Learning to Watch Episodic Television

 

Not me mind you, I grew up watching TV in the 60s and 70s. Episodic TV was normal for most of my life, but it is a relic of a time now past, and some people have trouble engaging with it.

I follow a number of podcasts where younger people watch movies and television and hearing their interaction with an episodic series like the original run of Star Trek is interesting.

Having known pretty much only serialized story telling where the events of earlier episodes influence or even drive the events of later episodes they are sometimes befuddled when the character don’t reach back and use solutions that they have already discovered. Or when the characters act surprised to learn some fantastic historical fact more than once. Such as ancient Greek gods were in fact visiting aliens, such as in original Star Trek episodes Who Mourns for Adonais and Plato’s Stepchildren. It is unnatural to their story consuming habits to treat each and every individual episode as a unique story independent of the others.

This is not a slight on them. Art changes and the art forms of earlier generations are rarely consumed or interpreted the same by following generations.  I have seen people perplexed by Rick in Casablanca waiting so long to shoot Major Strasser unused to a production code that forbade the hero for shooting a man, even a Nazi, who had not yet pulled his weapon. Strasser must try to shoot Rick before Rick is justified in shooting Strasser.

It will be interesting to see what new evolutions in story telling confound and confuse future artistic consumers.

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Can The World Please Stop Burning?

 

Man, the entire world seems to be a massive trash fire.

Russia, desiring to rebuild the former ‘glory’ of the Soviet Empire, more accurately Vladimir Putin, invaded the Ukraine. It is open, ugly, and deadly war. The West needs to be smart, cautious, and resolute if this is to have anything approaching a good ending with a free Ukraine and Baltic States.

It is looking more and more likely that the Supreme Court of the United States, with a conservative majority more than willing to tarnish the institution as an arm of one of the major political parties, will later this year overturn Roe v Wade marking what I think it the first time in American history that a recognized right will be repealed. There have been many rights that state and federal governments have failed to recognize but I think this is the first to be respected and then repealed.

Vast swaths of the Republican Party are now openly anti-democratic viewing elections not as the will of the populace but procedures to the hacked, manipulated, and subverted for their own benefit.

The Texas governor, not content with his citizens freezing to death while his senator evacuates to sunny Mexico, now wishes for the parents of trans children, and their existence is reality if you like or not, should possibly be investigated for child abuse if they support their child’s identity. As always with these people it is parental rights for me but not for thee.

 

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Resident Alien: Mid-Season Impressions

 

The SyFy channel’s series Resident Alien has been progressing through its second season and now with several episodes completed here are my thoughts.

For those who missed the first season the show is about an alien whose mission was to destroy human life on Earth. However, after crashing he becomes stranded and adopts the identity of a doctor in a tiny Colorado mountain town. The second season continue the story with several residents of the town aware of the doctor’s true nature and the conflict between the alien ‘harry’ and his emotional ties to his friends and humanity in general. There are also secret government agencies chasing after Harry to capture him.

The second season feels a little more scattered, with less narrative momentum than the first one, though the character interaction and rich comedy are still quite present. Harry had clear goals is season one which provided most of the character’s motivations and in this season, he seems more adrift, more buffeted by the plot than driving it. That said, the ending is where this ties together and it, they pull it off then the season will still be a success,

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Odds and Ends

 

So here are a few tidbits of personal news and happenings. Nothing earthshaking just life.

My novel in progress is coming along nicely. It is a military SF novel and this week it will likely pass 38,000 words written out of a total that should land somewhere in the area of 100,000. This version — I have written the story before to less than satisfactory results — is flowing much better and perhaps is even coming out better. I am averaging just over 1100 words a day five days a week.

Saturday, I ran the last session of my Space Opera for probably a month. Health concerns in my household are going to take up the majority of my time until late March. I am very pleased to say that the session was a success and while we ended in the middle of an adventure people seemed happy.

Royalty statements show sporadic sales of my published novel, Vulcan’s Forge but there is apparently no recovery from having the book released the same week that the world closed for the 2-year pandemic. Such is life. I can only move forward from here.

 

 

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Nightmare Alley (The Novel) — First Impressions

 

With del Toro’s recent release of Nightmare Alley, which is fantastic, and being a fan of the classic and also great 1947 production starring Tyrone Power, I thought it was time to read the source novel that both films adapted their screenplays from.

I am only a few chapters into William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare Alley, but I have already seen some fairly interesting and fundamental changes that both productions effected.

By far the most consequential change has been the age of Stanton Carlisle the story protagonist. Tyrone Power when he played the charming but doomed Stan was 33 and Bradley Cooper the star of del Toro’s production was 45 when filming started. However, in the novel, at least at the start of the story with Stan already a member of the 10-in-1 midways show, that character was a mere 21 years old. When Zeena seduces Stan because Pete’s alcoholism has rendered him impotent, it is Stan’s first sexual encounter. Stan’s naïveté in sexual matters and in life is already key elements in the novel’s construction.

That said it is clear that both adaptations paid serious respect to the novel, and I look forward to finishing the book.

 

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I Must Be Getting Old

 

First off, I am sorry that there haven’t been updates the past couple of weekdays. I just haven’t had a lot to write about on this blog before I go to work and perhaps it is because the work on my novel is going very well. (My minimum word count goal for the end of this week was to be at 30,000 words and I will be just north of 33,000. Yay team me!)

Later today I am going to be picking up from my local library branch a copy of as play Pools Paradise: A Farce in 3 acts by Phillip King. Now I am not the type of person who just sits around and reads plays for entertainment. Go and see them yes in pre-covid times but read them, not so much. What makes this different is that way way back in 1979 I appeared in a community theater production of this play.

This what I mean by I must be getting old, the reliving of things from my teenage youth.

I had a tremendously fun time acting in that play. The rehearsal where one actor flubbed a line in the climatic third act but the cascade from that out of sequence line delivery altered the next person’s line and then the next, tumbling out of control until it came around to me and not only did I have to work out the right line I had to do math on the fly in my head so the number that I said would actually match up to where we were in the characters countdown toward victory. The opening night when a prop clock flew off the stage, as it had during final dress rehearsal during which the director had advised the actor that if it did that the director would return it to the stage and that the actor should NOT leave the stage to get it. Or course she did, bouncing it off the tips of her fingers sending it rolling up the aisle where she chased like a kitten.

For a few months now I have been thinking about that play, what I remember from it and so on. Last week I discovered the city library has a copy and I had them dispatch to my local branch. It will be curious to see what I think of it reading something I spent so much time on 43 years ago.

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Movie Review: Death on the Nile

 

2022’s Death on the Nile is the second Hercule Poirot adaptation directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Christie’s famous Belgium detective.

After a brief prolog set during World War I, supplying some details of Poirot’s background, and a short sequence in a London Jazz club establishing some of the central characters the story starts off in earnest along the Nile river where, by seeming chance, encounter Poirot meets with an old friend and is soon entwined with a wealthy heiress’ wedding celebration. The heiress, Linnet Ridgeway and her husband are fearful a jealous ex-lover is stalking and may do harm to Linnet for stealing away her fiancé. Also aboard are a collection of eccentric characters who later all are revealed to have possible motivations for murder.

A good half of the film is dedicated to the set-up, giving the audience plenty of time to learn about the characters from their actions before Murder starts the tension climbing. After the murder and with suspicions quite high life aboard the chartered steamer turns dangerous and with its body count Death on the Nile does a far impression of a slasher where the kills are not graphically on screen.

Unlike the previous film in the adaptation series, Murder on the Orient Express, the resolution is quite believable though pushed the edge of credibility. The screenplay retains Christie’s hobbit of withholding some clue and revealing them only in the detective monolog but aside from that aspect the movie is quite enjoyable. Apparently invented for this film the background on Poirot gave the story some added depth and emotional resonance.

Death on the Nile is a decent film, better that Murder on the Orient Express and worth a watch.

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Near Noir: The Shadow on the Window

 

Noir Archive: Volume 3 a collection of Columbia film noirs, kicks off with The Shadow on the Window, a movie that might be better called noir-adjacent rather than an actual film noir.

Petey, a little boy, is traumatized after witnessing the murder of an elderly farmer and an attack on his mother. Nearly catatonic he runs/wanders off until through a few concerned citizens he is delivered to the police station where the audience learns he is the son of a detective, Tony Atlas, recently separated from his wife. Aware that his wife would never carelessly loose Petey, and that some traumatic events has unbalanced his son, Atlas and the police force begin search for the mother and attempt to unravel the mysterious event in a race against time.

The Shadow on the Window is a straightforward narrative with no unexpected reveals and twists in the plot. Linda Atlas is being held by three thugs who hadn’t intended on murder as part of their robbery and who now argue over how to deal with their captive. Detective Atlas follows leads and clues as he attempts to track back Petey’s course aware that his woofer is in danger but ignorant of enough specifics to effect an immediate rescue. With a short running time of 73 minutes Shadowdoesn’t lag or waste screen-time, always moving forward which helps considerably with its lack of mystery. In my opinion the best noirs often have a reveal in the third act that recontextualizes the previous story elements without that aspect Window plays more like a procedural drama than a murky noir of concealed motivations and alliances. Still, it entertains for the hour and a quarter it plays and the filmmakers throw enough obstacles into Detective Atlas’ investigation that the film has sufficient tension despite its production code enforced ending.

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The Downside of Easy International Media

 

The internet gives us access to news and popular culture from around the globe and sometimes that access prompts frustration.

This morning as I ate my customary breakfast of toast and eggs, yes, I live such an exciting life, one of the social media sites threw up the news that this year there was going to be a Norwegian werewolf movie, Vikingulven (Viking Wolf), complete with trailer.

Man, that looks good, and it had a Norwegian release date of August 27th but as of the time of this writing no US distribution. (Disappointed werewolf whimper.) There are few really good werewolf movies and this looks promising.

I guess I will have to wait and hope that one of the streamers picks it up. (Yes, I am looking at you Shudder.)

 

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Final Thoughts: The Book of Boba Fett

 

This week the Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett aired its final episode of season one. The show proved to be a disappointment. Now, I have never neem enthralled by the character of Boba Fett. In The Empire Strikes Back, he was clever, resourceful, and stood up to Bader but as a character he was essentially a cypher. His demise in Return of the Jedi was ham-handed and stank of authorial intrusion and as such he eventually survival rectified that mistake.

That said what transpired in this series lacked emotional heft. After slaughtering Jabba the Hutt’s successor Fett attempts to become the new crime lord for the city with a crew smaller than Jimmy the Gent’s in Goodfellas. Pitted against several crime families and an off-world drug syndicate Fett unites several disparate forces for a final stand to free the city of Mos Espa from the evil crime lords and syndicate.

At its heart it looked as if The Book Of Boba Fett actually had a story that could have been interesting. Fett, a ruthless and amoral bounty hunter learns, after living extensively with natives of the Tatooine dessert, that community matters and rejects his former life of hunting for one of protecting. Sadly, the execution of the series hopelessly muddled the story, and the series most emotionally meaningful moments all came from cameo of character visiting from the series The Mandalorian.

Perhaps a worse cinematic crime is that in the series finale the character of Boba Fett is made to be plainly stupid. Fett and his right-hand enforcer are pinned down at the west end of a wide street by an armed force closing in from the east. (I picked the directions at random so the blocking can be clear.) Suddenly new allies from the free town arrive and join the fight on Fett’s side. Do they attack from the east, forcing Fett’s attackers to defend from both sides? No, they swoop in and join Fett in being pinned down at the west end of the street. Then the Mods, colorful biker gang allies of Fett arrive, and go straight to west end and join in being pinned down. After than another ally, then experienced Wookie fighter also ignores attacking from the east and joins his already besieged allies. I muttered to my sweetie-wife as we watched ‘I wished my players were this stupid.’

An opportunity to expand and deepen the Star Wars universe had been wasted on confused storytelling and pointless action.

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