Monday, December 12, 2011

Miscellaneous Mondays: Embracing my Inner Nerd

Hello all! It's finals week in my little world, so that means some extra studying and a lot of extra hours at work. I'm ahead of the game this semester, so hopefully the stress won't get to me. In the meantime, check out my nerd moments for the week!

Grimm


I promised to share my thoughts on both new episodes, and so I shall. The first episode was about the Pied Piper, which is admittedly a fairy tale that I don't know a lot about. I vaguely remember a few cartoon versions of it, but never read the original and I have no emotional attachment to it. In this episode, I liked the concept of the Piper--weird and interesting at the same time. However, the underlying conflict of the poor kid getting teased because of his dad's job? Kind of boring. Again, this is something you could do with absolutely any crime show. I liked it better than the Bluebeard episode, but I still thought they could have done more with it.

I liked Friday's episode quite a bit. I like Monroe as a character, and getting some back story for him was a lot of fun. I also thought that this episode put some real effort into showing the complexity of the world of these creatures--they don't all like each other, and there are genuinely deadly situations that can arise. This has the potential to put Nick in some dilemma filled situations, and the show really needs that.

Overall though? This show is a cool concept, it really is, but I do feel like it's struggling to use it's fairy tale characters effectively. It's doing well with Monroe, but the rest of them just seem to come and go like extras in a B movie.

Supernatural, The Anime Series

After getting caught up in the live action show (Poor Bobby!) we finished watching the anime version. It spans the time frame of seasons 1 and 2 of the live action show, basing some episodes on those episodes, but having some that are completely original. Unless your a big Supernatural geek, you probably won't like it. But if you are, it offers a really different perspective on a familiar plot. There's a lot of things they can do in animation that aren't possible in a life action show, so it offers some disturbing and creative imagery. For my part, I was pretty entertained.

Once Upon a Time

This episode focused on the Huntsman from Snow White--Graham in the modern world--who is the first character to start to remember his old life. Josh called the ending of this one pretty early on, but it bummed me out anyway. They did a good job turning him into a compelling and likeable character in the span of one episode--that isn't easy to do. Overall, I think this show is getting comfortable with it's paranormal aspects, and hopefully it has a lot of good stories left to tell.

I'm also intrigued that there's a book coming out, presumably with the shows version of the fairy tales that it's been using.

Poll Results

In the question of killing evil, it's a three way tie between explosives, mental powers, and embracing evil. This leads me to conclude that most of our voters are mad scientists or evil inventors. Or both, I suppose.

The new poll asks: At what point do you think a series has too many books? Is there such a thing as too many? I definitely think there is, in fact I have some pretty strong opinions on this matter. I'm hoping that next week we can have a discussion about our favorite series, and why they should or shouldn't end any time soon. In the mean time, please vote on the right side of your screen. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the books in question are written by a very talented and beloved author. Happy Reading!

4 comments:

  1. Mad scientists embracing evil? My, my, you do have an exciting readership! ;)

    I agree with you 100% about Grimm - I'm enjoying it, but I think it could be even better if they'd add some solid, longer-running plotlines. Right now it's very episodic, and that's a pity. I adore Monroe - seriously adore him. Something about a cello-playing werewolf just strikes me as utterly fabulous.

    As for this week's poll question - I miss standalone titles. A LOT. But since we live in the decade of the series, I prefer mine in either trilogies or a maximum of seven books. More than that...well, you can look at the Dark Hunters, Anita Blake, or Janet Evanovich to see what happens then. *shudder*

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I was one of the one who chose to embrace evil! Hooray. We've prevailed.

    I didn't realise that there was an anime version of Supernatural!! I'm going to get right on that.

    And on the top of series, anything past 5 books is too long for me. Unless it's something epic like Harry Potter. Anything else and like BJ says, there's a marked decline in the series.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good luck on your finals! I've been enjoying Grimm, but I've missed the last few episodes. I need to catch up with that show soon!

    As for series length, I think, like everything else in life, it depends. If the writing is strong and the story stays fresh, I'll happily follow the author anywhere. If the story starts to get stale, or I feel like I'm reading the same story with interchangable characters from book to book, then I'm not so happy. However, if it's a long series I'll probably still read the new books, just because I've invested so much time in them already (so why not waste more, right?). I didn't say I was logical about it...

    ReplyDelete
  4. BJ--He plays cello and makes clocks! And does yoga! I would love for someone to stick a character like that in a paranormal romance, give me a break from all the ubber alpha types.

    Lan--I think if your going to go more than 5 or 6 books, your over-arching story has to have the depth to justify it. Otherwise, your stories WILL start to get stale no matter what you do.

    Scientist--I've been invested in series where I feel like I can't give up until the author does, and you know what that gets me? Suffering. Ok, not suffering necessarily, but certainly boredom. I'm learning to let go when the time comes. I'll talk about the particulars in next week's post, but suffice it to say I've had some series go sour.

    ReplyDelete

Thoughtful comments are appreciated! I always respond to them, and I usually return the favor! Happy reading!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...