[Apologies to my British readers who already know this. Back me up in the comments.]
Of the not insignificant amount of television I was exposed to in my two years living in England, Green Wing was surely the best of the bunch. It is an hour long comedy with an ensemble cast centered around a hospital. There is is a story in the sense that things happen, but there is not really a "plot" to the episodes: each episode shows a day at the hospital and maybe the aftermath at a bar or something.
Comedy relies on surprise, and Green Wing does what Adult Swim did when it first premiered -- jokes always come out of left field. This is harder to do in live action than cartoons, where there is more range for the anarchic -- but Green Wing pulls it off. Part of the genius of the show is that underneath all the madness is a hospital drama about a new female doctor trying settle her romantic feelings for two of her colleagues. I think that plot only serves to lull us into a false sense of security at regular intervals, before ABSURD jokes like I have never seen come flying out of nowhere. Hour after hour the show continues to surprise, which is not an easy thing to do.
When something dull is going on the film speeds past it and when something interesting is going on the film slows down to catch it. The editing, on one level, is not exactly rocket surgery, but coupled with an amazing, original, and indispensable soundtrack the show taps directly into the idea that comedy requires perfect timing and rhythm to work. This principle is usually reserved for describing single jokes, but Green Wing essentially replaces story structure with a comic rhythmic structure on a much larger scale.
I could go on about the show for days -- including Dr. Alan Statham who is surely one of the great comedy creations (though his first scene is not representative of the genius of the character). But someone put the first eight and a half minutes of the first episode up you YouTube, so here it is for you to see for yourself -- much better than me trying to put examples into words.
[As a side-note I often hear people wishing they would make Region 1 DVDs of British television. Do what I do -- get a region free DVD player (not even that expensive) and then get DVDs through EBay or whatever. British TV rocks.]
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Comics Out October 3, 2007
Buffy the Vampire Slayer 7. A second clunker from the overrated Vaughan. That bit where someone who does not have a pass acts bitchy and is let in because of that is such a cliche, but Vaughan makes it so much worse by vocalizing the idea behind it with the doorman actually saying "You're one of them, all right." Only in bad screenplays do people talk like this. Was that really the plan anyway? And did anyone not anticipate that the two rock monsters would be defeated by getting them to crash into each other? That's the only reason there were two of them. The telegraph: it is not just an old fashioned communication device. At least the art was better than last time.
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane vol 4. I have not had time to read this, but I am looking forward to it. I hope the new series with Terry Moore and Alphona will be as good as this, but I doubt it. I wish Terry Moore was doing the art and McKeever was still on story.
Nothing in comics news caught my eye.
Review, recommend, and discuss this week's comics and comics news.
[If I had known I was going to have so little to say this week, I woud have posted Jason's thing today.]
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane vol 4. I have not had time to read this, but I am looking forward to it. I hope the new series with Terry Moore and Alphona will be as good as this, but I doubt it. I wish Terry Moore was doing the art and McKeever was still on story.
Nothing in comics news caught my eye.
Review, recommend, and discuss this week's comics and comics news.
[If I had known I was going to have so little to say this week, I woud have posted Jason's thing today.]
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Jason Powell on Claremont's Classic X-Men #1
[Guest writer Jason Powell begins his look at Claremont's X-Men, something I probably need to be schooled in. Let's welcome the first guest writer for this site, and hope we have many more. This may be the first in an issue by issue look at the run.]
This is Chris Claremont's elaboration upon the story first told in Giant-Sized X-Men #1, which brought Len Wein and Dave Cockrum's "all-new, all-different" X-Men into the fold. Claremont, a superhero writer who's more interested in emotional interaction than fight scenes, tells a story in which the new X-Men members interact with the old ones.
Iceman is cast as something of a punk in this story, ostensibly because he's the youngest of the X-Men and therefore the least open-minded (note Angel's line about Bobby: "He's a kid. He doesn't appreciate the possibilities...").
There's a wonderful sequence in which Bobby interrupts a moment of burgeoning camaraderie among Banshee, Colossus and Nightcrawler. After making nasty comments about Nightcrawler's demonic appearance and Colossus' native Russia (Classic X-Men #1 was published in 1986, when the Cold War was on everybody's mind), there's a great exchange between Kurt and Bobby:
Kurt: "I resemble a monster, therefore I am one? You object to Peter's government, and condemn him by association? You're all for mutant rights, but only for those mutants who fit your aesthetic and political criteria? A most charitable attitude, Herr Drake. Most enlightened."
Bobby: "That's not what I said! You’re putting words in my mouth!"
Kurt: "Then prove me wrong. Take my hand, and Peter’s, and welcome us with an open heart."
Nightcrawler's chastisement of Iceman is devastating, but then turns on a dime into a heartfelt plea for compassion and brotherhood. It's abeautiful character moment for Nightcrawler, and also a good example of the excellent flow that Claremont's dialogue has when he's really cooking. These "Classic X-Men" stories with John Bolton represent Claremont at the very top of his game.
The heart of "First Night," however, is Claremont's forefronting of the Cyclops-Jean-Wolverine love-triangle, which originally did not figure into the earliest "all-different" X-Men adventures quite so prominently.
Here, Claremont reveals Jean's visceral attraction to Wolverine as one of her primary reasons for quitting the team, which is a huge ret-con. Interestingly, Claremont chooses not to put Cyclops and Wolverine in a scene together. Instead, Cyclops cloisters himself in an office (to finish filling out a report on the Krakoa battle "while the impressions are still fresh," which is delightfully square) and Jean goes for a walk on the grounds, where Wolverine makes a play for her.
Then in a marvelous little parallel, while Wolverine comes on to Jean on the ground, we have Angel trying to woo Storm in the air. (Interestingly, Warren is almost more forward than Logan.) But in the midst of his flirtation, Warren notices the scene below, and immediately forgets about Storm in order to come between Wolverine and Marvel Girl. This is good characterization of Warren, as it both demonstrates the shallowness of his attempted flirtation with Ororo, and hints that he's not entirely over Jean (Roy Thomas did a Scott-Jean-Warren love triangle back during the X-Men's original run).
His line to Logan, "She's spoken for - and even if she wasn't, she's too good for the likes of you," is fantastic. Losing Jean to Scott - that's one thing. But Jean preferring Logan to Warren doesn't sit nearly as well.
Classic X-Men #1 ends with one of my favorite X-Men scenes: Jean goes to Charles and tells him that she is leaving the team. The pages are lit very somberly by Glynis Oliver, and Bolton draws Xavier in such a way that you can just feel his heart break. This exchange is particularly memorable:
Jean: "What of my own dreams and plans – for love, for a family. Must they be sacrificed on this terrible altar of responsibility?"
Xavier: "Dear Jean, is that what you believe the X-Men’s purpose is? Have I failed you so utterly?"
Xavier, who is often portrayed as fairly unflinching in his confidence, questioning whether he's failed his first student, tugs at the heart quite a bit. It's an excellent dramatic turn on Claremont's part, making Xavier so vulnerable in that moment.
This is Chris Claremont's elaboration upon the story first told in Giant-Sized X-Men #1, which brought Len Wein and Dave Cockrum's "all-new, all-different" X-Men into the fold. Claremont, a superhero writer who's more interested in emotional interaction than fight scenes, tells a story in which the new X-Men members interact with the old ones.
Iceman is cast as something of a punk in this story, ostensibly because he's the youngest of the X-Men and therefore the least open-minded (note Angel's line about Bobby: "He's a kid. He doesn't appreciate the possibilities...").
There's a wonderful sequence in which Bobby interrupts a moment of burgeoning camaraderie among Banshee, Colossus and Nightcrawler. After making nasty comments about Nightcrawler's demonic appearance and Colossus' native Russia (Classic X-Men #1 was published in 1986, when the Cold War was on everybody's mind), there's a great exchange between Kurt and Bobby:
Kurt: "I resemble a monster, therefore I am one? You object to Peter's government, and condemn him by association? You're all for mutant rights, but only for those mutants who fit your aesthetic and political criteria? A most charitable attitude, Herr Drake. Most enlightened."
Bobby: "That's not what I said! You’re putting words in my mouth!"
Kurt: "Then prove me wrong. Take my hand, and Peter’s, and welcome us with an open heart."
Nightcrawler's chastisement of Iceman is devastating, but then turns on a dime into a heartfelt plea for compassion and brotherhood. It's abeautiful character moment for Nightcrawler, and also a good example of the excellent flow that Claremont's dialogue has when he's really cooking. These "Classic X-Men" stories with John Bolton represent Claremont at the very top of his game.
The heart of "First Night," however, is Claremont's forefronting of the Cyclops-Jean-Wolverine love-triangle, which originally did not figure into the earliest "all-different" X-Men adventures quite so prominently.
Here, Claremont reveals Jean's visceral attraction to Wolverine as one of her primary reasons for quitting the team, which is a huge ret-con. Interestingly, Claremont chooses not to put Cyclops and Wolverine in a scene together. Instead, Cyclops cloisters himself in an office (to finish filling out a report on the Krakoa battle "while the impressions are still fresh," which is delightfully square) and Jean goes for a walk on the grounds, where Wolverine makes a play for her.
Then in a marvelous little parallel, while Wolverine comes on to Jean on the ground, we have Angel trying to woo Storm in the air. (Interestingly, Warren is almost more forward than Logan.) But in the midst of his flirtation, Warren notices the scene below, and immediately forgets about Storm in order to come between Wolverine and Marvel Girl. This is good characterization of Warren, as it both demonstrates the shallowness of his attempted flirtation with Ororo, and hints that he's not entirely over Jean (Roy Thomas did a Scott-Jean-Warren love triangle back during the X-Men's original run).
His line to Logan, "She's spoken for - and even if she wasn't, she's too good for the likes of you," is fantastic. Losing Jean to Scott - that's one thing. But Jean preferring Logan to Warren doesn't sit nearly as well.
Classic X-Men #1 ends with one of my favorite X-Men scenes: Jean goes to Charles and tells him that she is leaving the team. The pages are lit very somberly by Glynis Oliver, and Bolton draws Xavier in such a way that you can just feel his heart break. This exchange is particularly memorable:
Jean: "What of my own dreams and plans – for love, for a family. Must they be sacrificed on this terrible altar of responsibility?"
Xavier: "Dear Jean, is that what you believe the X-Men’s purpose is? Have I failed you so utterly?"
Xavier, who is often portrayed as fairly unflinching in his confidence, questioning whether he's failed his first student, tugs at the heart quite a bit. It's an excellent dramatic turn on Claremont's part, making Xavier so vulnerable in that moment.
Top Ten Movie Quotes (Commonplace Book)
At the suggestion of Mitch, here are my top ten favorite movie quotes in no particular order. I limited myself to only one per movie, since I fear more than a few of my favorite lines might be from the same film. Most of these quotations were found by going to IMDB.com, looking up my favorite films and clicking "quotes" -- I have a feeling this list is skewed in a weird way because of that and that I have forgotten my actual favorite movie quotes. But here goes.
1. "Domo." -- Kill Bill. [I love this one because The Bride meets Hatori Hanzo and says "domo" which leads to a whole conversation about Japanese -- it is one of the few words she knows; it turns out she knows a lot more, and knows who this Sushi chief really is. In the end she convinces him to make her a sword, and the sequence closes as it opens, with the word "Domo" -- except it has gone from being a mere word out of a tourist phrasebook to signifying the deepest kind of human connection. I cannot believe Fraction says Kill Bill vol 1 has no heart. I have an anxiety-of-influence-o-meter and he is way in the red.]
2. "They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they've all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? 'I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?'" -- Grosse Point Blank
3. "It's the truth that you should never trust anybody who wears a bow tie. Cravat's supposed to point down to accentuate the genitals. Why'd you wanna trust somebody whose tie points out to accentuate his ears?" -- State and Main
4. "Time's up! What do we have for the losers, judge? Well, for our defendants, it's a life time at exotic Fort Leavenworth! And, for defense counsel Kaffee, that's right, it's a court martial! Yes, Johnny! After falsely accusing a highly decorated Marine officer of conspiracy and perjury, Lieutenant Kaffee will have a long and prosperous career teaching... typewriter maintenance at the Rocco Globbo School for Women! Thank you for playing "Should we or should we not listen to the advice of the galactically stupid!"" -- A Few Good Men [People who say Tom Cruse cannot act are just wrong.]
5. "What was in there man? Like, psychos?" -- "Psychos?! PSYCHOS?! Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them. I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!" -- -- From Dusk Till Dawn. [I like the idea that there could be a degree of crazy at which you burst into flames when sunlight hits you.]
6. "I'm sorry. Russ, look, I know this is your joint. I just... there's this girl. I love her, man. I love her, but she is driving me crazy! I can't sleep. I can't work. I quit the show. I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie. I mean, it's like... God, it's almost like this Kabbalah crap doesn't even work!" -- Ocean's 12
7. "Everything else is just polishing the brass on the Titanic" -- Fight Club.
8. "Your're a dick." -- X-Men [I love that they fear he is a shapeshifter and this is how he proves he is really him. It solves a dilemma lightning fast with a joke. Whedon said this is the only line from his draft that remained intact. You can tell.]
9. "My name is William Blake. Perhaps you know my poetry. [he shoots them both with a revolver]." -- Dead Man [This is my favorite thing said before shooting someone].
10. "When will you learn that all my ideas are good ones?" -- "Well, that's funny. Because I thought that you going into the jungle by yourself, being chased by jaguars, lying to me to take you back to the palace were all really *bad* ideas." -- "Oh, yeah. Anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude. " -- Emperor's New Grove
Do your own top ten list in the comments.
1. "Domo." -- Kill Bill. [I love this one because The Bride meets Hatori Hanzo and says "domo" which leads to a whole conversation about Japanese -- it is one of the few words she knows; it turns out she knows a lot more, and knows who this Sushi chief really is. In the end she convinces him to make her a sword, and the sequence closes as it opens, with the word "Domo" -- except it has gone from being a mere word out of a tourist phrasebook to signifying the deepest kind of human connection. I cannot believe Fraction says Kill Bill vol 1 has no heart. I have an anxiety-of-influence-o-meter and he is way in the red.]
2. "They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they've all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? 'I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?'" -- Grosse Point Blank
3. "It's the truth that you should never trust anybody who wears a bow tie. Cravat's supposed to point down to accentuate the genitals. Why'd you wanna trust somebody whose tie points out to accentuate his ears?" -- State and Main
4. "Time's up! What do we have for the losers, judge? Well, for our defendants, it's a life time at exotic Fort Leavenworth! And, for defense counsel Kaffee, that's right, it's a court martial! Yes, Johnny! After falsely accusing a highly decorated Marine officer of conspiracy and perjury, Lieutenant Kaffee will have a long and prosperous career teaching... typewriter maintenance at the Rocco Globbo School for Women! Thank you for playing "Should we or should we not listen to the advice of the galactically stupid!"" -- A Few Good Men [People who say Tom Cruse cannot act are just wrong.]
5. "What was in there man? Like, psychos?" -- "Psychos?! PSYCHOS?! Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them. I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!" -- -- From Dusk Till Dawn. [I like the idea that there could be a degree of crazy at which you burst into flames when sunlight hits you.]
6. "I'm sorry. Russ, look, I know this is your joint. I just... there's this girl. I love her, man. I love her, but she is driving me crazy! I can't sleep. I can't work. I quit the show. I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie. I mean, it's like... God, it's almost like this Kabbalah crap doesn't even work!" -- Ocean's 12
7. "Everything else is just polishing the brass on the Titanic" -- Fight Club.
8. "Your're a dick." -- X-Men [I love that they fear he is a shapeshifter and this is how he proves he is really him. It solves a dilemma lightning fast with a joke. Whedon said this is the only line from his draft that remained intact. You can tell.]
9. "My name is William Blake. Perhaps you know my poetry. [he shoots them both with a revolver]." -- Dead Man [This is my favorite thing said before shooting someone].
10. "When will you learn that all my ideas are good ones?" -- "Well, that's funny. Because I thought that you going into the jungle by yourself, being chased by jaguars, lying to me to take you back to the palace were all really *bad* ideas." -- "Oh, yeah. Anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude. " -- Emperor's New Grove
Do your own top ten list in the comments.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men 13
[This post is part of a series of posts looking issue by issue at Joss Whedon's AXM run. For more of the same click the Astonishing X-Men label at the bottom of this post.]
This issue functions as a prologue or teaser to Torn, the six part arc centered on Casandra Nova and the Hellfire Club.
Whedon further anchors his story in Morrison's run. I discussed this at length last time, but he always goes deeper than I think he is going to -- here he returns to just before the Genosha attack and reveals that Nova was responsible for Emma's secondary mutation.
In Whedon's first issue I discussed how the "nothing has changed" line that properly opens Whedon's run is an attack on Morrison -- Morrison changed too much (so many people thought) and so Whedon was brought in to put them back, to emphasize continuity. It is important that the "nothing has changed" mantra returns in this issue twice: Wolverine opens a scene with the line, speaking to the kids recovering from Danger's attack, and Agent Brand opens a scene by saying it to the new commander of Shield. There are many layers of irony here. On the one hand Whedon protests too much. First: A lot has changed in Whedon's run. Second, as he dips into Morrison's "dangerous" changes more deeply he needs to assert his nothing has changed mantra more strongly, so he says it twice. Third, quite a bit has changed in the Marvel Universe since Whedon took over X-Men -- Fury is no longer head of Shield, and he has to acknowledge that. Not to mention Civil War. Whedon ironically puts Morrison's changes (which everyone was so upset about) in the context of the larger editorial changes to the Marvel Universe -- with Civil War, are people really going to bitch about all the continuity revisions in New X-Men?
Sebastian Shaw is hard to take seriously. Whoever designed him decided that a male villain should unironically wear a large purple bow in his hair. I am sure it was based on some Victorian fashion design and was terrible accurate, but taken out of context -- as he is in this issue -- keeps poking out at me as unintentionally silly.
Whedon builds some great mysteries here with what the Hellfire Club is after, how they can be in the mansion, how Casandra Nova, who needs no teammates, is involved, and who the person is in the cloak. Particularly smart is when Emma admits to loving Scott "with all [her] predator's heart." It counters a fear that Whedon is just reversing Morrison, that he is going to have Emma just say she was lying the whole time and all of Morrison's changes were an illusion. Point, Whedon.
The issue is not perfect (see the repeat background watch) but it ends with what I am going to call a major flaw -- Whedon, so spectacular at finding ending beats, ends this issue with a "shocking" image we have seen in Morrison's run: Emma in Jean's Phoenix outfit. What is wanted is surprise, and perhaps a revision. What we have is a rerun. Maybe there is something to the fact that it is the green outfit and not the red one. Maybe there is a revision here I do not see. But the first impression is that Whedon screwed up, stealing from Morrison at the end of an issue in which he invoked him as a predecessor: a deadly combination for a writer. "Look at what the last guy did" he seems to say -- "I can do that too."
Cassaday repeat background watch : Emma is repeated, Hisako is repeated, Wolverine is repeated, a student is repeated, Peter is repeated, the woman in the cloak is repeated, Kitty is repeated three times on one page and the background is repeated as well, a second whole panel with Peter and Kitty is repeated. We have a few scenes with either no background or just a pattern as a background -- trees for Nova and Emma, grey for the danger room, sunset sky for Peter and Kitty, grey for much of the mansion interiors, blue sky and white clouds for the Shield-Sword meeting, a single painting on a red wall for a second Kitty and Peter scene. What sucks about this is Cassaday is great when he decides to put work in -- in this issue Hank's lab is full of cool stuff, and the Shield carrier and Sword headquarters are wonderfully rendered. It only highlights where Casaday decides to put less work in.
This issue functions as a prologue or teaser to Torn, the six part arc centered on Casandra Nova and the Hellfire Club.
Whedon further anchors his story in Morrison's run. I discussed this at length last time, but he always goes deeper than I think he is going to -- here he returns to just before the Genosha attack and reveals that Nova was responsible for Emma's secondary mutation.
In Whedon's first issue I discussed how the "nothing has changed" line that properly opens Whedon's run is an attack on Morrison -- Morrison changed too much (so many people thought) and so Whedon was brought in to put them back, to emphasize continuity. It is important that the "nothing has changed" mantra returns in this issue twice: Wolverine opens a scene with the line, speaking to the kids recovering from Danger's attack, and Agent Brand opens a scene by saying it to the new commander of Shield. There are many layers of irony here. On the one hand Whedon protests too much. First: A lot has changed in Whedon's run. Second, as he dips into Morrison's "dangerous" changes more deeply he needs to assert his nothing has changed mantra more strongly, so he says it twice. Third, quite a bit has changed in the Marvel Universe since Whedon took over X-Men -- Fury is no longer head of Shield, and he has to acknowledge that. Not to mention Civil War. Whedon ironically puts Morrison's changes (which everyone was so upset about) in the context of the larger editorial changes to the Marvel Universe -- with Civil War, are people really going to bitch about all the continuity revisions in New X-Men?
Sebastian Shaw is hard to take seriously. Whoever designed him decided that a male villain should unironically wear a large purple bow in his hair. I am sure it was based on some Victorian fashion design and was terrible accurate, but taken out of context -- as he is in this issue -- keeps poking out at me as unintentionally silly.
Whedon builds some great mysteries here with what the Hellfire Club is after, how they can be in the mansion, how Casandra Nova, who needs no teammates, is involved, and who the person is in the cloak. Particularly smart is when Emma admits to loving Scott "with all [her] predator's heart." It counters a fear that Whedon is just reversing Morrison, that he is going to have Emma just say she was lying the whole time and all of Morrison's changes were an illusion. Point, Whedon.
The issue is not perfect (see the repeat background watch) but it ends with what I am going to call a major flaw -- Whedon, so spectacular at finding ending beats, ends this issue with a "shocking" image we have seen in Morrison's run: Emma in Jean's Phoenix outfit. What is wanted is surprise, and perhaps a revision. What we have is a rerun. Maybe there is something to the fact that it is the green outfit and not the red one. Maybe there is a revision here I do not see. But the first impression is that Whedon screwed up, stealing from Morrison at the end of an issue in which he invoked him as a predecessor: a deadly combination for a writer. "Look at what the last guy did" he seems to say -- "I can do that too."
Cassaday repeat background watch : Emma is repeated, Hisako is repeated, Wolverine is repeated, a student is repeated, Peter is repeated, the woman in the cloak is repeated, Kitty is repeated three times on one page and the background is repeated as well, a second whole panel with Peter and Kitty is repeated. We have a few scenes with either no background or just a pattern as a background -- trees for Nova and Emma, grey for the danger room, sunset sky for Peter and Kitty, grey for much of the mansion interiors, blue sky and white clouds for the Shield-Sword meeting, a single painting on a red wall for a second Kitty and Peter scene. What sucks about this is Cassaday is great when he decides to put work in -- in this issue Hank's lab is full of cool stuff, and the Shield carrier and Sword headquarters are wonderfully rendered. It only highlights where Casaday decides to put less work in.
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