Abhainn
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Post by Abhainn on Feb 27, 2013 19:37:10 GMT
Thanks for reading, Tony. Aside from the character beats, the main thing I wanted to do was show that there are different sides to this new world - some people will thrive off the pain and the violence and the confusion, others have had their entire lives completely destroyed. We've seen the sexy glamour of these able, witty, sexual people - but there are also people in the City living in decay and ruin and that's what the mall was all about. And I also relished the chance to focus on Falon and Tess - the girls definitely needed more limelight. Thanks for your thoughts!
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Post by Tom East on Feb 28, 2013 19:18:34 GMT
THIS has been distracting me for a while now and reminded me from DCB. Quite cool but very depressing.
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Tony O'Black
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 2, 2013 9:37:19 GMT
1x06:
This really was the first episode of Dead City Blues that, aside from a final slightly jarring piece of description at the end, completely disregards exploring the wider city world in any way and focuses on several conversations that allow Alden Caele to forward the various narratives he has in play. I can't help feeling that's unfortunate and it once again comes across like ignoring the far more interesting possibilities about the scenario and concept of this show.
I'm hugely uninterested in this game playing between Jakob/Kellan to be honest, because they're just doesn't seem to be any direction or point to it, at least none I can recall Caele suggesting in previous episodes. Jakob just seems to enjoy messing around with Kellan's mind, while Shane's complete obliviousness doesn't seem to completely track with that ruthless, dangerously clever nature we've seen when it comes to dealing with the threats to the city. God bless Tess coming in and trying to tell him to fix up and sort things with Kellan.
Short and sweet, but lacking much in the way of atmosphere or direction I'm afraid; sure Caele keeps the character stories ticking over but can we please start exploring this world and stop messing around with this bland love triangle?
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 6, 2013 21:47:02 GMT
1x07:
It's very rare I get to read anything by Claire Rooney, because its very rare she actually writes anything these days, and this outing for Dead City Blues serves as a reminder why that's a damn crying shame. Rooney injects a level of tension, a level of skilled dialogue, that the series hasn't previously reached, managing to bring out the rawness of these characters in an almost fresh, exciting way. Any opportunity for drama here, she grabs at it and refuses to let go.
The show has been building increasingly to a tipping point between Shane & Kellan, fuelled by Jakob's quiet manipulations, and this is very much the beginning - and while ultimately I was less interested in the cod-flirting of Shane/Jakob or the sexual awkwardness of Shane/Kellan, however well written, it was the Kellan/Tess scene that stood out here. Kellan is behaving like a jealous fool and Tess very much tells him to grow a pair, and Rooney writes her with such a verve, such strength yet humour, she cements the character as probably the best thing about the entire series.
Probably my favourite episode yet, even if still Dead City Blues isn't making the most, potential wise, of the world around these characters. Some terrific dialogue and drama by Claire Rooney makes this one of the most skillfull tales of the season yet.
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 9, 2013 18:40:05 GMT
1x08:
I'm starting to very much give up on Dead City Blues ever really giving me what I want from it, unfortunately. The writing is in places good, sometimes very good, and Alden Caele you can tell is enjoying exploring this ménage a trois... but I'm struggling to enjoy reading it, primarily because sex, and stories about sex, are nowhere near as dramatic or interesting as tales about romance and DCB is most definitely about sex.
This one highlighted that fact more than ever. Yes we get plot movement in Kellan committing them to the hunt (and foolishly believing Shane will do what he wants) but this just then becomes a two header between Shane & Jakob which simply thuds us over the head with setting up a development we've known was coming from very early on - sex. Yes Caele is exploring the idea of excitement in relationships, and how a stable dynamic can grow stale, but do we really need so much time devoted to that point? Love is boring - we get it. Why can't we move on and have these guys kill a few evil creatures or explore parts of the city? Anything to freshen up and give the show more scope, because right now you could take the apocalyptic fantasy aspect out of this and it would barely make much of a difference. That really shouldn't be the case, Shane/Kellan's relationship should be weaved into those aspects, not leave them as background.
Maybe I just want a show I'm never going to get. We'll see. Perhaps as we edge toward the end of the run, I'll get more of my wish. Right now though, I'm doubting it...
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 13, 2013 6:25:30 GMT
1x09:
Training my frame of mind to accept what Alden Caele wants Dead City Blues to be, after his feedback recently gave a much better insight, I found I definitely enjoyed Tom East’s first foray into this world more than maybe I would have; chiefly because outside of the usual eroticism, this one had a strong river of conflict that has been escalating for pretty much the entire run of the series: an inevitable confrontation between Shane & Kellan over Jakob.
Now putting aside the fact Jakob is just a massive tease whose motives I’m not entirely sure of, or sure are as simple as wanting Shane as his lover, the interesting point here was less the consequences of Shane sleeping with Jakob, but more what it does to Kellan - East throws in a crucial line here ‘you always wanted me to be more like you’ he says to Shane, and that’s the nub of it really; Kellan believes the only way he’s going to keep Shane is to become him, without realising in seeing Jakob, Shane is realising maybe his path isn’t the right one either - only he’s now really entrenched on it, after this boiling point. It’s almost three stages of recklessness embodied in these men, and East hits a level of subtext with it all that I don’t always find in the show.
After a routine start, ‘Two Bullets’ builds to a very solid conclusion, penned well by East, that serves to very much tee up the dangerous paths Shane & Kellan seem set on for the remainder of the season. Good work.
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
Posts: 60
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 16, 2013 16:54:53 GMT
1x10:
It’s interesting the length of these Dead City Blues webisodes because they’ve varied across the season, and Alden Caele’s last of this run comes out at possibly the shortest at only seven pages. For my money it’s his best too, ‘Childhood’s End’ balancing plot movement, revelation and characterisation better than his talkier pieces earlier on.
The revelation that Jakob is an incubus makes a lot of sense, contextualising his actions across this run somewhat. I do feel Caele has dragged the revelation out, and perhaps we might have nailed the Shane/Kellan breakdown alongside this in a good 3/4 episodes less, but now we appear to be heading for what I’ve hoped for: action, and ideally a better use of the city interweaved with these dynamics. Kellan’s relationship with Stina is always intriguing, not at all affectionate, but it highlights Kellan’s underlying insecurities about what he knows might happen in hunting Jakob. At the same time, it’s very apparent Shane is under his spell, and one wonders if he’ll break from it in time.
Short and sweet a webisode, but one where Caele tees up the last few episodes well, with hope they may really develop on the action & atmosphere of the city around them.
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
Posts: 60
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 20, 2013 17:50:01 GMT
1x11:
Has anyone else noticed that almost every single episode of Dead City Blues seems to end with someone pushing someone else up a wall or on the floor to have sex? It’s as routine now as James Bond kissing the girl at the end of the movie used to be. Is this me getting used to it? Possibly. But luckily however, Li Robb produces a strong second episode in ‘Prayer for the Predator’ that eclipses his previous one - a sidebar to the main thrust of plot it may be, but it’s a quite entertaining Shane/Jakob story nonetheless.
Yet again, better than perhaps any other writer on this series, Robb infuses the script here with a sense of style and vision when it comes to the city - his is a darker, danker, nastier, grittier city than Alden Caele often writes and it comes alive in a much more vivid way. Robb also, crucially, does what I’ve wanted the entire season to do - weave the eroticism & character work around an exploration of the supernatural elements. He gets across Shane continuing to fall under Jakob’s spell perfectly well, and the climactic point where Shane’s tenderness is eschewed by Jakob’s sexual aggression, but in the middle we get the hunters, the zombies & the brilliant Isla, a character you just know Robb adores - a classic snarky heroine in the Ashaera Grace mould. It’s a lot of fun, Robb slyly winking at his own webisode creation in the process...
So yeah, this I think exemplifies what Dead City Blues should have been episode by episode - a visible balance of the eroticism, action, the supernatural, and a strong jolt of black comedy in the middle. For me, the strongest episode yet.
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Abhainn
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Post by Abhainn on Mar 20, 2013 18:06:35 GMT
Fine compliments, thank you Tony!
I'm glad you enjoyed this one as I had a lot of fun writing it.
I think there are many ways we can see the City, as many ways as the people who live in it experience it, so I think it's important to explore them all. I've kind of fallen into focusing on this side of it because that's where the characters feel comfortable for me.
Well, I had to sneak some zombies in there somewhere! And Ashaera's little sister.
This was all down to Alden's storyboard really, and it certainly felt like the right move to make when I was writing it - the sexuality weaving through the action. It just makes sense that all that tension and thrill would lead to that last moment.
Thanks again Tony!
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Tony O'Black
Evolution Participants
Writer. Reader. Lover. Chicken, mostly.
Posts: 60
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Post by Tony O'Black on Mar 24, 2013 22:46:54 GMT
1x12:
The shortest episode it seems was yet to come, and arrive it does from Sarah-Jane Sheppard. I’m a huge huge fan of her writing, so I was very eager to see what she’d bring to Dead City Blues, and while this short look into Kellan’s approach to survival is perfectly well written, I couldn’t help but want something a little more... a little more substantial, certainly given what I know Sheppard can do.
While on the one hand this is a little out of her comfort zone, Sheppard handles this interlude well by focusing primarily on Alison here - which, I confess, is a little jarring given she’s barely been a bit player across the run. I didn’t quite get why Tess was so upset by what Kellan goes through here - she’s wanted him to toughen up all season, surely she should have been training him? I can’t help feel had Tess been in the Alison role here, Sheppard might have squeezed a little more drama out of this one than she can. Alison comes out well as a tough cookie, and Kellan’s wimping out certainly will bolster him for the fight to come, but it all just seemed a little... quick, and a little flat.
Not at all bad writing though, Sheppard bringing her own inflections and style to the piece without being too vivid, but ‘Moral Tendencies’ just lacked a little punch for me, and was perhaps slightly too short to get across what it strived to. Hoping now for a climax that really does the promise in Dead City Blues proud.
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