Sherlock

There are a few British TV shows that are really trendy in the U.S. right now. Incredible writing, a different kind of humor, and proper season/series lengths are just a few of the reasons I think Americans are enjoying British TV so much. But for a long time, I tried to avoid this trend. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon. My parents even started watching Dr. Who regularly before I had seen a single episode of a BBC show. In retrospect, I regret my decision to hold out for so long, because there is a reason everyone is watching these shows: They’re just that good.

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in a predicament. I had finished my summer TV show (Veronica Mars, which is very good by the way), but it wasn’t quite time for Fall TV to start back up. What was I to do? I didn’t really have time to watch a whole series before all my shows start back. But I couldn’t watch nothing. That would just be nonsense. So I decided to make a commitment I could manage. I decided to watch the nine episodes of Sherlock that have been released so far.

Sherlock is a British re-imagining of the adventures of “consulting detective” Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock, played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a self-proclaimed high-functioning sociopath who gets a kick out of solving crimes. Friendless and alone in the big city of London, Sherlock spends his time tailing police and solving their cases. He’s very good at what he does, but his arrogance and lack of tact have alienated nearly everyone in his life.

But then John Watson comes along. The series is really the story of Sherlock and John becoming friends and solving crimes together. But the pilot begins with them apart and proceeds to tell how they meet. John is an ex-military doctor who is down on his luck and in dire need of companionship. He’s straightforward, down-to-earth, and an all-around good guy. The pairing of John and Sherlock leads to some pretty hilarious clashes, but the two also compliment each other in the best ways, and that’s what makes them such a good team.

The cases that Sherlock and John solve are just insane. Every episode centers around one main mystery (or series of mysteries), and each 90-minute episode is pretty well-contained. You can watch the episodes on their own just for the sake of seeing how Sherlock and John manage to solve the mysteries, and that’s very enjoyable. But there are some overarching stories that carry over from season to season (particularly in the season finales) that reward viewers who stick with the show over time.

Speaking of the finales, don’t expect the seasons to end well wrapped up like the other episodes do. Each season ends with some sort of cliffhanger that leads into the larger plot of the next season and into the plot of the series as a whole. I think the series is still in the early to middle stages of setting up something really big for the future, and I’m excited to see where they go from here.

One of the downsides of British television is that their shows don’t follow a set schedule quite like American shows usually do. The season of Sherlock have been released sporadically, and each finale leaves you wanting more. Three seasons have been released so far (all available on Netflix), and a fourth season is set to release in early 2016 after a Christmas special in late 2015. I know that’s an awfully long time to wait, but good things take time, and I’m sure that it will be worth it. Besides, anticipation can be fun, right?

If you’ve never seen Sherlock, you should give it a chance. It’s really more like a set of mini-movies than a TV show, but you can watch the entire series in less than ten hours total. It’s a great show to watch when you’ve got a couple of hours to spare and want to watch something but don’t totally want to zone out. It will always keep you guessing, and every mystery ends with a conclusion that is satisfying and realistic. Check out Sherlock on Netflix, and let me know what you think of it! Thanks for reading, friends, and I’ll see you next week.

Not Ahead Enough

I’m the type of person who likes to start on assignments the day they’re assigned rather than the day before they’re due. And I have let that run rampant since I came to seminary. I’m currently at least one class session ahead on my assignments in every class. I’m not saying that to brag. There are reasons (specifically, the fact that I’ll be traveling the next two weekends) for why I’m working to get ahead. But that’s just the way I prefer things to be in all areas of life. I like to be ahead on things. This characteristic has its benefits, but it obviously has some drawbacks, too.

For example, once I get ahead on something, I become extremely worried about ever falling behind. And by “falling behind,” I mean becoming less ahead in that area than I already am. In fact, I try to push myself to get even farther ahead, and it turns into a sort of snowball effect that can leave me feeling stressed and anxious if I don’t keep it under control. While trying to fight off this feeling over the past week I came up with a name for it. I call it Not Ahead Enough Syndrome.

Not Ahead Enough Syndrome can affect anyone: students, people in the work force, even people who aren’t working or going to school. I think it’s part of our human nature (or possibly just our culture) to have periodic freakouts about where we are in life and how we aren’t as far along as we would like to be. I’m reminded of a scene from the movie It’s Kind of a Funny Story in which the main character, who suffers from sever anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, has a flashback to when he was five and declared that he was a failure at life because he couldn’t draw maps freehand. His mother lovingly responded by reminding him that he was only five years old, and no one can accomplish something like that at five.

I think that deep down, each of us has something like that inside of us. A voice constantly telling us that we’re behind and that we have to keep pushing ourselves and pushing ourselves to the next level and never letting it even become a possibility that we might fall behind and face the worst possible outcome: failure. We all fear failure, and so we get this idea that we’re not as far along as we should be, and if we don’t catch up soon, we’re going to lose everything.

But here’s something I try to keep in mind: Very rarely in life will you ever find yourself so far behind that you can’t catch back up. There are people in their sixties who are going to college to get an education. Opportunities to catch up are available. Deadlines can sometimes be pushed back if there’s just a little bit of grace involved. And when it comes down to it, most people can catch up on whatever it is they’re behind on with a good dose of hard work.

So don’t constantly stress yourself out with feelings that you’re falling behind. Look at what you’re trying to accomplish over the long-term and set manageable, short-term goals that will get you there in time. And then hold yourself accountable to those goals. If you can follow that simple plan, you’ll get to where you need to be in the desired amount of time.

And here’s an extra step that I’m going to put out there even though I often struggle with it: Don’t try to get ahead of your plan. You may finish a step a day or two early. That’s great. Give yourself a break. But if you try to get ahead of your plan, you’re constantly going to be concerned about when you’re going to finish the next step. You’ll fall into the trap of Not Ahead Enough Syndrome, and you may end up burning yourself out.

You are not as far behind as you think you are. You can and will accomplish your goals if you just take a few simple steps to set yourself up for success. Not Ahead Enough Syndrome is completely preventable. I’m not letting it rule my life; don’t let it rule yours.

The Magician's Nephew

I’m sure most of you have read or at least seen the movie adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s classic book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you haven’t, you’re really missing out. There’s a reason the book is so popular. It tells the short but powerful story of four children who find themselves magically transported (via a wardrobe) to a land called Narnia and then proceed to have an adventure with a mysterious talking lion named Aslan. The book is not only witty and fun; it contains Christian themes and symbolism that make concepts like salvation accessible to children and adults alike.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was and is wildly popular, but it leaves the reader with a lot of questions. What exactly is Narnia? Where did it come from? Are there other worlds besides ours and Narnia? How did those four kids get to Narnia through a wardrobe anyhow? And what on earth is up with that lamppost in the middle of the woods? These questions and the success of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe led to the writing of a prequel to the book, entitled The Magician’s Nephew, and that’s the subject of my review this week.

Like its predecessor, The Magician’s Nephew features children as antagonist. Digory is the main character and the nephew of a crazed magician (thus the title) who is in way over his head. Through magic that he cannot even begin to understand, Andrew (the magician) sends Digory and his friend Polly into the “world between the worlds.” Here, they discover new places, meet a witch named Jadis, and eventually get to see firsthand the creation of Narnia.

The Magician’s Nephew does exactly what a good prequel should do. It tells a story that explains a lot of things about its predecessor, but it isn’t extremely in-your-face about it. The connection between Digory and the children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe isn’t explained until the very end. Narnia isn’t even mentioned until the second half of the book. The only characters the reader truly recognizes from the other book are Jadis (known as the White Witch) and Aslan. The book functions as a story in and of itself while also giving nice, subtle shoutouts to people who have read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

One thing I wish the book had touched on was Aslan’s father, the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. He isn’t even mentioned in the book. Maybe more is said about him in the rest of the series (I haven’t finished re-reading them all yet), or maybe C. S. Lewis purposely left the character out of the rest of the series to keep the focus on Aslan, but I would be very interested to know more about the character, who obviously is supposed to represent God the Father.

But other than that, I have no complaints. The Magician’s Nephew does a great job of explaining the origins of Narnia and explaining why it came to be the way it was by the Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy showed up in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. There is a considerable time gap between the two, as The Chronicles of Narnia, covers hundreds—if not thousands—of years of Narnia’s history, but there’s no confusion in going between the two books. And as a big fan of prequels, I appreciate that.

If you’ve never read The Chronicles of Narnia, you should give them a shot. The world that C. S. Lewis creates in them is just remarkable. I’m currently re-reading them for the first time since I was a kid, and it’s really cool to re-experience Narnia again. I may do more reviews of the books as I get to them, or maybe of the series as a whole when I finish, but until then, check out The Magician’s Nephew. Thanks for reading, friends, and I’ll see you next time!

It's Finally Here

The moment I’ve been waiting for finally came. Last night, I attended my first seminary class ever, and it was awesome. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve daydreamed about being in the classroom spending all my time studying theology and God’s word. And now, it’s here. My dream has become a reality. I couldn’t be more excited.

I think there are a lot of pitfalls that a person can fall into when waiting for something that’s very exciting, and there are others that one can fall into once that exciting something comes. I’m trying to avoid these. Here are few things I’m trying to keep in mind as I’m transitioning into this exciting new phase of life.

Realistic expectations are key.

When you’re excited about something, it’s natural to spend a good deal of time thinking about it. Whether it’s a new product you’re buying, a new job, or (in my case) a new school, we spend a lot of time thinking about exciting things that are coming our way. And that’s perfectly fine, but a problem arises when we let our pictures of those things get out of hand.

If I came to seminary expecting to learn everything and have my life changed in one day, I would be disappointed. Or if I expected to be really, really good at it right off the bat, I’d probably fall short of my expectations. It’s OK to get excited about things we’re expecting and even to spend time thinking about what they’ll be like, but we have to keep in mind that we can’t fully understand what something will be like until we experience it, and letting our expectations get out of control can actually ruin the experience when the reality doesn’t live up to it.

Let yourself get excited.

The fact that something excites you means you care about it, and that’s meaningful. Some people are scared to let themselves get excited or attached to something because they’re afraid of being let down or rejected. I know I’ve been there before. But we can’t give in to that. We’re meant to enjoy the good things of this life, and we can’t let insecurity get in the way of that.

Get excited. Be proud of your accomplishments. Enjoy each moment. Don’t be afraid to live life to the fullest because we only get one.

This won’t last forever.

As cool as seminary is, and as long as three-to-four years sounds right now, I know that this experience is going to end in the blink of an eye. I think back on college, and I can’t believe that it was four years ago that I was starting my freshman year. That’s just crazy to me. And I know I’ll think of seminary the same way when I finish it. These next few years are going to fly by, and I want to make the most of them.

We tend to think that whatever life situation we’re in at the moment is the one we’re going to be in forever. So when we get something new or experience something new, we think it’s going to stay that way. But that’s not the case. Nothing in this world lasts forever, and we need to keep that in mind from the get-go. Our lives go in phases, and we need to enjoy the one we’re in as much as possible, because it’ll be gone before we know it.

Thank you guys for checking out my little list. These are some things that have been on my mind lately, and I thought I would share them with you. I hope this helps others who are in situations like mine, and I hope you’re all doing well. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys next time!

The Giver

I’ve been imagining what a movie adaptation of The Giver would look like ever since I read the book in middle school. It was one of those books that really stuck with me growing up because it made me think. I read it multiple times throughout my childhood. And so, when I found out that they were working on a film version of the story, I was ecstatic. I absolutely could not wait. And the movie did not disappoint.

The Giver is a dystopian film set in a post-apocalyptic future. It tells the story of Jonas, a young man who grows up in a community without color, emotion, or choice. Jonas and his two best friends, Asher and Fiona, come of age and are given their life-long Assignments, or careers. Jonas is specially chosen to be the receiver of memory, the person who retains the memories of the past (the world we currently live in) that normal citizens of the community are unaware of. Through his training, Jonas comes to see the brokenness of the system he has grown up in and has to figure out how to deal with that.

For what originated as a children’s story, The Giver is very deep. It touches on themes of freedom, despair, and ultimately on whether or not human nature is capable of doing any amount of good on its own. The message of the story is one that will connect with a lot of people, and it will hopefully make you think at least a little bit.

The differences between the book and the movie are numerous. The main characters are older in the movie than in the book. A lot of the smaller details (like Asher and Fiona’s assignments) were changed for the sake of the film. Several story elements were added in order to make the film full-length. And the defining characteristic that sets gifted individuals (like Jonas) apart from others was changed from eye color (which is difficult to convey in film) to a special birthmark on the person’s wrist. These differences were noticeable, but they weren’t necessarily distracting.

Really what this movie was trying to do was take a children’s book that made a huge impact and make it more concrete, something people of all ages might be able to access. It tried to be a realistic, fully-fleshed-out story, and I think it accomplished that while also staying true to the basic idea of the book. So I was happy with it both as a movie and as an adaption of The Giver.

They did make one choice that I’m conflicted about, though. In the book, there was almost no romance at all. The people in Jonas’s community didn’t have that. They were assigned mates, so romance wasn’t a part of their lives. Jonas had one fleeting moment of romantic feeling in the book, but that was it. In the film, a good portion of the drama revolves around a romance story involving Jonas. I understand why the filmmakers decided to do that (Jonas is older in the film than the book, it makes the movie more appealing, etc.), but I also sort of wish they had left it out. Not only was it just simply not based on the book at all, but it creates some issues for the future if they decide to make film versions of the book’s sequels, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. I really hope they make those movies (and there was at least one hint in the movie that they might), but if they do, they’ll have to reconcile the revisions they made to plot with the way the story plays out in the books. It will be interesting to see.

But overall, The Giver was a great film. I think it’s definitely worth seeing. It’s something that people of all ages can enjoy and connect with, and in that way, it’s just like the book it was based on. So check out The Giver in theaters, and let me know what you think about it! Thanks for reading, friends, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.