Hey there everyone. Thank you lord it's the weekend. This week has been another killer, as I've been battleing a cold since last Friday and still kind of getting back into the swing of things following my trip back east. And work this week has just been killer. I've had a lot that I've been meaning to do after work in terms of errands and other stuff like writing. However, on three separate nights this week, I sat down, fired up my laptop, tried to work on my latest TV spec script, and found that my brain was completely fried from the workday. For someone trying to be creative, realizing that you're temporarily incapable of producing more than a sentance without wanting to collapse is not a particularly good feeling ... I guess this is why most people in the business development areas of entertainment don't also tend to be aspiring writers ...
Plus, I've been trying to plan for next week's invasion (by me and friends) of the San Diego Comic-Con. Coordinating this has been way more difficult than I originally anticipated, and has caused me a number of headaches in the last few weeks. All of my carefully-laid plans, from passes to accomodations, seem to unravel on a daily basis.
- Emmy Nomination Thoughts:
The Emmy noms this year were, to me, a very mixed bag. The comedy category seemed pretty decently represented by The Office and 30 Rock, and it was cool to see some nods for Extras as well. I'm just now watching Season 2 of Extras and it is predictably brilliant. It's so odd to me that it got Emmy noms for writing, etc, but not for Best Comedy Series, whereas 2 1/2 Men WAS nominated?!?! Umm ... okay. It is really nice to see so many deserving (and NBC!) actors nominated for Comedy though -- personally I feel like Rainn Wilson has GOT to be honored for his hilarious portrayal of Dwight on The Office. And now that I've been watching Extras ... Ricky Gervais is just amazing on that, as good as he was on The Office if not a lot more understated. Extras may not be widely known in the USA but it is leagues above something like 2 1/2 Men, that's for sure.
The same can be said for LOST. Lost may have been the best drama on the air this season, and yet no nomination? On the flipside, Heroes was a great new series but took a long time to find it's footing, and then delivered a fairly disapoointing finale. On the other hand, Lost built up more and more momentum as the season went on and ended with a finale that will go down as an all-time classic. Something here is off.
Meanwhile, all of the usual suspects continue to get snubbed. Gilmore Girls is of course nowhere to be seen on this list. As usual, no love for the late, great Veronica Mars. And I'll tell you something. People look at these noms and and wonder how these shows are continually snubbed. Well, it's not hard to see why - the voters here are no experts in good TV - they are just regular entertainment industry folks who watch all the same crap as everyone else. They watch whatever is trendy, cool, and on the mainstream's radar. They bailed on Gilmore long ago, stopped watching Lost when it stopped being the "it" show, jumped on the Heroes bandwagon when it was the cool thing to do, and never took the time to seek out cult hits like Veronica Mars. And yeah, there is no way these voters are going to ever think outside the box and look at the excellence of a show like King of the Hill or Prison Break. If a show isn't appealing to the 30 - 50 year old, upscale demo, which most of these voters fall into, they are not going to help nudge it into Emmy consideration. It sucks, but it's the truth - these voters are mostly NOT a group of cutting-edge TV afficianados, and the vanilla nature of the Emmy noms reflect that.
In any case, I expect The Sopranos to clean up ...
- Some quick comics talk:
- Thank you to Gail Simone for a memorable run as writer of BIRDS OF PREY, which wrapped up this week with an excellent finale to the current storyarc. I loved this final Gail-penned issue, which saw cameos by nearly every ancillary Bird from throughout the title's history, as Barbara Gordon had a climactic confrontation with her rival, the Spy Smasher. The highlight was easily an absolutely amazing 4-page spread drawn beautifully by artist Nicola Scott - a poster-ready piece if ever there was one. Over her run, Simone has brought action, adventure, and above all great characterization to the title, continuing to make Oracle, aka Babs Gordon, one of the most interesting characters in fiction, and elevating Black Canary and Huntress to true A-listers.
- Meanwhile though, DC is really faltering of late in some respects. COUNTDOWN has been very slow to pick up steam, and too many of its lead characters are really lacking in appeal. I can't bring myself to care about such a lame character as Karate Kid, and I am already sick to death of the Legion of Superheroes, who are now seemingly obligated to appear in nearly every DC title despite being very dated and confusing characters. Jason Todd is totally useless at this point and was better off dead, and Jimmy Olsen has really done nothing since Countdown began. DDC really needs to do something to kick this thing into overdrive before they have a total dud on their hands. On the other hand, Countdown almost looks like Watchmen compared to the crapfest that is AMAZONS ATTACK. I don't know what happened here, but it is a total trainwreck of an "event." I usually like Will Pfeifer's work but the plotting here is atrocious, with the latest ish, #4, having at least 4 or 5 moments that made no sense, numerous out-of-character moments, and a seeming disconnect from the rest of the DCU. This is just bad.
- Alright, I am outta here. Have a great weekend. Hopefully, next week I can pull it together and overcome my current weariness, as that brain-fry I alluded to earlier seems to be kicking in again, right about ... now.
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