commentary junkie

[ironymaiden]

i love commentary tracks on DVDs. i like to gather factoids about the production, about how movies and tv work, and about the creative process. i like craft; it's a whole other layer of entertainment for me. i've been working through Babylon 5 in order (i've seen fistfuls of episodes, but not the full story arc) and i'm partway through season two. this set of packaging sends you to the special features when you have completed viewing the last episode of the disc. so i decided to rewatch one with JMS commenting. which is quite good, since he's the creative force, but i just had to turn the damn thing off. he's telling plot spoilers not just from later in the season, but from later in the series. i suppose i shouldn't expect to be protected from 10 year old pop culture, but damn. no more special features for me until i'm done. sigh.

Comments

[buhrger]

i didn't even realize that the commentaries were spoilerific - the dvds of course came out after i'd inhaled the series, so it wasn't an issue for me. and jms does give good commentary, but i guess you'll have to hold off on it. the actor commentaries, on the other hand? avoid avoid avoid. especially the ones with jerry doyle.

if you're looking for a good source of spoiler-free b5 info, the lurker's guide is the standard response.

[dreamline.livejournal.com]

There should be a "spoiler alert" for when you select to listen to commentary. I guess they just assume you've watched it all.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Commentaries and Making Ofs can strongly raise my opinion of some movies. Like Legend, which has *really enhancing* director commentary.

[mrdorbin.livejournal.com]

Joss did this for the Buffy commentaries too; I found out about Harmony on the very first episode's. When you're done with the series, though, I definitely recommend going back and listening to them; JMS's are really interesting explorations of theme and the one from the second season with Boxleitner, Christian and Doyle...provides a lot of unexpected insight.

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

Sinthrex had the same problem with the Joss commentary on the Buffy DVDs. I had done a pretty good job of protecting him from spoilers once he started watching (it's amazing how well "I'm protecting him from spoilers" works at stopping even the geekiest people), but Joss's commentary was just awful with them.

I <3 JMS. Enough that I've got his book on screenwriting and continue to think I should pick up his mystery novels. (Not quite enough to read whichever Spiderman he was working on last I checked: I'm not sure JMS makes up for my just not digging Spidey that much.) I probably <3 JMS more than I <3 Joss, which is saying something.

[buhrger]

I probably <3 JMS more than I <3 Joss, which is saying something.
i ♥ them differently - joss is ultimately better at writing people (and comic dialogue), but jms is better at seeing the big picture, and turning that big picture into a fascinating chain of events. (all of the above IMHO, of course.)
i've sometimes thought that if i had a ridiculously huge sum of money, and couldn't use it to fight AIDS in africa or something else useful, i'd get joss and jms into a room together and ask them to make an interesting 5-year genre tv show for me.

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

I can't really argue with you on any of that. I'm more impressed by JMS's ability to tie together 5 seasons of plot than by Joss's ability to write dialoge, but that's me and probably more about where my skills lie than anything else.

[buhrger]

there were times in BtVS when i wished someone had put the series (or at least the season) together beforehand - in some ways b5 spoiled me for most of tv. but at the same time, i think i have a stronger emotional connection to most of the buffy/angel/firefly characers than most of the b5/crusade characters...

[jfrog78.livejournal.com]

"I live for the one I die for the one." B5 is awesome on so many levels. The story, the lines, the characters!...omg

I have every season and every so often I just start from the begining and go. I love the actor commentaries because they are just haveing fun!!

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

How interesting and ironic. I'm currently in the middle of B5's Season 3, and I'm in fact about to get to... well, never mind, you'll find out soon enough, but you've already seen the first part of what I'm about to get to.

See, what I've been burned by are TV series Featurettes. Farscape taught me the hard way to avoid those until after you watch the whole thing. And avoid JMS's intros on these sets - spoilers galore.

I've already seen the series all the way through when it first aired, so for me it's been more interesting to see things that make me go "Aha! That's when he first planted that!"

I always think I should listen to commentaries more than I do. I know I've listened to all those on Firefly, but that's it...