just now tuned to the global frequency

[chronovore]

About a year in internet-time after the rest of the world is bored with the topic, I finally watched the Global Frequency screener/pilot. The first five minutes and last three minutes are completely standard TV cliché moments, from the carnival fire-breather framed mid-shot just as the camera pans past, to a load of awkward exposition setting up the story at the beginning, and the "come work for me" plea to The New Guy as an emotional moment and the subsequent counterbalance of humor based on an established running gag to break the tension up a bit at the end.

On the other hand, everything between those two moments was at least twice as good as regular TV, and could easily have been the next X-Files. It made me want to read the comics; I'll have to see to that.

The ethereal psionics and speed ramping effects were very cool looking. There were a couple misses: it wasn't readily apparent why a the last recruit (the asian woman) was needed to do her thing, and the bit with the target's apartment didn't seem to be resolved; was he a serial killer type, or was he a "good guy"? Who was right, the scientist or the detective?

Much of it was smart, and not overly explained. I appreciated that.

Marginally off-topic: My personal, real life, recent living in the future moment; Chinese girl riding a bike down an Osaka back alley, chatting on speakerphone and staring at her live video chat on the cellphone while weaving through pedestrians.

Comments

[jjgalahad.livejournal.com]

The comics are excellent, perhaps even better due to less cutesy love/hate banter. Cute Scientist Girl's part was played by an MIT guy in bondage gear in the comics, y'see. Confused New Guy and Cute Scientist Girl were created to act as throughlines/ins for tv viewers who might have been put off by entirely new casts beyond Miranda and Aleph every week. Of course, Miranda and Aleph were brilliantly done and just as amusing in the comics, if not more so. I'm still a bit cheesed they never made this, if only for the all-Aleph ep and hardcore Miranda eps that would have taken place. C'est le teevee, I guess.

Explanations otherwise: The last recruit was a really good gymnast, needed because neither the scientist or the cop could do a backflip backwards to hit the power switch from a high bar. I'd say his apartment was moral ambiguity at it's finest - he was a sleeper spy who now loved America but who also still didn't have the spine to off himself when he knew he was overloading, so perhaps they were both right.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

To be more clear, I understood that she was a gymast, but couldn't see how a public utility's power switch was set up to require a gymnast to reach it.

The cutesy scientist, and the "I'll be training you. You have to do what I say" banter was gratuitous. Actually, though I have a thing for naughty librarian-types, the actress was hamming it up just a little too much. The marine/cop guy was pretty damned good. Aleph was a great character and the actress nailed her lines in a believable way. Miranda Zero: I would watch Michelle Forbes read the Yellow Pages. Slowly.

More than anything, I think I like the idea that "ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things." If I may indulge in melodramatic cheese, I believe in this. In the last U2 album that I enjoyed Bono sang, "I know you'd hit out, if you only knew who to hit." More than that, people /want/ their lives to have meaning. People /want/ to leave things better than they found them, and leave a better planet for their kids. Or, you know, "a" planet at least. That theme, and the way it was presented, moved me. If given an opportunity to serve under the enlightened autocracy of Miranda Zero, I might just know who to hit.

Thanks for the clarifications. I'll be picking up the comic.

[jjgalahad.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh . . . um. That'd be called "contrivance", I guess. *wince* Oops.

Rather cute as she was, I was willing to forgive. Perhaps she'd have toned it down; the "I've had boyfriends!" bit was amusing. Alas, we'll never know. Mmmmm, slow sexy Michelle Phobes phone book reading . . . *Homer Simpson Gargle*

There's a bit in the first volume where a Le Parkour runner is scaling something and a little girl looks out the window and says "Look, Mommy, it's Spider-Man . . . and she's just like us." Trust me, you're gonna like this book. :)

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I did! See this morning's post.

Thanks!