Author Archives: Sam

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I’ve been rewatching Lie to Me lately.

Last night I watched the season 2 episodes 7 and 8 (Black Friday and Secret Santa) and I completely forgot about episodes 5 and 6 and thought that 7 and 8 came directly after 2×04 Honey.

(wow that was a lot of numbers, confusing self)

Anyway my point is with the two connected in my mind (somewhat erroneously I know) I had the sudden unshakable thought that Cal and Gillian had hooked up when he went to see her at the end of 2×04. Cal had been held hostage all episode, it was an emotional time for them both. He went out with the woman he’d met at the singles mixer said “I shouldn’t be here” and then went to Gillian’s and asked if he could stay in her spare room. So there was no real indicator it was anything other than platonic.

BUT then I don’t know they just seemed super close and on the same wavelength, even more than usual. I swear I had more points because it just felt like it was yelling at me when I was watching but I was watching with someone else so I couldn’t pause it to ramble on tumblr as I sometimes do. Anyway I do remember where this leads and if I’m remembering right their relationship gets a lot more antagonistic as Cal does some stupid stuff, something to do with Vegas? It’s been years I forget. I’ll just enjoy this warm support while it lasts.

In a similar shippy-vein I’ve also been watching Unforgettable and I don’t really have a point except wow Carrie and Al have a LOT of chemistry. Seriously it’s like off the charts with the banter and the flirting. I get why they broke up in the first place. Obviously they didn’t get back together straight away because Al was dating someone else, and then Carrie was, but they split up so they are both single. They even had a night of comfort together in the season 1 finale so WHY are they not together now?

My brain I swear.

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Watched 1×07.

Oh damn they did do the “someone else wearing the suit” schtick and right after I had my mind blown because Sophie DID tell Kate’s dad. Only it wasn’t, it was Mouse imposter! That was a real shock but it makes sense because there’s no way Jacob wouldn’t have followed up on the “Kate is Batwoman” thing no matter what Sophie told him afterwards.

Still feel really sad for Mary :/ glimmer of hope at the end though as Kate reached out over the refurb of the gay bar. I hope that prejudiced arsehole of a restaurant owner chokes. The scene where Kate stood up to him, I was half-cringing with Sophie because confrontation scares me and half-cheering Kate on because nobody should get away with that. Little evils become big evils. Stamp out prejudice wherever it raises its ugly head.

Loved all the flashbacks of Sophie and Kate! Still breaks my heart. I loved how she told that Captain, and took Kate’s medal, though I’m amazed he didn’t discipline her.

I don’t like this Julia person much. Usually I like that kind of character but I don’t like how she lied to Kate when Kate was already reeling from Sophie. She at least apologised.

I literally yelled at the TV when Kate shot the tire and made the Crow van flip over. I mean that’s not exactly a very safe way to “save someone” and the Crow’s who were driving could have been hurt too. They are supposed to be on the same side.

OMG they are breaking my heart with Kate saying she’s not over Sophie but is going to “keep her distance” just gah and then Sophie gave her the medal back and she cried! Like I can’t take this. Sophie was totally lying about the “anything I felt went away” and it kills me because she’s hurting Kate but she’s also hurting herself.

Too many feels again!

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Recently I went through a big CSI:NY rewatch. I didn’t watch every single episode, nor did I watch in order. I picked arcs I felt like, random episodes sometimes etc. I skipped most of the post-season 6 (non-Stella) episodes but I watched all the episodes Christine was in because I did like her and Mac together.

Anyway I was still feeling like CSI so I decided to go back to the original. I couldn’t decide what to watch so I just started from the beginning. (I have a point I promise). The problem with season 1 of CSI on dvd is for some reason they were forced to use an alternate theme tune. So I mute the TV, pull up the theme tune on my phone and … it’s not the right length /facepalm.

I just want my theme tune dammit. “Who are you?”

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Watched Batwoman 1×06

Nearly didn’t. Thought about just giving the show up seeing as there might not be a season 2, or if there is it’ll be different with an all new recast Batwoman. But I figured might as well enjoy what little we have rather than lose out completely.

Anyway shocker! I wasn’t expecting Sophie to have it confirmed (pretty much) that Kate was Batwoman. I was half-expecting the usual “getting someone else to wear the suit to appear in the same place” fake-out and I’m so relieved they didn’t do that. I mean I get that it’s a ‘secret identity’ but there’s only so much mileage to get out of that and the conflict of actuallly knowing the truth, and being unable to share it, that’s infinitely more interesting imo. It really bugged me on Supergirl when Cat guessed and then they made her believe otherwise like dammit it would have been cool if she’d known.

I’m not surprised though that Sophie has opted to keep it to herself for the time being. a) interrupting that emotional hug was not the right time and b) having already betrayed Kate once like Mary said it would be hard to do it again.

Why was Hamilton making a weapon to get through the batsuit?

Oh and one last thought on the recasting (if it happens) – think Kirsten Stewart in Charlie’s Angels. That could work quite well. It could also go horribly (I thought she was terrible in Snow White) but yeah capture the Charlie’s Angels vibe and that would be a good choice imo.

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Finally watched Batwoman 1×05.

I had to take a break because no matter how much I like stuff, sometimes I just don’t have the spoons for new things, especially new things that give me feels.

I felt really sorry for Mary Hamilton in this episode. She is so alone. She was already hiding who she was with the secret clinic. I think she pretends to be happy, to be the life of the party to hide how much of an outsider she feels in her own family.

I don’t blame Kate for not bonding with her how Mary wanted. Kate had lost Beth, lost that bond and replacing it would have felt wrong, and would also have been super scary because what if she lost it again? Patchwork families are awkward. You feel what you feel. One person might want to be close but if the other person doesn’t then that is their right.

Still it’s sad, she’s so alone. That was kind of the theme of the episode really. Desperate for connection, self-sabotage and fracturing into tiny pieces.

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Rented Charlie’s Angels (2019) to have something new to watch for a treat.

I have to say at the beginning I wasn’t sure about it. The beginning felt awkward and I figured that I was in for a disappointment.

BUT

It really picked up after the rock quarry fight. I think maybe that’s because the team started to gel better. Then there was the bad guy twist I didn’t see coming at all! I always rate a film higher if it surprises me and that surprise feels plausible (as opposed to just coming out of left-field purely to be surprising).

So yeah by the end of the movie I give it a thumbs up. I’m actually a bit sorry that I rented it as it means I won’t get to watch it again. I confess I do sometimes rewatch the early 2000 movies because their pure silliness is quite entertaining when I just want something light.

I wonder if they will make another one. I would watch.

Batwoman Episode 2 aka Not How I Expected This To Go aka All The Unsaid Things.

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You know I actually wound up watching last weeks episode (aka the Pilot) twice because I couldn’t make it an entire week. Actually I made it two days as I watched it on Monday and Wednesday last week. I think the writing for Alice is very clever, I can’t remember if I said that in the ramble I did.

I also don’t think I said that I reckoned that Bruce Wayne isn’t as gone as everyone says. Somebody moved the pearls which led Kate to discover the BatCave – was it Bruce pointing her in that direction?

Anyway I’m going to ramble about this weeks – a lot!

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UK finally got Batwoman and

I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK!!

Honestly I really liked this pilot episode. I always find it hard to put my finger on what makes a show gel for me because I think it’s a mix. I thought the villain was intriguing, the pacing was good, the music was on point, the characters interesting etc.

I’ve found the DC shows to be a bit hit and miss. Thumbs up to Black Lightning and what little I’ve seen of Supergirl. Didn’t like Gotham or Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow. Haven’t been able to try The Flash.

Anyway thus far my impression of Batwoman is that I like it better than Supergirl and so far it confuses me a lot less than Black Lightning. Seriously I watched the premiere of season 3 of Black Lightning the other day and I couldn’t ramble about it because I really wasn’t sure what was going on. I like Black Lightning, I’m invested in the characters, but the story is ???

Anyway I have to wait a whole week now for the next episode. At least having to wait months for Black Lightning season 3 meant Netflix dropped the entire season in one go. E4 is broadcasting Batwoman on Sunday nights. Oh and to complete my grumbling about having to wait 😛Alibi UK picked up Stumptown but that’s a paid for channel so I still can’t watch it.

Sorry I should probably ramble a bit more coherently than “wow that Batwoman episode was good!” But that’s what I’m thinking.

Revision vs. Editing

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Anyone that knows me knows I have a thing about the terms revision and editing getting mixed up. It’s petty and ridiculous but we all have things we’re stupid about. To me revision is about story, it’s what happens first to turn a first draft into a draft for others. Editing comes afterwards and is more about polishing it up, getting the commas in the right place, checking for typos and perhaps adjusting word choices.

They are different things in my head and I just want that distinction to be clear.

What is your main struggle with editing?  Is it getting started? Rereading your own work? How do you handle it?
This is the question asked for March’s WriYe blog topic. Now if I took the question at it’s word then I would be talking about ‘editing’ aka the polishing of grammar and punctuation. The answer for that is different than the answer would be for revision. My main struggle with editing is lack of knowledge/ability. I tend to punctuate by feel and I make errors in my writing grammatically – I need an editor. I have got a course to try and learn how to be a proof-reader but I’m really struggling to apply the concepts it’s trying to teach. Editing is hard.

Revision on the other hand is something I quite like. It’s analytical and there’s a process to it because it’s dealing with something of substance. I find the actual writing hard because I’m making something from nothing. With revision I’m dealing with something that already exists and that’s a massive help. Years ago I took Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel course and most of my process is drawn from that.

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Talking Trek

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I have now seen all of the Star Trek movies and varying amounts of all of the TV shows (bar the animated series). I’ve seen all of Picard, Discovery and Enterprise, a handful of episodes of TOS and the first seasons of TNG, Voyager and DS9. I should probably wait until I have seen more of the shows (they do have seven seasons after all) but I feel like rambling about this now.

This post started off as an attempt to rank the various movies and TV shows in order of how much I like them. However, I ran into problems with that. In a lot of respects it’s hard to compare the shows against one another because they are different. I was just talking with a friend about trying to do this and we said that we like things for different reasons – so how can you put one above another?

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