The Bible Part II

NBC has announced that it will be picking up where the History Channel left off by airing a second miniseries based on the Bible.

The original five-part production presented highly condensed dramatizations of well-known biblical events: sort of a salvation history highlight reel. I only caught parts of a few episodes but liked what I saw for the most part.

The fact that the first run netted nearly twelve million viewers and is flying off the shelves on DVD probably affected NBC's decision.

If you're wondering what direction the sequel's going to take, it looks to be following the sociopolitical tumult that came to a boil 37 years after the crucifixion, resulting in the fall of Jerusalem. All the while, the infant Church struggles to survive.

It sounds like they're salting the Acts of the Apostles with military/political information from Flavius Josephus' The Jewish War. On the one hand, there are signs of superfluous violence and political intrigue being shoehorned in. On the other, drawing from a smaller body of source material should allow the miniseries to treat the subject matter with greater depth.

Is anyone out there excited for/wary about this?

He Is Legend

Richard Matheson died this week. My limited verbal powers cannot adequately describe the impact of this towering figure on the science fiction and horror genres. We shall not see his like again.

I encourage you to celebrate Mr. Matheson's life and career by enjoying at least one of his works in the coming days.

I Am Legend

Stir of Echoes

The Legend of Hell House

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Duel

What Dreams May Come

There's Always Money in the Banana Stand

Cult tv phenomenon Arrested Development will return on May 26, and the Bluth family's frozen banana stand is making straight its path.

I immediately loved the show when I first saw it on Netflix a couple of years ago. What's that got to do with writing? A lot, actually. Unlike a lot of contemporary comedies, Arrested Development features nuanced characterization and gets most of its laughs from crafted jokes instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator. But those touches aren't the main reason for the show's acclaim.

Arrested Development is noteworthy as a body of writing for mastering self-reflexivity and intertextuality. It's hard to find another narrated tv show whose narrator supplies a host of genuinely funny moments. It does help when the narrator is this guy.

The seminal nature of Arrested Development's first run is well attested by its imitators. It's not uncommon for other networks to copy a successful show's formula. What's odd about this case is that the show in question wasn't exactly successful. It's also hard to point to a single imitator employing a derivative style. Instead, similar postmodern sensibilities have saturated countless series and films in nearly every medium.

I don't claim that Arrested Development was the first tv series to make extensive use of self-referential and intertextual devices. It is, however, the gold standard for postmodern television humor. And although causality is difficult to prove, I've noticed a strong correlation between the show's initial run and a general increase in self-awareness and pop culture references in tv and film.

Watch More TV

My search for the new home of compelling narrative may have turned up an answer that I initially overlooked: TV.

Long regarded as a cultural wasteland, television has recently experienced a creative Renaissance. The movement toward superior writing, acting, and production value is being led by cable networks. By lavishing Hollywood blockbuster-sized budgets on their major projects, the likes of HBO, AMC, FX, and Showtime have managed to attract first rate talent.

Every novelist used to dream of getting a movie deal from a major studio. While that aspiration is still valid, TV has emerged as a medium capable of handling the intricacies of more complex narratives. Game of Thrones and Justified have proven that major cable networks can treat an author's work with greater respect and fidelity than the big studios.

A good friend once suggested that a hypothetical live action interpretation of my own fledgling fantasy universe could only be realized on cable. Recognizing the highly premature timing of such considerations (being as yet unpublished, much less having racked up enough sales to justify attention from other media), I will say that writing for TV has long held a certain appeal for me. I'm primarily a visual thinker: a trait that lends itself better to film and TV scripts than novels.

On the other hand, I've heard it said more than once from people who know what they're talking about that you really should have at least one novel under your belt before they'll let you have a shot at TV.

Is television the new home of challenging fiction? What's your opinion?