Grinning Fellow

Agreed with everyone on those last couple episodes. Great stuff!

Billings is awesome. Even if he is an evil bastard, it was justified. Dutch has been moping around Tina for too long now.

You guys are right about the scheduling too. This whole season has been good, but it felt like the first half was the epilogue to Season Five, and the parts with the San Marcos murders and Hiatt's arrival have felt more like a proper Season Six. I dunno if they'll be able to wrap everything up satisfactorily in the next episode. But oh well, it's been good stuff, at least.

I agree with most of the people here. It...wasn't very good. The acting was piss-awful (James Franco was particularly cringeworthy), the script was deeply poor, and the only things that acutally found funny were Bruce Campbell, and that huge, campy portrait of Willem Dafoe in Harry's room.

Thomas Hayden Church was awesome as the Sandman, but as Abhi pointed out, he was barely used, and that sucked. Topher Grace is a good actor, but it seemed like he was trying too hard this time. Also, it had an Azzarello-esque ending, in that it was more of a stopping point than actual closure.

Weak film. I'm disappointed.

I never read Mother Night, but Breakfast of Champions is my second favourite Vonnegut book also.

Cat's Cradle is my favourite. Have you read that one, Grinning?

 

What's the plot for Mother Night?

I have read Cat's Cradle, and it's good. I put it third, after Breakfast of Champions.

The plot of Mother Night is about an American who moved to Germany before the Second World War, and ended up being one of the biggest propaganda broadcasters for Nazi Germany. However, it also turns out he a (somewhat unwitting) double-agent for the American government, delivering coded messages in his broadcasts. The whole novel is a flashback told from the main character, who's in a prison in Israel after being apprehended and tried for war crimes.

I belive it was written shortly after the capture and execution of Adolf Eichmann (who's mentioned in the book).

I've read a bunch of books over the past week-and-a-half:

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut: Ehh. This one was alright. Well-written as usual, but the moral was a bit simplistic, and I didn't enjoy the ending very much. Probably my least favourite book of his I've read so far.

The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss: This one was pretty good. Funny, with some reference I liked. Not the best thing ever, but a fun enough little novel. I'll probably check out Gatiss' other Lucifer Box novels.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut: This one was very good. Probably my second favourite, next to Slaughterhouse-Five. It was both very funny and incredibly depressing, and a lot more interesting and engaging than Mother Night. I especially enjoyed the strange meta-fictional turn it took towards the end. Definitely one of his better books.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk: Ehh. Although you could clearly tell that Palahniuk was trying to make a more light-hearted story than his usual stuff, I didn't end up liking it too much. It got a bit better towards the end, when I was able to just roll with how ridiculous and over-the-top it was, but the plot felt too similar to his other stuff, and his characters were annoying most of the way through. The weakest book by him that I've read so far.

I'm only a couple pages into A Game of Thrones, but it's pretty good so far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that one this weekend. Then I've still got that Arsène Lupin collection, and a couple other Palahniuk books (Diary and Lullaby) that I've borrowed from various people. Fun times ahead!

Just finished watching the sixth and seventh episodes. They were good. The whole Lem plotline hasn't played out like I thought, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It was good to see Antwon again, even if it was only briefly.

Well, I finished reading Pattern Recognition, and it was great. I wasn't crazy on the espionage part of the plot, but the hunt for "the footage" and the stuff with Cayce's father were great. Gibson's prose is still incredibly dense, but it's to the novel's benefit.

Jas, wihle I admit that Neuromancer is the very definition of a genre novel, I don't necessarily see how that's a bad thing. I enjoyed both books for their own merits. I'm not sure if I could choose one over the other, but I agree with you that it's one of Gibson's best. Thanks for the recommendation. I was a bit iffy on picking it up at first, but I'm very glad to own it, now.

Dog, I agree completely in respect to Gibson being the better novelist than Stephenson. I enjoy them both, but Stephenson has some of the weakest endings this side of Azzarello. While Stepehnson's settings seem to be more inventive than Gibson's, I never come away from a Gibson book feeling disappointed by the ending.

Up next, The Vesuvius Club, and then the Leblanc's Lupin short story collection.

I just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora, and it was great. I've been off those kind of fantasy novels for some time, but this one sucked me right in. Very fun characters, great dialogue, vivid setting (even if it is essentially a mirror-Earth), and a cracking plot. It could be downright brutal at times too, which I find a lot of the fantasy novels I read prior to this one shied away from. I'm in definite agreement with Malin and Inca that I can't wait for the sequel.

I'm now about a third of the way through Pattern Recognition. I'm liking it, but not loving it so far. The writing is great (it is Gibson, after all), though it's not quite exciting as Neuromancer. However, I'm expecting that it will pick up within the next couple chapters.

That said, I don't actually recall a scene in which the Doctor actually comes face-to-face with the Daleks at all in Doomsday - am I misremembering?

I think so. I don't have the episode on-hand, but I'm pretty sure the Doctor stared down the Cult of Skaro durinng his big "Fall of Arcadia" speech in Doomsday. I can't remember how he got out of the room, but I'm pretty sure he was in there at some point. So yes, the Cult should know who he is.

I thought it was a pretty good episode, tonight. While some of the accents were a little dodgy, the rest of the story was pretty compelling. I enjoyed that it took on multiple storylines. Also, the Doctor's "they survive. They always survive" bit was really good. I'm looking forward to next week's.

Brilliant couple episodes! I agree with Abhi in almost every respect. My only disagreements would be:

I think Claudette wants Julien on the Strike Team because he's a moralist. Even if he tends to cram it down people's throats, he's probably the most honest cop on the force. If Claudette wants to get rid of the old Strike Team, then there's nothing better than making it less corrupt. Plus, the guy's a powerhouse, to boot. Personally, I like the idea of Julien on the team. I've liked the character, and been unimpressed by how underused he's been for the entire series.

 

Also, I'm really liking the new guy. He's no Lem, that's for sure, but he's good police.

 

Totally agree about Billings though. I am loving his and Dutch's partnership, now. He's still a bit of a hack, but these last couple episodes have proved he's not quite the caricature he was in the previous seasons. And he's really growing as a character. I'm seriously impressed by this.

 

Man, bringing Carl Weathers back just hammered home the point: Without his badge, Vic is just another low-life thug. They did this on purpose, to show that if Vic ever leaves the department alive, he's going to end up like Joe or Lester. That's a rather scary thought.

 

And Shane? Fuck, he's just getting worse and worse. Although I shouted from the rooftops that either Vic or Ronnie would be the one to take him down this season, I will not be at all surprised if he tops himself.

I dropped by the bookstore today, and picked up five books:

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I loved Neuromancer, and I noticed Jason's been hyping it up, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I've heard good things about this from everyone, and it was cheap.

A Song of Fire and Ice: A Game of Thorns by George R.R. Martin. About time I got into this series.

The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss. While I don't think his episodes of Doctor Who hold up particularly well on multiple viewings, they're fun enough, and this book sounds pretty good.

And, so balance out the light reading, I also bought Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

I was thinking about this last night, and I just realized the extent of how recklessly stupid Vic's plan with Guardo was. I mean, he essentially kidnapped his girlfriend in broad daylight, and made no attempt to cover his or Shane or Ronnie's identites. She's seen all their faces, and probably knows at least Vic and Shane's names. Hell, I'm pretty sure she lives in Farmington. If she ever ends up setting foot inside the Barn, all of Vic's strategizing will end up going straight down the drain.

I haven't seen nearly enough of old-school Doctor Who, so I assume that when I do see more, my opinions will change somewhat. In the meantime:

1. Tom Baker: Pretty much in-line with what everyone else has said about him. I think his Doctor was definitive, and its clear his influence has been felt on most other incarnations of the Doctor that came after him. He was always funny and warm and manic, and his stories were usually chock-full of adventure. If I ever wanted to just kick back and relax to an episode of the series, there's a good chance I'd select one from his era. City of Death is still one of my all-time favourite episodes of the series.

2. Christopher Eccleston: The man who got me into the show, essentially. Though I kinda wish there was more of him, I do like the brooding, enigmatic turn he brought to the character. Probably the most tragic of the Doctors, Eccleston put a new spin on the Doctor that I liked immensely. The End of the World, Father's Day, and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances are some of my favourite episodes, and I make it a point to re-watch them often.

3. Jon Pertwee: I recognize a lot of the faults in his run as the Doctor, but I've also seen more of his episodes than any other of the "classic" Doctors. As Twilight said, Pertwee's run was quite enjoyable just for sheer fun. I enjoy that his Doctor took very little sass, and tended to Judo Chop anything that got in his way. A much more efficient way of dealing with problems than the sonic screwdriver, in my mind.

4. David Tennant: Despite some truly horrendous stories he's had to be in, Tennant really brings a ton to the table as the Doctor. His really good stories (School Reunion, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit) are tremendous, and he has quite the screen presence. While he's not always on the mark (as many have noted, his attempts at being angry don't always work), I think he nails most of the other emotions. Eccleston is a pretty hard act to follow, both for the character and the actor, and I think Tennant has done an admirable job thusfar. Also, his "I used to have so much mercy" speech was Badass.

5. Patrick Troughton: I haven't seen too much from his run, but the stuff I have seen is great. It was around this time that I felt the series really hit its first stride, and Troughton brought so much for the Doctor. There's not a terrible lot I can say about him until I see more of his stuff, but everything I've seen so far by him, I've enjoyed.

6. Peter Davison: Being the follow-up act to the definitive Doctor is no easy feat. While it's no doubt that Davison's run was a lot less...well, good than most of Baker's, I still think his Doctor was very interesting. He was neither an elderly badass like One or Three, nor a manic trickster like Two and Four, and I think his turn as the introverted, conflicted Doctor was a very interesting one. It probably could have been pulled off better with some sharper writing, but I still enjoy quite a few stories from his era.

7. William Hartnell: I've only seen a couple stories from the Hartnell era, and they've all been pretty good. As I'm more familiar with the later Doctors, it's strange to that the original one was so different from the rest, and it's sometimes very hard to get into him, but he still has his moments.

8. Colin Baker: This one had so much potential. Unfortunately, the writing on the show by this time was so mind-numbingly awful that it failed miserably (The Twin Dilemma has to be one of the worst serials the show's ever produced). I enjoyed the concept of Baker's character being such a departure from Davision's, but I think it was another failed experiment. I hear the Big Finish Audio Plays go a long way in making the character likeable, which is good, becuase the one on television was too obnoxious to truly be likeable.

9. Sylvester McCoy: Yawn. He was really a non-entity for me. His stories were boring, he wasn't a particularly good actor, his companions were incredibly grating, and it just felt like a half-hearted effort on everyone's part. I was really unimpressed with Seven, and have no real burning desire to see the serials that I've missed.

I haven't seen the made-for-television movie yet, so McGann is not on the list. I'll get around to it, one day.

I would pay good money to see an episode where Billings tries out for the Strike Team. It probably would have been funnier when Lem was alive, but still. Good money.

It was a pretty good episode. The ending made it for me, as it was fantastic. The rest was alright, but still leaps and bounds better than most of Season Two.

I thought that Mark would have gone through the roof at the sheer amount of sonic screwdriver we had in this episode. Even though it was just doing its default task of opening and sealing things, it like it had more screentime than Martha in this episode.

Another strong episode indeed. Goddamn, I can't help it, but as much as I should hate Shane for what he's done (and not just to Lem, but just a culmination of his awful deeds over the years), I find myself sympathizing with him as he's in his (seemingly endless) downward spiral. It's quite the credit to both the writing team and the actors that not one, but two cop killers (and multiple murderers) can be portrayed as such well-rounded and sympathetic characters.

Vic's really losing it though, isn't he? That chain-whipping scene was brutal.

 

I wonder, if Vic's retirement is coming at the end of this month, how Season Seven will go down. Will it even focus on Vic, if he's no longer on the force? But hell, the way things are going this season, and how reckless everyone's being, I'd be surprised if anyone on the Strike Team made it out alive.

I'm not going to deliberate on this one long. Downloads ahoy!

Everyone should really go and check out Meet the Robinsons. It's probably the best film in that animated style since The Incredibles. Very, very funny, and also pretty heartwarming, and all. Plus, an Adam West cameo, which was golden. I liked it a lot.

I finished reading Ellison's Slippage today and it was....arlight. There were three absolutely brilliant stories in the collection ("The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" (which may be one of my all-time favourite short stories), "Mefisto in Onyx", and "Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral'), but the rest ranged from "good" to "really uninteresting".

Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with the collection as a whole, but I know it's one of Ellison's newer releases, and I'm not sure how well it compares to his "classic" era. Despite my disappointment with the collection as a whole, I still loved the aforementioned stories, and I'll try to track down some of his better collections soon.

I've got the wrong Queen, don't I? I was thinking Tooth and Claw.

I'm with James on this one, I thought it was a very fun episode.

I had just one question:

Although I liked the ending where the Doctor doesn't recognize Queen Elizabeth, wouldn't that kind of be an inconsistency? I mean, I know the show's first goal isn't scientific accuracy, but if the Doctor met Elizabeth with Rose, wouldn't he have a pretty good recollection of the meeting?

I like to pretend that Vic is sliding his brass knuckles on in that photo, readying to give Jerry his "good cop and bad come went home" speech.

I've just finished Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. I enjoyed both of them very much.

I've really liked everything I've read by Bradbury thusfar, and this was no exception. I loved quite a few of the stories in the collection, and they were written in very different, yet enjoyable styles. I think my favourite would have to be the one about the Martian woman who has a psychic connection with an astronaut from Earth. It was very ethereal.

As for The Third Policeman, I did like it, in spite (or perhaps because of) it's incredibly dense weirdness. And the ending was incredibly chiling. However, reading O'Brien's notes at the background was a bit of a letdown. His theory on the plot of the book, while probably original at the time, has become horribly commonplace by now. I like to interpret the book in a much different way.

I'm just starting the short story collection Slippage by Harlan Ellison, on a recommendation from Christian (I did look for those other books you recommended for me, but the only ones in the store were that one and Angry Candy, so I rolled with this one). I've only read about four stories so far, and it's a bit hit-and-miss, but the first story, Levendis, was amazing. It was probably worth the price of admission alone. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this anthology.

Great opener. I agree that Kavanaugh is now a total bastard. I hope he and Vic eventually choose a place not swarming with cops to try and take each other on.

It's nice to see them focusing on Shane's downward spiral. I still want to see him dead, but they're handling it well so far.

It looks like Dutch is going to have an important role this season, which I'm glad of (he's my favourite character). He's already catching on to Kavanaugh's tactics, so I'd like to see if he decides to stick with him to bring down Vic or not.

Nice use of a Johnny Cash song, too.

I enjoyed it a lot too. As with everyone else, I feel this is the best opener Davies has written. The Judoon were great, and they definitely have return-value to them, and the Doctor was a lot less aggravating this time. Perhaps it's a bit early, but I'm optimistic for this season being much better than the previous one.

Just got around to watching the mini-episode, and it was good. I'm really looking forward to seeing the inevitable Vic and Dutch showdown in the investigation. The mini-episode highlighted how their different methods are going to lead to the same goal, and I wonder how it's going to play out.