I'm finally caught up with all the Boxed Set shows I watch. Even Painkiller Jane, which was wooden and stupid. And a completely different setup from their previous 2hr pilot/TV movie.

I've only read the character in comics as a guest star--what is her deal there?

Finished LoM. Damn. I really liked that ending. I think that suicide is a valid option, that life shouldn't be mandatory. I hope, for Sam's sake, that the moment of his death stretches on forever, so he gets a good long time in there. Poor dear.

As for Ashes & Ashes, having read Fiona's (almost called you Fi, there), I think it's funny that Gene Hunt is the goto guy for nowaday coppers to play with in their heads.

There was more. About stuff. Have forgotten.

To me, he's still playing Puppy!Sam in IMToD. He's improving in ELaC and CSPWDT, and there is a perceptible improvement ep by ep, but even in Playthings there's still a lot of WB teenage actor about him. In Houses of the Holy, he just hits it, and in BUaBS it's like all the pieces finally fall into place and he hits it out of the park. He seems more adult after that. Puppy!Sam is being left behind. Even in Heart, the emo stuff was different. It wasn't childish, his technique didn't seem to be calling on childhood trauma, but more reaching inside for elemental stuff.

Moonshine and my imagination, probably. But there it is.

Re: Darkly "lit" shows.

I think dark "lighting" can work, but certainly not all the time, and can be done badly (the pilot for Firefly springs to mind with just not enough contrast between the shadows and the light, The West Wing, sometimes The X-Files, sometimes TDF). But I really enjoy the tone set when there are extreme shadows and spots of light from on-set sources (Moose and Squirrel with their flashlights, emergency lighting for Out of Gas and Bushwhacked, most of the candle-lit scenes for The Dresden Files and the filtered daylit scenes). It's a personal beef of mine to see characters stumbling through the woods at night with fake spotlights lighting everything. And there they are, pretending they can't see. I think Pitch Black is my favorite movie for excellent use of darkness and the characters lighting themselves (of course, that was also the entire point of the movie).

But the "everything is murky"-lighting is not cool, unless the point is to be vague and mysterious (or to hide bad CGI). I've had crap TVs that make things so much harder to see. Thank goodness I need driving glasses and not the other way around.

Did they announce a date on the Eureka promo?

Not the ones I've seen. Just July.

"I thought so."

Being a voice queen is a full time job.

But I really enjoy the tone set when there are extreme shadows and spots of light from on-set sources

One of my favorite techniques, that XF used often, was not just shining flashlights directly into the camera (for that rainbow effect, that Firefly borrowed liberally) but their dark, scary sets had clumps of tinfoil strategically placed so that when you hit the tinfoil with a flashlight beam, it reflected back on the actors and lit them enough for their faces to show (in various shades of chiaroscuro). I love that such an arty effect was achieved with something so low-tech as tinfoil and actors hitting their flashlight-marks; it's like discovering that the reason Moose and Squirrel always stood so close together to talk was that they had only miked one actor, to save money.

love that such an arty effect was achieved with something so low-tech as tinfoil and actors hitting their flashlight-marks

I seem to remember the DP on at least the early, dark, days of XF earned the nickname "Prince of Darkness" because of what he could do with the light from only two flashlights.

I really liked the look of Buffy Season 1 with its high contrast backlighting on 16mm film. Gave it more of a comic-book feel than later seasons. Which seems highly ironic, now...

Picture of the cover of the UK season 2, volume 1 cover.

Of Supernatural.