When news came yesterday shortly before noon that actor Adam West passed away, I wrote the following over on the comment section of i09.com:
The curse of growing old yourself is seeing all these people who have given you such joy themselves age and, in time, pass.
I liked Adam West and admired the work he did in his most famous role, that of Batman. Someone over on YouTube posted their favorite scenes from the 1966 Batman movie…
As you can see and, provided you’ve lived under a rock these past fifty or so years and therefore never heard of or saw the Batman TV series or the movie it was based on, this version of Batman was very much tongue in cheek and often quite silly.
And yet, what made it work was something the Zucker Brothers and Abraham did nearly a decade later with such films as Airplane!: The silliest crap works best when at least one person in the middle of it takes the material dead seriously.
This, effectively, was Adam West’s Bruce Wayne/Batman. In the middle of madness he was acting with a dead seriousness.
And it was ingenious!
As I wrote above, there is a curse to getting older and, part of that curse, is seeing people who you may or may not know personally but who you love for whatever reason also grow older. In some cases, you witness their passing and it really, really sucks.
Last year I was shocked and very saddened when David Bowie passed away. The realization there would be no more “new” David Bowie music, though one can hope some music hidden away in his vaults might see the light of day, is a startling thing, just as the thought of never seeing or hearing another Adam West bit hits me.
Time affect us all. Even the stars.
Rest in Peace, Mr. West.
You brought me plenty of joy over my lifetime and tonight, just for the heck of it, I might sit down and watch a few Bat-episodes on my Bat-TV.
Earlier this week FX played the 8th, and final, episode of the first season of the series Legion.
The series, tied in to the Marvel Comics X-Men series and, coming into it, I heard it was an ambitious, at times mind-bending work. How “close” it was to the various X-Men comics it is I cannot say.
What I can talk about is the series itself, which I found incredibly entertaining, with some caveats, the biggest of which is that at times the show ventured from weirdly engaging to just plain weird.
The show’s pilot was, as I stated in my original review, was humorous as weird but at times one admittedly had to have patience. The story was intriguing enough to keep me going, though even at a mere 8 episodes there was at least one which maybe could have been trimmed out without much loss (I forget which one it was…I think it might have been episode 6 which was simply one wild head-trip).
The show concerns David Haller (Dan Stevens) who is mentally disturbed and in an institution…and may have the mental power within him capable of destroying the world. One of his best friends there is Lenny Busker (Aubrey Plaza) who may or may not be real. The nature of Lenny becomes a central plot point of the series and Aubrey Plaza is a delight in a humorous and at times very scary role.
Into the institution appears Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller) who has secrets of her own, and the two are drawn to each other. Turns out Syd also has her secrets and her interest in David extends beyond mere attraction.
There are also a group of military figures who are interested in David and they kidnap him from the institution which, in turn, sets off Legion’s story.
I don’t want to give away more than this but suffice to say the series is intriguing, creative, suspenseful, and at times howlingly funny.
I also believe I know one of the show’s biggest kept secrets, which I’ll get to in a second (it does involve rather huge SPOILERS).
Anyway, if you haven’t given the show a try, do so. It’s weird and at times requires a bit of patience but it gets better and better as it goes along and its final two episodes, in particular, were knockouts.
Now, for those pesky…
SPOILERS
(abandon hope all ye who enter here)
Still there? Required statement: You have been warned.
So Legion involves a group of mutants led by Dr. Melanie Bird (Jean Smart) who are running from the government. The government, rightly, fears the mutants and wants to stop whatever they’re doing. The mutants, of course, want to survive.
In the course of the series Dr. Bird, it is revealed, has a husband, Oliver Bird (Jemaine Clement) who is apparently a very powerful mutant who got himself stuck in the “astral plane” for the past 20 or so years. He figures into the series, particularly the conclusion, and is at this point a confused individual who fancies himself a beat poet.
Ok, here’s the big SPOILER/SECRET I believe the show has hidden in plain sight: Dr. Melanie Bird and Oliver Bird are somehow the future/older versions of Syd Barrett and David Haller.
No, seriously.
Take a look at these images of Dr. Melanie Bird…
…and Syd Barrett:
As the series progressed, I was struck by how similar these two looked, as if one was an older version of the other.
Syd Barrett’s mutant power is that whomever she touches “switches” bodies with her. This process is painful to Syd and therefore she wears gloves and makes it a point of not touching people.
In the entire 8 episode run we’re never told -at least not to my memory- what Dr. Bird’s powers are. Why not? She runs a mutant enclave…surely she has a mutant power as well, right? So why make a secret of it? Could it be that revealing it would reveal she has the same powers as Syd?
My evidence, beyond simple visuals: Dr. Oliver often wears gloves, just like Syd. She also doesn’t touch others. Whenever Dr. Oliver talks to Syd and Syd tells her she’s going to do something -sometimes something Dr. Bird looks about to protest- Dr. Bird nonetheless holds her tongue and doesn’t question Syd’s judgment. It’s almost as if she realizes that Syd and her are the same person and therefore, how does she question the judgment of her own, albeit younger, self?
There’s a further point: Dr. Bird reacts very curiously to the attraction Syd has for David. It’s almost as if she realizes the person Syd loves is the same person she loves, which leads to the following:
If Syd Barrett and Dr. Bird are the same person, could David Haller and the astral-plane stranded husband of Dr. Melanie Bird, Oliver Bird, also be the same person?
Here’s Oliver Bird…
…and here’s David:
There is less visual similarity between the two versus Dr. Bird and Syd, but note the curious resolution presented in the show’s finale. When the parasitic creature within David is finally drawn out, it bounces around but where does it ultimately land?
In Oliver.
If Oliver is an “older” version of David, where else would a parasitic creature go to but to the one whose “soul” it most knows?
Now, as I stated before: I never read the comic books which featured these characters and therefore don’t know if this is an already known story concept (or, indeed, if I missed some clearer hint to this in the series itself).
Regardless, these are my theories. Perhaps they’re close to true?
My first big exposure to him was in Downton Abbey though this was far from his first screen appearance. Then, when watching the 2014 film The Guest, I just knew I recognized the actor who played “David”, the mysterious homicidal killer. It was, of course, Mr. Stevens, this time very buff compared to his more doughy look in Downton.
Well, he’s about to appear in the Emma Watson starring Beauty and the Beast (and he plays the Beast!) but, in the meantime, we have the premiere, yesterday, of Legion, an FX series with ancillary ties to the famous X-Men universe wherein Mr. Stevens plays the show’s primary role, that of the mutant David Haller.
Once again Mr. Stevens disappears into the role. Unlike both Downtown or The Guest, here Mr. Stevens looks, dare I say it, scrawny and his character has great difficulties dealing with reality. His telekinetic mutant powers, however, may well be among the strongest in this show’s universe, and that makes him a target of at least two rival forces.
I enjoyed Legion, though the first half of the premiere episode, IMHO, was much worse than the second half. There was a little too much crazy in that first half but once the plot started to reveal itself the show became very intriguing.
Having said that, what’s also intriguing, at least to me, is the influence David Cronenberg’s early films, particularly his 1981 film Scanners, continues to exert. The fact of the matter is that one could almost view Legion as a modernized update of Scanners, complete with telekinetic mutants and shady government forces try to control them…
Granted, the X-Men comic books came before Scanners, first appearing waaaaay back in 1963. However, it wasn’t until around the time Scanners first appeared (a little earlier, granted) that they became very popular.
Was Cronenberg influenced by older X-Men and then the newer, more popular X-Men were influenced by Cronenberg?
The timing is curious, to say the least.
Anyway, Legion’s premiere was intriguing and, at times, quite humorous. Kudos to Aubrey Plaza for playing one of the inmates in the mental ward who has the ear of David. The third biggest character in the premiere is Rachel Keller’s Syd Barrett (her name being an obvious nod to one of Pink Floyd’s founders who dropped out of the band after he had mental issues…and was a great source of inspiration to the band during their golden years). Ms. Keller has an intriguing screen presence and I’m curious what we’ll learn regarding her character.
I don’t know how close Legion is to the various X-Men related comics out there. Frankly, I’ve never followed them all that closely though I have read some of the “classic” stories, including all the Neal Adams illustrated issues as well as most of the Claremont/Byrne issues, which included the famous Dark Phoenix and Days of Futurepast storylines.
If you haven’t done so already, give Legion a try. If you’re anything at all like me, the first thirty or so minutes of the premiere might try your patience but stick with it. Things come together quite nicely by the end.
You know, I’ve been away these past three days and it feels like I’ve missed just about everything that happened this busy weekend.
What, you say Saturday Night Live had a Trump related skit that was hilarious but didn’t feature Alec Baldwin as President Trump?! Come on, man, that’s not possi–
Oh my. That is hilarious. So funny that I’m sure if there was an Alec Baldwin President Trump skit, it must not have been that goo–
I stand corrected. Keep it up guys and gals.
******
On Sunday we had this little sport event over here on our side of the pond (and within the borders of our country) which we call the Super Bowl. It featured the surprising Atlanta Falcons, whom pretty much everyone hoped would win, against the (boo! hiss!) New England Patriots.
I’ve mentioned it before but when I was young, I didn’t really care to watch sports. It was really boring to me. Sometime shortly after starting my first year in a University, I slowly began to appreciate sports. Eventually, I became a sports fanatic, though my interests are most certainly local.
I’ve mentioned before how I saw, on TV, almost every single game played by the then Florida Marlins (They’re now called the Miami Marlins) back in 1997 for what turned out to be their first Championship series. There was no way going into the season to think they’d make it to the playoffs, much less with the Championship, yet they did and I’ll be damned if I missed even five games of that season, so devoted was I to watching.
By that point, however, I watched the Florida Panthers, I watched the Miami Heat. And of course I watched the Miami Dolphins, my gateway drug team.
You would think after such a magical year of viewership, culminating in “my” team getting the ultimate prize, I’d become a full-fledged MEGA-fan.
This was not to be.
While I had great fun watching “my” team through that year, after the glow of the ultimate win faded away, I thought back to all those hours I spent watching the games and realized how incredibly lucky I was to see a season end this year…and how very, very, very unlikely it was I’d have that chance again.
I also did the math and realized I had spent and awful lot of hours watching sports when I could have been doing something else.
You know, like writing.
So I dialed it all back. Waaaaaay back.
I still like catching a game here and there, though I’ve for the most part given up completely on Hockey and Baseball. Yeah, I may be a “fair weather” fan, I suppose, as both our Hockey and Baseball teams have seen better days. I barely catch Miami Heat games nowadays and, again, that could be a sign of my fair weather nature.
Yet I do catch the Miami Dolphin games and, of all sports, Football seems to be the one I stick with the most.
Part of the reason is that it doesn’t require quite as big a time investment as the other sports. A Football season lasts 17 weeks and each team plays 16 games (each team has a 1 week “bye”). In theory and if you make it to the playoffs, you may have another 2-3 games to play before its all over, depending on your rankings going into the post season.
Getting back to this Super Bowl, it featured the greatest comeback by a “down” team to win. Of course, that team was the (boo! hiss!) New England Patriots and this article by Drew Magary pretty much explains why…
It encapsulates my feelings as well. You can be a good team, hell, you can be the BEST team ever with the best Quarterback ever and the best Coach ever, and still be reviled for what’s been found out about you. Specifically, your history of cheating. Or, to be more clear, of being caught cheating.
Still, since I’ve become less of a sports fanatic than before (trust me, it is true), I’ve come to the realization that there’s no reason to get so damn emotionally invested in these games.
Sure, I’d love my Dolphins to rise up from the pit they’ve been in for far too many years and finally return to the glory they once possessed, but let’s face it: The Dolphins, and indeed every team in the NFL, is part of a business organization that looks out for their bottom line. They all have high paid athletes whose emotional investment in the games they play is far above and beyond any fans’ investment as they are, you know, actually playing the games.
Further, sports is one of the most cut-throat goal oriented businesses out there. You’re either good or not and the proof is spelled out by the score at the end of the game and your record at the end of the season.
The Patriots are good. My Dolphins, not so much (though after this past year, there’s some hope!).
Though there is no love for the Patriots in me, I caught this article over at Huffington Post and even those most repulsed-by-the-Patriots, those who think Tom Brady should take a long walk on the proverbial short pier, should read this:
I don’t know about you, but if there’s one pleasant thing to glean from the Patriots’ latest Super Bowl win is the thought that it gave Galynn Brady, Tom Brady’s mother, a reason to smile.
Even the most cold-hearted anti-Patriot fan should take a look at this photograph and recognize that it, if nothing else, is reason to be, if not happy for the Patriots, at least feel happy for Galynn.
A couple of days ago it was announced that Mary Tyler Moore, perhaps one of the biggest female TV stars of the 60’s and, especially the 1970’s, passed away at the age of 80…
I can’t say I was a big fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66), perhaps Ms. Moore’s breakout role which featured her as Mr. Van Dyke’s wife Laura Petrie. The show aired a little before my time and while growing up I can’t recall finding it in reruns like many other 1960’s era shows and therefore never was exposed to it to any great degree.
However, I do recall being entertained by the Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) and the cast of characters she worked with (the seemingly immortal Betty White being among the featured co-stars!). Perhaps the most famous element of the show is its opening crawl which concludes with Ms. Moore famously throwing her hat in the air (the below clip also features the very last scene from the very last episode of the show)…
I have to admit, back then I -and I’m sure just about every male watching- had something of a crush on Ms. Moore. She, and her character, were charming, likable, and had charisma to spare. It’s indeed sad to read of her passing.
Just as this news made its way to the various websites came word that Mike Connors had also passed away. Mr. Connors is best known for playing the lead role in the detective drama Mannix which ran from 1967 through 1975. This show was a favorite of mine while growing up and I’m not ashamed to say I have the entire eight season run on DVD. Like the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mannix featured a very memorable opening…
By one count, (Mike Connors’) Joe Mannix was shot 17 times and knocked unconscious another 55.
Eight seasons playing a gumshoe will do that to you, I suppose. Had such a person existed in real life, its extremely doubtful he would have made it to 91.
Rest in peace Ms. Moore and Mr. Connors. You enlivened this young boy’s early years with a combination of laughs and suspense.
Taking up where 2016 left off, yesterday came news of the passing of Miguel Ferrer, who was only 61 years old and suffered from throat cancer.
While his name may not be as familiar to the public as that of his famous cousin George Clooney, Miguel Ferrer, who was the son of noted actor Mel Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney, leaves behind a great body of cinematic and television role work.
Perhaps his best known role, and likely the one that catapulted him the most to being a “star”, may be that of the slimy, yet ultimately oddly sympathetic yuppie Bob Morton from the original 1987 RoboCop. Here’s a behind the scenes examination of his character’s exit from the movie…
Mr. Ferrer would often play these arrogant, slimy characters yet manage to make audiences feel for them even if they are, on paper anyway, off-putting.
However, though perhaps known for that persona, Mr. Ferrer appeared in many other works and I’ll remember him for roles in TV and film as diverse as Deepstar Six (cheesy fun), Twin Peaks, Hot Shots Part Deux (he is quite funny in this somewhat forgotten Charlie Sheen starring Airplane!-like comedy), and The Night Flier.
61 years of age is far too young an age to pass. Rest in peace, Mr. Ferrer.
I really like the Benedict Cumberpatch/Martin FreemanSherlock series. The show, which first premiered in 2010, just started its fourth season. This season, like the others, features only a few “episodes”, in this case four. The first episode in the fourth season, The Abominable Bride, premiered, if you can believe it, exactly one year before this episode, on January 1, 2016! Though there are few “episodes” per season, truth be told each one is more like a full feature film.
Anyway, what made Sherlock stand out, at least when it originally premiered in 2010, was the fact that it was set in modern times. This isn’t a new concept, however. When the original stories were written, of course, they were set in the then “modern” days. At least one of the well regarded Basil Rathbone Holmes’ film, 1942’s The Woman in Green, was set in the then present World War II era.
Apart from modern technology and its present setting, what makes Sherlock work so well is the great acting, for the most part great scripts, and the laugh out loud moments. This is not just a good series, but a great one, in my humble opinion. The only episode of the run thus far I can think of that disappointed me was, ironically enough, their version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (their version was retitled The Hounds of the Baskerville), arguably the most famous of all of Mr. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.
For about 1 hour and 20 or so minutes of season four’s second episode, entitled The Six Thatchers, I was completely engrossed and delighted by what I saw. This was damn good television, first dealing (I’ll try to be vague here to avoid spoilers, for now) with a leftover from a crime presented last season and its coverup before settling on the main mystery involving six busts which, you guessed it, are of Margaret Thatcher.
There were plenty of twists and turns and things don’t always make a heck of a lot of sense (only six such busts were ever made? And they can be traced to the six people who bought it years before and they still have them?!), but the fact is that Sherlock works even when the plot get overly busy…or just plain silly. Again, its the breezy nature of the show, the witty and at times hilarious banter, that keeps everything moving.
But those last eight or so minutes of the episode…
Ugh.
I’ll now, alas, get into SPOILERS so if you haven’t seen the episode and intend to, please stop reading right now. I’ll get into this after the trailer…
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!
Still here? Ok, I think I’ve offered enough warning.
Between the central mystery, the episode also deals with Watson and his wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) having a child and Sherlock’s (of course) weird reactions/interactions with the child. As it turns out, the central mystery of the episode winds up involving Mary and, more specifically, her past.
In Sherlock’s reality, the character of Mary Morstan was a highly skilled, super-secret mercenary. In short, she was a very efficient wetworks officer and part of a group of four who carried on with some very sordid affairs. She gives this up to be with Watson and has a child but the mystery of the “Six Thatchers” winds up relating directly to her.
In her last mission, things went very bad and Mary thought her fellow mercs were killed. One was not. He was tortured for years and, while listening to his captors talk, thought Mary had betrayed the group and therefore he wanted to get her…and get revenge. I won’t go into more details here, but suffice to say that eventually it is discovered a seemingly mousy secretary was the real culprit and Sherlock and Mary confront her at an aquarium.
Here’s where things get really stupid.
Others show up, including Inspector Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes and several other police. The woman is surrounded yet she draws a gun. They talk to her, tell her to put it down, but she’s set off and fires at Sherlock…and Mary jumps in front of Sherlock and takes the bullet intended for him.
She dies.
Christ.
Look, I know the Mary Morstan character dies in the Doyle stories. Killing off a female, especially one bound to one of a series’ main characters, isn’t a terribly new concept as we then have the characters revert to their original state (check out how many women romance the Cartwright brothers in Bonanza only to either leave at episode’s end or die tragically and be completely forgotten by the next episode of the show). Boys will be boys and having a “woman” attached to one of the characters can be viewed as problematic to storytelling.
However, the manner in which they kill Mary is so damn stupid. I mean, is that the best they could come up with? Have this mousy elder woman completely surrounded by (one has to assume) well armed officers yet she manages to fire off a shot? In the time it takes her to get the gun out of her purse she could -and should!- have been taken out by either the brainy Sherlock Holmes or the deadly assassin for hire Mary, both of which stood only feet away from her.
Further, Mary “jumping” in front of the bullet also feels dumb. The way its presented in the episode, she fires and then Mary jumps in front of the bullet. Sorry, but it just don’t work that way. The bullet would hit Sherlock well before Mary could react, much less jump in front of him.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
They say familiarity breeds contempt and, granted, we now have several episodes of Sherlock and, perhaps, as a viewer I’m a little more discerning and less forgiving for perceived failures. Perhaps.
Still, this is the first time an episode ending left me so disappointed. I’m not giving up on the show, of course. Even with the terrible (IMHO!) ending, the rest of the episode was delightful. Let’s just hope the remaining two episodes to come redeem this horrible ending.
One can always quibble with lists like this one. For example Space 1999, and Stargate SG1 are given higher positions on this list compared to Aeon Flux, which barely lands on the list at #39.
Now, I don’t have anything against these three shows. Space 1999 had some absolutely stellar effects and it was so much fun to see the then wed couple of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain together after Mission: Impossible. But let’s face it, the stories weren’t all that great. Some were, like the show’s concept of the Moon being ripped from Earth orbit and wandering space (and quickly finding aliens and adventure), rather laughable. HOWEVER, if I were making a list of best TV show music themes (whether sci-fi or not), then Space 1999 is right there close to the top…
Also, when you get to the top 5, it seems to me The Prisoner should be higher. I have no qualms with (SPOILER ALERT!) Star Trek and Twilight Zone taking up #1 and 2 respectively. I have no problem also with Dr. Who being at #4. And Battlestar Galactica, the new version, most certainly is a great show, though it was marred by a bad last season/conclusion. I would switch Battlestar Galactica from #3 and move it to #5 and raise The Prisoner up to #3.
Thus, my top 3 personal all time favorite sci-fi TV shows would be Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and The Prisoner. In that order. I guess two out of three ain’t bad?!
The second big topic will be: What is missing from this list?
Where’s Person of Interest? Or the delightful and wild Farscape?! How about the “wow, this series is actually damn good” Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Then there’s the weird and wild UFO, to my mind a better series by the same people behind Space 1999.
UFO, which as you can see from its intro theme, featured a Moon Base, was reportedly the inspiration for Space 1999. And if you’re willing to put it in the sci-fi category, I’d also add the wonderful Wild, Wild West. The show was basically James Bond in the Wild West and it was a freaking blast (To keep sane, forget a Will Smith movie version was ever made). It too had a great theme…
So there’s at least five shows I’d add to the list. But to add them to the list I’d have to remove some others. There are a few shows listed in the Rolling Stone article I’m not familiar with/haven’t seen any episodes of so sticking with those I have seen, there are three for sure that wouldn’t make my list.
First up would be the original V. While I liked the mini-series, afterwards and when it went to full seasons V lost it pretty quickly. Two others I wouldn’t include are Dollhouse and Quantum Leap. I understand what some loved about Quantum Leap, but the show never appealed to me. On the other hand, I can’t understand the love for Dollhouse. The early episodes of the series suggested creator/cult figure Joss Whedon was completely winging it. The show was erratic and made very little sense and then, when the ratings faltered, it got “serious” and presented a conclusion. Like the series itself, the conclusion was…weird. Didn’t really care for it.
So there you have it for what its worth. Your mileage, as they say, may vary!
Yesterday I wrote about the finale of season 2 of Ash v Evil Dead and how the showrunner of the series up to this point, Craig DiGregorio, left the show after that second season and allowed himself to be interviewed as to why. It turned out there were strong creative differences between one of the show’s producers, strongly hinted as being Robert Tapert, and he. The end result of these differences was a season 2 finale that was very different from what Mr. DiGregorio intended (you can read about all that, including how he wanted to end the season, here).
In my original writings linked to above, I noted that I wasn’t all that impressed with the season 2 finale though I really liked all the stuff that happened before it. Overall I felt season 2 was even better than season 1 of Ash v Evil Dead, though each suffered from rather lame (IMHO!) finales.
After reading Mr. DiGregorio’s interview and how he intended to finish off season 2, I was left incredibly conflicted. On the one hand, Mr. DiGregorio steered the show through two very fun and enjoyable seasons and he clearly steered the show, story-wise, in a certain direction which was leading up tohis version of the season 2 finale. As detailed in his interview, the character of Kelly Maxwell (Dana DeLorenzo) was to be revealed, because of the time traveling shenanigans of the leads, to be the daughter of Ash (Bruce Campbell).
In retrospect, this was set up almost from the show’s very beginning! Please note this, the season 1 trailer, and particularly the lines of dialogue at the 2:47 minute mark:
Bear in mind, this trailer was released before even one episode of the first season aired. The line of dialogue in which Ash states he feels Kelly is a younger version of him, is the first of many hints given through the first and second seasons of the show that Ash and she share some kind of commonality.
What is so damn perplexing in my mind is: How could the people behind the show go through almost two full seasons giving us these little hints and setting up this big reveal… and then at what appears to be the very last second scuttling it and going in a completely different (and for my money, far lamer) conclusion?!
But as I said above, I felt conflicted by learning this information. The fact is that as much control as Mr. DiGregorio had over the first two seasons of the Ash v Evil Dead, he was not one of the three people who actually control the characters and concepts. Robert Tapert, who was implied as being the one responsible for nixing Mr. DiGregorio’s original concept for the season 2 finale is, for better or worse, one of the people who has been with the Evil Dead series since the very first film was released back in 1981. He is one of the owners of the franchise and he certainly has every right in the world to demand things be done to his standards.
The big question is: Why did it take so long for him to realize he didn’t want to go in this particular direction?
I get from Mr. DiGregorio’s interview that the season finale as presented was a rush job as the original script and his concepts were scuttled at the very last minute. That certainly explains why many of the hints of Kelly’s background remain sprinkled throughout the show’s two seasons.
So I have to ask: What happened?
Was Mr. Tapert not aware of the direction Mr. DiGregorio was going in? If so, was Mr. Tapert not as hands on as he should have been and only now decided to flex his creative muscles? Or could it be that Mr. DiGregorio failed in fully briefing his bosses and didn’t give him sufficient “heads up” about his ideas for the Kelly character?
Either way it seems communication was an issue between the two and, sadly, it resulted in Mr. DiGregorio not only walking away from a series he had done some damn good work on, but also removing what could have been a far more exciting conclusion to this second season that what was made.
Like everyone else, I have no idea how Ash v Evil Dead will be next season. The show will have a new creative overseer and, I’m assuming, he will be more compliant to Mr. Tapert’s ideas of where the show should go.
I’m trying to be optimistic but these revelations have shaken my faith -at least a little- in what to expect in the final product.
I’m not alone in loving most of the Evil Dead series. What started as a low budget movie released in 1981…
…was “rebooted” into a satisfying horror/comedy mix which absolutely worked in 1987’s Evil Dead II.
So successful was this film that in 1992 we were treated with a third movie, Army of Darkness. In this movie’s case, we moved farther away from horror and more into straight up comedy…
Like Evil Dead II, I loved it. Audiences, however, didn’t. Not at that time. In fact, Army of Darkness was a flop when it was initially released though subsequent home video releases made plenty for the studios. However, that initial failure is the reason it took many years, twenty one in fact, before we had another Evil Dead feature. 2013’s reboot, entitled Evil Dead, was a straight up horror movie which, IMHO, wasn’t all that great, though I do think the trailer is creepy as hell…
This film did well at the box office and, with the realization that perhaps there was a demand for more Bruce Campbell starring Evil Dead, the wheels were in motion. It would come to be. Not as a new movie but rather a series from Starz titled Ash vs Evil Dead…
The first season of this series, IMHO, was quite good and took the same blend of horror and comedy that worked so well in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. I loved the new show though I thought its finale wasn’t all that great. Still, it was a very entertaining ride and I very much looked forward to season 2.
The second season, IMHO, was absolutely glorious, better than the quite good season 1. Last Sunday, December 11th, the season finale of season 2 of Ash vs Evil Dead was played and…I’m sad to report history repeated itself. As good as the second season was, I found the final episode/resolution, like season 1’s, also disappointing
Turns out, there might be a reason for that.
Craig DiGregorio, Ash v Evil Dead’s showrunner, left the series after season 2 and, following the presentation of the season finale, was interviewed on why he left the show. As it turns out, there were considerable creative differences between he and producer Robert Tapert (who has been with the Evil Dead series since its inception) which resulted in a last minute rewrite/reworking of the season 2’s finale.
If you have seen season 2 of the show and are curious as to what the original plans for the finale were, check out this interview with Mr. DiGregorio…
I won’t go into all the details presented in the interview as they speak for themselves, but the ending Mr. DiGregorio was working at sure sounds a lot better than what we were given. Again, the season itself was a complete blast and therefore I can’t be too unhappy by the fact that the final episode didn’t work for me as well as it should have.
I am, however, concerned about what will come.
Mr. DiGregorio, whether you agree with his opinions or not (or feel he shouldn’t have spoken out as he did, biting the hand that feeds you and all that), was behind two for the most part delightful seasons of the show. While Ash v Evil Dead tended to lean toward comedy and some felt there should have been more of a balance between that and horror, I loved it…well, again, except for the end of season 1 and now the end of season 2.
Would Mr. DiGregorio’s original ideas have worked better? We’ll never really know though the ideas he presents are certainly far more ambitious and, to my mind, interesting than (SPOILERS!) the bland celebratory festival we were given in the season 2 finale, which played out like -of all things- the ending of Return of the Jedi, complete with ghostly apparitions giving our heroes the “thumbs up”.
I point all this out -and if you’ve paid attention to the headline of this blog entry- because we’re dealing with the job of writing here.
When I was considerably younger, I dreamed of one day being the writer of Batman. I loved, loved, loved the character and having a hand in his stories was my ultimate writer’s dream. Mind you, this was before Batman became BATMAN, the character everyone now knows and loves. Back when I had this dream, Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Tim Burton’s Batman movie was still to be and the multi-billion dollar franchise megalith the character has become wasn’t quite there.
Yes, people knew the character, if only from the Adam West TV series, but he was far from the character everyone knows and loves today.
Which means if you are the writer of Batman today you have to deal with the suits behind the character. You have to please them as much -probably even more!- than the readers. You have to heed their advice even if it means cutting story ideas you may love to pursue what the people who own the character want you to do.
In the case of Mr. DiGregorio, it feels like he was in a similar situation. He spent two years devoted to Ash v Evil Dead and, for the most part, delivered a pretty damn great product. If his interview reveals anything it is that some of his concepts and ideas -and most certainly his ending to season 2 of the series- clashed with producer Robert Tapert’s vision. Clearly these clashes were too much and he left the show. Equally clearly, he’s not all that happy with the “new” ending which was imposed upon the season.
Yet he’s also sanguine enough to note that Mr. Tapert, being one of the people behind the Evil Dead from its inception, rightfully had the power and right to exercise control over the product and impose his ideas over Mr. DiGregorio’s.
Some have said this interview was a hatchet job directed at Mr. Tapert, a one-sided low blow from a disgruntled writer who thinks himself bigger than those who created the series to begin with.
I suppose it is possible but what I read was an interview with a man who clearly put in a great deal of effort into a product he was proud of but ultimately had to leave it over creative differences. Then again, as I writer, I have sympathy for someone who works hard on a creative idea only to see it scuttled for something they may feel is inferior.
Think about that: Mr. DiGregorio is a writer. His profession offers almost no guarantees of a steady paycheck, yet he lands a plum job working on a successful series. He could have swallowed his pride and “gone with the flow” and continued his job but felt that his vision and the producers clashed so much that he decided to walk away.
From a well paying, high profile job.
There was rancor in the interview, certainly, and Mr. DiGregorio is clearly nursing a bruised ego. But I didn’t read the same levels of rancor some have said there was. He appeared sanguine about the situation and noted he had to go because he simply didn’t have the power over the product and didn’t want to continue clashing with the producer who clearly wasn’t into his ideas.
This, to me, is the adult way of going about things.
I suppose the big question becomes: How will the show do without Mr. DiGregorio? If he was responsible for many of the good things the series presented in its first 2 seasons, how will things go with season 3?
