Forsooth.

Battlestar Galactica complete recap thus far

I saw this on my Tivo last night and was pretty much intending to download it to DVD for my own nefarious purposes, but now I don't have to. Thank you, intertubes!



The fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight.

Conan O'Brien on the Jon Stewart Show

As excerpted on the Colbert Report back in January.

Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica's new season begins this Friday on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Oscar, Oscar OSCAR!

In 2003 Scott and I wrote down the things we'd learned from watching that year's Oscars telecast.

To win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, it really helps to be an old white guy.

If you want to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, play someone's mother, or a hooker, or, if at all possible, both.

The Academy Awards ceremony has never, ever included a tasteful musical number.

I've taken a break from the Oscars for the last few years, tuning in briefly if at all, but tonight I'm prepared to soak it in. I even set up a real-time chat and Oscars pool over at the B-Movie Message Board. Hell, maybe Scott and I will even write about the lessons we learned this year.

Why the renewed enthusiasm? I'm not sure. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a few more of the contenders this year than usual, or maybe I'm just psyched that the WGA strike is over. (I really want to see what Jon Stewart and crew come up with under this much pressure.) Last night the Indie Spirit Awards rewarded Juno and Diablo Cody in particular, which warms my heart, but it's too much to hope that the same film will fare as well at the Academy Awards. Wouldn't it be cool to see Cody give an Oscars speech though?

I notice that the Razzies went out yesterday as well, and that the Lindsay Lohan "thriller" I Know Who Killed Me swept the bad-movie awards, setting yet another record for most Razzies won. According to the Razzies, I Know is officially worse than Showgirls or Battlefield Earth. Somehow I doubt it. I haven't delved into the way the Razzies work, but it seems to have evolved into a flavor-of-the-month celebrity schadenfreude contest instead of a real examination of the worst movies made each year. But hey, it's their event -- let 'em run it the way they want.

Me, I'll be watching tasteless musical numbers on the Academy Awards.

WGA Strike Report - Day 95 Recap

TV Fodder sums up the news from a variety of news sources, highlighting the likely fates of some high profile TV shows.

-Good news: Shows like "Ugly Betty," “Grey’s Anatomy" and “Lost" could start filming within two to four weeks after the end of the strike and produce a month’s worth of episodes to finish out the season. Also, “Two and a Half Men," “How I Met Your Mother," “Back to You" and “Samantha Who?" could all complete more episodes, between seven and nine.

-Bad News: Shows like “Heroes" and “24" probably won’t be back for a long time. Both shows deal with long story arcs and wouldn’t have a chance to complete them in such a limited time. While “Heroes" could just come back in the fall, EW speculates that “24" might not be back until 2009!

Read TV Fodder's WGA Strike Report: Day 95 Recap.

Holy Crap - Daily Show, Colbert Report return to the air

I'm not sure how I missed this, but Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are back on the air, without benefit of their writers. If your Tivo didn't catch it, you can catch up on the first night back over at thedailyshow.com. And yeah, the whole "watch it on the Internet" thing is a large part of what the strike is about.

Reanimator - article on "Pushing Daisies" in the New Yorker

In this week's New Yorker, Nancy Franklin's article on the TV series Pushing Daisies reveals that its creator Bryan Fuller was responsible for two other quirky-brilliant television series, also favorites of mine. Dead Like Me ran for a brief two seasons on Showtime and Wonderfalls flared out after only four episodes. (Both shows are now available in their entirety on DVD.) In retrospect this makes a lot of sense; Daisies shares the precision of comedy that made both shows so delightful. The changeover to a male protagonist (both other shows featured young women as the focus) makes for interesting comparison, though Ned seems much less a protagonist than a human Maguffin around which the other characters orbit. If you're unfamiliar with the series, read Franklin's article for a good synopsis.

I don't know how many episodes Franklin got to see before turning in her final draft, but she skips over the show's most interesting feature by far: Kristen Chenoweth as Olive Snook, the waitress at Ned's restaurant and the rival for his affections. The third point in a romantic triangle is rarely given the charm and subtlety of character that we see in Olive, and given the problems inherent in a romance between Ned and Chuck, it would be nice to see the lovebirds come to some sense about their relationship and let Olive get her shot. For the purposes of drama, however, this is exactly what will not happen.

Franklin closes her article with this:

"Pushing Daisies" probably shouldn't last longer than a season; fairy tales aren't supposed to go on forever. It will then take its place proudly beside other worthy efforts that lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful DVD.

I disagree that the concept doesn't have the legs to last longer than a season; it could probably go three or four without going completely stale, but it needs to get past the Ned & Chuck romance stage in order to move on to more interesting things -- like the origins of Ned's power (which might take all the fun out of it), or perhaps some other interesting applications to be derived from it. (Could Ned resurrect famous figures from the past, provided their remains could be located?) Fortunately for us the ratings for Pushing Daisies are quite good. If it can survive the seemingly inevitable writers' strike hiatus, we may get to see more than a single box set's worth of stories.

Peter Davison returns (briefly) as the Fifth Doctor

You bet your ass it's time for some new Doctor Who. The BBC announced last week that Friday they'll be airing "Time Crash," a "new scene" in the Doctor Who universe created as part of the Children in Need charity telethon.

It's not long now until Friday night - and Time Crash, the special Doctor Who scene starring David Tennant and Peter Davison.

As well as Time Crash, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Graeme Harper, the Children In Need telethon will also feature the vocal talents of John Barrowman, who will be singing during the evening.

In association with Children In Need, the Doctor Who website team will be doing our bit to support this historic meeting of two Doctors.

If you're in the UK, you'll be able to catch the scene online for seven days after it's shown on TV, along with a very special behind-the-scenes featurette from the Doctor Who Confidential team.

We'll also be running a mini episode guide, including galleries, a fact file and full credits.

I think this underscores the special place that Doctor Who has in the hearts of the British populace. How many television shows in the States -- never mind science fiction shows -- have a following devoted enough to justify annual holiday specials for charity?

Learn more about the mini-episode here and here, and check out a nice large image of the two Doctors together here. Also, check out the "front" page of the Doctor Who section of the BBC's web site for yet another image.

Heroes, season 2 - the time of waffling

I think I've figured out why the second season of Heroes isn't really striking any chords for me. Here it is: as villains go, diseases just aren't very sexy. Part of Heroes' charm in the first season was its simplicity: take clear comic-book style heroes and villains and make them slightly more realistic (no spandex) or conflicted (Horn-Rimmed Glasses guy hunts heroes but also adopted one) and make things spin out of control.

This season introduced concepts and characters that aren't terribly dynamic (a brother-sister team that bring on a deadly plague but can also cure it?) or are difficult to represent on screen (the aforementioned unsexy disease). The best heroes were benched as soon as they reached some self-realization (Claire, Peter, Hiro) and the only interesting plot thread has been the murder mystery. At least these threads seem to be coming together as we finally meet Adam Munroe (the former Takezo Kensei, whose healing ability apparently keeps him from aging as well). I'm hoping they keep Sylar well out of the mix for a while, or at least keep him from acquiring a crapload of powers again.

From the events we saw last week, the players are coming back together for an (hopefully) action-packed second half (two-thirds?) to the season. Hiro has returned to the "present," Peter has regained his memory (partially) and come back from yet another dystopic future, and the identity of Adam Munroe has been revealed. Tonight we should at least find out the direction that the writers had intended for the series to go -- if only that strike weren't stopping production dead in its tracks.

Tivo offers lifetime subscriptions again - temporarily

My sister, knowing my devotion to all things Tivo, sent me this link to this Engadget blog post:

Call it a quick holiday cash-in targeted at current TiVo owners if you must, but you're not about to kill our buzz about the fact that TiVo's resurrecting the greatly missed Product Lifetime Service (aka lifetime subscription) for Series3 and HD owners -- temporarily, anyway, and for realsies this time. As of today -- but only through January 2nd, 2008 -- current TiVo owners can upgrade their Series2 to a Series3 or HD with lifetime, or simply upgrade the service on their current S3 / HD -- equipment aside, the service will set you back $399.

Tempting, but for some reason I'm just really slow to jump on the HD bandwagon. I think it's the lack of funds to pay for things like HD-ready Tivos and digital HDTV service. (We currently pay $15 a month for basic cable service - HD channels would be many times that.) HD will probably come to my house in the form of a cheap hi-def DVD player first (the jury's still out on HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray in my book), or maybe an Apple TV if they decide to start offering high definition movies for rent. Until then, we'll watch the same old regular definition shows that have been serving man since TV began.

Joss Whedon on the WGA Strike

I’ve done well, and I’m grateful that I can weather a long winter. Compared to what the studios have made off me my share is tiny and cute, but I’m in no position to complain. But take that differential, apply it to someone who’s just getting by when they deserve better. Now take it and… well, just take it, ‘cause when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there’s nothing there for the artists. There’s no precedent; these media didn’t exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We’re not just talking about an unfair deal, we’re talking about no deal at all.

Read Whedon's entire post here.

WGA strikers use YouTube to tell their side of the story

Brilliant, really. I wonder if the execs will clue in and try to set up an opposing YouTube channel. And if they do, who will write their videos for them?



Check out the other videos on the WGA YouTube Channel.

WGA Strike is here to save me from myself

The screenwriters strike is here, and I can't say I'm too broken up about it. We're just a wee bit TV addicted here at Stomp Tokyo HQ (Austin branch), so maybe the break from TV (which looks like it'll come right around Christmas or so) will let us get a few things done besides feed our eyeballs. There are obviously serious issues at stake here and there's a lot more than my personal productivity to consider, but on the most personal, selfish level I'm looking forward to the break from the Tivo onslaught. Perhaps I'll even remove a season pass or two, though I imagine my wife and I would have to fight over which ones would get the axe.

On a related note, it looks like Heroes: Origins has been put down, at least for now. Given the way this season of the flagship show has been going, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It seems to be suffering some sophomore year loss-of-direction problems, but here's hoping the writers come back from the strike with some fresh ideas.

Cult Movies Podcast Episode 44

There's a whole lot of cult TV coming out this Fall, and we cover most of it in this podcast. We'll come back around to "Bionic Woman" in a future episode, if only so we can drag out that MP3 of the theme song from the original show. Listen to our expert dissections of "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "Pushing Daisies," "Reaper," and more.

Listen now.

The final word on Veronica Mars . . . ?

We've known for over a month now that Veronica Mars was cancelled. Dead. Kaput. There were some who kept hope alive with a viewer campaign involving Mars bars, but that work was apparently in vain.

Now there's this interview with series creator Rob Thomas at BlogCritics in which he mentions that DC Comics is interested in continuing it as a comics series. I thought it was interesting when Joss Whedon started Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 8 as a comic, but that kinda sorta made sense, being a fantasy series and all. Veronica Mars, on the other hand, is a fairly straight teen detective soap opera. Very interesting.

Thomas is apparently hard at work on a new series, Miss/Guided starring Judy Greer (yay!). And Miss Mars herself (Kristen Bell)? She has a couple of movies coming out soon, including a Judd Apatow-produced comedy called Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

So RIP Veronica Mars, at least until we see you in the funny pages.

I can't believe it either, Bob.

What's that sound?

That distant cry like a thousand thousand nerds wailing in the wilderness?

It's the sound of a devoted fan base that just got told they have to wait until 2008 for more episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

If I were to guess (and why not guess, given that I have no journalistic integrity to uphold?) I'd say that there are some actors (and crew members?) on that show who are anxious to flex their newly-developed market muscle by taking an extended break to do some movie work, or maybe just take some time off from Cylon life. For us it's a pleasant diversion once a week; for them it's been three-plus years of constant life on the set of a space opera.

I'm looking forward to the next (and presumably last) season of Battlestar Galactica as much as the next geek, but I'm happy to give them their hiatus. Plenty of stuff on cable and DVD to occupy my time until then.

Just one question: when the heck does Veronica Mars start back up?

Edit: Looks like the answer to that last question is May 1st. Whee.

Ultraman Objects Exhibit

Reason number eleventy-twelve why Japan is the coolest country ever – they have a photography exhibit showcasing the art of Ultraman and it's actually taken quite seriously.

I quite like what they show on the exhibit's page, and if you click around a bit you can find some pictures of Ultraman toys (apparently on sale?).

If you want to learn more about Ultraman the best source is of course the Ultraman FAQ. Accept no imitations.

NBC posts "Heroes" online for free

NBC has posted the 11 episodes aired so far from its series Heroes on its web site for a limited time. If you want to catch up, this is a good, free way to do it. Personally I'm going to wait on this one for DVD – the TV landscape and my life are just too cluttered at the moment to try and keep up on a weekly basis. Since it has a continuing story arc it also looks like it'll be more fun to devour in rapid succession than with interruptions and commercials. But hey, if you don't mind sitting in front of your computer to watch a bunch of episodes, Heroes does look like a pretty good series and should be encouraged.

Check out the Heroes online episodes now.