Sean’s Mental Walkabout

With the writers strike on full bore, and the clock counting down on scripted television going off the air, I thought this morning’s Ctrl Alt Delete comic was very apropos.

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The writers strike is going to start having an impact on scripted TV in about 4 weeks, when all the shows that were “in the can” end up being aired, and there are no more left.  (Inspired by season pass by jwz.)

Shows I can’t imagine not being around

• Pushing Daisies - seriously, I’m still not sure how this show manages to work, but it does, brilliantly.  An hour of Tim Burton-esque trippery each week with brilliant writing, incredible narration, and truly odd and compelling characters.
• Chuck - It started good, and it’s just hit a home run it the last few weeks.  It is seriously a toss up between Pushing Daisies and Chuck for the show I most look forward to each week.
• House - Ah, you thought they were going to get rid of all the cast in season 4.  They even managed to convince you they had, and your brain just ignores that you see all of the previous cast in every episode.  The culling of the interns “Big Love”, “Cut Throat Bitch”, “13″ and all the rest is just awesome.  “I’ll miss you most of all… Rediculously-Old-Fraud.”

My biggest concern here is that Pushing Daisies and Chuck are both freshmen shows.  Daisies is winning it’s timeslot hands down, so I have no fear that it will return after the strike.  Chuck is doing ok, but not great, and I’d really like to see where the story goes.

Shows I’ll miss

• How I Met Your Mother - the only 30 minute show that we have a season pass for.  I went to school with the show runners, and have loved it since day 1.  There are a lot of great wesleyan in jokes in the show as well.
• Heroes - but seriously, why has it take 2 months to get Hiro back to modern day?  The speed of this season has been way too slow.
• Bones - it’s enjoyable, and has some fun sub characters

Stuff I’m going to be annoyed isn’t returning any time soon

• Battlestar Gallactica - Though not returning until deep into 2008 means I’ve got a better chance of DishNetwork carrying SciFi HD.
• Lost - the season finale was just freaking incredible, but the planned 8 months until return is definitely going to end up more like 12.  I think their audience may have wandered off by the time it airs again.

Current Filler that I probably won’t notice is gone

• Bionic Woman - all the sub characters seem to be wooden in different ways.  It’s fine, but not compelling.
• 24 - I’ve given up on multiple years in the past, though eventually caught up and watched them.
• Stargate Atlantis - it’s reasonable filler, and plenty of fun.

I’d be curious in getting comments on what you’ll miss in the writers strike.  Some time later this week I’ll post my “stuff to catchup on while the writers strike is on”.

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Ben had the following as his AOL status today:

The Browncoats Prayer

OUR JOSS,
Who art in Hollywood,
Whedon be thy name.

Thy ideas come,
and will be done
On film as they are in Comic Books.

Give us someday a little more Serenity,
And deliver us from Reality Television.
For thine is the Wit, the Wisdom,
And the Imagination

Forever and ever,

AMEN.

And it got me thinking again about the current state of American television.  Yes, there are some new shining bright spots (Pushing Daisies, House, How I Met Your Mother among them), but most of TV is aweful.  It’s been a few years since Joss had a show on TV, and all of the attempted shows by Tim Minear (who worked with Whedon on Angel and Firefly) have managed 6 or less episodes aired on TV (Wonderfalls, The Inside, Drive).  It’s a sad state of affairs for TV.

Recently I was introduced to Blake’s 7, which ran 1978-1981 on the BBC (I’m 1/2 way through series 3 now).  I was introduced to it by Joe, who sold me on the story that Whedon was in the UK when in originally aired.  You can definitely see that Firefly owes quite a bit to Blake’s 7, in a very good way.  Blake’s 7 has no issue in killing off characters, which I suspect may have also influenced Whedon in his writing.

The failure of Minear’s series, all of which had really compelling characters and stories, makes me wonder if there is a place for people like Whedon or Minear in American TV at the moment.  But maybe there is a better place for them, like the BBC.  The BBC is in remake mode now, reviving Dr Who, doing a new Prisoner, so why not bring back Blake’s 7.  And why not bring Whedon over to do it.  Whedon’s take on Servalan, Avon, Blake and the rest would be really interesting, and I think incredibly compelling.

Not that Joss will ever read this, or anyone that could make this happen, but if I had one wish in the whole realm of TV right now it would be to see a Whedon powered remake of Blake’s 7.

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The first time I watched an episode of Coupling, I knew I was watching something different.  It was much like a Joss Whedon show, smarter than it needed to be for the genre, and funnier because of it.  There was a very natural flow of humor and drama that made it stand out.  That show was brought us by Steven Moffat, a writer for BBC.  

This is also the man who has given us the best episodes of the new Dr Who: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace (all of which won Hugo awards), and Blink (which airs on SciFi this Friday).  Again, each of these were characterized by a playfulness with the format that kept you engaged in a way that rarely happens in the medium of television.  The Girl in the Fireplace showed everything that Dr Who could be, and convinced me that David Tennent was well chosen to be the Doctor.  I would have said that it was the best episode of Dr Who, period, but then I saw Blink, and it’s a toss up.

Obviously when I heard that Moffat was doing another show, I wanted to see it, no matter what it was.  The show is called Jekyll, and has done runs on BBC and BBC America (hopefully they’ll do some reruns again soon), and tells a modern day version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  It is everything I’ve come to expect from Moffat, more intelligent than the genre demands, garnished with comedy at just the right level, and telling a story in a less than traditional way that ensures you don’t have everything figured out from early on.

Find it.  Watch it.  You won’t be disappointed.

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Check jwz’s blog for both the BC ads out there now. They are awesome.

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Last night Susan, Chris, and I headed up to Bard for a lecture / interview / show and tell with David Javerbaum, the head writer and supervising producer for The Daily Show. We did cast the net wider, trying to get other people to join us. No one else was responding to IM during the day, so to all you lamers (you know who you are), it was pretty cool.

The evening was done Inside the Actors Studio style, with one of the Bard faculty that knew David asking the questions. It started off with a lot of questions about how he came to work at The Daily Show, and the process of writing and producing the show in general, and the specifics of what goes into making an episode. They then started playing clips from various parts of the show, and talking about both that act in general, and the specific instances shown. Just about all the clips were from the last 2 weeks.

The moments when David couldn’t keep from busting out laughing were great. As was his discussion of the various cast members, and what it’s like writing for them. The Daily Show has seen a lot of turnover in cast as all the reporters are seen for their comic ability, and end up in bigger gigs in Hollywood. David personally writes the toss between John and Steven at the end of the Daily Show, which he did say was the best part of his day, as it’s something small, focused, and he can do anything he wants with it as long as it keeps everyone in character.

Some of the comparisons between The Daily Show, and the Colbert Report at the end were quite interesting. David put it best as:

John comments on the irony; Steven is the irony.

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Our weekly Scifi Night continued last night with episode 3 of Torchwood, plus episodes 5 & 6 of Babylon 5.

Torchwood… is not doing so well. There didn’t seem to be really a point to the episode last night, it just went around in circles, with an eventual “whadda twist!” at the end. It definitely seemed forced, and there was little that was really keeping any of us interested. Please just start digging into Jack’s background (from the episode guides online now, I know they get there eventually), the rest is pretty uninteresting at this point.

Babylon 5 is starting to pick up steam, which is good, as Mike and I did sell B5 as really awesome, and I had forgotten how uneven the first couple episodes are. I guess it helped that I first started seeing B5 consistently somewhere in Season 2. Favorite quotes of the the night by the room were clearly:

"Do you know what the last Xon said just before he died? [Clutches heart]
 *AAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!!!*"
	-- Londo in Babylon 5:"The Parliament of Dreams"

"With luck, they may never find you, but if they do, you will know pain.."
"..and you will know fear.."
"..and then you will die. Have a pleasant flight."
	-- G'Kar & Na'Toth to Tu'Pari in Babylon 5:"The Parliament of Dreams"

I also hadn’t realized that Na’toth and Lenir were both introduced in Parliament of Dreams (it’s been a long time). Bestor, of course, is introduced in Mind War.

I had also forgotten that Mind War threw in the idea of truly old creatures wandering the galaxy that have no awareness of us. Sakai’s acting through all of that could be better, but B5’s strength in acting was never the reason to watch it, it was always about the story and the writing. As of Parliament of dreams, both Londo and G’Kar’s characters really fleshed out, the actors are definitely comfortable in those roles, and are currently carrying some of the weaker actors through the force of their personalities.

All in all, I think B5 is going over quite well, which makes me quite happy.

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We begun watching Babylon 5 from the beginning on Sci-Fi night at my place, which I’m quite excited about. It’s been 8 years since B5 went off the air, and I really can’t wait to get through the entire story arc again. After watching the pilot, and episode 1, I went out looking for B5 quote lists again, and figured I’d share a few from season 1. As some of the folks watching B5 for the first time read this, I’ve kept everything pretty spoiler free.

"Now, landing thrusters.. landing thrusters, hmm. Now if I were a landing thruster, which one of these would I be?"

	-- Londo in Babylon 5:"A Voice in the Wilderness #2"

"And Vir!"
"Yes, sir?"
"Don't give away the homeworld."

	-- Londo and Vir in Babylon 5:"Born to the Purple"

If we end up watching 2 eps a week (skipping thanksgiving for obvious reasons), we’ll get to “Signs and Portents” on Dec 20th. I can’t wait.

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I just happened to notice G4 TV listing Star Trek 2.0 on their schedule, with Mirror Mirror as the episode. As this is one of the better Star Trek episodes ever, I decided, hey, I’ll flip over.

I am instantly assaulted by the episode at taking up
Dear G4,

Please take some riddlin, and get a freaking clue.

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I was just watching How I Met Your Mother, and as the paramedics ran in for the first scene, I realized one of them looked freakily familiar.

… Damn, that’s Carter! and, wait, the other one is Craig!

Granted it is their show, but none the less, it was cool regardless.

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