Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

I usually try and avoid what I consider spoilers for any of the shows, movies, and games I enjoy, but rumors and almost-facts seem to pop up so frequently once they are known that they are impossible to ignore.

Rumors are a constant for pretty much anything in media. The sci fi and fantasy rumor mill is just as bursting at all times as any other. We can take some pride in knowing that some big rumors we discover end up being the hard facts later on, but there is never any real way to know until the official statements are made.

In the meantime, let’s gossip.
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You know what I mean. Those endings that leave it up to you, the viewer, to decide what has really happened.

I don’t mean the “What Happens Now?” endings where things are open enough for you to continue the movie as you please but it still feels complete.

I mean the “What Just Happened?” endings. The ones where really there is no right answer, so it can be whatever you want.

For the most part I hate those endings.

I want closure. I want something definitive. Because that makes a more interesting story. Leaving it up to me, nine times out ten, isn’t more creative, it’s just plain lazy, and giving me no credit as a viewer to accept the ending you really wanted me to see.

Obviously, I was inspired by “Inception” for this rant, because while it was a good movie, and enoyable all the way through, my husband and I both felt a little cheated when we got to the end because it did exactly what we feared but knew it would.

If you have not yet seen the film, you may want to skip this entry. There will be spoilers.
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First I must send out a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my wonderful geek husband of two years now. I love him more each day, and that’s not just me saying that. Geeks in love stay in love.

You make every day better.

I dabbled in amateur film making when I was in college. Of course then I had resources that I no longer have outside the classroom. I was spending a semester in England where I took a class that allowed me and my teammates to create two short films. The experience really showed me how much work goes in to even just a minute’s worth of screen time.

Difficulty for anyone can change depending on a number of factors—experience, cooperation among participants, equipment, and time.

Time will always be the first one that gets you. For the 3-5 minute films I made for my class in England we were given a week to film and two to edit. You would think that would be more than enough for such a short movie.

But then remember you have to have an idea, actors, locations, props, and equipment to get everything done.
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“Heroes” is at long last dead, having finished its ultimately short reign this past season. NBC is stepping forward to pick up that superhero slack by introducing a new caped crusader as part of its upcoming Fall line-up, “The Cape”.

“From the visionary team of Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun comes an imaginative adventure about a dad who would do anything to protect his family.

Officer Vince Faraday was a good cop trying to clean up a corrupt city. Framed for murder and left for dead, he suddenly found himself separated from his wife and son and forced into hiding. Now, inspired by his son’s favorite comic book hero, he’s taking the law into his own hands, and playing a deadly game of chess with the powerful kingpin who framed him. With the hope of one day reuniting with his family, The Cape is sending a loud message to all criminals… run.” -NBC.com

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Supernatural is up there with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly for me for favorite TV shows of all time. It has everything I love in a series. Great characters (and not too many of them). Snark. Pop culture references. Sci fi/fantasy. Beautiful people. Good acting (usually). Great writing (usually). And a linear plotline with many stand-alones to help balance a season.

So what went wrong?

There is a part of me that wishes Supernatural had stopped after Season 2 (with a few minor changes to leave us with a feeling of completion), instead of spanning through 5 seasons with another on the way. I liked aspects of seasons 3, 4, and 5, but not the whole of it, and I feel like I could have, like I should have.

Now, in Season 3’s defense, that was the year of the writer’s strike, so it had to try and wrap up a normal 22 or so episode season in only 16. That really hurt the show at no fault of the creators, writers, or actors. But we were forgiving then because they had a good excuse.

After that, Season 4 was mostly good and introduced the fan favorite character Castiel, but it also introduced Adam. There were bad episodes well before him, but that was when the show started to lose me and my faith in it.

I can’t avoid spoilers in this particular blog entry, so be forewarned now if you have not already guessed that.
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They do, by the way. Suck. A lot. There are exceptions, and I will mention those as well, but for the most part the cartoons that kids watch today are just plain awful.

Cartoons of the 80s and 90s, when I was growing up, and…okay when I was a teenager who still watched cartoons (I still watch them now) that was the golden age. Maybe I’m biased. I’m sure older generations would say that Looney Toons, Tom & Jerry, etc., was the golden age, but I would come back with the same point I am going to make today and say nay.
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It is official. Marvel confirmed Chris Evans as Captain America. You won’t be getting anymore updates from me. Frankly, this whole mess has me exhausted. I await with you all the result.

I have faith in Chris Evans, but he is going to have to step it up a notch and explore some previously untapped talents to pull off Cap without just making him Human Torch in another costume.

I know I was supposed to have a blog about some of the upcoming comic book movies that look very promising for this year, but I have decided to postpone that a week in honor of Easter. Instead today I would like to talk about Easter Eggs.

No, not actually painted eggs. This would be the geek version. You may know them best as the hidden videos and bits of information found on DVDs, video games, and occasionally thrown into TV shows or movies as a fun game of ‘who can spot the inside joke’.

I’m not talking about really clever cameos, like the original actor who played the Hulk in the TV series, Lou Ferrigno, playing a security guard in both Hulk movies. That could be considered an Easter Egg, but it was pretty much given to us and right there in front of our faces, even if you did have to have enough sense to recognize Ferrigno to get the joke.

No, Easter Eggs are those little secrets in the background that most people don’t even realize are there until they hear talk of it later online.
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The internet is buzzing with news that seems like confirmation of Chris Evans being cast as Captain America. But Marvel and Evans’ reps have said nothing of the kind. We’re still holding our breath, America, to find out just which actor is going to be our Captain.

I am sure there are more examples of this than I would even know how to address. All of us can think of at least one show we loved in its beginning that dragged on well past its due and then finally died, sputtering and gasping for breath.

And that’s a shame, because a good show should be able to go out on top, leave us with a feeling of catharsis, of satisfaction that we followed a good story from beginning to end and were rewarded for our loyalty.

Like Battlestar Gallactica.

Well, so I’ve heard. We’re still finishing up season two.

But all too often we are left unsatisfied waiting for a show to get ‘good again’ until it’s suddenly just done.

In rare cases, a show that has started to drag can come back with an amazing ending, like Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but not often.
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Since the dawn of, well, the 90s, there have been television shows of all kinds incorporating musical episodes into their seasons.

It is not just that these rare and entertaining occurrences are hilarious and if not well sung then at least still enjoyable to watch, but they express something unique about characters’ psyches that might not have otherwise been displayed openly if not through song.

Sci fi and Fantasy television shows are no exception to this phenomenon, and today I am going to go through the many wonderful examples of musical episodes fitting my beloved geek theme. This includes live action and animated examples, so hang on, pop in your favorite show-tunes album to set the mood, and enjoy the show.
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Forgive me if my heart is not quite in this blog entry as I had already completed it to my great satisfaction last week only to have it wiped when a virus attacked my computer at work. But as one of my faithful readers said,

This just goes to show that these new-fangled transistors are unreliable. We need to learn about steam technology as quickly as possible!

And so I return.
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