My husband and I have started watching television again. I mean, it’s always on anyway, but we’ve started following specific shows. Now, we don’t watch anything live – the ability to pause and rewind are just too wonderful to give up – but through the magic of Netflix and Hulu we do pretty well.
Once Upon a Time continues to be fun. The relationships between the characters grow ever more tangled. I like that Mulan is finally starting to grow a personality and that Disney did not shy away from the obvious chemistry between her and another female character, heterosexual norms be damned. Rumpelstiltskin remains my favorite character. I rather enjoy alternating between loving, hating, and feeling sorry for him. My husband is rather fond of Captain Hook, and I have to admit that he does have some of the best lines in the show.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has only had one episode so far, and it shows promise. My reaction to the ads for it went something like this: “From the creators of Once Upon a Time…” – yay! – “…and the writers of Lost…” – um. Anyway, stylistically I haven’t been too impressed yet. One of the best parts of the original Once Upon a Time is the costuming, so I’m hoping that Alice starts wearing better stuff soon. I also would rather John Lithgow in a rabbit outfit than the painful CG critter they’re using, but whatever. I’ll give it a few more episodes before deciding how I feel about it.
Sleepy Hollow is a remarkably silly show, and we both are really enjoying it. Ichabod Crane is a Revolutionary War soldier brought back to life in modern times. Abbie Mills is a police officer. Together, they fight the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Yes, really. It’s hilarious far more often than I think it means to be. I wonder how many more Famous Stories From Colonial America will be incorporated into this show.
My husband’s started watching Supernatural on Netflix streaming, and his commentary is marvelous. He admits that he finds it entertaining, and he’s pretty impressed with some of the creature effects, but he thinks Sam and Dean are both complete douchebags. He’s right, of course, but I think most of the female audience overlooks that because they’re (1) funny and (2) incredibly hot. I stopped watching after the fifth season, but if my husband gets to that point and wants to keep going, I’ll watch it with him. I’m looking forward to hearing his opinion of the Trickster God episodes, and Ghost Facers.
Hannibal should be showing up from Netflix soon. I’ve read all of Cleolinda’s episode recaps, and I think this is the sort of show my husband will like. You might think it strange that I still want to watch the show even though I know everything that’s going to happen, but to me it’s a little bit like reading a book after seeing the movie: I already know I’m going to enjoy the story, only now I’ll get all of the details I missed.
I’ve heard a lot of buzz over the upcoming Dracula series, but I haven’t decided if I want to watch it or not. I’ll probably catch the pilot and go from there. I’m very excited about the upcoming 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who, and I think the twelfth Doctor will be a good one, but I really wish it could settle into a regular season format. I wouldn’t mind going back to half-hour episodes if it meant more than two months of episodes a year. And don’t even get me started on the Sherlock schedule. Is that ever going to start airing again?
I don’t consider myself much of a TV watcher, but a single 45-minute episode during dinner with my sweetie is kind of a nice ritual. Are you watching anything good these days?
by Sophie Weeks: Isabella, who stars in a French Christmas carol, lives in a land of all things Christmas: every song, story, poem, and legend about this holiday coexists in one place. However, after several centuries she’s grown tired of her monotonous existence and decides to vacation in the land of Mystery, where she meets the famous Sherlock Holmes. There are some strange philosophical issues raised here, but suffice it to say that these characters know they are characters but they remain fairly autonomous nonetheless. Many writers talking about how their characters often will do things they don’t expect, and this sort of takes that to the next level. Sherlock’s presence is slightly gratuitous, but it remains a very fun story, especially delightful to anyone who’s ever dabbled in writing fiction.
by Justin Somper: “Vampirates” is one of those ideas that people tend to both roll their eyes at and wish they’d thought of first. When orphaned twins Connor and Grace are separated at sea, Connor finds himself on a more traditional pirate ship, while Grace is taken in by the Vampirates who are – as you may have guessed – vampire pirates. It’s easily as silly as you expect it to be, but it’s also a heck of a lot of fun. If you like your pirates to be of the 
by Catherine Fisher (unabridged audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest; 11 hrs 37 min on 10 CDs): So there’s this gigantic prison, enclosed to the point where its inhabitants aren’t even sure the outside even exists, where everyone is poor and savage. Finn believes he was born outside, though he cannot prove it. Elsewhere, Claudia lives in a world of “protocol” that forces everyone to live like it’s sometime in the 1800s. She’s the daughter of the highly political Warden of Incarceron, and as such she is betrothed to a bratty prince she hates. While I kind of enjoyed not knowing who all was telling the truth or what exactly was real (Is Claudia really outside or is she in Incarceron without knowing it? If not, where is this gigantic prison located?), the characters were kind of flat and the plot was kind of boring. Maybe someone else might get swept up in this world, but I spent much of my time waiting for everyone to just get on with it.
by Janet Lee Carey (unabridged audiobook read by Bianca Amato; 9.25 hrs on 8 discs): Princess Rosalind is born with a dragon’s talon where her ring finger should be. This is a potentially devastating secret in a land often tormented by dragons. To hide her deformity, her mother makes her wear gloves at all times as she desperately searches for a cure. When Rosalind is taken by the dragon to become nursemaid to his children, everything changes. This was a pleasant fairy tale with plenty of action and sympathetic characters. I liked it as an adult, but I would have loved it as a child. It has all the makings of an excellent legend. Glad I picked this one up.
by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (unabridged audiobook read by Sandra Burr; 15 hours on 13 discs): If you miss the companions from the first DragonLance novels, this is the book for you. They’re all back, as this takes place between the first and second books of the original 
by Jim C. Hines: In many fantasy role-playing games, goblins are the first monster you have to fight, and thus also the easiest. By the time you’ve leveled up much at all, you can basically run them through without even breaking stride, much less losing any hit points. Here, we have an adventure from the point of view of a goblin named Jig. When a group of adventurers kidnap him in order to guide them through his home caves to the dragon they seek, the line between hero and monster becomes blurred. I thought it interesting how many of the characters were clearly a homage to other greats of the genre. In particular, the mage Rysland bore striking resemblance to Raistlin of the Dragonlance books. This is a very funny novel, and a must-read for any lover of fantasy dungeon quest stories.
by Megan Whalen Turner (unabridged audiobook read by Jeff Woodman; 7.25 hrs on 7 discs): Gen is a thief thrown in jail for stealing the King’s seal – and then bragging about it in a wine shop. His reputation precedes him, and the Magus (the king’s closest advisor) takes him out of prison and on a long journey to find an important relic long thought to be mere legend. Along the way we learn quite a lot about the Greek-like mythology of the land. It was, to be perfectly honest, kind of boring. Gen’s ceaseless complaining got old fast, the myths were okay but not especially interesting, and the journey lasted for most of the book without much actually happening. I was also unimpressed by the Surprise Ending. I understand this book won awards and is the beginning of a trilogy, but this book felt too aimless to inspire me to read more.
: This volume contains two novels, a novella, and a short story, so I’ll review them each separately.