Thursday, December 10, 2009
I Love the 00s: Chappelle!
Today my series on the 00s continues with one that's both a favorite and a disappointment, in a way: Chappelle's Show (Comedy Central, 2003-2006). It was easily my most revered show on television at the time and my friends and I watched it together with great joy, but then it suddenly fell apart and its star has all but disappeared from the Earth. Are you out there, Dave? We miss you, please come back!
I've always been a sucker for stand-up comedy (hey, I grew up in the 80s) and Dave Chappelle was certainly one of my favorites. He made frequent appearances on The Howard Stern Show and his movie Half-Baked (1998) was really funny considering it was basically a movie about smoking pot. Dave also had a habit of playing bit parts and stealing scenes in popular movies like The Nutty Professor (1996), Con Air (1997) and Undercover Brother (2002). So when I first saw ads on TV and in the subway for Chappelle's Show, I remember being really psyched. As ridiculous as it sounds, it felt like someone I knew was getting his big break after years of toiling in the shadows.
The show (and Dave) did not disappoint. Sketch comedy shows are notoriously slow starters with a low hit-to-miss gag ratio. Chappelle's Show opened strong with a lengthy sketch in the first episode about a blind member of the KKK who is completely unaware that he is black. One of my favorite lines was when he angrily denounces a group of white teens as "niggers" because they are listening to rap music. Initially confused, the boys decide he was actually paying them a compliment. The sketch played on traditional stereotypes and didn't pull any punches when it came to racial epitaphs, foreshadowing the direction the show would take.
Consider another famous sketch from the third episode, "Reparations." Presented as a newscast on the day that the United States pays out billions of dollars to the descendants of slaves, all of the jokes hinge on familiar tropes. KFC reaps huge financial rewards, tens of thousands of new rap labels are created and a friendly black weatherman is suddenly decked out in "bling" and mocking the white news anchor (both roles, of course, played by Dave in heavy makeup).
The show wasn't just slinging racial barbs around, it was actually toying with these prejudices for laughs. A favorite sketch of mine from the first season was "The Mad Real World." After pointing out how reality shows like The Real World tended to feature a single outrageous minority surrounded by white people whom lament his or her behavior, "The Mad Real World" reverses it by having a lone white man living with six black roommates. His behavior is singled out as weird from the start even though the others are absurdly confrontational and violent. In other words, when seven caricatures live together, the odd man out is humiliated no matter what he does.
The show only got better in the second season, highlighted by the now-infamous "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" segments and an outrageous guest appearance by Wayne Brady. As its popularity soared and its new-found catchphrases began spreading across the country, the sky seemed to be the limit. When Dave signed a gigantic contract for two additional seasons of Chappelle's Show, I again felt oddly vindicated as if a friend had won the lottery.
And then...what happened? I guess no one will ever know the entire truth. Somehow Dave ended up in Africa for either a head-clearing vacation or a trip to a mental institution, depending on which magazine you believed at the time. The show went on an extended hiatus but even when Dave returned to the US, he never went back to the set. Eventually the network took what footage they had and cobbled together three pathetic "lost episodes" that were just painful to watch. It wasn't that they didn't have comedic value, it was the context that made them unwatchable.
In the five years since, I haven't heard of anything Dave Chappelle has done. The internet suggests he went back to stand-up, but is that entirely by choice? Maybe he retired, soured from the entire show business experience. Maybe he was blackballed for walking away from a $50 million payday. All I do know is that his departure stings, like having a friend move away without leaving a forwarding address.
At least we'll always have "I'm Rick James, bitch." *sniff*
This represents Part 2 in a series of 25 posts about my favorite as well as the most disappointing entertainment properties/trends of the last ten years. To Be Continued!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I've always been a sucker for stand-up comedy (hey, I grew up in the 80s) and Dave Chappelle was certainly one of my favorites. He made frequent appearances on The Howard Stern Show and his movie Half-Baked (1998) was really funny considering it was basically a movie about smoking pot. Dave also had a habit of playing bit parts and stealing scenes in popular movies like The Nutty Professor (1996), Con Air (1997) and Undercover Brother (2002). So when I first saw ads on TV and in the subway for Chappelle's Show, I remember being really psyched. As ridiculous as it sounds, it felt like someone I knew was getting his big break after years of toiling in the shadows.
The show (and Dave) did not disappoint. Sketch comedy shows are notoriously slow starters with a low hit-to-miss gag ratio. Chappelle's Show opened strong with a lengthy sketch in the first episode about a blind member of the KKK who is completely unaware that he is black. One of my favorite lines was when he angrily denounces a group of white teens as "niggers" because they are listening to rap music. Initially confused, the boys decide he was actually paying them a compliment. The sketch played on traditional stereotypes and didn't pull any punches when it came to racial epitaphs, foreshadowing the direction the show would take.
Consider another famous sketch from the third episode, "Reparations." Presented as a newscast on the day that the United States pays out billions of dollars to the descendants of slaves, all of the jokes hinge on familiar tropes. KFC reaps huge financial rewards, tens of thousands of new rap labels are created and a friendly black weatherman is suddenly decked out in "bling" and mocking the white news anchor (both roles, of course, played by Dave in heavy makeup).
The show wasn't just slinging racial barbs around, it was actually toying with these prejudices for laughs. A favorite sketch of mine from the first season was "The Mad Real World." After pointing out how reality shows like The Real World tended to feature a single outrageous minority surrounded by white people whom lament his or her behavior, "The Mad Real World" reverses it by having a lone white man living with six black roommates. His behavior is singled out as weird from the start even though the others are absurdly confrontational and violent. In other words, when seven caricatures live together, the odd man out is humiliated no matter what he does.
The show only got better in the second season, highlighted by the now-infamous "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" segments and an outrageous guest appearance by Wayne Brady. As its popularity soared and its new-found catchphrases began spreading across the country, the sky seemed to be the limit. When Dave signed a gigantic contract for two additional seasons of Chappelle's Show, I again felt oddly vindicated as if a friend had won the lottery.
And then...what happened? I guess no one will ever know the entire truth. Somehow Dave ended up in Africa for either a head-clearing vacation or a trip to a mental institution, depending on which magazine you believed at the time. The show went on an extended hiatus but even when Dave returned to the US, he never went back to the set. Eventually the network took what footage they had and cobbled together three pathetic "lost episodes" that were just painful to watch. It wasn't that they didn't have comedic value, it was the context that made them unwatchable.
In the five years since, I haven't heard of anything Dave Chappelle has done. The internet suggests he went back to stand-up, but is that entirely by choice? Maybe he retired, soured from the entire show business experience. Maybe he was blackballed for walking away from a $50 million payday. All I do know is that his departure stings, like having a friend move away without leaving a forwarding address.
At least we'll always have "I'm Rick James, bitch." *sniff*
This represents Part 2 in a series of 25 posts about my favorite as well as the most disappointing entertainment properties/trends of the last ten years. To Be Continued!
Labels: Chappelle's Show, I love the 00s, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
I Love the 00s: Aughties Animation
It's funny that anime helped fuel my interest in Japan and the Japanese language, but now that I live here I hardly follow the field at all. That's not my fault though, that's just a statement on where anime has ended up. To kick off my 00 retrospective, here are four animated works (two Japanese, two American) that I hold near and dear to my heart.
Futurama (FOX, 1999-2003, plus four DVD movies): I consider it a cosmic tragedy that this brilliant sort-of spin-off of The Simpsons was run aground after four short seasons while that painfully unfunny juggernaut of a show continues to amuse no one every Sunday night.
Unlike The Simpsons which slowly found its way from overly sentimental, crudely animated fluff to comic genius, Futurama hit the ground running. The premise was surprisingly simple: take a know-nothing delivery boy and catapult him a thousand years into the future. While the show was happy to make occasional fish-out-of-water jokes (i.e. Fry's ignorance that "Christmas" had been replaced by "Xmas" and Santa was now a terrifying killbot) they also allowed Fry's simplicity to let him adapt to the future in a hurry.
I don't think it's simply my love of science-fiction that got me hooked on Futurama, I think the show nailed that delicate balance between absurdist humor and genuine character development and interaction. One moment the crew of the Planet Express ship is hopping through boxes into alternate universes, the next they're reflecting on how different their lives could have been if only that coin had come up heads...or tails.
The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim, 2003-present): It's funny to me that The Venture Bros. seems totally out of place among the Adult Swim lineup of barely-animated stoner humor and FOX reruns yet I couldn't imagine it running on any other network. Many shows on AS are rated TV-M for "mature" while they are anything but; the rating simply allows them to use gratuitous violence, pixelated nudity and beeped-out curse words. The Venture Bros has its share of violence, sexuality and profanity to be sure, but it's actually presented as part of a comprehensive story that's getting more complicated by the week. I swear the fourth season premiere delivered more exposition, laughs and intrigue in thirty minutes than most major network programming, animated or otherwise.
Summarizing The Venture Bros. is probably impossible. At the heart of the story is a failed "super-scientist," his washed-out special agent bodyguard, and his delusional twins who fancy themselves detectives, adventurers or anything other than the sheltered naive boys that they truly are. The family is tormented by a madman who dresses like a butterfly while they are occasionally assisted by an oddball "necromancer" and two scientists who live in a trailer park. In short, everyone on the show is a complete mess, yet after watching an episode or two I defy you to not care about every single one of them. When a relatively minor character died at the end of season three, I was stunned and more than a little dejected. He felt more human than either of the dead doctors on House.
Millennium Actress (2001, Japan): I first heard of director Satoshi Kon when I watched the credits after his stirring, twisted thriller Perfect Blue (1997). I never would have guessed his next film would be stirring, twisted love story nor that it would actually make me cry. I'm not normally the type to do that but even on repeat viewings I have to restrain myself during the final montage.
Millennium Actress tells the tale of a filmmaker who tracks down a reclusive, long-retired actress Chiyoko Fujiwara for an in-depth interview. As he sits down with her to talk about the past, he and his cameraman find themselves embedded in her flashbacks and fluctuating between Chiyoko's life story and the movies she made. It's just as disorientating as it was in Perfect Blue, only this time the technique is used to delight rather than horrify. The music is wonderful as well, particularly during the rapid-fire sequences where the characters run from era to era and movie genre to genre across Chiyoko's memories/fantasies. Much like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress is an adult movie that is perfectly suited for animation because it allows the director to seamlessly blend together what's real and what's not.
Paranoia Agent (WOWOW, 2004): Another Satoshi Kon creation, Paranoia Agent is a thirteen-episode mini-series that originally aired on Japanese satellite TV before being horribly dubbed and shown on Adult Swim. While many characters come and go, the central story revolves around a young woman who is attacked one night by a boy with a bat on inline skates. As the police investigate, the story of Shonen Bat (literally "bat boy" in Japanese) spreads across the country. Hung onto the main story are several smaller tales of individuals whose lives are spinning out of control, only to come into contact with Shonen Bat. Soon reports of bat attacks and potential suspects dominate the public's attention.
I saw this series shortly before spending an entire year in Japan as an exchange student That experience really enhanced my enjoyment of Paranoia Agent because I saw first hand how quickly news can spread in this country. A single violent crime, diet fad or comedy punchline can captivate millions of people in a hurry. Even if you've never lived in Japan, this is an easily relatable and highly entertaining tale of media frenzy and its effects on a frightened populace. I certainly didn't see the demented twist coming.
This represents Part 1 in a series of 25 posts about my favorite as well as the most disappointing entertainment properties/trends of the last ten years. To Be Continued!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Futurama (FOX, 1999-2003, plus four DVD movies): I consider it a cosmic tragedy that this brilliant sort-of spin-off of The Simpsons was run aground after four short seasons while that painfully unfunny juggernaut of a show continues to amuse no one every Sunday night.
Unlike The Simpsons which slowly found its way from overly sentimental, crudely animated fluff to comic genius, Futurama hit the ground running. The premise was surprisingly simple: take a know-nothing delivery boy and catapult him a thousand years into the future. While the show was happy to make occasional fish-out-of-water jokes (i.e. Fry's ignorance that "Christmas" had been replaced by "Xmas" and Santa was now a terrifying killbot) they also allowed Fry's simplicity to let him adapt to the future in a hurry.
I don't think it's simply my love of science-fiction that got me hooked on Futurama, I think the show nailed that delicate balance between absurdist humor and genuine character development and interaction. One moment the crew of the Planet Express ship is hopping through boxes into alternate universes, the next they're reflecting on how different their lives could have been if only that coin had come up heads...or tails.
The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim, 2003-present): It's funny to me that The Venture Bros. seems totally out of place among the Adult Swim lineup of barely-animated stoner humor and FOX reruns yet I couldn't imagine it running on any other network. Many shows on AS are rated TV-M for "mature" while they are anything but; the rating simply allows them to use gratuitous violence, pixelated nudity and beeped-out curse words. The Venture Bros has its share of violence, sexuality and profanity to be sure, but it's actually presented as part of a comprehensive story that's getting more complicated by the week. I swear the fourth season premiere delivered more exposition, laughs and intrigue in thirty minutes than most major network programming, animated or otherwise.
Summarizing The Venture Bros. is probably impossible. At the heart of the story is a failed "super-scientist," his washed-out special agent bodyguard, and his delusional twins who fancy themselves detectives, adventurers or anything other than the sheltered naive boys that they truly are. The family is tormented by a madman who dresses like a butterfly while they are occasionally assisted by an oddball "necromancer" and two scientists who live in a trailer park. In short, everyone on the show is a complete mess, yet after watching an episode or two I defy you to not care about every single one of them. When a relatively minor character died at the end of season three, I was stunned and more than a little dejected. He felt more human than either of the dead doctors on House.
Millennium Actress (2001, Japan): I first heard of director Satoshi Kon when I watched the credits after his stirring, twisted thriller Perfect Blue (1997). I never would have guessed his next film would be stirring, twisted love story nor that it would actually make me cry. I'm not normally the type to do that but even on repeat viewings I have to restrain myself during the final montage.
Millennium Actress tells the tale of a filmmaker who tracks down a reclusive, long-retired actress Chiyoko Fujiwara for an in-depth interview. As he sits down with her to talk about the past, he and his cameraman find themselves embedded in her flashbacks and fluctuating between Chiyoko's life story and the movies she made. It's just as disorientating as it was in Perfect Blue, only this time the technique is used to delight rather than horrify. The music is wonderful as well, particularly during the rapid-fire sequences where the characters run from era to era and movie genre to genre across Chiyoko's memories/fantasies. Much like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress is an adult movie that is perfectly suited for animation because it allows the director to seamlessly blend together what's real and what's not.
Paranoia Agent (WOWOW, 2004): Another Satoshi Kon creation, Paranoia Agent is a thirteen-episode mini-series that originally aired on Japanese satellite TV before being horribly dubbed and shown on Adult Swim. While many characters come and go, the central story revolves around a young woman who is attacked one night by a boy with a bat on inline skates. As the police investigate, the story of Shonen Bat (literally "bat boy" in Japanese) spreads across the country. Hung onto the main story are several smaller tales of individuals whose lives are spinning out of control, only to come into contact with Shonen Bat. Soon reports of bat attacks and potential suspects dominate the public's attention.
I saw this series shortly before spending an entire year in Japan as an exchange student That experience really enhanced my enjoyment of Paranoia Agent because I saw first hand how quickly news can spread in this country. A single violent crime, diet fad or comedy punchline can captivate millions of people in a hurry. Even if you've never lived in Japan, this is an easily relatable and highly entertaining tale of media frenzy and its effects on a frightened populace. I certainly didn't see the demented twist coming.
This represents Part 1 in a series of 25 posts about my favorite as well as the most disappointing entertainment properties/trends of the last ten years. To Be Continued!
Labels: anime, Futurama, I love the 00s, Millennium Actress, movies, Paranoia Agent, Satoshi Kon, television, Venture Bros
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Thursday, October 08, 2009
The Doctor is Out
TV in Japan...isn't good. I won't say it's awful because there's a lot of it I can watch, but it's lacking in a lot of ways that I would like. Someday I'll share with you my thoughts about Japanese TV at length, but today I'm going to segue into a discussion of one my favorite (American) shows and why I'm worried about its future.
I've been watching House for a number of years now. I wasn't sold on the series initially because I find medical dramas pretty dull. There's always a big group of doctors and nurses whose personal lives are the real star of the show while each week various strangers with quirky medical issues pop in, live or die, and the show moves on.
House proved to be different because of, well, House. The character. The star of the show. Yeah, there are other characters around and he talks to them all the time, but he is the show and there's no doubt about it. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, whenever House isn't on screen some member of the supporting cast invariably asks "Where's House?"
As a bonus, House is played by Hugh Laurie, a British actor who I admire. He was actually known primarily as a comedian prior to this role, although he also wrote a novel which I tracked down a few years ago and really enjoyed (hey, Wikipedia says he just finished another one. Cool). House definitely has plenty of humor woven into it, but the show is a drama first and foremost. When people die, nobody laughs. Indeed, it often has future ramifications and can haunt characters for weeks.
Such is how Season 5 ended in the Spring. House was having hallucinations of a deceased employee from Season 4 (whom he failed to save) which was creeping him out. Then a second employee killed himself (the actor left the show abruptly) which caused House to stop sleeping. By the end of the season he had huge fantasies that were not revealed as such until the finale. It wasn't on the level of The Sixth Sense but having House realize that he was completely out of his mind and checking himself into an institution was a hell of a strong way to go out for the summer.
Summer is over and House opened Season 6 with a double-sized episode that felt more like a TV movie. Focusing entirely on his rehab and mental recovery in the hospital, it featured virtually none of the regular actors aside from House. It got a little weird when House was spending time in a room next to people who were clearly insane rather than simply troubled by extreme circumstances, but I watched it in Tokyo with Richard (a fellow fan) and we got a kick out of it. House needed to work on a lot of problems and admit that he needed serious help, and he did. Compelling, given the nature of the character.
Things got a little weird with the second episode. Now out of the hospital, he actually quit his job because he felt he needed to break out of his old habits else he relapse. As it turns out, he ends up solving the Patient of the Week's medical mystery anyway, so he decides (with help from his therapist, the lone holdover from the season premiere) to go back to work after all.
Which brings us to this week's episode, a rather disturbing affair where House tried to be nice to people for a change but he had to deal with a lot of tension at work and at home. I won't go into all of it, because ultimately his scenes were still the strongest in the show.
What bothers me is the PotW was a (fictional) African dictator played by powerhouse senior citizen James Earl Jones. The story tried to paint him as a controversial figure, someone who is accused of genocide and has to fend off regular assassination attempts. Yet whenever Jones got to speak his character was relatively charming and well-spoken, and his rebuttal to accusations of ethnic cleansing were not unreasonable.
In the end he died and on House nobody dies unless (A) someone screws up terribly or (B) the patient kind of deserved it. Sometimes there's a noble sacrifice involved but usually a dead patient is one the audience won't lose any sleep over. Obviously the writers thought they had successfully painted Jones as a madman or a future Hitler, but in my opinion he came off as a politician and not one who needed to be stopped at all costs.
What exactly those "costs" are remains to be seen, because it turns out that a member of House's staff actually murdered the patient by falsifying some lab data and convincing the other doctors to treat the patient for a disease he didn't have. When confronted, the culprit made a half-assed defense on the basis of "he was going to execute the [fake ethnic group] so I killed him." No one accepted that argument but that didn't stop the whistleblower from burning the only piece of evidence to prove that the doctor intentionally misled the hospital staff and subsequently set the patient up to die. The episode ended ambiguously, not making it clear what fallout remains to be settled.
I'm not giving up on this show because I still dig House (the man) and the basic formula of treating the increasing dangerous condition that each PotW brings to the table. However, this latest development shows that everyone else on the show is now in serious trouble. Either this week's episode leads to a huge shake-up of the cast (which it still could) or somehow we as viewers have to pretend that none of this happened. Ultimately House is innocent of any wrongdoing because he never actually met the patient (which, while common, felt like a missed opportunity because Jones and Laurie could have had a great goddamn scene together) but nearly all of his staff and perhaps his boss could go down for this.
No matter what happens, my faith in the show is a little shaken. House has often dabbled in science fiction as far as the medicine is concerned but the motivations of House and the other doctors was always grounded in some kind of reality. To have this episode swing so wildly into crazytown disturbed me, and the idea that we might still end up with the usual bunch and formula-as-usual is completely unacceptable.
House is in its sixth season, so some wear is to be expected after 113 episodes. If it collapses this season, I'll still respect it for lasting as long as it did. I actually predicted it had jumped the shark way back in episode sixty-four when House solved a crisis on an international flight that he happened to be on with his boss (who also got sick). I laughingly called it "House on a Plane" and anticipated the show would gradually descend into irrelevancy. Major cast changes in Season 4 proved me wrong, as the show found a new way to handle itself.
This time, I don't know what can save it from the hole it has dug. That shark is still out there and the stink of blood is heavy...James Earl Jones is not petite.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I've been watching House for a number of years now. I wasn't sold on the series initially because I find medical dramas pretty dull. There's always a big group of doctors and nurses whose personal lives are the real star of the show while each week various strangers with quirky medical issues pop in, live or die, and the show moves on.
House proved to be different because of, well, House. The character. The star of the show. Yeah, there are other characters around and he talks to them all the time, but he is the show and there's no doubt about it. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, whenever House isn't on screen some member of the supporting cast invariably asks "Where's House?"
As a bonus, House is played by Hugh Laurie, a British actor who I admire. He was actually known primarily as a comedian prior to this role, although he also wrote a novel which I tracked down a few years ago and really enjoyed (hey, Wikipedia says he just finished another one. Cool). House definitely has plenty of humor woven into it, but the show is a drama first and foremost. When people die, nobody laughs. Indeed, it often has future ramifications and can haunt characters for weeks.
Such is how Season 5 ended in the Spring. House was having hallucinations of a deceased employee from Season 4 (whom he failed to save) which was creeping him out. Then a second employee killed himself (the actor left the show abruptly) which caused House to stop sleeping. By the end of the season he had huge fantasies that were not revealed as such until the finale. It wasn't on the level of The Sixth Sense but having House realize that he was completely out of his mind and checking himself into an institution was a hell of a strong way to go out for the summer.
Summer is over and House opened Season 6 with a double-sized episode that felt more like a TV movie. Focusing entirely on his rehab and mental recovery in the hospital, it featured virtually none of the regular actors aside from House. It got a little weird when House was spending time in a room next to people who were clearly insane rather than simply troubled by extreme circumstances, but I watched it in Tokyo with Richard (a fellow fan) and we got a kick out of it. House needed to work on a lot of problems and admit that he needed serious help, and he did. Compelling, given the nature of the character.
Things got a little weird with the second episode. Now out of the hospital, he actually quit his job because he felt he needed to break out of his old habits else he relapse. As it turns out, he ends up solving the Patient of the Week's medical mystery anyway, so he decides (with help from his therapist, the lone holdover from the season premiere) to go back to work after all.
Which brings us to this week's episode, a rather disturbing affair where House tried to be nice to people for a change but he had to deal with a lot of tension at work and at home. I won't go into all of it, because ultimately his scenes were still the strongest in the show.
What bothers me is the PotW was a (fictional) African dictator played by powerhouse senior citizen James Earl Jones. The story tried to paint him as a controversial figure, someone who is accused of genocide and has to fend off regular assassination attempts. Yet whenever Jones got to speak his character was relatively charming and well-spoken, and his rebuttal to accusations of ethnic cleansing were not unreasonable.
In the end he died and on House nobody dies unless (A) someone screws up terribly or (B) the patient kind of deserved it. Sometimes there's a noble sacrifice involved but usually a dead patient is one the audience won't lose any sleep over. Obviously the writers thought they had successfully painted Jones as a madman or a future Hitler, but in my opinion he came off as a politician and not one who needed to be stopped at all costs.
What exactly those "costs" are remains to be seen, because it turns out that a member of House's staff actually murdered the patient by falsifying some lab data and convincing the other doctors to treat the patient for a disease he didn't have. When confronted, the culprit made a half-assed defense on the basis of "he was going to execute the [fake ethnic group] so I killed him." No one accepted that argument but that didn't stop the whistleblower from burning the only piece of evidence to prove that the doctor intentionally misled the hospital staff and subsequently set the patient up to die. The episode ended ambiguously, not making it clear what fallout remains to be settled.
I'm not giving up on this show because I still dig House (the man) and the basic formula of treating the increasing dangerous condition that each PotW brings to the table. However, this latest development shows that everyone else on the show is now in serious trouble. Either this week's episode leads to a huge shake-up of the cast (which it still could) or somehow we as viewers have to pretend that none of this happened. Ultimately House is innocent of any wrongdoing because he never actually met the patient (which, while common, felt like a missed opportunity because Jones and Laurie could have had a great goddamn scene together) but nearly all of his staff and perhaps his boss could go down for this.
No matter what happens, my faith in the show is a little shaken. House has often dabbled in science fiction as far as the medicine is concerned but the motivations of House and the other doctors was always grounded in some kind of reality. To have this episode swing so wildly into crazytown disturbed me, and the idea that we might still end up with the usual bunch and formula-as-usual is completely unacceptable.
House is in its sixth season, so some wear is to be expected after 113 episodes. If it collapses this season, I'll still respect it for lasting as long as it did. I actually predicted it had jumped the shark way back in episode sixty-four when House solved a crisis on an international flight that he happened to be on with his boss (who also got sick). I laughingly called it "House on a Plane" and anticipated the show would gradually descend into irrelevancy. Major cast changes in Season 4 proved me wrong, as the show found a new way to handle itself.
This time, I don't know what can save it from the hole it has dug. That shark is still out there and the stink of blood is heavy...James Earl Jones is not petite.
Labels: House, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Blargh
I've been sick.
I woke up Monday morning feeling cold. I knew that meant something was horribly wrong, because there's no way a normal human can feel cold in Japan in summer. I took my temperature and discovered I was one tenth of a degree (Celcius) above normal. I felt funny but figured I would go to work anyway. By the time I got there I felt more funny (although part of that stemmed from waiting outside for ten minutes because nobody had a key to the school) so I checked my temperature again. Now it had risen quite a bit more, so we all agreed I should go home.
I visited a doctor who told me that the fever was so sudden that they couldn't tell if it was a flu or not, so they gave me some standard anti-fever meds and told me to come back that night (or the next day) if my condition got worse. In the meantime, Mako and Go evacuated the apartment because I really didn't want them to get what I had (especially if it was the flu, because that's bad news for babies).
I woke up today still feeling like crap, so I didn't bother going to work. I'm sure I wouldn't have been busy anyway, so that was an easy call to make. Mako and Go stayed away for one more day, just to be safe. In the meantime, my fever has completely subsided even though my head (and my bowels, ugh) are still a little..."off."
So what has that meant for me? Lots of time home alone, which means a whole lot of television and video games. I swear I saw the same episode of Law & Order: SVU four times in the last forty-eight hours. I've also been tearing through BioShock as fast as I can, which in my case is actually quite slow and plodding. I've definitely crossed the halfway point, possibly even the three-quarters point, so the end is in sight. I would love to write more about the game but the mood I've been in hasn't lent itself to writing. Just sitting here trying to finish this post has been a chore because I have constant urges to go to the bathroom.
Tomorrow a new ALT arrives and I'm supposed to be part of the welcoming committee. Will I recover in time to greet the new recruit? I sure hope so, because I've heard she doesn't speak much Japanese. Around here, that's pretty important.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I woke up Monday morning feeling cold. I knew that meant something was horribly wrong, because there's no way a normal human can feel cold in Japan in summer. I took my temperature and discovered I was one tenth of a degree (Celcius) above normal. I felt funny but figured I would go to work anyway. By the time I got there I felt more funny (although part of that stemmed from waiting outside for ten minutes because nobody had a key to the school) so I checked my temperature again. Now it had risen quite a bit more, so we all agreed I should go home.
I visited a doctor who told me that the fever was so sudden that they couldn't tell if it was a flu or not, so they gave me some standard anti-fever meds and told me to come back that night (or the next day) if my condition got worse. In the meantime, Mako and Go evacuated the apartment because I really didn't want them to get what I had (especially if it was the flu, because that's bad news for babies).
I woke up today still feeling like crap, so I didn't bother going to work. I'm sure I wouldn't have been busy anyway, so that was an easy call to make. Mako and Go stayed away for one more day, just to be safe. In the meantime, my fever has completely subsided even though my head (and my bowels, ugh) are still a little..."off."
So what has that meant for me? Lots of time home alone, which means a whole lot of television and video games. I swear I saw the same episode of Law & Order: SVU four times in the last forty-eight hours. I've also been tearing through BioShock as fast as I can, which in my case is actually quite slow and plodding. I've definitely crossed the halfway point, possibly even the three-quarters point, so the end is in sight. I would love to write more about the game but the mood I've been in hasn't lent itself to writing. Just sitting here trying to finish this post has been a chore because I have constant urges to go to the bathroom.
Tomorrow a new ALT arrives and I'm supposed to be part of the welcoming committee. Will I recover in time to greet the new recruit? I sure hope so, because I've heard she doesn't speak much Japanese. Around here, that's pretty important.
Labels: BioShock, JET, poor health, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
There is No "I" in Team (but there is an "I" in Nippon)
That was the strangest ending to a baseball game I've ever seen in my life, and that applies to the post-game coverage as much as the incredible on-field blooper!
I'm with my in-laws again, sitting next to Mako on their couch and wondering when our son will grace us all with his presence. Much to my delight, NHK decided to show us the first Yankees-Mets game of the year this morning. Their coverage of the Yankees has decreased substantially in recent years, partly because the Yankees don't have the same luster they once did but mostly because there are so many more Japanese players in the major leagues at this point. NHK doesn't need to count on the Yankees or the Mariners to deliver Japanese players to their viewers anymore, and that's more or less the only standard they use when selecting which games to air. The significance of the game is moot so long as there's one or two Japanese players involved. I don't think NHK has shown a single Dodgers game this year, just occasional highlights when their lone Japanese player takes the mound.
While the Mets only have one Japanese guy in the bullpen, the Yankees still have Hideki Matsui and he's still a big deal over here. It just so happens that yesterday/today/June 12th is his birthday and I honestly believe that was a factor in airing the game this morning. He hit a grand slam on his birthday last year, actually, so maybe they were hoping for another heroic home run? As it turned out he did hit another homer, this time a 3-run shot that gave the Yankees a 7-6 lead late in the game. It didn't keep though; the Mets later tied the score at 7 and took their own lead in the eighth off of Mariano Rivera.
It was 8-7 Mets in the bottom of the ninth when things got nuts. Jeter got a one-out hit and stole second as Damon struck out. With first base open, Teixeira received a semi-intentional walk to bring up A-Rod with two on and two out. He only managed a pop-up that barely left the infield, but despite having all the time in the world to get under it, Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped the ball. Jeter had been running the whole way and scored easily, but the only reason Teixeira scored was because Castillo picked up the ball and threw to second rather than home. The relay was late, the game was over. In a matter of seconds A-Rod went from goat to hero as players congratulated him for merely putting the ball into play.
In all the years I've watched baseball, I've seen plenty of easy pop-ups dropped and I've seen all kinds of walk-off wins resulting from hits, bunts, steals, errors, walks, even balks. But I've never seen a team win a game by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a single error. We've all heard of the infamous Bill Buckner gaffe that ended Game Six of the 1986 World Series, but even that play came when the Mets had already tied the game (a fact few people remember).
So after seeing the wildest finish to a ballgame I can recall, how did NHK handle the wrap-up? They had a fifteen second interview with Matsui that was nothing more than a happy birthday/congratulations fluffer, followed by a thirty second recap of his home run (featuring replays from multiple angles). They showed the final line score and panned around the emptying stadium for less than a minute, had a newsbreak and then rushed away to Colorado to show us a Mariners/Rockies game. The only replay of the stunning final play was second hand: while their camera lingered on the outfield I watched the stadium scoreboard show the monumental error one more time.
I know having Japanese players in the major leagues in a big deal, and I love birthdays as much as the next guy, but how on Earth can they justify summarizing the game with glowing replays of a three-run home run that wasn't even the deciding score? It's as if the outcome of these games is secondary to the individual performance of a familiar participant. Runs counter to the values you expect Japan to hold dear, doesn't it?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I'm with my in-laws again, sitting next to Mako on their couch and wondering when our son will grace us all with his presence. Much to my delight, NHK decided to show us the first Yankees-Mets game of the year this morning. Their coverage of the Yankees has decreased substantially in recent years, partly because the Yankees don't have the same luster they once did but mostly because there are so many more Japanese players in the major leagues at this point. NHK doesn't need to count on the Yankees or the Mariners to deliver Japanese players to their viewers anymore, and that's more or less the only standard they use when selecting which games to air. The significance of the game is moot so long as there's one or two Japanese players involved. I don't think NHK has shown a single Dodgers game this year, just occasional highlights when their lone Japanese player takes the mound.
While the Mets only have one Japanese guy in the bullpen, the Yankees still have Hideki Matsui and he's still a big deal over here. It just so happens that yesterday/today/June 12th is his birthday and I honestly believe that was a factor in airing the game this morning. He hit a grand slam on his birthday last year, actually, so maybe they were hoping for another heroic home run? As it turned out he did hit another homer, this time a 3-run shot that gave the Yankees a 7-6 lead late in the game. It didn't keep though; the Mets later tied the score at 7 and took their own lead in the eighth off of Mariano Rivera.
It was 8-7 Mets in the bottom of the ninth when things got nuts. Jeter got a one-out hit and stole second as Damon struck out. With first base open, Teixeira received a semi-intentional walk to bring up A-Rod with two on and two out. He only managed a pop-up that barely left the infield, but despite having all the time in the world to get under it, Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped the ball. Jeter had been running the whole way and scored easily, but the only reason Teixeira scored was because Castillo picked up the ball and threw to second rather than home. The relay was late, the game was over. In a matter of seconds A-Rod went from goat to hero as players congratulated him for merely putting the ball into play.
In all the years I've watched baseball, I've seen plenty of easy pop-ups dropped and I've seen all kinds of walk-off wins resulting from hits, bunts, steals, errors, walks, even balks. But I've never seen a team win a game by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a single error. We've all heard of the infamous Bill Buckner gaffe that ended Game Six of the 1986 World Series, but even that play came when the Mets had already tied the game (a fact few people remember).
So after seeing the wildest finish to a ballgame I can recall, how did NHK handle the wrap-up? They had a fifteen second interview with Matsui that was nothing more than a happy birthday/congratulations fluffer, followed by a thirty second recap of his home run (featuring replays from multiple angles). They showed the final line score and panned around the emptying stadium for less than a minute, had a newsbreak and then rushed away to Colorado to show us a Mariners/Rockies game. The only replay of the stunning final play was second hand: while their camera lingered on the outfield I watched the stadium scoreboard show the monumental error one more time.
I know having Japanese players in the major leagues in a big deal, and I love birthdays as much as the next guy, but how on Earth can they justify summarizing the game with glowing replays of a three-run home run that wasn't even the deciding score? It's as if the outcome of these games is secondary to the individual performance of a familiar participant. Runs counter to the values you expect Japan to hold dear, doesn't it?
Labels: baseball, Japan, television, Yankees
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, February 16, 2009
So Fracking Disappointed
Remember what I said about expectations and how they ruin everything? This Saturday was a textbook example of what can happen when you think something is going to be awesome and it is merely very good.
Let me stop right there and make sure no one is jumping to any serious conclusions: today's material is purely superficial stuff (with some spoilers).
I had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day with Mako. She gave me my present, crunchy chocolate-covered castella sticks, on Friday night, all the while apologizing for buying them in a store rather than making me something at home. I insisted (as I did days beforehand) that she doesn't need to make me anything and I would be thrilled to receive any chocolate from her. "By Any Means Necessary" isn't just a cry for revolution - it also perfectly sums up my attitude towards the distribution of gifts. As much fun as her handmade gifts can be, I would never criticize Mako for failing to spend hours making me something when a commercially-available option exists.
We spent our Saturday afternoon in Umeda where we took advantage of the discount Toho Cinemas promotion to see Street Kings, a Keanu Reeves police drama retitled "Fake City" (フェイクシティ) in Japanese. Neither title means much and the movie was unremarkable, cliche-driven and entirely forgettable, exactly as I thought it would be. Unstable cop who ignores procedure because it only gets in the way? Check. Angry superiors who berate him for his methods while simultaneously praising his results? Check. Impressionable and doomed rookie cop (complete with fiancee - how tragic!) who is manipulated by the hero into breaking the rules? Check. Stock female characters (mute victims, worried girlfriend, grieving widow, dead wife) who only exist to soften the male leads? Check. And most troubling of all, litany of minority stereotypes who are beaten, tortured and killed by the hero cops along the way? Check and Mate.
I guess I should have seen those last two coming but I thought maybe, just maybe, that we had moved beyond that bullshit by now. The only concession made to the real world is that a few of the cops are not white guys (Forest Whitaker is one of the perpetually outraged captains) but they are still all guys. Seriously, not even the "here are the bullets I found" medical examiner is a woman. You get the feeling that Hollywood producers want to go back to the Shakespearean custom of having all the roles played by men, but as a compromise they merely play every character with any impact on the plot while the attractive Hispanic actress is limited to wearing a bikini and kissing Keanu after a hard day's work murdering "suspects."
The ironic result of having zero interest in the film (particularly when I guessed the ending about halfway through) was that I did not come out of the theater feeling cheated or offended. I knew the movie would be shallow and empty and it was. All I did was enjoy my popcorn and the knowledge that Mako got to see one of her favorite actors on the big screen. If anything, I left the theater happy because we enjoy being out together as a couple.
On the contrary, when I came home and I watched the season one finale of Battlestar Galactica I had high hopes for the outcome. Not only was I still riding high from the Prison Break finale we watched a few days earlier, but the overall quality of the series led me to believe I was in for something special. Instead, the two-parter left me asking question after question about what direction this show was headed.
For starters, the last few episodes have been increasingly toying with supernatural and religious elements. While I have been impressed with the show's inclusion of faith, an element curiously absent from most scienece fiction, BSG is increasingly implying that these "lords of Kobol" are real. It's one thing to have Dr. Baltar panic and pray to God before being cleared in that treason frame-up, but it's quite another to have the President seeing prognostic hallucinations that coincide with scripture and turn out to be accurate. The finale has her ordering a ship to go on a incredibly risky solo mission just to retrieve a spiritual artifact that she believes will help them find Earth. She knows the Cylons are swarming around both the planet they think is their mythical homeworld and the planet where the artifact is being kept, meaning that everything about this could be a trap or downright staged (especially since one of the Cylons told her they were going to find this planet), but they go through with it anyway.
On the more tactical side of things, I don't understand the nature of this "plan" the Cylons boast of in every episode. How many more facilities and ships are they going to sacrifice towards this plan? I know they claim not to give a crap about "death," but do they simply have infinite resources? They allowed one of their own sleeper agents to nuke a gigantic Cylon vessel, even though they had more than enough opportunities to stop her (or at least reduce their losses). Then she goes back and promptly blows her cover by shooting the Commander in the gut - twice. What's the point? Even if he does die (which I very much doubt - this actor has top billing on the show), what good does that really do the Cylons? They had an agent on board in the military. She already blew up the ship's water supply a few episodes earlier. She could have potentially destroyed the entire ship or killed everyone on the bridge. Instead, she gave herself up in exchange for shooting one guy.
I know this is all pretty geeky and I know I'm still eager to see more of BSG. In fact, I've already rented the first two discs of season two as there were plenty of other major plot elements in that last episode that I want to see resolved. But at the end of the day, the very good television episode left me feeling disappointed while the absolutely pointless cop movie met my meager expectations. How does that make any sense at all?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Let me stop right there and make sure no one is jumping to any serious conclusions: today's material is purely superficial stuff (with some spoilers).
I had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day with Mako. She gave me my present, crunchy chocolate-covered castella sticks, on Friday night, all the while apologizing for buying them in a store rather than making me something at home. I insisted (as I did days beforehand) that she doesn't need to make me anything and I would be thrilled to receive any chocolate from her. "By Any Means Necessary" isn't just a cry for revolution - it also perfectly sums up my attitude towards the distribution of gifts. As much fun as her handmade gifts can be, I would never criticize Mako for failing to spend hours making me something when a commercially-available option exists.
We spent our Saturday afternoon in Umeda where we took advantage of the discount Toho Cinemas promotion to see Street Kings, a Keanu Reeves police drama retitled "Fake City" (フェイクシティ) in Japanese. Neither title means much and the movie was unremarkable, cliche-driven and entirely forgettable, exactly as I thought it would be. Unstable cop who ignores procedure because it only gets in the way? Check. Angry superiors who berate him for his methods while simultaneously praising his results? Check. Impressionable and doomed rookie cop (complete with fiancee - how tragic!) who is manipulated by the hero into breaking the rules? Check. Stock female characters (mute victims, worried girlfriend, grieving widow, dead wife) who only exist to soften the male leads? Check. And most troubling of all, litany of minority stereotypes who are beaten, tortured and killed by the hero cops along the way? Check and Mate.
I guess I should have seen those last two coming but I thought maybe, just maybe, that we had moved beyond that bullshit by now. The only concession made to the real world is that a few of the cops are not white guys (Forest Whitaker is one of the perpetually outraged captains) but they are still all guys. Seriously, not even the "here are the bullets I found" medical examiner is a woman. You get the feeling that Hollywood producers want to go back to the Shakespearean custom of having all the roles played by men, but as a compromise they merely play every character with any impact on the plot while the attractive Hispanic actress is limited to wearing a bikini and kissing Keanu after a hard day's work murdering "suspects."
The ironic result of having zero interest in the film (particularly when I guessed the ending about halfway through) was that I did not come out of the theater feeling cheated or offended. I knew the movie would be shallow and empty and it was. All I did was enjoy my popcorn and the knowledge that Mako got to see one of her favorite actors on the big screen. If anything, I left the theater happy because we enjoy being out together as a couple.
On the contrary, when I came home and I watched the season one finale of Battlestar Galactica I had high hopes for the outcome. Not only was I still riding high from the Prison Break finale we watched a few days earlier, but the overall quality of the series led me to believe I was in for something special. Instead, the two-parter left me asking question after question about what direction this show was headed.
For starters, the last few episodes have been increasingly toying with supernatural and religious elements. While I have been impressed with the show's inclusion of faith, an element curiously absent from most scienece fiction, BSG is increasingly implying that these "lords of Kobol" are real. It's one thing to have Dr. Baltar panic and pray to God before being cleared in that treason frame-up, but it's quite another to have the President seeing prognostic hallucinations that coincide with scripture and turn out to be accurate. The finale has her ordering a ship to go on a incredibly risky solo mission just to retrieve a spiritual artifact that she believes will help them find Earth. She knows the Cylons are swarming around both the planet they think is their mythical homeworld and the planet where the artifact is being kept, meaning that everything about this could be a trap or downright staged (especially since one of the Cylons told her they were going to find this planet), but they go through with it anyway.
On the more tactical side of things, I don't understand the nature of this "plan" the Cylons boast of in every episode. How many more facilities and ships are they going to sacrifice towards this plan? I know they claim not to give a crap about "death," but do they simply have infinite resources? They allowed one of their own sleeper agents to nuke a gigantic Cylon vessel, even though they had more than enough opportunities to stop her (or at least reduce their losses). Then she goes back and promptly blows her cover by shooting the Commander in the gut - twice. What's the point? Even if he does die (which I very much doubt - this actor has top billing on the show), what good does that really do the Cylons? They had an agent on board in the military. She already blew up the ship's water supply a few episodes earlier. She could have potentially destroyed the entire ship or killed everyone on the bridge. Instead, she gave herself up in exchange for shooting one guy.
I know this is all pretty geeky and I know I'm still eager to see more of BSG. In fact, I've already rented the first two discs of season two as there were plenty of other major plot elements in that last episode that I want to see resolved. But at the end of the day, the very good television episode left me feeling disappointed while the absolutely pointless cop movie met my meager expectations. How does that make any sense at all?
Labels: BSG, chocolate, family, food, movies, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Call it etalocohC
Wow. You know how on Wednesday night I wondered if I would make it through the next two days with my voice intact? By 10 o'clock on Thursday I was hacking and coughing like the Marlboro Man. Maybe it was a mistake to admit to having a cold before class. I think the kids see that as a window to misbehave.
Last night we watched the Prison Break Season One finale and I still can't believe how good it was. After watching the next-to-last episode and seeing (most of) the gang make it over the wall, I naively assumed the finale would be a simple culling of characters as they made their way to the airstrip and onto the plane. I went through the cast in my head and just started guessing who was going to make it and who wasn't. Despite the fact that "the plan" had to be revised and modified so many times just to escape, I honestly believed that the last phase would somehow work out just like they expected. Instead, the show kept throwing curveballs and I kept swinging with wild abandon trying to keep up. Did they make it to the plane? Nope. Did anybody get killed or recaptured? No. Does the season end with any element of the story successfully wrapped? Not really, no. I can't wait to start renting Season Two but I think Mako needs a break. Watching the show is so physically involving that we both get worked up just sitting on the couch. For DJ's sake, Mako wants to stay calm and settled as best she can over the next few months.
Speaking of concessions made for Mako, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It also happens to be "Toho Cinemas Day" which means cheap movie tickets at any Toho Cinemas. I had hoped to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but that was before Mako found out about a "new" Keanu Reeves movie opening on Saturday. I say "new" because it came out in the States last April and everything about the movie looks cliched and behind the times (Seriously, Keanu, you're a cop who doesn't play by the rules? What a fascinatingly fresh way to portray a police officer), but Mako loves him and I must abide. I'm sure it won't be the most banal film we've seen together; at the very least, Hugh Laurie is in it.
What's really confusing me is the sudden push for me to give Mako chocolate on Valentine's Day in spite of the glorious Japanese tradition of doing things the other way around. As previously noted in years past, this is a day where Japanese women give chocolate to men, be it husbands, boyfriends, family, or even just friendly coworkers. Men who have wives or girlfriends are expected to return the favor next month on White Day. Now it seems that someone (I suspect the chocolate people) has been promoting the idea of gyaku-choco (逆チョコ, literally "reverse chocolate") so that men give chocolates to women. The promotion is so strong that lots of popular everyday chocolates have special backwards packaging on the shelves, no doubt intended to remind male customers of their brand-new obligation. I view it more straight forwardly as an admission that this entire idea goes against common sense.
Japan had got it right for once in the world of gender relations. There was a balance to it all. Tomorrow was supposed to be my day for sugary satisfaction and Mako would get her generous gift next month. Quid pro quo, tit for tat, ebony meets ivory, perfect harmony. Now I'm expected to give her TWO gifts in exchange for only ONE? That's the worst kind of discrimination; the kind that discriminates against me.
...OK, you know (I hope!) I'm not really angry about this. Buying gifts for Mako is one of my favorite things to do and any occasion where she and I get to eat chocolate is a wonderful day in my book. Indeed, we both shared one of the chocolate fondants I received from her mother this week and it was outstanding. I just hope there's a future movement to realign the order of things with gyaku gifts on White Day for men. Hey, I just realized! The Xbox 360 is white, isn't it?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Last night we watched the Prison Break Season One finale and I still can't believe how good it was. After watching the next-to-last episode and seeing (most of) the gang make it over the wall, I naively assumed the finale would be a simple culling of characters as they made their way to the airstrip and onto the plane. I went through the cast in my head and just started guessing who was going to make it and who wasn't. Despite the fact that "the plan" had to be revised and modified so many times just to escape, I honestly believed that the last phase would somehow work out just like they expected. Instead, the show kept throwing curveballs and I kept swinging with wild abandon trying to keep up. Did they make it to the plane? Nope. Did anybody get killed or recaptured? No. Does the season end with any element of the story successfully wrapped? Not really, no. I can't wait to start renting Season Two but I think Mako needs a break. Watching the show is so physically involving that we both get worked up just sitting on the couch. For DJ's sake, Mako wants to stay calm and settled as best she can over the next few months.
Speaking of concessions made for Mako, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It also happens to be "Toho Cinemas Day" which means cheap movie tickets at any Toho Cinemas. I had hoped to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but that was before Mako found out about a "new" Keanu Reeves movie opening on Saturday. I say "new" because it came out in the States last April and everything about the movie looks cliched and behind the times (Seriously, Keanu, you're a cop who doesn't play by the rules? What a fascinatingly fresh way to portray a police officer), but Mako loves him and I must abide. I'm sure it won't be the most banal film we've seen together; at the very least, Hugh Laurie is in it.
What's really confusing me is the sudden push for me to give Mako chocolate on Valentine's Day in spite of the glorious Japanese tradition of doing things the other way around. As previously noted in years past, this is a day where Japanese women give chocolate to men, be it husbands, boyfriends, family, or even just friendly coworkers. Men who have wives or girlfriends are expected to return the favor next month on White Day. Now it seems that someone (I suspect the chocolate people) has been promoting the idea of gyaku-choco (逆チョコ, literally "reverse chocolate") so that men give chocolates to women. The promotion is so strong that lots of popular everyday chocolates have special backwards packaging on the shelves, no doubt intended to remind male customers of their brand-new obligation. I view it more straight forwardly as an admission that this entire idea goes against common sense.
Japan had got it right for once in the world of gender relations. There was a balance to it all. Tomorrow was supposed to be my day for sugary satisfaction and Mako would get her generous gift next month. Quid pro quo, tit for tat, ebony meets ivory, perfect harmony. Now I'm expected to give her TWO gifts in exchange for only ONE? That's the worst kind of discrimination; the kind that discriminates against me.
...OK, you know (I hope!) I'm not really angry about this. Buying gifts for Mako is one of my favorite things to do and any occasion where she and I get to eat chocolate is a wonderful day in my book. Indeed, we both shared one of the chocolate fondants I received from her mother this week and it was outstanding. I just hope there's a future movement to realign the order of things with gyaku gifts on White Day for men. Hey, I just realized! The Xbox 360 is white, isn't it?
Labels: chocolate, family, food, Japan, movies, Prison Break, television
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Thanks, Japan. I Needed That.
One of the best things about having a holiday in the middle of the week is it changes the dynamic of the other days around it. With Wednesday being off, Tuesday became Friday, and Monday kinda felt like Thursday. Of course, tomorrow is Thursday, but since I spent today resting, doesn't that make it into Monday?
Don't be silly. Thursday is always Thursday.
The worst thing about today was the fact that I'm sick. It started as a simple cough over the weekend, but by Monday evening I was sniffling and my voice was struggling. Yesterday was a challenge, to be sure, especially because I had another after-school class that made it a very long day of teaching. I must have sucked down at least three Vitamin C candies during the last hour of work. I feel better now, thanks to a full day of very little talking (and absolutely no shouting). Maybe the worst of it is behind me now...or maybe another day of shouting will bring it all back tomorrow.
Mako and I spent the morning on the sofa watching Prison Break and we are oh-so-close to the end of Season One. Indeed, we'd be watching the end right now if it weren't for her sudden desire to step on the brakes and slow down. Sure, there are other shows we can watch but after so many hours, how can she stand to wait any longer to find out who makes it and who doesn't? Now I'm going to spend all day tomorrow wondering about it. She told me to pop in Battlestar Galactica instead, but seeing as how I'm almost at the end of their Season One as well, I just want to wrap up one show at a time.
We had a terrific, curry-soaked lunch where I experienced something pretty crazy. As usual, I ordered a bit too much food and I had to help Mako finish hers at the same time, so towards the end of the meal I was really, really full. But the more I ate of my bacon & eggplant curry (with cheese) omurice, the hungrier I felt. If you've ever read The Phantom Tollbooth you might remember "subtraction stew." For the first time I can recall, I actually understood what that might feel like.
With Mako and I both filled to capacity we took it real easy when we got back home. Mako needed a straight-up nap, leaving me a few hours alone with a television and my PS3. I muscled my way through two more stages in Resistance 2 alone and then played a bit of LittleBigPlanet with Richard. I enjoyed the freedom of the afternoon immensely even if both games did their best to drive me a little nuts.
In Resistance 2 I found myself straining my voice just so I could complain aloud about the circumstances I found myself in: two boss battles where the game just wasn't throwing me any bones. The first was me versus a giant something-or-other, a moment that was initially really cool. I was on top of a tower littered with guns but there were no soldiers to be seen. It wasn't until I looked up that I saw...it, and that began the fight. Unfortunately, the designers made a baffling decision to not give me any visual hint that my bullets were, in fact, hurting this massive, crawling monster - the usual red reticule was not present - so it took several failures before I just looked to the Internet for answers. It turns out the answer is just shoot the damn thing until it falls down. I did that.
The second boss was even more bizarre in form and even more irritating due to its ability to kill me instantly if it touched me. It wasn't an "it" so much as it was a "they," a "swarm" of beasties massed together, super-charged with bolts of energy. The first time you see it the game tells you to run away, but doing that means it catches you and kills you. No, you have to walk backwards and shoot at it, somehow slowing it down even though a gun versus a swarm of smaller-than-a-bullet monsters doesn't sound like a winnable fight. Eventually you face off against the swarm in a giant cavern where you must use generators to trap them and kill them with a special weapon. Of course, all the generators look the same and are connected by identical looking corridors, so I kept dying while some voice shouted at me "Get to the first generator!" I asked, alone in my room, "Which one is the 'first' one, you dick?"
LittleBigPlanet is a great game that looks adorable even when it's smashing your little character between heavy objects and driving you nuts. Richard and I actually "finished" the last level today, although the magic of LBP is that the game has an ever-increasing number of user-created levels to play. Indeed, having run through the normal levels, the idea is that I should try and make one myself. I do have an idea or two, but I have the nagging feeling that it will take me as long as it did to complete the other levels just to finish one of my own. I'll let you know if I make any headway in that department though.
My Wednesday/Sunday holiday evening is drawing to a close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed over the next two days to make it through with my vocal cords intact. Candies, you're with me!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Don't be silly. Thursday is always Thursday.
The worst thing about today was the fact that I'm sick. It started as a simple cough over the weekend, but by Monday evening I was sniffling and my voice was struggling. Yesterday was a challenge, to be sure, especially because I had another after-school class that made it a very long day of teaching. I must have sucked down at least three Vitamin C candies during the last hour of work. I feel better now, thanks to a full day of very little talking (and absolutely no shouting). Maybe the worst of it is behind me now...or maybe another day of shouting will bring it all back tomorrow.
Mako and I spent the morning on the sofa watching Prison Break and we are oh-so-close to the end of Season One. Indeed, we'd be watching the end right now if it weren't for her sudden desire to step on the brakes and slow down. Sure, there are other shows we can watch but after so many hours, how can she stand to wait any longer to find out who makes it and who doesn't? Now I'm going to spend all day tomorrow wondering about it. She told me to pop in Battlestar Galactica instead, but seeing as how I'm almost at the end of their Season One as well, I just want to wrap up one show at a time.
We had a terrific, curry-soaked lunch where I experienced something pretty crazy. As usual, I ordered a bit too much food and I had to help Mako finish hers at the same time, so towards the end of the meal I was really, really full. But the more I ate of my bacon & eggplant curry (with cheese) omurice, the hungrier I felt. If you've ever read The Phantom Tollbooth you might remember "subtraction stew." For the first time I can recall, I actually understood what that might feel like.
With Mako and I both filled to capacity we took it real easy when we got back home. Mako needed a straight-up nap, leaving me a few hours alone with a television and my PS3. I muscled my way through two more stages in Resistance 2 alone and then played a bit of LittleBigPlanet with Richard. I enjoyed the freedom of the afternoon immensely even if both games did their best to drive me a little nuts.
In Resistance 2 I found myself straining my voice just so I could complain aloud about the circumstances I found myself in: two boss battles where the game just wasn't throwing me any bones. The first was me versus a giant something-or-other, a moment that was initially really cool. I was on top of a tower littered with guns but there were no soldiers to be seen. It wasn't until I looked up that I saw...it, and that began the fight. Unfortunately, the designers made a baffling decision to not give me any visual hint that my bullets were, in fact, hurting this massive, crawling monster - the usual red reticule was not present - so it took several failures before I just looked to the Internet for answers. It turns out the answer is just shoot the damn thing until it falls down. I did that.
The second boss was even more bizarre in form and even more irritating due to its ability to kill me instantly if it touched me. It wasn't an "it" so much as it was a "they," a "swarm" of beasties massed together, super-charged with bolts of energy. The first time you see it the game tells you to run away, but doing that means it catches you and kills you. No, you have to walk backwards and shoot at it, somehow slowing it down even though a gun versus a swarm of smaller-than-a-bullet monsters doesn't sound like a winnable fight. Eventually you face off against the swarm in a giant cavern where you must use generators to trap them and kill them with a special weapon. Of course, all the generators look the same and are connected by identical looking corridors, so I kept dying while some voice shouted at me "Get to the first generator!" I asked, alone in my room, "Which one is the 'first' one, you dick?"
LittleBigPlanet is a great game that looks adorable even when it's smashing your little character between heavy objects and driving you nuts. Richard and I actually "finished" the last level today, although the magic of LBP is that the game has an ever-increasing number of user-created levels to play. Indeed, having run through the normal levels, the idea is that I should try and make one myself. I do have an idea or two, but I have the nagging feeling that it will take me as long as it did to complete the other levels just to finish one of my own. I'll let you know if I make any headway in that department though.
My Wednesday/Sunday holiday evening is drawing to a close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed over the next two days to make it through with my vocal cords intact. Candies, you're with me!
Labels: food, frustration, Little Big Planet, Prison Break, PS3, Resistance 2, teaching, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
(That's Entertainment!) x 3
Found myself with some unexpected free time at work today and all I could think about was how much fun I had over the past three days, with each day featuring a completely different form of audio/visual amusement.
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
Labels: Alex, football, friends, Heroes, James Bond, movies, Prison Break, sports, television, video games, Xbox
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, February 02, 2009
Spoiler Alert (I Must Be)
Due to the peculiarities of our little planet, Sunday night in New York equals Monday morning in Japan. As millions of Americans sat down with their delicious drinks and their salty snacks to watch the Super Bowl, I was riding a bus to Hana Town so I could get to work. Once I arrived I was forced to restrain myself from using any kind of Internet application, else I learn the results of the game before I could get home and see the rebroadcast myself. While I sat in the office, purposely isolating myself from information I wanted to know, I thought about the nature of "spoilers."
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
Labels: BioShock, BSG, Cloverfield, football, movies, Portal, Prison Break, sports, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
