What I Did On My Vacation
May. 27th, 2003 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteJust came back to work from a relaxing week off highlighting by generally bumming around, with a few things to keep things lively from various sources in the popular arts, aside the Buffy finale...
The Simpsons finale - Ok, there were two episodes, but the 8:30 one, featuring Moe the bartender as he first rescues Maggie and then bonds with her, was the funniest Simpsons episode in years. No guest stars, no outlandish Homeric epic trip to Upeer Nowhere, just a story that was oddly moving and a series of events that were just plain funny. Moe's use of the Godfather films as a bedtime story for Maggie was priceless. And special points for the namoe of a local mob boss that Fat Tony was meeting - Don Castallaneta. I love a good in-joke.
The Matrix Reloaded - We enjoyed, though will admit it was not as good as the original. I have been trying to work on a longer review of this film, and figure I won't finish it till seeing the film again. At the very least, I do want to see it again, I loved the eye candy, and found it to be a pretty good sequel that is perhaps burdened by the level of hype preceeding it.
Smallville finale - Clark messes up and then runs away, and Lex seems to be plummeting to his doom in an empty plane (owned by his father). A double cliffhanger that I enjoyed, mainly because I don't know how they are going to save Lex from certain death. I think this show is moving very steadily towards its ultimate goal of giving us the Supes and Lex we know, and that the revelations about Clark's Kryptonian heritage are very intriguing. That said, I am starting to get tired of Lana Lang, the most self-absorbed teen on TV now that Dawson's Creek is done; and I wonder if the writers will have the courage to follow along the road with a darker Krypton that ever seen before.
Enterprise finale - Out of the blue, Earth is attacked, millions die, only the Enterprise has any clue who did it or why. Suddenly this last and least Trek series has turned from a show obstensibly about the early days of human exploration of deep space to one that is about a military mission to save Earth and maybe to get vengeance. I suppose, given the climate in the world now, such a premise was going to show up, and maybe if this were the start of a new non-Trek series, I'd be more interested. But Trek spinoffs are the wrong place for extended post-9/11 metaphors and for military search-and-destroy missions. Even if Enterprise really does get better next fall - and certainly this episode by itself was a good one with signs of ever-improving acting - this is not Trek anymore. Not in terms of Jonathan Archer's timeline naturally leading into Kirk's tieline; not in terms of the sense of hope that have always pervaded the Treks, even DS9. There is a place for grittier, darker SF. There is even a lace for it in the Trek universe. But I cannot be convinced that its place is on Enterprise. Next fall, with Smallville moving to opposite Enterprise, I stop watching a Trek series as a regular viewer after 17 years.
"The Lathe of Heaven" - It took me months to find this tape. I recorded it when it returned to PBS some time ago, and I had given up hope, but here it is. Was it worth the wait? Almost. This odd low-bugdet adaptation of LeGuin's novel - which I have yet to read - is very well acted, and keeps me guessing, but to some degree what happens, especially near the end, is muddled. Fortunately, the ideas that roma free in here about dreams and about the corrupting influence of power even when used for good are conveyed quite well. Now I have to find the book.
"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" = This is Terry Pratchett's recent first foray into mixing the Discworld and children's literature. Aside from slighter simpler language, almost no connection to the adult Discworld books, fewer asides and footnotes, and a little more moralizing, this is not too different than a typical Pratchett. Which is to say, it's bloody brilliant. Where is stands out is that his characters are mainly a talking cat and a clan of talking rats, made smart by eating who-knows-what at Unseen University. At no point do these animals ever cease to be believable both as individual characters and as animals. Pratchett's method here seems to be informed somewhat by The Rats of NIMH and by Watership Down, but the voice and the story it tells are clearly those of the master storyteller.
I know from reading some of the Rincewind books that not everything Pratchett writes is great. But of late, the man is on a role. To release this and Night Watch in the same year is remarkable, as I would easily rank both among his best. Any parents out there should be running to find a copy of Maurice for their tween-age and teenage kids, and maybe should read it out loud as it's worth sharing with the kids.
The Simpsons finale - Ok, there were two episodes, but the 8:30 one, featuring Moe the bartender as he first rescues Maggie and then bonds with her, was the funniest Simpsons episode in years. No guest stars, no outlandish Homeric epic trip to Upeer Nowhere, just a story that was oddly moving and a series of events that were just plain funny. Moe's use of the Godfather films as a bedtime story for Maggie was priceless. And special points for the namoe of a local mob boss that Fat Tony was meeting - Don Castallaneta. I love a good in-joke.
The Matrix Reloaded - We enjoyed, though will admit it was not as good as the original. I have been trying to work on a longer review of this film, and figure I won't finish it till seeing the film again. At the very least, I do want to see it again, I loved the eye candy, and found it to be a pretty good sequel that is perhaps burdened by the level of hype preceeding it.
Smallville finale - Clark messes up and then runs away, and Lex seems to be plummeting to his doom in an empty plane (owned by his father). A double cliffhanger that I enjoyed, mainly because I don't know how they are going to save Lex from certain death. I think this show is moving very steadily towards its ultimate goal of giving us the Supes and Lex we know, and that the revelations about Clark's Kryptonian heritage are very intriguing. That said, I am starting to get tired of Lana Lang, the most self-absorbed teen on TV now that Dawson's Creek is done; and I wonder if the writers will have the courage to follow along the road with a darker Krypton that ever seen before.
Enterprise finale - Out of the blue, Earth is attacked, millions die, only the Enterprise has any clue who did it or why. Suddenly this last and least Trek series has turned from a show obstensibly about the early days of human exploration of deep space to one that is about a military mission to save Earth and maybe to get vengeance. I suppose, given the climate in the world now, such a premise was going to show up, and maybe if this were the start of a new non-Trek series, I'd be more interested. But Trek spinoffs are the wrong place for extended post-9/11 metaphors and for military search-and-destroy missions. Even if Enterprise really does get better next fall - and certainly this episode by itself was a good one with signs of ever-improving acting - this is not Trek anymore. Not in terms of Jonathan Archer's timeline naturally leading into Kirk's tieline; not in terms of the sense of hope that have always pervaded the Treks, even DS9. There is a place for grittier, darker SF. There is even a lace for it in the Trek universe. But I cannot be convinced that its place is on Enterprise. Next fall, with Smallville moving to opposite Enterprise, I stop watching a Trek series as a regular viewer after 17 years.
"The Lathe of Heaven" - It took me months to find this tape. I recorded it when it returned to PBS some time ago, and I had given up hope, but here it is. Was it worth the wait? Almost. This odd low-bugdet adaptation of LeGuin's novel - which I have yet to read - is very well acted, and keeps me guessing, but to some degree what happens, especially near the end, is muddled. Fortunately, the ideas that roma free in here about dreams and about the corrupting influence of power even when used for good are conveyed quite well. Now I have to find the book.
"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" = This is Terry Pratchett's recent first foray into mixing the Discworld and children's literature. Aside from slighter simpler language, almost no connection to the adult Discworld books, fewer asides and footnotes, and a little more moralizing, this is not too different than a typical Pratchett. Which is to say, it's bloody brilliant. Where is stands out is that his characters are mainly a talking cat and a clan of talking rats, made smart by eating who-knows-what at Unseen University. At no point do these animals ever cease to be believable both as individual characters and as animals. Pratchett's method here seems to be informed somewhat by The Rats of NIMH and by Watership Down, but the voice and the story it tells are clearly those of the master storyteller.
I know from reading some of the Rincewind books that not everything Pratchett writes is great. But of late, the man is on a role. To release this and Night Watch in the same year is remarkable, as I would easily rank both among his best. Any parents out there should be running to find a copy of Maurice for their tween-age and teenage kids, and maybe should read it out loud as it's worth sharing with the kids.
