I finally watched the last episode of the X-Files season 10 and wanted to look back on the thing as a whole.



Overall, I would give the season a solid B. It had some great moments and some terrible moments, but I think the former outweighed the latter. Plus, Mulder and Scully are two of the greatest TV characters of all time, IMO, and so anything that has them together can only be so bad.

Next, a look at particularly episodes - warning, I don't go in order!

My personal favourite episode was "Founder's Mutation." Along with my current re-watch of the whole series (I'm about 3/4 of the way through season 1), it helped me realize that my favourite episodes are the ones that are more science-based, and this definitely was that. I just thought it was a very interesting story and it led to some good character moments for the leads.

Everyone was raving about "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster," which fell a bit flat for me. I think my main problem was that Mulder's development in the episode would have fit better if this was the second episode, rather than the third (which apparently it originally was going to be). Also, the tonal shift was just a bit too much for me - I really don't remember anything quite that goofy before. But it was still a decent episode and probably the second best of the season.

I tend to like My Struggles Part 1 and 2 better than most people - I think there were some really good ideas in there but there just wasn't enough time to develop them. Part 2 did at least make a case for why Agent Eistein could be a necessary character in the future, since at this point Scully has seen too much to be skeptical and, as this episode showed, sometimes that is necessary. Not sure about Agent Miller yet, though he seems like an okay kid.

"Babylon" was, quite frankly, terrible. I expect more from this show than to fall back on stereotypes and that was all this was. Which made the Miller/Einstein characters really not work.

"Home Again," was a bit hit and miss. Scully's storyline was amazing but the mystery of the week wasn't strong enough to be paired with it.

Other thoughts:

- I don't know if I like all the emphasis on William, probably because I don't really remember much about him from the original run. General opinion seems to be that it was one of the weaker parts of the later seasons, so it might not have been the best thing to focus on. That said, I did love the scenes where Scully and Mulder imagined what life with him would have been like.

- Agent Skinner was CRIMINALLY underused, I don't know why they even bothered putting him in the opening credits.

- Speaking of the credits, I do sort of love that the original ones were used, though at the same time I think I would have liked to see some new visuals, so long as they kept the original theme song.

- I can't believe the damn thing ended on a cliffhanger. While I do think this season proves that the X-Files can still work, it seems a bit presumptous to end on a cliffhanger without concrete plans for more episodes - particularly since I have a feeling that we might have a bit of a wait before everyone can be brought back to do more.


So yeah ... overall, I liked it and would like to see more. This season was definitely not one of the series' best, but it was still enjoyable and I look forward to seeing what comes next (assuming that anything comes next).

I keep meaning to do my year in review, so here I am, finally starting in on it. A little late this year, but better late than never.

( Starting with books )


Also, unrelated, but I am very upset about Alan Rickman. I really loved him, as Snape and in every other role I've seen. I really regret never getting the chance to meet him.

Hey, I'm alive ... I think.

Finished moving to the house, will share pictures when the place isn't a disaster. October was a crazy month though - glad to see it over.

Imriel is having issues with being confined to the basement, so I have to re-think that. He's basically spending most of his time when I'm here curled up on the loveseat in the living room, so I think I might leave him with run of the first floor as well and hope he doesn't spend too much time barking at the kids during recess (so far, he's been okay).

Of course, that floor is full of boxes that I don't want him getting into, so a lot of work has to be done before that will work.

Also trying to carve out time for writing again, since I haven't done a whole lot recently. I did however recently buy Scrivener on sale and am loving it so far. Though I need to do less planning/re-arranging and more actual writing.

2 shows this time, one new, one old.

Blindspot

I watched this one mainly because it has been getting a LOT of hype with commercials. And it looked like it could be cool. I enjoyed the first episode more then expected, because Jane Doe turned out to pretty much be a more stable River Tam, which is a character type I enjoy. The actress playing her is also awesome and really helped pull the show through some initial parts that were questionable, what with her body becoming an object for study. Luckily it ended up not feeling too male gaze-y and she was basically asserting her agency left, right, and center.

Also, the show reminds me a lot of the Blacklist, though perhaps not quite as ridiculous - though time will tell about that one. So definitely going to keep watching this one.

Gotham

Forget the haters, this was the best new show of last year (well, The Flash looked like it might be pretty good but I've only actually seen the finale, so I'll reserve judgement). I really did love the heck out of this show and I feel like the direction for season two is shaping out to be pretty interesting. We definitely have a nice theme building for both Gordon and Bruce, as they step away from happiness and instead embrace their "calling" (which is something that really sums up Batman as a whole quite well).

Not sure about having Selina work for Penguin but I guess they needed to put her somewhere. And since she ended up with Fish last season (which was also questionable), I guess it does actually make some sense.

I do keep hoping they'll find a way to bring back Renee Montoya though. Because she's awesome. But I'm not really expecting it, since I don't think she's appeared in it since halfway through season 1.

As mentioned in my last post, there are a lot of new shows that I plan to check out this fall season, starting tonight with Minority Report, Life in Pieces, and Blindspot. But I thought maybe I should go back a bit and talk about the most recent new show I've been watching ...

Fear the Walking Dead

I've been a fan of The Walking Dead for awhile - particularly the TellTale Game, though I also adore the show. I've also read vol 1 of the comics and they seem good, I need to pick up more volumes at some point.

Anyway, this spin-off has been interesting but it's also been widely inconsistent. I'm still not quite sure it's figured out what it really wants to be, though I just watched episode 4 and it might be almost there. I just think they should have gotten to that point in the story at least one episode sooner, and cut some of the extraneous stuff there. When the show really focuses on what we didn't get to see in the Walking Dead - the actual breakdown of a regular human life, where the walkers are your friends/neighbours - it really works.

The characters also could be stronger. So far, I think Madison is my favourite and she's had some awesome moments, but again, things seem very inconsistent with her at times.

So ultimately, I am enjoying watching it but it's not as good as the Walking Dead yet and I think that's because they didn't have a clear roadmap to follow for the beginning, while TWD did stick pretty close to the comics, at least for the first couple of episodes.

Hey, tersa, Telltale just released the next episode of Game of Thrones (if you hadn't already heard).

Also, I hate Telltale. I hate them so, so much.

*cries*

Quick post to say I'm still alive!

Life has been busy, with spring here finally. I've been enjoying going out to the Pit with Imriel, sometimes twice a day because the weather has been that nice.

I do have some news of a personal nature, as I've been on enough dates with a new guy to consider myself "in a relationship." This time is a bit weird though, because my mother is on Facebook now and thus is all asking questions about him. For here, I'll just say his name is Josh and he's pretty cool. We have a good time hanging out and, assuming things go well, I will no doubt be mentioning him here in the future.

Not much else going on. I'm not going to finish work on the novella in time for Camp NaNoWriMo, because I'm too good at distracting myself. But I've given myself a deadline of Victoria Day (May 18th, which is a stat holiday here, for those who aren't in Canada). I have extra motivation to get it done soon, because I think I want to try and get the self-publishing thing going in time to maybe have copies to bring to NerdCon:Stories, assuming I go ... and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go.

I also finally finished my second playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy. I went with the Synthesis ending this time, which I found depressing since it's the first time my Shepard has been completely gone, since my first Shep went for Control and is thus basically a Reaper now, which is sort of badass.

Next ME playthrough will be a Renegade male!Shep who is super pro-human and a bit of a bigot about everything else. Should be fun!

Also, alas, the Sens were eliminated but it was an awesome go of it. I will be keeping the icon up for a few more days.

I'm still alive!

Life has been pretty busy for awhile ... or at least it's seemed that way. My head's been feeling very fuzzy lately and so it might just be me.

In an attempt to defeat the fuzziness, I am trying to do some major cleaning of my apartment, since I'm definitely someone who is affected by my environment. Also, maybe I'll finally be able to find whatever is attracting so many damn houseflies!

I also am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, trying to finally finish the first draft of my steampunk novella that originally started as a Himitsu AU fic (old RPG I was involved in) but has become something different now (and something better, I think, since I've introduced a second narrator/storyline that is completely original). Anyway, I have a 10,000 word goal that I think should get me to the end. Now I just need to actually write it.

I had another busy weekend, which makes me that much more grateful to be able to work from home (which I do pretty much every Monday).

My ringette team was in a tournament run by our association, which mean four games over the course of three days. The Rec division, which we are in, had 8 teams, so the format had everyone play 2 games, then you were put in Pool A and Pool B, with both pool's having a winner.

Our first game was against Ottawa, who is in our regular division and usually beats us handily. This was no different, though we did outplay them in the first period.

Our second game the next morning was against an Ottawa area team we don't normally play (they are in the R1 division, while we are in R2). We had a shaky start but ended strong, to tie them 6-6. I told people we needed to have the first period from out first game and the second period from our second, then we'd be doing just fine.

The third game was interesting from an administrative perspective. This was after the two pools were divided and we knew that the Pool B games were supposed to be in the evening. Unfortunately, the team we ended up being against had to play in the 2:30 game because they were going back to attend a funeral. So we ended up scrambling to make sure everyone knew the game time was changed and weren't able to get everyone. However, we ended up dominating the game and won pretty easily, either 4-1 or 5-1, I'm not sure.

This put us in the Pool B finals, playing Metcalfe, another team in our division whom we have never beaten. But the team played really well, with the game tied up after 2 periods (ringette only plays 2 periods, unlike hockey which has 3). Since it was the finals, this meant sudden death overtime. And then my aunt scored, so we won Pool B! As a prize, we got a $100 pre-paid VISA, which we'll spend at a team event or something.

It was pretty awesome and a testament to how much the team has improved, since a lot of them have only been playing ringette for 1-2 years!

But it was also exhausting, so I am glad that I can have a day where I don't go anywhere today.

I decided it was time to revive my old personal website yesterday. I switched to Squarespace this time because they have some really neat templates and everything is super easy to use.

Unfortunately, my old domain is no longer available (I think those domain purchasing companies out there probably buy up anything that's expired, since obviously someone wanted it at one point so they might want it again). But I managed to get one that is also pretty good.

http://www.vkmartin.com

There's not too much in the way of content right now and I don't imagine that's going to change. I will be trying to at least keep the Quote of the Week updated. And probably get a few blog posts a month.

And if I ever get that damn novella finished, I will definitely have information about it there too.