Opinions: How I Met Your Mother & other long running tv shows

          I remember when I first heard about How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), I though what an interesting idea it was and when I saw my first episode I fell in love with the show, the characters were new and genuinely funny, which I quiet rare in sit-coms today. But as the seasons went on and we kept getting hinds and teases about who Ted’s wife (the mother) was I thought of how I’d do the reveal. So here’s what I would of done in season 8 of HIMYM, I would of just introduced the Mother. Now you might think that’s strange seems as though the whole premise of the show is how they met, but taking some liberties with that idea, who says the fall in love the first time them meet? So after introducing her I’d start her and Ted dating and then we’d get to know more about her and be introduced to her friends, this bits key to me and you’ll see why later. So season 8 ends maybe with Ted and the mother having a fight. Now instead of doing a season 9 straight away we have a season of How I Met Your Father, told from the mothers view with her and her friends and how she’s always in the same places as Ted and the gang have been but just keep missing each other and depending on how successful this series if there could be more seasons, maybe season 2 runs concurrently with season 9 of HIMYM. And lastly by season 10 I’d wrap up the story line and have Ted and The Mother marry.

          Now on to the second part of this opinion piece. Long running TV shows in general, as constantly happens TV shows run out of steam after about four to five seasons, this is generally because the original idea of the show has been exhausted and then the writers look to introduce new idea’s into the plot to extend the run of the show, in some cases this works brilliantly in most though it doesn’t. So in my opinion ten in the magic number of seasons for any TV show assuming it survived the slump after season four or five as generally after ten the show will have to jump the shark again, if not for story reasons then because of actors or writers wanting to move on. How many shows can you think of that would of benefit from ending early? Everyone’s favourite example is The Simpsons, “Wasn’t The Simpsons a great show?” and when it ends it will be very fondly remembered but as the seasons keep on coming they turn older viewers away. Anyway back to my point, great television shows know when to end, when to take their bow and move on to other projects, they know there is no point flogging a dead horse and know to wrap up existing story lines and plot points. But that’s just my opinion, I hope you agree, but if you don’t feel free to comment.

Opinions: World War Z Trailer #1 (and the film in general)

Am I the only one that thinks this has potential?

Film Teaser Poster

          The trailer starts out with Brad Pitt and his family in a car and then shows the world going to hell as the Zombie’s start to take over the world and overwhelm every country across the globe. That’s right it’s a Zombie apocalypse movie, but the difference is this one is based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks author of the well known book The Zombie Survival Guide. This book serves as a sort of sequel to the popular (spoof) guide book and follows the rules and mythology set out within it. However the difficult part in adapting the book to film was in the narrative structure employed by Brooks, which is a series of individual accounts from various people around the world collected and presented in chronological order. Not a very film friendly narrative, so I liked the decision to have the movie focus on a UN worker whose job is to collect any information that may be useful to help stop the spread of the disease and find a cure, which allows the story to maintain its world scope and have certain characters/stories from the book shown in the film.

 

Book Cover

          Some people have taken issue with the vibe of the trailer which has a Cloverfield/I Am Legend feel to it, saying we don’t need another New York disaster movie and I think the New York scene could just be the first fifteen/twenty minutes of the movie, equally it could be a large chunk of it, but it’s too soon to judge that. Other’s have complained about the CGI super strength and fast zombies and while I along with most Zombie fans prefer the deadly slow creeping zombies, I think fast zombies can be just as scary.

          The film has also had a lot of troubles behind the scenes and was originally due out  for around this time this year but has instead been pushed back to next summer so as the final third of the film could be rewritten by Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard (both from Lost) and reshot. So while I am optimistic about this film, I am only cautiously so but only time will tell and I will be checking this film out next summer. What do you make of the trailer?

Opinions: Arrow (TV Series)

          For those of you who don’t know there’s a new television show called Arrow on Sky One (and The CW in America), based on the DC comic books character Green Arrow and here’s the secret part guy’s, it’s amazing. I feel DC and very smart at doing this small screen stuff as it really helps to build up the profile of lesser known characters and allow you time to get to know them and invest in them, it also allows you to introduce other characters and build a shared universe like what Marvel have done with their film franchises. It’s being made by a lot of the same people who made Smallville another DC television series that was amazing.

          This series feel like its taken a leaf from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and even Marvels approach of grounding everything in reality, which in my opinion helps you identify with the characters better. So who is this Green Arrow character I might hear you asking, well he’s one of DC’s better known main characters and I have to be completely honest I only ever knew of the character from references in and never knew his origin story, which is why I love this series so much it starts at the beginning and shows us how Oliver Queen the man becomes The Green Arrow.

          Now I can’t spoil too much I’m only 4 episodes in but the basic story is Oliver and his dad are on a boat trip and they crash, his father tells Oliver to right the family wrongs and shots himself in the head, this leaves Oliver trapped on an island for 5 years where he trains to become The Green Arrow. Once rescued his character is a billionaire playboy by day (cough, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, cough) but by night he is vigilante crime fighter The Green Arrow. Hopefully I’ve piqued your interest and you’ll want to go check out this series if not, well then fine, your loss.