you might very well think so...

Another great column from Lisa de Moraes skewers Fox' new, much-hyped drama, "Fringe". I'm rather glad I did not see this thing, now that I read her column. She gets right to the carving in her first couple paragraphs:

Fox noted it was the network's most watched drama premiere in two years, if you exclude most of its drama premieres of the past two years. Actually, what Fox said was that "Fringe" was its highest-rated drama series debut in two years "excluding premieres following sports and 'American Idol.' "

Since September 2006, all but three Fox dramas ("K-Ville," "Canterbury's Law" and "Drive") have launched after a sports telecast or "Idol."

Snap.

... and I say, thank goodness. The world has more than enough Babylon 5 material to watch, and re-watch, for better and for worse. It's time to move on and put money into making new things. I feel the same about most genre shows that get glommed onto by fannish devotion: nearly all of them have spent their time under the sun, told their stories, and in many cases long over-stayed their welcome. Some shows get canned before their chance to really solidly settle in (FireFly, for example, and Timothy Hutton's Nero Wolfe series).

But B5 is certainly not one of those.

About a collective that you would think would be more cognizent of technology and forward looking about content rights, we have this latest tale about the obstreporous hijinks at SFWA. Sigh.

I enjoyed "Gifts"; it's fashioned with care by a master craftsman. Those who have little time for Le Guin's later works (say, since "Tehanu") often deride them as "not as interesting or exciting" as her earlier works. I don't agree at all. It's just that she's older, wiser, and interested in telling different kinds of stories than when she was younger.

I like the post-Tehanu Le Guin. She's one of the few authors where I read and think "Good God, I wish I could write like that!" rather than the more common "Hmp. I could do that."

To be fair, I have no idea whether I could, in actual fact, write as well or better than most of the authors I have read in the past, but I certainly feel like I could. Where as the authors I really like give me the first of the two feelings: Borges, Le Guin, Vance, Wolfe, Crowley.

Gifts is a quiet tale about a young man's coming of age that touches on aspects of power, abuse, responsibility, self-discovery, the need to avoid delusion, the need to cope with loss, and other important things what teens should learn about. There was only one note in the whole book that rung a bit unfortunate to me (I was not entirely keen on the young man's reaction towards his father at the very end of the book, but it was, at least, understandable to me).

Please live long, Ms Le Guin. Please write more.

At some point I will read "Voices", the next book set in this new background of Le Guin's. It is available in hardcover, and I will likely read it when it arrives in trade paper back.

Next on the list of books I'm actively reading:

• "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher because I want to see what all the fuss is about. I'm not sure I'll finish it. So far it seems to be fairly standard, pedestrian, "cool magician solves supernatural crimes" kind of fare. Not necessarily "bad" you understand, but there are other things on my shelf that are looking at me askance and asking me "why aren't you reading me instead?"

• "The Darkness That Comes Before" by R. Scott Bakker. This is a re-read because the third book came out in December in mass-market, and I want to re-do the first, before heading further into the set.

• "Kingdom Of Shadows" by Alan Furst. Not exactly uplifting, but how could novels set in and around Paris during the height of the Age Of Fascism be uplifting? Fun so far, but not exactly tight. Furst's self-professed model is Eric Ambler, but Ambler was razor sharp in focus, and Furst is not.

• "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. Another YA fantasy series; this one, based on Grimm's fairy tales. Pretty well written, so far.

... It looks like the marketing wonks at Warner are back to their "one brave nation of perfectly formed warriors fighting for freedom" messaging in promoting 300.

Now I'm not so sure I'll be able to stomach the neo-con subtext in this film enough to really enjoy how pretty it looks in spots (from the trailer).

The increased female presence in the trailer (such as it is) also does little to dispel Mr Miller's well-earned reputation as Purveyor of Fine Whore-Nuns To The World.

::sigh::

BBC7 is broadcasting a teleplay of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. The link is to the first installment, and it's from last Thursday, so you have today and tomorrow to catch it before it gets overwritten (BBC7's archived files last only a week). You'll need a RealPlayer on your computer to listen.

No spoilers here. Episode 3x09 of Battlestar Galactica has quite a simple structure, and after watching it, I have only a few comments:

• Compare this episode with 1x14 of Babylon 5 (TKO); I know that the BSG episode takes place after two seasons of actors getting seated in their characters, whereas in B5, the actors had only 14 episodes (but that's about a season and a half of BSG, so it's almost equivalent). I know that the B5 episode made the mistake of having too many fill-ins, side characters, and extras participating in the main event, whereas BSG did it right by placing the chief recurring characters in the spotlight. BSG is so much a better show in nearly all aspects than B5, and it shows in this episode. Look how far genre-tv has come.

• I'm not sure that the subtext of this episode is all that palatable: how do these people solve their problems short of 'dancing'?

• Starbuck is not a nice person. Nor is she a good person, although, rarely she can do reasonably good things. What, exactly, is the difference between her and Baltar again?

• The most sympathetic and thoughtful character on this show might just be Dualla, and with recent events how long will that last? When, exactly, will she kick Starbuck's ass and how badly will she kick it? (Because, oh yes, I'm pretty sure she could.)

OK, just about everyone on my friends list has already done this meme, so now I feel compelled. Curse you, memes!

( Read more... )

So, despite thinking "Hmp. I should PVR that." when looking through last week's TV Guide, I forgot (in fact) to PVR the debut of Mr Blade on Spike last night.

Has anyone seen it, and would care to shed some light on whether this show should make it onto my HDD in the future months?

(You, yes You, can program my PVR!)

Update July 7th/06

OK,so I managed to catch Blade this week. A few brief thoughts: (a) it doesn't entirely suck, (b) it's not prime-time TV -- keep yer youngsters away from this show, and (c) given the unbelievably underwhelming picture quality Spike seems to broadcast to my TV -- is this just my TV, or is this a wider problem? -- I will almost certainly not bother to watch it on TV and will wait for DVD should it ever appear. Spike, you are not doing your advertisers any favours with the crappy, crappy quality of your broadcast picture.

If this show appears on DVD I will at least rent it.