My own self

How would you like a show where the Ice Truck Killer from Dexter was the protagonist, only instead of killing people he just wanted to control them?

If you're anything like me, you're currently drooling incontrollably, so you should find a towel to put over your keyboard for protection before you continue reading this review of Profit.

Revenge is pointless. It's a tool for the weak. And you're not weak. Not anymore.

- Jim Profit


Now this was a thoroughly pleasant surprise! And out of nowhere, too. Whilst surfing Wikipedia and IMDB for the further works of the writers of some of the best Angel-episodes, I decided to check out the resume of the show's co-creator David Greenwalt. Lo and behold, Angel was not the first show he co-created, as he in 1996 together with a John McNamara made the short-lived Fox-show Profit.

"Short-lived" all to often means "too good to appeal to a mainstream audience", so added to Greenwalt's name, my interest was already stirring. Then I see that the title character Jim Profit was played by Adrian Pasdar, who I knew fondly from his parts on Judging Amy and Heroes.

Some more checking, and it turns out the ever-eminent Keith Szarabajka (recently the growly copper in Dark Knight, fellow Whedon-fans will remember him as the morally ambigious Angel-villain Holtz) was another regular on the show.

Wikipedia described Profit as a forerunner of darker and more morally dubious TV-shows in general and protagonists in paticular, listing Nip/Tuck, Dexter and Mad Men as later successes in the same vain.

Alright, so I was sold. Now, I've never seen Nip/Tuck, largely because I suspect I'm much too tender for it, but I have seen the other two, and while the comparison to Mad Men in my opinion is way, way off, the comparison to Dexter, well, isn't. Profit, like the more recent Dexter, uses a psycopath and/or sociopath as its protagonist, making the viewer root for someone who at best is of dubious moral integrity and at worst is the personification of all that is evil. The difference is that where Dexter is obsessed with killing, Profit is obsessed with controlling. But beyond this main difference in premise and M.O., there are many similarities. They both narrate their respective shows, bringing the viewer into their world through them. Profit even addresses the camera directly in the beginning and end of every episode. Where Dexter had his cop dad teaching him to live out his needs and fit in with society, Profit has a drug-addict con-woman stepmother from whom he indubitably learned many a trick. (A stepmother who is also his long-time lover - the show is seriously depraved). The shows have a thoroughly different feel to them, though, and the supporting cast and the episode plots are vastly different between them, so if you've seen Dexter, there's not a big worry of Profit feeling as a rehash.

As mentioned, Profit is obsessed with controlling, making him a perfect fit for corporate America. Gaining a leg in the door on the top floor of what's basically the proto-Wolfram & Hart (the classic Big Scary Morally Bankrupt Supercompany for those who haven't seen Angel), Profit's mission in life is to control and protect this corporation who played an integral part of his childhood trauma.

In a mere nine episodes - only four of which originally aired - the mythology still has the time to build rather extensively, and you get to know many characters quite well. My favourite is probably Profit's hesitant accomplice Gail (Lisa Darr), a woman he originally blackmails into helping him, and then corrupts a little more with every episode. Her constant struggle between the benefits of helping Profit and the moral issues of performing the tasks he asks of her is all the more delightful in lieu of her gradual realisation that she's actually quite good at it - and that thus, she also partly enjoys it. But there are a myriad of interesting and fascinating characters to delve into on this show.

It's difficult, still being under the spell of fresh "ooh, this is so much fun!"-feelings but trying to write an objective review. The show isn't perfect, by any means. To bring the comparison with Dexter further, this show is ten years older, looks much less sleek, and is sometimes a little clunky. Especially its visuals of things done in computers are sometimes a little... overly corny. But, I mean, come on, it was made in 1996. Considering that, Profit was impressively ahead of the curve in more ways than one, and I for one have thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending, while not a proper nor probably even half-way intended one, still ended up tying together a lot of plot-threads, and for those interested in more, the creators have let on some plans of what would have happened in a second season that can be read on the show's Wikipedia-page.

I don't think I've ever discovered, seen, and reviewed an entire TV-show in two days before. But I did with this one. And while it is rather old, it is actually out on DVD-people, so go buy. Or catch it on Chiller, Wikipedia informs me they're currently airing the full series.

My retirement¹ is cast in my teeth; and to this charge I cannot reply without highly exalting my own merits. For what, gentlemen, must I say? That consciousness of misdoing urged me into exile? But the charge that was laid at my door, so far from being a misdoing, was the grandest deed in the history of the human race!² That I dreaded prosecution before the people? But such a prosecution was never even contemplated, and had it taken place I should have emerged from it with my reputation doubly enhanced. Shall I then say that the patriotic party failed in my protection? It would be false. Or that I feared death? That would be cowardly. I must say, then, what I would not say save under compulsion - for any self-congratulary remarks I have ever uttered have been made rather to repel insinuations than to claim credit for myself - I say, then, and with all the emphasis I can use, that when, under the ledership of a tribune of the plebs and with the support of the consuls, with the senate humiliated, the Roman knighthood cowed, and the whole community agitated and distraught, the carefully stimulated lawnessness of desperadoes and conspirators was launching an asault not so much upon myself as upon all good patriots through me, I saw that, should I prove victorious, some frail vestiges of a republic would yet remain, but, should I be defeated, it would become utterly extinct. Having come to this conclusion, I was heart-broken at the prospect of separation from my unhappy wife, of the destitution of my beloved children, of the blow that would fall upon my excellent and affectionate brother who was far away, and of the unforeseen wreck of a family whose sense of security had been so complete; but all these possibilities came second in my thoughts to the lives of my fellow-citizens, and I thought it better that the state should falter through the retirement of one,³ than that it should fall through the destruction of all. I hoped, and my hopes have been realised, that if brave men yet survived, my humiliation might be retrieved; but if I should perish, and the patriotic party⁴ with me, I saw no prospect of a resurrection for the republic.

- Marcus Tullius Cicero in De Domo Sua 35.95-36.96,
his speech to the Pontiff Collegium of priests concerning his house having been given away to the goddess of Liberty by Publius Clodius Pulcher,
translated by N. H. Watts.

¹: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
²: He had a half-dozen men executed without trial.
³: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
⁴: The conservative über-rich ruling elite, to a large group of whom he is currently talking.

You probably should not read this if you've not seen the Battlestar Galactica finale yet. It's pretty vague, but still.

Read more...

Smaller sets would be awesome. Way overdue, albeit far better late than never. Mythic rares probably isn't a very good idea, but if the maths as Rosewater lay them out indeed work out, it shouldn't be more difficult getting one than any given Lorwyn-rare in the smaller sets, and it does appeal to my inner Vorthos.




But a LAND replacing a common in every expert-level booster? That's effectively dropping one card from every pack I buy while putting just enough lands there that new players will be annoyed for not having enough of them to play with anyway. I'll feel like I'm being flipped every time I browse through a pack and see those lands.


Seriously? A basic land?!



I'm too old for this nonsense.

Originally posted by Terje:

Sometimes, I wonder how “heroes” like these [Green Lantern and Captain Marvel] have managed to survive for 40, 50 years. To the extent that they have, of course.

Because they’re bigger than life, and they are cumulative creations, meaning that as new writers (and I suppose, artists) get assigned to them, their mythology, personalities and identities grow. The ones, for instance, that are originally concieved as too ridiculously powerful becomes iconic, a wonderful foil for other characters or simply interesting sources for stories of how it is for a god to devote his life to protect those who would by all means seem to be less than he (Superman). The very things that make them inherently ridiculous is what makes them iconic, and they’ve had decades of cumulative story-telling creating an often very rich and interesting tapestry of backstory and depth explaining why this seemingly ridiculous trait actually makes sense with the character and the world.

The reason why a story about a guy who wields absolute power through a ring limited only by his imagination and things of the colour yellow becomes iconic and popular is the exact same reason why people told stories about the bull that mounted Europa or Herakles killing the Hydra for centuries. The advantage of the superhero comic books that the faerytales, legends and myths of old never quite could match, though, is the depth of the cumulative qualities. Stories of Herakles would probably get bigger and more impressive, boring bits being cut away and good bits being added, as the centuries went past, true, but nothing in human history can compete with the modern age’s archives of past stories, allowing stories to be built on stories that’s built on other stories. Like the stories of Herakles and Perseus, the stories of the Green Lantern were constructed over a long period of time by many, many story-tellers - but unlike the stories of Herakles and Perseus, the storytellers of DC and Marvel Comics have had a certain (and increasing) amount of joint direction, co-operation and planning that was never available or even doable with similar characters of old.

Why these heroes survive for half a century? You might as well ask why people tell stories.

If you put me against the wall and push a gun towards my head, I might allow agreeing that democracy is a somewhat functional form of government that, despite a number of obvious flaws, seems to presently be better than most or even all realistic alternatives.

Stress on the "might".

And given that everybody who run things seem to think that democracy can do no wrong - I'll have you know, by the way, that Socrates was very critical of democracy, and that's before they voted to kill him, so there (and do you really think you're smarter than Socrates, Jensen? Stoltenberg? Gahr St-, eh, Solberg? I didn't think so) - my thoughts are, that should be at least somewhat consistent, right?

So how come nobody is proposing making the media democratically run?

I mean, really. The people who tell us what to do are democratically run. The people who punish us if we don't are democratically run. Why aren't the people who tell us what to know?

Why isn't there a rule that says that as soon as some form of media gain an audience-base of a certain percentage of the nation, the chief editor of said media becomes a democratically elected position? Or at least controlled by some board of elected officials? I'm not saying that'd work. I'm not remotely in the vicinity of suggesting that. I'm asking why that isn't seen as equally reasonable as having elected representatives on the school board of private schools, or heck, as having anything run by elected people whatsoever.

The media has a lot of power - more so, in some ways, than many governmental institutions. I'm not talking about making them part of the government here. I'm just asking why, in a democratical society where people go bananas about how great this whole voting-concept is on a pseudo-regular basis, why isn't the principle applied to the people that hand us our information? The information, note, that we then use to go and vote on the basis of. For everything but the source of the information. Is that intuitive? Does that follow the ideals of democracy applied to a society? I don't know - I'm just asking.

And don't come running with some capitalist explanation about the market having a democratical effect on the media unless you're willing to follow that logic to the end. If the guy who tells you what's true and what's important can be elected by the forces of the market, then so can the guy who tows you in for disorderly behaviour. Meaning that you're in favour of privatising the policeforce. And probably the army, too.

The country is run by the beuracracy. The elected officials just sit on top of the pyramid making the big decisions. I'm not suggesting that journalism becomes a job you run for. I'm just asking where the officials on top are.


It is weird, right? I'm just asking.

I give you - with great sadness - the Signs of Modern Norway:





The beauty; gone. The charm; gone. The identity; gone. The soul. Gone.


All that remains are traffic signs. Anonymous traffic signs for anonymous traffic with anonymous people with anonymous lives in an increasingly anonymous country.



Damn them all.

DC has a history with this kind of bullshit - they've even made it into a plot-device of its own, horribly abused maybe, but still by now a (sadly) established part of the DC universe. But Marvel has no excuse to start doing this kind of insane retconning. Really. I can get quality comic books elsewhere. From people who actually cares about things like "character development" and, oh, say, "continuity".

I mean come on! It includes The Lost Tales AND it's smaller than the old one!



I WANT TO BE RICH ENOUGH TO BUY THIS.



Also, this fantastical beauty of a box is 50% off at Amazon.com these days, meaning you can get all of Angel for 69,99$ if you're somehow one of the neanderthals who doesn't already own the show on DVD. I can't justify spending even that ridiculously small amounts of money on this since I already have it, but SOMEONE should jump at this for me.

As spoiler-free as anything mentioning the quality of the comic book can be, don't ya worry.


In comic book form, I do not think this could have been more awesome without killing off the time-space-continuum as we know it.


Above and beyond my (rather high...) expectations, Mr. Brian Lynch captures Angel's voice perfectly, and the immense plot-twists (I counted four!) he and Master Whedon's thought out together are beautifully pulled off. Just as impressively, the artist, Franco Urru, manages to really convey the feel of Angel - the show, I mean. I don't know how he does it. I suspect it might be related to colour-schemes. But he does. The characters are drawn similar enough to recognize, but no attempt is made to make them look photographed, which is just as good, because when comics try to do that the few panels where they don't succeed always stick out like a sore thumb.

I loved every single bit of this. I remain slightly sceptical to what was done with three relatively minor characters, but I hope the explanation and backstory for it I assume is coming up will make that seem as natural as all the rest of this.


Did I mention that I loved this? Like, I'd say this is better than most of Buffy Season 8 so far. Maybe even far better. And I'm quite crazy about Buffy Season 8, too...

Now, if only the second issue can live up to the now inhumanly high expectations I'm having.

Smallville either just commited seppuku on its own continuity, or had the most brilliant plot-twist in ages.


If it's the latter, they'd DAMNED better start to clear up the continuity-issues in the very next episode, because this is just too much.

Billionaires don't get rich by being stupid, honey bun.

- Anthony Stark

These two volumes collecting the second run of "the Ultimates" (so, really, they're simply volume 3 and 4) are continuing Mark Millar's tendency to write stuff that's simply awesome. Ohyes. They really are. (There's a reason they got him to write "Civil War"...) This is his final run on the series, the helm will now be taken by Jeph Loeb, who's (in my meager experience) a far more variable writer than Millar but both matches and even outshines him the times he really hits the mark - so I'm hoping "the Ultimates" will keep on shining and not go the way of "Ultimate X-men". The art's very good too, the kind of realistic-but-pretty comic book art that I strongly prefer, huge props to Bryan Hitch.

YOU THINK TOO MUCH!

- The Hulk.

While the first run on the series was excellent, I actually like this second one even more. It's got horrible betrayal(s), excessive violence, Hawkeye rocking like only someone called "Hawkeye" can rock, Thor paraphrasing Jesus in every second line he has, the overly posh Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sporting a disturbing relationship shown just subtly enough that it's charming and cute rather than nauseating, and it's got Iron Man.

Iron Man, who throws off these kind of lines as easily as other people tie their shoes:

I have to warn any terrorists down there that I might be utterly wasted, but I'm still an excellent shot.

Now, I might be biased, but after this and "Civil War" it's my firm opinion that Mark Millar should be chained to a chair writing "Iron Man" for the rest of his life the world's existence.

Anyone reading it after this rant, by the way, should be aware that it's in the second volume things truly get awesome, the first one is mainly a set up. But what a set up. Ooooh, what a set up.

I'm not saying anymore. People should just read this. The comic moved me and awed me both with tender, personal moments, horrible tragedies and action like nobody's business. It looks and feels as awesome as this kind of flashy multi-cast superhero comic books possibly can - I dare anyone to find me something better. (And I'd love to be proven wrong, too! )



Also. Any comic book with this line is a comic book any self-respecting Norwegian against membership in the EU is morally obligated to read:

Did you see my little clues? Did you see how clever I was? Norway's not even in the European Union!

- Loki, Norse God of Tricks and Mischief

Unlike the last post, this post is a tiny little fan-rave to a character who hasn't been around in the "West Wing" for long at the point I'm at (late sixth season) - Alan Alda's Senator Vinick. But by golly... I caught a few episodes of the seventh season before I started my whole see-the-entire-series-project, and he was in those too. And, wow... I mean, the Santos-character is great. Fracking fantastic presidental-material, by all means, but Vinick... As for pure charisma, you don't get any better than Alan Alda in this role. Republican or no republican. Back then, when I caught those random episodes, I kept thinking, as I do now - "wow. I'd be hard-pressed not to vote for this guy".




Now, if he could just stop with the bloody tax-cuts already.

You'd think this (see here for those of you who don't read Norwegian) was the slightly pathetic and eyeroll-worthy thing of the week.



It really isn't. In a sane world, it would be, but it really isn't.


As always; it is this:

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153563
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153599
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153641
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153649
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153666
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153645
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153775
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153790
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153748
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153805
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153806
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153808
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153646
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153599
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153622
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=153576

Two days. Seventeen articles "articles". One newspaper "newspaper".



SEVENTEEN!



Det er så ein kan få vondt i magen.

Despite the somewhat boring title, this is probably easily the best Disney-sequel ever.


And it's so ooold! ;_; I have it on VHS, and when I saw the dates of the new releases in the previews before the actual movie on the tape, I realized it's fourteen years since I got this movie.


Fourteen.


Dear gods, FOURTEEN! ;_;

Sigh, couldn't the entire series have been as good as this? Or even just as coherent, that'd be nice.


Damned cliffhanger. And what a... bizarre... twist.