Disqus - Latest Comments for kagillogly

Re: Book In An Hour: A Classroom Strategy

kagillogly — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:13:50 -0000

Amazing. What kinds of texts do you use for this? Fiction, history? How does it work with more analytical kinds of texts? Anyone got experience they'd like to share?

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Spin”

kagillogly — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:51:33 -0000

If you only knew what I really study ...

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Bedtime Story”

kagillogly — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:49:43 -0000

I agree on Blues vs. Jasmine. I liked Jasmine at first, but as Charlie has changed, so has the kind of woman he can be with. That Jasmine so quickly accepted the Big Lie about the link was telling; Blues would, Blues does, force the new Charlie to dig deeper. And I, too, really liked the flipping between color palettes as Charlie talked to Blues and realized that he's back in Alpha. This show is cinematagraphically (is that a word?) fantastic.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Spin”

kagillogly — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:50:58 -0000

I think the main thing you missed was Jasmine, poor fool, believing Essa's story about how they'd found this wonderful new resource that would allow Vexcor to help the other corporations and save their dying world.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Spin”

kagillogly — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:44:58 -0000

Nice recap, as usual, Richard.
I don't know about this show. Perhaps it's the disquiet at Charlie being back in Alpha. I thought Bryon Boxer would target Charlie for his rejuvenating properties, but he's dead.
I mean, I figured the man was evil, but to kill his own grandchildren? Why not kill himself? Could he not kill himself, was his goal to turn 01 into himself? He kills his son's wife and children, people who appeared to like him (01's wife smiles broadly when the old man visits), and then moons over baby pictures of his son? It's too fast a switch in the story line for me.
So, too, with the Papa Louie on death row storyline. Why didn't cut the feed? Why would people believe Essa? What a bizarre way to get a news story out. Or is this just a sign of how gullible the masses of Alpha are, their critical faculties destroyed by the endless grey, gloom, pollution, violence, competition, hunger ...
I just feel like this show took the story in a totally different direction -- again -- and I guess I'm frustrated.
At least, though, I'm catching up on the show after being out of contact for a while (soybean agricultural development again ...)

Re: Pop Critics Update!

kagillogly — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:23:16 -0000

Fantastic news -- I hope the tenor and quality will stay the same. Love the writers here!

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “The Enemy of my Enemy”

kagillogly — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:59:22 -0000

Another reason to love Charlie Jade: my monitor died, ran out to buy a new one before the stores closed Sunday.

I used segments of Charlie Jade to adjust the color.

LOVED the podcast with Robert Wertheimer about how they got those different color washes in Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, BTW.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “The Enemy of my Enemy”

kagillogly — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:33:46 -0000

Let's remember that Reena was pretty mousy back in Gamma, too. My take on those early scenes were that she was very unsure of this -- it was her guy who was gung-ho.

But where's the admiration for 01 come from? I vaguely remember a little something back there, but don't remember the specifics. What ep was that in?

I loved Charlie and Reena together, but thought it was a little staged. Yeah, we'll sit here and wait to see how many Vexcor teams show up while we exchange information. Gotta say, tho, great actress -- Patricia McKenzie did a great job of the personality transition from nice, passive Reena to highly-programmed Reena when Charlie pushed her.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Through a Mirror Darkly”

kagillogly — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:58:16 -0000

OK, what was that bit at the end about "you're one of us now"? Who WERE those people who captured Reena? Are we talking Manchurian Candidate here? And I'm still wondering how Reena and her boyfriend/husband got involved in their crusade to stop Vexcor in the first place. Remember that bit where the husband is reading from a book to Reena about the dangers of "them" (I don't remember the details, I wish I had the time to go back and find that scene again). And then when Reena ends up in Betaverse, she finds that old guy, saying that she'd been told that if "this" happened, ending up in an unknown place, she was to go see him. And he talks not just about how Vexcor killed his family, but about how "they" left him all alone here. I'm waiting and waiting for some explanation of all this. It's time to start feeding in some of that story line!
Both this episode and the last were wonderfully dynamic, but I really feel the change in writers here. They are reconfiguring the show, replaying past bits so that they can frame them appropriately. While the Charlie/01 interaction was, in terms of T.V., incredibly satisfying, on another level I'm ready for the story to start moving ahead now. I am SO tempted to start watching ahead, but it's so fun to wait, watch, read the blog, that I'll keep myself under control for now ;-)

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Thicker Than Water”

kagillogly — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:35:21 -0000

Interesting theories. Theory one doesn't work for me because I don't see how Gamma's culture could give rise to someone who would even think of the level of corporate control that Vexcor has perfected. That's me in my practical anthropologist mode.

Did anyone else notice that as Charlie walked through the under-construction conference room, there was water on the floor and it reflected 01's house in Gamma? In any other show, I'd think it was artistic license. Here, it must have been telling us something. In the next couple of shows I kept on looking at shallow pools of water on concrete, wondering if they were significant.

Re: The Middleman recap: “The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome”

kagillogly — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:38:43 -0000

Great recap, R.A.
I liked Wendy's "j-horror" creep when she saw the eyeless dolls.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Identity”

kagillogly — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:28:51 -0000

Thanks again a great summary. Good call on the lake filling up in Alphaverse -- I initially thought it was Betaverse.
On the music front, the scene where the forger is confronted by Ren Porter had its music changed. On SciFi, it was the Traveling Wilburys "She's My Baby," and on the DVD I've got, it was more of what sounded like MF LeSieur's eery music. The music contributes a lot to the show's feel, so it's a shame when it is changed so radically.
To R. Porter's masterful synopsis, I would add that the impetus for 01 to leave that night is the cessation of the sound of water as he sleeps. He goes out and looks at an empty pond bed - I think it's the same pond his children were playing in when they saw the pollution -- and then it's off to the shower for him. And his 'illness' on return takes the form of having a lack of form.
Water, water, everywhere ...
What the heck is 01 Box, anyhow? It's crossed my mind that perhaps 01 created Gamma as a means of escape from the horrors of Alpha, as an abused child might create fantasy worlds or even different personalities to escape abuse.
But that hypothesis doesn't hold up to examination. I guess I'll just have to keep watching.

Re: Burn Notice Recap: “Comrades”

kagillogly — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:36:44 -0000

I like the lesson "Jobs in agriculture make convenient covers." I actually DO work on agricultural issues in tricky areas -- might explain those knowing nudges and winks I've gotten over the years. Curse those spies, stealing my real job for their own nefarious purposes.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Devotion”

kagillogly — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:29:18 -0000

The funny thing is that, despite the very few minutes given to Jasmine, she's the closest to a developing female character on the show. Paula is smart and nice, but she's the cardboard girlfriend, just a foil to Jasmine. Reena -- so much potential, so little development. I didn't know she could smile until we briefly saw that photobooth picture of her a few shows back. We know next to nothing about Gamma or Reena or what book her boyfriend (husband? lover?) read that convinced them to bomb the VexCor facility. And whatever it is about Gamma, she has far fewer skills to land on her feet than Charlie did.

But Jasmine. She's not considered a full human being in her 'verse. She can't own things; but she can, de facto, be owned. Her caste are slaves without having masters that have any interest in maintaining the condition of their chattel. She's pretty -- it's been her way out and her curse. As long as she had a protector, she was safe; note how she stayed in all day. What I suspected about the character was given evidence when she returned 'home' to her mother. A Third World city slum; a mother once beautiful and now worn and haggard; residing in what appears to be an abandoned building; no or little access to water or food; guards at the gates to prevent easy movement. Her mother says she's sorry she let her go so long ago (and Jasmine's young now); the suitcase Jasmine brings with her carries things like lacy underthings (how impractical is that?). She seems out of touch with reality. My hypothesis is that we're seeing a girl who was sold into the sex industry by her mother, the only way possible for the mother to feed herself and get her child fed. Jasmine has been under the control of others for most of her life, in conditions that we'd call abusive, and she's coming out of the mental fog she created to survive. Of course this hypothesis is colored by my real-life observations of conditions in Third World urban slums and the effects of the sex industry on poor women, so I'm a little biased here!

But if this is a valid interpretation, then Jasmine is by far the bravest of them all. She knows how bad life can get. She's had a good, protected life with Charlie and it's gone. She is on her own, for the first time ever in her life. She has moved on, but knows the risks better than most.

I do wish there were more of the Jasmine story, but I think we're seeing enough to see what's happening with her, in a poetically concise way.

Now, if they could just give Reena some room to grown.

Re: Eureka Returns Tonight For Season 3 On Sci Fi

kagillogly — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:17:04 -0000

I really like Eureka, but perhaps it's because a show where nerds are the top of the status ladder and everyone's judged on how "good" (read: brilliant) they are. It's just like where I went to graduate school.

If the ads for Eureka are any forewarning, then this will be a funny, quirky, nice little post-modern-ironic season. I really liked the Eureka "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" ad, and am dying to get some of those over-invented gadgets.

Re: Could Torchwood Star Be Captain America?

kagillogly — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:33:56 -0000

No, he couldn't, not as long as the U.S. mainstream remains in "don't ask, don't tell" mode. Barrowman tells. Too bad, I think he'd do a great job in the role.

Re: Charlie Jade Recap: “Dirty Laundry”

kagillogly — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:05:41 -0000

I've been watching on download AND on T.V. (T.V. to support the showing of 'fringe' SciFi, but download when showtimes change ...)
This week I noted something interesting. There's a change in the soundtrack song when 01 Boxer drives up to the power utility site in the Bentley in the download, the song is some wicked electronic country song, and it's synched rather well with the girls' movements in the car. On the SciFi showing, it was switched to "Mack the Knife." The words worked, but a crooner? It was soft and cheesy, and that's not the sense we should be getting from 01.
OMG, I'm turning into a geek, but I'm going to continue watching for this sort of thing. It made me realize how much the music added to the ambience.

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Sand”

kagillogly — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:24:45 -0000

OK, answered my own questions. Thank goodness for downloadable TV. And I must say, being able to watch and rewind really helps to figure out what's important. The first episode is all about setting up ambiance and hints for the future. But it makes more sense when you realize where they were going with it. Like good novels, it requires that you take it on faith that the show is going somewhere with this. I'm excited to have found something intelligent to tide me over, a bit, until BSG comes back (sob.).

Re: Charlie Jade recap: “Sand”

kagillogly — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:36:46 -0000

Hi, I'm really depending on these recaps to get caught up since I missed the great SciFi Time Shift of this show (I don't have a tivo-type system).
So, some questions, since your recap of the first was a little shorter:
Papa Louis'? Is that where he found Paula? Or is that the Glass Door? Basically, I missed any reference to these 2 places in the first episode. Otherwise, loving it. Hey, I loved Count Zero because I had to work so hard to figure it out (I didn't know it was second in a series).