by Jane | Feb 6, 2016 | Write Here Write Now
To return to the bingeing article I started last month, the non-genre tv show I binged on was Breaking Bad — the story of a high school chemistry teacher who decides to cook crystal meth, when he finds out he has cancer. Walter White, a pathetic sort of man who sold his share of what became a million-dollar enterprise for a mere pittance, now teaches high school and works part time at a car wash to make ends meet. When he thinks he may be dying, he finds a new way to provide for his family.
As a talented chemist, cooking the meth is the easy part. It’s when he tries to sell it that he gets into trouble. Teaming up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, he tries working through dealers, then tries creating his own business with Jesse. He makes a lot of money, but also gets into tons of trouble. But the most interesting thing about the series, especially from a writer’s point of view, is the character development of Walter White, or should I say, devolution. Violence becomes a necessary part of business for him to the point he is almost sociopathic, and he becomes extranged from the family he cares so much about.
The tension and suspense in the series is great. I watched the last 12 episodes in 2 days because I really needed to get to the end. (Of course, I knew how it must end and knew how much I would miss it once it was over, but still I binged.) The tension is increased greatly by the fact that Walt’s brother-in-law is a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Agent, who always seems just one step away from closing in.
I had heard a lot about this show, but was skeptical about it’s being my type of thing. But once I started watching it and realized that it was about family, desperation, and human foibles, I was hooked. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again. It’s that good.
by Jane | Jan 18, 2016 | Write Here Write Now
I binged over the holidays. I don’t mean so much with food and drink, though there was some of that as well. No, actually, I binged on one genre movie series and one non-genre tv series. The movie series was The Lord of the Rings. A cable station was airing a marathon on one day. I taped it and played it back over three days, which was marathon enough for me. The movies were all long, especially the last one, The Return of the King.
I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings. I had not seen a full movie in the series for many years, and I’m not sure I had ever seen the third one. The thing about trilogies is that if you don’t like the second, unless you really, really, really like the first, you may never watch the third. That may be what happened in my case. I liked the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, though it too was long, and the first time I watched it was not enough to get all that happened in the film. I had had to see it a second time just to get a real sense of the story.
I did not like the second one nearly as much, The Two Towers. Having just seen it again, I’m trying to remember how I felt about the book, but it was way too long ago for me to remember. The problem I experienced with the movie was that there was too much about the Race of Men, and not nearly enough about Hobbits. I especially didn’t like that there was so much time devoted to fight scenes. While the director Peter Jackson must have thought fight scenes were important, I don’t believe they are nearly important as he wanted us to believe. All the books are about the quest and friendship and going beyond yourself to achieve something.
The Return of the King also had a lot of fight scenes and a lot on the Race of Men, but not nearly as much as the second film. There was a lot more with Frodo and Sam and the other hobbits, so I found the movie much more enjoyable. I could doze through the fight scenes and wait for the good stuff. I’m sure there are people out there who would disagree with me, but the scenes with Frodo and Sam were especially poignant and strong. I’m glad I had a chance to see these movies all together, so I could follow the story line and get a good sense of what the books were about.
IF you haven’t seen them in a while, it’s a good time to watch then again. You might find something new.
by Jane | Dec 29, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the first two seasons of Enterprise. Now I’d like to finish my discussion of the series. At the beginning of season 3, Archer and crew are off chasing the alien species developing a weapon to destroy Earth, and it’s a season of amazing episodes. I was afraid at first that, due to the topic, the episodes would involve nothing but a lot of action and combat. Especially since a military unit called MACOs was added to the ship. (Doesn’t this remind you of the marines of Deep Space 9?). Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike action and combat, but that’s not what makes Star Trek. As proven by fans’ dislike of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the human element is most important of all. Luckily, as it turned out, there were many episodes focusing on the human element and a great deal of character development, especially in T’Pol and Archer. More about that later.
The series continued to improve in season 4. There were several 2- and 3-part episodes, including a 2-parter entirely in the Mirror, Mirror universe. That was a great episode, even if you didn’t know who to root for, since they were all evil. Season 4 also included an explanation of why some Klingons have forehead ridges and some don’t. Very clever. And it does justice to Worf’s comment in DS9 of not liking to talk about it. Too bad they left that until the very end of Star Trek (not counting the revamp movies).
The last episode was unique. It depicted Enterprise’s last mission six years after the previous episode, leading to the beginning of a rudimentary Federation of Planets. The interesting thing is that it did so through use of the holodeck by Will Riker. I’m not sure why they did it that way, or how I feel about it. Maybe, after premature cancellation, the producers wanted to end it in a significant way and have it come full circle on the Enterprise D. Again, I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I think I would have preferred an episode with just the Enterprise NX-1 crew.
As I mentioned earlier, there was a great deal of character development in this series, more than in any of the others. T’Pol stopped being a reluctant spy and overseer to a Vulcan struggling with her emotions and loyal to a human captain. She even had something of a romance with a member of the crew. Malcomb stopped trying to sacrifice himself at every turn, and Trip…well, I think Trip just grew up.
Archer certainly changed more than any other Star Trek captain. He started out as a naïve idealist and became a pragmatist, willing to do whatever it took to complete his mission. It’s interesting to note here that the two most disturbing episodes in Star Trek history were on Enterprise and Voyager. In both cases, the captain ordered the death of someone on board, not due to anything that person had done, but because of who they were. Of course, Janeway was lost in the Delta Quadrant and Archer was alone in the Expanse trying to save the human race. So, we could explain it by saying Star Trek captains go rogue when out of communication range and in desperate times. Another explanation may simply be that the Star Trek producers were allowing their captains to be more human.
So, a lot has happened in Star Trek history, and Enterprise is a really good series, as long as you stick with it. People who disparage it have probably only seen a few episodes and are comparing it to other Star Trek series they liked. They should be comparing it to other science fiction tv past and present. After all, what’s on the air now to compare? There have, of course, been some good series (my favorites are Babylon 5 and Stargate), but a lot more bad ones. But of all the sf tv ever on the air, there is nothing to compare to Star Trek. Any Star Trek.
by Jane | Dec 15, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
Having finished watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and totally out of Star Trek to watch, I turned to Enterprise. I remembered not having been too impressed when it came on the air years ago, but I decided to give it another chance. I had heard that the last two seasons were good, and although that made me feel like I was eating my spinach in order to have ice cream later, I started watching.
Here are my impressions at the beginning. Let’s start with the theme. It was nice, but it didn’t really say Star Trek to me. Now, the characters. My favorite at that point was Porthos, Captain Archer’s dog. My second favorite was Trip, the Chief Engineer. I hated the Vulcan Science Officer T’Pol, as I guess we were supposed to, since she was at best, critical of whatever Captain Archer was doing, and at worst, a spy. That part was a little strange. However, during season one, she started to show some reluctant loyalty to Archer. The other characters were fine, though it seemed the actors would have to grow into their parts.
Halfway through the first season, the scripts started to get better. The crew of Enterprise was making its own path. I was concerned that the show seemed to lack Roddenberry’s brilliance and vision, but by the end of the season, the scripts were definitely better and the 2-part season ender/2nd season beginner was excellent. I started to change my mind about the show.
As Enterprise got into season 2, it became quite good. Trip surpassed Porthos as my favorite character and I started to like T’Pol. She became softer and more feminine and by then, was definitely part of Enterprise’s crew, not just a pawn of the Vulcan Council. The second season finale was even better than the first, so I am really looking forward to seasons three and four. I will report my experiences with them later.
For now I’ll just say, don’t write off Enterprise. You might be surprised.
by Jane | Nov 28, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
The Crimson Crown is the fourth and final book in Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms series. If I were to meet her, I’d ask how she manages to maintain interest throughout each book. To say this is a page-turner would be a disservice. I am compelled to keep reading, chapter after chapter.
In The Crimson Crown, Raisa is crowned queen and Han Allister dances the Demon King role at the ceremony, much to everyone’s surprise. Things are, of course, not wine and roses for these two. Han is suspected of a series of wizard killings, Micah Bayar insists on dating Raisa, and the war raging in the south is starting to threaten Raisa’s queendom. Meanwhile, Raisa has named Han to the Wizard Council, which the wizards, currently led by Gavan Bayar, do not like at all.
Both Raisa and Han have big plans. Unfortunately, neither is sure that their plans jibe with the other’s because of talk they are hearing around the castle and village. Who are they to believe? And how can they handle the political situation without getting themselves, and those they love, killed?
Chima does a grand job of keeping us in suspense throughout, but with each revelation comes another surprise. You cannot be disappointed with this book and the culmination of this series. I’m just sad it’s over.
by Jane | Nov 11, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
I reported on the book The Martian some months ago and said how much I liked it, especially for the science parts where astronaut Mark Whatley was describing the thought processes he went through to find a way to live a little longer. This is part of what made the book great. But you can’t do that in a movie.
Had the producers of the movie tried to put in even half of the science behind what Whatley was doing, the movie would have been dull and put everyone to sleep. Even the little bit they did put in could easily make people’s eyes glaze over.
But that’s OK. The movie The Martian didn’t need it to be good. I was curious how a movie based largely on astronaut Whatley’s notes and videos would translate to the big screen. But translate it did. By skipping over the slower, science parts and accentuating the action and dramatic parts, director Ridley Scott made a great film.
Scott also did a great job moving between the action on Mars and the action on Earth, showing the viewers just what they needed to see to keep them interested. Although Mark’s science explanations were limited in the movie, the movie retained his sense of humor (well played by actor Matt Damon), which was also a big part of the book.
The movie was true to the book in most ways. There was only one catastrophe they left out, near the time when the astronaut was approaching the site for his lift-off. I agreed with that decision. Another catastrophe would have been too much and actually slowed down the film. It needed to keep moving along at that point to get to the climax.
The climax was, of course, Whatley’s flight into space to meet with the ship to take him back home. It was, arguably, the best scene in the film. Action that I had a hard time picturing while reading the book came through magnificently on the screen (especially in 3D). Even though I knew how it ended, it was exciting, suspenseful, and ultimately, satisfying. I also applaud the ending of the movie, which made it clear what happened to all the major characters.
I highly recommend the film the way I highly recommended the book. In spite of their differences, science fiction fans will enjoy both.
