When I was at World Horror in Brighton earlier this year, Derek Clendening interviewed me about the Evolve anthology. He also interviewed Nancy Kilpatrick and a passel of other contributors. The end result is The Evolution of the Modern Vampire: A Roundtable Discussion at Dark Scribe. There’s one misquote at the end. Where I say, “My story gave me the opportunity to write about a location I’ve never been in Eastern Canada” I really said “a location I’ve never written about in Eastern Canada.” I grew up in Eastern Canada! Even if I was jetlagged, I never would have said that, and the interview took place when the sun was up, so I wasn’t inebriated.
I saw the first comment about my introduction to Lilja’s Library today, at Talk Stephen King. He calls it “delightful.”
I received my contributor copy of Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads last night. Since it’s a fund-raiser for the ITW, I wasn’t sure I’d get one, so I ordered a couple of copies, which I received several weeks ago.
I had a chance to see “The New Man in Charge,” the 12-minute feature that will be on the Lost DVD release that answers a few questions about the series. Not big picture answers, but little things like: why was the food drop still happening, and what was the deal with the polar bears, and where did the Hurley bird come from, and why did Chang have a different name on every Dharma video. It mostly features Ben and a new Dharma video. Fun, but not really essential to the series.
Covert Affairs started out a little on the slow side this week, but picked up toward the end. Eriq La Salle was the guest star (haven’t seen him in ages) as a former CIA agent who retired after his girlfriend/fellow agent died during an op. Annie had her eyes opened a little about the real business of the agency. The bloom is off the rose for her, I think. And who is running her ex-boyfriend? Is he a loose canon, or is he doing someone else’s bidding?
“The Great Game” was the third installment of BBC’s Sherlock, and easily the best of the batch. I read this morning that the series will be renewed, though the details haven’t been worked out yet, including how many episodes there will be. They make some interesting connections to the original material (“five pips,” in this case, and Bohemian stationary, which calls to mind a certain scandal). What I assume will eventually turn out to be the Baker Street Irregulars is in this rendition an underground of homeless people who gather information for Holmes upon request. This episode gave Holmes not one or two cases to solve but a half dozen. I’m not entirely sure what the opening bit set in Belarus was supposed to be all about though. It seemed a long way for Holmes to go for what he would ordinarily deem a boring case and it didn’t seem to come up again.
The scenes with the pawns reciting their captor’s words were really creepy, especially the old blind woman, who was fantastic. I felt so bad for her. Turns out that this version of Sherlock is not quite the pugilist that Robert Downey, Jr. was in the recent movie–especially not when faced with a gigantic scarecrow of an opponent. The fight scene in the planetarium to the soundtrack of a skipping astronomy treatise was very well done. Maybe we’re meant to see the golem again some day. My favorite exchange between Watson and Holmes took place with Watson working on his widely read blog and Holmes shouting at the TV.
Watson: Knew it was dangerous
Holmes: What?
Watson: Getting you into crap telly
Until this episode, Moriarty was just a whisper, a hint, a rumor, which was effective. Even Holmes had no idea who it was. The way they chose to go with him when he finally showed up was a bit daring, and I can see where some people might have been turned off by his antics. He reminded me strongly of John Simm’s version of The Master in Doctor Who. A bit campy, very expressive, with some great delivery.
The ending wasn’t quite Reichenbach Falls, but it was the next best thing. Looking forward to them picking the story up again in the not-too-distant future.
