TV. robin hood season 3

looks like i was right last year. in the climactic final episode of last season, robin hood and his men went to the holy land to find the king and let him know how poorly the sherriff has been doing. the episode ended with maid marian dying. at that time i was frustrated (as you can see here) and wondering where they could possibly go from there. it was obvious to me that the show jumped the shark at that moment, and it turns out i was right. all this season has been pure crap. they have really been grasping at straws, as far as story goes. they introduced another love interest, which is not nearly as interesting as maid marian, they killed off the sherriff (which i'm certain is only temporary), and now guy of gisbourne is working along side robin and his merry men? stupid stupid stupid. the writers wrote themselves into a corner last year, probably assuming that they wouldnt get picked up for a third season, and it turns out that they shouldnt have been picked up! every episode this year has been in stark contrast to the two previous seasons. no one is acting like themselves, and the main plot has been long since lost. it really is a shame to see a good show go so horribly wrong. there's only about three or four more episodes this season, lets hope that they finally put this dog out of its misery and dont have a fourth season- please! either way, i'm done watching it, thats for sure!

BOOKS. diary

this book haunts me. ever since i've read it, it haunts me. the book follows the life of a woman who lives on a little touristy island where she works at the local hotel. her husband is living on life support in the hospital and she and she must try to make sense of all the strange things that have been happening and why everyone has been acting so weird. sounds pretty basic, huh? i expected a lot when i read this, it is, after all, written by the same guy who write 'fight club'! as i was reading it, the whole thing just seemed disjointed and not very interesting. i got to the end and was confused by it all. i set it down and a week past. thats when it happened: i kept thinking about the book, the little details and the parts of the story that didn't seem to fit right away. i couldnt stop thinking about it. then it hit me! the whole picture suddenly came into focus, all the odd parts and all the confusing parts, they suddenly melded together and i saw what palahniuk had done! when it hit me i actually had to sit down! the sheer power and brilliance of the tale he wove took me a while to process, but now that i had, i realized the sheer genius of it! i would love to give examples of it, but i would never want to give away anything to someone who might read it- i wouldnt want to steal that moment of revelation from anybody.
still, all these months later, it haunts me...

TV. V

diana and i were really excited for this show. well, we werent excited until we spend a day watching the old V miniseries (as i write about here), but after investing in the old show, we got really pepped up for this new one! turns out we got our hopes up for nothing. after watching the pilot episode i was really disappointed. many of the moments i was excited to see recreated were just quickly glossed over. when the aliens arrive in the old series it was a major event, it had impact. there was speculation of what might come of it and how to deal with that first contact- there was some real drama. on this new version the arrival and contact are whipped through before the first commercial break! so much for drama... the old one was poorly written and poorly acted, but it was riveting. this new one has the same writing and acting, but there is nothing there to draw me in. there is a new twist thrown in: the idea that there have actually been aliens living among us that have been lying in wait. unfortunately it isnt very interesting, or well done. we watched the second episode, but neither of us really cared at all by that point. its too bad knowing that juliet had to die for this. (that was a 'lost' reference). we never bothered with the third or forth episodes, and now with it off the air until march, neither of us will miss it in the slightest. disappointing, really.

TV. the prisoner

i have never seen the original tv series, nor did i know anything about it when i began watching this reimagining of the concept on amc. i just saw the cast, jim caviezel and ian mackellen, and i knew it would be worth the ride.
the story is quite confusing, but i think thats part of its appeal. we are dropped in, along with our hero, named number six, into a desert. he eventually stumbles upon a small town filled with people who have numbers for names. everything seems normal at first, but soon he realized that this town, run by number two, has no way out. as six tries to find ways out, he remembers more and more little bits of memories about life outside the town. over the course of the six hour miniseries, six has many things to distract him. first he spends all his time trying to get out, he is side tracked by a man who claims to be his brother. later he strangely finds himself an agent working for the very man who he is trying to escape from. also, he is continually distracted by a woman who tries to help him (or is that hurt him?).
the story played out very well as six claims he doesnt belong here and does everything he can to get out. it sounds so straight forward, but there are so many strange things that happen along the way. sometimes we are uncertain if a scene is real, or just part of a hallucination, which makes it much harder to put all the pieces together. having finished the miniseries, i'm not sure that i know exactly what was going on, but it was really fun to watch. the story just drags you in and mesmerizes- i didn't understand it, but i really liked it!

BOOKS. the terminal man

i had read this one before, back when i first discovered michael crichton back in junior high, but i didnt remember it very well so i thought i would revisit the story. its a fairly short novel about a man who suffers violent blackouts that lead to him doing terrible things. he is a prime candidate for a new medical procedure that would try to cure him of his violent behavior. the blackouts happen when he starts to get mad, he then goes on violent rampages that he doesnt remember and cant control. the procedure involves putting something in his brain that would trigger his pleasure sensor when ever he started getting too angry, which would cause a happy and peaceful feeling to sooth him down and stop the attack before it got started. the problem is that he soon becomes addicted to this pleasure and tries to get it whenever he can. well, something happens to the sensor and he breaks out of the lab. a pretty interesting story that follows the addictive quest to find pleasure. the story isnt very deep, but the implications of addiction, rage, and identity are thoughtfully discussed. another great book by crichton!

TV. V original mini-series

with all the hype and hoopla around right now with the relaunch of 'V', i kind of wanted to watch the original mini-series. low and behold, the syfy channel must have read my mind! the sunday before the relaunched show premiered, syfy was showing both original miniseries' in a row. i tivo'ed them, planning to watch them at some point. sunday afternoon diana took poco out for a walk, so i started watching the first one. when she came back i kept watching. she picked up a magazine to read, but after about ten minutes she put it down and instead was just as hooked on the miniseries as i was!
syfy actually rebroadcast the original miniseries as well as the second miniseries. it ended up being a little over ten hours of 'V', but i was really fun to take it all in at one time! the story is a killer one: aliens come to earth, they promise us peace and try to get us to work with them. as the story unfolds, we begin to see that their motives might not necessarily be as pure as they had let on. the amazing this about the original miniseries is just to see how bad it really was. the acting is stiff, the writing is clunky, and the effects are laughable. but for some reason, it still really good! i think its just such a great concept and starting point, that it succeeded in spite of itself! now, after watching the originals, we are ready for the undated version!