REVIEW: Russell's Reviews Volume One # 5

[Dave Van Domelen]

In article <795518.43264.qm at web31304.mail.mud.yahoo.com>,
Tom Russell  <milos_parker at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   I agree with Saxon's decision to nominate our Rob Rogers for the "Also
>Crapping on Garth Ennis From a Great Height" Award.  I think the two things
>that separate Rob's special brand of satire from the work of Ennis and the
>like is that (1) Rob's work is not mean-spirited, and (2) Rob's work is
>funny.  And while satire can be used to unleash some hate, it's not funny
>unless the thing being satirized is deserving of that hate.  Let me give you
>a few examples.

     I've actually run into a similar issue with New Exarchs.  When I started
it, the new Flash Gordon series that I was choosing to satirize was having a
"good" episode when I could stand to watch it all the way through and not
just change the channel, staying away from SFC until Stargate Atlantis's
timeslot.  But then two things happened.  One, I acquired and watched all the
Buster Crabbe serials...and compared to some of them, even the bad episodes
of the new series are halfway decent.  :)  Two, the new Flash Gordon started
to actually get good.  It was as if they had half a season's worth of good
stories to tell, and then just farmed out most of the first half to whoever
would write the most cheaply.  So it's a bit harder to be quite so mean to
them, which has changed the direction of the story somewhat. 

     Dave Van Domelen, playing it mostly by ear anyway...what uberplot?