Category Archives: TV

Comic Books/Graphic Novels, TV

The Walking Dead…

One of the most popular shows on TV these past few years has been The Walking Dead.  Airing on AMC, the show -for those few who don’t bother watching television and/or have lived inside a very deep cave these past years (Trump is the elected President…sorry to have to scare you with that bit of news!)- the show is about a group of people who have banded together after a zombie apocalypse and try to survive.

The show was based on a comic book of the same name…

Image result for the walking dead comic

…which back in the day and well before the TV show started I happened to like quite a bit.

Anyway, now in its seventh season, The Walking Dead TV show, according to this article by Charlie Mason for tvvine.com, has hit a four year ratings low.  Mr. Mason explores the “whys” in his article:

6 Possible Reasons The Walking Dead Hit A Four Year Ratings Low

As I mentioned above, I was a big fan of the comic book.  Would it surprise you if I said I haven’t watched even one full episode of the TV show?  I’ve caught bits and pieces (no pun intended) of the show here and there, and I admit it interests me to read about it (just as I pointed out the above article) but I have no interest at all in spending time with the TV show.

Why?

I think one of the 6 reasons Mr. Mason listed in the above article applies quite a bit to me and my feelings for the comic book series, though I will take that and expand on it some in a moment, and it in turn clouded my interest in seeing the show.  To wit, Mr. Mason’s reason #6 why viewership of the show might be down is:

6 | It’s depressing as hell

The Walking Dead worked for me as a comic book because it was an at times relentlessly bleak look at a post-apocalyptic world.  It was also ballsy as hell, willing to kill beloved and not so beloved characters with startling impunity.

However, the comic book series reached a point where it started to, IMHO, lose considerable steam.  Its possible that at that time creator/writer Robert Kirkman was involved in the TV version’s genesis and therefore was a little distracted (the timing is roughly right).

Anyway, our band of survivors made their way to a fortress prison and realized this was a perfect place for them to hunker down.  They cleaned out the zombies within the prison and thanks to the heavy fences they were indeed safe from the zombies outside.

The comic book series, IMHO, at that point started to sputter.  In many ways Mr. Kirkman had written himself into a corner: With our survivors really safe, we had one issue of the comic book after another devoted to them interacting and, without that sense of danger, things grew…dull.

I recall at the time I wasn’t the only person who felt this.  If memory serves, there were letters within the book itself noting things were a little too placid, and I recall Mr. Kirkman responding to some of those concerns by saying things would turn.

They did.

What happened in the comic book was that all hell broke loose and, in one single page, I lost all interest in the book.  Look below at your own peril…

Image result for the walking dead comic death of lori

This was the death of Lori Grimes and her newborn child as she was running from the antagonists du jour as the prison situation went belly up.

When I reached that page of the book, I quite literally put the book down and never bought another issue of The Walking Dead.

Killing off a character like Lori Grimes and their newborn child within the grim context of The Walking Dead wasn’t what bothered me.  Many other interesting/likeable characters had met their ends before and given what the series was about, killing Lori Grimes and her child was something that was possible.

But the way it was presented?  A full page, blood splattered panel like that one?

I felt like Mr. Kirkman and the comic’s artist decided they’d really show all those people who thought the series was going “soft” what-for.

So they did.

They did it in a way that, to my eyes, was incredibly, awfully, unforgivably, sadistic and cruel.

Again, killing Lori Grimes and her newborn was something a series as grim and bleak as The Walking Dead could most certainly do.

But did they have to do it this way?  Did they have to be so nasty about it?

That was the point, for me, that The Walking Dead had simply gone a step too far and I couldn’t continue with it.  Clearly I wasn’t in any sort of majority here for the series, and the TV show, continue to this day.

But perhaps the most recent events (I’ll not spoil them) have created in others the feeling I had when I saw the above page.  Perhaps there comes a time when a enjoyable -yet bleak- series takes things one step too far and its a step many are unwilling to follow.

Then again, maybe the show will rebound and come back stronger than ever.  As with so many things, we’ll see.

General, Movies, Music, TV

Time marches on…sadly…

2016 will likely be remembered as the year far too many people in the entertainment business died.

The year started with the shocking news of the passing of David Bowie, though fans of the singer long suspected he suffered from health issues following the abrupt ending of the Reality Tour, due to a heart attack, in 2004, and his subsequent 10 year sabbatical.  He would release two more albums, the second of which, Blackstar, was clearly meant to be a “goodbye” album.

More recently we’ve had the passing of accomplished (and extremely talented) actor Gene Wilder.

There are other things one notices when one gets older.

When I saw the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I was somewhat taken aback by how old both Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford looked in the film but, let’s face it, the last time they were in a Star Wars feature it was Return of the Jedi and that film was released in 1983 (for those counting, thirty three years ago).

Today came this bit of sad news in an article written by Scott Eric Kaufman and presented on salon.com:

Monty Python founding member Terry Jones diagnosed with dementia

One of the startling things one realizes with the passage of time is that the many people out there you hold in high esteem, be they musicians like David Bowie or actors such as Gene Wilder or comedians like Terry Jones, are all too human.

As high a pedestal as we may place them upon, we all carry the same flesh and blood and are thus just as susceptible to the passage of time.

In my mind, I picture David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust or as The Thin White Duke, or that too-cool Let’s Dance crooner.  I see him older, too, yet holding up remarkable well during his final full tour, The Reality Tour…

Gene Wilder, as well, sticks in my mind for his acting in The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Silver Streak…he’s forever frozen in those features.  Forever frozen during those more youthful years.

Like many, I love the Monty Python troupe and their absurdist humor.  The original show was great (well, except for the final John Cleese-less season).  I loved the first two Monty Python films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Life of Brian.  Life of Brian, in particular, is along with Airplane! one of my all time favorite comedies ever.  Not only was Terry Jones a writer and actor in both films, he was also the co-director of one, The Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam co-directed) and sole director of the other.

According to the article, the Terry Jones’ disease is such that…

(It) affects his ability to communicate and he is no longer able to give interviews.

Incredibly, incredibly sad to read.

When news like this hits I can’t help but think we should take a moment to appreciate what time we have on this planet and, further, appreciate the works of others who entertain us with their hard work.

Not to end the week on such a down note, but there will inevitably come a day when we cannot do so anymore.

TV

A quick recommendation…

Are you watching this show?

Have to say, when I first heard about the show (I never bought the comic books it is based -loosely, I understand- on) I wasn’t all that interested.

Over time I caught an episode here and there of the first season and soon enough, I was hooked.

For a show that deals with the devil quitting his job of running hell and walking the earth (quite literally), and then goes into the all too-cliched direction of his becoming an odd-ball partner with a police officer and solving crimes (essentially a supernatural version of Castle!), Lucifer winds up nonetheless being an absolute hoot.

The show benefits from the fact that despite the potentially “heavy” and “horror” possibilities, it zigs when it could have zagged and has an incredible sense of humor about itself.  The stars of the show, pretty much all of them, shine and come together as quite the ensemble.

When the second season began this past Monday, I told my wife she needed to see it.  She figured a show about Satan on Earth had to be some kind of grim horror show but I told her she’d be surprised.

She was.  Pleasantly so.

If you’re looking for something worth killing time on, you’d do far worse than check out Lucifer.

TV

Star Trek at 50

I’ve written before about the very first film I ever saw and realized was telling a story, Duel, waaaay back when it probably originally aired (or very shortly thereafter) in 1971.

It still amazes me that it would be a Steven Spielberg film (his first huge success, too) that ushered in my understanding and love of movies.  (In those pre-internet days, it wouldn’t be until maybe 10 years later, in the early 1980’s, when I got a chance to see the film again and was stunned to realize Duel was directed by Mr. Spielberg!).

But what got me into science fiction, and perhaps into television in general, was the original Star Trek series.  Like with Duel, I distinctly remember the first Star Trek episode I saw.  Turned out, it was the first one originally aired, as well, though when I first saw it the show was already at least 2-3 years post-cancellation…

While I’m certain anyone who sees the episode today will probably not find it all that scary, for me back then -and I couldn’t have been much more than 6 years old when I first saw it- it scared the hell out of me.

There was something so creepy about the alien killer and the way it left its victims that, to this day, still strikes a nerve.

Over the years, I managed to catch all the episodes of the original series.  While I still like The Man Trap, my favorite episode of the original 3 year run is this one…

It had it all: Suspense, terror, a formidable (and seemingly indestructible) villain, and what was the episodes coup de grace: the badly damaged starship U.S.S. Constellation.

Why was the ship so important?

Because it was essentially a “sister” ship to the Enterprise and by showing it mauled and clearly at the losing end of a fierce fight, viewers instantly knew the danger the Enterprise faced was a damned serious one.

That alone. however, didn’t make the episode such a standout.  The fact is the director Marc Daniels and the screenplay by Norman Spinrad, along with the usual great acting from the cast and crew, make this episode my favorite.

Interestingly, actor William Windom, who played the Constellation’s Captain Decker, stated he didn’t enjoy working on the episode because at the time the relationship between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy was tense which meant the entire set was tense and, further, he also felt the script was silly.

I’m always fascinated with behind the scene stories like these.  What to the viewer may be an impeccably delivered entertainment may be something very different to those who actually participated in it and it would seem this may have been the case, at least in Mr. Windom’s eyes, as the episode was being made.

Regardless, I love The Doomsday Machine and, in honor of Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary, offer a few more of my all time favorite original Star Trek episodes.  I’ll try to stick to ones that aren’t super-well known to everyone, though I did just that with the first one listed (oh well).

If you’ve never seen the series, you can do no wrong with the two mentioned above and the 4 (5 if you count the two-parter) mentioned below:

City on the Edge of Forever

This episode was written by noted sci-fi author Harlan Ellison but changes were made which left him bitter about the final product.  If you’re interested in reading the original script, it is available for purchase…

Having read it and as an author myself, I’m in the rather uncomfortable position of saying…the TV episode was better.  Some of Mr. Ellison’s complaints regarding the changes made are logical (he was bitterly unhappy with the idea of Dr. McCoy “accidentally” injecting himself) but the scripted work, while certainly carrying everything that made the episode itself memorable, also went on some other tangents (there was drug dealing in the Enterprise!) which I didn’t care for.

See the episode and read the script and decide for yourself!

A Piece of the Action

What I liked so much about Star Trek is that from episode to episode you weren’t sure what you were going to get.  While The Doomsday Machine and City on the Edge of Forever were suspenseful dramas, the show would feature a good sampling of outright comedic episodes.  Many consider The Trouble With Tribbles the best of these comedic episodes (and its a damn good one, too), but I really enjoyed, indeed may well have laughed even more, at A Piece of the Action.  This episode featured Kirk and company beaming down to a planet whose population has for reasons unknown (its part of the episode’s mystery) adopted a 1930’s era “gangster” look and tommyguns and gangland murders are the norm.

You wouldn’t think such a setting would be good for comedy but the creators of this episode turn the potentially fearsome setting into one of great hilarity as Kirk and his boys try to adapt to the gangland setting.  Very amusing stuff.

The Menagerie Part 1 & 2

The only two part episode of the original Star Trek series was, in actuality, an extremely clever re-use of The Cage, the original Star Trek pilot which featured a completely different Enterprise cast…with the exception of Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock.  While The Cage is an interesting episode on its own, its use in The Menagerie, IMHO, takes that “ok” first stab at Star Trek and creates something far more engaging and clever…and does this without bringing back actor Jeffrey Hunter to the original Captain Pike role (the “injured” Captain Pike is played by another actor).  Great, great re-use of material!

Spectre of the Gun

As good as the original Star Trek series was, after two seasons and low ratings, the show was cancelled.  A letter writing campaign, however, proved strong enough to revive the show at the last minute for a third season.  Unfortunately, that final season was weak compared to the first two.  This was likely due to budget cuts and staff changes and there are few -perhaps none- who would argue Star Trek’s swan song season had even a fraction of the creativity of the first two.

Having said that, I always liked season 3’s Spectre of the Gun, if only for the wild set up and bizarre (and sinister!) re-creation of the famous Gunfight At The O.K. Corral.  In this case, the crew of the Enterprise are forced by an alien entity to re-live that gunfight but their role is that of the doomed Clantons, who will lose that famous gunfight.

As I said, I liked the very 1960’s borderline psychedelic/minimalistic settings.  While they most likely could have used a more traditional “western” setting (I’m sure Hollywood had plenty of those back then) they instead had the crew walk through an oddly lit minimalistic set to convey the sense they were in a western yet also trapped within a strange dream/nightmare.  Kudos also to those who played Wyatt Earp and the rest of the “law”.  They were uniformly sinister in their approach which aided in conveying a sense of doom to the participants.

So there you have it.

There’s plenty more good stuff out there, should you wish to look.  Either way, the original Star Trek series had a tremendous impact on me.  If you’ve never given it a try, do so.  You might be surprised.

Books/Literature, TV

Inspiration and wild timing

1 Comment

Earlier this morning -at 10:17 A.M. to be precise- I posted the following blog entry regarding zeppelins (you can read the post here).  The upshot of my entry was that I was turned on, via reddit, to a great photograph from 1931 of a zeppelin flying over a pyramid at Giza and that, in turn, made me wax nostalgic for my love of zeppelins in general, which had me noting how I used them extensively in my first published work, the retro-futuristic noir mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe.

 

Not 45 minutes later and posted on i09 I find the following article by Katharine Trendacosta:

The 10 Best Times TV Shows Completely Swapped Genres

Although it wasn’t presented among Ms. Trendacosta’s top 10, I wasn’t terribly surprised to find the Fringe second season episode Brown Betty listed among the comments as another example of a show using a different genre within its run.  For those unfamiliar with the episode, here’s the trailer to Brown Betty:

Interesting stuff, no?

So what the heck does that have to do with my similarly titled The Dark Fringe?

I strongly suspect my book, originally released in 1996 (Fringe first aired in 2008 and some ten plus years after my book’s original release and Brown Betty in particular first aired on April 29, 2010), was at least a partial inspiration for that particular episode.

Now, before you think I’m one of those creative types who screams “they ripped me off!” every time some work comes with some vague similarity to my own, take that thought from your head.  I don’t and I’m not making this claim regarding Brown Betty.

As I said, I strongly suspect my book INSPIRED that particular episode.  Not in its story, however, but in the setting/visuals they used.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I said before, I published the four issues of The Dark Fringe in the mid-1990’s and collected and published a Trade paperback (TPB) of the run in 2003.  The TPB caught the eye of one Scott Rosenburg at Platinum Studios.  He had brought the Men In Black comic book to the big screen (I believe he originally had a hand in its creation as a comic book) and founded Platinum Studios to promote other comic book stories/concepts for the movies.

Anyway, he found and read The Dark Fringe at the time the TPB was released and offered to present the book to the movie studios.  I agreed and he did.  During that time, he also managed to get another of his properties, Cowboys and Aliens, off the ground and made into a feature film and I know he presented my book to the people behind that movie.  And among that movie’s creative staff were some of the same people behind a little TV series which would soon appeared entitled, you guessed it, Fringe.

Was the Fringe inspired, at least by its title, by my The Dark Fringe?  I don’t know and it is irrelevant.  As it originally appeared, the Fringe TV show was clearly inspired by The X-Files rather than anything remotely similar to what was in my series.

However, when Brown Betty appeared in season 2 and my wife and I watched it, I distinctly recall turning to her not ten minutes into the episode and after seeing its film noir setting along with zeppelins and old-fashioned radio/computer hybrids, and saying: “Looks like someone on the show’s read The Dark Fringe!”

My wife was incensed.  “How could they rip you off like this?!” she said.

I wasn’t as bothered.  As I’ve already noted, the story presented in Brown Betty was nothing remotely like what I wrote for The Dark Fringe.  However, back in 2010 and to the best of my memory there wasn’t anything quite like the Zeppelin heavy retrofuturistic film noir setting that I presented in my book and which I now saw in that episode.

So while Brown Betty had nothing like my story within it, I to this day believe someone on the show’s staff (perhaps several someones) were at the very least inspired by my book’s “look” and emulated it for this episode.

This was not an unusual thing, either.  Several episodes in that second season of Fringe were clearly inspired by other comic books, including the season’s two part conclusion which liberally used DC’s multiverse concept.

So there you have it, for what its worth.  Whether inspired by my work or not, I enjoyed Fringe and I enjoyed Brown Betty.  Maybe moreso because they maybe, possibly, could have, might’ve drawn some inspiration by one of my own humble works.

TV

End of the story, part deux…Person of Interest (2011-2016)

A few days back I mused on the topic of ending a story (you can read about this here), especially a prolonged story, one which may be comprised of several books or which features recurring protagonist(s), not unlike my Corrosive Knights series.

I brought up the topic because I’m rapidly approaching the end of the Corrosive Knights series.  Book #6, the one I’m currently working on, will be followed by (natch) #7, which will conclude the main storyline.  Book #8 will provide an epilogue of sorts.  This very last book, believe it or not, already has a complete first draft while book #7 is still being outlined.

As I reach the end of this series and the end of many years of at times very hard and frustrating work (don’t get me wrong, there was also an incredible amount of joy in finishing up each and every book along with the joy of people reacting so positively to the works), I can’t help but look over at how others have ended their prolonged stories.

Raymond Chandler’s last Phillip Marlowe story, Playback, was an oddity and, to many fans of Mr. Chandler’s books, easily the weakest of the bunch.  Agatha Christie wrote the final Hercule Poirot book, Curtain, during World War II and while worried England might be overrun by the Nazi’s.  She wanted to leave behind a final Poirot book for posterity should she die in the war and, having survived it, wound up keeping the novel under lock and key for several decades until she neared her own death.  It was then that she released the book.  It too was an oddity, a work that reflected both a fear of death -understandable considering the times in which it was written- along with what was perhaps the ultimate variation of her “the murderer is the person you least suspect” plot concept.

On TV, M.A.S.H., the very popular comedy set during the Korean War, ended its run on a ratings high.  Though the show was in its 11th season, people loved the bow the actors (figuratively) took in this episode, which had the cast finding out the Korean War was over.

Similarly, the Newhart tv show’s finale made clever reference to The Bob Newhart Show which preceded it.  Both shows, of course, featured Bob Newhart in the lead role.

A couple of weeks ago Person of Interest (POI from here on) had its series finale and, as a fan of the show, I have to say I’m conflicted by what I saw.  While I think its great the show’s makers knew going into their fifth season that it would be the final one and therefore were able to plan out the ending, I can’t help but feel ultimately they dropped the ball.

How?  Well, I’m glad you asked…

BEWARE…THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW!

You’ve been warned!

Let’s start with the obvious: The show’s body count.  POI was always a violent show, with characters who killed and maimed their adversaries and an enemy, especially in the show’s final act, that did so routinely.

With heroic tales involving violence and death, it is not unusual to find one or more of the protagonists meeting their end at the end.  In the case of POI, one of the show’s regulars, the quirky Root (Amy Acker), was apparently killed a few episodes before the series finale.  I say “apparently” because, bizarrely, in that series finale there is a hint given that her character’s grave was dug up.  This odd bit of information presented in the series finale leads exactly no where and, worse, isn’t mentioned again, yet I couldn’t help but wonder if this might have been a storyline that was cancelled/changed when the episode was assembled.

So my question: Was Root still alive?

Considering she re-appeared before Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) for a good portion of that episode -as a ghostly incarnation of the machine Harold created to help humanity and which was now fighting its doppleganger, Samaritan, one last time- I can’t help but wonder if maybe her appearances were originally designed to be more…real…than they were presented within the episode.

Let me put it out there: Had the show’s finale originally considered using Root’s reanimated-by-the-machine body?  I mean, it makes a certain sense given what we saw in her grave.  If that’s the case, perhaps the show’s producers realized this might be a little too out there and decided to rework things so her appearances are simply the vivid imagination of Harold while he thinks he’s dying.

Still, why keep that graveyard sequence intact?  Why not cut the bit with the evidence her body was dug up?

Then there’s the end of the episode itself.  Harold and Reese (Jim Caviezel in the role of his lifetime) bluff their way into a high security vault by Harold pretending he has a thermonuclear bomb in a suitcase (a quick problem with that…how did they get out when clearly the entire military might of the United States would surround the living hell out of that building after that bluff).  In reality, the suitcase Harold carries has a duplicate of his machine and the virus he intends to unleash on the last remnants of Samaritan, which is locked away in that security vault.

After Harold and Reese get to the vault, soldiers for Samaritan appear and there’s a shootout.  Harold is shot before the soldiers are subdued.  Afterwards, he manages to get the virus to infect the last remnants of Samaritan, but Samaritan manages to send out compressed versions of himself at the last second.  All but one of them are infected and the duo realize the only way to infect and neutralize that last remnant of Samaritan is by going to the top of a building which has the satellite array ready to receive this Samaritan copy and infect it as it arrives.  But Samaritan has also taken over a warship and will send a cruise missile to hit that building moments after it downloads itself and, therefore, whoever uploads the virus while Samaritan is being downloaded will die saving humanity.

Harold is determined to do this and locks Reese in the vault.  He makes his way to the building and is in a daze, bleeding out from his wound and hallucinating visions of Root (which, again, maybe at one time weren’t hallucinations?!).  He then realizes the satellite dishes on the building he’s on are incapable of receiving Samaritan.  Reese appears on the building beside Harold’s and it turns out Reese chose to sacrifice himself to save the world and let Harold live and the machine agreed to do this.

Reese, it turns out, has the suitcase with the computer and virus in it, while Harold has been carrying around an empty suitcase.

This leads to Reese holding off Samaritan’s guards while uploading the virus.  At his dying moments, shot up and bleeding, we see the virus was successfully uploaded and then the cruise missile takes the building out.

This is all good and well….

….BUT….

While in the vault Harold is shown with the open suitcase loading the virus.  He finishes with what he’s doing on his computer within the suitcase, closes it, walks out of the vault with suitcase in hand, AND THEN locks Reese up.  At what point exactly did Reese switch suitcases on Harold?  Further, at what point did Reese have an identical suitcase to switch?

Worse, when Harold is made aware of the suitcase change later on and while on the roof of the wrong building, he opens his suitcase and finds it completely empty.  Even though he was shot and not in the best of mental states, wouldn’t he have noticed the significant difference in weight of his suitcase?

Just…strange.

So the show ends with Fusco (Kevin Chapman) and Sameen (Sarah Shahi) meeting up one last time and Sameen getting the dog (you’ll understand if you saw the show).  Then we see that Harold reunites with the love of his life, the woman he had to leave because of his work with the machine.

Then, in the show’s closing minutes, we return to Sameen on the streets of New York with her dog and as she walks the streets.  A pay phone near her rings.  She picks the phone up and, after listening to the call, notes a camera observing her.  While all this happens we cut to shots of a computer re-activating itself.  Presumably the Machine is coming back to life.  After Sameen hangs the phone up she smiles.

It appears the story isn’t quite over after all.

So there you have it.

I still like POI and I’m not unhappy about the years I spent watching it.  In many ways this show was a high tech version of Batman, with Reese being Batman and Harold being a combination Alfred/Oracle (or, perhaps more accurately, the intellectual part of Batman).  You had villains who were not all that far removed from some of Batman’s Rogue gallery, including Root who at first was presented as someone akin to the Joker before becoming one of the good guys.

While the series finale left me thinking the producers didn’t quite stick the landing, I’m glad they were able to finish it off.  It might not have been perfect, but few things in life ever are.

Books/Literature, Movies, TV

End of the story…

It’s something that as a writer I’ve thought about many a times: When does a story end?

It may seem very obvious: When its done, of course.

There are plenty of examples of “done in one” stories out there.  Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs had nowhere else to go following its bloody conclusion.

But there have been other successful films/books which have featured head scratching sequels or, if you will, continuations of the original story.  Take the original The Poseidon Adventure.  That film featured what appeared to be a hermetically sealed story and, like Reservoir Dogs, didn’t appear to have anything else to offer, storywise.

Yet that didn’t stop producer Irwin Allen from coming up with a sequel, albeit with a whole new, and very familiar, cast…

Then there are the “series” of stories featuring a prominent protagonist (or group of protagonists).  Author Sir Conan Arthur Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes…

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a series of novels featuring the characters of Tarzan and John Carter, Warlord of Mars…

In the early pulp era, you had the monthly adventures of Doc Savage and The Shadow.  Their stories would continue until the pulp era reached its end in the late 1940’s, though it wasn’t until more recent years that people have written stories wherein the two meet.

These pulp heroes, among many others, ushered in the era of the comic book superhero, and stories featuring the likes of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, etc. etc. have been around for many decades and are still delighting fans…

Of course I’m only scratching the surface here.  I haven’t even mentioned Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe books or Robert E. Howard’s Conan and Solomon Kane or Herge’s Tin Tin graphic novels or Ian Fleming’s James Bond books or Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt adventures or the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew etc. etc. etc.

When creating a genuinely interesting character in a interesting -and hopefully successful!- story, I suspect every author is tempted to follow up with further stories/adventures regarding that character.

But sometimes the continuations tire audiences out.  That initial spark fades and, with it, interest in the continuing adventures of said character.

I point all this out because I noticed today Amazon.com is offering a genuinely good deal for Justified: The Complete Series in both BluRay and DVD formats…

Justified: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

During the first two of the six seasons of the show I absolutely loved it.  Season 2 featured the incredibly villainous -yet also strangely pathetic and sympathetic- Mags Bennett and proved the series’ highlight season, IMHO.  Seasons 3 through 5, while good, never quite reached the high of season 2.  By season 5, it felt like the stories were repeating themselves.

When season 6 originally aired, I recorded it to my DVR but after many months of sitting there, I ultimately deleted them. Though there remained a bit of curiosity within me to see where the show would end (the makers of the series knew that season would be its last), I had simply lost interest in seeing the show to such a degree that I couldn’t (ahem) justify spending all those hours watching this conclusion.

It is possible I change my mind.  The final season is available to be seen for free through Amazon Prime, but, again, something I loved had overstayed its welcome.

Sadly, the same happened with many other once popular shows and books.  I loved the early Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler but can’t stomach them anymore.  The X-Files was one of my all time favorite shows but somewhere around the 4th season the spark was gone (though I admit I did watch the new very short series.  Unfortunately, only two of the episodes within it were great, the rest were only OK).  I remember laughing until tears flowed down my face during some of the early Simpsons years.  Now I can’t understand how it remains on the air.

Which in a very, very long-winded way brings me to my Corrosive Knights series.

Corrosive Knights Covers

Some of the prominent characters in the series are near and very dear to me.  I came up with several of them many years before formally writing this series and, in my younger mind, I figured I could write stories about them until the day I died.

But as the years passed and I worked on each individual book, there came a realization that was very much learned by what I wrote above: Sometimes the best stories are the ones that focus on one large tale and wrap up before overstaying their welcome.  These stories don’t wander or repeat themselves (at least not too much) nor do they -hopefully!- ever elicit in readers a sense of “been there, done that”.

That’s not to say when I’ve concluded the Corrosive Knights series (the series will run to eight books) there will be no chance at all for future tales involving some of these characters.

It is my hope that when the eight books are written, people will appreciate that I’ve given these stories and stories-within-stories my all and that together the series will form a larger, intriguing whole.  And after all these years of writing these books comes the realization that I’m getting very close to the finish line.

It is very much my intention to end it with a blast.

To those who have bought the books and offered their kind comments regarding the series: A heartfelt thank you.

We’re not done yet, but all the pieces are coming together!

TV

Castle done…

Call this tying some loose ends.  A while back (you can read it here) I wrote about my curiosity with the fact the next season of the TV show Castle, its 9th, would not have one of the show’s two leads, actress Stana Katic.  Here she is in a promo photo with her co-star Nathan Fillion…

Though no fan of the show, I found the news incredibly…weird.  As I mentioned in the previous blog post there was a summer I caught a block of episodes (it was on TBS or TNT and I couldn’t tell you which season they were from) and found the show a light, entertaining affair, a thematic throwback to the old Bruce Willis/Sybill Shepherd Moonlighting or the Pierce Brosnan/Stephanie Zimbalist Remington Steele shows from the 1980’s.  All these shows have the commonality of a strong female character butting heads against a dashing male co-star…and you knew romance was just around the corner along with whatever mystery they were currently facing.

Anyway, when I heard the next season of Castle would not feature Ms. Katic, I wondered just how they could continue the show without its co-lead.

Well, wonder no more:

Castle cancelled: Stana Katic pens note to fans, and other cast reactions

While it was pure speculation on my part, I nonetheless speculated Ms. Katic’s leaving the show wasn’t under the most pleasant of circumstances.  The reason for my suspicions was that the announcement of her not returning to the show seemed to come out of no where and the actress provided no information regarding this departure.  It almost seemed like the creators of the show gave up on her at the last minute, whether it be due to monetary issues (perhaps she was in a contract year and was demanding even better pay) or…something else.

My curiosity aroused, I investigating further and found there were rumors Ms. Katic didn’t get along well with the show’s staff and/or her co-star.  Frankly, I tend to discount these rumors as unfortunately they’re all too typical when it comes to the female leads in a popular show.

Yes, I’m talking sexism here.

For those too young to know, back in the days of Moonlighting there were plenty of rumors of Cybill Shepherd being a “diva”,  Even today there are similar rumors being reported concerning Jaime Alexander, the female –natch– co-star of Blindspot.

As I said above, it appears I no longer have to wonder how a Stana Katic-less Castle will play out.

The answer is: It won’t.

Sports, TV

Entertainment news…

A pair of entertainment related articles caught my eye between yesterday today.

First up is the news that, among a few others from different series, actress Stana Katic is leaving the show Castle:

Stana Katic and four other TV exits that stunned fans worldwide

For those who don’t know about the show Castle or Ms. Katic, it is a reasonably breezy murder/mystery type affair which started with a womanizing bachelor best-selling author, as they are wont to do, getting himself embedded in the NY Police Department for reasons (and they let him for stay on for… reasons).

At first the author, Richard Castle (played by cult/fan favorite Nathan Fillion) is viewed as an impediment to investigations but over time he becomes more and more a part of the “team.”  He is overseen/partnered with no-nonsense Detective Kate Beckett (Ms. Katic, natch) and over the course of the show we go through romantic tension between the characters followed by actual romance and, according to the article, the two characters are now married.

Anyway, here’s the show’s two leads.  Ms. Katic is (obviously) on the right:

According to the above article, after nine seasons, ABC last week announced the next season of Castle would not feature Ms. Katic.  The reasons for her departure were not made clear which, to my mind, may well indicate the parting was less than amicable.

I mention while admitting I’m not a fan of the show.  My full exposure to it was during a summer a few years ago where I caught several episodes worth of reruns on TNT or TBS and found the show fun and the two leads had plenty of charisma but it was not something I felt worth following beyond that.

Having said this and admitting my limited exposure, I nonetheless cannot see how Castle continues without Ms. Katic’s Detective Beckett.  Unlike other shows which feature larger ensemble casts, this show had other characters running around but the focus was clearly on these two and their interactions.  Further, part of the bigger storyline in the admittedly few episodes I saw was the fact that Richard Castle’s big literary creation was based on Detective Beckett.  Not only did he romance her but her character was the inspiration for the books he wrote.

Now, having her character suddenly gone has to radically change the show.  One wonders, did the show’s producers know she was leaving when they finished the previous season?  If they did, had they filmed something hinting at her departure?  Or will the new season simply start off with her character’s departure being a fait accompli?

Despite not following this show, I am intrigued to see if they can somehow overcome this very big change.  I hope they don’t just substitute another no-nonsense female detective in Ms. Katic’s place and try to start all over again.

The second bit of entertainment news involves former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, an outspoken very conservative individual who finally said more than his employers, ESPN, could handle.  Thus his comments regarding transgender individuals cost him his analyst job:

ESPN fires analyst Curt Schilling over anti-transgender post

Mr. Schilling has made his sometimes controversial right wing opinions known for a while now.

What I find so fascinating is that he’s another of those people who make sometimes outrageous comments and then proudly proclaim their right to make their opinions known yet are baffled with the concept that when you make such statements, others have the very same right to make their opinions known regarding your opinions.

Freedom of speech allows for all people to say whatever is on their mind but while you’re certainly free to state your opinions, you have to understand that doing so does not somehow make you “immune” to having others react to those statements you make.

Especially when they’re inflammatory and controversial.

Worse for Mr. Schilling is the fact that the “others” who may react to your controversial statements can well be your bosses.  If they feel your opinions hurt the company’s image and having you remain employed by them is detrimental to their bottom line, then guess what: They have a right to fire you.

I’d say live and learn but considering the history of Mr. Schilling making statements like these I don’t suppose he has or will.

Movies, TV

Ghost stories…

Never heard about the anime show Ghost Stories until this morning when someone pointed it out on Reddit.

As I understand it, Ghost Stories was, according to the original posting on reddit.com, a “mediocre” anime series that ran 20 episodes but whose distinction lies in the fact that when it was translated and dubbed into English, the dubbing team had a field day parodying the mediocre product.

Examples of the at times hilarious (IMHO!) dubbing of Ghost Stories can be found in these clips:

Amusing as seeing this was, it was surprising no one who posted comments on this (at least at this time) knew of the “parody dubbing” done many years before, and very well, by Woody Allen (!) for the 1966 film What’s Up Tiger Lilly.  I’ll allow the trailer for the film to explain the madness within…

Here are some other clips from the parody dub…

So if humorous dubbing is your thing, check it out!