Cautionary TaleOnly of interest if you're into computers: Mirrored drives do not equal a disaster recovery solution. I feel really bad for those guys, I never used their service but to have a business of six years disappear overnight because of a lack of a disaster recovery plan is horrible. Let that be a lesson to all you people out there who are thinking of getting started in IT work. It is because of stories like this that the RT database goes down for 15 minutes every day while it is backed up and stored at an offsite location.
Back when the show originally aired I bashed it for being mostly mindless with just a few dramatic gems few and far-between. The second season moved away from its comedic roots and focused more on the dramatic side which I feel made Season 2 much stronger than its predecessor, but nonetheless.
I've finished re-watching the first season and I've come to the conclusion that it is, actually, much better than I originally gave it credit for. The biggest thing that I've noticed about Skins is the pacing. While in Lost it takes you a whole 19 weeks for any real progress t...
Back when the show originally aired I bashed it for being mostly mindless with just a few dramatic gems few and far-between. The second season moved away from its comedic roots and focused more on the dramatic side which I feel made Season 2 much stronger than its predecessor, but nonetheless.
I've finished re-watching the first season and I've come to the conclusion that it is, actually, much better than I originally gave it credit for. The biggest thing that I've noticed about Skins is the pacing. While in Lost it takes you a whole 19 weeks for any real progress to be made, the entire world of Skins gets turned on its head in just 9 episodes, and even further in its second season of 10 episodes. So much so that after the two seasons the character's stories are told and finished; Season 3 will introduce a completely new cast of characters (I'll get to this later).
The progression that the characters make is astounding. Sid goes from not noticing Cassie to loving her in two episodes. And it's NOT just a rushed reversal, it's a believable progression. You feel like you experience so much in these people's lives and the fact is, you do.
I also love Skins for not being afraid to be artistic. From the cast singing the final song in the first series to almost fantastical drug sequences, things happen that you don't expect to. Also, the individual episodes have a long lapse in time between themselves. Most episodes have about a week pass by in between. What's wonderful is that Skins doesn't always give you the answers. Episodes have a starting point and an end point, the repercussions happen off-screen, and you have to piece together the consequences for yourself in later episodes.
For Season 2 they didn't kill off the Tony character as I expected them to. I was very disappointed when I found that Tony would remain in the show, I felt that killing him could achieve much more dramatic impact than anything his asshole of a character could achieve otherwise. However, the decision to keep him alive turned out to be the best thing they ever did. Tony suffering brain damage managed to spin the show in an entirely new, dark direction - which was exactly what it needed. It also managed to humanise Effy, which is important.
Season 3 is a whole new cast of characters as the cast of the previous series have left and gone to University. A controversial decision, but in the end it makes sense. I don't believe that the new cast can ever possibly live up to the original, but I now realise that that is not necessary. Basically, Skins is going to be disposable. Two-year long storylines with characters and then they'll be let go. What this does is it builds an audience (as it did with me in 2007), and then take them on a fantastic ride, and give the ride a specific and finite end. It lets the show remake and reimagine itself and entice people into the series like it did back in the day.
Only two characters remain in season 3, Effy and Pandora. Initially Pandora hadn't been announced to be returning, but it makes sense. She may have been a relatively background character in season 2 but any faces you can keep are good. As for Effy... I was not initially certain that Effy had enough dramatic weight to carry the show. She served well to give Tony a heart, but was she interesting enough to make HER the main character? Well, actually, I think it might just work. The MASSIVE progression that Effy's character makes gives her a chance to do absolutely anything she fucking wants. She's misanthropic, she's clever, she's essentially a female, teenage version of Gregory House. Her illuminating line "why care for people at all, they all leave in the end" really shines a light on a very deep and provocative image.
So, good luck to them. I think the third season may actually exceed my piss-poor expectations.
Wrath of the Lich KingThe second expansion for World of Warcraft has been out for nearly two months now and needless to say I've been playing it quite a bit. I think I've finally played it enough to where I can write intelligently about it. Of course if you're gonna play the expansion you have probably already purchased it. Anyway here I go.
Wrath of the Lich King makes The Burning Crusade look like crap. There, I said it. I LOVE everything about Wrath so far.
The gear progression from 60 to 61 in Burning Crusade was ridiculous. The green quest rewards early on were WAY more powerful than the best epics in the game prior to BC launch. The gear ramp in Wrath is definitely smoother and T4 gear...
Wrath of the Lich KingThe second expansion for World of Warcraft has been out for nearly two months now and needless to say I've been playing it quite a bit. I think I've finally played it enough to where I can write intelligently about it. Of course if you're gonna play the expansion you have probably already purchased it. Anyway here I go.
Wrath of the Lich King makes The Burning Crusade look like crap. There, I said it. I LOVE everything about Wrath so far.
The gear progression from 60 to 61 in Burning Crusade was ridiculous. The green quest rewards early on were WAY more powerful than the best epics in the game prior to BC launch. The gear ramp in Wrath is definitely smoother and T4 gear can probably take you through your mid 70s. Also, the art direction for gear is much grittier in Wrath and the gear doesn't look like a clown costume (like most non epic gear in BC did).
When playing through BC it seemed to me like the Alliance and Horde had the same quests, just different flavor text and different quest givers. The quest lines in Wrath are quite different with very little overlap. Additionally, the use of phasing in quests leads to some fantastic in game moments. The Horde quest line that leads to the Wrath Gate event and the subsequent assault on Undercity definitely made the game for me.
Instances are much shorter which is great for casual players. Gone are the days of Shadow Lab runs that drag on for close to two hours. Now most instances can be completed in about 45 minutes to an hour. The ability to toggle between 10 and 25 man raid content with different quest rewards is also fantastic. It is crazy to think back to vanilla WoW and trying to orchestrate 40 man MC runs.
Some people are of course complaining that the game has gotten too easy, but I disagree. I think the game has definitely gotten easier, but it allows for more people to see all the in game content. Back in vanilla WoW I never had the opportunity to see content like BWL or Naxx, however now I will be able to see all the content in the game if I want to, and I really look forward to it. I think the decision to take people's flying mounts away until level 77 was unfair, however I can understand why it was done from a game balance perspective.
So, overall, I think Blizzard really knocked it out of the park with Wrath. I look forward to upcoming content patches and the ability to dual spec in patch 3.1 (my Shadow priest will finally be able to get into groups as a healer).
--edit-- tl;dr version: Wrath of the Lich King is awesome and way better than Burning Crusade was.
