Stories on Film

The last few entries haven't been about writing, but they have been about stories; on film or between the pages of a book, I love stories.

I enjoy the television series Bones and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, both current, but lately I've been scouting old series that are finally being put out on DVD:

Robin of Sherwood (despite its strong New Age-y overtones; 1980s)
Christy
Lonesome Dove (the original TV series and its follow-up, The Outlaw Years)
Voyagers!
To the Manor Born (late70s-early 80s)

Thanks to my brother and his wife, who upgraded their library with newer editions, I now own the entire Farscape series, along with the miniseries sequel, The Peacekeeper Wars.

Firefly is also a favorite, but I have to view one DVD (the second one, I think) in my computer's DVD drive rather than on the player. If you watch Firefly, you have to see the film Serenity, too. (I hear there's a rumor that there might even be a second follow-up film to the Firefly franchise, which would be more than awesome.)

Being able to view episodes back-to-back, I get a feel for the story arc, the journeys of the characters, and it helps me write my own stories.

Probably because I love fat novels, I'm a fan of miniseries, too: the longer, the more involved, the more I can wallow in it. (Have no fear! I won't list either fat novels or miniseries!)

I will mention one: a miniseries that I wish hadn't been edited down from its original television run is Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (2006). I didn't get to see it in its entirety, so I purchased a used copy, and was disappointed to find that scenes I remembered from television were missing from the DVD. Anybody know why the series was chopped?