Media Commentary Timothy Sanders Media Commentary Timothy Sanders

So just who is Lost here anyway?

So I figured it was time for me to weigh in on the whole discussion of whether the writers creating Lost in fact have any idea what they are doing. I'm a little late to Lost - you can thread back some of my previous posts starting here. There seems to be a movement to reject Lost as being a big shaggy-dog story and they they'll never be able to make it all hang together. I don't understand it though, in that I don't see what it is in season three that is making people claim that. It's plausible and I can admit the possiblity - but I don't think anything that has happened recently strengthens the argument. I also don't know why you'd sit down and sat "I'm going to watch this show", agree to take the ride as it were, and then start assuming partway through there's a huge bait and switch afoot. There are a lot of unanswered questions, some of which stretch back to the beginning of the show, but I've seen web commentary about how they keep introducing new elements to distract the viewers. I don't agree with that - they introduce new elements to move certain plots forward and in some cases to introduce new elements that may be needed later.I'm not 100% convinced they know what they are doing, but I'm still comfortable just enjoying the ride and seeing what happens. It's not as good a show as it was, but it's still pretty good - better than most of what's available.I also have to extend a lot of credit to Lost because I very much think that we wouldn't have Heroes without Lost. Lost proved that mainstream America will watch a sci-fi show (if it's properly concealed), watch a show with a strong story arc, and watch a show where not every little detail is spoon-fed to the viewer. There are a lot of shows this year that trace a direct lineage to those realizations. Back during the first season of Battlestar Galactica I said it was the best show on TV at the time, and I stand by that (for the first season mind you - boy what a letdown that show has become this year), but it was a basic cable show that caught a basic cable audience that was already pigeonholed into a sci-fi ghetto. Lost broke out of that and got a mainstream audience and I think you can see a direct lineage from that to Heroes or even Jericho this fall. And Heroes holds the crown of "Best show on TV" right now, so I'm glad that Lost broke the way to that. It hasn't been that long since all of network TV was a wasteland of stupid "reality" shows, I'm glad to see real scripted TV make a comeback.Even if turns out they have no idea what they are doing at the end of it all :-)

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So I figured it was time for me to weigh in on the whole discussion of whether the writers creating Lost in fact have any idea what they are doing. I'm a little late to Lost - you can thread back some of my previous posts starting here. There seems to be a movement to reject Lost as being a big shaggy-dog story and they they'll never be able to make it all hang together. I don't understand it though, in that I don't see what it is in season three that is making people claim that. It's plausible and I can admit the possiblity - but I don't think anything that has happened recently strengthens the argument. I also don't know why you'd sit down and sat "I'm going to watch this show", agree to take the ride as it were, and then start assuming partway through there's a huge bait and switch afoot. There are a lot of unanswered questions, some of which stretch back to the beginning of the show, but I've seen web commentary about how they keep introducing new elements to distract the viewers. I don't agree with that - they introduce new elements to move certain plots forward and in some cases to introduce new elements that may be needed later.I'm not 100% convinced they know what they are doing, but I'm still comfortable just enjoying the ride and seeing what happens. It's not as good a show as it was, but it's still pretty good - better than most of what's available.I also have to extend a lot of credit to Lost because I very much think that we wouldn't have Heroes without Lost. Lost proved that mainstream America will watch a sci-fi show (if it's properly concealed), watch a show with a strong story arc, and watch a show where not every little detail is spoon-fed to the viewer. There are a lot of shows this year that trace a direct lineage to those realizations. Back during the first season of Battlestar Galactica I said it was the best show on TV at the time, and I stand by that (for the first season mind you - boy what a letdown that show has become this year), but it was a basic cable show that caught a basic cable audience that was already pigeonholed into a sci-fi ghetto. Lost broke out of that and got a mainstream audience and I think you can see a direct lineage from that to Heroes or even Jericho this fall. And Heroes holds the crown of "Best show on TV" right now, so I'm glad that Lost broke the way to that. It hasn't been that long since all of network TV was a wasteland of stupid "reality" shows, I'm glad to see real scripted TV make a comeback.Even if turns out they have no idea what they are doing at the end of it all :-)

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Finally!

Next Wednesday will see the release of ‘Worms’ on Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson : Coming next week: Worms

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Next Wednesday will see the release of ‘Worms’ on Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson : Coming next week: Worms



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Media Commentary Timothy Sanders Media Commentary Timothy Sanders

One Man Star Wars Trilogy

Last night Karin and I went to San Francisco to see One Man Star Wars Trilogy. I was pretty sure I would enjoy it of course, and I thought Karin would but that's a dicier proposition. I'm happy to report that it is very funny and she enjoyed it throughly. It's surprisingly faithful to the movies (he didn't actually do Greedo so I can't say who shot first), but has enough sly digs at all the cheesiness to carry it. And when he gets up to Kenobi's "What I told you was true, from a certain point of view." he elaborates on it with information from Revenge of the Sith - "I cut off his arm. And his legs. And then he fell into a river of lava. So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view."

Charles Ross is a very talented actor and mime - he can really carry Chewbacca's vocalizations and Yoda's motions well. His AT-AT and AT-ST were impressive - those are images that are graven on my brain and his evocation was as note-perfect as I can imagine a human body can get (including the ridiculous Ewok fights from Jedi.) Jabba pretty much brought the house down - he had to pause for a moment because of laughter - although I personally thought his Nien Nunb was funnier but you have to be a geek to even know who that is (he's the goofy guy with the huge jowls and ears who copiloted the Falcon during the battle at the end of Jedi).

The show is in San Francisco for another couple of weeks, and if you can get there I recommend it. It's right off of Union Square - you can park there in the underground garage, get some dinner, and see the show for a very nice evening out.


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Last night Karin and I went to San Francisco to see One Man Star Wars Trilogy. I was pretty sure I would enjoy it of course, and I thought Karin would but that's a dicier proposition. I'm happy to report that it is very funny and she enjoyed it throughly. It's surprisingly faithful to the movies (he didn't actually do Greedo so I can't say who shot first), but has enough sly digs at all the cheesiness to carry it. And when he gets up to Kenobi's "What I told you was true, from a certain point of view." he elaborates on it with information from Revenge of the Sith - "I cut off his arm. And his legs. And then he fell into a river of lava. So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view."



Charles Ross is a very talented actor and mime - he can really carry Chewbacca's vocalizations and Yoda's motions well. His AT-AT and AT-ST were impressive - those are images that are graven on my brain and his evocation was as note-perfect as I can imagine a human body can get (including the ridiculous Ewok fights from Jedi.) Jabba pretty much brought the house down - he had to pause for a moment because of laughter - although I personally thought his Nien Nunb was funnier but you have to be a geek to even know who that is (he's the goofy guy with the huge jowls and ears who copiloted the Falcon during the battle at the end of Jedi).



The show is in San Francisco for another couple of weeks, and if you can get there I recommend it. It's right off of Union Square - you can park there in the underground garage, get some dinner, and see the show for a very nice evening out.





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Good Job Amazon!

Musical Fountain.png

I'm used to Amazon's recommendations being really bad, but this seemed ridiculous. For one, I already own this cat water fountain (which I bought through Amazon), and I've bought filters for it in the past through Amazon. What, does Amazon reckon each cat needs their own? For two, what's up with it being a "Recommendation in Music"? It makes splashing sounds, but it's pretty damn minimal for "music". Amazon is never going to get itself straight until it groks that sometimes I buy things for other people. That's why the Electric Company thing is on there - Karin wanted some Electric Company DVD's a while back (rainy day indoor recess fodder). The last few times I've logged into Amazon it's been pretty convinced that I either want a Perl book or Electric Company DVD's. Maybe some Muppets? How about JavaScript? C'mon Mr. Bipolar guy! Buy something. Feed a brain half - we don't care which one. Most of my purchases are for me so they ought to be able to identify the core gameplayer/geek/programmer and throw out the odd thing that doesn't jibe. What's even worse is that I bought the DVD's from Karin's Wish List. You'd think that would be a hint that it's not for me. And yes, I'm aware that I could fine-tune what Amazon "remembers" about my purchases. I'm not sure why I would spend the time to help them market to me. Besides, I get more amusement from watching their algorithms try to keep up. "Wait. Does he or does he not like children's music? I just don't get it!"

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Musical Fountain.png


I'm used to Amazon's recommendations being really bad, but this seemed ridiculous. For one, I already own this cat water fountain (which I bought through Amazon), and I've bought filters for it in the past through Amazon. What, does Amazon reckon each cat needs their own? For two, what's up with it being a "Recommendation in Music"? It makes splashing sounds, but it's pretty damn minimal for "music".
Amazon is never going to get itself straight until it groks that sometimes I buy things for other people. That's why the Electric Company thing is on there - Karin wanted some Electric Company DVD's a while back (rainy day indoor recess fodder). The last few times I've logged into Amazon it's been pretty convinced that I either want a Perl book or Electric Company DVD's. Maybe some Muppets? How about JavaScript? C'mon Mr. Bipolar guy! Buy something. Feed a brain half - we don't care which one.
Most of my purchases are for me so they ought to be able to identify the core gameplayer/geek/programmer and throw out the odd thing that doesn't jibe. What's even worse is that I bought the DVD's from Karin's Wish List. You'd think that would be a hint that it's not for me.

And yes, I'm aware that I could fine-tune what Amazon "remembers" about my purchases. I'm not sure why I would spend the time to help them market to me. Besides, I get more amusement from watching their algorithms try to keep up. "Wait. Does he or does he not like children's music? I just don't get it!"

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Alien Hominid? Blargh

That is not our plan going forward," Greenberg assured. "We are excited to bring Alien Hominid out next week; we are excited to make up for lost time."

What's Wrong with Xbox Live Arcade? news from 1UP.com

I'm not a fan of Alien Hominid. Frankly? I think it's a game custom-designed to make game designers drool over their childhoods. I haven't played it since the flash game was the buzz, but I really didn't dig it then. It's a complete throwback to arcade shooters of the 80's - single hit kills, memorizing AI movement patterns. But I'm not 12 anymore, I don't have hours to replay level 1 endlessly until it's ingrained in muscle memory. That's not a interactive game experience, it's a meditative hobby. There was a place in my childhood for such, but not anymore and if we're going to go dig "Things from the past I no longer have the patience for" up I'd really much rather dig up pencil & paper RPG's than arcade shooters.

I'll admit I actually bought Root Beer Tapper and I'm vaguely obsessed with the achievement of getting 7,000 points on level one without dying (much harder than it sounds!) I don't mind the arcade titles, but the steady diet of them from XBLA in 2007 is boring. And as everyone notes, the Wii Virtual Console is just making them look sad in terms of number of titles. Now, that's really not fair - the Wii games don't have custom soundtracks, they don't have integrated voice chat, friends list, achievements and leaderboards so it's really apples and oranges. But XBLA could be (and should be) so much more than Sherman's Wayback machine permanently set for the local Starcade.

Here's the part that I REALLY, REALLY, truly do not understand. 360 is just as predictable for shelf dates as any other console. When is GRAW 2 shipping? 3/6/2007. We've known that for months now, and it's almost certainly accurate. For all that a XBLA game may be complex, it's LESS complex than a Ubisoft Tom Clancy shooter. Why can the commercial disc releases be predicted months ahead of time, but not the download titles? I release part of that answer is the manufacturing process locks people in, but that's really a lame excuse. Pretend that the XBLA titles have the same manufacturing lead time and put them on the shelf that long. This stupid "Well, we have ten titles for the next 16 weeks and we have no idea what the hell is going on more precise than that" is sloppy and it's' unprofessional.

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That is not our plan going forward," Greenberg assured. "We are excited to bring Alien Hominid out next week; we are excited to make up for lost time."

What's Wrong with Xbox Live Arcade? news from 1UP.com



I'm not a fan of Alien Hominid. Frankly? I think it's a game custom-designed to make game designers drool over their childhoods. I haven't played it since the flash game was the buzz, but I really didn't dig it then. It's a complete throwback to arcade shooters of the 80's - single hit kills, memorizing AI movement patterns. But I'm not 12 anymore, I don't have hours to replay level 1 endlessly until it's ingrained in muscle memory. That's not a interactive game experience, it's a meditative hobby. There was a place in my childhood for such, but not anymore and if we're going to go dig "Things from the past I no longer have the patience for" up I'd really much rather dig up pencil & paper RPG's than arcade shooters.



I'll admit I actually bought Root Beer Tapper and I'm vaguely obsessed with the achievement of getting 7,000 points on level one without dying (much harder than it sounds!) I don't mind the arcade titles, but the steady diet of them from XBLA in 2007 is boring. And as everyone notes, the Wii Virtual Console is just making them look sad in terms of number of titles. Now, that's really not fair - the Wii games don't have custom soundtracks, they don't have integrated voice chat, friends list, achievements and leaderboards so it's really apples and oranges. But XBLA could be (and should be) so much more than Sherman's Wayback machine permanently set for the local Starcade.



Here's the part that I REALLY, REALLY, truly do not understand. 360 is just as predictable for shelf dates as any other console. When is GRAW 2 shipping? 3/6/2007. We've known that for months now, and it's almost certainly accurate. For all that a XBLA game may be complex, it's LESS complex than a Ubisoft Tom Clancy shooter. Why can the commercial disc releases be predicted months ahead of time, but not the download titles? I release part of that answer is the manufacturing process locks people in, but that's really a lame excuse. Pretend that the XBLA titles have the same manufacturing lead time and put them on the shelf that long. This stupid "Well, we have ten titles for the next 16 weeks and we have no idea what the hell is going on more precise than that" is sloppy and it's' unprofessional.



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