December 29, 2005
I Missed You So
As I flipped through my RSS feeds today, look what I found at the magnificent Baseball Toaster- an interview with John C. McGinley, otherwise known as Dr. Cox on Scrubs. And yes, he's a Yankees fan. *grins*
But the thing isn't all baseball talk- there's also an infuriating explanation of why my favorite hospital comedy's premiere has been delayed until next Tuesday. Read on for the incredibly stupid details.
Anyway, I have a gigantic Chanukah party to prepare for, so off I go. :)
December 07, 2005
No. Freaking. Way.
Mel Gibson Developing Holocaust Mini-Series
Uh, what? It's a well-known fact that Gibson's father is a Holocaust denier, and the man himself has done some rhetorical contortions to avoid contradicting those views directly. Then again, he could very well have been trying to acknowledge historical truth while avoiding estranging his dad. Which is fine. But cripes, Mr. Passion of the Christ working on a Holocaust-themed mini-series? What's next, Al Sharpton sponsoring a KKK documentary?
What I found most interesting is that this will be based on the memoirs of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew who was protected and hidden by her Gentile neighbors. So this could end up being all about the wonderful Christians in the end.
If Ms. Van Beek is okay with it, I'm not going to freak out. Still, check out the photo of Gibson that accompanies the article- forget the mini-series; I wouldn't want that guy coming near small children.
December 16, 2004
No Respect
Yesterday I watched the SciFi channel's two-part Legend of Earthsea mini-series. As a tremendous fan of Ursula K. LeGuin's original Earthsea trilogy, I approached the mini with trepidation- I already knew that Shawn Ashmore, aka Bobby from the X-Men movies, was cast as Sparrowhawk, and I didn't exactly have the greatest faith in his acting skills. Nor was I particularly happy with the fact that he was white, which his character certainly was not.
I should have realized that the casting of teen favorites Ashmore and Kristin Kreuk (of Smallville) was part of a pattern. This was Earthsea as WB melodrama, complete with Ashmore and Kreuk sharing a smooch at the end. Of course, no such thing happened in The Tombs of Atuan. But who cares about the text when you can add sex to the story, right?
By combining the plots of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan into one timeline, the creators of this series could have done something interesting, I guess, showing the parallel maturations of Sparrowhawk and Tenar in their respective worlds. But they passed up even that opportunity and instead mutilated the storylines of both books for the sake of some half-assed romance between the two characters. Tenar was turned into a bright-eyed, smiling priestess-in-training and Sparrowhawk became a typically petulant WB bad boy. There were girls at the wizarding school in Gont and no mention of the fact that wizards weren't supposed to consort with women. Oops.
They couldn't even keep Sparrowhawk's "public" name and his true name straight, and I'm supposed to settle for that? No one who has even an ounce of appreciation or respect for LeGuin's text should watch this mini-series. Avoid it like the plague.
What I'm listening to today: Rockin' the Suburbs, by Ben Folds
