Blacklist - dropping fast

So I was criticizing Blacklist for being inconsistent recently, but I was also allowing it time to recover its former greatness. However, this last episode did not do that. It wasn't a complete flop, but the holes are many.  As in...

When confronted by his "new" daughter, Red seemed to remember her. He said, "Jennifer" which means he knew who she was. That doesn't really confirm she is his real daughter. It only confirms he knew who she was. So we're left with the possibility that she could be his daughter, but there is still room to make it that she is not his daughter.

As for the ever-ridiculous Lizzy. I mean, come on. The writers are doing her no favors. She is bent on this seemingly never ending quest to find out the truth behind Red's "secret" of the suitcase. And this is even after Red made it clear to her that it has nothing to do with her. Lizzy's reason? Well, her reason is because her husband died trying to find out about it.

But Red made it clear that it was none of Tom's business either. It has nothing to do with him or Lizzy. Yet in this latest episode, Lizzy says she's willing to kill Red, her own father, to prevent him from keeping the secret from her. This was when Red is pointing a gun at Ian Garvey, who Lizzy actually WANTS dead because he killed her husband, but now she says she will kill Red if he shoots him. Can you see the ridiculousness in all of this?

Again. Come on. How can I still call this my favorite TV show when it continues to try its best to make me hate it? So then, Garvey pulls out a gun he's been hiding in his pants, and shoots Red, after which Lizzy plugs three bullets into Garvey's chest. Then, instead of going to her father, Red, to see if he's okay after being shot by Garvey, she runs to Garvey yelling, "Don't die," over and over again. And this is all the while not even knowing if Red, her own father, was killed or not.

And all this for a "secret" that she has no clue about, other than the fact that Red has already told her it has nothing to do with her. Or Tom.

So Lizzy is side by side with Garvey, the murderer of her husband, trying to talk him out of dying, so he can tell her this "secret" which Red told her  has nothing to do with her.

By the end of the show, it looked like Garvey did die without telling her the secret. We'll have to wait until next week to see if that is the case for sure, but the ridiculous behavior of Lizzy is almost cringe-worthy. And it makes me wonder if I can still call this my favorite show. As long as James Spader remains the star and main character, I suspect I will still call it my favorite show. But the writers are trying their best to make me think all the less of Lizzy. And now this Jennifer? Can it get any worse? I suppose so. And if it does, then I walk.

The Vase - Book revised

As the second book I had written, The Vase had already undergone several revisions. It was my first book to be revised with the lessons I learned from a real editor. Meaning not just a Beta reader. The editor was from the now defunct publisher Penumbra Publishing, and the lessons were vital to my future as a novelist. And with five novels under my belt at this point, it was indeed vital.

It's true that Melange - the publisher for my first book, Killer of Killers - advised me on much of what the Penumbra editor taught me. But it was Penumbra that really drilled the lessons home. And from that point on I became a much better novelist - an author who writes novels.

I went back and applied those lessons to Killer of Killers, of course, and Melange was gracious enough to allow me to do that. And since Penumbra folded, I have been going back over The Vase, time and again, revising and revising, improving the prose, and yes, even making better judgment calls on the original edits.

The Vase is being rewritten, not only in the application of the lessons I learned, but with the original intent on how the story unfolds. The editor had his own ideas, and applied them to a small degree to my story line. I made it back into the way I wanted it, with one exception. I had originally intended for Professor Weiss to relay his version of the climactic events in a flashback scene, as if the reader was experiencing the event "live". But the editor wanted the events "told" by the professor after Captain Mathias caught up to him and asked him what happened.

I think that was the better option. And the reason is because the events Weiss relays contain some controversial, or even questionable, occurrences, and when those controversial and/or questionable occurrences are told after the fact, then the reader can use his or her own judgment as to whether those event really happened the way the professor told them to the captain.

Otherwise, the reader will be experiencing the events as did Professor Weiss, and they would be more akin to seeing it as what really happened, and then there would be no questionable aspect involved.

So yeah, the editor did contribute much to that book, not only in teaching me all the current rules for writing a novel, but made the right call for that particular post climax scene.

And as I revise The Vase for the umpteenth time I am greatly improving the prose, making every single paragraph on every single page the best writing as humanly possible. It's truly a work of art at this point. I can't wait to resubmit to publishers when I'm finally done. Multiple publishers had accepted it for publication in its original state. Cant wait to see the results when I submit it now that it's a vastly superior book to what it was then.

The Blacklist - Up and Down

Since I'm reviewing TV shows, I might as well chime in on what had become my favorite show. The Blacklist. This latest season seems to be chugging along with the writers behind it suffering from writer's block. They don't seem to know what to do with the story line now that everyone knows what they already knew from season one, that Lizzy is Red Redington's daughter.

I already complained about the feeble attempt to make Lizzy look and act tough. She single-handedly killed four assassins from the mob. And that was in the current season opener, so I was thinking this season might have some problems. Then you have the weak stories that followed, which bottomed out with the episode from last week which depicted teen girls married legally to men in their forties and fifties - in America. Since when do teen girls as young as fourteen marry men in their forties or fifties legally here in America? I figure it happens in third world countries, but not in America. And if it does happen here in America, it's because people from third world cultures that came to America brought that custom with them.

But in this show, even though the first depiction was an Indian couple, the next couple was a white man and a white girl, who were AMERICAN. To that I say Bullshit. That doesn't happen legally here. I guess the show's producers didn't want to be accused of racism, so they made sure a white couple was also involved in that farcical situation. I cannot accept that. It may happen in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, but it doesn't happen with indigenous Americans unless you're talking about David Koresh of the Branch Davidians and other wacky cults which we've seen now and then. But those were NOT legal marriages, so my argument remains valid. And besides, a wacky cult was not the case in this show. The dude was a regular dude, working a regular nine to five job, with a teen as his regular wife. That was bullshit. And when a show throws bullshit at me, it becomes just that. Bullshit.

The latest show contained a new revelation. (Spoiler alert) Red Redington has another daughter, which means Lizzy has a sister (or half-sister.) That whole scenario sucked. Why? Because the man who she says saved her from a state adoptive service was the man who has already established himself as the latest scumbag villain of the series: Ian Garvey, the man who murdered Tom, (Lizzy's husband,) and he also murdered the black cop who was a good guy.

But this new character who says she's Red's daughter has this impression that Garvey is such a great guy. She says the FBI goes after good men, like her surrogate father, (Garvey) and not the really bad men like her real father. (Red Redington.)

So once again we have a completely backward situation, since we know that Red is really not bad, and Garvey really is bad. But it brings me to a new suspicion. I am now thinking that that suitcase of bones that Red is so obsessed with, contains the bones of the real Red Redington, and the man who is pretending to be Red Redington, (actor James Spader,) is the man who killed him and took over his ID. Thus, Spader's Red Redington is the good guy, whereas the real, (and now dead) Red Redington was the bad guy whom this new "daughter" is talking about.

It's getting a little too complicated, but if I'm right, it will be a big twist in the story line. Why? Because everyone to this point believes the suitcase contains the bones of Lizzy's mother, who was Red Redington's former lover. And the reason he is hiding that from Lizzy, and everyone else is because Lizzy's mother, according to Red had committed suicide by drowning herself in the ocean and her body was never recovered.

So if those are her bones, that means his story is false and that's why he is so secretive about those bones and why he so wants to recover that suitcase, to make sure the secret is preserved. But wait. We saw in a flashback of Red, that she did indeed walk into the ocean to commit suicide. So that suggests his story is true, and if it is, then whose bones are those if they're not Lizzy's mother's?

Which brings me back to my new suspicion. Those are the bones of the real Red Redington, and Spader doesn't want anyone to know that he isn't the real Red Redington. Why doesn't he? Heck, I don't know. Maybe to maintain his image as the world's most famous criminal, thus retaining the respect of all the other worldwide criminals with whom he works to varying degrees.

As far as I'm concerned regarding this suspicion, I look at it this way: as long as the James Spader Red Redington is the real father of Lizzy, I guess I'll be okay with that. Even if he's not the real Red Redington. As for the new girl, well, she can be the daughter of the dead Red.

Sheesh. I liked Blacklist a lot better before. As for now? Let's see how this new scenario plays out. If I'm right, then okay. But how long will it take to find out if I'm right? Until then...

Taken, the TV show - Bullshit

So I was a big fan of Liam Neeson's movie franchise Taken, until Taken 3, that is. Liam Neeson makes for a great tough guy, ex CIA agent Bryan Mills, and the show's first two movies were right on. In fact, at the end of movie 2 it had set up a third movie. It went something like this: The sons of the Albanian father Neeson was about to kill would come after him. "For sure," the father said. After which Neeson's Mills character says, "Then I'll kill them too."

Okay. All set for Taken 3. But what happens in Taken 3? None of that. It was as if someone from CAIR complained that the heavies were Muslims. Never mind they were Eastern European Muslims, and not Arabs, just the fact that they were Muslims seemed to be enough for the franchise to drop them as heavies. Instead they made up a complete bullshit story line about Mills' ex-wife's current husband as the new heavy.

To that I say, WTF? Which leads me to the Taken TV show. I had not watched it for the same reason I never watched the Transporter TV show, nor did I bother watching the 4th installment of the Transporter franchise, because it was sans Jason Statham. And it was Statham who made that show, so without him, forget it. I wouldn't bother.

But my wife and I were searching for something to watch, so we went to Netflix and gave the TV show of Taken a try. The first two shows were okay. Only okay. Cllive Standen plays the main character of Bryan Mills, and he's no Liam Neeson, not even close. Worse, they changed the Bryan Mills character completely. He's a young guy, now and not a former CIA agent as Neeson's Bryan Mills was in the movies. Instead, he's a former soldier who served in Afganistan and Iraq. Yeah, he's still a badass, but not quite the same kind of badass. He's more of a sniper type of badass. Still I was able to stomach it at first. It was watchable.

It was the third show where the bullshit came in. As if in deference to CAIR, they have an Iraqi immigrant, (Muslim, of course) be the victim of an AMERICAN terrorist group. (Terrorists planning to kill Americans, that is.) Say what? Yeah, they kidnap the innocent Iraqi man so as to frame him for a terrorist attack against Americans, so the American politicians will up American's involvement in the wars in the Middle East. And then we had to watch a Muslim woman, the man's wife, decry how persecuted she is in this "terrible, racist, Islamophobic" country of intolerant Americans where she suffers from fear every single day. Yeah, right.

To set the record straight, I have no problems with Iraqis. I have had friends from Iraq. They are great people, (like any people,) and not once has any of them relayed to me how they live in fear everyday from the terrible American citizens among whom they live.

I know about the horrible incidents, like Oklahoma and Las Vegas, and several other homegrown horrors that have happened in this country. But that happens in every country, and it has been happening throughout history in every country. But to ask me to watch Americans as terrorists is not agreeable to me. And because of that I say the Taken TV show is Bullshit. That's all.

Jason Statham in a Shark movie?

It seems that Jason Statham is a hot commodity right now and he's even getting roles that are not his usual genre. It will be interesting to me to see him as something other than a great fighter who kicks ass, but I am wary because he might be out of his comfort zone.

Now it's true that a great actor can excel in any genre movie and in any role. That's what makes an actor great. But the reason I liked Jason Statham so much as an actor is because he's a real fighter, really trained in martial arts, and has even competed in the Olympics, albeit as a diver. He was even a real race car driver, too.

So when you see Statham in the action movies, it's real. And it doesn't hurt that he is in top movies with top writers, directors, and producers.

So this new movie is called The Meg, which I'm assuming is short for Megalodon, which is a prehistoric shark. And if it is indeed a megalodon, then that is a very intriguing premise for a movie. Megalodons were giant sharks that make the great white shark of "Jaws" fame look like a minnow.

As for Statham's role, he's a deep sea rescue diver and the hero of the show. Well, it suits me. I'll be looking forward to seeing Jason Statham in a new movie, but instead of fighting bad guys, he'll be fighting a megalodon, and in it's own element, (the ocean), which I don't think will be an easy task at all, considering that megalodons were indeed quite monstrous.

Here's an artist's rendering of a megalodon, and from what I've read, it can be as big as 60 feet long. And I do believe those are whales it's getting ready to chomp on. So this should be a great movie, considering today's special effects are really really good.

I mean they made Jaws look good and that was with 70's technology. Think about the Jurassic Park movies, and how they made those dinosaurs look real. Now we'll be treated to some great visuals of a megalodon. Yikes.

Here's the difference between a great white shark's tooth and a megalodon's tooth. So, yeah, I'd say that Jason Statham will have his work cut out for him. To say the least. And no pun intended.

Another Jason Statham Homerun

Hands down, Jason Statham is number one. One day it might have been Sean Connery. Another day it was Burt Lancaster. Then it was Vin Diesel. But lately and still running strong, for me, at least Jason Statham is the number one movie star.

Just saw another Statham movie I hadn't seen before. It's called Parker. And it was fantastic. I mean I haven't seen a Statham movie yet that I haven't liked. They are all great. I remember seeing Wild Card recently and I raved about it. Chaos wasn't as great as Wild Card, but it was still good. But this movie Parker, was just as great as any of them. I mean just as great as The Transporter franchise, and The Mechanic. It was super great even.

And as a bonus, Jennifer Lopez was in it. Still in her prime too. I never have been a JLo fan, but she was fantastic in this movie. I was so relieved that I didn't have to watch her beat up ten men all at once, like Hollywood has been forcing me to do the last few years. No. JLo was a real estate agent. Just an ordinary real estate agent. Albeit a very pretty one, but I've seen pretty real estate agents before, so it's not as unbelievable as a pretty FBI agent.

JLo's part was great. And you know what? I have not seen a JLo movie since she starred as Selena years ago. She was good in that, but I haven't seen her in anything else. So watching her in a Statham movie was interesting to me. And she was great. I mean her acting was great. She played the part super great. Statham was great as always, but so was JLo. She was great.

So glad the movie makers left the fight scenes to Statham, though. Yeah, JLo had a brief moment of action when she found the gun Statham had stashed under the table, but it was all believable. All of it. Totally believable. And that's what I appreciate. Believable.

Because when I see a 5' 2" 110 pound woman beating up men who are twice her size, and then two, three, four, five and six all at once, it is just not believable, and the movie for me is no longer enjoyable. It's trash at that point.

I can believe a woman holding her own, MAYBE, against a single male antagonist, that is, if the woman is highly trained, and the male antagonist is not as trained. But if a woman, even a highly trained woman goes up against a like-trained male opponent, she just won't have a chance. At all. That is not a misogynistic opinion. It's a fact.

Look at it this way. If Ronda Rousey (who is a highly trained female fighter) were to go up against a male fighter, who is similarly trained, she would get destroyed. And that's just life. So if any women are offended by this, they shouldn't be. It's just the way it is.

So back to Parker and why it was so great. The fighter was Jason Statham. The real estate agent was Jennifer Lopez, and both were terrific. And btw, kudos to the Parker character for staying true to his girlfriend and resisting the romantic advances of JLo. That is a man of integrity. And a man of honor. It was terrific to see that. It was a terrific movie. Parker. What a show.