The Ending (if you want Spoilers)

Last blogs, Finale date 201308:19

I think since the Battlestar Galactica reboot, I purposely won’t get involved in a tv series until it’s over.

For some reason, now that everyone is getting all trope savy, we all want to know about that Finale. Will a new show even make it to the end of a planned season? Theoretically the end of the 4th season is the “100 hour” mark. Once it makes it to syndication, how is the series going? Is it deep into the season’s drama? Did they develop a good Big Bad for the season or better yet series?

It’s so tough to get a movie made with all the development hell steps, the worst thing a movie could do is blow it in those last 10 minutes. You can’t even get a sequel to make up for it if it doesn’t generate enough interest (income) to make one.

People can get hooked on the BEST series and then it’s ruined with the series finale. While were sucking Lost’s cock and critics were circle jerking around it, I kept remembering Battlestar and waiting…. And every time I hear about all the other anti- hero dad tv series, I think the same thing.

People weren’t even satisfied at the draw your own conclusion ending with Soprano’s. I read about viewers theories and apparently the foreshadowing came to the same conclusion real life did. There can be no Soprano’s reunion where Tony lives.

Also, all these dark series have taken their toll on me, albeit slower than “reality” tv did. That happened to me around the 4th season of Real World.

I can’t avoid all the tweets and articles about Breaking Bad. Is there any way the series could end that would satisfy half the viewers? The whole point is to watch the Big Main spiral into hell. What happens if they don’t do that? Or they attempt to “redeem him the right way?“ Remember the Shield?

It’s why I had to watch Harry Potters and I will have to rewatch them. That series just got better, even though 1) we know the ending (the “chosen one” vs. any evil?) and 2) it’s a collection of every English fantasy fiction trope as well as acting pool for the past 40 years. But, it maintained a quality and went out big and I have to study the success, from the first book to the last.

Harry Potter is apparently the big fluke because Rowling wasn’t known for much more (public media-wise) before that. So every time I look at a series everyone loves, I spend more time reading about what the creator has done before.

Game of thrones “guy” was known for writing before and people can look at his earlier work to try to gauge the quality of it now. And that leads to questioning if his writing (endings) have improved, or is he still trying to beat the dead horses of his earlier stuff? You know, like how a band comes out with a new album but all the songs are still the same? Do people even listen to a whole “album” anymore? At least we’re aware that many characters (that people got interested in) are going to die in the series, since there are cast of thousands.

It seems like a big deal is to have a cast of thousands, too. Simpson’s Springfield, Lost. It’s not enough to follow a dozen people on a show for some reason. A show has to have an expanded universe as big as Star Wars by the end of the first season. And yet, if the focus is shifted so much off the main characters, what the hell are people watching then?

I admit I read spoiler endings, now. It’s not to answer the big questions, it’s so I can see if those are the lessons/ answers I want or need to learn..

Harry Potter And The Reluctant Yank, Part A

(I’m already doing a numbered series, as not to confuse, maybe.)

Cinema’s blog, movie date 130428:14

From news articles I’ve read that after August we may not even have a post office, that’s supposed to be when all the “debt” comes to a head. You see, thru a certain political party, the USPS now has to accrue savings 75, that’s SEVENTY-FIVE years before an employee retires. That is 10 years before any employee is even BORN, add 16 more before they’re able to work. And then prices will skyrocket to mail anything. So we may finally be rid of junk mail, but also the ability to send hand written holiday cars & letters.

Anyway, and that was quite a tangent, I decided to go for quality on my netflix cue and hacked away all the 2 star films and ones that I had less than 10 of. 3 is a lame rating out of 5. It’s wishy washy okay. I always like a review system with an even number of options. 50% or 51%, shit or good. The only 3’s I have left are part of series.

I couldn’t deny it was time to rent the harry potter films, mostly because I was impressed that such a large cast made 8 films. The closest I can think of was Roger Moore as bond for 7, but that’s mostly him. Was Q, M & Money Penny consistent within that?

The first film I just let “wash over me,” I didn’t try to figure anything out, which is tough. My mind wants to plot crunch. And the first 3 movies were tough because the magic was too random for me. A mythology has to develop rules within itself. You have to know a vampires rules or Jason if you have to kill them. There has to be a limit what you can make disappear or specifics on what you can pull out of nowhere? This movie was all over. But there is a puzzle to figure out. Tons of characters are introduced and I think you can have too many characters. That’s what sells the action figures, unfortunately.

I learned from the tons of Star Wars figures I still have and am reluctant to sell. For a long time I thought about calling my eBay handle “should_I_sell_blue_snaggletooth?” I now am selling 3/4 of my collection quite easily, a lesson in collecting and what their real long-term value is when the series takes a turn from the creator(s).

Who the hell sends their kids here to such a dangerous school?! And a 7 year school when you’re 11? They haven’t even learned the “basics” of high school? Are you really going to teach sorcery to a bunch of kids that want to get laid, play video games and eat junk food?

I did think the sorting hat was interesting. High school is like that: you’re wither a jock, a geek (without perfect grades), a stoner or in the academic decathlon. There are many factions… familiar to me within the geeks.

In the second movie, I did figure out the puzzle, or big bad and I just considered it a kid’s movie that spelled it out. I knew there were bigger things for Snape and like most movies there would be something important he was hiding for him to act odd but not all outright evil.

I of course loved Moaning Myrtle. Can’t wait to see the porn parody.

The films went on long and it was tough for me to get thru. I was bored and restless. It was literally watching a british tv season of 6 episodes in a sitting.

The third movie was trickier for me to figure out and I’m not sure I did. Everything just happens quickly whether or not and of course people leave the movie saying they figured things out. I bet if the theater paused the movie before it’s secrets unraveled and handed out a written, I’d bet 3% really got it.

There are so many red herring characters, but I did pay attention to what I call card counting people. Like blackjack there are high cards and low cards. A character will come in and do good (high card) or do something bad (low card). There are ancillary characters that kinda say “hi” (middle) that you take for granted. CSI taught me not to mentally “blow off” those people.

If you have a time traveling device, THAT should be the big deal here! I understood later where the plot and mythology needed to go, but at least dispatch the device if you’re not going to use it!

Wow, that was a lot and quick. I’ll have to go to part 2…