Episode 1479: Third Review, And I've Barely Dented The Pile

Review of Cryptic Endearments is done and sent off to Andrea. A bit nervous about this one, as I feel like he's got quite high expectations (based on the review of Alan Brownjohn's The Saner Places that I sent him as a sample) and it's also the first poetry review I've done in ages (the last two were of fiction). I also think that there's a lot more to Howie's collection than I've managed to cover in 900+ words, but it's also difficult to articulate what those things are without resorting to extensive and repeated quotation of the poems themselves. It sounds clichéd, but it's really one of those collections that you have to read yourself, in order to get a sense of what it's like. Here's the link to purchase a copy, in case anyone's interested. Ah well, no use worrying about the review now that it's done. Time to move on to the next one! Have done three since I got back from the UK, but I've still barely made a dent in my to-do pile and my editors are beginning to come knocking. I think the next thing on my list is going to be Wes Brown's Shark, and then one of the KFS chapbooks that I've owed Lindsey, and now Claire, since the middle of the year.

Episode 1478: Ageing Teen Dramas

So The CW is finally premiering the rest of its shows. Have seen the first episode of 90210 Season 5 and I'm amazed that this was given the green light for a full season, whereas Gossip Girl only got a half-season order. (I'm already predicting that its timeslot mid-season replacement, The Carrie Diaries, is going to be this TV season's Ringer-style flop.) Don't get me wrong, I think the A.V. Club's D- review of the Gossip Girl Season 6 premiere is basically spot-on, and this is without even having seen the episode (because Gossip Girl has honestly become that predictable). I just figured the flagship show of the network would have been cut some slack and given a full season to send it off, though I suppose it's really The Vampire Diaries that's The CW's crown jewel now. Thought it's going into Season 4 this year, it's managed to avoid (so far) the fundamental pitfall of teen dramas, i.e. failing to properly handle the characters' inevitable growing up. 90210 and Gossip Girl, on the other hand, are perfect case studies of how a teen drama can go completely off the rails.

Episode 1477: The Silent History

Okay, I've changed my mind about Season 2 of Homeland because this week's episode was great! On a side note, for some reason it's taken ages for genuine AVI versions of my shows to become available, which makes it difficult to keep up with what is a very packed viewing schedule. Haven't managed to read Cryptic Endearments again today, so I absolutely have to do it tomorrow, and maybe try to write the review too, which means another bunch of TV shows that I can't watch. Anyway, my discovery of the day has been The Silent History, which is an e-book with a twist. To begin with, it's serialised, so the story is being portioned out in six volumes, each running for a month with some time in between for people to catch up. However, as it's delivered in the form of an app for iPhone or iPad, the creators have taken advantage of the GPS function to add content that is only unlocked when the app is run at specific locations. These ancillary stories add another dimension to the narrative, but are not strictly necessary reading in order to follow the storyline. The creators have already stated that they don't expect anyone to actually be able to unlock all these site-specific stories, but part of the fun is that users can submit their own work for consideration. There's currently no unlockable content in Singapore, so I might actually try my hand at writing something for the app. It's definitely a way of doing e-books that goes beyond just converting text into a digital format, and for readers living near unlockable content, will make for very immersive storytelling. The main narrative itself is already intriguing anyway, about an 'epidemic' of silence that begins affecting children, and the book looks like it'll be tracking fictional firsthand accounts all the way to the early 2040s. At US$8.99 (I paid S$10.98), it's pricier than the average Apple app, but I think it's worth it.

Episode 1476: Merlin's Back!

So the long-awaited Series 5 of Merlin has finally begun! To be honest, I think I might actually prefer watching this to Doctor Who, whose seventh series was the reason why Merlin was bumped till now. Seems like they're going to try to sex the show up a little this series, which makes sense because even though it's still ostensibly a show for the kids that airs before the watershed (in spite of what are pretty much constant homoerotic undertones to the Arthur/Merlin relationship), a good number of the kids who were watching it back in 2008 will have grown up by now to become young adults. On the other hand, Merlin is also one of those shows where there has been negligible character development over four series, besides the whole good-girl-gone-bad thing with Morgana, so any change with Series 5 is at least something happening. Have finished reading Cryptic Endearments, so I'm thinking I'll read it again tomorrow and then write the review on Tuesday. Since it's due on Wednesday, even if I end up procrastinating a little too much tomorrow, I've got the additional day as a buffer, right?

Episode 1475: Finally Getting Back In The Swing Of Things

So I've just finished writing my review of Robert Wexelblatt's Losses, and I've already started reading Howie Good's Cryptic Endearments for my next review. Hadn't realised before I read the acknowledgements that there's work in this latest collection that first appeared in Eunoia Review, so that was a pleasant surprise. I also caught up on all the fiction submissions on my end for The Cadaverine, including scheduling the accepted stories, so I've actually been quite productive for the past couple of days. It's helped that this past week has seen way fewer submissions from the Submission Bombers Facebook group than I was expecting. (Many thanks to everyone who did participate in the 'bombing', by the way!) So I've been able to carry on in my usual 'holiday mode', i.e. watching more TV than is reasonable for one person. (Incidentally, if things like opening credits matter to you, check out Elementary because I think that show's opening credits look pretty cool. It's also a decent CBS procedural, so I'm glad that comparisons to BBC's Sherlock don't seem to be dominating reviews of it now, the way they were before the pilot had even aired.)

Episode 1474: Two Political Plays

Finished reading both Tan Tarn How's Fear Of Writing and Alfian Sa'at's Cooling-Off Day. Left me wishing I'd been in town to see them being staged, especially the former, which is meta-theatre about censorship. I imagine it would have felt a bit like when I went to see Tim Crouch's The Author at the Warwick Arts Centre, another play that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, while touching on controversial subjects. I think that plays like these were staged is a sign that the local cultural and political landscape has changed/is changing. If you want to be negative about it, you might label them as token gestures, ways of taming dissenting elements by restricting their potential audience. (Let's all be realistic about how many Singaporeans go to the theatre, okay?) However, both plays draw from a diverse bunch of Singaporean experiences, letting viewpoints that wouldn't necessarily encounter each other 'speak' to one another (even if indirectly through the medium of the play), in a way that seems highly appropriate given our ongoing 'national conversation'. Well, now I know what I'll be buying the next time I'm at BooksActually, assuming that there's stock.

Episode 1473: Temporary ADD?

Although I own all but the most recent title in the Angry Birds franchise, I've never been hooked on the games. These past couple of days though, I've actually been getting into them. I can definitely see why people feel compelled to keep playing. Trying to get three stars on every level drives me crazy too! Am halfway through the next thing that I have to review, although it's taken me far longer to read it than necessary. Much as reading on the iPad is convenient in comparison to reading off the laptop screen, it's just so easy to swipe to some other app and get distracted. Sigh. My attention span has been shot to hell lately, and there's really no reason it should be like that. I mean, you'd think at the very least, I could settle down for around 40 minutes, the length of one of my TV dramas, and get through a fair chunk of what I need to read. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, right? Also need to start driving lessons soon, as my parents are bugging me about it. To be honest, I don't see what's the rush. As it is, our family already has one car but three drivers, so why hurry to add a fourth? (Tangentially, what is this overcrowding on public transport that Singaporeans have been complaining about incessantly? Am I just taking the buses and trains at the wrong time of day?)

Episode 1472: Is The Mindy Project This Year's New Girl?

All the Prnned in the Margins books I ordered from The Book Depository have just arrived, so I've got plenty of new reading material. Given that The CW has finally started premiering its shows though (at last, Hart Of Dixie is back!), I might not have much time for reading outside of my reviewing work. Revolution continues to be surprisingly watchable in spite of the insufferable writing for Tracy Spiridakos's character, as the rest of the cast has actually begun developing into fairly compelling characters. I'm already trying to predict what the plot twists will be, now that the series has just been given a full-season pickup by NBC. The network also gave one to The New Normal, which actually delivered an okay episode this week, i.e. less politics, more humour. The show that I'm truly surprised by, however, is Fox's The Mindy Project. I know two weeks is way too early to call it, but I have a feeling that it could be this year's New Girl, i.e. starts out strong in the 18-49 ratings and declines even as critics increasingly praise it. What I found really funny is how Ed Weeks's Jeremy on this show literally has the same accent as Rowly Dennis's Jeremy on the now-cancelled Jane By Design. I mean, they're both English, but it's like American TV has decided this is now a 'thing', the token Englishman.

Episode 1471: Swimming With Sharks

Let's get my only issue with Swimming With Sharks out of the way first, which is with the unevenness of the American accents across the cast. George Young pretty much nailed it, and Adrian Pang sort of did as well, but Janice Koh tended to sound like just a well-educated Singaporean. The supporting cast was similarly a mixed bag. That aside, however, I enjoyed the production. I'll admit that the first half actually didn't quite 'click' for me, which was a bit weird because I've seen all three leads act together on The Pupil, and they had great chemistry on that. Everything after the intermission worked though, especially the scene where Young's Guy tortures Pang's Buddy. In retrospect, all the pre-intermission stuff that sometimes felt like it was retreading 'boss from hell' clichés made complete sense. It's a play about show business, and show business thrives on its archetypes, right down to the sob story that Buddy busted out towards the end of the torture scene. Like Guy, I'd been a bit of a schmuck, willing to take everything at face value, including buying into the overt betrayals happening onstage, without considering that Buddy was playing us all for a sucker with a long con, right till the final scene's twist, which considering the amount of American TV that I watch, I really should have seen coming. I won't spoil it, since the production is running till the end of this week, but it's a clever one. Not by any means original, of course, but in this context, it's hard to deny that it's fiendishly clever.

Episode 1470: Finally, A New Review Written!

Haven't written a review since more than a month ago, when I started working exclusively on my dissertation. Didn't get around to writing one, even after I finished the dissertation and my essay. Today though, I finally managed one. It's long, long overdue, looking at Jonathan Lee's Joy. Enjoyed the book, although I had a minor quibble with the ending. Now that this review has been sent off, I need to finish reading Robert Wexelblatt's Losses and review that. Can't write the review tomorrow because I'm going to see Swimming With Sharks with Shirley, otherwise I'd aim to do a review a day this whole week. Anyway, the latest round of TV premieres has been a mixed bag for me. I loved the Season 2 premiere of Once Upon A Time, which is finally fully embracing its fairytale side, but I found myself indifferent to the Season 2 premieres of Homeland and Revenge, shows that I was really into in their freshman seasons. I still think the former has really solid acting from Damian Lewis and Claire Danes, so I'll keep watching because of that. I still love the soapiness of the latter, and having invested so much time on the first season, I'll definitely be following this new one, but I just wish some of the bad guys would get their comeuppance. At least Gabriel Mann is still getting great lines this year. Definitely the breakout character on that show. As for 666 Park Avenue, I enjoyed its supernatural aspect, but like most of this year's freshman dramas, it could get really good or really bad after the pilot. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's the former!