Ramble, Ramble, Doctor Who, Ramble

I know I have been pretty absent lately. Maybe it's because I just haven't felt like writing. Maybe it's because I've been spending all my free time discovering that falling for Battlestar Galactica was NOT, in fact, the last step into total geekdom, but that instead the BBC cult series called Doctor Who claims that honor.

It's not like there's a absence of things to blog about. There's the recent, polarizing Lost series finale. There's my constant worry over what I'll fill all my free time with now that all my shows are off the air until this fall. Oh, and as I mentioned above, there's my last step into what I will now refer to as Level 1,000,000 Geekdom; my surrender to Doctor Who and consequently my surrender to the lovely, charming and wholly miraculous David Tennant. So, to keep this blog afloat, some bullet points. Because honestly, who doesn't love bullet points?

• Let's start with Lost and let's be sweet and simple. I loved it. Yes, I'm one of those. Call it denial or whatever you wish but I thought the finale, though not totally flawless, was still a great finale. I didn't watch it and immediately regret spending six years of my life theorizing and discussing the grand and oftentimes headache-causing mythology of show. Even if the finale did end up being less than great to me, I would still look upon the last Lost years as mind-blowing, eye-opening and generally a fun and educating experience. For The End, the writers obviously made the decision to sideline the Island mythology and instead focus on the characters, which, yes, did leave the fans with many Dharma notebooks full of unanswered questions but left us also with an intensely emotionally and spiritual finale. I know many fans feel differently, but that was a satisfying choice for me. Lost changed the face of television. It opened a door for epic series, showing the networks that high-concept shows can and will attract a large and devoted audience, depending on the quality of the writing behind the show.




• Legend of the Seeker was cancelled. The series finale aired last weekend and I could not be more disappointed with the decision to end the series. For a syndicated show, it was extremely well done. The beautiful location (New Zealand) and the magnificently choreographed fight scenes were only a couple of the great aspects of the show. The main actors were brilliant in their roles and watching Craig Horner slowly become the Richard we know and love from the books was always thrilling. Of all the cancelled shows, this one hit me the hardest. I believe it's a horrible waste of potential, seeing as there were several more books of material to work through.





• On the other hand, Chuck was renewed!!! This was actually very unexpected and I could not be more happy. Chuck is one of my favorite shows and Zachary Levi is slowing becoming one of my favorite actors to follow and watch. He's been touring around Europe all summer and his pictures and videos from the trip and absolutely priceless. The fact that he is obviously a huge nerd only makes me adore him all the more.




• Now, to the most important and life-changing news. Doctor Who. Yup. I fight and I fight and I fight against it but there's just no helping it. I'm not just a Level 1 nerd. I am so far past that, it's not even funny. Akin to my slow acceptance of BSG, I finally gave in and watched the first episode of Doctor Who. And then I watched the next one. And the next one. And so on. I love it. I loved Christopher Eccleston as the first Doctor. So much so that when David Tennant took over the role for Season 2, I was not happy. Not at all. Of course, it took all of two episodes to change my mind. He was brilliant and wonderful and he made the character his own in such a way that when I stopped watching, even for a couple hours, I missed him. The character of the Doctor is such a intoxicating idea, as if Russell T. Davies looked into the heart of a regular, everyday woman and saw the one man that would be worth an eternity (literally) of trouble and sacrifice. And then he wrote him out and the Doctor was created. And then he decided to create a different version of that same man, and Captain Jack Harkness was created. I watched Torchwood before I saw even one episode of Doctor Who, so when John Barrowman started his run as Captain Jack in the first season of Doctor Who, it was the first time that I realized I could actually miss a television character. Watching him being introduced for the first time was like a soothing balm to my soul, something I didn't even realized I needed until that moment. There's just no other way to describe it. This is such an amazing show, filled with such unique and layered characters and focused so keenly on our subconscious fears and desires it feels like the writers know you better than you know yourself. Like Battlestar, the alien worlds and impossible technologies, the spaceships and the time-travel, are not what the show focuses on and they are not the aspects that keep you watching. This is a show about being human, from the point of view of an ageless alien. And it's REALLY good. I dare you to try it and not love it.






• On a similar note and due to my adoration of David Tennant, I have been working my way through the BBC TV adaptation of Hamlet. Working my through, because it's a 3 hour modern production so it's taking me awhile to get through it. Nevertheless, it's breathtaking and groundbreaking. David Tennant is mesmerizing in his turn as Hamlet and I've never enjoyed watching this tragedy as much as I am now, with Tennant starring. I've always been a big Shakespeare fan, but this version certainly takes that fandom to new levels. I'm now of the opinion that David Tennant should play in EVERY Shakespeare play. In fact, he should just play every character in every play. No joking.

Well, all this David Tennant talk is making me miss watching Doctor Who, and seeing as I still have half of the fourth season to go through, I think I'll get back to it. The lord of daydreams is calling my name...

San Diego Comic-Con 2009 - Day 1

It wasn't exactly surprising to discover that spending four, whirlwind days at the San Diego Comic-Con is very similar to spending four days in a highly geekified Disneyland. Honestly, I know this for a fact, considering I also went to Disneyland a couple days after Comic-Con. One surrounds you with eye-rolling fairyland creatures (and the poor people who must be burning up in those costumes!) and the other surrounds you with eye-popping Nerdonia peoples (and the poor gals in those tight, black-leather costumes!). In both places you spend way too much time in long lines and yet both places make it their duty to entertain you as much as possible while you cool your jets with others of your kind (ie: see unexpected arrival of Pirate Band in Comic-Con line and elaborate set designs for Disneyland rides).

All in all (and if it weren't for walking up Sunset Blvd in massively painful heels last Friday night), this trip to California smelled suspiciously of childhood - right down to me staring in total awe and adoration at Craig Ferguson, much like I once stared adoringly at JTT's photograph in Teen Beat magazine.

However, underneath the childlike fantasy-facade of Comic-Con, there is a very adult, very passionate understanding of why we were there. This place wasn't filled with 150, 000 flimsy fangirls, twittering about how dreamy and sexy Robert Pattinson is (there were only about 7,000 of those), or nonsensical fanboys, dreaming of videogame violence and Michael Bay films (those only took up about 40% of their thoughts - and that's mostly due to the in-your-face, sizzling Megan Fox). No, I can honestly claim that Comic-Con attendees were friendly, charming and extremely intelligent - if a little eccentric in their own right. You'll not find another group more in-tuned to the world of pop culture entertainment than the group you'd find at Comic-Con. These people - nerds, wanna-be nerds, ashamed-to-admit-your-a-nerd nerds - not only love beyond words their nerd-attachments (whether that be comic books, comic book movies, sci-fi television shows or just the actors that personify their favorite characters), they have spent thousands of hours on researching and enjoying every little aspect about them, making them all literal experts on multiple types media and their creators, across the whole vast spectrum of pop culture. Needless to say, it was a pretty intense atmosphere, especially in the Exhibition Halls. But more on that later.

Enough small talk. Let's get to the dirty details...

Day 1

We didn't arrive at the Con until around 2-3pm, having thoroughly enjoyed the breezy and beautiful weather while walking to the convention center. We grabbed our badges (line-less, woohoo!) and immediately got in line for the Evolution of Fantasy panel, with panalist Pat Rothfuss ("The Name of the Wind") and other fantasy authors. Once Tina and Katie realized the panelists was focused more on bashing Harry Potter and Twilight than discussing them, we had to sneak out early before a small riot began. Note to panel authors: You cannot compare your novels, which are vastly more complicated, to young adult books such as HP and Twilight. They don't even dwell in the same solar system. Personally, I enjoy the highly-complicated, epic-battle fantasies as much as I enjoy the more diluted, YA fantasies. There is no need for badmouthing - it's not two sides of the same war. Anyhow, we snuck out of the panel and hit the line for the Legend of the Seeker panel. It was at this time that I realized my camera was dead. A cute, young jock (a jock! At a Con! Full of wonders indeed!) took my mind off the sad realization that I wouldn't get any pictures that day while we waited in line.

Legend of the Seeker scoop: Charisma Carpenter, of Buffy and Angel fame, will guest star in the second season premiere as a Mord Sith! She looks uber-cool! Also, they plan to focus the second season on the main quest from the second book in the series, "The Stone of Tears".

At least they are sticking to the correct timeline, even though they veer off the course the book sets the majority of the time. I'm not complaining. It's a great, really fun show. The main stars, Craig Horner and Bridget Regan, couldn't make it (they were in New Zealand filming), but they sent in a cute video saying hi to the fans. Bruce Spence, who plays Zedd, was there, along with the author of the series, Terry Goodkind and some other showrunners. Overall, a pretty fun panel - even if Terry Goodkind did came off as a bit of a creepster.

Since we didn't have another panel until 9:30pm, we walked to the Gaslamp (Gaslight?) district, across from the convention center, and got some dinner. The streets were incredibly crowded and it wasn't even dinner time yet. We found a cute Mexican restaurant that had reprinted their menus to reflect a superhero theme. It was too cute.

After dinner, I had an 8pm meet and greet with Michael Ausiello from Entertainment magazine at the Hard Rock Hotel, poolside. I was really excited, since I'm a big fan of his column. It turned out harder than I had imagined to get the chance to talk to him, since he was surrounded by adoring fans the whole time. I dropped my butt on a comfortable mattress-like thing next to the pool and waited my turn like a good little Southern girl. Before I knew what was happening, one of his helpers (?), who was a little TOO helpful, had me up (along with the nice girl I had befriended) and shoved into Michael's circle of fans. Yet, even here I didn't get the chance to talk to him. I pulled my classic move of shoving someone else in front of me in order to avoid any undue attention and I slipped away to the opposite side of the pool, still close to him, but in no mood to test my meager conversational skills against those of his other, more eager fans. That changed when a familiar looking, handsome guy walked into Michael's little circle, hugged him and said he was leaving. I walked over to get a better look and to see if I could recognize him. By way of the Aushole grapevine, I made my discovery - it was Bryan Fuller! Now, I'm sure most of you have no idea who that is, but I certainly did and if I ever had the courage to go up to someone and sincerely tell them that I absolutely LOVED their work, it was with Bryan Fuller. Alas, it was not to be. While I was pumping myself up to go speak to him, he slipped out into the crowd and I missed him. Ah, well. Story of my life.

At the very end, as everyone was leaving, Michael was still engulfed by eager scoop addicts, so I walked by him, touching him lightly on the arm and said, "It was nice semi-meeting you". He looked up, surprised and asked, "Did I meet you"? I said "kind of", and then he shook my hand and thanked me for coming. I thanked him for having us and then headed back to the convention center to meet back up with Tina and Katie for our last panel of the night...

The last panel was a screening of a Halloween movie called "Trick 'r Treat", directed by Michael Dougherty. What really drew us to the panel was the fact that Anna Paquin (True Blood) and Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse) were supposed to join the panel. We're big fans of both, so we though we could endure the horror film in order to see them. The end result was good and bad. It turns out that both didn't show (it was Anna's birthday and we got to call her and sing Happy Birthday to her voicemail), which was upsetting, but the film was actually pretty good and Brian Cox joined Dougherty on the panel, and I really like Brian Cox. He has a nice voice... What? He does!

So, that concluded our first day at Comic-Con. We missed the mass teenage hysteria that was the New Moon panel but we couldn't say we were sorry about that. I probably would have smacked Kristen Stewart over the head if I saw her, so it was probably better that we stayed away. There's no need for a cat fight during Comic-Con. There's already too much female eye-candy walking around in little outfits for the geek fanboy mind to deal with. There's no need to overload them.

Lessons learned: Always try your hardest to say what you need to say to your famous heroes and never eat Mexican before meeting said heroes. It was a hard lesson to learn...

Day 2, 3, and 4 coming soon!

Thursday Ramblings

I realized the other day that I've been neglecting Legend of the Seeker, but the truth is, it's a great show. As my friend Rebekah surprisingly noted, "It didn't suck". This is funny because straight syndicated shows like this (like Hercules and Zena) are often joked about because of how cheesy and geekified (yes, I just made that word up, so sue me) they are. Their special effects are often times laughable at best and the dialouge...well...let's not even go there. When I heard that they were creating this new syndicated series from the Terry Goodkind books that I have known and loved for over 10 years I was both excited and terrified. This was a clear path to butchering my beloved novels and I was admittedly worried. As I'm sure I mentioned before, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the show ended up. Decent dialogue, awesome fight scenes and beautiful scenery (they shoot in New Zealand so it has a nice Lord of the Rings feel). And by beautiful scenery, I mean Craig Horner, of course. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, then you definitely should. You can watch all the episodes on Hulu, so go catch up! Also, here's an interview with Craig Horner, for your viewing pleasure:




Moving on...


I must thank Michael Ausiello for his daily dose of tv awesomeness. Everyone should already know how I'm feeling about Smallville this season, but seriously, this video gave me chills. Good chills and bad chills. The bad chills come from seeing WAY too many clips of Lana. Seriously, does that girl EVER die? Why do they have to make her the reason Clark becomes Superman? Shouldn't that be Lois' job? Anyway, check out the video below and get some super chills of your own.

That's all for today, peeps. Until tomorrow...

Legend of the Seeker

One day, several months ago, I was browsing through a bookstore with my dad in Perry, Georgia. Seeing as there is nothing but tractors, deer and lonely cotton fields in southern Georgia, a bookstore stop is always a highlight of any visit to see my parents. As I browsed through an entertainment magazine that had caught my eye, three words stopped my hands from turning to the next page; Wizard's First Rule. "What's this?", I thought. A small article, accompanied by one small picture, told me that Sam Raimi (of Spider-man fame) was working on a series for syndication. A series that was based off Terry Goodkind's 1995 book, "Wizard's First Rule". Trembling with excitement, I ran to my dad to show him the article. I proceeded to screech in his ear about the frakkin' awesome idea that we might actually get to see this book series, which we had both been reading for over ten years (there are twelve books in the series, the last one, "Confessor", released only last year), played out in a fairly decent fashion on our television sets. I couldn't wait.

I ended up missing the first episode, which premiered on November 1st, since I couldn't find the showing anywhere in my television guide. But last Saturday, as I was channel surfing (something I try to avoid at all costs), I came across several showings and recorded every one of them. I was concerned that the show creators would make a Sci-Fi Channel-looking show which was not shot very well and had amazingly corny dialogue. Well, it ended up having it's fair share of corniness, but it was shot WAY better than I had predicted and I enjoyed every minute of it. The fight scenes were beautifully choreographed and the casting of Craig Horner and Bridget Regan was brilliant. The casting of Zedd, however, I was not happy with at all. Zedd is supposed to be warm and grandfatherly and Bruce Spence is more Tales from the Crypt than anything. But other than that, it's a great show and I am very proud and happy it turned out so well.

Follow this link to see some videos and check out the video below to get a idea about the show. Maybe you'll give it a try! Gotta love corny!

Life

Good morning blog readers! I finally finished Confessor, the final book in Terry Goodkind's 12 book Sword of Truth series. I've been reading these books for over 10 years now. It was a good run, though a long and drawn out one. I was happy with the end, so I guess that's all that really matters. Here's a excerpt from the end of book, so don't read any further if you want to but haven't yet found time to read this book. This line is all Richard Rahl.

"To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the great gift of life. Out tiny sliver of time is our gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else's. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is."