If you are reading this feature, it means the world didn't end on the 21st December and I have recovered from the family Christmas madness. I know some of you are disappointed about the end of the world -- especially one super X-Files fan who believes in Chris Carter for the past 20 years. The truth is most of us are happier to see other people saving the world from the apocalypse or living in one or killing zombies on TV shows and movies. I don't know about you, but my entertainment is set for the next few years! The world is not perfect, but at least we are giving the opportunity to escape into another dimension the moment we turn on our entertainment devices.
An affogato isn't the same without ice cream. When it's Supernatural, if there is no angst no drama, it isn't fun.
One of the biggest changes that we saw this year was the changing of the guard from previous showrunner Sera Gamble to Jeremy Carver. I was very sad and worried to see Sera go but the announcement of the return of Jeremy Carver at the same time was comforting. Apart from Ben Edlund, I cannot think of anyone else but Jeremy Carver to helm the show I love so much.
I am very happy with the direction of season eight. The core of the show still remains the same -- it is about the brothers saving people hunting things, the family business! But Jeremy and the writing team are putting details under the microscope. We are digging deeper into details within details, just like when we write academic papers -- we dig, we research, we focus on different aspects, but the paper is still the same subject matter. On Supernatural, we are seeing our heroes -- Dean, Sam and Castiel -- gaining different perspectives about each other, family, life, friendship, hunting and monsters. These new perspectives are hovering over the core theme of the show -- the brother relationship.
Off the set, the cast has a very busy and fun year too -- Jensen's Angeles is like one of the best songs I've heard all year; Jared and Gen became first time parents; Misha, Vicky and West welcomed a new family to the family; Supernatural was in Hall H once again at Comic Con; and I am proud to be an attendee at one of the conventions this year in Chicago. The magnitude and charisma of Supernatural is unbelievable. As Eric Kripke said, Supernatural is like seeing his kids growing up and going to colleague. We are proud to be fans of Supernatural.
In terms of other shows, I was really sad to see the end of Lost, 24 and Smallville. I asked myself: what am I going to watch and blog about now? I was desperately looking
for good new shows to watch and I was concerned that I won't find any. But time has changed! We live in the beginning of the golden era of the genre shows!
We are seeing a wave of awesome genre
shows in recent years and most of them are worthy to stick around -- Arrow, A Game of Thrones, Once Upon A Time, The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diary, Grimm, True Blood, Revolution, Dr Who, Falling Skies, Being Human and Warehouse 13. With S.H.I.E.L.D is in development, television is going to be better! And I hope we will see medical dramas and procedural cop shows to die down a little, because I think TV viewers have enough of them! They are all the friggin same! And if anyone is looking for a new reality show idea, STOP! JUST STOP! Unless it involves the Ghost Facers or Derren Brown, I don't want to know!
Eric Kripke's new show, Revolution, is kicking ass! Comparing the show with Lost and Supernatural is not unheard of, but Revolution is the new Lost in terms of the scale and epicness. I told myself, this show cannot fail! Kripke's work deserves to be seen by more people and people need to know he is very good at what he does! Now we have to wait until March to see the second half of season one of Revolution.
Apart from Revolution, I most look forward to the return of A Game of Thrones. I love a HBO show and I hate a HBO show. The hiatus of A Game of Thrones is as long as a season of Supernatural being on air. How is that NOT insanity? I am currently reading A Dance With Dragons, I probably will revisit A Storm of Swords soon to get ready for season three of A Game of Thrones. The TV series is known that the TV series will not follow the book chapter by chapter, in fact I am a little disappointed how little Dany's prophecies were covered in season two, but it is still more than acceptable for television. A Game of Thrones is a great show! The book series is much bigger than Lord of the Rings. It is the most epic thing I've read. I hope season three will be really epic. Mr GRRM, please hurry up and finish writing The Wind of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
Once Upon A Time is becoming a favorite show of mine. I really look forward to the arrival of Hook and Cora, and how things will develop with Emma. I hope we get to see Baelfire. Please! Please let Nail be Baelfire! I am rewatching season one now, and I want to get up to speed so that I can blog about theories and my wishlist.
2012 has been a game-changing year for Joss Whedon and Marvel going forward.
The battle between DC and Marvel intensifies in 2013 as Superman, Iron Man III and Thor 2, and more to follow in 2014 and 2015 with Captain America II, The Avengers II and (hopefully) Justice League.
Marvel's phase II is in place, and DC is playing catch up. But this battle will set the trend and define the entertainment business for the next decade. It will also be the decade that belongs to the geeks!
But who will
come out as the winner? Let's not kid ourselves, it is war! Fans love
Whedon, it was the best decision from Marvel to involve him for The Avengers and other projects such as S.H.I.E.L.D.
What would the complacent DC do to compete? We will compare them, we
will criticize them, we will see Comic Con as the main PR battle ground
for the studios. This is exciting for fans! I cannot wait to see Twilight to get out of the way (and I wish the 50 Shades movie will never see the living daylight). I want more superheroes movies.
What do you most look forward to in 2013 and beyond?
As this is the last post of the year, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for sharing and caring this year. I wish you all a wondering New Year and a very awesome 2013.
Rewatch
Verb
1. To watch [LOST] again.
My Christmas preparation was ahead of schedule this year. Apart from baking cookies and cakes for family and friends, I have been quite stress-free. Since I was not overly excited about Christmas this year, I have been channeling my energy by clearing the backlog of my to-do list, that is, to rewatch Lost. This mission has been on my to-do list for a long time, probably since its series finale.
Calling myself a writer is like writing myself as a prophet. I haven't earned the title as a writer, but I am working on it. As someone who admire the craft of story-telling and everything else that comes with the package, I find television and books shows such as Lost, Supernatural and A Game of Thrones [A Song of Ice and Fire] really help me to identity and understand the craft of structures, characterization, plots and dialogues. This is more than watching something when I get home, this is more than picking up a book to read before bed, this is like going to writing school for me.
For something so big such as Lost, Supernatural and A Game of Thrones, watching/ reading them once is not possible because there are a lot of details I may or may not notice the first time. Rewatch is imperative so that I can pay attention to the specifics, understand the mythology and absorb information better, put the pieces together and appreciate the mysteries
and writings more. The rewatch is
actually more enjoyable and meaningful than the first time.
As you know, Lost is one of my favorite television shows. The only sleeper season for me was season three. Perhaps it was due to the TV schedule or I was spending a ridiculous amount of time living in a suitcase, I lost the momentum a bit until the introduction of Team Faraday. By The Constant, I was fully on board as a fan once again. I love Daniel Faraday and Desmond Hume, I think they were a great addition to the show and I LOVE the flash sideway. Their roles were vital to the development of show. I really like the fact that Lost mixed fringe science, mythology and 'magic' together. It is one of those shows you can go crazy with theories and debate them for years. It's intense viewing, it makes you think, you do get lost amongst details but it's part of solving the mysteries.
It is almost impossible for me not to revisit Lost from the beginning, because there are so much in it! Lost has such a big assemble cast, if I focus each rewatch based on a character or a timeline -- Dharma Initiative, Faraday, Desmond, Sawyer or Jacob, Dogen -- that's at least six times already. Every time I watch it I discover something new. Like Sawyer, he was never my favorite, but I always saw him as a reluctant hero. He was the cowboy, rules didn't apply to him. He didn't have to explain himself.
I am half way through season two, Benjamin Linus just appeared as Henry Gale. I know things will get interesting! I love Ben! I love that he is not the classic villain and it took four seasons for me to like him because he is simply a WTF character. Ben never failed to surprise me and it gets funny when everyone punch him in the face. Ouch! I have very little memory of what happened in season three, Ben obviously played a huge part in driving the show from that point onwards. Not to mention the whole adversary thing between him and Widmore; the role of Richard, the Others and Dharma Initiative etc... I think season three was the start to something more epic. To me, the tail section arc was good, but I think season three was the turning point. Can't wait to rewatch it as I have missed out a lot of details.
Speaking of the Dharma Initiative, I always find it and their stations intriguing. I love the mysteries around them and when we got to know more about the Dharma Initiative in later seasons, I just couldn't get enough of them. I must be in the minority to like the Dharma Initiative storyarc. I even want to re-label all things in my house including a banana with the Dharma stickers. Revisit reminds me about what I love about the show. How something like the Dharma Initiative and Jacob are integrated and developed into the the show.
Lost is one of a kind! Half the shows on televisions are the same. Some shows play safe because the networks know these shows cannot go wrong as long as they stick to the familiar formula, they are the 'ever-green' genre. These shows will always attract the tradition viewers and advertisers. It's the cash flow! Only a handful of shows may risk it or try hard to be different every now and then, but then when rating fails or storyline doesn't work, the show is gone before you have the chance to like it. And sometimes you wonder why crap like reality TV shows or Neighbors are still wasting air time (but hey, they are part of the economy!) Whether you like Lost or not, the show is indeed one of a kind, we haven't seen shows like Lost before and we never will again. I for one can watch it again and again and be reminded how great the story and characters were. Lost will continue to take me to writing school forever.
I hope in coming weeks or months, I will write more about Lost. I simply haven't blogged about this show enough when it was on air! Supernatural rewatch is a regular thing for me, so I really don't have to set aside a separate for it. But I really need to rewatch Revolution and A Game of Thrones before March. Now that I have Glee and Once Upon A Time as Christmas presents, I need to rewatch them too.
At least I know I won't be bored during any up-coming hiatus!
Well.. that's all folks...for now!
December 21 is the end of the Mayan Calender. If we are sitting in the writer's room of Supernatural, The X Files, The Walking Dead, Revolution, Falling Skies, Lost...you name it -- there is a LOT of things we can flash out that will look awesome on television. We are obsessed with the end of world scenarios in popular culture -- demons walk the earth, angels get involved, zombies eat brains, militia takes over, aliens colonize earth, cataclysmic events. Very cliche but we love the angst, the darkness and special effects that blow our minds. Our heroes will come to the rescue! Dean and Sam Winchester can pretty much handle all kinds of monsters, demons and zombies. We'll leave the aliens to Mulder and Scully, and Tom Mason. We'll leave the militia to Miles and Charlie. For everything else, there is Mastercard.
While I am not too excited about this year's Christmas for some reasons, I am sure December 22 will see the dawn. My family has already wrapped all my Christmas presents and organised the Christmas menus. Those things cannot go to waste. Some of my friends start spamming my inbox with articles about the trending topic -- The Apocalypse. Unless it's a Supernatural or Revolution spoiler, I don't want to know! But they are interesting read! Here is one.
Business Insider has identified 14 places to hide out during the apocalypse. Great! It seems to me that some places are only for the rich and famous. But wait, the only Australia city that was mentioned was Perth. Oh Perth, you put the Dullsville in Dullsville, Dullsville! Two other locations caught my eyes. The first one is the concrete apartment buildings in Warsaw, which are like the ultimate safe houses. The second one is Mount Weather, Virginia, it is home to FEMA's National Emergency Coordinating Center. This is where they moved Dick Cheney to after 9/11. Wait.. they didn't use the Stargate?
We are fascinated with the Apocalypse, for some of us it is our obsession with vampires and zombies. Principal Figgins thinks vampires are real. Our PM, Julia Gillard warned us about zombies. In an recent CNN article, it mentioned the work of a researcher, Jerry Piven. He said "an apocalypse almost embeds a tale of fantasy into reality and provides safe theater for exploring death." Robb Willer, an associate professor of sociology at University of California, Berkeley said "...the apocalypse can be a spectator sport and a reality show for some people." Perhaps, we hate our lives so much that we sit on our asses all day and secretly hope the world will end soon, so we don't have to go to work, pay our bills or tell our partners we want a break up because they like Michael Bublé.
But the reality is, the end of the humanity is not fictional. Global warming; an all out nuclear war between nations; the break out of an incurable disease; the low supply of resources and food; the universe can just switch itself off; and according to this website, "...a plague that wipes out 70% of humanity might actually ensure the survival of our species in the longer-term." The 'Doomsday Seed Vault' is a real place in the mountains of Svalbard and selling bunkers for people to survive the Apocalypse is not unheard of. There are things we can do individually to help prolong the life of Earth. And seriously, if our planet is suddenly hit by another planet, there is nothing we can do about it. It's not like we can evacuate everyone via space ships or a Stargate.
Natural disasters, however, happen all the time and they are happening more frequently than I've ever noticed. My household has one philosophy -- our pantry is always full, as in 'enough-for-zombie-attack-full'. And my brother actually has a bug out bag. Shit happens. Look at SuperSandy! Aussie summer can be dangerous with all the bush fire and stuff. So, it's not a bad idea to be prepared!
I think whatever happens under whatever the circumstance, it reveals who we really are. We live in a very paranoid world, when shit happens, will we become heroes or will we become weak and selfish than we already are? Who are you likely to become if you are a character on Lost or Revolution?
And if the world does end on the December 21, what will happen to all of us? If you think demons will walk the earth, zombies will eat brains, militia will take over and aliens will colonize Earth, you can channel your inner Kripke and post your thoughts on Fanfiction.
