Why I’ve Quit Game of Thrones and Will Not Return
(Trigger warning: this post will involve discussion of sexual violence, homophobia, and related subjects. If you watch Game of Thrones, you probably already know what I’m talking about. I’m also releasing this post early because I can’t wait until Friday to drop it. I’m moving my Retro Nostalgia feature to Friday for this week only.)
6 Thoughts on 1.5 Seasons of CW’s Arrow — @cw_arrow
I’ve recently become a fan of CW’s Arrow. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s easily one of the best superhero TV shows on air at the moment. Don’t let the CW label fool you. Arrow is good stuff. It’s one part action thriller and one part superhero camp, all mixed together in a magic blender and served in an edible cup made of fruit or something. Look, it’s just really enjoyable, OK? And this is coming from the guy who has found DC’s output since Man of Steel pretty pathetic (the comics, the movie announcements, all of it)(yes, I know that Arrow came out before all that). So here are some of my thoughts on the first season and a half of the show. Yes, you can expect some spoilers. 1. The flashbacks are pretty clever as a narrative device. Throughout the show, we’ve been presented with Oliver Queen in his “I play rich turd by day, but at night I’m an arrow-shooting vigilante” form alongside his “rich boy left alone on a dangerous island full of mercenaries, warriors, and military wackos” form. This is hardly the first time we’ve seen this sort of thing (Lost had its own version of it, and shows like Heroes, X-Files, and so on have played around with the tactic), but the amount of attention paid to these flashbacks — as narratives unto themselves — is at least noteworthy. I particularly appreciate the attempt to connect what is happening in the present with what has already occurred; there are moments in Season Two, for example, in which the present only makes sense if you know what has already occurred, a fact that is punctuated by the slow development of these narratives in side-by-side fashion. Season Two even goes so far as to sort of “retcon” Oliver’s original “story” about what happened on the island, revealing that even we, the viewers, have been lied to. It creates a great deal of tension and puts the past and present in conversation in a way that may actually be quite unique (or at least rather uncommon). 2. I’ve been genuinely surprised by the quality of the action in this show. By comparison to Agents of SHIELD, whose action sequences often seemed lazy and dull (normal TV fare) in the first few episodes (it improves by miles as the show develops), Arrow is slick and, at times, brutal. This, of course, serves as an excuse for the various “fit” characters to prostrate themselves in glorious gladiator fashion. Muscles and tight tummies are glorified to the max. The show also gives play time to its less trained members, such as Felicity and Roy (the future Red Hood), the latter of which is some kind of parkour ninja. I love that this isn’t just a show of muscly people punching really hard, but of muscly folks actually having to be competent at what they do (mostly). Arrow doesn’t always get it right, though. I think the choreography and editing for Sara Lance’s Canary fights have lacked the same intensity as those of Oliver’s/Arrow’s. I’m not sure why there’s such a marked difference. Lance is supposed to be just as trained as Oliver, if not more because of her association with the League of Assassins. So she should be quick, agile, and brutal. But there are moments when her action sequences seem out of sync or slowed down. Maybe this has to do with the fact that Caity Lotz hasn’t had the same character foreknowledge to be prepared, or perhaps they simply put less time into her physical presentation because the Canary is technically a secondary character, and one that probably won’t stick around for too long either because of her association with the League of Assassins or because Arrow intends for her to take the mantle of the Black Canary (no, not this), which was originally Laurel Lance’s superheroine role in the comics. As much as I love her character, I do feel that there’s something missing in how her physical self is portrayed. My hope is that they will correct this. 3. I am at a point where I can honestly say that I despise Laurel. She was a sympathetic character in Season One, but since the death of Tommy, she has spiraled down into a pit of alcoholism and general asshole-ish-ness. It would be one thing if she were only destroying herself; however, throughout the first half of the second season, she’s been oblivious and, at times, downright vindictive. I don’t know if the writers thought it would be interesting to switch the roles of Laurel and her father, but that’s certainly what happened. Except, Laurel’s transition does not make her sympathetic. Sure, she’s begun attending AA meetings and trying to get her life under wraps, but even in her sober state, she’s just not a likable character. In some sense, I think her post-sobriety personality is less complicated than the Laurel of Season One, and that makes her less likable and far less interesting. Worse, she’s untrustworthy, flipping back and forth between standing by the people she loves and stabbing them in the back — granted, her stabs are less mean now that she’s sober. It’s just not a good path for the character. The father, however, has become a lovable figure — loyal to friends and family and loyal to the Arrow (at first for reasons of necessity — the police won’t let him do his job — but later due to a kind of shared trust; the scene where he monologues on why Laurel shouldn’t tell him the identity of the Arrow was probably my favorite moment from him since I started watching the show). 4. Oliver Queen’s character development is going to hit a wall pretty soon. And that wall is “the present.” I like Oliver. Sure, his present self is rather simplistic in the aggregate — one-directional, if you will — but given where he began in Season One (vengeful vigilante/murderer)
Star Trek: a Worf TV Show? (Some Thoughts)
A few weeks ago, the Huffington Post released an interview with Wil Wheaton and Michael Dorn, who played Wesley Crusher and Worf (respectively) on Star Trek: the Next Generation. I recommend reading the whole thing, but for now, I’m only concerned with one quote from Dorn: Business things got in the way in terms of the JJ Abrams movie coming out and CBS/Paramount and their relationship with JJ Abrams. I don’t think they wanted to step on his toes by putting a new series on, but it’s not dead yet. I’ve finished the script and hopefully someone will take a look at this and say “we can do this.” Basically, we’re not that far off from seeing a Captain Worf TV show. Let me say that again: a Captain Worf TV show. By “not far off,” of course, I don’t mean “next year.” This is Hollywood, after all, and even getting into talks with the studios still means you’re about as far from production as we are from going to Mars. Still, in production terms, that’s a lot closer than “I’ve got the rights” or “I wrote something” or “someone answered my phone call.” In other words, yeah, we’re really not that far off from a possible show. The big questions are these: How exactly are they going to fit this show into the universe everyone now knows (Abrams’)? And if they’re not going to integrate Worf into this new universe, how can they justify the character to a new viewing public? First, there are big problems with sticking Worf into the Abrams universe. Even taking into account the ridiculous time travel changes that have occurred, the character of Worf doesn’t appear until well after the events of the first two ST films. He’s from an entirely different era, and his character is so defined by that era that to try to artificially shove him 100 years forward would entail an entirely different set of political conditions, most notably the fact that the Federation and the Klingons haven’t even begun their war in the Abrams universe. Star Trek Into Darkness takes place in 2259 — eight years before the Federation-Klingon war took place in the original universe. And the film makes clear that war is pretty much inevitable, as it was in the original universe. Since Worf’s character is partly defined by the post-war period, after which the Klingons eventually sue for piece (as in The Undiscovered Country), it doesn’t make much sense to shove him into the immediate universe of the Abrams film. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did just that, since this film series seems incapable of inventing new characters; instead, they borrow liberally from everything that came before. One of the other problems has to do with which ST TV shows people are most likely to remember. The Abrams ST films are probably more popular with casual or non-Trek viewers than with the traditional Trekkie crowd. As such, its primary audience likely knows about TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager, but their most recent ST experience would have been with Enterprise. The good news: STE doesn’t violate Abrams’ new canon, since its events, more or less, take place before Kirk’s birth (in fairness, I haven’t finished STE yet, so there may be stuff in there that contradicts this). You could easily suck STE into Abrams’ canon without much problems, which is not something you can easily do with a Worf TV show which springs off of TNG and DS9 (as the title, Captain Worf, suggests). A show set in the Next Gen universe will also have a hard time competing with the film universe precisely because its characters aren’t the dominant representation of ST anymore. They may be some of the most recognizable non-TOS characters in the ST canon, but the universe we’re playing in now would, by its very nature, have to diverge significantly from the world we learned about in TNG. After all, the Vulcans aren’t really there to help out anymore. They’re a decimated species who might, in 100 years, get some semblance of interstellar control back, but they’re basically out for the count right now. And that means Abrams has to take into account that the Klingons will likely have more of an influence on the Federation than they would have had before — they’re minus one formidable opponent. Right. Wandering. This is the problem. The Abrams universe has become, in my mind, *the* ST universe. It’s the one we’re all really talking about as a culture. As much as I want a Captain Worf show set in the TNG universe, I worry that it will only confuse new fans of ST. After all, part of the reason the new ST movies are so action oriented is to snatch up younger viewers. It’s not designed for Trekkies, as much as they might hate the idea. And the worst thing you can do to a newer, younger (and, hey, possibly older-but-never-been-into-ST-before) crowd is confuse them with ST stuff that doesn’t fit. Well, maybe not the worst thing, but it’s a legitimate concern. But who am I to say it won’t work? I’ll watch the show regardless, as will most Trek fans. Worf is a beloved character, and watching him grow as a formidable captain would be pretty awesome. Bogh tlhInganpu’, SuvwI’pu’ moj, Hegh!
Robotech, the Live Action Movie is Coming! Initiate the SqueeFest (Thoughts) #monthofjoy
The Geekexchange (via The Wertzone) reports that Warner Bros. has snagged the rights to Robotech, the classic 1985 anime. And there are some good names attached to the project: For a legion of fans that grew up on Robotech, it was fantastic news that it was previously announced that Warner Bros. picked up the rights from Harmony Gold USA to create a live action film version of the series. With big name veteran producers Akiva Goldsman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I Am Legend, Fringe (TV-series)), Tobey Maguire (Seabiscuit, Rock of Ages), and Jason Netter (Wanted, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles) all attached to the project in producer roles, the search was on for a director. I remember watching re-runs of Robotech as a kid at some godawful hour of the morning (Saturdays!). I was all of two-years-old when the show first aired, so I didn’t start watching until the mid-90s, when one of the local channels started showing it to nerds who had to be up at five in the morning. Later, I read several of the novelizations, including Genesis by Jack McKinney. I’m pretty sure we picked them up at a thrift store for 25 cents each (it was the 90s, so the books had been out for a while). The covers were super cool — giant robots and all — though I don’t remember much about them now, except that they followed the narrative of the show fairly directly (my memory about the novels and show are a tad hazy, though, as most of my Robotech experiences involved seeing things out of order — yes, I’ve seen the original Japanese versions too).* I probably read the first three books of the Robotech novel series at least three times as a young person. Weirdly enough, I’d completely forgotten about them until the news about the live action Robotech movie hit the web. Strange. After the novels, I traversed into late-night Anime binges. My grandmother discovered the wonders of satellite TV in my late teens, which meant I got to stay up late on weekends watching anime movies. I discovered Blue Seed and a whole bunch of other anime shows that way. One of the things that occasionally appeared at one in the morning was Robotech (specifically, Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Macross Plus). This stuff helped foster a love for mecha shows, including Gundam Wing, which remains one of my favorite anime shows of all time. I should also mention that while discovering Robotech, I had also spent a great deal of time playing around with old RPG source books for Battletech, another mecha franchise. My friends and I used to use tracing paper to mix-and-match weapons on Battletech mechs, creating our own super mechs. I still have those somewhere, along with a whole lot of Battletech toys…And then I bought a few of the Palladium RPG books for Robotech and did the exact same thing. All of those books are still on my shelves… Basically, I was a total geek in my youth. And I’m still a geek today, because I will go see a live action Robotech movie even if they cast gerbils for all the roles. This is just too awesome! —————————————— *For those that don’t know. Robotech is the name of the American adaptation of the original Japanese anime franchise, Macross. The U.S. edition took the first three series of Macross and turned them into three seasons of Robotech (this is a drastic oversimplification, though, and I’m probably half wrong).