Category: Opinion

Diana Vacc Sees Outlander Episode 8 “The Fox’s Lair”

fox's lair

by Diana Vaccareilli

This episode of Outlander entitled “The Fox’s Lair” finds Claire and Jamie returning to Scotland after the tragedies they went through in France and meeting Jamie’s Grandfather Lord Lovatt. If you haven’t viewed this episode yet be warned: this review may contain spoilers.

THE GOOD:

  • The writing of the episode was good but not “oh boy, gosh wow, fantastic” as previous episodes have been. Anne Kenney writes beautiful scenes between our two leads, showing them healing after losing their child, which was quite moving to watch but lacked the dynamism present in previous episodes. One scene in particular, showing Jamie (Sam Heughan) holding his newborn niece was touching and heartbreaking at the same time.
  • Clive Russell was fantastic as Jamie’s devious Grandfather. I was amazed at how his performance presented the character exactly as I’d pictured him while reading the book.

THE BAD: read article

Troy DeVolld: “We’d need you to work as a local.”

Odds are that if the show can't pay for your travel it ain't gonna send a car like this to meet you either!
Odds are that if the show can’t pay for your travel it ain’t gonna send a car like this to meet you either!

by Troy DeVolld

I don’t complain about much. I’m good with long hours, I don’t mind working a little harder to get a show in good shape and turned in on time.  I can even handle parking blocks or even miles from a location and cramming into a shuttle with 7-23 other people to get to set.

Being asked to work as a local states away from home, however, bugs me.

What that means is finding (and paying for) a place to stay when you’re many hours from home, sometimes out of state or even the country working on a project.  It’s not uncommon in reality’s non-union universe, as it saves the production company money on their most tightly-budgeted shows. read article

John Ostrander: You/Not You

You-Not-Youby John Ostrander

One of the interesting facets of talking about writing is the contradictions you find in the craft. For example: All your characters are you. All your characters are not you.

All of your characters are you.

Every character you write must have some of you in it. All of them. Not just the ones you like to identify with. All of them. The large and the small, the good and the bad, male and female, no matter what age, race, or nationality. If you’re going to write honestly about the character, you must be in the mix. read article

Troy DeVolld: Pay Your Dues, But Get a Receipt

Okay, okay… this was just a sad little residual from an archived lecture. I don’t exactly have a huge stock library of me holding checks.
Okay, okay… this was just a sad little residual from an archived lecture. I don’t exactly have a huge stock library of me holding checks.

by Troy DeVolld

Let me tell you about an eight-year lesson I learned in reality television: Don’t chase checks.

The first three years of my career, I worked for Cris Abrego and Rick Telles nonstop. I started as a logger/transcriber, spent time as a story producer, logged a few weeks with the locations gang looking for spots to film episodes of FEAR, and they kept me working. Three straight years of employment, those guys gave me.

Then, after The Surreal Life, I moved on to Next Entertainment and did two seasons of The Bachelor and one of The Bachelorette. I wasn’t part of the in-crowd there, and I had to prove myself to a new bunch of people all over again. read article

John Ostrander: Back to the Future Tense

Legends-of-Tomorrowby John Ostrander

There’s a lot of time travel going on in pop culture these days. The CW has DC’s Legends of Tomorrow where a rag-tag group of misfits travel around with Doctor Who, excuse me, Rip Hunter Time Master, as he tries to stop the immortal villain, Vandal Savage, from killing his family. Oh, and to prevent Savage from really messing up the world… but mostly to save his own family.

In general, I like time travel stories and have ever since I saw The Time Machine (the 1960 one with Rod Taylor, not the 2002 version with Guy Pearce). A great variation on the H.G. Wells story wasTime After Time, where H.G. Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell) comes to (then) modern day San Francisco chasing Jack the Ripper (David Warner) and encounters the ever adorable Mary Steenburgen.

I like time travel stories in movies, books, comics, and so on. One of the best – and funniest – time travel comics I read was an eight pager by Alan Moore in 2000 AD. Witty and brilliant. Time travel stories can be difficult to pull off well, however. They need to be internally consistent and should jibe not only with the facts but the tone of the time era. That’s easier when the setting is the future or when the story has future travelers coming into our present. read article