The Hunger Games

For quite some time now I have been hearing about Suzanne Collins’ book The Hunger Games from a plethora of sources, all of which had good things to say. Naturally this made me want to check it out. I started it this past Friday when I had about an hour break. I thought it was interesting, but I was ok with putting it down until later. When I picked it up again that night it was suddenly 2 AM and I had finished the book. Whoa…how did that happen???

The Hunger Games follows the story of Katniss Everdeen who is a 16 year old in the post-apocalyptic world called Panem. Every year one boy and one girl are chosen from each of the 12 Districts to compete in the Hunger Games where the winner is the last one alive. In order to save her younger sister, Katniss volunteers to be the girl from her District. The reader is then taken with her as she attempts to survive the Games.

There were a lot of things I didn’t really care for about the book, but as evidenced through how quickly I read it I still became completely captivated by the story and it’s characters. My biggest gripe is that the story is told in 1st person present tense narration through Katniss, or as Kristen Lamb calls it “come along with me” narration. This is my absolute least favorite type of narration. It reminds me of the old film noir movies where the detective is narrating everything in a detached monotone and that was exactly the feeling I got from the book. The narration felt clipped and often void of all emotion.

Even though I didn’t like it, I understood why Collins chose to write her book this way. Katniss comes from a world where she faces the threat of starvation daily and has to watch everything she says and does for fear of being deemed a traitor. She has learned to essentially turn off her emotions and the style of narration demonstrates this and really fits with her personality. I just personally didn’t care for it and, as a side note, while I liked her more and more as the story went on Katniss was not my favorite character.

But that’s enough of the bad. It is a testament to how engrossing the story is that I was able to forget about all I just mentioned and actually really enjoyed reading it. There is a great cast of supporting characters, especially Rue and Peeta, who we truly grow to love and the action of the plot always has an undercurrent of intensity that keeps us turning the pages. Even in the quiet and touching moments we are constantly aware of the fact that someone could appear at any moment to kill our favorite characters.

Once I got into the story I obviously couldn’t put it down, but when I was actually finished with it I was filled with mixed emotions. Part of me absolutely loved it yet at the same time I was so frustrated with Katniss that I wanted to scream. Her character grows leaps and bounds through the story, but she can still be incredibly dense which causes her to do things that drive me crazy! The fact that The Hunger Games was able to evoke such strong emotions out of me, however, shows what a good book it really is. I am hoping that after I read the rest of the series my frustrations will be resolved.

What about you? If you’ve read it did you like it? What did you like or not like? Did the narration style bother you?

The Power of a Good Story

The other night I was reading a book and as I became more immersed in the story I could feel my body physically responding to the emotions the story was drawing out of me. This is not an uncommon occurrence for me, but it got me thinking and I realized that there are not many people I know who would understand what I was going through. In my limited circle of family and friends there are very few who truly “get” what it is about books that creates such passion in me. Most of the people I know find that emotional connection through music, some find it in movies, but very few find it through books.

Whenever I try to explain exactly what it is a book does to me I am usually looked at as though I have grown a second head, which is admittedly better than the people who think they know exactly what I am talking about but as they expound upon it I realize they have no idea. For me, the power of a book (or movie or television show for that matter) is in the characters and the story they are telling, and it is one of the most powerful forces I have ever encountered. It goes so much deeper than simply feeling a generic sense of happiness or sadness that you forget about an hour later as you go about your daily life; it is something that is felt deep within you and lingers with you for days or weeks, and even after you have moved on to new things you can pause to think back on that story and instantly feel those same emotions awakened within you once more.

I often wonder what I would look like to someone observing me as I read. I am not someone who just gets into a comfortable position and reads with a blank expression. I laugh out loud, I smile, I scowl, I gasp, I cheer, I exclaim and talk back, I cry (sometimes to the point where I can no longer see the words on the page), I make hand gestures, and occasionally I find the action so intense I have to sit on my knees so that I can move in motion with my anxiety. My poor husband has gotten so used to this that he hardly notices my strange behavior anymore and no longer takes offense when he comes to tell me something and I hastily wave him away without even looking at him because I am in the midst of some crucial scene. While most people find all this external display from a book odd, they can at least somewhat understand what I am talking about since it is tangible, quantifiable. It is when I attempt to explain the things going on underneath, the things that are causing this strange display, that I lose people.

I have been sitting at my computer wracking my brain for adequate words to describe what happens inside of me and nothing I come up with seems to do it justice. Whenever I am reading a great story there is a veritable storm of emotion brewing on the inside of me that I don’t know how to explain. How do you explain the feeling created in your chest and gut when tragedy strikes? How do you explain the happiness that bubbles inside of you so strongly that it causes you to cry when you watch a character who has struggled for so long finally overcome? How do you explain the wrenching feeling of frustration that makes you want to pull your hair out or reach through the pages and shake the character for being so stupid? How do you explain that nothing more than words on a page can be so intense they cause your heart rate and breathing to grow more rapid? How do you explain the feeling of emptiness and pain that will not leave you because of the way things ended? Sure you can use the words and phrases authors use to help create those emotions in the first place, but unless you have experienced these things personally those words are not going to help explain it any more than they helped create it.

It can be very lonely sometimes having such intimate and important encounters – even if is through “just a book” – and not having very many people, if any, you can share it with. This is one of the many reasons I am so grateful for the online communities created through blogs, fansites, and social networking sites. These things have allowed me to find and connect with some of my kindred spirits. I may personally only know a few people who “get” it, but all I have to do is go online to find a host of friends who understand the power held within a good story.

A Very Gleeful Movie

Two years ago I heard about a new television show that was going to be in the style of  a musical called Glee. I had never been more excited for a premiere than I was for this one and I was not disappointed. I instantly fell in love with Glee. It has been nearly 10 years since I graduated from high school and Glee reminds me of everything I loved from those years. I went to a school of the arts as a vocalist and all four of my high school years were taken up with various chorales, show choir ensembles, and other music classes. Whenever I watch Glee I see myself and the people I went to high school with in the characters. For one hour every week I am transported back to the world of performing and it just leaves me feeling happy. Naturally, when it was announced that the Glee Concert would be released as a 3D movie I became very excited and was eagerly awaiting it’s release. I have finally been able to see it and I loved it!

The movie opened with the cast singing what has become their anthem: “Don’t Stop Believin’”. Even though we have heard this song from them a lot I never grow tired of it and thought it was the perfect way to begin the movie. After that the movie did a great job of highlighting performances that showcased all of the members of New Directions as well as a three song segment with the Warblers. It was great getting to see old favorites from Season 1 as well as some of the great songs from Season 2 performed. My personal favorites were Rachel’s performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” as well as her duet with Kurt singing the mash-up of “Happy Days are Here Again” and “Get Happy”. Rachel and Kurt are by far my favorite characters on the show. Their voices are unbelievable and I could listen to them sing all day (their songs certainly get the most play time on my iPod). Another thing I really enjoyed were all the added and expanded dance numbers. They had a very talented group of back up dancers that added a new dynamic and energy, not to mention the fact that Brittany and Mike got to have their dance skills showcased as never before.

Sprinkled throughout the between musical number segments were hysterical blurps of the characters behind the scenes. I really hope that there are more of these scenes on the DVD because I found them very entertaining, but much too few. The bulk of these segments were instead taken up by clips of audience members talking about their favorite characters and why they love Glee. They also featured three fans – a little person, a girl with Aspergers, and a gay male – showing bits of their lives and showing how Glee has helped them with the struggles they have faced. While I appreciated and was moved by the stories featured I wish that they had taken up less time in the movie. They could have fit in several more musical numbers with the time that was spent on these stories. It would have been nice to have a shortened version of these personal stories shown in the theaters with the longer versions added to the DVD.

In the recent trend of 3D movies I have not been the biggest fan, but I thought it worked with Glee. The 3D added a great deal of depth to the movie so that it really felt like you were watching the performances live. The only thing that bothered me were the few instances when the cameras were using a wide shot and a dancer or audience member would suddenly pop out in front of you as the camera moved. It would just be very jarring when you were so focused on watching whoever was singing and BAM there’s a dancer’s legs right in front of you. Thankfully this did not happen very often.

When the movie ended I found myself smiling ear to ear and longing for more. It was so much fun getting to see the characters I have grown to love so much perform on stage, even if it was through a movie and not live. I enjoyed all of the performances (with the exception of an overrated surprise guest performer) and can’t wait to get the DVD whenever it comes out. In the meantime I will content myself with belting out to the CDs in my car.

An Education in Nerd Lingo

When writing my blog posts I have been writing on the assumption that the average reader is going to know what I am talking about when I use the terminology common to the online community. My rationale is that unless you personally know me you are not going to read my blog if the topic is not of interest or importance to you and if this is the case the probability that you are familiar with that terminology is high. While I still believe this is the case I have had several of my friends and family members joke with me about how they have no idea what I am talking about half the time. My sister has especially found some of what I have written illuminating since I never felt the need to detail the extent of my nerdiness to her with the full understanding that she would tease me relentlessly if I did. It was actually a conversation with her that inspired me to write this particular post when she jokingly said that I needed to make a key for people like her who sometimes feel as though they are reading a foreign language. Rather than go back and create a key I decided to write a post defining some of the terms I have been asked about as well as some I haven’t used yet, but are fairly common and may pop up in the future. So without further ado, let’s begin!

Fandom: This is simply used to describe a community of people who are fans of something and the interactions they have with one another. It is very possible to be a fan of something without actually being a part of that particular fandom.

Potterhead/Twihard: These are terms that have been created to describe the very obsessive fans of the Harry Potter and Twilight series. I trust I do not need to explain which term goes with which fandom!

Fangirl/boy: Someone who is a fangirl or boy is someone who is obsessed with something or – more frequently – someone and is very vocal, often to the point of obnoxiousness, about that obsession. There is a fine distinction between just being a huge fan and being an actual fangirl or boy. That distinction may be small and difficult to quantify, but it does exist.

Shipping: This comes from the word “relationshipping” which refers to the support of a particular romantic pairing. A shipper is someone who ships. A common occurance in shipping is the creation of a word used to identify the couple you ship by combining their names. Glee actually had a very funny scene in Season 2′s episode “Rumors” in which they listed off several of these shipping names. Some common ones from Glee include: Finchel = Finn & Rachel, Puckleberry = Puck & Rachel Berry, Britana = Brittany & Santana, Pizes = Puck & Lauren Zizes, Klaine = Kurt & Blaine.  Perhaps the most famous shipping names come from Harry Potter (and they elicited a huge laugh from my sister when she read them in one of my previous posts). I am referring to Heron, Hermione & Ron; and Harmony, Harry & Hermione. Shippers of these two pairings were particularly fanatic with an all out war ensuing after an interview with JK Rowling conducted by Emerson Spartz and Melissa Anelli (the founders of MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron respectively). In this interview Emerson called Harmony shippers “delusional” and they did not react very kindly to the word.

Fanfiction: This refers to a piece of fiction written by a fan about the world and/or characters they are a fan of. It is often shortened to just fanfic.

Troll: This is a person who goes onto message boards or the comments section of an online post and writes disparaging or hateful things about the topic being discussed and/or people discussing it just for the fun of it.

Squee: No, this is not a typo that was meant to say squeal. “Squee” is a word often used by fans to express their delight, excitement, giddiness, etc. about something that they have just read.

Jo: This is an affectionate nickname Harry Potter fans use for JK (Joanne) Rowling.

Hopefully this has helped those of you who were confused make sense of some of the things I have written. I have a feeling I am going to receive a phone call from my sister as she is hysterically laughing after reading this! Whether or not you were familiar with these terms before reading this or not I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. No matter how silly it all may seem to someone on the outside it is all a part of what makes this world so much fun to be a part of.

My Pottermore Experience

Imagine my joy when Tuesday morning I awoke to find an email in my inbox that said “Your Pottermore account is ready!” Elation flooded through me at the sight. The next 13 hours were a torment as I had to go through my work day unable to enter the magical unknown. When I finally got home I rushed to my computer and typed in my username and password with trembling fingers. I was immediately ushered into the world of Pottermore and invited to explore Chapter 1 of Philosopher’s Stone. The next several hours were spent in overwhelming bliss with a few instances of frustration. As I share my experience with you I will inevitably reveal details of the site – Ollivander’s, sorting, topics of new content – so if there is anything you don’t want to know about proceed with caution. None of the details I provide would I classify as major spoilers, but my opinion of what constitutes a major spoiler may differ from yours. You have been warned.

Even with all the official explanations of what the site was I was still rather confused on what to expect and exactly how we would be exploring the book. The way it works is really quite simple. Beginning with Chapter 1 you go through the book chapter by chapter. Each chapter has 2-3 screens for you to explore with each screen representing the major parts of the chapter. Each screen has a picture that is representative of the action that takes place in the moment it is highlighting. For example, the second screen of Chapter 1 is a picture of Dumbledore standing on Privet Drive with his Put-Outer. Along the left of the screen is a list of the relevant characters, objects, places, etc. that you can click on to read about. Most of the information is a short summary of what you learn in that chapter of the book for the topic you have clicked on, but whenever one of those items is accompanied by a red leaf it means there is new material from Jo for you to unlock. If you double click on the screen it will zoom the picture in and you must search each layer for they hold things to collect, such as chocolate frog cards and potion ingredients, as well as the items that will allow you to unlock the new material.

One of the things for which I was most looking forward to was visiting Ollivander’s and purchasing a wand. When you enter the shop a window pops up explaining the process that will be used for selecting your wand. You are asked a series of questions which you are warned to answer truthfully. The questions begin easily asking about your height and eye color and then become more abstract. The strangest question I was asked was if I was at a crossroads would I choose the path leading to the sea, the forest, or a castle. Each question provides several answers for you to choose from and at the end you are able to review your answers before submitting them. Once your answers are submitted you are shown your wand and are able to view the new material regarding the properties of the different wand cores and woods. The wand I received was hazel with a phoenix feather core, 10 3/4 inches, and unyielding. When I read the descriptions for the components of my wand I was amazed at how they really seemed to fit me. However bizarre some of the questions may have seemed, it appears they really do work!

The other thing I was excited about was being sorted. Similar to the wand experience, when you are sorted you are asked a series of questions with multiple answers to choose from. The first question I was given had four answers and each answer was obviously correlated to a specific house, but that was the only one where this was the case. Most of the questions had more than four answer choices and not all of those choices obviously matched a particular house. The last two questions were the strangest, simply asking me to choose either stars or the moon and right or left. I am not sure how these questions helped with the sorting, but I ended up in the house I always felt I belonged to: Ravenclaw. As promised, there was a nice piece of writing on Ravenclaw house detailing more of it’s history and attributes.

While I am truly enjoying Pottermore there are some things that have been rather frustrating. The biggest issue I have had is that very frequently when I click to zoom in on a page nothing happens. There have been times when it took me more than ten attempts for the site to respond and there have been other times when I have never met with success and decided to give up before I hurled my laptop across the room. Another issue is that when you get to the introduction of performing spells the instructions are not very clear. To perform a spell several letters from the incantation float onto the screen and you must press the correct letter once to activate it and a second time to determine its power. The instructions make it sound as though you only have to do this for the first letter in the word when you really have to do it for all the letters that appear (If this doesn’t make sense now it will when you encounter this on the site). There are a few other glitches here and there, but nothing that is specifically noteworthy.

All in all Pottermore more than lives up to the hype for me. Whatever frustrations I have experienced have been nothing when compared to the gain from the extra content. The amount of detail J.K. Rowling has created for her world is incredible. We are being given the privilege to delve deeper into this world we love so much and learn things we never even knew we wanted to know. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and to Jo for allowing it to be.

Game of Thrones

When last seasons True Blood was coming to a close I saw something that made my heart inflate with excitement: a teaser for Game of Thrones. These days it is incredibly rare to see fantasy television series being launched and more often than not when those instances occur the shows are promptly canceled. To see that a station like HBO was going to be tackling this elusive genre with seasoned actors such as Sean Bean filled me with hope and I was not disappointed. The 10 episode inaugural season was every bit the masterpiece I had dreamed it would be and that meant it was time to check out the book (I know, I know…I did it backwards). As I made my way through George R.R. Martin’s brilliant book I found myself nonplussed. The television series stayed shockingly close to it’s source material. Long ago I accepted the necessity for changes to be made whenever a favorite book was translated to a screen large or small and I have learned to not be bothered by it so long as the heart of the story and it’s characters remains the same. HBOs Game of Thrones went far above and beyond this requirement, but there were of course still some changes made.

The most significant difference between the book and show were the age changes in several main characters. As far as I remember the ages of Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and Daenarys Targaryn were never explicitly stated on the show and I took them all to be in their early 20s. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that in the book Robb and Jon are 14 and Daenarys is only 13. I puzzled over this rather severe change for a while and the more I thought about it the more it made sense. I read a lot of historical fiction covering a vast range of time periods and in those books it is not unusual for very young characters to have roles of great responsibility because that is the way it really was. As a reader I am able to think of the characters in terms of what their age would mean for the time and not what it would look like today. Even though Game of Thrones takes place in a time and place created by Martin the feel of it is very similar to Europe during the middle ages, so it had the same effect as an historical fiction novel would. For a visual medium like television, however, it is quite different. If they had gotten 14 and 13 year old actors it would have been very difficult to watch as characters little more than children went to war, became leaders, and, in the case of Daenarys, had sex. By getting older actors we were able to believe it when they did these things while still wondering if they would be able to succeed.

The other big change the show made from the book was adding scenes from the perspective of characters who did not act as narrators in the book. When transposing a book to film it is inevitable that some character development is going to get lost. One of the main ways a reader gets to know the characters of a book is through the voice of the narrator and the display of their internal thought processes. This can not be done in film – at least not very well – it is therefore necessary to add a few scenes to provide the missing character development. Many times these added scenes cause changes to plot, but amazingly that was not the case in Game of Thrones. In the end nearly every scene in the show came directly from the novel and those that didn’t were such that they could have occurred outside of the view of the narrator.

I am sure that there are fans of the novels who would disagree with me and nitpick every little thing down to eye color, but for me I would rather let those little things go so that I can enjoy an otherwise amazing adaptation. I am so pleased with what HBO has done with this first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series and look forward to what is to come. I plan on continuing to read the series so that when the next season premieres I will have already read all the books and I hope that it does as good of a job as the first season. With George R.R. Martin on the creative team I would be very surprised if it doesn’t.

Why the Twilight Hate?

I was first introduced to the wealth of online fandom communities a little less than 10 years ago when I watched the television show Smallville. Since then I have scoured the internet for websites that allow me to connect with people that love the same things I do. During this time I have learned that there can be a lot of hate whether it is between two different fandoms, two factions within the same fandom (anyone else remember the Heron vs. Harmony wars?), or your pesky neighborhood troll. Even with all that, though, the proportion of news or forum posts with little to no hate far exceeded those that were infected with it . Recently I have begun to see a shift in this trend with one particular group becoming the focus of an overwhelming amount of abuse: fans of The Twilight Saga.

I began reading The Twilight Saga after the first three novels were published and before any of the films had come out. I really enjoyed the books and couldn’t wait for the final installment, Breaking Dawn. Naturally I went online and began looking for websites about the Saga and found a few that I enjoyed. At this point in time the fandom was rather enjoyable with a nice group of people who found escape in a supernatural love story. There was the occasional bickering between Twilight and Harry Potter fans about which series was better (I will never understand this debate – they are two completely different stories), but all in all things were fairly docile. In the last few years that has changed completely.

Now any time I look at an online news story pertaining to Twilight the comments section following it is full of people making hateful remarks about the series and the people who like it. The moment someone says anything that sounds even remotely as though they may be a fan of Twilight that person is attacked as being stupid for the simple crime of liking something. It has gotten completely ridiculous and it makes me wonder why. Why have people gone from ignoring news to do with something they don’t particularly like to actively seeking out to hurt those who do like it?

It seems to me this change is directly correlated with the growing popularity of the series through the movies and, more specifically, the ever increasing number of boisterous younger fans. Fair or not, anytime preteen girls begin to obsess over anything that “thing” becomes a target for ridicule. As a former preteen girl myself (much longer ago than I care to admit) I remember and understand what it feels like to find that heartthrob you can’t stop thinking about, and so I don’t begrudge them their Team Edward and Team Jacob fanaticism – even if I do find it annoying. To be perfectly honest, the drastic change in the fandom has caused my own involvement to cool so that I no longer consider myself a “twihard”, but that doesn’t mean I am going to lambast some young girl for crying when she sees Taylor Lautner or for commenting “Oh my God he is sooooo cute!” when a new picture of Robert Pattinson is released. At the end of the day, no matter how loud these girls may be, they are still just that – young, insecure girls. Obviously the entire fandom is not just made up of this demographic – I know men and women ranging from teenagers to age 60 who enjoy Twilight – but it is a good probability that the post you are abusing was written by one of them.

Whether or not I am right in the “why” of the dramatic rise in targeted Twilight hate the end point is the same: it needs to stop. Not everyone has to like Twilight. Not everyone has to like Twilight fans. But everyone should be respectful of those who do enjoy the world created by Stephenie Meyer.

The Sword of Truth

Over the years I have been introduced to many of my favorite books through movie or television adaptations. With the release of a new book in one such series less than a week away I thought it an appropriate time to talk about it. I am referring to Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth novels.

Ironically enough the syndicated television show, Legend of the Seeker, that led me to Goodkind’s work was not exactly what I could call a good show. The acting was less than stellar, the scripts tended to be cheesy, and the plot lines often leaned towards the ridiculous or just flat out silly. In spite of all this, however, I recognized that buried underneath the poor execution were characters and concepts that just might have been pulled from a decent book. So it was that I purchased the first book in the 11 book series called Wizard’s First Rule and I was relieved to find that my instincts were right.

At their core the Sword of Truth books are about the age old fight of good versus evil and the characters who carry it out. The main protagonist of the series is Richard Cypher who goes through the prototypical “hero’s journey”. He is an orphaned man who lives in the land called Westland, which is a land without magic, and works as a simple woods guide. Whilst investigating the murder of his father Richard meets a beautiful and mysterious woman named Kahlan Amnell who is from the Midlands where magic is very real and aided her in her journey to Westland where she is looking for a Wizard of the First Order. Richard decides to help her and finds his life turned upsidedown when they find this First Wizard and he names Richard as the Seeker of Truth.

For 11 books the reader is taken on a journey with Richard and those who help him as he seeks to overcome great adversity and defeat first Lord Darken Rahl of D’Hara and later Emperor Jagang of the Old World. One of the great things about these books is that they are darker in tone than a lot of books and you are never completely sure if Richard is going to persevere. In that manner, Goodkind is a master at creating complicated plot lines that play out in a way that is believable and easy to understand. Each novel is an intense adventure with nothing ever working out the way you think it will. I quickly learned that in order for me to best enjoy them I had to take a break and read something else between each installment, otherwise I would get overwhelmed from the intensity and stress.

What makes these books so good aren’t the intricate plots however (though they certainly help), but the amazing cast of characters. Throughout the series you are introduced to countless characters of varying significance, but they are all fully developed and very memorable. Each character has a rich history that has colored them and made them who they are, even the antagonists. As I got to know these characters I found myself falling in love with them and caring very deeply about what happened to them. When they triumphed I cheered, when they made mistakes or failed I cringed at the consequences, when they were hurt I ached with them, when they were treated unjustly I became angry for them, when they struggled I struggled and grew weary with them – to me they were real.

Like any other book the Sword of Truth novels are certainly not perfect, but whatever flaws they have I was able to overlook and not be bothered by because I was so invested in what was happening. Every once in a while there comes a story that stays with you long after you have closed the pages and the story of Richard Cypher is one of those stories. So it is I find myself eagerly awaiting the next installment in Richard’s story, The Omen Machine, which comes out on August 16.

List of Sword of Truth titles: Wizard’s First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Temple of the Winds, Soul of Fire, Faith of the Fallen, Pillars of Creation, Naked Empire, Chainfire, Phantom, and Confessor

A New Take on a Timeless Legend

One of the most iconic figures of myth, legend, and fantasy is that of King Arthur. His legendary story has been passed down through the ages with each retelling putting a unique spin on a standard element or adding something new completely. Like any good lover of the genre I devour anything I see that is to do with the Arthurian legend regardless of the medium. One of the more recent reworkings of this timeless legend that I have particularly fallen in love with is the BBC television series Merlin.

I would imagine that it would be easy for true fans of King Arthur to take issue with this show for the many, many liberties it takes with what most would consider to be the most basic pieces of the cannon. In truth, the show changes pretty much everything other than the character’s names and fundamental personality traits. In this version Arthur is being raised by his father King Uther rather than Sir Ector, Merlin is the same age as Arthur rather than an old man, Guinevere is the maid of Uther’s ward rather than a princess, and Mordred is a druid boy rather than Arthur’s illegitimate child. But even with all of these – rather severe – alterations it holds true to the ideals of chivalry (honor, bravery, justice, courtly love) which reside at the heart of the legend.

The basic premise of the show is that Merlin (played by Colin Morgan) is sent to Camelot to work with the court physician, Gaius (Richard Wilson). Through a series of events that take place in the pilot episode King Uther (Anthony Head) assigns Merlin to be the personal manservant of Prince Arthur (Bradley James) which proves to be rather difficult as he must keep his magical abilities a secret since Uther has had all magic outlawed on penalty of death. The show follows the many trials Merlin and Arthur face on their separate yet intertwined journies to become the men they are destined to be. It is a simple concept that has certainly been done before, yet this show executes it brilliantly.

It has become a growing trend for television shows to blend of the serious and the comedic and Merlin is no exception. There is actually a surprising amount of comedy in the show and – what may be even more surprising – it works. Colin Morgan is an incredibly gifted actor who has excellent comedic timing which is essential for the witty and sarcastic Merlin. Between the bickering Arthur and Merlin constantly engage in and the ridiculous situations Merlin always seems to land himself in, every episode has at least one scene that elicits laughter from me, but every once in a while the show will devote an entire episode to a comedic plot. The episode that first comes to mind for me is Season 3′s “Goblin’s Gold”. In this episode Merlin unthinkingly releases a goblin who proceeds to possess Gaius and reek havoc upon the court. When the episode began I felt a pang of disappointment for what I felt sure would be a silly filler episode, but it did not take long for me to realize how wrong I was. From goblin!Gaius slapping the bald head of Uther to the flatulence of Guinevere and Morgana to a braying Arthur complete with donkey ears I could not stop laughing. Even thinking about that episode as I type this causes me to chuckle.

Even more than these moments of comedic excellence, however, Merlin excels with its dramatic and often epic plotlines. Again, Colin Morgan is a gifted actor who manages to portray a Merlin who is humble yet strong, compassionate yet just, naive yet wise. In this way as Merlin stumbles along his own road of growth he is still able to be a believable guide for Arthur who is frequently ignorant of the ways in which Merlin is shaping him. While there are many episodes that stand out to me (Season 1′s “The Poisoned Chalice”, Season 2′s “The Lady of the Lake”, Season 3′s “The Tears of Uther Pendragon Parts 1&2) none are greater than each season’s finale. Merlin excels at delivering suspenseful and emotionally moving season finales. Each season the finale ends up being my favorite episode of the season with each successive finale turning out more powerful than the last. Season 1 brings Merlin face to face with Nimueh as he battles to save the life of Arthur, Season 2 sends Merlin and Arthur on a hunt for the last living dragonlord who is the only person that can save Camelot from a dragon bent on revenge, and Season 3 sees Uther imprisoned while Arthur and Merlin are forced into hiding as they seek out a way to destroy the immortal army created by a witch to overthrow Camelot. Each of these episodes serve to punctuate the lessons that Merlin and Arthur have been learning throughout the season and each time I find myself cheering.

There is one other aspect of the show I feel I must mention before I bring this extensive exposition to a close, and that is the shows penchant for slipping in bits of the cannon in a sort of salute. I can’t begin to describe how giddy the fangirl in me gets every time this happens. The show has had cameos by Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, Taliesin, the Fisher King, and Nimueh (as previously mentioned) in addition to iconic images such as the hand of the Lady of the Lake emerging from the lake of Avalon with the sword of Excalibur. Whenever these moments happen I must admit they are usually accompanied by some squeeing and the occasional fist pump.

It is for all these reasons and that which is too intangible to put into words that I feel Merlin is a remarkable addition to the adaptations of the legendary King Arthur. It is with great anticipation that I await the next season.*

*In the US Merlin airs on SyFy.

Harry Potter and the Golden Statue

A recent article on hypable.com is reporting that Warner Brothers plans on a major push for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 for the upcoming season of the Academy Awards. As Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is the last film in the 8 film franchise and all 7 of the previous Potter films have failed to nab one of the coveted awards it makes sense. Now the question becomes which categories does it deserve to be nominated in and how likely is it to win.

Up to now nominations for the Potter films have been scant with only 5 of the first 7 movies receiving a combined total of 9 nominations (1). A precedent was set for the final installment in a film series to win awards in acknowledgement of the series as a whole when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won a staggering 11 Academy Awards (it won in every category it was nominated). (2) Whether or not this precedent will hold true for Potter, however, is debatable. The fact that The Fellowship of the Ring was nominated for 13 winning 4 and The Two Towers was nominated for 6 winning 2 is, to me, an unfortunate indicator that Potter may not be so fortunate. In the sincere hope that I am wrong I am going to look at the categories I feel it deserves with the full understanding that I am a severely biased “potterhead”.

Best Art Direction: This category is one of the strongest contenders. Stewart Craig and Stephanie McMillan have already been nominated in this category for Philospher’s Stone, Goblet of Fire, and Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (1). I see no reason for them to not be recognized this time around as well and, who knows, maybe this time they will win.

Best Visual Effects: The visual effects team has been nominated previously for Prisoner of Azkaban and Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (1), and I feel that the visual effects in Deathly Hallows – Part 2 were AT LEAST as good as those two if not better. The entire sequence in Gringotts alone, especially the dragon, deserves this nomination not to mention the many other amazing effects throughout the movie. Even with effects heavy movies such as Transformers I think Potter has a decent shot at this one.

Best Makeup: Somehow all 7 previous films have missed out on this nomination, but I think Deathly Hallows – Part 2 could finally make it in this category. Between the goblins, the beaten and battered fighters, the de-aging of Alan Rickman (although I’m not sure how much of this was done with actual makeup versus a computer), and the aging of the main characters in the epilogue (I thought Dan’s makeup looked especially good) this film deserves a nomination here.

Best Film Editing: This would be the first nomination in this category for any Potter film, but I believe that it would be well deserved. There were so many complicated sequences in this movie that I felt were edited perfectly to portray what was needed. Examples of this include the many moments when Harry was connected to Voldemort’s mind, the sequence of Snape’s memories in the pensieve, and the intense action of the battle at Hogwarts.

Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing: Yes, I know these are two separate awards, but to me they sort of go hand in hand. It is very easy, especially in movies with a lot of action, for dialogue to get lost in the myriad of sound effects and sweeping music, but that was not the case here. There were a host of sounds that needed to be heard at the same time from the normal sounds of things such as footsteps to those created to denote spells being fired off not to mention the often crucial dialogue and the beautifully emotional score. With all that there was never a time when I felt I could not hear what I needed to hear; a truly remarkable feat.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Alan Rickman as Snape. I am pretty sure this needs no elaboration.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: This is where I am probably going to get the most opposition, but I feel that Daniel Radcliffe deserves to be nominated for his portrayal of Harry. Let me preface this by stating that I am in no way a Dan fangirl, in fact, I have often been annoyed by his acting and felt that he messed certain things up. But boy did he step up his game for this one. The scene that stands out most to me is when he exits the pensieve. The look on his face as he has just had his world and everything he believed turned upsidedown is heartwrenching. There are many other moments where I feel he shines, but I am not going to list them all. Suffice it to say, I know this is a long shot, but I still felt I had to list it.

Best Director: David Yates has done an amazing job with the four films he has directed and it is time he is recognized.

Best Picture: This movie was amazing. I have seen it 5 times so far and each time it has brought me to tears and sent me on a rollercoaster of an emotional journey that has gotten better each time. It deserves at least a nomination.

Well, there you have it. These are the nominations I feel Deathly Hallows – Part 2 MOST deserves. Do you agree with my list? What would you add or take away? I have no idea what will happen, but I hope the Potter film franchise finally gets the recognition it has been denied.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_%28film_series%29#Accolades

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_film_trilogy#Academy_Awards