Ken Liu's "Single-Bit Error" was an interesting reply to Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God".
Terrible. Their search is also pretty bad (colons, for some reason, are magical characters that make perfectly spelled titles match nothing at all).
Your description makes it sound like it would be mostly a waste of time and it should go on the very bottom of my reading list.
The Sherlock BBC series, set in modern London, turns an astounding number of... let's go with "brainy types" into raving fans, but I'm not actually sure why. There's nothing particularly rationalist about it, they're standard detective stories with Sherlock making impossibly precise deductions. The mysteries are fiendishly clever, though; the writers come up with plots that are still surprising if you're familiar with the tropes and the particular stories they parallel.
Characterization is probably the biggest appeal. Holmes is a high-functioning sociopath (his words) and an insufferable self-centered brat (not his words) who slowly defrosts over the series; his love for showing off makes exposition very palatable. Watson is competent, and he knows it; he's solid under stress, a quick thinker, and an excellent marksman; he admires Holmes, but he doesn't hesitate to stand up for himself (a poor choice of words, since he's lame at the beginning of the series). The relationship between the two is a big focus of the series, with Watson learning to deflate Holmes's melodrama and becoming used to his putting-human-eyes-in-the-microwave antics, Holmes learning nonzero social skil...
I like the use of captions to
It may seem a bit gimmicky at first but I'd like to see it become more common. (Maybe it will as more and more people become used to bits of text popping up over people and things in video games and, eventually, augmented reality.)
Hypothesis 1: It only seems that way. Due to survivorship bias, American audiences are only exposed to the best British humor. Possible test: see if British audiences rate American humor higher than British humor. (I anticipate the answer being no, though.)
Hypothesis 2: The process that cultivates American comedic talent is flawed compared to the process that cultivates British comedic talent. I think the process that cultivates American comedic talent is comedy clubs. Possibly these excessively encourage pandering to the lowest common denominator. I have no idea what the process that cultivates British comedic talent is. Possible test: look at comedians who were cultivated in one country but attempted to find success in the other. (I anticipate sample size being an issue.)
Hypothesis 3: Due to cultural differences, Americans find British people saying funny things to be funnier than American people saying funny things. May be hard to distinguish from Hypothesis 1, as it may also be true the other way around. Possible test: find something humorous that has been performed by both British and American comedians. (I can't think of anything like this off the top of my head.)
Hypot
Thank you for making and maintaining these, I've found quite a bit of interesting material through these threads.
The Sherlock BBC series, set in modern London, turns an astounding number of... let's go with "brainy types" into raving fans, but I'm not actually sure why. There's nothing particularly rationalist about it, they're standard detective stories with Sherlock making impossibly precise deductions. The mysteries are fiendishly clever, though; the writers come up with plots that are still surprising if you're familiar with the tropes and the particular stories they parallel.
Characterization is probably the biggest appeal. Holmes is a high-functioning sociopath (his words) and an insufferable self-centered brat (not his words) who slowly defrosts over the series; his love for showing off makes exposition very palatable. Watson is competent, and he knows it; he's solid under stress, a quick thinker, and an excellent marksman; he admires Holmes, but he doesn't hesitate to stand up for himself (a poor choice of words, since he's lame at the beginning of the series). The relationship between the two is a big focus of the series, with Watson learning to deflate Holmes's melodrama and becoming used to his putting-human-eyes-in-the-microwave antics, Holmes learning nonzero social skills and a scrap of concern for others, and way too many gay jokes. Moriarty is... not like you'd expect.
I love the way Sherlock's thoughts are shown, and the editing of the whole thing, but then again I fall over myself squeeing "The Musketeers of Pig Alley uses follow focus YOU GUYS" so take it with a grain of salt.
Overall the show is not subtle ("He's a storyteller! GET IT? GET IT?"), but the acting is (Martin Freeman has an expressive forehead. How does one have an expressive forehead?), and so are some of the references to the original stories. The jokes are funny without taking over the story, though if you're prone to vicarious embarrassment some might hurt a bit. Cumberbatch and Freeman rather cute, if you're into that, as is Pulver in the second season if you're into that.
Be wary of the fandom; it produces excellent fiction and art, but the characters are badly distorted in them, much more prone to express themselves through angsty confessions than through banter about Chinese food.
way too many gay jokes.
Eh, I enjoyed the gay jokes. There was like... one an episode? Which isn't a lot when you remember there are only six episodes, but is a lot when you realize it's one an episode.
I love the way Sherlock's thoughts are shown
I really liked this when they did it, but I also thought they did it rather inconsistently. In some of them, they highlight all the clues, and you can draw the inferences (I chided Sherlock through my screen for not getting it in A Study In Pink); in others, they don't highlight them, and it's easy to feel like Watson (Hover for spoiler.).
This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. I find that exposure to LW ideas makes me less likely to enjoy some entertainment media that is otherwise quite popular, and finding media recommended by LWers is a good way to mitigate this. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules: