Poked around at the novella renovation that I want to do next, but not much forward progress yet. Rewrote a couple of pages, updated them to a more contemporary setting and technology (the story was inspired by a very creepy classified ad I saw in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald over 25 years ago) and toyed with changing the gender of my protagonist. Still might. We’ll see.
I finished reading The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly this morning. A very satisfying courtroom thriller. It felt to me that the prosecution case was set forth in a logical manner, as one might see it in real life rather than something concocted for dramatic effect. Plenty of reversals and change-ups, and decent character development. A bit of self-referentialism when a movie producer tells Mickey Haller he wants Matthew McConaughey to play him in a film about his current case, and an obligatory visit with Harry Bosch, but I liked this better than some of Connelly’s more recent books. Full review to follow. I noticed an odd caveat on the copyright page that I’ve never seen before: “The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.” I wonder what inspired that.
Next up: Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale, the new Hap and Leonard novel. Can’t wait.
We’re halfway through the third and final season of Deadwood. The more I see of it, the more I think the creator and writers were steeped in Shakespeare. Now that the traveling performers have arrived, I’m certain of it. Hamlet anyone? Al gets soliloquies like no Shakespearean actor ever did, though. Deeply revealing monologues. Not enough of the doctor in the past few episodes. Last scene coughing up a lung. The Hearst storyline is building to something explosive. Loved the scene where Bullock arrested him and pulled him across the thoroughfare by the ear and locked him in a cell with the body of someone he had murdered for the night.
I finally realized why Trixie (Paula Malcomson) was so familiar to me. She was Maureen Ashby in Sons of Anarchy. For some reason I never made the connection before. She was on Fringe this week as the woman who couldn’t die because she was struck twice by lightning, which made her molecules bind together more strongly. No, it didn’t make any sense to me, either, but sometimes you just have to shrug and move on. Unlike the lighter-than-air osmium last week, this was one of those things that is mentioned once and then forgotten.
Anna Torv did a fantastic job as Bellivia. Her growly voice and dialog pacing was just right, and she arched an eyebrow in classic Nimoy style just enough. “I never realized a bra was so binding,” s/he says as William Bell adjusts to his new surroundings. He seemed less interested in exploring his new body than in hitting on poor Astrid, though, who was seriously creeped out by his attentions. Good thing she wasn’t around to hear him when he and Walter were discussing the possibility of transferring his consciousness into Gene the cow, whom Astrid would presumably then have to milk.
Good to see Agent Alterna-lee, who started out as a non-believer (“Stranger things have ahppened,” Billy says. “Um, no, they haven’t,” he retorts.) but quickly embraces the weird, including compassionate soul vampires and even comes up with a few off-the-charts Fringe-like suggestions of his own as the case evolved.
Billy and Walter are delighted at being reunited (“They’re doing that thing where they don’t finish sentences,” Astrid complains as the two men work on the famous “three trains leave different stations at different intervals and different speeds” problem we all know from high school math), even sharing a joint while listening to Supertramp.
I had a few quibbles with the storytelling this week, though. First, has there ever been a scene where a person falls from a roof onto a car several stories below where they haven’t hit the roof dead center? Do people never bounce off the fender or the trunk. Okay, that’s a little quibble. But why would anyone have an invoice for 20 lbs of plastic explosives. Are we meant to think he bought the stuff legitimately at, oh, I don’t know, Bombs R Us? And wasn’t that the worst job of trying to trace a cell phone call you’ve ever seen by the FBI? Peter was on the phone with Dana forever, and they didn’t even get a general location. Then the FBI shows up at the train station in full Code 3 mode, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Way to tip the bomb-wielding suspect off. And, finally, how could Broyles have any idea when the bomb was set to go off? Nothing they found at the apartment told them that, but he had it down to the minute.
I liked the Ascension of Azrael concept, and the funny shifting of William/Olivia at the end implied things are getting dangerous. I wondered if the tolling of the church bell might have triggered something, since William’s bell was what activated the “soul magnets” in the first place. I really do hope Fringe survives and is renewed, though its numbers were bad this week.
