Recently-Consumed Media
Sep. 21st, 2013 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroYoung Justice: Invasion (Season 2) - I think the one big weakness of this season was there were no jumping-on points: It continued a bunch of plot threads from Season 1 and cut out any exposition that would be useful to a new viewer. If you want to watch this series, you have to start with the beginning of season 1. (Which you should. It’s also very good.) There are a lot of very pleasant nods to us fanboys, but you’re not missing anything if you have only a cursory knowledge of the DCU and the adult superhumans. If this was somebody’s first superhero show and they’d only vaguely heard of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, that could be okay. I’m sorry this didn’t get a third season, but I hope the creative team behind it gets more gigs like this, because they did a great job.
Star Trek: I’m Working On That, by William Shatner and Chip Walter - In general, one should always be wary of media tie-ins “written” by one of the actors—you’re really buying a book by the ghostwriter, and you have to like their style. (Which is why James Doohan’s autobiography is great; it was written by Peter David.) This one is a layman’s version of The Physics of Star Trek written in a Shatnerian voice, and with more emphasis on the technologies that are actually viable and in use, in a bunch of cases. Other reviews praise Chip Walter for his “accessibility”, which is think is accurate, but I’ve already read this material in a denser, less-accessible form and like it just fine. There’s nothing new for me here.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway - This is exactly what it says on the tin. (It’s from the final performance in 2008. I’d been meaning to see this for a while.) Jethrien commented that it was like a high-quality version of a high school play that was videotaped. It’s interesting as a curiosity or as nostalgia, but it’s a crappy way to watch such a thing—it’s no substitute for actually seeing a live show. Film makes stage acting and mannerisms seem waaaay overdone, if nothing else. The cast was decent: Tracie Thoms is always awesome. (She’d played Joanne in both this and the movie.) Eden Espinosa (aka “the poor man’s Idina Menzel”) played Maureen; I’d actually seen her on Broadway twice before, in Wicked as Elpheba (she was Menzel’s understudy), and then in Brooklyn: The Musical. She was, as you’d expect, close to but not quite Idina Menzel. The rest were…average, I suppose. Basically, you should watch this if you’re a completest Rent fan.
Star Trek: I’m Working On That, by William Shatner and Chip Walter - In general, one should always be wary of media tie-ins “written” by one of the actors—you’re really buying a book by the ghostwriter, and you have to like their style. (Which is why James Doohan’s autobiography is great; it was written by Peter David.) This one is a layman’s version of The Physics of Star Trek written in a Shatnerian voice, and with more emphasis on the technologies that are actually viable and in use, in a bunch of cases. Other reviews praise Chip Walter for his “accessibility”, which is think is accurate, but I’ve already read this material in a denser, less-accessible form and like it just fine. There’s nothing new for me here.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway - This is exactly what it says on the tin. (It’s from the final performance in 2008. I’d been meaning to see this for a while.) Jethrien commented that it was like a high-quality version of a high school play that was videotaped. It’s interesting as a curiosity or as nostalgia, but it’s a crappy way to watch such a thing—it’s no substitute for actually seeing a live show. Film makes stage acting and mannerisms seem waaaay overdone, if nothing else. The cast was decent: Tracie Thoms is always awesome. (She’d played Joanne in both this and the movie.) Eden Espinosa (aka “the poor man’s Idina Menzel”) played Maureen; I’d actually seen her on Broadway twice before, in Wicked as Elpheba (she was Menzel’s understudy), and then in Brooklyn: The Musical. She was, as you’d expect, close to but not quite Idina Menzel. The rest were…average, I suppose. Basically, you should watch this if you’re a completest Rent fan.
