Various Stuff

[shipperx]

* "Chuck" - Finally got around to watching this week's "Chuck".  I didn't know until reading on the TVGuide site that this was originally intended to be the season/(series?) finale back when NBC had only done a 13 episode order.  If it had been the series finale, I would have been satisfied.  They tied up everything but Elle and Awesome, who are mostly okay to begin with what with being gorgeous, in-love and happily married.   So I would've been happy had the series left everyone at this 'finale'.  Luckily, NBC extended its "Chuck" order so we get more episodes THIS SEASON.  I'm curious how they'll go on from here.  Sometimes post-happy endings are more difficult to deal with than angsty fall out of cliffhangers.  And, reading around, most critics are reasonably positive that "Chuck" may well return next season.  NBC is in TERRIBLE shape, and, while "Chuck" is far from a block buster ratings-wise, it has a hard core fan base, nice critical reviews, it isn't too expensive to produce, and has a generally favorable reputation... which is more than can be said for 90% of NBC's current line up.



* BtVS Season 8 - Lots of interesting threads around on the Bangel!Boinkfest.  I thought this one by William B. made an interesting point that Joss is changing BTVS into a comic 'world' (and noting that this isn't evolution.  Joss and science have long been non-mixy.  I remember that AtS episode with the scientist and the glowy time/dimensional machine or whatever.  It was BAD. Joss is a horror/fantasy genre writer.  Sci-fi?  Not his thing {and I know I'll be blasted by Firefly lovers but..  I stand by my point.  Firefly wasn't science fiction.  It was space opera.  It had more to do with Star Wars (also space fantasy) than with Star Trek (which is science fiction).  Firefly was literally cowboys in space.  That's space opera and has chuck-all to do with science.  Space opera isn't a bad thing. I love Star Wars (original trilogy) too.  It can be wonderful.  But it's a slightly different genre.)  Anyway, yeah, I can see where it may be true that Joss is turning Season 8 BtVS into a comic book-like world.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the BtVS I bought into nor genre I particularly like.  To me the Buffy comics have degenerated (and really rather started out as) silly.   I just don't get it.  I really don't.  Not my medium, I guess.   If I had any hope with the BtVS comic (and truly, I never had much.  Go back and look in my journal. My expectations were always low)... anyway, if I had any expectation, it was that perhaps Joss would introduce something interesting to the mythology that would work in fanfic.  But now, I despair of even that.  It's all just too comic-booky for me and I suspect his comic book 'evolution' of BtVS  will be the same.  I doubt it will change the Slayer mythology in a way that I would like to see or use in fanfic. *sad sigh*




LOST
*  Henry Ian Cusick interview about Desmond and Lost on TVGuide.com!  Interesting tidbits:
 

TVGuide.com: How does it feel knowing that Desmond is the key to everything?
Cusick: Desmond certainly is a part, but is he the key? There's not one character that is the key. There are many characters that will have to step up and do things before this is resolved. Desmond has a part to play, a significant part, but there are many others that will step up.

TVGuide.com: Would you say that Desmond is everyone's constant?
Cusick: No, I don't think that's right. In the flash-sideways, the characters are all slightly different. They're all slightly hypnotized or haven't seen the truth. Like Desmond, they're slightly dead {...}  there are clues when you look in the mirror — when they look at their reflections, they go, "Hang on, what is reality?" They're aware that something is not quite right, but they can't put a finger on it. Desmond now knows the truth and knows his purpose.

TVGuide.com: And now he wants to find everyone on Oceanic 815 to show them that truth.
Cusick: Yeah, at the end [of the episode], Desmond says "Where's the manifest? I need to show them something and it's going to be beautiful." When they get to see this other world, that's when [they] know what they have to do.
 

TVGuide.com: Based on what Desmond {and two others in the episode} saw, their flashes seem to be based in love. Would you say that's a strong theme of the series?
Cusick: Yes, you're absolutely right in a sense that the driving force of Lost is love. Desmond is totally driven by love. {...} It's sort of spiritual, the thing they have to get to at the end of this, what Desmond has to do. {...} We don't know which is the real universe. We don't know which universe the show will end up in. Desmond is going to show them a glimpse of the other world and we'll see how and if they collide, and what will happen when they do.

TVGuide.com: Is Desmond claimed like [you know the male character] and [you know the female character]?
Cusick: No, absolutely not. He's not claimed at all. It's the polar opposite. _____ and _____ have been claimed. Desmond, on the other hand, has had an epiphany. He's enlightened. He has no fear of the Man in Black.

TVGuide.com: Eloise seems like she knows what's going on and even tells Desmond that he's not ready. How is it that she's conscious of this?
Cusick: She is a law unto herself. She's working on a different timeline. She always seems to know more than everyone else. She's like the oracle.

TVGuide.com: What's the mission that Charles Widmore wants Des to complete?
Cusick: Widmore and Desmond are on the same mission. Basically, Widmore says if Desmond doesn't survive we're all going to die, so Desmond is there to help make sure that people don't die.
 

So...is Widmore really a good guy?  Hmm...




Books
* Dresden Files: Changes -- not quite half way through, but I'm wondering when I really became a Harry/Murphy shipper...because I find that I am.  And I'm still awaiting the arrival of Thomas.  I have a ridiculous amount of Thomas love and he was left in a seriously bad emotional place in the last novel.