(P)REVIEW: PUSHING DAISIES

As has been said many times by many individuals, the show visually evokes memories of Tim Burton's lighter fare, as does the narration by Jim Dale (he of the Harry Potter audiobooks). It also has the off-kilter weirdness that might appeal to those still in mourning over Wonderfalls (also Bryan Fuller) and even going back as far as, say, Northern Exposure.

The short of it, Ned the pie-man (Lee Pace) can bring people back from the dead, but there's catches. Longer than a minute, then someone else dies. If and when he touches a resurrectee, they die again. For good. So in the pilot, he brings back Charlotte "Chuck" Charles (Anna Friel), his childhood girlfriend with whom he finds himself immediately resmitten. He doesn't unresurrect her before the minute's up, so now she's alive and...he can't touch her. It's also why he can't pet his own formerly dead dog.

Ned and a P.I. named Emerson Cod (Chi McBride (tell me that's not a Burtonesque name (Cod, not Chi))) have a deal. They collect rewards catching murders by asking murdered people who killed them. That's how they got to Chuck (and, yeah, what is with that fucking name now?), except she doesn't know who pushed her off a cruise ship to get little monkey figures (shades of Wonderfalls).

You know, I didn't think I was going to like this going in. Well, that's not right. I thought I would regard this as I did Wonderfalls. I saw that show as a great example of solid writing and it showed just the sort of out-of-the-box creativity that TV needs and can really go to town with and that more of the masses who don't let their brains wrap around anything beyond the easy or familiar need to let their brains wrap around and that simply doesn't excite me that much. I watched Wonderfalls. I liked Wonderfalls. Just not as much as some other people, you know. I was more outraged by its cancellation in principle than it actually being a fan.

I like Pushing Daisies better than Wonderfalls, which I felt occasionally did some of the things that I saw in shows that tried to ape Northern Exposure back in the day with just random oddness for oddness's sake. I recall a show about the L.A. coroner's department called Leaving L.A. that was riddled with that and rightly died a quick death. Never mind my problems with shows set in L.A., I think it gets more problematic when you're trying to be weird in a show in town where nothing is considered weird.

Nearly the whole first act is solid exposition, but it works because it's a beauty to look at and it's told like a story by Dale's tones. It was possibly my favorite part of the show.

Now, there's totally arc-yness going on here, with regard to Chuck and the monkeys and stuff and the bulk of the pilot sets that up, but the story engine here promises (to me, anyway) that the show will be episodic with the arc relegated to B-stories (or left out) except for the likely sweeps episode where they do something big with it. As it should be. If it goes the other way, then I'll likely lose interest in the show.

Also, this shows feels supremely spec-able. The show got a lot of heat during pilot season and if the viewing public at large picks up on this the same way (and there's just no telling) then this could be the Ugly Betty of the year in that everybody will be jumping on this show to spec (it also lets you hit drama and comedy at once) and most of them will be telling the same four or five stories. I've resisted spec'ing Ugly Betty for this and a variety of other reasons, but I think I'd do this one just because it seems like it'd be fun. We'll see what happens, but I've got a couple of log lines ready to roll on this one.

Also, while in San Diego, I grabbed the preview comic and I read it before I saw the pilot (which I've watched at home, not at the con). It has two not-stories by Fuller with art on one by Cameron Stewart and on the other by Zach Howard and also with two covers, one by Howard and one by Tim Sale (of Heroes). In and of itself, it's extremely unsatisfying and is little more than a teaser for the arc in the pilot and another story involving a head. And prior to seeing the pilot, it was nearly incomprehensible. It's just some P.R. for the con crowd and nothing special, so if you wanted one and didn't get it, you're not missing much. It also generally fails to capture the tone of the show (at least as far as the pilot).

So, I'm coming down on this favorably. And Fuller's got the cred (Voyager not withstanding). guy comes off of Heroes just now, and did The Amazing Screw-On Head. He gets things that most people don't. That's maybe the problem, but it's a good problem to have. Maybe this will be the one that grabs the masses.

MY FAVORITE COSTUME AT SDCC - DR. GREG HOUSE

Well, there are others because I am male, but this guy gets some special recognition.

And the odd thing was that not an hour before, a friend of mine (I have them imported) and I were talking about how TV will eventually consume the convention whole and then maybe we would consider standing in line for Hugh Laurie. And we don't stand in line for much of anyone.

(P)REVIEW: BIONIC WOMAN ADDENDUM

SDCC panel still had deaf sister footage in the pilot.

And you know, apparently the change from deaf sister to hacker sister came about from some network exec who wanted the deaf sister out. I certainly hope that it wasn't because in this day and age he/she/it thinks viewers are going to have a problem with that kind of handicapped character.

Plus, the hacker idea is understandably scary. Hackers are usually handled very badly and wind up being the way out of any problem, whether it's feasible or not. I have faith in the Bionic Woman writers not make her a stereotypical hacker or some kind of escape clause.

CBR coverage later in the week.

(P)REVIEW: BIONIC WOMAN

This was the first script I read when I got my big ol' digital stack of pilot scripts this year (even before Mr. & Mrs. Smith which I'd still like to see the pilot, even if it wasn't that great) and the thing was...I was very skeptical of it. Not because I'm skeptical of remakes, after all...Battlestar and, hey, that David Eick dude is producing this and he does that one show...Battlestar.

My problem was Laeta Kalogridis. To date, I haven't liked anything I have seen that she's written. However, in most cases, I can give her the benefit of the doubt. Lots of films. Lots of film directors. You know how that can be.

My problem is that she was the showrunner on Birds of Prey. That show (never mind the liberties taken with the Batman mythos) was just bad.

When the pilot aired, it was a Wednesday and if you're a comics geek, you know what a Wednesday is all about. At the time, I was working at Dreamland Comics two days a week, one being Wednesday. I convinced the motley gang that usually convened at store closing to go out and eat at Firkin to, instead, order pizza and watch Birds of Prey. My suggestions were significantly more scrutinized after that. Rightly so.

That said, I loved (mostly) the Bionic Woman script. This was an early draft and I thought it could be tweaked up a bit and apparently I wasn't alone. Jamie was still a barista and the sister hadn't gone deaf and back again yet. I just sailed right through it. All eight acts. Well, there was some stuff that didn't quite fire...like the barista stuff, but it's gone now so...huzzah.

And also, Jason Smilovic is showrunning this. I liked Karen Sisco, which he worked on. Couldn't get into Kidnapped and while I didn't like Lucky Number Slevin as much as others did ( I didn't dislike it by any stretch), I think it shows that he's got a good sense of things and so I think he may be a good choice here.

I'm not going to do a run through because, c'mon...Bionic Woman. I think you know the basic deal. She gets wrecked and rebuilt...better, stronger, faster (yeah, I know...that was Steve). However, this time around, Jamie's up with a rich guy who's out to, y'know, save the world. His way. She didn't go looking for this, but it kinda found her. And the fun bit is, there's another Bionic Woman out there already. And she's mean. And she's Katee Sackhoff and she very nearly steals the show.

Not that Michelle Ryan doesn't rock. I totally have a new unattainable crush. She's also pretty good (and with her own accent) in Stephen Moffat's Jekyll right now.

Beyond the changes in the sister, the pilot is way different than the draft I read. Key stuff is still there, but basically, Sackhoff's Sarah got further integrated. Before she was a teaser bit and then showed up much later on and revealed her involvement after the fact, now there's a lot more to her right from the beginning. The changes? All good.

Visually, the show is awesome. Not quite like Battlestar, but there's a vibe coming out of it...sometimes the camera gets a little floaty in that documentary way. It also has it's own little gimmick for the girls that I like. It's just a sharp show.

The rainy climax is just pitch perfect to me. It's got a certain sense of heightened reality about it...or something. That would, ironically, make it a little unrealish. Anyway, striking. Great, subtle FX.

Storywise, I expect it to walk the line between arc and episodic, like Veronica Mars (first year especially) or something, and not like Battlestar with big chunks or arc and then big chunks of not arc. I hope I'm right. It seems a good way to go, especially for a broadcast network show.

Based on just the pilot though, I plan on really digging this show. I want to spec this. I want to fucking write for this. And that's with the sister stuff being changed from what I've seen. This show is many of the things I like. Honestly, I don't really expect others to like it as much as I do. It seems there's a slant out there (genre-wise) towards Reaper or Pushing Daisies (both of which I'll get to writing about). This one, though, excites me and makes me want the next episode right fucking now.

I'll be attending the Bionic Woman panel at SDCC and writing it up for CBR. I link it from here when that happens and probably add a thought or two here afer seeing the new sister stuff.

(P)REVIEW: CHUCK

This was certainly one of the standouts of the several pilots I read last whenever-that-was. Written by Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz, it's an action-comedy in the espionage/sci-fi genre that certainly owes a debt to stuff like Buffy.

I'm going to do this rundown in such broad strokes that you'll only be a little spoiled. I'm leaving out lots of stuff and may not even make much sense as a result. As I go, I'll have a thing or two to say. You probably won't find a lot of killer insight because, well you probably haven't seen it and I'm trying really hard to skirt that line of telling you stuff without ruining stuff. Besides, it doesn’t feel right getting heavy on this lite fare, but I will say, it's got the capability built-in, I think, to ratchet things up how and when it wants to. Like Buffy, for instance, which could go from ridiculous to heartbreaking in the space of...short space. Chuck doesn’t do it in the pilot, but I can totally see it.

Also, it's my understanding that Chuck is staffed up from the ranks of sitcom writers ( could be wrong about that, but let's assume I'm not). I have seen some criticism of this, speculating that they might not be as good at plot construction which is more the backbone of an hour show than the set-up and pay-off joking of a half hour show. As I think back though, a lot of people early on in Buffy had significant sitcomery in the background. Rob Des Hotel, Dean Batali, and Lady Jane of Epspenson. No plot problems there.

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, I see that Anne Coffell former of 24 and last seen at Battlestar is on board. She's not a comedy vet, but I do call that a good get.

And for no particular reason, I decided to watch it while occasionally glancing at the draft I have of the script.

Oh, and set in SoCal, because you can never have too many of those. It is, after all, the center of the international intelligence community (24, Alias, now this), not some other place where they have embassies (D.C.) or international governmental organizations (New York). Nope. It’s here.

Anyway...Chuck (Zachary Levi) is a geek and a loser by choice. He impedes his own progress. His old college roommate , Bryce (Matthew Bomer), is everything he is not and apparently a superspy.

He steals a big weird intelligence database and in a last desperate move, sends it to Chuck. It gets absorbed into Chuck’s brain. Also, the database seems to be accessed through a 14 year-old Apple Mac SE Color Classic.

Right away, it starts out with a little tweak to the script, nothing major (and scarcely worth noting) and also a shifting of scenes that I think served the story better. The script starts out with Bryce (the superspy dude) and goes for the this-is-a-serious-action-spy-show fake out that we've seen before. Now, we start with Chuck and go to Bryce in a funny transition. it better sets the silly tone of the show.

This thing in his head means he recognizes things like foreign assassins and important international…stuff…and he can put together things he notices on the news or around town (and being that it's LA, it's riddled with threats to the world's political stability). All that information is in his head, he just doesn't realize it until something triggers it.

So we get the explanation of the big ol’ database and we meet Graham (of the CIA (Tony Todd)) and Casey (of the NSA (Adam Baldwin), who we’ve seen before this point, but I’ll let that go). They both want the database and are tasked to go get it. I find that adding Tony Todd or Adam Baldwin to most things is a measurable improvement, so take that as you will. Two fine examples of bad ass black-suit feds. Their presence makes up for the fact that their appearance isn’t entirely consistent with what the script called for. When you got these guys, you don’t need gimmicks like “nicotine patches on either side of his neck.”

So a hot chick secret agent type chick dispatched by Graham, Sarah Kent (Yvonne Strzechowski) puts the moves on him (which is a really big thing for him), but it's just to find out about the thing, y'know. He kinda of wins her over in way too, when he does this thing with a little girl ballerina and her dad who can’t operate a camera properly in order to save the day and the lost recital by using the wall of TV's at the Best Buy-- I mean, Buy More.

Chuck works for the Geek Squad-- I mean Nerd Herd.

[tangent]Here's where product placement or some kinda...y'know...deal...would be good. We all know it’s Best Buy and if some Best Buy could just break that need to have a a stranglehold on what they think their image is and how it comes about, then it could benefit the show, the network and the store without being obtrusive. In real-life, Best Buy would probably object to the behavior of one of it’s fictional employees, but that’s bullshit, I say. Bullshit. It’s a fictional character, it services the story and a deaf bat with it’s eye’s plucked out could see that…well, maybe one eye left. The exposure, I would think, would outweigh the handful of people who stop shopping at Best Buy because “Morgan (Joshua Gomez), the guy that doesn’t actually exist” works there.[/tangent]

Thing is, he didn't do it for her (back to the ballerina thing) and since he was “the job,” or she was going to come on to him or get close to him anyway. I guess this was just for our benefit (see, Chuck's a good guy), but I didn't think it worked all that well once I saw it. It just worked better in my head when I read it, but then Bryce's action sequence was a helluva lot better on screen then in my noggin, so...trade off.

So he goes on a date with Sarah and is witty and charming in a lovable nerd kinda of way and she is...not. There's the sense that she's so much of a spy that she's forgotten to have a life and so she's...what...a dull date...until the car chase.

The actions scenes have that kinda drum and bass/techno sound track like you pretty much expect, but there's a little bit of, I don't know what to call it, an electrosqueezebox element to it that makes it knda neat. And I'm not a guy that notices the score that much. Music is, I think, by Tim Jones.

So, that car chase (Casey's after Chuck) pretty much blows her cover and she basically explains to Chuck what the premise of his new show is. Part of it. Not the head part. Not immediately.

So we get Graham and Sarah in a standoff over Chuck because she's with the CIA and Graham's with the NSA and they're not cooperating. They both want him. It’s at that moment that he puts together the big threat for the episode and just babbles it out, not even realizing why he knows it or where it's coming from. And Sarah puts together the head thing.

Chuck leads them through a hotel to stop the big threat thing and -oh shit, naked old man butts-- that's gonna have to get blurred or something. That's not spoiling. That's warning.

How does he save the day? not by being supercharged, but by being a nerd. Nice.

In the end, Chuck realizes that he's the one with the hopped-up head and that gives him a little bit of leverage against the CIA and NSA fighting each other over who gets to gank him and put him in a special little room (not really, but then it'd be a whole less funny different show). So a plan is reached. He goes on with his life, but there's a couple of new people in his life now...in a special and little bit funny way. You'll see. And he's probably gonna have to save the world about once a week for a while.

Maybe all this will make him actually move on in his loserly existence and do something with himself. There's you're...whatchya call it...character arc.

This is a show that's left reality far behind...where it belongs. I don't know how well it really establishes that. I mean, I got it. I get those things. Some people suspension of disbelief needs to go up on the rack sometimes though. The first clue comes in Bryce's action sequence, where he does stuff like jump off things very high up onto very hard paved surfaces.

Then there's the ninja fight when Chuck comes home to find, well, a ninja...stealing his computer.

What am I saying, the whole premise of the show strains credulity. That's the big buy of the show. If you can't take the idea of downloading essentially all the knowledge of the intelligence community into a guy's head and run with it, then you just don't know how to have fun. Why are you even watching TV?

So, yeah. I dig it. I knew I thought I would from the script, but casting pretty much nailed it down. Now it's up to them to build on it. And build they must. I want them to stretch their muscles in every way they can. I want silly and serious and I want it almost all at once and I think this vehicle can do it.

I also think that NBC deciding to move it from it's announced spot on, I think, Wednesday to being the lead-in for Heroes was smart.. Makes it easy on the sci-fi fans and I think that the humorous Chuck is a great warm-up for the largely humorless Heroes (which is not to say that Hiro doesn't get a laugh now and again, but if you think about it, everybody's pretty fucking serious about everything pretty much all the time).

So watch it. There's all manner of important stuff I didn't even hint at it, so there's plenty of surprises left.

If you're a regular poster in the TV thread at the Engine, just take a pass on this. You won't like it...or admit to liking it.

Next on (P)review...something else, probably after SDCC.

SUB DIEGO

One of these days, the sheer combined weight of all those geeks will cause the city to break off and sink (as seen in Aquaman #15 , geek cred, yo). Though, honestly, I use the term Sub Diego because I expect SDCC to bury me.

Hopefully I won't be the geek that broke the camel's back.

I'll mostly be hanging out with some friends from abroad (real ones, not rentals) but I'll likely hit some of the TV panels. Bionic Woman for certain, which I'll be writing up for CBR.

Maybe I can even find a frakking artist. Geek speak.

Who else is going?

AS MORTEN HARKET ONCE SANG...I'M HUNTING HIGH AND LOW

That thing about wanting an artist. That thing on the left. Looks like this. --->

Not still there because I'm lazy.

If you know anybody...or know anybody who knows anybody...who knows somebody...as long as it ends with some variation of "that can draw," get them to look my way, eh?

EMMY CRAP

Nominations are out. Complete list HERE.

Me and the Academy see eye to eye on dramas starting with the letter H (House and Heroes). The Sopranos takes it's pre-warmed seat and is joined by Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal.

My choice would be House. I've always watched it, on and off, but this was the year I locked into it hard. Part of me wants to say Heroes, but I felt the first half of the season was a bit slow going. I'm looking for season two to nail it start to finish, though.

Drama writing sees, as it does any year The Sopranos airs, a minimum of three Sopranos scripts. Also, the Battlestar opener, rather than "Exodus, Part Two" (which was nominated for direction) and the Lost closer.

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series

Battlestar Galactica • Occupation/Precipice • Sci Fi Channel • R+D TV in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Ronald D. Moore, Written by

Lost • Through The Looking Glass • ABC • ABC Studios
Damon Lindelof, Written by
Carlton Cuse, Written by

The Sopranos • Kennedy And Heidi • HBO • Chase Films and Brad Grey Television in association with HBO Entertainment
Matthew Weiner, Writer
David Chase, Writer

The Sopranos • The Second Coming • HBO • Chase Films and Brad Grey Television in association with HBO Entertainment
Terence Winter, Writer

The Sopranos • Made In America • HBO • Chase Films and Brad Grey Television in association with HBO Entertainment
David Chase, Writer

I'll take the Battlestar in this disappointing array. Like I've said before. I haven't really enjoyed The Sopranos in a long while. Nothing against Weiner (whose Mad Men starts tonight woo-hoo) or Winter, but I think only Chase's episode even belongs up in there. I think there may be a level of I-have-to-vote-Sopranos-to-retain-my-cred going on or just an unwillingness to look beyond the stand-bys unless something just comes and hits you on the head like when The Sopranos was young, so long ago.

I'm fucking pleased that Ron Moore has finally got some much deserved recognition. Finally, some looking beyond name and genre to find quality. Reminds me of when Darin Morgan got nominated and actually won.

***

Emmy shares only 30 Rock and The Office with me, having nominated Entourage, Two and a Half Men (there you go, shecanfilmit) and uber-predictably Ugly Betty. My choice would be The Office. I'm not a big follower of comedies and watch with an admittedly less discerning eye as well. I knows whats I likes. I likes Tina Fey. A lot.

In terms of writing, 30 Rock got two and The Office got two, just like I gave them, but not the ones I selected.

Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series

Extras • Daniel Radcliffe • HBO • BBC and HBO Entertainment
Ricky Gervais, Writer
Stephen Merchant, Writer

The Office • Gay Witch Hunt • NBC • Deedle-Dee Productions, Reveille, LLC, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Greg Daniels, Written by

The Office • The Negotiation • NBC • Deedle-Dee Productions, Reveille, LLC, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Michael Schur, Written by

30 Rock • Tracy Does Conan • NBC • Broadway Video, Little Stranger, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Tina Fey, Written by

30 Rock • Jack-Tor • NBC • Broadway Video, Little Stranger, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Robert Carlock, Written by

I'll arbitrarily take "Tracy Does Conan" in that specific lot. Mmm...Tina Fey.

My predictions for the above categories, though, are Sopranos for series, "Made in America" for script, Ugly Betty for series and "Gay Witch Hunt" for script.
Margin for error of -/+ 99%. That wacky Academy. Who knows what they're thinking?

And my favorites (not predictions) for some other categories.

• Alec Baldwin - Lead Actor/Comedy

• Hugh Laurie - Lead Actor/Drama

• Tina Fey - Lead Actress/Comedy

• Kyra Sedgwick - Lead Actress/Drama (where the fuck is Kristin Bell, huh?)

• Rainn Wilson - Supporting Actor/Comedy

• Terry O'Quinn - Supporting Actor/Drama (only 'cuz The Shatner has his Emmy already)

• Jenna Fischer - Supporting Actress/Comedy

• Katherine Heigl - Supporting Actress/Drama (cuz I've always liked the Heigl)

And that's my Emmy crap.

SORKIN'S STUDIO 60 POST MORTEM

Like it says on the tin.

LA Times: Aaron Sorkin on Studio 60: "I made too many mistakes"

A SELECTION OF NOT EMMY NOMINATIONS

Emmy nominations are announced on July 19. I expect there will be the usual disappointments, maybe a surprise or two, some genuine recognition, and a lot of the same old general wrongness. Who knows, since there have been some more tweaking to the rules and stuff. Whatever. To me, Emmys are just kinda of like big gold talking points.

In advance of the announcements, I present the nominations for the My Not Emmys of which the categories are few, the decisions unapologetically capricious and the winners remain unannounced so that I don't have to make tough decisions. Eligibility requirements are that they aired in the U.S. during the Emmy eligibility period and that I have watched it (sorry, second season of Rome - shut out because I waited for DVD) and remembered it while I was writing this post (sorry, ___________) . After the 19th, should I be so inclined to compare and contrast, I will...compare and contrast.

Though thanks to the leaks in this year's Emmy process, we already know that some of my selections are certain to not be duplicated and were possibly not even submitted.

I also invite you, gentle reader...or vicious reader to proffer your own award nominations, either in comments or on your own site. Your choices, your rules.

***

Do keep in mind that the following is hardly a scientific or even remotely objective assessment and is far more reflective of stuff that I dig with just a little bit of filtering for stuff that I dig but know is crap.

NOMINEES FOR AWESOMENESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
The Emmys have done six before, so I did six.

• Doctor Who (if you question the eligibility, let me point out that the UK version of The Office was nominated in 2005, also A&E pushed MI-5 (a.k.a Spooks)the first year it had it)
• Friday Night Lights
• Heroes
• House
• Veronica Mars
  
• The Wire

NOMINEES FOR AWESOME WRITING IN A DRAMA SERIES

• Stephen Moffat - Doctor Who: "The Girl in the Fireplace"
• Laurence Kaplow - House: "Half-Wit"
• Aaron Sorkin - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: "Pilot" (pilot rocked, series...less so)
• David Weddle, Bradley Thompson - Battlestar Galactica: "Exodus, Part Two"
• John Wells - Smith: "Pilot" (yeah, I said it...wanna fight about it?)

NOMINEES FOR AWESOMENESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Wherein I nominate essentially all of the comedies I watch...not that it's a big field or anything these days.

• 30 Rock
• Gilmore Girls (I know, lost in the categories...that's why it never won when it actually deserved it)
• My Name is Earl
• The Office
• Scrubs

NOMINEES FOR AWESOME WRITING IN A COMEDY SERIES

• Jennifer Celotta - The Office: "Grief Counseling"
• Lee Eisenberg, Michael Schur, Gene Stupnitsky - The Office: "Traveling Salesmen"
• Tina Fey - 30 Rock: "The C Word"
  
• Tina Fey - 30 Rock: "Up All Night"
• David Rosenthal - Gilmore Girls: "Bon Voyage"

I'm not expecting much in the way of duplication in the comedy categories, though I think The Office for series is a gimme. Hell, selecting Gilmore Girls where I did was the equivalent of the Academy uselessly acknowledging a series well after it's too late.

SORKIN TO WRITE THINGS!!!!

Given the performance of Studio 60, this news is not entirely unanticipated. Sorkin doing movies. Guess we won't be seeing any Sorkin series for a good long while. Like I said. Not surprised.

Hollywood Reporter: Sorkin brings pen to Dreamworks

CBR: DURWIN TALON

Interview with Durwin Talon, the writer/artist of Bonds from Image Comics.

By me.

THE VIOLENCE OF SUMMER

Ah, Duran Duran...

This isn't about writing fight scenes.

Though, let me say, I hate writing fight scenes. Not so much because of the violence. There's nothing like a bit of the old ultra-violence as a bloke used to say.

It's got more to to with mapping out the fight in text. If you're doing a fight scene right, there's a lot more than jsut a fight going on, so the fight itself becomes a form of communication and in doing so, I am loathe to simply write "They fight" and be done with it. Especially when I want certain character's to suffer in certain ways and blah with the blah blah right in the blah blah and he just blah blah blah blah.

I fucking digress.

This fight is the fight of ideas. And I don't mean democracy versus whatever the United States government is now or existentialism versus...not existentialism.

Sometimes I get in a position where I don't quite know what I want to write next. I can't seem to prioritize or the ideas are clunky. All I can do is find reasons to not write this or that. I keep holding off on putting any significant effort into a Heroes script because that series seems very volatile and my spec might have a shelf life of forty-something minutes. I hate writing something that I can't use for something. The Unit isn't especially viable as a spec, but I wrote that before the first season was even over. I rolled the dice. There's competitions I suppose.

So I get to a point where I've got three or so serviceable ideas. In this case, A Heroes spec, a sci-fi pilot (that could expand out to a sci-fi screenplay) and a weird kinda of heisty thing for a screenplay/graphic novel. Oh, four...there's another sci-fi pilot. I feel like sci-fi isn't represented strongly enough in my spec rotation, hence the genre tilt in this stack of ideas.

I get them all into my brain and let them fight for dominance. When I start writing something, it usually starts with a huge burst of pages. Teaser and act one usually come quickly. I try to see which idea can get there first. That's usually the winner.

I got one that got there. Not the Heroes. I'm not sure if it's really going to stick (which generally means it's not going to stick), but sometimes stuff I cast off as crap I go back to later and a new angle presents itself and I crank out something really good (if I do say).

My House spec was like that. I slogged through a draft sometime ago and decided it was crap. Then, a couple of months back I started looking at House again to fill a hole in the rotation and I went back to that same idea, but this time with a better B-story. That B-story had a profound effect on the A story and initiated a page one rewrite that I burned though in about two weeks and I'm using that script for anything I can find to use it for.

So even if this idea of mine craps out now, it could be gold later. I've got ten pages and an outline of notes of an outline. It's bleeding, but it's still fighting.

Though the coming advent of Heroes: Origins might give one a peculiar spec alternative, that one need only role the dice on one Heroes character while giving a great deal of weight to a character of one's own devise. Kind of a half spec.

That's not just now, though.

SOMETIMES I AM LISTLESS, SO I LIST

How about this (and I invite the viewers at home to play along)? Sometimes, to amuse myself when working at a job I should be paying some attention to but wind up not because too many neurons fire in the human brain to do that job, I think of things. Listy things, sometimes.

Here's a list of list examples.

• Cover versions I would like to hear that don't exist yet (song, artist)
• Ways to launder money
• Guitars I would like to own
• Things that would make ___________ cry
• Things I could do with-- Never mind that one
• Which Simpsons character corresponds to which Dune character
• Inappropriate uses for satellites if ever I were able to have use of one
• Practical jokes to play on the world that don't involve me dying
• Monstrous wastes of enormous sums of money that would be satisfying to no one but me

One I didn't list is the one I'm going to go on about today. TV shows I want on DVD. There are two variations on this list. Reasonable and unreasonable. Reasonable means there is probably a market and I'm not aware of the rights being tied in some morass of legal stupidity. Unreasonable, it stands to reason, means I don't care if the rights to each episode is held by a different argumentative old lady who doesn't speak English and thinks everyone is trying to rip her off and also that I don't care if I'm the only who wants this DVD set in the whole world, known universe and various parallel dimensions where Robert Guillaume is the president.

Things I know are coming out, we leave off. Like the complete unfucked up Twin Peaks.

I list now three TV shows I want on DVD, the unreasonable version (in this case because I suspect each show lacks an adequate market). I invite you to do the same (doesn't have to be three, but no more than three...be reasonable...heh).

In no order.

1. AfterM*A*S*H
One simple reason. My M*A*S*H collection is incomplete without it. And it must include as an extra the W*A*L*T*E*R pilot (that actually even aired once). Don't care how bad it is. I want it.

2. Legend
Richard Dean Anderson as a drunkard western hero and John DeLancie as a Tesla-esque science dude. Ran, like 12 episodes. Michael Piller created it. Want. Now. VHS tapes not holding up so well.

3. The Inside
Tim Minear's serial killer show. Well, not exactly. It followed a special FBI unit that generally went after serial killers. Some profiling. On the surface, nothing new. Digging in, had it continued, it showed it could go some interesting places. Peter Coyote as the sinister boss of the group was fantastic. There was even one ep where the viewer is lead down the path that maybe he's the bad guy of the week...and you don't rule it out.

The reasonable list...would see Life On Mars added in somewhere. They can release the crap that is Robin Hood in R1, but Life on Mars? Whiskey Tango fuckin' Foxtrot.

Oh, and Intelligence too.

THE DOCTOR WHO POST THAT ISN'T ABOUT DOCTOR WHO BUT MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT PERFUME

Seriously, there's a point being made here, it's just Doctor Who that made me think of it.

This past weekend was the season finale of Doctor Who (and a bloody fantastic one, something I never thought I'd say about something with a musical number featuring a Scissor Sisters song (I can't decide/whether you should live or die...), which will actually feed into my point).

Following the events of that, on Monday the Beeb announced a newish companion for next season in the form of Catherine Tate as Donna (her character in last year's Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride"). In it, she was annoying and abrasive and at the end, when she is asked by the Doctor if she would like to join him in his travels, most viewers breathed a sigh of relief when she said "No." It's not to say I hated her or the episode. It was a different kind of character mix and I enjoyed seeing a different chemistry in the show, it's just...every episode. Could be a problem.

This seems to have elicited a response along the lines of "What the fuck is wrong with Russell Davies?" Davies, being the show runner.

I admit, I'm not entirely looking forward to that particular development, but here's the thing. It could turn out really good. Why?

There's this theory of perfume making that suggests adding an offsetting element, something that might be regarded as a negative in the overall make up of the fragrance. Something ugh in there that stings you just as you begin taking in the top notes, but is washed away just as quickly by the sweetness, or the musk, or whatever. That sting grabs you. Gets your attention. Cheap perfumes, don't have this. They're just pure sweet. That's why they suck and you don't remember them five minutes later.

I think of this theory whenever I read about some showrunner or writer doing something that sounds cringe-worthy. Sometimes what they do is gonna suck outright, but sometimes the mix comes out just right. It's that one character that you hate in that show that you love but don't realize how they're presence affects...everything.

Or maybe that negative element that you hate makes something possible in the future what will be just the bestest thing ever.

The one criticism I hate to hear more than anything about anything is "It's not what I would've done" or "not what I wanted."

"Thanks be to Farnsworth you didn't get what you wanted!" I think to myself. It would be fanfic. It'd be wanking off. It would lose the unique flavor that has you watching the show at all. If those that make that particular complaint got what they wanted, all you'd hear would be "It was too predictable."

I think a writer's job is not to give the audience what it wants. It's to give them what he or she wants (within reason, I mean...try to keep an eye on that shark (and let's not get into notes or anything right now, eh?)). It's the writer's story to tell. Hopefully other people will like it and keeping liking it. When you start trying to feed their need, you get stagnant and you will run out of good ideas.

I like digging something unexpected. Were I running Doctor Who, I would never have put it a musical number based on a group that I don't listen to. It's not the way my brain functions (at least before I saw it), but that number so perfectly illuminated the glee the Master gets from being unrepentantly evil. I got the song because I like the lyrics and the memory of that scene.

There's always risk though. Spider-Man 3's musical number(s) blew radioactive chunks.

So when I see something like Catherine Tate's Donna being the new companion, I see it as an opportunity to go new places that I haven't thought of. Maybe Davies will use her to sting me and draw my attention in to something grand.

I just hope Davies is being mindful of that shark.

THE TRADECRAFT BITS ARE REALLY COOL - I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THE THING WITH THE DUCT TAPE AND THE STUD-FINDER

I like Burn Notice. I'm predisposed to like Burn Notice, being it's all down with the with the spookiness and I do NOT mean ghosties.

While the ex-spy as P.I. idea on the surface didn't do much for me, there's stuff in the execution that makes it worthwhile. There's a mindset at work in Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) that is reflective of actual spook mindset, and with good reason and there's a loose basis on the life of an actual former spook (by the name of Michael Wilson). I must admit, I had a little suspicion about that at first, thinking it might be a ploy to get viewership, but after about .00474 seconds I realized that The Engine probably wouldn't be the target of such a thing. He's been very conversational and friendly in answering questions and responding to individual comments and Warren's given him a thread there. Dig, if you will. Also, his website.

It's set in Miami, which may be a little too flashy and hip, but it helps the show kinda of blend in with Monk and Psych. In fact, at first I thought the show would be along those lines. family friendly, episodic, etc. There's a bit of an arc (hopefully not too much reliance on the arc though, stand-alone...ness is a good thing) and some good old fashioned violence unlike you'll see on the more family friendly USA shows, but not terribly graphic. Generally a little darker of a tone that you get on USA, outside of maybe The 4400.

I can live with Miami. As long as it's not LA. Too damn many shows set in LA. [tangent] The American Life on Mars pilot is set in LA and my heart sank when I saw that. In the UK version, it was set in Manchester, so I'd go for...Seattle maybe. Ideally, Chicago, but I am biased in that respect. Of course, the whole porting of Life on Mars thing (if actually picked up, now that it's mving forward again) is going to be a thing to figure out. While the pilot script was really, really, really close to the original first episode, the UK version did 16 eps and got out. Set up and spike. Not something you can really do with an American network show. Can David E. Kelley and/or crew sustain the premise? And can I be on that crew? [/tangent]

My main complaint is not enough of the Bruce. But then, who doesn't have that complaint?

Did you even know Bruce was in it?

If I were USA, I'd maybe get the word out about the Bruce.

Bruce.

And hey, writer's blog too.

Anyway, I think I'm down for the run. Unless somebody has a baby. Series-killer, that.