Introducing… Morganville – The Series (Buffy fans rejoice!)

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t know anything about this until the press release landed in my inbox. And man, I was pretty excited!

Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign and Felicia Day’s Geek & Sundry, Rachel Caine has adapted the first book in her Morganville Vampires series, Glass Houses, into a web series comprising of 8-12 minute long episodes, which began airing yesterday.

Web series have been hailed as the new big thing for a while now, with the ability to reach a worldwide audience faster than any other format. You only have to look at the success of I Kissed a Vampire, Dr. Horrible’s  Sing-a-long Blog or the endless Netflix and Amazon Prime series to see that the way we watch TV is changing.

This Halloween, Morganville: The Series hopes to make a splash in the world of Webisodes…

The entire show was filmed on location in Dallas, Texas, in four separate venues, including a coffee shop, a turn-of-last-century Victorian home, a hospital,and a university, and I’m assured that nearly every episode ends with Rachel Caine’s infamous cliffhanger endings. But at least this time we won’t have to wait too long to found out what happens next. Hurrah!

But, how do you cram a whole book into such a small series?

“The first thing I tried to do, since I wrote the book in 2006,” said Caine, “was to write down everything I remembered from it without re-reading it. That was fascinating, because what I wrote down was really the core story, and that turned out to be what needed to be told in the show.”

It’s also pretty hard to believe that the whole thing was filmed in just 10 days.

Glass Houses was our first introduction to Morganville – a town riddled with vampires. The book centers around Claire Danvers who doesn’t quite fancy slumming it in the college dorms, and is looking for a room. She finds one, and a lot more in the Glass House. We meet a whole host of fun, and some not-so-fun characters, who are intent on helping or hindering Claire in her quest to survive in Vamp town.

So, is the web series going to tell the whole story?

“For practical purposes, you can only have so many characters in a show with this running time, so some characters from the novel, while really interesting, ended up not being central to the plot (like Miranda). However, I did think it was important to introduce Myrnin, a fan favorite, into the mix early, so he makes a short appearance this season,” explains Caine.

Hold the phone, is that Amber Benson?

Yep. The awesome Amber Benson, who you should all know as Tara from Buffy TVS landed the role of Amelie – the sort-of vampire queen. PERFECT!

I really enjoyed these books and I can’t wait to check out the series. I plan on marathoning it on All Hallow’s Eve. Who’s with me?

In the mean time, here are the first two episodes to whet your whistle…

 

 

Links:

http://www.morganvilletheseries.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry

http://www.morganvillevampire.com/

http://www.rachelcaine.com/

 

Friday Feature: Must See TV!

I hope I’m not being too premature here, but TV is getting good again, right?

Autumn always brings a fresh batch of shows just in time for us to start the yearly hibernation (I’m not the only one who does this…am I?), and I have a few on my not-to-miss list already. I haven’t started watching most of them yet…but I will. Soon.

Here’s what made the list last year.

Gotham

What’s the Story? This new US 16-parter takes us to a pre-Batman Gotham City with young detective James Gordon and the recently orphaned 12-year-old Bruce Wayne. We also see the original stories of the most famous Batman villains from The Joker, The Riddler and The Penguin to Poison Ivy and Catwoman.

Thoughts: Ryan from the O.C – LOL! It looks totally epic though.

Gotham aired on Fox in the US on 22nd September and just started in the UK last week, on 5.

The Strain

What’s the Story? Based on the best-selling vampire novel trilogy, ‘The Strain’ follows Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Centre of Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism.

Thoughts: I never got round to reading the book, mainly because it’s reeeeeeally long, and my friend Dora didn’t rate it much, but I’m intrigued to see how they’ve made it work on screen.

The Strain started last month in the UK, on Watch.

The Leftovers

What’s the Story? Based on the novel of the same name, ‘The Leftovers’ tells the story of when the Rapture happened, but not quite like it was supposed to. Set just after the apocalypse, we follow the people who didn’t make the cut, and a world that will never be the same again.

Thoughts: The trailer looked interesting as did the premise but I wasn’t all that impressed with the first episode of this. I’m going to give it a couple more before making up my mind though. It’s got a pretty impressive cast so I was hoping for great things!

The Leftovers started in the UK last month on Sky Atlantic

The Knick

What’s the Story?
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, this drama set in 1900 in New York City follows the lives and works of the staff of Knickerbocker Hospital including new lead surgeon, Dr. John Thackery played by Clive Owen.

Thoughts: I’m a sucker for Victorian Medical dramas. Or I would be if there were more of them around. I’m really intrigued by this. Clive Owen isn’t my favourite though. And that tash is scary.

The Knick started yesterday (16/10) on Sky Atlantic

The Missing

What’s the Story? Told using a fascinating narrative puzzle with twists and turns at every stage, The Missing follows Tony, played by James Nesbitt – a man who will do whatever it takes to find his missing child. When Oliver disappears on a holiday in France, Tony’s exhaustive search fractures his marriage to Emily, played by Frances O’Connor, and threatens to destroy his life.

Thoughts: Whenever I get excited about a BBC drama I feel like I’ve turned into my mother. Not that that’s a bad thing – my mum’s great (Hi mum, you can pay me later) – but y’know.

The Missing starts soon on BBC One.

AHS: Freakshow

What’s the Story?
The fourth season of anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Freak Show, is set in 1952 Jupiter, Florida. It tells the story of one of the last remaining freak shows in America, run by Jessica Lange’s German ex-pat Elsa, and their struggle for survival. Scroll through the gallery to see which of the cast are returning and to meet the new characters prepared to shock and terrify you this autumn.

Thoughts: I still haven’t watched the last season, Coven but I couldn’t not include this. I LOVED the first series, but I got a bit bored of the second one. I really hope this ends up being as good, and messed up, as it looks.

American Horror Story: Freak Show premieres on 21st October in the UK, on FOX.

I am also slightly obsessed with Peaky Blinders at the moment. It is soooooo good. The Tom Hardy/Cillian Murphy combo is blowing my mind.

And, when is Broadchurch 2 happening?

Happy Mother’s Day!

This week I was planning on doing a Friday Feature in honor of Mother’s Day in which I wanted to look at some of my favourite mother/daughter relationships in literature. But you know what, I came up with nothing. Nada. I scrolled through Goodreads and my bookshelves, and nothing.

When I was at Uni studying creative writing, one of the first things I was told in my Children’s Fiction module was ‘kill off the parents’, something I never really agreed with because it’s been done to death, excuse the pun, but seriously, there must be some good books out there that went against the grain and didn’t do away with the parents?

Maybe it’s just because I don’t read that much Contemporary Fiction, so if you have any recommendations please do!

So as an alternative, in honor of all the brilliant mum’s out there -especially my own of course – here is best TV mum ever!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Must See TV Update!

During Horror October, I branched out from solely bookish posts which proved a success so I thought I’d do a quick follow up.

One of the posts was about some of the new TV shows that I was excited to watch, all of which I’ve started watching now, some with better results than others. See the original post here.

First up was Dracula.

Thoughts: I’m still not entirely sold on it. The first episode was a bit slow but JRM is a pretty fit Dracula. I’ve only got 3 episodes in so far and still have high hopes, but it definitely needs to pick up soon!

American Horror Story: The Coven

Thoughts: The jury’s still out on this one. I’ve only got round to watching one episode which was pretty good. I just hope that it’s more like the first series and not the last one because I found that one a bit boring after a while.

The Tunnel

Thoughts: Now this is AWESOME. I am loving it. It’s a dark, gripping crime drama set in both Folkestone and Calais. I love the relationship between the two detectives and Clemence Posey is amazing! I really wished I’d watched The Bridge now, the Scandinavian drama that this is based on.

The Originals

Thoughts: Ugh I can not be bothered with this. It was as a feared. TVD went rubbish and this is more of the same. I just don’t care about any of the characters. Suffice to say, I won’t be watching the rest of it.

Bates Motel

Thoughts: I’ve finished this series now. On the whole I did enjoy it, but there was definitely a dip in the middle when I got a bit blahhhh about it. I still think Vera Farmiga was an amazing casting choice and I really started to feel for her even if she’s a bit mental and has clearly sent Norman mental too. I’m looking forward to the next series as surely Norman is now getting crazier and crazier, and pretty dangerous too of course. Come on, we all know how it ends!

Have you been watching any of these? What do you think?