Homework Distraction #1

I've been thinking a lot about stories and how they are told lately. My research project that I'm developing for the honors project I'm in at university revolves around storytelling. I've been reading some great books lately (His Majesty's Dragon, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making) that are wonderful exercises in storytelling. And of course, I am using what free time I have to write stories of my own. I used to tell people I love reading--and, well, I still do! If there is any one thing in my life that I love, it's the art of reading and writing stories. But I will also now tell you that I love storytelling. And good storytelling is not confined by the medium the story is told in; I've come to appreciate television, film, radio, art, as well as written text because a good story is a good story no matter how it is told.

I've especially been thinking about television lately, though, partially because my research project heavily involves both Doctor Who and Sherlock, and partially because I've been doing a lot of homework lately and something I really enjoy doing is multitasking! Which is just a fancy way of saying that while I'm typing out that essay I tend to have my favorite episode of Doctor Who or Avatar or Lost playing in a window on my computer alongside it to keep my creative side happy. This thinking about television and watching television while I study has in turn reminded me of a lot of my favorite moments from my various favorite shows. So because I like making lists I've been making up some lists just for fun, like 5 of my favorite TV character introductions or 5 of my favorite funny TV moments. It's fun to revisit those moments that are the visual equivalent of my favorite lines in my favorite books, the moments when storytelling really shines.

And since I've made the lists already I figured I might as well post some here on the blog, to share them with y'all. First up: 5 of my Favorite 'AUGHWHATNO' Moments, which basically just means those moments that made my jaw drop in agonized, delighted disbelief. Aren't those just the best? I'll embed video when I can, and when I can't I'll just have a link to take you to video of whatever scene I'm talking about. Sharing is caring! And we can all use a little break from school sometimes :D

Note: Of course these lists will have spoilers. Shows featured here: Doctor Who, Lost, Sherlock, and Supernatural.

#5: "It's good to see you out of those chains."

Admittedly, this is only one of many, many shocking Lost moments, but I just love FakeLocke and Richard's faces in this scene and Richard was one of my top 5 characters in the whole show so to see him suddenly getting knocked out like that after so many seasons of seeming invulnerability was just awesome. In a terrible sort of way.

#4: "Do we have a deal?"

I was going to put the ending of Waters of Mars here but couldn't find a clip so this'll do fine too. This episode is just a series of WHUT moments, and it's also one of my favorite DW episodes ever. And this moment is just the part where everything gets much, much darker and uh-oh and awesome.

#3: Richard Brook, he's on dvd!

I could probably have all 5 of these be scenes from The Reichenbach Fall, honestly, because I love that episode just that much. But here's one of the two moments that seriously gave me chills and made me scream at the screen, which is not something that I do often, to be honest. Really it's the whole scene that gets me, the escalating panic and fury, but here's one part of it anyway since I can't find the whole thing in one vid on youtube.

#2: Demon semi!!!

My favorite season finale cliffhanger ever, only tied perhaps with Juliet hitting the bomb in Lost Season 5 and Sherlock aiming his gun at the bomb in Sherlock. Heh, guess I have a thing about cliffhangers involving bombs. No bomb here, just AN ENORMOUS SEMI TRUCK THAT COMES OUT OF NOWHERE. When I first watched it I literally jumped and then just stared in incredulous shock for a few minutes. The episode was so full of terror and drama and awesome and then after an extremely nailbiting climatic scene it finally slows down for a second and then BLAM CAR CRASH and now you have to wait 'til next season. So. Good.

#1: "Well, good luck with that."

The other RF moment that absolutely chilled me. This entire episode is a work of art, honestly, storytelling at its superb best. And this was so unexpected and so horrible and so absolutely, completely RIGHT. Even in just this 30-second clip you can get a feel for the stakes here, the tension and emotional devastation this moment meant after the previous 1-hour-plus of exquisitely multi-layered plotting and unravelling the characters and it was just wow. Also the music is exquisite.

Anyone out there who's seen these scenes before? Do you agree with me in my assessment of them? What other scenes do you think are superbly AUGHWHATNO? Share them in the comments!

Pondering between classes

My last class of the day is due to start in about, oh, half an hour, and I'm currently sitting at a circular stone table just waiting. Not THE Round Table, of course--for one thing, there aren't any chairs, just benches--but still it's a bit more fun to sit at than one of those boring rectangular ones I can see just a little distance away.

All my classes so far are promising. I'm not much of an Anthropology enthusiast but we do get to go to the Honolulu zoo to look at monkeys apparently, so that's nice. All of my other classes are English classes, which means I have an insane amount of reading and writing to do this semester. I'm happy about it now, but just wait until a few weeks have passed; I'll probably be rueing the day I decided to sign up for a full schedule! Oh, and I have an Honors seminar but I honestly don't know much about what that entails other than it's supposed to begin my Final Senior Project process, so I'm withholding judgement until I learn more. I have my first one this Thursday.

The weather's been shockingly pleasant, especially since I just came back from home where it's cold and somewhat rainy right now. Today in fact has been very hot, so much so that I've had to put my hair up and am continually thirsty. This is really odd, as I'm used to bundling up after my three weeks home. I'm breathing a lot easier now that I'm back in the tropical warmth, though; the cough that plagued me all Christmas break has mysteriously vanished. I'm like Robert Louis Stevenson, retreating to Hawaii for my health!

Nothing much else to report right now. Life is moving along placidly and without untoward disturbance, and I'm just going with the flow. I do have to refocus and get back to exercising rigorously and eating healthily, though--during Christmas break it's not much of an exaggeration to say that I was living entirely off of butter, sugar, caffeine, and chocolate.

Oh, wait, one more thing! Last Sunday's episode of "Sherlock" was brilliant, and I am extremely excited about "The Reichenbach Fall", hopefully it doesn't let me down. Last week I went to the movies with some friends and watched "War Horse" (which was extremely good, by the way, if you haven't seen it you should, despite the slow beginning, it's honestly all worth it by the end) and seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston dressed up as British WWI cavalry officers galloping side by side on some splendid horses with John Williams music playing was one of the greatest things I have ever seen ever. Huzzah the Brits!

Book Reviews Overdue

My book reviews for April, May, and June will be combined at the end of this month. Sorry about how far behind I've fallen on things, but it's been a crazy, busy summer, what with all the preparation for returning to school this Fall. In fact, I do not think that I even read any books at all in May--Or, rather, I read plenty of books, but did not finish any of them in May. Look forward to reading my thoughts on "North and South", "The Wise Man's Fear", "At the Mountains of Madness", and more!

In the same way I have fallen woefully behind on my Doctor Who Reviews. To sum up:

• I absolutely loved everything about "The Doctor's Wife", it's definitely my favorite episode of Eleven's run so far, and provided the most uncontrived and honest emotional moment of the show (for me) since Ten had to wipe Donna Noble's memory. I love Neil Gaiman's way with words, and his fingerprints were all over this episode, in the best way possible. He made use of the characters so well, and with so many fantastic nods at classic episodes (Eye of Orion, anyone??), I wish he was a regular writer. And FINALLY an episode where the pacing was perfect.
• "The Rebel Flesh" was nowhere near as good, but I still thought it was a solid episode, very Classic-feeling with the many supporting characters and the running down long corridors, etc. It was also nice to see Rory get a chance to shine. If you've watched the film "Moon" this episode will probably remind you of it.
• "The Almost People" was generally enjoyable, although I felt that there were wayyy too many illogical consistencies. Such as, if all that is needed to destroy the Flesh is a whirr of the sonic screwdriver, why wasn't that done before the end of the episode? It felt like a bit of contrivance to create a self-sacrificial situation that was completely unnecessary. NICE twist to have Amy be a Flesh-creature all along, but I was a bit irritated by that too, because then that means that all the character development and maturity she's been getting this series . . . didn't really happen to her.
• I thought "A Good Man Goes to War" was merely okay, again due to massive logistics problems (why not shoot the Doctor the moment he reveals himself to the enormous crowd of people who want to kill him, etc). However, I did like the dangerous edge to the Doctor we got to see in this ep, and RORY. Rory was just utterly fantastic: fighting with a futuristic gun/Ancient Roman gladius combo, his adorable 'I was going to be cool!' reaction when he sees Amy with his daughter for the first time, and his super-cool pre-credits sequence. The revelation about River? Disappointing. It puts even more focus on her character, instead of less, and even steals the spotlight from Amy and Rory in a sense because now they can be known as River's parents instead of characters in their own right. I loved River Song in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead"; now I just want her gone. I thought Amy was great in this episode too, and it was fun to see the Doctor's Gallifreyan crib (although why he decided to bring it with him on the TARDIS I have utterly no idea). The cliffhanger wasn't really interesting to me, so I have no problem waiting for the next episode, which is nice. If they had made the end of "The Pandorica Opens", for example, a mid-series cliffhanger, that would have been torture.

I'll try to post proper, full-length reviews later. I'm also planning on reviewing Series 2 of "Sherlock" when it airs; I am extremely excited for that show.

That's all for now, folks! My laptop's currently in the repair shop, but once I get it back I'll post up my book reviews; expect them sometime next week. In the meantime I'm devoting all my free time to dance, reading, writing, and attempting to sew a regency gown.

"Sherlock"

Well, my eye's still extremely painful and swollen, but I went to the doctor's today and was prescribed some eyedrops. I desperately hope they work, because I don't know how much more of this I can take. On the plus-side, my fingers are pretty much healed now. The thumb's still bleeding, but it's hurting less. It's been a crazy, crazy week.

I didn't know the BBC was making a modernized Sherlock Holmes series until a few days ago, and when I did find out, I was pretty skeptical. I'm something of a Sherlockian, and modernizing classics usually just feels cheap and gimmicky to me--not something I can enjoy. I was also a bit intrigued though, for a few reasons:

1) The actors playing Holmes and Watson
2) Stephen Moffat is one of the series creators
3) The preview didn't actually look that bad. In fact, it looked . . . good?

So, last night, when unable to sleep due to my eye hurting so much, I tracked the first episode (which apparently aired on the BBC on Sunday) down and watched it. And I actually really, really enjoyed it! It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was extremely good. The dialogue is quick, witty, and well-written as well as well-delivered. Both Holmes and Watson are spot-on, and I think I can say with confidence that they are the best Holmes-Watson duo I have ever seen on screen, save only perhaps the Soviet version. Although living in the present-day, their personalities are perfect, as well as their mannerisms, ways of speaking . . . I loved it.

I didn't appreciate the few 'Holmes might be gay!' gags in the script. Sure, they were just intended as humorous nods towards those fans who maintain it's the truth, but I cannot stand that viewpoint which is irreverent to the characters and canon. I was able to ignore them for the sake of the rest of the story's excellence, and luckily there aren't that many. There were other, more welcome shout-outs to canon-fans, like a surprise appearance from one Mycroft Holmes and a tantalizing hint at the future appearance of Moriarty.

The story itself was very predictable to me, and probably to anyone who's read "A Study in Scarlet", but the actors' performances as well as the style with which the episode was told kept it from being dull. I don't know if it'd be predictable for anyone who hasn't read the story, but anyways. By the end I was both impressed and amused at how the writers changed and updated the canon and yet kept the spirit and the characters the same. Watson isn't an idiot, and instead is a very capable doctor, war veteran, and excellent shot with a gun, as in the original stories (even if he is missing his mustache), and Holmes may not smoke a pipe in this version but he has the perfect blend of charisma, arrogance, and cold intellect, as well as a glimpse or two of an emotional vulnerability which is entirely canon. All in all, the episode (entitled "A Study in Pink") was a perfect opening to a new Sherlock Holmes saga, I can't wait to see the next episode this Sunday, and I hope more episodes are made after these three.

Interested? Then watch these:

Trailer:


Scene from "A Study in Pink":