Back again for another highly opinionated look at the week in fantasy. You’ve been warned!
MY COMPUTER HATES ME
So last week, I was uploading our fall movie preview. It contains 15 video clips, so all the code and formatting was a hassle-plus-one.
But as I worked, I somehow kept screwing up the code. I would try to get everything perfect, but it never seemed to work.
I remember thinking, “I’m doing something wrong. Computers don’t make mistakes — people do.” Mathematics is perfect, right? I told myself this again and again.
But after retyping the whole thing four times — and I couldn’t merely cut-and-paste from a previous draft, because that always seemed to bring in the screwy code — it was still all f****d up.
Then the most amazing thing happened. I finally had everything looking absolutely perfect.
I clicked “refresh.”
And suddenly it was all screwed up again. I looked at the code, and there was all kinds of stuff in there that I knew I hadn’t added.
In other words, it wasn’t me! It was the computer! My Dell had been taken over by Skynet! Either that or it was like the slot-machine from the “Fever” episode of The Twilight Zone — you know, the one where the slot-machine follows the guy around the hotel, taunting him, until he finally throws himself out the window?
I didn’t throw myself out the window — but only because I live on the ground floor!
WHEREIN I DISCUSS BUFFY, SEASON 2
So after I wrote last week about my crisis of faith in Joss Whedon (as a result of how stinky Dollhouse was), I decided to go back and marathon Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m starting with Season 2, and you know what?
It’s really not that strong. The famous Buffy-speak dialogue is there (pre-dating Juno by about ten years, for what it’s worth).
But the plots are very by-the-numbers and predictable (good finale though).
In my ongoing debate with myself as to which fantasy show is better, Xena or Buffy, I’ve always said that Buffy was more consistently good (fewer “bum” episodes), but that, overall, Xena was more creative.
But now I’m rethinking that. When Buffy got great (in the 3rd season), it stayed great (at least until the 7th season, which I personally thought was terrible — 23 episodes of them waiting around for the finale).
But the fact is, season 2 is pretty unremarkable. If it hadn’t been “Buffy,” I’m — gasp! — not sure I would’ve kept watching. So maybe the show isn’t as “consistent” as I thought.
Speaking of Josh, for what it’s worth, I watched a preview copy of the season premiere of Dollhouse (airing Friday, September 25th). I can’t say I liked it — I’m still not even sure the premise of the show is a good one — but it was better than I expected. If you liked the last few episodes of last season (which is where it picks up), you’ll like the premiere.
And Eliza Dushku is getting somewhat better too.
CINDERELLA WAS A LESBIAN?
So I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was reading some good books. One of them is the new young adult novel, Ash by Malinda Lo
It’s almost breathtakingly well-written.
Yes, yes, it’s yet another “retelling” of a classic story (and the Cinderella story to boot — surely the most “retold” story of all time). For some reason, these retellings are amazingly popular in teen lit right now, and I honestly don’t understand why (they hold almost no appeal to me).
But here’s what I loved about the book (in addition to the writing). First, there’s a small sub-plot where it’s revealed that the hero, Ash, isn’t into the prince, but rather, the town huntress. In other words, Cinderella is a lesbian.
If you’re going to retell classic stories, this is a great way to make them more relevant!
Better still about the book is its rich “fairy” mythology. This Cinderella doesn’t merely have a “fairy godmother” appear and grant her wish. No, it goes into the complicated ways the humans and the fairy folk have long interacted — and how one race has kept its magic while the other has not.
Malinda’s fairy framework — and her description of their world — is some of the most interesting I’ve ever read.
THE TINDER BOX TAKES ON THE IDIOT BOX
Needless to say, we’ve officially entered the fall TV season, which means that each week brings back more of our favorite returning shows from last year, and also the debuts of all the new shows we’re interested in.
For fantasy/sci-fi viewers, that meant last week’s return of Supernatural (which was FANTASTIC!) and the debut of The Vampire Diaries.
This week, it means the season 3 premiere of Robin Hood (Saturday, 9 PM, BBC America) and the season 2 premiere of Fringe (Thursday, 9 PM, Fox — running opposite Supernatural, for God’s sake!!).
I’ll have a review of the Fringe premiere early next week (along with my interview with the star of the show, Anna Torv), but suffice to say that I liked both of them a lot.
Speaking of Supernatural, season 4 (which I thought was the strongest season so far by far) is now out on DVD. (Support The TorchOnline.com by buying it through our link!
And speaking of television, here’s a preview of this week’s episode of Warehouse 13:
THE TINDER BOX AT THE BOX OFFICE
The movie to see in theaters this week is the Tim Burton-produced animated film 9 — but while everyone seems to be praising the “look” of the film, the reviews are surprisingly mixed (which doesn’t bode well, IMHO, since I think reviewers tend to be kind to a fault to Tim Burton, precisely because his films always look so great).
Movie DVD releases this week include X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(which I confess that missed in theaters and will, uh, probably miss on DVD as well — I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a single good thing about it) and the horror flick Grace.
Well, this week’s flame has sputtered out, but join me again next week when I promise I won’t be nearly so cranky.
Oh, who am I kidding?!
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Re: Buffy
I quite enjoy Buffy’s second season. Way more than I do its first season (of which I still can’t manage to sit through multiple episodes).
And even though I am a hardcore nutball Xenite, I still think that Buffy wins when it comes to being consistently well-written. TPTB on Xena took a lot of risk and some of them paid off, but some of them also resulted in truly horrendous episodes. On the whole, I think Buffy was better written, but for whatever reason, Xena still appeals to be more.
Re: Ash
Sounds very good. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
“Xena took a lot of risk and some of them paid off, but some of them also resulted in truly horrendous episodes. On the whole, I think Buffy was better written, but for whatever reason, Xena still appeals to be more.”
Yup, I still pretty much agree with this. (But we’ll see as I continue to marathon through the whole series!)
Re-imaginings are all the rage at the moment (Batman etc) and seem to in the main come off, but then they are also remaking “The Crow” which I think will disprove that theory quite quickly.
Buffy over a season is excellent, but one ep on its own is usually not enough as the individual plots arent always good enough. Plus I’d like to add that having watched plenty of Buffy I’d say that S1,6 and are poor as after S5 they were waiting for the end and S1 was set up.
Xena took more chances definitely, much more hit and miss though but for eps and two parts like The Debt, The Ring etc, and FiN there isnt a comparable in Buffy except for a whole season like S5. Its eps against series really.
I can give you three good things about Wolverine, Brent.
Hugh Jackman.
Liev Schreiber.
Muttonchops.
Oh and Ryan Reynolds wasn’t too hard to watch either.