On a lighter note, saw The Avengers today

his writings!

Joss Whedon, is bar none one of the most talented writers to have ever worked in Hollywood! He was originally hired as a staff writer for Roseanne, and later in films as what the industry refers to as a "script doctor," someone who comes in last minute to salvage a problem-ridden script. Also Oscar nominated for his script for the original Toy Story!

Joss is supposedly the world's only third generation screenwriter! lol. He also lived in England for a bit; that certainly probably helped him master various English colloquialisms.

In fact, he's the reason why I actually rarely pay attention to credits for actors anymore, but for writers!

In fact Whedon's writers are currently one of the most sought after screenwriters in the industry: Tim Minear, David Fury, Stephen S. DeKnight, Marti Noxon, Jane Espenson, David Greenwalt, Doug Petrie, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Drew Z. Greenberg, Drew Goddard, Mere Smith (isn't that like the coolest name for a writer?), Shawn Ryan, Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain, Ben Edlund, just to name a few.

Only Michael Piller's Star Trek: The Next Generation's writers are on equal par: Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria, Ira Steven Behr, and the worst writer of them all, and much maligned by Trekkies the world over for a good reason, Branon Braga.

Yeah, that was a bit writer-geek-out fest-ish, but if you're watching a TV show or a Film, and one or more of those screenwriters/producers/editors' names pop up, barring irrevocably horrible original script or director, and/or mitigating circumstances with production vs. Studio management, you're likely viewing a film or TV series worth watching.

Though, I don't think it'd suit me to work at TV-writing pace, but Joss' writers meeting have got to be one of the best 'writing schools' in the world. TV writers punch out full on script in less than two weeks of development and final script sometimes in less than two days. But to do it spectacularly as Whedon and his crew fully in sync with multiple simultaneous storylines and character arcs, is absolutely amazing.

In fact, initially I hated, like hated Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Michelle Gellar. In fact they're the reason why I never ever tuned into WB to watch any of their shows in the 1990's.

I was like, 'So WTF is all the big deal with Joss Whedon? I mean what kind of a douche decides to make a TV series based on the film with the same title that horribly bombed in Box Offic, in fact sucked, really really bad, and not even a good 'cult classic'/B-flick. Worse, he wants to revamp it as a TV show starring the Maxwell/Taster's Choice coffee commercial guy, and an annoying teenflick chick who used to do even more annoying soap opera? And whoTF would be crazy enough to executive produce an entire show based on that premise, with those two 'actors' as the lead??'

Then, one night I had the stupid 'misfortune' of watching FireFly, not the "Train Job" but the original, properly sequenced pilot, Serenity.

And I was like, 'Wuh. A fictional world with fully developed mythos, rituals, religion, political infrastructure, social & econ constructs, and their own distinct language & memes? And, it was CANCELLED without ever finishing its first season? WTF's going on here? Oh right, it's Fox. Of course, they wouldn't know a good thing if it bitchsmacked them in the face.'

So having fallen for an Otaku-esque spell of sitting through an entire weekend watching the entire FireFly episodes back to back, only to find out they cancelled a show with the best dialogue since David Milch's DeadWood (also cancelled) a veritably 'crass' Shakespeare loaded with .45LongColt, after airing only 11 out of 14 episodes, and aired an episodic series, out of order? Well that's it! Only further proves that Murdoch's empire is simply littered with EVIL a-holes!' LOL

Caught the Whedon bug, and never ever looked at TV series, films, and writing in general, the same again.

Yup, I blame it all on a man with a vision to create series with a typical 40-50min episode with 27 minutes without ANY dialogue, an ENTIRE episode without ANY music that turned out to be the most visceral depiction of someone dying and events surrounding it to have ever been captured on a scripted TV show, a friggin' musical (I hate musicals) with cheesy songs that ended up in my head for weeks (damn you Whedon!) that he wrote, composed, and scored all by himself that actually moved the story as well as character arcs along with perfection, and a quasi series finale that actually killed off THE eponymous main character with a closing shot tombstone inscription/epithet that simply summed up the cynical irreverence and hilarity of the entire series. Not to mention, many episodes which are not so wholesome, and are very, very dark explorations into the human psychology, that one has to view them in order to truly 'get,' as otherwise would be an utter spoiler.

Yup, the guy's a friggin' genius.