Category Archives: Television

The best books made into series

Full confession: I watch a lot of television. Like, maybe too much television. I enjoy it most of the time, but I really enjoy revisiting my favourites by reading the books the series were based on. Most of the time, the books don’t disappoint.

Here are my favourite books from which series have been made, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both (if not the book more).

The Handmaid’s Tale

Best books made into series: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Margaret Atwood is, perhaps, one of my favourite authors. I actually read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school, quite a while before I became a fan of the series (and several more times over the years). Season one, especially, captures the flavour of the novel. Subsequent seasons have continued in the same style and world as the book, helping to build a richer world and flesh out the characters. Parallels to the world in the 2020s are made even more obvious in the series, drawing home the fact that, in addition to being a brilliant author, Atwood is also part visionary.

I should also note that I wasn’t crazy about the book’s sequel, The Testaments. I recommend that you watch the series, but most of all, read The Handmaid’s Tale.

Kindred

Best books made into series: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred was a fast, fascinating read, but the series was mesmerizing. Due to the format of a series with ten episodes and the possibility of several seasons, the narrative is slowed and we get to know the characters better. Kevin and Dana’s backstories are significantly different and Kevin is given more to do in the series, but it is worth both the watch and the read.

All Creatures Great and Small

Best books made into series: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

James Herriot’s memoir has been fictionalized as a dramedy entitled All Creatures Great and Small. Though one is a memoir and the other a fiction, the flavour of Herriot’s writing is perfectly interpreted in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir, but discovered that three seasons weren’t enough. Luckily, season four is scheduled to debut in fall of 2023/sometime in 2024, and I can hardly wait.

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

Best books made into series: The Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Another fictionalized memoir is The Midwife, made into the ten-season (so far) long Call the Midwife television series. Though I haven’t checked, I wouldn’t be surprised if the voiceover in the series (purporting to be Worth but played by Vanessa Redgrave) was taken directly from the novel.

The first book in the series made me feel as if I were re-watching the television series. I also read the second book, Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse, the stories of which were also dramatized in the early seasons of the series, but didn’t like it enough to venture into book three of the trilogy. The thing I like most about the television series, the characters and the theme of the way women’s rights–and specifically women’s reproductive rights–have evolved just wasn’t strong enough for me.

At any rate, I recommend watching the entire television series and reading at least book one of Jennifer Worth’s trilogy.

Outlander

Best books made into series: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Wow! Just…wow.

I am only a quarter of the way through the first Outlander book, and I know I’m going to love it as much as I do the series. The series has matched the characters so closely to the writing that I can see and hear Claire and Jamie as I read, as well as the other characters. I’m not usually one for re-watching a series as I find the process tedious when you know what’s going to happen next or where it’s going to end up, but for some reason, I absolutely love that feeling while reading. I will be reading more than one book in this series, for sure. The book is easy to read, whimsical in its narrative, and not as huge a bodice-ripper as the first few seasons of the television series was (which is a huge plus, in my opinion, as I much prefer character development and page-turning plots to graphic depictions of sex).

Watch Outlander on television. Read the books. You won’t be sorry.

You: A Novel

Best books made into series: You by Caroline Kepnes.

I almost didn’t watch the tv series You, as I was turned off by the point of view and found it unsettling. I’m glad I went back to watch more. I really enjoyed all three seasons of the Netflix series, but I gave up on the series of books after the second one, Hidden Bodies, as I found the narrative tedious.

Reading book one in the series is like revisiting the television series season one. Kudos to the screenwriters who were able to transfer the creepy-factor from the books to the small screen. The stories are no less compelling, no matter the medium you choose.

My recommendation is to watch the series, and read at least book one.

Pines

Best books made into series: Pines by Blake Crouch

Season one of the television series Wayward Pines was phenomenal. It kept me on the edge of my seat, questioning everything as I tried to figure out what, exactly, was going on. Once that secret of the town was exposed, the series jumped the shark. I read the entire trilogy of Wayward Pines books, which didn’t suffer the same glitch. By all means, watch the series, but be sure to read the entire trilogy. In this case, the books are so much better than the series.

The Magicians

Best books made into series: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I absolutely love the entire television series of The Magicians and was sorry to see it end. There were some amazing story arcs, and I didn’t mind the fantasy aspect of the plot. Book one of the book series The Magicians was great. The series was very much like the book, and I enjoyed comparing how similar the two were. Unfortunately, book two began in Fillory, and based on Amazon’s the free sample, seemed too much fantasy for my liking, and I didn’t read any further.

My recommendation is to watch all five seasons of the tv series, and read as many of the books as you can when you’re feeling nostalgic.

Bonus Books

Other times I’ve written about books made into television series:

5 unsettling turns OUAT has taken in season 6

Those of you who read my blog know that I’m devoted to ABC’s Once Upon A Time. In fact, this blog began on Tumblr as “My Own Little Storybrooke”. Because I’m generally busy most evenings, I’ve been saving this season’s OUAT episodes to binge watch over the holidays, which I’ve been doing, and a few things strike me as I do.

  1. I’ve forgotten how amazing the show is and how much I enjoy it.
  2. I’m shocked at how dark the show has become.
  3. I’m surprised at how what once would have made me squeal with delight now makes me cringe in discomfort.

Let me explain point number three.

From season one, the storyline establishing Rumplestiltskin as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast was incredible and I loved watching Robert Carlyle portray Rumpy’s developing character. I was thrilled to see Rumpy flirt with Cora in the story of The Miller’s Daughter, and even hoped to see him paired with Regina when he was mentoring her.

But this season?

This season seems to be bringing a whole host of unenchanted storylines that are too close to real-life disturbing situations. Here are my reasons for saying this season is quite unsettling:

1. Emma may be suffering from a serious neurological disorder.

Emma has begun to have visions of her fatal future. These visions are accompanied with hand tremors that may be evidence of something as benign as hypoglycemia, anxiety, or fatigue, but which could be indicative of something more serious, such as a brain tumor, hyperthyroidism, or Parkinson’s disease. Rather than consider she may be seriously ill and in need of medical attention, Emma is treated by psychiatrist Jiminy/Archie. Her condition is especially foreboding when you consider that her visions are about her death, and something like a brain tumor can be quite deadly.

2. The children of Zelena and the Evil Queen.

Having struggled with their inherent evilness, Zelena and the Evil Queen have resolved to show their children just how wicked they can be. Rather than hide their affinity with the dark side of their personalities, the sisters hope their children will follow in their footsteps. None of this hits closer to home than the scene where the Evil Queen is coercing Henry to smash the heart of the Dragon to release Regina and Emma from their mirrored prison. Let’s unpack this: the Evil Queen is trying to convince her son to kill an innocent man to save his moms. This is particularly unsettling when you remember that the Evil Queen is the one who had created the mirror prison in the first place. Rather than wave her hand to release them, she attempts to bully Henry into committing murder, dragging him down into her dark pit alongside her.

3. Rumplestiltskin and the Evil Queen getting it on.

Though not technically adultery, Rumpy continues to profess his love for Belle while engaging the Evil Queen in some hanky-panky. Though I find the scenes incredibly sexy, there’s something not right about it. First of all, Rumpy had an intimate relationship with Cora, Regina and Zelena’s mother. Zelena had admitted she tried to get Rumpy into bed. The Evil Queen said they’ve always had a chemistry and now their relationship has been taken to another level. This means that Rumpy has, at the very least, bedded mother and daughter, and come close to bedding mother and daughters, which is kind of gross. Furthermore, Rumpy/Gold is grandfather to the Evil Queen’s adopted son, which adds another rather freaky layer to a really messed-up storyline.

4. Belle is an abused wife.

Having heard that Gold wants to sever his child from his destiny the moment he’s born, Belle goes into warrior-mom mode and tries to escape Storybrooke. When Gold gets wind of her plan, he slaps a gold bangle onto her wrist, binding her to the town. This comes hot on the heels of him keeping her captive on the Jolly Roger to protect her from Jekyll and Hyde. Belle is essentially emotionally abused by her ex-husband, held against her will, and in fear for her unborn child. Though she has said she doubts it will happen, she would gladly get back with him if he would only live his life as the good man he was meant to be. This is essentially battered wife syndrome. How many times has Belle returned to an abusive and emotionally unavailable Rumple, only to regret her actions? The poor woman is destined to live her life under Rumple’s thumb, as there is no way she will be able to combat the magic he can employ to keep his child with him. At that point, we can add Belle’s son’s name to point number two above.

5. A study in Stockholm Syndrome

In addition to battered wife syndrome, Belle is the poster child for Stockholm Syndrome, though she really can’t be blamed for it, as Beauty and the Beast is a textbook case. In the story, a girl goes to live with a literal beast to save her town. She is held captive, enslaved, and winds up falling in love with her captor. This story is meant to teach us not to judge a book by its cover, but the deeper story it tells is much more nefarious, especially where OUAT is concerned. Belle is kept in a dungeon until she’s given house privileges. She must remain captive in the castle or Rumpy will allow the ogres to kill everyone she knows and loves. She is essentially his slave, cooking and cleaning for him, living in fear of his temper, walking on eggshells lest he hurt her or worse, someone she loves. Cue the abused wife argument above.

Honestly, I don’t know what is more disquieting: having to watch pregnant, optimist, bookworm Belle being abused by her ex, or watching my favourite character lose any and all of the redeeming qualities that made him my favourite character in the first place. And while Robert Carlyle plays the part with depraved aplomb, there’s something that’s not right about deriving pleasure from from something so vile.

What do you think about the malevolent turn OUAT’s taken this season? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.

4 New Time Travel Shows Worth Watching (and 1 not so much)

The first time travel story I ever saw was when I was about 8 and watching Classic Trek re-runs (of course, back then, it was called Star Trek and not “Classic”). I’d never seen anything like The City on the Edge of Forever before, and I was hooked. The Star Trek franchise has always done time travel well, which is high praise, given the other memorable movies and series incorporating the time-worn trope since.

The last book I released, I Was, Am, Will Be Alice, is a time travel fiction (largely inspired by The Time Traveler’s Wife), as is my as of yet unfinished manuscript, tentatively entitled Cat and Mouse: A Love Story, largely inspired

This recent television season has seen an explosion of time travel television shows and it doesn’t disappoint, for the most part. In a medium in which good science fiction (and sometimes, any science fiction) is hard to find, you might ask why this particular genre has exploded at this moment in time. A recent CBC broadcast proposed that the phenomenon is due to the current political climate and how people seemed to view the past as a simpler time. With what is happening in the world today, the influx of time travel television reflects people’s desire to turn the clock back to that simpler time. Glamour suggests this may be because we, as a society, have acknowledged the error of our ways and long for a way to fix our future by  going back and fixing our past.

To honour the current television season, here’s a list of 4 new time travel shows (in no particular order) worth watching (and 1 not so much).

1. Travelers

The future is a dystopia, largely due to the fact that a meteor will hit Earth with devastating consequences. They have figured out how to transfer consciousness back in time with the help of a large supercomputer. A team of scientists have their consciousnesses  sent back in time to change the past and make the world a better place. To do this, the supercomputer–known as the Director–pinpoints the moment of a host’s death and transfers the future consciousness in the seconds before the host dies. This show is made interesting by the characters of the hosts, which include an FBI agent with a failing marriage, a mentally impaired woman and her social worker, an addict, a teenaged football player, and a woman who is fighting for custody of her son with her abusive, police officer husband.  Eric McCormack, a long time favourite of mine since Will and Grace, stars.

2. Timeless

When a seemingly bad guy steals a time machine from a top secret think tank, a historian, a soldier, and a pilot chase him through time in an effort to preserve the timeline. In the first episode, misunderstood Garcia Flynn (expertly played Goran Visnjic) introduces the Rittenhouse Corporation, a Mafia-like group of people who have infiltrated every aspect of government and power corporations for centuries. Through the course of the season, we learn that Flynn is only out to stop Rittenhouse to save his family (whom he believes was murdered by members of Rittenhouse) and make the world a better place. Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, and Malcolm Barrett have such incredible chemistry as the team of heroes out to stop Flynn, that by the time they realize they’re fighting for the wrong team, they can do no wrong in the viewers’ eyes.

3. Frequency

Based on the movie by the same name, Frequency supposes that a ham radio can connect the present to the past. In Frequency, police officer Raimy Sullivan learns she can talk to her father over his old radio. The only problem is her father died 20 years ago. Raimy gives her father advice which saves him from the accident that took his life. She goes into work the next morning only to learn that her mother–safe before Raimy had saved her father’s life–went missing twenty years ago and her bones are on the coroner’s table. Her mother, it seems, was a victim of the Nightingale Killer. As if to make matters worse, she is a stranger to her fiancee. Raimy and her father, Frank, spend the season as partners as they try to catch the Nightingale Killer on both ends of the time continuum.

 

4. Time After Time

I remember seeing Time After Time, the movie, as a young adult. I loved the fact that H. G. Wells was portrayed as a time traveller. The Time Machine reads more like a journal, after all, documenting the travels of a scientist into the past and incredibly distant future to check in on the evolution of mankind. It’s not hard to imagine that the novel was Wells’s actual journal. In Time After Time, H.G. Wells invents a time machine that is immediately appropriated by Jack the Ripper who goes forward in time to escape capture and continues his murderous ways. The show is more cat and mouse thriller than time travel epic as Dr. John Stephenson (Jack the Ripper) taunts Wells, daring him to follow through with his threat to capture him before his next kill.

*As an aside, is Flash’s H.R. Wells somehow an homage to H.G. Wells? Why else would the character–who hops Earths a la Sliders and who is known to have time travelled in the comic world–have been given a name so similar to the author?

5. Making History

A time travelling duffle bag is absurd on the face of it. Even so, I could accept it provided the show did something smart with it. In the first two episodes, Dan goes back to make sure the American Revolution happens, only to find that the founding fathers are even dumber than he is, and though they love their guns and will only be riled when the British threaten to take them away (cue the political satire), they refuse to do anything more than threaten to take the guns and aver their love for guns. There’s a love affair (as in Time After Time), false identities with modern names, and claiming of song lyrics that won’t be written for centuries (as in Back to the Future). Though there may be a few moments that made me smile, this was even more groan-worthy than Legends of Tomorrow at it’s campy best.

Whether the surge in time travel tales is due to a longing to return to a simpler time, or the desire to turn back the clock, given the number of celebrity deaths and the politics of the previous year, time travel television is a worthy, sentimental diversion.

Are you a fan of time travel fiction? Weigh in with what you think in the comments below.

CW’s The 100 Proves Sometimes the Book Isn’t Always Better

100tvpicThank you so much to Jimmy at Cultured Vultures for posting!

I binge watched the CW’s The 100 over the winter break and was hooked. So hooked, in fact, I wasted no time reading the novel that started it all. I was both disappointed and elated at The 100 by Kass Morgan, and don’t know what to make of it. Here’s why…

To read more, check out my review at the Cultured Vultures site!

Proud to announce, I’m a Cultured Vulture!

cvlogo

 

Constantine – 5 reasons why he’s a forgotten regeneration of Dr. Who

Another comic book hero series to debut this season is Constantine.

John Constantine is a self-described “Exorcist, Demonologist, and Master of the Dark Arts”. He engages in Supernatural-type adventures, pitting him against other-worldly bads. Much like Sam and Dean Winchester, Constantine is a reluctant hero and an anti-hero, which only serves to make his character more interesting. (It also doesn’t hurt that, like the Winchester brothers, the actor playing him, Matt Ryan, is easy on the eyes.) But with episode 3–“The Devil’s Vinyl”–John Constantine proves he’s more a forgotten regeneration of Dr. Who than a long-lost Winchester boy.

Here are 5 reasons an argument could be made that John Constantine is a forgotten regeneration of Dr. Who:

[Tweet “5 ways John #Constantine could be a forgotten regeneration of Dr. Who #drwho”]

1. He’s British.

With the exception of Peter Capaldi’s iteration, all of the Doctors have either been British or played British. And so Ryan’s Welsh, but (correct me if I’m wrong) isn’t Wales considered part of Britain?

2. He has a companion.

Beginning with episode 2, Constantine adopts a young, female companion named Zed. Like so many of Dr. Who’s companions, Zed is attractive, smart, and has saved Constantine’s skin on occasion.

3. His home base is a T.A.R.D.I.S.

When Zed first enters Constantine’s underground base of operations she observes it is bigger on the inside, which is the primary feature of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

4. He has psychic paper.

Constantine has an enchanted playing card that makes the viewer see whatever the holder suggests.

5. He has a sonic screwdriver.

Not exactly. A sonic screwdriver is a sort of deus ex machina device that allows Dr. Who to get out of tough situations, simply by pointing it. Constantine has a carpet bag full of tricks. At the start of the episode he introduces an ancient tracking device that he uses later in the story. I would bet there are trinkets enough in that carpet bag to rival anything the sonic screwdriver can do.

And there you have it. Why John Constantine is a forgotten regeneration of Dr. Who!

 

 

The Flash is Superman in disguise

I’m the first to confess – I’m not a comic book aficionado. I haven’t picked up a good Archie comic since I was 12. I’ve never read superhero comics, though I  have to admit, I LOVE the upsurge in superhero television. I was sad to see Smallville go, and I look forward to my weekly dose of Gotham, Arrow and The Flash. I understand the hero and villain archetypes are at play here, but this week, The Flash patterned itself a little too closely after the Superman archetype  than the generic superhero one.

[Tweet “#TheFlash is patterned a little too closely on the #Superman #archetype.”]

In The Flash, Barry Allen is struck by dark matter lightning after a supercollider explosion. He is left with the ability to run incredibly fast (an understatement). He teams up with Star Lab’s Dr. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Dr. Harrison Wells, the scientists responsible for the explosion, to fight crime perpetrated by “meta-humans”, other people affected by the explosion in  Central City. Barry’s mother was killed when he was a child by a man wearing a yellow suit who possessed Flash’s speed, and his father was jailed for the murder. He was raised by his father’s friend, Detective Joe West, alongside Joe’s daughter, Iris. Barry’s in love with Iris, but because he’s too afraid to tell her, Iris is currently dating her father’s partner.

[Tweet “Iris and Barry ARE the new Lois and Clark! #TheFlash #Superman”]

This week on The Flash, Barry defeated a literal “Man of Steel”, the story of Barry’s mother’s murder was re-opened by Joe who believes Barry’s father is innocent. He suspects Dr. Wells was the murderer. He also reveals he knows about Barry’s attraction to his daughter. Meanwhile, Iris is penning a blog about “The Streak”, which puts her in danger. Barry and Joe try to dissuade her from continuing the blog and are unsuccessful. Finding his name in this episode, “The Streak” is renamed “The Flash”. He, too, tries to convince Iris to discontinue the blog. These are the scenes in which The Flash thinks it’s Superman.

In Superman, Lois Lane works with Clark Kent. Clark loves Lois, but he’s too scared to let her know. After meeting him, Lois falls for Superman. Seeing a chance to finally be with the woman of his dreams, Superman capitalizes on the situation. What he does is dishonest, but maybe Lois deserves it, seeing as she can’t see past Clark’s suit, glasses, and awkward social graces. Fans live for the moment when she finally uncovers his ruse.

In The Flash, Iris and Barry are friends. Barry loves Iris, but he’s too scared to let her know. After meeting him, Iris seems to be falling for The Flash. Seeing a chance to finally be with the woman of his dreams, The Flash capitalizes on the situation, flirting with Iris in a number of scenes. What he’s doing is dishonest, but maybe Iris deserves it, seeing as she can’t see past Barry’s geeky exterior and the fact that they were raised as foster brother and sister. Fans will live for the moment when she finally uncovers his ruse.

Get the picture?

[Tweet “Flash IS Superman. Think about it: Dr. Wells is Lex Luthor. Joe is Jonathan. Barry is Clark.”]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying The Flash. I can’t wait to see what Lex Luthor’s Dr. Wells’s plan is, and I love the fact that Joe has assumed the role of Jonathan Kent to Barry’s Superman. I just wish they stopped hitting us over the head with the comparison.

Move Over Fonzie…OUAT may be along for the ride!

This blog entry was written last week, after Once Upon a Time‘s “Breaking Glass” episode. I was unable to post then, but I’m choosing to do so now because last night’s episode, “The Snow Queen,” echoed the sentiments expressed in it.

Though “The Snow Queen” drew even further connections between the characters we’ve grown to love (Rumple, Belle and Emma), it still focuses more on the Frozen theme than not, which poses a problem for me. And while I dig the role reversal between Rumple and Belle–with Belle as the headstrong and Rumple as vulnerable–Belle was too quick to rush to control Rumple and Rumple too forgiving with no indication of a desire to remedy the situation in the future. Of course, there’s always the possibility that it really wasn’t his dagger and he was just playing along. The thought of this intrigues me more than does any amount of Frozen business.

Move Over Fonzie…OUAT may be along for the ride!


I love (Love, LOVE) Once Upon A Time, but I’m afraid it’s jumped the shark.

I’m not digging the whole Frozen vibe.

[Last] week’s episode took a long time to give up few teasers: Emma’s previous relationship with Lily; Emma reaching out to Regina; the Snow Queen assembling her mirror. Elsa’s search for Anna, the “filler” in this episode, seemed belaboured and contrived.

That’s right. Even a storyline populated with fairy tale and Disney characters, [last] week seemed contrived.

I recently had the opportunity to re-watch OUAT’s first episode when I shared it with my students in a lesson on literary archetypes. I watched the whole episode, twice in a single day (the fourth and fifth time I’ve watched it in entirety) and loved every second of it. By contrast, I don’t think I could ever be persuaded to watch [last] week’s one again.

Maybe it’s because the Frozen episodes come after a rather strong season in Neverland followed by an interesting season in Oz. Maybe it’s because I never saw Frozen. Maybe it’s because this episode lacked the mesmerizing talent of Robert Carlyle.

Whatever the reason, I put my faith in the writers of the show to draw it out of its slump. I’m with you for the long haul, OUAT. Fonzie survived jumping the shark, my hope is that you, too, will emerge victorious for many seasons to come
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Same plot, different setting

I watched last week’s premiere of Z Nation with some trepidation. I mean, did the world really need another post-apocalyptic television show featuring zombies? I already watch The Walking Dead–need I say anything more?  I was left with mixed feelings after watching, unsure if I liked it. Turning a baby, though reminiscent of Chucky, was a nice touch, but there was something that didn’t sit right about it (the show, not the zombified infant).

It took a few more days and a bout of in-class free association with respect to themes in literature for it to hit me.

Z Nation and The Last Ship are essentially one and the same.

[Tweet “#ZNation and #TheLastShip are essentially the same #tv show. Here’s how…”]

Let me explain…

The Last Ship is about a navy ship sent on a top secret mission to gather the primordial strain of a flu virus that is killing off most of the world’s population. They engage in war-lord-type power struggles including one with a Russian ship before finding a girl who is immune to the virus. They synthesize a cure for the virus from her blood and must rush the girl and the cure to a lab somewhere in the U.S.

Z Nation is about a group of people on a secretive mission to take a prison inmate to a lab in California. After being bit by zombies, the prisoner is seemingly immune to whatever it is that turns people into zombies. They need to take him to the lab so they can synthesize a cure for the zombie virus from his blood. So far there have been no war-lord-type power struggles, but you can bet they are sure to be on the near horizon.

I will be watching more of Z Nation, if only to compare it to The Walking Dead (in which, coincidentally, the characters are also sort of on a quest to take a scientist who claims to have a cure to a lab somewhere in the U.S. to create a vaccine) and other similar post-apocalyptic tales.

Did you watch Z Nation? Do you watch The Last Ship? Do you see a connection? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Extant casts wide net; may come up empty

image from globaltv.com

image from globaltv.com

It’s Alien.

It’s ET.

It’s Predator.

It’s AI.

It’s Extant, and it’s having trouble deciding what it wants to be.

[Tweet “#Extant is having trouble deciding which #SciFi sub-#genre it wants to be.”]

Extant is the story of astronaut Molly (Halle Berry), her husband, John (Goran Visnjic) and their “son”, an android–called a humanich–named Ethan (Pierce Ganon). After spending 13 months in space, Molly returns pregnant. Half-human, half-alien, the baby is removed from Molly’s body and incubated in a secret facility ran by the Yasumoto Corporation, which also happens to be John’s employer. Molly’s friend and colleague, Alan Sparks (Michael O’Neil), is in charge of the project.

This week, Sparks escapes the facility with the hybrid (known as the Offspring) and goes to an isolated resort where he can be alone with the visions of his deceased daughter the Offspring shows him. He calls his ex-wife to join him in the reunion. In order to maintain enough energy to produce it’s illusions, the Offspring must feed on humans (calling to mind Defiance’s Irisa and Atlantis’s wraith). The people survive the feeding in order to do Alan’s bidding.  Meanwhile, John and Ethan are essentially held captive by Yasumoto (Hiroyuki Sanada) at his house along with Odin (Charlie Bewley), a member of an anti-humanichs group, pretending to be interested in John’s assistant, Julie (Grace Gummer). In a third sub-plot, Molly is handcuffed inside a truck by one of Yasumoto’s men who supposedly wants to help her find, raise and protect the Offspring.

Are you confused yet? I can’t say as I was, but it is an awful lot to take in, the net result being that I have a lot of questions.

[Tweet “#Extant asks more questions than it answers, which is an awful lot to take in.”]

Alan is a die hard professional, determined to see the project proceeds in a by-the-books manner. In this episode, his character moves to the opposite extreme. He is now a devoted father, determined to spend as much time as he can with a facsimile of his daughter, which–on some level–he knows is an illusion produced by the Offspring. Nevertheless, he does his level best to protect her. He feeds the Offspring, not for the creature, but to maintain the illusion of his daughter. Alan is a scientist. Why does he fall so easily for something he knows is in the domain of the heart and not of the head?

Molly is a smart woman. She goes to space hoping absence will make her heart grow fonder for her husband. She knows Alan is working against her even when he insists he’s on her side. She figures out why friend Sam (Camryn Manheim) turns against her and uses Sam’s predicament to work in her favour. Why is she so quick to believe the  ruse Yasumoto’s man portrays about putting all of his employer’s resources at her fingertips once they recover the Offspring?

Ethan is part android, part child. He is inquisitive like a child, but shows incredible logical and analytical deduction ability. Why is he so quick to believe Odin’s bologna  about parents not being trustworthy and shun John as a result? Every character–and I mean EVERY–is a scientist. Why is someone like Odin able to outsmart them all?

My last question deals with the focus of the show. Why can’t Extant decide which sub-genre of science fiction it wants to be? Rather than decide, it tries to be all sub-genres at once. This week alone, Extant covered the following sub-genres: parasitic infestation; vampires; androids; paranormal investigation; mind control and conspiracy theory. And I’m probably missing a few more. I really like Extant. In addition to having two of my favourite actors (Visnjic and Manheim), Extant is refreshing for it’s focus on future families striving to stay together in spite of the perils that threaten to tear it apart, rather than on sci-fi elements alone.

As of this week, I can no longer say that about Extant.

Extant taken on too much? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

[Tweet “Has #Extant taken on too much? Extant casts wide net, comes up empty.”]

Everything I need know about Allusion I learned from “The Big Bang Theory”

bigbangtheory

Graphic from wall.alphacoders.com

Allusion is when a reference to something–a person, place, thing, or work of literature–is mentioned in a story. The idea is that people get what the reference means and the connection brings a deeper meaning to the reader’s experience. As an English teacher, I already knew about allusions and how they worked, but it wasn’t until I started watching The Big Bang Theory that I learned how to use them in a piece of writing to help develop rich settings and characters.

[Tweet “It wasn’t until I started watching @BigBang_CBS that I learned how to use allusions in writing.”]

Let me explain. For those who have never seen it, The Big Bang Theory follows the lives of four stereotypically nerdy scientists as they struggle on the outskirts of popularity. They eat, sleep, breathe, and live sci-fi, sometimes literally (remember Sheldon’s Gorn-infested sleep or the group’s misadventures as a Star Trek Next Gen landing party?). Their lives are programmed around television schedules, comic-cons, new sci-fi movies, and trips to the comic book store. But what makes this show especially enjoyable for me are the endless references–some of them quite obscure–to current popular culture. As a devout Trekker and sci-fi enthusiast, I identify with the boys and their never-ending struggle to fit in.

[Tweet “Read about my ‘The Big Bang Theory of Allusion’ as a way to make characters seem real. #WritingTip”]

I’ve adopted what I’ve dubbed “The Big Bang Theory of Allusion” in The Revenant (and my current work in progress tentatively called I Was, Am, Will Be Alice). The theory tells us that, because as writers we want our characters to seem as real as possible, we should make them consumers of current and real popular culture. This is not a new idea. Shakespeare did it, referring to bible passages or ancient Greek and Roman mythology (keep in mind he had 500 years less of popular culture to draw on). In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee draws on civil war knowledge, politics, and what we now think of as classical literature, but which would have been popular and current at the time, such as Ivanhoe, Dracula, and Tom Swift. Many of the references to movie stars such as Mae West, alluded to in Tennesee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire may be lost on today’s readers, but at the time of its release, these references would have brought a deeper meaning to the story for its audience.

The main allusions in The Revenant are about superheroes—Superman, Batman and Spiderman–but there are also references to characters in the sci-fi canon. Zulu, the male protagonist, imagines himself Khan Noonian Singh on the deck of the S.S. Botany Bay fighting his nemesis Kirk, as well as Hook on the deck of the Jolly Roger seeking out his nemesis, the crocodile that bit off his hand. Kat, the female protagonist, imagines herself as Buffy of vampire slayer fame and Zulu as her Angel. Zulu prefers to think of himself as more of the Spike type. Going after bad guys like he does, Zulu draws parallels between himself and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter, the vigilante who satisfies his need to kill on people who have circumvented the law. There are also references to Hiro Nakamura of Heroes comic book and television show fame. Fans of these shows will recognize the allusions and understand the thoughts of the characters making the comparisons; others might recognize the references as allusions but miss some of the meaning, and that’s okay. We don’t need to know anything about The Gray Ghost Dill offers to swap with Jem if he touches Boo’s house in Mockingbird other than that he’s staking a treasured book on the bet.

[Tweet “Does using too many allusions date your work? That depends on syndication and DVDs. #WritingTip”]

The concern with over-use of allusions is that it may date a piece of literature. How many people will remember shows like The Big Bang Theory or Dexter or Buffy the Vampire Slayer ten years from now? How many in twenty? Given the examples in this essay, quite a few, I’d say. Classic Trek was cancelled in 1969, yet the legacy of that show is still going strong. Shows like Buffy, Heroes and Dexter are still sold in DVD/BluRay collections and available for streaming online anywhere from two to ten years and more after cancellation. Given that The Big Bang Theory is now in syndication, chances are it will continue to be broadcast to tickle the funny bones of future generations with its allusions, keeping anything it references in mainstream popular culture, for years to come.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post on The Revenant Blog Tour. For past and future posts, see my Blog Tour Itinerary.

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