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tarrant's review against another edition
3.0
I really loved the deep inside look at TV and movie production and Whedon's experience. I am not a Whedonverse person so most of the shows and movies I have not seen. There is very little about his personal life, very few pictures. But it is an excellent dive into the How and why of why things ended when they did or never got off the ground. I suspect there are more than a few lessons for aspiring TV and filmmakers.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Not a great book, but definitely more substance than I expected. I was kind of expecting something awful and instead it was readable if only slightly deeper than skin-deep. Than again there are bits of how Joss came to be who he is and the timeline of when various bits in his resume happened. His role in Toy Story was certainly not clear to me. Nor his academic background. Nor his politics. And yet this book could have gone a lot deeper and told way more stories than it did. 3.5 of 5.
ria_mhrj's review against another edition
5.0
It took me FOREVER to read this, the start was a little slow and that translated to me not picking it up for a few months. Silly me. This is such a lovingly documented account of the life of a man who has inspired so many. It has made me want to binge watch his entire back catalogue, providing a fresh reminder that he has put his name to some truly remarkable characters and stories. The stories and anecdotes were charming, motivating, amusing, moving... all of the ings. I kind of wish there was a further chapter on Age of Ultron, but in a way it seems more fitting that the book ends with everything coming up aces for Joss. I hope he finds a way to circumnavigate the studio machine in the future and to only produce amazing, untainted brilliance.
steds's review against another edition
3.0
Fine, learned a lot. Not the best writing, only for those interested.
ssloeffler's review against another edition
4.0
As if I could admire the man and love his work even more...but knowing his background as a feminist and a Shakespeare scholar, well, I'm just bowled over. I want to go back and watch Firefly and Dollhouse now.
kyls's review against another edition
4.0
A biography written by a fan for fans and would be fans of joss
rouver's review against another edition
3.0
A moderately interesting look into the life of Joss Whedon. If you don't know who he is, I'd highly recommend watching Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog...just a few of the works he's written & directed.
If you DO know who he is & are exceptionally curious about him & his work, then go ahead & pick this up. It's not riveting, but there are interesting tidbits about his history. I found it to be a bit dry, but it's not like he went on a huge killing spree, so there's only so many ways you can spice up a person's life. I was disappointed there wasn't much about his wife & children in here...but since i didn't even know he had children before reading this, I'm assuming that it's intentional & he wishes to keep his private life private. He definitely seems like a regular guy, not ego-centric, and always willing to share credit.
I'm glad I read it, but I would only recommend it to those who probably already knew this thing came out, are big fans of Whedon, & already had a thought or two of picking it up anyway.
oooh..another reviewer did a good job of describing it here:
"Pascale presents a functional enough recitation of the facts of Whedon’s life from his upbringing by his famously feminist mother to his work launching Marvel’s 2013 television tie-in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, but as a biography her book reads more like an annotated IMDB listing interpolated with quotations lifted from podcasts, Comic-Con panels, and Entertainment Weekly interviews. Only a trace amount of personal detail appears, so any fan of her subject’s work will know most, if not all, of the trivia on parade here, and any nonfan will hardly be wooed by her workmanlike prose or her inability to treat Whedon as a complex person rather than just as a poster child for Geek Success."
If you DO know who he is & are exceptionally curious about him & his work, then go ahead & pick this up. It's not riveting, but there are interesting tidbits about his history. I found it to be a bit dry, but it's not like he went on a huge killing spree, so there's only so many ways you can spice up a person's life. I was disappointed there wasn't much about his wife & children in here...but since i didn't even know he had children before reading this, I'm assuming that it's intentional & he wishes to keep his private life private. He definitely seems like a regular guy, not ego-centric, and always willing to share credit.
I'm glad I read it, but I would only recommend it to those who probably already knew this thing came out, are big fans of Whedon, & already had a thought or two of picking it up anyway.
oooh..another reviewer did a good job of describing it here:
"Pascale presents a functional enough recitation of the facts of Whedon’s life from his upbringing by his famously feminist mother to his work launching Marvel’s 2013 television tie-in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, but as a biography her book reads more like an annotated IMDB listing interpolated with quotations lifted from podcasts, Comic-Con panels, and Entertainment Weekly interviews. Only a trace amount of personal detail appears, so any fan of her subject’s work will know most, if not all, of the trivia on parade here, and any nonfan will hardly be wooed by her workmanlike prose or her inability to treat Whedon as a complex person rather than just as a poster child for Geek Success."
trike's review against another edition
3.0
I thought this biography was just okay. I don't do hero-worship of any kind, because no one -- and I literally mean no one -- is ever that good. That said, I do like quite a lot of what Whedon has done. I enjoy the way he crafts stories, I agree with his general outlook on life, I've liked most of the TV shows he's created and both films he's directed.
But even as a casual fan, I already knew most of the stuff in this book. There are no real revelations here, aside from his close ties to a former teacher. On that level, the book is a disappointment.
It's well-written, I'll give it that, but at the end of the book in her acknowledgements, author Pascale mentions she thought they wanted her to write a magazine article about Whedon and that is exactly what this strikes me as: a 500-page magazine article.
This is not a warts-and-all book. It's breezy and mostly surface stuff. While it is interesting to see how certain movies came together or fell apart, the interest is mild rather than intense. Disagreements are quickly swept away as if they were no matter.
It was also far less humorous than I would have expected. The humor is there in the interviews, but it's not expressed well. If you weren't already familiar with these people, you'd have no idea when they were being ironic or arch or merely jesting. That's a job for the author, to help underscore the nuance, to call out for the unfamiliar reader when an interviewee was being facetious.
If you need all this information in one place, this is the book for you. But something Whedon said about a fellow student in college applies to this book, "This guy's a puddle."
But even as a casual fan, I already knew most of the stuff in this book. There are no real revelations here, aside from his close ties to a former teacher. On that level, the book is a disappointment.
It's well-written, I'll give it that, but at the end of the book in her acknowledgements, author Pascale mentions she thought they wanted her to write a magazine article about Whedon and that is exactly what this strikes me as: a 500-page magazine article.
This is not a warts-and-all book. It's breezy and mostly surface stuff. While it is interesting to see how certain movies came together or fell apart, the interest is mild rather than intense. Disagreements are quickly swept away as if they were no matter.
It was also far less humorous than I would have expected. The humor is there in the interviews, but it's not expressed well. If you weren't already familiar with these people, you'd have no idea when they were being ironic or arch or merely jesting. That's a job for the author, to help underscore the nuance, to call out for the unfamiliar reader when an interviewee was being facetious.
If you need all this information in one place, this is the book for you. But something Whedon said about a fellow student in college applies to this book, "This guy's a puddle."
bickleyhouse's review against another edition
4.0
This book calls itself "The Biography." The first thing I think is that this is slightly pretentious. "THE biography?" Perhaps "A Biography" would be better. But I'm not here to review the title. In fact, I really didn't notice that until I sat down to write this review. So I'll carry on.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've been a huge fan of Joss Whedon ever since I got hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the early 2000s. Sadly, it had been on for several seasons before I started seriously watching it. And I have my oldest daughter, Rachel, to thank for that. She told me she wanted to start watching it, and would have been, probably, in her pre-teens. We started watching it together, every Tuesday night, finished out the series, and, somewhere in there, started buying all the DVD sets so we could watch it right from the beginning. But hold on . . . I digress. This isn't a review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, either.
I think Amy Pascale has done a pretty decent job of giving us a picture of the man behind all of these things. (Literally, too, as there are pictures in the middle of the book.) But, in my mind, it's not so much a "biography" of Joss Whedon, as it is a "history" of all that he has accomplished.
Sure, there is biographical information at the beginning, but once we get his background, the book launches into a blow-by-blow account of everything from Roseanne (yes, he wrote for Roseanne) to The Avengers. I learned a lot, reading this book. For example, Joss's paternal grandfather, John Ogden Whedon, wrote for The Donna Reed Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Joss's father, Thomas Avery Whedon, wrote for Captain Kangaroo, was instrumental in the beginnings of The Electric Company, and wrote for The Golden Girls. So, you see, story-telling runs in his family; it's in his blood.
I loved reading about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to be, followed by Angel and Firefly. I loved reading about Joss's passion for those shows, especially Firefly. It seems that out of everything he has done, Firefly holds the dearest place in his heart, which makes me still even more angry at Fox. Amy even uses the phrase, "the Friday night death slot," which I have been saying for years.
What is, perhaps, most astounding, is what Joss did with The Avengers. It was the first high-budget blockbuster movie that he had ever been in charge of. And he delivered it "on schedule and under budget." That is astounding, even for a seasoned director! But for one who had never worked on a film of this scale, it is beyond astounding. The respect that Joss has garnered during all of this is wonderful. It's no wonder that he is so widely loved as a writer, producer, and director.
There were many heartbreaks along the way; the cancelling of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, along with at least one film that has yet to see the light of day (Goners), but Joss always kept going. Even during the writer's strike that delayed Dollhouse, he worked on an idea that would eventually revolutionize the way movies would be released, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, a film that was released entirely online. At one point, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard spent a weekend in a two-story hotel room, one downstairs and one upstairs, and hammered out what would eventually be The Cabin in the Woods (which also almost never got released).
In the midst of all this story-telling, Joss and friends would meet regularly at his house, and read Shakespeare. Joss has a great love for the Bard. But it was serious reading. Joss insisted on it. Amy writes about these casual readings early on in the book, but I knew it was a foreshadowing of something greater, as would any real fan of all things Whedon. Because, you see, these readings would eventually evolve into what is probably Joss's favorite production of his, a modern-day setting of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, shot on location . . . at Joss Whedon's house! Pretty much all of his favorite people are included in the film (which was shot in black and white by a handheld camera): Amy Acker, from Angel and Dollhouse, played Beatrice; Alexis Denisof, also from Angel and Dollhouse, played Benedick; Fran Kranz, from Dollhouse and Cabin in the Woods, played Claudio; Nathan Fillion, from Firefly and Buffy, played Dogberry; Clark Gregg, from The Avengers, played Leonato (Tony Head was originally slated to play the part, but they couldn't work out the schedules); Reed Diamond, from Dollhouse, played Don Pedro; Sean Maher, from Firefly/Serenity, played Don John; Jillian Morgese, "an extra in an Avengers scene," played Hero; Tom Lenk, from Buffy, played Verges. I've seen this movie, and can attest that it is really quite good. It's a lot of fun to see all of these people doing Shakespeare together.
Where will Joss go from here? After this book was published, he completed the Avengers sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. I confess, I still haven't seen that one. I simply don't have a lot of time in my life for movies. I will see it, though, as I enjoyed the first Avengers movie quite a bit. Ever since Firefly was cancelled, there has been talk of a reboot. But so far, as much as he loved Firefly, Joss simply has not had time to tackle that. IMDB lists nothing that he is currently working on, other than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the TV spinoff from The Avengers. So who knows what the future holds for Joss Whedon. But if you're a fan, you should probably read this book. Just like me, you might learn a thing or two about this guy.
Oh, and I forgot the mention . . . the foreword was written by Nathan Fillion.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've been a huge fan of Joss Whedon ever since I got hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the early 2000s. Sadly, it had been on for several seasons before I started seriously watching it. And I have my oldest daughter, Rachel, to thank for that. She told me she wanted to start watching it, and would have been, probably, in her pre-teens. We started watching it together, every Tuesday night, finished out the series, and, somewhere in there, started buying all the DVD sets so we could watch it right from the beginning. But hold on . . . I digress. This isn't a review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, either.
I think Amy Pascale has done a pretty decent job of giving us a picture of the man behind all of these things. (Literally, too, as there are pictures in the middle of the book.) But, in my mind, it's not so much a "biography" of Joss Whedon, as it is a "history" of all that he has accomplished.
Sure, there is biographical information at the beginning, but once we get his background, the book launches into a blow-by-blow account of everything from Roseanne (yes, he wrote for Roseanne) to The Avengers. I learned a lot, reading this book. For example, Joss's paternal grandfather, John Ogden Whedon, wrote for The Donna Reed Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Joss's father, Thomas Avery Whedon, wrote for Captain Kangaroo, was instrumental in the beginnings of The Electric Company, and wrote for The Golden Girls. So, you see, story-telling runs in his family; it's in his blood.
I loved reading about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to be, followed by Angel and Firefly. I loved reading about Joss's passion for those shows, especially Firefly. It seems that out of everything he has done, Firefly holds the dearest place in his heart, which makes me still even more angry at Fox. Amy even uses the phrase, "the Friday night death slot," which I have been saying for years.
What is, perhaps, most astounding, is what Joss did with The Avengers. It was the first high-budget blockbuster movie that he had ever been in charge of. And he delivered it "on schedule and under budget." That is astounding, even for a seasoned director! But for one who had never worked on a film of this scale, it is beyond astounding. The respect that Joss has garnered during all of this is wonderful. It's no wonder that he is so widely loved as a writer, producer, and director.
There were many heartbreaks along the way; the cancelling of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, along with at least one film that has yet to see the light of day (Goners), but Joss always kept going. Even during the writer's strike that delayed Dollhouse, he worked on an idea that would eventually revolutionize the way movies would be released, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, a film that was released entirely online. At one point, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard spent a weekend in a two-story hotel room, one downstairs and one upstairs, and hammered out what would eventually be The Cabin in the Woods (which also almost never got released).
In the midst of all this story-telling, Joss and friends would meet regularly at his house, and read Shakespeare. Joss has a great love for the Bard. But it was serious reading. Joss insisted on it. Amy writes about these casual readings early on in the book, but I knew it was a foreshadowing of something greater, as would any real fan of all things Whedon. Because, you see, these readings would eventually evolve into what is probably Joss's favorite production of his, a modern-day setting of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, shot on location . . . at Joss Whedon's house! Pretty much all of his favorite people are included in the film (which was shot in black and white by a handheld camera): Amy Acker, from Angel and Dollhouse, played Beatrice; Alexis Denisof, also from Angel and Dollhouse, played Benedick; Fran Kranz, from Dollhouse and Cabin in the Woods, played Claudio; Nathan Fillion, from Firefly and Buffy, played Dogberry; Clark Gregg, from The Avengers, played Leonato (Tony Head was originally slated to play the part, but they couldn't work out the schedules); Reed Diamond, from Dollhouse, played Don Pedro; Sean Maher, from Firefly/Serenity, played Don John; Jillian Morgese, "an extra in an Avengers scene," played Hero; Tom Lenk, from Buffy, played Verges. I've seen this movie, and can attest that it is really quite good. It's a lot of fun to see all of these people doing Shakespeare together.
Where will Joss go from here? After this book was published, he completed the Avengers sequel, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. I confess, I still haven't seen that one. I simply don't have a lot of time in my life for movies. I will see it, though, as I enjoyed the first Avengers movie quite a bit. Ever since Firefly was cancelled, there has been talk of a reboot. But so far, as much as he loved Firefly, Joss simply has not had time to tackle that. IMDB lists nothing that he is currently working on, other than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the TV spinoff from The Avengers. So who knows what the future holds for Joss Whedon. But if you're a fan, you should probably read this book. Just like me, you might learn a thing or two about this guy.
Oh, and I forgot the mention . . . the foreword was written by Nathan Fillion.
lberestecki's review against another edition
3.0
I now know more than I ever needed to know about Joss Whedon, but I love everything he's done so I really enjoyed reading about the history and production of his shows and movies. The author did a pretty good job of not completely fawning over Whedon, but the book did often present him as a bit of feminist icon, which is often how he's presented in the media. Clearly he's a feminist and he's created some amazing female characters, but he also fridged Penny and killed off Tara (and he's a guy), so the degree to which people praise him for feminism has always struck me as a bit much. But overall I enjoyed the book, and I think it's a good read for fans of his work, especially of his shows. And I always love to see Dollhouse getting some love because I think it's very underrated.
Also there was so much Nathan Fillion in this book and he's the best.
Also there was so much Nathan Fillion in this book and he's the best.