One night, I was dragged to a movie called Serenity by a bunch of browncoats and fell in love with a universe. Some called it the Whedonverse. It was a movie based on a short lived series called Firefly. It was a show I scoffed at. How in the world could a cowboy show set in space be 1) any good and 2) any good?
I ate my words.
I loved the universe Whedon set up, the hard edge of the browncoats, proud even in their loss. I fell in love with them all and as I watched the 13 episodes of show that got made, I wished there would be more. I wanted more of Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash and the rest.
So I watched other shows I wanted to see those characters. The CSI episode where Wash was a released pedophile, Standoff where Zoe is the head of an elite group of negotiators, Lost (well, I watched Lost already) when Mal was a patsy in Kate's hands, The Unit where River showed her shallow side, Daybreak for Jayne, and now, Mal's latest - Drive.
My husband saw the press kit from Drive. He said it was the worst press kit he's ever seen Fox put out. When I asked him to play Drive off of the DVR, he shook his head, warning me that it would probably be disappointing.
I didn't care. Drive had Mal. Mad faced Mal. Calm, stony faced, full of anger Mal. And while I hesitate to say that this character, Tully, is very different from Malcolm Reynolds, I will say that I will take it!
Drive is the story of an illegal street race. Tully/Mal's wife was kidnapped so that he would be forced to participate in the race. Others participate as well, some by choice, some by circumstances, some by force. The first two episodes premiered Sunday night and I found myself liking the show for more reasons than Nathan Fillion.
I found that I liked other characters as well. Ugly Betty's Kevin Alejandro plays Winston Salazar, a more bad-ass version of his UB other half. He's funnier on Ugly Betty, although more poignant as the forgotten son of a wealthy Floridian. After breaking into his father's house, he meets his half brother, Sean, and convinces Sean to race with him when Sean realizes his father lied about having another family.
Melanie Lynskey's Wendy Patrakas is the frazzled housewife who is afraid of a possibly abusive husband. She is growing to be one of my favourite non-Nathan Fillion characters. She came in last after being stopped for driving a stolen vehicle (she has, for some unknown reason, been forced to participate in the illegal race and she does so without her husband's consent). It is, in actuality, her own vehicle, but her husband reported it stolen. What a jerk. Because she came in last, she was given a gun and told to eliminate another racer.
The other racer is in a group with two other ladies (ladies I assume are the refugees from Katrina based on the commercials - but I guess we will see tonight).
There is a husband/wife team, Rob and Ellie. Ellie has been keeping calls from the army from her solder husband and according to commercials for tonights episode, will cause her husband to go AWOL. What a witch with a B.
There is also John and Violet Trimble, a father/daughter team who seem to be doing the race of their own free will, although the father only has one year to live. Violet Trimble, played by Emma Stone, bares a painful resemblance to Lindsay Lohan, causing us to refer to her as Lindsay Lohain't. Yes, we're lame, but we like it.
I'm sure we will find out about the other characters. As an opening series, I wasn't turned away from it. It doesn't have the utter implausibility of Prison Break, the time slot it is taking up. It certainly doesn't film the sense of urgency the way Fox's 24 does. And while dialogue can come off as clunky and Tully's lack of sleep hallucinations of his wife is somewhat laughable, I do find that I want to keep up with the show. It had its moments (some of the race scenes were tense), but basically because I've stuck it out for worse shows, Drive stays on the DVR. So Drive, don't let me down. I would like to get to the finish line with you.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Tudors' Blood Ties
In a way that doesn't happen often, sci fi and re-imagined history inhabit the same time as The Tudors' Henry VIII's just born son, Henry Fitzroy is Blood Ties' resident vampire. Only Tanya Huff knows how baby Henry made it from 1519, to helping in paranormal investigations as a dead sexy vampire in 2007.
The Tudors started out well enough. Two episodes in and other than the fact that I watched the first two episodes online and the somewhat grotesque blurring of naughty parts that was slightly more scary than a horror film. With all the history and conjecture that period has, this could prove to be a very entertaining imagining of that life. If the writing bears up over the next few years, the show should have no problem coming up with stories. I wasn't blown away by the writing. The acting is okay and I find myself liking Thomas More and feeling sad about his ultimate fate. The most striking thing, though, is how similar Henry the VII's Jonathan Rhys Meyer, and Henry Fitzroy's Kyle Schmid, look. I think it's the chin and something about the way the mouth looks when they smile... Something...
Blood Ties, in its own way, is interesting. I am sometimes somewhat confused by the sudden appearance of rap music in the midst of the episode, but in general I am interested in where the show could go. There are too many awkward pauses, but I like the paranormal stuff and the dialogue has ventured into the interesting on several occasions. I think the sexual tension is well done and I definitely like this vampire show better than television's re-imagined Blade, but I may be alone in that one. It will be interesting to see where each show leads.
The Tudors started out well enough. Two episodes in and other than the fact that I watched the first two episodes online and the somewhat grotesque blurring of naughty parts that was slightly more scary than a horror film. With all the history and conjecture that period has, this could prove to be a very entertaining imagining of that life. If the writing bears up over the next few years, the show should have no problem coming up with stories. I wasn't blown away by the writing. The acting is okay and I find myself liking Thomas More and feeling sad about his ultimate fate. The most striking thing, though, is how similar Henry the VII's Jonathan Rhys Meyer, and Henry Fitzroy's Kyle Schmid, look. I think it's the chin and something about the way the mouth looks when they smile... Something...
Blood Ties, in its own way, is interesting. I am sometimes somewhat confused by the sudden appearance of rap music in the midst of the episode, but in general I am interested in where the show could go. There are too many awkward pauses, but I like the paranormal stuff and the dialogue has ventured into the interesting on several occasions. I think the sexual tension is well done and I definitely like this vampire show better than television's re-imagined Blade, but I may be alone in that one. It will be interesting to see where each show leads.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Holy Frak Explained
Unlike other sci-fi shows that use space to find the new and freakish in the outer limits, Battlestar Galactica has spent the last two seasons searching for the familiar, us. Even their "aliens" are mechanized copies of ourselves. The pigs are walking and they are Cylons.
In the This Girl family, there is a divide over the Cylons. I am a fan of Sharon, the one that loved humanity enough to stay, to carry the child of a human and put her stock with this group. My husband was against Cylon Sharon from the start, hoping Adama would have her thrown out of the airlock. We engaged in many conversations about prisoners of war, loyalty, and war itself, all because of this little sci-fi show. I am sympathetic towards the cylons we see try to be "good". No cylon is good in my husband's book.
Which is why the season finale was so... interesting, to say the least. Arresting. As they were all standing in the room after following the music, Chief says, "That's all it takes..." Up until that point, I knew that I should know what was going on - kind of like an "on the tip of my tongue" type of feeling - but then it was clear and the first word in my head was FRAK! For my husband, what would this mean for our "love" of these characters? Are we going to spend the next season wondering when these characters will be activated? Why are these characters not known?
Battlestar Galactica has proven that, even in a season with so many missteps, that the ability to write gripping shows has not been lost. From Apollo's speech to the President's vision, from new cylons to seeing Starbuck, the writers of Battlestar Galactica, who sometimes made us feel we would rather watch Blood Ties instead, made us long not only for the 4th season, but for any bit of Galactica goodness we could have. I know we're all still hoping that interest in Caprica would resurface and we will take the Battlestar movie we get until the new season, but oh, how I long for the new season. I wonder what will be happen next? Who is the 5th Cylon - Laura Roslin or Starbuck? Or will the writers get us after all and make it Adama? Will the other Cylons now sense that the 4 have been discovered? How will they continue to hide their new status? What about this new half human half cylon baby? Will Tyrol apologize to Sharon? And oh my word, is this going to make Col. Tigh more of a pirate than he already has been? What will earth be like? If any of you have questions or speculations, I would love to have something more to think about as I wait for the 4th season.
In the This Girl family, there is a divide over the Cylons. I am a fan of Sharon, the one that loved humanity enough to stay, to carry the child of a human and put her stock with this group. My husband was against Cylon Sharon from the start, hoping Adama would have her thrown out of the airlock. We engaged in many conversations about prisoners of war, loyalty, and war itself, all because of this little sci-fi show. I am sympathetic towards the cylons we see try to be "good". No cylon is good in my husband's book.
Which is why the season finale was so... interesting, to say the least. Arresting. As they were all standing in the room after following the music, Chief says, "That's all it takes..." Up until that point, I knew that I should know what was going on - kind of like an "on the tip of my tongue" type of feeling - but then it was clear and the first word in my head was FRAK! For my husband, what would this mean for our "love" of these characters? Are we going to spend the next season wondering when these characters will be activated? Why are these characters not known?
Battlestar Galactica has proven that, even in a season with so many missteps, that the ability to write gripping shows has not been lost. From Apollo's speech to the President's vision, from new cylons to seeing Starbuck, the writers of Battlestar Galactica, who sometimes made us feel we would rather watch Blood Ties instead, made us long not only for the 4th season, but for any bit of Galactica goodness we could have. I know we're all still hoping that interest in Caprica would resurface and we will take the Battlestar movie we get until the new season, but oh, how I long for the new season. I wonder what will be happen next? Who is the 5th Cylon - Laura Roslin or Starbuck? Or will the writers get us after all and make it Adama? Will the other Cylons now sense that the 4 have been discovered? How will they continue to hide their new status? What about this new half human half cylon baby? Will Tyrol apologize to Sharon? And oh my word, is this going to make Col. Tigh more of a pirate than he already has been? What will earth be like? If any of you have questions or speculations, I would love to have something more to think about as I wait for the 4th season.
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