Tag: TVWriter.Com

Kathy sees THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Epic epicness

Warning: Parts of this review are spoilerific, so if you haven’t seen the movie and you read this review and I spoil it for you…well, sorry about that.

Okay, fess up time: I saw this movie over a month ago and am just getting a chance to write the review. So I had to reach way back into the crevices of my brain to remember what this movie was about. Certain parts stuck with me–Bane’s awesome headgear, the uselessness of Catwoman, the fact that Batman always sounds like a ten-pack-a-day-smoker ready to choke on his own phlegm at any moment. My overall recollection of the film is that it was good. More than good. I’d say a very good film that I would easily rent on DVD.

Rent, not own. read article

Old School vs. New School Video Games

We found this on a site called Cheezburger.Com so you know it’s Grade A:

Don’t want to include any spoilers here, but the ending shows that what we’ve been telling our younger nieces and nephews is RIGHT F-IN’ ON, BABY! WHO’S THE BIG DADDY NOW?! read article

“The Fien Print” Ruminates on NBC’s INFAMOUS

Take Me To The Pilots ’12: NBC’s ‘Infamous’ – by Daniel Fienberg

The Pitch: It’s “Dirty Sexy Revenge”

Quick Response: No. Really. “Dirty Sexy Revenge.” What if “Dirty Sexy Money” had begun with the murder of Samaire Armstrong’s character? [No loss there.] And what if Peter Krause’s character were a cop instead of a lawyer and an African-American woman instead of a man? And what if that interloper returned to the family not to keep them out of trouble, but to get one of them in very deep trouble indeed? What you’d get would be “Infamous.” NBC’s attempt to get in on the Eat the Rich zeitgeist is derivative at every turn, but it’s also yet another midseason drama that introduces plot twists at an almost astounding pace, with characters reversing course and changing their colors two or three times in the opening 44 minutes. Hmm… I used a “but” there as if being twisty were a compensation for being derivative. This is the kind of show that you instantly find yourself distrusting every frame because you know that the truth is like a bet on a roulette wheel: You might get a dose of adrenaline each time your number comes around, but until the ball stops bouncing, *nothing* is going to be the truth, so there’s no point in investing. read article

LB: TVWRITER UNIVERSITY Update for September 2012

Time now to reach out to everyone about what’s happening with the TVWriter™ Online Workshops. No time to waste, so:

I’m hoping to hold the Basic Online TV and Film Writing Workshop in October, which, yep, is next month.

The 8-week long (one meeting a week) TVWriter.Com Basic Online Workshop covers just that, the basics of TV (and film!) writing, from how to present your idea via loglines and leavebehinds, to character creation and story structure, to the writing of the 1st draft and revisions. We do this via my book (here comes the pitch) Television Writing from the Inside Out,weekly writing exercises, and of course weekly video (and text if you don’t want to do video) chat meetings. read article

LB: Mary McDonnell Said the Truest, Wisest Thing in Showbiz on MAJOR CRIMES Last Night

There I was, watching a cutish episode of MAJOR CRIMES, containing the kind of humor I usually find cringeworthy, when suddenly Mary McDonnell’s character, Captain Raydor, came out with the most insightful line of dialog in the history of TV. Yes, I know that a writer wrote it,  probably James Duff (but I’m not finding that info on the web so if you have it let me know), McDonnell’s understated and totally sincere delivery is what made it ring so true.

The situation wasn’t exactly unique. It was one of those times when the FBI invites itself in on a local, in this case LAPD investigation, with the agent in charge calmly telling Raydor all the things the Major Crimes Unit is going to be giving him and his guys. Raydor listens calmly. Then, without blinking (a sure sign that she’s a star, btw, as Michael Caine once told me), Raydor says these immortal five words: read article