Monday, December 30, 2013

Time of the Doctor


The hills are alive... with the sound of Silence...

I should probably admit to recent troubles before delving into reviewing this show... which for me was an okay send off, not nearly as good as David Tennant's...




We didn't want you to go either...

...but anybody who still has any doubts about whether Peter Capaldi was going to make a great Doctor should check and make sure they have a pulse.  In just ten seconds, he pretty much wowed me and makes me wish the new season was here already.

The truth is, I fell off the wagon pretty hard recently because of a number of issues.  One is, I'm beginning to understand why my predecessor left for greener pastures.  Mainly because I have a very big pasture to mow and very little help doing it.  I am addressing this issue with my boss soon, because I have to stick to the caveat I came to the job with, which is:  commercials come first.  I produce commercials (not too fun, sometimes) and imaging (always fun), but imaging doesn't feed the bulldog.  But that means imaging gets the short end of the stick.  That makes me sad, imaging really is the fun part of my job.  Sometimes I want to go to work because of it.  ME.

I love it when I get to show off to my boss, and I bring him into my studio and he has no idea what I'm going to play, and it always gets thumbs up.  Usually with loud peals of laughter.

So, we'll deal with that when he's back from vacay.  I need help, an assistant, somebody full time.  Otherwise what happens if I need to take a sick day?  If there's no back-up... well, I guess, what, commercials just don't get produced and spots miss?  And I have to wait til the sun and moon and stars line up before I can take time off for even a day?

Also I'm still dealing with the break-up over a year ago.  Part of it is because it seems I was right... this guy who I thought the world of for years had his own, repeating agenda in life.   Basically, fleecing guys and then dumping them when he lost interest.  Shortly after the initial break up (actually I guess it was the second break up), I called him on his behavior, saying that I thought he had done this before and would do it again... Very BSG of me, I know.  

He didn't seem to like me pointing that out.  Recently I sent him an extremely nasty note, and I stand by that, because he'd already went and broken the heart of the guy he left me for.  It's not even been a year.  But now I climb back on the wagon before my acne returns.  And now...



TIME OF THE DOCTOR


hard to believe that's a wig...

Fitting ending, I guess, for Matt Smith's version of the Doctor.  As I said, there was no "I don't to go" moment to make us all bawl.  Matt's Doctor didn't feel like he needed it, I think.  His sudden abrupt change was well played, and another shock to viewers, I guess, but if you think about it, he'd lived many hundreds of years... Tennant's Doctor was even shorter than number Nine, so no, he didn't "want to go."  And then Capaldi's first words... "Do you know how to fly this thing?" Very much plus points on awesome.





The plot was convoluted and didn't make much sense.  I guess I could say they have more of a plan than LOST did... because we know now that they really just lied to ABC to get the show going.  I don't think Stephen Moffett had the whole thing planned out from the beginning as he's alluded to, but he'd better have Sherlock's return planned out.  If that goes off from the cuff I shall be put off in a very bad way.

But, I guess Matt Smith's run has always been hit or miss.  The best thing is, even when it's been a miss, it's still a hit, of sorts.  I admit I feel silly that my favorite 'sode was The Girl Who Waited, as at the time I identified with that story a lot.  I was wrong.  I did not wait.  Waiting implies that something was there for me at the end, and there was not.  I'll take the tears that come with Vincent and the Doctor from now on.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

GODZILLA 2014 is the new MONSTERS


I've never hidden being a Godzilla fan.  It's embarrassing as hell, but many other nerds still find it cool for some reason, even if they're not into it.  I guess it's like being a fanatic about The Prisoner but still finding respect for Dr. Who fans, as silly as that show could get sometimes.  "You like this, I like that... let's just play nice and put the switchblades down.  I'm the Sharks, you're the Jets, let's share the turf and get laid by some chicks."  

Yet I can't help but be a little let down.  My whole obsession with Godzilla began, obviously, as a child.  Once in a while, our TV antenna (a big proper one with a fence to keep us kids from trying to climb it) would pick up channel 41 in Louisville (WDRB) or channel 19 in Cincy (WXIX [see what they did there], both at the time independents, and now both Fox affiliates).  All life stopped during these moments.  We had fuzzy-screened access to monster movies, japanimation, and other imported goodies that the local national affiliates wouldn't touch.  The world was literally our oyster... until whatever atmospheric conditions were causing us to pick up the TV signals moved on, which was usually right at the climax.

Eventually I discovered that Maloney's, the department store that had opened across from Dad's Western Auto and was helping put him out of business (They were appropriately bought by "Heck's" within a couple of years), had not only cable (not even a chance of us having that on Hatton Creek) but they also had WXIX.  Which regularly showcased Godzilla movies!  Although not regularly enough.  Although I do remember a Sunday afternoon watching all the monsters in Destroy All Monsters while sitting on a golden-sparkle motorcycle helmet in the TV/45s and albums aisle, and i remember buying the   45 for Purple Rain in that aisle and the theme song for The Greatest American Hero there, I do not remember seeing another Godzilla movie there. 

So it was a great while before I was finally able to buy a real Godzilla film to watch on VHS, because I was fucking seven years old in Maloney's/Heck's, and I barely remember watching that, except when they beat the fuck out of Ghidorah's three heads.  I loved that.

The point is, when I finally got to watch this icon in his proper medium, which was in my teens when such things started to become available, I was shocked that it was pretty fucking stupid.  The scripts were insipid... they were just trying to match the "lip flaps" of the original actors, which, given the deleterious differences between our languages, naturally makes any lip-flapping mash-up sound ridiculous.  

That's when I really liked Godzilla movies.  The dumber they sounded, they more I liked it... especially when I began culling soundbites from them for my job.  They were insane.

Anyway, this post is getting too long.  The movie looks pretty serious.  Like Gareth's previous movie, Monsters, which I didn't care much for.   Far more serious than Pacific Rim.  I'm unsure I want something so serious from a Godzilla movie.

Rather have: