Running scenarios in Being Human

I recently got into the U.S. version of Being Human and my favorite aspect of the series is the pacing. It's fast enough that I'm never bored but slow enough to let me run scenarios.

I have enough time to come up with a few guesses for what is going to happen next. The fun part is, I'm rarely right. Everything that happens makes sense within the story but I still get surprised because I can't account for every plot twist or new bit of information.

I like that the pacing in Being Human lets me think about the story while I'm watching the episode. It's the type of audience participation that happens easily in novels but is difficult to reproduce on television.

On Hypable: Five reasons you should watch ‘Fringe’ now that the show has ended

I wrote a piece for Hypable.com and you can read it here.

Fringe: Basic Reset TV in a Seralized Show

Even though Fringe is the most complicated TV show I've watched, I think the series finale will resolve with a basic reset–solve the current problem by going back to the beginning.

It's strange because the Fringe writers don't take the easy way out (and I'm not saying the finale will be easy), but resetting is a basic device in television. Think of all the sitcoms with no forward motion, where past events have no effect on the characters. Joss Whedon called it "reset TV" in a 2009 interview with Green Cine:

The thing is, I've never been able to make reset TV. I've never understood it and I've never liked it. I cannot just have people get kidnapped and then next week be all chipper so they can have their next adventure. I find that offensive and bizarre and as a kid it would frighten me, it would confuse me. "But he was engaged in the last episode, why isn't he talking about his dead girlfriend?" It's just not the way I operate. That doesn't mean I need to tell some serpentine tale, it just means that if something happens to somebody, they're going to be a different person. That's just how it is. People evolve, and that's the only kind of storytelling that interests me.

Fringe has always been a serialized show that moves forward and evolves its characters. We saw glimpses of a larger story, but how we saw those glimpses constantly changed. First it was case by case and then universe by universe.

We got our first reset in season 4. Peter bridged the universes and inadvertently erased himself from existence. When he returned, everyone he knew was living without having known him. By the end of the season, the reset broke down.

Season 5 fast-forwards to the future and the fringe team is losing the fight against the Observers. The trailers for the final episodes hint that Peter, Olivia, Astrid, and Walter are going to reset time. But how far back? If it's enough that the characters undo the experiences they've had over the series, then what does that mean for them?

The writers continue to surprise, entertain, and challenge the fans, and so I'm not worried about how the show will end because I know it will satisfying. But I keep wondering, what will this reset do? We can guess the next steps but not the conclusion.

Welcome to Fringe.

Revisiting my Merlin wishlist

Spoilers for season 5 below.

In September, I wrote a wishlist for season 5 of Merlin. Here's how my list compares to what happened this season.

1. Arthur finds out. 
He did find out in the final episode, and it was the best magic reveal that it could have been after a mess of episodes this year.

2. Gwen finds out before Arthur. 
Gwen guesses that the sorcerer at the battle was Merlin, but it wasn't before Arthur knew and certainly not early enough to make any difference in the story.

3. An episode about the knights.
Nope, we didn't have this.

4. Mordred comes back.
This happened in Arthur's Bane, part 1. How exciting! Merlin had a vision of Mordred killing  Arthur, and at the end of the episode and at the end of part 2, Mordred saves Arthur's life and becomes a knight of Camelot. He's in the background for most of the season, until he leaves Camelot, joins Morgana, and comes back to kill Arthur. I would have liked to see more of his character.

5. Morgana's story ends.
Merlin ends up killing her. Again, too late for it to really matter and we don't see the consequences of Morgana's death. What happened to her allies?

6. Gaius steps down.
Nope. Gaius is there until the end, still giving Merlin advice. 

7. Merlin loses control.
Sadly, this didn't happen. We got plenty of good emotional moments, but nothing like Merlin losing control.

I was satisfied with the last two episodes of Merlin, but most of season 5 was a waste of potential. Unfortunately, the writers could have done so much with the characters and the series, but they didn't take those opportunities.

What I read in 2012

Here's a list of the books and short stories I read this year. I recommend the titles in bold.

Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and Email Overload by Mark Hurst (non-fiction, 2007)
From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
- "The Reigate Puzzle"
- "The Crooked Man"
A Hidden Witch by Debra Geary (modern fantasy, 2011)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (fiction, 1999)
Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It by Peter Cappelli (non-fiction, 2012)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (fantasy, 2009)
A Modern Witch by Debora Geary (modern fantasy, 2011)

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon (non-fiction, 2012)
The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (fantasy, 1979)
From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
"The Musgrave Ritural"

From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
- "The Stock-broker's Clerk"
- "The 'Gloria Scott'"

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher (urban fantasy, 2005)
Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie A. Helgoe (non-fiction, 2008)

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon (fiction, 1988)
Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel, 1990)
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss (non-fiction, 2007)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (fiction, 1951)
"The Yellow Face" from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (science fiction, 1985)
Start a Freedom Business by Colin Wright (non-fiction, 2012)

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn (superhero fiction, 2011)
"Silver Blaze" from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Linchpin by Seth Godin (non-fiction, 2010)

"Embroidery" by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (fantasy, 1996)
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin (non-fiction, 2012)
"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (urban fantasy, 1998)
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

On Writing Well by William Zinsser (non-fiction, 1976)
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon (non-fiction, 2008)
"The Red-headed League" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Short stories by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
-- "The Flying Machine"
-- "The Murderer"
-- "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind"
"A Case of Identity" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Five Orange Pips" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Man With the Twisted Lip" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Heart of Stone by C.E. Murphy (urban fantasy, 2007)
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (science fiction, 1966)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (fiction, 2012)
The Constant Art of Being a Writer by N.M. Kelby (non-fiction, 2009)
Short stories by Ray Bradbury (science fiction/fantasy, 1940s-1950s)
-- "The Fog Horn"
-- "The April Witch"
-- "The Wilderness"
-- "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl"
The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel, 1991)

Merlin: What if Mordred knew?

I thought of a plot twist that could redeem the final season of Merlin (a little bit, anyway). Season 5 spoilers under the cut.

Unsubscribing from blogs

Does anyone use RSS feeders anymore? I have a few dozen feeds in Google Reader. Some of them are active blogs. Some of them haven't posted in a while, but I really like them, so the feeds stay.

Then there are others that I haven't read in a while. I unsubscribed from a lot of those tonight.

These are the feeds I scroll through, barely scanning the post titles. The content is still good, I'm sure, but my interests have shifted and I don't care about these blogs anymore. So tonight I clicked the Unsubscribe button, and then I did it a few more times.

I'm reading Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst, and the point he keeps reinforcing is "let the bits go." We already have too many things that want our attention. We have to learn to let go of the things that don't really matter, the things that waste our time and do not provide us with value.

So when I have a pile of ignored RSS feeds (not a pile, a list–you know what I mean), I have to be okay with unsubscribing. I let go, and the thing that goes away is the weekly effort of scrolling through new posts to get the Unread count back to zero. I gain time back, actually.