My own self

As I wrote in my review of the first three seasons of HBO's The Wire, this is some damned good television. And that did not change with the last two seasons.

Something did change, though. The fourth season is a much lighter story than the three seasons coming before it, but it's also less of a self-contained-story, being the one season of the show where the number of loose ends at the season finale almost rivaled the number of plots neatly finished up. By all means, The Wire always have plenty of loose ends on which to build the upcoming season, but in season 4, they were more plentiful than before. I don't think this made it weaker, though.

While I sorely missed a few of my favourite characters from earlier seasons, the show keeps introducing new ones as well as bringing out old minor characters into the light, and they are quite frequently an interesting bunch. Because The Wire is first and foremost - the way I've experienced it - a show about the people trapped in the system, and to make that story work, the characters must be as interesting as the system is screwed up. And believe you me - on this show, the system is not only screwed up, but nailed, glued and hammered up, and it is only sticking together due to the self-sustaining shit it creates. Luckily, the show has the characters to match.

Season 5 was, of course, a trip straight downhill after the relatie respite of the fourth one. Everything goes to heck, and somehow, for everyone. Needless to say, I loved to hate every minute of it.

Easily one of the best shows I've ever seen, and considering it's basically a cop-show - a genre I'm so sick of I could puke - set in present day, without any dragons, wizards, droids or lightsabers, that's one huge accomplishment. It's no coincidence that if I were to list my favourite shows, I don't think anything that's both got a contemporary setting and is devoid of supernatural or sci-fi-elements would match it. Veronica Mars before the less-than-ideal third season, maybe. That's it. The Wire is a show that's frequently funny, often tragic, sometimes exciting, and always, always captivating. If I were to compare it to something, I'd say it lands somewhere between Deadwood and The Sopranos, but it really is its own thing, and it's highly recommended.

This is the third and likely final book in the Legends of the Riftwar-series, and like the other two of its kind, it's written by Raymond E. Feist and one other well-known author from the fantasy-genre or similar ones (in this particular case, I believe it's alternative history Mr. Stirling is known for). Also like the previous two books in the series, Jimmy the Hand is a standalone-novel taking place sometime during the war of the first book of the original Riftwar-trilogy. Unlike the other two, however, its focus is on a character rather central to the original series, following him on his first big solo adventure out of the town he's lived in all his life.


Another running theme in this series of books is apparently that the author guesting Feist's universe brings with him one or two of his favourite characters from his own books, revamped to fit into Feist's world. I'm not sure if that's been done in this book, not having ever read anything by Stirling, but I'd say that one of the characters in it certainly would seem likely to be such a person, having a lot of personality and presence in the story.


Other than that, this is a rather straightforward addition to Feist's world Midkemia, but a particularily welcome one for adding background to one of his more charismatic characters - as it should, considering his name is the title of the book.

Jimmy the Hand is a street-rat, a boy-thief, a liar, a spy, a cut-purse and a street-runner, and he's one of the most gifted young thieves in Krondor, the second-biggest city of the Kingdom of the Isles (usually just called "The Kingdom" as it has been centuries and centuries since the islands they originated in were anything resembling the main part of the realm) and the capitol of its western half. A very quick-witted, very self-confident and very careful lad, little Jimmy is the very image of the young and promising thief, something he's well aware of. Maybe a tad too much aware of, even. He's still just a kid, though, and the adult thieves of the Thieves Guild of Krondor (a very large, powerful and well-organized group lead by an anonymous secret leader known only as The Upright Man) are still for the most part ruthless criminals, so his life isn't exactly paradise, no matter the talent he might exhibit.

Before the book starts, Jimmy has an encounter that will change his life completely. In the original Riftwar-trilogy he runs into and ends up helping some very important people wishing to stay incognito, and this event has marked young Jimmy's mind. This makes him do something very daring - something which in turn gets him kicked out of the city by the Upright Man, who's being very lenient by not just having him killed for it. Out of his mileu, Jimmy finds himself in completely foreign situations in the less-than-urban outskirts, and with him is a friend of his, a prostitute from the streets back home in Krondor. Parallell to this, a farm-girl close to the village Jimmy and his friend finds shelter in experiences tragedy as her family is killed and her little brother kidnapped and she sets out to find him. Their paths converge, and Jimmy, unwillingly, finds himself having to play the hero and thwart the schemes of an insane nobleman and a cunning wizard.


The story is not particularily original, but it's also not that recipe-like. In fact, it had a rather strange composition, with some odd and interesting elements thrown in, which I liked. Feist's prose is like it tends to be - good, entertaining, sometimes even captivating, and gets the job done - but rarely, if ever, very memorable. As I've said before, to me Feist seems a craftsman of literature more than an artist. He knows how to write books, rather good books, and he can churn them out one after the other without ever repeating himself too much. But in return, he also very rarely goes from the "good"-category and into the "great". This book is no different, and due to its being a standalone novel about less-than-epic events, it never really tries to be different either.

Jimmy the Hand is one of my absolute favourite characters of Feist's, though I must admit I find him more interesting in his post-adolescence than I do here. Still, I do have a huge weaknes for the Dodger-type of character, and Jimmy is an epitome of such characters if there ever was one. Jimmy is the kind of character that, when reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, you feel like two third of the characters are based off of, or when reading The Belgariad, you think that this Silk-guy is a lot like Jimmy would be in a less realistic setting. This, of course, while being what makes him interesting, also risks making him feel generic. But while sometimes he maybe does, I think that for the most part Feist (and Stirling) manages not to walk into that particular trap.

The other characters surprised me - I was half-expecting them to be a bit more flat than they turned out to be; a sign, I think, that it's been too long since I read anything by Feist and that my memories of his weaknesses have grown stronger over the years than my memories of his virtues.


All in all, I'd say this book was well worth the read, to be sure - but hardly anything special. It's a welcome addition to what I find to be one of the more fleshed-out fantasy-worlds I've read about (simply by virtue of being the one with the most books set in it), though, and especially so for giving me yet another story of Jimmy the Hand, boy-thief of Krondor.

I am, of course, talking about this.

Free book! Would you believe it? And by Neil Gaiman!


This is what I thought walking into Outland - the local comic book/fantasy book shop - and realising they had this book laying for free on the counter in relation to something called the "World Book Day". Well, thank you very much indeed.


The book was a quick read, I read it that same afternoon, being slightly under one hundred pages and clearly written for a somewhat younger audience. With this in mind, I really liked it.

I mean, it's hardly a masterpiece of any sort. But it is charming, and Gaiman once again makes good use of his excellent knowledge of Norse mythology (and yes, I feel qualified to judge that) as he tells the short and simple story of a crippled fatherless Viking lad saving the world from eternal winter.

The book is consistently entertaining and engaging, and kept me interested from the beginning to the end. There were no surprising twists to mention, no big and shocking reveals, but it still, somehow, sucked me in and kept me turning the pages until it suddenly was done.

I should imagine this is an excellent bedtime-type of book to read to children while keeping the adult reading it out loud entertained as well.


I didn't pay one dime for this book, but whomever did, I thank them. It was well worth the money.

The Hulk was kind of artsy and dark and weird, and though it had some cool moments it'll hardly go down in history as an example of a successful attempt at making a movie of a Marvel superhero. The Fantastic Fours sadly kind of put themselves on a more kid-movie sort of level, but they weren't as bad as everybody says they are. (Alright, maybe a little bit, but I'll maintain that the casting was pretty good) Elektra, however... And just when Daredevil stood a good chance to redeem himself through the impressingly improving director's cut. But, you know, Spider-man was a pretty darned good movie. And though Dafoe was sorely missed, Spider-man 2 was probably even better. X-men was rather unimpressively decent, but laid a fantastic foundation for the brilliant X-men 2. Both franchises kinda limped their way through the third installments, though Spidey did so remarkably well, but the point is, Marvel's really done some pretty darn good superhero-movies before. Heck, I even liked The Punisher, though I'll accept that while a decent movie it wasn't that good a portrayal of the character.


But this... this buggers those "decent attempts" up the arse, if you'll pardon my French, wipes the floor with Spider-man and gives even Spidey 2 and God Among Insects X-men 2 a run for their money. Even DC's Batman Begins should get a little uneasy seeing Downey Jr. donning his armor.


Because of THIS is the result when Marvel decides to finance their own movies, then I need to look into getting some kind of moviegoing discount card.



Iron Man is the kind of movie that had me go home feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten a premiere ticket to see it. It had Robert Downey Jr. in the main part, and I knew from the second I heard that that I was in store for something good. Now, I'm one of those losers who only really know the man from his relatively short run at Ally McBeal, but he made a strong and lasting impression on me there as one of the funniest and most charming characters the show had (and this was a show sporting the infamous duovirate of Cage & Fish) and I spent every episode the show had after he left hoping he'd come back on. And something in my head just clicked when I heard he was signed on as Tony Stark, instinctively I just knew he'd do a stellar job of portraying the guy who's probably my favourite Marvel character. (Yes, I have a thing for billionaire control-freak geniuses with eccentric alter egos, it's TV2's fault for airing Zorro every weekend when I grew up, let's move along?)

So, my favourite character played by an actor I felt unusually confident would do a good job - and from Jon Favreau, the guy who directed the very funny Elf and was hilarious as Foggy Nelson on Daredevil. Then came the mindblowingly awesome trailer. And suddenly, the movie was out, and people were going crazy praising it. Reviewers, people I knew, online acquaintences with very good tastes, fans of the comics and uninitiated alike. They were all jumping through hoops to tell me how much fun this movie was. It simply had to disappoint, and all that remained was hoping it only did so somewhat.

So, yeah, no, seems like someone decided they'd just skipped the hole conforming to reality-thing with this movie and in an astonishing feat of improbability worthy of Zaphod Beeblebrox, Iron Man lived up to the insane expectations and was all kinds of awesome.

Sure, the plot is rather predictable, particularily due to the very conventional and orthodox use of an overused badguy-formula without any real twists. (Though they do have some half-hearted attempts at throwing you off track) Also, the badguys of the movie are rather flat and uninteresting in their own rights.

It just doesn't matter though. This movie is solid through and through, and aside from whoever wrote the script and the fantastic dialogue, the main credit for that HAS to be given to Downey Jr.. Tony Stark is not just any ass, he's a brilliant ass, and watching this movie, you love him for it every single step of the way. You coo like a fanboy at his (often incredibly lame) jokes and chuckle merrily when he treats people like crap from the very first scene he's in - a scene, incidentally, that's somehow the best scene in the movie without ever making anything coming after it seem like a downer. Spider-man's constant quips were probably one of the more poorly treated aspects of the character in the movies, but that slight has not been done here. And it's even funnier than Spidey's quips, because Parker is too much of a goodguy to mock anybody but the badguys he fights. Stark has no such qualms. You might be the only person in the world mattering to him, and he'll still treat you like your very existance is basically there to convenience him and set up the occasional joke at your own expense.

Which brings me to Gwyneth Paltrow, who surprised me a lot in this movie by being very memorable in her portrayal of Mr. Stark's personal assistant Pepper. I've never disliked her in anything, but I also cannot remember every really noticing her that much. Here, she has a presence on screen that sticks with you, and while nothing bad is to be said about the other major cast members, she is probably the only one who manages to have a scene with Downey Jr. without his stealing it completely away.


All in all, a highly funny and vastly entertaining movie that, ironically, just feels like a set-up to something bigger once it is done. The sequel(s! please?) cannot come soon enough.

A weak 9,5/10


(The only problem is that after this, Dark Knight is kind of forced to look worse, isn't it...)

Sitting down to write this, I realize I wrote most of what there is to say about the series in general here, but I will quote (and occasionally paraphrase) the relevant paragraphs here for convenience before I address the more specific subject matter of the two volumes of the series spublished so far:

---

For those nil point fourteen of my readers who don't know, The Order of the Stick is a quite excellent webcomic by Rich Burlew. The comic blends traditional roleplaying-game-humour rather seamlessly (and impressively) with the humouristic fantasy story-approach. By that I mean that while the characters will make jokes and comments about saving throws, D20s, monster manuals and gaining levels, they will also have character-, plot- and situation-based humour. As the series has progressed and the characters and the plot has grown, the weight has shifted from the former to the latter, but both are still very much present in the comic. The other - rather ingenious, actually, in all its simplicity - rather unique idea in this comic is that there are no roleplaying-players. It's the characters themselves who talk about their levels, the new rulebooks and the like. In effect, this creates a world that everybody who's a little bit of a geek (and let us face it, those who aren't would never read this) will feel intuitively comfortable with as it plays on literally all the stereotypes used in traditional fantasy RPGs, while being incredibly unique by embracing RPG-mechanisms as actual in-world laws of physics. Levels, stats and dice-throws are, to these characters and this world, real.

Oh, and his characters are drawn as stick-figures. Impressively detailed ones at that.

Currently at its 552nd strip, The Order of the Stick has developed quite the mythos and cast, as well as a plotline that's stereotypical enough to match the general feel of familiarity everything in the comic offers while being just original and mysterious enough to be interesting. The first 300 strips are collected in two volumes (with tons of excellent bonus-materials, extended scenes and author-commentaries) following the first two story-arcs; Dungeon' Crawlin Fools and No Cure for the Paladin Blues, which are both highly recommended, but the archives are still right there on the webpage to read for free.

---

It is these two volumes I'm going to give my thoughts on in this post, to the extent I have any such to give.


One thing I really liked about these two volumes was how thorough they both felt. There is no less than three short essays opening each volume (a preface, an introduction and a foreword), written one each by a guest-writer recommending the comic, Burlew himself, and one of the characters of the world. All of which are both informative and humourous, though obviously in different degrees.

The stories they gather are quite amusing, though I must admit I far prefer the more story-centric second volume to the more gag-focused first, as I'm the kind of reader who, when asked to choose between the good single-strip joke and the good fifty-strip-buildup-plot-twist, will ask for the second every single time. Luckily, Burlew often manages both in both volumes, the weight is just shifting as the story progresses and gains momentum.

While the first volume, On the Origin of the PCs, collects - as the title suggests - the main characters stereotypical exploration of a classical RPG-game dungeon, the second sees them adventuring out in the wilderness. This allows for a more varied scenery, which in such a simplistically (in concept though not in execution) drawn comic is rather appealing to the eye. This also allows the second volume to play on new and different RPG-clichès compared to the first, which is a nice freshening of the jokes.

The cast is quite good, a rather classical comedy-cast consisting of a straight man (Roy, human warrior), the quiet oddball who often seems surprisingly insightful (Durkon the Dwarf cleric), the morally ambigious sarcastic one (Haley, human rogue), the selfish guy utterly lacking self-restraint (Belkar the, interestingly, halfling ranger), the lofty holier-than-thou one (Vasrsuvius, Elf wizard) and the childish, silly and naïve optimist (Elan, human bard). Exactly the kind of mis-matched band that stereotypically would for some obscure reason band together to explore dangerous dungeons together in RPG-settings. Naturally, because of this, some characters are less funny than others, but their combined dynamic is really quite good. Over the course of time I've personally grown somewhat tired of a few of them, but considering the spectrum of personalities this cast contains, some are bound to fall less in the tastes of the reader than others. Burlew should be congratulated to keep them all as fun and interesting as he does. He is also to be acclaimed for managing to give all his characters some time to shine, some plotlines where they hold the spotlight, and some arcs for them to go through. Can't be easy, juggling all of these people together with the over-arching plots and the ever-present need to end every strip with a punchline. The second volume, No Cure for the Paladin Blues, additionally sees rather heavy development of the main antagonistic characters' personalities as well as the introduction of one or two new characters.

These two volumes, as mentions, collect what's mainly freely available online strips, but they also come with a lot of interesting extra stuff that can only be read by buying (or borrowing from a friend, like I did...) the volumes themselves. Chief among these are Burlew's extensive commentaries to each section of the stories and the bonus pages. Because every now and then, he'll have added an extra page of story and jokes where he's seen fit into the story, and they're to a one at least of average quality compared to the old stuff - often more so - and they fit rather seamlessly into the stories. In the first volume there's also a quite wonderful introductory story added before the first original strip, as he (rightly) felt that in such a first volume of a long story, the in-medias-res-start works less well than on an online webcomic. I'd say reading this "miniprequel" alone would justify the purchase of the first volume.


All in all they're both very good - and prettily made! - books that anyone who'd call themselves fans of the webcomic should strongly consider buying. I know I am. And I've already read them.

I say no harm, I think no harm. If this is not enough to keep a man alive, I long not to live.

- Sir Thomas More

Supposedly a movie far truer to the source material, this sequel to the first D&D-movie is apparently generally more liked by fans of the game.


Well... that might be. I don't think I'd agree that it's that much of an improvement, though. Of course, I liked the first one far more than most.


The only character from the first movie returning is Bruce Payne's Damodar, now the main villain. While he is referenced in dialogue, Jeremy Irons' character Profion is still sorely missed. And while Damodar was indeed quite awesome in the previous installment, oddly, being the main villain in this one, I felt he actually had LESS personality and LESS iconic moments. Which is too bad.


This movie keeps the stereotypes going, but in a way much truer to D&D specifically, the classes and species of the different characters more spelled out in D&D-terms, and D&D-classics like the evil undead lich (probably the coolest character in the movie) show up as well. I'll admit the main characters of this one are far more interesting than in the first one, and I'll admit the plot is, probably, in its essence, a tad more interesting as well and has a more believable sequence of events to it.

And yet, I didn't really feel it did anything. Damodar is just... there. The political intrigue in the first one, while dreadfully flat, was at least present. Here, there is just Big Powerful Evil, let us Go Stop Him.

I'll give this one a strong 5,5/10 too. It's good, clean, fantasy-adventurous fun that should appeal a little extra to those who, like me, squeal happily when things like liches and dragons are involved on the screen. I mean, nobody said every movie had to be brilliantly multi-layered and original.

(Yes, Olaf, I'm doing both. ^^ Am I just the nicest or what?)

For those nil point fourteen of my readers who don't know, The Order of the Stick is a quite excellent webcomic by Rich Burlew. The comic blends traditional roleplaying-game-humour rather seamlessly (and impressively) with the humouristic fantasy story-approach. By that I mean that while the characters will make jokes and comments about saving throws, D20s, monster manuals and gaining levels, they will also have character-, plot- and situation-based humour. As the series has progressed and the characters and the plot has grown, the weight has shifted from the former to the latter, but both are still very much present in the comic. The other - rather ingenious, actually, in all its simplicity - rather unique idea in this comic is that there are no roleplaying-players. It's the characters themselves who talk about their levels, the new rulebooks and the like. In effect, this creates a world that everybody who's a little bit of a geek (and let us face it, those who aren't would never read this) will feel intuitively comfortable with as it plays on literally all the stereotypes used in traditional fantasy RPGs, while being incredibly unique by embracing RPG-mechanisms as actual in-world laws of physics. Levels, stats and dice-throws are, to these characters and this world, real.

Currently at its 550th strip, The Order of the Stick has developed quite the mythos and cast, as well as a plotline that's stereotypical enough to match the general feel of familiarity everything in the comic offers while being just original and mysterious enough to be interesting. The first 300 strips are collected in two volumes (with tons of excellent bonus-materials, extended scenes and author-commentaries) following the first two story-arcs; Dungeon' Crawlin Fools and No Cure for the Paladin Blues, which are both highly recommended, but the archives are still right there on the webpage to read for free.

What's not for free is the prequels, because Burlew has written and drawn two prequel-volumes to the Order of the Stick, one detailing the backstory of the main protagonists, and one the backstory of the main antagonists. I will try to keep this review somewhat spoiler-free, but as you should really read at least the first two regular volumes (or 300 strips) of the comic before reading these backstories, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you know who the characters are and similar basics for the rest of this post. There backstories reveal a lot of things that are supposed to be mysteries for a long while in the main story, and I'd advise anyone to read up on the main story before trying these out.

Oh, and his characters are drawn as stick-figures. Impressively detailed ones at that.

On the Origin of the PCs

On the Origin of the PCs is - as the title suggests rather strongly - the story of what the six (well, four, anyway, Vaarsuvius and Belkar, while obviously appearing, remain somewhat mysterious) main characters did leading up to the first regular strip of the comic. What brought them together, what motivates them to go adventuring in their first place, and what are their goals and wishes in life.

Burlew does this by writing their stories seperately, intercutting between them. Roy is the head main character here as he is in the regular comic, and gets by far the most pages and story to work with. Haley and Durkon get decently mapped out backstories as well, though. Elan doesn't get a lot of pages, but the ones he gets tells you all you really need to know about him. (And I'm eternally grateful as I'm not particularily fond of his character anyway) V and Belkar, as mentioned, are kept somewhat mysterious in this volume as well as in the main story. That's okay, though - it basically lets the stories feel more consistent when the focus is on three plotlines instead of five.

While Roy's is the most interesting for the story-purposes of the main comic, in their own right, I think I preferred Durkon's a little bit to his. Haley's, however, was on the most part rather boring and straightforward, though no less funny than the other ones. This is Burlew's big strength - when his plotlines get boring, his jokes are still funny, and when the plotlines get interesting again, the jokes are still funny, which is impressive. There are also shorter intercuts to, for instance, Belkar, for comedic effect when needed.

If you've read the first 300 strips, this prequel doesn't add that much vital information - as he writes in the commentaries, Burlew wishes to make the world and story richer for those who read the prequels, but understanding the main story will never depend on the reader having read any material not freely available online. Thus, this book gives a nice additional fleshing out to the characters, and a charming retelling of how they met, but it hardly contributes any major insights or grand reveals. The one possible exception to this is Durkon's story, which sheds light on something that's been quite mysterious for a long time and I suspect will get more important to the main story as it progresses.

All in all, I'd really recommend this book, but it's probably a little below the par if you compare it to the main story. Not a lot, but somewhat. Still, if you've read most of the main story, as you really should've done before reading this, and you're anything like me, then you'll enjoy it a lot anyway, if nothing else then because you'll learn how this assortment of very different personalities decided to hang together and fight monsters in dungeons in the first place.

Which I think is really worth knowing.


Start of Darkness

Again, the title leaves nothing a mystery - this is the origin of the two main antagonistic characters, Xykon the lich sorcerer and Redcloak the goblin cleric. On many levels, this is a prequel far superior to the other one, at least as far as I'm concerned. The story is mostly linear, the intercutting is rare and you always know what the main plotline is. This helps with the focus, which helps with the comittment of the reader to the story, which helps the story feel well-crafted. (This is also the only reason why I accept this story not having Nale in it without complaining...)

If you are going to read both you should read the other one first, though. On the Origin of the PCs technically takes place after most of the events in this book, but one or two elements in it will be somewhat spoiled if you've read this when you sit down to read it, mainly in relation to Roy's father's backstory. You can very well read Start of Darkness without it - but if you know you'll read both at some point, you should read Origin first.

Now, this story was really good, if you ask me. Especially the story of Redcloak - in my humble opinion the best character Burlew's universe has so far, even beating out Belkar - is quite engaging and well done. Burlew says in the introduction to the book that he decided to make Xykon completely and utterly unlikeable despite it being an origin-story where you could easily get sympathy for him - but he does the exact opposite for Redcloak, letting us see why the character is evil and why he does as he does, something that's been hinted at pretty heavily throughout the main comic but never explained in this much detail. The book, thus, becomes a wonderful story of the horrible, horrible man Xykon and the wonderful story of the tragic goblin Redcloak as their paths meet, entwine, and join. And somehow, it stays funny throughout. If you've read the main comic and liked it, you should love this. I might even go so far as to say that it might be a notch above the regular volumes so far.

While all the Order of the Stick-books are highly recommended, I think that Start of Darkness might just be a tad more high than the others.

Now, if they only didn't cost so bloody much to order all the way from the US...

So, I tried out a new show, totally on instinct, independent of all my plans, lists or anything else, even putting a break to my watching of the final season of The Wire.


Looking at the concept, The Tudors seemed to me to be a series much like Rome, only set to Henry VIII's England rather than the Late Republican Rome. (Interestingly, the producer/writer of The Tudors is apparently also the writer of the two movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age) I also suspected that the focus on sexual content might be even bigger, especially when the cover of the DVD-release and the images of the opening credits are taken into consideration. At times it seems like the show should be entitled The Heaving Bosoms Of England. Of course, there could be worse things to say of a show than that.

Watching the show, however, it was not as bad as all that. True, there's a lot of focus on some carnal relations, big parts of which is somewhat to be expected considering Henry's claim to fame, but this was mostly too much in the spotlight only in the first third of the ten-episode season. I will not claim the amount of sex-scenes greatly diminished after that, though I think they did somewhat, but on the whole they DID get much shorter and much less gratitious.

Either that or I just got used to them.

So, like Rome, a somewhat speculative use of nudity and sex, though it's way more up front about it considering the opening credits of the show. So what else do these show share, beyond the obvious "historical drama"-frame? Well, quite a lot, actually. But not the violence - which might be why there's an added focus on the other form of gratitious images. Not because I believe the showmakers to have great scrouples in that regard, but simply because there's little by the way of actual warfare and figthing going on in the timeframe of the season.

Another difference from Rome is the lack of a parallell plot of the lower classes doings. There is no Titus Pullo nor any Lucius Vereni on this show, but I thoroughly don't mind that. There is more than enough court-intrigue to focus on - something Rome always had to be a little too hasty with for my preferences. True, the early bits of the show have a little too much sex and a little too little intrigue, but the second half of the season by far makes up for that.

The cast is rather good, but two regulars stand out. First, Jeremy Northam, portraying Sir Thomas More. While he has less screen-time than most of the regulars, as his main agenda for most of the season seems to be to majorly stay out of politics, Northam brings that indefinable presence to the screen that makes you light up and pay closer attention whenever his character comes by, stating already at his very first appearance. There's a lot of good and as interesting characters just as well portrayed by more or less as skilled actors and actresses on the show, absolutely, but there is a certain inherent awe of Sir Thomas' person that I as the viewer experience the second he threads on screen. And I think that this could be credited to Northam's screen-presence. As they say, "whatever 'it' is, he seems to have it".

Second is Sam Neill as his Eminence Cardinal Wolsey. (What is it with European history and cool cardinals?) Except not second in any way. Henry VIII might be the main character of the show (or at least the season, the title I suppose could imply the show will go on past his death) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers pleasantly surprised me in a portrayal far more textured than I would have expected, but it was Cardinal Wolsey who owned this season, beginning to end, and I would not be far off the truth if I claimed he was a good three quarters of the pull that kept bringing me back to The Tudors when I could be watching the rest of The Wire instead. The manipulative and powerhungry clergyman is brilliantly portrayed as both cunning, likeable, ruthless, untrustworthy and loyal all at the same time. I have not seen Sam Neill in many parts before this - chief of the places I have seen him I suppose would be his very charming British officer in Disney's live action The Jungle Book and of course his part in Jurassic Park - and while I now realize I well remember the parts he's played (signifying, I believe, his having done a good job at them) I've never seen something where he's had a chance to shine as he did in this season, particularily the latter half of it.

The first season of this show catalogues the events (though obviously at times rather tweaked or even outright changed from the real historical events they do seem to me to remain on the whole largely faithful to the general events and people involved) that lead up to Henry VIII of England, Ireland (and France, of course...) breaking with the papacy due to his obsession with siring a trueborn son. And I have to say, it does a rather good job at it, I'm positively surprised by this show. It's no Rome, of course, but mostly because, well, let's face it, there's little to a little classics-geek like me that's cooler than Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Cato and the gang having at it. The point is, The Tudors looks beautiful, has a rather good selection of interesting and well-acted characters, and a very enticing plotline. I shall look forward to following the show onwards through its second season and hope very hard for it not ending with that.

Appropriately titled. Very good episode.




And ninety percent of the reason I've kept watching the show for seven seasons literally out the window.



MAN that guy brought a presence to the screen.

Don't ask. Somehow, I'm filling out another meme.

Read more...

What cracks me up the most is how he nails the characters just like they're *supposed* to be.


http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=G1mhr1Gb5sY "You've gone too far."

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRpPja3AMA I AM DOOOOOM!

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=wgQBVVdL2Nw What if some popcorn just happen to fall into my hand?

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=11mKWmQjhS4 This is a pumpkin-bomb, man, I will END you!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NlLeCu63HCA "And I don't have herpes. Withdrawn. Withdrawn."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GiBhLayXlwA "I WAS HERE FIRST!"

So, belatedly, here I am, giving my thoughts.


Hm. Increasingly, as Buffy Season 8 grows better and better and After the Fall by contrast keeps barely holding its ground, I'm looking more and more forward to the former and getting less and less excited by the latter. They're almost converging on the same level of interest right now.


I know, it's probably not fair to compare them like this. But it's inevitable when both shows get a comic continuation simultaneously like this. And it's not the point, either - the point isn't about Season 8 at all, it's doing what any good comic book should; getting better as it goes on. The point is just that After the Fall, yet, isn't.

After the Fall started out - in my opinion - brilliantly. But since then, it's... hm. It's neither met the expectations nor betrayed them. It's just kept them going. We're almost half-way through, now, and I'm sitting here feeling... where's the payoff?

There's new (and lots of old) characters, there's new plot-twists, there's new action-scenes, all the time there is. When is this comic going to take advantage of all of it? When will it stop setting up some great big event far far off and start actually having big events?

Issue one was fabulous. Powerful, interesting, with lots of excellent material to build on. Since then, Lynch hasn't really built on it. He's kept the suspense going, and he's added in new stuff that also draws the interest and sets up more interesting plotlines and potential character-arcs.

But then nothing happens. Yet, anyway. I'm a very far cry away from losing hope - this is still very good - but it's just getting a little tiresome feeling that every issue just serves to keep the plot rolling while introducing yet another twist, without anything ever being truly paid off. I don't know, it's just a general impression. Nina and Gwen have had something along the lines of no function so far in the book. Lorne slightly more so, but not a lot. The same goes for Groo. Gunn, Angel, Wesley and to a certain extent Connor, Spike and Illyria are the only ones something's really happening with, and the only ones who have really served the plot. With this short issues, but in a story which is consciously chosen to be one long one instead of several short ones - I'm starting to feel like some stuff is just fanservicing. Lorne's somehow gotten past his huge internal conflict and is conveniently starting Heaven in Hell, with the aid of a representative of Sorceress Ex Machina Anonymous. Nina's somehow not left LA, has thrown her lot in with Connor, and Gwen is somehow BACK in LA, and has somehow done the same. Groo is just back. And I'm sitting here wondering - yay, nice to see them again. When will something happen to them?

And then it never does, because the next issue needs to spend its pages A. further the plot with the characters that actually matter to it, B. introduce another unnecessary character and C. have the huge plot-twist that'll make everybody psyched for the next issue. Where you won't really learn anything more about it anyway, but hey.

It looks as though I'm disliking this series now. I'm really not - in fact, I'm kind of loving it. But I feel like it's stalling somehow. Like it's trying to do too much. If every issue had 60 pages, then yes, this cast would be an appropriate size. It's not. And it's not only getting a little ridiculous, it's starting to cheapen the characters who actually do come back like this. For every Gwen, Nina and Groo you get back, every Gwen, Nina and Groo you get back are less surprising. Groo's return didn't really surprise me at all. Not because there were any hints to it in the book. But because it seemed the most natural character to re-introduce at this point if you want the characters to do something other than sit down and deal with what's going on on their own. Of which there's been disappointingly little.

Chapter 5 was good, though. They've all been good, but chapter 5 might be the best since 1. Chapter 6 was what I thought it'd be - a big step down, yes, but decent enough for it not to be too disappointing. Especially the Connor-bit was excellent, and I liked the George-bits. The Spike-bit, however, changed oddly between very good bits and very strange bits. And the Lorne-bit I'm conflicted about. It's a very sweet little thing, but it's also a huge cop-out and, I feel, a big cheapening of the character. "Oh, I'm not helping PHYSICALLY anymore, so then it's okay." is his big personal readjustment? Please.


I'm liking, nay, loving this book. I really am. I just wish so much that stuff would stop Being Revealed and actually start interacting soon.