Category Archives: television

“Dear God, what is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring.”

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“Sherlock is a triumph, witty and knowing, without ever undercutting the flair and dazzle of the original. It understands that Holmes isn’t really about plot but about charisma … Flagrantly unfaithful to the original in some respects, Sherlock is wonderfully loyal to it in every way that matters”. (independent.co.uk)

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The sharp Sherlock adaptation from Dr. Who producers is a Holmes for a very new century: set in modern-day London, the consulting detective has an iPhone to enhance his deductive reasoning, and Watson keeps a blog.

The writing is so good and acting so convincing that it immediately makes sense that the war-haunted, gruff-and-ready Watson would write a blog at the advice of his therapist, that the technology-forward, cryptic Holmes would take to texting — he “prefers” it — and run a website.

Sherlock will be available at PBS’s website following its T.V. debut. (io9.com)

“Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.” “We live in a space ship, dear.”

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This is space. It’s sometimes called the final frontier. (Except that of course you can’t have a final frontier, because there’d be nothing for it to be a frontier to, but as frontiers go, it’s pretty penultimate…)

- Terry Pratchett

I love science fiction and fantasy. I just do. I love reading it, I love watching it. I love immersing myself in new worlds. I love the creativity, the invention, the exploration of big issues. I love suspending belief for the sake of a great story.

And I point all of that out to say…I don’t know why I didn’t discover Firefly sooner.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to call it the cult classic of the decade. I’ve heard of it, of course, but mostly because you can’t be anywhere around sci-fi geeks and not repeatedly hear mention of the show. It’s considered one of the best sci-fi shows of all time, which is pretty remarkable when you consider the series lasted just fourteen episodes. Joss Whedon‘s bold creative vision of a futuristic “western in space” did not mesh well with the network, which scrapped the original pilot, aired the episodes out of order, and canceled the show after just eleven of the episodes were aired.

Even with all of the accolades, I will admit that the notion of a space western gave me pause. Sci-fi fan? Yes. Western fan? Not so much. But consider my doubts completely and thoroughly revoked.

I love this show.

And so this is how I’ve spent the past week: staying up WAY too late and enjoying every one of those fourteen episodes.

I think I might watch them all again, actually. At least one more time.

buh-bye, boob tube

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Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren’t a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

Now, though, you could:

* Run a little store on eBay
* Write a daily blog
* Write a novel
* Start an online community about your favorite passion
* Go to meetups in your town
* Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
* Learn a new language, verbal or programming
* Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
* Produce small films and publish them online
* Listen to the one thousand most important operas
* Read a book or two every evening
* Play a game a Scrabble with your family

None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

- Seth’s Blog

We’re still watching movies and a handful of very select shows on Hulu, but as of today, we are officially a TV-free household. And I think we’re all looking forward to it.