DVD/Comic Recs, as of 2/20/11
On DVD:
The Middleman: Oh, there are so many reasons to love this show, which was over too soon for its own good!
1) Banter, banter, banter: I love characters who can verbally spar with one another, and when it's almost all of the characters, then I'm in banter heaven. But it's never overdone or forced, and for the most part, feels like a normal part of communication between everyone involved.
2) Ably passes the Bechdel test: Not only do we have a strong female lead character (Wendy Watson), we have two strong second tier female characters (Wendy's roommate, Lacey, and the female robot who runs the show at the Middleman HQ, Ida) and all the female characters talk with each other, and it's about something other than the man. There's a strong, positive friendship between Wendy and Lacey; the two of them genuinely support each other in all things, and the character development as the series progresses is actually quite touching (so much so that when we get to the AU, final episode, it's almost unthinkable that... oh, just see #5, below.)
3) Seriously? Only just a little bit: Even though the stakes are high, this show isn't overly dark, and really doesn't take itself too seriously. And in the cases where things do become very serious, it's handled deftly by the writers and actors, who never overdo the emotions involved. For a show about spies, Mexican wrestlers, aliens, monsters, soul-stealing superscience machines, secret organizations, romance, zombie fish*, art, temp agencies, and Western movies, there's not a lot of time for too much serious stuff, anyway.
4) Kevin Sorbo!: As a dashing rival to our stalwart hero! Who plays some incomprehensible card game with a group of villains in order to... well, it's complicated. Silly and complicated!
5) The final episode turns out to be surprisingly awesome: First of all, the Alternate Universe, considering the show's budget, was surprisingly creepy-looking. Add to this the fact that all of the characters in the AU were wonderfully, gleefully different from their original universe counterparts, yet similar in all the ways that mattered. (I love that OU!Wendy and AU!Lacey ending up being friends after the initial confusion--their friendship stays consistent, no matter what the universe. As I said above, it was almost inconceivable that they wouldn't be friends.) Then mix in all the parodies (no one, apparently, is immune: Apple Computers, Soylent Green, Escape from L.A., etc.) and jokes (I loved that the apparent villain wasn't OCD, he just really wished he'd been an artist, and that was why he left drawings at the scene of each crime.) It was a great coda to the series, and without a dubious cliffhanger that would never be resolved. (Which is something, after viewing The 4400 and Carnivale, that I really, really appreciate.)
* This show has the dubious distinction of being the only zombie-related material I've been able to stomach in the past few years, and honestly, it was still dicey. I'm working on the phobia, dammit.
In Comics:
It occurs to me that I've not recently written about the webcomics I'm following, which is mostly a failing of my tidy little routines in reading them. (M/W/F mornings, followed by the newspaper websites and work email.) Webcomics are often a hit-and-miss proposition; since there isn't a unified industry promoting and publishing them, the artists and writers can easily fall victim to real life problems/time sinks and stories that I was faithfully following abruptly stop and never go forward again. But when there's a focused effort on the part of the artist/writer, webcomics are a wonderful medium that reminds me why I love the internet so much. In any case, updating on a regular basis, I read XKCD, which is wonderfully funny math-, science-, and sci-fi-related humor told in deceptively simple pictures. I also cannot recommend Gunnerkrigg Court highly enough; it's like Lost went on a date with The Dresden Files, with a twist of British Boarding School adventure story. (If you're wanting to jump in, now's a good time, as a new chapter's just starting!)
In the not-updating-so-regularly-but-still-made-of-awesome-my-this-is-a-lot-of-hyphens category, I always look forward to updates from Lackadaisy. Tracy Butler's wonderful artwork (I mean, check out this and this, each equally awesome!) is always worth a look, even if the pages are held up a little bit. Paging through the archive is worth the time, and buying the beautifully published book is well worth the money, too.
The Middleman: Oh, there are so many reasons to love this show, which was over too soon for its own good!
1) Banter, banter, banter: I love characters who can verbally spar with one another, and when it's almost all of the characters, then I'm in banter heaven. But it's never overdone or forced, and for the most part, feels like a normal part of communication between everyone involved.
2) Ably passes the Bechdel test: Not only do we have a strong female lead character (Wendy Watson), we have two strong second tier female characters (Wendy's roommate, Lacey, and the female robot who runs the show at the Middleman HQ, Ida) and all the female characters talk with each other, and it's about something other than the man. There's a strong, positive friendship between Wendy and Lacey; the two of them genuinely support each other in all things, and the character development as the series progresses is actually quite touching (so much so that when we get to the AU, final episode, it's almost unthinkable that... oh, just see #5, below.)
3) Seriously? Only just a little bit: Even though the stakes are high, this show isn't overly dark, and really doesn't take itself too seriously. And in the cases where things do become very serious, it's handled deftly by the writers and actors, who never overdo the emotions involved. For a show about spies, Mexican wrestlers, aliens, monsters, soul-stealing superscience machines, secret organizations, romance, zombie fish*, art, temp agencies, and Western movies, there's not a lot of time for too much serious stuff, anyway.
4) Kevin Sorbo!: As a dashing rival to our stalwart hero! Who plays some incomprehensible card game with a group of villains in order to... well, it's complicated. Silly and complicated!
5) The final episode turns out to be surprisingly awesome: First of all, the Alternate Universe, considering the show's budget, was surprisingly creepy-looking. Add to this the fact that all of the characters in the AU were wonderfully, gleefully different from their original universe counterparts, yet similar in all the ways that mattered. (I love that OU!Wendy and AU!Lacey ending up being friends after the initial confusion--their friendship stays consistent, no matter what the universe. As I said above, it was almost inconceivable that they wouldn't be friends.) Then mix in all the parodies (no one, apparently, is immune: Apple Computers, Soylent Green, Escape from L.A., etc.) and jokes (I loved that the apparent villain wasn't OCD, he just really wished he'd been an artist, and that was why he left drawings at the scene of each crime.) It was a great coda to the series, and without a dubious cliffhanger that would never be resolved. (Which is something, after viewing The 4400 and Carnivale, that I really, really appreciate.)
* This show has the dubious distinction of being the only zombie-related material I've been able to stomach in the past few years, and honestly, it was still dicey. I'm working on the phobia, dammit.
In Comics:
It occurs to me that I've not recently written about the webcomics I'm following, which is mostly a failing of my tidy little routines in reading them. (M/W/F mornings, followed by the newspaper websites and work email.) Webcomics are often a hit-and-miss proposition; since there isn't a unified industry promoting and publishing them, the artists and writers can easily fall victim to real life problems/time sinks and stories that I was faithfully following abruptly stop and never go forward again. But when there's a focused effort on the part of the artist/writer, webcomics are a wonderful medium that reminds me why I love the internet so much. In any case, updating on a regular basis, I read XKCD, which is wonderfully funny math-, science-, and sci-fi-related humor told in deceptively simple pictures. I also cannot recommend Gunnerkrigg Court highly enough; it's like Lost went on a date with The Dresden Files, with a twist of British Boarding School adventure story. (If you're wanting to jump in, now's a good time, as a new chapter's just starting!)
In the not-updating-so-regularly-but-still-made-of-awesome-my-this-is-a-lot-of-hyphens category, I always look forward to updates from Lackadaisy. Tracy Butler's wonderful artwork (I mean, check out this and this, each equally awesome!) is always worth a look, even if the pages are held up a little bit. Paging through the archive is worth the time, and buying the beautifully published book is well worth the money, too.