Rolling Thunder
Oh, what a week. Summer Oh Seven’s done, but it still gets so fricking hot when it’s not raining. And when it’s raining, it doesn’t stop. Ugh. My emotions were as messed up as the weather the past few days, but I managed to juggle work with play, so I’m okay. I’m able to unwind a little and tune out stuff like termites, infrared home inspection systems, and showbiz assignments when I’m not working and writing about them. And I know that I felt my self-imposed vacation was over last week, but I was able to slip back briefly into my “alcoholidays” (a word coined by Beer Guy that Benedict admittedly hates because it’s clever and he didn’t think of it). I didn’t do anything moronic while slightly inebriated at certain times this past week, I think, so everything’s good.
I finally saw the Heroes season-ender, and I just had to take down Suresh’s narration by the end of the episode, which I felt connected and summed up what I was feeling about my direction for most of the month:
“So much struggle for meaning, for purpose, but in the end, we find this only in each other: our shared experience with the fantastic, and the mundane; the simple human need to find a kindred, to connect, and to know in our hearts that we are not alone.”
Cool, cool. I think that just described my whole summer. It was strange that fellow blogger and old friend David, whose review I finally read a few hours after I watched the ep and transcribed those words, also quoted them (but we punctuated it differently). More on the episode in a bit.
No Fate But What We Make
And so, on to some endings. Spoilers ahead.
52- After one year, the comics series finally ends and has some big revelations about the post-Infinite Crisis re-setting of reality and this so-called “New Earth.” I really like how many of DC’s books have that contemporary, modern feel to them, but I’m not sure how to look at their characters’ histories because I don’t know which happened for real this time, which events were erased, which continuity gaffes were fixed, etcetera. Hypertime, Zero Hour, Crisis, Countdown… It’s confusing to really think about it as a whole.
But that said, I enjoyed this series a lot. I was touched to see Ralph and Sue Dibney reunited at last. I loved Renee and the Question’s shared journey, as well as Black Adam’s descent into madness. Yeah, the World War III spinoff series fixed other things rather rushedly, but this main title was a well-handled yearlong experiment that nicely developed characters that didn’t seem interesting before, at least to me. Good, meaty mainstream reading.
Heroes- Some like it, some loathe it, but the season finale of “Volume One” was just okay for me. Well, after much buildup, it's the prophesied catastrophe episode. Or is it? We finally get to see an expected last-minute change of heart, and some cliffhangers concerning four pivotal characters. It was a little disappointing that Mrs. Petrelli seems like she’s being groomed as an Irina Derevko-like character, in that she’s this cold and calculating old creep after all, but well, let’s hope it’s done well next season. Mr. Bennett, whom I assumed was the show’s main bad guy in the first few episodes, conversely, has proven again that he’s actually on the side of the angels. His first name is finally revealed as Noah, not so subtly implying that he may be instrumental in gathering together the superhumans in the near future.
A possible big bad is hinted at by the Caliban-like tracker kid Molly, so that might be something to look forward to in terms of new foes.
And again, Peter and Sylar meet up, and beat each other up quickly (Pete lands four punches). But that climactic battle, which involved the other supers, was really short, and could’ve looked smoother. Now that all the surviving characters have met up, though, I hope season two will bring them and the concept into new territory (previously unseen in TV, comics, or elsewhere).
Legion of Superheroes- You know, this is no Justice League Unlimited, and it’s not as gritty or focused as Batman Beyond, but it’s not a bad animated series at all. Young Clark
Torchwood- I finished this a while back. All I can say is, wow, that’s the gayest scifi show ever. No kidding. This kinda feels like a weird melding of The X-Files and Angel, so it’s periodically campy, and also treacherously dark. But the show is geared for a more mature audience, so it can get extra-kinky, sometimes. This is a spinoff of Doctor Who, which I really have to see soon (it’s a tossup between that and Battlestar Galactica, but we’ll see, maybe I can watch alternately). The openly gay Captain Jack Harkness first appeared in that series. Torchwood gets puzzling and crazy from time to time, but it’s something unique. It was quite entertaining to see the first season focus on these mysterious new super-science agent characters. I liked Ianto the bi-boy the most, and that was one moving kiss in the season finale.
A Dream That’s Barely Half Awake
I’m ending the post with lyrics once again, this time by Aimee Mann and her great ‘80s band ‘Til Tuesday. First discovered this six years ago, and it’s gotten renewed meaning and sentimental value to me since. Am loving it more than ever, as it accompanies this period in my life appropriately. Ah, I'm feeling strangely fine.
Coming Up Close
One night in
Went driving in the summer, promises in every star
Out in the distance I could hear some people laughing
I felt my heart beat back a weekend’s worth of sadness
There was a farmhouse that had long since been deserted
We stopped and carved our hearts into the wooden surface
We thought just for an instant we could see the future
We thought for once we knew what really was important
Coming up close
Everything sounds like “welcome home,” come home
And oh by the way
Don’t you know that I can make a dream that’s barely half awake come true
I wanted to say
But anything I could’ve said I felt somehow that you already knew
We got back in the car and listened to a Dylan tape
We drove around the fields until it started getting late
Well I went back to my hotel room on the highway
And he just got back in his car and drove away
Coming up close
Everything sounds like “welcome home,” come home
And oh by the way
Don’t you know that I can make a dream that’s barely half awake come true
I wanted to say
But anything I could’ve said I felt somehow that you already knew
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