Archive for October, 2008
How cool is that? The dictionary has it!
Much more I am. With what I learned on Disc I. The following episodes (with all the interviews and commentary tracks) are a really cool journey into understanding the show better. One of the reasons, LH wasn’t so hot to invent a gigantic arc, that would maybe span 5 seasons, was that the show could be canceled anytime and everything would be for naught. And who can seriously blame him for that?
A series like Lost, that gets to tell the entire story in a complete run is a very rare, once in a lifetime thing. Actually that and Babylon 5 are the only examples I can come up with immediately (and B5 had to deliver a constant fight to stay on the air).
He was even pushed by the network to make the stories more incremental, which was realized in the episodes where Tom continues to utilize information from the palm top he is given. But apparently the higher powers weren’t too happy with that either, which is why he then went back to his Anthology-approach, just trying to get people to come along for the trip.
THIS is the longest running series I ever had on this … uhm … PAGE.
Nowhere Man is an awesome show.
Pushing Daisies was supposed to be a spin off of Dead Like Me, who knew.
While I don’t hate Cheadle as War Machine, I still would have preferred Howard in the Avenger film.
In your face, SUCKERS!
The first said, “Who has used up half my drive space?”
The second, “Who has utilized all my RAM?”
The third, “Who has been taking most of my CPU time?”
The fourth, “Who has already trashed the sidebar after only one single version?”
The fifth, “Who has added me to his homegroup?”
The sixth, “Who has been cutting WinFS again?”
The seventh, “Who has fucked up good old paint?”
I just got my Nowhere Man DVD set (I’m actually watching the show while I write this), and on Disc 1 there’s an interview with Lawrence Hertzog.
*If you don’t like inconvenient truths, don’t read this!*
In this interview, Lawrence Hertzog himself states, that he sees the entire series as standalone episodes/stories, who aren’t really tied to each other. That it’s an anthology to him. He’s basically saying, that everyone who thought, that this series has an overall arc, has missed the point!
He even tells, that it first occured to him, that the audience would want answers, or would think that there are answers, which could explain all the things happening, when he watched Absolute Zero/the pilot himself for the first time. The writer elaborates, that he was rushed into everything way too fast.
The way he acts is like “oh fuck, now people expect me to explain things all of a sudden?!? no way! fuck this!”. I’m not joking. He appears somewhat flabbergasted, that people would perceive it this way.
He then further states, that the only time, where an episode clearly shows something tied to an earlier episode, is a complete coincidence and wasn’t intended at all (the driver’s license he takes from Bellamy in the pilot).
As influence he mentions The Twilight Zone, because it’s standalone… No ep has any connection to another…
This also explains why some situations seem to be a little contradictory. They weren’t supposed to be adding up to an overall arc.
This entire thing was like a punch in the face. It’s doubtless a letdown for me and I could have lived on without knowing this. LH clearly was no writer who had a big vision for the series and didn’t try to realize it with a huge writing team that had everything calculated exactly to pan out. The series might suggest this, by taking place in another setting every “week”, but the quest for the truth behind everything still seems to be the goal. Every time he leaves and moves on, what else would be his motivation then?
To me it’s pretty obvious, that this can make the difference between a good and a truly great show. If a mystery is created, people will always look forward to unraveling it. This is hardly a surprise?!?
This really made me wonder, what they would have done without the cancellation. Would they have continued the series until the end without answers, so that there still would have been no true closure even after several seasons, or would they have come up with a new direction, trying to come to some kind of conclusion to Tom’s dilemma after all…
It doesn’t destroy the series for me, because the whole scenario just works in so many ways (and because while I’m watching it right now, I still think it’s damn good), but Bruce Greenwood’s take on the character is now even more captivating. It doesn’t seem that much more is holding the whole thing together. Okay, I admit, not much of a stretch, since he’s the only character present in all 25 parts.
At least it ends any need to think about the true nature of the “men behind the scenes” (in terms of official explanations), they were never invented. Not above the level needed for the few vague hints necessary for the current script. LH himself didn’t have any bigger insight he was holding back for later.
I like and agree with Hertzog’s philosophy however (which is heavily used and quoted on the show), that not much pressure is necessary, to make people cooperate and give in. That this is their preferred behavior, avoiding struggle. The most likely thing people will do. Not anyone is an asshole, but it’s easy to make anyone into one. So to speak.
In Tropic Thunder Robert Downey’s character said, “I don’t drop out of character until the DVD commentary ‘s done!”, this would have been quite hard for this gang, because the DVDs were made 2005, 10 years after the show. This is quite appealing, being so new in comparison. The commentary for Absolute Zero was good, they had interesting things to say and weren’t searching in panic for long forgotten facts. For that alone I’m glad purchasing the DVDs, I’m a fanatic commentary-listener. Not all episodes have a track though. It makes up for that with interviews and extended scenes. Stuff people wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And extended scenes are often cut to save time, not for a lack of quality. I’ll surely watch them all.
This is also not (yet) a review of the DVD set, since I’m only on Disc 2 so far (consists of 9 total).
Should someone think of this post as bad, go check out the official homepage for the DVD set. This (again) is not a joke (I’m not funny at all), I learned of the URL from the package. Let’s just say that it’s the quality of the DVD that counts (I just think not everything needs a page when there’s nothing to put on it *cough*).
Since I started reading the Legend of Drizzt books, I’m going through the sets pretty fast. So I ordered the third set, to avoid a longer gap between reading.
I was quite surprised to learn, that the first 2 sets are obviously from a different/new release, while the third set, I just bought, still belongs to a former. The third set was also almost sold out, so it’s probably just the phase before the new is pumped out, the old units aren’t re-supplied anymore.
The difference is very noticeable, it’s a real letdown, watching the new gift sets and then seeing the old ones. The characters in the drawings around the books look very much like they are described in the books and there is a map inside… My legacy […] release has just some picture (not very great, only on the cover, rest is black), no map and is overall worse. More than enough to make me angry that I have mixed editions now.
With my luck, the new release will be available any day now – but whatever happens, I’m sticking with the one I already have, no way I’m buying again.
I might have noticed this still in time, if the pictures and descriptions were better…
The only useful indicator seems to be the date, when it was published. Everything prior to 2006…
//Edit
Oh I shouldn’t have looked, I was right. Set III has 10/2008 as release date. And it looks as great as the first two! Damn you all!
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