Category: Opinion

Is Marvel’s ‘Daredevil’ TV Show Overrated?

Some people think so. (This TVWriter™ minion admits to being one of them.) Mostly we keep our traps shut to avoid conflict. Forbes’ Benjamin Moore, OTH, has no trouble saying what he thinks:

Daredevil_wallpaper_colored_by_sethfrailby Benjamin Moore

Every once in a while, a movie or a TV show will debut to stellar reviews – from critics and the ravenous Internet hive mind – and I’m left feeling like I’m taking crazy pills.

By now, you’ve probably seen the new Daredevil series on Netflix NFLX +1.96%, or at least heard about how amazing it is from your brother-in-law. He loves everything Marvel has ever made, except for Iron Man 3 because how dare that Shane Black fellow make a joke of supervillain/racist caricature The Mandarin. And this new Daredevil series? Well, it’s the best Marvel thing yet, in his opinion – it’s like The Wire of superhero TV shows, only even better than that might imply. read article

Herbie J Pilato: When reconstructing the “Bionic” world….

jamie sommers

by Herbie J Pilato

Back in 2007, NBC debuted and cancelled its new Bionic Woman, a reboot of the classic 1970’s female sci-fi sequel to that same decades’ Six Million Dollar Man series, starring Lee Majors as Steve Austin, the bionic man (both of which were originally on ABC).

David Eick was the executive producer of the new Woman, but he failed to work the same magic he had performed with the then- recent re-do of another small-screen sci-fi classic: Battlestar: Galactica.  As Eick told the Syfy Channel’s Battlestar upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18, 2008, “I just felt that the process [of reinventing TBW] was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well.  The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful.  Some of the writing was good.”

Yet, Eick added, “We just didn’t ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar.  At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you’re better off to say, ‘Let’s try again another time, and let it go.’” read article

Don’t Let Fans’ Silence Fool You. ‘Community’ is as Great as Ever

Last week we ran a post called Why Nobody’s Talking About Community Anymore, which came to certain conclusions about the quality of the series this year and raised a bit of a ruckus. In keeping with our equal time policy – which just started today, but hey – we’re pleased us, um, punch to present another point of view:

More COMMUNITYby Pilot Viruet

The sixth season of Community should have been its biggest and most celebrated. Long before it existed, before it was even a real possibility, it was already the subject of a joking-but-not-really-joking hashtag that began in Season 2’s “Paradigms of Human Memory,” with Abed’s passing reference to The Cape. “Six seasons and a movie” was the rallying cry of fans who believed, accurately, that Community was good enough to run for several more years, despite what NBC (and the ratings) said. And against all odds — Dan Harmon’s firing and subsequent rehiring, a gas-leak season, and even a cancellation — that sixth season did happen and is currently airing. But the fanfare around the series seems to have died down.

It’s a curious development, albeit one that is easy to explain. There is, of course, the fact that Community now airs on a streaming site, Yahoo Screen (which is difficult to navigate and features a less-than-stellar video player), rather than on a broadcast network. But Community has always been fueled by the Internet — I can’t imagine it would have lasted five seasons on NBC, let alone been rescued by Yahoo, if not for the intensity of its fans on social media, who delighted in hashtags and quoted every line and took over A.V. Club comment sections. So it should be just as equipped as any other show to thrive online. read article

Peggy Bechko tells writers how to “Name that Character!”

whatname

by Peggy Bechko

Name that Character!

Sounds like a game, doesn’t it, but for the writer it’s far from it. If you thought you had a tough time finding a name for your kid, listen up. It can be a far more serious matter to find a name for the characters in your script or novel. (Maybe not to a parent, but certainly to the serious writer.)

It’s all too easy to think of naming a character after a friend, a relative or someone you met once because you happen to remember it. read article

Peggy Bechko takes writers “Off the Beaten Path”

Valerii_Tkachenko_Wikimedia

by Peggy Bechko

I’m not going to talk about screen scripts or novels or even writing – directly – today. What I’m going to talk about is life. Now, it’s not going to be some great philosophical spew or anything like that, more of a rumination that applies greatly to writers.
Now sit back folks and ponder.

Life is interesting and little of it is planned. If you don’t believe me, look back on your own life and consider how much you really planed out and how much happened along a twisting, turning course and just kind of sorted itself out as you went along making plans.

Still with me? read article