Busy, Busy & Disappointing TV

[furtech]

These last two weeks have been interesting. Tortuous, self-revealing and insightful in the way that vivisections are. Not all bad, though: the last three days have been spent working the Border Collie Rescue booth at the Pet Expo. Twelve hours (times 3 days) of pimping dogs, running them around the fair grounds and matching up two-and-four-legged buddies. Exhausting work both physically and emotionally, but I'd take this any time over the stuff that came before.

I sat down this evening and am watching the second run of "Riverworld" (based on the P. J. Farmer book of the same name). I don't remember the book being so interminable. I'm hoping that they will have some of the creatures from the books, but I suspect that even if they do, they will be lousy computer generated things. So far my impression is mixed: there are some decent production values and casting, but a lot of boring and one of my big pet peeves: casting a caucasian actress in the role of a Japanese monk. Only high school video projects should have to resort to yellow-face, not big budget production pieces. Are they saying that they couldn't find an Asian actress to play the role? Do they believe that audiences are so stupid that the producer could cast his girlfriend in the role? Her accent sounds like she got it from watching badly dubbed anime.

Before I left for the expo this morning, I caught a few (blessedly few) minutes of the 1991 remake of Dark Shadows. If ever there was a guide on how -not- to remake the series, this is it. Horrible. Bad, canned music. A "gothic" mansion that looks like it was shot in a suburban housing development. Somehow the director mistook wide-eyed pauses for gothic suspense. Awful.

More later when a few more brain cells regenerate. The next few weeks are going to be interesting!

EDIT: I *hate it* when people make oblique, tantalizing posts and here I am doing exactly that. The week before the BCR adoption event my day job underwent a massive restructuring performance review creating a new business plan. Everything was laid bare: people got laid off and the relaxed atmosphere was revealed to be more lackadaisical than smooth and now there will be more structure and discipline in the business. This sounds terrible (it was), but we knew it was coming and had prepared for it. We did a good job getting ready for this series of meetings, but it's kind of like preparing for a slap in the face: there's only so much you can do and it's still going to sting. Overall, it's a good thing and once we get through this transition we'll be in good shape to move forward (and it sure beats going out of business), but the next few months will be interesting times.

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

I was deep into my vampire phase in 91 I taped all of the episodes. But as a costumer I always have an excuse to record stuff no matter how bad the movie. They had pretty good costumes.

But, I loved the series so much that the tapes all sat in a drawer and rotted LOL.

Is Riverworld on tv? I vaguely remember the books....maybe I can rent it if it is a series....

I do not have a working tv...sigh.

[oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com]

They REMADE Dark Shadows in 1991? I used to watch the original in College. It came on before I had to leave for a class so my mom and me would watch it. One of the few things we actually did together. She watched it because she watched it when she was in HS (or when ever it first came out).

[gorn-captain.livejournal.com]

They actually shot in a Beverly Hills mansion, IIRC.

Dan Curtis presided over the remake, as he did on the original series.

Good or bad, there ought to be a law against canceling a show in the middle of a cliffhanger.

The 1971 movie, (with all the original tv cast) is pretty good though.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

Considering what the SciFi Channel did to Ursula K. LeGuin, I'm not at all shocked that they're cocking up the Riverworld series (and admittedly, I'm not a fan). I didn't much care for Earthsea when I read them, but I got the strong impression that whatever team adapted the novels to script didn't, either. HEY SCIFI CHANNEL: Knock off the classic science fiction/ fantasy adaptations and go back to making stuff like "Mansquito". It's what you're good at (for a value of "good" that encompasses and embraces "hilariously awful").

(And stop spelling your name with Ys. It's stupid when teenage Goths do it, and it's stupid when cable television networks do it.)

[pikacello.livejournal.com]

Hang in there Lance!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Riverworld is showing on the SciFi (SyFy) Channel. I'm not sure if it's the entire first book, but they're running it in a 4-hour block. Aside from my pet-peeve mentioned above, it's not bad. The pacing is slowed to a crawl by the artsiness of the director (not a storyteller, that's for sure). It's kind of like those Hallmark made-for movies they used to make in the 90's: definitely a cut above the typical SciFi Channel fare.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Seriously avoid the re-make. Slow, boring and terrible acting (soap-opera-level). The people behind this production clearly had -no- clue as to what made the original so cool. "Let's shoot this in a light, airy house and overuse diffusion lenses and have people stare pie-eyed at the camera every few seconds 'cause that's spooky!"

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Riverworld has that same feel, though I will say that the acting, writing and production values (even the direction) is head and shoulders above Earthsea. With the latter I couldn't keep watching-- not because they took liberties with the original story (never read it), but the Earthsea series was just boring and predictable, combined with bad acting and cheesy dialogue.

At least Riverworld has a good cast and decent acting and direction (I can even mostly ignore the artsiness). I was actually enjoying it enough to keep watching, but finally fell asleep. Thanks to Tivo, I'll watch the rest later. But that I'm still interested in making that much effort says worlds about the quality (vs typical SciFi fare).

[furtech.livejournal.com]

The Used Dog Fair did wonders for helping me to get over the last week! There's nothing like exhausting work and dogs and adoptions and fatty carnival food to cheer me up!

[gilmorelion.livejournal.com]

I was wondering what had happened to you! Glad to know you "made the cut", even though it was painful. (and believe me, I can relate right now)

By the by, I need to e-mail you about a project I have. :)