Blacklist Still Sucks - Worse Than Ever

When I mentioned in a previous post that The Blacklist was continuing its downward spiral, I didn't realize how right I was. I dared hope that the Aram resolution was going to be indicative that perhaps the show was coming back to its prior greatness.

But it was not to be. It seems the writers keep finding ways to make the show lousy. It started with the falling out of "Mr. Kaplan" and how "she" became an enemy of Red's after being a staunch ally. That ended badly, with the suicide of Kaplan, in her effort to destroy Red. Then you had Lizzy and her ridiculous antics to "destroy" Red, along with the help of Red's other daughter.

That was somewhat resolved, but only after Red was mere seconds away from being lethally injected. But still, Lizzy, like Aram, came around, unlike Mr. Kaplan.

And now we have yet another falling out. Now it's Dembe. I mean, come on.... If it's not one ally of Red's it's another. And Dembe was Red's most loyal ally of all. But, not anymore...

This is so tiring. I mean, it's been tiring for a long time. My god, don't these writers have any better ideas than to keep sowing discord among Red's allies time and time again? And now Dembe? For chistsake, no.... Not Dembe, but yes. Dembe. I mean he was only my favorite character, after Red in the entire show. His unyielding loyalty was awesome. Apparently it wasn't so unyielding after all.

And there's another thing. Finally we learn who James Spader's character really is. We've been slowly introduced to the idea that he's not the real Red Reddington. Okay, I was willing to go with that, as long as he was the real father of Lizzy. I mean the real biological father. But no, we don't even get that. Talk about a let down. That was the killer. The show sucks. Big time.

The only thing that could possibly had justified Red's apparent "obsession" with Lizzy is if he was her REAL father. But it turns out he's not. He's just the former lover of her mother. Never mind that she had an affair and a baby with another man. (the real Red Reddington.)  Never mind that she's leaving him because the Russians are out to get her. But this guy, some Russian contemporary of Lizzy's mother, decided to take the place of Red because.... Who knows why?

The show didn't explain that to my satisfaction. I think it was to keep Lizzy's mother safe. Say, what? How does him becoming Red keep her safe? Well they tried to explain that somehow, but it was impossible to explain, imo. It turned out to be just plain stupid.

So the guy promised he'd take care of Lizzy as if she were his own. Sorry...that doesn't work for me. "As if" just doesn't work. Look. I'm a father. I have two sons. I would go to the end of the world for them. Just like Red had been doing for Lizzy. But it would only work if she were his biological daughter. Not some baby your girlfriend had with another man. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Only a fool would do that. So what now? Hope that some additional episodes can fix this? There is another one or two on the way before the current season is over. Can they fix it? We'll see.

Blacklist - Aram gets over it

Aram

I had complained about the direction in which The Blacklist was headed, and it was due to the fact that they were writing Samar out of the show. It was a major problem for Aram but the next episode took care of that problem. It was written well enough, and tied up some loose ends, but still I believe Aram should never have blamed Red, or held it against Red for doing Samar a huge favor even if it meant she had to leave him forever.

The character of Aram is actually a very good one. He's a behind-the-scenes type of FBI guy, meaning he's not the one in the field shooting up the bad guys. He's more the mild mannered type, and his ability to work computers is invaluable to the team. He also offers some comic relief.

I didn't like that Samar had to go, because I liked her character, too. I still believe that, overall, the Blacklist is tanking, and it's too bad. It had been my favorite show. Red Reddington is a great character, and James Spader's portrayal of him is golden.

Another favorite character in the show is Harold. He seems to be the only one in the show who actually appreciates Reddington, (although Lizzy is coming around.) I mean Reddington has saved all of their lives time and again, and saved their careers as well. But it seems that this show has the premise that if a guy saves your life, so what? You gotta hate him anyway. Forget the fact that if it weren't for him, you'd be dead. Let's just hate the guy and destroy him.

Harold is the only one who hasn't had that sentiment. (Maybe Samar is another.) But Lizzy, Ressler, and Aram as of recently, have all harbored a hatred for Red. Kudos to Harold, the only decent one in the bunch. If it weren't for Harold, I'd have quit this show long ago.

Blacklist Continues to Suck

Just when I thought Blacklist was going to emerge from its downward spiral, it flushed itself right back down the toilet. I had complained that at the start of this current season, (season six,) Lizzy had decided to turn against Red Reddington, and had sworn to destroy him. This after Red Reddington had saved her life, oh, about half a dozen times, and the lives of most or even all of her friends in the FBI.

So it was like, huh? A man saves your life, multiple times, and now you want to destroy him because he may not be the same man you thought he was. Why don't you just ask the dude? No, it's more like let's destroy him instead.

But as the season progressed, Lizzy decides that maybe she doesn't want to destroy him. And this after she quite nearly did. Seconds from being lethally injected, Harold, the FBI Deputy Director comes through and gets the president of the U.S. to call and stop the execution.

Okay, and Lizzy is back on board with Reddington. But wait. Now, Red Reddington saves, once again the lives of Lizzy's fellow FBI members, this time Aram and Samar. But to do that, Red had to abide by Samar's wish to leave everyone behind so as to "hide" from the assassins trying to kill her. But wait, because Red had a hand in helping Samar "disappear off the grid," now Aram hates Red and HE wants to destroy him. Never mind that he's the one keeping Samar alive.

Come on...this is getting beyond ridiculous. I mean, the guy can't understand that Red is only doing what Samar wanted, which was to get away for her safety and to protect everyone from harm? And now he can only harbor a hatred for Red for "taking her away from me..."? This is so dumb, it's like the guy has the IQ of a five year old! Is the idiot still in kindergarten?

Nope. It's dumb. Too dumb and I can't stand dumb. Can't anyone write some smart episodes with some smart plots for Blacklist please? Let me know when they do, and stop regurgitating the stupid story lines that I've grown tired of long ago.

Writing Improved

During this "hiatus" stage which three of my novels are in right now, I've been rewriting each one over and over again, improving the writing, or the prose, or whatever you want to call it. And I have succeeded beyond even what I had thought possible. At this point the writing for Second Chance, The Vase, and John Dunn are many times better than what they were for their first publications.

Not to say anyone who bought and/or read any of those three books will have enjoyed it less for having done so. But I'm a perfectionist. As all artists should be. I don't settle. Meaning I don't content myself for any job I've done on anything that might have been done better.

I had already established to myself that the more I reread and revised any of my books, the better it became. So I didn't stop. Until they were published. But then, with those three books, the publishers went out of business. So that meant, to me, anyway, I had another opportunity to make those books even better. So for the last several months, I've been doing just that. And I've rewritten all three by this point. I just finished Second Chance, and I am very proud of how that came out. Now I've returned to The Vase. For the umpteenth time. And I'm making that one better than ever.

I've taken a break from John Dunn, my longest novel. Not to worry. I've rewritten that one at least three times over since its original publication, and it too is way better than it was for its first appearance in the book world. And when I'm done with this current rewrite of The Vase, you can bet that I'll return to John Dunn and make that one better still.

I'm doing the same thing with my music. I had written over a hundred songs during my musical creativity years, which was about twenty years ago. It lasted until about fifteen years ago. Which means for about five years of my life I dedicated my creative self to creating music. Before that I was more into creating art, as in drawings, paintings, and sculptures. But I switched to music for those years, because I had a musical background, having played the piano and keyboards for a rock band in the early days of my life. I didn't get too far into composing music at that point, however, so when I dedicated myself to writing music, the creativity flowed.

Now, these years later, I'm doing the same thing with my songs that I'm doing with my books. I'm making them better. I guess the proper term is rearranging them. As the songs remain basically the same, but with some "editing" so to speak, which is making them way better.

It's an interesting point in my life. My older son is grown, my younger son is a teenager, and I have more time to work on my personal goals. One of which is to put all my songs into the "albums" that I had originally envisioned them to be. I have only one on SoundCloud right now. Click on the Rockin the Cosmos icon in the right margin of this blog and you can hear it. It's Volume 12 of my collection of songs. I have another one ready, the Rockin the Afterlife album, which is Volume 13.

What I consider to be "ready" is when I have all the elements finished, which includes the vocals. And I've only put vocals on three of my "albums" so far. Volume 2, Volume 12, and Volume 13. That means Volume 1 and Volumes 4 through 11 are still in need of having the vocals included before I can call them ready. Volume 12 is "ready" and that's why it's over there for anyone to hear. Again, my singing sucks, but if you can get past that, I think the musical compositions are very well arranged with catchy tunes, and an intriguing "concept album" format.

And all the while, I'll keep making by books better. Who knows. They may get published again, and if they do, they'll be better than ever.

Last Kingdom Comes Around

I was saying how Last Kingdom blew it. And I still think they did. But the storyline had come around full circle, and once again, Uhtred is back with the Saxons and in full graces of King Alfred, (if not publicly, then at least privately.) So much so, anyway, that he has made it clear to his royal priest to see to it that after he dies Uhtred remains the right hand man for his son Edward when he becomes king. So yeah, I would call that full circle.

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred

I do like the story development of how Alfred's daughter has a strong attraction to Uhtred. And I wouldn't mind if they actually hooked up, but since she's already married to the king of Mercia, I don't know if that would ever happen. At any rate, it's back to being a show I like, and that's a relief, as I had expressed my disappointment at how the story took a turn for the worse, imo.

Say, the actor, Alexander Dreymon, who plays Uhtred, and the actress, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, who plays Skade the witch in season three, might actually be good actors for the male and female leads in my Killer of Killers book. Here's a couple publicity photos and I think they would be good choices for the roles of Trent Smith and Samantha Jones if KOK were to ever make the big screen. Judge for yourself.

Thea Sofie Loch Naess

Dustin Clare was my first choice for Trent Smith, but his star has fallen since his heyday as Gannicus in the STARZ show Spartacus. He must have the worst agent ever. You might have thought that after he stole the show in the Spartacus series, he would have landed some big time roles.

But the guy hasn't been heard from since! It's like he's totally dropped off the radar. It's not understandable to me. He was a great actor, with a great screen presence, and fans adored him.

By contrast, Amber Heard, who I had initially chosen for the role of Samantha Jones, has since had an uptake in success in the DC movie Aquaman. But her role was small and her screen presence negligible.

I posted about that recently, and have chosen to continue my search for the right actress for the role.
Interesting to me is that, with the exception of Amber Heard, none of these actors are American. Dustin Clare is Australian, Alexander is German, and Thea Sofie is Norwegian. What happened to all the American talent? I'm sure there are some who would be more than capable to fill the bill. But I've yet to find them. No matter. It's only a pipe dream. But The Last Kingdom is back to being good. And I'll be looking forward to season four.

The Last Kingdom blows it

I guess it was bound to happen. I mean right when I'm thinking I'm liking a show, it makes a turn for the worse. Here was the hero, Uhtred, being ordered by the king to be the prince's right hand man when the prince becomes king, and it's too much for Uhtred. So he throws everything in the garbage by putting a knife to the the king's throat and escaping back to the Danes.

Now, instead of being a Lord in the emerging England, he's a condemned enemy fighting for the Danes who are slowly but surely being pushed out of England. I mean, who would do that? Who would switch from the winners, (which you had a big hand in making them the winners) and switch to the losers, whose time is limited.

Perhaps I speak in hindsight. Twelve hundred years of hindsight, but it just didn't make any sense.
And it happens all the time to me. I'll start watching a show, and it's a great show, and I rave about it, and then three years into the series, or so, I'm not liking it anymore.

The list is a long one. In the modern era, it's The Blacklist, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and a slew of others that I can't even remember anymore. In the old days it was Lost in Space, The Man from Uncle, I Spy, and The Wild, Wild West.

I don't know what is wrong with TV writers. I guess it's just a simple thing. At first, they have a great concept and they have a lot of great ideas for stories to go with it. But then, after three years or so, the great ideas dry up. It happened with Star Trek too. I mean the original series, which was the only Star Trek that was worth watching.

For Star Trek, tos, they had the great concept, and they had great stories that lasted into its third season. But in that third season, you can tell they were on the down slide. And then when they brought the series back, called Star Trek, the Next Generation, the stories and characters were so bad, even the great concept couldn't make up for it.

And the same was true for every single Star Trek incarnation that followed. I mean every single new Star Trek series that followed sucked, and every single Star Trek movie that followed equally sucked. The concept of Star Trek was so great that they kept trying to rejuvenate it, but for some strange reason, no one could come up with a decent story to match the concept. Not since the original series, that is, and that is surely a shame.

We have probably the worst incarnation of Star Trek happening right now, which I couldn't even watch through the first full episode without turning it off in complete disgust. It was like the producers believed the great concept by itself was enough, (the same thing they always believed) and some actress from The Walking Dead had enough "star power" to make it a success, regardless of the lack of writing talent they put into the show.

It's a recipe for failure, and you would think they would learn their lesson by now. I figure if the current writers of whatever show run out of juice, then hire new writers who haven't been tapped out yet. They are out there. Give them a chance. Or is Hollywood stuck in the "same ol' same ol' system? You know -- the "good ol' boys" (or the "good ol' girls") system at work here. Probably is.

That's the worst shame of all. It means the same problem will just continue. As long as their bottom line is acceptable, nothing will change. And as long as you have the fan base blindly following a show for only its concept, being thrilled only by the sights and images, not caring if there's a quality story, the bottom line for Hollywood will continue to be acceptable. It is a shame.

Carl Deuker's Gym Candy - Good Book

Gym Candy 

After reading John Coy's Crackback, I read Carl Deuker's Gym Candy. And it's another good book worth reading. Like Crackback, it targets teenage boys, or high school boys, and especially those boys who play football. It really has an important message: stay away from steroids.

It's a message I hope all boys listen to, and not just football players. I know guys who lift weights to stay in shape, but they want to do more than just stay in shape. They want to build up their bodies. So they take steroids. You see, the human body can get only so big no matter how much you lift. But some men, (and I've known some personally) want to get more than just big. They want to get huge. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger huge. Or Dwayne Johnson huge. And the only way anyone can get that huge is from taking steroids. So they do it. And then they get huge and they are happy.

Crackback

But, to me, it's not worth the risks. Those risks are depicted in Deuker's Gym Candy. And those risks do include life threatening risks. I remember seeing Lyle Alzado's video after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He admitted to being on steroids for most of his professional football career. Yeah it made him huge. And it made him ultra aggressive. And I suppose it made him a great football player. But he was dead before he reached fifty years old. I am glad I never used steroids. Because I am well over fifty now, and still healthy. And by the way, I still lift, and I'm pretty big for it. But I'm not huge and I don't need to be. I'll take normal big over the abnormal huge any day if that means I get to live longer than forty-eight years.


So yeah, having a great story is great for a book, but having a great message is also great, and that is the case with Carl Deuker's Gym Candy.

Second Chance
1st publication's cover

And btw, Gym Candy features a running back as the main character. Like you would think it would. Coy's Crackback and my football book, Second Chance feature a defensive back as the main character. So that was interesting to me. Bottom line is this: Crackback and Gym Candy are great books. And not just for MG/YA audiences. For all audiences, like Second Chance. Here's to hoping Second Chance gets a second chance at publication.

Fingers crossed.