My own self

When Stargate SG-1 finally ended after its tenth season, it was ironically virtually the only season they hadn't wrapped up all their major plot lines. This was on purpose, though, as they were planning two (or hopefully three) direct-to-DVD-movies to tie up the remaining loose ends. The first one of these, Stargate: Ark of Truth, was alright, but felt more like a double-episode from the show than a movie in its own right. I was excited to see if this movie, which was to tie up a plot-thread a good bit more interesting to me than the ones they tied up in Ark, would do the same.

And it did, but actually a little less so. Continuum does indeed have the feel of a movie in its own right, though it's still plagued with feeling like a high-budget double-episode while you're watching it. It's also involving time-travel, and I've never been a fan of plots where you hit a reset button at the end. If none of the characters will remember, then what is the point of telling us the story?

Those things considered, it was a good ride - better, I'd say, than Ark of Truth. There's a couple of nice guest appearances by many old favourites, including the ever-awesome O'Neill and also one by Hammond, with some nice pieces of dialogue ending up feeling eerily sad considering Don S. Davis recent death. There was humour, there was very good use of continuity, there were twists, politics, betrayals and Baal, my favourite Stargate-villain to date.

Not to mention that it looks damned awesome. A very strong 7,5/10

Teena: "For thousands of days? That's almost forever!"
O'Neill: "Almost."

- Stargate SG-1 1x8: Brief Candle,
on the planet Argos where the inhabitants live only 100 days

Alright.



I can certainly see why they're making those direct-to-tv-movie-sequels. 'Cause this didn't resolve or wrap up a thing.


But a very, very good season. I'm not sure if this season or season 9 is the series' best - season 8 is its third best - but my gods did this show ever get good as it went along. Watching certain episodes of the first season of this show after this would be pure torment.


Someone should compile a set of DVDs with the, say, 30 best and most character- and plot-relevant episodes of the first four seasons. That'd help this show a lot.


Anyway, thanks to the people who asked me to see this. Again and again and again. I finally have. It's a nice notch in the belt, gotta admit that. And the last few seasons were damned good. And Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neill makes MacGyver look boring.

As for its spin-off, well, I'm soon up-to-date on it, and I'll keep watching it. It is good. Not great, but certainly good. And who knows, maybe it'll pull an Angel season 5 and heavily reference the characters of its mother-show after it stopped running.

Finished SGA season 2 and SG-1 season 9! Booh-yeah! Closing in, now...



SG-1 season 9 is without a doubt the best season the show has had, though it did kinda lose its drive in its latter quarter or so, it still was the show's best season. Not the best season finale by far, though. It wasn't bad, it was rather good, but not by far its best. Maybe that's 'cause they in the other seasons saved all the good plot-stuff for the finale while they in this one has spread the juice out, I don't know, but it was good, not great. Very anxious about seeing 10x1, though, what a cliffhanger!

SGA season 2 was about the same as its season 1. Strong, but not splendid, kinda. Good, but not great. They did improve slightly from the previous season, yes, but only slightly, on the whole, it felt like more of the same good, decent stuff which worked and impressed on a show's first season but which felt kind of, I don't know, like they were playing it safe in the second one. They did keep most of the good stuff from season 1 going rather well, though, and they did give some of those things new depths, which I enjoyed, and which is why I'll say it's a nudge better than the first one.

Almost up to speed now. Yay!

I've seen the first three episodes of the second season now, and I have to say, of all the shows I'm watching, this is the best. It's even topping "Veronica Mars" which is all sorts of impossible. If it keeps being this good, and even improves over time, this is the show that could kick Firefly off my top-three-series-ever-list and end the Supreme Triumvirate Rule of Joss.

Seriously, this is good stuff.


In other tv-news, the "House MD"-episode aired on Norwegian telly yesterday (first season, have no clue which number) is maybe the best one yet. I'm liking that show, and it's finally starting to show other strenghts than just simply the charisma of their awesome main character. "Stargate SG-1" season 9 is without a doubt the most excellent season the show has ever had, and I'm finally feeling certain all those hours of mediocre television-watching I've put into the show was worth it for the payoff of these very good episodes. It's been steadily improving with almost every season since the get go, and finally, it's reached a level where it's downright impressive. "Stargate Atlantis"s' second season isn't quite as good, but it's still at the level it was at its first season, which was far higher than I'd expected - it could easily hold its own against SG-1's season 7 or maybe even 8. "Carnivale" is getting more... comprehendable, I guess is the term, and I'm finally able to enjoy it somewhat. It's been a very good show the entire time, but very demanding, and after an emotionally drained 45 minutes of Battlestar Galactica, it's not the best show in the world to follow up with, being so complex and demanding of its viewers. Lodz, obviously, rocks, as does the short guy. And, probably, management. And I'm starting to really like Jonesy. The priest has promise as well. Ben Hawkins himself, though, is booooring. "Smallville"'s Christmas-episode was very little focused on Christmas for a Smallville Christmas-ep, and it was very good. A very strong sixth season, this, maybe THE strongest season the show has had. Little excellence, but almost no mediocracy, either, which is what Smallville is traditionally most bothered by, always drowning the good stuff in mediocre or lame main-plots or arcs. I've still not gotten started on "Lost"'s third season, but I suppose I'll get around to it sometime in January, as I yesterday finally decided not to quit watching the damned thing. After all, Nathan Fillion guest-stars in this new season, or so I've been told. "Prison Break" is good, intense action; I'm liking the more varied environment of the second season, the first season got a little repetitive. What else am I watching... oh, yes! "Scrubs" has finally started its sixth season. Very promising. "You're a fattie, fattie, fattie, fattie!" I love Dr. Cox and his family. I really do. And "Heroes" is doing its thing very well, too, while on hiatus now, it's definetely among the strongest shows I'm watching this autumn, maybe only beaten by BSG and, of course, Veronica. Who had THE most awesome Christmas-hiatus-cliffhanger. I love that show to pieces. Third season started up a little slow, but so did the first two, I felt, so that didn't disappoint me too much. It has gotten gradually better afterwards, and I'm positively pining for the continuiation of this season. The last show on par with "Heroes", in some ways even better, is "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", which has me completely sold. I'm seriously considering buying and watching the entirety of "The West Wing" based SOLEY on how good this other show by the same guy. It's basically just good dialogue and good characters. No big plot, no action, little-to-no intrigues, just DAMNED good dialogue and characters.

And that's it. Not getting a lot of tv-watching done now, being on vacation (read: working and spending time with my family; in some ways, the real vacation is being at the university) and all, so this post is probably going to be a more or less accurate update on the topic 'til well into January, maybe even Februrary.

I don't have much to say about it, other than both being just as good as I expected them to be, but I've seen the first two episodes of both Stargate SG-1's ninth season and Stargate Atlantis' second season.

I'm officially Ahead Of You, Erlend.


BWHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!


Now, if you don't behave, I'll SHOWER YOU IN SPOILERS. SHOWER, I SAY!

is what more I've seen this far. Good stuff. Not awesomely brilliant or anything, but not one of these five episodes have been bad in any way, and they all were entertaining, fun watching. If this is the average quality from now on, yay, but if this is just the "weak beginnings" of the two seasons, then I'm in for a hell of a ride. Either way, I don't see this getting any worse, if SG-1 does anything well, it's progressing in quality, and I have no reason not to expect the same from the sister show.

Web, Gunn, River and now Colonel Maybourne! Woho!

Stargate SG-1 7x17-18

This wasn't just good. This was "Angel"-good. Part 1 seemed innocent enough, but still well above the average SG-1-episode. Part 2 was... good. "Angel"-good.

While this series is crammed with wasted potential, mediocricity where there could be great quality, and even when it is fantastic it is often bogged down by the show's weaknesses as a whole, with this, with this it touched upon greatness. With this, I finally can understand how someone can say not only that they like this series, but that they love it.


"What did you call her?"
"...Janet."
"That's nice."



Damn, I'm still crying.

They're really hitting their stride, now, and while I could complain that it took them almost four seasons to get the hang of this, I'll rather choose to be happy they DID get the hang of it.

While not as great as season 5, season 6 is still better than most SG-1 seasons this far, being as good as or slightly less good than season 4, I'll need to re-watch both before I can say for sure. The politics are getting increasingly important, for which I'm very grateful, and Jonas Quinn is a welcome addition to the cast, in many ways feeling far more three-dimensional after one season than his predecessor Daniel Jackson did after five. That being said, Daniel Jackson does indeed appear in this season as well, with small and big cameos here and there, and while he seems oddly wooden, his character is still a welcome sight and a very touching one, especially in his relation to O'Neill. Jackson is in many ways more interesting now that he is "dead" than he ever was alive.

I'm loving Carter, by the way. Her small facial expressions in response to the things around her, most oftenly O'Neill's eccentricities, are adorable and feels very real. While her character, as all the characters of the main cast in this series, struggles with being very static and pre-defined, somehow, I'm growing attatched to her. Teal'c, while not completely free of these same weaknesses, is the character least suffering from them. Ironically, to my mind, as the silent-warrior-alien would be far more likely to be defined as a two-dimensional character than most others. Jonas is a late addition to the cast, as mentioned, and this has served the character very well, as he's far more multi-faceted than the others, though he too does have tendencies to filling a very pre-defined role which cannot and will not change in any way. My favourite among the regular cast remains General Hammond, who is without a doubt the most believable and humane of them all. O'Neill is awesome, of course, and growing increasingly funny and lovable with each season, but I struggle with buying someone with his attitude advancing to colonel in the US Airforce. Then again, it might be perfectly plausible, what do I know. Again, he is very pre-defined - he's the hard, determined, loyal officer who don't like being told what to do and uses humour very actively as a defense-mechanism. And while that is very funny and interesting to watch, it is, as mentioned, very static, as it doesn't leave him much room for developing as a person in any direction without losing much of his cool, and we all know the show isn't going to let him lose his cool. Also, I have to admit, I'm starting to want to see him and Carter get together far more than I ever bothered with Ross and Rachel, who were just bothersome.

That is all, people. Lookin' forward to next season.


EDIT: This post has the ID-number 424242 in its URL. Does this mean SG-1 season 6 is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything, and three times over at that?!

Neeeeh.

Today, I hand in my term-paper. It's really not due in before tomorrow before noon, but in case my computer breaks down or I oversleep or a series of other unlikely but scary scenarios, I will hand it in today seeing as it's really as finished as it is going to get, anyway.

Today, therefore, my spring-term end.

Today, my vacation starts. Well, really, I've with the exception of two hours yesterday only worked something like fifteen to twenty minutes on my studies this past half a week anyway, but still, now there won't be anything until I have to start working (*shiver*) in a week or so from now.

Today, hopefully, I'll write the first part of the follow-up-series to "Forgotten Fantasy Species". We'll see how that turns out.

Today I'll watch an episode or two of Stargate, I'll watch a re-run of Ally McBeal, and I'll spend some time on MSN.

Today I'll clean up my apartment. I'll put the books in the shelves, make the desk seem all neat again, a condition it is only in once or twice a year, I'll vacuum-clean the floor, I'll do the dishes, and maybe I'll even dust a little. Okay, that'd be going overboard. But I will do the dishes. Really.

Today, I'll read Batman Annual #25, and pity Jason Todd. Today I'll read Superman&Batman #24-25, and long for #26. Today, I'll decide to read "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and then post-pone it until tomorrow anyway. Today, I'll consider reading "Watchmen".

Today, I'll go buy a baguette in the local daily which I'll eat with dinner, which I'll make today.

Today, I'll take a shower.

Today, I'll put on Weird Al's "Ode to a Super-hero" just one more time, just because it's pretty, and I'll sing along, just because I can. "Norman Osbourne was a billionaire scientist... who never had time for his son... but then something went screwey, and before you knew he was trying to kill everyone..." And I'll use it as an incentive make up my mind on whether or not I'll re-watch Spider-men I and II as soon as I get home for the summer, or if I'll wait a little with it.

Today, I'll realize I can't just listen to one song all day, and I'll put on "A Place Called Home".

Today, I'll suddenly decide that, no, when I get home, I'll put on "A Hole on the World" instead.

Today, I'll pester every reader of my weblog with meaningless trivia of what I will be doing today.

Today, I'll get out of bed, put away my laptop and put on my clothes.

Today.

INFINITE CRISIS: Read it. Though it had the common "huge-crossover-series"-issue of being somewhat messy and having too many characters to make it a really excellent story, it was still good. The ending, however, made everything worth the bother, and parts of it is now my subnicktext on MSN.

You made a lot of mistakes. You underestimated Superman. Superboy. Me. But the biggest one? You didn't let the Joker play.

Now who's stupid?

- Lex Luthor

In other news, I've bought and read "Ultimate X-men Volume 5: Ultimate War" and "Volume 6: Return of the King", and am now officially ajour with Mark Millar's writings on the series. I think I'll wait with checking more of the series out until I've bought some other stuff, now.

Anyway, "Ultimate War" was cool. There was a problem with it - I don't really see why it was an Ultimate X-men-volume, it seemed to me it was just as much, if not more, of a "The Ultimates"-volume. Which is fine, of course, as I've said before, Millar's "The Ultimates" is pure genius, but I felt sort of cheated finding out there's in effect an entire volume of The Ultimates I'd never have read if I hadn't read Ultimate X-men too.

"Return of the King" was magnificent. As with "Ultimate War", I got plenty of Magneto, which is always the Numero Uno thing I look for in any X-men comic. The ending conversation between Magneto and Xavier in the plastic prison gave me the shivers, and I laughed out loud at the last page... I love how those two characters both cooperate and war with each other at the same time, and how they both think and function on several levels at the same time, most of them quite beyond the people around them.


Also, I've bought "Gardens of the Moon", first book in Steven Erikson's hugely praised fantasy series, and I've read the prologue and the first chapter. Seems good, I'm looking forward to getting more into this.



Non-reading-wise, I'm nearing the season-end of most the television-series I'm watching. Veronica Mars and Smallville are already done, Lost, Prision Break (dear LORD is that one exciting?!), 24 and Scrubs are all nearing their ends, and I just turned from season 4 to 5 in my watching of Stargate SG-1.

The day before yesterday I went to the cinema and watched "Mission Impossible III. It was entertaining, and at times really cool (like when she got his heart back to pumping and he immediately snapped his eyes open and in less than a tenth of a second had grabbed the nearest gun and was aiming at the open door in the other end of the room XD AWESOMEITY! (for you, Ob)) though obviously not a "great cinematic experience" or anything like that. Still, I liked it better than I and II, especially II I don't really care for all that much. 7/10, I think, though had I written this yesterday, I'd probably have said 7,5. (The first movie I give 6,5/10, the second 5,5)


School-wise, I'm studying for my exam in "Religious science 202: Hinduism" these days, as my youngest brother has his Confirmation-ceremony two days prior to my exam in that subject, and I won't be able to study very much then. I've also gotten feedback on the draft of my term-paper in another subject ("Religious science 201: Systematical religious science", blaaarhg), and it was somewhat... well... it was both positive and disappointing. Positive because the feedback was that I was onto something and that I knew how to present arguments and stuff, disappointing because I was recommended to change the structure of the assignment plus read some more articles before I finish it, which is going to take a lot more work than I'd hoped. I'll have nine days to do it after my Hinduism-exam, though, so hopefully, I'll manage.

Personal, hm, well, I'm still anti-social. I'm trying to go to the cinema with one or two of my few local friends at least once every second week or so, though, so I'm not completely shut-out of human contact. Right now I'm looking forward to going home to my parents and younger siblings on Tuesday, to celebrate Norway's national day on Wednesday and my brother's Confirmation on Sunday.

And that was the update.

...I originally felt little for the character of Teal'c, but I'm growing increasingly fond of how the actor does so much with to little in his body language. The slight hint of a smile, the inclining of the head, and by Job the eyebrow-thing... XD But what has be most intrigued is his amazing grip on the Englsh language. I wish I could speak like that. It's not horribly advanced a vocabulary he makes use of, not usually anyway, yet it still sounds so amazingly consise, unambigious and to the point. And I adore his "in fact"'s.

I do, in fact, like them.


I mean, seriously, how funny is that?!




For all those who have no clue as to what I'm speaking of, it is a character from the television-series "Stargate SG-1", a series which I'm currently soon to be finished with watching the second season of. (Now THAT'S a heavy sentence. But I can't be bothered with re-writing it, so there.) He is alien - not as in "from another planet", not "non-human" - and so stoic a character you at first almost wonder if the actor has even one single hour of acting school.

Well, I'm liking Stargate. I'm not loving it, and I'm starting to think I never will, but I'm liking it, and I'm liking it better almost by the episode. But there's no gut-felt love. Just as good, probably, I'm loving more than enough of these television-series-things as is. However, it is shaping up to be one of the best series I've seen, probably making it into my top ten-list, which is saying a lot, 'cause I'm watching unhealthy amounts of such series.