© by Gerald So | 6:00 AM
The long-awaited third season of Daredevil premiered on Netflix yesterday. Here's my somewhat spoilery review.
When we last saw Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) at the end of Marvel's The Defenders, he had miraculously landed in the care of Sister Maggie after the Midland Circle tower collapsed on him. As Season 3 begins, Matt has cut himself off from Karan Page and Foggy Nelson as he recovers and decides if he can continue being Daredevil.
Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) mysteriously agrees to inform on New York's underworld to FBI Special Agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali). After fisk is shanked, the FBI arranges to have him moved to a hotel where he is held under guard. Of course, for Fisk, this is virtual freedom and draws Matt out in attempt to kill the Kingpin.
Daredevil has the strongest supporting cast of any Netflix Marvel show. Season 3 sees standout performances by Joanne Whalley as Sister Maggie, Jay Ali, and Wilson Bethel as FBI Special Agent Ben "Bullseye" Poindexter. Meanwhile Deborah Ann Woll (Karen) and Elden Henson (Foggy) carry the show through their own storylines.
Season 3 nicely finishes an overall four-season arc (counting The Defenders), a fine place to end, which may happen with word that Netflix has canceled Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Friday, October 19, 2018
The Vivid, Continuous Dream
© by Gerald So | 3:00 AM
The late writer and teacher John C. Gardner called the best fiction a vivid, continuous dream. Yesterday I submitted a story to its third market two years, arguably the toughest of the three to crack.
Leading up to submission, out of respect for the market, I revised the story all hours for twenty-three straight days. It truly filled my consciousness. The dream of this story, though, began in a workshop with Sam Topperoff at Hofstra University in 1995. At the time, I thought it would be a novel.
College was a heady time for me, as I'm sure it is for everyone. I felt it had the most potential to shape my life of any time in my life. I felt it was the right time to meet someone and fall in love. It so happened, and that raw emotion fueled the novel for sixty pages, the workshop minimum. I then put the idea away as too personal, until November 2016. Surprising myself, I was able to rekindle my enthusiasm to work with the characters and world.
(An aside: "Personal" here doesn't mean very autobiographical. It means I'm rooting for this story's success less objectively than I have most of my other work.)
Friends with whom I've shared the various drafts said I should blog about the story's journey. Ideally I'd blog about it upon acceptance, when its journey ended, but among many things I've learned working on it is ultimate acceptance doesn't matter to me as a working writer. What matters as I work is communicating what I imagine and feel, so well that someone with no prior personal connection—who simply reads the words—will imagine and feel very much the same. Self-publishing is not an option. I want to know I've made the connection with an impartial editor.
One of the quirks I work with is I'm very open to revision. I believe it can, and sometimes should, reshape stories entirely. That's certainly been true in this case. Versions have gone from however long the novel would have been, to 1,100 words, to 2,500 words, to 1,500 words, to 1,300 words. As such, I can lose the sense of whether a story would be as compelling for someone else as it is for me. I guess the sign of that is whether it's published. I say acceptance doesn't matter because I know until it's accepted—until it lives as vividly for someone else as it does for me—I'll keep working on it.
The late writer and teacher John C. Gardner called the best fiction a vivid, continuous dream. Yesterday I submitted a story to its third market two years, arguably the toughest of the three to crack.
Leading up to submission, out of respect for the market, I revised the story all hours for twenty-three straight days. It truly filled my consciousness. The dream of this story, though, began in a workshop with Sam Topperoff at Hofstra University in 1995. At the time, I thought it would be a novel.
College was a heady time for me, as I'm sure it is for everyone. I felt it had the most potential to shape my life of any time in my life. I felt it was the right time to meet someone and fall in love. It so happened, and that raw emotion fueled the novel for sixty pages, the workshop minimum. I then put the idea away as too personal, until November 2016. Surprising myself, I was able to rekindle my enthusiasm to work with the characters and world.
(An aside: "Personal" here doesn't mean very autobiographical. It means I'm rooting for this story's success less objectively than I have most of my other work.)
Friends with whom I've shared the various drafts said I should blog about the story's journey. Ideally I'd blog about it upon acceptance, when its journey ended, but among many things I've learned working on it is ultimate acceptance doesn't matter to me as a working writer. What matters as I work is communicating what I imagine and feel, so well that someone with no prior personal connection—who simply reads the words—will imagine and feel very much the same. Self-publishing is not an option. I want to know I've made the connection with an impartial editor.
One of the quirks I work with is I'm very open to revision. I believe it can, and sometimes should, reshape stories entirely. That's certainly been true in this case. Versions have gone from however long the novel would have been, to 1,100 words, to 2,500 words, to 1,500 words, to 1,300 words. As such, I can lose the sense of whether a story would be as compelling for someone else as it is for me. I guess the sign of that is whether it's published. I say acceptance doesn't matter because I know until it's accepted—until it lives as vividly for someone else as it does for me—I'll keep working on it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
YouTube TV
© by Gerald So | 5:30 AM
With a ten-year-old Samsung TV giving up the ghost, a 32-inch Toshiba TV of forgotten age, and fed up with our rising cable TV bill, my family switched to an Internet-only plan last month after buying TCL 55-inch 4K UHD HDR Roku smart TVs for $400 at Costco.
With YouTube TV for $40 a month, we get almost all the local broadcast channels, more cable channels than with our last package, more sports channels than ever before, and DVR-like features to save unlimited programs for nine months.
Our monthly bill dropped from $177 for TV and 100 Mb/s Internet to $105 for 100 Mb/s Internet and YouTube TV.
With a ten-year-old Samsung TV giving up the ghost, a 32-inch Toshiba TV of forgotten age, and fed up with our rising cable TV bill, my family switched to an Internet-only plan last month after buying TCL 55-inch 4K UHD HDR Roku smart TVs for $400 at Costco.
With YouTube TV for $40 a month, we get almost all the local broadcast channels, more cable channels than with our last package, more sports channels than ever before, and DVR-like features to save unlimited programs for nine months.
Our monthly bill dropped from $177 for TV and 100 Mb/s Internet to $105 for 100 Mb/s Internet and YouTube TV.
Netflix Spenser Movie Wonderland Filming
© by Gerald So | 5:00 AM
Netflix's adaptation of Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, Ace Atkins' second Spenser continuation novel, is now filming in Boston. To recap, Peter Berg is directing Mark Wahlberg as Spenser with a script by Sean O'Keefe.
As reported in Variety October 2nd and 8th respectively, joining Wahlberg are Black Panther's Winston Duke as Hawk, Alan Arkin as Henry Cimoli, and in unrevealed roles, Bokeem Woodbine, James DuMont, Iliza Schlesinger, Hope Olaide Wilson, and Post Malone.
Wonderland's IMDb page has also filled out with the crew, such as music composer Steve Jablonsky. The premise still sees Spenser as an ex-con sucked back into Boston's underbelly as he investigates a sensational murder and the conspiracy behind it.
Putting aside the apparent change in Spenser's character, the inclusion of Spenser's boxing trainer Henry Cimoli gives me confidence the inciting incident of Ace's novel will be preserved: Henry is roughed up by thugs linked to a development scheme forcing tenants out of a Revere Beach condominium.
Ace also shared some set photos on his Facebook page, and I have to say Spenser's close-cropped hair, suit, and coffee are right from the books.
Netflix's adaptation of Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, Ace Atkins' second Spenser continuation novel, is now filming in Boston. To recap, Peter Berg is directing Mark Wahlberg as Spenser with a script by Sean O'Keefe.
As reported in Variety October 2nd and 8th respectively, joining Wahlberg are Black Panther's Winston Duke as Hawk, Alan Arkin as Henry Cimoli, and in unrevealed roles, Bokeem Woodbine, James DuMont, Iliza Schlesinger, Hope Olaide Wilson, and Post Malone.
Wonderland's IMDb page has also filled out with the crew, such as music composer Steve Jablonsky. The premise still sees Spenser as an ex-con sucked back into Boston's underbelly as he investigates a sensational murder and the conspiracy behind it.
Putting aside the apparent change in Spenser's character, the inclusion of Spenser's boxing trainer Henry Cimoli gives me confidence the inciting incident of Ace's novel will be preserved: Henry is roughed up by thugs linked to a development scheme forcing tenants out of a Revere Beach condominium.
Ace also shared some set photos on his Facebook page, and I have to say Spenser's close-cropped hair, suit, and coffee are right from the books.
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