Jack asked:
> Can anyone explain the slow and now nearly rapid decline of Rara-Avis. It can't just be blamed on the summer, can it?
>
> Maybe we need a good old, what is noir what is hardboiled conflict to liven things up.
Well, me, I fell down a rabbit hole or something. New part-time job (running music at a local coffee house), plus my regular job kicked up a notch, a couple of freelance gigs, more writing for Mystery Scene and the usual catastrophes of life all ganged up on me.
So, THRILLING DETECTIVE and my participation on this list both faded into black...
But what the hell. Ill play. Here's some food for thought"
Anyone see THE GLADES last night?
Heavily hyped (free copies of the screenplay at B&N, and as nook and Kindle downloads, carpetbombing on-air promos, etc.) but man, what a waste of time. Watered down, redundant, about as original as a faded copy of a faded copy of a faded copy can be. It wasn't so much written as photocopied.
Rebel outsider big city cop on a small town force, golf club toting lead, ineffectual (and bald) commander, instant "colorful" locale, instant quirky characters, cut-and-paste plots? I think I've seen every bit of it before on better shows.
This may not be the golden age of hard-boiled TV, but with stuff like JUSTIFIED, IN PLAIN SIGHT, BURN NOTICE, LEVERAGE and LIE TO ME around, none of which are as good as they could be but all of which have their moments, THE GLADES hits about as hard as a Brady Bunch rerun.
And in the nitpicking department, what's the deal with calling the last Larsson THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST here, instead of the (correct) British title of THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST?
Is proper grammar too much of a threat to American masculinity or something? When was the last time you saw a nest belonging to one hornet?
But anyway, I'm halfway through, and enjoying it quite a bit, as I have the other two. Not always hard-boiled or noir, but there's definitely enough grit mixed into the dark and dirty in this potboiler of a series to appeal to anyone on this list who isn't afraid to read something that's actually popular.
And Lisbeth Salander has got to be one of the fiercest, most compelling and fucked-up female characters to hit the best seller lists for a long, long time. If I were a braver man, I might dream about her
Kevin Burton Smith
Alleged Editor/Founder of the Possibly Imaginary
Thrilling Detective Web Site
"Wasting your time on the web since 1998."
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