I’ve finished my programming task on schedule, a standalone Lua application which provides utility functions for processing data coming from Unreal. (More on its features in a later article.)

I also started making a custom animation tree and learned much about Unreal’s animation system in general. The animations will be outsourced, and since this part of the project is going to be the most expensive, I really need to get everything right on my end. I must ask for the right animations as I can’t afford redoing anims over and over again.

Fortunately - if everything goes well - I’m going to get help from a technical animator with this whole animtree thing, so there is hope yet that it will be done on time/budget and at a high quality.

Speaking of high quality, my beloved Dollhouse has ended. After 26 episodes split between two seasons, it was canceled. I’m not happy about it but it’s still better than overdoing something until it’s squeezed and disfigured but still sweats money. (I’m looking at you Stargate… )

Fortunately my sci-fi needs are still well fed: Mass Effect 2 is simply awesome.
Fun to play, looks nice, runs at 60 fps, has great music and last but not least, the story is interesting. I though as much after playing ME1, so I stopped reading any kind of news about ME2 to avoid the marketing machine and similarly retarded forum users spoiling the story for me.
Same goes for Bioshock 2 and any game from Bethesda Softworks. This article on Kotaku is about this is issue, and I totally agree with the author.
I mean, it’s really shocking when Shepard discovers that she has a Geth twin sister, but it just wouldn’t have the same impact if you knew about it beforehand.
Oh..erhm… oops…

(The Canceled Classics series is about my favorite, prematurely canceled TV shows.)

Partially improvised

This show follows the struggles and everyday life of an extended American family living in the suburbs. No guns, no car chases, no mysteries. However, it is far from being boring.

While the family does face interesting and sometimes unusual problems, the storyline is only there to emphasize the best aspect of the show: the acting.


The tip of the hat to all actors, including the children: they portray the slightly wacky family members very well. The characters are not caricatures, they are exactly as goofy and eccentric as any of us. (Okay, maybe a bit more.)

The situations, conversations feel very natural, mostly because the dialog is partially improvised.
It’s no “Curb your enthusiasm” crap with annoying plots and retarded characters. Here improvisation makes the whole thing feel like a documentary. There are unfinished sentences, stuttering, talking over each other’s head, stuff which would be cut from other formats.

These little things and the liberal direction make the experience genuine: a person burbling with laughter at someone goofing around, is not acting just reacting. You can see the effort as she tries to keep her act together, barely avoiding spitting out the tea in her mouth, while shaking in laughter. You can see the unadulterated fascination in her eyes as she watches a fellow actress doing an impression of a relative.

Similarly, moments of sadness also feel authentic and have a big impact on the viewer. At one point a character, angry and shaken, bursts out in a monologue on a family event. I felt discomfort and sorry for her, because that woman crying on the screen was really hurt. I was also somewhat ashamed because I felt like part of that group of family and friends who - even if inadvertently - caused distress for that woman.

So there are funny bits, dramatic bits, effortlessly depicted family relations. Great acting all around, from the 4 years old little girl to the 70 something great-grandma.

Fred Goss, creator and star of the show, done something outstanding. This short lived series is one of my favorite TV shows ever.

I recently stumbled upon Dollhouse, a new TV series, and after the second episode, I became an addict.
What it does is simple but effective: it takes our present day world and adds a new element to it: a scientific breakthrough which allows the programming of human beings. Personalities can be archived, modified and uploaded into another body, a doll. Dolls are empty, flesh and blood pendrives walking around in the Dollhouse waiting to get a personality and a job to finish. When they are done with the given task, they are wiped yet again and keep enjoying the bliss of ignorance until the next mission.

A company was formed to leverage this achievement and clients turn up who need these services. Certain people are happy with it because the Dollhouse helps them to fulfill certain needs, others want to take down the whole operation on moral grounds. And some are struggling in between having a hard time picking a side.

The star of the show is a doll called Echo, who volunteered to be a doll for 5 years. When her contract expires she’ll get her personality back along with a fat paycheck and also lose a painful memory. Or at least this was the deal originally.
The staff maintaining the facility has a just as important role as the heroine. We learn their backgrounds, motivations, goals, hopes and dreams. How they discover the long term effects of the technology, how they adapt to emergencies or unusual client requests.

An interesting premise, a solid foundation upon which the writer-director Joss Whedon and his crew was able to build an exceptionally entertaining show.

The show is not without flaws. The biggest one is Eliza Dushku in the lead role. Her acting is adequate but nothing more. They wasted the great opportunity of having a different character in every episode: a more talented/experienced actress would have created more contrast between personalities. Dushku usually portrays badass chicks smacking people, which works, but she really struggles when it comes to feelings like fear, disgust or confusion.

Fortunately the writing is excellent, it saves the show. The story, the interesting conflicts, the witty dialogs and believable human reactions make you forget the occasionally rocky acting. The pacing is well done, the drama makes sense and it’s interesting to see how the characters deal with the questionable ethics of the operation. (And hopefully making the viewer think about the morally gray choices presented in the show.)

All in all I found it very clever and entertaining. (Knowing my cancel-o-meter talent, it might not be such a good sign.)

Seriously. I start watching a TV series and if I found it exceptionally entertaining and generally valuable then I can be sure as hell it will be canceled prematurely (Unscripted, Daybreak, Eyes, Fastlane just to mention a few).