Category Archives: Random Series

Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary

As you might have noticed from previous posts: I am a Whovian – a fan of the British (Sci-Fi) series Doctor Who.
A series about a time-traveling alien, a Timelord, (credited as Dr. Who, Doctor Who or The Doctor) that picks up (mostly) human companions to show them all of time and space in his spaceship the T.A.R.D.I.S (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), that also has the „convenient“ ability of completely changing his body (regenerating) when he is about to die.
Today (23.11.2013) it has been 50 years since the very first episode „An Unearthy Child“ aired (in 1963, with William Hartnell as Dr. Who) in British television.
Therefore:

Happy 50th anniversary Doctor Who!

And a big „Thank you!“ to all the people involved in the creation of this brilliant show, for all your hard work and efforts to make this show into this special something that it is!

Within the Who(ni)verse

I have to admit that I haven’t been in the Who(ni)verse for that long, but I blame that on the weird scheduling and synchronization of the German version of the episodes. It was either too early or too late for me to watch it. But I do not regret ever setting foot into this strange world. A world with brilliant characters, incredible stories and quite a strange fanbase…
The first ever episode that, I think, I watched was „Tooth and Claws“ with David Tennant as The Doctor. I decided to watch this episode because it had Werwolves in it and as I am actually not that much into Sci-Fi and more into Fantasy stuff I just wanted to see how they did that. Needless to say I was pretty confused by it and didn’t watch more of it for quite a while.
But as I still also had enjoyed watching it and some other snippets from flipping through the TV channels and I later wanted to know what all these quotes and pictures on Tumblr pages were about, I gave it another try.
And what can I say? I’ve been hooked ever since.
Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor with his grinning in the face of danger just made me keep watching. It’s a pity he’d only been with the show for one season, but it was a fantastic season.
He was succeeded by David Tennant, who smiled differently, but still had three seasons of great stories and companions, including my favourite: The utterly brilliant Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.
When Matt Smith took on the role as The Doctor it was strange, as there was a longer time to get accustomed to his predecessor as before. He was so different to both Nine and Ten, yet he put as much heart into the role as both of them. I enjoy his childishness and the way he can switch from goofy to serious in the blink of an eye. He had some really brilliant speeches throughout his run, but I think I still never completely warmed up to him. Especially with all this family-stuff going around him, but he still is a great Doctor.
As you can see, my experiences are more with New-Who than the classic series, which was never really broadcasted in Germany. Nevertheless I have seen a couple of episodes from the very first Doctor and the movie of the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann, and of course scenes and stuff surrounding the other Doctors. When I have a little more time at hand I am going to watch the old stuff. (Some more thoughts on the classic Doctors here)

Specials everywhere

Anyway, this year – this day – marks the 50th anniversary of a show that managed to capture an audience all across the globe with its uniqueness. The special that will air later today is simultancast in about 80 countries, in cinemas and on television, and has many other specials accompanying it. But as I am not sure if I’ll be able to watch the The Day of the Doctor right away, I’ll only cover the other specials I have seen so far.
Many fans have created stuff to celebrate the anniversary throughout the year and this month especially. Among them Diana Dekajlo and Michael Nixon from Geek Crash Course, who made short clips about one of the Doctors each month and this month they made special videos, with additional information. For someone who hasn’t seen much of Classic-Who the monthly specials helped me to get a better overview about it. If you want to catch up before the big thing tonight, I highly recommend it.
The BBC itself obviously made many things for the celebration and I am pretty sure I don’t know every last bit of it.
The most intriguing thing they created were two prequels to the special:

The Night of the Doctor and The Last Day

As it is tradition for anniversaries in this one there will also be more than one Doctor: The Tenth, the Eleventh and an unknown incarnation that has been introduced in The Name of the Doctor – the last episode of the seventh season.
The Night of the Doctor adds a piece to the unknowns puzzle: It shows how the Eighth Doctor chooses to regenerate into the War Doctor, played by John Hurt.
After 17 years Paul McGann was given a chance at reprising his role from the TV movie and he did so brilliantly. I clearly wouldn’t mind seeing more of his adventures.
The Last Day shows Gallifrayan soldiers – I suppose – who discover that their worst enemy a Dalek, a being without consciousness and full of hate, had indeed managed to break through the impregnable barrier surrounding the city. With weird transmission signals interfering this one is quite bizarre and a bit creepy.
Judging from the trailers The Day of the Doctor includes the long foreshadowed, well rather after-shadowed, Time War. The war between Timelords and Daleks that effected all of creation until The Doctor ended it. By the time of The Night of the Doctor people seem to fear the Timelords as much as Daleks, which subsequently let to the choice the Eighth Doctor had to make. Incarnations Nine and Ten still suffered greatly from it and Eleven is at least capable of hiding it better than them.
Something that covered the beginnings of the show was the making-of-drama

An Adventure in Space and Time

written by the brilliant Mark Gatiss. It shows how Doctor Who was created in 1963, what struggles they had to go through until William Hartnell (portrayed by David Bradley) left the show. It was really interesting to watch, quite emotional at points and with a glorious finale, where (SPOILER if you still haven’t seen or read about it) the first Doctor takes a look across the TARDIS console and sees a glimpse into the future of what he was a part of creating, in the form of Matt Smith, fondly smiling back at him, before proceeding to turn switches on the console. (SPOILER END)
You just can see how much Gatiss is a fan of the show himself with all the effort he put into its writing. I clearly enjoyed it.
There are several more things that accompanies this landmark: An audio play from Big Finish Productions with the Doctors 4 to 8 called, The Light at the End for one and a lot of other stuff that I feel too lazy to add, just have a look at this compilation from BBC America: *click*.
I really look forward to watching The Day of Doctor, it will be spectacular and funny and weird and wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey and so much more.
It will be especially weird to SEE John Hurt, as I only know his voice from Merlin – I know he was in Harry Potter too, but I haven’t seen his scenes in English yet – as gigantic dragon… I’m curious what that will be like. (Judging from trailers and stuff: It will probably take me a while to get used to it…)
If I find the time, I will write my thoughts on the special afterwards.
I hope you all have fun on this day, The Day of the Doctor! 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

Grimm

What else to do while waiting for Once Upon A Time to continue than to watch another Fairytale-related series?
Well, basically a lot of stuff, but I was still curious if OUAT really was a rip-off of that show as a bunch of people claimed.
And as you can see in the title: I am talking about NBC’s Grimm.
Grimm is a crime show about Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective that has a certain ability. He is a Grimm. He can see the real nature of creatures called „Wesen“ that are able to pass as normal humans otherwise. The show shows how Nick is more and more able to cope with this and what obstacles he has to overcome along the way.
First of all, I’d like to say that I watched the series both in English and in German, so I’ll even be able to show you some of the differences between them.
The series has a small circle of main characters.
Alongside Nick we have his partner Hank Griffin, Captain Sean Renard and Sergeant Wu in the Portland Police Department and at home his girlfriend Juliet.
In his first case after discovering his ability he meets the Wesen Monroe, a „Blutbad“ that he accuses of having kidnapped a little girl. After their first differences he becomes Nicks friend and very own „Grimm-o-Pedia“. 😀
Later on a „Fuchsbau“ called Rosalee and a „Hexenbiest“ named Adalind Schade join the cast.
As I said Grimms are people with the ability to see the real nature of Wesen.
But what exactly Grimms are has not yet been told.
What we know so far is that they collect data on Wesen and are successors of seven families that  all have the same „gift“.
As some of the words mentioned above suggest, this series uses quite a bunch of German words.
This is due to the fact that among the most famous – and openly known – „Grimms“ where the Brother’s Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm; the German Fairytale collectors.
Or so we think.
In the world of Grimm, just as in OUAT, these Fairy Tales are real.
They are the way of telling the people what they aren’t aware of.
They tell them the stories of the Wesen.
And of course warn the humans about them.
For example the „Blutbaden“ (official plural of Blutbad) are what later became the Big Bad Wolf in the brother’s Children and Houshold Tales. (Funny side note: There is a Wesen-version of these tales called: „Albträume für Wesen Kinder“ [original title; English: „Nightmares for Wesen children“])
Regardless of the fact that it is pretty cool to have different languages in a show (not all Grimms were English or German, some wrote their notes in Latin, Japanese or Spanish) I do occasionally struggle with the grammar they chose…
For example „Blutbad“ is the German term for „bloodbath“.
„Blutbaden“ however doesn’t really exist…
The „Blut“ would still be „blood“ but the „baden“…well it does suggest that it is the action of bathing in blood, making the translation „bathing“, but that does not really make sense.
So basically the plural of a blood bath is the action of bathing in it. Obvious isn’t it?
Or the „Rumplestiltskin“-dude from the episode „Nameless“ in Season 2.
He is a „Fuchsteufelwild“. That is no German word either.
Well, „fuchsteufelswild“ would be, but that would be an adjective meaning „mad as hell“ or „hopping mad“.
So they either took somewhat fitting German nouns or adjectives and stitched them together.
Let’s just say: If the actual brothers would have really given the creatures their German names, their works would have never been able to become a literary classic….
But „worse“ than the grammar – though more funny – is the pronunciation of the words.
I know it is not easy for an American native to pronounce German words, as our language is quite „harder“ (in means of sound) as English, but they could a least try a tiny bit more…
I mean, the most used term „Wesen“ is totally mispronounced.
No German-native would understand it. It took me a while to do so at least and I had to read it at some point before it made sense to me.
The way the cast pronounces it, the word means „whose“ not „creature“.
They add an extra „s“ to it and make it a (possessive) question, rather than a noun…
Anyway, I still think it is great that they even try.
If you watch the German version of the show one thing becomes clear: They do not like the grammar either.
They bluntly change the names to something that would – in their opinion – make more sense in German. E.g. Blutbaden became „Blutbader“ (Which would more or less translate to „Bloodbather“ – someone who is bathing in blood. Trying to find a translation for „bader“ I discovered that there was a medieval profession by that name, someone that had some kind of medic role for the poor people. Look for „Barber Surgeon“ for more information.) and the „Ziegevolk“ (proper German: Ziegenvolk) became the „Ziegendämon“ (Goat Demon“), while still portrayed as the original version in the Grimm Diaries (notebooks of the Grimms about the Wesen and mostly how they killed them) that Nick inherited from his aunt Marie at the beginning of the series.
Makes just as much sense.
A bit more sense makes translating some of the things said in German in the original into Mandarin.
Yes, Mandarin.
The „Woge“ – the transformation from humanoid to Wesen, gets a Madarin term.
The German saying „Alles hat eine Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei.“ that Monroe – whose quite adept at several languages and especially at German thanks to his ancestors – uses in the Episode „Big Feet“ was translated into that as Nick asks what it meant „because it sounded nice“ and that question wouldn’t make sense if it was said in German…
So apart from language mutilation what does this series have?
Well, it’s a crime show that shows you a new Wesen each episode, just as we are used to from old Buffy times, with a whiff of Supernatural.
The character development is in my opinion quite slow.
While we have an awesome character with a certain depth to him with Monroe (being a Wieder Blutbad he is the vegan among wolves) right from the start, Nicks progress drags on into the second season with baby steps.
In the first season the story mostly centers around the crimes committed by various Wesen, the greater scheme is only slowly revealed. It is kind of like the viewer learns new things in the same pace as Nick does. Which is a good thing, but drags the story on without really having to. But this changes with the second season, where the story turns its focus onto the Grimm instead of the criminal Wesen.
At first I nearly gave up on the series, but the more it advanced the more colours it gained.
You had Nicks struggle of not being able to tell anyone and all the other problems he was faced with. But you also had different approach at how to treat Wesen.
In the finale of Season 1 you see a second Grimm, that doesn’t believe in Nicks way of befriending them – the good ones at least – and that sticks to the old ways of simply killing them off. So you do not have this general black and white thinking here. Which is really nice.
So by now I am quite curious where Nick’s journey will lead him and his affiliates.
Also the characters become better – especially Monroe and Rosalee.
Though Monroe was one of my favourite characters from the get go. His humor’s just great. Unfortunately they aren’t really able to completely capture it in the German version.
Well, and as I said he speaks German and can at least translate it just by reading through it.
But I also already mentioned that you can’t see this that good in the German version (hence the Mandarin).
And to show what else is different have some trivia regarding the different versions and bits I consider funny.
Throughout the two season there are several scenes in bars, some of them even in German bars. The music that is played there is quite disturbing for a Metalhead like me, but one song in particular caught my attention.
In Episode 14 in Season 2 „Natural Born Wesen“ Monroe walks into a Wesen bar and what is played? „Bück dich“ by Rammstein. One of the most contrary bands in Germany. (A band I’ll be seeing live in a week from now at the Wacken Open Air 😉 ) Though in my opinion their song „Mutter“ would have been more fitting in regards to the episodes title.
Apart from their musical choices I like the way the creators treat finale cliffhangers, when after the last scene the message: „To be continued“ writes itself and after a moment „You knew this was coming.“ is added. 😀 They at least know how to make things funny for their audience.
And as we already are with writings: As interesting as the intro texts are, as awesome is it that the German voice actor Thomas Fritsch is reading them, while in English they are only shown and faded out again. He has just the right voice for a storyteller and he already has some experience with that. 😀

Another thing that is again typically German – beside strange translations: Censorship.
In the second Episode („Bears will be Bears“) Monroe keeps an eye on Nicks aunt.
In the original you can see how he rips of the arm of one of pursuers and later see the same guy in a sickbed with a red spot at shoulder height being wheeled past him when Monroe calls Nick in panic and claims that he might have overdone it.
In the German version they skip right from the fight to the bed-scene, so you can not really make the connection to the bloodstain.
I might have looked away at that moment, but I think I remember that there was another scene where he was holding the arm and looking at it in horror before he fled the scene that wasn’t shown either.
Additionally to that:
German television magazines often named Monroe „Eddie“, as they had picked up somewhere that that would be his first name. By now it is even on some other (English) sites, but officially it was never said whether „Monroe“ is the first or the last name and what the other is. (Eddie was a draft name if I remember correctly, though.)
Anyway, to conclude all this:
I think Grimm is a rather good series.
It is a bit slow when it comes to character development and has this monster-of-the-week flair from Buffy, but it still has potential to grow.
And it is interesting to see how it will continue, especially with the characters and how the writers will manage to continue to build in new Wesen and stories/fairytales – even though this faded quite strongly into the background by now.
It is always interesting to see how the supernatural cumulates at a place as soon as you have to do with it. 😀
In my opinion the rumor that OUAT is a ripp-off of Grimm is far-fetched. The sole thing they have in common, is that they integrate the Grimm’s Fairytales…but they portray it completely different. (OUAT does a better job at that I’d like to add. Besides I am kind of inclined to write a continuation for my post about them, not sure if I’ll actually do it.)
However, this concludes the post for July.
Last year I did not manage to write one for August so I at least managed to not do the same with this month…
And as I am off to another Journey around Germany I wont be able to write anything more until the middle of August.
So, stay tuned for my travel log and some festival reports in the following months. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

Bad Wolf Day 2013: "Hiding" Spots

As I told you this morning, today is Bad Wolf Day! (Find out more about it in the last post).
And as I now have placed all my slips of papers I’ll be posting the pictures of the „Hiding“ Spots. (They are both below and on my FaceBook page you can find on the right side)
As I’d also like to talk a little bit about them you can find some notes with the pictures and additional thoughts below the Gallery.


Well, I had made 11 slips of papers, one for each Doctor, but somehow #10 and #11 – for whom I had rather fitting spots, just slipped away and started off their journey on their own…
#10 blew away when I was about to put #9 into place and #11 probably fell out when I had put #2 into the Manga. Therefore only nine where actually placed. I kind of see this as a sign, as it was the Ninth Doctor that encountered BAD WOLF. 😀
Through this I kind of could change the places I had in mind for the other Doctors, that did not have one at that time.
But let me tell you what I had in mind:
#1:
My first idea for him was, to put him in a book in the library, but as I looked for what was available, I not only discovered that our local library did not have anything from the series, but that it in fact only had one novel from Torchwood…
Beside that book I also found two interesting sounding books with „Who is who“ in their title – one about Science Fiction, the other about British History.
Unfortunately the latter two were no longer among the public inventory and would have to be ordered and that’s not what I wanted…
Anyway,  I then decided to pick another Doctor and put him somewhere more fitting – and don’t ask me why I only had the idea for the Sixth Doctor first….
As I wrote for the picture Germany used to have huge yellow telephone boxes and I kind of miss those as they were more fun – yet more warm and filthy – than those glass and pole thingies you can see in the picture.
#2:
Where to place him was unknown to me for quite some time. Then I remembered that I had just bought a copy of Kazue Kato’s OneShot collection Time Killers and I simply hoped they would still have some issues in the bookstore.
As I wrote for the picture the store used to be called „Weiland“ which is approximately pronounced as: „Vailand“ – just with the weird way of pronouncing vowels in German – and it still reminds me of Valeyard…even though it was the Sixth who had his introduction I still picked that place for two…
#3:
This was the first paper I placed today and it was also the first where I knew where to place it.
I don’t know why. Okay, I think it was about the same time when I thought that #11 should have gotten a place in the bus as well, but still the first on my list.
And as I wrote above the slip of paper for #11 just vanished between placing #2 and #9…guess he did not want to take the bus…
#4:
This one was certain from the start as well. I wanted to put him next to Doctor Who DVDs, as I am looking forward to finally seeing his episodes/seasons, but as you can see and read above, there where no such things and the help I asked did not even no what Doctor Who was…(thought it was an interpreter…)…
Anyway, I instead found many seasons of another doctor (and yes, that’s the price season eight has in Germany), so I put him with those.
#5:
Number 5, the celery man. 😀
And therefore he needed to be placed where there is food and preferably vegetables. 😀
Originally I thought we would go to the soup bar, as we did quite a bunch of Mondays before, but the soup did not sound that tasty, so instead we went to the place with the fake plants.
(On a side node: The black fabric in the background are My two colleagues from the post before the last one 😉 )
#6:
This one had the note „telephone box“ next to it…but it ended up in a Hamlet novel – a version I actually read in grammar school – where I wanted to put #10s after much ado (I at first wanted to put him among Pratchett novels, then among the Harry Potter books I could not find and lastly among the Shakespeare works).
But for some reason his paper flew away when I was trying to get #9s…so #6 got his place.
#7:
Seven actually made it into the Torchwood book I had found in the library.
It was nice seeing the library for the first time after it had to move due to reconstructions in their old place. Confusing, but nice. And the woman from the reception did not know Doctor Who either, but they might order some stuff now 😉
#8:
As #8 was the Doctor that came to being in an Hospital – if I remember correctly – and the building is also called House of Doctors (a Medical Centre) I thought it was just fitting…
Besides Doctor Who is also partly a children’s show and that part read: paediatrics. I wanted to hang it near a sign saying „Humanmedizin“ (human medicine), but I could not find any…or it was too high for me to reach…
#9:
As soon as I remembered the wolf-statue I just had to put his paper there. After all it was him who encountered the BAD WOLF. 😀
Well, as #10 and #11 went missing and as I said what I had planned for them before, this is all.
I still don’t know if I participate on the 11th again and if anyone replies from one of my papers, but it was fun. 😀
And if I participate again I take the companions names and put them according to that.
I already know where I would put the one for Jack 😀
For Rory too, but for that I would have to ask IceWolf to get his paper to the Roman Museum I talked about in my travel report (Through a bit of Germany ’12). 🙂
Maybe we’ll see us with the next Bad Wolf Day 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© Copyright for the displayed goods and the statue lie with their creators.

Bad Wolf Day 2013

Happy Bad Wolf Day everyone! 🙂
Or as happy as this day can be seeing what it is about.

But what is Bad Wolf Day?

Bad Wolf Day is a fan-celebration for the British television show Doctor Who.
In case you REALLY don’t know what that is:
Doctor Who centres around a time travelling alien being called The Doctor.
Usually The Doctor travels with one or more companions, mostly humans, to whom he shows the vastness of the universe. Their adventures are shown to the television audience since 1963 (with a break from 1989 until the reboot in 2005, plus a movie in 1996), this year having its 50th anniversary.
One of his many companions was Rose Tyler, a normal 19 year old girl from London 2005.

He meets her in his Ninth incarnation (he is a Time Lord, therefore he has the convenient ability to regenerate into a new body when he is about to die – which also is a good way to use different actors for a long running series 😉 ) and they develop quite a special bound based on trust and protective instincts.
Anyway – and this is kind of an Spoiler, but also the essence of what this day is based on – , during one of their adventures The Doctor is faced with quite a bad situation and sends Rose back to Earth to save her. Of course she does not want to stay there and wants to help him. She gains access to the energy of the TARDIS (his space-and-time vehicle; short for: Time And Relative Dimension In Space, a blue police box from the 60s that you might have seen somewhere before 😉 ) and flies it back to him.
Throughout their journey they had encountered the words „Bad Wolf“ several times and with this energy within her, she realizes it was her that put all those writings in all those places, as clues for herself, that she would realize that she is: the „Bad Wolf“ and that she would this time save The Doctor.

Bad Wolf Day 2013 Flyer

Bad Wolf Day is a reminisce of that moment in the series.
The fans – the so called Whovians – are told to go out and write the words on slips of paper, on sidewalks, everywhere. Just to spread the words, to „help“ and so forth.

This year, and I found it through the Facebook Fan-Page: Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S., it is said to be today: 3. June 2013.  [Edit: I’ve added a different picture of the flyer as the FB-version is no longer available] (There is also the variation, that it is on the June 11th as that was the original date when the episode „Bad Wolf“ aired.)

And feeling a bit nerdy yesterday, made me not just write a bunch (well Eleven, as that is still his hour, I mean, current incarnation) of papers where I wrote the words Bad Wolf and the tag #badwolfday2013 on it, but I also wrote a little note on the back side where I asked to pass along the slip of paper and give me a note where they found it. Pictures of where I put the papers will be added to my FaceBook Page later today. [Edit: They are also added here: „Hiding“ Spots]

Bad Wolf Day

The Papers for Bad Wolf Day 2013

I’m quite curious if that actually works and if I get any replies…(And just to make sure they find the right side I will temporarily make the last post the Home Page and not the static page I usually use.)

So, if you came here because you found one of my papers:
Please leave your note in the comments below or if you’ve even taken a picture of where you’ve found it, you can post it on my FaceBook Page (see the right side for the link).

German:
Wenn du hier bist, weil du einen der Zettel gefunden hast:
Bitte hinterlasse deine Rückmeldung unten als Kommentar oder wenn du sogar ein Foto gemacht hast, von der Stelle an dem du ihn gefunden hast, kannst du das auch auf meiner FaceBook Seite posten (siehe rechts für den Link).

And maybe, just for fun, I will do the same thing on June 11th again. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

Once Upon A Time…

there were two writers of „Lost“ who decided to create a TV-series about Fairy Tale characters that ended up in our world.
When the series was far into its second season a random Blogger started watching it.

So here I am now waiting for the next episode and giving you my two cents on ABC’s “Once Upon A Time” by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

The premise and where it leads

When the Evil Queen enacts a „horrible“ curse all Fairy Tale-characters one (possibly) knows are separated from their loved-ones and given new memories and lives in a town in our world: Storybrook, Maine. Breaking this curse is the destiny of the main character Emma Swan. And being the main character she has to face different trials throughout the season(s).

Before I start to go into the topic I’d like to note that I consider it pretty hilarious that the Evil Queen claims our land to be „somewhere horrible„. For a magic user a land without any magic probably IS a horrible place. For everyone else probably just weird and foreign. 😀

That said: I don’t really know why I started watching it in the first place, but it might have to do with the fact that I simply like hearing/reading about or watching Fairy Tales. And with OUAT you don’t just have every Fairy Tale-character you (possibly) know, but also them in a different world. Besides I’ve already was curious about it thanks to the previews for the German version of it. So I gave it a shot and was admittedly quite easily won over.

Seriously: I only needed to watch a certain scene in the pilot and they had me.
The scene I’m referring to is the Evil Queens entry scene: The music, the atmosphere, the wonderfully bizarre animation of how she “walked” down the hall towards Snow White and Prince Charming. My mind really just went “BAM, you gotta watch this”. And when later they switched to a scene with a weird sounding and looking creature kept in a dungeon prison; guess that was the very final straw to destroy all my doubts (pun intended 😉 ).

Characters and Concept

I really think this series has a great concept and great writings. It is always fascinating how the different stories (Fairy Tales) connect and how the different characters interact. As well as seeing „history“ repeat itself when the „humanized“ versions live through a similar trial in each episode as their Fairy Tale-counterpart.
And the characters are great too, well most of them. There are some that are a bit easier for me to grasp than others. The worst for understanding and stuff are probably Charming (My spell-check is fascinating: If I only write Charming it tells me to write it with lower case, if I write Prince Charming it’s all right. XD) and Snow White…I just find them so disturbingly romantic and stuff that I just want to hide somewhere so I would not have to see that…I’m no good with too much romance, sorry.
Every time they do their little “I will always find you”- conversation my mind goes: – Yeah, I know…for crying out load…oh wait, no, they cry silently, whenever they find and/or lose each other…they cry so effing much…they must have an enormous supply of onions on set…or the actors are really good at crying without a reason…
Still, they do have some good scenes – where they are close to being pretty cool instead.
In those where Charming wore his pelted cape around his shoulders I somewhat thought: Now longer hair and beard and he might have just walked off of the set of „Thor“. 😀
Well, you see I’m not really a Snow White fan, but I’ve mentioned that before when I talked about dwarves.

Speaking of those: Grumpy. 😀
He’s one of my favourites and as I said: I really like his attitude and humour. It is always fun when he’s around. His comments cause some moments to become more enjoyable. Beside that did I really enjoy the episode that featured his back story. It was fun, interesting and kick-ass, because he is kick-ass. 😀
Little Red Riding Hood was also covered in a wonderful way. When I watched her episode I had a slight feeling of what might happen, but the revelation was still well done. Additionally, her actress is just amazing…she really manages to balance being seductive without appearing slutty.

But balancing stuff is kind of a theme in the series as each character has at least two sides to them. Their Fairy Tale- and their „Storybrooke“/Real World-personification. And some even have a third part to them: The personality before the big change. And I think it is obvious, for those who have seen the series, whom I’m talking about: The Evil Queen and Rumpelstiltskin. 😀

Their development from loving daughter/father to those badass characters that are cunning, witty and „evil“ is just brilliant. And the development is quite reasonable and well explored so far – we all know that there is even more to come and the majority of us are eagerly looking forward to that. 😀
But what I like most about those characters is that they are the ones you can relate to the most. Well, at least I can. Especially with the “imp”: Pessimism accompanied by cowardice, more or less antisocial behaviour and a way with words? Sounds familiar to me. 😉
Even though many characters have one or the other insecurity those two bring theirs to a different level. Yet, it still makes sense and that’s what’s fascinating about them. They have loved; they have lost something precious and secluded themselves behind their powers. Still they are willing to do anything to regain (a bit of) what they have lost.
And they are both brilliantly portrayed by their actors Lana Parilla and Robert Carlyle respectively.

They bring so much life into their roles, it’s incredible. If I didn’t knew it better, I’d say they are enchanting the audience with their performance. But who says I do (know it better)? 😉 Especially the interpretation of Rumpelstiltskin is most fascinating. The voice, the gestures, the combination of both. Carlyle created something unique there. Combined with the well written backstories and dialogues it makes for one incredible character.
It is always fun to see how Rumpel was involved with the other stories, manipulating people into doing what he needs them to do. A trait the Evil Queen has picked up from him.
While for most characters their Storybrook-personality is not as good as the one they had in the Enchanted Forest, those two manage to combine them. It is just always fun to see what is happening to and/or with them in each episode. 🙂 I wonder if it makes me a bad person if I prefer the supposed evil characters over the good ones? o.O

A Fairy Tale background

Watching OUAT made me realize that I haven’t watched the old Disney versions of the Fairy Tales that often. Mostly only once or twice. And I probably haven’t seen every one of them (I know I haven’t watched Tangled so far). But I do have some memories of some of them: Grumpy and the witch from Snow White,  a little bid of the dragon in Sleeping Beauty, the scene where the beast fights with the wolves from The Beauty and the Beast, and probably some others if I would think some more about it.
It seems I wasn’t really into obsessively watching movies as kid, more a series kind of person. Like I still am today. 😉 Another thing is probably that my parents grew up with the German, Czech and/or Russian interpretations and Fairy Tales and taught/read/showed me those as well. I’ve seen the movies with Baba Yaga and her chicken-legged hut more often than I’ve seen any of the Disney movies. Though I don’t think that’s a bad thing, as they have a pretty fun and different tone to them. And less singing. 😀
Regardless of that I know all the stories OUAT is based on, some because they were read and/or told to me, some because I’ve seen a version or two of them and I really like the approach they made on them. (And I don’t see it as rip off of anything else, as the concepts of those other things sound different.)
It also made me realize that I didn’t know who Jiminy Cricket is (though I knew that there was a cricket in Pinocchio) and that I never really noticed that the Prince from Snow White was (nick)named „Charming“ or the witch from Sleeping Beauty „Maleficent“. Though I’ve heard those before I think…you always learn something new I guess…

The German version

As I said the show is on German television currently. They recently aired the finale of season one, which gave me a chance to shorten my wait for the new episode on Sunday (or Monday considering the time shift).
But don’t let me get started on the German voices…
Even though they made some good choices (Snow White is pretty well chosen), some are rather weird.
I mean: Couldn’t they have just let Sebastian Schulz voice Josh Dallas as he did in Thor? o.O No they chose the little boys voice instead…Aside from the fact, that Schulz sounds better, it would have been fun to have him alongside Claudia Urbschat-Mingues (Regina) like they had him alongside Oliver Siebeck ( as Volstagg ) in Thor, causing another family reunion. 😀 (Schulz voices Trunks in Dragonball Z, Urschat-Mingues is Bulma, while Siebeck is the second voice actor for Vegeta)
Also, why do voice actors always have to voice several actors? I mean as fitting as Thomas Nero Wolff might be for Robert Carlyle, my first association with his voice is and probably will be for a long time: Hugh Jackman and after that: Anthony Steward Head. Beside that is he not really able to come at least close to Carlyles Rumpelstiltskin voice…even though he is trying, but it just sounds so wrong….just like the characters German name by the way.
Even though I grew up with it, it sounds so weird when you’ve heard the English version, which has a different sound to it…though the suffix is basically the same…but in my ears Rumpelstiltskin sounds better (and even more threatening) than Rumpelstilzchen outside of the classical Fairy Tale context…no idea why…guess my ears are just weird like that…

Anyhow, the second season showed some quite interesting new turns and I am really looking forward to the next episodes. I think this format could really have a chance to last for quite a while as Fairy Tales are timeless and what Kitsis and Horowitz created is something special that contributes to that. Something you enjoy to indulge in when you’re day wasn’t the best one.
Just like a „real“ Fairy Tale would. 😉

PoiSonPaiNter

Dark Shadows

The latest Burton-Depp-Movie that had been released over here.

A movie based on the homonymous TV series/soap opera about the last descendants of the Collins family. A family that came from Liverpool into the „New World“ to settle down and even managed to built their own town, thanks to their successful fishing company.

Or rather the last descendants and one of the very first Collins. Namely: Barnabas Collins. A Vampire-turned man imprisoned into a metal coffin for nearly 200 years by the woman he had rejected. He ends up in the 1970s version of their town Collinsport and has to experience things like cars, asphalt, television, hippies, McDonalds and the nearly ruined remains of his family.

After he had been buried „alive“ the witch, who had caused the death of his parents and his beloved and basically the demise of the Collins-family, took over the business and established her own fishing company. When Barnabas learns about this he gives his all to return his family to its former glory.
And that’s what the movie is basically about.
And of course the family-intern problems.
And the love triangle vampire-witch-reincarnated human.
And stuff.

Additional to Depp and Bonham Carter, we this time also have Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and former „Nightmare on Elmstreet“ Jack Earle Haley (unfortunately I only know him as Rorschach from „Watchmen“ so far…) and „Eli Stone“ Jonny Lee Miller.
Not that bad of a cast. Actually quite a good one.
Did a good job portraying those extraordinary characters.

In the following I will refrain from judging the movie.
I will not say whether it is good or bad.
I’ll simply stick with the word: bizarre.
And there will be spoilers, so you might stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Why do I call this movie bizarre?

For once it kind of lacks the coherences Burton’s movies usually have.
The characters were roughly portrait and not really developed, but what you saw them doing was rather weird every now and then.
This might be due to people knowing them already because of the series.
Which I’ve never even took a glimpse opon…as the old version wasn’t released in Germany and the remake was broadcasted when I was far too young to watch, let alone understand it …

For example the daughter. During nearly the whole movie she looks/walks/dances like she is constantly high on whoever-knows-what.
Only during the finale she is seen with some kind of emotions – even if it is just „rage“.
When she turned into a Werwolf …
Yup, they got the Vampire first and even a wolfie …
Usually this would have been at least hinted beforehand, but this time it wasn’t or I simply missed it.

Or when the boy found Barnabas in the coffin, the thick metal coffin mind you, he just opened it. As if it was no big deal … And he somehow also managed to undo 5 to 10 centimeter thick steel chains … how ever he did that … was probably his ghost mom …

One of the oddest scenes however, was the „sex“-scene, where Barnabas and Angelique ruined her office while kissing and slamming each other from one side of the room to the other … everything else was off-screen. There was no real need to display this in my opinion.

In contradiction to the above mentioned things there where quite some funny scenes when Barnabas dealt with the „modern“ world.
A joke that I had heard or read of beforehand was when he found the McDonalds sign and mistook it for the symbol for „Mephistopheles„. Funny how I just wrote about him. 😀
I also chuckled when he sorrowfully told the hippies that he would have to kill them.
Or when he ripped out the backside of the TV station to force the tiny woman out of it.
And so forth…

Anyway, this movie has good and bad things, both dealt with in quite unusual ways.
Though we are used to this in Burton’s work, this time he approached it differently.
He created a bizarre movie, that was not always completely coherent, yet held rather humorous elements.
It even had quite a decent ending, till the cliff shot of both Barnabas and Victoria came along.
I liked the line, where the woman said, that they would do what they always had done: Survive.

I kind of doubt the aging over here was wisely chosen, however. I don’t think 12+ kids would understand some of the things I mentioned and the other things I didn’t.

Regardless of everything I said so far the movie is definitely worth watching.
But the expectations shouldn’t be too high.
It’s not your „average“ Burton.
It’s different.
It’s bizarre.

PoiSonPaiNter