Fables: A New Look At Old Tales

Bill Willingham's Fables is the story of the fairy tale characters we read about growing up (or I guess it would be more accurate to say we watched their Disneyfied stories growing up) populating a small village in New York City. For centuries, characters like Snow White, her sister Rose Red, Prince Charming, Beauty, the Beast, and Pinnochio have lived in our "mundane" world after they were forced to flee from their Homelands by a despotic dictator. Known only as The Adversary, he raised an army of vicious mythical creatures like goblins, trolls, and dragons, as well as a group of highly trained animate wooden soldiers and began taking over the various lands of the different stories. Many parallels are made to Hitler and World War II, such as when, on the annual remembrance day, King Cole, the mayor of Fabletown (one of the two homes for the refugee Fables) reminds them all that the takeover is partly their own fault. When the first few lands started to fall to The Adversary (including Narnia), most people in other lands paid no attention because their own lands were safe for the time being.

The Fables have been forced to live out their immortal lives either in Fabletown or the Farm in upstate New York. The Fables believe that discovery by normal humans (referred to as mundies, short for mundane) would be catastrophic, and any Fable that cannot pass for human (including giants, tiny people, and sentient animals) is required to live at the Farm. The earliest exiled Fables arrived in Fabletown around the time the American colonies were being settled, so by the time the series begins, they are all well-acquainted with the mundy world. The first few stories are about various goings-on in Fabletown and at the Farm. So why is this series worth reading if it is just about Sleeping Beauty and Little Boy Blue in the real world? Well, partly because these characters are more "real" than they'd like to admit.

Most of us are only acquainted with the Disney versions of these characters, so it is quite a shock to see Prince Charming as a womanizer or Jack Horner (who is the embodiment of nearly every Jack from fairy tales) as a con man. Pinnochio, who has been alive for centuries, has mentally aged into a grown man, but retains the body of a child. And the Frog Prince... um, better leave that one unspoiled. These characters are much closer to who they were when they were originally conceived; the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson had much darker characters in their stories than Disney wants us to remember, and the characters of Fables are a breath of fresh air for those of us who know that fairy tales are not only for kids (see: the works of Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro).

The stories in Fables are based on real life problems, such as Bigby Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf) trying to solve a murder, or Prince Charming running for Mayor, but there are two things that complicate matters. First, magic and immortality play a role (characters that are popular are harder to kill than more obscure characters, so a murdered Fable can be resurrected if there is a resurgence in their popluartiy in the mundane world), and second, the Fables must do everything in such a way so as not to be discovered by the rest of the world.

There is also the conflict in the Homelands that becomes an issue in later issues, which certainly makes the second problem listed above hard to achieve.

Up next: the tale...

The Sandman: What Dreams May Come

One reason that I find describing the actual plot of Sandman difficult is that it is very much a character study. There are many great character-based stories that I enjoy that can be easily summarized; Buffy is about a girl who has been chosen to combat vampires and demons, American Beauty is about a man's midlife crisis/reawakening, and LOST is about a group of people marooned on a tropical island. Granted, I am eliminating all of the nuance and why the plots are what they are, but it is possible to encapsulate those stories into a brief sentence. Gaiman describes the plot this way: The lord of dreams learns he must change or die, and makes his choice. Unlike the plot descriptions I listed, which can be divined from a brief trailer, one would not realize that Sandman's plot had anything to do with change until it was over.

Though each story arc has its own self-contained storyline, the whole doesn't come together until near the end. Y: The Last Man, another Vertigo series with a planned ending, had self-contained story arcs, but from the beginning, there was a clear goal for Yorick Brown to achieve. With The Sandman, Dream is not striving towards anything in general. He is going about his duties, and confronts various obstacles along the way. Dream has enemies, but he doesn't have an arch-villain like Lex Luthor. In fact, the beings that cause him the most trouble do not attack him for personal reasons. And, as I said in the last post, humans tend to drive the story more than Dream or any of the Endless.

The Sandman does have an overall plot, but, like a good dream, it is fragmented by various stories that only fully make sense once they are looked at as a whole. Most of the long story arcs take place in the present, while most of the one-shot stories take place in the past. Dream says things and meets with people in the present, and these things seem strange until we see a scene from the past that explains it. In the first storyline, there is a segment where Dream is in Hell to reclaim his sigil, and while there, he runs into a soul who begs for forgiveness. This is meaningless until we learn of his history with Dream. Speaking of Dream's time in Hell, the theme of that issue is Hope, and though the idea of hope is reiterated again in the series (Despair reminds us that dreams are hopes, and that she is jealous of her brother because she is a creature of nothing but despair), the illustration of the power of hopes and dreams in that issue is incredible. Going back to the past/present stories, there are also times when recurring characters in stories taking place in the past come back in the present to set off major events.

Like most of Gaiman's work, fantasy and reality are expertly integrated. In the waking world, there are immortals and gods who walk the Earth, but they are not nearly as powerful as we imagine them to be. Only in dreams do they have that kind of power. There are a few times when things get slightly more fantastic in reality than they otherwise would be, but that is partially because the series initially took place in the DC universe, then slowly shifted into its own once Vertigo stopped being a part of mainstream DC continuity. Plenty of "weird shit" (as one character refers to it) happens in the waking world, but not everyone who experiences the weird shit ends up believing that the weird shit actually happened. Sometimes, they convince themselves that it was just a dream. But, as Dream says early on, it is NEVER just a dream.

Up next: Legends...

The Sandman: The Heart of the Dreaming

Without mortal living beings, there would be no Endless. If there were no beings who could dream, or desire, or die, Dream, Desire, and Death would have no purpose. And so, many of the story arcs feature Dream as a co-protagonist, while humans in the waking world take on equally important roles.

One of the best examples is A Game of You, a story which takes place about halfway through the series. A young woman in New York realizes that the fairy tale land she dreamed of as a child is coming back to reclaim her. The world exists in the Dreaming (Dream's realm) because she imagined it, and it is being taken over by a malevolent nightmare creature. The beings that inhabit it, who were her imaginary friends when she was a little girl, send an envoy to the waking world in order to bring her back in an attempt to save it. Had she not imagined the Land (that is the name of her imaginary world), there would be no story.

That brings me to one aspect of the Dreaming that I enjoyed very much. In Dream's castle is a library that contains every book ever imagined. And by that, I mean every book EVER conceived, whether it got published, written, or never left the mind of the author (in the Dreaming, I am a published author). Dream has the power to create nightmares that never existed in the waking world, but the Dreaming is filled with things that reflect our imaginations. For example, the gates of the castle are guarded by mythological creatures that never really existed, but they are creatures we are familiar with because we imagined them.

Some humans are powerful enough to have drastic effects on the Dreaming itself. Two characters are introduced in the second story arc, The Doll's House, that each can have profound effects on Dream and the Dreaming (I don't want to go too far into who they are or what they can do in an effort to not spoil anything). We are the dreamers and we are the creators of myth and story.

Up next: A midsummer night's Dream...

The Sandman: Endless Entertainment

How do I begin? As I said, The Sandman represents not only the work that made Neil Gaiman into Neil Gaiman, but it is also regarded as one of the best and most important comic book series of all time. For about seven years (is that somehow symbolic?), Gaiman told the story of Dream, the third sibling of the Endless, seven beings who had dominion over various states of being. Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium made up a wonderfully dysfunctional family that has been around since the universe was here. The are older than the oldest god and will be here until the last sentient being in the universe is gone. (**NOTE: Although I will not be discussing plot in this post, I will be talking about things that can be construed as spoilers, so be careful**) They rule over their dominions believing that they are in control of their aspects, when the very opposite may be true. They are extremely powerful, but like other higher powers in Gaiman's worlds, they exist to serve those they control.

This first post will focus on the Endless because I think that they are a wonderful concept. For one thing, I tend to agree with Gaiman on the nature of higher beings; gods are created by men, not the other way around. We needed ways to explain the unexplainable, so we created deities more powerful than ourselves and worshipped our ideas. Gods are at the height of their power when they are actively and widely worshipped, and they do not die until they are finally forgotten. But the time between being worshipped and being forgotten can last many years. However, things like desire, destruction, and (especially) death will never be forgotten. We may not worship the Endless, but we are obsessed with them because we cannot escape them. Death is an inevitability that nearly everyone fears and some wish to overcome. In fact, the series begins when a magician in the early 20th century tries to do just that (his mistaken result sets off the events of the series, but more on that in a later post). Dreams and delirium are the obsessions of psychiatrists who seek to understand the human mind. We all dream, and often wonder what the images and experiences mean. As for delirium, I believe that no one is ever completely sane, and while some people may be crazier than others, sanity is relative. As for desire and despair, I have to admit that Gaiman is a genius making them twins. These are both very powerful emotions that can often go together. Unfulfilled desires often lead to despair, and because desire is often not based on reality (intense crushes tend to cause the person who has them to view the object of their desire as more ideal than the person truly is). Destiny is a little trickier, but there are certainly people who believe that everything is fated. I think one of the reasons Destiny had to be included was because he is in many ways the anti-Dream; one is the lord of everything that was, is, and ever will be, while the other's dominion is what never was, isn't, and never will be. And destruction is inevitable; whether it is intended or not, nothing new can be created without the old being destroyed.

And that is as good a segway as any into the idea of the Endless as "lords of opposites", as Destruction says. The Endless states are so powerful that they literally define their opposites. As I said above, destruction often leads to creation. We define life by looking at death; we do what we can while we are here because we know it will end one day. Desire often leads to hatred and repulsion, especially when despair gets involved. And dreams can define reality. In the series, an early issue suggests that this is literally true; Dream tells a cat that if enough beings dream the same dream, reality will reflect those dreams. But in our reality, the truth isn't far off. Before anything can happen in the waking world, someone must have thought about it. Someone must have dreamed it. Martin Luther King had a dream. It may not have been fully realized yet, but we are certainly getting closer to seeing it become reality (just look at our next president!) because enough people believe in it.

But aside from how well-conceived the Endless are, I think I enjoy them so much because they are also well-written. Especially Death. Unlike most representations of Death, Gaiman's Death is perky, cheery, optimistic, and cute. No one in the entire series values life more than Death. She is arguably the most popular character from the series, and is certainly one of my favorites. For a while, she was definitely my favorite character from the series, but I have to admit that Delirium really grew on my in the final issues. Part of it has to do with the fact that I met someone who has become a very close friend, and Delirium reminds me of her a bit. This is nothing but a compliment; the best qualities of Delirium are at times reflected in this person (and there are other things as well), and it made me smile reading these final issues, seeing as how Delirium grows from a relatively weak and timid character into a competent one.

Still, I think that Death will forever be my favorite Endless, if for no other reason than she exemplifies the opposing nature of them so well. In what other story involving a personification of Death are you going to hear it discussing Disney's film version of Mary Poppins and trying to explain the meaning of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?! This panel made me laugh out loud when I saw it:

I know that this post made it sound like this book is about nothing more than the adventures of the Endless, but that is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. The Endless exist to serve humans, despite what a few of them wish to think. The Sandman is about life and storytelling, and the stories belong to humanity. Therefore, while the Endless generally and Dream in particular are the protagonists, the events would not happen nor would they have any importance if it weren't for the humans involved.

Up next: Dream a little dream of me...

Watchmen: Legal Troubles

I try to keep my posts fairly neutral when it comes to politics and stuff like that. The Other Worlds exists to showcase films, television shows, and books to people who may be unfamiliar with them. Furthermore, there are plenty of other people on the internets who have been putting their two cents in on this subject, and normally, I wouldn't feel like it was my business throwing mine in as well. However, I have a perspective on the whole issue that I have not yet seen in any other entries, so I thought that I would share.

For those of you who don't know, there has been a legal battle regarding the movie rights to Watchmen. 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights the comic book many years ago, but never made the movie. I do not pretend to know why. Maybe they tried and never got a script they liked (unlikely though, because they could have an awful script, and people would still turn up to see it). I'm not sure exactly when Fox got the rights, but it has been at least 15 years. Anyway, Warner Brothers finally made the movie themselves (they likely have some kind of rights to the property, because Warners owns DC Comics, which published Watchmen). And then, with about half a year until the film was to be released, Fox sued Warner Brothers for their copyright interest in the film. A few days ago, this happened: a federal judge ruled for Fox. Fox now has some distribution rights, and will likely use them to earn a shit-ton of money from the movie's box office receipts. Even though they did absolutely no work.

As many of you know, I am currently in law school, and I recently completed my first semester. One concept we learned about was laches. Basically, laches prevents someone with a legitimate interest in something from making a legal claim for that interest if they allow too much time to pass. The example given in my handy dandy legal dictionary goes something like this (certain details have been changed for comic effect):

Let's say someone owns a piece of property. We'll call him Rupert. Along comes a builder. We'll call him Zach. Zach believes that he has the right to construct a building on Rupert's property. Rupert says nothing. Zach completes the building and wants to rent out the space to a group of watch makers. Rupert sues for ownership of the land and demands all revenue from the watch makers. According to my dictionary, there are not one, but TWO reasons why Rupert should shove his claim up his ass. First, he knew of the construction, and waited until it would benefit him, and second, he will benefit at Zach's expense. Keep in mind that I am just a lowly first year law student, and there is likely much more at play, but this laches arguments seems pretty solid to me.



Up next: Enter Sandman...

The Fantastic, The Mundane, and The Real

At long last, I have finished Neil Gaiman's magnum opus, The Sandman. The comic is considered one of the greatest in history, usually ranked behind only Alan Moore's Watchmen on the lists of best and most important comic series. I promised that I would do a series on it once I finished, and I am very excited to begin. The Sandman is about life and the importance of stories, and while I don't think it has "changed my life", it has certainly made me think about storytelling and certain aspects of humanity differently.

While thinking of Gaiman's style of mixing the fantastic with the mundane, my thoughts wandered to Fables, a current comic book by Bill Willingham, which is published under DC's vertigo imprint, which was partially created by Gaiman with Sandman. The very nature of Fables combines magic and mundane, as it follows exiled fairy tale characters who must live out their lives in our world after a cruel dictator came to power in their Homelands. Most critics claim that Fables is the best comic in production right now, and it is very hard to argue that. Some have even claimed that it could be as good as Sandman (to that I say that is like comparing apples and oranges because the two books are very different once you get past the whole "fantasy and reality" similarity).

Finally, I want to begin with a brief post on Watchmen. I will probably wait until the movie is released to do a series on Watchmen itself (you know, for one post on comparisons and such), but a certain thing happened the other day that I believe merits discussion.

Up next: Taking the law into your own hands...

Pushing Daisies: Predictions

In my last post on Pushing Daisies, I meant to make some predictions about what could have been had the show gone on, because Bryan Fuller has said that he had a definite planned ending for the story of Ned and Chuck. I know that it won't do much good, since it will be nothing but speculation that will likely never be (dis)proven, but it's fun, I guess. But first, I don't know why I didn't figure out who the masked man was in "The Norwegians", but I'm kinda glad I didn't, because I was blown away by the reveal at the end. **SPOILER ALERT** Ned's father briefly showed up in the Pie Hole in the season premiere, and the reintroduction of Ned's half-brothers has led us to believe that Ned's father will make a reappearance sometime this season, but I was not expecting it like that. I had a hard time believing that Charles Charles was the masked man who saved Ned and Olive, but I couldn't think of anyone else who it could be. So now, the questions are these: why did Ned's dad have to conceal his identity from Ned (aside from any obvious explanation of Ned would resent him)? Why did he need to wear gloves when he touched Ned? And why is he back now (or has he been silently lurking in the shadows for longer than we've realized)?

Anyway, I have often wondered whether the people Ned touches and leaves alive can ever die again of natural causes. Digby is still alive, which leads me to believe that only a second touch from Ned can re-dead the people (I am still not sure if the people Ned touches can be killed through methods that would kill a normal person, such as being shot or stabbed; I'm inclined to think no, because many people brought back are in pretty messed up conditions). So I imagined an ending where Ned is very old, and Chuck is still young and beautiful. This ending has a few possibilities. One has me imagining Ned touching Chuck while on his deathbed, so they are reunited in death. Another sees Ned dying without touching Chuck again, and when Chuck kisses Ned's dead body, she learns that the touch only works if Ned is alive, and she is doomed to be alone forever. As you can see, I am very sadistic when it comes to fictional characters. This is a dark story (in spite of the bright colors), and I feel something like the above ideas would fit it well. But now, we'll probably never know Fuller's intentions. Oh well.

Up next: More great stuff...

Dexter: Dear Daddy Dexter

So another season of Dexter has come to a close. I never really thought about covering it as it was going on because I was forced to watch in short, sporadic bursts. I didn't even see the first episode until six had already aired. I don't get Showtime, so I would have to go back to my parents' house to watch when I had time throughout the semester. With the first semester done, I took a short trip to finish the last three episodes of the season today, and while this was not the best season of the show, there were certainly some great moments. There were also a few things I wish had been cleared up and a few things I wished had happened, but what oh well.

This season was about two things: first, Dexter had to learn to reaccept his father after losing faith in Harry in Season 2. Dexter also had to discover why he would always be alone. These two ideas were certainly intertwined, but I believe they can be viewed separately. Last year, Dexter's perfect father turned out to be not-so-perfect after all when Dexter learned that Harry was having an affair with Dexter's biological mother, which may have led to her death. Dex also learned that Harry committed suicide when he accidentally walked in on Dexter carving up one of his victims. In response to this, Dexter vowed to recreate Harry's code to be more in line with what Dexter thought it should be, not what a dead dishonest man believed it should be. The early episodes saw Dexter strangle a child molester without any preparation and consider killing a defense attorney who had never killed anyone herself, but was responsible for keeping killers out of jail. But the biggest change in his life was when he accidentally killed someone in the heat of the moment. When Dexter went to kill a murderous drug dealer, he found that someone else was there. The drug dealer got away, and Dexter had to kill in order to avoid being killed himself. This event put Dexter on his other path of the season, in which he learned (again) why he will always be alone.

The man Dexter killed was the brother of Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado, a rising star with a reputation for being tough on crime (little did anyone know just how tough he really was...). During the investigation into Prado's brother's death, Prado and Dexter became friends, even though Dexter couldn't quite understand why. People like Angel and Masouka have considered Dexter a friend throughout the series, but Dexter always tolerated them. He feigned friendship, but there was nothing more to the way Dexter felt about them. But with Prado, Dexter actually found himself liking his company. It didn't hurt that when Prado discovered Dexter after he succeeded in killing the drug dealer, Prado THANKED Dexter for killing the man Prado believed was responsible for his brother's death. The two of them eventually became partners in vigliante justice, and Dexter taught Prado the tricks of the trade and the code. And the whole time, Prado was all too eager to learn.

Sadly, Dexter was forced to remember lesson he learned with his brother, the Ice Truck Killer, and Lilah. His brother, Lilah, and Prado all accepted Dexter for the monster he was, but that was because they themselves were monstrous. The Ice Truck Killer had a compulsion to kill, and he took the lives of innocents, something Dexter does not accept. Lilah was obsessive, and would do anything to keep Dexter, even if it meant ruining the lives of some and ending the lives of others. And Prado wanted to do what Dexter did out of a deranged sense of justice. Dexter kills to satisfy an urge, and makes himself feel better by rationalizing that his victims deserve it. Prado kills people he believes are guilty, and guilt doesn't necessarily mean that his victims fit Harry's code.

There are still a few things I am confused about. For one thing, why did Prado take the effort to earn Dexter's trust through the shirt (you'll know what I mean when you watch the season) only to give Dex a shirt with cow's blood. First of all, why did Prado feel the need to con Dexter? How could he know that Dexter would teach him his secrets (or that he even had such secrets)? And he knew that Dexter is a blood spatter analyst! How could he not figure that if something were to go wrong, Dexter would see through the ruse? And why didn't Prado ever suspect that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher? He clearly knew about the case and knew that the Butcher was in Dexter's department, based on comments he made to LaGuerta, and he likely knew that there were a few things in the case that didn't add up. Speaking of the Butcher, I was really hoping that LaGuerta was going to be conducting an off-the-books investigation into who the Butcher really was because she had proof that it clearly wasn't Doakes. Anyway, this was still an entertaining season.

Up next: Another TV update...

Pushing Daisies: The Future?

So, all season, Pushing Daisies has been building up long story arcs that have been extremely captivating. Last year, most episodes were fairly stand-alone. Viewers had to watch each week to keep up with the characters' lives, but most stories were self-contained. The show did try to introduce a recurring story (Molly Shannon's salt-water taffy seller was supposed to be involved in a multi-episode arc dealing with her murder of the health inspector, but the writers' strike cut that short). The show was great, but I would have liked a little more overarching stories aside from the Ned/Chuck relationship (not that it wasn't great, because it was). Well, this year, my wish was granted. Then ABC cancelled the fucking show. Ugh.

This year, the show set up the return of Ned's father and the search for Emerson Cod's daughter in the first episode. From out of Ned's dad story, we were introduced to Ned's young half brothers and Dwight Dixon, who quickly became my new favorite character. I like to think that, had the show gone on, Dwight would have returned somehow, because he was far too compelling to leave buried in Chuck's dad's grave. Speaking of which, the end of last night's episode, "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy", set up one hell of a plot line. Chuck tricking Ned into not redeading her dad was great, but now that the half-decomposed man with a grudge against Ned is on the loose, things will likely get very interesting for the Pie Hole crew (or, at least, they would had the show gone on). Oh, and Olive as a junior PI was frickin' priceless. Speaking of Olive, we will be cheated out of her songs, which are always a pleasure:



Bryan Fuller has said that he is in talks to make a comic book continuation, and is hopeful of a movie, but right now, I'm kind of pessimisstic about the movie, which I would infinitely prefer over a comic (a comic could do things with visuals that a movie could not, but the actors breathe life into the characters, and their absense in the comic would truly be felt). Also, there have been reports that Fuller is reshooting the final episode to make it more final. In one sense, I guess this is good because we won't be left with as many loose ends, but there was obviously so much more that Fuller wanted to cover, and I doubt he'll be able to do what he envisioned by reshooting one episode. Oh well. It has been great while its lasted, and I'm sure the final four episodes will continue to be great. But there was so much more that was yet to be seen.

Up next: Finals are almost over, so plan for new ideas soon...

The Shawshank Redemption: The Power of Hope

I remember how I once tried to convince a friend to watch this movie. I told him it was based on a Stephen King novella, and he absolutely refused to watch, believing it to be a horror film. It took me almost an hour to convince him that this was anything but, and at the film's end, he was happy that I wore him down because he, like many people I know, came to see this as one of the finest movies ever made. The Shawshank Redemption is set in a prison, but is a story of friendship, morality, and most importantly, hope. The prisoners are, for the most part, good (enough) men while the guards are corrupt and brutal. The deranged prisoners are hated among the rest of the population, and while the incarcerated men are mostly guilty of the crimes they have been imprisoned for, they look out for each other and act more like war buddies in a POW camp than hardened criminals who have to survive prison.

Tim Robbins' Andy Dufresne is a quiet and meek man who has been accused of killing his wife and her lover. He had the motive and definitely contemplated it, but he continually asserted his innocence throughout his trial. He was convicted and sent to Shawshank prison, a punishment the judge found particularly gruesome. When he arrived, he was met by vicious guards, a judgmental and corrupt warden, and a pack of prisoners who spent their time trying to corner Andy in order to rape him. A man like Andy should barely have lasted five minutes in such a hellhole. But there was also Red, played by Morgan Freeman, a likeable convict who was everyone's friend in the prison because he knew how to get things from the outside. Some people wanted cigarettes, while Andy used Red to get him a rock hammer to further his geology hobby while behind bars. Andy and Red became friends, and Andy eventually was welcomed into Red's group of strangely lovable prisoners.

In order to maintain his sanity, Andy took up projects while at Shawshank, which included petitioning the governor to give him funds to improve the prison library, tutoring a young convict who never graduated high school, and, eventually, becoming a crooked accountant at the, um, behest of the warden. Andy pointed out the irony that he was an honest banker in his real life, and that he had to go to prison to become a crook. These projects gave Andy hope that he could still live a somewhat normal life, even behind bars. Red, who narrates the film, often pointed out that Andy never truly became one of the prisoners. The film examined what a life in prison could do to a man, which was most tragically illustrated through the elderly Brooks, who likely made one bad decision in his youth and spent the rest of his life paying for it.

Meanwhile, as we saw the goodness that could exist in the hearts of prisoners, we watched how the appointed watchmen of the prisoners committed crimes far worse than anything Andy or his fellow convicts had ever done. On Andy's first night in Shawshank, the Captain of the Guard beat a man to death for crying. Captain Hadley never passed up an opportunity to show the inmates of Shawshank who held the power; on one occassion, Hadley nearly threw Andy off of a roof for making a comment that Hadley misinterpreted. Warden Norton silently condoned this behavior, and became a man worthy of incarceration himself when he created a scheme that forced the prisoners to act as slave labor for local construction projects. He didn't have to pay his "workers", and was able to underbid every local contractor (that is unless the contractors paid him off to let them get desperately needed work).

I can't delve too deeply into the film's message about the beauty and necessity of hope without giving away the ending (though I think the filmmakers took the path of stating that the journey is more important that the conclusion because of the way the promotional materials pretty much gave away the ending). Basically, the film looked at how the lack of hope made the experience in prison so awful for some, how clinging to hope could make things worse for others, and how acting on hope could make all the difference for the rest.

Speaking of hope,

Up next: Almost hopeless...

Pushing Daisies: A Love Song

I know that I've already addressed the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, but after tonight's incredible episode, the reality of the situation became all the more painful. The show has always excelled at simultaneously tickling the funny bone and tugging the heart strings, and tonight was one of the best episodes yet.

Note: Some spoilers...

The Dwight Dixon story line has successfully captivated me, and though I am sad to see its end, I know that there is still more to learn about this mysterious man. Chuck's little deception will certainly help shed some light on that subject... and will cause a lot of tension between her and Ned. Watching Chuck deal with her own guilt was hard enough, but watching how Ned will react will be something else entirely. Also, was I the only one who thought that the death in exchange for breaking the 60 second rule was going to be Lily?

The other story followed Ned and Olive at a baking competition, and we were treated to a Wonderfalls crossover, a disturbing reanimated body (extra crispy), and some great Olive moments. I love Ned and Chuck and the things they do to be together (they have found a great way to sleep in the same bed), but I can't help but feel for Olive (let's just say that I feel her pain, which made this episode a little tough tonight). After all, who could not love her after this:



I can't believe there are only 5 episodes left. I still remember the huge marketing push that ABC did before the season began (there are still a few ads on the trains and buses around the city), and how much hope it gave me for a full-length season and a long lasting show. Sadly, Bryan Fuller will once again be given the shaft and will be sent back to Heroes (another sinking ship, though that is for quality reasons). Well, at least what we got was incredible. There will probably be a few more posts as the remaining episodes air.

Edit: There are two videos because the second adds a little context. I can't get rid of the original video I posted though (which is why in the Eternal Sunshine post, the one trailer is posted twice).

Up next: Hope springs eternal...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The Sun Is Shining

Did you think I forgot about this? Wow, way to start off with a really bad pun. Anyway, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a philosophical science fiction tale disguised as a romantic comedy (I'm serious, many reviews have labeled it as a romantic comedy despite the fact that calling it a comedy is a complete stretch of the term, and the film contains absolutely zero tenets of the romantic comedy). And I want to warn you now that while I try to keep my personal life out of my posts, one of the reasons I've been thinking about this movie recently is that, currently, I am of the mindset that love fucking sucks.

This isn't Jim Carrey's first dramatic role (I think that was The Truman Show), but of all the ones I've seen, it is far and away his best. He plays Joel, a shy, timid, and soft-spoken man who, for no reason at all, decides to skip work one day and go to the beach... in the middle of winter. The only other person there is a woman with blue hair (it's colored hair; she is not a blue-haired old lady), and he runs into her in a few places throughout the day, before she finally introduces herself to him on the train home. She is Clementine, and she is Joel's total opposite. She is loud, socially aggressive, and speaks her mind. The pair begin a relationship and they look like they are meant to be together forever.

Things turn sour, though, and a few days before Valentine's Day, Joel tries to patch things up between them, only to find that Clementine doesn't seem to know him at all. He learns that she went to a clinic called Lacuna, which uses a special device to erase memories of traumatic events and situations. Clementine had her relationship with Joel erased, and this causes Joel to decide to have the same thing done to himself.

Most of the movie takes place in Joel's mind, as the memories slowly get erased. We see Clementine become fuzzy and landscapes disappear as Joel's subconscious awaits the peace of mind that will come from no longer remembering this emotionally abusive relationship. But then a memory is brought up that is not only good, it is wonderful. Joel and Clementine were not meant to be, but they had more than a few nearly perfect moments. They truly did love each other, but they couldn't make it work. When they were good together, though, they were very good. Joel begins to realize that losing his memories of Clementine mean losing all the good times he had with her as well. Joel's mind soon tries to fight the process and save his remaining memories of Clementine.



The movie examines the worth of our memories, and lets viewers read into the idea as deeply or as shallowly as they want. To some, this is nothing more than a tragic love story, but there is so much more going on below the surface. The idea that we could remove painful and traumatic memories sounds like a good idea at first, but the movie points out how dangerous it can be without ever explicitly stating the idea. For one thing, it is likely that, especially with lost loved ones, there would be plenty of good memories entwined with the bad. There is a shot of a woman in the clinic who is going to get the memory of her dead dog erased. Sure, losing a pet (let alone losing a loved one) hurts like hell when it happens, but to erase their death also erases their life, and all the good times you had together.



But more importantly, our memories make up who we are. We learn from our mistakes, and become stronger when we deal with pain. We know what to do and what not to do based on what we have done, and our experiences shape our lives. Eternal Sunshine certainly showed us the consequences of having memories erased, but two deleted scenes from the film really hammered the point home:

(SPOILER ALERT)

Mary the Lacuna receptionist had her memory of her affair with her boss erased, but what was removed from the film told us that she also removed the memory of having an abortion. Without these memories, she once again made passes at her married boss.

And the original ending showed us Joel and Clementine repeatedly falling in love, ending badly, erasing themselves, and repeating.

This movie is very layered, but it is an incredible experience if you are willing to think along with it. The only caveat is that it is extremely depressing; this isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but if you are not in the mood for this movie, it will knock the spirit out of you. But as I said, it is an incredible work of filmmaking and will have you rethinking the pain in your life.

Up next: Eternal flame...

ABC: Destiny Calls

So I bring good news and bad news with this post. As you can see, the new poster for the fifth season of LOST has been released, and I think it's pretty great. It nicely reflects the tone of the first season poster and has a side-by-side comparison of who is still lost. Also, check out this trailer:



With only two seasons to go, we'll hopefully start getting some bigger answers to questions, but I must admit that the weekly thrills are strong enough to keep me invested in this show.And now the bad news. And what bad news it is. ABC has decided to cancel Pushing Daisies, which is probably my favorite show currently in production (though I guess that isn't a proper descriptive anymore). The story of Ned the Piemaker and a girl named Chuck is one of the sweetest, funniest, and darkest worlds I have ever seen. Everything about it seemed to click with me, and, based on last year's ratings, it looked like the public at large was finally developing good taste. Sadly, there are now only about 9 episodes left, and what will become the finale apparently ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Bryan Fuller has said that he will do everything possible to finish the story in a movie or a comic book (he has said that he has a planned ending to Ned and Chuck's relationship), but time will tell if either of those comes to pass.

Up next: How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!...

Freaks and Geeks: The Geeks

The geeks are near the bottom of the social food chain of high school. They are small and somewhat goofy-looking. They are obsessed with science fiction, Saturday Night Live, and
Dungeons and Dragons. Most students don't give the geeks the time of day, and those that tend to be bullies who exist to make the geeks' lives hell. Unlike the freaks, the geeks want to be accepted by high school society, and they will do almost anything to be seen as cool by the social elite. Well, Neal and Sam fit that description; as I said in an earlier post, of all the characters, Bill is probably the most comfortable with himself (although there are definitely times when he wishes his life was a little different).

The geeks' path on the show follows them trying to finally be accepted. Sam longest storyline involves his unrequited crush on the beautiful cheerleader Cindy Sanders, who is one of the only girls at McKinley who actually pays any attention to Sam. She takes a liking to him early in the series, but sees him as nothing more than a friend with an insight into the male mind (she calls on him to help determine if a popular basketball player likes her). Neal tends to be at the forefront of most of their doomed endeavors to be cool; when a pretty new girl transferred to their school, she started hanging out with the geeks, and Neal devised a plan that bordered on creepy in order to keep her in the group. He also was the most ardent opponent of the trio going trick-or-treating on Halloween, out of fear of being seen (sadly, this fear was justified). However, Neal very much is a geek at heart, and was willing to act silly in order to become the school mascot (he wanted to ham the role up), and he never passed up an opportunity to play D&D.

Sadly, the geeks' lives presented them with a catch-22; on one hand, they could accept who they were and be happy enough (although they'd have to put up with bullies and celibacy for a while). Or they could try to deny who they were and be even more unhappy (and still put up with bullies and be seen as uncool). It was interesting to note that Bill was always the most reluctant to go along with Sam and Neal's attempts to be cool; watching him at the makeout party was hilarious and uncomfortable at the same time. Bill understood who he was and was content with himself. He definitely had problems to face, but they were external. Sam and Neal had a lot of internal conflict to work out before they could even consider dealing with their external problems. The biggest proof that being true to yourself is what will make you happy came near the end of the series when Sam was finally accepted into the cool crowd. He got everything he ever wanted only to learn that it was nothing like he expected and nothing he wanted after all.

Like the freaks, the geeks have to take their small victories where they can get them. Life sucked for geeks in high school, and for the most part, things did not go their way. So when good things did happen, such as their incredible play in gym softball, or when they made friends with a cute girl, they did everything they could to make the most of it. But these events were few and far between. Most of their funniest scenes were funny because of how awkward and painful things got. My prime example involves Neal's ventriloquist dummy. When Neal learned that his father was cheating on his mother, he started to use his dummy as an outlet for his anger. Neal's new "routine" was incredibly funny, but its source was incredibly painful. There's also the time Sam was duped into wearing a very unflattering jumpsuit to school (this is especially poignant for me because I did something kinda similar...).

Sadly, we will never see how the geeks would grow into themselves due to NBC's horrible handling of the show. Oh well. What we got was incredible.

Up next: Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders...

Freaks and Geeks: The Freaks

The freaks are the feared outcasts of McKinley High; most of the students believe that they are a bunch of good-for-nothing burnouts who are continually hopped up on drugs and alcohol, and can snap at any moment. Granted, Kim is prone to fits of anger and Nick tends to be high most of the time, but most of these assumptions are ultimately baseless. I am reluctant to say that the freaks have merely seen more badness in the world than most of their fellow students, but everyone had problems in high school and the geeks certainly didn't exactly see the bright side of life. However, the freaks became jaded with the darkness in the world and chose to stop resisting. Daniel, for example, basically gave up trying to make something of himself after effectively being by his middle school teachers that he was unintelligent. Lindsay, on the other hand, after doing what she was told for her entire life, saw that authority doesn't always have the answers or our best interest at heart, and chose to reject it.

The freaks' path on the show is about them trying to be left alone to do their own thing. They are content to live their lives free from the constraints of society and responsibility. On Halloween, for example, when Lindsay is still adjusting to the freak lifestyle, she annoys the hell out of Kim when she continually asks what the group is going to "do" that night. Little does she realize that the freaks don't actually "do" very much. Part of the reason is that most of the freaks don't have very much spending money. Another reason is that they find most socially acceptable activities to be pretty lame. Concerts are fun (but very expensive) and movies are good every now and then, but school dances and alcohol-free parties are to be avoided at all costs. However, that doesn't mean that, in their opinion, someone is necessarily worth avoiding if they enjoy these activities. It just isn't for them.

But even more than that, many of the freaks want to be left alone because of the large burdens that they carry in secret. Daniel's father is disabled and unable to provide for the family. Daniel and his mother have to take considerable care of him, and Daniel even used school as an excuse to get out of going to the pharmacy to get his dad's medication (this says a lot because there are few things Daniel finds more pointless than school). Kim's home life isn't much better; her mother is psychotic and her relatives are violent. Nick's father, on the other hand, is very disciplined and structured, and wants his son to give up his "childish" notions of music superstardom. Drumming is a passion to Nick but a distraction to his father, and he never ceases to give Nick a hard time about concentrating on his studies. Lindsay comes from a stable family who truly support her, but they are also very traditional and cannot comprehend the changes their daughter is going through.

The freak storylines tend to be a little heavier than the geeks' stories (that doesn't mean the geeks don't have their share of pain or that the freaks aren't funny), and we watch as they deal with drug abuse, seeing their dreams slip away, and trying to establish their own identities in a world that demands conformity. Fortunately, the series never presents these issues in a "Very Special Episode" format. The characters learn and grow from their mistakes, but they also are confined by their lots in life and their drive. In an early episode, Daniel tries to convince Lindsay to help him cheat, and while the effort ends badly, it doesn't deter Daniel from cheating in the future, because cheating remains the preferable option to actually studying. Kim changes her attitude towards Lindsay from a complete bitch into an actual friend, but she retains her angry personality throughout the series. And as is true for many of us, they don't succeed in every endeavor they set out to accomplish.

That doesn't meant that things never go their way. For the most part, the freaks are comfortable with who they are. Life isn't great, but they know it could be worse, and few of them truly wish that they were treated differently at school (the same may not be true about their home lives, though). And they certainly know how to make their own fun with limited funds.

Up next: The path of Sam Weir...

Freaks and Geeks: Setting the Stage

The opening scene of Freaks and Geeks establishes two things: first, the show takes place in Michigan in 1980. Second, we learn that this isn't the average show about teenagers. The first thing we see are a football player and his cheerleader girlfriend speaking in melodramatic trope while a sappy song plays in the background. But before the pair can kiss, the camera pans below the bleachers where we meet the freaks, a group of rock-and-roll-addicted burnouts who have long ago given up on their studies. As Led Zepplin plays in the background, we are introduced to Daniel, Ken, and Nick, three guys reputations as troublemakers and ne'er-do-wells. These are the people who have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the mainstream high school social circles. Right after that, the song changes to Kenny Loggins' "I'm All Right", from Caddyshack, and we meet the geeks. Sam, Neil, and Bill are three guys who are obsessed with comedians, Star Wars, and, to an extent, gaining acceptance with the "cool kids" (this desire affects Sam and Neal, but Bill is pretty cool with who he is). These guys tend to get bullied, and right away, Sam is threatened by his nemesis. When Sam's sister Lindsay, who is both the focus of the show and a budding freak, comes to his rescue, she only makes things worse for her brother, because he had to be saved by a girl.

Thus begins one of the most realistic, funny, and tragic tales of high school woes that I've ever seen. On this show, the freaks don't always learn from the mistakes they make, and when they do, the lessons learned are not grand life lessons of the typical "very special episdoe". The geeks almost never get the girl in the end, and in the off-chance they do, they learn that there is a difference between the person they wanted and the person they got. Freaks and Geeks is about the small victories that most people had to make for themselves in the cutthroat society that is high school.

The series looks at why people acted the way they did in high school and why some stereotypes were wrong... and why others were right. Take Daniel, for example, the king of the freaks. When the series begins, he appears to be just a lazy pretty boy who chose to follow his desires to be a rock star by ignoring everything else. He can be smarmy and angry, but as the series progresses, his layers are stripped away to reveal a sad and lonely boy from a poor family that can barely make ends meet. It is true that he doesn't have a lot of intelligence, but he was also never encouraged the way people like Lindsay (who has an abundance of smarts) were. On the geek side, Neal is an annoying (in a good way for the audience) horndog who think he is 10 times cooler than he truly is. He is cynical and demeaning at times, but these are his responses to the world he has been exposed to. People don't treat him well, and he and his only two friends don't know why. His desire to be accepted stems from the anguish that comes from being forced outside, and his cynicism is a coping mechanism.

Is still find it amazing that I like this show so much, because, although I was neither a complete freak or complete geek in high school (I was closer to geek, but I had elements of both, and I like to think that I didn't truly conform to a single label), I can identify with a lot of what happened on this series. I guess I'm far enough removed from hell school... I mean high school (Buffy reference!) that I can laugh at the events of the series. And there is a lot to laugh at. But there is also a lot to cry about, and there are times when a single thing can induce both (I'm looking at you, Morty the dummy).

The Weir parents, Harold and Jean, add an adult perspective to the show. They comment on the changing times and the changes in their children. They are an interesting match; Harold is a hard-ass cynic who tries to scare his chilrden straight, while Jean is trying to hold onto the last remnants of the mother-child bond that her children are rejecting during their high school years. They are just as real as the teens on the show; they do not exist to hammer home a lesson every week, and they have their flaws and strengths.

For the most part, the lives of the freaks and the geeks take separate paths, converging through Sam and Lindsay at integral times. Therefore, I will do one post about the freaks and one about the geeks.

Up next: The path of Lindsay Weir...

Live Fast, Die Young

Up next, I am not going to focus on a theme that covers a few different topics. Instead, I am going to look at two or three worlds that I've been thinking about recently. First up is Freaks and Geeks; this has been a long time coming, and after talking about nostalgia and Biff Tannen and Back to the Future, I figured it was finally time (I considered including Freaks and Geeks in the nostalgia series, but realized that it wouldn't fit the way I wanted it to; also, Thomas F. Wilson, who played Biff, is a recurring character, so that is how he enters into it).

Sadly, as happens too often, Freaks and Geeks was an incredible series that had critical acclaim and ardent support from a small group of fans, but was canceled quickly. The show told it like it was for most people in high school (the taglines were, "Everything you remember about high school... that you wish you could forget" and "What high school was like for everyone else"), and it was both extremely funny and extremely sad. I find it very probable that many people shied away from it because they didn't want to be reminded of such hard times they may have had (also, the networked fucked up the promotion).

I also want to look at two movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Shawshank Redemption, both of which have been on my mind lately. Eternal Sunshine is sometimes billed as a romantic comedy, but that is a stretch. It is funny and a love story is at the center of the film, but the film examines what it means to love and what our memories mean. And Shawshank is an incredible tale of what hope can do for you.

Up next: Bad reputation...

Back To The Future: Staying The Same

First of all, if you've never seen the Back to the Future trilogy, stop whatever you are doing right now and have a marathon. I know that most of you will that I'm crazy for thinking there are people out there who've never seen these movies, but I assure you they exist. Anyway, I am including these movies in my series on nostalgia and the good ol' days not being as good as we may remember them because these movies show that things effectively stay the same across generations. Sure, technology will improve, but the problems we have now are the same problems we had 30 years ago, and will continue to be the problems we will have 30 years from now.

For the (hopefully) few of you who have not seen the trilogy, here is a brief synopsis: Marty McFly is a typical teenager from 1985. He wants to be a rock star, but his music isn't really that good. His life isn't awful, but it could certainly be better; his family lives in a run down subdivision, and none of his relatives ever really amounted to anything. His father is a timid loser who is still bullied around at work by the same guy who tormented him in high school. His mother is a heavy alcoholic who seems to have had the life sucked out of her, and his siblings are barely scraping by. Marty seems to have only two friends: his girlfriend Jennifer, who is very supportive of his dreams, even when Marty is at his wit's end, and Doc Brown, an eccentric inventor who lets Marty use his enormous stereo system to practice his music. Doc's latest invention is a plutonium-powered time traveling DeLorean.

Due to a series of unfortunate events (heh), Marty accidentally ends up driving the car back to 1955, where he encounters his teenage parents. He interferes with their first meeting, and subjects himself to his (now very attractive and sweet) mother's affections. Marty has to put things right before he returns to the future, otherwise he will cease to exist. After returning to 1985, Doc returns with the car and takes Marty to 2015 in an effort to prevent a family tragedy. While in the future, an geriatric Biff Tannen (Marty's dad's tormentor) steals the car and gives himself the means to become rich and powerful in 1985. This results in Marty and Doc's hometown becoming a hellish reflection of itself, and in an effort to repair the damage, Doc is accidentally sent back to 1885. Marty repairs the damage to the timeline and then embarks on a final journey into the old west to rescue his friend from Biff's outlaw ancestor.

At first glance, it may look like the films are a kind of anti-Pleasantville, especially the first one. During Marty's first trip in 1955, he comments on how the everything looks brand new, and everything looks cleaner. The school's lawn is litter-free (based on what I've seen on Mad Men, I think the producers got this aspect wrong) and the graffiti-covered gates to Marty's subdivision truly are brand new and pristine. However, things aren't as perfect as they seem. In 1985, Marty's mother, Lorraine, comments on how issues of sexuality were much simpler and cleaner back when she was a teen. She chastises her daughter for "chasing boys" and disapproves of Marty and Jennifer going camping together. However, she turns out to be a horny teen who tells Marty off for admonishing her for drinking and smoking. In Part II, we learn that there is a bad part of town in 1955, just like in 1985. Bullying is a problem in both eras there are assholes in both eras, as well as genuinely good people.

Even more intersesting is how the future is portrayed. Dystopian visions of the future are the prevailing vision today (Children of Men, WALL-E, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Firefly/Serenity to a degree), and don't get me wrong, I love these takes on the future, but if I were to wager a guess, I would say that Back to the Future comes closest to how things will be in 2015. I certainly don't think we'll have hoverboards and flying cars (Robert Zemeckis admitted that they did want to shy away from the dystopian view and used some retro-futurism to design 2015, which is somewhat ironic because in the same movie 2015 was featured, 1985A was depicted as a dystopia), but there are some techonologies featured in the movie that aren't so far-fetched (thumbprint IDs to open doors and pay bills, video phones, picture windows). But the true reason I see this as how the future will be is that things are exactly the same as they are in the present and past. In 2015, the McFlys are living in a run-down subdivision, just like in 1985. However, that same subdivision was supposed to be an up-and-coming gold mine in 1985, just like the place they were living in in 1985 was supposed to be in 1955.

As for the adventure in 1885, the trilogy once again shows that while some things may have been better about the past, we tend not to focus on the bad things that were definitely present. Doc remarks that the air seemed cleaner back then (there weren't any cars to pollute the air), and there was a bigger sense of community, because travel was so hard and there weren't places like supermarkets (it is likely that you'd spend your entire life in one city and would get to know the butcher and the mayor and the blacksmith). Then again, this sense of community probably terrified someone like Marty, who would be used to one-stop shopping and relative anonymity. Furthermore, while people decry the crime rate in the present, Marty and Doc still had to put up with the Tannen family, and in 1885, Tannen was a murderous outlaw who could actually kill someone, instead of just beating them up and calling them a butthead.

And so ends my series on nostalgia. Sorry for the long delay between posts, and I want to apologize in advance for any upcoming delays (which are inevitable). The good thing is, I know what I want to do next, so at least I won't need to take time to think about it.

Up next: My life in high school...