Category: Opinion

John Ostrander: So How Was It For You?

Agents-of-SHIELD

by John Ostrander

We’re now well into the new TV season and there were a number on new shows to which I was looking forward as well as some returning ones. I’ve now seen at least one of each and have formed some opinions. Since that’s what this column is all about, off we go.

On the returning shows, let’s start with The Blacklist. I was wondering if it could maintain momentum but so far it has, anchored by James Spader’s mesmerizing performance as Raymond “Red” Reddington. Terrifically charming, utterly lethal, ready with a quip, a story, or a bullet, Spader gives a wonderful performance.

I also wondered about Castle and the “cliffhanger” with which they left last season. They aren’t explaining things right away, making what happened part of the overall mystery for this season. It’s working. It feels as if there’s new steam in the engine and I’m enjoying the ride. read article

Herbie J Pilato: Colors are the vibrant fabric of your script

colorchart2011

by Herbie J Pilato

Back in the day, not only were TV characters very distinguishable from one another, but the colors of their wardrobe were also quite variant.

For example, let’s travel to “Gilligan’s Island,” created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz; not a show that many would consider “Masterpiece Theatre,” but in many quadrants of the industry, certainly to its millions of fans, the series is considered a masterpiece in its own way.

Firstly, no two characters are alike, in sight or sound:  Gilligan (played by Bob Denver) was slight and skinny and dressed in vibrant red); the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) was hefty, and garbed in big blue.  The Professor (Russell Johnson) dressed in that cache beige; the brunette Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) in country-girl short-shorts; Ginger, the movie-star, a red-head, always dressed in elaborate gowns, etc. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

disruption

Chapter 80 Disruption
by Leesa Dean

The conception of disruption with regards to the internet is relatively new.  What it means is, something, let’s say broadcast television exists and something else, let’s say, streaming digital media, comes in and replaces it as a preferred mode of viewing.

There’s been a lot of talk about disruption lately, mainly because of the huge game-changing news that both HBO and CBS will have independent streaming models in 2015.  Meaning, if you’re a huge Game of Thrones fanatic and subscribe to HBO in a cable tv package from a provider, you no longer will need the cable tv package.  It’s a cord-cutters delight.

Michael Wolff has a different take on it.  Wolff is a long-time writer about tech and media and even had one of the first start-ups years ago and wrote about it in a pretty juicy book.  Wolff says that versus the internet disrupting TV, TV is really disrupting the internet. read article

Creative Writing Classes: Are They Hits or Misses?

The best this particular TVWriter™ minion has ever had to say about a college level creative writing class is that it beat having to take another semester of Greek Lit. Other people, of course, may have other opinions. We enjoyed this one cuz it’s so damned erudite (especially for a daily – shudder – newspaper):

samuelbeckett
See how happy Samuel Beckett looks? That’s cuz he didn’t have to take all those darn classes….

by Jane Sullivan

There’s a scene in the Simon Pegg TV sitcom Spaced when a writer is kicked off the dole and has to get a job washing dishes. She complains to the manager: “But this isn’t me. I’m a writer.” The manager replies: “Oh, everyone who works here is a writer, dear.”

They used to make that joke about actors. Now it’s writers. Not that it’s new, exactly. Writers have always taken pride in listing menial and bizarre jobs on their book cover bios, and have taken comfort in the thought they were following in the footsteps of Hemingway and Beckett. A full-time writer is still quite a rare beast, and is usually a writer of books for children, or of books in a highly commercial genre. read article

LB: When the Funniest Woman in the World Speaks, I Listen

Miranda Hart with some minor players
Miranda Hart with some minor players

Oh, God, I love Miranda Hart. Writer, actress, human being…she’s perfect. Just damn perfect. Which means, yeah, if you don’t know her work you really need to:

It wasn’t easy coming up with a reason to write about Miranda, who’s huge in the UK but hardly even known here in the U.S., but last week she gave an interview on the UK’s Graham Norton show which encapsulates why everyone who knows her work – from my wife and myself to, oh, TVWriter™ Contributing Editor Cara Winter and, um, erm…let me get back to that – is so charmed. read article