it was a daring choice to make our boy a manipulative, scheming bitch, but it was lightly and adorably executed. I could have done without the Amanda revelation because its not necessary, but then "not necessary" is a staple of the telenovela, isn't it? As the last act started to build, all I could think was...Santos never watched West Wing, did he? I also think it's the fragility of the orchestration at the climax of West Side Story that makes it so breathtaking. Bernstein was at his most Mahlerian there - huge orchestra generating remarkable power in the voice-leading, and yet so delicate that breathing might break the spell. I once saw WSS at the art theatre in Ann Arbor, and not only was there raucous applause at the end of "America", it's one of only two movies (the other was Jude), where almost the entire audience sat still for the entire end credits. In both cases, I think the music was a big part of what held people in their seats. You'd think that movies like Sophie's Choice or Schindler's List would have a similar impact, but the orchestral scores seem to cushion the impact, whereas both Bernstein and Adrian Johnston leave you feeling like an exposed nerve at the end of an emotional pummeling.
The last few episodes have been extremely good, particularly in the writing and directing (and, um, are Doctor-lite). There has also been some exceptional acting. The "Family of Blood", particularly Harry Lloyd, and Jessica Stevenson-Hynes were extraoardinary, Martha showed some spine (and bones of the hand), and Carey Mulligan was f'ing brilliant in "Blink", one of the best episodes to date, despite not being, IMO, particularly scary. Steven Moffat is batting .800 - out of four episodes, "The Girl in the Fireplace" is definitely the weakest, with a Swiss cheese plot, although it gets a few points for some interesting ideas - and it's not his fault that Sophia Myles is the worst actress I've ever seen get paid for her work. Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, may be the new Cate Blanchett; she's got that luminously-beautiful-but-not-particularly-pretty look, and a remarkably expressive face. She and Michael Obiora as young Billy had fantastic chemistry, the best I've seen since Piper and Eccleston (not quite in that league, but then they only had one scene), and Martha was better in her 10 seconds onscreen in the Easter Egg than she's been all year. Alas, the weakest part of the episode was the Doctor. David Tennant is not as boring as David Boreanaz, for instance, nor is he entirely incompetent - his performance as John Smith was the best (and smallest) thing I've seen him do, though his performance as the Doctor continues to be the worst. I find him technically deficient, lazy, and dead-eyed. He communicates nothing except an unpleasant self-centeredness, and all those mannerisms that others apparently find squeefully adorable just rub me entirely the wrong way. I get so angry when he talks through his clenched teeth that I want to break his smug jaw. In several places, preferably. At this point, I'm just resigned to waiting for the Eleventh Doctor to reconnect to the character. The show is well-made enough to keep me interested, but the Tenth Doctor can't regenerate fast enough for me.
Utopia was a mixed bag - I'm not nearly as thrilled by it as everyone else seems to be, in part because of Tennant, although he gets some competition in the scenery-chewing stakes by the Future Kind. Oh, dear. They were clichéd by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and that was twenty years ago! That said, the androgynous infiltrator (Abigail Canton?) into the silo was a gorgeous physical performance - just lovely body-awareness that you really don't see in many actors. I wonder if she is one of the people who does rubber suit work for them. Chipo Chang was wonderful as Chantho, although I did find the part had some disturbing undercurrents of racism; still, the performance was exquisitely realized. Derek Jacobi was excellent as the vaguely absent-minded Professor, though I never buy him entirely as scheming, powerful, and intelligent, so I found the Master a bit less engaging (I found him a weak Claudius in Hamlet - although obviously, a stunning Claudius in I, Clavdivs). From the minute S3 casting was announced, I'd figured that Derek Jacobi would regenerate into a John Simm!Master. Honestly, how are people surprised by this? The watch was a nice touch, though, and when Simm does his imitation of Ten, he feels more like a real character than Tennant does. He can go over the top because he's grounded. His hyperactivity goes all the way through, rather than dispersing on the surface.
The return of Jack was, so far, slightly anticlimactic. Although they talked and I can see the discomfort to some extent, I still see the Doctor's abandonment of Jack as dickish - which is in character for Ten, but not so much Nine, although he may have been suffering from the regeneration at that point. It makes more sense that in seeing all the timelines, the Doctor realized he needed to leave Jack behind to save him. I know some are arguing that it's part of Ten's "alienness", but it strikes me as entirely human and petty. On the plus side, Barrowman surprisingly seems to calm Tennant down a little (maybe they're so similar, they cancel each other out a little), and although they have an easy rapport, it does seem to lack the spark that Barrowman had with Eccleston - as with Billie PIper, just because you like someone better, doesn't mean you necessarily have better chemistry. Barrowman has been shooting his mouth off about how "sad" Eccleston was and how he "couldn't handle" Barrowman who "doesn't change for anybody", which apparently includes flashing anyone and everyone during shooting. I'm all for a little tension breaker, but frankly, I'm of the camp who finds these comments a little disappointing not because they're potentially derogatory about CE but because they reveal an immaturity and lack of professionalism on Barrowman's part. I'd rather not know he's 40 going on 12, thanks very much! I noticed that there was a bit of a flare-up on TWoP about this, where most of the posters on the "he's entitled to his own opinion" side tended to miss the argument from the "it's about JB being adolescent" side. Ironically, this reflected a parallel discussion about how extroverts tend to misunderstand introverts. Well, quite. No matter how many times the "it's not about hurting CE's feelings, it's about being disappointed in JB" argument was put forward (by several different posters), the response was "CE's a big boy and can take a little criticism." People, people, you aren't getting it!
Which neatly brings me back to Wicked, which is really about that kind of not getting it, as encapsulated by these lyrics from "Popular":
Whenever I see someone
Less fortunate than I
(And let's face it - who isn't
Less fortunate than I?)
My tender heart
Tends to start to bleed
And when someone needs a makeover
I simply have to take over
I know I know exactly what they need
Kristin Chenoweth does a brilliant job of betraying the benevolent viciousness of this kind of controlling behaviour with her little growl on "take over". Idina Menzel has a voice I like more, and she does a brilliant job (and obviously, I identify far more with Elphaba than Galinda), but Chenoweth is, like Victor Garber, such a great actor within her singing. If you've never heard Garber sing "The Ballad of John Wilkes Booth", you are missing a transcendant musical-theatrical experience.
Having come full circle, I guess I'll stop! I have a couple of things I'll be posting in the next few days, including part one of the Jabe/Nine fic. I know. I'm just as surprised. Believe it or not, it's all planned out, and one part is even written, with my lovely beta at the moment.