Abhimanyu

at least it is now moving towards an end game for next week which I'm hoping will set up a much, much better season four.

Amen to that. What scares me is that Sutter refuses to acknowledge that this season is anything less than perfection in the pursuit of high art. He's even gone so far as to take public swipes at Alan Sepinwall, the critic partly responsible for popularizing the series initially who then went on to criticize this current season.

Hopefully he's not going to stick to this season's template of cheap melodrama in the belief that he's bringing Shakespearean tragedy to FX.

Every now and then, the whole high school teen comedy genre really tosses out a great movie. I watched Easy A the other night with a friend who insisted and - as it turned out - it's really a very good film. I don't know what it is with literary adaptations set in American high schools but they certainly have a high batting average. This one's based on The Scarlet Letter and features a very appealing lead, sharp writing and great supporting cast. Highly recommended for those who enjoyed Mean Girls, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You and their 1980s Cameron Crowe/John Hughes ancestry as much as I did.

Street cred destroyed.

Out of curiosity, what have the internerds been complaining about? I was under the impression that the show's been pretty well received overall.

Definitely a lot of fun. I did think the opening sequence in the boat was some awful writing though. Extreme telegraphing, as John says, and just plain forced and ham-fisted. The actresses did their best to make it work but it didn't quite get there. It's a minor complaint - all said and done, this has been quite entertaining so far.

Almost certainly, I'll check when I get home.

Excellent! Thanks.

Anyone have a Demonoid invite lying unused?

I did quit watching it.

You must have misinterpreted the season finale somehow though because it's been pretty definitively reported that the show's been renewed for a second season and I saw an interview somewhere with the creator discussing her plans for the next season. Which would indicate that they haven't killed her off yet unless the next season is about the family celebrating the death of one of the more obnoxious and self-centered characters to hit cable TV!

I'd better give The Misfits a download then! in news that will surprise very little people, the latest Sons Of Anarchy was a huge suckfest of poor writing, lame execution and way too much Gemma-saves-the-day bullshit (holding a gun to a baby's head, really???).

Oh man...I haven't seen this yet and now I'm in even less of a hurry to do so.

If you told me last season that Gemma would become more of an irritating character than Stahl ever was, I'd have laughed at you!

I really hope she's a love interest distinctly second, though.

Agreed. I've never been a fan of the Batman/Catwoman romantic aspect. It inevitably ends up with one or both of them moping about the place.

It comes down to the writing I think. Dexter's been a pretty badly/sloppily written show for a long time now. They're just recycling the same plots and themes over and over and over again.

Not that I'm fond of the 2D redneck character but I'm quite happy they're deviating from the comic and I hope they do that plenty. It mixes things up for those viewers who have read the comics and it gives them the opportunity to learn from the mistakes that Kirkman made (of which there are a few). If they'd stuck slavishly to the comic then this show would be a lot less interesting to me.

seemed like a cliffhanger ending, but yes, i saw in my dvr that i had snagged more weeds. haven't watched it yet.

 

dexter's latest was poorly written with too many conveniences except for the final scene. i'm over peter weller, though.

 

haven't seen this week's boardwalk empire, but last week's was really good. interested to see how it all shakes down.

Boardwalk Empire has really hit its stride in the last couple weeks. This week was no exception. Too bad there's only a few left in the season.

You know you're doing something wrong when you fail to make Peter Weller interesting. The guy's been a riot in pretty much every film I've seen him in, even shitty ones like Screamers.

Hell of a third episode! Characters and story being taken in a lot of interesting directions. Really pleased they've ordered a second season.

Stephen King's new book Full Dark, No Stars is excellent. It's King at a level that I have not seen in a long long time and it makes me very happy. It's a collection of four novellas - the first and the fourth are the best IMO but the middle two are hardly slouchers. Quick, efficient and very disturbing.

Should I be reading BPRD?

That would be a definite yes.

haha, this week's Community was great. probably my favourite of the season so far (though I also loved last week's episode)

It really was. It also addressed some of the complaints that people had about the use of pop culture references as a crutch quite nicely, I think.

 

Also, Kurt Sutter twittered that apparently he wanted Jax to actually have sex with Trinity but that Standards & Practises and the actress' refusal to do nudity (I don't think there's actual nudity on the show, is there?) put a stop to that. thank god for small favours!

Amen. I thought Sutter showed some good sense in not letting them go all the way but apparently not then. Who knew Standards & Practices would ever contribute positively to a show :D

In the meantime, on the FX slot that far fewer people tune into, Terriers is getting better and better each week. Such a great episode last night. I will be crushed if they cancel this one but it's looking very likely. Feeling very invested in the characters and their stories at this point.

That was some mighty fine Spooks ranting there Atticus, almost makes me want to watch the show just so I can give you some kind of a response!

 

I really enjoyed the bits with the priest at the end of the latest Sons, his motivation for keeping Abel from Jax was strong and it leaves him facing a real dilemma - unfortunately the rest of the season to date has had far too much in the melodrama stakes so I don't have much of an appetite left for more tortured crying Jax.

I actually didn't buy the priest stuff at all. Here's a guy who's perpetuated as much violence as anyone in the room and here is lecturing Jax on being a good dad. And if all this is leading up to some cheesy 'will he be better off with the good Irish family' inner turmoil for Jax, that just renders this entire season meaningless, as Sean points out.

Jimmy gets away. Again.

Didn't even really feel anything for McGee given that his characterization on the show was limited to his mustache.

 

 

Redneck Racist was something of an annoying charicature but the chap playing him was perfect for the part, I liked the other guy padlocking the door before legging it - least he gave the guy a chance!

 

Yeah, that's a perfect bit of casting there. Michael Rooker has made a career entirely out of playing racist rednecks with violent tendencies, ranging from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer to Mississippi Burning.

I agree with Mark on Merle being the beginning of a non-zombie series antagonist. Good idea on the part of the showrunners.

Second episode wasn't as good as the first but that's to be expected. I figure they had to stick in a lot more running and gunning in this one, given the contemplative nature of the pilot. Still - lots of entertaining bits.

The only thing that bothered me a little (aside from some slightly dodgy dialogue) was the shift in the gender dynamics. Maybe I'm not remembering the comics right but wasn't Andrea a really good shot? And now suddenly she needs to have the safety catch explained to her? Also, Laurie isn't coming off the same way as she did in the comics. From what I recall, it was loneliness and the need for her son to have a father figure that drove her into Shane's arms but here she seems to be having quite the time which doesn't really sit right with the situation. But this could just be me misremembering the comics.

Still a fun hour all told.

 

I'm currently unemployed, Abhi, but in the new job I'll be working for the Bahrain Defense Force.

Right, it's the new job that I was asking about.

Nicely done!

Congratulations!

Sorry if you've mentioned it before but where is it that you now work?

Anyone read John Arcudi's A God Somewhere? Really strong OGN put out by Wildstorm. The story is somewhat familiar territory (everyman becomes superhero and then monster) but it's done so well that I really didn't mind. Also, some excellent art by Snjejberg - gore galore.

One thing that really disturbs me that not too many people mention is that all 95 candidates who pledged support to the cause of Net Neutrality have been defeated.

It was certainly better than the standard set by the rest of the season. Didn't really grab me but I was moderately entertained so that's alright. I'm glad they finally realized they were being played by the priest. Their levels of concern for Abel still seem to have decreased rather sharply from the hysterical heights of the earlier episodes.