Once upon a time George Lucas was the master. He had three Star Wars movies, three Indiana Jones movies, founded the leader in audio effects, founded one of the foremost companies in visual effect, nobody has beat the THX sound system he had developed, and the list goes on. But then came Star Wars: Episode 1. And then Episode 2. Episode 3 partially made up for the first two, but still gave us reasons to want to confiscate Lucas' writing and directing badge. His followers were long gone before the 4th Indiana Jones movie was made.
Instead they turned to Joss Whedon. Joss created and wrote "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", the spinoff "Angel", the short lived, but brilliant, "Firefly/Serenity", and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog". And when his name was taken off of the Wonder Woman movie all excitement and hopes for that movie vanished. He writes, he directs, and writes the music for much of his work. He doesn't have the corporate empire that Lucas has, but his skills surpass Lucas without question.
However, there is another. A man whose name I've seen on one great show after another. Steven Moffat.
The first time I saw his work was on a Doctor Who spoof he wrote for the charity "Comic Relief". Of course, back then it was just a name in the credits.
Then I discovered the British television show "Coupling". Being a British show, a typical season is only 6 episodes. Some run longer, but not many. With a run this short it's not uncommon to have one person write every episode. Such was the case with "Coupling".
When Doctor Who was picked up again after being off the air for 16 years I had to watch it. And I saw a familiar name on the writing credits for a couple of episodes. These were the great episodes. These were the episodes that reminded me most of the show I watched as a kid. By that I mean they made me want to hide behind the couch. And season after season it was always Steven Moffat that wrote those really scary episodes. He was the only thinkable choice to take over the show when the guy who brought it back decided to move on.
I mention all this because I watched the show "Jekyll" the other day. I saw it on NetFlix, liked what I heard, and added it to my instant queue for streaming. At the beginning of each episode I saw "Written by Steven Moffet".
He doesn't direct. He's not a musician. But I have the kind of faith in his involvement that I do for Pixar. If he's involved it's gonna be great.
So if you have NetFlix you should add "Jekyll" to your queue. And "Doctor Who". And "Coupling".
I'm going through IMDB and seeing what else he's done.
2 comments:
I love coupling. It has amazing stories and great story telling. And it's just so ridiculously funny.
I could watch it over and over again; even though it has had a solid place in my last two failed long term relationships.
Although... I do like Firefly/Serenity better.
My husband and I really like Moffat's work as well. Before Doctor Who the only show we saw his name on was 'Coupling.' At first it didn't sound like a good fit but then we remembered how well he writes characters and even on a sit-com was able to do some really inventive stuff with time - The Sally/Patrick relationship in particular. I think the American show 'How I Met Your Mother' owes a lot to 'Coupling.'
And we both can't wait to see how he runs Doctor Who. Russell T. Davies deserves a lot of credit for bringing it back the way he did but his humor is way too insulting for my taste.
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