Thursday, 29 April 2010
Hiatus
This blog is on hiatus. I no longer have the time to write it and was anyway not getting the response from readers that I would have liked. If anyone has an interest in Merlin fan fiction, they can still find my writing over at Mnemosyne77 Merlin fan fiction.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Sanctuary season finale surprisingly enjoyable
How bizarrely wonderful was the Sanctuary season finale? After 10 lacklustere episodes of pure mediocrity, episode 11 stepped up the pace and then the double-length season finale was very enjoyable.
It was the little things that made the difference (after all, the big things about the show remain ridiculous. The plot line revolved around a gargantuan underwater arachnid that could control the planet's techtonic plates - and was named Big Bertha).
All the characters finally seemed to have a role in the plot, all the actors who were supposed to be Japanese, Hindu, Zulu, or other nationalities actually spoke their own languages, the actors finally got to exercise some acting muscles but weren't given material that would be beyond their grasp, and Kate wasn't as annoyingly pointless as usual.
The only drawbacks were the same ones that always plague Sanctuary. With loads of extras, special effects, and guest stars, this is obviously where the show's budget in the last year has gone. Is it really worth producing three good episodes a year and 10 crap ones?
Even if one of the good ones makes this the only science fiction programme to ever include a Bollywood dancing sequence. Which was awesome!
It was the little things that made the difference (after all, the big things about the show remain ridiculous. The plot line revolved around a gargantuan underwater arachnid that could control the planet's techtonic plates - and was named Big Bertha).
All the characters finally seemed to have a role in the plot, all the actors who were supposed to be Japanese, Hindu, Zulu, or other nationalities actually spoke their own languages, the actors finally got to exercise some acting muscles but weren't given material that would be beyond their grasp, and Kate wasn't as annoyingly pointless as usual.
The only drawbacks were the same ones that always plague Sanctuary. With loads of extras, special effects, and guest stars, this is obviously where the show's budget in the last year has gone. Is it really worth producing three good episodes a year and 10 crap ones?
Even if one of the good ones makes this the only science fiction programme to ever include a Bollywood dancing sequence. Which was awesome!
Friday, 1 January 2010
No longer boring you with fan fiction
So, I'm no longer going to be boring you with fanfiction. This blog isn't really the right place for it anyway.
But if you are interested, then you can put an author alert on me at my profile page here.
I honestly haven't had much to say about TV at the moment.
Merlin finished up, proving once and for all that the writers only had one good season in them. They also realised they had one really interesting character and moved quickly to get rid of her. Now we're stuck with the insipid, one-dimensional Gwen as the only main female character. Ergh.
Supernatural is as good as always but is on hiatus for the moment.
Chuck Season 3 is apparently starting in January now. I know one of my nieces will be thrilled. Although I loved Season 2, I'm a little (ok, a lot) concerned about the Subway product placement and that they're not going to let Sarah and Chuck be together. That would be very annoying.
Smallville, also on hiatus, has moved beyond "so bad it's funny" and is now just bad. So painful in fact, that even dedicated TV watchers such as myself are finding it too difficult to watch. Welling and Durance still have as much sexual tension as a used cold teabag.
Fringe is as painful and unwatcheable as it always was. Naturally I've seen every episode. It's a special kind of torture.
Faced with extinction, "the Joss" is pulling out all the stops in Dollhouse, which is still very good but still lacking something. Because it's been cancelled, he's having to rush through five seasons of storyline in 13 episodes and so the narrative is very rushed. Oh, what could have been if not for Fox. Maybe this time he will have learned, finally, that he shouldn't work with them.
On the Sci Fi channel, mediocrity reigns supreme as Sanctuary continues it's midly-enjoyable if somewhat insipid run (did I just use insipid twice in one blog entry - my apologies) on a budget so low it makes Flash Gordon looks professional. And Stargate Universe is pretty much what fans expected: a two-bit BSG rip-off without the humour. (BSG had no humour in case you didn't get the... oh, you did... ok).
As you can see, nothing is really floating my boat at the moment, which is probably why I've chosen to write my own stories instead.
If there's some extraordinary show out there that I'm missing, please let me know. Otherwise it's repeats for me.
But if you are interested, then you can put an author alert on me at my profile page here.
I honestly haven't had much to say about TV at the moment.
Merlin finished up, proving once and for all that the writers only had one good season in them. They also realised they had one really interesting character and moved quickly to get rid of her. Now we're stuck with the insipid, one-dimensional Gwen as the only main female character. Ergh.
Supernatural is as good as always but is on hiatus for the moment.
Chuck Season 3 is apparently starting in January now. I know one of my nieces will be thrilled. Although I loved Season 2, I'm a little (ok, a lot) concerned about the Subway product placement and that they're not going to let Sarah and Chuck be together. That would be very annoying.
Smallville, also on hiatus, has moved beyond "so bad it's funny" and is now just bad. So painful in fact, that even dedicated TV watchers such as myself are finding it too difficult to watch. Welling and Durance still have as much sexual tension as a used cold teabag.
Fringe is as painful and unwatcheable as it always was. Naturally I've seen every episode. It's a special kind of torture.
Faced with extinction, "the Joss" is pulling out all the stops in Dollhouse, which is still very good but still lacking something. Because it's been cancelled, he's having to rush through five seasons of storyline in 13 episodes and so the narrative is very rushed. Oh, what could have been if not for Fox. Maybe this time he will have learned, finally, that he shouldn't work with them.
On the Sci Fi channel, mediocrity reigns supreme as Sanctuary continues it's midly-enjoyable if somewhat insipid run (did I just use insipid twice in one blog entry - my apologies) on a budget so low it makes Flash Gordon looks professional. And Stargate Universe is pretty much what fans expected: a two-bit BSG rip-off without the humour. (BSG had no humour in case you didn't get the... oh, you did... ok).
As you can see, nothing is really floating my boat at the moment, which is probably why I've chosen to write my own stories instead.
If there's some extraordinary show out there that I'm missing, please let me know. Otherwise it's repeats for me.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Tale of the plot bunnies
Ok so, no new recaps because... I got inspired to write more fan fiction. Now it's really getting embarrassing. I'm considering counselling (or at least a 10-step programme to stop me demanding reviews from people).
This one's a work in progress. After the serious romance of my previous work, I decided to write a comedy. It's called Body Swap and yes, at this stage I'm considering changing my awful nick. Maybe repressed spinster? See the poll and as always, comments are appreciated.
This one's a work in progress. After the serious romance of my previous work, I decided to write a comedy. It's called Body Swap and yes, at this stage I'm considering changing my awful nick. Maybe repressed spinster? See the poll and as always, comments are appreciated.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Ignore the muse at your peril: the embarrasing story of the TV reviewer and the world of fan fiction
Where have I been the last few weeks? As embarrassing as it is for this satirical recapper to admit, I have been sidetracked by the world of fan fiction. Merlin fan fiction, to be accurate. In researching my rather scathing Merlin review recently, I wandered in to see what fans of the show were doing and... didn't wander out.
I was until recently denying to a friend that I would ever admit to this but nonetheless, here is the complete unvarnished truth: I got inspired to write fan fiction. Yes, the muse popped by my head and deposited a plot bunny and here is the result - posted under the unoriginal and inaccurate name of "Morgana21" - my first and possibly only piece of fan fiction, 'A Lion and a Unicorn'.
Feel free to comment. And if anyone has the time and inclination to give me constructive feedback chapter by chapter I'd be very grateful.
Hope to be back with more TV reviews soon.
I was until recently denying to a friend that I would ever admit to this but nonetheless, here is the complete unvarnished truth: I got inspired to write fan fiction. Yes, the muse popped by my head and deposited a plot bunny and here is the result - posted under the unoriginal and inaccurate name of "Morgana21" - my first and possibly only piece of fan fiction, 'A Lion and a Unicorn'.
Feel free to comment. And if anyone has the time and inclination to give me constructive feedback chapter by chapter I'd be very grateful.
Hope to be back with more TV reviews soon.
Friday, 16 October 2009
Merlin: All hail the Great Slash Dragon
So, there's this show called Merlin and it's mostly made for kids. It's a rewritten Smallville set in a rather anachronistic Middle Ages where everyone bathes and Prince Arthur doesn't have songs written about him because he gloriously slaughtered several thousand people and then slept with his half sister. Guinevere and Merlin are servants, Morgana is the King's ward, Prince Arthur is the same age as Merlin and there's enough HoYay! to please even the biggest Smallville fan pining for the days of Michael Rosenbaum. By making all the characters friends and the same age, the show has managed to spawn an extraordinary amount of slash and shipper fan fiction; culminating in the dubbing of the dragon the "Great Slash Dragon" due to his frequent slashy pronouncements, such as "the half cannot hate that which makes it whole!".
The re-imagining of the Arthurian mythology doesn't bother me because the story has been so reworked over the past 1000 years as to be completely unrecognisable from the original and our definition of a hero has changed significantly since then (which explains why the raping, maiming, and pillaging is gone). The first season was also very enjoyable in a vaguely naff way and had a kick-ass season finale where Merlin kicked far more butt in one episode than Clark Kent has in 9 seasons of Smallville.
But season 2 has just started in the UK and the writers seriously need to pick up their game if they want to build on the positives from Season 1. Firstly there's been no pay off from the developments in Season 1. After such a great season finale, we should have seen some recognition of the journey the characters took in the last season. Instead the writers hit the reset button and created a new set of Season 2 characters: 'Merlin the Coward', 'Arthur the Idiot', 'Gwen the Fickle' and, most tragically, 'Morgana the Mysteriously Absent'.
Episode 1 seemed to have been written by slash fan fiction writers (oh look, Arthur has his shirt off again!) and took the characters' development back about 15 episodes (quite a feat when there's only been 13). When an 8 year old can pick the plot holes you've got to worry. The general consensus of all ages was that episode 2 was unbearably dull and consisted of long boring jousting scenes punctuated by painful conversations between Arthur and Guinevere. Not like episode 4, which contained long boring scenes of people being fed to CGI ROUS' (where's the Dread Pirate Roberts when he's needed?) punctuated by painful angst-ridden emo looks of anguish between Gwen, Lancelot and Arthur, all of whom incidentally have far more chemistry with Merlin than with each other. Hence the HoYay!
The bright spot in the season so far was Morgana's day out in 'The Nightmare Begins', an otherwise excellent episode marred by the very unwelcome appearance of 'Merlin the Coward'. Merlin decides not to tell Morgana his secret because....well... it was in the script. Merlin and Morgana had so much chemistry in this episode there are significantly more Merlin/Morgana shippers today than yesterday.
Pick it up guys. I, and a whole of heap of other children of all ages, will be watching. At least for a little while.
Homoeroticism, Yay!
Enjoy all the HoYay! fun with these great YouTube videos.
Warning: contains slash and inaccurate editing.
'One Way or Another' Arthur is going to get Merlin
Merlin's never gonna give Arthur up in this MerlinRoll!
Merlin and Arthur are all about Love, Sex and Magic, in this video with the classic comment, "How many sex faces can they possibly pull in a single series?", the answer to which of course is "many more, at least until Colin Morgan learns to portray pain without it looking like orgasm".
They 'ship themselves really. Merlin: where everyone has Hungry Eyes
Arthur's 'Already Gone' in this tribute to the Season 1 finale
Some serious Snow Patrol angst in this non-slash tribute to friendship, which bears a striking resemblence to slash.
Someone should have told the editor of this very serious Merlin video that this song is about sex...
The re-imagining of the Arthurian mythology doesn't bother me because the story has been so reworked over the past 1000 years as to be completely unrecognisable from the original and our definition of a hero has changed significantly since then (which explains why the raping, maiming, and pillaging is gone). The first season was also very enjoyable in a vaguely naff way and had a kick-ass season finale where Merlin kicked far more butt in one episode than Clark Kent has in 9 seasons of Smallville.
But season 2 has just started in the UK and the writers seriously need to pick up their game if they want to build on the positives from Season 1. Firstly there's been no pay off from the developments in Season 1. After such a great season finale, we should have seen some recognition of the journey the characters took in the last season. Instead the writers hit the reset button and created a new set of Season 2 characters: 'Merlin the Coward', 'Arthur the Idiot', 'Gwen the Fickle' and, most tragically, 'Morgana the Mysteriously Absent'.
Episode 1 seemed to have been written by slash fan fiction writers (oh look, Arthur has his shirt off again!) and took the characters' development back about 15 episodes (quite a feat when there's only been 13). When an 8 year old can pick the plot holes you've got to worry. The general consensus of all ages was that episode 2 was unbearably dull and consisted of long boring jousting scenes punctuated by painful conversations between Arthur and Guinevere. Not like episode 4, which contained long boring scenes of people being fed to CGI ROUS' (where's the Dread Pirate Roberts when he's needed?) punctuated by painful angst-ridden emo looks of anguish between Gwen, Lancelot and Arthur, all of whom incidentally have far more chemistry with Merlin than with each other. Hence the HoYay!
The bright spot in the season so far was Morgana's day out in 'The Nightmare Begins', an otherwise excellent episode marred by the very unwelcome appearance of 'Merlin the Coward'. Merlin decides not to tell Morgana his secret because....well... it was in the script. Merlin and Morgana had so much chemistry in this episode there are significantly more Merlin/Morgana shippers today than yesterday.
Pick it up guys. I, and a whole of heap of other children of all ages, will be watching. At least for a little while.
Homoeroticism, Yay!
Enjoy all the HoYay! fun with these great YouTube videos.
Warning: contains slash and inaccurate editing.
'One Way or Another' Arthur is going to get Merlin
Merlin's never gonna give Arthur up in this MerlinRoll!
Merlin and Arthur are all about Love, Sex and Magic, in this video with the classic comment, "How many sex faces can they possibly pull in a single series?", the answer to which of course is "many more, at least until Colin Morgan learns to portray pain without it looking like orgasm".
They 'ship themselves really. Merlin: where everyone has Hungry Eyes
Arthur's 'Already Gone' in this tribute to the Season 1 finale
Some serious Snow Patrol angst in this non-slash tribute to friendship, which bears a striking resemblence to slash.
Someone should have told the editor of this very serious Merlin video that this song is about sex...
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Holidays are for drinking games
Having been stuck on a tropical island in a dust storm and being reduced to the Stargate SG1 drinking game, I thought I would republish the rules. They're here.
Stargate SG1 drinking game
Take one drink anytime:
Jack says, "Fer cryin' out loud."
Jack says, “Bad example”.
Teal'c says, "Indeed."
Teal'c raises an eyebrow
Jack cuts off Sam in the middle of her technobabble
Jack mispronounces a technical or alien word
Someone makes a Wizard Of Oz reference
Jack and Daniel get into an argument over civil rights (Two sips for “But Jaaacck”)
Something splats against the gate's iris
A beautiful female alien falls in love with Daniel
One or more of SG1 gets shot (includes zats)
Jack makes a smart-ass comment to someone holding him prisoner or at weapon-point
Hammond uses the Red Phone
They start the Gate Self Destruct mechanism
Sam cries
Daniel speaks one of his ‘23/27 languages’
Someone says ‘Jaffa kree’
Someone says ‘Shal'kek nem'ron’ or ‘I die free’
Someone says ‘unscheduled offworld activation’ or variation thereof
Jack mentions fishing and/or his pond
Fraiser shines a light into someone’s eye
Daniel says “I have no idea” or “I don’t know”
2 drinks whenever:
The technician says ‘Chevron 7 LOCKED’
Silar gets injured and is then seen being patched up in the medical bay
SG1 walk through the gate armed to the teeth and Daniel says “we’re peaceful explorers”.
Daniel gets so excited about his explanation for something that he becomes incomprehensible
Daniel receives a "fatal" injury i.e. dies, nearly dies or they think he’s dead
Someone jokes about how Daniel always dies and/or they don’t believe he’s dead this time
Someone ascends or changes into an ascended being
Daniel loses all his clothes
Drink the whole nip when:
The point of the entire episode is that Daniel is always right
Jack says, "Fer cryin' out loud."
Jack says, “Bad example”.
Teal'c says, "Indeed."
Teal'c raises an eyebrow
Jack cuts off Sam in the middle of her technobabble
Jack mispronounces a technical or alien word
Someone makes a Wizard Of Oz reference
Jack and Daniel get into an argument over civil rights (Two sips for “But Jaaacck”)
Something splats against the gate's iris
A beautiful female alien falls in love with Daniel
One or more of SG1 gets shot (includes zats)
Jack makes a smart-ass comment to someone holding him prisoner or at weapon-point
Hammond uses the Red Phone
They start the Gate Self Destruct mechanism
Sam cries
Daniel speaks one of his ‘23/27 languages’
Someone says ‘Jaffa kree’
Someone says ‘Shal'kek nem'ron’ or ‘I die free’
Someone says ‘unscheduled offworld activation’ or variation thereof
Jack mentions fishing and/or his pond
Fraiser shines a light into someone’s eye
Daniel says “I have no idea” or “I don’t know”
2 drinks whenever:
The technician says ‘Chevron 7 LOCKED’
Silar gets injured and is then seen being patched up in the medical bay
SG1 walk through the gate armed to the teeth and Daniel says “we’re peaceful explorers”.
Daniel gets so excited about his explanation for something that he becomes incomprehensible
Daniel receives a "fatal" injury i.e. dies, nearly dies or they think he’s dead
Someone jokes about how Daniel always dies and/or they don’t believe he’s dead this time
Someone ascends or changes into an ascended being
Daniel loses all his clothes
Drink the whole nip when:
The point of the entire episode is that Daniel is always right
Monday, 14 September 2009
Why don't Australians watch sci/fantasy?
Is it because it's too intelligent and the average TV watcher isn't smart enough? Is it because it takes too much work?
Join the discussion over at The Tribal Mind.
Join the discussion over at The Tribal Mind.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the Imported Hard Salami
Score: A
So in this analogy, does that make Bryce a smuggled penis?
Continuing the “everyone around us has something to hide” theme, Chuck is ordered to investigate Lou’s smuggler ex-boyfriend with predictably disastrous results. Bryce comes back into his life in a somewhat unexpected fashion.
Anyone who has over-achieving friends will know the affect they can have on your ambition. In the under-achieving world of Buy More, Chuck is the man they all aspire to be so if he’s on to his second hot girlfriend then…Morgan decides to pursue romance with surprising (if eventual) success. Lester’s attempts are slightly less accomplished but much funnier. Sarah is moderately awesome.
The good
The scene in the sandwich shop helps us understand why two awesome chicks would be interested in a computer repairman from a retail store and the scene between Lester and Sarah in the Weinerlicious was great.
The B(uy More) Plot was enjoyable mostly due to Julia Ling as the criminally-underused Anna Wu.
But most of all, Chuck delaying their torture by using his flashes to turn the bad guys against each other shows just how intelligent he can be under pressure.
The bad
The writers follow up last week’s contrivance with a contrivance in the “timer” on the “bomb” that doesn’t actually make much sense if you think about it because, when the timer finished counting down, wouldn’t Bryce die of oxygen starvation?
The Chuckalicious
Smoking. Hot. Kisses. And two of them. I mean, in the list of best TV kisses, Chuck and Lou should rank in the Top 10 but Chuck and Sarah are Top 3 at the least. Excuse me for a minute while I watch it again…
The geekalicious
"He had me at pastrami." Hah!
So in this analogy, does that make Bryce a smuggled penis?
Continuing the “everyone around us has something to hide” theme, Chuck is ordered to investigate Lou’s smuggler ex-boyfriend with predictably disastrous results. Bryce comes back into his life in a somewhat unexpected fashion.
Anyone who has over-achieving friends will know the affect they can have on your ambition. In the under-achieving world of Buy More, Chuck is the man they all aspire to be so if he’s on to his second hot girlfriend then…Morgan decides to pursue romance with surprising (if eventual) success. Lester’s attempts are slightly less accomplished but much funnier. Sarah is moderately awesome.
The good
The scene in the sandwich shop helps us understand why two awesome chicks would be interested in a computer repairman from a retail store and the scene between Lester and Sarah in the Weinerlicious was great.
The B(uy More) Plot was enjoyable mostly due to Julia Ling as the criminally-underused Anna Wu.
But most of all, Chuck delaying their torture by using his flashes to turn the bad guys against each other shows just how intelligent he can be under pressure.
The bad
The writers follow up last week’s contrivance with a contrivance in the “timer” on the “bomb” that doesn’t actually make much sense if you think about it because, when the timer finished counting down, wouldn’t Bryce die of oxygen starvation?
The Chuckalicious
Smoking. Hot. Kisses. And two of them. I mean, in the list of best TV kisses, Chuck and Lou should rank in the Top 10 but Chuck and Sarah are Top 3 at the least. Excuse me for a minute while I watch it again…
The geekalicious
"He had me at pastrami." Hah!
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