Aftermath, the post-After the Fall arc penned by Kelly Armstrong, is now complete. It’s very different in tone from Brian Lynch and After the Fall; feels and looks very comic-booky instead of graphic-novely, which is how AtF felt, and it’s basically going to act as a five-part filler story before Lynch returns in issue 23 (yes — it appears this series is going to keep going for a while). I think that’s okay . . . nothing wrong with changing things up a bit. However, while this arc started off great in the first issue, it got slightly pedestrian further in, and ended up merely decent.
When the schedule for these issues was first posted on Wikipedia, it listed numbers 21 – 25 as an arc entitled Predators and Prey; to wit, I held off writing about them because I don’t want to bother writing about whole arcs until they’re completed. How annoying then that they didn’t end up forming an arc at all, really (even though, as you can see from the picture at left, they will be packaged together for the TPB); how even more annoying that they also ended up completely ruining Season Eight, not directly, but by actually destroying the entire Buffyverse as we know it. Yes, it is that serious. The Buffyverse isn’t just scratched right now, it’s broken. There are little hell-demons dancing over its burning wreckage. And as awful as this is, somehow it’s even made worse by the fact that it wasn’t by dint of some writing or mistakes — it stems from a conscious decision on the part of the creative team to alter things so completely we can’t ever go back. Obviously I hugely disagree with that decision, which is why I’m saying everything’s broken. Maybe you disagree with me.
The best way to get into it is probably to just go through each issue one at a time, since, as I mentioned, they are all so different. First off . . .
Fresh Girls & Other Stories
Evelyn Lau
Once more, just for fun.
Yes, these stories are old (published 1993), and yes, I’ve read them before (I even wrote a poem based on one of them), but I was looking for slim, light books to bring with me to Taipei and this one fit that bill (119 pages). Plus, it was the perfect thing for me to read as I was still on a come-down from the Baroque Cycle (yeah, this was a while back). So please permit my digression into possibly familiar territory.
These stories all centre around women, some middle-aged, most still in or barely out of their teens, all employed or involved somehow in the world of Vancouver’s sex industry. Based on this premise, one might expect all these characters to be portrayed as victims, sucked into this life by desertion or desolation or abandonment etc. But Lau makes sure it’s not as cut-and-dried as all that; these girls definitely have to take a lot of shit at the hands of the men who form the other half of their worlds, but these stories show how some of them actually seek it out, or how others are so naive they believe it will just up and end one day and provide them with the future they dream of, and how these dreams are the things that are keeping them trapped.
Now we wait.
Dollhouse again (inexplicably, in my opinion) dropped to a series low in the Neilson ratings for this, the apparently final episode of the season. Yes, it still seems as if Episode 13, ‘Epitaph 1,’ will not be broadcast on either TV or Hulu; the only way to get it (legally) is on DVD, which you can actually pre-order now as a way of showing support for the series and giving the FOX execs a reason to consider bringing it back. Because at the moment it looks like it’s going to need all the help it can get.
Which is actually pretty strange. Sure, I’ll admit that the show got off to a bit of a rough start, but over the last six weeks it has gotten so good that people who had been there from the beginning are now enthralled by it, and even many critics who dismissed it at first have come around and are giving it praise. Despite this, as I said before, the ratings haven’t been great (although apparently the PVR and Hulu numbers overall are good, so maybe Neilson isn’t as important as it used to be), and so it was obviously imperative that this episode be stellar — go out with a bang and hope it’s enough to keep on banging next year.
How disappointing then that ‘Omega’ didn’t quite live up to the hype.
How the fuck are the ratings dropping for this show? I mean, how did anyone who had watched this show at all allow themselves to miss this episode? ‘Cause it’s just . . . I mean, OMFG Wow.
*Spoilers, Obviously*
Although, not that OMFG Wow for me. It’s really too bad that I already knew Alan Tudyk was Alpha (stupid AlanTudyk.com — seriously, why did you do that?!); it obviously lessoned the impact of his ‘boo’ moment with Dr. Saunders. And it’s kinda too bad that it’s been basically obvious since ‘The Target’ that Alpha was planning to spring Echo to be the Bonnie to his Clyde. So while there wasn’t anything suprising in this episode, it was still highly entertaining and I absolutely cannot wait for next week’s finale.
Still, unfortunately, the number one story with this show is: is it going to survive or not? The ratings for this episode were the worst yet, which, coming as it does near the end of the season, does not bode well in many ‘internet experts” minds. I just really hope that the Hulu and PVR numbers are strong enough to convince Fox to take stick with it, because it just keeps getting better and better, this episode being up there as one of the season’s best.
Wow. Talk about playing to strengths.
I always knew there was going to be more to this show then just following Echo around on engagements every week. It was blatantly obvious that wouldn’t be sustainable or entertaining; we simply needed it for the first few episodes to get us familiar with the world of the show and to set up what’s going on now, which is getting better and better every week (well, except for episode 7). Just like every good Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse is slowly turning into an ensemble piece, one that, because of the multitude of possibilities inherent in the premise (and who thought we’d actually be saying that?), is alive with the possibility of surprise. And what’s what this episode delivered a whole big friggin’ truckload of — surprises.
Whoo. That started off as a big ‘hunh . . . it’s too soon for this’ and ended with ‘wow — nice work team.’
Yes, there are many reasons to like this episode (especially after last week — still blech-ing on that one). First, I’m happy to see that my major concern about how the Dollhouse is screwy right now, and fixing that problem, was the main premise of this episode. Second, I’m happy that this problem — the ‘glitches’ — is resolved, as it now turns out to be a miniature arc within the bigger season arc, which, of course, is Alpha. Which means Alpha is a comin’ soon. Giddy-up.
A Boat
O beautiful
was the werewolf
in his evil forest.
We took him
to the carnival
and he started
…..crying
when he saw
the Ferris wheel.
Electric
green and red tears
flowed down his furry cheeks.
He looked
like a boat
out on the dark
water.
As you may have noticed, the Occasional Poem has become less than occasional — I haven’t done one in just over a year. So good time to bring it back, and for that task we have this strange little poem from Richard Brautigan.
Where are you Winston???
I know the rumours have been circulating for years, but a live-action, Ghostbusters 3 film may actually be happening.
I thought that the video game (to be released, I think, soon) was supposed to make up for the fact that everyone from the original cast is too old now to recreate the Ghostbusters magic on celluloid. And a video game does make perfect sense (voices look less old and fat than bodies do). But a new Ghostbusters film? Reitman et al, had enough trouble making a decent second film — though enjoyable, it is no where near as good as the first. So the law of diminishing returns would seem to dictate that a third GB movie would thus, suck. Where do these stairs go? They go all the way down.
