Compassion as a source of entertainment.

In my opinion, a lot of writers seem to think that in order to be entertaining as a writer, you need to try to appear as cool as possible. They think that you need to be edgy and that showing awareness and empathy towards others isn't really that needed.

Personally speaking, I have never understood this approach at all. In my opinion by far the most important thing about being a good writer is that you show compassion to your characters so that your audience might care.

In any case, in order to hopefully give an example on how to write stuff that is both full of compassion and entertainment, let's take a look at an episode of one of my favorite television shows that was created by my favorite writer, David E. Kelley. 

In this case, we're talking about 'The Practice', a legal drama that managed to win multiple Emmy awards - including the best drama series - during its eight year run. This show was not only known for its entertainment values but also for its compassion.

Very likely my favorite 'entertainment through compassion' moment of all time happened during the show's final season, when the series gave us a new lead character, a sleazy, yet a good hearted lawyer, named Alan Shore. 

As his first case as a defense lawyer on the show - played wonderfully by the great James Spader - Alan Shore had to take a poor client who was suspected for committing a sexual assault on a female business executive.

At face value, this storyline didn't seem like one where 'entertainment' or 'compassion' would be the first thing in your mind. It's hard to imagine that you would feel for a person who had committed a crime against a woman.

Yet, it didn't take that long in the episode before you started to get second thoughts about the case and started to feel for the suspect in question. Things definitely weren't like one might have expected at first here.

That is that, the poor suspect's crime in this case hadn't been that bad. His illegal act was that he had publicly kissed the female executive on the office floor of the company as an act of  revenge and to get even with her.

That is because shortly before the sexual assault, the female in question had berated the suspect outside the office building for being a dirty, smelly worker. She had no compassion whatsoever for this man, who also happened to be a homeless person.

To make the situation even more humiliating for the man, his ten year old daughter had just happened to be close by when the berating happened. This man had been extremely humiliated and for no 'real' reason at all.

So when the story progressed, even though you wouldn't had thought at first, you couldn't help but to root for the blue collar guy. You couldn't help but to feel empathy for this homeless worker who was now in trouble.

After all, when you think about it, the worst that happened to this upper class female was that her 'embarrassment' would last only a couple of days or a week. Her co-workers wouldn't think about the incident that much and would forget it soon.

On the other hand, the humiliation that our homeless blue collar worker went through in front of his ten 10 year old daughter might even last a lifetime. It might well be that his daughter would never be able to forget what had happened.

This emotional aspect of the case was pretty much what Alan Shore's character emphasized when he gave his passionate closing argument to the court. The jury had to feel that sentencing the man for that crime would have simply been wrong.

Fortunately, at the end of the episode, the jury did manage to find our unlikely protagonist not guilty of the crime that he was accused of. He was let go and you were finally able to breath in relief that there was still some justice left in this world.

In any case, after the episode ended, all I could think was that the whole storyline in this episode (S8x01) about the underdog was simply fantastic. It showed what you can do as a writer when you have the talent and the courage to show kindness and be real.

It's just too bad that there aren't enough talented writers like David Kelley out there who can pull off stuff like this. Most of the so called 'professionals' couldn't write compassionate stuff like this even in their wildest dreams.

In my opinion that's a shame, because we as human beings clearly deserve to experience compassionate moments like these. These are the moments that make at least myself think that we aren't perhaps that bad.

In that sense, I just wish that we would have more good television shows like 'The Practice' on tv that took our struggles seriously and paid attention to issues that people in the audience found to be important and real.

That same way, I just wish that we had more writers like David Kelley, who understood what it means to be a human being and who understood that you don't always have to be hip or cool in order to be entertaining.

'Shaun The Sheep' is a wonderful movie.

Last week I got curious and I decided to check which movies had managed to get nominated at last year's academy awards. I wanted to find out whether there were any movies that were worth watching and possibly worth my time.

As I kept checking the nominations, I soon noticed the section where best animated movies for the year 2015 were listed. I thought that I should probably give a chance for one of the films that I hadn't managed to see yet.

It didn't take that long before I decided to watch a movie called 'Shaun The Sheep'. This movie about a farmer and his farm animals seemed promising, especially considering how universally positive reviews it had received.

In any case, I managed to see the movie a couple of days ago and it turned out that I liked the film a lot. Even though I did have some doubts about it initially, I was surprised how good the movie as a whole was.

Likely the best thing about 'Shaun The Sheep' is that its story is so well crafted. The plot about the sheep and the farm's dog following their amnesia suffering farmer to the city is really solid and manages to engage the viewer.

The biggest reason that the story works so well is because the film has tons of good ideas that are executed well. These ideas - like the sheep wearing disguises - keep the story moving forward and provide many humorous moments throughout the film.

One of the most intriguing and also challenging things about the movie is that it doesn't contain any spoken dialogue. Except for the occassional gibberish that you hear in the film, all the communication that happens is nonverbal.

Even though one might think that the lack of dialogue would hurt the movie, here it actually works in favor of the film. That is because every single moment in the movie is earned with ideas that make sense.

In 'Shaun The Sheep', the writers manage to rise up to the challenge and manage to come up with all kinds of ideas that keep the audience entertained. Ideas like 'counting sheep' are wonderful and serve as great plot devices.

The story and the movie work so well that you barely even pay attention to this being a claymation film. The stop motion technique works so well in the film because the creators concentrate on things that are essential and needed.

All in all, when it comes to this animated film as a whole, I was really surprised how well 'Shaun The Sheep' was made and how entertaining it was. I didn't expect the movie to be as good and as uplifting as it turned out to be.

In my opinion, there's a lot of observational humor in the film that should appeal to just about everyone out there. I genuinely appreciated the film's solid observations about how our society works and how we as human beings behave.

In the end, I would recommend 'Shaun The Sheep' for anyone who is interested in seeing a movie that has a good story and likable characters. It's a must see animated film for anyone who wants to be entertained and wants to feel better about their lives.

Learning from a bad movie (Unstoppable).

A couple of days ago I managed to turn on my television to check whether there was anything interesting on. I hadn't watched that much television lately, so I thought that almost anything would be more or less okay for me.

Pretty much the first thing that I noticed when I was channel surfing, was a film called 'Unstoppable'. This movie, starring Denzel Washington, was new to me, so I thought that perhaps I should stay on the channel that I was on. 

Unfortunately, it didn't take that long before I started to get bad vibes from the movie. Even though I had missed maybe the first five or ten minutes of the film, this movie about stopping a runaway train didn't feel right at all. 

That is because almost right away I noticed that the main characters didn't seem likable at all. I didn't like how Washington's character kept screaming at Chris Pine's character about how he was a horrible worker and that he should lose his job. 

It was really weird and I couldn't understand why the characters were so unlikable. After all, it's not exactly a secret that it's super important that the audience roots for its character and wants them to succeed in the film.

In any case, this 'unlikable' thing didn't really make sense, until it became obvious that the only reason that Chris Pine's train operator had made boo-boos was so that there would be an instant obstacle for these two protagonists in the movie.

This was a massive red flag for me and I was almost certain that it was because the film didn't have an organic premise. I felt that the 'train must be stopped' thing wouldn't make sense and that all the plot turns would be both implausible and undramatic.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before we got series of events where people _outside_ this main duo were attempting to stop the train. These were sequences that made no sense dramatically, so I started to feel even worse about the film.

After all, what were the chances that 1) the train would stop this early in the movie and that 2) it would be achieved by others than our two main protagonists? There's just no way that's how things we're going to happen in the film.

Naturally, all the following sequences that followed were incredibly boring, completely predictable and totally lacked any kind of dramatic tension. It felt that the movie went absolutely nowhere and I felt like falling asleep.

After these obvious failures, I pretty much zoned out and didn't pay that much attention to the movie anymore. There was no reason to actively watch the film anymore since the script for it had gone completely off the rails. 

Not surprisingly, during the last 45 minutes things didn't really get any better. The script didn't provide any plausible or non-stereotypical moments that we hadn't already seen a million times before in other movies.

So after the movie ended, all I could think was, why was this movie produced in the first place and why did it have so many good actors on it? What where these people thinking when they decided to spend 100 million dollars on this clunker? 

Even worse, what were the critics thinking when they decided that this was a good film? As unbelievable as it sounds, 'Unstoppable' has a mindboggling 86% fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com and has gotten a lot of praise.

In the end, what I'm saying is that this movie didn't really have anything going for it. There wasn't really anything interesting happening in the film and there was no villain in the movie to keep our minds busy either.

In that sense, we can only be grateful that there actually exists good films based on 'unstoppable vehicles', like 'Speed' and 'Runaway Train'. These films were made when people still gave a damn about telling a good story. 

Unlike 'Unstoppable', movies like these managed to get most things right and managed to keep the audience entertained. These movies had ambition, respected our intelligence and most of all, made sure that the premise of the film actually worked.

I can't wait to see a David Kelley show on tv again.

It's not exactly a secret that during the late nineties and the early 2000s I was a big fan of writer producer David E. Kelley. His television shows like 'Ally Mcbeal' and 'The Practice' were likely the biggest reason that I wanted to become a writer too.

In my opinion, his shows were so good because as a writer he dared to be a real person. His writing was so full of honesty, integrity and kindess that I couldn't help but to fall in love with him as a writer and as a human being.

I also liked him, because even though he clearly was an opinionated writer, he wasn't a judgemental person per se. He wasn't about judging people or thinking that he always knew exactly how things were supposed to be.

In any case, even though he was super successful especially during those years,  over the last ten years Kelley hasn't had that many good shows on the air. After Boston Legal he hasn't really delivered stuff that was that good and I had almost given up on him.

So knowing this all, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I noticed that not only does he have two high profile projects going on, both of them are going to air in the near future and have gotten some good reviews already.

When it comes to his first project, it's an original Amazon series called 'Trial', that is supposed to air next fall. This is a lawyer show that seems to have more than a solid cast, since actors like Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt are on it.

Based on some anonymous reviews that I've found, it seems that this series might become some sort of a hit. At least those who have seen it already are saying that the series is very well made and that the pilot for it is excellent.

The second and likely a much more anticipated project by Kelley is a series for HBO that is called 'Big Little Lies'. This is an adaptation based on a New York Times bestseller by a female author Liane Moriarty.

When it comes to the story of the series, it's about three women and their families who try to get along and work out their problems. It's supposed to be a heart-warming and humorous take on how dysfunctional american society has become.

This is an anticipated series not only because the book that it's based on has gotten really good reviews, but it's also a series that is filled with A-list female actors like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley.

Personally speaking, I'm looking forward to this series because David Kelley is famous for being a skilled 'feminist' writer. Unlike almost every other writer out there, he has always excelled at writing female characters.

I'm also looking forward to this series, because over the years Kelley has been so good at showing compassion and kindness. Perhaps this show could be a bit like his best series, 'Picket Fences', that aired during the early nineties. 

So all in all, even though I haven't expected that much from him lately, at least for now it seems that things look pretty good for Kelley. It seems that 'Trial' and 'Big Little Lies' are both projects that have a lot of potential and promise.

We can only hope that he's going to bring out his best qualities as a writer this time. That would be a really good thing, because there aren't that many quality shows out there that manage to keep us entertained.

I liked the kindness in 'Zootopia'.

Likely the most important thing about any feel good story is that you find the characters in them to be likable and relatable. They need to act and behave in a way that makes you believe and have confidence in them. 

For me it's especially important that I like the protagonist characters in a movie. That is because if I don't like the characters, there's a pretty good chance that I'm not going to finish the film and will do something else instead.

Fortunately, last week I managed to watch a lovely animation called 'Zootopia'. This movie manages to take its job seriously when it comes to us relating to its protagonists and making them look kind and likable.

The story is about a hillbilly bunny cop Judy Hopps and a scheming fox called Nick Wilde. During the course of the movie these two try and manage to figure out what is causing the trouble in the big city of Zootopia.

The biggest reason that the film works so well is because its main protagonist bunny Hopps is so unbelievably friendly and relatable. It's hard to think of anyone in real life who would be as likable as she is in the movie.

Unlike so many characters in other movies out there, she has empathy for others and believes that we shouldn't give up on people. We should be idealistic and helpful so that we could make the world a better place.

That the film works so well is because it handles its subject matter and theme well. That is, that none of us should judge anyone based on the color of their fur and that we shouldn't come to conclusions about anyone's abilities too easily.

The film shows that it's not okay to discriminate against a bunny like Hopps just because she's a tiny little rabbit. You have to give her a chance to show her capabilities as a policer officer before you give up on her.

In the film the same also applies to our anti-hero character Nick Wilde's fox. Together with officer Hobbs he shows that even a cynic like him can save the day when you start to believe in yourself and your cause.

In any case, when it comes to this movie as a whole, 'Zootopia' works because it's a surprisingly entertaining, thougthful and funny motion picture. It's an animated film that manages to make you feel, laugh and think at the same time.

Probably the only real flaw in the movie is that its villain is a bit too weak and doesn't make enough sense. Even a movie based on kindness like this should have done a better job when it comes to its so called 'evil' characters.

But other than that, this is a solid film that relies on good storytelling and the characters being kind and relatable. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to get on a better mood and wants to feel good about themselves.

'Uncharted 4: Thief's End' is a great game.

I don't usually get excited about almost anything in life, but yet I was very excited to finally get my hands on Playstation's 'Uncharted 4: Thief's End'. This long awaited game was the reason that I had bought my Playstation in the first place.

Like so many others, I decided to purchase Uncharted 4 the day that it was officially released. I wasn't going to wait for it come to on sale, because when it came to this specific game, I wanted to get the chance to play it right away. 

In any case, I started playing it like two weeks ago and finished it yesterday. It took me something like between fifteen to eighteen hours of casual gaming, before I got the single player story-mode completed last evening.

As usual, I didn't want to rush it that much, because in my opinion there's no point in playing through games too fast. What's the point in playing the game in a hurry, when you can instead enjoy it in small doses and pay attention to what's going on?

Fortunately, even though I had a lot of expectations for Uncharted 4, this installment didn't disappoint me.  When it came to the quality of the game as a whole, it delivered and pretty much gave me what I had expected from it.

In my opinion, perhaps the best thing about Uncharted 4 is that most of the time it looks incredibly good. I haven't really seen a game at least on Playstation 4 that looked as good and ran as smoothly as this one did.

I also liked the storytelling elements in Uncharted 4 pretty much as much as I had expected. In most instances the story was relatively plausible and I was interested in knowing what what was going on with the characters and their motivations.

Of course, that's not to say that there weren't any problems within the game or the way the story was told.  There were a couple of moments where it was somewhat obvious that the writers probably should have done things differently.

For example, Nathan going to save his brother (in chapter 20 or so) felt a bit forced when his helpers had to leave him behind. I felt that the writers should have used something else than the weak 'carriage falling behind' solution.

Also, the final boss fight that occurred a bit later also felt a bit undercooked storywise. I thought that the motivation was somewhat missing when it came to the bad guy and that something else should have happened instead.

When it comes to actually playing the game and its characters, there were certain problems in Uncharted 4 that one has to mention too. Some of these inevitable compromises tended to frustrate a nitpicker like me at least a bit.

For example, at least in my opinion, just like in the previous installments, there's too much repetition. There are too many opponents to kill and there's just way too much climbing involved that you have to do over and over again.

Also, there's a lot of stuff in the game that seems to be wildly over the top. There's just no way that 'in real life' these pirates would have been able to build that much stuff where they did and there's no way those awesome puzzles could exist either.

Yet, these problems - or compromises - at least in my view play a relatively small part in the Uncharted series. Clearly the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to judging the quality of the game as a whole.

In the end, my opinion is that if you have a Playstation 4 console, 'Uncharted 4: Thief's End' is pretty much a must purchase. I recommend it to everyone who's even remotely interested in playing adventure & action games. 

At least in my opinion, not only does 'Uncharted 4: Thief's End' look and sound really good, but it's also a game that has relatable characters, is relatively well written and manages to keep you entertained from start to finish.

Macgyver's reboot looks pretty bad.

Macgyver was one of my favorite show on television when I was a kid during the late eighties and the early nineties. I couldn't wait to see what 'Mac' was going to do this week and the adventures that he was going to get himself into. 

I loved the show that much, because the series was so entertaining and well made. It was made with so much passion, kindness and idealism that it made me feel like pretty much everything in this world was possible.

So having heard that there was going to be a reboot of this classic series, some might think that I would have been somewhat excited about the news. After all, who wouldn't like to see Macgyver's character return to our tv screens?

Yet, I wasn't really that excited, because we've already had too many bad examples where 'reimaginations' of these classic shows have gone terribly wrong. This time things wouldn't probably be any different either.

For example, when a popular series like Knight Rider was rebooted in 2008, it lacked all the aspects that had made the original series watchable. The new series just wasn't any good and didn't make anyone happy.

As sad as it is, the reimagination of the Knight Rider had none of the childlike qualities that David Hasselhoff''s original series had. Instead, the new show was cold, dark and unimaginative while desperately trying to be 'edgy'.

Unfortunately, this exact same thing can be said about the new Macgyver series based on the clips that have aired. Things don't look any better and it seems that the producers of the reboot haven't paid attention to what made the original series so popular.

Instead of making sure that new 'improved' Angus Macgyver would also be a kind, friendly, humble and an innovative character, this new Macgyver seems to be a really arrogant and cocky person that you can't really root for.

Also, instead of making sure that the reboot would be mainly about Macgyver's character, it seems that in this new version Mac is only part of a huge 'team' and that the show isn't about an altruistic individual doing good things to others.

Even when it comes to technical aspects of the show, this new series looks just way too dark and apparently completely lacks that relaxed and positive atmosphere that the original was known for and what made it so popular.

All in all, I think it's rather safe to say that things don't look too good for the new Macgyver series. As far as I'm concerned, the reboot in its current form - if they don't revamp or start from scratch -  is not going to be a success.