Could Have Seen It Coming
1) A fish proves that the "Wheee!" factor is shared by all animals, and cats recognize themselves and their humans on screens…which leads to pranking.
2) I saw the first episode of The Nevers on HBO Max, and there are things I've missed about Joss Whedon's writing and things I definitely haven't.
First the good. In the first 10 minutes I was reminded of how Mike and I could recognize a Whedon written episode in Buffy S7 because the feel of it was different. Part of it is definitely an excellent understanding of pacing, and an ability to write a lightness into scenes, regardless of their content. Things move in his stories, and the hour passed quickly. The humor also often lands. Given he also directed it I'm fairly sure that some bits, particularly in the scene with Hugo and Augustus, were scripted. Obviously the murder of crows bit was, but I was thinking of Augustus' reaction to the wine.
That said, the catalogue of previously used tropes and characters is on full display. It seems regardless of what show he is creating there are characters who are copies of or who can be mapped onto other characters. We start out with Willow and Buffy, we add giant Dawn and Dru as the villain, we have a Simon and a Giles and the Watchers' Council. The character most difficult to place is Hugo, but probably because he is a character who would have posed the most problems at standards and practices on broadcast TV and thus was toned down. He certainly has aspects of Spike, of Wash, of Mal. Perhaps if he turns more murderous it will be Angelus. But in any case, despite the steampunk setting, there's certainly a lot of familiarity in the setup.
I am definitely interested in seeing more, although I expect having only 6 episodes is going to be frustrating. Even Firefly gave us 13. Until there's more it's hard to say how worthwhile the series is.
Also saw Kong vs Godzilla and that was a snooze fest. The writing was about the level of a college creative writing class. Not that I was expecting much or would have gone to see it in the theater anyway. And all I could think of re: the Hong King fight was how horrifying that was to contemplate given it's one of the most densely populated areas one could choose, so watching giant creatures smashing things left and right was not fun in the least.
3) I was amused by this post characterizing fanfic writers. I have definitely seen these examples scattered across fandoms. This seems to be particularly true when one reads in smaller pairings or for a long running now-closed canon. I was looking at a long set of recs this past weekend and noticed how many of the names were repeats and were people I had seen around, and that I could fit a few into these categories.
thenewbuzzwuzz had a sort of corollary question asking about whether your fandom accounts could be considered a brand or whether you tend to have one in fanworks you create.
4) Read my first Inspector Lynley book which is smack in the middle of the series, apparently. I was struck by how skimpy the Wikipedia page is for Elizabeth George given that these are fairly successful books and the reviews of In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner were rapturous, yet it doesn't even have a page there.
It was a hefty novel for a murder mystery, and had a number of storylines going at once, as well as a continuation from earlier books. It had a better resolution than many, perhaps owing to the fact that the central storyline in the book was not the mystery at all. But at least given that there was development of a number of characters in the story, I thought that at least one group of people's outcome was left hanging.
Nevertheless it kept me awake late reading it and I thought it was well plotted. I plan to check out others and read them in order. In fact one thing I find curious is wondering how this book ended up at home at all, as I don't recall where it came from. I thought maybe I'd gotten it used through Amazon to get an order to the free shipping minimum. But apparently not. I have bought nothing from any used bookstores in town and no one gave it to me. A mystery with its own mystery.
5) I was interested in this report on police mortality for 2020. For one thing it's striking that just a few months after the fact we have a national report on this whereas one on people killed by police is not similarly available. Deaths where police themselves have been shot was only 48, though two more died through violence. However the annual number went up noticeably and the report states that numbers may have to be revised. The reason? Covid. Which made me think of all those maskless officers seen in a number of videos. Funny how they're so in fear for their lives from unarmed motorists that they are continually shooting them, yet they don't take basic precautions for a more certain risk.
View poll: Kudos Footer-277
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) I saw the first episode of The Nevers on HBO Max, and there are things I've missed about Joss Whedon's writing and things I definitely haven't.
First the good. In the first 10 minutes I was reminded of how Mike and I could recognize a Whedon written episode in Buffy S7 because the feel of it was different. Part of it is definitely an excellent understanding of pacing, and an ability to write a lightness into scenes, regardless of their content. Things move in his stories, and the hour passed quickly. The humor also often lands. Given he also directed it I'm fairly sure that some bits, particularly in the scene with Hugo and Augustus, were scripted. Obviously the murder of crows bit was, but I was thinking of Augustus' reaction to the wine.
That said, the catalogue of previously used tropes and characters is on full display. It seems regardless of what show he is creating there are characters who are copies of or who can be mapped onto other characters. We start out with Willow and Buffy, we add giant Dawn and Dru as the villain, we have a Simon and a Giles and the Watchers' Council. The character most difficult to place is Hugo, but probably because he is a character who would have posed the most problems at standards and practices on broadcast TV and thus was toned down. He certainly has aspects of Spike, of Wash, of Mal. Perhaps if he turns more murderous it will be Angelus. But in any case, despite the steampunk setting, there's certainly a lot of familiarity in the setup.
I am definitely interested in seeing more, although I expect having only 6 episodes is going to be frustrating. Even Firefly gave us 13. Until there's more it's hard to say how worthwhile the series is.
Also saw Kong vs Godzilla and that was a snooze fest. The writing was about the level of a college creative writing class. Not that I was expecting much or would have gone to see it in the theater anyway. And all I could think of re: the Hong King fight was how horrifying that was to contemplate given it's one of the most densely populated areas one could choose, so watching giant creatures smashing things left and right was not fun in the least.
3) I was amused by this post characterizing fanfic writers. I have definitely seen these examples scattered across fandoms. This seems to be particularly true when one reads in smaller pairings or for a long running now-closed canon. I was looking at a long set of recs this past weekend and noticed how many of the names were repeats and were people I had seen around, and that I could fit a few into these categories.
thenewbuzzwuzz had a sort of corollary question asking about whether your fandom accounts could be considered a brand or whether you tend to have one in fanworks you create.
4) Read my first Inspector Lynley book which is smack in the middle of the series, apparently. I was struck by how skimpy the Wikipedia page is for Elizabeth George given that these are fairly successful books and the reviews of In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner were rapturous, yet it doesn't even have a page there.
It was a hefty novel for a murder mystery, and had a number of storylines going at once, as well as a continuation from earlier books. It had a better resolution than many, perhaps owing to the fact that the central storyline in the book was not the mystery at all. But at least given that there was development of a number of characters in the story, I thought that at least one group of people's outcome was left hanging.
Nevertheless it kept me awake late reading it and I thought it was well plotted. I plan to check out others and read them in order. In fact one thing I find curious is wondering how this book ended up at home at all, as I don't recall where it came from. I thought maybe I'd gotten it used through Amazon to get an order to the free shipping minimum. But apparently not. I have bought nothing from any used bookstores in town and no one gave it to me. A mystery with its own mystery.
5) I was interested in this report on police mortality for 2020. For one thing it's striking that just a few months after the fact we have a national report on this whereas one on people killed by police is not similarly available. Deaths where police themselves have been shot was only 48, though two more died through violence. However the annual number went up noticeably and the report states that numbers may have to be revised. The reason? Covid. Which made me think of all those maskless officers seen in a number of videos. Funny how they're so in fear for their lives from unarmed motorists that they are continually shooting them, yet they don't take basic precautions for a more certain risk.
View poll: Kudos Footer-277
Comments at Dreamwidth
.