From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V5 #36 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Monday, February 24 2003 Volume 05 : Number 036 Today's Subjects: ----------------- o/2 screen fictions ["Donald G. Keller" ] b/comments2/23 ["Donald G. Keller" ] Re: b/comments2/23 [allenw ] Re: b/comments2/23 [Hilary Hertzoff ] Re: b/comments2/23 [Todd Huff ] Re: b/comments2/23 [Hilary Hertzoff ] Re: b/comments2/23 ["Berni Phillips" ] Re: b/comments2/23 ["marty" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 07:39:11 -0500 (EST) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: o/2 screen fictions So I'm channel-surfing last night just after midnight, and I light upon this scene were a young woman is digging about in the innards of a spaceship and talking tech. The other two characters are the captain, old enough to be cynical but not grizzled, and a somewhat older woman with a calm manner. Sound familiar? The ship is broken-down; the captain is a bounty hunter (and thus moves from planet to planet); the plot involves shady deals, doublecrosses, and gunfights. In short, it's strikingly similar to =Firefly=. Catching the name of one of the actors in the credits, and doing a bit of brute imdb-ing (sorry for the new verb), I determined that the series was =Starhunter= (and not =Starhunter 2300=, apparently a sequel series, which confused me at first), a Canadian production from 2001. I.e. =before= =Firefly=. And it turned out that my feeling I'd seen the captain and the engineer before panned out: the captain is played by Michael Pare, whose work I know since my ex was a big fan of his (=Eddie and the Cruisers=, etc.), and the engineer is played by Tanya Allen, who was so good as the sardonic intern in the brilliant Canadian series =The Newsroom= (Ken Finkleman, resident genius). Frankly, =Starhunter= is not that good, and very cheaply made, and I'll comment no further on possible correspondences and what they might mean; except to reiterate that Percy (on =Starhunter=) and Kaylee (on =Firefly=) are so alike they might as well be the same character. Second item: I rented =City by the Sea= the other day, last year's Robert DeNiro vehicle in which Eliza Dushku has a supporting role. I watched the whole movie, but just in case anyone wants to sample only, I can tell you that ED shows up just before the half-hour mark, and vanishes again just after the hour mark. She has four or five scenes, and acquits herself quite well (no big surprise), though she doesn't have that much of a character to play. The movie stars DeNiro and Frances McDormand, but unfortunately it's not =Taxi Driver= meets =Fargo=; it's fair to say that neither of them (nor ED) is operating at full capacity here. It has the feel of a pretty good two-part episode of a solid but conventional cop TV show, or a TV movie "based on a true story" (which it is, but loosely). (That's the sound of faint praise drifting in.) The elements are completely ordinary: the cop with a troubled past who clashes with his superiors, street junkies, knife fights, gunfights, police procedures, interrogations, chases, "civilians" caught up in the situation, etc. etc. It rises above the routine at times because, both in the present-time narration and in the backstory, characters have untenable decisions to make and make catastrophically wrong ones; this can be quite admirably wrenching. At the same time, it has a surprising sentimental streak, and ends up being (to coin a glib phrase) a tough movie with a heart of goo. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, but like me he wasn't all that enthusiastic about it; he deemed it inferior to a similar, earlier DeNiro film called =This Boy's Life= (also starring Leonardo Di Caprio and a nine-year-old Eliza Dushku), which I haven't seen. (May have to seek it out.) =City by the Sea= is not a waste of time, but it's merely OK in my book. The most damning thing I can say is that the main plot resembles "Bad Girls"/"Consequences" (with ED's character's boyfriend, played pretty well by newcomer James Franco, in the Faith position), and that the =Buffy= two-parter is much the superior work. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 08:40:47 -0500 (EST) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: b/comments2/23 Thanks to those who answered my cry in the wilderness. More evidence (SMG and MT signing up for movie roles) that the winds of change are a-blowin' in Mutant Enemyland. A few mop-up comments. Meredith pointed out in conversation a very important line I failed to mention in last week's episode: Willow saying Kennedy was "the strongest one present" which is why she took strength from her for the spell. (But didn't the spell-flash strike Dawn as well?) This would seem to be further evidence that Kennedy is the most likely next Slayer. Someone on another list speculates that the vision of the Turok-han army was of the =past= (when demons ruled the earth) rather than the future. A point worth pondering. It might also be a vision of a =possible= future rather than a certain (prophesied) one. Todd: I hadn't considered that the way to solve Anya's problem was to kill D'Hoffryn somehow. Which would mean that his "nyah nyah, Slayer, can't catch me" was a hint that she =will= kill him rather than the closing-off of that possibility. Yes, the whole demon nature of the Slayer continues to be hinted at, most strongly in that exchange you remind us of from "Restless." It's an issue that I hope they fully address before they're done here. (Remember that Cordelia is now part-demon--likely the Slayer is something similar.) I'm inclined to agree with you that we'll find out eventually that Buffy did make the right choice in refusing the demon infusion; the show seems to at least covertly approve of her holding onto her humanity. As has been said before, it's why she's Not Your Average Slayer. And just so: she acquired knowledge and not power. I forget how I got there, but I was reading a post on the website slayage.com (not to be confused with slayage.tv, the site for the online journal =Slayage= run by the editors of the book I'm in), in which someone listed their Top Ten episodes: 10. Earshot 9. The Wish 8. Surprise/Innocence 7. Graduation Day 6. Once More, with Feeling 5. The Gift 4. Becoming 3. Hush 2. Restless 1. The Body Not a bad list, with the proper Top Three. My own list would certainly drop "The Wish" (good but minor) and "The Gift" (my least favorite, though not because of quality) and substitute "Passion," certainly, and possibly "Bad Girls"/"Consequences." The list was followed by a jillion comments with people posting their own lists and complaining about this one; "Passion" was frequently mentioned as a glaring omission. The second most popular omission seemed to be "Fool for Love," which some people had as high as first! (Ah, Spike fans...) Also interesting was how many people included "Selfless" and "Conversations with Dead People" from this season in their list of ten. Which leads to the conversation I had with Deirdre the other night. I was saying that this season has been unusual in that it's been so even: I don't think there have been any C episodes (well, "Him" is pretty disposable, but I found it consistently hilarious), but at the same time no certain A episodes either. ("Selfless" and "Conversations..." probably rate an A-, however.) She replied that it felt to her very much like 3rd season, and I had to agree. I think it would be possible to construct a very strong Top Ten list with =no= 3rd season episodes, yet (especially in the second half) it's probably the most consistently strong season of the seven. By contrast, the 2nd season has a weak first third, and seasons 4 through 6 have some of the very best plus a lot of routine to weak episodes. The 7th season has to end well (especially given it seems to be the =last= season) to cement that impression. It's well within Joss Whedon's ability to make it so. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:53:02 -0600 (CST) From: allenw Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Donald G. Keller wrote: > Meredith pointed out in conversation a very important line I failed to > mention in last week's episode: Willow saying Kennedy was "the strongest > one present" which is why she took strength from her for the spell. (But > didn't the spell-flash strike Dawn as well?) This would seem to be further > evidence that Kennedy is the most likely next Slayer. > Well, Kennedy is the oldest, and the best-trained, and has the most forceful personality of all the SiT's we've seen, so "strongest" seems an appropriate description. However, I took the entire exchange to be mainly a subtextual way for Willow to admit her tendency to latch onto someone and use them for external affirmation and support. > Someone on another list speculates that the vision of the Turok-han army > was of the =past= (when demons ruled the earth) rather than the future. A > point worth pondering. It might also be a vision of a =possible= future > rather than a certain (prophesied) one. > I didn't see it as past *or* future. I saw it as a present-time look at exactly what's waiting under the Hellmouth and/or the Turok-Han Pez Dispenser of Doom (I'm not sure if the two are supposed to be one and the same these days), with the implication that they're coming out soon. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 13:22:55 -0500 (EST) From: Hilary Hertzoff Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Donald G. Keller wrote: > Thanks to those who answered my cry in the wilderness. More evidence (SMG > and MT signing up for movie roles) that the winds of change are a-blowin' > in Mutant Enemyland. > > A few mop-up comments. > > Meredith pointed out in conversation a very important line I failed to > mention in last week's episode: Willow saying Kennedy was "the strongest > one present" which is why she took strength from her for the spell. (But > didn't the spell-flash strike Dawn as well?) This would seem to be further > evidence that Kennedy is the most likely next Slayer. Were there other potentials in the room? I just assumed that it was some form of proto-slayer power and she just pulled it from Kennedy because she was closest. I also have this odd feeling that the focus is on Kennedy, not because she's the next slayer, but because she's being set up for a fall. She's just being portrayed as a little too arrogant between her treatment of the other potentials and her flattery of Willow... Hilary Hilary L. Hertzoff From here to there, Mamaroneck Public Library a bunny goes where a bunny must. Mamaroneck, NY - Little Bunny on the Move hhertzof@panix.com by Peter McCarty ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 10:33:49 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Huff Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 - --- allenw wrote: > On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Donald G. Keller wrote: > > > Meredith pointed out in conversation a very > important line I failed to > > mention in last week's episode: Willow saying > Kennedy was "the strongest > > one present" which is why she took strength from > her for the spell. (But > > didn't the spell-flash strike Dawn as well?) This > would seem to be further > > evidence that Kennedy is the most likely next > Slayer. I think Anya was the other source of power for Willow, not Dawn. Anybody still got a tape? > > Someone on another list speculates that the vision > of the Turok-han army > > was of the =past= (when demons ruled the earth) > rather than the future. A > > point worth pondering. It might also be a vision > of a =possible= future > > rather than a certain (prophesied) one. > > > I didn't see it as past *or* future. I saw it as > a present-time look at > exactly what's waiting under the Hellmouth and/or > the Turok-Han Pez > Dispenser of Doom (I'm not sure if the two are > supposed to be one and the > same these days), with the implication that they're > coming out soon. That's how I took it as well. The background didn't seem to be ruins so much as an enormous cavern. . Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 13:48:11 -0500 (EST) From: Hilary Hertzoff Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Todd Huff wrote: > --- allenw wrote: > > On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, Donald G. Keller wrote: > > > > > Meredith pointed out in conversation a very > > important line I failed to > > > mention in last week's episode: Willow saying > > Kennedy was "the strongest > > > one present" which is why she took strength from > > her for the spell. (But > > > didn't the spell-flash strike Dawn as well?) This > > would seem to be further > > > evidence that Kennedy is the most likely next > > Slayer. > > > I think Anya was the other source of power for Willow, > not Dawn. Anybody still got a tape? I actually watched the tape last night because I couldn't remember... There were actually two instances of Willow drawing power from people nearby - when she got fed up with the Latin she pulled power from Dawn and Kennedy; later when she actually opened the portal she pulled power from Anya and Kennedy and Dawn is no where in sight. I hadn't remembered that there were two flashes. Which brings up an interesting point noticed on one of my other lists...there is something off with the time this year - most specifically during the episodes after Conversations With Dead People. > > > > Someone on another list speculates that the vision > > of the Turok-han army > > > was of the =past= (when demons ruled the earth) > > rather than the future. A > > > point worth pondering. It might also be a vision > > of a =possible= future > > > rather than a certain (prophesied) one. > > > > > I didn't see it as past *or* future. I saw it as > > a present-time look at > > exactly what's waiting under the Hellmouth and/or > > the Turok-Han Pez > > Dispenser of Doom (I'm not sure if the two are > > supposed to be one and the > > same these days), with the implication that they're > > coming out soon. > > That's how I took it as well. The background didn't > seem to be ruins so much as an enormous cavern. > I assumed this as well...apparently there's been more bleeding on the seal than we've seen. Hilary L. Hertzoff From here to there, Mamaroneck Public Library a bunny goes where a bunny must. Mamaroneck, NY - Little Bunny on the Move hhertzof@panix.com by Peter McCarty ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:51:57 -0800 From: "Berni Phillips" Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 From: "Hilary Hertzoff" > > I also have this odd feeling that the focus is on Kennedy, not because > she's the next slayer, but because she's being set up for a fall. She's > just being portrayed as a little too arrogant between her treatment of the > other potentials and her flattery of Willow... Well, killing off Kennedy would certainly be in keeping with Joss' go-for-the-hurt MO. Berni ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 16:19:56 -0800 From: "marty" Subject: Re: b/comments2/23 ... > > Well, killing off Kennedy would certainly be in keeping with Joss' > go-for-the-hurt MO. > I am not sure Joss would be willing to take the flack if he killed off another lesbian character. I suspect she and Willow will go off into the sunset hand in hand. ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V5 #36 ****************************