Category: Entertainment
Dallas without J.R.?
Following the sad news last weekend of the death of Larry Hagman (23rd November 2012) following complications from throat cancer, it has been announced that the TV series he helped turn into a global phenomenon will continue without the character that he became known for. What’s that? I hear you cry. Dallas without J.R? Are they sure? Is that possible? Wouldn’t that be like Othello without Iago, Harry Potter without Voldemort, The Three Little Pigs without the Big Bad Wolf?
The original series of Dallas ran for 357 episodes from April 1978 to May 1991 and in all that time, the character of John Ross Ewing, Jr. was at the show’s heart, essentially giving it a life-force, a reason for being. He seemed to give motive and motion to everyone else on the show. It’ll come as no surprise therefore that he was the only character to appear in every single episode and a quick study of the list of these episodes reveals that pretty much every plot and subplot included J.R. in some way, shape or form. Either he was scheming against somebody or somebody was scheming against him. He quickly became so important to the show that without him, the producers realised there would be no show. Indeed, during the summer of 1980 when the world was gripped by “Who shot J.R.?” fever, Larry Hagman threatened to leave the show if the producers would not meet his demands for a substantial hike in salary and realising his worth, they relented and made him one of the highest paid stars on television.
Whether or not you were ever a fan of the show (and for me growing up it was essential prime-time viewing – at least until the scriptwriting became notoriously lame), you cannot deny the iconic status that J.R. Ewing attained. He was the epitome of Mr Nasty, the greediest of all tycoons and one of the greatest fictional villains of all time and yet Hagman – who in real life was said by all who knew him to be the complete opposite of his alter-ego – portrayed the scheming oil-baron with such conviction and charm that he was a man we all loved to hate. He was the reason we tuned in each week, millions of us sharing a fervent loathing for this Machiavellian Texan who, let’s face it, was borderline psychopathic. When he was shot, we rejoiced en masse but not one of us wanted him to expire. It’s a credit to the actor to be able to pull this off, to be so despised and yet to be so admired and adored at the same time.
I groaned (maybe you did too) when the new series came out earlier this year that introduced a new generation of Ewings to the world but curiosity urged me to check it out. Yes, the originality was missing and the younger actors seemed no different to the tidal wave of actors playing characters we’ve seen in numerous shows over the past decade or so but it was great to see those original cast members again and to reacquaint ourselves with their character’s lives after twenty years in the wilderness. But for me, the main man was the only reason to watch. J.R. was now an octogenarian and he was frail but he was still consorting with the devil and he was still great to watch. There were a few scenes that I suspected Hagman to be reading his lines from a cue card but even then, and overall his performance was still magnetic, his lines still delivered with the character’s trademark amoral charisma.
The truth is, Larry Hagman was the reason I endured the sensational, silly, convoluted ten episodes of Dallas 2012 and now that he has passed away taking J.R. Ewing, Jr. with him, I’ll probably not bother tuning in to the future goings-on at Southfork.
Larry Hagman will undoubtably be missed by many but he has cemented his place in the annals of TV history for ever by giving the world J.R. Ewing and I think I can say with the utmost confidence that there will never be another character quite like him.
I’m not against Disney acquiring Star Wars. I dislike Star Wars needing to carrying on. At all.
So the Star Wars franchise has been passed onto another company. This company is the master of entertainment. It regularly churns out top notch animations through one of its subsidiaries and turned out one of the best superhero films of our life time, so far…and if you don’t count the Dark Knight Trilogy. Yes I am talking about Disney; the company synonymous with the two mouse ears has acquired the rights to this once great film franchise to the tune of over $4 billion (£2.5 billion).
What does this mean for the existing franchise? More importantly, what does this mean for the existing fans?
With the recent Star Wars prequels being reasonably successful at the box office but not very well received by critics or fans, one can only speculate how an actual Star Wars sequel may turn out. Can Disney insert some kind of Mickey Mouse Magic into this franchise?
The Star Wars Universe already has a few official story lines (not counting fan fiction) that are being or have been explored:
1. The Prequel Trilogy Story – revolves around Anakin Skywalker, Padme and Obi Wan Kenobi
2. The Original Trilogy Story – revolves around Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker
3. The Clone Wars Story – animated TV Series set between Episodes II and III of the Prequel Trilogy, focuses on the missions Anakin and Obi Wan get up to before Revenge of the Sith, as well as Anakin’s Paduan
4. The Old Republic Story – series of video games set many millennia before the events of the films (pictured above)
5. The Force Unleashed Story – video game series set a few years after the Prequel Trilogy but before the Original Trilogy. Revolves around Darth Vader’s apprentice
6. The 1313 Story – unreleased but announced video game revolving around the bounty hunters of the Star Wars Universe. Time period is undetermined
I think for the sake of the fans and the franchise, it would be pointless to milk any of the film stories anymore. With Disney’s experience with animation, The Clone Wars may get some type of boost but also risks become less mature and appealing to the adult fans even less. The Old Republic has a huge online following due to its massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) nature. This particular storyline has many interesting characters that can be explored through film or anything else that Disney can come up with but at the same time, may anger the existing fans of the series due to possible misrepresentation or misinterpretation, seeing as the fans are able to control the actions of these characters in the game. The 1313 storyline is not yet known and if Disney decides to expand this, it would be rather foolish; however, the folks at Disney may be able to have input in the game itself. This leaves us with The Force Unleashed story or a totally new story to consider. The characters in The Force Unleashed were voiced by actors in real life who also lent their likeness to the game, so each character also looks like the person they are voiced by. This kind of makes it easy for a film to be made revolving around the same characters. However, being so close to either trilogy, it would seem too close to the existing movie storyline and cause some incoherence as well as seem like they are milking the films again. Finally, we have a new story. This can be either a reboot or new characters in a new setting. It also has the potential to be a series of films. Recently Disney has never passed up a chance to show the world that it can also make mature films such as Alice in Wonderland, Tron: Legacy and Secretariat as well as one of this year’s most successful blockbusters, The Avengers. Some have turned out to be franchises such as The Pirates of the Caribbean and the Chronicles of Narnia. There is no reason to doubt the potential quality of a new Star Wars story but the problem remains for Disney to tackle is how to make it unique whilst maintaining the same Star Wars feel.
Disney’s move to acquire Star Wars is bold and one can only speculate at the motives behind it. The only way for the Star Wars Universe to live on through Disney is with original content but it must be unique and have the same shock factor that the original trilogy had. If a new film has a mediocre reception, the possible negative perception of the new direction would be uncontrollable and would harm Disney’s image; fans would begin to assume that Disney did not have best interests in mind for Star Wars during the acquisition and are just milking it for the money. With the quality and reception of sci-fi films improving every year with films such as Looper and Inception, a new Star Wars film should have a decent chance; emphasis is placed on the “should” because it also has all these great films to compete with. More often than not, a good film is often overlooked because it lay in the shadow of a great film of the same genre released during the same time, and a new Star Wars risks being one of those films.
Disney definitely knows how to make movies but let’s take a look at some of its other franchises. Star Wars fans would be very reluctant for their franchise to be preserved by the same group of people responsible for the likes of High School Musical or Hannah Montana. The acquisition could indicate that Disney is looking to use the rights to expand their theme parks and Star Wars themed rides would definitely make sense. There is always potential for more original content but the people at Disney must think to themselves, can this new idea function outside of the Star Wars Universe at all and stand alone as a film in its own right? If so, why not just leave Star Wars alone and make an original film instead. Should this franchise be milked even harder?
No. Star Wars should be left alone.
ATP World Tour Finals 2012
The men’s tennis season came to a fitting end Monday night as the two greatest players in the world battled for the final prize of the year in front of a packed crowd at the O2 arena in London. And what a battle it was.
Novak Djokovic denied Roger Federer a hat trick of World Tour titles by beating him in two sets 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, thrilling the capacity crowd for a little over two hours. Those lucky enough to have had seats at the former Millennium Dome witnessed a titanic battle between these two giants of the game, both players putting on an astonishing display of skill and athleticism throughout the match. It was Federer who came out guns blazing and he broke Djokovic’s serve to go 3-0 up inside of 8 minutes. His remarkable talent was evident from the get go however his opponent is as resilient as they come and the first set went to a tie-break. The crowd were on their feet when Federer played a spectacular forehand winner with the ball very nearly having already passed him but Djokovic took the set moments later with winner following a Federer error.
The second set played out in much the same fashion with Federer taking the early lead, however unforced errors from both players began creeping in and made the play somewhat messy. Having said that, an indication as to how closely fought each point was, virtually every game went to deuce. At 5-4 on the Federer serve, the crowd could almost taste the deciding set and the possibility of later having to rush for the last tube trains of the night and at 40-15, the Swiss, who was going for a record seventh season-ending title, had two set points. But Djokovic refused to budge, cranked up the pressure and forced Federer into making errors levelling the set a 5-5. He then held serve and then broke Federer once more to win the match and hoist the trophy for the second time (his first win being in 2008). It was an unbelievable display of tennis from both men but as with all sports, there can be only one victor and last night that was Novak Djokovic. The Serbian began the 2012 season as the number one player in the world and, save for the 17 weeks from July to November when Federer once again took the top spot, he has ended the season as the number one player in the world. True champs both.
Roll on next season. More of the same please gentlemen.
Video of the Week: The The Impotence of Proofreading
The Force Will Be With Us – Always!
So, with a little over $4 billion changing hands, George Lucas has sold his Lucasfilm empire to Disney, who have stated that a new Star Wars film will be coming in 2015 followed by another every two or three years after that.
I feel a great disturbance in The Force as if millions of voices across the globe have all cried out in pain. Of course, it could have been a huge collective ‘Hoorah!’ from fans but in my humble opinion (whatever that’s worth), for fans of the original three movies starring Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, this will likely come as sad news. I happen to be one of those fans and I have lost count of the number of times I’ve sat and enjoyed that original trilogy, usually comprising a marathon session during a holiday where every couple of years myself and a good friend would draw the curtains and, surrounded by a calorific selection of salty snacks, watch all three films back-to-back. It’s almost become a ritual.
And I, like many others, considered the prequel trilogy with Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman to be, at best, a mixed bag but generally very disappointing. So, to hear that sequels are possibilities that Disney is considering makes me roll my eyes and groan like a Wookie.
Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are three movies that tell one simple yet epic story and like all good stories, it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s that END that is of great significance here because at the end of the third film, everything is wrapped up nicely, all done and dusted. The nasty old Emperor and his Empire are defeated and all evil destroyed – even Darth Vader sees the light and changes his dastardly ways moments before popping his clogs – and the ensuing party with the Ewoks clearly looks like the dawn of a new era.
But now they’re telling us that in 2015, it’s likely a sequel will follow on from there and will involve the iconic characters of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo etc. Personally, I just don’t see how it would work. The saga came to a natural and logical conclusion in 1983 and I for one cannot see how anything other than hackneyed storytelling can resurrect the story from there.
Will I go and see this new episode when it comes out? I don’t know. Possibly out of curiosity I would, perhaps secretly hoping that the writers had found some miracle of continuance, something that makes complete sense in order that these characters can carry on fighting the Empire. The only problem/argument with that scenario is selecting the actors to play those characters. Answers on a postcard please….