Need...Education...Brick...Wall

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I am writing this in the middle of a building site.

Actually I'm in the office as usual, but it's also a building site. Starting at 0830, a man was building a wall around my desk. It's now half finished and there's dust everywhere. Yes, one of the boss's bright ideas.

The internet connection also wasn't working, and the road was full of water. The street's plumbing burst somewhere, so we had no hot water inside, but plenty of cold water outside. If this had not happened on an unusually warm day for the season, it may have been ice by now.

Still, on the plus side I may be moving into an actual apartment soon. And I actually got paid, only a week or so late - almost in time for the next payday, in fact.

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On TV: Stargate: Atlantis, feature length pilot episode.

Among the cast of characters we have:
* A wisecracking, insubordinate young officer.
* His sidekick, a black guy who's not so much Uncle Tom as Man Friday.
* A beautiful and sometimes emotional female scientist.
* The officer's new girlfriend, a high priestess type who isn't as primitive as first appears
* A minor character from SG1 with lots of allergies
* A Scottish medical doctor who's a bit of a loner, and therefore functions as comic relief
* Camply gothic bad guys, defeated with suspicious ease

The thing is, I'm all for insubordination in the military, and wisecracking central characters can be engaging - as they did in Farscape and Buffy. But it only works if it hides (and therefore reveals) deeper insecurity. If your hero wisecracks and doesn't have sympathisable emotional weakness, he's just annoying. This one is (a) the main hero, (b) the male lead and (c) seriously annoying.

Love interest can add to the story, here it's a formulaic afterthought. Comic relief is good, but a character who's only purpose is comic relief is just shallow. And when humans march in and defeat an enemy that's terrorised a galaxy for thousands of years, using a few bullets - and, yes, some wisecracks - the whole story just goes limp.

Update: Oh yeah, and you know how children on American TV are vivacious, cutesy and say things like "Awww gee, I love ya dad"? And you know how they make you want to throw up? Yes, the show's got them too.

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