Speaking of The Lost Room…
Apr 20I have no commentary on Lost – I got to the fourth episode of the season and then my viewing schedule impoloded. And I haven’t opted to jump to digital recorders just yet, until a few more standards fall into place. I’m just going to do like I did with the first seasons – wait until it’s on DVD and then watch it all back-to-back.
In the meantime, I picked up The Lost Room – a Sci-Fi Channel mini-series. It was on DVD and pretty cheap for two discs. Since I’d heard good things from another friend, I went for it and holy crap – it’s teh awesome!
The story idea is refreshingly brilliant – in the 40s, something happened in a hotel room in New Mexico. The room ceased to exist as part of reality and the items inside were given strange properties. Now, 40 years later, various collectors and fanatics are struggling for control of the items and a cop with no knowledge of what’s going on, ends up stuck in the middle, and forced to solve the mystery of the room in order to save his daughter.
It’s a nice companion to Heroes, really – the idea of average people with not-so-average abilities – only, the abilities come from nail files and clocks, and thus can be taken away.
The rules of the story are really well thought out, which is always a big deal with me. If you’re going to be wacky, there have to be rules, or it turns into Next Generation, where they just invent the magic item they need to solve their problems.
Where it kind of breaks down is at the end, and it’s not that it breaks down, but rather you can clearly see The Salem’s Lot effect – meaning, you can see how they’re hoping the mini-series will transition into a series. Some loose ends aren’t tied up, and not all is right in the world – there are still things to be worked out, and not all the items are known, so there’s a lot of material to work with there.
I’m of two minds about a series, but the DVD is one of the best things I’ve seen in awhile, honestly. I mean, it’s got 8.1 at IMDB, and the Internet Uni-Mind that casts those votes hate everything, so that says something. Right?
Speaking of Lost…
Apr 19Has anyone else noticed Desmond’s excess of man-cleavage? He is like Counselor Troi up in here. And I probably shouldn’t even complain, because I think Desmond is teh sexy, but it’s weirdly distracting. The shirt appears to have a full complement of functional buttons, so why doesn’t he use them? My viewing companion suggested that the great swathes of exposed Desmond flesh are a direct result of both Jack and Sawyer starting to experience what is affectionately known as “The Angel Spread” or “Boreanaz Bloat.” Soon, we will see them clad in slimming leather dusters and an array of drape-y button-downs!
Joining Matt On the Kewl Lifeboat
Apr 18How did I miss that Brian K. Vaughan is now working on Lost? That’s so awesome. (No, I have nothing more intelligent to say other than “that’s so awesome.” I am basically turning into a message board-y, empty opinion-spouting parody of myself.)
Also awesome and also amongst things that I am the last person to know about: Teen Girl Squad! Valemtimes is serious times!
My Three-Way with Warren Ellis
Apr 18Warren Ellis sent an e-mail blast on his list, Bad Signal, announcing that he’d answer three questions for any comics website about his new ongoing series from Avatar coming out this summer, Doktor Sleepless. Read page one of the script here. The ongoing series will be shadowed by a wiki, featuring content generated both by Ellis and by readers.
As a reminder, Ellis is one of the finest comics writers of this or any generation, and is poised to explode into the mass culture with his first novel, Crooked Little Vein, also due out this summer.
In a general, even stream-of-consciousness way, what are the roots and seeds for the ideas behind Doktor Sleepless?
I was ready to do another big piece of political sf, and I knew what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the subsumation of authenticity into fiction. I wanted to talk about liars, on a grand scale. I wanted to talk about the end of the world, in the major and the minor. And I wanted to talk about where I think we are today, and where we could end up in ten or fifteen years. The motor of innovation and novelty is really kind of cranked up right now, but, in contrast, the general culture is still in a sort of post-millennial shock, just laying there and drooling over its nipples.
You’ve mentioned “long-form” in describing the series before…do you envision this as a full-length series in the mold of a Transmetropolitan, and if so, do you have it conceptualized in a full 60-issue sense yet?
It’s definitely going to be big. I haven’t decided how big yet. I know how it ends, but I don’t know when it ends, and that’s quite deliberate. I ended up feeling a bit constrained by TRANSMET’S Five Year Plan. I want DOK to take its own shape.
Who would win in a fight–Spider Jerusalem or the good Doktor?
The good Doktor, because Spider was a flabby drug addict, and the Doktor is lithe and sneaky. Also, people like the Doktor, so he’d have help. Even Spider’s friends hated him.
Pluggage: Suburban Bravery
Apr 17If you’re lucky, the friends of those whom you marry are not lice-infested freaks, or catty bitchy bitchface bitches, or sociopaths.
If you’re lucky, your spouse’s friends will all be exactly like Rob Bloom. He and my wife have been friends since high school, and it turns out we share similar senses of humor, irrational love for Disney theme parks, and awe of the Shatner.
Rob’s just had his first film produced, a short that’s airing across the country before movies as part of the pre-show entertainment, starring cast members of 30 Rock and Upright Citizens Brigade. It’s called Suburban Bravery, and you should check it out.
