I’ll put it out there, Fringe is excellent

I know I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m looking forward to Dollhouse and Fringe but I can confirm now that my hopes for Fringe are met.

A friend of a friend gave me the chance to see Fringe a long time before it is going to be released and I’m now counting the days because the show is awesome.

Yes, the show may be compared to X-Files, that is unavoidable but it is different enough that it stands alone as its own entity (aliens don’t appear to be a theme that is going to appear, it might, but upfront it isn’t mentioned).  I think if I had to compare it to a show I would pick the ill fated Threshold, without the aliens and hopefully with a lot more luck in the ratings.

The cast all seem likeable enough, the old mad scientist is brilliant with some great one liners.  Pacey (from Dawson’s Creek in case you have been living on Mars, under a rock, in a cave…) is suitably grown up now to play the role, Tracey was not so sure, I declare he is now officially the most successful post Dawson actor (I don’t think Katie has really done that well for herself).

There are some gross scenes, but then anything involving needles or scalpels generally makes it to my gross list but I think if you can make it through the first five minutes then you’ll be right, you may just need a loving partner who will tell you when the icky part is over.

So it is a new show for my must view list, there are a couple of holes in that lineup with various shows closing down or being cancelled.

Check it out when you get the chance.

Popularity: 12% [?]

An outsider’s question about Lost

I watched about a third of the Lost season one and two, mainly because it was on TV at a funny time for us and we kept missing episodes.  It looked compelling enough, seemed pretty clever and the discovery of the hatch was all very exciting.  But by not seeing all of the episodes it made it near impossible to follow and rather than screw up the whole Lost experience we vowed to avoid the show at all costs and watch it on DVD, the same way we did it with Heroes (season three Heroes is coming - yay!).  In the Heroes case it worked out extremely well.

Time has past and the dust has come to settle on the season one DVD set of Lost, the plastic remains unbroken and Tracey and I are no more knowledgable in the ways of ‘the others’ or who the chap down the hatch is and why he was down there.  It has been a difficult twelve months for us and we honestly just haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.

No man is an island as they say and it has been hard, make that impossible to avoid all references or advertisements regarding the show.  I will say one thing though, it certainly hasn’t actually given anything away as I still have no bloody idea what is going on in that show!

Which is a plus for us but I’m concerned that at some stage I’m going to invest a big slab of time to a show that may or may not be worth it in the long run.  The snippets I’ve seen (trying hard not to look though!) have appeared a bit mad, weird stuff has gone on since I last visited the island and that guy doesn’t appear to have lost any weight!?

So my question is, is Lost worth it at this stage or has it already jumped the shark?  Please no spoilers, obviously if it even halfway decent I don’t want it ruined.  If you feel you can’t control yourself just vote in the poll in the sidebar!!

Speaking of the sidebar you’ll see that Quit Your Day Job has got itself a little advertising, hey I got to get my comic book money somewhere!  Anyway if you don’t throw up in misery everytime you visit here think about clicking on one of the ads to give them a bit of value for their money or even throw a couple of cents this way and get some advertising yourself!

Popularity: 18% [?]

Men in Trees cancelled

Apparently when you change timeslots six times, and put a show on two unexplained hiatuses with no information forthcoming about its return it doesn’t help the ratings!?

I’m shocked by this revelation in television programming 101.  Who would have thought that by making a show extraordinarily hard to actually see it would lead to poor ratings and thus eventual cancellation?

A lot of vocal people seem to love Men in Trees, I like the show, I don’t love it, but I like the familiarity of it, the inoffensive story arcs and delightful scenery.  We generally save up a few episodes and then watch them in one hit (which is my preferred method of watching a lot of shows, except of course things that easily get spoilt such as BSG etc).  It’s one of those light shows that you get used to watching.  But no more as it is being cancelled as reported by TV Guide.

Because we generally visit “cousin Larry” to obtain our episodes we haven’t had too much trouble keeping track of the show, timeslots mean very little to us, unexpected long breaks with no end in sight do however throw us out.

It’s a real shame I think that they’ve mistreated this show so much, as various channels have with other shows in the past.  I remember a little show called Firefly that was shown out of order, in non-recurring timeslots without all the episodes shown.  It didn’t seem to be a bad show after all?

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Galaxy Being - The Outer Limits

I miss the day when science fiction could be fanciful and there weren’t hordes of fanboys complaining about the physics are all wrong or that you can’t contact and materialise a being from another planet using a radio station antenna. Imagine making a film today and using Academy Award winning actresses in a story about drilling into the centre of the Earth because the core has stopped spinning, and in the core you were setting off nuclear explosions to restart it and then trying to get out of the core to survive. Who knows what they would call such a film!?

Well actually ‘the day’ was well before I was born in the time of forbidden planets and flying saucers, twilight zones and of course the outer limits. But I love the old black and white science fiction stories, possibly more than our current stories.

So I picked up The Outer Limits season one and two and checked out the very first episode ‘The Galaxy Being’ a story about a guy who runs a radio station and uses it to listen to microwaves. He accidentally contacts an alien in the Andromeda Galaxy. It is fascinating idea and that’s probably what I love about these old shows, the stories are uninhibited by the population having a greater scientific knowledge. It’s imagination all the way as we talk about three dimensional television and the wonders of radiation and microwaves.

The alien is surprisingly good, I mean really clever for the day. It’s a guy in a brown rubber suit shot in negative film. Cleverly if you want to see what the suit actually looked like you can run the image through Fireworks and just click invert (or I’ll just do it for you).

The alien doesn’t quite understand everything he is being told and for some reason having contact with someone outside his species is seriously forbidden. Of course thanks to an egotistical DJ who cranks the power up the alien is pulled into our galaxy and left to wander around on a Saturday night without a date.

Before the unpleasantness hits the fan though the guy gets to talk to the alien about death, taxes and god.

I love this episode and if you can look past the primitiveness, the black and white and the fact that its science is naive then you might too - check it out if you get the chance!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Stargate Atlantis season four finale a scorcher

I just knew there was a reason that I’ve continued to watch SGA despite the over abundance of ‘filler’ episodes and stunted character growth that the show has suffered from.  The reason was that I was waiting for an episode of SGA to step out from under the shadow of SG1 and give me a damn good hour of television.  We also are reminded that Sheppard is an important character, in fact he’s possibly the most important of them all.

Now I love a good ‘what if’ time travel story, I like one that doesn’t just reset itself at the end which this episode only half does (it’s all good, we got to save something for season five).  But this episode was everything I could hope for.  I’m going to write spoilers - you need to know that right now.  If you don’t want to know anything about the episode then you need to turn away.

Now.

I mean it.

You’ve been warned.

Like I said, time travel episode, Sheppard is transported to the future, 47000 years in the future Atlantis is abandoned and the planet is a wasteland.  A McKay hologram shows up and gives him a very clever plan to get him back to his own time and save the universe as we know it.  You see everything went a little pear shaped after Sheppard disappeared and Rodney wants him to fix it.

We are then treated to several death scenes of the major characters, some absolutely wonderful scenes that you must imagine an actor loves to perform.  Carter and Ronan have glorious deaths befitting their characters and Keller and McKay’s story is genuinely heartbreaking.

So SGA has turned it round in their last episode of the season, I just hope and beg that they continue into the next season!

Popularity: 61% [?]

Please don’t transplant my eyes

I was just saying to Tracey this evening when I saw the trailer for Jessica Alba’s new film ‘The Eye‘ on television.

Me: If I go blind don’t let them transplant new eyes in.
Tracey: What are you talking about?
Me: Nothing good happens when they transplant eyes into your skull.
Tracey: I don’t think they do that anyway.
Me: I don’t care, if they invent the technology I don’t want it.
Tracey: You would rather be blind than embrace new eyeballs?
Me: Ummm yeah.  Have you ever seen a film that covers someone getting an eye transplant and then just enjoying their lives and seeing the sun and stuff?
Tracey: Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about.
Me: I don’t want to see ghosts or aliens or fish man with transplanted eyes!
Tracey: Is fish man an actual character?
Me: Fine.  Gill Man.
Tracey: Who the hell is Gill Man?
Me: Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Tracey: Why did he get his eye balls transplanted?
Me: What?
Tracey: When did the creature from the black lagoon go blind and get new eyeballs.
Me: Oh.  No he didn’t I just wouldn’t want to see him.
Tracey: With the new eyeballs?
Me: Right.

Whole portions of that conversation didn’t take place.  Also Geordie’s eyes grow back in Star Trek Insurrection and really you couldn’t say good things happened there.

Popularity: 45% [?]

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat”

It possibly has to be one of my favourite movie quotes of all time and delivered by an actor I love and who passed away the other day. Roy Scheider died at 75 from a cancer related infection.

Roy was a good friend to us fans of genre film and television.

Jaws obviously is one of his most recognised roles as Police Chief Martin Brody of the tourist town terrorised by a giant shark. But I also loved him in 2010: The year we make contact which many overlook thanks to the simple majesty of the first film.

I’m also a fan of his from his SeaQuest DSV days playing Captain Nathan Bridger (especially season one which he was happy with - I probably didn’t mind the later seasons so much but Roy was quite vocal in his disgust).

Blue Thunder needs to be mentioned as well as his appearance in The Punisher.

Enjoy and remember Roy Scheider:

[youtube 9OnaZ8r3p8g nolink]

Popularity: 27% [?]

TV Show Meme

Becca did this one over at the Skullcave and I dig it so please read the following instructions and leave your guesses:

• Post a list of 10-20 TV shows you love (current or cancelled)
• Have your friends list guess your favourite character from each show
• When guessed bold the line and write a little bit about why you like that character
• Post in your own blog. (if you want)

1. Star Trek - Captain Kirk guessed by Dan
2. Farscape - Crichton guessed by Mal
3. Harvey Birdman - Reducto guessed by MC
4. Heroes - Hiro (I know obvious! Who doesn’t love Hiro??) guessed by Dan
5. The Tick - The Tick himself guessed by Arjan
6. Firefly - Yeah I was torn between Mal and Wash but it probably is Mal, guessed by Dan and yes Arjan you NEED to check this out!!!
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Tara as guessed by Mal
   
8. Angel - Wesley - guessed by Dan
9. Friends - Chandler who loves Star Trek guessed by Dan
10. Entourage
11. Californication - Hank as guessed by Arjan
12. The Simpsons - Dr Colossus as guessed by MC
13. Futurama - Zoidberg!!!!! guessed by Arjan
14. King of the Hill - Dale Gribble guessed by MC - I just love his paranoia (which is a hint for another character)
    
15. Family Guy - Stewie guessed by Arjan (victory is his!)
16. X-Files - Mulder is an obvious one I know but what can I say? Guessed by Dan
17. Twin Peaks - The second Dale of the list Agent Cooper, smell those douglas fir - guessed by MC
18. 24 - I almost forgot to put this on the list!!! But Jack is tha man! Tortured out of Dan.
19. Stargate Atlantis (I suppose) - once again I go with a boring choice but Sheppard is at this stage a favorite , guessed by Arjan
20. Babylon 5

As you guess I’ll update the post! Remember some will just be plain obvious!

****UPDATE****

The Simpsons character is obscure but I think I may have written about him in here sometime (oh I just gave away he’s a he!!)

****UPDATE 2****

I feel bad about how obscure the Simpsons character is so I will give another clue! He is in part two of who shot Mr Burns.

****UPDATE 3****

The Buffy character is a female and has appeared in the opening credits.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Zoidberg is prince of Nigeria

Futurama is back baby!!!

I’ve managed to watch the first 15 minutes of the new Bender’s Big Score and it is nice to see that Futurama is as funny as it was two years ago when they cancelled it (has it actually only been two years??). It is a nice change to see a quality show coming back from the dead (Angel?).

Hilarious is the only word for the opening sequences that deal with the mindless drone idiots at the “Box Network”. No holds barred as they berate them for cancelling Planet Express.

I’ve read that comedy central are cutting the four dvd movies up to create a new season but I urge everyone when they get the chance to buy the DVDs and show them that there is still a market!!

I know it’s an easy one with its cousin The Simpsons but do you have a favourite Futurama moment?  Mine is probably Shatner doing a spoken word Slim Shady.

Popularity: 37% [?]

First look at KITT

Whilst I was away they went and announced that they would be bringing Knight Rider back to television with an all new cast.   Well they didn’t just mean the human cast either because the people at Jalopnik.com are pretty pleased with themselves for getting the first photo of the new KITT.

It would appear that KITT is going to be the great grand son of Eleanor, a black-with-gray-stripes 550 HP Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang (Eleanor is a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500).

At first I thought to myself it’s a shame they’re not keeping the at least the same type of car but then I thought on it some more and realised that I don’t care enough about the remake to get the slightest bit concerned about it.

I may just be tired but the whole idea of going down the path of a remake of a series about a car that can talk and uses turbo boost to solve most cases just can’t stir up even senses of nostalgia.   I’m not saying I won’t watch it but I can honestly say if there is something else on then it would want to be pretty bloody good to get me to come watch it!

Oh and from what I’ve read the voice isn’t going to be the same either…  mmmm yeah that’s how I feel about the whole thing; it’s just not the same.

Popularity: 9% [?]