Body of Proof 1.03: “Helping Hand”
“It’s not that hard, you know. To connect with people. Just take an interest.”
- Kate
Much like “Letting Go” we begin with the murder of the episode. A young Hispanic woman is shot and dies. Next thing we know, Megan is arriving on scene. She was supposed to have a day off but someone’s wife had a baby and so she got called in. Detective Morris is in a rather unpleasant mood as Megan examines the scene. The victim is Elena Rosas. She looks very out of place in the dingy motel room in a nice business suit. Morris is still cranky when Megan says she can’t give him a cause of death because there’s a distinct lack of blood around the body (even though she was shot). Outside, Sam and Peter share a look and Megan’s left wondering what she’s missing. She doesn’t really know much about the people she works with. That’s kind of the theme of the episode.
At autopsy, Megan finds Ethan rearranging her surgical instruments because someone put them out of order. Megan is a little disturbed that Ethan knows the order she likes her instruments but she dismisses it quickly. She does however ask Peter what was up at the crime scene. He tells her that Bud is having issues with his wife. Megan is clueless to his situation obviously because she thought he was already divorced. They discover that Elena did die from a gunshot wound to her arm because it passed through her arm and into her torso and caused massive internal bleeding. While going over the other x-rays, Megan notices surgical clips on Elena’s skull and like a true neurosurgeon, has to investigate. In short order she discovers to her extreme surprise that Elena was one of her patients.
Megan’s in her office brooding over the fact that she didn’t remember Elena was her patient when Peter walks in. He wants to know what tipped her off in the first place and Megan explains that surgeons have certain techniques they use, like a signature and Megan recognized her own. She requested Elena’s file from Northeast General, which Kate delivers and Megan remembers Elena (after reading the file). Megan’s pissed at herself for not remembering Elena as a person but as a surgical procedure and is determined to find her killer.
Down in the lab, Ethan tells Curtis that the crusty stain on Elena’s blouse was breast milk but not from her baby because she’d never been pregnant. The plot thickens. Meanwhile, Megan is meeting with Elena’s father. He’s surprised to see her there. He tells Megan that Elena was inspired by her and became a social worker with Child Protective Services in order to help people. Sam, Peter and Megan head over to CPS (Bud is taking a long lunch) and meet with Elena’s boss, Jeremy. He confirms that she was dedicated and that morning had 5 home visits. Unlike a lot of the staff, Elena continued following up on cases until she was satisfied the child was in a safe environment. They head out and discover that Holly Bennett was the only visit Elena got to. And she’s got a baby. She confirms that Holly was good to her and helped convince her to throw her cocaine addicted boyfriend out. That morning, Elena got a call that freaked her out and she left in a hurry.
Megan is examining the bullet fragment from Elena’s chest when Kate stops by. She asks how things are going and Megan says that she’s examining the bullet while Sam goes through Elena’s case files. Kate says that it isn’t hard to connect with people. She just needs to take an interest and again, Megan is kind of clueless. Kate changes the subject back to the bullet and Megan reveals that the bullet hit someone else before hitting Elena.
The gang is having a case status pow wow and Megan’s still hung up on why Elena was in the dingy motel room to begin with. Morris posits she’s a prostitute and that just gets Megan annoyed. She smacks him in the arm and notices his suit jacket has a big hole in the seam (pus he just generally looks like crap). They head over to talk to Elena’s father again to see if maybe she was seeing someone her father didn’t know about. Megan and Morris are looking around Elena’s room and Megan asks how Morris is doing. He ends up spilling his guts to her but she’s distracted by a photo of Elena and herself after Elena’s brain surgery. They discover by fluke a card that came with flowers, signed by Elena’s boss.
They bring him in for questioning and Jeremy explains that he was interested in Elena but she didn’t really return the affections. She didn’t want to date her boss. It turns out while he was trying to get Elena to reconsider, she had a seizure. He tried to help her and that’s where the bruises on her arms and the abrasions on her lips came from. She bit him during the seizure and once she was recovered, he left.
Megan is examining Elena’s brain to see if she really did have a seizure when Curtis feeds her some info on Ethan (after she asks Curtis how he’s doing). It ends up being a pretty funny result later on. Kate shows up with the results on the foreign tissue from the bullet. It belongs to Sean Wilcox, a kid who just got out of juvenile detention for weapons possession. The cops find him with Elena’s car and they tackle him at a junk yard. They take him to the hospital because the bullet grazed his neck and it’s now infected. Sean appears to be suspect #1. He got busted for having a gun by Elena when he was still in foster care so it would seem he had motive. But he explained that Elena visited him every week while he was locked up to show that she wasn’t going to give up on him. She got the hotel room for him while he looked for a job. He fell asleep and when he woke up she was back and then someone shot them. It also turns out he’d called the same number six times that day. And meet suspect #2, Vincent Stone. He owns the junkyard where the cops cornered Sean. Vincent claims to be a father figure to Sean but it turns out he was really using Sean to do his dirty work. Elena confronted him and she used pepper spray (colored with dye now to mark the attacker). He was responsible for the call that got Elena back to the hotel.
Megan’s examining the swabs from Sean’s neck to get her own results. Ethan helps out and in short order Megan figures out Curtis was messing with her about Ethan’s interests. Ethan seems pretty confused by the whole thing but I think it was an interesting comic relief. They do however bond over their love of science. Right at the end of their conversation, Megan discovers that Sean had an infection that only results from pigeon droppings. Megan calls Morris to fill him in and they figure out that the shot that killed Elena went through the motel room window. The shooter was standing outside. Morris gets Peter and Sam to line up so they can figure out how far away the shooter was standing. They find a shell casing.
Peter heads over to the hospital to get Sean to help them get back on to Vincent’s property to search for guns. Peter reveals that he too was a foster kid and he was one of the lucky kids to get adopted by a great family. But he can empathize with Sean about feeling like any hand that reaches out to help should be taken. Sean ends up telling them where the guns are, giving them probable cause. The cops find a trunk full of guns. Lots of ballistics to test!
Megan walks in on Kate prepping for an early dinner date and is quite impressed. So was I. Great color dress on Jeri (kind of a pinkish orange). Then again she could wear a potato sack and I’d think she was gorgeous. Anyway, Kate congratulates Megan on the fungal infection finding. Kate’s bemoaning the fact that they didn’t have any prints or DNA to help match the gun. All they found was rice flour. And Megan knows who the killer is. Rice flour is used in baby cereal. Megan, in short order, explains that she ran a toxicological panel on the dried breast milk. There was evidence of cocaine in the results. Elena found out that Holly was using again and was going to take her daughter away. And now she’s lost both a woman who cared about her and her daughter.
Megan wants to be the one to deliver the news to Elena’s father. He’s still devastated that it was her work that got her killed. He was proud of his daughter but he worried about her every time she left the house. That night, Megan finds Bud about to sleep in his car (his trunk is full of clothes and such). She offers to fix his suit jacket for him and they have a brief discussion about how you can miss the signs right in front of you that things aren’t working anymore. It’s unclear if Bud is going to get a divorce but they really connected.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Body of Proof - "Letting Go"
Body of Proof 1.02: “Letting Go”
“I care about the dead because they can’t speak for themselves. The living are on their own.”
- Megan
We begin at night and the camera pans over a car until there is a loud gunshot. Night melds into day and Megan shows up and is greeted by Peter. She’s surprised to see Detective Morris and Baker again. She wasn’t expecting to work a second case with them so soon. The victims for the episode are an interracial couple; Dave and Linda. It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder –suicide but Megan quickly dispels the theory. She points out that Dave was left handed (based on calluses and bruises on his left hand and the fact that his wallet was in his left back pocket) and since the gun was in his right hand, he couldn’t have done it.
As they leave the scene, Megan calls Lacey to see if she wanted to spend time together and they end up deciding on lunch the next day (Lacey doesn’t sound too thrilled). It doesn’t help that it seems Megan’s hands are acting up again. Megan fills Peter in on the birthday present and cake from the episode before and that she’s trying to get a life (despite Peter telling her to take it slow). Back at the lab, Kate tells Megan to bring Ethan and Curtis on for the case. Peter points out it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Baker and Morris were assigned to them. Kate figured it would be easier to keep Megan contained if she was only knocking heads with two detectives instead of the whole department. I have to say, it was probably a smart move on Kate’s part.
During autopsy, Morris is his usual impatient self. He wants the bullets so he can close the case (he’s still rooting for murder-suicide). Too bad Megan’s in no hurry. It turns out Dave and Linda were an unlikely pair. One came from a rich family and went to a prestigious college while the other came from an immigrant family and joined the navy. Megan and company determine that Linda had a previous spinal injury that .left scarring and had hair extensions that left permanent damage to her scalp. Dave wasn’t without his own story to tell. There was a rough patch on his arm. And then there’s the matter of two bullets in Dave’s head. It’s pretty impossible to shoot yourself in the head twice. They’re definitely dealing with a double homicide.
After a little digging the team finds out that Linda suffered a tragic car accident several years earlier that broke her neck in three places. And Ethan discovered signs of potential alcoholism or bulimia. Dave had been complaining about breathing issues shortly before his death. Megan dispenses Curtis and Ethan to figure out what was causing Dave’s lung issues and Peter gets Morris and Baker to figure out where the couple’s last meal (burgers and green fries) came from. It seems our charming detectives may be on to something when Morris remembers there’s a place nearby that on weekends is crazy and servers burgers, fries and water ice.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Linda’s parents. Megan joins them and after hearing that Linda’s parents blame Dave, explains that it was a double homicide. She tries to get as much info out of them as she can and she gets a name; Brian. He was Linda’s most recent boyfriend (even though she ended it three months earlier). He did own a restaurant that he owns that Linda worked at. After Linda’s parents leave, Megan fills Kate in on what the police are doing and upon Kate’s direction, she and Peter go to check out Brian. He’s a total jerk. He says that he hasn’t seen Linda in months and he never met Dave. Peter tries to keep Brian occupied while Megan talks to the newest hostess, Nina. It’s pretty obvious Nina is scared of Brian. But before Megan can get much information, Brian kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Morris and Baker are following up on a lead of their own. A guy named Eric Singleton was seen arguing with Dave. It turns out Eric didn’t like that Dave was with a black girl (oh white supremacist bullshit). Eric’s mouth gets him in trouble with Sam. She doesn’t take kindly to him trash talking African American women and shoves him up against a wall and searches him (presumably a Terry frisk since it is unlikely at this point they have probable cause). She ends up finding a giant bruise on Eric’s ribs. Looks like they did more than talk. Dave landed a pretty good blow.
Peter and Megan stop off at Lacey’s riding lesson so Megan can say hi. Peter warns her that it’s not a good idea to push Lacey. After all, she’s only just starting to open up after five years of blaming her mom for the divorce. Things go horribly. Lacey is pissed that her mom showed up and rides off before Megan say anything. Family drama will have to take a back seat, unfortunately. Curtis confirms that Linda had bulimia but only for a short time (likely after she started working for Brian). And Megan proves Dave was the restaurant the night he and Linda die. He had residue from the materials Brian used to clean his bar on his arm.
Megan, Peter, Kate, Morris and Baker have a little pow wow to catch up on the case and after Megan fills them in on Linda’s condition and the fact that Dave was at Brian’s restaurant the night of the murder, they head over to have another chat. It doesn’t really go well. They leave with a shaky alibi for Brian. He was with Nina (or so she says). Morris is still insisting their skinhead Eric is the perp but Megan is free to continue pursuing Brian if she wants. And she will. She plans on using Peter to get Nina away from Brian.
Meanwhile, Ethan’s figured out that Dave was suffering from asbestos in his lungs. He drags Curtis to Dave’s latest construction job and they scoop up some soil samples to test back at the lab and barely make it out of there before two burly construction workers come chasing after them.
Megan gets her lunch with Lacey but it goes about as well as showing up at the riding lesson. Lacey isn’t ready to bond with her mom and leaves. She’s kind of moody for a twelve-year-old. It seems that Peter has a way with things regarding Lacey. He was right about what Megan should get her for her birthday and he was right about not pushing things. He’s a smart guy that medical legal investigator! As Megan sits there and wipes at her eyes, she smudges her makeup. Breakthrough! She discovers the killer closed Linda’s eyes, leaving behind gunshot residue and DNA.
Megan’s plan to get Nina away from Brian is in motion and she needs Kate’s help to pull it off. Meanwhile, Morris and Baker have Lonnie (an associate of Eric’s) in for questioning and they learn that shortly before they arrived the previous day, Eric had ditched his jacket with blood on it. Now that’s what you call probable cause. They find the jacket in a dumpster and match the blood to Linda. Peter calls Brian’s restaurant and tells Nina that Brian’s house is on fire. It works. He convinces Linda to go with him to the morgue. And Megan and Kate introduce her to Linda. They convince Nina to leave Brian and go to a shelter to get away from Brian. But the truth is, he was with her at the time of the murders. I have to say I was pleased with the increased amount of Jeri Ryan in this episode. It almost made up for the lack of Sherlock-ness on Megan’s part.
Curtis and Ethan confirm that the asbestos in Dave’s lungs came from the job site. So Megan sends Ethan and Peter to investigate while she sits in with Kate and Linda’s mom. Megan explains that they know Linda was bulimic and had hair extensions. The main thrust of the conversation revealed that Linda’s mom knew they were wrong about Dave. He showed up at their house and asked to marry Linda. They said no.
Peter confronts the foreman at the construction site and says the EPA is on their way to handle the violation. Peter discovers that Dave asked his boss for an advance to buy an engagement ring. A ring that the cops find at Eric’s apartment. He admits he followed them to the murder scene but Linda and Dave were already dead. Peter asks how lunch went (and mentioned that her hand problems are probably psychosomatic). Megan isn’t pleased and gets defensive. And then she kind of breaks down when she demands to know when she gave up the right to be involved in her daughter’s life. Curtis interrupts the moment saying that the DNA results from Linda’s eyelids came back. Now they just need someone to compare it to.
While watching Eric’s interrogation, Megan has a revelation. Tears could have made the makeup smudge. Kate tells Linda’s parents they can come pick up their daughter and in short order, Megan explains that it was Linda’s dad who killed her. He didn’t mean to but he got scared and the gun went off. Then he killed Dave and then shot him a second time to make it look like a murder-suicide. I don’t know whether to laugh or not that the show has a formula already (two red herrings followed by the reveal at the end by Megan).
That night after the case is closed; Megan calls Lacey and leaves her a message. She got what Lacey was saying and will give her time and space and will wait for Lacey to be ready to spend time together. Lacey hears it and it looks like Megan may have begun to rebuild the bridge with her daughter.
“I care about the dead because they can’t speak for themselves. The living are on their own.”
- Megan
We begin at night and the camera pans over a car until there is a loud gunshot. Night melds into day and Megan shows up and is greeted by Peter. She’s surprised to see Detective Morris and Baker again. She wasn’t expecting to work a second case with them so soon. The victims for the episode are an interracial couple; Dave and Linda. It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder –suicide but Megan quickly dispels the theory. She points out that Dave was left handed (based on calluses and bruises on his left hand and the fact that his wallet was in his left back pocket) and since the gun was in his right hand, he couldn’t have done it.
As they leave the scene, Megan calls Lacey to see if she wanted to spend time together and they end up deciding on lunch the next day (Lacey doesn’t sound too thrilled). It doesn’t help that it seems Megan’s hands are acting up again. Megan fills Peter in on the birthday present and cake from the episode before and that she’s trying to get a life (despite Peter telling her to take it slow). Back at the lab, Kate tells Megan to bring Ethan and Curtis on for the case. Peter points out it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Baker and Morris were assigned to them. Kate figured it would be easier to keep Megan contained if she was only knocking heads with two detectives instead of the whole department. I have to say, it was probably a smart move on Kate’s part.
During autopsy, Morris is his usual impatient self. He wants the bullets so he can close the case (he’s still rooting for murder-suicide). Too bad Megan’s in no hurry. It turns out Dave and Linda were an unlikely pair. One came from a rich family and went to a prestigious college while the other came from an immigrant family and joined the navy. Megan and company determine that Linda had a previous spinal injury that .left scarring and had hair extensions that left permanent damage to her scalp. Dave wasn’t without his own story to tell. There was a rough patch on his arm. And then there’s the matter of two bullets in Dave’s head. It’s pretty impossible to shoot yourself in the head twice. They’re definitely dealing with a double homicide.
After a little digging the team finds out that Linda suffered a tragic car accident several years earlier that broke her neck in three places. And Ethan discovered signs of potential alcoholism or bulimia. Dave had been complaining about breathing issues shortly before his death. Megan dispenses Curtis and Ethan to figure out what was causing Dave’s lung issues and Peter gets Morris and Baker to figure out where the couple’s last meal (burgers and green fries) came from. It seems our charming detectives may be on to something when Morris remembers there’s a place nearby that on weekends is crazy and servers burgers, fries and water ice.
Back at the lab, Kate is meeting with Linda’s parents. Megan joins them and after hearing that Linda’s parents blame Dave, explains that it was a double homicide. She tries to get as much info out of them as she can and she gets a name; Brian. He was Linda’s most recent boyfriend (even though she ended it three months earlier). He did own a restaurant that he owns that Linda worked at. After Linda’s parents leave, Megan fills Kate in on what the police are doing and upon Kate’s direction, she and Peter go to check out Brian. He’s a total jerk. He says that he hasn’t seen Linda in months and he never met Dave. Peter tries to keep Brian occupied while Megan talks to the newest hostess, Nina. It’s pretty obvious Nina is scared of Brian. But before Megan can get much information, Brian kicks them out.
Meanwhile, Morris and Baker are following up on a lead of their own. A guy named Eric Singleton was seen arguing with Dave. It turns out Eric didn’t like that Dave was with a black girl (oh white supremacist bullshit). Eric’s mouth gets him in trouble with Sam. She doesn’t take kindly to him trash talking African American women and shoves him up against a wall and searches him (presumably a Terry frisk since it is unlikely at this point they have probable cause). She ends up finding a giant bruise on Eric’s ribs. Looks like they did more than talk. Dave landed a pretty good blow.
Peter and Megan stop off at Lacey’s riding lesson so Megan can say hi. Peter warns her that it’s not a good idea to push Lacey. After all, she’s only just starting to open up after five years of blaming her mom for the divorce. Things go horribly. Lacey is pissed that her mom showed up and rides off before Megan say anything. Family drama will have to take a back seat, unfortunately. Curtis confirms that Linda had bulimia but only for a short time (likely after she started working for Brian). And Megan proves Dave was the restaurant the night he and Linda die. He had residue from the materials Brian used to clean his bar on his arm.
Megan, Peter, Kate, Morris and Baker have a little pow wow to catch up on the case and after Megan fills them in on Linda’s condition and the fact that Dave was at Brian’s restaurant the night of the murder, they head over to have another chat. It doesn’t really go well. They leave with a shaky alibi for Brian. He was with Nina (or so she says). Morris is still insisting their skinhead Eric is the perp but Megan is free to continue pursuing Brian if she wants. And she will. She plans on using Peter to get Nina away from Brian.
Meanwhile, Ethan’s figured out that Dave was suffering from asbestos in his lungs. He drags Curtis to Dave’s latest construction job and they scoop up some soil samples to test back at the lab and barely make it out of there before two burly construction workers come chasing after them.
Megan gets her lunch with Lacey but it goes about as well as showing up at the riding lesson. Lacey isn’t ready to bond with her mom and leaves. She’s kind of moody for a twelve-year-old. It seems that Peter has a way with things regarding Lacey. He was right about what Megan should get her for her birthday and he was right about not pushing things. He’s a smart guy that medical legal investigator! As Megan sits there and wipes at her eyes, she smudges her makeup. Breakthrough! She discovers the killer closed Linda’s eyes, leaving behind gunshot residue and DNA.
Megan’s plan to get Nina away from Brian is in motion and she needs Kate’s help to pull it off. Meanwhile, Morris and Baker have Lonnie (an associate of Eric’s) in for questioning and they learn that shortly before they arrived the previous day, Eric had ditched his jacket with blood on it. Now that’s what you call probable cause. They find the jacket in a dumpster and match the blood to Linda. Peter calls Brian’s restaurant and tells Nina that Brian’s house is on fire. It works. He convinces Linda to go with him to the morgue. And Megan and Kate introduce her to Linda. They convince Nina to leave Brian and go to a shelter to get away from Brian. But the truth is, he was with her at the time of the murders. I have to say I was pleased with the increased amount of Jeri Ryan in this episode. It almost made up for the lack of Sherlock-ness on Megan’s part.
Curtis and Ethan confirm that the asbestos in Dave’s lungs came from the job site. So Megan sends Ethan and Peter to investigate while she sits in with Kate and Linda’s mom. Megan explains that they know Linda was bulimic and had hair extensions. The main thrust of the conversation revealed that Linda’s mom knew they were wrong about Dave. He showed up at their house and asked to marry Linda. They said no.
Peter confronts the foreman at the construction site and says the EPA is on their way to handle the violation. Peter discovers that Dave asked his boss for an advance to buy an engagement ring. A ring that the cops find at Eric’s apartment. He admits he followed them to the murder scene but Linda and Dave were already dead. Peter asks how lunch went (and mentioned that her hand problems are probably psychosomatic). Megan isn’t pleased and gets defensive. And then she kind of breaks down when she demands to know when she gave up the right to be involved in her daughter’s life. Curtis interrupts the moment saying that the DNA results from Linda’s eyelids came back. Now they just need someone to compare it to.
While watching Eric’s interrogation, Megan has a revelation. Tears could have made the makeup smudge. Kate tells Linda’s parents they can come pick up their daughter and in short order, Megan explains that it was Linda’s dad who killed her. He didn’t mean to but he got scared and the gun went off. Then he killed Dave and then shot him a second time to make it look like a murder-suicide. I don’t know whether to laugh or not that the show has a formula already (two red herrings followed by the reveal at the end by Megan).
That night after the case is closed; Megan calls Lacey and leaves her a message. She got what Lacey was saying and will give her time and space and will wait for Lacey to be ready to spend time together. Lacey hears it and it looks like Megan may have begun to rebuild the bridge with her daughter.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Body of Proof - "PIlot"
Body of Proof 1.01: “Pilot”
“But maybe that car accident was your own fall down the stairs and you’re just too scared to let the benefits kick in.”
- Peter
So I’ve been waiting for “Body of Proof” to come on since last summer. It was originally supposed to air starting in September but ABC decided to save it to do more advertising I guess. So, after much waiting, I bring you the first episode!
We meet Dr. Megan Hunt getting what apparently is the zillionth brain scan with no conclusive results. She’s fine according to every doctor she talks to. Except according to her own diagnosis. Her hands still go numb as a result of a car accident she suffered a few years earlier. But before she can berate the doctor she’s talking to any more (especially since he’s telling her to be happy she even has a job now), she gets called away.
She is now a medical examiner with probably the best taste in fashion sense I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d want Dana Delaney to be my ME. She’s been called to the scene of Angela Swanson, a female jogger with head trauma. She quickly ascertains that the vic had to have gone in to the river on the west side of the river since she died two hours earlier and the east side would have been in shadow. I couldn’t tell if she was deducing all of this to show off to the cops or just piss them off. I’m pretty sure he succeeded in the latter.
Back at the office, Megan dispenses a few bits of medical advice as if she’s the go to for people’s problems. It’s going to get her in trouble some day, I’m sure. Too bad Megan’s personal life isn’t going as well as her new career. She tries calling her daughter’s cell phone but her ex-husband picks up. She begs him to let her go to their daughter’s birthday party but he outright refuses. It seems he’s cutting Megan out of their daughter’s life. I already dislike him.
At autopsy, Megan discovers a few key pieces of evidence that will later be extremely important, a scar on her scalp and healed bite marks on her arm. She also had a bit of an ideological argument with the lead detective. He wants fast answers; what killed her. Megan is more interested in what the body can tell her about the life the person lived. It’s almost cheesy when she says that the body is the proof but I guess the writers had to work it in somehow. She does give the detective a likely murder weapon and then her coffee order just to piss him off some more.
Megan’s in her office trying to find a good birthday gift for her daughter (which apparently means a super expensive purse) when Peter pops by to give her the latest on Angela. He’s held her stomach content and sent a tissue sample from the weird lump on her neck and the diaphragm she was wearing to the lab to be tested. We learned some interesting intel about diaphragms which need not be repeated and then Megan decides it’s a good idea to do a brain dissection while they want on calls back from Angela’s doctors to determine why she had a scar on her head. On their way, they run into Curtis (Deputy Chief Medical Examiner) who yells at Megan for ordering an A&A panel (autoimmune test) on a suicide victim. I can understand his concern since it is a $1,000 test. She makes the snarky remark that now they both know that the victim didn’t blow his brains out because of his immune system. Frankly, Megan I’d have to side with Curtis on this one.
Megan’s dissection of Angela’s brain (people’s brains really do look grey after death…ew) reveals she’s suffered head trauma in the past. While she mutters to herself about what that area of brain controls, Peter gets a call from one of Angela’s doctors. Apparently two years earlier Angela was pushed down a flight of stairs by her then boyfriend and fell into a coma. Lucky for Megan (or unlucky for the detectives), she and Peter get to tag along for the interrogation. Megan thinks she’s a cop too apparently because after explaining that Angela couldn’t have told anyone her boyfriend, Tom, didn’t push her down the stairs because of short term memory loss, proceeds to question Tom herself. Detective Morris puts a stop to it and drags her outside to ream her out. He tells her that she’s supposed to tell the cops what she knows and then let the real officers of the law do their job. Morris does have a point. Megan kind of thinks she can whatever she wants. But she doe tell him that even if it was an accident, Tom would have wanted Angela to see him if he’d killed her.
Megan and Peter make a stop at Angela’s parents’ house to try and get some information. It turns out that Angela didn’t have many friends. She was a workaholic and while in school she’d been very driven about her grades. As a teenager she’d been distant from her parents but after the coma she was more loving and involved. It’s like the coma knocked feelings into her. She was also sick with Strep A.
Megan and Peter stop by the store so she can pick up the bag she was looking at getting her daughter for her birthday. Until Peter tells her that a bag isn’t going to make Lacey happy. And it costs $1,100. Megan tells Peter rather heatedly that he doesn’t know anything about her daughter. It seems she gets touchy when her personal life is involved. She goes on a rant about how she and her husband divorced and he uses everything she does to try and convince their daughter that she’s the bad guy. Apparently a guy can work crazy hours and be called a good provider but a woman who works the same hours is an absentee mother. I can see Megan’s frustration. It seems very sexist to me. Megan cuts the conversation short by telling Peter they should just pretend like it never happened. That’s one way to deal with your issues I suppose.
Back at the lab, Megan tells Peter to get a rush on the diaphragm results and she continues an examination of Angela’s body. She discovers finger impression and torn hair near her neck. It turns out Angela was sleeping with a married man. She’s out to lunch with an old friend who happens to be the most noteworthy “ball cutter” in Philly. After a little arm twisting, Megan get him to reveal a name; Bradford Paige. Who just happens to be Angela’s boss. Megan immediately starts in on the boss and could end up blowing the case for the detectives. Megan leaves upon Detective Morris’s order and as she’s trying to cool off outside, she flashes back to her accident. She was arguing with her ex-husband while driving and she gets hit by a truck. Morris blows Megan’s theory that Angela was blackmailing Paige to make partner when he tells her that Angela already did. She won a big case a few weeks earlier and the partner committee made their decision. It sounds good but she was defending a wealthy family whose dog mauled a young boy. Megan goes a little Sherlock (BBC series) on Morris by stating that he was kicked out of his house because he has an impression on his left ring finger, a cut on his chin from a disposable razor and rather unpleasant aftershave. This part of Megan, I like. A lot.
Logically, the next step is to go see the boy and his family to see if there are any clues. They find the dad to be kind of hostile towards Angela and later to the police when they accuse him of killing Angela. Megan gets him to open up though and they discover Angela gave him documents withheld by her firm at trial that shows the dog that attacked his son was a trained attack dog. Guess spontaneous feelings makes you do a lot of things. So the cops have another reason to look into Paige.
Megan heads back to the lab and is accosted by her boss, Chief Kate Murphy (played by ever lovely Jeri Ryan). Ethan told Curtis that he ran an A&A on his heatstroke victim at Megan’s suggestion. Megan doesn’t see the problem but Kate is annoyed at how fast and loose Megan is being with the lab budget. Megan challenges Kate to fire her if she doesn’t like the way she does things. In short order, Megan deduces for them all that the heatstroke victim wasn’t in fact a heatstroke victim. She had lupus.
Megan’s at the lab late looking at the tissue sample from Angela’s neck when Peter walks in. She’s confused about the results she’s found but Peter distracts her from work for a few brief moments when he compares to her Angela. She too is a workaholic with few friends. And he makes a really important statement that I think wakes Megan up a little. She’s still letting the accident control her life instead of moving on and living life, including building the relationship she wants with her daughter. Unfortunately, it is back to work when they get a call that the cops arrested Tom for Angela’s murder. He admits he was in the park the morning she died but that he didn’t kill her. He wanted to talk to her and find out why she accused him of pushing her down the stairs.
Megan’s pissed that Detective Morris arrested the wrong guy and when he tells her to go back to doing whatever it was she did before she became an ME, she says she can’t because she killed someone. She explains to Peter that before her accident, she never really cared to get to know her patients. And that she learned so much from the body of the woman she killed that she never would have known just by talking to her. There’s some sort of party when they get back to the lab and in short order Megan realizes they need to test the stomach contents for prescription drugs in case of an allergy (Peter declined cake because a nut allergy).
And since that’s going to take a while, she’s going to go to Lacey’s party, whether her ex likes it or not. Megan gets a few minutes with her daughter. Enough time to give her daughter a key to her apartment and the offer that its open to Lacey whenever she wants it. Guess she did listen to Peter after all and gave her something from the heart. Upon return to the lab, Peter hands her the test results from the stomach. She had amoxicillin in her stomach. But Angela was allergic to it. They (along with the detectives) head back to the Paige house and Megan (in somewhat typical Sherlock style) explains that it was the wife who killed Angela when she discovered she was having an affair with her husband.
Megan is saying her last goodbyes to Angela since the case is finished (minus trial of course) when Kate stops by. She tells that she got lots of phone calls before hiring Megan that she was driven and while abrasive got the job done. And it was all underselling her. But Megan needs to be careful because the moment she slips up, the knives are coming out and even Kate won’t be able to protect her. And Megan should get some friends. Megan gets home to her big empty apartment to find a piece of birthday cake sitting on the counter. Looks like Lacey’s already found some solace in the place after all.
“But maybe that car accident was your own fall down the stairs and you’re just too scared to let the benefits kick in.”
- Peter
So I’ve been waiting for “Body of Proof” to come on since last summer. It was originally supposed to air starting in September but ABC decided to save it to do more advertising I guess. So, after much waiting, I bring you the first episode!
We meet Dr. Megan Hunt getting what apparently is the zillionth brain scan with no conclusive results. She’s fine according to every doctor she talks to. Except according to her own diagnosis. Her hands still go numb as a result of a car accident she suffered a few years earlier. But before she can berate the doctor she’s talking to any more (especially since he’s telling her to be happy she even has a job now), she gets called away.
She is now a medical examiner with probably the best taste in fashion sense I’ve ever seen. Hell, I’d want Dana Delaney to be my ME. She’s been called to the scene of Angela Swanson, a female jogger with head trauma. She quickly ascertains that the vic had to have gone in to the river on the west side of the river since she died two hours earlier and the east side would have been in shadow. I couldn’t tell if she was deducing all of this to show off to the cops or just piss them off. I’m pretty sure he succeeded in the latter.
Back at the office, Megan dispenses a few bits of medical advice as if she’s the go to for people’s problems. It’s going to get her in trouble some day, I’m sure. Too bad Megan’s personal life isn’t going as well as her new career. She tries calling her daughter’s cell phone but her ex-husband picks up. She begs him to let her go to their daughter’s birthday party but he outright refuses. It seems he’s cutting Megan out of their daughter’s life. I already dislike him.
At autopsy, Megan discovers a few key pieces of evidence that will later be extremely important, a scar on her scalp and healed bite marks on her arm. She also had a bit of an ideological argument with the lead detective. He wants fast answers; what killed her. Megan is more interested in what the body can tell her about the life the person lived. It’s almost cheesy when she says that the body is the proof but I guess the writers had to work it in somehow. She does give the detective a likely murder weapon and then her coffee order just to piss him off some more.
Megan’s in her office trying to find a good birthday gift for her daughter (which apparently means a super expensive purse) when Peter pops by to give her the latest on Angela. He’s held her stomach content and sent a tissue sample from the weird lump on her neck and the diaphragm she was wearing to the lab to be tested. We learned some interesting intel about diaphragms which need not be repeated and then Megan decides it’s a good idea to do a brain dissection while they want on calls back from Angela’s doctors to determine why she had a scar on her head. On their way, they run into Curtis (Deputy Chief Medical Examiner) who yells at Megan for ordering an A&A panel (autoimmune test) on a suicide victim. I can understand his concern since it is a $1,000 test. She makes the snarky remark that now they both know that the victim didn’t blow his brains out because of his immune system. Frankly, Megan I’d have to side with Curtis on this one.
Megan’s dissection of Angela’s brain (people’s brains really do look grey after death…ew) reveals she’s suffered head trauma in the past. While she mutters to herself about what that area of brain controls, Peter gets a call from one of Angela’s doctors. Apparently two years earlier Angela was pushed down a flight of stairs by her then boyfriend and fell into a coma. Lucky for Megan (or unlucky for the detectives), she and Peter get to tag along for the interrogation. Megan thinks she’s a cop too apparently because after explaining that Angela couldn’t have told anyone her boyfriend, Tom, didn’t push her down the stairs because of short term memory loss, proceeds to question Tom herself. Detective Morris puts a stop to it and drags her outside to ream her out. He tells her that she’s supposed to tell the cops what she knows and then let the real officers of the law do their job. Morris does have a point. Megan kind of thinks she can whatever she wants. But she doe tell him that even if it was an accident, Tom would have wanted Angela to see him if he’d killed her.
Megan and Peter make a stop at Angela’s parents’ house to try and get some information. It turns out that Angela didn’t have many friends. She was a workaholic and while in school she’d been very driven about her grades. As a teenager she’d been distant from her parents but after the coma she was more loving and involved. It’s like the coma knocked feelings into her. She was also sick with Strep A.
Megan and Peter stop by the store so she can pick up the bag she was looking at getting her daughter for her birthday. Until Peter tells her that a bag isn’t going to make Lacey happy. And it costs $1,100. Megan tells Peter rather heatedly that he doesn’t know anything about her daughter. It seems she gets touchy when her personal life is involved. She goes on a rant about how she and her husband divorced and he uses everything she does to try and convince their daughter that she’s the bad guy. Apparently a guy can work crazy hours and be called a good provider but a woman who works the same hours is an absentee mother. I can see Megan’s frustration. It seems very sexist to me. Megan cuts the conversation short by telling Peter they should just pretend like it never happened. That’s one way to deal with your issues I suppose.
Back at the lab, Megan tells Peter to get a rush on the diaphragm results and she continues an examination of Angela’s body. She discovers finger impression and torn hair near her neck. It turns out Angela was sleeping with a married man. She’s out to lunch with an old friend who happens to be the most noteworthy “ball cutter” in Philly. After a little arm twisting, Megan get him to reveal a name; Bradford Paige. Who just happens to be Angela’s boss. Megan immediately starts in on the boss and could end up blowing the case for the detectives. Megan leaves upon Detective Morris’s order and as she’s trying to cool off outside, she flashes back to her accident. She was arguing with her ex-husband while driving and she gets hit by a truck. Morris blows Megan’s theory that Angela was blackmailing Paige to make partner when he tells her that Angela already did. She won a big case a few weeks earlier and the partner committee made their decision. It sounds good but she was defending a wealthy family whose dog mauled a young boy. Megan goes a little Sherlock (BBC series) on Morris by stating that he was kicked out of his house because he has an impression on his left ring finger, a cut on his chin from a disposable razor and rather unpleasant aftershave. This part of Megan, I like. A lot.
Logically, the next step is to go see the boy and his family to see if there are any clues. They find the dad to be kind of hostile towards Angela and later to the police when they accuse him of killing Angela. Megan gets him to open up though and they discover Angela gave him documents withheld by her firm at trial that shows the dog that attacked his son was a trained attack dog. Guess spontaneous feelings makes you do a lot of things. So the cops have another reason to look into Paige.
Megan heads back to the lab and is accosted by her boss, Chief Kate Murphy (played by ever lovely Jeri Ryan). Ethan told Curtis that he ran an A&A on his heatstroke victim at Megan’s suggestion. Megan doesn’t see the problem but Kate is annoyed at how fast and loose Megan is being with the lab budget. Megan challenges Kate to fire her if she doesn’t like the way she does things. In short order, Megan deduces for them all that the heatstroke victim wasn’t in fact a heatstroke victim. She had lupus.
Megan’s at the lab late looking at the tissue sample from Angela’s neck when Peter walks in. She’s confused about the results she’s found but Peter distracts her from work for a few brief moments when he compares to her Angela. She too is a workaholic with few friends. And he makes a really important statement that I think wakes Megan up a little. She’s still letting the accident control her life instead of moving on and living life, including building the relationship she wants with her daughter. Unfortunately, it is back to work when they get a call that the cops arrested Tom for Angela’s murder. He admits he was in the park the morning she died but that he didn’t kill her. He wanted to talk to her and find out why she accused him of pushing her down the stairs.
Megan’s pissed that Detective Morris arrested the wrong guy and when he tells her to go back to doing whatever it was she did before she became an ME, she says she can’t because she killed someone. She explains to Peter that before her accident, she never really cared to get to know her patients. And that she learned so much from the body of the woman she killed that she never would have known just by talking to her. There’s some sort of party when they get back to the lab and in short order Megan realizes they need to test the stomach contents for prescription drugs in case of an allergy (Peter declined cake because a nut allergy).
And since that’s going to take a while, she’s going to go to Lacey’s party, whether her ex likes it or not. Megan gets a few minutes with her daughter. Enough time to give her daughter a key to her apartment and the offer that its open to Lacey whenever she wants it. Guess she did listen to Peter after all and gave her something from the heart. Upon return to the lab, Peter hands her the test results from the stomach. She had amoxicillin in her stomach. But Angela was allergic to it. They (along with the detectives) head back to the Paige house and Megan (in somewhat typical Sherlock style) explains that it was the wife who killed Angela when she discovered she was having an affair with her husband.
Megan is saying her last goodbyes to Angela since the case is finished (minus trial of course) when Kate stops by. She tells that she got lots of phone calls before hiring Megan that she was driven and while abrasive got the job done. And it was all underselling her. But Megan needs to be careful because the moment she slips up, the knives are coming out and even Kate won’t be able to protect her. And Megan should get some friends. Megan gets home to her big empty apartment to find a piece of birthday cake sitting on the counter. Looks like Lacey’s already found some solace in the place after all.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Spotlight: Mark Hildreth
So I thought I would change things up a bit and a post about my newest favorite musician (and actor): Mark Hildreth. You can find him at his website. I was first drawn to Mark because of his character, Joshua, on V. If you follow the blog at all, you know I am rather annoyed with the writers from wiping his personality. But, I’m a little less pissed at them since they gave it back last week. So I was Googling Mark when I found out he was also a musician. I’ve found several musicians that I like from their acting gigs (Christian Kane for example) so I thought I’d check Mark out. I got his album on iTunes and fell in love. His fan base from what I can tell is relatively small and I wanted to help spread the word. So I thought I’d take the time to discuss his album with you all.
Track 1: Magic Spell
Favorite Lyrics: “I’m gonna live my life like there’s no one to blame. Wasting time is a crying shame.”
This is song is upbeat and a lot of fun. It may be slightly auto-tuned but that’s okay. It has a decent drum beat and both the verse and chorus are well within Mark’s vocal range (always a plus). You don’t hear a lot of the piano on this track (his main instrument) except for little interludes between verse and chorus. The interludes are a nice hook from the vocals though. There are also some strings used for the accompaniment which I find interesting. You don’t often find strings in many pop songs these days, especially since Mark doesn’t play it. He says often that he’s a mix of Stevie Wonder and Elton John and I can see it. His sound is very laid back and you can tell he enjoys the music. As for lyrical content, I think the song is focused very squarely on love. About how the narrator would change the world for the person he loves but at the same time he’s going to live his life to the fullest and how he wants without regret.
Track 2: Siddhartha
Favorite Lyrics: “If we can see beyond that river. If we can see beyond that river. If we can see beyond that water in our way, we will see the blue skies of a brighter day.”
Where “Magic Spell” was just kind of a slightly upbeat number, “Siddhartha” is about five times more upbeat. It’s got a funkier beat and a great piano intro. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve seen the music video for the song and it is hilarious and goofy. But the song does a great job of balancing the fun tempo and chord progressions with the third verse about Siddhartha. It is nice to see that while it seems pretty clear that Mark is Christian of some sort, he believes enough in faith in general to acknowledge the best parts of other religions. In fact, in terms of where the album title (Complex State of Attachment) came from, this song ties in most. It finds wisdom in the philosophy of the Dali Llama about love.
Track 3: It’s My Life
Favorite Lyrics: “But if I’m not living my own life, who can? It’s my life that I’m living in. Though I’ve tried pretending it’s not. But my life I’ve found is the only thing I’ve got.”
Upon further reflection, this song is a little lower down on my favorites. I love the whole album for sure but this one is just not quite as good as the others. The gist of the song (as the lyrics above suggest) is accepting the life you have to live because if you don’t live it, no one else will. I’m not sure if it’s a combination of a slightly sad idea mixed with such an upbeat sound that bothers me but it is definitely something that isn’t there with a lot of the songs. Again, Mark knows his vocal range well enough to stay within it. Though there are times he gets perhaps a few notes too high. I tend to like him more when he’s in baritone range. We definitely get more piano in this track and it has an intriguing interplay during the chorus where Mark will sing a line, play a counter melody, sing a line, counter melody. He studied music a little bit when he was younger but for someone who didn’t spend years and years learning all the music theory stuff, he has a great ear.
Track 4: Ready to Fall
Favorite Lyrics: “There’s so many reasons for me to believe that I don’t deserve what I got. And what’s scaring me the most is wondering if you’re ready to fall in love or not.”
This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is much more laid back than the rest of the album, mainly because it is piano, vocals and some light percussion. Some violins come in later on but they are so understated that it just make sense and feels natural. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve seen him in a video performing this live with just keyboard and some drums. While I said that “Magic Spell” was about changing the world for the one you love, this song is about being ready to take the big step in a romantic relationship. When he’s saying he’s worried about whether the other person is ready to fall in love, he’s saying that he’ll be ready whenever. In a way, I think this could be a good song to do as a first dance at a wedding, perhaps.
Track 5: Love Will Make It Certain
Favorite Lyrics: “It’s far too far beyond me, how love decides to last. I try but it keeps slipping through my hands.”
I think this song could have been a little shorter and have done well if it was only acoustic (with vocals and piano). As it is, it has drums, guitar and some backing vocals during the chorus. I like the concept of the song, though. That love can make anything better is an admirable notion. As I listened to this song again, I found it kind of interesting that most of the piano is just chords instead of a moving bass line until near the very middle and towards the end of the song. Just using chords is not a bad thing at all. Just an interesting way to approach this particular song. I do feel that some of the reverb and background vocals take away from the song during the chorus (even though Mark is doing some of the additional backing).
Track 6: Here I Am
Favorite Lyrics: “Here I am, on my own. I can never go back home. Here I stand, here’s my heart and I’ve never gone this far. I want to see you for who you are.”
Right off the bat, I love the hook and riff to this song on the piano. The riff keeps moving throughout the whole song. Not only is the piano a nice progression, but the chorus and verses melody-wise are structured well. They feed off the instrumentation of the piano and to some extent the drum beat in a way that makes the song seamless. There’s less backing vocal in this song and it seems to blend better with Mark’s voice. Sometimes in other songs it stands out a little and distracts from his voice.
Track 7: Little Life
Favorite Lyrics: “If I die before we wake. If my earthly soul they take. I’ll show the mighty army what it’s meant to be.”
I think this is really the only song on the album that is really melancholy and haunting. The key of the song isn’t really minor (not entirely) but the lyrics combined with the chords Mark does use, make it very sad. The song talks about going to war and how one life isn’t any more valuable than any other. I think it’s fascinating that first part of the chorus (which comes before the verse this time which is something we haven’t seen much on the album) is taken and slightly altered from an 18th century children’s prayer. Even though this song too has background vocals it seems to fit the mood of the song more. It’s almost like soldiers marching off to war and finding strength in numbers. I think it shows that Mark can handle both happy and sad songs and has enough knowledge of music composition to set the right mood. Since there isn’t an even mix, I can’t say whether Mark’s voice is more suited to melancholy or upbeat.
Track 8: Beauty Of It All
Favorite Lyrics: “I’ve known love. I’ve known pain. And I’m lucky that I’ll know them both again. I just believe I hear the call. And I know that there’s a beauty to it all.”
I think the thing that sets this song apart from the rest of the album is that you can tell fairly clearly that he was playing the piano part on a keyboard set to organ (or something similar). I think this is one of my favorite songs because of the lyrics. They’re beautiful (no pun intended) and really speak to just recognizing the inherent beauty surrounding us every day; in the people we know, in the things we say and do. I do have to say I feel Mark was a little out of his range in this song. He was a little too low and it sounded like he was bottoming out just a touch.
Track 9: You In Me
Favorite Lyrics: “You’re a hero. You’re everything I want to be. You’re a hero. You’re all that I said I need. I see a hero. But there’s one thing I could not see. How would I know you’re a hero if I couldn’t see you in me?”
This is just a feel good song. I think the vocals could have been a little more balanced with the instruments but overall, it is a great song. The chorus is so beautiful and romantic. The notion that this other person can bring out the best in you is just so heartwarming. We also get the piano going into the upper register which is something we don’t hear all that often. Mark tends to stay more in the middle of the keyboard. We also get a lot more movement in the piano part in this song. It also has an interesting cadence with the emphasis on the 2 and 4 instead of the 1 and 3. Not something you see a lot in pop music (it is usually more emphasis on the 1 and 3 beats). Plus, the major difference with this song is that we get a fade out. Not that important but I think it is something to note.
Track 10: I Just Wanna Love Someone
Favorite Lyrics: “Such hatred in this world that I never thought I would see. It’s our choice to love or hate, it’s up to you and me. For now, forever, for the world that we treasure. I just wanna love someone.”
This song reminds me of songs that are written for worldwide crisis events, like Live 8 (or Glee). The only issue I have with this track is that every now and then Mark’s pronunciation gets a little sketchy and you can’t understand the words. But I have to say, regardless of that fact, the entire song has such a great feel and the lyrics are so poignant that I had a hard time picking my favorite lyrics for this post. It’s really encompassing everyone out there in who the message is supposed to reach. It really is about everyone in the world loving each other. It reminds me actually of Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World”. Not in tone or anything, but the message is similar. I think of all the songs, this would be the song I would most like to see Mark perform live. Get the audience involved. I think it could be a really moving and powerful moment.
Track 1: Magic Spell
Favorite Lyrics: “I’m gonna live my life like there’s no one to blame. Wasting time is a crying shame.”
This is song is upbeat and a lot of fun. It may be slightly auto-tuned but that’s okay. It has a decent drum beat and both the verse and chorus are well within Mark’s vocal range (always a plus). You don’t hear a lot of the piano on this track (his main instrument) except for little interludes between verse and chorus. The interludes are a nice hook from the vocals though. There are also some strings used for the accompaniment which I find interesting. You don’t often find strings in many pop songs these days, especially since Mark doesn’t play it. He says often that he’s a mix of Stevie Wonder and Elton John and I can see it. His sound is very laid back and you can tell he enjoys the music. As for lyrical content, I think the song is focused very squarely on love. About how the narrator would change the world for the person he loves but at the same time he’s going to live his life to the fullest and how he wants without regret.
Track 2: Siddhartha
Favorite Lyrics: “If we can see beyond that river. If we can see beyond that river. If we can see beyond that water in our way, we will see the blue skies of a brighter day.”
Where “Magic Spell” was just kind of a slightly upbeat number, “Siddhartha” is about five times more upbeat. It’s got a funkier beat and a great piano intro. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve seen the music video for the song and it is hilarious and goofy. But the song does a great job of balancing the fun tempo and chord progressions with the third verse about Siddhartha. It is nice to see that while it seems pretty clear that Mark is Christian of some sort, he believes enough in faith in general to acknowledge the best parts of other religions. In fact, in terms of where the album title (Complex State of Attachment) came from, this song ties in most. It finds wisdom in the philosophy of the Dali Llama about love.
Track 3: It’s My Life
Favorite Lyrics: “But if I’m not living my own life, who can? It’s my life that I’m living in. Though I’ve tried pretending it’s not. But my life I’ve found is the only thing I’ve got.”
Upon further reflection, this song is a little lower down on my favorites. I love the whole album for sure but this one is just not quite as good as the others. The gist of the song (as the lyrics above suggest) is accepting the life you have to live because if you don’t live it, no one else will. I’m not sure if it’s a combination of a slightly sad idea mixed with such an upbeat sound that bothers me but it is definitely something that isn’t there with a lot of the songs. Again, Mark knows his vocal range well enough to stay within it. Though there are times he gets perhaps a few notes too high. I tend to like him more when he’s in baritone range. We definitely get more piano in this track and it has an intriguing interplay during the chorus where Mark will sing a line, play a counter melody, sing a line, counter melody. He studied music a little bit when he was younger but for someone who didn’t spend years and years learning all the music theory stuff, he has a great ear.
Track 4: Ready to Fall
Favorite Lyrics: “There’s so many reasons for me to believe that I don’t deserve what I got. And what’s scaring me the most is wondering if you’re ready to fall in love or not.”
This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is much more laid back than the rest of the album, mainly because it is piano, vocals and some light percussion. Some violins come in later on but they are so understated that it just make sense and feels natural. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve seen him in a video performing this live with just keyboard and some drums. While I said that “Magic Spell” was about changing the world for the one you love, this song is about being ready to take the big step in a romantic relationship. When he’s saying he’s worried about whether the other person is ready to fall in love, he’s saying that he’ll be ready whenever. In a way, I think this could be a good song to do as a first dance at a wedding, perhaps.
Track 5: Love Will Make It Certain
Favorite Lyrics: “It’s far too far beyond me, how love decides to last. I try but it keeps slipping through my hands.”
I think this song could have been a little shorter and have done well if it was only acoustic (with vocals and piano). As it is, it has drums, guitar and some backing vocals during the chorus. I like the concept of the song, though. That love can make anything better is an admirable notion. As I listened to this song again, I found it kind of interesting that most of the piano is just chords instead of a moving bass line until near the very middle and towards the end of the song. Just using chords is not a bad thing at all. Just an interesting way to approach this particular song. I do feel that some of the reverb and background vocals take away from the song during the chorus (even though Mark is doing some of the additional backing).
Track 6: Here I Am
Favorite Lyrics: “Here I am, on my own. I can never go back home. Here I stand, here’s my heart and I’ve never gone this far. I want to see you for who you are.”
Right off the bat, I love the hook and riff to this song on the piano. The riff keeps moving throughout the whole song. Not only is the piano a nice progression, but the chorus and verses melody-wise are structured well. They feed off the instrumentation of the piano and to some extent the drum beat in a way that makes the song seamless. There’s less backing vocal in this song and it seems to blend better with Mark’s voice. Sometimes in other songs it stands out a little and distracts from his voice.
Track 7: Little Life
Favorite Lyrics: “If I die before we wake. If my earthly soul they take. I’ll show the mighty army what it’s meant to be.”
I think this is really the only song on the album that is really melancholy and haunting. The key of the song isn’t really minor (not entirely) but the lyrics combined with the chords Mark does use, make it very sad. The song talks about going to war and how one life isn’t any more valuable than any other. I think it’s fascinating that first part of the chorus (which comes before the verse this time which is something we haven’t seen much on the album) is taken and slightly altered from an 18th century children’s prayer. Even though this song too has background vocals it seems to fit the mood of the song more. It’s almost like soldiers marching off to war and finding strength in numbers. I think it shows that Mark can handle both happy and sad songs and has enough knowledge of music composition to set the right mood. Since there isn’t an even mix, I can’t say whether Mark’s voice is more suited to melancholy or upbeat.
Track 8: Beauty Of It All
Favorite Lyrics: “I’ve known love. I’ve known pain. And I’m lucky that I’ll know them both again. I just believe I hear the call. And I know that there’s a beauty to it all.”
I think the thing that sets this song apart from the rest of the album is that you can tell fairly clearly that he was playing the piano part on a keyboard set to organ (or something similar). I think this is one of my favorite songs because of the lyrics. They’re beautiful (no pun intended) and really speak to just recognizing the inherent beauty surrounding us every day; in the people we know, in the things we say and do. I do have to say I feel Mark was a little out of his range in this song. He was a little too low and it sounded like he was bottoming out just a touch.
Track 9: You In Me
Favorite Lyrics: “You’re a hero. You’re everything I want to be. You’re a hero. You’re all that I said I need. I see a hero. But there’s one thing I could not see. How would I know you’re a hero if I couldn’t see you in me?”
This is just a feel good song. I think the vocals could have been a little more balanced with the instruments but overall, it is a great song. The chorus is so beautiful and romantic. The notion that this other person can bring out the best in you is just so heartwarming. We also get the piano going into the upper register which is something we don’t hear all that often. Mark tends to stay more in the middle of the keyboard. We also get a lot more movement in the piano part in this song. It also has an interesting cadence with the emphasis on the 2 and 4 instead of the 1 and 3. Not something you see a lot in pop music (it is usually more emphasis on the 1 and 3 beats). Plus, the major difference with this song is that we get a fade out. Not that important but I think it is something to note.
Track 10: I Just Wanna Love Someone
Favorite Lyrics: “Such hatred in this world that I never thought I would see. It’s our choice to love or hate, it’s up to you and me. For now, forever, for the world that we treasure. I just wanna love someone.”
This song reminds me of songs that are written for worldwide crisis events, like Live 8 (or Glee). The only issue I have with this track is that every now and then Mark’s pronunciation gets a little sketchy and you can’t understand the words. But I have to say, regardless of that fact, the entire song has such a great feel and the lyrics are so poignant that I had a hard time picking my favorite lyrics for this post. It’s really encompassing everyone out there in who the message is supposed to reach. It really is about everyone in the world loving each other. It reminds me actually of Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World”. Not in tone or anything, but the message is similar. I think of all the songs, this would be the song I would most like to see Mark perform live. Get the audience involved. I think it could be a really moving and powerful moment.
Friday, February 25, 2011
In the Belly of the Mothership: Joshua and Lisa as subversive rebels or just pretty faces?
So I know I haven’t posted in a while and I apologize. It’s been crazy with school stuff the last few months. I will be posting more regularly once Body of Proof starts at the end of March. But, right now I’ve got a little post about one of ABC’s sophomore dramas, “V”. Warning: spoilers up through “Birth Pangs”.
***
I will preface this by saying that V isn’t the best thing since sliced bread. But it’s not horrible either. I think ABC made the right decision at the end of last season to renew this over FlashForward. Plus, I don’t mind seeing Morena on my screen on a weekly basis (though I prefer her a la Inara with the longer hair).
Anyway, at the end of season 1, Joshua, the Fifth Column’s (resistance movement) key asset aboard Anna’s ship was killed by fellow Fifth Column member Erica Evans (to keep her cover). We thought that was the last of Joshua until the very end and we see V doctors reviving him. Needless to say, I was excited to see Joshua’s fate come season 2. I was very disappointed in what we got. For some reason, when they brought Joshua back to life, he lost all memory of being Fifth Column including having any sort of personality. Now he is just a pretty face doing Anna’s bidding. And with only a few episodes left in the season (and possibly the series depending on whether ABC decides to give it a third chance), it appears we will never see the old Joshua again.
I found season 1 Joshua to be cool and daring. It took guts for him to betray Anna right under her nose. And he was a damn good actor (and no I don’t mean Mark Hildreth). He fooled pretty much everyone. I don’t think I’d be wrong in characterizing him as a bad ass subversive rebel. And now he’s a blank slate pretty face. And I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough for me. What Anna has planned, there needs to be someone to back the Fifth Column on the ship when shit hits the fan.
For those of you saying, what about Lisa, I’m getting to her. We saw her slowly being pulled into Fifth Column by the end of last season. She exhibited emotions and Joshua lied to Anna for her. So there was a little quid pro quo for her to help him later on. And in the end, Lisa helps Erica destroy Ann’s soldier eggs. Thus Lisa finds herself aligned with the resistance. I guess the writers decided to give her Joshua’s job. I have to say though; she’s not nearly as compelling as rebel spy. I think one major difference is she has sort of always been afraid of her mother. Anna is one scary lizard lady. Joshua had a better chance of standing up to her and I think maybe he even liked the danger of potentially getting caught. Lisa has far more at stake in her personal relationship with Anna. That is what is interesting about her this season. She’s preparing to be Queen eventually and she’s starting to challenge her mother. She’s found Diana (her grandmother) and they’re working to subvert Anna’s plans. Very well can’t interbreed without the Queen agreeing to it. She seems to be accepting and embracing human emotion which will ultimately help her I believe in beating Anna.
So in summation, Joshua is now a wasted character. He could have been so much more interesting. There are so many questions that will be left unanswered. Why did he specifically want to join the resistance? What was his back story? Mark Hildreth is a great actor and I think he could handle so much more than just looking cute and doing whatever Anna tells him. And Lisa needs to just give up the role of spy because she’s boring as Erica’s conduit of information. I mean, even Joshua had cool gadgets for communicating! Lisa needs to focus all of her energies on working with Diana to usurp Anna’s power.
***
I will preface this by saying that V isn’t the best thing since sliced bread. But it’s not horrible either. I think ABC made the right decision at the end of last season to renew this over FlashForward. Plus, I don’t mind seeing Morena on my screen on a weekly basis (though I prefer her a la Inara with the longer hair).
Anyway, at the end of season 1, Joshua, the Fifth Column’s (resistance movement) key asset aboard Anna’s ship was killed by fellow Fifth Column member Erica Evans (to keep her cover). We thought that was the last of Joshua until the very end and we see V doctors reviving him. Needless to say, I was excited to see Joshua’s fate come season 2. I was very disappointed in what we got. For some reason, when they brought Joshua back to life, he lost all memory of being Fifth Column including having any sort of personality. Now he is just a pretty face doing Anna’s bidding. And with only a few episodes left in the season (and possibly the series depending on whether ABC decides to give it a third chance), it appears we will never see the old Joshua again.
I found season 1 Joshua to be cool and daring. It took guts for him to betray Anna right under her nose. And he was a damn good actor (and no I don’t mean Mark Hildreth). He fooled pretty much everyone. I don’t think I’d be wrong in characterizing him as a bad ass subversive rebel. And now he’s a blank slate pretty face. And I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough for me. What Anna has planned, there needs to be someone to back the Fifth Column on the ship when shit hits the fan.
For those of you saying, what about Lisa, I’m getting to her. We saw her slowly being pulled into Fifth Column by the end of last season. She exhibited emotions and Joshua lied to Anna for her. So there was a little quid pro quo for her to help him later on. And in the end, Lisa helps Erica destroy Ann’s soldier eggs. Thus Lisa finds herself aligned with the resistance. I guess the writers decided to give her Joshua’s job. I have to say though; she’s not nearly as compelling as rebel spy. I think one major difference is she has sort of always been afraid of her mother. Anna is one scary lizard lady. Joshua had a better chance of standing up to her and I think maybe he even liked the danger of potentially getting caught. Lisa has far more at stake in her personal relationship with Anna. That is what is interesting about her this season. She’s preparing to be Queen eventually and she’s starting to challenge her mother. She’s found Diana (her grandmother) and they’re working to subvert Anna’s plans. Very well can’t interbreed without the Queen agreeing to it. She seems to be accepting and embracing human emotion which will ultimately help her I believe in beating Anna.
So in summation, Joshua is now a wasted character. He could have been so much more interesting. There are so many questions that will be left unanswered. Why did he specifically want to join the resistance? What was his back story? Mark Hildreth is a great actor and I think he could handle so much more than just looking cute and doing whatever Anna tells him. And Lisa needs to just give up the role of spy because she’s boring as Erica’s conduit of information. I mean, even Joshua had cool gadgets for communicating! Lisa needs to focus all of her energies on working with Diana to usurp Anna’s power.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Through the Back Door: The Success (and Failure) of Back Door Pilots
If you’ve watched TV long enough, you’ve likely realized that one of the ways to introduce new shows is by spinning them off from established franchises. Think CSI or Law & Order. The technical term (okay so I don’t actually know that it’s the real technical term) for it is “back door pilot”. You’re introduced to the new cast of characters and sometimes it is successful in garnering interest in the new series and sometimes it falls flat on its face. So I’ve chosen to examine what I think makes 3 back door pilots successful (or not).
JAG=>NCIS
So, I will admit that I tried to watch the pilot of JAG a while back and though it was so bad that I couldn’t even watch the whole episode. I suppose in a sense that saved me from having to get through 10 seasons of the show. I was originally interested in the show because I knew it was the show that preceded NCIS. So, I hunted on IMDB to find out which episodes of JAG Mark Harmon was in. And therefore, decided to watch just those episodes to see how well JAG could do a back door pilot. This section of the post may be a little skewed seeing as I did not avidly watch the parent show but I’ll do my best.
A brief case review: The body of a JAG lieutenant is found and Harm (the lead of JAG) is the prime suspect in the death. NCIS, led by Agent Jethro Gibbs and accompanied by Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, one forensic guru, Abby Sciuto and one witty medical examiner, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard investigate the case. It appears that Harm is the killer but as the trial progresses; NCIS discovers irregularities that lead them to the real killer. Back at the Navy yard, the Navy is trying to break a terrorist to stop an attack on a navy asset.
What makes it good: So I will admit that I wasn’t all that invested in the JAG characters. I still don’t 100% understand the function of JAG officers. I know they’re lawyers but I guess I’m just not sure whether they act as lawyers or in a judge type role. Anyway, much like how the NCIS->NCIS: LA episodes began with the new guys, this episode opened with NCIS arriving at a crime scene. I do have to say I think the acting on JAG improved from the pilot. Anyway, one thing that surprised me was how many of the original NCIS cast was in this episode. Everyone except for McGee and Kate were in this episode. I have to say, I was very surprised by how young Mark Harmon looked. How young everyone looked actually. I also liked that they had continuity with the Director o NCIS from these 2 episodes to the first season of NCIS. Knowing what I do now about these characters, it was fascinating to see how they were first imagined. Gibbs was a lot more light-hearted than in the series and Abby wasn’t quite as wacky and hyper. Tony wasn’t quite as snobby nor did he quote movies/TV shows. I am kind of glad we don’t see a lot of the team testifying in NCIS. I mean, sure Abby does on occasion but usually the rest of the investigators don’t. She was pretty adorable on JAG though. So was Ducky. He rambled off on one of his many stories. Gibbs was just generally badass and wasn’t afraid to change his opinion when new information surfaced. We got a little of Gibbs’ sniper training when they finally took down the terrorists. Overall, I found this back door pilot to be a good precursor to NCIS.
NCIS=>NCIS: LOS ANGELES
Having come into NCIS later in the game (around season 4 or 5) I had to go back and watch the early seasons. This of course was aided by me ordering the first 5 seasons on DVD. I realized very fast that it was a great show and had a strong ensemble cast. So I wasn’t all that surprised when the writers decided to spin-off a new series. I will admit I was a little skeptical of what it would be like but I gave it a try and I’m very glad I did.
A brief case review: A case based in Los Angeles focused on international weapons dealing is linked to the death of a naval officer in DC and it brings together our Virginia-based NCIS team, led by Gibbs and the LA based Office of Special Programs (OSP) led by Agent Macey. OSP deals with undercover operations and surveillance. It turns out that the naval officer was being forced to provide money for the weapons dealer who is tied to a terrorist group. One of Macey’s agents, Callen, goes undercover as the weapons dealer after a shoot-out ends in the real dealer’s death. It turns out Ziva’s Mossad boyfriend, Michael (who we see much more of in the final two episodes of season 6 of NCIS) shows up to meet with Callen. Both NCIS and Mossad want to take down the terrorists but Michael’s interfering with the investigation.
What makes it good: The first of the two-part introduction to OPS began with the LA team on an op. It transitioned straight to Gibbs’ team in Virginia and it just felt seamless. The cases tied together in an interesting way and we got to see a new side of NCIS. McGee gets to make the trip to LA with Gibbs and he’s thrilled with all the high-tech gadgets OSP has at their disposal. It also not only continues the overall season arc of NCIS but it sets up the final two episodes of the season remarkably well. I will say I kind of wonder why they god rid of Macey and Agent Renko. They were replaced by Operations Manager Henrietta “Hettie” Lang (Linda Hunt) and green Agent Dominic Vail when NCIS: LA premiered. The chemistry between the LA team was so smooth and easy to watch and they also fit in well with Gibbs and McGee. I like that the back story they developed for Macey and Gibbs was consistent with information we’d learned in previous seasons about his first wife and daughter and their murder. We also got to see how the rest of Gibbs’ team (Tony, Ziva and Abby) fit into the storyline as well as ramping up the tension between Tony and Ziva. This had all the things that make a back door pilot good. Great casting, great acting and great storytelling.
CRIMINAL MINDS=>CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR
I’m a big fan of Criminal Minds. I’ve liked all the characters we’ve had. In fact, it has spawned some interesting fanfiction back in the day. But unlike NCIS, I wasn’t 100% sure a spin-off would work. For one thing, up until now, the show gave the impression that our team based out of Quantico was it. It was the only BAU. So that was a strike against the newbies before they even started. But, I figured I’d at least give it a shot when the episode aired.
A brief case review: The BAU is called in when a father and daughter go missing. They partner with a new BAU team, led by Forest Whitaker’s character, Special Agent Sam Cooper. Between the two of them, they manage to find the Unsub (unknown subject) and rescue the father and daughter, though not after the father had to kill several people just to stay alive.
What makes it bad: In general, the gruesome factor of Criminal Minds doesn’t tend to bother me. But something about this case just freaked me out. It was brutal and just too dark. With that in mind, we got the new BAU team in play. They’re nothing like our regular team. They’re much grittier and kind of do what they want. I also didn’t feel any real connection to the team, like I did with the OSP crew on NCIS. They tried to show that Cooper and Hotch had a background together but I just didn’t feel it. Plus, the other team members had kind of shady back stories. Prophet had been in prison for something like 6 years, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t allow you to join any federal agency. So that was a huge stretch of logic. Another big stretch, was Mick. He used to be MI6, so I don’t know how he could then join the FBI, since he’s not an American citizen. It was these kinds of leaps in logic that made me really dislike this episode as well as the new characters they were trying to introduce. Plus, and I know it sounds mean, but Forest Whitaker’s eye that droops just bothers me. It’s gotten worse over the years. I know he probably doesn’t have any control over it but it just is very distracting. I think another reason that this team didn’t work for me was because we didn’t’ really have time to get to know them. With JAG and NCIS we were given two episodes to bond with the new characters. Here we had one and it felt very rushed. So, even though Garcia is supposed to also be in the spin-off, I won’t be watching.
JAG=>NCIS
So, I will admit that I tried to watch the pilot of JAG a while back and though it was so bad that I couldn’t even watch the whole episode. I suppose in a sense that saved me from having to get through 10 seasons of the show. I was originally interested in the show because I knew it was the show that preceded NCIS. So, I hunted on IMDB to find out which episodes of JAG Mark Harmon was in. And therefore, decided to watch just those episodes to see how well JAG could do a back door pilot. This section of the post may be a little skewed seeing as I did not avidly watch the parent show but I’ll do my best.
A brief case review: The body of a JAG lieutenant is found and Harm (the lead of JAG) is the prime suspect in the death. NCIS, led by Agent Jethro Gibbs and accompanied by Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, one forensic guru, Abby Sciuto and one witty medical examiner, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard investigate the case. It appears that Harm is the killer but as the trial progresses; NCIS discovers irregularities that lead them to the real killer. Back at the Navy yard, the Navy is trying to break a terrorist to stop an attack on a navy asset.
What makes it good: So I will admit that I wasn’t all that invested in the JAG characters. I still don’t 100% understand the function of JAG officers. I know they’re lawyers but I guess I’m just not sure whether they act as lawyers or in a judge type role. Anyway, much like how the NCIS->NCIS: LA episodes began with the new guys, this episode opened with NCIS arriving at a crime scene. I do have to say I think the acting on JAG improved from the pilot. Anyway, one thing that surprised me was how many of the original NCIS cast was in this episode. Everyone except for McGee and Kate were in this episode. I have to say, I was very surprised by how young Mark Harmon looked. How young everyone looked actually. I also liked that they had continuity with the Director o NCIS from these 2 episodes to the first season of NCIS. Knowing what I do now about these characters, it was fascinating to see how they were first imagined. Gibbs was a lot more light-hearted than in the series and Abby wasn’t quite as wacky and hyper. Tony wasn’t quite as snobby nor did he quote movies/TV shows. I am kind of glad we don’t see a lot of the team testifying in NCIS. I mean, sure Abby does on occasion but usually the rest of the investigators don’t. She was pretty adorable on JAG though. So was Ducky. He rambled off on one of his many stories. Gibbs was just generally badass and wasn’t afraid to change his opinion when new information surfaced. We got a little of Gibbs’ sniper training when they finally took down the terrorists. Overall, I found this back door pilot to be a good precursor to NCIS.
NCIS=>NCIS: LOS ANGELES
Having come into NCIS later in the game (around season 4 or 5) I had to go back and watch the early seasons. This of course was aided by me ordering the first 5 seasons on DVD. I realized very fast that it was a great show and had a strong ensemble cast. So I wasn’t all that surprised when the writers decided to spin-off a new series. I will admit I was a little skeptical of what it would be like but I gave it a try and I’m very glad I did.
A brief case review: A case based in Los Angeles focused on international weapons dealing is linked to the death of a naval officer in DC and it brings together our Virginia-based NCIS team, led by Gibbs and the LA based Office of Special Programs (OSP) led by Agent Macey. OSP deals with undercover operations and surveillance. It turns out that the naval officer was being forced to provide money for the weapons dealer who is tied to a terrorist group. One of Macey’s agents, Callen, goes undercover as the weapons dealer after a shoot-out ends in the real dealer’s death. It turns out Ziva’s Mossad boyfriend, Michael (who we see much more of in the final two episodes of season 6 of NCIS) shows up to meet with Callen. Both NCIS and Mossad want to take down the terrorists but Michael’s interfering with the investigation.
What makes it good: The first of the two-part introduction to OPS began with the LA team on an op. It transitioned straight to Gibbs’ team in Virginia and it just felt seamless. The cases tied together in an interesting way and we got to see a new side of NCIS. McGee gets to make the trip to LA with Gibbs and he’s thrilled with all the high-tech gadgets OSP has at their disposal. It also not only continues the overall season arc of NCIS but it sets up the final two episodes of the season remarkably well. I will say I kind of wonder why they god rid of Macey and Agent Renko. They were replaced by Operations Manager Henrietta “Hettie” Lang (Linda Hunt) and green Agent Dominic Vail when NCIS: LA premiered. The chemistry between the LA team was so smooth and easy to watch and they also fit in well with Gibbs and McGee. I like that the back story they developed for Macey and Gibbs was consistent with information we’d learned in previous seasons about his first wife and daughter and their murder. We also got to see how the rest of Gibbs’ team (Tony, Ziva and Abby) fit into the storyline as well as ramping up the tension between Tony and Ziva. This had all the things that make a back door pilot good. Great casting, great acting and great storytelling.
CRIMINAL MINDS=>CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR
I’m a big fan of Criminal Minds. I’ve liked all the characters we’ve had. In fact, it has spawned some interesting fanfiction back in the day. But unlike NCIS, I wasn’t 100% sure a spin-off would work. For one thing, up until now, the show gave the impression that our team based out of Quantico was it. It was the only BAU. So that was a strike against the newbies before they even started. But, I figured I’d at least give it a shot when the episode aired.
A brief case review: The BAU is called in when a father and daughter go missing. They partner with a new BAU team, led by Forest Whitaker’s character, Special Agent Sam Cooper. Between the two of them, they manage to find the Unsub (unknown subject) and rescue the father and daughter, though not after the father had to kill several people just to stay alive.
What makes it bad: In general, the gruesome factor of Criminal Minds doesn’t tend to bother me. But something about this case just freaked me out. It was brutal and just too dark. With that in mind, we got the new BAU team in play. They’re nothing like our regular team. They’re much grittier and kind of do what they want. I also didn’t feel any real connection to the team, like I did with the OSP crew on NCIS. They tried to show that Cooper and Hotch had a background together but I just didn’t feel it. Plus, the other team members had kind of shady back stories. Prophet had been in prison for something like 6 years, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t allow you to join any federal agency. So that was a huge stretch of logic. Another big stretch, was Mick. He used to be MI6, so I don’t know how he could then join the FBI, since he’s not an American citizen. It was these kinds of leaps in logic that made me really dislike this episode as well as the new characters they were trying to introduce. Plus, and I know it sounds mean, but Forest Whitaker’s eye that droops just bothers me. It’s gotten worse over the years. I know he probably doesn’t have any control over it but it just is very distracting. I think another reason that this team didn’t work for me was because we didn’t’ really have time to get to know them. With JAG and NCIS we were given two episodes to bond with the new characters. Here we had one and it felt very rushed. So, even though Garcia is supposed to also be in the spin-off, I won’t be watching.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A Status on Writing
So, I'm still working on the back door pilot blog post. It's about 2/3 of the way complete at the moment. So it should be up sometime next week. But I wanted to drop by and share the latest on the writing and querying extravaganza.
On the writing front I started a new novel (Young Adult historical) last week. I'm about 10,000 words in so far (hoping to be at about 11,800 by the end of the day). It's an interesting story about the son of a slave owner who escapes with a young slave boy and their journey to freedom in the North but also their journey to finding happiness in each other. At least for a little while. This is not going to ultimately be a happy story for the main characters. But being an interracial couple in 1850s America wasn't likely to be very happy to begin with.
This leads me to the query front. As you know, beginning in November, I sent out 23 queries. I've gotten 14 rejections and I closed out the remaining 9 because I didn't hear anything and took that as to mean "no response means no". I know it seems premature that I'm stopping the query process with Pharaoh, but my heart just isn't in it right now. I believe, in order to be successful, you have to be really committed to the project and I just don't feel that is the case right now.
I plan to finish the current YA novel by mid-February, revise in March and hopefully find some good betas for it. I think I wiill likely try to query this project over the summer and see what happens.
On the writing front I started a new novel (Young Adult historical) last week. I'm about 10,000 words in so far (hoping to be at about 11,800 by the end of the day). It's an interesting story about the son of a slave owner who escapes with a young slave boy and their journey to freedom in the North but also their journey to finding happiness in each other. At least for a little while. This is not going to ultimately be a happy story for the main characters. But being an interracial couple in 1850s America wasn't likely to be very happy to begin with.
This leads me to the query front. As you know, beginning in November, I sent out 23 queries. I've gotten 14 rejections and I closed out the remaining 9 because I didn't hear anything and took that as to mean "no response means no". I know it seems premature that I'm stopping the query process with Pharaoh, but my heart just isn't in it right now. I believe, in order to be successful, you have to be really committed to the project and I just don't feel that is the case right now.
I plan to finish the current YA novel by mid-February, revise in March and hopefully find some good betas for it. I think I wiill likely try to query this project over the summer and see what happens.
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