Gilmore Girls Post-Mortem

Thanks to the writers' strike, now thankfully over, Jill and I were looking for something to watch on TV. So we broke out Jill's collection of Gilmore Girls and started with Season One. Two nights ago, we finished off Season Seven.

That was the hardest to watch. Season Seven was painful. Longtime producer Amy Sherman-Palladino had left her creation in the hands of ... well, people who weren't her and, as a result, the magic disappeared completely. I know at the time, I decried the new writers and wished and hoped that Amy would come back to save Lorelai and Rory from the death rattle that slowly overtook them. Sadly, my prayers went unanswered.

Now that I have watched all seven seasons, I was able to see where things started to go so wrong and, as it turns out, I was a bit harsh on the new writers who took up the reigns.

It may be scandalous. It may not be polite to say it. But I think a lot of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Amy Sherman-Palladino herself.

Hardcore Gilmore fans may think that what I'm saying is sacrilege, but I think it's true. The reason why is because the things that started the Gilmore's downward slide happened on Amy's watch.

For starters, we have the dark turn that the series took shortly after Jason Stiles was shoved out of Richard Gilmore's business. Everything seemed a bit more depressing after that point. Not insurmountable, but the shift was noticeable.

But then there's the moment when the Gilmores jumped the shark, namely Episode 21 of Season Five, "Blame Booze and Melville." Or the "Rory steals a yacht" episode. The reason I say this is because this one act really hurt the entire series.

One of the fun things of this series was the back-and-forth banter between Lorelai and Rory. Lots of pop and literary references, speedy and incisive, it was gold and helped make the show stand out. Then Rory graduated from Chilton and went off to Yale. That was a blow but a necessary one. The conversation just didn't shine as well on the phone. There were the moments when they were together, such as Friday night dinners or Rory's weekend visits to Stars Hollow, but the show suffered a little.

And then Rory steals the yacht, drops out of Yale, and she doesn't see her mom for eight episodes. It hurt the show. It hurt the characters. It started the downward spiral. And it happened on Amy Sherman-Palladino's watch.

But then Rory and Lorelai reconciled ... just in time for the next nail in the coffin to hit home, namely April Nardini.

I don't have any idea what the point of this was. April added nothing to the plot. It was just an unnecessary conflict generator that got tacked on. In some ways, it almost smacked of trying to bring in a younger demographic. Rory's off to college, Lane's got Hep Alien, there aren't any younger teenagers. So quick, bring in a Rory clone. She's precocious, she's smart, she's got a can-do mom. Sound familiar?

Maybe April would have worked if she wasn't so similar to Rory. Whatever the case, April didn't help the show. She only hurt it. And again, this happened when Amy was in charge.

One of the worst deathblows happened when Lorelai married Christopher in Paris. This happened in season seven, so Amy can't be blamed for that. But it did highlight a very ugly character trait in Lorelai, namely her immature selfishness. And that's something that Amy wrote into the character.

Think of poor Max Medina. Lorelai gets engaged to him but doesn't let him into any part of her life. She doesn't want him to discipline Rory. She seems unwilling to leave her house. She's in love with the idea of being married but not him. But at the time, it seemed to be a personality quirk, not a serious issue.

Then there's what happens with Luke. Lorelai proposes to him, but refuses to set a date because of the drama between her and Rory. Rory comes back but now Luke has cold feet because of April. In the meantime, Lorelai refuses to leave her home and, when Luke doesn't hop to for her, she sleeps with Christopher and unilaterally decides it's all over. Now it's a little more obvious.

And then there's the season seven relationship with Christopher. She jumps into a full relationship with him and seems relatively untroubled by what transpired with Luke a mere six weeks after the break-up. And when they get married on a whim, what does she do? She refuses to move. She freaks out when Christopher suggests Gigi get Rory's old room. She forces Christopher to change.

At that point, I was thorougly disgusted with Lorelai. While she's sacrificed a lot so Rory can succeed, she's also very selfish in a very ugly way. And that's not the fault of the people who took over in season seven. Amy made her that way.

By the time we reached the abysmal "haybale maze" episode, the show had fallen apart entirely. While the new writers really dropped the ball, it was only because Amy fumbled it already. The fact that The Return of Jezebel James bombed and has already been cancelled shows that Amy may have lost some of the magic she had when she first created the denizens of Stars Hollow and that special single mom and her progeny.

It's a shame. Lorelai and Rory deserved much better.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Someone needs to tell George Lucas to stop. Seriously. He needs to put away his word processor, pen and paper, dictaphone, or whatever he uses to put together these ridiculous stories.

Oh yes, I've just gotten back from seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, and I am not happy.

A few caveats before we really get into it. I went into the theater with somewhat low expectations. I had heard rumblings of poor reviews and I knew that nothing Spielberg and Lucas could put together would top Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or even Last Crusade. But I hoped it would be better than this.

There were some bright spots. There were plenty of witty moments where I genuinely laughed out loud. Spielberg crafted some great chase scenes, worthy successors of what's come before. But for every good point, there was plenty to weigh down the rest.

For starters, we have the fact that the supernatural was too blatant once again. In Raiders and Last Crusade, they kept the supernatural elements "behind the scenes," so to speak, only trotting them out at the end of each movie. In Temple of Doom, though, the supernatural was everywhere and really dragged on the movie. Same thing here. The fantastical was front and center almost from the beginning and it really didn't help the story.

Second, there were far too many moments where my suspended disbelief really wanted to be ... well, unsuspended. They strained credulity. I won't go into specifics since I do not like giving out spoilers. I will say this: I don't think George Lucas has ever observed anything in the animal kingdom. Ever.

Sad to say, I wish I hadn't been so eager to go and see this one. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. Indy deserved a better fate. It would have been better if Lucas had just let him ride of with Henry Senior into the desert and left it at that.

At the very least, George needs to stop. It's just that simple. After the Star Wars prequels and now this debacle, the writing is on the wall.

Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman

He just lost his daughter Maria today in a tragic car accident. What makes it truly horrible is that it was his teenage son behind the wheel.

May the empty tomb of Christ bring the Chapman family comfort in this extremely difficult time.

CSFF Blog Tour: Day Two

Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm very, very late (according to the clock above my computer, I only have fifteen minutes for this to still qualify as a Day Two post). And yes, I know that we're supposed to be blogging about MindFlights. But I recently came across a gem that I figured might be Blog Tour worthy, if for no other reason than to try to generate discussion. And as I've said before, I always try to bring new and interesting material into the tour.

According to this article, the Vatican has recently said it's okay for people to believe in aliens.

From the article:

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

My question is this: could this be used as fuel for stoking the speculative fiction fires in Christian publishing? Yes, I know, many evangelicals won't care two figs for what a Jesuit astronomer has to say, but it certainly is interesting food for thought, yes?

At any rate, go see if everyone else did better than me today:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

I am optimized for hazardous nullification!

A big thank you to D.G.D. Davidson (or would it be Snuffles) over at The Sci Fi Catholic for this one. The Cyborg Name Decoder. I'm not sure which one I like best:

I also did the handle I use on different websites:

And I did my son's name as well:

So what is your name when it's decoded?

CSFF Blog Tour: Mindflights Magazine Day One

This month, we're looking at the on-line magazine dedicated to Christian sci-fi and fantasy, namely MindFlights. As they explain on their website, they "strive to provide quality fiction, poetry, and exposition, all in means that respects traditional values and Christian principles."

In the interest of fairness, I should say that I was published in one of MindFlights predecessors, so perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I think it's great that we have an outlet for sci-fi and fantasy short stories with a Christian bent. For example, On the Edge of Eternity by Steve Stanton.

Stanton's story, about asteroid miner Harlin Riley, was an engaging read. Riley's world was believable and had some depth to it, with colloquialisms and some societal insights.

That being said, Stanton could have done a slightly better job introducing a central idea of his story, namely that of the alien sprites. Here I thought it was just going to be a story about asteroid miners when out of nowhere, Stanton revealed that Riley had some sort of transdimensional alien sprite implanted in his brain. It blindsided me and since it seemed to be the central idea of Stanton's story, it might have been better to at least hint at it in the opening moments of the story.

The only other criticism I have about the story is that the ending didn't seem to grow from the ending. Given what Stanton says about Riley, I expected a different way for his story to end. Maybe I'm "Monday morning quarterbacking" ... or maybe "Monday morning armchair editing?" We need to come up with a similar term for writing.

Anyway, no matter what I might think about individual stories, it's good to be back in the somewhat familiar territory of MindFlights again.

Go see what other people have to say:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

The Reformation Polka

And hey, one more, so long as we're at it!

Martin Luther does the chicken dance

Just some random silliness. Enjoy!

Prince Caspian

Let's talk Prince Caspian.

I went with about a dozen people from my congregation this afternoon and caught a matinee.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, given the mixed reviews I've seen. This one, for example, ticked me off since Gleiberman tripped up over the identity of the river god. Read the source material, fer cryin' out loud.

The movie itself started off slow. At least, I thought it did. Well, maybe not slow. But I question the wisdom of beginning the movie in Narnia with the birth of Miraz's son (and don't worry, none of that could conceivably be considered a spoiler). I worry that those unfamiliar with the story (Owen Glieberman, for example) might wonder where all the sons of Adam and daughter of Eve came from. Perhaps I'm being overly worried.

Things picked up after the opening. The times that the film makers engaged in dramatic license worked. I also appreciated the extra depth that the script writers added to Peter. Susan too. Kind of. I figure since she gets such a raw deal in the last book, it's a gimme.

Overall, I found it a fun movie that serves both as entertainment and as a jumping off point for deeper philosophical considerations. For example, what happens when we don't follow God and try to go our own way? We may succeed for a while, but ultimately, it will not go as smoothly.

Anyway, go see the movie. If for no other reason, than for Reepicheep. Eddie Izzard voiced him perfectly.

Another Review 3-Fer

I've been a bad boy for the past couple of months. I've been reading (as I always do), but I haven't been blogging about the books I'm reading. So I need to play catch-up on the three books that I know for sure I've read.

We'll start with Relentless by Robin Parrish. The funny thing is, I blogged about the sequel a while ago without having read it or Relentless. So I figured I'd better play catch-up.

If you aren't familiar with the Dominion Trilogy, it centers around Grant Borrows, an ordinary man who finds himself trapped in an incredible problem. He's no longer in his body. He's been "Shifted." His mind has been transferred into another person. More than that, he apparently has some incredible powers that he now has to learn to harness.

As if all that wasn't enough, Grant finds himself the target of a shadowy cabal, for they believe that he is the Bringer. Can Grant pull together the other people who have been Shifted and face down the people who are pursuing them?

Overall, this was a pretty good book. There was a lot of action and kept the plot moving pretty quickly. The story itself is very reminiscent of "X-Men" or "Heroes," so it felt like very familiar territory to me. The real downside to the novel was its familiarity and the glut of characters that occupy Parrish's story. There were simply too many to keep track of. I almost didn't want to keep reading this series. What salvaged it for me was the revelation of where the Gifteds' rings came from. So now Fearless is sitting on my TV, waiting to be read.

Next up is Enoch's Ghost by Bryan Davis.

This is the second book in Davis's Oracles of Fire series, the follow up to his phenomenal Dragons in Our Midst series. It follows the adventures of Sapphira, Walter, Ashley, and Karen, as they struggle to take down Mardon, an evil scientist who is trying to, for lack of a better term, cause all hell to break loose. Mardon, it turns out, is the son of Marduk, the man who tried to build the Tower of Babel, and is now trying to complete his father's work.

Davis's writing is clear and engaging, but the problem is, at this point, the story is so complex, it's a little confusing. It's been a long time since I read the DiOM and Eye of the Oracle. As a result, I was floundering for a little while even after reading the handy recap of the previous plot.

My only complaint is a theological one. I'm all for dancing on the edge of a tree branch in terms of speculative fiction. My worry is that Davis has leapt off into the unknown by speculating about what happens to aborted babies in the afterlife and so on. I had no problem recognizing this as speculation. I just worry that the kids reading these books might confuse fiction for Gospel truth.

And finally, we have Saint by Ted Dekker.

This one bugged me althought I'm partially to blame.

I want to make this clear: Ted Dekker is a great author. I love his story telling ability. He creates exciting, action-packed scenes that keep me reading and engaged. I could easily see these being adapted into movies and doing very well.

However...

What bugged me is the fact that this is a sequel to Showdown (which, in turn, is a sequel to the Circle Trilogy) and I had no idea until about a third of the way in.

Now I realize I'm partly to blame for that. I suppose I could have looked it up on Amazon and seen that this is listed as Book #2 in the Paradise series. Or the very tiny print on the spine that labels this as part of "The Books of History Chronicles" could have clued me in. But hey, I bought this at a bookstore; why would I go to Amazon? Or why would I inspect the spine so closely? It would have been nice if there had been some warning, because once again, I was a bit lost trying to remember who all the characters were and how they related to each other.

I'm not saying that Dekker should stop writing books in this universe. I don't mind it at all. I just wish he'd give us fair warning that that's where we're going.

So there you go. Three for the price of one. And that price is free. Can't say no to that, right? Hopefully I'll be better about posting reviews in the future, but it might be a while. For some reason, I decided I had to re-read The Lord of the Rings.

The Lutherans Song

Just a little something I put together over the past two days. Enjoy.