New book coming soon

[Guest Watts]

Definitely warrants a read! Thanks for pointing this out to us Libby.

[SadEyes]

So, does anyone know what happened to this book? It seems it isn´t available all of the time, I´m located in Germany and tried it via Amazon and JPC, but both can´t get the book and on the american Amazon the book also isn´t in stock, on Ebay no one is selling the book. This is very strange, is the book out or not? I´m wondering why this always happens to the Chris-Carter-Stuff...;-)

[ethsnafu]

It's been available for about a month I believe. You can purchase it directly from Mad Norwegian Press here. It was delayed originally as they had trouble with the original publishing deal but they sorted that out and knocked a little bit off the cost as well and it has remained on sale without problems at least at Amazon.co.uk where you can now get second hand copies if you want to save a little cash.

Hope that helps,

Eth

[Libby]

I'd forgotten to check on the status of this book - embarrassing, as I started this topic! The shipping cost if I ordered from Mad Norwegian Press was more than the book itself, so I've ordered it from amazon instead. It should get here on Friday, so I'll do a quick flick through of the MM reviews and post something here.

[The Old Man]

I'd forgotten about this too, thanks for the updates!

Here's a referral link to the book at Amazon UK:

Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to the X-Files, Millennium and the Lone Gunmen (Paperback)

by Robert Shearman

There is a section of the publishers site which mentions the higher postage costs if you live in the UK:

Where to Buy Mad Norwegian Books in Britian

For as much as we hate turning away your business, UK customers are probably better off checking out a British retailer who stocks Mad Norwegian products. The following shops typically offer Mad Norwegian books books for sale through mail order. Naturally, if you WANT to buy your books direct from our website, that's fine -- we just want you to be aware of the higher shipping rates.

FORBIDDEN PLANET STORES

Megastore Location:

179 Shaftesbury Ave

London

WC2H 8JR

020 7420 3666

GALAXY FOUR

493 Glossop Road

Sheffield, S10 2QE

0114 268 4976

www.galaxy4.co.uk

Currently says out of stock!

THE WHO SHOP

4 Station Parade

High Street North

East Ham

London E6 1JD

020 8471 2356

www.thewhoshop.com

Wanting to Believe cannot be found via their site search!

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Is it available in the US? or can I get it off of Amazon UK?

[SadEyes]

Thanks to all for the information, much appreciated.

[Guest Ghostmojo]

Personally, I'm not too fussed about the exclusion of Harsh Realm - since it wasn't actually part of the same broad universe as the other three. OK, it has the same production crew and a smattering of 10/13 regular actors it is true - but is quite a stand-alone series, and was unquestionably the weakest of the four 10/13 series. From a 10/13 completist point of view it might have been nice to include it in some sort of index or appendices (and perhaps they will), but the other three shows will provide plenty of reading for me. Since I'm a fan of all of them in almost equal measure ... it sure looks good to me .

[Libby]

OK, I've got the book and have read a dozen or so episode reviews (XF, MM, TLG). I thought it would be helpful to type up and post one MM critique (that would be within the fair use concept), just so people get some idea of Shearman's writing style. But which episode? I knew that if I asked for suggestions, there'd be as many as there are active members. So I thought I'd just ask in the shoutbox for somebody to give me a random number between 1 and 67, but when I looked at the bottom of the main page there was no-one on the board. Obviously you've all gone off and were doing something exciting instead! But there are two upcoming anniversaries: CC's birthday and MM's anniversary, so either 10+13=23 or 10+25=35. It was easier to figure out which episode was the 23rd, so I've gone with that. The summaries were written by the book's editor.

Millennium: Season 2

2.1 The Beginning and the End

Summary: Members of the Millennium Group upgrade the security system on Frank's computer as the Polaroid Man ties up Catherine in a cellar. Peter tells Frank that the time has come for him to learn more of the Group's secrets – and that the Polaroid Man's fixation with Frank is related to the Group's interest in him. Frank deduces the Polaroid Man's location, leading to a fight that ends with Frank brutally stabbing the Polaroid Man to death. Catherine, horrified at having witnessed her husband's brutality, asks for a separation period. Frank accommodates her by moving out.

Critique: In their eagerness to reformat the series, Glen Morgan and James Wong rather clumsily stumble over themselves. There's much to be impressed by: the first act is suitably tense, as Frank frantically works against time to catch Catherine's abductor before he makes it onto the freeway. And the depiction of Frank Black as a man who finds himself suddenly powerless and out of control is brilliant, Lance Henriksen bringing such pain and self-doubt to the part that the key moments where he picks up a gun to turn vigilante, or in his rage stabs the Polaroid Man to death, have tremendous force. The point that his profiling is turned against himself is well made too, as the abductor chillingly narrates the sequence of events that lead Frank to his moral breakdown.

There's an interesting sequence in which Frank and Peter Watts talk about sacrifices made upon the way – and much is sacrificed here too. I've been crying out for consequence in this series, but now that Catherine reacts so strongly against Frank and packs his bag so he can move out, it's hard not to feel that this is all too much too suddenly. In spite of her statement to the contrary, Catherine comes off as ungrateful rather than confused. Morgan and Wong could have reached the same dramatic position, with Frank obliged to leave the safety of his family unit, much more sensitively – the moral turmoil that both the Blacks find themselves in is credible, but so abrupt that it belittles them and their relationship. Catherine is simply not a well enough established character to turn against the star of the show like this and retain the audience's sympathies – we can understand the logic of the dramatic beat here, but there's not been enough groundwork within the first season for us to find it emotionally satisfying.

And, in the same way, Morgan and Wong rush at their redefinition of the Millennium Group itself. On the one hand, Peter Watts is given more character development than ever before, and Terry O'Quinn gratefully seizes it. But all the little hints that the Group is something darker and has secret designs for Frank feel forced. That they've chosen this moment to upgrade him to a new level of security, and give him some Lone Gunmen-like techie nerds for comic relief, seems inappropriate. Frank can only look on bemusedly as one of them, Brian Roedecker, waffles on about Soylent Green because it's so wholly irrelevant to the drama at hand or the urgency of the situation. With Frank away from his yellow house, in the episodes to come there would have been credible reasons for the Millennium Group to change their relationship with him.

It's that overwritten quality to the episode which is typified by the Polaroid Man himself. Originally somebody enigmatic and softly spoken, hidden behind his sunglasses, a man whose emotionless connection to Henry Dion in Paper Dove was alien and unnerving, here the Polaroid Man is recast as Doug Hutchinson, who memorably played Tooms in The X-Files. And suddenly you can't shut him up – he waxes lyrical about comets and the apocalypse and theme park rides. Hutchinson gives a typically barnstorming performance, but it's actually too barnstorming – he's a caricature of evil with verbal diarrhoea. And he himself states that he's just a cipher to effect a change in Frank Black and the series. He exists only to be the victim of Frank's rage. Crucially, it makes that moment of rage seem contrived, too schematic. And seeing that it's the pivot for the new series, that's a big mistake. (**1/2 out of 5)

Now, not everyone is going to agree with this critique, of course, and even Shearman says in his introduction that when viewing episodes in a few years time he might well then disagree with himself, but the point of posting this is just to give an idea of what the book is like.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Great work, Libby. I've got the book on order and was intrigued to find Shearman's above critique of "The Beginning and the End" to quite closely mirror my own @TIWWA.

Prospective buyers can also get a flavour of the first few X-Files reviews using Amazon's "search inside" function. I look forward to dipping in to the rest of it when it arrives.