When is Third Number One?

On Christmas day, I received the third best gift possible.

If you had seen it, it wouldn’t have seemed as such. It wasn’t some fancy sport scar, trip to your dream location, or even a winning lottery ticket.  Nope, it was just an old action figure.

Specifically, it was a Mister Freeze figure from the Batman animated series.  It’s around 10-15 years old and still in its package.  Not even really a collector’s item.  But when I saw this, I broke down a little and teared up with gratitude.

You see, while there is no big demand for the figure, there is also not many of them to find easily.  I have been looking for some time for him- since I have always liked the character and the action feature this one had-and have never really had much luck acquiring him.  It was as more a joke than anything that I had put him on my wish list for Christmas.  Usually I just ask for gift cards, but I occasionally throw a ‘left field’ request in; a pony, a full sized drivable Back to the Future Delorean… or a Mister Freeze action figure.  I am always content with whatever I get, since I appreciate the thought.  Also, as I mentioned before, it’s more about what I can do for others than what is done for me.

But once in a great while it works in reverse.

It wasn’t the figure itself that caused the happy breakdown- it was what it represented.  It showed me that someone took a good amount of time and effort tracking this down for me.  It was someone really looking for something that was special.  It was someone looking beyond the easy and convenient to try for a bit more for this sad excuse for a human being. It was showing me that despite everything, people can and do pay attention to others, making the world- to me- a better place.

It was a renewal of the hope I sometimes find so lacking in myself.

So I thank you, Lois.  I don’t know if you knew how I felt receiving this.  Sometimes I have a hard time articulating thoughts when I am not being writing them down.  While I say this is the third best gift I could receive, this is not meant as an insult in any way.  Rather, since the two things I want more than anything this time of year (and most of my life in general) are impossible/improbable, it’s actually the main thing I want.  It was far better than I wished for, and possibly better than I deserved.

Not bad for an action figure, eh?

One

This is not going to be a happy post. I apologize in advance.

 Some of you may know that this is not my favorite time of the year. Some may even know why. The simple fact is that long ago I have given up trying to find real joy for myself this season. There are only two things I want that could change everything for me during this time, but I will never get them; one because it is truly impossible, the other so highly improbable that it might as well also be impossible.

 So until the day comes around that time travel becomes possible, I do the next best thing: I try to spread a little joy and happiness to others. You see, to me this time of year should be when hope for humanity is renewed. So I work to do that, even though mine is dangerously low. People should have reasons to laugh, to experience wonder, to forget their woes- to get that hope for humanity. To further that I don the mantel of Pagliacci.

 I try to spread joy to others, be it with humorous photos and cards (which I admit are a creative yet fun challenge to create), gifts to show that someone actually pays attention, offering assistance to those in need, to just being there for people. I could be a bitter person, full of bile during the holiday season, but I want others to feel better. I want them happy. I want them to see that the world is not all bad; that things can be good… to have some hope for the world. I figure if I work hard enough at helping others enjoy the season, just maybe some of it will rub off onto me.

 Some may think I am doing it wrong, that I shouldn’t hide my feelings for the sake of others. Maybe they are right, but I feel that it is better to do this than the alternative. The world already has enough trying to drag it down.

 Despite my darkness, I will fight for the light.

Two

People who know me may know that I am always really appreciative if I am given something, be it an actual item or even a simple act of kindness. What they probably don’t know is why.

For a long time I have never revealed this, because people may think that I am too cynical. But you can’t just keep things bottled up. I have tried, but things like this fester, growing and eating at you and your psyche. So I write it out. Sometimes I publish these thoughts. More often I don’t. What will be the fate of this one? Right now I have no idea…

In these now four decades of life, I have learned many things, both for good or for ill. One of the more… realist things I have learned and taken to heart is this:

 NEVER expect anything from anyone.

 You are not entitled to anything- you have to earn it yourself. Don’t think that the goodness of others will bail you out. Never count on people to return favors. I have no expectations of people ever paying me back, it’s all pretty much written off. Once I adopted this philosophy, life became far less disappointing. But despite this, I will still go out of my way to help others, being as giving and as generous as I can be. Just because many choose not to give doesn’t mean I have to do the same.

 So when someone does give me something, I am truly touched. It could mean that they too see fit to fight the inherent selfishness of humanity. Maybe they realize that we’re all we got. Could be that while they know we as humans have to make our own happy ending, it never hurts to offer a little assistance along the way. Or maybe it’s just not a big deal to give… to share. And I find that one of the best reasons of all, and I look forward to the day when I am not surprised to receive anything. Until that day I will continue on this path.

 I thank you for reading.

Torchwood: Miracle Day the review...FINALLY

Sometimes I tend to forget myself.

When I first decided to write a review of Torchwood:  Miracle Day (T:MD) I was going to go very thorough and create it for someone who has very little knowledge of the series.  And somewhere in that I got lost. I should have taken notice when I exceeded 5 pages and had not even gotten to the actual review.  But it wasn’t until I figured to break it into three parts of at least ten pages apiece that I realized I was going way overboard.

So I stepped away.

Did other activities.

Waited for my focus to sharpen again… which I think it has.  So now let’s do this.

I am going to assume that if you are reading this, then you have had at least some knowledge of the show.  So there is no need to rehash the particulars.  T:MD  takes place a year or two after Torchwood:  Miracle Day.  Torchwood is dead, Gwen and Rhys are in hiding with their daughter, Captain Jack Harkness is no longer on Earth, and our world continues along in its usual routine- until people stop dying.  And a single word appears on intelligence computers:

 “Torchwood”.

 

The ten episodes follow the newly (and barely) reformed Torchwood as it tries to figure out what is happening and how to fix the problem.  A potentially gripping tale that would be willing to show the ramifications of a population that would no longer decrease and how to deal with it.  A noble effort, to be sure…

But it’s not QUITE what they ended up with.

To sum up T:MD in one word it would be ‘uneven’.  Brilliant highs, idiotic lows, and the one thing that nearly killed it:  Horrendous pacing of the first half of the series.  Let me put it this way:  I counted the days until the next episode of Children of Earth came out and would watch the episode twice.  Miracle Day I stopped watching it after episode 5 and didn’t resume for nearly 2 months.  I know they were trying to portray how the most likely scenario would play out, and a lot worked.  But oh Great Jebus, did it get tedious until episode 5.  There were other faults as well, but the pacing was the worst offender.

Now what I would like to talk about is some of the particulars of the series- what I liked, what I didn't, and what could have been done to improve the series.  To start off, let me talk about the one thing that would have dramatically improved this:

 Shorten the arc from 10 episodes to 7 (or 6).

 

They could have made a far tighter thrilling story if instead of making the entire season about Miracle Day, they had a couple stand alone episodes showing off the history of Torchwood.  This would have served two purposes- give newer watchers a sense of why Torchwood is how it is, and returning viewers a chance to see some of the old crew back in action.  To see an episode featuring Jack, Gwen, Owen, Toshiko and Ianto together again would have been a great treat.  Hell, they could have even had the single episodes tangentially connect to Miracle Day.  Rework the episode where Jack meets Angelo Colasanto into a stand alone whose importance to the arc becomes revealed later on.  I am just saying having the viewer realize that the 'filler' episodes were anything but would have been a great idea.

Speaking of Angelo, while that story arc was great to have for Jack, I kind of miss the 'ominsexual' tendencies he had.  One of the funnier running jokes in the series was that he would hit on anything that moves, and that no one was quite sure what his preferences were.  It's not a big thing, it just feels that a lot of potential was lost by making Jack strictly going for males of the species.  (It also fits, since it seems Jack still is mourning Ianto, which was a nice touch...)

Another small nitpick was the character of Ellis Hartley Monroe, the female politician seen trying to take advantage of Miracle Day.  I guess it is trendy to mock members of the 'tea party' movement, but this was rather petty and actually went against some of what the movement is about.  The character was wanting the government to get involved with this situation and to stop the pharmaceutical companies from profiting on this.  But since the tea party advocates for less government intrusion on people's lives and in business, it doesn't really work.  I would rather have seen her character be more motivated by religious reasons instead, because the moral majority seems more in line with her character.

While I loved Bill Pullman in this series, I got the feeling that they didn't quite know how to end his story arc in this series.  You have this great character who is the face of Miracle Day who is also a complete monster and how messed up our world becomes that he becomes that symbol.  And in the end they fumbled him.  (Don't get me wrong, his ending was pretty damned good and creepy.  It just seemed they had to find a way for him to be in the climax.)

One thing I really liked was that while in C.O.E. we see the evil that the bureaucratic governments were willing to do to restore order, in M.D. we see the results if we the people allow them to do it.  A place where people who are still living (at least technically) are incinerated 'for the greater good' is at first met with shock and disgust, but soon accepted and even expanded (class 0).  Where government workers terrorize the populace while 'doing their job'.  It was a frightening vision... and one we have unfortunately have become used to.

I will conclude this section by talking about two final things I wasn't a big fan of.  First, the overall story.  While I liked the idea of the series, in the end it really didn't make me feel this was  a story about Torchwood.  A few minor changes, it could have been an X-Files, Fringe, 24 or CSI story.  Granted, the whole 'not dying' thing would be a bit much on the more reality-based shows, but Torchwood was always about defending the Earth (and England specifically) from threats external to Earth.  C.O.E. showed this to great effect.  Miracle Day just didn't.  It was almost a bit TOO domestic.

The second thing I just could not really stand was the character of Esther Drummond.  I know that they wanted to have a relative novice in there to have someone for us to relate to, but did they HAVE to make her a complete tool?  It's almost as if she had a checklist of every stupid newbie mistake to make that she had to complete for her to win a kewpie doll.  I was mad when she finally died JUST because it took so long.

So was it worth watching?  I guess.  It is not the worst Torchwood has to offer, but it is also nowhere near the best.  And while it sets up a sequel hook with some potential, I just right now don't know if I would watch it.  I had high hopes for this, and I was let down by the amount of unevenness.  A shame...

Final thing on this:  one avenue I would have loved to see them explore because of its potential implications is the pregnancy situation.  How would no human dying have effected the right to life/ right to choose debate?  It would have been daring, even pretty controversial, but since they went to a lot of controversial places already, why not one more?

So there you have it.  I condensed 20 or so pages down into three.  I cut a LOT of fat, and hopefully got across most of the points I wanted to make.  Hopefully I made it a decent read, but if I didn't, well then I will have to try a lot harder next time...