Top Ten: Villains

Criteria for villains to be on this list:

-They originate from a book, movie, play, or show… in other words, no video games.

-They are really, really bad.  They make you hate them.

-They are cagey, canny, clever, committed, and powerful… the best ones even make you respect–maybe even admire–them to a point, despite hating them.

This list is more or less off-the-top-of-my-head right now, and will surely be revised.  Suggestions?

10.  Iago, Othello (Particularly as played by Kenneth Branagh)

9.  Piter de Vries, Dune Series

8.  Mrs. (Marisa) Coulter, His Dark Materials Trilogy

Almost even more deserving, her golden monkey…

7.  Agent Smith, The Matrix Trilogy

6.  Walter o’ Dim, Dark Tower Series

5.  Sark, Alias

4.  Macbeth, Gargoyles

3.  Arvin Sloane, Alias

2.  David Xanatos, Gargoyles

1.  Benjamin Linus, Lost

Honorable mentions:

Q (Star Trek tNG) – Not necessarily a villain, but definitely a nuisance.  And omnipotent.

The Archmage (Gargoyles) – Evil wizard possessing the Grimoire, the Phoenix Gate, and the Eye of Odin… plus the classic villain voice of David Warner… heck yeah.

Dwight Kurt Schrute (The Office) – Simply because.

Brothers In Arms

I delved into another world of Aaron Sorkin’s not too long ago:  The West Wing.  Had it not been by him—and you know the fondness for his works I have—I would have been much more skeptical about the show.  Political drama, blah blah blah… But because of Sports Night, I gave it a shot.  In a word: wow.  In two words: fantastic show.  The excellent writing is still there… it’s got excellent dialogue on the reg, you might say, and held back just a bit from SN’s chitterychattery backandforthness, which is just fine.  It’s intelligent, captivating, surprisingly interesting.

It’s nice, in a way, that its plot really never in any way resembles what’s actually going on in the world, IRL.  It keeps a great sense of reality, but it’s not so much a commentary on current events or anything like that—a nice escape.

More importantly, the characters… from episode one, just as the characters in SN reliably did, they suck you in, involve you, make you feel.  Great casting, great acting.  I’m amused by the casting crossover from SN to The West Wing… mainly minor characters recur significantly in TWW, and major characters from SN sparingly have minor roles in TWW.  But there’s certainly a good number of them.  So far, up to season 2’s end, no Dan or Casey though.  More on crossover in a moment, but two notes… One, I’ve never much cared for Rob Lowe.  Not much at all.  Always seemed kinda skeezy.  In The West Wing, he plays Sam Seaborn, the deputy communications director for the white house, and is a very smart but somehow boyishly innocent and friendly person… I don’t know how better to describe him.  But… it suits him so well, and he is probably my favorite character.  Very impressed.  Secondly, there’s Bradley Whitford, who in any other role you’ve seen him in has been weaselly and sniveling, and in this he plays Josh Lyman… witty, argumentative, very smart,  forthright, incredibly respectable, and an easy second favorite.  I was very skeptical when I saw him in the first episode… thought I was going to hate him.  Turns out, in the first episode of season 2, I was far, far more concerned about him than I was about President Bartlett.

One small disappointment in the show is simply that, while they’re great ideas, I’m seeing a good bit of ideas crossing from Sports Night into TWW.  Plotlines occasionally ranging from very similar to outright carbon copies.  For example, in SN, Jeremy goes through a bit of a breakdown caused by his parents getting divorced when it comes out that his father has been cheating on his mother for over twenty years with some woman.  In TWW, Sam goes through a bit of a breakdown caused by his parents getting divorced when it comes out that his father has been cheating on his mother for over twenty years with some woman.  Huh.  Anyway, at least such occurrences are not terribly common, and it’s funny to every once in a while even hear a line that once came straight from Dan Rydell’s mouth coming out again from the mouth of Josh Lyman.  Again, at least that stuff is good stuff.

My final reflections are these:  I watched season one shortly before actually taking my first real, interested trip to Washington DC, and season two concurrently.  It was really, really cool, simply put.  Seeing the sights, thinking about the characters, and relating it to what’s really going on in those austere buildings and such… wicked cool.  (Though, it’s odd seeing all those aerial shots of the white house in the show without all the tourists that would be there.)  And… regarding the title of this entry… The last episode I’ve seen is the end of season 2, and I’m in the process of acquiring season 3, and I can’t wait to start it.  But, that last episode… incredible.  The final scene is calm, but gripping, intense and subtle, an ultimate climax and cliffhanger, and what makes it tenfold as much as it would otherwise be is the use of music.  The song playing during the scene (slightly sped up, I noticed,) is Dire Straights “Brothers In Arms,” and… just wow.  I would have never thought that song could be put to such a use (though it is, of course, a great song,) and… wow.  Best song imaginable to use in that scene, and best possible use of that song, ever.  Because of that scene the song has been in my head for over a week now, and I’ll always think of it differently.  I really, really can’t wait to start season 3.

A Show About a Show About Sports

Just a few days ago, I finished watching the entire series (which is not, sadly, as much as you’d think) of Sports Night.  It’s Aaron Sorkin’s masterpiece about the cast, crew, and behind-the-scenes goings-on of a cable sports news show, for those of you who have the supreme misfortune of not being familiar with it.  It’s roughly the sixth(ish) time I’ve watched it the whole way through, all two seasons, and this time it was to show it to my girlfriend.

See, I’m the kind of person who can watch things over again, and in some cases, over and over and over again.  I love finding new things and becoming more involved in shows, movies, and books too.  (For example, I’ve read the core Dune series three times through, and that’s a feat in itself… and I’m sure Dune will come up again here someday.)  But even more than enjoying them again for myself, I thoroughly enjoy watching something I’ve previously enjoyed with someone new, who hasn’t experienced it… seeing the reactions, hearing the responses, talking about it.  And a big part of it is simply exposing them to something I think–and hope they’ll think–is great.  Sparking someone else’s interest in something truly worth that interest.  And where that’s concerned, Sports Night is pure gold.

What initially got me hooked on Sports Night was, on one random evening in undergrad, I had the TV on in the background—I was either homeworking or gaming at my computer, and I noticed as it came on.  I wasn’t what you’d call “very into sports;” I didn’t “have my favorite sports icon’s jersey on my wall in a glass case;” I wasn’t in the habit of “covering my entire naked body in team colors and screaming at the top of my lungs in twenty-degree weather while vulgarly berating the ump/ref for being a complete jerkoff to my dawg down there on the field.”  I think I was caught by the writing in the few seconds it took to change it because, well, it was called Sports Night, what else would it be about?  And I hesitated.  Within moments, I was sucked in by the characters.  It was mid-plotline on several counts, (I remember quite clearly, it was the episode “Eli’s Coming,”) but the characters—the actors really, I guess, pulled me in, made me get immediately emotionally caught up in things.  Admittedly, I’ve always had a pretty easy time of that, getting drawn in, getting involved in a movie or show, particularly if it’s quite good.  And this… well, like almost no other, this show does that.  After all the times I’ve seen all of it, every episode, I still get a chill and a pit in my stomach at Three Dog Night’s first wail of “Eli’s comiiiiiiiiiiing…”  I still go from hating Sam Donovan the moment he first breezes on in and messes with things, to wholly admiring and respecting him just one episode later as he walks JJ and the crew to the door with the infamous Philo T. Farsworth speech.  I still hate Dan on draft day, I still feel like cheering when Casey finally gets his kiss.  I still get a touch misty as Jeremy explains the Sword of Orion, get almost choked up with Rebecca’s “Take the tape,” and Dan’s Passover speech.  And simply nothing can top the near-tearful exultation of the Mystery Man’s “Well, we’re gonna work on that.”  All that and so much more, packed into just two seasons of 23-minute shows.  Incredible.

Incidentally, I am seriously considering making a Sports Night playlist… what few songs they use in the show, they choose and use incredibly well, and at this point SN is automatically what I associate with them.  So, a SN playlist… all the songs they use in the series, in order of the episodes.  The songs have become, for me, “from” the show—just as Felicity Huffman isn’t the actress from Desperate Housewives, she’s Dana from Sports Night.  Josh Charles isn’t from Dead Poets or Four Bros, he’s from SN.  Casey isn’t from that show on HBO (which I don’t have so haven’t seen and can’t immediately remember), he’s from SN.  Joshua Malina isn’t from the far too few other things he’s in.  He’s Jeremy Goodwin.  (Interesting sidenote—Felicity Huffman isn’t the only Desperate Housewife previously from Sports Night.  The narrator on DH… who died the first episode… recognize that voice from CSC’s 3 am show West Coast Update?)

There is one thing that annoys me, almost makes me feel jilted, to some degree.  I bought my SN collection several years ago, obviously.  But just recently, they released the 10-year collector’s edition, which comes with a bunch of previously unreleased commentaries, deleted scenes, and other extras.  I’m not going to throw more money away just for something I already have, plus those extras, but I almost feel like I’m being punished for letting my wallet express my enjoyment of the show years sooner.  BAH!!

Anyway, as it turns out, she loved the show, watched the whole thing beginning to end.  No real surprise there.

So, if you have the supreme misfortune of being unfamiliar with the show, you should check it out, for real, seriously.  Some things you should know:
1.  Casey’s hair in the pilot episode gets changed by the second episode.  Whew… almost a deal-breaker right there.
2.  You absolutely don’t need to be interested or familiar with sports to enjoy the show.  Lookit me.
3.  Eventually, the laugh track goes away.  Just… be patient and try to ignore it.
4.  The writing—the dialogue, that is—is different.  It can take some getting used to, but it’s well worth it.  It’s intelligent, witty, clever, whimsical, and has excellent quality from the standpoint of linguistic style and skill.  Not that you have to be an English-language buff to enjoy it… it’s just that they certainly will, too.  Some of my favorite bits are the snippets of dialogue from Dan and Casey on the air… clever, funny, so good.

In short, as overly verbose as I have thus far been. Look into it.  You’ll be glad you did.

Now Reading: The Stand (or, my encounter with the superflu)

Lately I’ve been slogging my way through Stephen King’s The Stand, the newer complete & uncut version (which is only a couple hundred pages long… after the first thousand).  I’m approaching the halfway point now, and things are picking up and starting to happen!  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great so far, just a lot of buildup.  Like… a lot of buildup.  In short, it’s about America after a military-created virus, called among other things the superflu, ravages the country and kills about 99.9% of the population.  (It’s also about a supreme battle between Good and Evil, but… we’re still getting to that part.)

Most of the beginning of the book is devoted to showing the outbreak of the superflu, from its initial infectee on to, well, almost everyone.  It’s crazy how fast this virus moves… just merely passing by someone, or being in the next room from them without a full-body hasmat suit, is likely to get a person a bad case of the gonna-die-in-a-couple-days-es.

The important thing to note about my reading this part of the book is this:  I started it about a day before coming down with my own case of a rather nasty cold.

So here I am, reading about how Stu Redman’s unwitting nurse, unknowing of the tiny flaw in here protective suit, sneezes a couple times outside his quarantine room at the government virus center.  She doesn’t think a thing about it.  In just a few seconds, she passes it on to the handful of people she passes in the hallway.  Some of them are already sneezing from it within a minute or two.  And just a few minutes later, most of the facility is infected.  Within a few days from then, everyone who was in that facility, except Stu Redman, has died a death of varying degrees of horribleness.

Imagine how conscious of my every sneeze and cough I was… especially when I was, say, reading at the Acoustic and happened to hear another patron sneeze or cough a few moments later…   Obviously, a story is a story, but still… it was a bit unsettling…

No doubt there will be more to come about The Stand… I’ll (hopefully) be living somewhere else and (very hopefully) have a new job before I’m even close to done with it.  In the meantime, these words of advice:  Don’t start books about devastatingly deadly outbreaks of illnesses that, until death, resemble the common cold if you’re, oh I don’t know, coming down with the common cold.

Starting a blog about stories…

I’ve been toying with the notion for a while, and now, here I am following through on it.  All it took was an extraordinarily late Sunday(/Monday) night of being unable to sleep.  Anyway, on to the purpose of this blog.

I read a lot… nearly every day.  Fiction, almost exclusively.  I love books, simply put.  But then again, I also love movies.  TV shows.  Plays.  Even the occasional graphic novel.  And I think quite a bit about them, and usually have something to say about the various media and stories that cross my path.  There’s a great value to stories, I think, if we seek it, beyond just the wanting to escape from reality thing.  They can tell us about our culture or others, ourselves, society; we become better story teller; and to be rather cerebral for a moment, we improve our literacy and capacity to imagine.

So… here I am, to reflect on the stories that come my way, by way of written word or DVD or otherwise cinematic experience… and the experience of them… and other related stuff.

Enjoy, and feel free to add your own thoughts.