Chris Braak's Blog, page 18

Dramaturgery: Revolution (Part 1, Plot)

I am performing Dramaturgery on NBC’s pilot Revolution.  In order to make this show interesting to me, I’ve made some kind of small but important changes to the backstory (detailed in this post here).  That post is pretty extensive (and, to be fair, maybe misleading in terms of a criticism of Revolution — my backstory looks [...]

Dramaturgery: Revolution, Part 2 (Premise)

There are two ways to go with a story like Revolution, and I think Moff is right in one sense, in that just how a society breaks down in the sudden absence of electricity could be pretty interesting, and I think the other sense is how a society builds itself up after the apocalypse, and [...]

Revolution, According to Braak

Holland is making me write about Revolution, because he felt that my many questions about it was worryjimmering, or something, I dunno.  The pilot is on Hulu now, and I have watched it, and I have assembled some thoughts on it.  I’ve placed them in a rough order as follows. The Premise You know what? [...]

Fall Pilot Reviews – ‘Revolution’ (Holland’s Take)

...for a show that has definitely taken a lot of plot cues from the old Star Wars movies, they definitely missed the part where those movies were fun.

DC Comics New 52 COLLECTED Reviews – Justice League Vol. 1: Origin

The moment the nigh-invulnerable alien with laser eyes starts looking like the only part of the job he’s really enjoying is beating the shit out of things? That’s not the moment some random in the cheering audience awkwardly shouts, “You’re the world’s greatest superhumans!”

Evolutionary Psychology, Tribal Chieftains, the Merits of Sons

“Making sense” is a funny phrase, because we use it to mean two different things. In the first place, we use it to mean “making logical sense” — that is, a conclusion follows directly from available data according the the strict and very specific laws and modes of logical reasoning; in the second place, we [...]

It is time to talk about ‘The Newsroom’

I’ve put off on writing about The Newsroom because like most HBO shows, it really needs the context of the full season before you can really discuss what it did well, what it didn’t, and just who the hell would not fire Allison Pill’s character for her screaming incompetence and character flaws. But we’ve only [...]

Todd Akin and the OTHER Problem With Idiocy

So, Todd Akin obviously said something horrible and heinous and stupid, and I’m sure you’ve all heard about it by now. A lot of folks are focusing on the “legitimate rape” part of the statement, and while I think that’s a perfectly valid point to be upset about, it’s not hugely surprising. Obviously, Akin meant [...]

Dear Pizza Hut

John Shnatter, founder and owner of Papa John’s Pizza, not too long ago said that providing healthcare for all his employees would cost about 14 cents per pizza, and that, in order to protect shareholder returns, that cost would get passed on to the customers by amortizing it throughout Papa John’s goods. Pizza Hut. Here [...]

The Radical Assertion of Difference: God, Fiction, Other Things

So, this is very exciting, I’ve got myself going so I guess I should just keep at it. Let’s say, FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT, that the “Ego” isn’t a thing, exactly, but is better understood as a verb. That sense of self that you and I have, that’s actually our individual, mechanical brains, actively [...]