Mari Ness's Blog, page 16
January 6, 2014
Restoration of Youth
Overfilled day of trying to catch up on stuff, but did want to pop in here to mention that my poem, The Restoration of Youth, is up at Strange Horizons today.
I say "poem," but this is actually part of a much, much longer and still unfinished piece. I liked this bit though, and I'm very glad that Strange Horizons chose to start of their 2014 year in poetry with it.
I say "poem," but this is actually part of a much, much longer and still unfinished piece. I liked this bit though, and I'm very glad that Strange Horizons chose to start of their 2014 year in poetry with it.
January 4, 2014
2013 Publications round up.
Poet extraordinaire Amal El-Mohtar has been yelling at everyone to do this, so --
Writing is an odd thing: what you are actually doing, and what others see, is often far apart.
2013 was a classic example of this for me.
I know I've talked a lot about not writing as much as I should, but the first half of 2013 took this down to an all time low. I barely wrote at all; which made me feel even worse about my writing. In July, matters improved, but improved only in comparison to the first half of the year; it was worse than previous years. And all this while my fellow writers were happily totaling up booming word counts and publications on Twitter. Gulp.
But you might not guess any of that from my publications in 2013. As I noted earlier, I managed to publish nine full length short stories this year, five of them at "pro" rates, including one at Tor.com; three flash stories, including one over at McSweeney's; and five poems. That's rather fewer poems than in recent years, but I haven't been writing as much poetry, so the decline is to be expected.
Anyway, here's the rundown of the stories:
Probably the most widely read and popular (barring a couple of dissenters) was In the Greenwood, Tor.com, December, a folktale retelling. Publishing being what it is, this is also the oldest (in terms of when I wrote it) story on this list.
Runner-up was probably was The Princess and Her Tale, Daily Science Fiction, May, another folktale retelling.
Other retellings of folklore and fairy tales included The Gifts, Daily Science Fiction, September; and "Godmother," "Marmalette" and "Palatina" in Missing Links and Secret Histories, Aquaduct Press, July 2013, which more people should read, because the other stories in it are hilarious, and no, I'm not just saying that. I still pull out the book to cheer myself up.
Stepping away from the folklore retellings for a bit, we have the only story set in my "Stoneverse" setting, An Assault of Color, Apex, October 2013, which has started to appear, much to my surprise, in a few best of lists for the year. This surprising because no one seemed to notice it when it first came out. Remember that reality versus perception thing I was mentioning? Here's another example.
And something that was not a folktale retelling or tied to anything else I've written was The Dragon and the Bond, about, well, a dragon. And a Bond. But not James Bond, despite the obvious joke that several people picked up on after the story was published. I have to say I missed that entirely; then again, one of the hardest parts of writing for me remains coming up with a title. This story is called "The Dragon and The Bond" because, well, not to give too much of the story away, it has a dragon and it has a bond and after spending far, far too long trying to come up with a title I just went with two things that were in the story.
And there's the writing process in action, everyone!
Anyway, title issues aside, "The Dragon and the Bond" was one of my personal favorites from last year, along with Stronger Than the Wind, Stronger Than the Sea, Demeter's Spicebox, July 2013; a combination of science fiction and fairy tale.
And then the three pieces of flash fiction:
What to Expect When You're Expecting Cthulhu, McSweeneys, August 2013, humor, and the only piece this year that I cackled over as I wrote it.
Seaweed, Daily Science Fiction, August 2013, part of the fairy tale series that yes, I do plan to finish one of these days, along with the connecting bits.
A Winter's Love, Goldfish Grimm, December 2013.
And poems:
"Gleaming," Mythic Delirium, Issue 28, April 2013
"Walking Home," Dreams and Nightmares, Issue 95, June 2013
Iron Search, inkscrawl, August 2013
Mountain, Through the Gate, August 2013
The Loss, Strange Horizons, September 2013.
Along with this I also published one or two posts per week over at Tor.com, covering works by Mary Norton, Roald Dahl, Lloyd Alexander, Christopher Moore, and Georgette Heyer. That turned out to be a bit too much, so since the Georgette Heyer reread is over, this is going to drop back down to the usual one post per week plus very occasional extras -- yes, yes, I am looking forward to that upcoming Oz movie -- to let me breathe a little.
Now to see what 2014 brings. If the stars align, it should bring at least three short story publications, two flash fiction pieces, one novella, and one poem so far....but we'll see.
Writing is an odd thing: what you are actually doing, and what others see, is often far apart.
2013 was a classic example of this for me.
I know I've talked a lot about not writing as much as I should, but the first half of 2013 took this down to an all time low. I barely wrote at all; which made me feel even worse about my writing. In July, matters improved, but improved only in comparison to the first half of the year; it was worse than previous years. And all this while my fellow writers were happily totaling up booming word counts and publications on Twitter. Gulp.
But you might not guess any of that from my publications in 2013. As I noted earlier, I managed to publish nine full length short stories this year, five of them at "pro" rates, including one at Tor.com; three flash stories, including one over at McSweeney's; and five poems. That's rather fewer poems than in recent years, but I haven't been writing as much poetry, so the decline is to be expected.
Anyway, here's the rundown of the stories:
Probably the most widely read and popular (barring a couple of dissenters) was In the Greenwood, Tor.com, December, a folktale retelling. Publishing being what it is, this is also the oldest (in terms of when I wrote it) story on this list.
Runner-up was probably was The Princess and Her Tale, Daily Science Fiction, May, another folktale retelling.
Other retellings of folklore and fairy tales included The Gifts, Daily Science Fiction, September; and "Godmother," "Marmalette" and "Palatina" in Missing Links and Secret Histories, Aquaduct Press, July 2013, which more people should read, because the other stories in it are hilarious, and no, I'm not just saying that. I still pull out the book to cheer myself up.
Stepping away from the folklore retellings for a bit, we have the only story set in my "Stoneverse" setting, An Assault of Color, Apex, October 2013, which has started to appear, much to my surprise, in a few best of lists for the year. This surprising because no one seemed to notice it when it first came out. Remember that reality versus perception thing I was mentioning? Here's another example.
And something that was not a folktale retelling or tied to anything else I've written was The Dragon and the Bond, about, well, a dragon. And a Bond. But not James Bond, despite the obvious joke that several people picked up on after the story was published. I have to say I missed that entirely; then again, one of the hardest parts of writing for me remains coming up with a title. This story is called "The Dragon and The Bond" because, well, not to give too much of the story away, it has a dragon and it has a bond and after spending far, far too long trying to come up with a title I just went with two things that were in the story.
And there's the writing process in action, everyone!
Anyway, title issues aside, "The Dragon and the Bond" was one of my personal favorites from last year, along with Stronger Than the Wind, Stronger Than the Sea, Demeter's Spicebox, July 2013; a combination of science fiction and fairy tale.
And then the three pieces of flash fiction:
What to Expect When You're Expecting Cthulhu, McSweeneys, August 2013, humor, and the only piece this year that I cackled over as I wrote it.
Seaweed, Daily Science Fiction, August 2013, part of the fairy tale series that yes, I do plan to finish one of these days, along with the connecting bits.
A Winter's Love, Goldfish Grimm, December 2013.
And poems:
"Gleaming," Mythic Delirium, Issue 28, April 2013
"Walking Home," Dreams and Nightmares, Issue 95, June 2013
Iron Search, inkscrawl, August 2013
Mountain, Through the Gate, August 2013
The Loss, Strange Horizons, September 2013.
Along with this I also published one or two posts per week over at Tor.com, covering works by Mary Norton, Roald Dahl, Lloyd Alexander, Christopher Moore, and Georgette Heyer. That turned out to be a bit too much, so since the Georgette Heyer reread is over, this is going to drop back down to the usual one post per week plus very occasional extras -- yes, yes, I am looking forward to that upcoming Oz movie -- to let me breathe a little.
Now to see what 2014 brings. If the stars align, it should bring at least three short story publications, two flash fiction pieces, one novella, and one poem so far....but we'll see.
January 3, 2014
The Dragon and the Bond, and Tor.com rereads
In unrelated to cats news, my short story The Dragon and the Bond popped up on the web today. This is one of those stories that started with a single sentence and then just went on from there: certainly not planned out in the slightest. It's one of my favorite stories from last year, because, dragon.
And since it was originally published last Friday in December, it also marks my ninth short story published in 2013, and the fifth "pro" story -- a record for me for speculative fiction, and the only "independent" one -- that is, a story that is not a Stoneverse story or firmly based in folklore/fairy tale. I'll have more to say about that when I finally get around to posting my 2013 writing/publishing roundup when I have more energy.
And since it was originally published last Friday in December, it also marks my ninth short story published in 2013, and the fifth "pro" story -- a record for me for speculative fiction, and the only "independent" one -- that is, a story that is not a Stoneverse story or firmly based in folklore/fairy tale. I'll have more to say about that when I finally get around to posting my 2013 writing/publishing roundup when I have more energy.
Dramatic morning
Quite a bit of drama around these parts this morning. A visit to the vet earlier this week resulted in the determination that the Grey One had to go in for kitty surgery early this morning. My initial plan had been to act Totally Normal and with that Fool Her into taking her usual morning nap and quickly grab her, wrap her in a towel and stuff her into her cat carrier, a method that had worked perfectly well earlier this week even if it had left me with slightly shattered eardrums.
Unfortunately I had forgotten that part of the plan today included removing all food by 10 pm (vet's orders). Neither cat approved of this since this also meant removing Midnight Snacks, and decided to express their disapproval by clawing at me. By 1 or 2 am I had more or less had it and kicked the cats out so I could sleep. When I woke up I was very groggy and thought to myself, wait, do I really want to chase a cat out from inside the bed? No, no I do not. So I did something that seemed sensible at the time -- I closed my bedroom door.
This, alas, combined with the removal of the food and the fact that I went to find coffee instead of bringing out food raised suspicions. When moments had passed, and the Grey One found that I was sitting in the living room with coffee, not bringing her food even though she was obviously dying, and that the doors to ALL THREE BEDROOMS were closed, she did the only sensible thing a cat can do under the circumstances:
She howled up a storm and then darted INTO the wall behind the bathtub.
If you have never tried to remove a cat from this sort of situation, my advice is, don't. She was completely out of reach -- and knew it -- making this a two person job that required removing part of another wall and a hose and a lot of stomping in the bathtub. We finally got her to run out only to have her hide behind the DVD player which was more drama, and arrived completely late at the vet's.
Seriously hoping all of this money and effort spent on making the poor cat completely miserable turns out to be worth it.
Meanwhile the Little One is freaking out. I told him that the other cat would be back soon, but apparently I am no longer trustworthy. I sense I shall be administering plenty of tuna in the near future.
Unfortunately I had forgotten that part of the plan today included removing all food by 10 pm (vet's orders). Neither cat approved of this since this also meant removing Midnight Snacks, and decided to express their disapproval by clawing at me. By 1 or 2 am I had more or less had it and kicked the cats out so I could sleep. When I woke up I was very groggy and thought to myself, wait, do I really want to chase a cat out from inside the bed? No, no I do not. So I did something that seemed sensible at the time -- I closed my bedroom door.
This, alas, combined with the removal of the food and the fact that I went to find coffee instead of bringing out food raised suspicions. When moments had passed, and the Grey One found that I was sitting in the living room with coffee, not bringing her food even though she was obviously dying, and that the doors to ALL THREE BEDROOMS were closed, she did the only sensible thing a cat can do under the circumstances:
She howled up a storm and then darted INTO the wall behind the bathtub.
If you have never tried to remove a cat from this sort of situation, my advice is, don't. She was completely out of reach -- and knew it -- making this a two person job that required removing part of another wall and a hose and a lot of stomping in the bathtub. We finally got her to run out only to have her hide behind the DVD player which was more drama, and arrived completely late at the vet's.
Seriously hoping all of this money and effort spent on making the poor cat completely miserable turns out to be worth it.
Meanwhile the Little One is freaking out. I told him that the other cat would be back soon, but apparently I am no longer trustworthy. I sense I shall be administering plenty of tuna in the near future.
December 31, 2013
The end of the Georgette Heyer reread: Lady of Quality
I'll probably have a second post up about this later, when people are online, but if you've been following the Georgette Heyer reread, the last of the Georgette Heyer posts just went up..
I have to say, I'm kinda glad this reread is over.
The Lloyd Alexander reread continues for several more books.
I have to say, I'm kinda glad this reread is over.
The Lloyd Alexander reread continues for several more books.
2013 Incomplete Television Round-up
Everyone else is doing a year end television summary, so why not me? Couple of caveats, though: this is heavily weighted to recent fall shows because, well, they are recent, two, I've undoubtedly left stuff out, especially pre-September stuff, and three, this list does not include anything from Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, or Reign are not on this list because I haven't seen any of them yet. I plan eventually to catch up on the first three. Reign SCARES ME. So don't ask. I've also left Orphan Black off the list since I've only seen the pilot and I'm not sure when I'll be able to watch the rest.
Anyway, the summary, behind a cut because it got incredibly long:
The Only Worthwhile Moment on American Idol in 2013: This one. (Also, coincidentally, the only moment I saw because about 50 odd people emailed it to me, along with the words, "GOD I USUALLY HATE THIS SHIT." Which is a pretty good summary of that moment.)
Most unexpected pleasure. Scandal, ABC, though technically the best part of 2013's Scandal viewing came from the first half of Scandal's second season which originally aired in 2012, but which for multiple reasons I didn't actually start watching until this summer when I marathoned the show on Netflix.
And wow. Talk about addictive. Scandal is a show technically about government and power, but one that chooses to show a group of morally deprived people who are utterly, completely, consumed with the idea of power and keeping said power even while doing absolutely nothing with it. To the point where during the second season, one character is finally offered the chance to do something major with a policy – any policy she wants, anything, education, health, environment – and she turns this down, instead choosing to continue the fight for empty power. A rather horrible commentary on our current opinion of government.
But that isn't why the show is watchable. It isn't the characters, either: with the very arguable exceptions of U.S. Attorney David Rosen and Abby, every single person on the show is an absolutely awful, horrible, morally deficient to morally reprehensible person. I mean, just awful.
But.
The plot twists.
The waiting to see if someone is going to shoot Fitz (it has to happen like lots, right?)
The wondering just how low these people can sink.
Greatest Let Down Scandal, ABC third season.
Pulling. Teeth.
I mean, literally pulling teeth.
So not what this show was good at, ABC. So not.
Though I guess the show did kinda answer the "how low will these people sink" question. Right down to the teeth.
Runner-Up, Greatest Let Down, Revenge, ABC. So strong its first season. So completely not strong its second season. So bold in the beginning of this season that the first scenes actually went ahead and announced that the characters would never ever ever mention anything that happened in the second season ever again giving us all hope that the show was back to the first season greatness. So not back.
Most Frustrating Winner, three years in a row: Once Upon a Time, ABC.
This show SHOULD be great. It has the budget. It has the actors. It has the actors really, seriously trying to talk through the crap scripts they keep getting handed each week. It has a wealth of fairy tales, or, well, actually Disney movies to draw from, to work with, to rewrite. It has a strong background mythology.
And. Yet. Every. Single. Season. I find myself wanting to shake the writers for squandering all of this.
Part of the problem is pacing. The show suffers from the same issues Lost did – and not coincidentally has some of the same writers and is on the same network. That is, they clearly have some sort of final ending in mind, only they have no idea how much time they have to get there.
Now, I can sympathize with that – I never know how long a piece is going to turn out when I start writing it on my little computer. But it's one thing for me, working on short stories and a couple of longer projects that are so far unsold and therefore don't really have to be at any particular length at this point. I can have my stories be as long (or, well, right now, short) as they need to be. It's another thing entirely for a television show that needs to fill a specific number of episodes for an unspecified number of years.
But the more aggravating problem, and this deserves a separate post, is the way the show constantly wastes emotional opportunities. For instance. This season, for no particular reason, the show sent long term enemies Regina and Rumple off to have them sit on a dark beach for hours and hours summoning a mermaid and then waiting for the mermaid to reappear. Do they decide to talk things out? Prepare spells? Fight each other? Complain about their mutual hatred for Charming and Snow? Try to kill Tinkerbell? No. They just, well, sit on the beach. THEY ARE BAD GUYS. Do evil stuff, dudes! EVIL!
THE CHARACTERS HAVE THINGS TO DO. Think about it: they are fairy tale characters in the real world, who thanks to a curse have absorbed lots of information about the real world. What if they want to go to Aruba? Try skiing? Research folklore? Oh, sure, the show has the whole "leave Storybrooke, lose your memories," but what if some people want to do that? What if they send the characters who can leave town – Regina, Emma, Rumple, Nealfire, Captain Hook, Michael, John, Henry – out on expeditions?
Then we have the way the show constantly forces the characters to either behave uncharacteristically or do something wildly, incredibly stupid just for the purposes of the plot. For instance, this season, after multiple episodes of SAVE HENRY SAVE HENRY SAVE HENRY they finally save Henry, yay, because, me, bored, only to LEAVE HENRY ALONE without anyone watching over him while KNOWING that an angry, vengeful Pan who can teleport and fly and has a MEAN SHADOW is around WAITING FOR REVENGE. I mean, seriously?
This is beyond the issue of how the main characters casually make decisions for what seems to be a few thousand people without ever consulting everyone. In just one recent low point here was this season's mid-season finale, when everyone said, ok, well, everyone's going back to the Enchanted Forest, without giving anyone a chance to make a run for it over the town line. Sigh. The show even lampshaded this at one point when one of the dwarves pointed out that life was much safer and easier when Snow White isn't around – and yet the dwarf got sucked back anyway.
And now, AMNESIA PLOT, where characters can't remember their journeys in magical lands. If you have read my Tor.com posts you know this is my hands down LEAST FAVORITE PLOT, with the ability to turn me into a SEETHING LITTLE BALL OF SEETHINGNESS. The only thing slowing down my seething here is the knowledge that this plot, like EVERY FREAKING PLOT ON THIS SHOW will last just a few episodes and then be pretty much forgotten. Continuity: not an interest of this show.
Really this deserved a separate post. Oh well. And yes, I'll be watching when the show returns in March, because, Oz. And, also, masochism. But not when the show initially airs, and I won't be rushing to watch, either.
Greatest Meh: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., NBC. It's not bad. It's not good. It's just sorta...there.
Runner-Up Meh: Grimm, NBC. Another show wasting its fairy tale potential, only this time, it's less irritating since the show started out with a lot less potential to begin with. A couple of likeable characters, every once in awhile an interesting Monster of the Week, but mostly, eh.
Most Uneven Show : New Girl, Fox. When New Girl is on, as it was for the second half of its second season, it's on. But New Girl has developed a pattern: weak starts to each season, brilliant second half of each season. The second half of season two, airing at the beginning of the year, had some of the funniest stuff of the year. The first half of season three, not so much. Hopefully the show will find its legs again by January.
Most Improved AND Best New Show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox. Brooklyn Nine-Nine started off with a rather "eh" pilot with few if any laughs. By its Halloween episode, however, it had transformed into a slick, hilarious show. Cop comedy; if you need a laugh, start with its Halloween episode and see how things go for you from there.
Worst New Show Dads, Fox. I think I lasted all of five minutes. Not just not funny, but painfully not funny, and why, why, why, waste the comedic talents of Brenda Song and Giovanni Ribisi on this? I have absolutely no idea how it even got on the air. Arguably the worst new show I've seen in years.
Most Wacky New Show: Sleepy Hollow, Fox. Not even a contest here, really. I don't think this show is actually any good, and it needs to start remember that upstate New York in winter is a COLD COLD COLD place. But full credit for saying, "You know what makes absolutely no sense whatsoever? Yeah! THAT! Let's go do that!" And then going and doing just that.
Though Katrina the Ghost or Maybe Not a Ghost needs to go now, show. Stay with Abby and Jenny.
Best Girl Power Bletchley Circle, ITV/Netflix So far Netflix only has the first season of this up, which is just the first three episodes, but they form a very tight miniseries about puzzles, brains, expectations and murder. Looking forward to the second season.
Speaking of Netflix shows House of Cards, which despite its very uneven pacing delivered some of the most mesmerizing TV of the season. Like Scandal, House of Cards focuses on people so consumed with getting and keeping power that they almost never seem to bother to use it, and sometimes even refrain from using it when they could help people -- but lose their power.
Along with Scandal this gives a fairly harsh view of what the entertainment industry thinks of Washington, DC., at the moment: not much, just a group of power-obsessed people who drink a lot of wine and are more interested in the appearance of power than actual power.
Also obsessed with the appearance of power but in a much more hilarious way: Veep, HBO.
Like Scandal and House of Cards, Veep also features a bunch of unlikeable people running around hunting for power. In this case, the concept works because the Veep has absolutely no power -- something she's reminded of regularly. The show is a comedy -- and it's often hilarious -- but it's also a pretty hard hitting look at sexism and public relations.
This show also makes sure it gets the political details right, unlike, say, House of Cards which managed to go through an entire season without admitting that the U.S. Senate exists. I realize that House of Cards has a bit of an issue here since it's based on a show where all of the power pretty much is centered in one house, but this was one tweak that seriously needed to be made. Anyway, recommended.
Most annoying television death DOWNTON ABBEY (ITV/PBS) WE ARE ALL LOOKING AT YOU. I actually sought out spoilers for the upcoming season (US) and the Christmas special to ENSURE I WOULD NOT ENDURE THIS AGAIN, and, yes, I am aware of THAT PLOT LINE for season four, but I'm not going to discuss it yet since it hasn't aired in the U.S.
Most overall annoying television practice: Continuing to air, in the age of the internet, shows in the United States months before they arrive in the U.K. and vice versa, mostly because of the inevitable result: hordes of people on both sides of the pond screaming at each other on Twitter DON'T SPOIL IT!
Most horrifying moment TIE: The chewing through the wrist moment on Scandal (not a euphemism) and a certain wedding over on HBO, Game of Thrones. Speaking of which....
Best television episode of the year: Game of Thrones, HBO, "The Rains of Castamere." Runner-up: HBO, Game of Thrones, HBO, "Dracarys." If both of them end up on the Hugo short list the second is getting my first vote because, dragons.
Biggest unanswered questions heading into 2014 Are Captain Hook (Once Upon a Time) and Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow) ever going to get a chance to wear even slightly different clothing? And, equally important question – will Ichy's coat survive this season? VIEWERS MUST KNOW.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part one Orlando Jones has discovered Twitter. And fandom. And #sleepyheads. And #Supernatural. And #Olicity. AND HE REGRETS NOTHING.
Seriously, if you are watching any of the above shows, you need to be following the guy on Twitter.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part two Sharknado!
Not that I saw it. But I followed it on Twitter all the way up to the moment where my Twitter feed squawked that throwing a bomb into a tornado wouldn't stop a tornado and wasn't very scientific – THIS WHILE WATCHING A MOVIE ABOUT FLYING SHARKS.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part three The Internet.
2013 has, granted, been a pretty decent year for TV, but I don't think it would have been as enjoyable without the internet commentary and snark.
Favorite TV shows of 2013 Note I said "favorite" not necessarily "great" here:
New Girl, Fox. (second season, last spring, not the fall episodes)
Arrow, CW.
Game of Thrones, HBO
You could have been on this list, Downton Abbey. You could have.
Anyway, the summary, behind a cut because it got incredibly long:
The Only Worthwhile Moment on American Idol in 2013: This one. (Also, coincidentally, the only moment I saw because about 50 odd people emailed it to me, along with the words, "GOD I USUALLY HATE THIS SHIT." Which is a pretty good summary of that moment.)
Most unexpected pleasure. Scandal, ABC, though technically the best part of 2013's Scandal viewing came from the first half of Scandal's second season which originally aired in 2012, but which for multiple reasons I didn't actually start watching until this summer when I marathoned the show on Netflix.
And wow. Talk about addictive. Scandal is a show technically about government and power, but one that chooses to show a group of morally deprived people who are utterly, completely, consumed with the idea of power and keeping said power even while doing absolutely nothing with it. To the point where during the second season, one character is finally offered the chance to do something major with a policy – any policy she wants, anything, education, health, environment – and she turns this down, instead choosing to continue the fight for empty power. A rather horrible commentary on our current opinion of government.
But that isn't why the show is watchable. It isn't the characters, either: with the very arguable exceptions of U.S. Attorney David Rosen and Abby, every single person on the show is an absolutely awful, horrible, morally deficient to morally reprehensible person. I mean, just awful.
But.
The plot twists.
The waiting to see if someone is going to shoot Fitz (it has to happen like lots, right?)
The wondering just how low these people can sink.
Greatest Let Down Scandal, ABC third season.
Pulling. Teeth.
I mean, literally pulling teeth.
So not what this show was good at, ABC. So not.
Though I guess the show did kinda answer the "how low will these people sink" question. Right down to the teeth.
Runner-Up, Greatest Let Down, Revenge, ABC. So strong its first season. So completely not strong its second season. So bold in the beginning of this season that the first scenes actually went ahead and announced that the characters would never ever ever mention anything that happened in the second season ever again giving us all hope that the show was back to the first season greatness. So not back.
Most Frustrating Winner, three years in a row: Once Upon a Time, ABC.
This show SHOULD be great. It has the budget. It has the actors. It has the actors really, seriously trying to talk through the crap scripts they keep getting handed each week. It has a wealth of fairy tales, or, well, actually Disney movies to draw from, to work with, to rewrite. It has a strong background mythology.
And. Yet. Every. Single. Season. I find myself wanting to shake the writers for squandering all of this.
Part of the problem is pacing. The show suffers from the same issues Lost did – and not coincidentally has some of the same writers and is on the same network. That is, they clearly have some sort of final ending in mind, only they have no idea how much time they have to get there.
Now, I can sympathize with that – I never know how long a piece is going to turn out when I start writing it on my little computer. But it's one thing for me, working on short stories and a couple of longer projects that are so far unsold and therefore don't really have to be at any particular length at this point. I can have my stories be as long (or, well, right now, short) as they need to be. It's another thing entirely for a television show that needs to fill a specific number of episodes for an unspecified number of years.
But the more aggravating problem, and this deserves a separate post, is the way the show constantly wastes emotional opportunities. For instance. This season, for no particular reason, the show sent long term enemies Regina and Rumple off to have them sit on a dark beach for hours and hours summoning a mermaid and then waiting for the mermaid to reappear. Do they decide to talk things out? Prepare spells? Fight each other? Complain about their mutual hatred for Charming and Snow? Try to kill Tinkerbell? No. They just, well, sit on the beach. THEY ARE BAD GUYS. Do evil stuff, dudes! EVIL!
THE CHARACTERS HAVE THINGS TO DO. Think about it: they are fairy tale characters in the real world, who thanks to a curse have absorbed lots of information about the real world. What if they want to go to Aruba? Try skiing? Research folklore? Oh, sure, the show has the whole "leave Storybrooke, lose your memories," but what if some people want to do that? What if they send the characters who can leave town – Regina, Emma, Rumple, Nealfire, Captain Hook, Michael, John, Henry – out on expeditions?
Then we have the way the show constantly forces the characters to either behave uncharacteristically or do something wildly, incredibly stupid just for the purposes of the plot. For instance, this season, after multiple episodes of SAVE HENRY SAVE HENRY SAVE HENRY they finally save Henry, yay, because, me, bored, only to LEAVE HENRY ALONE without anyone watching over him while KNOWING that an angry, vengeful Pan who can teleport and fly and has a MEAN SHADOW is around WAITING FOR REVENGE. I mean, seriously?
This is beyond the issue of how the main characters casually make decisions for what seems to be a few thousand people without ever consulting everyone. In just one recent low point here was this season's mid-season finale, when everyone said, ok, well, everyone's going back to the Enchanted Forest, without giving anyone a chance to make a run for it over the town line. Sigh. The show even lampshaded this at one point when one of the dwarves pointed out that life was much safer and easier when Snow White isn't around – and yet the dwarf got sucked back anyway.
And now, AMNESIA PLOT, where characters can't remember their journeys in magical lands. If you have read my Tor.com posts you know this is my hands down LEAST FAVORITE PLOT, with the ability to turn me into a SEETHING LITTLE BALL OF SEETHINGNESS. The only thing slowing down my seething here is the knowledge that this plot, like EVERY FREAKING PLOT ON THIS SHOW will last just a few episodes and then be pretty much forgotten. Continuity: not an interest of this show.
Really this deserved a separate post. Oh well. And yes, I'll be watching when the show returns in March, because, Oz. And, also, masochism. But not when the show initially airs, and I won't be rushing to watch, either.
Greatest Meh: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., NBC. It's not bad. It's not good. It's just sorta...there.
Runner-Up Meh: Grimm, NBC. Another show wasting its fairy tale potential, only this time, it's less irritating since the show started out with a lot less potential to begin with. A couple of likeable characters, every once in awhile an interesting Monster of the Week, but mostly, eh.
Most Uneven Show : New Girl, Fox. When New Girl is on, as it was for the second half of its second season, it's on. But New Girl has developed a pattern: weak starts to each season, brilliant second half of each season. The second half of season two, airing at the beginning of the year, had some of the funniest stuff of the year. The first half of season three, not so much. Hopefully the show will find its legs again by January.
Most Improved AND Best New Show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fox. Brooklyn Nine-Nine started off with a rather "eh" pilot with few if any laughs. By its Halloween episode, however, it had transformed into a slick, hilarious show. Cop comedy; if you need a laugh, start with its Halloween episode and see how things go for you from there.
Worst New Show Dads, Fox. I think I lasted all of five minutes. Not just not funny, but painfully not funny, and why, why, why, waste the comedic talents of Brenda Song and Giovanni Ribisi on this? I have absolutely no idea how it even got on the air. Arguably the worst new show I've seen in years.
Most Wacky New Show: Sleepy Hollow, Fox. Not even a contest here, really. I don't think this show is actually any good, and it needs to start remember that upstate New York in winter is a COLD COLD COLD place. But full credit for saying, "You know what makes absolutely no sense whatsoever? Yeah! THAT! Let's go do that!" And then going and doing just that.
Though Katrina the Ghost or Maybe Not a Ghost needs to go now, show. Stay with Abby and Jenny.
Best Girl Power Bletchley Circle, ITV/Netflix So far Netflix only has the first season of this up, which is just the first three episodes, but they form a very tight miniseries about puzzles, brains, expectations and murder. Looking forward to the second season.
Speaking of Netflix shows House of Cards, which despite its very uneven pacing delivered some of the most mesmerizing TV of the season. Like Scandal, House of Cards focuses on people so consumed with getting and keeping power that they almost never seem to bother to use it, and sometimes even refrain from using it when they could help people -- but lose their power.
Along with Scandal this gives a fairly harsh view of what the entertainment industry thinks of Washington, DC., at the moment: not much, just a group of power-obsessed people who drink a lot of wine and are more interested in the appearance of power than actual power.
Also obsessed with the appearance of power but in a much more hilarious way: Veep, HBO.
Like Scandal and House of Cards, Veep also features a bunch of unlikeable people running around hunting for power. In this case, the concept works because the Veep has absolutely no power -- something she's reminded of regularly. The show is a comedy -- and it's often hilarious -- but it's also a pretty hard hitting look at sexism and public relations.
This show also makes sure it gets the political details right, unlike, say, House of Cards which managed to go through an entire season without admitting that the U.S. Senate exists. I realize that House of Cards has a bit of an issue here since it's based on a show where all of the power pretty much is centered in one house, but this was one tweak that seriously needed to be made. Anyway, recommended.
Most annoying television death DOWNTON ABBEY (ITV/PBS) WE ARE ALL LOOKING AT YOU. I actually sought out spoilers for the upcoming season (US) and the Christmas special to ENSURE I WOULD NOT ENDURE THIS AGAIN, and, yes, I am aware of THAT PLOT LINE for season four, but I'm not going to discuss it yet since it hasn't aired in the U.S.
Most overall annoying television practice: Continuing to air, in the age of the internet, shows in the United States months before they arrive in the U.K. and vice versa, mostly because of the inevitable result: hordes of people on both sides of the pond screaming at each other on Twitter DON'T SPOIL IT!
Most horrifying moment TIE: The chewing through the wrist moment on Scandal (not a euphemism) and a certain wedding over on HBO, Game of Thrones. Speaking of which....
Best television episode of the year: Game of Thrones, HBO, "The Rains of Castamere." Runner-up: HBO, Game of Thrones, HBO, "Dracarys." If both of them end up on the Hugo short list the second is getting my first vote because, dragons.
Biggest unanswered questions heading into 2014 Are Captain Hook (Once Upon a Time) and Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow) ever going to get a chance to wear even slightly different clothing? And, equally important question – will Ichy's coat survive this season? VIEWERS MUST KNOW.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part one Orlando Jones has discovered Twitter. And fandom. And #sleepyheads. And #Supernatural. And #Olicity. AND HE REGRETS NOTHING.
Seriously, if you are watching any of the above shows, you need to be following the guy on Twitter.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part two Sharknado!
Not that I saw it. But I followed it on Twitter all the way up to the moment where my Twitter feed squawked that throwing a bomb into a tornado wouldn't stop a tornado and wasn't very scientific – THIS WHILE WATCHING A MOVIE ABOUT FLYING SHARKS.
Best Thing About TV in 2013, part three The Internet.
2013 has, granted, been a pretty decent year for TV, but I don't think it would have been as enjoyable without the internet commentary and snark.
Favorite TV shows of 2013 Note I said "favorite" not necessarily "great" here:
New Girl, Fox. (second season, last spring, not the fall episodes)
Arrow, CW.
Game of Thrones, HBO
You could have been on this list, Downton Abbey. You could have.
December 25, 2013
Merry Day!
Hark, the genre bloggers sing
it's time for us to do this thing
Send holiday greetings to one and all,
or chatter about our holiday haul,
Or tell the word about our books
for sale with some pleading looks –
Or write a poem, or two, or three,
And so I jump into the fray,
to wish you a happy day –
Whether or not you celebrate
And even if you are gripped with hate.
And though it's a bit early,
I'll say this with glee
Before I disappear –
to one and all, Happy New Year!
(AKA, what happens when I try to rhyme pre-coffee).
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate, and happy last week of the dying year to everyone else.
it's time for us to do this thing
Send holiday greetings to one and all,
or chatter about our holiday haul,
Or tell the word about our books
for sale with some pleading looks –
Or write a poem, or two, or three,
And so I jump into the fray,
to wish you a happy day –
Whether or not you celebrate
And even if you are gripped with hate.
And though it's a bit early,
I'll say this with glee
Before I disappear –
to one and all, Happy New Year!
(AKA, what happens when I try to rhyme pre-coffee).
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate, and happy last week of the dying year to everyone else.
December 18, 2013
Arrow: Three Ghosts, Fridging, and Writing Traps
No new episode of Arrow tonight, alas, so instead you get my very belated musings on last week's episode, "Three Ghosts."
If you're unfamiliar with the concept of "fridging," it's basically a word for the very frequent times in films, comic books, television and other entertainment where a woman is tortured or violently killed in order to provide the villain with Motivation and Character Development. The term, coined by Gail Simone, refers back to an issue in Green Lantern which involved an actual refrigerator, and has since become a convenient way to refer to this sort of thing, which happens a lot – especially but not just in James Bond movies.
Quick note: not all deaths of women count as fridging – one of the more infamous comic book deaths, of Phoenix aka Jean Grey of the Many Many Deaths and Resurrections – was not done to motivate anyone in particular, but was rather an editorial decision noting that no, characters could not in fact just hop over to other solar systems and wipe out an entire planet of vegetable people without facing some consequences. But it's still something that happens a lot, especially in genre entertainment.
Arrow fell right into the fridging from the very first episode, when then bit part character Sara Lance Tragically Drowned causing trauma and pain for its protagonist Oliver Queen and initial love interest Laurel Lance. As it turned out, way too much trauma and pain: one of the main reasons viewers failed to respond to the Oliver/Laurel pairing was that Oliver had been sorta responsible for the death of her sister, which is the sort of thing that couples kinda struggle to come back with.
As it turned out, Sara wasn't really dead dead, just undergoing her own profound trauma and transformation into a deadly assassin, allowing the show to back away from the fridging just a bit. Even before that, the first season, starting with the pilot, made it clear that Oliver's many issues came not so much from Sara's death, but from everything that happened after Sara's death. Also at the end of the first season, Arrow decided to play with the fridging just a bit: deciding to kill off Oliver's best friend, a guy, somewhat soothing the death by giving Tommy a great and heroic death scene.
That last was not exactly a popular decision. Many applauded the decision not to fridge the increasingly unpopular Laurel character, but just as many were, at that point, convinced that Laurel Lance was the main love interest so weren't particularly worried about her safety anyway, and several objected that Tommy had been killed instead of Laurel, and moreover, had been killed saving Laurel. In any case, the decision did nothing to increase Laurel's not really high popularity. Fan backlash on this, and other points, was probably one of the main factors behind the show's decision to bring in a new Black Canary – and bring Sara back.
So, fridging not exactly avoided, but at least regendered, somewhat.
Until the most recent episode, "Three Ghosts," which killed off Oliver's mentor/lover Shado.
Shado died a violent death at the hands of the bad guy, for no apparent reason except "hey, if I'm going to be a supervillain, I might as well do supervillainy things like force Oliver to choose which girl I should shoot, Shado or Sara," which as reasons go lack something. It was shocking, and worse, it happened to a character who, I felt, still had more story ahead of her.
Not helping: the two reoccurring characters who died in that episode were both people of color – Shado and a cop who happens to be a black guy. Meanwhile, three white guys ended the episode by becoming heroes, though, to be fair, one of those heroic moments came about because the episode was also trying to jump start another superhero show based on the Flash, so, hi Flash.
So, classic fridging.
Except for a few slight twists:
One, Shado's death isn't being used to motivate the hero at all or develop his character. In fact, arguably, Shado's death caused Oliver to regress – Shado while living was training him to be a hero, and now, well, obviously isn't, and Shado's ghost in the present time urged him to stop being a hero altogether. The show also strongly suggested that Shado's death, not lingering feelings for anyone else, is why Oliver and Felicity aren't together -- yet, and although this is more than a bit of a retcon, it could be used as another explanation beyond "bad casting" for why Oliver could never really connect with Laurel last season.
(Though I stick with "bad casting" and "bad writing" for the last one.)
Two, Shado's death is being used to motivate the villain, not the hero, with the added twist that the villain is blaming the wrong person.
Three, Slado's death is also being used to motivate the girl -- a side girl, sure, but the character who has been Green Arrow's partner in several comics: Sara, aka Black Canary.
So I was left with mixed feelings: yes, fridging, but also, excellent setup and motivation for the rest of the season and probably beyond (I am assuming that the villain in question will be around for several more seasons, or at least until the CW creates the hinted at upcoming Teen Titans show, and I am hoping that the showrunners will have the sense not to kill Sara off.) Also, way to show that the island really is a horrible, horrible place and that Dr. Ivo is even scummier than we thought.
And also, this same episode did something wonderful: it once again presented the opportunity for Sin and Thea to become romantic rivals for Roy setting up one of those infamous CW love triangles.
Instead, Sin and Thea banded together to FIGHT CRIME.
It was awesome and great and a highlight of the episode.
But this still left the show with a problem – the same problem of last season: What the hell to do with Laurel.
Kill Laurel, thus killing off two major protagonist women in one season, without (presumably) killing off any of the protagonist men. (Unless they kill off Quentin; the three other remaining male leads are all safe until the CW makes a decision about a Teen Titan spinoff.)
OR
Don't kill Laurel, and keep the show burdened with a character who no longer has a purpose in the show and keeps feeling increasingly redundant.
By redundant, I mean Laurel's character has been absent for two of the nine episodes this season. In the majority of the episodes Laurel has been in, she has either felt extremely unconnected to the main plot or given something to do that really should have been done by another character. For instance, of the lead characters, only Laurel, Thea and Moira Queen did not meet Sara, and Moira was in jail at the time. Laurel went after the vigilante just as all of the other characters, and I am including the bad guys in this, decided that the vigilante was actually a hero – and just as Oliver was starting to really become a hero. And so on. The trial scene she was in could have been done by any generic lawyer, as could the "hunt down the vigilante with a SWAT team," really. Her roles as love interest/eventual Black Canary have been given to two other characters. Worse, Laurel is also the only character in the show, including the bad guys, who hasn't been allowed to accomplish anything this season.
I mean, in this last episode, she didn't even get to finish her Christmas shopping.
(Though to be fair, she wasn't the only character to Fail At Finishing Christmas shopping. The entire episode was kinda the anti-Christmas Christmas episode and Oliver didn't even get to learn the True Meaning Of Christmas unless that meaning is "masks are better concealers than green eye makeup" which I don't recall from Bible reading.)
Long term, this is not sustainable for a popular character. It can almost work in books, which allow for a greater sprawl. But television, Game of Thrones aside, and even in some ways counting Game of Thrones rarely has time for extraneous or extra characters. It's why that one guy so often ends up reappearing in the end; why it's usually so much easier to guess the murderer on television or on film than in a book.
Which is why I'd assumed, until Shado's death, that Laurel was about to get killed off.
Post Shado's death, I think things got a bit trickier.
Perhaps a "temporary" leave of absence is the other solution.
Meanwhile, note to all writers out there: be careful when you kill off your women characters these days. It might make it a touch trickier to kill off the characters you really need to kill off later.
If you're unfamiliar with the concept of "fridging," it's basically a word for the very frequent times in films, comic books, television and other entertainment where a woman is tortured or violently killed in order to provide the villain with Motivation and Character Development. The term, coined by Gail Simone, refers back to an issue in Green Lantern which involved an actual refrigerator, and has since become a convenient way to refer to this sort of thing, which happens a lot – especially but not just in James Bond movies.
Quick note: not all deaths of women count as fridging – one of the more infamous comic book deaths, of Phoenix aka Jean Grey of the Many Many Deaths and Resurrections – was not done to motivate anyone in particular, but was rather an editorial decision noting that no, characters could not in fact just hop over to other solar systems and wipe out an entire planet of vegetable people without facing some consequences. But it's still something that happens a lot, especially in genre entertainment.
Arrow fell right into the fridging from the very first episode, when then bit part character Sara Lance Tragically Drowned causing trauma and pain for its protagonist Oliver Queen and initial love interest Laurel Lance. As it turned out, way too much trauma and pain: one of the main reasons viewers failed to respond to the Oliver/Laurel pairing was that Oliver had been sorta responsible for the death of her sister, which is the sort of thing that couples kinda struggle to come back with.
As it turned out, Sara wasn't really dead dead, just undergoing her own profound trauma and transformation into a deadly assassin, allowing the show to back away from the fridging just a bit. Even before that, the first season, starting with the pilot, made it clear that Oliver's many issues came not so much from Sara's death, but from everything that happened after Sara's death. Also at the end of the first season, Arrow decided to play with the fridging just a bit: deciding to kill off Oliver's best friend, a guy, somewhat soothing the death by giving Tommy a great and heroic death scene.
That last was not exactly a popular decision. Many applauded the decision not to fridge the increasingly unpopular Laurel character, but just as many were, at that point, convinced that Laurel Lance was the main love interest so weren't particularly worried about her safety anyway, and several objected that Tommy had been killed instead of Laurel, and moreover, had been killed saving Laurel. In any case, the decision did nothing to increase Laurel's not really high popularity. Fan backlash on this, and other points, was probably one of the main factors behind the show's decision to bring in a new Black Canary – and bring Sara back.
So, fridging not exactly avoided, but at least regendered, somewhat.
Until the most recent episode, "Three Ghosts," which killed off Oliver's mentor/lover Shado.
Shado died a violent death at the hands of the bad guy, for no apparent reason except "hey, if I'm going to be a supervillain, I might as well do supervillainy things like force Oliver to choose which girl I should shoot, Shado or Sara," which as reasons go lack something. It was shocking, and worse, it happened to a character who, I felt, still had more story ahead of her.
Not helping: the two reoccurring characters who died in that episode were both people of color – Shado and a cop who happens to be a black guy. Meanwhile, three white guys ended the episode by becoming heroes, though, to be fair, one of those heroic moments came about because the episode was also trying to jump start another superhero show based on the Flash, so, hi Flash.
So, classic fridging.
Except for a few slight twists:
One, Shado's death isn't being used to motivate the hero at all or develop his character. In fact, arguably, Shado's death caused Oliver to regress – Shado while living was training him to be a hero, and now, well, obviously isn't, and Shado's ghost in the present time urged him to stop being a hero altogether. The show also strongly suggested that Shado's death, not lingering feelings for anyone else, is why Oliver and Felicity aren't together -- yet, and although this is more than a bit of a retcon, it could be used as another explanation beyond "bad casting" for why Oliver could never really connect with Laurel last season.
(Though I stick with "bad casting" and "bad writing" for the last one.)
Two, Shado's death is being used to motivate the villain, not the hero, with the added twist that the villain is blaming the wrong person.
Three, Slado's death is also being used to motivate the girl -- a side girl, sure, but the character who has been Green Arrow's partner in several comics: Sara, aka Black Canary.
So I was left with mixed feelings: yes, fridging, but also, excellent setup and motivation for the rest of the season and probably beyond (I am assuming that the villain in question will be around for several more seasons, or at least until the CW creates the hinted at upcoming Teen Titans show, and I am hoping that the showrunners will have the sense not to kill Sara off.) Also, way to show that the island really is a horrible, horrible place and that Dr. Ivo is even scummier than we thought.
And also, this same episode did something wonderful: it once again presented the opportunity for Sin and Thea to become romantic rivals for Roy setting up one of those infamous CW love triangles.
Instead, Sin and Thea banded together to FIGHT CRIME.
It was awesome and great and a highlight of the episode.
But this still left the show with a problem – the same problem of last season: What the hell to do with Laurel.
Kill Laurel, thus killing off two major protagonist women in one season, without (presumably) killing off any of the protagonist men. (Unless they kill off Quentin; the three other remaining male leads are all safe until the CW makes a decision about a Teen Titan spinoff.)
OR
Don't kill Laurel, and keep the show burdened with a character who no longer has a purpose in the show and keeps feeling increasingly redundant.
By redundant, I mean Laurel's character has been absent for two of the nine episodes this season. In the majority of the episodes Laurel has been in, she has either felt extremely unconnected to the main plot or given something to do that really should have been done by another character. For instance, of the lead characters, only Laurel, Thea and Moira Queen did not meet Sara, and Moira was in jail at the time. Laurel went after the vigilante just as all of the other characters, and I am including the bad guys in this, decided that the vigilante was actually a hero – and just as Oliver was starting to really become a hero. And so on. The trial scene she was in could have been done by any generic lawyer, as could the "hunt down the vigilante with a SWAT team," really. Her roles as love interest/eventual Black Canary have been given to two other characters. Worse, Laurel is also the only character in the show, including the bad guys, who hasn't been allowed to accomplish anything this season.
I mean, in this last episode, she didn't even get to finish her Christmas shopping.
(Though to be fair, she wasn't the only character to Fail At Finishing Christmas shopping. The entire episode was kinda the anti-Christmas Christmas episode and Oliver didn't even get to learn the True Meaning Of Christmas unless that meaning is "masks are better concealers than green eye makeup" which I don't recall from Bible reading.)
Long term, this is not sustainable for a popular character. It can almost work in books, which allow for a greater sprawl. But television, Game of Thrones aside, and even in some ways counting Game of Thrones rarely has time for extraneous or extra characters. It's why that one guy so often ends up reappearing in the end; why it's usually so much easier to guess the murderer on television or on film than in a book.
Which is why I'd assumed, until Shado's death, that Laurel was about to get killed off.
Post Shado's death, I think things got a bit trickier.
Perhaps a "temporary" leave of absence is the other solution.
Meanwhile, note to all writers out there: be careful when you kill off your women characters these days. It might make it a touch trickier to kill off the characters you really need to kill off later.
December 17, 2013
How the media will report the Zombie Apocalypse
How the Media will report the Apocalypse.
Also includes a picture of a goat, but trust me, you're clicking through for the bits about The Daily Mail and Slate.
Also includes a picture of a goat, but trust me, you're clicking through for the bits about The Daily Mail and Slate.
Frozen
And continuing in the spirit of the season -- Frozen! Which I actually saw a couple weekends back, but forgot to post about. Anyway.
I should hate Frozen. I really should. It's a blatantly commercialized Disney film with several elements carefully designed to sell toys (hi, cute trolls that otherwise have no role in the plot, hi cute snowman who was less annoying than the trailers suggested) and several other elements clearly designed to make the obviously forthcoming Broadway adaptation much easier. It features princesses, two of them, that can easily be added to the incredibly popular Disney Princess lineup. (I swear, I run into little Disney princesses at the grocery store these days, and I live around Disney employees, not Disney tourists.) It has two scenes that can be made into Disney rides.
Essentially, it is as if Disney employees sat down and said, ok, what do we need to make money and make as many cross promotional products as possible and how much of this can be thrown into the movie? Got it? Great.
Also, for some reason Disney marketing keeps insisting that Frozen is "inspired" by Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen.
They, er, both have snow.
And yet, despite all this –
I loved it.
Primarily because of a seriously awesome scene where one of the princesses announces that she has just HAD IT with being good and SINGS AND SINGS AND SINGS and a GIANT ICE PALACE THRUSTS UP (don't think I didn't notice, Disney) as her Oh So Innocent Costume is transformed into a slinky number that seriously but seriously shows off her legs.
Also, ice art.
You go, Disney Princess. You go.
I should hate Frozen. I really should. It's a blatantly commercialized Disney film with several elements carefully designed to sell toys (hi, cute trolls that otherwise have no role in the plot, hi cute snowman who was less annoying than the trailers suggested) and several other elements clearly designed to make the obviously forthcoming Broadway adaptation much easier. It features princesses, two of them, that can easily be added to the incredibly popular Disney Princess lineup. (I swear, I run into little Disney princesses at the grocery store these days, and I live around Disney employees, not Disney tourists.) It has two scenes that can be made into Disney rides.
Essentially, it is as if Disney employees sat down and said, ok, what do we need to make money and make as many cross promotional products as possible and how much of this can be thrown into the movie? Got it? Great.
Also, for some reason Disney marketing keeps insisting that Frozen is "inspired" by Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen.
They, er, both have snow.
And yet, despite all this –
I loved it.
Primarily because of a seriously awesome scene where one of the princesses announces that she has just HAD IT with being good and SINGS AND SINGS AND SINGS and a GIANT ICE PALACE THRUSTS UP (don't think I didn't notice, Disney) as her Oh So Innocent Costume is transformed into a slinky number that seriously but seriously shows off her legs.
Also, ice art.
You go, Disney Princess. You go.
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