Propaganda

So, I didn't quite come through on posting a lot after my supposed return. This is due mostly in part to the fact that I received a number of books for my birthday in September, and I've been spending a lot of time reading them all. But I haven't forsaken this blog. I really do intend to return to regular postings, honest guys. I've actually got a lot of in progress reviews in my drafts section, with even more floating in my mind. The Firefly series will continue too. In the mean time, please be subjected to this Dollhouse propaganda intended to increase viewership and ward off cancellation.

Adding to the Noise: Dollhouse

The consensus on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse seems to be that it finally found its footing in the last few episodes of the first season. I would generally agree with that, and I look forward to this upcoming season that starts this coming Friday on Fox. Allow me to share an actual laugh out loud moment that came up in the middle of insanely intense drama (a staple of Whedon).

Alpha
We’re not just humans anymore. We’re not multiple personalities. We’re many personalities. Uh… one of my personalities happens to be a multiple personality, but that doesn’t make me a multiple personality. I’m looking for a little nuance here.

The Glee Pilot

Back in May, Fox aired a preview episode for an upcoming show called Glee, and back in May, yours truly tuned in due mostly in part to a pretty intriguing promo featuring Journey's "Don't Stop Believin." Actually, let me go a little bolder: the only reason I tuned in was because of that promo. Not knowing any of the actors too well, and not having seen or been interested in Ryan Murphy's previous project, Nip Tuck, there's just no way I would have otherwise consciously decided to watch this show, especially when it was advertised to air after an episode of American Idol, which at the time, seemed to imply a really close connection between the two programs that also contributed to a general disinterest in this new program. Somehow the planets were in alignment the night of the premiere because I did turn on my television set, switch to Fox 11, and watch with mediocre expectations. In short, I loved it.

For those who aren't as familiar, Glee is a new dramedy about a high school glee club. When the previous glee club teacher is ousted on charges of inappropriate student interaction, a young Spanish teacher, Mr. Will Schuester(Matthew Morrison), asks to take his place. Mr. Schuester has an obvious passion for glee club, and makes sacrifices such as working detention for free and an additional $60 a month deduction in his paycheck in order to hold meetings. He cons a more popular student into joining by threatening to notify his mother of some marijuana he found in his locker. Meanwhile, Will comes home to a wife who finds his whole career as a teacher to be a waste of his time as he could be making more money as an accountant. She's further disappointed in his choice to put in extra hours with the glee club. Glee is also about some of the students in the club and the difficulties they experience trying to deal with the contrast between personal aspirations and high school popularity. And at least for the pilot episode, this sort of hits home at the theme of the show. Do we try to fit into the roles that world deems acceptable, or do we just learn to embrace ourselves and do that which makes us gleeful?

Here's what Glee did to work for me: compelling characters.

Maybe it's because I'm older now, getting ready to enter into the high school teaching arena, but I really appreciated that the main character of the show is so clearly the Spanish teacher. While Glee isn't innocent of creating some very odd nearly caricaturistic folk in its teaching staff, I think the inclusion of the fairly normal and relatable Mr. Schuester gives the show a really solid foundation. I love that there's this normal guy who has a passion for something that many would deem a little quirky, show choir. He's a patient and supportive husband, but I can't say that a divorce in the future wouldn't bother me too much seeing as how that patience and support doesn't seem to be reciprocated. Mr. Schuester also seems to have an insight when he explains that "there's no joy in these kids. They feel invisible. That's why every one of them has a MySpace page." Mr. Schuester wants to be a part of something that helps these students get in touch with a more promising reality.

Let's talk about some of these students.

Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) could easily be classified as a diva, but they handle her character in such a way that she's still sympathetic. Her audition where she performs "On My Own" from Les Miserables is intercut with her narration explaining how she aspires to be famous and her efforts to post a video daily on MySpace. The music syncs up well as she reads the hurtful comments. She's a diva, but nobody wants to acknowledge her talent outside of the glee club. She knows what she wants out of life, and even though others try to bring her down, she doesn't let them derail her sense of being. Glee made me sympathize, enjoy, and admire a diva-like character. That is by no means a small feat.

Next, there's Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith). Unlike Miss Rachel Berry, Finn doesn't feel comfortable embracing his innermost self to the fullest. Via voiceover and a flashback, we learn that Finn has always had a passion for music. Even as a child, he plays the drums and enjoys singing along with the chemical lawn guy. But it's not conventional for a boy to grow up to be a singer in this little town, so to make it easier on himself and his mother, Finn goes the athletic route by joining football. When Mr. Schuester forces him into glee club, Finn does discover that feeling of joy that he had been suppressing in order to fit in. There's a great moment in the pilot where Finn Hudson notes that everybody in the school is a 'loser.' If you embrace your inner-self, you're written off as weird. If you try to fit to some normal standard, you lose a part of yourself. Finn's time with glee club has reminded him of that part he had lost.

Look, I've heard some of the criticisms for this show, and not all of them are unjustified. Firstly, if you don't like musicals, Glee may not be your show. If you want your programs to be edgy and dark, Glee may not be your show. If you're expecting some accurate depiction of high school life, Glee is definitely not your show. That being said, the one criticism that I will heartily disagree with is that Glee is just High School Musical revamped. Glee is about as similar to High School Musical as Dawson's Creek is to Saved By the Bell. On top of that, Glee is clearly full of talented singers, while High School Musical always registered as having a cast who required a studio mixing team to sing. Glee is more complex, and doesn't pander to children by creating teachers who seem unintelligent.

Glee has quite a cast of characters, and not all of them are overly fantastic. Even those that I've listed are not without their own cliches. The high school dramedy has been done to death, so it's really hard to produce something fresh, but Glee succeeds. It has all of those typical high school archetypes, but it plays with them in a refreshing way. The show gives us hopeful messages that I can only hope are absorbed by actual high school students. I don't know if the show will be able to keep up the energy I felt after I saw the pilot, but I hope it can. There will be one more re-airing of the pilot episode this Friday at 9:00PM on Fox before the season continues next week with the second episode. You can also view the director's cut of the episode on Hulu.



Note: I'm not planning to post anything further about this show. I just wanted to get my thoughts down to maybe get more people in on this show. I'd hate to see it get canceled early because of low viewership. I never intended this to be a TV blog. I just like to write about what I love.

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day Trailer

There was a firefight!

State of the Blog

Since I haven't posted anything in the past two months, I thought it would be best to update any readers on what's going on. I wish I had some great story as to why I haven't been actively posting, or why my Summer of Firefly series will inevitably be inappropriately named, but unfortunately, it all comes down to having reduced access to a computer and a senioritis-esque attitude toward updates. However, next week, I will begin work with a middle school in my area, so I imagine I'll need the satisfying release that comes with sharing thoughts on movies and such.

In short, I expect to be more active in the weeks to come. I do have several drafts that have been puttering around in my list of posts, including some Firefly episode discussions and a You Already Take Me There movie review. I also have some ideas for posts that discuss movies or television shows on a more general basis, rather than a specific talk on a particular example.

I hope I haven't disappointed too many readers with my absence.

Happy Fourth of July!

Summer of Firefly: Updates

So I recognize I've been extremely behind in my posts. It's likely this Summer of Firefly will extend into the Fall. I'll try to get the "Shindig" post up today, but for now here are the results of that little poll a few of you took on the side here.


Well it looks like the Millennium Falcon and Serenity tied for the position of most desired ship to captain (of the ones I listed here). If there was another ship you felt annoyed that I left off the list, feel free to comment. The Millennium Falcon/Serenity rivalry is pretty cool because they're so similar. When I first designed this little poll, I initially thought that I would want to captain Serenity, but as I thought about it longer, I realized that the Millenium Falcon is the ship I'd want. Growing up, I actually had a Millennium Falcon toy ship. I spent many hours imagining I was captaining the ship, so I can't just throw that nostalgia aside when deciding where I fall here. Besides, the Millennium Falcon seems to require one crew member to stay flying, Serenity takes quite a few more, so just in terms of management, I'd have to go with the Falcon.

Unfortunately, my deciding on the Millennium Falcon doesn't break the tie (fighter) since I actually participated in my own poll by voting for her. Leave comments if you have anything to add at all. I'm extremely curious who the Stargate person was.

My Top 5: Michel Gondry

I've had an Excel spreadsheet ranking the Michel Gondry (Dir: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) music videos in my documents folder for awhile now (there are over 70 of them). I've been re-watching the top 20 a lot lately trying to reach a final decision, but it's just so hard. However, I think most people are sympathetic when it comes to lists like this. We all are aware that these lists have certain flexibilities and are prone to moods of the lister. Thusly, I give you my Top 5 Michel Gondry music videos.

5. "Around the World" - Daft Punk
What am I watching!? I think I like it, but my mind is all confuzzled. It seems Daft Punk and Michel Gondry go together like Spacemen and Skeletons. I wonder what Busby Berkeley would have to say about this.

4. "The Denial Twist" - The White Stripes
Crazy lens action here. Pretty fun to watch especially when they do that final reveal of everything. Plus, Conan O'Brien.

3. "Come Into My World" - Kylie Minogue
At first, my reaction was "So what?" Then, at about 1:10 into the video, I saw where he was going with this. More fun imaginings by Michel Gondry with the Green Fairy from Moulin Rouge!

2. "Fell in Love with a Girl" - The White Stripes
If you don't feel the urge to air drum along to the Lego girl, I fear for your soul.

1. "Star Guitar" - The Chemical Brothers
Another one of those "So what?" moments until I realized what was going on. This is now one of my favorite music videos period.

Summer of Firefly: Random IMDB Quote

Summer of Firefly: "Bushwacked"

Oh, my god! What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing!? Oh, right. That would be me. Back to work.

Episode 03: "Bushwacked"

Directed by: Tim Minear

Written by: Tim Minear

Original Air Date: 9/27/02

Plot Summary:

*If you've seen the episode recently or have a pretty good memory of what happens, skip this Plot Summary*

At the edge of space, the crew of Serenity stumble upon a seemingly abandoned vessel. Captain Malcolm Reynolds quickly notes that it's a ship used to transport several families to a new settlement. There's some debate as to what to do amongst the crew. Jayne would like to just move it along and forget the ship entirely while Book is interested in giving any help to possible survivors, citing the story of the good Samaritan. Eventually, Malcolm Reynolds decides to check it out. If there are survivors, they can help them out, and if not, well they can take a look around and see if they might have left behind something of value. The afterthought suits Jayne just fine.

As they explore the ship, they discover that it was attacked by Reavers when they find the mutilated bodies of the former passengers. Fortunately for the crew of Serenity, the Reavers that did the slaying don't seem to be around. In fact, it would seem they've run into quite a bit of fortune as they find some very valuable supplies aboard the attacked ship. They also stumble upon a survivor that they quickly bring back to Serenity so that Simon can provide medical aid to the poor soul. After getting a better look at the 'survivor,' Mal quickly learns more about why the guy was able to 'escape' with his life. The Reavers made him watch as they raped and mutilated the people aboard the spacecraft. Psychologically, the 'survivor' has no choice but to become like a Reaver himself.

Mal allows Book and other members of the crew to put the bodies to rest properly and load the cargo while he, Kaylee, and Wash deal with a booby trap that would prevent Serenity from taking off without...well, exploding. Fortunately, Kaylee saves the day when she disables the trap just as Jayne and folk return with the fortune that they could all use so desperately. Just as Serenity prepares to leave the ghost ship behind, an Alliance cruiser arrives. In addition to getting them on an illegal salvage charge, a post claiming fugitives Simon and River Tam are aboard a Firefly class vessel puts Malcolm Reynolds and crew in a very tight spot. As the Alliance soldiers board Serenity, Captain Reynolds plays it innocent. He puts all the salvage front and center, notes how they rescued a passenger from the derelict, and hides River and Simon outside the ship with the aid of a couple space suits.

Unfortunately, the rescued passenger, in a fit of insanity, has started cutting on himself, so the commanding officer quickly decides to arrest the crew. As he questions each member, looking for more information about Simon and River, he suspects that Malcolm Reynolds killed everybody on board the derelict and tortured the last remaining survivor as a twisted form of revenge for losing the war. Just as he's about to close the case, he learns that the rescued passenger has escaped by way of a murderous rampage back to Serenity. Captain Reynolds offers his services to help track down the man since he's the best expert on how Reavers work. As they explore Serenity, Mal manages to save the life of the officer in charge by killing the rescued passenger attacking him. Having his life saved by Mr. Reynolds, the officer is willing to let Serenity and crew go free, although not with the derelict's cargo. In the episode's final moments, the Alliance cruiser destroys the ghost ship and puts the whole incident behind them.

Discussion:

You've heard me go on and on about Joss Whedon, but you haven't heard me say much about Tim Minear. When Joss needed somebody who could captain Firefly while he was busy making sure his other two shows (Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel) were still flyin', he considered quite a few people. Eventually, he landed on Tim Minear, one of his frequent writers on Angel. He's an absolutely essential crew member for the show. I believe last post I said Tim was the Zoe to Joss' Malcolm Reynolds. I still stand by that claim. We've seen him work with Joss to get a 'second pilot' with very little time, and now we see him write and direct and episode all by his lonesome. Tim Minear will be back as writer for two more episodes of Firefly, so it's best not to forget about him.

When Tim Minear set about to write "Bushwacked," he had a few goals in mind. First, since "The Train Job" was mostly about being funny, he sought to create something a little darker. Second, since the Fox network had already expressed their distaste for the western elements in Firefly, Mr. Minear set the entire episode in space. Third, since the pilot "Serenity" had not been aired first, as it should have been, he needed to reinforce some of the major elements in the universe. Namely, Tim Minear gave us a reintroduction of the Reavers as well as the Alliance. In the Firefly Official Companion, Tim Minear explains that the first half "is about homesteaders and regular people trying to get by. It's about the savagery of being too far away from civilization. The second half was about civilization being so civilized that it becomes this collectivist, bureaucratic behemoth that can't get anything done, and it's trying to control too much." He uses these extremes to emphasize how the crew of Serenity finds itself somewhere in the middle.

There are a lot of great River moments in this episode (it's why I've made a point to include two screenshots of her for this update). At the very beginning we can see her watching as the crew plays some sort of basketball-ish sport. She watches attentively, enthusiastically, and studiously. We get another similar moment (screenshot at the very top) when she's hiding outside of Serenity with her brother. Her look of fascination with the emptyness of space is precious. As smart as she is, she still can take great pleasure in the world around her. Her fascination with space is contrasted nicely with Simon's terror of it. When River says "let's go again" to her brother, I smile everytime. There's also an interesting connection developed in this episode between River and the Reavers. She seems to share some kind of supernatural bond with the survivor. Perhaps will learn more about this in the episodes to come.

There are two interactions between Mal and Shepard Book that I think are worth looking into. The first is when Book encourages Mal to check the derilect for survivors, and the second is when Book encourages Mal to let him put the bodies to rest. In each instance, Mal agrees, but we learn it's out of some self-interest, i.e. salvaging cargo and creating a distraction while they take care of the booby trap. Here's a question I pose to you. Does Mal agree because Book convinces him, and only then coming up with some form of profit from the agreement, or does Mal have an idea of profiting before hand and only agrees with Book coincidentally?

I've been leaving favorite moments up to my readers, and I think I'll continue to do that, but this time I will include a couple of my own as well. The whole interrogation of the crew segment is one of my favorite parts of the whole episode. I love the way the questions and answered are juxtaposed from different members of the crew. I'm also a particularly big fan of Mal's line "may have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one." I'm always moved by the last shot of "Bushwacked" when the Alliance cruiser destroys the derelict. I've always been a fan of the Firefly score for it's western elements, and I think it really sells that last shot. There's a sadness to it.

Well that's all for this week. Sorry for the delay. The next episode on the list, "Shindig," is one of my favorites, so I look forward to getting it posted on time.