review: the sarah jane adventures s02

In these trying times without my Doctor Fix, when we seem to never be watching Classic Who and there's no Nu Who to sate me, I'm glad I had a whole season of Sarah Jane to watch, even if the fact that I watched it all in one sitting means I'm back where I started and now I have to find something else to do.

Season one was brilliant, and season 2 follows suit. There's the obligatory Sontaran episode (these producers are so friggen fond of the Sontarans, but I find them generally dull), but it serves as a really kind way to write out Maria, with all the emotional resonance that sort of thing means-- and maybe because this is more of a kid's show than Doctor Who, she doesn't have to die or get trapped in an alternate dimension, but only moves to America... though that might amount to the same thing*. I liked Maria, and I liked her interactions with Luke and Sarah Jane, but she was given the time for us to be sad and her to be sad about it, and it was okay. And Rani is bright and adventurous in a different way, that I like also, and we all know that Companions have to go so new ones can come. And she and her exceedingly cute dad have a cameo later anyway. Plus, Rani's family are fun and three-dimensional, and they fit into the series well, though her mom really needs to work on not getting hypnotized quite so much. And we got to finally meet Clyde's family, which is great, since he's sort of been this dislocated child all this time. And Luke and Sarah Jane's relationship is tested and comes out true. Yay!

Plus, there's a quarry!

This season was surprisingly scary and tense. I don't remember if last season was like this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was; these aren't the sorts of shows that really talk down to kids, but rather simplify complex topics so that kids can relate, without having to dumb them down at all. I love that. The kid in me that was so annoyed at the shows that assumed I was an idiot (thank god I had Press Gang and such like to keep my brain from mushifying) loves it, too. It was nice to see that the unflappable Sarah Jane has real fears that aren't really at all related to being a Companion, and it was beyond lovely to see the old Foxbridge and The Big again. He's much older, but he's still got that voice and that sardonic tone that I do so love.

The info on Series 3 says Sarah Jane is getting married; if it's a serious thing, and not some coercion, there was no indication of anyone she might like to marry here. Whoever he is, he'd better be amazing.

* ... as I learned when I moved from Scotland to Florida, and promptly lost track of everyone I knew. Except for that one kid who inexplicably wound up in my PE class.

review: primeval s01

I got season one a while ago, but I watched something like five minutes of the pilot and decided to watch something else. Then, about two weeks ago, I caught an episode of season 2 on SciFi, and that was it: a new fandom. All in that one second-season mid-story episode.

So I went back and found season one, and watched it all day over this weekend while out internet was out (yet again). Season one is six episodes, which is short for a Brit Scifi show (at least for the ones I've seen), but that doesn't damage the over arcing storyline at all-- in fact, I'd say it improves it, by eliminating any chance to spin wheels, fill in with lame episodes, or get repetative.

This is the story of Nick Cutter, who gets involved with these rips in time called Anomalies that generally open up from some prehistoric place into our time (which means, temporally, our time is awfully cluttered with them, as the rest of history is so much larger, but maybe that's dealt with later?). He's a dinosaur specialist, and together with his research assistant / tracking expert / ass-kicker Steven, former student and all over tech-geek Connoor, and herpetologist and assistant zookeeper Abbie, the tracks the mean beasties that come through the Anoamies and rome around England causing trouble. His ex wife Helen is the main villain, his new love interest Claudia is their PR expert, and their boss Lester is a jerk. And the story is fun. Connor, especially knows how cool it is that they're chasing dinos, and all of them appreciate the awesomeness of getting to see them in real life. Plus, there's subplots! Helen, whatever she's up to; Nick and Claudia getting to like eachother despite the fact that they're often at odds; Connor liking Abbie while Abbie likes Steven and Steven has an off-screen girlfriend; Connor's friends who cause trouble midway through the season; the research into the Anomalies; the appearance of future-centric Anomalies and what that means; and, of course, the chasing of the monsters that keeps the show from getting too cerebral and plot-y. The characters interact well, and each has their own reason for doing what they do and for being how they are. The world isn't exactly feasable, but the science is consistent, and what they say about each creature, as far as I can tell, is pretty acurate before the necessary shinying-up for the screen.

I loved it. It makes me remember how much I liked dinosaurs as a kid, and makes me a little sad that Anomalies aren't real (unless all of SciFi is real, in which case, I feel cheated that it's being denied me). It's cool, it's fun, it's cheeky and a little intense, and it's short enough to watch in an afternoon, like a movie marathon. I've already moved on to season 2.

movie: land of the lost

When I was sick recently, I stayed up all night watching a marathon on SciFi of the original Land of the Lost. I'd always thought it was silly and cheezy-- which it was-- but I didn't expect it to be fairly well-written. I was surprised at names I recognized (like Ben Bova) on the author list, and at how consistent the storylines were. Before I watched that, I wanted to see the movie; afterward, I was actually excited, since I had a little background on it and knew enough that I could now catch any in-jokes.

The movie's been doing really poorly by the reviews. Like, dismally poor, last time I checked. In my opinion, they're missing the point. I found the movie silly and more than a little rediculous, but that's what I was expecting: that's what the show was like, and it never once claimed to be a serious interpretation, anyway. It's fun, cheerful, silly, a little crude but never really terribly insulting, and has more plot than I expected it to have. It's full of really great references to the actual show and how this isn't the same thing, and it's quotable enough that it's already made its way into our personal lexicon. Sure, there are plot holes, but they generally don't matter much to the story as a whole; it won't be winning any awards, but it's not the trainwreck it's been made out to be. I mean, Holly gets to take on Sleestaks with only a belt and some feistiness! Marshall gets to ride and dinosaur! Watch it with an open mind, and love it for the silly little bit of brainfluff it really is.

If I had been given the choice, I wouldn't have made Enik's story arc the way it was, and I would have had everyone stay, but then we wouldn't have gotten the triumphant return to the Today show at the end. Ah well. 

I'll probably buy it and watch it when I don't want to have to think too much, like when I'm doing housework or I can't sleep or something-- it's not at all challanging, but it makes a rip in time and space look awfully fun.

Plus, there are these neat-ass Sleestaks.

movie: steamboy

This should have been right up my alley. I mean, really. Anime? Check. Steampunk? Check. Science saves us all? Check. And yet... I'm used to anime being back loaded and havign to watch through alot of character development before we get to the point of the plot in the last twenty minutes or so-- that's just standard procedure-- but this just seemed to take forever to get anywhere, even though there was action all over the place, and then when we got there, it was all full of crazy people all being crazy at eachother and no real moral compass at all. I'm okay with movies that have a different morality than I would follow-- I don't go to movies to be agreed with-- but this was all over the place. Science is good. Science is bad. Science id good but your dad is bad. No, it's HIS dad who's bad, and you need to listen to me. No, wait, it's Robert Louis Sevenson who's a jerk, so be sure you stay away from him, but we're all totally trustworthy... Yeah. No. Just no.

I mean, the movie was entertaining, but I wasn't able to figure out what point it was making. And there were other annoyances: The father is half steampunk cyborg, and that's hardly touched on at all. No implications what so ever. Millions of inhabitants of London are frozen / burned up / crushed by falling debris / exploded, etc, and none of that matters. What the hell is the little selfish and unrepentent little American girl about? Editing was weird, too-- things happened without us seeing them, even though they act as if we did.

I'll stay with my Miazaki, thanks.

lost: s05 e01 and e02

Okay, I'm pretty confused, but with everythign happening at once and big new plot devices moving into place, I'm thinking it's okay. Like when the show was new and shiny. I'm excited for the confusion because it means new things are happening and we're actually getting somewhere, which is great.

Here are my fav parts:

- Desmond is still sliding back and forth through time (even though I thought he was past that? didn't they save him before his brain melted and stop the disjoint?) and it's maybe caused by the fact that Daniel is apparently also darting around time and now the whole island is. Which is just brilliant. 

- Not only is the Island skipping all over time and space (that computer looks like it's tracking it everywhere), it's picking up all the anachronisms that they've already found-- so far the plane with Mr Echo's brother, and if that's happening, then maybe we'll get to see the bear and the Black Rock and whatever else. Which is very exciting. I love that it's physically going to where these things are, rather than being all Bermuda triangle-ish and dragging things to it. Nice turn-around!

- Sweety-faced old lady from Desmond's crazy is now all over Ben, who's trying to be a goodguy... in so much as he's the same as he was, but now the Losties are finding themselves on his side.

- Hurley continues seeing dead people-- and I'm rooting for him to start seeing dead people that he never knew, like those English soldiers that Locke just killed, which would mean that he's not crazy and he actually is somehow tied into the mind of the Island. That's probably not going to happen, but a girl can still dream. Also, I love that his mom believes him. And I love that the dead people know things that he doesn't know.

- Jack is in with Ben, who seems to be trying to get him clean, and that's great. Sayid is against Ben because he thinks Ben was manipulating him (and probably was), but he's such a cool assassin, this is fine. It makes a new devide.

- And what the hell is up with Sun? She's got a little daughter, but she's globe-trotting, talking to Widmore, out to get people, being all cold and hard... It's like she became what Jin was before the Island out of the trauma of seeing him asploded. But what's she doing? Everythign she says sounds like doubletalk.

- And who's out to get Kate? And why is she now seeing Claire, who looks pretty much the same as she did before? Is she getting Hurley's power, or something Hurley-adjacent? Did Claire learn to astral-project after she went all spacy with a ghost?

This is going to be a fun season, I can tell. I'm just sad it won't last the full 24 eps.

movei: penelope

Yay for modern fairytales!

This one has Christina Ricci as an hieress who's been cursed in the sort of situation that is apparently unslightly but not unheard-of: she's got a pig nose. The curse can only be lifted by unconditional acceptance by one of her own, so this is interpreted to mean that she needs to get married. She's been meeting eligible upper-class boys through a one-way mirror, and so far, even the ones who liked her as a disembodied voice run off screaming in fear when they see her not-that-terrible piggynose. And she's getting a little fed up.

Meanwhile, there's this dwarf with one eye from where he was attacked trying to get pictures of baby Penelope years and years ago, and they've faked her death to keep the tabloids off, so all these rich boys have to sign paperwork saying they won't talk, and the tabloids are getting fed up with not having any real solid info. Enter Blondy McAwfulpants who teams up with him to find a down-and-out blueblood to pay off for pictures. And then enter pretty pretty James McAvoy as said chump / Max in something similar to the agreement of Heath Ledger in Ten Things I Hate About You, though this is less with the bitchiness and more with the exaggerated 'deformity'. They hit it off when he's distracted and doesn't see her showing everyone what she looks like, so he doesn't run away. He tries to steal her favorite book out of all the books available, all of which are expensive first editions. And he comes back. Even after he's seen her nose. And keeps coming back until he deels bad about selling pictures of her, calls off the deal, and ditches.

She's crushed and rejected, but doesn't want to do this again, so she runs away, and even knowing very little about the world, manages to do pretty well for herself by being sweet and lovely and friendly. She makes friends with a grouchy bartender and a sassy delivery girl / Reece Witherspoon. And she exposes herself. Pretty quickly, too, though the movie says it's been weeks. Either way, people like her already, so it's less of a big deal than it could be, and she's suddenly very popular. 

While she's having adventures, Max is trying to get himself back together and gives up gambling, gives up drinking, and gets a real job before turning back to music, which he'd given up at some point in the past. He left telling her he couldn't marry her, which she takes to mean he can't deal with her nose, when he really meant that he didn't have the power to help her. 

She eventually comes home and agrees to marry Blondy McAwfulpants, who's basically been told he has no choice and tells her he's had a change of heart, but when they get to the actual wedding, she says 'no' and runs back to her room. Her mother's trying to get her to break the curse, and she says she's fine with who she is-- and the curse is broken. She's  one of her kind. So then her mom feels bad that she didn't love her unconditionally, which would have broken the curse right away (and still tries to tell her how to improve herself), and she finds herself in posession of a normal life. She starts teaching kindergarteners. And after a while, there's a Halloween party and Annie drags her up to where Max lives, and since she's wearing a mask, he doesn't know it's her. He's packing up to move, and as she's asking him questions and commenting on things, he figures it out and there's a really great grab-and-kiss before he knows that her curse is broken. 

And then they live happily ever after.

It's really adorable, without being at all sappy or insipid-- she's a strong, interesting character, and everyone else is clearly-defined and very much their own, even if the world goes a little more smoothly than the real world goes and there's never really any danger to it. I love that here's this classic cursed-princess, and she takes control of her own fate, selling her own pictures to the tabloid when her family-funds wear thin, and finding her own life in the world. And I love that the prince is broken and sad, and not really a prince at all, but still turns out to be the exact right one for her. And I love the way she's pert and smart and sharp in a way fairytale princesses rarely get to be, and he's tense and sexy and conflicted the way princes rarely get to be. It's great, and fun and sweet, and just enough different that it's worth watching again and again, and I think it could grow up with you. 

I do not love lovely Burn Gorman putting on the worst American Accent I've heard in years, though the very fact that he's in here makes me happy.

Plus, it's fun getting James McAvoy-induced whiplash when you think he went from Mr Tumnus to Wanted to Penelope in just a few years, and with other, more serious and more fluffy things in between.

fringe: bound s01e11

I totally didn't report the catching up I did, but before the midseason break, Olivia was kidnapped by men in unmarked black cars. That means she was held captive when this ep opened-- only not for long. Creepy Mask-Face gives her a spinal tap, then she tricks the soft-hearted Evil Interns into letting her loose for a cup of water, then punches her way free in true action star style, and I was cheering that she didn't need to be rescued (no matter how sweet it would have been to let Peter be the knight in shining armor for once). Along the way, she steals some samples and burries them, then calls in for backup and is greeted by Infernal Revenues who tase her and take her into the hospital, where they chain her to a bed.

It's all to make an I-Don't-Like-You point, of course, since the one in charge is the one she sent to jail sometime I don't remember ago in the past.

So she's free, and pissed off and sporting a nice bump on the head the whole ep. Peter's concerned about her to the point where when she says "Who care about me?" (meaning there's more important things to worry about), he says "I care about you!". Olivia looked stunned, then awkward, Walter looked pleased as punch, and I went "Squeeeee!" so much that I had to back up and watch the next part over because I was distracted.

They're looking for the killer of two epidemiologists by way of two giant spiky slugs, who they've already established is the same person as her kidnapper thanks to the evidence she hid. The trail leads back to Agent Loeb-- the dude who had the heart-bug, then who got Crazy Brit out of the German jail by way of teleportation right before Liv was kidnapped-- and his wife, Meg March of Little Women fame. While she's breaking and entering and getting caught and pretending she's just being neighborly, Peter's being asked to be a criminal in the stead of the FBI who can't, and is getting wire taps. They pick up a call from Meg March to Hubby Heartworm where they decide to kill Olivia, and manage to warn her-- and it's MM who winds up dead, but HH doesn't know that, and they trick him into 'meeting' her. Liv uses the crime scene pics as a not so delicate way to break him so he'll confess, which he does, but says that he was trying to save her, that they were the only chance (for what, he didn't mention), and that she doesn't know what she's done.

Very tense.

He's hauled off, and Liv can finally relax, but what he said makes her look all lost-puppy, and Peter stands too close trying to get her to relax / let it go, and Walter keeps insisting that Peter was a little more worried than might be expected when she was missing. Which we didn't get to see.

Not a bad ep, but it seemed a little like a well-edited two-parter that was condensed into a one-parter for whatever reason. Lots of stuff going on, lots of movement, lots of tenseness, but not alot of time for reactions-- it would have been nice for a little emotional growth while she was missing, but she wasn't missing long. If she was checked out in the hospital, it wasn't mentioned. She went right back to work. You'd think that JJ could make it emotionally dense with only a few characters the way he did on lost, but I guess that's not what he's going for here. X-Files is what he's going for here, and he's got the questions and misdirections feeling down perfectly... just not the pacing, though it is improving as the season moves along. Maybe they just haven't quite settled their writing team yet.

And why did her sister move in with her? She's got to be a plot device waiting to happen. Like, she's being paid to spy on her or something. That'd be sweet.

x-files: i want to believe

Way after the fact, yet again, but man. What a rough movie. Literally rough, like even after six years it couldn't get finished right. 

I really love the X-Files. I watched it from it's second episode (I was away for the premier) to it's last, and I was really excited about finally getting the closure we all wanted... and it wasn't there. No wonder no one liked it. I came into this knowing that no one liked it and knowing that it was basically a character study and had nothing to do with the series' main points, but still-- it came across as cold, heartless, isolated. Maybe that's what he was going for, our Chris Carter who hates us, but still-- if so, he undid himself, because there was none of the sparkle and the tingle that we love between these two characters, despite the fact that DD and GA knew what they were doing and were fully in character and were trying really hard to make it work. All that snow just sort of repressed the emotional contact that a character study needs, and without it, there's little for us to care about. And it was full of weird darknesses that were not syched with the rest: a pedophile priest? I love Billy Connolly, but even he couldn't really make it work with the scraps of muguffinness he was given. Russian frankenstiens? Why? Because that dude was in love with another dude? Then why did they keep steaking female body parts to rebuild him with? Mulder and Scully breaking up? He didn't fight for her and she gave up on him too easily, adn then they were just back together and all was forgiven? And that poor sick kid, waht was his purpose? Scully kept on with his treatments, which, given the deal she made, would seem like she wasn't giving up and she wasn't running away any more, and then... she does?

I don't know. It's unfocused. It's lacking the humor that kept the show light enough to bear and the humanity that kept us invovled in their lives. I could have handled Mulder and Scully having problems, being as how this is, like, almost a decade after he went into hiding and they aren't married and she's in an opressive job and he's kinda going stir-crazy. I can handle that he'd want to get back in the field and do something, and that she might not. I can even handle the lack of mythology in favor of a new idea. But I can't handle that they'd ever be so blase about eachother's emotional involvements, and this thing that should have brought them back togther, back to where they started so they could find eachother and themselves again, it just pushed them further apart, and that fact was never dealt with, just... pushed aside. And I can't handle the tiny scraps being thown at us-- remember the other psychics you worked with? remember that kid we had? now that that's out of the way, let's never mention them again-- or the poor writing that dealt with the entanglements we were left with by not dealing with them at all-- al mean, seriously, you've been in hiding all this time close enough that a helicopter can bring you back and now you're totally forgiven on this basically small-scale case that doesn't even affect the FBI much at all? Come on.

It feels like Chris Carter doesn't like us. Or that he's grown bitter and jaded to the detiment of this idea that was so great when it started. I can see where this could have been great, but the parts aren't tied together well enough and the characters are manhandled through this loose and messy plot, and it basically just left me not caring. It's like a third season meh-episode blown up into something that can't support it's own length. And there were only three deleted scenes, so I'm not convinced that it's a failure of the editing. If it turns out that people are upset enough to want another one to make up for it, and the next one is good, I'll be greatful for it, but I don't particularly like it. Don't hate it, but I'm sad it wasn't good.

books: UnLunDun, by China Mieville

Yup, ladies and gentlemen, I finished UnLunDun first, and I'm kind of sad because now it's over and I can't look forward to there being more story when I go to bed each night. (It's been replaced by Frek and the Elixir, which it weird and entertaining so far in the first two chapters, and fulfills this month's imperative to read a book I already own.)

Let me say up front: I loved this book. I almost cried at the end because it was over. I did cheer at how it was over. I went up to my roomies and told them they have to read it.

And here's my favorite part: It's a classive 80s fantasy movie turned on it's side and rotated a bit. Zanna and Deeba are normal little London Chavs, going to school, living in Estates, using poor grammar, being teenagers-- and then they realize that animals keep taking special notice of Zanna and soon they find themselves in UnLunDun, the oter side of the coin that is London, what's called an abcity. All the major cities have them, and they all have clever negation-names like Parisn't and Old York. Everything lost and unwanted in London winds up in UnLunDun where everything is weird. Bus conductors are sworn guards of the people, the people aren't always people, trash has a life of its own, puns abound in clever and useful ways, and the smog is the worst thing the city has ever seen. It seems there's a prophesy that means Zanna will defeat the Smog, and the whole thing is mapped out in the Book they have to go consult to tell them what to do and how to get home...

And then it all goes a bit hinky. I would have loved it if it stayed entirely on track, having gorwn up through the Age of 80s Fantasy and being very fond of it, but I love it more because it's aware of all those things, all those tropes and expectations, and it comes at them sideways. Zanna, the chosen one, gets infected with smog and comes out of it with no memory and bad lungs-- leaving Deeba, who wasn't even mentioned except as a 'funny sidekick' in one line, to find a way back and to help. She kidnaps the Book and teams up with Hemi the half-ghost, who everyone is convinced is a minor villain, the heads out on the quest Zanna was supposed to make and decides it's too long and cuts right to the end-- using her brains and her heart to get through the challenges, and making friends along the way. The weapon they get is amazing, a big gun that does UnGun like things, and the final showdown is one of the best I have read.

The book is gorgeous. A dozen or so characters, and probably more minor characters are all individual and strange, the plot is very well-handled and polished, with no loose ends that I can see, and the bit at the end where Deeba has to go home and they're all pulling that 'we'll never see you again' thing the new friends always do? Priceless. I want to read this book to my kids. It makes me sad that it didn't exist when I was a kid. It's like Alice in Winderland and NeverWhere and Labyrinth and NeverEnding Story all thrown together with a bit of MorrorMask and some Stranger Than Fiction (just a pinch), and it's so visual that I have no problem comparing it to movies.

And it's written like it's aimed at kids, but it assumes they're smart enough to get the jokes and understand the consequences, and that makes it amazingly readable by adults.

So go read it.

white night: dresden files book nine

I'm so sad I finished the last book I can get my hands on without paying for it or lugging my ass out to the library. But I'm happy that now I get to go to the bookstore, because I also want to pick up Chalice and... something else that's escaping me just now. Damn.

Anyway, this book brings us Harry helping Murph solve the case of a serial killer that makes it look like suicide-- and who's calling card is mystically-imprinted references to the line in the Bible about not suffering witches to live (though using magic to leave it kinda puts him in a pot-kettle-black situation, and no one mentions that). Which leads them to realize that the women were all low-grade magic users, which leads them to the Ordo, an organization of witches that aren't strong enough to join the Council, but are mystical enough to need togetherness to help handle it. And some of them are Wiccan, and like the Circle. From there, we learn that the women were last seen in the presence of a very tall man in a grey cloak, and so people in the Community are thinking Harry's gone batty / murderous and he has to work against their distrust of him as well as their fear of getting killed. Eventually, we get around to the machinations of the White Court, there are flashbacks to something bad that happened between books and informs the climax of this one, there's secretivity from Thomas and a really crazy-fun clearing up of that storyline (though someone said there's a Thomas book coming out? hope, hope!), there's people stealing other people all over the place, there's working with Marcone and getting random benefits from his businesses, there's training of an apprentice who's too headstrong to realize why she needs to learn, there's Murphy kicking ass (and I'm always a fan of the books where Murph gets to do things) and being kind a little (which keeps the shipping going in my head), there's ghouls, there's crossdressing, there's the Return of the Ex (again) there's vampires of various ilks, there's infighting, there's fire, there's Harry manifesting anger issues, and there's alot of Lash / Lasciel the Fallen Angel (which just proves that Harry is stubborn as all hell, but comes to a good conclusion after several books of being there). And it ends on a fairly up-note, storywise, and that's a good thing. Happy Harry is more fun then Depressed Harry.

Harry seems to inspire people to do what he does, and it's neat that Jim Butcher is running with this idea and having Harry go more equality-- all magic users need defense, not just the Council. I like this tack.

But I'm still sad I have to wait for the next one now.

Up next:
Either UnLunDun or Three Days to Never, whichever I finish first.
Then, hopefully, Chalice, and maybe the next Song of Ice and Fire / the short stories collection. We'll see how well-stocked out B&N is before I say for sure.

proven guilty: book eight of the dresden files

The second to last one I can get my hands on without having to buy one!

This installment brings us Harry helping out a grown-up and gothed-out runaway daughter of a old friend and her drugged-out boyfriend. In no time flat, he's involved in a Horror Convention whose name includes three exclamation points and is being plagued by grisly horror-movie themed murders. This leads Harry to the trail of a warlock, through the very heart of the Winter Court of Faerie, against the oldest creatures to feed on fear and to something entirely different then he expected to wind up at. Meanwhile, Red Court vamps are attacking the Council and Wardens even when they should be under Faerie protection, and neither Summer or Winter will move to help because it'll divide forces and make one side weaker then the other, which they only just avoided in Summer Knight a few years before. Added to that, Harry's falling for Murphy, and the two of them have some sweet moments and long talks that crush my shippy little soul but make perfect sense within the characters, Thomas is acting weird and being distant, we get to hang out with Rawlins-the-cop, Mab might be nuts or it might be another plot, the Summer Lady and Summer Knight are under a compulsion not to help Harry with anything, Harry's building a new metaphysical toy in the basement, and the scare-mongers are getting loose. And there's another shadowy organization taking the field. Harry goes up against the Council and manages to piss off the Merlin, but wins more support amongst the rest. Molly is more than she seems.

I fear I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but these books really do keep upping the ante each time. He's cranking them out at a rate of one a year, slowed only by the start of another series between books so that he's still making one book a year, and yet there's no evidence of fatigue. Storylines make perfect sense. Nothing falls through the cracks. And really, who other than Harry could attack the center of all Winter's power and survive? Who could have a fallen angel embedded in his brain and not give in to temptation? The plot's thickening all over the place, and yet it manages to still make sense, building on previous plot twists, bringing back already-established characters rather then introducing new ones to do what they do so that there's a sort of continuity to the world, a sense of community. And the relationships between the characters keep growing the way real ones do.

And the whole book was worth it for Harry freaking out over some kids dressed up as vampires, before he realizes they aren't real.

blood rites: book six of the dresden files

Right off the bat, this story is lighter then the last few have been. It starts out with Harry running from purple poo-flinging chimp-demons, which is less goofy then it sounds, to rescue a little of foo-dog puppies. And keeps going from there. This time, Harry has to help deflect a deadly curse from a visionary porn director, help out his vampire friend when his family comes after him, and root out a nest of vicious old-school Black Court vamps. Along the way, we get Kinkaid being too cool, Murphy in a dress, several extremely unlikely ways to die, family issues, a really cute dog, soulgazing on almost-human White Court vamps, mysteries about Harry's heritage, a good dose of his mentor, and some old fashioned vamp-hunting that goes way strange. Not to mention alot of porn stars, several crazy exes of the client, and the blood rituals of the title.

I'm glad Susan's out of the way. She's too good to be true, and she doesn't feel as real to me as all the other characters do. Plus, when she's gone, Murphy gets to be the main female in Harry's life, and she's more interesting. I like the way Harry and Murphy interact, and I like getting to know more about this badass chick.

And Thomas manages to have the sort of tragic lifestyle that vampires are always saddled with in these books without being all that typical at all, and the way Bucher plays with the steriotypes and comes out with freshness makes me happy.

The focus of this book was a little shifted; there's the massive three-part story line we've all come to expect, but the emphesis seemed to be more on characters this time, with less exploding of stuff and killing of badguys, though it wasn't at all lacking in that sort of thing. It just felt more... real, this time. This far into a series, it's easy to shorthand relationships and assume your readers know how everyone's connected and how they feel about each other, but Bucher isn't doing that, and I love him for it.

books: death masks, book five of the dresden files

Poor Harry has had a rough time of it. He falls in love and she falls into vampire clutches. He's trying to save her and getting nowhere. And now she's back in town with another guy, and he still loves her. Meanwhile, the Vampires have called him out in a challenge that will settle the war once and for all in one-on-one combat, he's up against these Fallen Angels who take over peoples' souls and make them nearly invincible, and he's on the case of the stollen Shroud of Turin, and this is bad enough that Michael isn't the only Knight of the Cross in town. Turns out the villains this week want to start the Apocalypse the classical way-- with a plague of plagues.

And there's new characters and new threads to the story! We get to meet Ivy, the Archive of all human knowledge. She's seven years old and cosmically powerful and knows everything that's ever been known. And we meet her bodyguard Kincaid, who's cool as all get out and almost supernaturally dangerous, though he claims he's normal. We learn that the Red Court isn't going to stop, even after they get Harry out of the way. We learn of the Fellowship that helps people who have been victimized by vamps, including people who have been half turned like Susan. And we learn a few interesting secrets about Marcone.

Book five is a good one, lots of action without so much of the hopelessness. It even has a little super-kinky and dangerous vampire lovin that kind of squicked me out even as I thought it was really hot, and it ended on a more hopeful note, wit Harry regaining some of his perspective and easing up on himself so that he can move on. Which is good. Sad desperate Harry is not as much fun as snarky hopeful Harry.

books: death masks, book five of the dresden files

Poor Harry has had a rough time of it. He falls in love and she falls into vampire clutches.
He's trying to save her and getting nowhere. And now she's back in town with another guy,
and he still loves her. Meanwhile, the Vampires have called him out in a challenge that will
settle the war once and for all in one-on-one combat, he's up against these Fallen Angels
who take over peoples' souls and make them nearly invincible, and he's on the case of the
stollen Shroud of Turin, and this is bad enough that Michael isn't the only Knight of the
Cross in town. Turns out the villains this week want to start the Apocalypse the classical
way-- with a plague of plagues.

And there's new characters and new threads to the story! We get to meet Ivy, the Archive of
all human knowledge. She's seven years old and cosmically powerful and knows everything
that's ever been known. And we meet her bodyguard Kincaid, who's cool as all get out and
almost supernaturally dangerous, though he claims he's normal. We learn that the Red
Court isn't going to stop, even after they get Harry out of the way. We learn of the
Fellowship that helps people who have been victimized by vamps, including people who
have been half turned like Susan. And we learn a few interesting secrets about Marcone.

Book five is a good one, lots of action without so much of the hopelessness. It even has a
little super-kinky and dangerous vampire lovin that kind of squicked me out even as I
thought it was really hot, and it ended on a more hopeful note, wit Harry regaining some of
his perspective and easing up on himself so that he can move on. Which is good. Sad
desperate Harry is not as much fun as snarky hopeful Harry.

movies: cloverfield

Yeah, I know, an old one, and if you're tired of hearing about it, I won't hold it against you if you don't read this review. Much. No, really. Go ahead and ignore me.

I've managed to stay fairly clean of spoilers, so other than the previews and trailers during commercial breaks, I didn't really know what to expect other than shaky camera and a lot of running. I liked it. The party scene went on almost longer than it needed to, and I was starting to get bored with it to the point where when they finally got out on the fire-escape and I recognized the setting from the trailer, I was relived, but I liked it. I don't think it was the best movie in the world, and I don't think it's even the best thing that JJA has had his hands on, but I liked the idea and it was a fresh voice in the glut of monster / apocalypse movies that I do so love and have probably seen far too many of. The frame story that this was found after the fact and is classified government info added a neat edge of conspiracy.

The monster was not like anything I've ever seen, and that meant that even when they were showing it-- earlier and with more clarity then I'd thought to get-- none of it made any sense to me, and that was great. If it's an alien, there's no reason it would make sense. And the parasites were almost scarier than the monster-- they were on a human scale, able to attack directly, and made it almost impossible to hide. I think the scenes in the subway tunnels were some of the best, and that that's what similar scenes in 28 Weeks Later should have been like. And that bleeding-eye body-asplody that happened from the bites? Unexpected and really gross. The characters were nicely human, scared, jabbering stupidly and latching on to random parts of what was happening, like you do in traumatic situations, blindly heroic because that's really all you can be like that-- better to die doing something then alone and hiding, right? And the random flashes of that one perfect day before everything went to hell pretty much accomplised the whole juxtaposition thing. It was real enough to get my brain going along those 'what would I do in this situation?' pathways, and that's really harder to accomplish than a plain gutteral fight or flight reaction. Adrenaline is mindless, but this managed to get inside my head and creep me out, though in the end it was more suspenseful then scary.

Don't read the Wikipedia page before hand, and really, don't read it after, either. The backstory somehow manages to make it less cool and more stupid.

There's talk of a sequel, and that makes me nervous. The only way I think it would be interesting would be if it was the same story from a radically different angle-- there were thousands of people in the City, and someone else must have recorded it (or several someones-- it'd be cool to see the thing from, say, five different angles, all different, all with differing goals, spliced together to give us a clearer look at the event). Other then that, something post-apocalyptic, the clean-up and dealing with the parasites might be neat, but I think it would be a different movie, a different subgenre. There was talk that this was a juvenile, and if it's not dead, as the credits seem to hint, a full adult might bring down the whole world-- and the concept art looks interestingly cthulu-esque, but if there's no way to stop it, it'll be harder to make the story anything but hopeless and depressing. A second Cloverfield will have to be more interesting to get out of the shadows of the first and to justify it's own existence, or it might as well not even happen.

side project: nu who revisted

Gridlock and Daleks in Manhattan

I mostly remember series three as sub-par. I didn't love Martha (hertofore called Marfa), and I wasn't a fan of the tone of the season. But we watched all of it before introducing it to D, and we've been re-watching it in a piecemeal sort of way to catch him up with where we are now. Tonight, we watched eps three and four.
Gridlock was one of the better episodes of the season, and I did remember liking it, but I didn't remember a whole lot about the events in it. The Doctor and Marfa land on New Earth and quickly get separated, Marfa taken into the depths of permanent traffic jams and the Doctor to a Senate where only Novice Haim and The Face of Boe are still alive, and it's up to the Doctor to put everything right, as usual. The plot is fun, but it's the characters that make this episode-- Brannigan the Cat and his lovely human wife and their litter of hybrid kittens who have never seen the ground; The Sisters, who are actually a married lesbian couple who have been on the road for twenty three years; all the random characters the Doctor drops down on as he hops from car to car, looking for Marfa before Haim kidnaps him. It's fun and it's straight forward, and it's good Who. Not the best, not like Blink, but good, and definitely a high point of the season. But even this is haunted by the fact that the Doctor's heart is broken and he's in willing denial, trying to start over with Marfa without really letting her know anything at all about why he won't talk about things and where he's from and what he's running from. We get some stories of Gallifrey in the end, and it sounds lovely, and we get the all important "you are not alone" that will define the end of the season, but that's not the point of this ep. The point is the Doctor being the Doctor and saving people.


Daleks in Manhattan is another issue all together. It's just not good. I'll admit that on my second watch through, it's not as bad as I remembered, but I know how bad it's going to get, and I think it's because now I know how it all goes, I can be more forgiving. There isn't the shock of it's badness smacking me in the face like before. But it's still bad. Why are there pig slaves? Why pigs? And there's no wait on the big bad's reveal. I mean, we know it's Daleks, but they're right there, plain as day, in the first fifteen minutes and that leaves nothing to the imagination and flattens any excitement the reveal might have had. The Doctor plays with a squishy jellyfish that has no purpose by to tell him where it's from, there's Tallulah who could stand to be less annoying, though I do like her love-conquers-all approach to the fact that her boyfriend's a pig now, and then-- then there's that whole crap with the Worst Villain Evar. D's reaction when he was revealed: 'seriously??', and mine back 'yeah. see?', and then he understood why we didn't want to rewatch this one. The season would be better if these two eps were just removed-- or, better yet, if they were replaced with something better. When I first watched this season as it aired, this was almost enough to make me walk away entirely, and only my love of a certain lead male kept me watching, hoping it would improve, and this two-part set is a large part of why I didn't like this season. One and two were so good, so rich, everything worked and even the dumb eps were passable, but three... three feels like it's limping, damaged, things are missing. If that's what they were aiming for, they hit it dead on. But mostly I think it was missing the joy; a heatbroken Doctor screams too much and has that horrible about-to-cry face that I can hardly stand to look at. And the lack in this season allows this ep to just fall flat.

books: fool moon, book two of the dresden files

I'm always a little leery of reading a second book in a series when I really enjoyed the first one, on the chance that it'll suck and ruin it for me (not that it kept me from diving right in this time...). I'm glad to say, however, that the series continues nicely, and somehow manages to top itself here in the second book of the series, which I read-- no, devoured-- in an equally short amount of time.

Book two finds our Harry up against werewolves. And not just any weres, but ALL the weres, all four main kinds of wolf-person there are. Add in mobsters, Internal Affairs, the FBI, and an old apprentice, and you've got the fixings for another crazy adventure.

What I like best about these books is how Harry is entirely believable. He's got all the powers, sure, but he's also got a heart and a mind that are understandable and caring, and no matter how messed up things get, no matter how far behind the badguys' plans he is, he always goes for what's right, and when things go very wrong, he's willing to power through even if it means he'll definitely wind up dead. Though he hasn't yet (and there's eight more books after this)(though, with this weird world, I wouldn't put it past him to die and keep going).

Things are tense with Murphy who thinks he's betrayed her. Things are heating up with Susan who isn't just after stories now. Marcone's plotting and planning and trying to get Harry on his side. Baby weres are looking up to him. Magic is all crazy all the time.

The show was never this great.

books: storm front, book one of the dresden files

By Jim Bucher

Meet Harry Dresden. Chicago's only openly practicing Wizard.

If you've seen the show, you know the basic idea of what the story's about: scruffy, poor wizard tries to solve crimes like a sort of magical PI-- more of the noir type then the Magnum type. He's got no money, he's never sleeping or eating enough, he's stubbornly old-fashioned, cocky, self-assured in an entirely lunatic way sometimes, and he's used to walking the lines between crazy and law-abiding. He works with Murphy in the Police Department to solve weird cases of a magical sort to supplement the little money he makes on his own.

Book One starts with three problems: A police case where people's hearts are blown out, a scared woman looking for her husband, and the Mob wanting to pay him not to bother with either. And from there, it all gets weird.

Guys, it's a really fun book to read. I started late Saturday night, and had it finished by 1:30 this morning, and that was with time off to do actual day-time things like clean the house, cook dinner and go to the store at eleven thirty for groceries. It's well-written in a way that isn't at all self-complicating-- all first person, all inside Harry's head, and while his magical skills give him extra insight, he's really just a normal guy with a strong sense of right and wrong, duty and debt, and he knows when he messes up, knows when he's not being nice and has to and feels bad about it, and is resigned to the fact that he can't really have a normal life, but still isn't all that happy about it. He's an appealing POV, a man who knows what he has to do and tries his best to do it right, and when things go wrong, still tries to get the right thing done, even if it means his death, and even if he's got a mystical death sentence hanging over him, restricting what he's allowed to do.

There's fairies, ghosts, all sorts of spirits and demons, a black wizard, conjured monsters, Mafioso, a tabloid reporter with unclear motives, damsels in distress, chicks that'll kick your ass, really neat magic...

When I finished this one, I went up stairs to my neighbor's house and immediately borrowed the next one, and started it before I went to bed. There's nine more to go: let's see how they hold up, shall we?