Finally, Summer is ending. My apologies to those of you who relish and enjoy the season, but I’m excited for it to be over. There’s just too much to be excited about for the Fall.
Now, I’m jaded. I’ll admit I prefer Fall to Summer in every way. The weather, the colors, the smells*, the food (sure, you can make chili in summertime, but why would you?), the ability to wear sweaters. And Fall is when everything picks up again. Books, movies, television, events, we’re about to face another flood of them. Here’s some of what I’m looking forward to as we hike into the last few months of 2009.
Books
Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber (October)
(Click here for more details)
I’ll come clean. I’m a horror fan from nearly as far back as I can remember. To clarify, I’m a fan of horror fiction (I can’t do the movies though). Back in my high school days** as I was being barraged by reading assignments covering the Romantic poetry movement, or and endless array of long drawn out works, I nearly lost my interest in reading. Then I found Stephen King. It didn’t take long until I was raiding the county library and buying up paperbacks from genre racks near and far. But it was that first book, Tommyknockers that really gripped me. It intertwined horror and science fiction to make the story, equal parts Eureka and They Live, if you’re interested.
Well, Joe Schreiber will be taking horror to the Star Wars universe this fall and I’m excited to return to that particular part of the genre melting pot again. Schreiber is a writer who can turn a terse phrase and scare you with things happening on this world. I wonder (oh, how I do wonder), what he’s thought up for Death Troopers. We know there’s zombies. We know there’s Storm Troopers. But what happens when the two get together in deep space? Like you, I’ll find out next month. I can’t wait.
The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory (November)
(Click here for more details)
His debut novel, Pandemonium, is the type of book you read and think, “Horsefeathers! This isn’t his first book!” Well, here he is again and I’m hoping for a similar ride. The brilliance of that first book, and what has me excited in the set up for this book, is that Gregory creates a world that is so very, very similar to ours. He just tweaks one thing here or there to set the stage and then his characters come forward and it isn’t long before you’re sucked in to the story, all sense of time gone, all hope of sleep abandoned as you push on for just one more page, just one more chapter.
That’s the kind of writer Daryl Gregory is. In this book, we come to a town that has been decimated by a mysterious virus. The virus has killed off a substantial portion of the population, mutated others, and occasionally left some residents alone. Or so it seems. Returning to this town is Paxton Abel Martin, who fled when he was 14 and the virus was raging at full tilt and fled town shortly thereafter. Paxton appears to be fine, but is he?
Here’s a bit from the book’s description that hooked me and vaulted this book to one of the highest spots on my Must Read list for 2009:
Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker-and far weirder-mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.
Mmmmm…a town with mutants and deep-dark secrets. Sign. Me. Up!
Read on for a few TV shows worth watching (or Hulu-ing) this Fall as well as a couple movies I’m looking forward to.
Television (or Hulu, anyway)
So, now that Eureka is winding down, the Fall television season is supposed to be heating up. I wouldn't know much about it. Here's the thing, since I arrived here in the city, my television viewing has been delivered by two providers: Netflix and Hulu (with occasional sprinkles of Crackle thrown in for garnish). I don't have a television here, so I'm often a little behind the times for TV trends and I'm almost never up-to-date on the "it" shows.
I'm not proud of this, though. I wouldn't mind having a television again and, at some point in the future, I will. But for now, most of my television viewing is done either extremely episodically or in an all-at-once gorgefest. Still, there are a couple of shows that I'm looking forward to seeing on my computer screen this season.
Sanctuary
Is it cheesy? Sure. But it's fun too. I wish I could give you some deep reason about enjoying their riff on mythologies and whatnot, but that's not quite it. Part of me thinks I should be rolling my eyes at the show too for all the cliches they happily roll out. But no, I actually enjoy this show, I think it has to do with that fearlessness to try out all manner of different storytelling techniques. Season one had a great shaky-cam episode with the team trapped in a warehouse with deadly creatures roaming around in the dark (and they didn't pull their punches at the end, though part of that might have been just a wee bit forced), the past-present presentation of Dr. Magnus's and John Druitt's shared past, and the brilliantly fun to watch reunion of Druitt, Tesla, Sherlock Holmes, and others. Each episode is a treat. Season two could be interesting as one member of the team has been brainwashed (or have they?) into working for the Shadowy Corporate Entity Pulling All the Strings (SCEPAS) and against the others. Mmmmm...sure, why not? Score another fun show for SyFy and sign me up.
Fringe
It isn't quite X-Files, but that's okay. Fringe does its best to mix science fiction with horror and forensic sciences for a uniquely entertaining show. But while the pseudo-science is fun to pretend along with, let's not pretend that's the big reason for watching. This show works and has me hooked solely because of John Noble's character and delivery of Dr. Walter Bishop. How is it that he can convey a mind that is, at once, so strong yet so fragile. You have the sense that Bishop is either toeing the line between brilliance and madness, or he's hyper-aware and using it for cover. But it's his character that drives this show. Of course, then there's the mystery of The Observer and what he's up to. And is Peter who he thinks he is? So give me another helping of Dr. Walter's irresistible blend of brilliance and strange timing***.
V
I'll admit it: I'm not familiar with the original mini-series upon which this show is supposedly based. So, on the bright side, I'm not bringing additional expectations to the table. The premise here, that aliens come down, seem to be friendly, begin to take hold of our society, and then some people slowly come to the realization that all isn't well. And then it is revealed that our alien "friends" might not actually be what they seem. Literally. But what, if anything, does that mean? I see high production values in the previews for this show and I'm hoping that the acting and writing are just as strong. I'm really excited to see how this one turns out, but nervous that it might not turn out at all. We're talking about a prime time Aliens/Spaceship/Invasion show on a national network****. Let's hope that viewers show up for the show or, barring that, that Disney and ABC believe in this one enough to let it play out over the air.
Movies
Pandorum
Well, I won't have to wait long for this one. It opens this week (Sept. 25) and I am getting strong Event Horizon vibes from this one. Of course, those of you who know me know that I mean that in the best way. A crew aboard a deep space vessel awaken with no recollection of who they are or what they're doing that far out in space. And it appears they aren't alone aboard the ship. Naturally, the lights aren't working. They split up (of course) and slowly begin to uncover the truth behind their dire situation. I'm hoping for a suspenseful ride with some atmosphere and not a "it's horror because there's all this blood, see" schlock-fest. They've got all the right cards, I want to see how this movie plays them.
Zombieland
What has gotten in to me?! I hate zombies. Honestly, I do. But here's the catch, I like original ideas and zombies can be in films I enjoy. I liked the first Resident Evil, ditto Shawn of the Dead, and Zombieland looks to be cut from a similar cloth. That is to say, it's not cut from the retreads of horror movies before it. This one has a protagonist who's described as "the most frightened person on earth" who is leading a group cross-country to an amusement park where they hope they'll be safe from the undead hordes. Think that plan'll work? Making things more interesting is Woody Harrelson who, at least by the appearance of the trailers, goes all Woody Harrelson. You know exactly what I mean: cowboy hat, penchant for violence, slightly off-kilter. Mmmmm-hmmm. I am so there.
Where the Wild Things Are
If there's one item on this list that also makes me nervous, here it is. I'm excited and hopeful, but we also have to remember that Spike Jonze's source material is ten sentences long. According to IMDB, early test screenings caused kids to freak out and run from the theater screaming. So you know there were re-cuts. There must have been, right? It sounds like this might be a great teen-to-adult whimsical film that's going to be retreated as a family film. I'm hoping for the best because I really, really want this movie to be the classic it could (and should) be. I'm excited to see digital animation eschewed in favor of puppetry and the magic that is Jim Henson Studios. So I'm going in with fingers crossed then, hopefully, returning home happy like Max did in Mr. Sendak's book. Of course, Max had a hot dinner waiting for him; I, on the other hand, will have the winter film and publishing season, which it would seem gives me the better deal.
*By which I mean the smells of the cooking. My town's smell doesn't actually change that much during the seasons. But anyway...
**A long, long time ago, in a state far, far away...
***And speaking of strange timing - the show will now appear on Thursday nights. Just a head's up.
****Does that really mean that much any more? I'm sure there are still houses out there without cable, satellite tv, and/or internet viewing capabilities, but I'm willing to bet that the allure of having your show on Network television stations as opposed to subscription stations (or cable, if you will) must be wearing off by now.
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