I have written about tv series on here before. However, I don't think I ever wrote about The Tribe. That's mostly because I watched it before I got this blog. I'd probably still list it as one of my favorite series.
Today I was watching - of all shows - Degrassi The Next Generation. Well, I was also zapping to other things so I missed large part and as such I didn't really understand the plot. Or know many of the characters. I don't know what they were doing, but it seemed they were doing something special with their episode. Well, that's besides the point anyway. What is not besides the point is that as I was watching it, for a moment, the show felt like The Tribe.
I have some ideas about how that came to be, but before I get in to that, let me first give you something of an idea what the scene was about. A group of kids had been making a road trip with a school bus (or so it seemed, I don't know exactly) and now they were stuck in the middle of nowhere. People were angry with the one responsible for it getting stolen, but though there was this conflict, they couldn't head it. Even though not all of them was able to get along quite as well as I one would hope, they were completely dependent on one another.
And that's what I believe set the scene for making it feel like it was like The Tribe. The Tribe had this same thing. We were seeing a seemingly randomly grabbed group of kids, united by the fact that they were refusing to join one of the gangs - or "tribes" - and thus they formed a Tribe. They ended up in a relatively isolated situation in which they are fully dependent on one another, even if they do not like each other.
I could go into discussing why I might like a series with a premise like that, but let's not. I don't want this to be about me too much. Instead, I am going to talk about me in a different way. I am going to talk about why I think this reminded me of the Tribe in specific. It may well be that the abandoned grass field which was the setting for a scene that could well have taken place on The Tribe. I do remember a similar scene when The Tribe was about to fall apart, though that was only two people (I believe) rather than an entire group. I think there is more to it.
The Tribe wasn't exactly the sole series with a premise like that. One of my other favorite examples of a series like that would be "Transformers: Beast Wars". This was about a group of robot (that could turn into animals) that lived on a planet with nobody to keep them company but the opposing group. Though this was more based around the conflict (where the Tribe was more about problem solving and internal conflict, with the threat of external conflict lying around the corner) it has the same principles of a group working together not by choice but by necessity. Interestingly enough, it also shared a lot of other things with the Tribe like the way the main group was composed (my favorite comparison has to be Dinobot/Lex).
Then why didn't the scene feel like Beast Wars instead? Well, we have had the scenery already, which could have been plucked straight out of a The Tribe episode and there is also the very obvious fact that Beast Wars is an animated series, while the Tribe, like Degrassi, is acted. However, while it may have played a big role, I don't think that's the crux of it.
I think the crux of it is that The Tribe is the series I identify the "genre" (the genre of the group of people working together not by choice) with. And that is only possible because I have seen extremely little else in the genre lately. Perhaps it's just not a liked genre in Hollywood?
(I should add that, the series I mentioned and others I can think of right now aren't Hollywood series. Nevertheless, I don't know everything, so I may just be off on that. Also, the premise of Lost suggests that it may be in this genre as well, but the "ensemble cast" idea that I have heard so much about in connection to the show would allow it to break out of the genre as well. However, I haven't watched the show, so I can't say much about it.)
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
One Crazy Theory Coming Up
I haven't been posting in a while. As a way to make up for that, I offer you one really crazy post.
We are at the doorstep of a new era. For a while, we have been living in what I would call the technological era. This era is called such because the one thing that was ahead of others was technology, the one thing we have been making more progress at than anything else was technology.
No more. Technological progress is slowing down. One interesting thing to look at is the the home computer market. For a long time it has been that almost everything that is in your pc gets better every month. However, currently, there are already components that are barely making any progress, like hard discs. That said, there is some more progress this market is making, but there is one interesting thing to note about this: it's all high end progress. In quite a while there has been very little progress that's useful in personal day to day usage of an average person (think: your mom) or most office use.
At the same time, there is a social part of the internet that is changing radically. Of course, this has been going on for a couple of years with websites like wikipedia, but I think there is a lot more in store. I think that the SOPA protest in which a large part of the internet pulled together to tell that an American bill couldn't be passed will be remembered as a turning point.
I don't fully believe it yet, but it is what I feel like. I guess history will teach if I was right or not.
We are at the doorstep of a new era. For a while, we have been living in what I would call the technological era. This era is called such because the one thing that was ahead of others was technology, the one thing we have been making more progress at than anything else was technology.
No more. Technological progress is slowing down. One interesting thing to look at is the the home computer market. For a long time it has been that almost everything that is in your pc gets better every month. However, currently, there are already components that are barely making any progress, like hard discs. That said, there is some more progress this market is making, but there is one interesting thing to note about this: it's all high end progress. In quite a while there has been very little progress that's useful in personal day to day usage of an average person (think: your mom) or most office use.
At the same time, there is a social part of the internet that is changing radically. Of course, this has been going on for a couple of years with websites like wikipedia, but I think there is a lot more in store. I think that the SOPA protest in which a large part of the internet pulled together to tell that an American bill couldn't be passed will be remembered as a turning point.
I don't fully believe it yet, but it is what I feel like. I guess history will teach if I was right or not.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Mimeoplasm: Buried Alive
I am currently playing The Mimeoplasm in Commander, in the very form it came in in the package.I really like the deck and I actually think the deck is pretty strong. There are some pretty interesting choices for me to make on the deck - some cards need to go into another deck, there are many cards the deck really wants and there are a number of cards that are in the deck that I simply disagree with. However, I am keeping it as is for now (though now may be coming to a close). However, I really like the deck, so I am sure I'll write about it again later.
Today, I want to focus on a single card: Burried Alive.
We all know it's a good card. It most definitely usually causes card disadvantage, but it is so good at what it does, that it just still kicks ass. However, that is a description befit of a card like this, which is known most for the degenerate plays it enables.
That's not what I wanted to talk about, though. I want to talk about the skill intensiveness of the card. You're used to seeing the card in normal decks, where it isn't so hard to choose what you'll bury with it. (I was, anyway.) In Commander the card is a completely different beast. In some decks it's still going to be that straightforward card. This deck isn't one of those.
The thing with the card in this deck is that it often forces you to make choices that you have little to base off right now, but that are possibly going to matter much later in the game. Oh, and it's very possible that the difference between taking one card and another is going to be the difference between controlling an opponent completely or getting controlled by that opponent.
I have two examples of this. So far, I have played the card four times and the first time I just didn't know the deck well enough to make a good choice and the second time it was just plain and simple an answer to the Prototype Portal imprinting a Spine of Ish Sah. Both other times, though, it presented me with very interesting choices.
The first time, the cards I picked included a Brawn/Wonder. That is to say, I had picked two cards and my third card was going to be either Brawn or Wonder. I wanted something to make any attack I made something to be reckoned with. The question was in deciding which one to choose.
I opted for Wonder in the end. The idea was that I was most afraid of facing off against the equipment player that used lots of big dragons to attack with. I chose for the card that not only aided me in my attacking, but something that also helped me block his annoying guys.
As it was, I ended up facing the dragon player after the other two players had been eliminated. And Wonder actually mattered. It meant that he wasn't able to many of my guys down with Scourge of Kher Ridge.
I still lost to the fact that he activated the anti-flying ability of the Scourge twice in one turn (leaving him with an two guys I was unable to beat through and me with two big enough guys) and attacking with a pumped Akroma next turn (which has protection from Blue....)
The other game was a one on one game. I had lost the previous game due to trying to be the beatdown with a Sol Ring, a lot of gas and a good curve (5,6,7... and then some more 6/7 mana cards).
Now, I was looking at the board state. I opted for Triskelavus and Artisan of Kozilek (for the power), as those two put a very good Flying clock on the opponent through Commander damage, while also giving you something if it is hit by removal - they are just awesome targets for The Mimeoplasm.
The had card was the third one. I had Brawn in hand, so that wasn't an option. However, it being in my hand didn't mean I could just skip over Wonder, as having trample was reasonable at best against my opponent, while he was low on flying creatures, so Wonder was really good.
On the other hand, my Triskelavus already gave me flying on the first assault, so it was all about what happened after he got rid of that threat. Neither of us had anything interesting in the bin, so it would be a good thing to just make sure I had something else for The Mimeoplasm to become. And that's what I ended up choosing: Avatar of Woe.
I won that game, as my opponent scooped to The Mimeoplasm pretending to be an Avatar, with two counters from my opponent's Saffi. I had played a Gravepact, and used Trisk tokens to kill his guys, but Saffi and Acidic Slime conspired to also take down my Triskelavus, and with no more mana open than he had guys, that left both of us without creatures.
Had I not chosen the Avatar, I would still have been in a very good position, as I had a hand full of gas, while my opponent was playing off the top of his deck. However, he had still over twenty life and no single card in my hand was as destructive as the Avatar could be without even attacking for Commander damage, so it wasn't a won game in that case.
As someone always looking to make the best play, I love a card like this, which really tests my skill like this. I really like the card in the deck.
Today, I want to focus on a single card: Burried Alive.
We all know it's a good card. It most definitely usually causes card disadvantage, but it is so good at what it does, that it just still kicks ass. However, that is a description befit of a card like this, which is known most for the degenerate plays it enables.
That's not what I wanted to talk about, though. I want to talk about the skill intensiveness of the card. You're used to seeing the card in normal decks, where it isn't so hard to choose what you'll bury with it. (I was, anyway.) In Commander the card is a completely different beast. In some decks it's still going to be that straightforward card. This deck isn't one of those.
The thing with the card in this deck is that it often forces you to make choices that you have little to base off right now, but that are possibly going to matter much later in the game. Oh, and it's very possible that the difference between taking one card and another is going to be the difference between controlling an opponent completely or getting controlled by that opponent.
I have two examples of this. So far, I have played the card four times and the first time I just didn't know the deck well enough to make a good choice and the second time it was just plain and simple an answer to the Prototype Portal imprinting a Spine of Ish Sah. Both other times, though, it presented me with very interesting choices.
The first time, the cards I picked included a Brawn/Wonder. That is to say, I had picked two cards and my third card was going to be either Brawn or Wonder. I wanted something to make any attack I made something to be reckoned with. The question was in deciding which one to choose.
I opted for Wonder in the end. The idea was that I was most afraid of facing off against the equipment player that used lots of big dragons to attack with. I chose for the card that not only aided me in my attacking, but something that also helped me block his annoying guys.
As it was, I ended up facing the dragon player after the other two players had been eliminated. And Wonder actually mattered. It meant that he wasn't able to many of my guys down with Scourge of Kher Ridge.
I still lost to the fact that he activated the anti-flying ability of the Scourge twice in one turn (leaving him with an two guys I was unable to beat through and me with two big enough guys) and attacking with a pumped Akroma next turn (which has protection from Blue....)
The other game was a one on one game. I had lost the previous game due to trying to be the beatdown with a Sol Ring, a lot of gas and a good curve (5,6,7... and then some more 6/7 mana cards).
Now, I was looking at the board state. I opted for Triskelavus and Artisan of Kozilek (for the power), as those two put a very good Flying clock on the opponent through Commander damage, while also giving you something if it is hit by removal - they are just awesome targets for The Mimeoplasm.
The had card was the third one. I had Brawn in hand, so that wasn't an option. However, it being in my hand didn't mean I could just skip over Wonder, as having trample was reasonable at best against my opponent, while he was low on flying creatures, so Wonder was really good.
On the other hand, my Triskelavus already gave me flying on the first assault, so it was all about what happened after he got rid of that threat. Neither of us had anything interesting in the bin, so it would be a good thing to just make sure I had something else for The Mimeoplasm to become. And that's what I ended up choosing: Avatar of Woe.
I won that game, as my opponent scooped to The Mimeoplasm pretending to be an Avatar, with two counters from my opponent's Saffi. I had played a Gravepact, and used Trisk tokens to kill his guys, but Saffi and Acidic Slime conspired to also take down my Triskelavus, and with no more mana open than he had guys, that left both of us without creatures.
Had I not chosen the Avatar, I would still have been in a very good position, as I had a hand full of gas, while my opponent was playing off the top of his deck. However, he had still over twenty life and no single card in my hand was as destructive as the Avatar could be without even attacking for Commander damage, so it wasn't a won game in that case.
As someone always looking to make the best play, I love a card like this, which really tests my skill like this. I really like the card in the deck.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Reviewer's Eye
I haven't written for a while now, so I am going to give you an extra long post in return for that. Brace yourselves!
About a week ago I was watching a movie. Now, that in itself isn't worth a story, but something happened that is worth that story. Something changed inside of me. Suddenly something clicked and I was watching from a completely diffferent perspective. One that I found really interesting.
Have you ever read a review of a movie - or an episode of a series, or whatever - in which the writer seems to be ignoring the merit of the story itself, and very mechanically talking about the quality of the special effects and other minutiae?
I have. And it annoyed me. A lot. At least, it used to annoy me. It might still annoy me, I haven't read another one of those since this event. Nevertheless, I think I understand it now.
Basically, I was watching the movie and suddenly I was thinking about the origin of the movie. I realized that though this was all very much about rural england, but it was still a very hollywood show.
That meant that I knew that the main character was going to be the hero. There wasn't a doubt about it that he was going to end up on top. At the time it seemed like he was going insane, but that was no longer an option in my mind. The suspense was gone.
All of a sudden, I wasn't so much watching an interesting movie with interesting characters, I was watching a sequence of plot twists, action sequences and the inevitable thrust towards the good conclusion.
It was then that they had a plot twist that was sooner than I had expected. That was interesting for a second or two. After that, it was annoying how contrived that plot twist was. Small details that were unlikely started bothering me and I was not wondering whether the second most important character was going to join the main character, but when and how it was going to happen - in a very mechanical way.
I could ramble on about how it makes little sense that with barely any evidence, a whole group of people just takes up arms against people they have known all their lives (and follow someone they have known less than a year), but that's not what this is about.
I am not here to write such a review as I was talking about before (or write any review at all). I am here to tell the story how I now understand how such reviews come into existence.
I think I used to think that it was all about rationalizing. And I don't doubt that there are cases in which that is what happens in a review. However, I have experiences a new thing - actually being annoyed by things like that during the movie. I don't know whether it was a change in how I look at movies (I haven't watched any since) or that it was just the moment or that it was this particular movie, but I wasn't enjoying the movie for the movie itself, I was actually paying attention to the details and as such, I was annoyed by them.
Glad to see you stayed here to read my entire ramble! (And yeah, I realize it didn't get as long as I though it would when I started typing. Still, I don't feel like removing that message at the top.)
Thursday, December 1, 2011
I made it / I didn't make it
So, I promised a post that would wrap my results from my NaNoWriMo after the last day. However, the title basically says it all.
What? You don't understand the title? Well, the point is that you can say that I made if you like, but you can also say that I didn't.
I did make it to 50,000.
NaNoWriMo.org validated that and also says I won.
However, that was through cheating by abusing the time zone setting.
Basically, I needed 1,500 more words by the moment time was technically over.
However, the time was over here and not all over the world.
And besides, one can still call today today if it's one hour past midnight and you're still up even though it is not technically seen.
So yes, I needed one extra hour. I suppose that in the end, I didn't make it in time. I did make it, though. I wrote 50,000. And I wrote 13,000 words today. And I also kept writing on my blog every once in a while. And in the mean time, I have also been writing on 750words.com (today is one of the only days I missed this month) and that was besides what I wrote for my novel. All in all, I'm somewhat happy with what I accomplished, even though I had put the bar much higher for myself originally.
And that's my story.
What? You don't understand the title? Well, the point is that you can say that I made if you like, but you can also say that I didn't.
I did make it to 50,000.
NaNoWriMo.org validated that and also says I won.
However, that was through cheating by abusing the time zone setting.
Basically, I needed 1,500 more words by the moment time was technically over.
However, the time was over here and not all over the world.
And besides, one can still call today today if it's one hour past midnight and you're still up even though it is not technically seen.
So yes, I needed one extra hour. I suppose that in the end, I didn't make it in time. I did make it, though. I wrote 50,000. And I wrote 13,000 words today. And I also kept writing on my blog every once in a while. And in the mean time, I have also been writing on 750words.com (today is one of the only days I missed this month) and that was besides what I wrote for my novel. All in all, I'm somewhat happy with what I accomplished, even though I had put the bar much higher for myself originally.
And that's my story.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Last Day
It's the last day of NaNoWriMo. You see, I have a slight bit over 24 hours left to write my book. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I intended to write 150,000 words originally, I fell behind on my schedule to write even the normal 50,000 words in time.
That's why I am keeping this post short and just mentioning that quickly. Now, I will be able to go and write. I'll just have to make the fifty thousand by the end of the day. It's that simple.
I do promise that I'll post something on my results near the end of tomorrow. It's quite likely that it'll be after midnight, though.
That's why I am keeping this post short and just mentioning that quickly. Now, I will be able to go and write. I'll just have to make the fifty thousand by the end of the day. It's that simple.
I do promise that I'll post something on my results near the end of tomorrow. It's quite likely that it'll be after midnight, though.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Chuck: Going Strong
Big news: here in the Netherlands we are way behind when it comes to series being broadcasted on tv. Well, not too much new, but anyway. It's a changing thing, as the executives hands' are being forced by the fact that downloading series and watching them long before the come out here is becoming more main stream. Personally, I think Comedy Central NL is also playing a big movement setting some of the new frontiers, but it is working on a rather limited budget so it's also doing some pretty old shows.
Anyway, I don't watch all my series on my computer. I do that when I really like a series and it's somewhat older, but in general, I do that to series that have finished already and that I really want to watch. I usually do not do that to series that are on tv here.
Well, most importantly I don't do it with things like sitcoms or other series which have episodes that can easily be viewed in a vacuum like South Park. This way, I can still turn on the tc and watch an episode without the chance that I have seen it already being too big (it's still pretty big as I do watch a lot of tv and because the broadcasters that have some of the series I like more are on a limited budget so doing the same (very good) series every once in a while.
However, I do also do the same thing for other series. For example, a while back Comedy Central started broadcasting Buffy episodes. Pretty Awesome. I don't see where the comedy is in that, but never mind that, it's just a good series and that's always welcome. I suppose they ran out of the episodes they had or something and then some executive decided they wouldn't buy more because it wasn't comedy, though, as it is no longer on.
Another of those series is Chuck. So, I'm quite a bit behind and I don't even know where the series it right now or if it is even still running. And either way, I don't care all that much. I don't need to know. I am enjoying the series right now and that's enough for me.
Anyway, so I just saw the bit with the transformation to the intersect 2.0. Well, not just, it's been a while and I have seen a few episodes since. But anyway, that change made me wonder where the series was headed, considering they had done so far. Though I spent quite some time doign this introduction, that is really what I wanted to write a bit about, where the series is now headed.
And the thing is that I am quite surprised about that. In a positive way. At the time, I had felt that the writers had done a pretty constricting job of writing themselves into an impossible corner.
However, it turns out that is not the case at all. Instead, they are taking a lot of risks and doing some and most of them are paying off pretty well. They are doing some pretty good stuff. The issue of Chuck and Sarah is also neatly handled as they actually made everything a lot more awkward than it had been before. And you know what, this time their relationship is actually more relatable. At least, that's my opinion.
However, I do feel there are some problems with the series. They mostly lie in the way that only seeing parts of the series has become a lot more troublesome and missing an episode is more of a problem than ever now. Most of it is to be expected when taking so many risks, but I do think I there are some things they didn't do exactly right. The thing is, though, that these things are inspiring me as well. They are part of my inspiration to be working on tv series theory as I did in yesterday's article. I want to be able to quantify what I feel they did wrong and find out how I think they could have done nearly the same thing, but do it a lot better by making some small changes here and there.
I'm looking forward to more of this series. It's been really good lately.
Anyway, I don't watch all my series on my computer. I do that when I really like a series and it's somewhat older, but in general, I do that to series that have finished already and that I really want to watch. I usually do not do that to series that are on tv here.
Well, most importantly I don't do it with things like sitcoms or other series which have episodes that can easily be viewed in a vacuum like South Park. This way, I can still turn on the tc and watch an episode without the chance that I have seen it already being too big (it's still pretty big as I do watch a lot of tv and because the broadcasters that have some of the series I like more are on a limited budget so doing the same (very good) series every once in a while.
However, I do also do the same thing for other series. For example, a while back Comedy Central started broadcasting Buffy episodes. Pretty Awesome. I don't see where the comedy is in that, but never mind that, it's just a good series and that's always welcome. I suppose they ran out of the episodes they had or something and then some executive decided they wouldn't buy more because it wasn't comedy, though, as it is no longer on.
Another of those series is Chuck. So, I'm quite a bit behind and I don't even know where the series it right now or if it is even still running. And either way, I don't care all that much. I don't need to know. I am enjoying the series right now and that's enough for me.
Anyway, so I just saw the bit with the transformation to the intersect 2.0. Well, not just, it's been a while and I have seen a few episodes since. But anyway, that change made me wonder where the series was headed, considering they had done so far. Though I spent quite some time doign this introduction, that is really what I wanted to write a bit about, where the series is now headed.
And the thing is that I am quite surprised about that. In a positive way. At the time, I had felt that the writers had done a pretty constricting job of writing themselves into an impossible corner.
However, it turns out that is not the case at all. Instead, they are taking a lot of risks and doing some and most of them are paying off pretty well. They are doing some pretty good stuff. The issue of Chuck and Sarah is also neatly handled as they actually made everything a lot more awkward than it had been before. And you know what, this time their relationship is actually more relatable. At least, that's my opinion.
However, I do feel there are some problems with the series. They mostly lie in the way that only seeing parts of the series has become a lot more troublesome and missing an episode is more of a problem than ever now. Most of it is to be expected when taking so many risks, but I do think I there are some things they didn't do exactly right. The thing is, though, that these things are inspiring me as well. They are part of my inspiration to be working on tv series theory as I did in yesterday's article. I want to be able to quantify what I feel they did wrong and find out how I think they could have done nearly the same thing, but do it a lot better by making some small changes here and there.
I'm looking forward to more of this series. It's been really good lately.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)