Sunday, November 23, 2003

A Fantasy Weekend

Or perhaps, as none of my fantasies involve being ill (which I was this weekend), I ought to say A Weekend of Fantasy.

On Wednesday our copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition DVD arrived. We watched the first disc Wednesday evening, with a brief interruption to watch Angel; Thursday during the day I watched the first disc again, with Director/Writer commentary (discovering in the process what a wicked sense of humor Fran has - not that I'd expect any less); Thursday evening we watched disc 2 and began watching the special features (I was fast asleep well before the first segment ended); Friday I watched disc 2 with the same commentary, and we spent the weekend with special features and cast commentary.

What I may not have mentioned is that about a week ago I began re-reading the Prydain chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I love these books, and a conversation with our friend Geoff about how to adapt them to the screen prompted me to refresh my memory of the story. I've read the first three - and would have read the fourth if not for the fact that it was one of the books that got doused in shampoo when I moved, and I never got around to cleaning it. I really must do that, but probably won't before leaving for Thanksgiving.

This afternoon, while debating whether to watch TTT with Design Team or Post-Production commentary, I remembered that Netflix had sent us the BBC Neverwhere, and suggested that we watch that, which we did. It was not bad, though the production quality made me cringe. Most of the performances were better than I expected, and the only one that really disappointed me was Hunter. If they couldn't get someone who could act, they might have gotten someone who could fight, or, barring both qualities, someone who looked like a girl. (Yes, now I am just being mean.)

What this all comes down to is that I was lying. I LOVE fantasy. It's just that I am picky about it.