Living La Vida Nova

Terra Nova - Bylaw

Yeppers, just sitting here halfway through episode 5 of Terra Nova, Bylaw…

I don’t hate this show, but I’m not sure if I love it yet either. No, actually I’m pretty sure I don’t love it. More often than not these are individual stories (problems-of-the-week) we’ve all seen before in Star Trek, BSG, and the like. But that’s ok — it certainly looks good.

I’ll tell you what, dude’s wife in this episode is played by an actress (Alice Parkinson) who looks like she came right out of the 80s.

Breaking My Bad

I must be really bored if I’m updating my so-called blog…

Netflix streaming, you’re killing me!
I have been watching TV like mad lately — especially now that the current season of Doctor Who has ended. And Netflix you’re a cruel, cruel mistress. I have to say, there are too many cool shows to keep up with new, first run programs aside (I’ll try to address some of them next time).

I’ve finally succumb to the pressure and given Breaking Bad a look. Pilot episode didn’t move me at all. Not that it was bad, just reminded me of many other notable quality (low-budget) cable dramas, eg foreshadowing, minimal locations, dialog & character development heavy. Yada, yada, yada… well I made through 3 more episodes and guess what? It’s good. Shocking, I know. Nowhere near earth shocking, but worthy of my further attention.

TBC

Shonen Jump

Just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching TV. Been watching quite a bit actually.

Beginning about 2 months ago I started to dabble into the Shonen Jump Anime worlds of Naruto and Bleach. About 8 eps into each I can say I’m kinda meh-tastic about Bleach, and while Naruto started of more entertaining than I expected, it suddenly went down I-couldn’t-be-bothered Boulevard. With Bleach it’s just got this quasi Gothic/horror/supernatural vibe that I’m just not digging. There are these creatures called Hollows who are restless spirits or souls who never quite completed their journey to the afterlife. Well you know what, they’re actually quite demented and disturbing at times. Why in the world to I want to watch a show which pummels the antagonists and audience with such creatures week in and out? Naruto on the other hand started off better than expected. This is not meant as a slight, but kind of reminded me of when I used to watch series 1 Pokemon cartoons after I would get home early from high school back in the day; Just mindless, soft entertainment. But then somewhere around episode 6 of Naruto disaster struck. We find ourselves lost in a Dragonball briar patch, that is a battle or duel that spans multiple episodes. Full of smug character introspection and posturing ad nauseum. Snooze…

Planet of Evil

I have been watching Classic Doctor Who like crazy. Lately I’ve watched all or most of seasons 2, 12, 13, 27, and 31 ‒ and that’s just for starters.

I feel like I've been taking crazy pills.

Earlier today I finished off s13e1 Planet of Evil. Right from the start something seemed familiar about this story to me. It does begin with a common Doctor Who template of sorts, a wrecked spacecraft on an alien planet. Reminds me of Mission to the Unknown aka Dalek Cutaway and Planet of the Daleks. In fact, at first glance I thought the ship portal setpiece to be the exact same one the Thals’ crashed vessel in Planet. My OCD immediately caused me to put the Tom Baker story on hold as I literally went to go compare. I was mistaken.

Further in another mini-revelation dawned on me, but first some background: Let it be known that I have seen just about every Fourth Doctor story at least once before. That being said, most I’ve only seen once, and that one time was probably back in the early 90s on PBS, needless to say the plots aren’t exactly fresh in my brain. Well it started becoming apparent to me that this story, Planet of Evil, is what I always wrongly remembered as The Ribos Operation. Sorry dear reader ‒ if you’re reading this you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. But upon revisting Ribos within the last year, it took me by complete surprise when I learned it was about a grand heist as opposed to stranded starliner. C’est la vie.

Special kudos to Prentis Hancock as Salamar. If there’s anything I love in my classic Doctor Who is an over-the-top protagonist. Next up in my queue: Pyramids of Mars…

Mexi-can’t

Being a huge fan of just about everything director Robert Rodriguez films, I had been aware of Machete for quite a long time now.  I didn’t know if it would actually be any good, but that honestly wasn’t a big concern of mine. When the trailers started emerging over the last 3 months or so I got pretty excited, things were looking good.

Flash forward to me seeing the film in theaters about a week and a half after the premiere. Hmm…

Michele Rodriguez never looked hotter.
-El Fin

@MRodOfficial on twitter

Ok, alright, the film was ok, but not the kind of thing I’d recommend to all my friends. I really hope R.R. mailed this 1 in for some easy bucks, because that’s what it felt like. Yeah, this movie was pretty cool when it was called El Mariachi… Desperado… Once Upon a Time in Mexico… Alright we get it already Rob. Everyone of these brought something to the table, but at the same time seemed like an homage (or re-hash) to it’s cousins in the series that preceded it. Well now you can add Machete to that list and to a degree Planet Terror as well. But know this, Planet Terror was a pretty darn tongue-in-cheek romp. Machete was more like an undercooked lengua taco.

Hasta la vista.

Been there done that

<Time for me to play a little catch up now.>
In a matter of 2 1/2 days I managed to finish up all of Friday Night Lights s3. It had been about a year since I last watched the show and seen the finale of this particular season. Sure since the beginning FNL has always been 1 of my all time favorite shows, but until revisiting it now, geez I forgot how good it really is. Just splendid, so very splendid. Nearing the final episode of s3 I started getting a little emotional because there was a strong sense that things were going to change a lot during this off-season. Very hard to tell which main characters would return for s4 and which wouldn’t. Well I already went out and purchased my own copy of the s4 DVD which I have here in my hand and hopefully I’ll return to Dillon, TX and find out the answer to this question very soon.

Season of Love

Over the past 4 days I knocked out the 2nd half of Smallville season 3 and am on the verge of finishing all of season 4.

Whoa Nelly, season 4! Is it me or did it suddenly get VERY HOT in here? It’s Senior year at Smallville High and hormones are raging. It couldn’t be more obvious that the executive producers of Smallville made a conscientious effort to up the sex appeal year.  There is a lot of skin, a lot of hot guest actresses, a bizarre taboo relationship, and yet throughout it all, Lana & Clark remain chaste virgins. Wow, this show really is a fairy tale.

How old are you again?

Speaking of taboo relationships, dig this:

Lana goes away to Paris for the summer between her Junior and Senior year of high school. While there she meets Jason. Jason, meanwhile is a college student whereupon returning to the States he eventually takes a job as assistant football Coach at Smallville High. Umm kay… All the while he and Lana are having a relationship on the DL. Umm kay… Teacher/student relationship, whatever. Of course they eventually get caught and Jason is fired from his position.  Really, that’s all? Much later in series 4 the issue of whether J&L had actually consummated their relationship finally got raised. “What!?” Lana says. “Me and Jason? NO! I’m still a virgin.” Umm kay…

I found this entire plot thread really hysterical and disturbing at the same time.

(Fine, I just did some quick research on Jason Teague via the Smallville wiki and oh how convenient. Apparently during the s4 premiere when we are first introduced to Jason’s character, as well as the ‘relationship in progress,’ it is mentioned that events are taking place the day before Lana’s 18th birthday. Oh how convenient… Umm kay.)

Clash of Harry Potter & the Titans

Our movie blows!?

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief… Phew that’s a mouthful. There’s not too much I can really say about this movie. It looked a bit interesting from the onslaught of previews we got hammered with for months at the cinema. Every time I saw the trailer I incorrectly guessed it would be Green Lantern.

Being that this film was primarily made under the direction of Chris Columbus of Harry Potter 1 & 2, it’s remarkable to me how much this movie pales in comparison. I can only assume it’s because he had a far smaller budget to work with in this instance.  I never read the original novels and after seeing the film I have a STRONG desire not to. Based on the screenplay it seems the overall premise of this series is too much like a Harry Potter clone from a literary point of view, simply substituting Greek mythology for wizardry & witchcraft.  Because I don’t get paid to blog I shan’t take the time to break down the game film on this point.

Let’s just say this movie is what it is (1 of my favorite lazy phrases). When I watched the first 30 minutes or so I simply wanted to quit. I persisted and I’ll admit that it improved to watchable status rather than utter garbage. This film comes off as either an extremely well produced Syfy movie or underwhelming motion picture experience due to effects and scope. In the end it’s up to you to decide.

A Friday by any other name would be just as sweet

I was on a tear last night. I think I watched 5 episodes of Friday Night Lights in a row. If you know me and what my attention is like, that’s really saying something. I suppose I hadn’t watched any FNL since around Spring 2009. Season 1 will probably forever be the all-time best year of the show, but I had forgotten how good Season 3 was too. To but it bluntly, FNL moves me like very few dramas ever have or do. I’ve been mentally keeping track and I think on average I get the urge to [almost] tear up 1 to 3 times per episode. Not just out of fear or regret for certain characters’ seemingly dire situational arcs, but also for certain glimmers of hope & internal exaltation.

And on a lighter note: In It Ain’t Easy Being J.D. McCoy (s3e6) When Lyla Garrity is watting for Riggins after practice in cowboy boots and that green number… <ded>

Garrity & Rig

The Godfather

Dear Smallville s3 finale montage ending: You’re so silly.

Moe Greene