Periscope Depth

life was a fly that faded and death a drone that stung

Thoreau had a post up on Unqualified Offerings yesterday re: terrorism. I don’t want to talk about terrorism since it’s too nice a day out, but he did use a humorous metaphor to make a point about terrorist recruitment … I mean, Fear Factor got 6 attractive, physically fit, confident people who could have made [...]

the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor

What sort of gilded age do we live in that The Borgias is the worst of the half dozen shows that I watch regularly?* (That’s praising with faint damnation, by the way – it’s still a fun show, if a bit hollow) Why watch movies anymore? Or at least for the next six months? Anything [...]

death as surprise, death as interruption

New post up on OTI, in which I rave aboutAMC’s The Killing: The Killing is a police procedural for people who know police procedurals backward and forward. In the pilot, it plays to all the tropes we expect. Nubile victims being chased through the woods by flashlight-wielding killers. Tired cops who’ve seen it all before. [...]

winter is coming

Game of Thrones: As good as anyone could have expected. It betrays its TV roots by having most of the important plot developments narrated, rather than shown. We learn through exposition about Jon Arryn’s murder, about the bond between Ned Stark’s dead sister and King Robert, about the Targaryens’ need to raise an army to [...]

I would rather be alone than pretend I feel all right

Talking with friends at Cambridge Common last week, someone brought up It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I delivered my stock review of the show: a fantastic Grand Guignol of morality in the first two seasons that went off the rails in the third. In S1 and S2, the protagonists are conniving, their selfish schemes doomed [...]

it is not dying; it is not dying

Returned to the Overthinking It podcast this week, talking about the two-year anniversary of the site, Conan O’Brien’s tumultuous departure from The Tonight Show and the SAG awards. I highly recommend downloading the podcast. But, if you can’t, my thoughts on late night: I feel nothing so much as a profound pity for Conan O’Brien, [...]

when your broken heart has learned its lesson

Mad Men: I’m one of the few people I know who defends Betty Draper. (NO SPOILERS, though I may reference events in the episode “Wee Small Hours” in an oblique way) Not to suggest she’s not a terrible mother. She lets television do her parenting for her, is completely oblivious to her children’s needs – [...]

just like a paperback novel, the kind the drugstores sell

Here’s what bothers me about sitcoms. Traditional narrative structure gives us a protagonist who has a desire. Between this protagonist and his desire lies an obstacle. The story depicts how the protagonist gets around this obstacle. In boy meets girl, the boy must convince the girl his feelings are true. In the brave little tailor, [...]

  • Periscope Depth

    The website of John Perich, author of TOO CLOSE TO MISS and editor for Overthinking It. He's learning about writing, marketing, publishing and promotion, and he encourages you to learn along with him.

    perich@periscopedepth.com

  • TOO CLOSE TO MISS




    "... opens with a bang and never relents ..."
    "... from chapter one, I couldn't put the damn thing down ..."
    "... already looking forward to Perich's next book ..."

    Mara Cunningham knew that sleeping with a married man was a bad idea. But when her lover shows up in the hospital after his wife and son are murdered, the rumors about her turn dangerous. Now she's the prime suspect in a double homicide, and the real killers will stop at nothing to silence her ...

    Buy the book that readers are calling "a great, suspenseful thriller" at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online retailers.



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