'The Man in The High Castle' is pretty good.

I haven't really watched that many drama shows over the last few years. There haven't been shows that had a premise that was interesting or compelling enough, so it was pretty easy not to get involved with any of them.

Fortunately last week I noticed that there's a science fiction series called 'The Man in The High Castle' out there. Since it was based on Philip K. Dick's novel and was about the victorious Nazis after the second World War, it was something that I had to check out.

So far I have managed to watch the first five episodes of the series, and I have to say that mostly I've been pleasantly surprised. As far as I'm concerned, 'The Man in The Castle' is a pretty well made show that has managed to keep me interested.

One of the biggest reasons why I've liked watching the series is that it poses the question 'what if the Nazis had won the second World War?'. What if they would have managed to produce the a-bomb in time that would have given them the victory?

As is usually the case with other shows in this genre, 'The Man in The High Castle' is also about the brave resistance members, that are now trying to fight the alliance between the Nazis and the Japanese in the occupied United States.

The show takes place during the sixties in the U.S, where our two main characters find themselves in a challenging situation - trying to figure out a secret that might help the resistance forces change the course of the history.

In this case we're talking about 'a man in the castle', a mysterious person who has managed to produce underground films, that are said to be so dangerous that in the right (or wrong) hands they could even destroy the Nazis and the Japanese.

The storylines on 'The Man in The High Castle' are derived from this premise. We have the brave resistance fighters, the nazis with their Obergruppenführer and the Japanese with their military intelligence all trying to accomplish their goals.

The resistance fighters try to get back their country, the nazis aren't happy with their alliance with the Japanese, and the Japanese are aware that the Germans might double-cross them and use the bomb at any given minute.

In my opinion, 'The Man in The High Castle' does a very good job in creating a world that is both intriguing and believable. The show manages to keep the stakes high and makes me want to come back for more to see what happens next.

The production values of the series are pretty good too. At least in my opinion it's great to go back in time and look how things 'used' to be during the sixties. Clearly the people on the show paid a lot of attention to the details.

I also like most of the characters on the show. Even though there aren't necessarily any stand-out roles - D.J. Qualls likely being my favorite - as a whole I think the ensemble does a pretty good job and doesn't disappoint.

When it comes to the storylines, it's true that 'The Man in The High Castle' is a bit slow when it comes to its story progression. There are scenes here and there that aren't probably that crucial or that necessary.

Yet, despite some of these minor problems with storytelling, in my opinion these flaws don't weigh the series down too much. There's still lots of fascinating stuff for those who are interested in historical science fiction.

I suppose 'The Man in The High Castle' could have been even better than it is, but overall I feel that they did a pretty good job here. There aren't that many good science fiction dramas out there, but this series is one of them.

The importance of publishing what you write.

For many writers one of the most difficult things about being a scribe is letting others read what you have written. Waiting for their response and their reaction can be a really grueling experience. What if they don't like what you just wrote?

As I've written before, there are undeniable benefits to sharing your writings with others. It's almost never a bad idea to let them read what you have written. In most cases they'll point out the problems and help you make your script better. 

At the same time, sharing what you have written so that you could make your scripts better is only one reason why you should publish them. There are other important reasons why you should make your writings available for others.

In my opinion, we as human beings have a moral responsibility to share and let others see what happens inside our minds. We have responsibilities when it comes to communicating with others and helping them with their problems.

Sharing our ideas and thoughts is what makes us human beings. It's something that helps us understand ourselves and makes us feel valuable and precious. Sharing things is perhaps the most important part of our lives. 

I myself didn't become a writer so that others wouldn't know how my mind works or what are the things that are important to me. I didn't become a writer so that I could just make up stuff and not reveal my true self.

Even though in many ways writing to me is about therapy and making me understand the world a bit better, it's also about me trying to help others so that we could appreciate those precious little things in life a bit more.

I write because I feel like there might sometimes be some value in what I'm doing. I write and publish because I believe that there's at least an outside chance that I could make us a bit better as human beings.

In my opinion, as long as you have something real to say,  you have a responsibility to speak out and let others know how you feel and think. It doesn't have to be the best thing that has ever been written, but it's something that deserves to be out there.

If you have a talent, you should use it. If you have written something valuable,  you should publish it. There aren't really that many things in life that matter - but good writing does and is always going to matter and make sense.

Too many things were revealed in Supergirl's pilot.

One of the most challenging things about being a writer is that you need to come up with a lot of storylines that make sense. This is something that is almost never easy to do. It pretty much always takes a lot of effort and work.

The best storylines are always the ones that are based on the premise of the show. These story ideas are the ones that make the show what it is. You should never take the premise for granted and think that it isn't crucial for the series.

I thought about this especially after I saw the pilot episode for CBS's new 'Supergirl' last week. I thought it was pretty clear that the producers of the series were not paying enough attention to its genre in general.

They thought that it didn't really matter what had worked before with those other super hero shows. They thought they could do whatever they wanted with Supergirl's premise and that it would still work like magic.

For example, one of the most - if not the most - important aspects of the superhero genre is that there are only a very few people who know the true identity of our super hero. This approach makes sense and makes it easier for it to work.

However, that's not how it went with Supergirl. In the pilot it's almost immediately revealed that there are quite a few people who know the identity of our hero. Unlike with those other shows, it seems that Supergirl isn't really concerned about that aspect of the genre.

For example, not only does Kara Danvers' character reveal to one of her co-workers that she is the Supergirl, the writers also introduce us to another character who right away recognizes and tells our Supergirl who she is.

In my opinion, this isn't how you're supposed to write and produce your pilot. You shouldn't create a show where almost everything is immediately revealed to everyone and only a few secrets remain. It makes no sense at all.

It's not interesting and it won't make the audiences happy. It will just make the series feel too rushed. More than likely they will run out of conflicts and organic storylines, which will get the show canceled pretty soon.

To be honest, I have to say that 'Supergirl' does get a bit better in its second episode. The show doesn't feel as rushed as it did based on the pilot. There are certain aspects of the series that seem to be working a bit better.

At the same time, it has to be said that the producers of 'Supergirl' were clearly playing fast and loose with the premise of the show. They revealed too many things too early, and that's never a good sign when it comes to entertainment.

'Capitalism: A Love Story' is a great movie.

It took me more than six years before I finally managed to watch Michael Moore's documentary film 'Capitalism: A love Story'. For some reason I hadn't thought about it much until I happened to stumble on it some days ago.

I mean, I had read somewhere that the film wasn't that good and that Moore had run out of things to say. Probably that had contributed to me not paying much attention to it.  I thought I had a reason not to watch the documentary.

Nevertheless, after seeing the film, it became obvious that I had been wrong. 'Capitalism: A Love Story', is a movie that not only manages to entertain us, it also makes us feel and makes us think about our society and its flaws.

One of the best things about the film is that the documentary doesn't shy away from making it personal. Just like in his other documentaries, in 'Capitalism: Love Affair', Moore puts himself in front of the cameras too.

Moore not hiding behind the scenes and behind the script is a crucial part of the film. It gives the document a much better narrative. At least in my opinion he's a genuinely likable character and has a great sense of humor.

In any case, there are a lot of things going on in this two hour documentary. Moore brings up a lot of outrageous things about unfettered capitalism. No rational person who has an open mind can disagree with much that the film has to say.

For example, there's stuff about how innocent kids are being thrown to jails so that private prisons could make profit - in the name of capitalism. The documentary brings out the notorious case of 'kids for cash' judge Mark Ciavarella.

Among other things, there's also stuff about how some airline pilots get paid so little that they have to rely on food stamps. This is almost too hard to believe but most companies in the U.S. don't care about their employees at all.

Yet, the main focus of the film is really about how in 2008 the big banks caused the biggest market crash in almost ninety years. It's about how none of the banks and the bankers were held liable for their criminally negligent actions.

 
Many of the unsuspecting poor and the middle class people lost their homes when the housing bubble burst. Yet, the only ones that were bailed out were the big banks - that immediately paid massive bonuses to their executives.

The richest of the rich got away with the financial heist of the century, and yet nothing substantial has been done to prevent the housing bubble from happening again. The 1%:ers simply rigged the game in favor of them. 

This whole thing might seem depressing, but fortunately in 'Capitalism: A Love Story' Moore manages to stay optimistic. Even though the unregulated, rogue capitalism has almost managed to subvert the democratic process, there's still hope for us.

As he shows with his examples, people all across the country keep fighting for their rights. It takes a lot of determination and resilience, but it's possible to stand up to power. It's something that can still be done.

Taking back democracy from the special interests won't be easy, but Moore shows that the common folks still have rights in this country - like a right to vote in elections. This is what makes the movie so important.

In the end, at least in my opinion 'Capitalism: A Love Story' is a wonderful documentary film. From start to finish, it's full of soul, substance and entertainment. Throughout the film it manages to make you laugh and cry.

Especially considering that there's going to be an important presidential election next year, I think this is a movie that everyone should see. Clearly it's one of the best documentaries that I've seen in a really long time.

Dance scenes that make tv shows & movies better.

Even though I'm a massive fan of figure skating, I'm not necessarily someone who likes to watch people dance in general. In most cases I don't think that dancing alone is visually that appealing, exciting or entertaining.

I mean, I get pretty easily bored if I try to watch modern dance or ballet. Most of the time I don't like musicals that much either and I have problems watching reality dancing programs where people try to show off their moves.

At the same time, I have nothing against dancing as long as it makes sense and there's a reason for it. If it happens when there's something else to it too, I'm usually fine with it. Then it can be something wonderful.

In my opinion, pretty much always the best dancing scenes are the ones that you don't see coming. You don't except to see them, and yet in hindsight they make a lot of sense. Scenes like these are rare and very difficult to pull off well.

In any case, here are some of my favorite dancing scenes from television and movies. At least in my opinion these scenes are fantastic. They fit in so well that you can't help but to wonder how the people in charge managed to come up with them.

1. It's pretty obvious that the dance scenes were one of the best things about David E. Kelley's 'Ally Mcbeal'. No wonder that so many people fell in the love with this show that was full of soul, substance and entertainment. 

2. John Hughes' 'Breakfast Club' is widely considered to be the best teen movie of all time. The film manages to be at the same time funny, dramatic and heart-breaking. It also has a wonderful dance scene that never seems to get old.

3. 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (also by John Hughes) is a film that manages to entertain us and is still relevant almost after thirty years. Its dance scene is awesome, makes us happy and fits in perfectly with the rest of the movie.

4. Another classic from the first 'Naked Gun' film. Arguably the best scene in the movie, made even better by 'Leslie Nielsen's' hilarious dance moves. It's too bad that they don't make films like these anymore.

5. Hugh Grant's dance scene from 'Love Actually'. The prime minister dancing to a classic song and not losing his cool. An absolutely hilarious scene from an already classic movie. What could be better than this?

Learning from a bad episode of a quality show.

In my opinion, there's at least one good thing about seeing a bad episode of your favorite series. As a writer, you should figure out what went wrong and learn from the mistakes that the writers of the show made.

In this particular case we're talking about Modern Family's episode 7x04 "She Crazy" that unfortunately disappointed me. I tried to list some of the mistakes and things that are important when you're writing a script.

1) Try to come up with storylines that have substance.

In my opinion, pretty much none of the storylines in this episode had anything to say about anything. They weren't well thought out and didn't make sense. All of them were half-baked at best and gave me a feeling that the writers didn't care about what they were doing.

Probably the worst was the storyline with Cameron and the frat boys. There was no point to anything that happened. For some reason the forty-year-old Cam decided to steal a pet goat in order to appear cool. Where did that idea come from? 

2) Have a clear sense of your episode's time frame. 

One of the most important things to consider when you start writing your spec is to think about when those storylines actually happen. Does the episode happen during the course of a day or even during an afternoon?

In 'She Crazy', I don't think there was a clear idea about when it happened. In the middle of the episode it felt like the whole thing just jumped forward in time. There was no clear sense of time or place and it bothered me quite a bit

3) Don't let your characters overreact too much.

Just about everyone who saw the episode had problems with Gloria's storyline. It was about Gloria meeting her Telenovela idol who for some reason happened to be in town. Understandably, she wanted to meet her.

There's nothing wrong with that, except that when she did get the chance to meet the star, all Gloria was able to do was to appear like a complete idiot. It was not believable in the slightest and it made me feel pretty uncomfortable.

4) If a joke or a situation doesn't work, don't keep pushing it.

It's not the biggest crime to keep jokes in your script that we may have seen somewhere else before. You can't always come up with original stuff that completely makes sense. Every joke and scene doesn't have to be perfect.

At the same time, the 'misunderstanding' between Luke and Mitchell really didn't feel original or organic. What's worse, they kept repeating that exact same 'joke' in the subsequent scenes too, which made the whole thing look embarrassing.

5) Having too many scenes is not a good thing.

There are usually big problems with the script if there are multiple short scenes just for the sake of it. In almost every case they aren't needed because they don't have any meaning behind them - because they are too short.

Every 'Cam-with-new-guests' scene felt unnecessary and made me think that the writers were clueless. Just because it looked flashy doesn't mean that it made sense. In most cases you should stay away from scenes like these.

6) Don't build anything that isn't needed (sets etc.).

Finally, I have never been someone who likes to build stuff in my scripts. I try not to imagine things that aren't really needed.  In most cases, everything that is needed can be acquired easily and won't cost much, if anything at all.

Therefore, I honestly cannot understand why they built Phil's 'duck town'. Who would build that kind of a miniature set? It was just a waste of time and money and didn't make the end product any better.

Never, ever try to do that as a spec writer.

How to deal with bad writing days?

Last week I thought I would have one of the worst writing days of my life. To me it felt like everything was falling apart and that I had no clue what I was doing. Pretty much nothing that I wrote made sense anymore and I felt that I was going crazy.

At that moment I didn't know what to do. I wasn't really used to having bad writing days. Usually I'm somewhat confident that I can rewrite and fix things relatively easily. This experience was something that I felt was pretty new to me.

I didn't really feel like continuing writing, because I thought things would only get worse.  If I'd continue doing what I was doing, I was afraid I would hit the rock bottom. That could only lead to bad things happening to me.
 

So I decided to do something else so that I could relax a bit.  I went out to get some fresh air because I had to get away from what I was trying to do. Even if the break would only last for like ten or fifteen minutes, it might help.

Fortunately that little break helped to clear my thoughts a bit and made me feel less anxious about what I was supposed to do. I didn't feel as overwhelmed about my task -  a task that wasn't really that complicated. I managed to get back to work again.

I thought about why the stuff that I wrote didn't work. I came to a realization that just because what I wrote had initially looked good, it didn't mean that it made sense in reality. It mostly made sense in my imagination.
 
I was willing to reconsider my thoughts and I was willing to adjust. No matter what it would take, I would make my stuff work again. Nothing would be off limits this time. After all, I wasn't married to my initial thoughts anymore.

I would take out things that didn't work. I would be willing to kill all my darlings that weren't as good as I thought they were. I'd also be willing to just write and I wouldn't set the bar too high for myself this time.  

So I tried again - and about two or three hours later I had managed to almost finish my task. I had fixed most of the problems that had made me feel desperate and hopeless just a few hours ago. What I had written made a lot more sense now.

It wasn't exactly the best thing that I had written, but the end result was probaly still good enough. I had managed to overcome my obstacles - and luckily enough, didn't have to suffer from having a really, really bad writing day.