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Comic/TV Recs, 8/21/10
Saturday, August 21st, 2010 08:57 pmIn books:
Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows (Vol. 3), by Joe Hill (words) and Gabriel Rodriguez (pictures): I really admire the way that Hill & Rodriguez skillfully balance the horror of the supernatural and the mundane. In this trade compilation, the Locke children do battle (aggressively) with the living shadows inside their house and wage war (at turns quietly and forcefully) with their mother's slow slide into alcoholism. The consequences of all their revelations and actions have equal significance and meaning. I particularly liked the plot twist of the medicine cabinet that could fix anything that was broken; Mom starts by putting in a broken stool, and then works her way up through the plates she broke while trying to juggle when she sees how anything put inside the cabinet is instantly mended. But her final, drunken actions involve placing the urn with her husband's ashes inside, and the magic just falls apart over two pages, and it's achingly sad and touching. There's no way out for our protagonists until they find out just how much they don't know, and they're just on the cusp of that. When they actually realize what's at stake, I suspect the story will change dramatically. And I am content (if a little saddened) to wait for the next trade.
Echo: Collider (Vol. 4), by Terry Moore (words/pictures): There's quite a few questions answered in this installment, which balances the narrative to a lot of flashbacks and endangers the pacing of the main storyline, but then in the last 20 or so pages, there's an unexpected plot twist that definitively gets the pacing back on track. (And ups the stakes something fierce.) Moore's artwork is still all beautiful lines and dark spaces, and his characters continue to grow and evolve. I still cannot recommend this enough.
In comics:
Air, Final Issue: The only disadvantage of reading this month-to-month and not waiting for the trade paperback version is that I didn't really think we were moving to the end. Reading all of these issues in collected form would probably have alerted me that the story was nearing a conclusion. Regardless, I liked the ending very much (with one major exception, involving character death) and a particular revelation on the part of our heroine about how fear is what gives her power. Neatly done, well illustrated, and well worth my time.
On DVD:
The Wire, Season 4, Episodes 1-3: This show nails a great many things, but the montage in episode 3 of the teachers getting ready on the first day of school was pitch perfect and brilliantly executed.
On TV:
On Leverage so far, this season: Is it just me, or did the writers completely forget about the huge meta-plot they set up in the pilot? If this Big Bad is as dangerous as the pilot episodes claimed him to be, our heroes can't take him down in the last finale episodes without... well, making the show a lot more contrived than it already is. And this would be fine, except that the limits of contrivance are being seriously pushed this season, and I fear they'll collapse under the weight of "international gangster/terrorist badass mofo so terrifying none of the already criminal good guys will touch him". I'd like my fun and silly crime caper show to continue without getting even more contrived and cartoonish than it already is, thank you very much.
Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows (Vol. 3), by Joe Hill (words) and Gabriel Rodriguez (pictures): I really admire the way that Hill & Rodriguez skillfully balance the horror of the supernatural and the mundane. In this trade compilation, the Locke children do battle (aggressively) with the living shadows inside their house and wage war (at turns quietly and forcefully) with their mother's slow slide into alcoholism. The consequences of all their revelations and actions have equal significance and meaning. I particularly liked the plot twist of the medicine cabinet that could fix anything that was broken; Mom starts by putting in a broken stool, and then works her way up through the plates she broke while trying to juggle when she sees how anything put inside the cabinet is instantly mended. But her final, drunken actions involve placing the urn with her husband's ashes inside, and the magic just falls apart over two pages, and it's achingly sad and touching. There's no way out for our protagonists until they find out just how much they don't know, and they're just on the cusp of that. When they actually realize what's at stake, I suspect the story will change dramatically. And I am content (if a little saddened) to wait for the next trade.
Echo: Collider (Vol. 4), by Terry Moore (words/pictures): There's quite a few questions answered in this installment, which balances the narrative to a lot of flashbacks and endangers the pacing of the main storyline, but then in the last 20 or so pages, there's an unexpected plot twist that definitively gets the pacing back on track. (And ups the stakes something fierce.) Moore's artwork is still all beautiful lines and dark spaces, and his characters continue to grow and evolve. I still cannot recommend this enough.
In comics:
Air, Final Issue: The only disadvantage of reading this month-to-month and not waiting for the trade paperback version is that I didn't really think we were moving to the end. Reading all of these issues in collected form would probably have alerted me that the story was nearing a conclusion. Regardless, I liked the ending very much (with one major exception, involving character death) and a particular revelation on the part of our heroine about how fear is what gives her power. Neatly done, well illustrated, and well worth my time.
On DVD:
The Wire, Season 4, Episodes 1-3: This show nails a great many things, but the montage in episode 3 of the teachers getting ready on the first day of school was pitch perfect and brilliantly executed.
On TV:
On Leverage so far, this season: Is it just me, or did the writers completely forget about the huge meta-plot they set up in the pilot? If this Big Bad is as dangerous as the pilot episodes claimed him to be, our heroes can't take him down in the last finale episodes without... well, making the show a lot more contrived than it already is. And this would be fine, except that the limits of contrivance are being seriously pushed this season, and I fear they'll collapse under the weight of "international gangster/terrorist badass mofo so terrifying none of the already criminal good guys will touch him". I'd like my fun and silly crime caper show to continue without getting even more contrived and cartoonish than it already is, thank you very much.
