30 Days of TV meme - Day 2

The Days


Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching

I'm cheating a little, because I know I pimped this show recently in another post, but I have to choose Legend of the Seeker for this one. even though I hear it's been cancelled.

Legend of the Seeker is from the same people who created Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess so it shouldn't be a surprise that I like it. It surprised me, though. Six or seven episodes in to season one I was more frustrated with the show than into it. The writers seem to have aphasia: a major case of "that word doesn't mean what you think it means". Why call Richard "the Seeker" when he doesn't appear to be seeking anything? Why call Kahlan's magical process of turning people into love-slaves "confession" when it involves nothing of the kind? Why can't you use logical, English words for these things?

I've since read the first of the books this was based on and while the books do answer those questions, the terminology irritates the hell out of me. It's a typical high-fantasy, needlessly overdone way of writing...but reading the book at least lets me blame the original author, so I can see how the TV show creators have done a brilliant job with less-than-stellar material.

My point: though not without faults, this show is brilliant and everyone should watch it. Y'all can keep your hobbits: I'll take the MordSith any day :) The seasons are structured a lot like BTVS - mostly stand-alone episodes, but with a season-long plot arc that builds to a climax and conclusion in the finale. Th S2 finale is yet to air so hopefully they won't make a liar of me, but I'll go out on a limb and say no cliffhangers from season to season. It works very well.

It's a swords-and-sorcery drama, old school: the hero on his quest to save the world accompanied by magical companions. But what puts this one head-and-shoulders above most of the genre is the depth of the characterisation. Richard is the hero, but he's a long way from perfect. He screws up. He deals with the consequences. Characters grow and change. Good characters become bad. Bad characters become good. Relationships evolve and change, alliances are made and broken and remade.

Starting out by saying what's wrong isn't a great way to pimp a show, is it?

Let's see if I can do better. The hero is cute and spends a reasonable amout of time shirtless. And tortured. And, um, dead, occasionally. The villain is seriously sexy and has an army of leather-clad dominatrixes who fight with magical dildoes and break men to their will (one of them played by Charisma Carpenter). There are some twisted family relationships in there (well, not too twisted if SPN is your standard for comparison, but still...) Major subtext between Kahlan and Cara, the two heroines on the team. Strong plot. A great mix of humour and angst. Lots of action. Lots of action. Sex slaves. Wizards. Prophecies. Zombies!

What more could you want?

Book Review: The Red Tree

My resolution for this year was to read more novels by women writers. Of course the whole urban fantasy aka paranormal romance genre is female-dominated, but I went looking for more traditional horror by women. That's how I came across Caitlin R. Kiernan (greygirlbeast on LJ) and her recent novel The Red Tree. The cover makes it look like just another urban fantasy, but it's nothing of the kind. This is a horror novel in the same tradition as Shirley Jackson's classic Haunting of Hill House (which is also referenced in the novel).

It's presented as a literary equivalent of "found footage" movies like Paranormal Activity or Cloverfield. A preface by a fictional editor implies some mystery surrounding the death or disappearance of the author, then the rest is first-person narrative in the form of a journal. The protagonist is Sarah Crowe, a fiction author who has moved into this isolated house in Rhode Island in order to finish an overdue novel. She is haunted (psychologically speaking) by memories of her former lover, Amanda. Shortly after moving into the house, she disovers an old typewriter and an unfinished manuscript written by a former resident of the house. The manuscript is about the history of an ancient red oak that can be seen from the house; a particularly bloody history. Sarah becomes more and more obsessed with the tree and its history.

I can't say all the things I want to about this book without spoilers, so I'm going to cut parts of this. I'm dying to discuss this book with someone, but if you haven't read it, I don't want to spoil it.

Reason #1 why this is an awesome novel - it has a lesbian protagonist but it's not about her sexuality. That she's a lesbian is important, because it's important to her, but it's not about that. Sarah is a fully realised character so her sexual orientation is just one facet of who she is.

Reason #2 why this is an awesome novel - I think (and forgive my inability to refrain from relating everything back to TV) this is what Supernatural wanted to be in its first two seasons, but couldn't quite manage with only 42 minutes to tell each story. It's rooted firmly in the urban legends and mythology and history of New England. Throughout, there are references to old myths and legends, old ghost stories, old news stories. Some of them may be fictional ( Spoilers )

but all those stories and fragments of stories lend a sense of reality to the story and a sense of place.

Reason #3 why this is an awesome novel - it doesn't feel the need to explain every damn thing! There are a lot of loose ends at the end, but they're good loose ends. ( Spoilers )

The use of the unreliable narrator is very effective and in the end...the reader just doesn't know for sure.

Reason #4 why this is an awesome novel - it's freaking scary! But not in the blood-and-gore way of so many modern horror films and novels. The scary sneaks up on you. There is blood and there is gore, but to an extent the journal format provides some distance from them...I think that's why the scary parts are so scary. Like I said, it sneaks up.

Something else I loved was the twisted sexuality in the background. Amanda makes artistic photo manips, and though her images are not directly described, the strong suggestion is that her art is of an erotic nature. But not just erotica: some really kinky stuff. There's a short story titled "Pony", supposedly written by Sarah, that describes a very kinky scene (and, yes, the title does give that one away). These things aren't prominent in the story, but they contribute - for me - to the feeling of realism. Being in fandom kinda makes you realise that the sexual fantasies of a lot of women are pretty damn dark; Sarah feels like she could be "one of us", which makes her apparent fate all the more frightening.

Anyhow, that's my review after a first reading. I must go back and re-read, see if it's the same story a second time around. I suspect it won't be.

Has anyone else read it?