Scooby DONE, It Again!

I’ve expressed before how delighted I am with the latest incarnation of Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated.  Now has come the time to report on it once again.  For it ended!  And what a treat.  I’ll explain.

The show’s return surprised me.  TiVo of course knew it would be on and voila, it appeared.  Then another, every day thereafter for a while.  I noticed two things.  Perhaps you recall that one of the great strides this version takes is the introduction of an overlying story, an arc that plays out amid the standard type of episode we expect from a Scooby Doo show.  Well, the overall story being told seemed to be drawing to a close.  I would have been quite surprised if it didn’t.  Everything in it all pointed toward the last episode being nigh.  Especially due to the other bit I noticed.  The Chapter number.  Chapter 50 proved not far away.  And then it came, but we did not get to the end.  You know how it is - expanding the climax to greater glory, and then the denouement.  

 I’d talked to my best friend Laughter about it.  He’d not been able to follow the show, but liked it very much.  High praise, believe you me.  So I told him that it appeared to be ending.  He liked the idea of it resolving, but felt sad that there wouldn’t be anymore.  For I wound up making that clear.  It wouldn't just end… it aimed to end the whole thing.  The Scooby Doo story, over.  Or it seemed it would, at the very least.  The reply, paraphrased, “No more shows???  But it’s so good!”  I said how I wouldn’t WANT more.  I love Finite Cartoons and it just wouldn’t feel right because I’d expected a great shebang closing.

Well, it turns out that I’d been mostly right.  50 seemed the logical choice of episodes, but then, 52 cards in a deck is more like a clue.  Not of anything in particular, just for the fun sake.  52 episodes it turned out to be.   And what a triumph!  A fantastic bit of storytelling.  It had so much to love – from callbacks to other episodes, to pathos, to exciting and gut-wrenching scenes, the perfect use of “Scooby Doo!  Where are you!?” and parts that made you watch in horror because you never thought you’d see it happen.  I really liked it, can you tell?  And then we get to the end. I’d been right.  It’s difficult to explain without ruining it, but the whole premise of the Scooby Doo programs is no longer valid.  The larger mystery of it all is solved.  In fact, I cheered as Fred actually said, “Okay gang, let’s solve this Uber Mystery!”  But guess what.  The writers proved themselves one last time.  In an unexpected maneuver of plot that calls back to what drew me into this version in the first place, they set up a sequel.  Don’t roll your eyes.  The new premise, a callback itself, is one that I cannot wait to see.  Bring it on, Mystery Inc.!

Twice Upon a Barrie-Land

There's more to report about how the TV series Once Upon a Time is handling the most famous work of Sir J.M. Barrie.  This post has spoilers, so be warned.  The first post is here.

This episode is a direct extension of the previous.  Its title completes the "directions to the Neverland."  I have that in quotes for two reasons: 1) they're using Disney's addition of the word "star" 2) they're not really the correct directions anyway.  At any rate, Second Star to the Right led into And Straight in 'Til Morning.  [There should be a "then" in there, without the apostrophed "till" but who's counting? ;) ]

Here's what we discover:
We do see the island, sort of, for we finally reach its shore.   In fact, as you can see, it's also the fantasy element shown this time amid the woods in the opening.  Okay, remember the character I'd mentioned who went in place of a Darling boy and fell into the ocean when struggling with the Shadow/Pan?  And I'd thought he'd be a pirate, then?  Well, he won't be.  You see, the boy pieces together that Hook is responsible for taking his mother away back in the land he came from and therefore wants nothing to do with the captain.  A little more on this kid in a bit.

We also see "The Lost Ones."  They've dropped the word "boys" for "ones."  I like it, for it makes it more intimidating.  And that's definitely the vibe they're going for here.  Besides that, they've got them in their early teens, if not teenagers.  So they're not exactly mere boys.  Oh - at least for now they do not fly.  They approach by ship.  The Lost Ones have a reputation in this world.  You don't want them to show up, they're feared.  They pester Hook because they think he's harboring the boy that fell into the ocean.  At the time he is, but hides the boy from them.  Smee (introduced into the show before Hook, for the record) expresses his concern about having any dealings with the kid.  He says, "What if the boy belongs to him?"  And the way he says it invokes a capital H.  "He'll be looking for us.  He knows this land better than we do."  Interesting, no?  Who could he be talking about?  I knew right away.  I bet you do, too.

Moving on, from what we have to gather, the infamous immortal boy of the island is not in fact just that truly scary Shadow from the other episode.  The Lost Ones tell Hook that He will rip your shadow from you as a punishment and it is reportedly very painful.  So it would seem the Shadow goes and fetches for a real boy, the leader of the Lost Ones.  But where is the real evidence?

Right around the bend.  Okay, the boy from the other world escapes Hook and is found washed ashore by the Lost Ones.  They examine him, but apparently He is looking for a particular boy.  It turns out he's not the boy they need.  One asks if they will ever find him.  Another replies, "Of course we will.  It make take time, but Peter Pan never fails."  Ah!  He does exist by that name!  And he's looking for none other than the main boy character from the series, of course.

To add more spice to this spooky spin, on their way to the Neverland via a portal (which they could only open with Hook's help!), Rumpelstiltskin says they (the other characters) have no idea who they're dealing with...and when is asked "Who's that?" the response is "Someone we all should fear."  Think about that for a second.  This is the Dark One saying to fear!  Granted, Rumplestiltskin has mellowed out a bit given his time as Mr. Gold in Storybrooke, and his literal (pun noted) relation to the other characters by blood and escapades - but he is still to be feared in his own right.  And yet, he's warning them.  Truth is the previous paragraph's events take place after this one's.  Know what that means?  He's talking about Peter Pan!

And so it seems that Peter Pan, in a new and twisted incarnation, will be the "Big Bad" for at least part of the next season.  For this had been the finale, and we are left hanging with the characters on their way to rescue the main character boy from his clutches.  I, for one, am very curious how they'll handle and depict Pan.  I bet it will be delightful.  Too bad we'll have to wait until the Fall!

Once Upon a Barrie-Land

This post contains spoilers about the TV show Once Upon a Time.  Proceed at your own risk.

I’ve made it known before that I enjoy ABC’s Once Upon a Time.  It’s a clever and fresh take on fairy tales.  Well, once upon a time, they expanded the definition by including the Lewis Carroll Alice tales.  A little later on, Dr. Frankenstein came into the mix.  Yet it still remained as fantastic as the stories from which it borrowed.  In a nutshell, “The Mad Hatter” explains to the skeptic character that all stories are histories.  They’re just told differently.  Our ‘actual’ history, in other words, probably lost something of pure truth in the writing of it.  Speaking sort of metaphorically, all worlds can be peeked into, or semblances of them.  In this way, we can allow for the spins on characters and events that we thought we knew.  The creators of tales heard whispers and tried to get it right.  Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.  Of course, this only works within such a construct.  Separate Peter and Wendy and it becomes law until itself.  It can’t be told differently or contradicted or re-imagined… not unto its own telling as told by the author.   But the show does allow for deviations and it’s in this way that Once Upon a Time finally fully approached the Neverland.

With some rather unexpected results!

Hook has been on the show for quite a long time now.  However, we get to know him completely away from the Neverland.  Although we do know (and saw him chart a course for) the infamous isle.  [Once Upon a Time utilizes flashbacks to fully tell and realize their story.]  Their Hook is meant to make us swoon.  He’s much younger with good looks.  And his personality is sort of Jack Sparrow mellowed out with a touch of Barrie’s evil man.  The hook is on the incorrect hand, but then, it’s correct for Disney’s version and this is a production under their jurisdiction.  An interesting variation and major change is that Peter Pan did not cut off the captain’s hand.  Nope, not here.  Rather it had been the crocodile.  Except the crocodile isn’t an animal.  It’s a man with scaly skin, none other than the show’s Dark One himself, Rumpelstiltskin, who’d been thwarted by the pirate earlier in life before obtaining his magical power. The way I figure it, Peter would convince himself he cropped off the hand and bragged as such, thus the tale came to be.  For a whole season or so we’ve been wondering about the Neverland and Peter Pan.  Lemonie and I, and probably a slew of others, suspected a character as being Pan.  He even recognized and disliked seeing Hook.   But, we were wrong.

Well, they finally showed us how both the boy and the island manifestation in this version of fantasy on the episode “Second Star to the Right.”  Naturally they used Disney insertions into the tale of Peter Pan.  The second star to the right is one of two.  However, despite the title, it is never spoken.   We see a “second star” flash when Wendy is taken away.  And yes, I phrased it that way on purpose. For the living shadow is the other Disney touch.  Yet another unexpected twist.  It’s just the shadow!  There’s no boy.  He’s never referred to as Peter nor Pan.  Only the magic shadow.  Yet we can see that he’s dressed in leaves. Though Wendy wants to go (and it’s just her, by the way, not her brothers, too) the shadow forcibly drags her away.  She had been warned by a boy she’d been harboring in the house unbeknownst to her parents. (I didn’t know the nursery had a hidden compartment either, but it’s quite Barrie-like!) And oh – this boy happens to be from another world.  (This character fell into ours through a portal too many moons ago in the overall story.)  He fears magic, but away Wendy goes.  She comes back, though.  And mentions the mermaids and fairies…and the darkness at night.  She then describes the cries of children wanting to go home.  But the shadow won’t let them leave!  She escaped because it wanted a boy (imagine that!) and she said it could take one of her brothers.  The boy from the Enchanted Forest (the main place the storybook characters in the show came from) tries to defend them but ultimately goes instead to save the Darling Family.  (The boy lost both his parents, so it’s important to him.)  He fights the rapidly and dangerously flying shadow along the way, though, and plunges into the sea.  He’s picked up by Captain Hook.

As for the Neverland itself, we don’t get to see it other than glooming in the distance.  I’m not disappointed in that.  For their version needed to have it mysterious and foreboding.  Overall, I rather liked this take on it.  A recurring theme and line of the show all throughout has been “Magic comes with a price” so I enjoyed making the Neverland and its child thief as dark as can be.

Lastly, I’d like to say the portrayal of the Darlings is wonderful.  They certainly “looked” like them.  And how wonderful to weave in more of Barrie by having Mrs. Darling all too welcoming and ready to have another little one join the family.  Of course, Mr. Darling had two shillings to say about it.  But in the end, Mrs. Darling won out.  Any doubt? 

Once Upon a Time, thanks for bringing this to the dark.

Scooby-Doo It Some More

Way back in this post, I expounded on the latest incarnation of eveybody's favorite enigma-solving and ghost chasing pooch - Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorportated.

This is a quick status update.

I’d spoken of how it has brought a much needed new element to the Scooby-verse - a narrative story arc. Well, it hasn’t lost sight of that. Far from it. It’s not only kept it up, but has layered it upon itself. What on earth do I mean? Simple.

 I’d told you of how the Scooby gang had been receiving strange leads and clues from someone hailing as Mr. E. Well, we’ve since learned who he is. I don’t want to spoil it for you if you’ve yet to see the whole saga, but suffice to say it’s not a superfluous character. Rather Mr. E is imbedded into the tale already. And once we learn more of this pre-established backstory, it doesn’t stop there. We’re suddenly privy to a clearing up of what happened long ago in Crystal Cove’s past. Yet it still doesn’t stop there! We delve into the mystery that had been around long before, one that the mystery-solving team prior to Scooby’s took on and only partially succeeded in figuring out. Thus, we have fresh story with backstory in a backstory derived from a backstory. Wow. They really took their time developing this concoction. It may sound as if it were convoluted, but I assure you, it’s not. Well, it’s not so far as a Scooby Doo cartoon is concerned.

And all the while, they have not dropped any of the side issues among characters, nor ignored any of the great avenues to explore.

On the whole, they’ve managed to bolster the world of Scooby into something practically logical. And we all know how preposterous it had been in the first place.

I should mention that a friend of mine who has long moved away now and happens to be a big Scooby fan also enjoys the show, but he feels that the overlaying storylines get a bit thick and out of hand, perhaps even unnecessary or in the way. But by the same token, he didn’t pooh-pooh them or wish they were entirely absent.

And then there’s Zoey, who watches it peripherally when her kids do. She thinks it truly awful what they’ve done with the franchise. She specifically cited the Shaggy and Velma “romance” (which fails- no mystery there!) as one of the offenses. You might recall that I also raised an eyebrow at this notion, but kept on with it only to see how well it had been handled - and that it brought along with it a character development that had been sorely needed after so many manifestations. So I told her she’d have to see it all from the beginning and let it do its thing, since it most definitely relies on the power of the Story Arc to work.

So, to the entire team who brought us Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorportated, I say:
BRAVO! Bravo, indeed.

New Napoleon Is Dynamite!

HECK YES!

After seeing it, I thought the movie Napoleon Dynamite would work as a TV series. I, for one, wanted more of these characters. But a sequel seemed beyond the limits of what could be done. What on earth would constitute a good enough plotline to sustain a film? But a series? That’s an open invitation to explore many avenues of comedy without striving or requiring it to be so big. The mundane and quirky lives of these strange people can be showcased in perfectly sized vignettes. After all, the movie had been not much more than that to begin with, right?

Someone else thought so, too, and I am glad of it. For it DOES work. Very well. And they had the excellent idea of doing it in animation.

Buttercup had been skeptical at first, but given that it’s Napoleon Dynamite and has all the original cast voicing their characters, she’d been willing to give it a try. (She’d also laughed at the ads.) She wound up cracking up just as much as me. She now whole-heartedly agrees - it’s a marvelous TV show.

I’m not sure what it is about this wacky world. Much of it doesn’t seem as if it should be funny at all. It just IS. And I’m happy to say that whatever worked in the movie is still carrying the mojo for the cartoon. Plus, there's the added bonus of having the freedom to be THAT much wackier to [moon]boot. Instead of needing Jon Heder to pilot a jet ski and daringly make a sweet jump, Napoleon and friends can now just do it. Tina the Llama can be helping Napoleon with his exercises. Aaron Ruell doesn’t have to master the Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball... but his cartoon Kip self certainly can with no trouble. To great hilarity. And I must say that it’s a sheer delight to have Grandma be around. She’s just as I pictured her in daily life. (She’d been gone most of the movie.)



Water skiing, too!



Also, the opening sequence is just right.  It's funny AND shows us all the main characters in a way that's not forced.  And I adore the way Napoleon runs.  How did they get that calm-psycho quality of Heder into a drawing?   Not sure, but I'm sure it's there.

Hooray for everyone involved. I applaud. I wipe tears of laughter from my eyes and look forward to more episodes of this SWEET show.

Viva Cartoon Dynamite!



MORE Upon a Time

Don’t you love it when a story gets better and better as it goes along? Yeah, me too.

That’s the case with Once Upon a Time.  It's gotten stronger.  I've since discovered that Lemonie is also a big fan.  She's just invested as me.  It's often shocking and always crafty.

I have to applaud this past episode. Not only did it deal with my favorite character in the show, it taught me a thing or two without me realizing it.

Rumpelstiltskin.

Before I go on, let me ask... how much do YOU know about this fairy tale entity? Probably, like me, just the basics: Little guy who spins straw into gold who gets paid dearly for his efforts, a la a first born child and only guessing his name will negate such a grisly contract.

But is that it? Surely there’s more to this character. What’s HIS story? (The familiar one with him in it is really about the girl who’s forced to produce gold from straw.) How is he even able to create a precious metal from dried grass? Where did he come from? WHO IS Rumpelstiltskin?

That’s precisely what the recent episode of the fairy tale based TV show is about: his past. Obviously not knowing much about Rumpelstiltskin, I let them present whatever they wished to about him. After all, a fairy tale is not set in stone by anyone one single author, so there’s plenty of room for creativity. And since what they provided not only gripped me like his hand on his walking stick but it fits more than properly into the world of “Fairy Tale.” It makes use of essential elements of the genre but doesn’t come across as cliché.

It’s pretty darn great when one winds up sitting and digesting for a moment or nine after the episode is over. So charmed had I been with their interpretation and backstory, I went right to the computer to look him up [after I’d “digested.”]  I’d been very pleased to discover actual lore about the character had been incorporated. Once Upon a Time has built upon a basic fact of him - why he is called Rumpelstiltskin (which is the same as what his name means.) From Wikipedia:

The name Rumpelstilzchen in German means literally "little rattle stilt". (A stilt is a post or pole which provides support for a structure.) A rumpelstilt or rumpelstilz was the name of a type of goblin, also called a pophart or poppart that makes noises by rattling posts and rapping on planks. The meaning is similar to rumpelgeist ("rattle ghost") or poltergeist, a mischievous spirit that clatters and moves household objects. The ending -chen is a German diminutive and designates something as 'little' or 'dear,' depending on context.

AH, so that’s why Once Upon a Time had the character use a walking stick in this episode... and why his counterpart in “our world” of Storybrook, Mr. Gold, has a cane.

As for the rest of their version, well, they took some liberties.  Then again, it is in fact true that there's not much to go on about this mysterious little guy.  And what did they weave?  Well, they spun gold.  I’m not going to delineate (and hence spoil) the marvelous backstory as provided by the series, but suffice to say it has some excellent twists. It gives a “very fairy tale” explanation of how/why he has his supernatural powers, and again, in a not cliché manner. I also like that it left at a cliff hanger of sorts. We now know that he’s going to lose his child somehow (which helps explain why he desires another’s first born) but as of yet it hasn’t happened. But we know it will... and the tension left at the ending scene is still creeping me out.

Meanwhile, the “parallel story” in Storybrook proved just as compelling and just as delightfully inter-connected as has become par for the show. 

I didn’t think it possible to make me love the uber-icky and twistedly awesome Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold more than I already did. But the writers here certainly know how to manipulate my emotions - just like the character himself.

BRAVO!

Never Ask Why, Apparently.

Well the first thing to report about SyFy's Neverland is that I don't have to hate it.  But that doesn't mean there's really all that much to like, either.

If you're not aware, Neverland is the latest made for TV miniseries venture from the network to re-present a well known fantasy story.  In this case, obviously, the story of Peter Pan.

WARNING:  This post contains spoilers!  Read at your own risk if you haven't seen it and care to do so without having bits ruined for you.

What to start with...???
I suppose I must say I am miffed at the very least that they made the Neverland a planet.  We learn this right at the beginning and I sort of purposely forgot about it until the very end.  That's when they referred to the fact again and made it worse in my eyes.  You see, the whole adventure takes place on one big island.  But at the end Peter is excited that there's a bunch of islands on this globe.  HEY!  That's MY creation!  Yeah, okay, I am aware that it's not an exclusive thought.  But NEVERtheless, it is rather irksome.  At least I have the satisfaction of knowing I came up with and presented it first.

Other than that, though, I don't have any problem with it.  By which I mean in terms of direct connection to Barrie.  I'd been quite "worried" since it's a prequel.  One that comepletely ignores the one that Barrie wrote.  So.... you'd think I'd be up in arms, no?  The reason I'm not is because of one word: Re-imagine.  This version is meant to be a brand new spin on the whole of it.  It's not, therefore, necessarily meant to be conjuncted to Barrie's tales.  But that doesn't mean no negative bewonderment is involved, either.  But these are minor, assuming the show really does wish to "be its own thing."

The real issues, however, are with the story itself.  Sadly, it's the best of the (so far) three re-do's by SyFy.  Tin Man (a.k.a. The Wonderful Wizard of OZ) had some great tweaks, bits and ideas.  But ultimately it fell apart.  Alice (obvioulsy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) proved to be unwatchable.  Yes, really that bad if you ask me.  Neverland isn't as terrible as all that... yet it's still a half-baked mess with ingredients from just about everything other than Peter Pan.  It unfortunately FEELS like a mash-up and Barrie's tale is just the backdrop for the peppering of others.

Andrea Jones (Hook & Jill) sent me this article from the New York Times.  It's DEAD ON RIGHT, people.  So perhaps you want to read IT before you read my extra rants.  It will also save me from explaining much of what's going in this version.

I've seen many people complain about Peter's age in this show.  He seems well past the six-to-twelve span of Pan.  This, however, didn't bother me so much as other bits.  Like the fact that he behaved nothing like Barrie's boy, unless one counts reckless bravery.  At one point he became forgetful of his entire past, on account of the Tree Spirits (a.k.a. fairies) cursing him for being responsible for their home being destroyed.  But he quickly regains it when the 'Lost Boys' (never referred to as such... they're just rejects from Oliver Twist here) play "La Marseillaise" on his flute.

It's more like I have a bunch of "Why in the world...?" questions.  Like:  Why does Tinker Bell look like an Annie Lennox to whom time has not been kind?  Why do we not FLY to the Neverland?  (It's a magic orb that transports what surrounds it in an explosion relative to how hard it is struck.)  Why does the crocodile have extra limbs?  Why are there a lot of these crocodile-pedes?  Why did they make Starkey (an English school teacher turned pirate) into the Italian Cecco?  Why did they add a lost boy named Fox (oh, right, I knew the answer to this right away... so they could kill one of them and not erase one of Barrie's!)?  Why does Peter willingly wear a suit and tie at the end?  Why is he concerned with doing the right thing all the time?  Why does he never receive the name Pan [especially when the [as the show claims] 'power of a god' is given to him [flight/danger-sensing]?  Why is Hook the true name of Hook?  ...etc.

By the time we reach but one half hour left of a four hour show, Peter has not yet cut off Hook's hand.  And so, it all feels horribly rushed at the end.  It tries to be clever... having "Jimmy" say to Peter (in an effort to have him join forces with him when he steals the power of the Tree Spirits) Take my hand, Peter...  And when he finally does in the manner we all know and love, it's done by accident.  During a heated duel, Peter's long dagger gets in the way of a swipe by Hook and it's lopped off.  Wait a minute... not on purpose?  Nope.  Peter doesn't even fling it to the crocodile on purpose.  In fact, Peter doesn't do anything with it... it drops off into an abyss and A croc just happens by.  Then Peter demands the pocket watch that he recently discovered belonged to his father (whom he never knew and Hook had killed) and Hook throws at Peter's head, it bounces off, and the croc happens to eat it, too.  And then it inexplicably begins to tick loudly when it had never ticked once audibly before.  What's even worse is that we don't ever get to see Hook with a hook.  Nope.  Though they got the correct hand chopped off, we also don't get to see the stump. What a crock!  Not that I'm cheering for gore, but what a lousy break.  We're also left to go on what we know of the original tale that the croc wants more of James.  No chasing after him...

Oh... when Peter returns to the Neverland at the end (having used the orbs to come and go) the boys notice his shadow is missing.  As if it HAD to be included, so why not tack it on to the end inexplicably?  Or perhaps they intended the show to continue?

I did like the Indians. This tale knows enough to make them savages only in the eyes of others. These Indians are respectful of the Tree Fairies and act as caretakers and protectors of the Neverland.

It also used too many "pop culture misunderstanding" for my taste.  For insance, that only Peter can understand Tinker Bell.  Or that the Neverland is frozen in time and that no one at all ages there.  Both of these are fractionally true, and ultimately not.  Trust me.

And how is it that this connects to Wendy?  Not that it had been supposed to, as it is a prequel, but if Peter needs the instantaneous orbs to take her doesn't that blow the whole fun part of Barrie's story?

I could go on, I suppose, but it's just not worth it.

It's a valiant effort to reinvent the beloved story.  But the long and short of it is: WHY? Whatever it added to the tale didn't enhance the magic. It sort of undermined all of it.

Watch Once More Than Once...

Once upon a time...

creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis came up with a simple but elegant premise for a new TV show, Once Upon a Time.

I had hopes for this show.  Not necessarily high ones, but lofty enough that I wondered if it would be able to reach them.  As with most things, I waited patiently for it to arrive.

After viewing the pilot, I decided it to be worthy of another gander.  It didn’t blow me away, no.  But it didn’t smack of utterly lousy either.   In other words, it had potential.  So I gave it the chance it deserved.

Now many episodes in, I’m glad that I did.  It’s shaped up quite nicely.   I had wondered if such a simple plot could be sustained to a satisfactory level without being just a gimmick, and it turns out it can be.  Quite well.  What is this seemingly gimmick plot?

All the fairy tales are real (but of course) and the Evil Queen  has decided to take away all the happy endings.  She puts the most evil of curses on the land and the people - sending them to a horrible place: our world.  The characters are all now renamed and have forgotten their true identities and lives, living in a little town called Storybrook.  Just before the curse ‘hit’ however, Snow White and her Prince Charming sent their infant daughter Emma away via a magic portal.  Yep, Emma wound up here...ahead of everyone else.  Turns out she grew up and gave a child up for adoption.  Well, this child, a little boy named Henry, seeks her out as she is the only one who can restore the stories in his “magical” book of fairy tales.

It’s rather clever in its writing.  The counterparts (such as Queen/Mayor) work very nicely.  And the names are terrific.  Miss Blanchard, the schoolteacher... she’s Snow White.  Blanca/White.  A recent episode featured a maid named Ashley (sp?) and it’s learned she has two stepsisters and a stepmother.  Ah!  Cinderella.  Cinder/Ash.  Well played.  There are plenty of other allusions as such and it’s a joy to hear/see them come to light.

Since it’s on Disney-owned ABC, they’ve been using the Disney names.  Maleficent is mentioned, for instance, and the dwarves have the monikers made familiar by the animated feature Snow White.

It has enough questions that arise - such as who each character “is” or the mysteries surrounding the great tome of stories that the boy Henry carries around.  Where did HE get it?   Who would he be in the fairy tale land/s?  Would he be anyone since he’d been born outside of them?  What needs to be done for Emma to restore the fairy tales?

It's also interesting to see well-known characters behave differently.  Not just as their real-world counterparts but, for instance, Snow White as an outlaw thief (in the fairy tale land.)  For you see, part of what makes this show work is it doesn't singularize the focus.  We're treated to backstory in the fairy tale realm... which can also directly parallel events in the 'real' world.  Such as Rumpelstiltskin demanding a child for his services... but now he would have to go through adoption proceedings.  It's fun to see how the two worlds mirror (ha!) or collide with each other, as well as the welcome oddity of seeing White with a sword.  Thus, in both realms we're given new ways of looking at old stories.  And the "look" of the storybook lands is "just right."  

Maybe I’m just a sucker for fairy tales... no, that’s not it.  For it’s very easy to rework them poorly.  But this one seems to be doing something right.  A goodly amount of magic has been peppered into this show.  It doesn’t exactly sparkle with it, but it shines through nevertheless.

They Did THAT, too??

I just have to give a so-called

Shout Out

to writers

Bonnie & Terry Turner.

I've always known I liked their work.  Nay, loved.  You see, I'd read their names in the credits for such TV programs as That 70's Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun & the movie Coneheads and thought to myself:  Gee, they really know how to make quality coupled with laughs.

But just today I decided to put Bonnie Turner into IMDb and see what else falls under her (and his) creation.

To my utter delight (but which should have come as no surprise) I found many other favorites among their credits.

The Brady Bunch Movie, Tommy Boy (call this one a guilty pleasure if you must...it's just hilarious and very touching, deal with it!), Wayne's World (and its sequel), Whoopi (an unfortunately short-lived TV series that I adored) and but of course, Saturday Night Live.

I tip my hat to you both!  Thanks for oodles of pleasure over the years.  And I lovingly curse you for putting me in actual physical pain in my belly from laughing so much at Wayne's World.  Know that whenever I come across Coneheads on TV I get sucked in no matter what point of the movie I find it in...and watch to the end.

Looking forward to more from this couple!

Another Kind of British TV

I used to envy the way in which the television schedule worked in the United Kingdom.

Let me explain.  When I'd been a kid, all the new shows (whether it be actual new programs or a new batch of an old one) came out in the Fall.  That meant that all Summer (and sometimes Spring) long, you'd have to settle for reruns.  It seemed way too long for a kid, believe me.

Why couldn't we do it like the BBC, I'd wonder.  For I came to learn that their new shows were done in small chunks.  When a program aired, it only had a handful or episodes, 6 or 12 at the most.  When the episodes ran out, there'd be something else to take its place.  If the show had been successful, more were made and it came back in many less months of waiting... plus you had the other shows to boot.

Well, in today's world of "too many channels" it's almost as if we have the BBC way of doing the "telly."  It seems like when one show wraps it up for the time being, another old favorite has a slew of shows to air.  Then there's the "mid-season replacements" ... when networks test out a new show to see if gains a viewership.  Instead of a mammoth chunk of time when nothing new narrative-wise is on the small screen, we now have a constant stream and renewal of programs all throughout the year.

I, for one, am glad about it.  And now I no longer need to envy the British!  Well, at least not for that reason... if any other reason turns up, I'll let you know.

We Dream of What Now?

So the other day I sort of caught an episode of I Dream of Jeannie.  I say sort of because I had it on in the background while doing other things.

In the show, Major Tony Nelson learned that Jeannie had not been a genie for very long, as she said she'd been imprisoned at a young age into the bottle.  So to try and help her get over her apprehension of doing it right, Major Roger Healy suggests to Tony that he give her 1001 Nights: A Middle Eastern Folktale Collection (a.k.a Arabian Nights) so she can see how a genie behaves.

Tony likes the idea and buys it for her.  He tells her to read it cover to cover and he wants her to do all the things the genies do in the book.  Well... Jeannie reads it and gets very upset.  For she does not want to act like the genies in the tales.  For the genies are often cruel, manipulative and deceiving.  She begs Tony not to have to obey his command.  But he insists she follow it to the letter.

Distaught, Jeannie goes to Roger.  But Roger says she better do it, as it had been one of Tony's favorite books as a kid and he wants to see it just as it appears.  She reluctantly agrees.  And before we know it, Tony's hanging from his wrists above his head in a dank dungeon over a pit of snakes.

You see, Tony didn't quite remember the book for its actual content, rather his glorified recollection of specific parts.

I just found it interesting.  For isn't it the truth?  How often have we gone back to something and had a very different perspective on it, or been surprised at what we somehow forgot beyond our own picking and choosing of cherished sections?

I bet there are plenty of people for whom this is the case with Peter Pan!

Por que dizem que Peter Pan?

There's a new show on RTP1, a television station in Portugal.

It's apparently called Quem Tramou Peter Pan?  translated as:
Who Framed Peter Pan?

What is has to do with Peter Pan, I'm not really sure.  Seems whenever I'd click on a site (translation of it) it doesn't want to load.  Here's what I've been able to find out:

The show is for kids ages 5-10, giving them the opportunity to ask various skilled people questions.  Their areas of expertise include such fields as sports, art, music and television.  It's hosted by Catarina Furtado.

There are a bunch of pictures on a Flickr site.

Can you imagine Peter Pan in a propeller beanie cap?
He'd probably laugh at it, thinking it's supposed to make a child fly.

Good Spirits Last Night

I hope you all had a great Halloween.
Truth be told, it's my favorite holiday... yet I barely (if ever) do anything special for it.  I'm no longer the "wild party" type, so going to a spooky bash isn't really my thing.  I'm no longer Trick-or-Treat'ing, so I don't make rounds that way.  And I am often too lazy to decorate (but I do put some stuff out.)  Although I love the concept, I'm not all that into dressing up.  But otherwise, I find it the most intriguing and delightful.   (Except for the giant spider decorations on my block! - But that's rather the point, isn't it?)

However, yesterday I had a perfect Halloween!

This might sound pathetic to some, and it may be, but I rather enjoyed lounging around the house watching the many TV shows about the paranormal and hauntings plaguing the airwaves on account of the date.  Much to my chagrin, I had to keep switching around since I'd seen most of them before.  My fault for watching them whenever I can, I suppose.

Late in the afternoon, Bart left to go accompany his pseudo-cousin's kids on their Trick-or-Treat'ing.  Rather young kids - and they already had a gaggle of adults hovering around them, so I stayed home and kept watching spooky stuff.

Then, at dark, I decided I couldn't just sit around with no candy!  (We don't get Trick-or-Treat'ers since we're a building and not a house so there hadn't been any around.)  Thus, knowing myself to be deplorable, I paused the TiVo just as the skeptic husband would have his paranormal experience and ventured out anyway for something to snack on while watching.

I'm not out through the gate and I get a text message from Buttercup... who wants to know if she can come over.  Hosah!  I tell her I'll be right back (and it will take her a bit to travel to my place anyway.)  While on my way to the corner drug/convenience store to obtain my candy, I decide to cross the street (safely of course) at a place where one is not supposed to do so... why?  Because down the sidewalk going the proper way I see a tall, dark humanoid shape.  Looming.  Oooooo!  Not that I had any real reason to be scared but it did seem a little eerie.  Just standing there.  All dark, like a shadow person.  Not moving.  And here I just eariler had been watching a 'true' story of shadow people in a home!  It had been a real person and not a decoration, I'm sure... so I relished in the spooky nature, glad to have a 'fright' in fun and decided on an assortment bag of treats at the store.

Buttercup arrived and we talked for a while... and then Bart came back home.  Buttercup brought some spirits with her so we partook...and put on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  I had already caught it randomly the other night on TV (turned it on and voila! special treat) but Bart hadn't seen it yet this year... and Buttercup hadn't in many, too many, years.  Yes, I laughed at it all over again, as Peanuts is a favorite of mine.

Then we watched my favorite 'scary movie' - The Changeling.  I've been trying to convince Buttercup to watch it for many months now... but it's never happened either due to scheduling or the fact that she had been a little too scared to watch.  She actually loves scary movies, but, knowing that I revel in watching hauntings (as I did all day) and barely (if ever) get spooked by them and yet I find this one scary... well, she hadn't been so sure she wanted to see it.  (She's also been freaked by other movies that I didn't find frightful at all.)  But what better night than Halloween?  Once again, I found myself tensing up and ready to cry at a certain point, as always, but tears never come.  I just find it SO unnerving.  Other than that, though, I think I've seen it so many times that the paralyzing effect no longer applies.  Darn.  Buttercup truly liked it, though, in the sense of yeah...she got totally creeped out.

As an added bonus... I found myself scribbling down ideas for the novel I'm hammering out.  Yep!  Inspired by one of my favorite films.  No... not in the sense of stealing from it.  It's just that several of the scenes and/or subject matter sprung up ideas in my mind that I could find useful in other ways.  That spark I spoke of the other day turns out to be viable... and it looks as if I have something I can work with after all.  I still need the motivation from the one character... but then, I might start writing anyway without knowing that wherefore yet.  I'm sure he'll tell me as I go.

And so... that, to me, constitutes a great Halloween!

Don't Be Afraid of Fuller...

When Bryan Fuller wrote for Heroes, it rocked. When he left, it fell a little from grace. When he returned, it picked back up to a high degree... and again, when he left, it didn't work as well.

His Pushing Daisies series had been an innovative masterpiece and I think it's a shame that it didn't click with more people to remain on the air.

Well, Mr. Fuller is taking a stab at a reboot.

I, for one, am very interested in what he shall do with The Munsters.

His wacky and tender sensibilities just might do wonders with this concept.

Oh... and I still think they need to go with Brad Garrett.  It doesn't take a mad doctor to figure that one out.  He does a truly impeccable impression of Fred Gwynne.
Enough said.



A Little "Munster Cheese"