So there’s the Classic Doctor Who series that ran from 1963 to 1996 and a modern Doctor Who of ones from 2005 to present. Is there now a Classic The X-Files of shows that ran from 1993 to 2002 and a modern The X-Files of ones from now on? I suppose much of if the “classic” and “modern” labels will only have any meaning if the new Fox series is limited to just the six episodes or if there’s more than one season.
TNT is working on a TV series version of the film Animal Kingdom. That movie is one of my favorites, I thought it was one of the best of 2010, about a lives of a family of crooks that’s slowly unravelling after one is killed by the police and in retribution the family kills two cops. I think that’s why the movie is so interesting — it’s about something coming apart, destroying itself. It’s still too early to tell, but I don’t think that a (reportedly) series about a family of criminals that’s not coming apart but instead lasts season after season would be as interesting as the latter. Then again I’d be happy to eat my words since I didn’t think Hannibal or The Americans would be any good either and those two shows turned out to be two of my favorites.
Comics
Benedict Cumberbatch as Marvel’s Doctor Strange
The comic series Aquila, which ran in the pages of 2000 AD, is available in a collected edition January 12. Aquila: Blood of the Iceni is a sort of mashup of Conan the Barbarian and the writings of H.P. Lovecraft with the title character living in Roman Empire times in the place that will one day be the UK who’s brought back from the dead with one catch; he must provide souls to the ancient hungry god Ammit the Devourer. A god that’s always hungry!
In finding these souls, Aquila must do battle with winged creatures, an insane Nero trying to become a god himself and the natives of England who are out to push all foreign invaders off their land.
Books
CUNNING PLANS: Talks By Warren Ellis is a book of talks collected as essays by Warren Ellis who’s best known for his work in comics. Ellis has a knack for describing the times we live in from almost a future historical perspective. He comments on are everyday mundane things from cell phones to Instagram to traveling. But it’s how he sees them that’s so unique.
“Our ghosts are our history. Their voices are what we learn from. Our rituals are our methods, and our castings and workings are our scientific experiments, magical practices to learn the true names of things that mane the world. Because, in magic, when you name something you can control it.” — Warren Ellis
Apps
For the last few months I’ve been writing most everything in Scrivener using Markdown. I like how Scrivener organizes everything — I have one document for these Direct Beam Comms articles, one for my 2016 columns, one for random stuff… — and how I can export the finished product in just about any format I want.
And Markdown, a “…text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers…” is a nice way for me to format copy without having to worry about future-proofing my work. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years trying to figure this out. If I save everything as a Word DOC and in 20 years there’s no easy way to open the files then I’m screwed. What I’ve been doing over the last five years is saving all my work as rich text format (RTF) figuring that while this might not be the best way to save things, it’s got to be better than the proprietary Word format. Then I thought about saving out everything as HTML files, since those are essentially easily readable text files that anyone at any time in the future will be able to open.
Scrivener solves all these problems for me. I write things once using Markdown and then can export into whatever file format fits my preference. I’ll usually export a RTF if the piece is being published somewhere else and HTML so I can copy and past this content into my website. But I can also save PDFs, ebooks or a host of other file formats too.
There’s quite a few new series to look forward to on TV this fall. In fact there are FIVE series/mini-series based on influential novels set to premiere later this year on cable and streaming services and a few other interesting shows to boot!
Unfortunately, the outlook for new series set to debut on network TV doesn’t look good. There’s only a few show there that I’m interested in, and that’s only because they’re a genera series that, truthfully, I don’t have very high hopes for.
Melissa Benoist as Supergirl
Those two network shows are Supergirl on CBS and Minority Report on FOX. Supergirl follows the Man of Steel’s cousin who must balance her life and the fact that she has the same superpowers as the Man of Tomorrow while Minority Report is a sequel of sorts to the 2002 movie where one of the twins from the film who could see crimes in the future goes off with a cop to try and stop more crimes.
I’d have more faith with Supergirl if it were on ANY network other than CBS while Minority Report sounds a lot like another FOX show from a few years ago, Almost Human from 2013, that also took place in the future but partnered a robot with a cop in order to solve crimes. Almost Human only lasted a single season which with how FOX tends to treat its sci-fi series is also probably in store for Minority Report too.
On cable things are a lot more interesting.
On The CW is the superhero Legends of Tomorrow show that takes place in the same universe as their already popular DC Arrow/The Flash series. In Legends, a whole group of superheroes/supervillains from Firestorm, the Atom, Hawkgirl and Captain Cold to name a few team up to try and stop some future world ending event. Legends sounds a bit like Justice League meets Suicide Squad which could be interesting.
A TV version of the Evil Dead film franchise Ash vs Evil Dead is set to take on the Deadites starting Halloween on Starz. The trailer for this one looks to be a crazed blood-spattered gore-filled continuation of the story from the movies with Bruce Campbell returning as Ash in the title role.
What’s got me REALLY excited this fall are those five sci-fi series based on books; Westworld, Childhood’s End, The Expanse and, what I’m looking forward to most next season, The Man in the High Castle.
The Expanse
Based in the Philip K. Dick novel, The Man in the High Castle is produced by Ridley Scott and will stream November 20. The first episode of this alt-history series has already debuted where a post WWII victorious Japan and Germany occupies the United States. Their response to any rebellion is a fiery death and even owning alt-history material in High Castle that tells of a victorious US in WWII is a crime punishable by death.
The first episode of High Castle was so good after watching the first free episode I went out and immediately subscribed to Amazon Prime in order to be able to see the rest.
A mini-series based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood’s End (1953) premieres on SyFy Monday, December 14. The Childhood’s End story has colossal alien spacecraft arriving at the earth ala V (1983) and the inhabits within, who just so happen to look the stereotypical version of the devil, promising to bring peace and tranquility to the planet. But their gift comes with a very large caveat.
Another Syfy series based on a novel is The Expanse which also debuts December 14. The Expanse takes place several hundred years in the future when mankind has spread out from the Earth, is living all around the solar system and is mining the asteroid belt for resources when a deadly secret is uncovered that puts the future of humanity in doubt.
A TV version of the Michael Crichton novel/film Westworld is set for HBO sometime after the new year. The original Westworld story followed guests at lavish themed resorts staffed by robots that turn on them who have to fight for their lives. Reportedly, in this updated version the robots/beings of Westworld don’t know that they’re living in a simulated reality and think what they’re experiencing is real.
Returning series
Though it doesn’t always seem that way during slow months, but at times modern TV is an embarrassment of riches. Nowadays there are quality series not only during the fall and winter but spring and summer months too both on television and the various streaming services too. So many so that even though I watched a lot of TV last season there simply wasn’t enough hours and I couldn’t keep up with everything so I was forced to skip quite a few shows I’d normally check out.
There are so many riches that I’ve come to the realization that some series that I think are just alright are really very good. It’s just that when an “alright” show is being judged against future-classics they come off more pale in comparison than they would otherwise.
Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who
First up this fall is the ninth modern (35th if you include the classic) season of Doctor Who on Saturday, September 19 on BBC America. This second season with Peter Capaldi starring as the title role will run 13 episodes including the traditional Christmas episode. From its reboot a decade ago Doctor Who has been a solid sci-fi show with a lot of heart.
ABC’s comedies Fresh off the Boat and Black-ish return Tuesday, September 22 and The Goldbergs Wednesday, September 23. These comedies aren’t great but they usually funny and sometimes that’s enough.
The second season of The Last Man on Earth premiers Sunday, September 27 on Fox. I thought the first season was good, abet maybe not enough “last man”, but I’m honestly interested in where this one picks up after the events of the first season finale.
The cast of Manhattan
The drama following the creation of the atomic bomb Manhattan returns to WGN Tuesday, October 13. I’m not sure many watched this show but I genuinely liked a lot of Manhattan where the secrets the people keep who are developing the a-bomb are almost as destructive as the weapon itself.
The second season of The Knick on Cinemax about the hospital of the same name in New York at the turn of the last century, debuts Friday, October 16. The first season was produced and entirely directed by Steven Soderbergh and was one of the best things on TV last year. And Soderbergh’s again returning to the directing chair and is filming each and every episode this season too. The Knick is the rare show that takes a look at a mostly forgotten time on our history where the world was moving to a time of scientific wonders and horrors too.
Star Wars Rebels
I’m a huge Star Wars fan and am excited about the return of the animated series Star Wars Rebels Wednesday, October 14 to Disney XD. This series takes place between episodes III and IV in a time where the Empire was the unequivocal ruler of the galaxy and the crew of the ship the Ghost are just trying to make a legal if they can, illegal if the must, buck. But as the first season progressed and the rebellion agains the Empire began to spark the question becomes does the crew join up and fight and put their lives on the line or do they play it safe and try and stay small and under the radar of the Empire?
I very nearly included the upcoming reboot of The X-Files as a new series since the show’s been off the air 13 years at this point, but decided that it’s a returning show since it features all the same cast and writers from the classic show returning to this new one on Sunday, January 24. Honestly, I can’t wait for the return of The X-Files even though late in its original run the series became overwrought in trying to maintain its conspiracy storylines and had an unremarkable ending for a remarkable show. Yet the first time I saw Mulder and Scully in the new promos and heard the eerie theme again I got goosebumps.
And sometime after the new year two of the best shows on TV returns; The Americans on FX and Better Call Saul on AMC.
Keri Russell in The Americans
Now in its fourth season, The Americans looks to pick up after the devastating events of the third season that left the Jennings’ family in ruins. Is there hope for the Soviet spies in 1980s Washington DC when members of their own family want to defect to the other (our) side?
Better Call Saul was a revelation to me last winter. I was never one that was able to get into the TV series Breaking Bad. All of my friends who watched that show loved it and I’ve tried watching it several times but for whatever reason I could just never get into it. So I almost didn’t watch Better Call Saul since it’s a prequel of sorts to Breaking Bad but luckily I did. Better Call Saul traces how sad-sack lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) one day becomes ambulance chasing do whatever it takes to win a case/make money law be damned Saul Goodman.
Everything about the first season of Better Call Saul was wonderful and its the rare show that when one episode ended I’d spend the next week waiting with excitement for the next one to start.
I watch a lot of TV. A comfortable estimate is that in the last 20 years I’ve easily watched something like 15,000+ hours of television and have seen my share of TV series beginnings and endings. While most series are just plain bad, sometimes shows have bad beginnings but good endings like the US version of The Office and sometimes series have good beginnings but bad endings like Seinfeld, Lost, The X-Files and ER.
Seinfeld
Recently, after doing some complaining of my own to friends about how the series Lost ended and there being discussion online about what really happened at the end of The Sopranos it got me thinking; do endings matter?
To a certain extent endings matter a great deal. A great show with a bad ending leaves a bit of a bad aftertaste. No matter how brilliant Battlestar Galactica (BSG) was or how many hundreds of hours of great programming we were left with after Seinfeld ended people still remember and bring up the endings of those two shows. While I personally liked the end of BSG I’d agree that the ending of Seinfeld was a stinker.
But it was thinking about a show exactly like Seinfeld that made me wonder if series endings were as important as everyone thinks?
Let’s look at a show like Lost. Arguably Lost, which was on TV for six seasons, had about three great seasons, a few alright ones and a bad last one. So watching Lost we got about 67 hours of spectacular story along with about 31 hours of good TV. Which ain’t half bad by any measure. You could watch Lost for nearly three days straight and be in total awe of what was going on all that time.
Battlestar Galactica
And maybe that’s why viewers are so upset with a show like Lost, that started out with such promise and slowly wasted away to a shadow of itself.
Even a show like BSG that had something like 53 hours of spectacular story and 19 hours of alright story people still argue about the ending not being in the spirit of the show and using lame sci-fi cliches. Again, I dug the ending.
Why do audiences get so fixated on endings? Why is there so much hate for Lost co-creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse who arguably entertained millions of people for years but who also presided over a turd of an ending? Why is it that people are still pestering The Sopranos creator David Chase to reveal what really happened in the last second of that series?
I think why endings matter so much to so many is that most of the time with series one episode leads to another and certain things blur together. Was it the same episode of ER that Quentin Tarantino directed where Doug Ross rescued that kid from a flooded sewer, or were they different? Did David Duchovney leave The X-Files before or after the show moved to California? But with the last episode it’s the last thing people see and remember and if they’re in a heightened emotional state at the time with their favorite series going away and if the last episode is a letdown, well then Lost is total crap and The X-Files ultimately sucked.
The Sopranos
But I’ve thought for a long while that just the opposite is true. Sure, I was let down by the end of Lost and stopped watching The X-Files before the last season of that show, but I knew enough at the time to enjoy the ride when the shows were still good rather than to focus on the last stop as it were.
Even with most shows that are really good are only like that for a few seasons a the most. After a while creators start to run out of original story ideas and old plots from previous seasons start getting recycled and new blood is brought onto write for the show with different ideas that might not be in the spirit of where things started.
I think the trick is to realize that at best even great shows are only going to be great for a little while. And that even if they are great until the end there’s little chance the ending is going to be something that appeals to everyone.
With series TV it’s the ride that counts, not the destination.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson respectively
There are a few TV series that I consider “mine.” These are the series that I started watching before they were cool, before they were featured on the covers of magazines, before the actors became international superstars, before the series were spun-off into movies… One of these shows I consider “mine” is The X-Files.
I had just started college the fall of 1993 when The X-Files premiered. While my peers were spending their Friday nights doing various age appropriate things like going to parties, I spent that time at home on the computer visiting our local BBS while also watching The X-Files. When the show premiered, I didn’t know anyone else who was watching it, not even my friends who were into that kind of thing. But slowly, over the preceding months, The X-Files started to gain traction and after a while people who weren’t into horror-TV were watching the show and talking about it.
Pic from the temporarily banned “Home” episode
The X-Files followed two FBI agents, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who investigated the X-Files, or weird uninvestigatable cases that included everything from UFOs to ghosts to bigfoot that the FBI didn’t know what to do with. Mulder, the “I want to believe” guy, clashed with more even-minded Scully who, while not a total disbeliever, would search out scientific explanations for the oddities they uncovered during their investigations.
Some episodes of The X-Files dealt with various monsters, ghouls and weird goings-on around the country and others focused on an underlying governmental conspiracy in place to keep all this quiet. These conspiracy episodes are what comprised the overarching plot of The X-Files. Essentially, this story boiled down to why are aliens visiting the Earth and why is the government trying to cover this up? And, furthermore, what devious plans do the aliens have for us and our planet?
In the early days of the series me, along with millions of other people, gobbled all this up with glee. For years The X-Files was my favorite show and I eagerly followed it from Friday nights to Sundays when it made a move to a more desirable time slot.
The Lone Gunmen
A feature film was released in ’98 titled The X-Files: Fight the Future that was reportedly going to shed some light on the conspiracy storylines of the show. While I saw the movie opening night I’m still not sure if it revealed anything new other than featuring some cool “only on a movie budget” sized special effects.
After the film, The X-Files returned to TV and just got bigger and bigger. And when it didn’t seem like the show could get any more popular it got immensely more popular with people buying The X-Files comics, trading cards and Duchovny and Anderson and other co-stars being literally mobbed at fan events and conventions.
At one point nearly 30 million people were watching the show each week. To put that number in perspective, the most popular scripted show last season was The Big Bang Theory that has something like 19 million viewers tuning in. And The X-Files was a dark, hour-long bleak drama that was a downer most of the time and not some peppy half hour comedy.
But like all things The X-Files could not last. By the time Duchovny and later Anderson left the show to be replaced by other stars, the sparkle had gone and the series eventually ended it’s run after nine seasons. And thinking about the show more than a decade after the series ended I’m still not sure what the conspiracy fueling The X-Files was ultimately all about!
The “aliens” of The X-Files
While The X-Files may have gone on for a season or few too long, in my heart it’s still one of the greats. I think that series like Lost (conspiracy!), American Horror Story (genuinely creepy TV horror!) or Hannibal (FBI agents investigate he bizarre!) owe a great deal to the foundations laid by The X-Files.
Those first four or five seasons of The X-Files still shine with a brilliant sort of creepiness that makes me want to reconsider what the very fabric of the universe is made of. My personal favorite episode? “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space,” of course. All episodes of the series are available on DVD and Netflix instant.
