Media Log

[fannishliss]

By January 9th, we had already watched 21 eps, including many first season Heroes eps. 


23-26. Heroes s1.11-14. We've watched four more Heroes eps, including the introduction of Claude Raines, played by Christopher Eccleston.  I had quite an interesting reaction when Chris appeared. I was like "Hi Chris!" and it felt like he was quite transparent on screen in his naturalism within the role.  The second he appears onscreen he just sinks down into the role.  In a way, it seems like child's play for him.... there's really not much for him to sink his teeth into in this first ep. Though I do like the way he makes it clear, just by the way he delivers the line, that he knows that Claude Raines is the name of the Actor in the old movie, the Invisible Man, and that this individual is using the identity sardonically, having fully dropped out of society or any need to be named.  Episode 14, Distractions, features more Chris, but he's clearly in the supporting role. 
Chris is able to carry such a physicality of menace. [It's one of the reasons Invisible Circus falls flat, because his character is a man who's lost his direction -- there's just no fire there.] Gosh, I'd love to be in the same room with him sometime-- he's simply got that actor thing where he is so radiant at all time, practically incandescent.  I hope he gets a little more range as the eps play out..... but I don't have high hopes.  These big ensemble shows, like Lost as well, don't work for me in the long term because I want to fall in love with one character and really feel along with them.  I can't feel along with so many storylines at once... it becomes a mere intellectual exercise and I am usually one step ahead of the reveal, so that's not awesome for me.  I know that Claude is not a main character.... and he is clearly a Mentor, so it kind of sucks, because anything about his background I'm going to have to make up for myself.  I'll try to see if I can come up with a Rose for him to Lose after this season is under my belt. :D

Has anyone watched the full four seasons of Heroes to say whether the story arc is satisfying?  The DVDs are so cheap at Target -- only $10 per season -- and my son is really enjoying it.  We went ahead and picked up season two....   I have a DVD habit instead of a cable bill or netflix --  i'd like to think it comes out the same in the long run. :)


I personally have not seen any more Community this week tho my boy and man did watch an ep online while I was out.  We turned on the TV last night and they had bumped it for 30 Rock.  We are bummed.  

My main show, Supernatural, just won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama!!!!! and for best sf.  I am beyond happy for them.  Truly, this is the great show no one watches.  I am really grateful to the CW for hanging in there with my little, awesome Show.  I will be working on Friday when the next ep airs..... 

Richard E. Grant as Withnail is made up to look like David Bowie.  I've been hunting icons all week and saw some awesome Bowie icons, and the resemblance to Withnail is striking.  Of course, I also see a strong resemblance between older Lis Sladen and Tony Head.  :)

Status: 26.

Comments

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

I really liked Christopher Eccleston in that role.

As for Heroes, I loved the first season, liked the second, and completely lost interest in the third. I only know there was a fourth because you mentioned it. Once the first season story arc was mostly dealt with, follow-up arcs seemed rather like new creations trying to recreate (unsuccessfully) what the first season did so well. Mind you, that could just be me, but I'd imagine a lot of people would agree the first season was the best.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I like Chris in basically anything. This is my new favorite icon, which is called "Eccleston was a Babe." If he were bubblegum, he'd be Babelicious. If he were the president, he'd be Babraham Lincoln. :D Of course I like him more if he has more to do. I think his acting is fantastic. It looks like he put on some weight for this role... which is pretty surprising considering that he is such a hardcore runner.

Well, I won't be rushing back to Target the get the other seasons. It's too bad when shows have such a quick decline of diminishing returns. I think the eps we initially saw were s2... and we were totally meh.

thanks for your feedback!!

[annissamazing]

I've seen two and a half seasons of Heroes. It's a show I gave up on, to be honest. I wrote about it here. There's no real spoilers, but avoid reading that if you don't want to be spoiled at all. Bear in mind that season 2 was affected by the writer's strike.

Community has been benched to make room for 30 Rock. It's up in the air whether or not it'll be picked up for a fourth season, but NBC is promising to air the last part of the third season later this year.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear there's still a shot at a fourth season for Community. It seems pretty sad that they bumped it for something so successful as 30 Rock..... D: I'll never understand Networks. Just as the groundswell began to appreciate this show they zap it!! OMG, the chloroform bit almost killed me. The only other show that makes me laugh that hard is "The Venture Brothers" which is definitely a tiny, niche market. [My icon, Man-Eating Cow, is a Tick Spinoff.... and Chris McCullough, who is half of the Ventures creative team, is an old buddy of Edlund, and wrote a lot of the animated Tick eps.]

I don't mind watching one season and letting it go at that. I did it with Prison Break. :D

[annissamazing]

Heroes was initially conceived to have an entirely new cast every season. They leave season 1 in a very good place for the characters. What happened was the characters got so popular that the network was afraid to start again from scratch so they brought them back and tried to keep them going. It was a valiant attempt and it failed utterly.

The chloroform!!! My favorite bit is right afterward when Annie gets upset and you can see her eyes narrow and she starts shaking the chloroform onto the rag again and doesn't even notice she's doing it!

I *adore* The Venture Brothers. I just bought all four seasons on DVD for Justin. We need to break them out and rewatch it. I love that an animated show that looks like it's from the seventies has so much great plot, nuance, and emotion. It's better than most of the live action stuff on network tv.

"What's a Rusty Venture?"

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

The Venture Brothers is the one show where I laugh so hard I can't breathe and have to take my inhaler!! They should get sponsored by makers of Albuterol.

I'm not sure if we have the last season yet since it was released in two halves....

My favorite character is Baron Orpheus. I love his dramatic theme music.

If they ever do a live action Venture, they can get the guy who plays Dean Pelton to play Dr. Venture. :D

[annissamazing]

HE WOULD BE PERFECT!!!

Side note: No matter what he's in, I always picture him with a dildo strapped to his head. That image is burned in my brain from Reno 911 where he's tied to a bed yelling, "You can't judge me!"

I wonder what they would do about Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

The cosplay folks go insane with the Dr. Mrs. the Monarch costumes. Mostly they look great! Except the ones you can't look at because their breasts have basically already fallen out!!!

There are even people dressed as Molotov!!! Pix are easy to find on google.

Plus, you know, Doc Hammer likes to dress as Dr. Girlfriend -- tho I haven't seen him in Dr. Mrs. the Monarch's outfit!!! yet!!!

I have not seen Reno 911. NOW I WANT TO. :D

[annissamazing]

The costume would be easy enough, but the voice!

I couldn't find the exact clip I was thinking of, but poor Andrew has a few run-ins with Reno's finest:

[jessicaqueen.livejournal.com]

Pretty much agree with gentlehobbit re: Heroes, though 'liked' might be a strong word for season 2. It was all right, but I was a bit meh about it. The point is that the first season is by far superior to those that follow, and I wouldn't really recommend watching on after that arc has been wrapped up at the end of the season.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your feedback. sounds like we will give s2 a go without many hopes. Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised! My son is not a super hard sell. :P

Rose: Did you really need the money?
Doctor: Not enough to make s2!

[emraldeyedauter.livejournal.com]

Hmm I'm going to have to watch those episodes of Heroes with Claude in them to get an understanding of his character. Dev's birthdays coming up in March and she did ask me a while back to write a fic using Christopher Eccleston as Claude for her but I don't know much about him

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Wait a couple more days and I'll give you the heads up about which eps to watch where Chris is featured. Most of the show is about the other Heroes, which are not as interesting tho I do like the Cheerleader. Unless, you know, you can get s1 so cheap. 10USD is a very reasonable sum for a whole season.

[emraldeyedauter.livejournal.com]

Okay thanks Liss. :)

[auroramama]

I loved watching Eccleston's body language as Claude. You could tell by his stance whether he was visible to the person he was watching.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

That's really cool. good tip!

I have a strong feeling I'll be writing a backstory for "Claude"

[bloose09.livejournal.com]

I agree with what is being said about "Heroes" S1 being far and away the most superior of the seasons. S2 was a big let down and S3 very disappointing. I never made it to S4, which is unusual for me/ I usually hang in there, but it just wasn't worth the effort.

CE did gain weight for his role as Claude which is strange as he was playing a homeless man. His performance is very nuanced, but there really isn't a lot for him to sink his teeth into. He is almost too large (energy wise) for the role. Claude is one of my favorite CE roles, but I wish they gave him more to do.

Did you know the showrunners gave CE a choice of roles? He had to choose between Claude and Sylar. He said he chose Claude because he wanted the Northerner to be the good guy for once. I believe he said he turned down S2 because they couldn't show him any scripts to give him an idea as to what Claude would be doing.

PS: Love your Babelicious icon by the way! Chancer, right? He is in that about 3 minutes;)

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I wonder what that would be like, for Chris to play Sylar.

I think it would throw me off quite a bit!

I like Zachary Quinto, but I've been complaining that at this time, we don't have any explanation as to why Sylar is such a psycho killer except that he just is. That's annoying, and it would have been even worse if it had been given to Chris -- who can make a silk purse from a sow's ear -- but Sylar's lines are so *empty*. Grr.

I'm much happier that he is playing Claude and I'm looking forward to I think three more eps?

Yes, I made some icons from the Chancer screencaps. It looked like a small role, but he is looking very well in the blond curls! :D

I'm really glad to have seen The Shadow Line, in terms of a role that gives Chris enough space and stillness to really resonate within his role. I didn't really like the show as a whole, but Chris simply owned that part.

I really wish he would get more roles in the British big screen. I guess I'm just constantly jonesing for more Chris. :P

The last time I got really obsessed with a Brit, it was Alan Rickman, and boy has he made some terrible, terrible movies. o_O Then too, there's always Ewan McGregor... but he always gets plenty of big screen work so I get a pretty consistent dosage of Ewan that keeps me on an even keel. :D

[bloose09.livejournal.com]

ZQ did a good job with what he was given to work with. I think CE made a better choice as Claude too. I would have liked to seen more of Claude and look forward to a Rose/Claude crossover. There are only a handful of those out there.

Have you seen 'Let Him Have It'? It is CE's first big screen role. It was made at the time England only released 4 films a year. It is based on a real story and is another heavy role. He has the lighter curly hairstyle going on.

CE was so very good in The Shadow Line. I really cared about his character, even though his most redeeming quality was the love of his wife. CE has the main role in The Fuse which is just finishing filming this month and will be aired in May 2012. Another heavy role for our boy.

I too enjoy Alan Rickman, but agree he has made some horrible films.