Carl was in my office, discussing the fourth act twist to his new episode, when Paul walked in, dropped himself onto the couch, and said to no one in particular: “You know who’s a great actress?”
“Alaina?”I offered.
“Alaina,”he informed us. I had a feeling given that her scene had been scheduled for that afternoon. “She’s Alaina when she walks on set and then, when they yell “Action!” she’s T.J. Then, when they yell “Cut!”, she’s Alaina again.” Apparently, she delivered a heartfelt performance in a very emotional scene. Moments later, Paul came across her sitting and laughing, in conversation with some of the gals from hair and make-up. Then, it was back to delivering on that emotional scene – without missing a beat.
THAT is talent!
If you’re Carl Binder..
STOP
READING
THIS
ENTRY
BECAUSE
I’M
GOING
TO
DISCUSS
THE
SEASON
FINALE
OF
SURVIVOR
…
NOW!
For some reason, Carl has made a pact with his wife to only watch Survivor (and The Amazing Race) with her. All well and good, unless she’s back in California which means waiting for the next time they get together – which will be later this week. Carl insists that he’ll be able to avoid any spoilers until Thursday night…which I think is highly unlikely provided he does surf the internet on a daily basis.
Anyway, that finale. I was very happy with the final three and, while I thought Parvati played the best overall game and really deserved the title, I thought Sandra played a pretty solid game herself and don’t begrudge her the win. As for Russell – well, as Boston Rob put it, he never played to win, only to reach the finals. Which he did. For the second season in a row. And lost. For the second season in a row.
The high point of every finale is what I like to call The Parade of Broken Hearts, the point where the bitter also-rans on the jury get the chance to have their say, castigating the finalists for hurting their feelings and generally making them look silly. There are always a few who get so worked up, you almost expect them to burst into tears – voice quavering as they check off the list of broken promises, unprovoked targetings, and perceived sleights.
This latest Survivor also saw The Dumbest Move Award presented to T.J. for his unwise decision to give his immunity idol to Russell. Yeah, it was dumb, but it was nowhere near as dumb as Erik’s much more egregious idol giveaway in the final four a couple of seasons back. Now THAT was dumb!
Anybody else watch? Your thoughts? What other finales are you looking forward to? I’ve got a backlog of House episodes to get around to (Those live+28 numbers are going to be HUGE!) after which I redirect my attention to my burgeoning collection of anime.
Speaking of numbers, SGU’s 17th episode, Pain, pulled in the show’s best ratings since episode #9, Life. Both Carl Binder joints, by the way. With three episodes to go before we close out season one, I’m hoping to see a modest build in viewers to see us out before the move to Tuesday nights.
Speaking of Carl – What’s with “What’s with Carl Binder?”?: http://forum.gateworld.net/threads/74892-The-writing-of-Pain-and-Life
Hey, here’s a timely piece by Michael Hinman over at Airlock Alpha: http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7446
I’m pleased to report that I remembered my ice cream today. On the other hand, I forgot my laptop and as a result, with time to kill, I ended up eating my serving veeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrry sloooooooooooowwwwwwwlyyyyyyyyyyyy. The amaretto-laced dark chocolate was a huge hit. Those who ventured to sample the Blue Cheese with Honey Walnuts liked it (Ashleigh and Linda), but I thought it too sweet. Next time, half the sugar will hopefully bring out more of that cheesy blue flavor.
Mailbag:
Cat4444 writes: “That being said, I seriously doubt whether their longed for cancellation of SGU would have any realistic chance of resulting in the resurrection of SGA or SG1.”
Answer: Quite the opposite, actually.
Cat4444 also writes: “HOWEVER, I also noticed that there were personal attacks being made against the cast of SGU, among others, and to me, that is unacceptable.”
Answer: Yes, it’s always easy to sound tough when your anonymous. I have no doubt that in a public setting – say, a convention – they would pee their pants before they’d dare confront any of the people they’re launching personal attacks against.
Raynan writes: “I think you misunderstand the criticism there.”
Answer: You misunderstood. I’m not taking issue with the criticism, merely the infantile way it’s being presented.
Mel writes: “That is simply not true! [edit] doesn’t delete ANY kind of posts.”
Answer: Sure, they allow posts – and then venemously attack any opinion that doesn’t follow the party line.
Mel also writes: “One of the main reasons for its existence, is the censorship at Gateworld.”
Answer: Bull. The site was up well before Gateworld made any decision regarding overwhelmingly negative posts.
Shadow Step writes: ““These are real people, doing the job they were hired to do, and to attack them personally for doing that job is completely unreasonable.” So let me sum up your opinion as I understand it: The person doing a job is totally divorced form the quality of the job? And if someone thinks the person is to blame for a job done badly they shouldn’t be allowed to say that?”
Answer: Uh, I think you’re overlooking a key word in that quote: “attack them PERSONALLY”. I’m sure it was a simple oversight on your part.
Specter177 writes: “If SGU is a success, the PTB will say “Hey, this Stargate thing is still bringing in money, lets go ahead with those movie plans…”
Answer: As I’ve been saying all along, the hold-up in the movies comes not from a lack of desire on anyone’s part. It’s a result of several market factors that will hopefully see a turnaround in the coming months.
imadaman writes: “A question about Morgan Le Fay. Do you think she’s dead? Died with Adria?”
Answer: Like Oma Desala and Anubis, Morgan Le Fay and Adria are locked in perpetual combat, a timeless stalemate.
paceofnature writes: “I’m a long-time Christopher McDonald fan…”
Answer: We loved having him and he enjoyed being back. Before leaving, he informed us that in addition to doing great hallucination work, he also did equally terrific flashbacks.
Jeff writes: “By the way Joe, one of my buddies texted me the other day after Pain aired, and said that Eli and James should hook up.”
Answer: Your friend’s name wouldn’t happen to be David Blue, would it?
Nekomajin writes: “Have the Blue hyperdrive or they use FTL, and can they travel between galaxies?”
Answer: Guess we’ll find out.
Nekomajin also writes: “And finally, is there going to be a Q&A with David Blue?”
Answer: He did one last year: https://josephmallozzi.com/2009/10/02/october-2-2009-actor-david-blue-answers-your-questions-and-stargate-universe-premieres/. And hopefully he’ll be by to do another one soon.
BoltBait writes: “I certainly wouldn’t want thousands of people critiquing my job every day. It would drive me insane. How do you cope?”
Answer: Hey, the way I see it, it’s when they stop talking about you that you should be worried. 🙂
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