True Blood: Frenzy

Jason: "Sometimes you need to destroy something to save it. That's in the Bible. Or the Constitution."

I loved the Queen's "day room" so, so much. It was luxurious and utterly weird, and it's hard to pull off a combination like that. And it suited her, come to think of it, because the Queen is indeed luxurious and utterly weird. The Yahtzee game and some of the things she said were just hilarious. (She was cheating at Yahtzee. Who cheats at Yahtzee?)

Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness

Jack: "It's not my name, it's his. I took his. But I didn't realize he was so hot."

Jack goes back into the past, and falls in love with himself. A new and interesting take on narcissism.

Torchwood: Combat

Jack: "The weevil has landed."

Fight Club with weevils. No, let me rephrase that. A bad episode about Fight Club with weevils. Yes, let's search for the meaning of life by getting mauled. That works. In fact, this entire episode was one long metaphor about nasty, aggressive guys being brainless alien animals.

Torchwood: Out of Time

John: "What, did you fall through time, too?"
Jack: "Yeah. You could say that."

I like time travel stories. This one was quite good.

Torchwood: Random Shoes

Eugene: "I didn't really know what the eye was anymore, but I was damned if I was going to let it go for thirty-four pounds and a banana milkshake."

Episodes based around someone else with a minimum of regular cast tend to be chancey, and mostly, they don't work. I was impatient with this one early on, but it turned out to be rather touching.

Heroes and Smallville and the fall season

This hasn't been an easy decision for me to make. I don't drop shows midstream; I tend to remain faithful to the sweet or bitter end. (I'm not oblivious to how I refer to my relationship with a particular show as a love affair.)

But I took on more shows than I should have, and last winter and spring were just too much for me. I was writing practically every night, and it stopped being fun. This is supposed to be fun. This is my favorite hobby, after all. Something has to give. And it's going to be Heroes and Smallville. Why? Because I just don't love them any more. Not the way I used to.

I'm almost certainly going to keep watching. I may even track my initial reactions so that I can incorporate them into any future reviews. Heroes and Smallville may be summer projects. Depends on whether this coming season does anything for me.

This fall, my priorities will be Supernatural, Dollhouse, and Dexter. This winter and spring, I'll be deeply into reviewing the final season of Lost. I'm committed to continuing with the Buffy comics until season eight ends, at which time I will almost certainly stop. I'm not a comic book person and it's been difficult for me to relate to the comics. I am absolutely crazy about True Blood and will review it live next summer. And I'll review Torchwood season four, if we get one, whenever it becomes available to me.

Josie K. is still planning to review Fringe and Chuck. Paul Kelly is going to continue covering Doctor Who as it airs on British television, and he's working on season four as I'm writing this. Jess Lynde is working on retro reviews and will be pitching in as we all review this fall's premieres.

Feel free to post comments about any or all of this, and about the fall season. I love my readers, and your opinions mean a lot to me.

Torchwood: They Keep Killing Suzie

Jack: "We've been talking to the wrong corpse."

Torchwood is a tough place to work; your corpse *and* your stuff stay with Torchwood forever. Talk about your job owning your soul.

Torchwood: Greeks Bearing Gifts

Tosh: "So I'm shagging a woman and an alien."
Mary: "Which is worse?"
Tosh: "Well, I know which one my parents would say."

Despite its flaws, this was the second episode in a row with lots of character development goodness.

Torchwood: Countrycide

Owen: "I hate the countryside. It's dirty. It's unhygienic. And what is that smell?"
Gwen: "That would be grass."

You really get to know your work mates when you go camping together and get kidnapped by cannibals.

True Blood: New World in My View

Maryann: "What are you?"
Sookie: "None of your business!"

Welcome home, Sookie! Candles on the floor, dirt smeared on the walls, sacrificial altar in the front yard... I've heard of roommates trashing the place, but this is ridiculous. What the heck was the zapping that Sookie gave Maryann? Sookie was as surprised as Maryann was. (Yes, I've read the books, so please -- no book spoilers in the comments!)

Torchwood: Small Worlds

Gwen: "Fairies. Are you kidding me?"

Fairies. Protecting chosen little girls from pervs. At least near the woods in Cardiff, anyway.

Torchwood: Cyberwoman

Owen: "It's wrong. It's beyond wrong. It shouldn't be here."

When I saw this episode the first time, I hated it; I had never watched Doctor Who back then and (blissfully) didn't know what a Cyberman was. I know now. And with more Who background and twenty twenty hindsight, I found some of this episode to be quite fun. I said "some."

Torchwood: Ghost Machine

Jack: "The problem with seeing the future is you can't just sit and look at it. You got to try and change things."

The last episode was about sex. This one was about strong emotion. And it was much better. (Not that there's anything wrong with sex.)

Torchwood: Day One

Gwen: "Okay. First contact with an alien, not quite what I expected."

An alien comes to Earth, possesses a human woman, and then she tries to have sex with everyone. This sounds terribly familiar. I could think of at least two other series that have done the same plot, and I wasn't even trying hard.

Torchwood: Everything Changes

Gwen: "I'm getting tired of following you."
Jack: "No, you're not. And you never will."

Everything changes for a young police constable named Gwen Cooper, when her natural curiosity puts her in the right place at the right time for a truly major career change.

Doctor Who: The Last of the Time Lords (2)

Master: "Dying in your arms. Happy now?"

You know, maybe the Academy's policy of having kids look into the time vortex was one they should have rethought.

I enjoyed some of this one. I really did. But the Doctor as a tiny elderly big-eyed muppet in a bird cage was just a bridge too far for me. Everyone in the world reviving him by chanting his name was way too Peter Pan, too. I was just shaking my head and saying, no, you've got to be kidding me.

True Blood: I Will Rise Up

Sookie: "You big lying A hole!"
Eric: "Bill, you're right. I believe I can sense her emotions."

Eric, Eric, Eric. What is it with me and those blond bad boy vampires? We saw two distinct sides of him here: a deeply emotional side, as well as an extremely naughty side.

Doctor Who: The Sound of Drums (1)

Doctor: "Don't you see, all we've got is each other?"
Saxon: "Are you asking me out on a date?"

I'm usually easy to please. And there was so much that was promising in the "Utopia" set-up, too. But no. So let's go with my standard "good bits bad bits."

Sunshine (2007 movie)

Cassie: "The only dream I ever have is the surface of the Sun. Every time I shut my eyes, it's all I ever see."

[My review will not spoil the end of this movie for you; minimal spoilage.]

It is the year 2057. The Sun is growing colder, and life on Earth is in danger of extinction. Eight astronauts on the ship Icarus 2 are on a mission to re-ignite the Sun. Things go wrong, as things in movies always do, and difficult decisions must be made.

There was a lot for me to like about this movie. The acting was very good; I particularly liked Cillian Murphy as Capa and Chris Evans as Mace, although I must admit that many of the other characters didn't stand out much for me. The best thing was how they dealt practically and seamlessly with the monumental technology that would be needed to get so close to the Sun. I particularly liked the immense, gorgeous, rippling heat shield, and the way it was used as a dramatic device.

The Sun is a character in this movie, a great big metaphor for death as well as life. It's always there, this monumental threat lurking behind everything the characters say and do, the acknowledgment that people are so tiny and inconsequential and yet are daring to try to change a star, like a human attacking a god. The astronauts all dream about falling into the Sun; they're fascinated by it, like prey staring at a cobra before it strikes. And I thought it was particularly clever, the way the scenes on the ship got darker as the astronauts got closer to literally unbearable brightness.

The Icarus 1 bits on Mercury were interesting at first, and set the end in motion, but I think I would have been happier if they'd left them out or done them another way. But then again, that would mean the mission would have been carried out perfectly, and that would have made this movie more like a fictional documentary. Can't have that.

Part of me tends to prefer science fiction that is more realistic, and that's what we have here: no killer robots or homicidal aliens. (Not that there's anything wrong with killer robots and homicidal aliens.) Yes, it got slightly confusing and a bit metaphysical in the end, but I liked it enough to watch it twice, and that's rare for me these days. If you like realistic sci-fi and haven't caught it yet, you might want to give it a try on DVD.

All of our movie reviews are indexed here.

Lost Lit: Stephen King’s Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower IV)

“I will show you something different from either/ Your shadow at morning striding behind you/ Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;/ I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

Book III of the Dark Tower was called The Waste Lands, in an obvious homage to T.S. Eliot’s famous poem. A slightly less-obvious in-joke comes in the name of the city through which the ka-tet must quest: Lud, first mentioned, as far as I know, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1130). Geoffrey’s History is the chronicle that brings King Arthur to the masses, and we can’t forget that Roland is descended on the sinister side from Arthur of Eld.



But in Geoffrey, Lud becomes London (no, this is not historically or etymologically accurate). In Stephen King’s version, Lud is New York: Eddie recognizes the George Washington Bridge, and Blaine’s ‘cradle’ is like an evil Grand Central. But Lud isn’t a simple New York—it’s got Gasher, the villain who speaks like the convict in Great Expectations, not to mention two warring tribes, the Pubes and the Greys. Plus, ritual sacrifice set to ZZ Top.

The Waste Lands also has one of King’s postmodern joke: Jake’s poem, written in a hazy craziness, is considered a masterwork by his English teacher: ‘Blaine is a train. Blain is a pain.’ Postmodern despair, indeed. I doubt King is making some sort of politico-artistic statement, but he’s certainly willing to poke fun at late 20th century literary moodiness and the lack of traditional narrative in high-concept literature.

In Wizard and Glass, we get a different type of postmodern joke: when Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and little Oy finally get past the Waste Lands and off the evil train, they wind up in Kansas. Specifically, the Kansas of The Stand: this America has been decimated by a plague called Captain Tripps. Eddie is from an America in which this didn’t happen, so he’s at least able to assure his compatriots that this is not the definite end for America. In other words, our heroes are inhabiting a world created specifically by King, but it’s not their world.

In this Stand-Kansas, the ka-tet also encounter a thinny, a place where reality gets thin. Thinnies don’t take you to another dimension—it’s not the boundaries between realities that are thin, but reality itself. While wading through this thinny, Roland takes some time to tell his companions about his own first love.

If The Waste Lands spent a lot of time dissing pomo literature, Wizard and Glass is all about traditional forms of language play: riddles save the day on Blaine, and Roland’s oral storytelling makes time nearly stop. The contents of Roland’s story are nothing particularly amazing: he comes of age due to a trick of Walter/The Man in Black; is pseudo-exiled to Mejis, which is sort of like north-eastern Mexico; discovers a plot to end the world; tries and partially fails to stop it. In other words, Roland’s story is a flashback that reveals a lot about his current state of mind and his relationships to the new people around him. It should be accompanied by a big whooshing noise.

While the flashback isn’t the greatest story ever told, it does reveal a lot about how Roland became the man he is. His young friends, Cuthbert and Alain, as well as his lover Susan, all have character traits that Roland sees scattered among his new ka-tet. The flashback also helps us understand the world that Roland came from, the world that has moved on. He came of age in a world of decline, and while to his young self, it seemed that his mother’s infidelity caused everything to collapse, his older self seems to ruefully acknowledge that one person cannot end the world—the world ends itself. Despite that, it is still the goal of the White to fight against that end.

Roland’s flashback also gives us his first glimpse of the Dark Tower, espied in a magical ball of glass that seems a lot like that magical ball of glass in The Lord of the Rings. This glass ball can suck you in, and Roland sees things that have been and things that will be (one of which is a scene that does come in Book VII, and which always make me cry). It shows Roland the Dark Tower, and his future without Susan, which he explains to his friends:

‘The Tower is our ka; mine especially…’ He raised his hands, then dropped them again, as if to say, What more do you need me to tell you?

‘There is no Tower, Roland,’ Cuthbert said patiently. ‘I don’t know what you saw in that glass ball, but there is no Tower. Well, as a symbol, I suppose—like Arthur’s Cup, or the Cross of the Man-Jesus—but not as a real thing, a real building—‘

‘Yes,’ said Roland. ‘It’s real…It’s real, and our fathers know. Beyond the dark land—I can’t remember its name now, it’s one of the things I’ve lost—is End-World, and in End-World stands the Dark Tower. Its existence is the great secret our fathers keep; it’s what has held them together as ka-tet across all the years of the world’s decline…I choose the Tower. I must. Let [Susan] live a good life and long with someone else—she will, in time. As for me, I choose the Tower.’

I can’t think of a more damning explanation of the perils of postmodernism that Roland’s strident defense of the existence of the Dark Tower. It’s not a symbol; it’s not an imaginary concept. It’s a real building, and the world depends on it—and on the gunslingers who have sworn to protect it above all else. When Roland went through is coming-of-age ceremony back home, he felt like he wasn’t quite ready to be an adult. But this moment, in which he sacrifices his own happiness for the pursuit of a very real, and highly symbolic (but not a symbol!) objective, is when he truly becomes a man.

When Roland finishes his recitation, he and his ka-tet continue to walk through desolate Kansas. Soon enough, they come across the Emerald City, complete with wizard—who is, of course, Walter. Oy pulls a Toto, and Roland nearly kills Walter, but not before it becomes incredibly clear that Walter is also Randall Flagg, the ‘Walkin’ Dude’ of The Stand. That man has more lives than a vampire cat.

King’s reference to the Wizard of Oz is definitely a postmodern joke just as much as all the others mentioned at the beginning of this review. But in Wizard and Glass, a distinction seems to emerge: there’s postmodern despair and ironic in-jokes (which King doesn’t seem to like) and postmodern meta-fictional references, which King uses to show two things: how even the most ‘symbolic’ fiction can become real if we allow ourselves to see it that way, and how he’s not creating a multiverse, but merely explaining the multiverse that is literature—the mini-worlds created one book, one chapter, one word at a time.

Missives from the Tower:

• When I was re-reading the series for these reviews, I dog-eared pages that had quotes or situations that I wanted to address. In this entire book, all 672 pages, I only dog-eared one page. It’s not a bad book, it’s just not the best in the series. It drags. And Blaine is so annoying that I can’t bring myself to say much more about it.

• The Waste Lands was published in 1991; Wizard and Glass in 1997. The last three books of the series are when things really start to come to a head: the next book, Wolves of the Calla, was published in 2003. So Wizard and Glass (and maybe The Waste Lands, too) feels like a one-off, different in tone and message from the rest of the series and not part of any huge narrative arc. It’s an in-between book.

• More about the events of Roland’s childhood can be found in the Dark Tower comics. From what I understand, the first comic re-tells the events of Wizard and Glass.

• The quote at the top of this review is from Eliot’s 'The Wasteland.'

• Back to Book Reviews home
  

Doctor Who: Utopia

Jack: "How long have you known?"
Doctor: "Ever since I ran away from you."

A lot of this episode was just terrific. I loved seeing the Doctor and Jack together again; they're both such wonderful characters, larger than life, and the dialogue just sparkled. Jack was overjoyed to be with his beloved Doctor again, while the Doctor felt so much discomfort around Jack that he almost couldn't look him in the eye. (And yet, the Doctor seemed to be threatened or put out by the way Jack constantly hit on everyone -- male, female, alien. Why? Was he jealous?)

The X-Files: Fallen Angel

Case: Operation Falcon, a covert military operation to retrieve and conceal the existence of a 'Fallen Angel' --- a crashed alien ship and its occupants
Destination: Townsend, Wisconsin

After a seven episode drought, ‘Fallen Angel’ brings back the government conspiracy to cover up the existence of extra-terrestrial life. As a fan of long-arc storytelling, this return to the series’ main themes should excite me, but I thought the military’s “crash retrieval” efforts were actually the least interesting part of this episode. Perhaps I’ve become jaded by years of X-Files and Stargate fandom, but the hard-ass colonel and his “I suggest you forget what you saw, or what you think you saw---for your own well-being” routine all struck me as pretty rote and ho hum. Even Mulder’s efforts to expose the cover-up seemed a bit blasé after the events of ‘Deep Throat.’ (Although, I will give him credit for being better prepared this time and for cleverly breaching the perimeter by hiding under the military vehicle. I wonder if he actually caused the flat that made them stop in the first place?)

Doctor Who: Blink

Doctor: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff."

A gem of an episode. It was Doctor light, but it wasn't story light. It was creepy and amusing and unusual, and it had a lot of heart.

Doctor Who: The Family of Blood (2)

Doctor: "That's all I want to be. John Smith. With his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"

This episode touched on the core tragedy of the Doctor's existence. He is a lonely, isolated, unique and wonderful being. He can't have a life and a job and a family. And truly, it's hard to tell if that was even what he would have wanted.

True Blood: Timebomb

Bill: "If you shoot her, everyone here will die. Let her go, now!"
Steve: (to Sookie) "Honestly, what do they see in you?"

What a terrific episode. I laughed out loud so many times that I scared my cat.

Doctor Who: Human Nature (1)

Martha: "You had to go and fall in love with a human. And it wasn't me."

This was exactly my cup of tea. Prime character development for the Doctor, and about time. (Pun intended.) Romantic, too, and there's never enough of that for me.

Buffy Season Eight: Living Doll

Xander: "We have to rescue Dawn. And I don't mean the underrated Christian Bale movie."

Synopsis:

Dawn has gone missing. Her third transformation was from centaur to tiny porcelain doll, and she's imprisoned in a Gepetto-like old man's cottage full of toys that talk. Gepetto is actually protecting Dawn, though; if she breaks, her soul will disperse painfully.

Dollhouse: Epitaph One

[This is the unaired thirteenth episode of the first season of Dollhouse, available on the fourth disk of the DVD set.]

Dominic: "How does it feel to end the world, Ms. DeWitt?"

Doctor Who: 42

Martha: "I can't believe our lives depend on some stupid pub quiz."

So there were glaring holes in the science. So it was mostly Sunshine crossed with Alien. It also reminded me quite a bit of season two's "The Impossible Planet/Satan Trap;" I was thinking that maybe they re-used some of the same sets. And when you spend your entire first paragraph pointing out what they did that has already been done, it's not a good sign.

Dollhouse: Echo (unaired pilot)

Topher: "This is cutting edge science in a house full of hot chicks."

[This is a review of the unaired pilot episode for Dollhouse, entitled "Echo," which is available on the fourth disk of the DVD set.]

Doctor Who: The Lazarus Experiment

Lazarus: "I'll be fine in a moment. It's probably just a cramp."

This episode could have been really good. There could have been so many interesting explorations of Lazarus' change as it related to the Doctor's longevity, immortality as a curse instead of a blessing, lonely god, hubris, and so on. The experiment was even evocative of how the Doctor regenerates, and the youth booth much the same size as the Tardis. The parallels were so obvious that I honestly thought that was where they were going.

True Blood: Release Me

Andy: "With a bull mask! And these giant claws!"
Bud: "Claws? Uh huh."
Andy: "And the whole town had these big black saucer eyes like zombies!"

[Book note: I'm a big fan of the books and I remember what happened in pretty much all of them. But I am treating the series as separate and different, and I am not assuming anything. That's why I haven't mentioned obvious book stuff below about Maryann, Godric, Barry, and so on.]

New Show: Defying Gravity

This is my theory: there are two ways to do great genre shows. The first I’ll call the Mystery Method (with an ironic nod to the maestro of misogynistic dating techniques): the viewers and the characters are in it together, wondering what’s going on. Think of Charlie’s question—one we’re still trying to answer—at the end of the Lost pilot: “Guys, where are we?” The character’s expression of concern excites interest in the viewer, and the discovery of the Mystery is the backbone of the show’s plot.

The X-Files: Ice

Case: The unexplained fate of the Arctic Ice Corp Project team after their leader sends a disturbing transmission stating they “are not who they are.”
Destination: Icy Cape, Alaska

‘Ice’ is one my favorite first season X-Files episodes, and probably in the top tier of my all-time favorite episodes. The case-of-the-week finds our heroes trapped in an extremely remote location with a small team of scientists, a bunch of dead bodies, and an unknown cause of death. Add in a healthy mix of mistrust, paranoia, fear, and murder and you’ve got yourself a terrific psychological thriller with some horror elements thrown in for good measure.

Buffy Season Eight: Safe

Faith: "So tell me howcum the slayers have a sanctuary in the middle of a Dracula flick?"

Synopsis:

Faith and Giles rescue a reluctant new slayer named Courtney from a vamp. Courtney mentions the Slayer Sanctuary, a place where slayers don't have to be slayers. Giles says this is a place they need to check out.

Doctor Who: Evolution of the Daleks (2)

Doctor: "The Daleks just changed their minds. Daleks never change their minds."

This episode made me wonder why I decided to review Doctor Who in the first place. It was so bad that I was embarrassed for the actors. The plot resolution was a shambles, and the characterization of the Doctor was completely trashed.