From Warren Ellis' Bad Signal mailing list, on the London bombing:

My American friends have noted
that four bombs have been met
with stark indifference by the
British public, and have asked if this
is some stiff-upper-lip thing. Listen,
Christmas bombing campaigns
used to turn up with the same
regularity as the Queen's speech.
We've done this before, and,
frankly, the IRA were better at it.

This 7/7, 070705 shit is bugging the
fuck out of me. Especially when it's
coming from Americans. It's an
insult to the genuine disaster
suffered in New York, and it goes
against the general feeling here.
This isn't something to be enshrined.
It's something to leave behind. It's
happened before, and it'll happen
again. Don't expect us all to go
insane. Most of us went to the pub.

For those following the details of
the thing: this was a real low-rent
operation. The attacks were on the
most indefensible part of London --
the public transport. The bus bomb
is indicative of small-scale devices
-- London buses are basically tin
and sellotape, and yet most of the
seats on the top deck, where the
bomb went off, were left intact.
There's photography of the upstairs
passengers standing up and looking
at the new hole in the bus. The
pressure wave of the blast blew out
the sides and took the top off --
tin and sellotape meant that the
pressure wasn't contained in the bus,
which probably saved a few lives.
If you want to kill everyone on a
bus, you put the device on the
lower deck, not the top. This was
crap terrorism, using devices they
obviously were not confident of
smuggling into Live 8 or even the
crowds that gathered for the
Olympic win.

Most people are still joking that
it was the work of the French.

Hell, probably so are the French.

Bombings Rewrite G-8 Agenda - New York Times: "The bombings in London on Thursday knocked the meeting of major industrial nations off its carefully scripted focus on global warming and African poverty and turned it into a forum for President Bush and other world leaders to pledge unity in confronting terrorism."

That son of a bitch.

So, today, I decided to stop watching The Inside on Fox. Part of it is that I never really found myself getting excited about the show. It never really turned me off, the way TNT's The Closer did, but it never really turned me on, either.

What pushed me over the edge, though, would be the London bombings. Once again, the darkness of the real world has made a dimly-lit, melodramatic, overwrought drama about serial killers seem that much more pointless. Everything about The Inside always seemed so heightened, so determined to really drive home the notion that it's a dark, dark, nasty world using manipulative filmmaking techniques. And then something horrible happens in the sunlight, and affects people who talk with real words using normal voices. And the rest of it all seems so unnecessary.

On the flipside, I'm sort of sorry that this season of Beauty and the Geek. There's a reunion/"Aftermath" episode on next Wednesday, and they're apparently looking for a cast for a second season (I'm planning on sending a tape), but that's it for this bunch. (If you missed the show, check your local listings; some WB affiliates are apparently showing a marathon this Sunday.) And the next paragraph has some spoilers for the ending, so if you plan on watching the reruns and don't want to know who wins, stop reading now.



I wasn't surprised at all to see Chuck and Caitilin in the final two, considering that they had won almost every single challenge throughout the show. Richard and Mindy were less certain, but since the show ended up being shaped into a battle between Richard and Chuck, that made for some nice closure. In the final episode, I particularly liked that the teams got to go out and show each other things that were really personally important to them. We've seen them working so hard outside of their comfort zones these past few weeks, it was nice to see them take the time to relax for a change. Richard seemed particularly at ease, until he started getting all worked up over the final elimination.

I was also pleased to see things get so close and down to the wire at the end. It proved that these were both teams who deserved to be in the finals, and it didn't seem so cheesy. In the end, though, I'm glad that Chuck and Caitilin ended up winning, because they did seem to be the two who had learned and grown the most over the course of the show.

Bring on season two (hopefully starring ME!)

The Sun Online - TV: A Shameless return: "MANCHESTER'S finest The Gallagher family are set to return for a third series of Shameless - packed full of more sex and drama."

Loved the first season on BBC America, bought the DVD (surprise!), looking forward to seeing the second season ... somehow, so this is good news.

How's this for irritating? Last night's episode of Fire Me... Please! was half-rerun and half-new. The first half reused the opening segment from the first episode, while the second half was new. WTF?!?

This may be the final episode (Big Brother airs in that time slot next Tueday), but that's a bunch of crap. Either the episode is new or not. I shouldn't have to fast-forward through every episode to see if it's really a rerun or not.

Okay, this is another post for my comics-reading friends. Everyone else can skip this one.

So, as another prompt to post something with some regularity, here's the new stuff I'm ordering from Previews this month:

Curse of Dracula collection from Dark Horse:
I actually have the original miniseries, by Tomb of Dracula creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. But I really liked this attempt on their part to revive the magic of that series as a creator-owned book, and hopefully, if sales are good on this collection, we may see more.

Fog trade paperback:
I've never seeen the original movie, and I'm not sure I'm particularly excited about the remake. But the script is by Scott Allie, who I always try to support, unless he's doing something I'm really not interested in, like Titan AE comics or something. And the art looks nice.

Chosen trade paperback:
This collects the miniseries by Mark Millar and Peter Gross that really impressed me with the first issue. I really like the energy in Millar's work, and had been waiting for this for a long time. Hopefully, it'll really come out this time...

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle from DC:
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers mega-series hasn't disappointed me yet, and I'll be sticking with it to the end. How nice to see someone who understands that you can create a new superhero series, even one based on an existing characters, and it doesn't have to disappear up its own backside in continuity references.

The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin from Wildstorm:
The Authority, as a series and concept, has long since lost my interest. Garth Ennis' Kev stories, however, are so hilarious and do such a fantastic job at poking fun at these characters, I can't resist. And this one is drawn by Carlos Ezquerra!

Fell from Image Comics.
It's a new creator-owned Warren Ellis series, and it's drawn by Ben Templesmith, and it's only $1.99 an issue. I was already sold, and the fact that it's a detective series, sort of, and that the preview pages I've seen are so great is just icing on the cake.

Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows from Image:
The first Black Forest graphic novel was great. One of my favorite artists, a WWI setting, and a story that shows that you could do a concept like Van Helsing well. I also liked the creative team's follow-up graphic novel, The Wicked West. Well, here we have a sequel to the first one, with a backup story following up on Wicked West, and at a very nice price.

Long Hot Summer from Image:
Written by the guy who put together Four Letter Worlds, a collection of stories I've raved about previously, nice art, and it sounds like a nice, gentle, romance story, but not too sappy. And, again, under ten bucks.

Sherman's Room (can't be arsed to look up the publisher):
Chris Eliopolous, one of Marvel's number one letterers, has been trying to publish his comic strip about twentysomethings, Desperate Times, for years. A couple of years ago, he announced he was giving up to try to focus on something more commercial. Jimmy Gownley did the same thing, and it resulted in Amelia Rules, and that's not a bad thing. And I like Eliopolous' work, so I'll try this one, too.

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror from Bongo:
It's got a story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan (see above) and a story by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, creators of Swamp Thing. What's not to like?

Giant Monsters from Boom Studios (I think):
I don't get everything he writes, because he writes a lot, but I like most of the stuff I read from Steve Niles. Now he's doing a giant monster comic, and it's only two issues.

Digital Webbing Presents #25:
Only getting this for the Jay Faerber Firebirds story. A friend of mine can't see past the Electrawoman/Dynagirl influence, but I like Jay Faerber's creator-owned projects enough that I'll support almost anything he does for himself. (Less so when he writes for Marvel or DC, but as long as he's doing such a good job doing his own superheroes in Noble Causes, why bother reading anything else?)

Shadowplay from IDW:
It's a horror comic featuring two serials, one written by Buffy actress Amber Benson, the other by original Witchblade writer Christina Z. Benson's not a bad writer, although I haven't read too much that she's written on her own. And the early, Z-penned issues of Witchblade were pretty cool. Even better, the stories are drawn by Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith, who I like. So...

Keep from IDW:
F. Paul Wilson adapts his own WWII horror story, drawn by Mike Mignola clone Matt Smith. I like period horror stories, I like what I've read of Wilson's work, but I haven't read this. A friend of mine raves about it, so I'm going to order it.

Complete Jon Sable Freelance Trade Paperback Volume 3 from IDW:
I love Mike Grell's Jon Sable series. And I want it on my bookshelf. 'Nuff said.

Grimjack: Killer Instinct trade paperback from IDW:
Yes, I bought the miniseries. I still want the book, because I'm getting all the other Grimjack books, and I want them all together on the shelf. (But it's more important to me that there be Grimjack comics at all, which is why I'll keep buying the individual issues, too.)

Complete Clive Barker's Thief of Always Trade Paperback from IDW:
The Thief of Always is probably my absolute favorite Clive Barker book. The art on this adaptation looked really nice. But I had decided to wait for the collection, and here it is.

Lai Wan from Moonstone:
This was sort of a gut-level decision, but the art looked nice on the web site, and the story sounded interesting. And I like CJ Henderson's original stuff.

Vengeance of the Mummy from Moonstone:
It was pretty much the cover art that sold me, although the interior art isn't too bad. (Well, the art, and the fact that Justin Gray, who co-wrote Monolity, 21 Down, The Resistance, and other stuff is writing it.)

McCandles & Company: Insecurities:
I had another McCandles and Company one-shot, which I'm pretty sure was different from this one. I love detective stories--please let it be true that IDW is reprinting Mike Barr's Maze Agency--and this is drawn by Gene Gonzales, who is a particular favorite of mine.

Lost Official Magazine from Titan:
Will it be good like the Alias and Stargate magazines Titan publishes? Or will it be crap like Smallville? Only one way to find out...

Feast of the Seven Fishes:
Another book from the guys who wrote Black Forest (see above). And this one is drawn by Alex Saviuk, who I remember fondly from my youth.

Okay, so I tried to watch Troy on HBO last night, and I made it maybe 40 minutes in before I just gave up. Maybe it got better when people stopped talking and started killing each other more, and I still kind of want to see the big horse... but not that bad. It was pretty and all--and, ooh! look at the finely oiled muscles of the male cast, nothing homoerotic going on there--but the actual script written in that formal, serious Hollywood-pretentious-historical-speak, and delivered with such straight faces, I just got bored.

Finally saw Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, thanks to HBO. This would be the edited version, but it was pretty good. Now I want to see the "director's cut" version, which means buying another DVD. Which isn't really a problem. And, surprise, surprise, it's a better, more gripping, more emotionally satisfying story than the regular Batman comics seem to be telling these days... Go figure.

Also watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which premiered this weekend on... Can't remember, either Skinimax or Starz!. (I recorded it, didn't watch it live, so I couldn't tell you.) The first one turned out to be more fun than I had expected, and this one did, too. Not great movies, not by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly no Shaun of the Dead when it comes to zombie movies, but now I'm looking forward to the third one. (And probably a fourth one, apparently.)

Okay, going to try to start something new, partly because some of my comics-reading friends read this blog, and partly to force myself to write something with some sort of regularity. So I'm going to talk a bit about the comics I've read this week, so far:

Shaun of the Dead #1 from IDW.
Pretty much what it says on the tin, it's a straightforward adaptation of the fantastic movie from last year. (Last year? I think last year.) I pretty much got it to bump up sales for them, which would hopefully increase the chances of IDW publishing original movie creator Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's proposed graphic novel sequel, From Dusk Till Shaun. The adaptation had a couple of bumpy spots where it didn't seem to really capture the feel of the scenes it was adaptating, but for the most part was okay. And the art was nice.

Angel: The Curse #1, also from IDW.
This one is a sequel to the TV series, which I loved. Wisely, it doesn't follow directly on from the fantastic ending of the TV series, but picks up some time later. It's written by Jeff Mariotte, who does fabulous work on the horror Western series Desperadoes (the most recent miniseries from IDW, where he used to be editor-in-chief) and decent work on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations, a sort of vampire commando comic. He's also written Angel novels that I haven't read. His script here feels like it fits naturally with the tone of the TV series, but is definitely a story tailored for comics (unlike the Shaun adaptation). The art, by David Messina, is very nice. Angel--the only character from the series--is clearly recognizable, but doesn't look like he was traced from photographs. Overall, the art is somewhat reminiscent of Mike Mignola, but not too derivative of him. Dark and moody, and totally in keeping with the feel of the series, if this first issue is indicative of the tone of the Angel comics to come from IDW, I think I'll be sticking around.

Planetary #23 from Wildstorm.
By Warren Ellis and John Cassiday, this has been a personal favorite since it premiered, I don't know, at least five or six years ago. Very much sort of an X-Files type story set in a comic-book universe, it's become this really fascinating science-fiction story. Things are definitely coming to a head, with the end apparently in sight, but the book comes out on a pretty irregular schedule, so who knows how long it'll be until we see that last issue? However, we're finally getting some of the blanks filled in for the main characters, and the mysteries behind the entire series look to be gradually revealed. And the art, by Cassiday, continues to be stunning, and proof--as if more were needed--of how wasted he is on a book like Astonishing X-Men.

Albion #1 from Wildstorm.
Alan Moore plots and his daughter and her boyfriend write the revival of some of the greatest British comics heroes of the 20th century. Britain has never really had much of a superhero tradition, so I'm looking forward to the revival of all of these oddball characters who, quite honestly, I've never actually heard of. My first impression is it's Paul Grist's comic Jack Staff crossed with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. This first issue is an intriquing set-up that provides very little hard information, but definitely makes me want to come back for more. And the art is gorgeous. Of course, there is the slightest bitter taste knowing that this is one of the last projects Moore will be working on for DC, but it's not like he created these characters anyway, so that's not too bad.

Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities #4 from Dark Horse.
Written by creator of The Goon, Eric Powell, and drawn by Kyle Hotz (whose art makes him appear to be the bastard offspring of Kelley Jones and Berni Wrightson), this comic is almost but not quite as completely mad as The Goon. Worth the price of admission to witness the exchange between old-world Hammer Horror style Dr Frankenstein and Billy the Kid, who lets loose a stream of accusations of pedophelia, homosexuality, and bestiality reminescent of classic Joe Lansdale.

Nat Turner #1, created and published by Kyle Baker.
48 page of gorgeous Kyle Baker art telling the early life of Nat Turner, almost entirely wordless. Fantastic!

So I saw the trailer for the new King Kong remake, which--from the way NBC was running commercials for the commercial--appears to be the latest geek holy grail or something. I mean, it's Peter Jackson's first post-Lord of the Rings movie, and god knows how fantastic everyone thought those were, so this must just be fantastic. And, I have to say, I'm not too excited. I mean, the movie looks great and everything. Slick, expensive, good effects, really pretty actors who have talent, the whole nine yards. But the thing is, it's King Kong. The second remake of King Kong. And King Kong--the original--is one of my favorite movies. And as slick as this one looks, it looks like a really slick remake of something I've already seen and am so familiar with, I could put every clip from the trailer in context.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that remakes are necessarily evil. But sometimes they're just unnecessary. Like this one. I mean, yes, the budget is bigger, and the special effects are more sophisticated. But they're still being used to bring to life an island populated by dinosaurs and a giant ape. I mean, no matter how realistic, is anyone going to be sitting in this movie going, "Fuck me, this is a documentary shot in the 1930s and they really went to an island populated by dinosaurs and a giant ape?" So, for me, there's no excitement about seeing this new trailer, because there isn't really anything new in it.

Having said that, I'm sure I'll feel differently when I'm sitting in the theater in December watching the whole movie. Which I will be, because this is a story that I love, and this looks close enough to the original that it'll be as much fun for me to watch. But getting excited about the trailer? Not so much, no.

BBC America broadens schedule with populist fare - Yahoo! News

Yes, in a startling turn of events BBC America acknowledges that perhaps the key to attracting an audience would be by showing programs. (Who knew?) I'm familiar with most of the titles, but haven't seen any of them. And, of course, no Doctor Who.

:: ABC Family :: Wildfire

Okay, new must-see-TV for me. And yes, it's a teen drama focusing on a girl who loves horses. Bite me. It's also from the creators/producers of USA's The Dead Zone, and proves that they can do straight drama as well as sci-fi. (And I still love Deadwood and Rescue Me, if I need to maintain my street cred.)

So I'm watching the 12th episode of Doctor Who Confidential free and legally on the web, and it's the episode focusing on fandom (as much as any Doctor Who Confidential episode has any sort of focus). Well, at the Doctor Who convention I was at in February, the series crew was filming, and my new fan-friend Brian can clearly be seen in at least two shots. How cool is that?

(Not quite as cool as it would have been if it had been me, but still...)

Started reading Gil's All-Fright Diner today at lunch. I'm up to the bit with the zombie cows. Highly recommended, at least for the first few chapters.

Do I feel like posting anything today? No, I do not.

But I really liked Batman Begins, in case anyone was wondering.

Amnews.com - Top 10 questions I have about comic books

As Neil Gaiman points out, someone actually got paid for writing this. (Indeed, is a staff writer for a newspaper, writing stuff like this...)

MirrorMask - Yahoo! Movies Exclusive Trailer

Elektra - Shiny Shelf: "The martial arts action clips by well enough, but unfortunately the actors just keep having to open their mouths and reading words from the lame, lame script. "

NEWSARAMA.COM - DAN VADO ON SLG'S DISNEY DEAL

Okay, as a comics fan and a Disney nut, this interests me quite a bit. The idea of new Gargoyles stories by their creator has obvious appeal, and I'm a big enough fan of Dan Vado's writing, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland, and his concept for this comic that I'm totally intrigued. Tron was another childhood fave (I watched the movie and played the arcade game over and over and over again). Wonderland... Well, we'll see. But certainly worth checking out.

NEWSARAMA - PETER DAVID & CHRIS RYALL ON FALLEN ANGEL @ IDW
Fallen Angel is easily my favorite Peter David comic, so official news of it's return (pending some final legal wrangling, according to the article) is great to hear.

Still feel like crap...

Feeling like crap today, so much so I called in sick (a fairly rare occurance).

On the plus side, a coworker explained to me how to email photos from my phone. So now I have to figure out how to do some photo blogging...

Here's a nice article about The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, the new show on Cartoon Network createdy by Judd Winick. As I've said before, it's probably the best adventure-comedy cartoon since Kim Possible (as opposed to out-and-out comedy brilliance with a veneer of adventure, as seen in The Venture Bros.). And it's perhaps the only proof we have that Pulitzer-prize nominated comics creator Winick hasn't turned into a complete superhero hack.

Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act | Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act | News.blog | CNET News.com

So today has been filled with a--quite franly--insane amount of television, starting with the two-hour season premiere of The 4400 from last night, followed by this week's episode of Green Wing, and rounding up with the spring finale of Summerland (which, according to TV Guide, returns this week). My quick comments:

The 4400 continues the quality established by last year's miniseries. It's weird, creepy, unpredictable, and shot in Vancouver (set in Seattle) starring actors most people will never have heard of. This episode guest-starred Summer Glau from Firefly/Serenity and Jeffrey Combs from everything. It should be a nice companion to The Dead Zone, which returns next week, and is considerably less crap than The Comeback on HBO.

Green Wing continues to be completely mad, and continues to feature Sarah Alexander and Tamsin Grieg. And I continue to love it.

And Summerland is still too sweet, too sentimental, and too full of Jesse Mc... hell, I'm going to have to look this one up... Jesse McCartney. (Oh, and it doesn't come back until next Monday, so that's one less show I have to worry about this week.) And I still kinda like it, for reasons I can't quite articulate. (Okay, I can: Lori Loughlin.)

In addition to watching all this Gruddamned TV (plus whatever I watched yesterday; probably episodes of Monarch of the Glen and Gilmore Girls and the new episode of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee), I listened to the first new Big Finish CD bringing back the classic creepy-as-anything late 70s British telefantasy series, Sapphire and Steel. When I was maybe 9 or 10, when we were living in New Zealand, S&S was one of the four British telefantasy series that left a lasting mark. (The other three were, of course, Doctor Who, The Tomorrow People, and Blakes 7. And then there were Basil Brush and Dick Turpin, but that's another genre...) At the time, I saw one whole episode of S&S, the first, and it scared the crap out of me. Seriously. Couldn't crap for months, so bereft of crap was I. Now, as an adult, viewing the show on DVD, I can actually get through it, but it is every bit as weird and creepy as I remember.

And now it's back on CD! The original leads (David (Man from UNCLE/NCIS) McCallum and Joanna (New Avengers/Absolutely Fabulous) Lovely ... er, I mean Lumley) have been recast, because McCallum is too busy in the US, and reportedly no longer able to travel quite as easily as he used to, and Lumley isn't interested in reprising the role. But the new cast features Susannah Harker, from Ultraviolet and House of Cards, and who absolutely glows in person, and David Warner, from even more genre movies and TV shows than Jeffrey Combs. And they're great. And the story is moody and atmospheric, and takes place on a train (a childhood passion, inherited from my father, which has waned considerably but still elicits a bit of a thrill), and just when you think it can't get any better, Mark Gatiss shows up playing Gold. Fantastic!

And I want to write about this week's episode of Doctor Who, but I find I have no remaining energy.

Oh, I mentioned watching Juniper Lee yesterday. Highly recommended. Best new comedy/action cartoon since Disney's Kim Possible.

So, I watched the final minutes of The Comeback. No improvement.

Okay, so I watched the first episode of the new Lisa Kudrow "comedy" on HBO, Comeback. And I want to say something positive about it, but after about 20 minutes or so, I was starting to think the best thing I could say about it was that it ended after half an hour. But, after a half hour, my DVR recording of the show just ended, and it was still going on! (It was rerun later, like at 1:30 in the morning or something, so I did record the final minutes, possibly, just to see.) Apparently the season finale of Gilmore Girls ran over unnanounced as well. So I downloaded a copy of that episode off the internet, just to get the final bit. And if someone wants to make an issue of my downloading the episode, let me point out that I wouldn't have done it if the WB had fit the whole thing into its assigned time block.

Now, I know that networks are troubled by folks like me recording their TV and watching it later, skipping the commercials. To which I say, "Boo hoo." There's a lot of TV on, and I'm going to be recording quite a bit of it instead of watching it live. If a network wants to somehow force me into watching it live, they're more likely to make me just decide to skip it altogether.

Of course, making a show like Comeback is another way to keep me from watching, because it really isn't very good. The concept is, Kudrow plays an actress who once had a brief moment in the sitcom fame sun. Now, she's the subject of a reality TV series following a former star who ends up in a new series, hoping to recapture her moment of glory, all in front of the cameras. The thing is, it just isn't very funny. At all. So it's just watching this fairly clueless egotist talk about herself for half an hour (or more) with no payoff. It's painful and irritating in a way that the British faux-docu-sitcom The Office wasn't. I mean, I get that, as an actress, the character is always performing in front of the cameras, but there isn't enough of a juxtaposition where we see a sympathetic human side to her, so there's nothing to really grab hold of. And the idea of a documentary-style show about acting was done so much better by HBO in Unscripted, so it's hardly new ground... I don't know, I feel like I should give it a second week to be sure, but we'll see.

Oh, and at the end of this week's Doctor Who Confidential, they showed a commercial for the American version of The Office on BBC Three. This would be the dull American remake of the British show, and it's called The Office: An American Workplace. Their tag line: "The same, only different." Good lord...

So, as we head into the summer season, here are the shows I'm planning on checking out (because the alternative is going outside in 100+ degree weather...)

Hell's Kitchen, the American cooking contest show with bad boy Brit chef Gordon Ramsay as host. Because the first episode was fun.
Beauty & the Geek, because the first episode was a lot more interesting and a lot less "make fun of the freaks" crap than I expected. (And they get points for picking the president of the Dukes of Hazard Fan Club as one of the geeks, instead of going the more obvious sci-fi or comics fan route.)
The Inside, because there are no other crime drama shows for me to watch right now. (Except for the ones I've recorded and haven't watched yet. Or the ones I have on DVD and haven't watched yet.)
Fire Me... Please, because the commercials make it look funny.
Into the West, because I've enjoyed the other Spielberg-produced TV miniseries I've seen (Band of Brothers, Taken...)
The 4400, because the first miniseries was surprisingly good, for a made-for-USA sci-fi show. (I shouldn't make fun; I love The Dead Zone, too.)

And... That's it for this week, I think.

Okay, not feeling the desire to do a whole lot of work right now...

 

So, against my better judgment, I watched the first episode of Beauty and the Geek on Wednesday.  It sounded like the sort of thing that just depresses me, like Average Joe or whatever.  But a review in TV Guide (yeah, I know) insisted that it was a lot more sensitive and intelligent, and wasn't just a "look at the brainy freaks in glasses" show.  And that turned out to be true.  I mean, they didn't really try to hide the more pathetic aspects of the "geeks," but considering that one of them is the president of the Dukes of Hazzard fan club, well... what are you going to do?  But they didn't gloss over the attractive women's shortcomings, either.  It actually looks like each side will be learning and growing from the experience (as opposed to, say, Amish in the City).  So I'll keep watching.

 

(It does still depress me a little to see guys who are essentially me and my friends being showcased as "geeks," but, you know, I'll survive.)

WONKA -- What's New? -- The Newest WONKA Golden Ticket Game

Okay, there's just something irrestistably cool about the idea of buying a Wonka bar and possibly finding a golden ticket inside...

Just finished watching the Cartoon Network Summer Preview Kickoff show, and the bit that has me truly excited(ish) is a new show called Camp Lazlo. It's a wacky comedy about animals at a summer camp, and its created by Joe Murray, who created Rocko's Modern Life, one of my personal favorite Nickelodeon cartoons.

How much did today suck? I locked myself out of my house, which I've never, ever done before. (I had taken the spare key from its hiding place when I needed to have someone come feed Penelope when I went to visit Dad last month, and hadn't put it back yet.) So, I called for a locksmith, and paid to get back into my own house. All the while, waiting in the garage, I could hear Penelope meowing for me. I swear, if it was so upsetting for her to hear me outside in the garage, then she could have opened the door for me.

As it happened, the lock-out occured as I was just about to leave to Borders to use a 25% off coupon. I had hoped to buy the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book in hardcover, prompted by Alan Moore's recent decision to take the series from DC to Top Shelf Press. Since the locksmith was going to take over an hour to come, I decided to run to the bookstore, because that way, I'd at least have something to read while I waited. Of course, they didn't have the book in hardcover. (They had it in paperback, but I had the first in hardcover, and wanted a matched set.)

This morning, I had seen a special about Robert Rodriguez's new kids movie, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D. I've been a fan of his since El Mariachi, and I really liked the first two Spy Kids movies. (The third just didn't feel like part of the same series, although technically, it was pretty keen.) Shark Boy and Lava Girl looks like it'll harness the effects developments from Spy Kids 3-D, but with a story designed to take advantage of the effects properly. So I'm looking forward to it. So, when I saw a pair of Shark Boy and Lava Girl kids books, both co-written and published(!) by Robert Rodriguez, and I happened to have a coupon expiring today, and still an hour's wait for the locksmith, I decided to take the plunge.

I got most of the first book read while waiting for the guy, and it was pretty entertaining. Not perfect, but a lot of fun. I finished it this evening. It's an adaptation of the movie, only told from the point of view of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (I think the movie is told from the POV of Max, the regular human boy). Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't read the novelization of a movie before seeing the film, but, well, extraordinary circumstances. Plus, it was slightly different from what appears on the screen, apparently, plus it's actually (co)written by the writer of the movie. And now, having read it, I have to say, I'm looking forward to the movie that little bit more. It's very much a kid's movie, and fans of Rodriguez's El Mariachi movies, or his more recent Sin City will be upset that it's not aimed at them. But I'll see it, and now I feel confident that I'll enjoy the story.

(Of course, I enjoyed the recent Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan, which premiered on cable this weekend, so what do I know? I believe I'm supposed to hate that movie, and, well, didn't. So there.)

Other TV stuff: Gordon Ramsey's first American TV series, Hell's Kitchen, premieres in about 15 minutes on Fox. I've enjoyed his British stuff, so I'm looking forward to that. Judd Winick's Cartoon Network series, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, about a young girl who maintains the balance between the ordinary world and the magic world premiered this afternoon. Haven't watched it yet (I was locked out), but I recorded it. I'm a huge fan of Winick's comics like The Adventures of Barry Ween and the Pulitzer-prize winning (or at least nominated) Pedro and Me. I'm less enamored of his recent work on DC superhero comics, but that's partly because I'm less enamored of those sorts of comics altogether. Hopefully, Juniper Lee will have more of the spark I find in his own work.

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs: "An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to 'non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.'"

Would these be the "activist judges" that criminal Tom DeLay is always railing about?

PostSecret

BBC America - Green Wing

Latest must-watch show on BBC America. (I'd recommend Shameless as well, but it's over for the time being.) As usual, the review at ShinyShelf says it better than I could, so there you go.

Just finished watching this week's episode of Doctor Who, "The Empty Child," a WWII-era horror story written by creator of the award-winning relationship sitcom, Steven Moffatt. And, with all due respect to Mark Gatiss' Victorian ghost story episode, "The Unquiet Dead," this is the one that's going to screw up an entire generation of kids.

Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Library porn? For children?

So, how was your work this weekend?

So, today is my birthday (and I guiltily point out my Amazon Wish List to family members), and in about 2 1/2 hours, I'm heading out to see the new Star Wars movie. Which I might not have gone to see opening day, except that it did happen to fall on my birthday, so I figure that's a sign. So expect a nerd-tastic post later in the day.

Already, all signs point to a good day. I got the three new Doctor Who novels based on the new series in the mail yesterday--they were scheduled to be released today--so that's a nice birthday present, albeit one I paid for. Ditto the DVDs of the first season of the wonderfully surreal Nickelodeon The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Classic stuff.

And speaking of classics on DVD (or, well, stuff I like) I found a site selling DVDs of 80s and 90s TV shows I like that haven't been officially released on DVD. It's someone I had ordered a set of Tales of the Gold Monkey from in the past, and the quality was okay, considering that the source were VHS recordings of episodes off someone's TV. Apparently, she's branched out, and theoretically, I now have on the way The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr, a weird western comedy adventure starring Bruce Campbell, Bring 'Em Back Alive, which premiered the same year as Gold Monkey, also capitalizing on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, not as good as Gold Monkey, but co-starring Cindy Morgan, who I had a crush on at the time, and, finally, the holy grail of lost TV for me: QED. This was a very short-lived series about a wacky inventor in pre-WWI Europe, starring a fairly young Sam Waterson, now on Law & Order.

What to write about... Well, I finished Silverfin, the first Young James Bond novel. Most of the reviews I had read agreed that it was a well-written book, but "wasn't James Bond." Well, I can now say that they're absolutely right, but it's not James Bond, it's Young James Bond. He isn't a spy yet, he isn't a womanizer yet, he's just this kid. I thought it was a good, tense, thrilling adventure story, and the character did feel like he could plausibly grow up into the hero I knew and loved from the Ian Fleming books. So, you know, mission accomplished. Reviews from the hardcore Bond fans seem to indicate that they'd rather have something closer to the originals, which is fine, but those need to be taken for what they are.

Now, I'm reading Zorro, a literary novel by bestselling novelist Isabelle Allende telling the story of the classic pulp adventurer. Not too far into it yet (just into Diego de la Vega's teen years, a la Young James Bond), but it's pretty good so far. According to what little I can find online, the Zorro folks asked her to write the novel, and will use her fleshing-out of Diego's childhood as the basis for a trilogy of Young Adult novels coming out next year (coincidentally around the same time as the new Antonio Banderas movie...). So, we'll see. (Me, I've always liked Zorro and James Bond, so new books about them--as long as they're well-written--are definitely of interest.)

The final issue of Green Lantern: Rebirth came out last week, and I finally have something good to say about the series: it's over. Oh, and the art was nice all the way through. Shame about the story. I don't even want to complain about it any more. I'm just glad it's finished.

Speaking of appalling ends, I also watched the final epsiode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Now, I realize it's just TV, and just Star Trek, but that's no reason to screw it all up at the end. Especially since the series had managed to become so improved by this season, it was challenging Deep Space Nine for the title of my favorite Trek series. But the final episode... It's not just that the story was a fairly pedestrian hour, as opposed to the two-hour conclusions the other shows all got, which gave them all a certain sense of closure. No, this was just another Enterprise adventure, distinguished only by setting it on the day Enterprise was due to be decommissioned.

But what really screwed it up was the conceit that, instead of showing us the final voyage of Enterprise, we saw it in the guise of a holodeck story being watched by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, set during an episode of that series. How pathetic, and somewhat condescending, that the cast of Enterprise didn't even get to star in their own finale. The drama was constantly being undercut by the intrusion of the Next Gen characters into otherwise tense scenes. But by far, the greatest slap in the face to those of us who will miss Enterprise and--speaking for me, anyway--who don't care about Star Trek: The Next Generation, would be allowing the Next Generation characters to cut off an emotional moment at the end of the episode, and giving them the final words. I understand that the producers wanted to give the whole broad spectrum of Star Trek a farewell, as this is the last TV episode of any series for the forseeable future. However, to do so at the expense of drama is just sad. (And, by setting this framing story inside an existing episode of Next Generation, and making constant references to it without explaining the whole story, just shows that the producers expect that the viewers of this episode to be completely familiar with that one. Which, really, would be one of the problems with Star Trek reaching a larger audience these days, wouldn't it?)

Meanwhile, the new episode of Doctor Who, Father's Day, written by nicest man in the universe Paul Cornell, was fabulous. And I've already read one comment, posted on David Howe's web site complaining that the episode is too much soap-opera and not enough sci-fi/fantasy. And it's an episode about Rose Tyler going back in time, saving her father, and the creatures from beyond time who are unleashed and devour the planet as a result of her time-altering actions, and if that's not sci-fi/fantasy, I'm not sure what is. Once again, I think what we're seeing is the need for fans (Doctor Who fans, in this case) to put things in neat, specific boxes, and a desire for only specific elements. Science fiction fans seem to be much more interested in plots filled with artificial twists and bullshit technobable, and less in stories that deal with an emotional core (hence the popularity of the soulless Star Trek: The Next Generation over it's considerably more complex and interesting spin-off, Deep Space Nine. So, to have an episode of Doctor Who that deals with the emotions of the characters... it must be soap opera. (Never mind that, if the show didn't deal with fully fleshed-out emotional characters, it probably would only be attracting an audience of hardcore nerds, instead of the mass popularity it has achieved. Never mind that, as Russell Davies points out, there's a difference between a story that deals with the emotions of the characters, and soap opera. No, it's obviously either/or in some people's minds. Thank goodness they're in the minority.)

BBC - Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Forgot to mention this in time for the first episode, but the new radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now being broadcast, and each new episode is available for one week on the BBC's web site.

Young Bond

I'm about halfway through the first Young James Bond novel, and it's great. But I can see why it's getting the mixed reviews it's been getting, but--as usual--that has more to do with the expectations of the reviewers than anything to do with the book. More later.

Okay, so I read Whales on Stilts, the first book in what appears to be a series called the Amazing Worlds of MT Anderson, by (wait for it) MT Anderson.  I say "appears to be," because the book is a parody of juvenile fiction series like (very specifically) Goosebumps or Tom Swift.  So regardless, it's going to read like an installment in a series.

 

Anyway, it was okay, but I wasn't completely overwhelmed.  (Friends have been recommending another of his novels, Feed, for a while, and that's probably better.)  I mean, it was funny.  Really funny.  Almost laugh-out-loud funny in places, along the lines of Tom Mason and Dan Danko's Sidekicks series.  But the plot and characters weren't really all that gripping, and as funny as it was, it really felt very Lemony Snicket in terms of writing style.  (Only, you know, more jokes and less of the "Let me tell you a story about a bunch of people who died" thing.)  And despite the cover, designed to look like a worn-out, retro series cover, it didn't really have the same sort of old-school feel.

 

So, as someone who had read the adventures of the Hardy Boys and similar series as a kid, and was expecting a post-modern homage to those sorts of books, I felt a little let down.  Which probably has more to do with my own expectations than any weaknesses on the part of the book.  Which means, if this were an actual review, I'd essentially be saying, "That's not the way I would have done it."  But, since this isn't a review, just my thoughts about reading the book, I can say whatever the heck I want.  And so I have...

 

Speaking of reviews, the next book on my list is Silverfin, the first Young James Bond novel by Charlie Higson.  I'd been looking forward to this, and even bought a copy rather than wait for the library to get it, but it's getting some so-so reviews.  Me, I wanted it because I like James Bond, I liked the Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) TV series that Higson produced, and I like the idea that it's a juvenile period adventure series.  (These books are written as if the original novels took place at the time they were written, in the 50s and 60s, which would place Bond's teen years in the 30s.)  And I'm undaunted by the mixed reviews, because--if it's not apparent at this point--I don't place a lot of stock in them.  Those reviewers won't necessarily be bringing the same things I am to the book, so they'll respond in different ways.  For example, School Library Journal wrote that the Alex Ryder books by Anthony Horowitz are a more exciting series of teen spy novels.  (And I hear lots of good things about those, so I'm going to read the first one of those and see how I like it.)  But the Ryder books are contemporary thrillers, and part of what excites me about the Young Bond ones is the period setting.  So... We'll see.

The Dukes of Hazzard - Yahoo! Movies Exclusive Trailer

Aaaaannnd... it looks like another childhood favorite has made it to the big screen intact. And just when I'm thinking it couldn't possibly look any better, Lynda Carter shows up. I'm so there!

Just finished Scrib, and it's great. Find it and read it.

Otherwise, it was a good weekend for "British Telefantasy That I Like." As posted earlier, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was number one at the box office, beating XXX-2. (Double-triple X?) A friend had told me he had heard this wasn't going to be the case, that Hitchhiker's wasn't going to break $20 million (it did, it seems), so I'm glad to hear it turned out to be otherwise.

Me, I actually managed to haul myself out to the theater to see Hitchhiker's Guide for myself. I mean, this is a story (or set of stories) I have loved since I was a kid. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this was my Lord of the Rings. And I thought it was great. I had read some early reviews that indicated it might be otherwise, but those reviewers were clearly hopped up on the goofballs. The movie felt completely true to the spirit of the original material. I had never really pictured the characters or settings in my head looking quite like they do here, but when I saw them, they felt so completely right, and the tone of the movie is so perfect, I felt completely at home.

Some of the reviews I had read complained that too much was cut from the original radio series or books or TV or whatever, but anyone paying even half attention would notice that Douglas Adams changed things when adapting the radio series into books, and then again into the TV series, and computer game, and whatever. Of course he would have made changes in turning it into a movie. (And I'm not interested in playing the game of what parts of the movie were written by Adams and which parts were by Chicken Run Karey Kirkpatrick. It doesn't really matter, because the script is good all the way through, and Chicken Run is a great movie anyway.) I had read articles and interviews where Adams talked about one of the problems with the movie being his not being interested in telling the same story over again in quite the same way, so it never would have been just like the radio series (which wasn't like the books, which weren't like the TV series).

And, really, the negative reviews which focus on what has been lost in translation ultimately just seem like people whining that their favorite bits have been left out, rather than judgments about whether the story still works. I mean, the audience I saw the movie with laughed at all the jokes just fine, so it's hardly a case of them being gutted. Part of the problem, I think, is that a lot of people's favorite bits come from the Guide entries, which are voice-over narration in the radio series and prose asides in the books. Well, voice-overs work great in an audio medium, but less so in a visual medium. (The TV series has plenty of them, but it's so completely cheap, it's really almost radio on TV anyway.) The movie, unsurprisingly, focuses more on big, beautiful images that look great filling the huge screen.

And it does, indeed, look great. As I said, at no point did I find myself thinking that this isn't the way things should look. (My favorite stupid review complaint comes from Douglas Adams freak-nerd MJ Simpson, who complained that the movie had completely changed the appearance of two-headed, three-armed Zaphod Beeblebrox. And, I suppose the freak-nerd has a point, because, as portrayed by Sam Rockwell in the movie, Zaphod does, indeed, look absolutely nothing like he did on the... radio... God.)

In the end, between the Simpson review and SFX Magazine--as well as the freak-nerds who write comics reviews at TheFourthRail.com and the ones who do Doctor Who fan reviews at Outpost Gallifrey--I've created a couple new rules/reasons to discount reviews completely. (As if I needed more.) First, I now place absolutely no value in reviews written by folks who are too close to earlier versions of whatever they're reviewing. (Here, I'm talking about movie or TV revivals, adaptations of anything, or long-running series like comics or whatever.) Those reviews inevitably aren't about the actual movie, or book or whatever. They're about the reviewer's memories of the earlier version or source material, and how the new version compares. Which, you know, means something if I felt exactly the same way about the original version. But, generally, I seem to be a little more flexible in my views, and more willing to accept the new, as long as it creates similar feelings as the old. The reviews seem to be more fixated on details, like specific lines, or the genders of characters, or whatever. So, since I'm almost never coming from the same place as the reviewer... useless.

Then there are the reviews written by folks who are intimately familiar with the material, who proclaim something as being inaccessible to people who aren't. I mean, get over yourself. How would you know? A review is all about your opinion, period, so just speak for yourself. The minute you start doing more than that, shut up. You've run out of things to say.

So the other great British telefantasy event this weekend would be the new episode of Doctor Who: Dalek. Written by award-winning playwright and TV writer--and Doctor Who fan--Robert Shearman, the episode loosely adapts his Big Finish Doctor Who CD, Jubilee. I loved the original, but it's been long enough since I heard it that this episode felt completely fresh.

For those not in the know, the Daleks are the arch-enemies of the Doctor, and probably completely responsible for the show's early success back in 1963/4. They're these mutated creatures inside these armored travel machines which, as Doctor Who Confidential points out, are basically personal tanks that are all the more terrifying because, unlike a full-sized tank, this is a tank that can come into your house and kill you. They're absolutely not human, but because--externally--they're devices, not creatures, they aren't obviously men dressed as monsters.

Having said that, I never really found myself scared by the Daleks in the way I did watching this week's episode. Too often, in the old series (see, now I'm doing it), the Daleks were just mobile guns motivated by hate, a virtually unstoppable army that--unsurprisingly--only the Doctor can defeat. This time, however, we meet a lone Dalek who has been held prisoner for 50 years, the last of its kind. The Dalek is treated as a character, aided tremendously by a fantastic vocal performance by Nick Briggs, and the audience feels sympathy as well as fear. The Doctor, too, isn't simply there to defeat the Dalek. For perhaps the first time, we see how his experiences with the Daleks have affected him. Yes, insisting that the Daleks are bad guys is an obvious response, but this Doctor is absolutely terrified, and that fear colors his reactions in a way we've never seen before. But, having said that, while this episode maps out new emotional territory for the characters and series, it does so in a way that never feels out of place. Fantastic.

Again, watching Doctor Who Confidential, it's clear just how much the new technology available to the production team helps this episode (as well as a generous budget). In the past, the Daleks have always had certain jerky, wobbly quality to them. This would be because the single operator inside the Dalek had to move it around the studio, operate the two front arms, turn the head, and move the eyepiece. And flash the lights in the dome in time with the lines being spoken by another actor. The new Dalek has a remote controlled head, including the eye stalk and lights, so the actor inside the thing only has to move the body around and operate the arms. Another actor operates the head. So this new Dalek moves more smoothly and confidently than any we have ever seen. Additionally, because the lines are being delivered on-set by Briggs, and the head operator can see him, the lights on the head are perfectly synchronized with the speach, for the first time ever. The end result: a Dalek with smooth, confident motion, who truly does seem like an implacable foe.

And then, the end... Not to give too much away, but the idea that I'd be watching an episode of Doctor Who and feel a lump in my throat or a tear in my eye... Okay, not unprecedented in this series: there was the cell phone scene in End of the World, the final scene of the same episode, the Doctor telling Charles Dickens his works would live forever in The Unquiet Dead, and the death of the pig-alien in Aliens of London. But that it would be a Dalek who would make me feel that way? Fantastic!

"Hitchhiker's Guide" Galactic - Yahoo! News: "Don't panic. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the
biggest movie in the galaxy this weekend.

Despite some so-so
reviews, the sci-fi comedy trip got a thumbs up from moviegoers and
easily topped the weekend box office, debuting with $21.7 million,
thumping the weekend's other top newcomer, the Vin Diesel-less sequel
XXX: State of the Union, which stalled in third place with $13.7
million, per studio estimates Sunday"

So, last night, completely unable to get to sleep, I started reading Scrib, the new book by David Ives. I had loved Monsieur Eek, his first novel, and had no idea he had written another one until this turned up at the library. This one's another humorous historical, a Western this time, and I got through maybe half of it before making another attempt at getting to sleep (which failed, and I ended up reading half the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine instead).

Just wanted to point out that it's not just Star Wars on my reading diet...

So, as I write this, my Dad is in the hospital again, and I'm so upset, I can hardly think. I just came home from visiting him yesterday, and I can scarcely process the news.

It's weird; he's so excited about the new Star Wars movie, it's like he's... well, me, some 28 years ago. In fact, he had such a burning desire to find out what happens in the next movie, he bought the novelization and read it, weeks before the movie is due to come out. (It comes out on my birthday, by the way, and I've already bought my ticket.) He tried so hard to keep from giving any of the story away, but he's so excited and enjoyed it so much, he couldn't help himself. And now I'm excited about it in a way I hadn't been before, because now it's something we can share. (He even joined the Star Wars Fan Club so he could access the Hyperspace parts of the Star Wars web site, and hearing him talk about that, it made me want to do the same thing.)

When I went out, I brought the DVD and videotape of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars cartoon, which he hadn't seen. I wasn't sure if he'd like it; he's not a big cartoon fan, and he's not particularly interested in Star Wars stories beyond what's actually in the movies. But he really seemed to like these ones, and I'm glad we got to watch them together.

He gave me his copy of the novelization to read, after I've seen the movie, but in a strange way, that ended up prompting me to read another Star Wars novel myself, Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno. I had stopped at Dark Carnival, the sci-fi/fantasy bookstore I worked at in high school, and saw the book there. It's a prequel novel, set right before the new movie, and I thought he might get a kick out of reading it. He hadn't been feeling so good that day, and I thought he might appreciate a get-well present. And it was a book club edition that they were selling for only $12, which was a good price. However, once I got it back to the house and started reading it, I decided I wanted to finish it myself first, before I passed it on to him.

Now, it should be no secret to folks who know me that I don't mind reading books based on TV shows and movies and stuff. However, I've never been particularly interested in the books based on the various Star Wars movies. To me, the original three movies tell a nice, rounded-off story, and I'm not particularly interested in what happened next to Han Solo or Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia. (This, from someone who used to make up Star Wars stories all the time with his action figures. But that was between the movies.) And I'm not too interested in reading the Clone Wars novels that tell the wartime adventures of the characters between the current movies, either. At least, my interest isn't particularly piqued by the descriptions of the novels I've seen. But this one... I think it's because I saw how excited Dad had gotten by reading his new Star Wars book, and I wanted to feel some of the same thing. Only I didn't want to read the story of the new movie, so this was as close as I could get, reading this prelude. And, you know, it wasn't half bad. I'm still not overly interested in reading any of the other books--although maybe slightly more than I had been before--but I had fun with this one.

So, you know, thanks, Dad. Get well soon, okay?

And, to change the subject slightly, I also read this new graphic novel called Four Letter Worlds from Image Comics, an anthology based around four themes: Love, Hate, Fear, and Fate, done by all sorts of my favorite creators. (Folks like Joe Casey, Steve Lieber, Jeff Parker, Scott Morse, Chynna Clugston, Jamie Rich, Andi Watson, J. Torres... Can't be bothered to look up the links, but feel free to Google them if you like.) Not every story was a winner, but enough of them were to justify the purchase. Oh, and Jay Faerber and Steve Rolston's one about noisy neighbors... Complete slice of my life.

Not sure if I'm going to go see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tomorrow or not. May need the excuse to get out and be distracted. We'll see.

Once and Again - Press Release: Once and Again Season 2: "If you thought the idea of Once and Again season 2 actually being released was a dream, then this press release should be the pinch you need; you're not dreaming. Don't forget that this title is already available for purchase, along with season 1. Check out our Release Info page for more information.

Emmy Award Winner Sela Ward and Bill Campbell Star In
ONCE AND AGAIN
SEASON TWO

BURBANK, Calif., April 26, 2005 - Buena Vista Home Entertainment presents ONCE AND AGAIN Season 2, on DVD August 23. From Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the creators of the acclaimed TV series 'thirtysomething' and 'My So-Called Life,' ONCE AND AGAIN stars Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Sela Ward ('The Day After Tomorrow') and Bill Campbell ('Enough,' TV's 'The O.C.') in the acclaimed drama series that follows the relationship of a divorced dad (Campbell) and a separated mother (Ward), and their ties to their extended families. Season 2 features the unforgettable proposal and marriage between the two stars and includes all 22 episodes from the show's second season in a 5-Disc DVD box set. Also included is episode commentary with creators Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz."

Longtime readers of this journal--both of them--will recall how much I loved Once and Again. When they put out the first season on DVD, I was overjoyed, only to have my heart broken (well, sort of) when not further seasons materialized. So, this is great news. Better news would be that the third season is guaranteed, but I'll take what I can get.

Apparently, one of the determining factors for releasing TV series on DVD is they need to appeal to a youthful demographic, because that's who buys TV shows on DVD. Which is why something like The OC gets released almost immediately, while there's still no sign of thirtysomething or JAG, two popular series that aren't "hip" choices for DVD release. Well, here's an idea. Maybe the sort of people who would buy JAG, or thirtysomething or Once and Again would be more likely to buy TV shows on DVD if the shows coming out on DVD were the shows they enjoyed? I mean, isn't this something of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Tru Calling - Best Buy exclusive season 2 set: "Reader Steven Serridge emailed us last night with the news that Best Buy had Tru Calling: Season 2 up for preorder, which was listed as an exclusive to the chain of stores. We tried to get more information from Fox, since Best Buy doesn't list much information, but we came up dry.

Here's what we know: the 6 episode set, which contains an unaired episode, will sell for $29.99. It'll be available on August 2nd. Hopefully we can dig up more information next week."

And while we're on the subject: thank you so much, Fox, for renewing the series for a second season, then truncating that second season to make way for series with better prospects (the almost instantly canceled North Shore and Pointless Pleasant), and then, not even running all the handful of second season episodes you did produce. So, yes, I will be buying this set.

'Jim,' 'Videos' in at ABC; NBC Drops 'Dreams' - Yahoo! News: "Meanwhile, word is that the fate of NBC's 'American Dreams'
has now been sealed, and the period drama, long considered a
long shot for renewal, will not return next season. NBC
declined comment Thursday."

One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The florist is pleased and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money; I'm doing community service this week." The cop is happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Later a Democrat comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The Democrat is very happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open, there is a thank you card and a dozen different books such as "How to improve your business and becoming more successful".

Then a Republican comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The Republican is very happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a
dozen Republicans lined up waiting for a free haircut.

Because I firmly believe you can never spend enough money or buy enough crap, I bought an iPod tonight. Sort of an impulse purchase, although with some thought behind it: I have to go home to visit the family next week, and I've got some Big Finish CDs I haven't listened to yet. The little, tiny low-memory MP3 player I had that would plug into my Handspring just doesn't hold enough. So, I got me an iPod. How hip I am! And, instead of listening to ... well, whatever I'd be listening to at home, I get to listen to The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, or the new Doctor Who story. Although, the thrill of listening to new Doctor Who stories on CD has paled considerably, now that we have new Doctor Who stories on TV...

As if the return of Doctor Who wasn't enough, I recently learned of another childhood Brit TV fave revival: Basil Brush. As a kid, during our year in New Zealand, the year that fatefully brought me into contact with Doctor Who, Blakes 7, The Tomorrow People, and Sapphire and Steel--which was so scary I couldn't watch more than the first episode--I remember watching The Basil Brush Show faithfully with my family. It was this sketch comedy show, hosted by a small fox puppet with the personality of Terry-Thomas. It was, I suppose, no Muppet Show, but Basil's pun-riddled, borderline-ribald wit had us all in hysterics. So, upon learning that there had been a revival, naturally, I bought the DVDs to catch up. (Sadly, the original is only available as a one-hour "best of" clips collection, which doesn't really do it justice.)

I've only seen one episode of the new one so far, and I'm not sure how I feel. I enjoyed it, and Basil seems very much the same character that I remember from 25 years ago. But the format has changed from a variety/sketch comedy show to a more standard sitcom setup, with a stable setting and cast of characters. (At least, that seems to be the case.) I still enjoyed it, I still laughed at Basil's jokes, but seeing him in the context of a 23-minute extended story, as just this guy interacting with the other regular characters (except he's, you know, a fox puppet) took some getting used to.

And I wonder whether you could make a variety show/sketch comedy show for kids any more. I can't think of any contemporary examples. Nickelodeon used to have some, like All That and The Amanda Show, starring the lovely Amanda Bynes, now star of the big screen and, well, the smaller screen. Maybe for a new Basil Brush show to exist, these are the changes that had to be made? And this brings us to the latest episode of Doctor Who.

SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR WHO: ALIENS OF LONDON FOLLOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.





In a lot of ways, this week's episode, Aliens of London represents the greatest departure from the original series. I mean, there are fans bitching about how the show's 45-minute long episodes lack the depth of plot and character of the original stories. (The original stories were usually told over the course of four 25-minute episodes, and "depth of plot and character" apparently means running around, getting locked up, and escaping multiple times.) For me, who tries not to get hung up on fiddly details, the biggest difference between Old and New Who is that, for the first time ever, the Doctor and his companion are presented as characters. By that, I mean they exist to do more than for the companion to say "Explain the story to me, Doctor," and for the Doctor to save the world. There's a difference between character and personality quirks, and that's a pretty handy example of the difference in what audiences expect from their TV shows between the 1970s (probably the last time Doctor Who was universally acclaimed) and today.

So far, the show has only hinted at the greater depth it has given its characters. In the first episode, tellingly titled Rose, after the new companion, Rose Tyler, we get a picture of her life, including her mother, home life, and boyfriend. This is to be expected; the old series usually made a token attempt at giving a background to the companions, which would be instantly ignored as soon as they went away in the TARDIS. In the second episode, however, the show introduces a device--a modified cell phone--that allows Rose to contact her mother from five billion years in the future. This is the first time I can recall where the companion's lives before meeting the Doctor were actually revisited and factored into the story. It was a touching moment, unlike anything the series had done before, and I loved it.

This week, the Doctor and Rose return to her home. It's only been a few days for Rose since she left, but on Earth, a whole year has passed. And we actually see how her mother has been dealing with the fact that her daughter has been missing without a trace for the past 12 months. Her boyfriend has been a suspect in her disappearance. For the first time ever, we get a--relatively--realistic view of what it might be like for the people who get left behind when the Doctor takes someone with him. In the context of contemporary drama, where the action and adventure stories play out against a backdrop of ongoing character interaction and development, this makes perfect sense. And it's freaked some longtime Doctor Who fans out.

I've read comments that complain about the intrusive nature of the "soap opera" elements in the latest episode. And this, from a Doctor Who critic/fan whose work I enjoy. (Also a heck of a nice guy, and a publisher of some pretty cool books.) And I haven't even bothered reading any of the messages on the forums at Outpost Gallifrey, because the subject headings are off-putting enough. To be honest, I think any fan criticism needs to be taken with this grain of salt: this is easily the most character-oriented episode of Doctor Who ever (or at least to date). As a result, this is the one that may feel to some the least like the show that they remember from anywhere from 15 to 41 years ago. And that's a long time to have loved something, and to find that it's changed... sometimes it's hard. To me, it's still a Doctor Who story, because Doctor Who has never been specifically this or not included that. It's still a show about the Doctor, and he's still fighting monsters, and, for me, at the end of the day, that's what still matters.

And it's still really, really good. I accidentally came across a photo of a pig-headed alien on the official web site, and thought it looked a bit silly. Who would have known that when I actually saw the scene involving the pig-thing, I would almost cry? Again, another first for the show. It's ironic that fans who are somehow under the impression that Doctor Who was ever aimed exclusively at adults, like it was a forerunner to the new Battlestar Galactica or something, accuse the new one of being too childish, because of burping killer trash bins or farting aliens. For my money, this version is the most emotionally mature version of Doctor Who ever.

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "SCI FI Reveals New Series

SCI FI Channel announced a slate of new original series for the 2006-07 season, adding projects from luminaries in film, television and literature to its roster of scripted dramas, miniseries and alternative series. The new shows will incorporate the mainstream appeal of fantasy, adventure and alternative reality.

The following scripted series are currently in development:

•An untitled project executive-produced by Academy Award-winning actor/producer Michael Douglas, based on the work of the late author Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House). Storylines and themes from Jackson's catalog of supernatural short stories will be woven into her real life experiences transitioning from urban mom to small-town matriarch.

•Heroes Anonymous, a live-action series based the comic book created by Scott Gimpel and Bill Morrison which follows a group of 20-something aspiring superheroes who form a support group to help them discover their own identity while carving out their secret identity. The series will be executive-produced by Lawrence Bender (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction), Kevin Brown (Legend of Earthsea, Roswell) and Karl Schaefer (The Dead Zone). Gimpel and Morrison will write the pilot.

•Those Who Walk in Darkness, a drama based on John Ridley's (Three Kings, Third Watch) best-selling novel of the same name about an expert team of S.W.A.T. police whose primary mission is to hunt down and capture people who genetically possess super powers. John Ridley will write and executive-produce in association with NBC Universal Television Studio."

There are more series listed, but the one that interests me the most is Those who Walk in Darkness. I read the novel, thought it was great, and wanted more. The novel seemed to be setting some things up for a sequel anyway, so it's already tailor-made to be explored as a TV series. Plus, it's incredibly dark and humorless, which makes it a perfect fit with another new SciFi hit series, Battlestar Galactica. (Don't get me wrong; I love the new Galactica, but saying it's dark is like saying my cat, Penelope, is slightly fuzzy and enigmatic.)

Of course, the gutters of Hollywood and Canada are littered with TV series in development for SciFi that never make it to air (wither the proposed TV series spin-off from Chronicles of Riddick/Pitch Black, although that was tied into a failed movie...) so I'm not holding my breath.

Okay, so yesterday, I was disappointed at the news that DC Comics had discontinued its line of graphic novels reprinting strips from 2000AD. Today, I'm in a better mood, because, according to 2000AD Review, Rebellion (the company that publishes 2000AD) will be continuing the books on their own.

However, realizing just how much the possibility of the 2000AD books ending upset me has caused me to think even more about the comics I currently buy. And I don't want to fault DC here... okay, yes I do. This situation with the 2000AD and Humanoids (a French comics publisher distributed in the US by DC, also dropped due to low sales, which, until recently, were not promoted at all by DC) is pretty irritating. DC claims they're ending the deals with Rebellion and Humanoids because the books weren't selling. Well, as I've said, they didn't promote the books at all. I didn't see them reviewed in trade journals (not the ones we get at the library, anyway; obscure journals like Publisher's Weekly and Booklist and Library Journal), I didn't see ads aimed at bookstore stock buyers in those journals... Hell, I didn't even see ads in other DC comics. I mean, call me crazy, but since most of the big-name writers working for DC's Vertigo line got started in 2000AD, perhaps advertising their early works in Vertigo comics might have been a shrewd move? But no, they opted to not tell anyone that they were publishing these books--at the rate of three a month, mind--and then were surprised that sales failed to materialize. And then, instead of trying the bold step of attempting any marketing campaign, they canceled the lines.

(To be fair, I had seen house ads for the Humanoids books lately, but obviously, too little, too late.)

So what this says to me about DC is that despite being better than Marvel (the other big company in the US) at publishing diverse material, they don't actually know how to sell anything besides superhero comics. Which would be fine, if sales figures didn't indicate that the audience for superhero comics is shrinking, and that new readers aren't coming into the market. But what bothers me is that they're not willing to try to figure out how to sell other kinds of comics; they're apparently willing to just continue marketing a specific genre to a shrinking audience.

Well, maybe I've just done too much growing up in the past few years, but I'm no longer interested in superhero comics quite the same way I was, not even a year ago. So I'm pretty much dropping every ongoing DC superhero title I was getting. Not every single one; I've been a fan of Legion of Super-Heroes since I've been reading superhero comics, and it's finally good again, so I'lll keep reading that. Ditto Birds of Prey (huge Black Canary fan). And Gotham Central, the comic about the police department in Batman's home town, is still pretty keen. So is Superman/Batman, but when writer Jeph Loeb leaves the book in seven months, I'm going with him. But every other ongoing DC superhero comic I was getting is pretty much off the list, due in a large part to the fact that they've pissed me off. That, and these are the comics that just aren't exciting me the way they used to. Other comics from other companies seem new, exciting and different, while DC is making a big deal about restoring old characters to their old lives in really bad stories (yes, Green Lantern: Rebirth, I'm talking about you). They aren't telling stories about characters any more, and, more importantly, they don't seem interested in even trying. So, I'm out.

(Of course, there are exceptions. I'll keep getting miniseries from them, because those, by their very nature, are story-oriented, and finite. I'll keep getting stuff from their Wildstorm and Vertigo imprints, because those tend to feature new ideas, or non-superhero ones. And if it lives up to the previous work of the creative team, I'll get the new Supergirl comic, because I like the creators, and I've always liked the character. But that's it.)

Sorry if this is rambling a bit. Got some other stuff going on in my real life that I'm trying to distract myself from.

NEWSARAMA - DC SHEDS 2000AD/REBELLION & HUMANOIDS: "Their absence in the July solicitations was duly noted by the respective fans of the UK and France-based publishers, and DC late today issued an explanation for the missing 200AD/Rebellion and Humanoids solicitations: the publisher has ended its relationships with the European publishers, and will no longer publish their material in North America."

Considering that the 2000AD reprints were some of the comics I most looked forward to each month, this is really disappointing news. But really, you have to wonder just how much better the sales might have been if DC Comics had advertised them. At all. Ever. Even once.

And people wonder why comics sales are down...

Yahoo! News - 'Ronin' Mercenary Drama Headed to Small Screen: "CANNES, France (Hollywood Reporter) - 'Ronin,' John Frankenheimer's 1998 mercenary spy drama, is headed to the small screen as an hourlong TV series under development by Canada's Incendo Prods. and German-based Action Concept.

The series, announced by the two companies at the MIPTV conference on Monday, will follow the adventures of an international team of freelancing agents who take on jobs too hot for regular spies to handle."

I've actually seen the movie, and it's pretty good, but mostly for the really cool, really expensive European car chases. (Between that and the Matt Damon Bourne movies, I've decided it should be illegal to set a car chase in the US.) Can't see them matching that action for the TV series, and without the star power... I have visions of John Woo's Once a Thief, which I loved, but lacked the expensive look and feel of La Femme Nikita...

Boston.com / News / World / Australia/Antarctica / Handler punished for donning camel costume

This would be why I never check luggage when I fly...

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "Lost Finale Is Super-Sized

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a writer and supervising producer on ABC's hit series Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the much-anticipated season finale will clock in at three hours and give fans everything they love about the show. 'In terms of epic storytelling and shocking destiny, you ain't seen nothing yet!' Grillo-Marxuach said in an interview. "

The New York Times > Arts > Television > Directions | Pilot Watch: Desperate Hours: "'Fathom' (NBC): Four characters around the world (including one played by Lake Bell, pictured) encounter a species of beautiful sea creature no one has ever seen. The characters' stories intersect over the course of the series, and viewers find out whether the creatures are nice or mean.


'Threshold' (CBS): Alien life forms land on a naval freighter at sea, but there's no sign of them. So where did they go? And will their friends be joining them? A team of scientists and agents (Carla Gugino, Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner) prepare for a possible invasion as they investigate the evil influence the absent E.T.'s appear to exert.


'Invasion' (ABC): Something strange happens in a Florida town during a hurricane. The kind of strange that involves aliens.


'Triangle' (UPN): On their honeymoon in the Caribbean, a young doctor (Ivan Sergei) wakes up to find his wife has disappeared from their yacht. He searches the islands for her, uncovering secrets as he goes.


'Supernatural' (WB): Two brothers whose mother was killed in mysterious circumstances drive around the creepy countryside hunting evil creatures."

Obviously, I'm thrilled that Carla (Sin City/Karen Sisco) Gugino has a new pilot, but my favorite title of these proposed new Lost-a-likes? Supernatural, about two brothers who investigate the... well, the supernatural. (This one comes from McG, the vowelless director of the Charlie's Angels movies who also produces the successful TV series The OC, as well as TV failures Fastlane and The Mountain.

And for the record, I've never been able to get through a whole episode of The OC, I made it five minutes into The Mountain before giving up, and I watched the whole first episode of Fastlane, because it was created by John McNamera, the genius behind Profit, Spy Game, and new fave Eyes. Clearly, with Fastlane he had just plain given up...

Thanks to cable movie channels, I watched Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed last night and Van Helsing this morning. At least, I think that's the order I watched them in; they're really the same movie, as far as I can tell. The one with Sarah Michelle Gellar, I watched last night, and the one with Kate Beckinsale, I watched this morning.

Ah, I make the joke, of course. Truth is, they were both fun. Not movies I would have cared to pay to see in theaters (which I didn't, so that's all right), or even movies I would have gone out of my way to rent, but when they show up on the movie channels, and all I have to do is have the DVR record them (in HD, no less) to watch at my leisure later... Well, that's why I pay for those channels, to be honest. (Well, that, and Deadwood, I guess.)

Van Helsing was probably the lesser of the two, partly because it was over two hours long, partly because my expectations had been raised by Stephen Sommers' earlier movies (the two Mummy movies and Deep Rising), and partly because Scooby-Doo had Linda Cardellini (ER, Freaks & Geeks, The Lot) as Velma. Scooby also had the advantage of deliberately choosing to use classic monsters from the TV show, whereas Van Helsing chose to give us updated versions of the classic Universal monsters. (Not that Universal Studios created Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman, but they do own the copyright to the most recognizable versions.) But while the monsters may not have caused the same echoes of nostalgia, the movie was still good popcorn fun. And it had a twist at the very end that I hadn't expected from a movie like this, which caught me off guard.

Having said that, I don't think the world needs a sequel to Van Helsing, so I'm not too crushed that it failed at the box office. And it's not as good a Kate Beckinsale monster movie as Underworld, I think. (Partly because, attractive as she was, the sight of her running around in a lacy bustiere fighting vampires while everyone else in her village is dressed in rags just looked silly. At least everyone else in Underworld was wearing tight leather outfits...) But if, as is rumored, Stephen Sommers' next project is a revival of Flash Gordon, this movie shows it might be fun. Here's hoping...

Okay, I had heard that Hugh Laurie had bowed out of the upcoming Superman movie--he was to have played Perry White--in favor of Frank Langella. I just read that it's because Laurie is too busy shooting the second season of House his Fox medical drama, which I watch and enjoy. That's unexpected good news.

(Except that Tru Calling was renewed for a second season, too, and look what happened there...)

CNN.com - Has Cookie Monster given up sweets? - Apr 7, 2005
Or have parents just given up parenting and setting boundaries for their kids? You make the call.

Police Impound SUV That Rolled Over Toddler

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :: The Official Movie Website

April 29. Counting down...

(I've said it before and I'll say it again: what Lord of the Rings seems to have been for so many of my friends, and Harry Potter is to the current generation, Doctor Who and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy were/are to me.)

So, another fast food restaurant is now on my "no-go" list: Taco Bell. Now, don't get me wrong; Taco Bell was already on the way out for me anyway. It's the only fast food restaurant near my house where I have to ask for napkins at the drive-thru. But the other night, I just wanted something quick with melted cheese, so I went inside (the drive-thru was pretty packed, and, as noted, they pretty much suck). So I'm waiting for my food, and while I'm waiting, I'm listening to one of the kids in the kitchen crack one racist joke after another. Not going to repeat them, but the punch line for one was "Afroturf." I was getting ready to ask for the manager when my food came, and I decided not to let my food get cold over this. But when I got home, I called and complained, and explained that I wouldn't be coming back.

I mean, seriously, even though we're talking about some high school kid, if the restaurant doesn't have enough sense to explain to its employees how those sorts of comments can offend people with brains, and how they shouldn't be making those sorts of jokes over and over and over again within earshot of customers, that's their problem. And considering how ignorance and closed-mindedness is pretty much the cause of so many of the world's problems, I think it's worth clamping down on it wherever it's found. So I need to also write a letter to the corporate offices, because I'm just that irritated. (And, because they're all run by the same company, I'm also taking KFC and Pizza Hut off the list, too. At least I'm not going to be disappointed by no longer being able to go to places that are good...)

So, TV... Had DVR problems last week, which resulted in my missing the final (probably) episode of Carnivale on HBO (but it'll be rerun this weekend). Also missed last week's Deadwood, Project Greenlight, House, Blind Justice, probably Judging Amy, and I can't remember what else. Some of them (Greenlight, The Shield) I'll be able to catch in reruns. And at least I no longer have so much unwatched TV on the DVR...

Because of this, I didn't see the pilot of USA's new Kojak series, starring Ving Rhames, until yesterday afternoon, followed in the evening by the first hour-long episode. I liked it, because I like Rhames, but it's got an interesting tone to it. In ways I can't quite explain, it feels sort of retro, which makes it reminiscent of the original '70s series, but it doesn't feel old-fashioned. Doesn't blow me away, but certainly enjoyable.

I also finally saw an episode of Gray's Anatomy, after the first one was eaten by the bad DVR. It's a hospital show, and doesn't bring too much to the table, but the cast and characters are likeable, and it's only on for two more weeks, so I'll keep watching it. If only for Sandra Oh and Katherine Heigl.

And this morning saw the premiere of Cartoon Network's new series, Krypto the Superdog. As a kid, I always had a soft spot for Krypto's appearances in the old Superboy comic (the adventures of Superman when he was a boy), so I was looking forward to this. And, brought to us from the brains behind the Batman, Superman, and Justice League cartoons, this did not disappoint. I mean, I'm sure there are reviews on the 'Net bitching about how this isn't the dark, gritty, serious adventures of Krypto the Superdog, but, you know, screw 'em. I give those critics the same respect as the 'Net critics who can't deal with the notion that the new Doctor Who series is aimed at a general family audience, as if the original one wasn't. There ought to be more to criticism than "I wanted it to be something else," and I don't think there's enough of that on the 'Net.

I also managed to haul my @r$e out to the movie theater to see Sin City. I'd been reading Frank Miller's Sin City comics since the very first installment was published in the Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special. The movie adapts three of the graphic novels, and the biggest complaints I've heard relate to the fact that it contains three separate stories instead of one big one. Which, you know, overlooks the fact that if you faithfully adapt the Sin City books, none of them has enough story for a two-hour movie. So, again, we're back to the "This isn't the way I would have done it" criticism. Whatever.

And as much as I loved the first new episode of Doctor Who, the second takes it to the next level. The first was great, but needed to introduce Rose, and reintroduce the Doctor, the TARDIS, and the whole concept of the show. This week, we get the first regular adventure for the Doctor and Rose as a team, and it's fantastic. Taking place five billion years in the future, at the end of the world, it's a visual spectacle. But clearly, the producers understand that just because they can achieve images the original series couldn't even begin to dream of, all that needs to be in service to the story. Because that's what made the original so great, the fact that aside from the cheap production values and dodgy special effects, the writing and acting made you believe.