House Season 5 Episode 1 and 2

September 25th, 2008

I’m going to write about the second episode of house this season because the first episode this season was mediocre at best. As much as I love Olivia Wilde, 13 is the weak link in the team, character wise. This episode was a nice attempt to flesh her out a little bit, but irrational reactions due to a Huntington’s diagnosis is a bad way to try to add character. And I say try because in this case, it failed. 13 reacted in a way we would expect, which makes it dull, and to boot we don’t learn anything about her we didn’t already know. The interactions between House and Wilson, on the other hand, were mildly interesting, but again, nothing we didn’t see coming. Even House’s holding his patient hostage has happened before, so it doesn’t come off as the huge, significant gesture it once might have. It doesn’t even convince Wilson, which might have been the point. The only interesting part of the entire episode was at the end, when Wilson told House exactly why he left. It’s worth a watch, but only once. If you have to watch it twice, I would suggest browsing the internet until the few good parts come up.

The second episode added a brilliant new character for House to bounce ideas off of and to lie, cheat and steal for him: A private detective in Argyle socks. It’s a great addition on several levels. House needs somebody to bounce ethical and emotional ideas off of. It’s necessary for House’s character development and it provides a good counterbalance to the harsh, professional ideas he bounces off his team. It also opens up exciting new opportunities for subverting Cuddy and provides House with a new avenue of information about his patients. The Argyle socks make a fantastic visual whenever the writers want to add intrigue to a scene. When they want to be more blatant, like they did at the end of the episode, those socks scream “HOUSE DID THIS” without saying a word or even having to see the PI’s face. And the final slap to the face of 13: He’s an interesting character. That’s gotta hurt.

I can’t get away with a review of this episode without mentioning the outstanding guest star, Felicia Day. Hmm, two out of three posts now mention Felicia Day. If I’m not careful, this is going to turn into a Felicia Day blog.

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Spaced!!

July 25th, 2008

I first found out about Spaced like I find out about many things, through word of mouth on the net. Faith Erin Hicks mentioned something about Spaced on her livejournal in the context of Simon Pegg and the rest of the Shaun of the Dead gang, which had me performing a google enhanced faux cavity search on the great Simon Pegg. Upon finding out that Spaced aired almost a decade ago, I promptly raided the pirate bay and was rewarded with such aesthetic wonders as Brian and his transsexual ex-boyfriend/girlfriend’s new play, as slow motion imaginary gun fights, and as all the popular geek references you can shove down your gullet. And let’s face it, you can shove a lot of geek culture down your gullet, can’t you? I know I can’t get enough. Despite the obvious appeal, most Americans had never seen or even heard about this series, as a Region 1 dvd was never released.

Until last Tuesday, anyway. Needless to say, I had my copy pre-ordered and it arrived on my doorstep last night.

There weren’t many changes between the UK version and this latest one, but the few additions they made are sure to make any fan ooze with pleasure. I particularly like the homage-o-meter (which was incidentally not included in the disc rips I got on bittorrent. Such is the flaky nature of file sharing) and the commentary. Unlike some bland commentaries, Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes nee Stevenson, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright are a riot to listen to. I would have loved to meet them, but the closest their Spaced tour came to me is LA, and it just wasn’t in the cards right now.

So, go buy this dvd, give the wonderful people involved with this some love, and most of all, watch it so I’ll have other people to share the inside jokes with. It gets old to quote the series to completely blank faces and have to resort to a star wars reference. Accept no substitutes.

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Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

July 21st, 2008

First post! Mwa hahahahaha… aww. That’s far less satisfying when you’re the only one allowed to post.

If you haven’t seen Joss Whedon’s musical masterpiece Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, well, where the hell have you been the last week? Your geek cred is now in negative digits. I don’t care how many conventions you’ve dressed up as Spike or Malcolm Reynolds or Sailor Moon, you get an F. Seriously, go watch it, it’s a musical online series made up of three, 15 minute acts. Watching the whole thing will take less than an hour, you can get it on iTunes. If you’re not a fan of digital shackles, I’m sure it’s on bittorrent by now. It won’t hurt, I promise.

You watch it yet? Good. Ok, so I lied, it did hurt a bit at the end. Suck it up, you wussy. And for all of you who haven’t seen it yet, stop reading right now. I wouldn’t want to spoil anything for you (not so subtle hint, but I know some people need it spelled out, so: SPOILERS AHEAD).

Since everyone under the bloody sun has commented on this, I’m going to fill the gap by addressing what hasn’t been mentioned. The two comments I hear in some corners has to do with lack of character development and issues with Penny’s character.

To everyone complaining about the lack of character development of Penny or Captain Hammer, you’re missing the fucking point. Captain Hammer is a caricature and is supposed to be a shallow, self centered jerk that our villain (hero?) can fight against. Unless you think having super strength or a freeze ray that can stop time is realistic?

The other complaint I’ve heard has to do with the stereotypical weak female character, portrayed by Penny, played by the gorgeous Queen of the Geeks, Felicia Day. Penny fills the role that so many women have played in TV, movies and comic books, which is that of the saintly female who is fought over by other males, but largely does nothing but look pretty and be a good influence on the menfolk. To a certain extent, I understand and sympathize with this complaint. It would have been cool if Penny turned out to be an arch villain or sabotaged Captain Hammer or even figured out who Billy Buddy was before the dramatic final moment. But then it would have been a different story, wouldn’t it?

When you’re limiting a story to three chunks of 15 minutes, you have to make compromises, ask what’s really important to the story, to the metaphor being displayed. In this case, Penny embodies Dr. Horrible’s idea of the status quo, of the sheep he’s trying to herd and cull. The fact he falls in love with her is profound and paradoxical. Could Penny have been smarter, seen through his alter ego and ruled beside him? Sure, but not only would the story have changed dramatically, there would be less significance to her death at the end. The thing I love most about the series is how things escalate from harmless heists to murder and death. In the last 5 minutes, things go from comic to tragic in a heartbeat, resulting in a seriously unhinged super baddy. The only other series I’ve seen that can go from comic to tragic that quickly and masterfully is the TV show Titus, which aired on Fox from 2000-2003.

I have plenty more to say about Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, but most of it has been said already, and by people more talented than me. One thing I can say is watching this for the fourth time over the weekend made me brush off the notes I had on a San Francisco based Spaced analogue and made me work on it some more. Only now, I really want to do it as 15 minute online episodes instead of the traditional network pitch. Well played, Whedon, well played.

Posted in Dr Horrible, Joss Whedon, TV, commentary | 2 Comments »