The Temple of 1,000 Tombs

I keep meaning to post some kind of brief overview of what I think of the new TV season so far. For those of you who care, anyway. Might be some spoilers, I suppose, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum.

"The West Wing"'s new season is going okay so far, but it's definitely becoming a different kind of show. The Bartlet presidency's days are numbered, of course, so we have to spend most of our time with the incoming candidate, which means we're mostly seeing the Santos campaign. The flashforward at the beginning of the season implies that the vast majority of the Bartlet staff won't be working for the president three years later, but they could just be messing with our heads.

But my major beef with the show is that they seem to have cut Janel Moloney loose. Donna has long been one of my favourite characters, from the first season when she wasn't even in the credits, and her interaction with Josh was wonderful. I've long been an advocate of a romantic relationship, which they've come very close to over the years but not quite managed. The problem is that at first he was her boss, which makes the romance highly unethical, and last season they were political adversaries as they supported competing candidates. Of course, this could all be dealt with...but she's been cut from the credits. That doesn't bode well for her future on the show. Rob Lowe was bad enough, but losing Donna too? Grumble.

"How I Met Your Mother" is the only sitcom on our schedule right now, but so far it's shaping up okay. The "Guy in 2030 telling his kids how their parents met" shtick might be a little gimmicky, but maybe they'll cut that out. The opening episode had enough interesting twists, and both Neil Patrick Harris(formerly Doogie Howser) and Alyson Hannigan do a great job in their parts. On the other hand, most of the new sitcoms I've actually liked in the last few years haven't panned out--"Coupling", "Inside Schwartz", and "Cursed", for instance--and this one has some of the same features. Because of the necessary focus on the one main character, it's a little less ensemble-y than, say, "Friends", but I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not. Anyway, despite it being on at the same time as "The West Wing", I'm going to keep taping it and watching it for the nonce.

"Commander In Chief"...well, it's not "The West Wing" yet, though I'm sure it wants to be. It doesn't have the sparkling, rapidfire dialogue that Aaron Sorkin brought to the first few seasons of WW, or Rob Lowe. But it's only had one episode so far, so we'll keep an eye on it.

"Threshold" is the one of the new SF series we're trying. I have somewhat of a bias against UFO-based sci-fi(yes, I use that term intentionally)series, or UFO-based sci-fi in general. But this one has so far steered clear of most of the UFO cliches, and with any luck they will avoid any reference to Roswell and Area 51. I confess that I enjoy watching Carla Gugino, too. Yum. Still trying to keep her three geniuses on staff straight--their names and specialties, at least. (Otherwise, it's Brent Spiner, the midget, and the guy with the fianc´e.) It'll all depend on how episodic it ends up getting--so far, the episodes have self-contained plots but keep advancing the overarching plot. William Mapother is mostly reprising his Ethan role from "Lost", but he was truly scary a few times in the first episode.

"Lost" has returned with a bang, and doesn't show any signs of slowing down so far. One hopes that they don't tie off too many plot threads and leave themselves with nothing else to do, à la "Twin Peaks" after the Laura Palmer murder was solved.

"Veronica Mars" is back, but only on UPN, which we don't get, so we'll have to wait and see if one of the Canadian stations brings it back. "Scrubs" is being kept in reserve as a mid-season replacement or something, which is frankly shoddy treatment for the half-hour comedy show that has managed to survive for a few seasons despite all its network's lack of support. "24" is coming back in January again, and "Doctor Who" looks like it'll come back around Christmas. So for now we have the time to try a few more series...but we'll see if the ones we stick with actually managed to survive. Otherwise we'll have to drop some, like we did to "Desperate Housewives", "House", and "Medium" last year, though not without some regrets. Sometimes I think we'll have to spend our retirement catching up on all the TV series we missed when they came out.

Players At The Game of People

Seen chez misia: Post the first sentence or two of all your works in progress.

I'm going to count my NaNoWriMo first drafts, but I'm not going to do all of my short stories that I think need a revision someday, or the ones that I think are good enough that I just haven't sent out in a few years. I will count the Warren thing, though.

The Shadow & The Flame(fantasy novel): "Yeryis awoke to darkness and a cold bed." My first pseudo-NaNoWriMo novel, 2001.

Entanglement(SF novel): "The probe was called Crocus." Second NaNoWriMo novel, 2002.

Edge of The Vortex(fantasy novel): "Tish heard a noise coming from the south." Third NaNoWriMo novel, 2003.

The Man In The Suit Named Everett(sort of SF novel): "Everett Quintain drummed his fingers impatiently on the green wooden counter of the dry cleaner's." Fourth NaNoWriMo novel, 2004.

Aleph-Null(superhero SF novel): "'Go home, Ervin.'" NaNoWriYe novel from 2004.

"The Soul-Stealers"(fantasy novella): "Garath awakened in the darkness with the wrung-out feeling that came from having passed through a fever and come out the other side." Also from 2004 NaNoWriYe, though I haven't finished it yet.

"Warren & The Disintegration of Society"(who the hell knows?): "The first inkling Warren had was when his watch burst apart on his wrist." Started as a result of 15minuteficlets, who knows when I'll get back to it.

Oh, hey, I'd almost forgotten about this one:

Evangeline(sort of SF novel): "I awoke and was for a moment disoriented, not knowing who I was or where." A short story I wrote which I'm expanding into a novel. Sometime.

Now I just have to decide if I'm going to start yet another novel for NaNoWriMo this year, or if I'm going to take some time off and see if it makes me more productive next year. I'm not holding my breath.