My review of S1 of The Middleman is live on Tor.com.

I'm two episodes into The Middleman, and enjoying it, though I suspect it would wear thin pretty fast if I tried to watch it too quickly. I mean, it's funny as anything, and it's very interesting to watch a TV show that is entirely constructed of meta--but there is no there there. At least not yet.

It's like that great Champions game you were in in college where you never actually fought bad guys, just hung around and ate chips and tried to top each other's one-liners. I put in a request to review that for Tor.com too, but it's possible somebody else has already claimed it.

Speaking of Tor.com and reviews, my review for Criminal Minds 4x02 is up. In which we discuss SpencerCam and Trauma Hair, and other staples of the fandom.

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On a totally different subject, Jed Hartman (one of the Strange Horizons editors) discusses a twist plot he's seen too often. Which leads me to talking about stories whose entire existence is justified by a last-line twist.

Guys? They're not stories.

Yes, O. Henry wrote stories whose lasting impact relies on a moment of crowning dramatic irony. But the thing is, that's not the only thing going on in those stories. They're stories, with a strong narrative and character development, which is revealed or... I dunno, counterlit... by the irony. The irony serves the story. The story does not serve the irony.

And that is why you cannot sell your story in which a serial killer's victim turns out to be a vampire and eats him. Yum.

No, really. It is.