Orac|

0 comments by Orac| on Oct 3rd, 2011

I feel sick.  Not huge news because, in all honesty, I always feel sick.
But today, I felt sicker.
Like, really, really, really sick.  Which is no fun, I can assure you.

Not willing to just write the day off as a waste, I got to work on various very important portfolio things which will allow me to pass the academic year and continue into the next one.  Unfortunately, this is difficult on the best of days and today was, as I have already established, not one of my best days.

So I did the usual.  I wandered off to find something easier to do.  I did some stuff to tidy up work on Tiberian Odyssey before reaching the same conclusion I had with my portfolio, ie: I'm doing the modding equivalent of just doodling breasts onto all my art.
(The problem was that yes, at at least one point that was exactly what I was doing).

Long story short, when I'm feeling rotten sick and need to relax, here is what I slip into the DVD player:
(Wikipedia links provided for convenience)

-Firefly - I used to watch it over and over because I never got tired of it.  These days, I hardly watch it at all because I can remember large chunks of it word-for-word.  Every now and then, though, it needs a good revisit.  The story, as much of it as there is, follows a freelance crew of a small Firefly class transport called Serenity.  Joss Whedon really pulled out all the stops on setting, characters, and dialogue here, crafting something extraordinary.  Unfortunately it was cancelled by FOX (Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!)
I frequently and loudly advise others to watch it.

-Red Dwarf - I still maintain that the first three seasons were good and the rest were bad, something I debate at length with anyone who disagrees.  The story doesn't matter (Spaceship goes boom, only survivors are Lister, who was in stasis at the time, and the Cat who was safely sealed in the hold).  All you have to do is watch and wait for something ridiculous to happen, since it always does.  Space comedy at its finest, and it is never not fun to watch The Cat.  And reminisce about the time it rained herring.

-Homicide - Pretty much as depressing as the name suggests, and a damn good cop show free from techno-babbling medical examiners, police shootouts and car chases.  A thoughtful look at murder detecting, with very dark gallows humour and ridiculously good acting in many cases.  The cases and most if not all of the detective techniques were based on fact (mostly only for the first few seasons), since the brains behind the series spent a year writing a book which followed the real Baltimore City Homicide unit.

-Due South - A crime drama, but much more light hearted than Homicide.  Not unsurprising considering the wide array of Canadians involved.  The series follows a Mountie named Benton Fraser in Chicago and his partner in crime prevention, Detective Vecchio.  And his pet wolf.  Diefenbaker.
Together the trio solve crimes of varying degrees of severity, and make often hilarious jabs at both Canadian and American society (some of which have aged badly since the show, others still very apt).

-Ultraviolet - The perfect antidote to sparkly vampires turns out to be cold hard science combined with secret government, Vatican backed, organisations.  Vampire hunting the new-fashioned way is always fun to watch, and Joe Ahearne did wonders with the updated lore and tone of the series.
Gone are "vampires", replaced with "type 5's".  Wooden stakes are out, replaced in this modern era with guns firing fragmenting graphite bullets.  Garlic is replaced with concentrated chemical grenades, and sunlight is..  well, the show is called "Ultraviolet".  Also to be seen is a very subtle conflict between science and religion which is as thought provoking and unexpected as any of Joe Ahearne's other work.

-Apparitions - While on the subject of Joe Ahearne's work, you can't not mention Apparitions.  While it was only implied that the vampires of Ultraviolet were demonic in origin, Apparitions is pretty forthright about demons.  Following an exorcist through an increasingly unusual series of events, the series was described as "bloody, scary, and bloody scary".  I'm inclined to agree, and it managed to be terrifying and thought provoking both at once.  Everything about this series makes you want to join the good fight.  A heroic yet human protagonist in the form of Father Jacob, terrifyingly real demons, and a much more reasonable approach to exorcism than one usually finds in fiction - even the exorcist is looking for it to be mental disorder rather than satanic intervention.  A real world is painted around the slight fictional one.

That was a much longer blog post than I'd intended - sorry!