'Bred Crumbs
06.23.05
Don't Stop Unbelieving
11:49 PMI sure never thought I'd hear about something on cable access and respond with, "Omigod, I've got to see that," but it's happened – and stranger still, the program lived up to the promise.
Tipped off by an article in the SF Chronicle, I caught Episode 26 of Fantasy Bedtime Hour, which, naturally, was a half-hour long. It's a genius, genius idea. Two women, in bed, summarize a section of Stephen R. Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane, the first of seven (and counting) complex novels about a leper transported to a magical Land, whose reality he does not accept, even while the Land's people expect him to be a savior. The hero, Thomas Covenant, is often not heroic, and the prose can be dense. Which is also what our two stars, Heatherly and Julie, pretend to be. Though clearly they're not.
After the severely paraphrased reading ("And Mhoram goes ... and Covenant's all ...") there's a dramatization of the featured passage. A very, very loose dramatization. (Sample dialogue: "Leprosy isn't cruel. John Tesh is cruel. Leprosy is fun.") After that, this week's experts – that is, people who have finished, and understood, the book – join the girls in bed. The passage is analyzed at length, and interpreted through drawing.
Production values are fleeting, and acting ability is not a priority, but it's inspired, funny as hell, and even has the hearty approval of Stephen R. Donaldson himself, who has shown a notable lack of, as he would always put it in the Covenant series, "trepidation" and even appeared in an episode.
By Kevin's Lore, I wish I'd found this 25 episodes back. Wait! Is that them online ...?
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Comments
(1 so far)
This show sounds unbelievable, but unfortunately I live in Beverly Hills where no such joy can be found on public access.
– Macy · 11 AM
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