Longmire – The Cold Dish

For three seasons on A&E Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) has been the determined Sheriff of Absaroka County Wyoming.   His friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) has shown audiences what a true friend is, being the man who will stand by Walt when his world feels as though it is falling apart, because his wife has passed away, and having his back in all situations.

Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) if a no nonsense deputy (undersheriff?) with the skills the county needs in the Sheriff’s department to help solve crimes and uphold the laws, but also to support their Sheriff and balance his skill set.  She may not be a local girl, but she brings city cop training, knowledge of ballistics and Crime Scene solving into the mix.

These are all characters that Craig Johnson brought to life in his series of novels that began with The Cold Dish.  With nearly a dozen Longmire novels, seven of which were in print before the series began airing, the characters had taken form and the relationships were clearly defined… and many aspects translated directly to the show beautifully.  Yet there are aspects that were clearly changed, noticeably and yet not in a negative way, just in a way that as I read I stopped and said, “hmm, I see what you did there,” and took a moment to wonder why.

In the Longmire from Book To Screen Deluxe Teaser, which predominantly contains sample chapters from the books, there is a foreward by Craig Johnson which talks about some of the changes that took place, and the process of going from his original books to the Television series.  He specifically addresses the age change of the title Character Longmire, who is older in the novels than on the TV show.  The change was made, quite simply, to afford the show more seasons, and while they did make him younger, they did not do it so dramatically or drastically that I found it distracting.  And I felt that while they shaved some years off of his age, they did not shave off so many that negated the possibility of his back story, they simply changed the details of it, and it still works, because he is old enough to have still had time to have had a job before he was Sheriff, to have lived a complex life, etc.

I felt they also changed aspects of the relationship between Longmire and Lucian Connally… and as so often happens when I have the opportunity to read source material I want to go back and rewatch the entire series from start to finish and get a better idea of how close the two works are to one another.

I started reading The Cold Dish, the first Longmire novel, days after I watched the season 3 season finale.  I was in awe of how the season ended, knew I had the Longmire novel at hand, and wanted to spend more time with the Longmire characters, so the timing, in that respect, felt perfect.

Throughout the novel I was aware I had seen this basic plot on the show, and yet it felt… different… there was a familiarity to it, without a full on sense of deja-vu, which I appreciated.  I felt like I was along for a ride with old friends, without feeling like I knew what was coming around every turn, and there were no surprises in store for me.  By the time I got to the end, I was certain I had encountered the crime before, and yet, while I have a fairly good memory for the who-done-its, Craig Johnson had surprised me, and I wanted to know what I had forgotten.

After a little digging around I found that I was correctly recalling similar plot points were in the tenth episode of the first season, and yet, I do not feel it would be fair to say that the episode was pulled directly from this novel — so while each might give you hints and things to think about while enjoying the other, I’m not convinced either will help you solve the who-done-it in the other.  And yes, to me, that makes each twice as powerful.

I for one am grateful there are nearly a dozen more books for me to read in this Penguin Mystery series.  While I cross my fingers, and join the multitudes hoping for a fourth season, at least I’ll have some reading material to keep me from missing Longmire and his pals too much.

For more info, you may want to visit: Craig Johnson’s Website

Longmire, A&E’s contemporary crime thriller set in Big Sky country, is based on the Walt Longmire mystery novels by bestselling author Craig Johnson. The series stars Australian actor Robert Taylor (The Matrix) as Walt Longmire, the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, along with Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Gallactica) as his right-hand deputy Vic Moretti, Lou Diamond Phillips (Numb3rs), Bailey Chase (Damages), and Cassidy Freeman (Smallville)

Outlander – The Way Out

Outlander – The Way Out, the third episode of Season 1, is a particularly interesting episode.  One of the subplots of the episode is directly from the book, and the entire episode feels like it could have been pulled directly from the book (and some scenes appear to have been shuffled into this episode out of earlier chapters of the book) but if you are reading along in the novel Outlander you need only finish chapter 9.

Chapter 10, approximately page 178 of the novel, is where The Gathering begins in earnest, and as it happens, the title of episode 4 is slated to be… The Gathering.

Episode three might be one of the best episodes for those wanting to get a feel for how the book is being translated to the screen.  The plot-point that was taken as a subplot directly to the screen was the one that, as a reader, struck me as significant, and telling about multiple characters.  In an earlier article I remarked that it can be interesting to see what scenes in the book are so significant that every person in the collaborative process that it takes to make it a tv show is struck by that scene and agrees it needs to be on the screen.  As a reader this was one of those scenes I hoped they felt the weight and impact of.

The subplot they added, the character they created, to me made perfect sense, and again spoke volumes about every character that interacted with him.

Episode three had a nice balance to it, some moments that spun on the intonation with which lines were delivered, and the body language that characters made sure only one or two others saw… it was this deliberateness in some cases, and subtlety in others that kept my eyes on the screen, and kept me interested from start to finish… and had me wanting to re-read the book yet again, wondering if there were things I had missed, things I should have noticed, things I might now understand differently because I could quite literally see them differently having just seen them on screen.

It is quite safe to say Diana Gabaldon’s series of Outlander novels stand alone quite successfully.  And the STARZ Outlander television series likewise stands alone, and can be viewed independently of the books and a compelling drama unfolds before your eyes.  But the two, in combination, create this extraordinary experience, where one sets you up with questions to ponder and ask as you experience the other… whichever you experience first keeps you guessing during the other even though you are pretty darn sure you know the journey you are being taken on.

Power Rangers Super Megaforce

Power Morphicon 2014 Shout! Factory Live Streaming

Power Morphicon 2014 Shout! Factory Live Streaming

Shout! Factory offered live streaming of portions of Power Morphicon yesterday. For those who were unable to attend this Power Rangers centric convention here was a chance to catch a glimpse of the fun they were missing.  To catch a few of the Question and Answer sessions, to see backstage chats with some of the talent, and realize just how much they wished they had been able to attend in person — and start making plans to attend next time.

For those who missed the live streaming, check out Shout’s Youtube channel coverage (scan through and look for interesting moments!  Around 1:06:33 it starts up):

At San Diego’s Comic-Con International the cast of Super Megaforce was available for interviews, and when John Mayo and I arrived for our turn, microphones in our bag and a few questions in mind, we saw an interview already in progress — with a video camera focused in on these charismatic young actors, and the very questions we had in mind being asked.

It was one of those moments where you stop and think, and realize those actors are going to be just as kind to us, and give us just as great answers… but why put them through the exact same questions a second time, when Francis Sky of First Comics News has just done such a fun job of it, there was already so much energy captured in moving pictures, and we could highlight him, and his site, as well as this great show, and it’s cast?  Yeah, you guessed it, we quickly decided the actors time was better spent getting fresh and different questions from other people — and our readers would be very entertained checking out Fracis’ interview:   Power Rangers Super Megaforce at Comic-Con 2014.

John Barrowman – Class Act

John Barrowman (known for Dr. Who and currently a series regular on Arrow) turned to social media today to apologize to his fans for oversleeping, missing his flight to Chicago, and as a result missing most of today at Wizard World Chicago.  His apologies were heartfelt, genuine, and accompanied updates on the lengths he was going to to correct the situation, to get onto the next flight, to reschedule events people were looking forward to attending, and through it all he took ownership of what had happened.  No excuses, simple honesty – he overslept, but he would make it right, somehow.

It may actually be an understatement to call him a class act.

Over 20+ years of attending conventions of various sizes and fandoms I have seen a variety of celebrities and situations.  When cellphones were first coming into use one actor called in to a convention every half hour to ask the organizers to give his line a status update on the traffic jam he was caught in and once again apologize for his thinking three hours for what was normally a two hour drive was plenty of time to get to us for his signing.

In contrast, I have shown up at the appointed time for a signing only to be told it was cancelled, the person in question had another commitment come up… when I asked if I should be excited to see them in some upcoming movie or tv show, I was told, “not unless his golf games are being televised.”

Experiences like that later one are few and far between, in fact I can only think of 2 or 3 in all these years of going to at least one convention a year.  But they leave an impression… just as John Barrowman’s posting videos of apology, and live-tweeting from his flight to Chicago leaves an incredibly positive impression.

Barrowman has been re-scheduled so he will be doing photo-ops at the Chicago Wizard World Comic-Con at 8:00 Saturday night, his panel will be at 10:30 am Sunday morning, and he says he will be signing all day Sunday, when not at that panel — and the look of seriousness and determination in his eyes in these videos tells me he means business.

Just as he so often looks serious about having fun, and sharing the joy of life in so many of his social media posts, it is clear the next 36 hours are about putting right what did not happen this morning.

If you aren’t already connected to John Barrowman on social media, you might want to at least bookmark his pages… today was the proof in the pudding that John puts the internet to good use, and cares about his fans, and keeping them informed.

John Barrowman on Facebook
John Barrowman on Twitter