The Venture Bros. - The Lepidopterists

Now we're talking!

After a season that has so far been very very strange (not bad, but strange), we finally get a Venture Bros. that nails it. Not the least of what kept a constant smile on my face was this:













My friends, behold Ventronic! And yes, that's an ice cream cone he has for an arm (don't ask...watch the episode).

This episode focused entirely on Jonas Venture Jr., Rusty's vestigal twin brother.  In fact, we didn't see Rusty or Hank or Dean at any point in this episode.  Jonas Jr. is starting to spread his Protagonist wings more and more, leading to an epic showdown between him and The Monarch. 

Too many hilarious things to mention from this episode, but the two OSI agents, Henchman #1, and Scarantula's laser cannon discussion have all moved into the Venture Bros. hall of fame.

While a lot of this season has been somewhat uneventful, they all paid off marvelously in this episode.

Watch this week's episode right here.

Venture Bros.- Season 3 - Episode 1 - "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"

Yay! Venture Bros. is/are back! It kind of sneaked up on me. Actually, I knew it was going to be returning near the beginning of June, it's just that the whole month of June kind of sneaked up on me. In any event, its return comes not a moment too soon, what with the season finale of Lost and the series derailment of Battlestar Galactica.

This episode had nary a glimpse of Hank or Dean, and only a couple of moments of Dr. Venture and Brock. But that's okay. The Venture Bros isn't a show about the characters themselves, it's about the whole Venture-Bros-iverse. As long as they bring the funny, and this week, they did.

Basically what we had was a sort of origin story for the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they apply for membership into the League of Calamitous Intent. Lots of fun moments, too many to recount. Nothing gut-busting, but all of it good. What I'm sure will become a fun quest is figuring out who the shadowy members of the Council of Thirteen are. I haven't done any Googling to see if any of them have been identified, but the only one I think I've figured out is that the main one that was speaking is Wile E. Coyote. (okay... now I'm going to go Googling... nope... so far only Wile E. Coyote).

One of my favorite things about this show is the codifying of Supervillainry that they've done. My favorite of these is the term "arching", which is what you do when you have an arch-enemy (which I have!)

Anyway, Venture Bros. is always more about the sum of the whole, rather than the individual parts. This was another solid episode in what looks to be a great season. Can't wait to see more of Manotaur and his Malevolent Murder Maze. And I want to see more of Truckules.

Because it's going to be such a long long time before anything good returns to the airwaves, it might be a good time to revisit The Venture Bros. from the beginning.

Battlestar Galactica - "Sine Qua Non"

There was a time not that long ago where I had the whole Battlestar Galactica storyline down cold. I could name ships and characters and knew what all the mystical stuff meant.

But not anymore.

BSG has completely lost me. It hit me a couple of episodes ago when in the midst of the shows latest string of visions and prophecies and dreams, I suddenly realized I didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. I had no clue how any of it tied together.

And the worst part? I didn't care anymore.

BSG is at the point where I know enough about the behind-the-scenes development of this show that I know they're really making this all up as they go along. I know that any ideas or plot threads that they might have had in season one or two have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and ret-conned into submission. And for me, that totally ruins the experience. Unlike the Cylons, the creative team does NOT have a plan.

And that in itself is a joke. I defy ANYone to tell me in less than a thousand words what the Cylon's plan is. Better yet, tell me what it was at each stage of this show. Wipe out all the humans? Wipe out all of them except for a few? Find Earth? Not find Earth? Have there been prophecies all along? Where do they get their spiritual info from? Where's the Cylon Bible?

It's all so convoluted and contradictory that I doubt the writing staff of this show could explain it to you.

In spite of the ret-con plot integrity betrayal last season with the reveal of four of the Final Five Cylons, I was giving this season a chance to tie it all together and hit a home run. But that hasn't happened.

"Sine Qua Non" was easily one of the weakest episodes of the entire season. Battlestar Galactica works best when it's just telling its story in a straightforward way. The first few episodes of each season, this one included, usually start out that way. Just the presentation of the events in a serialized, connected way. It's only when the show hits the middle parts of the season when we start to get the stand-alone episodes. These eps usually have some sort of stupid 'theme' or style or homage they are paying. This week on BSG, we had the crazy/damaged consultant that sees dead cats. It was as silly as that sentence made it sound.

Which is sad, because there were several momentous events that took place that were completely diluted by the 'main' story. Adama declares his love for Roslin, Lee becomes President, and Tigh & Six conceive the first Cylon-Cylon baby (inconceivable!). While its true the President Lee Adama storyline was actually the main plot, it felt like a side element to the 'search for the candidate' that dominated much of the episode (and gave us the silly, showy, Romo Lampkin mental breakdown plot. My favorite comment on Romo Lampkin comes from Alan Sepinwall's blog,

"The entire story with Lee and Romo Lampkin was particularly annoying. I think the "Galactica" writers like Romo a lot more than the guy deserves, as he's less a character than a collection of colorful tics."

Sepinwall has a great, far more thorough, review on his blog as well, check it out.

And the contradictions continue to mount. It's bad enough that the show contradicts itself from episode to episode, but when it does it within the same episode, it makes me wonder who's in charge of this show. Case in point, in the middle of the episode, it's revealed to Admiral Adama that Tigh has been canoodling with prisoner Six, so much so that she's pregnant. Adama is suitably infuriated by this which leads to a knock-down fight between the two. That was okay. But not five minutes later, Adama decides to leave on a quest to find the missing Laura Roslin, and leaves "the only person he can trust," Tigh, in command of the entire fleet. WHAT? This guy just proved he can't be trusted and that he's consorting with the enemy. And a second example comes at the end of the ep when recently off-her-rocker Starbuck is now apparently the unquestioned CAG. First off, she was crazy just a couple of episodes ago, and she also her miraculous resurrection still hasn't been adequately explained. To me, that's someone that shouldn't be allowed near a command. And finally, there's the continuing trust of Athena. She's a CYLON. Regardless of how much she may want to fight her programming, she's still a Cylon, and ultimately can't and shouldn't be trusted. Adama's giving daughter Hera back to Athena after his justified berating of her simply smacked of "Let's just get this episode over and make sure we have all our pieces in place for the next episode."

In fact, the whole series feels that way. Regardless of how much sense it might or might not make, they make sure everything is set up for the next episode.


But right now... I just don't care. I imagine I'll keep watching just to see what happens, but I'm no longer invested in this show, and that's just sad. After the One Year Later jump, and the first five episodes of the next season, I was ready to declare BSG one of the all-time great shows. And then the wheels totally fell of the wagon. It's been a mess ever since.


And I'm sure I'll make this declaration way too many times in the coming weeks and months and years, but "The Wire" has totally ruined regular TV for me. After seeing what TV can look like when someone REALLY puts their effort into it and reaches for something special...now when I see half-hearted, "good enough" TV, it just infuriates me. I'm so tired of lazy TV. I just pray that "The Wire" isn't the last of its kind that we'll see...

Oh well.

If it's any consolation, at least it looks like next week's BSG actually has stuff that happens in it.

What's you're take? Do you still care? Do you have a clue what's going on?

The Wire - The More Things Change... Season Three Review

Any fears I had about The Wire turning into standard TV vanished within an episode or two of Season Three. Having seen Season Four as of this writing (but not Season Five), I think Season Three is the strongest of the series so far.

At risk of spoiling the show for the five to ten people that might ever read this review, I have to share some specific details.

Like previous seasons, The Wire continued the threads of the previous seasons while adding an assortment of new ones. The main plot of S3 is the continuing investigation of the Barksdale drug organization. Despite kingpin Avon Barksdale's incarceration, he still runs the show, with partner Stringer Bell running things on the outside. The beauty of this show, and the epic, tragic scale of this show comes from these two characters interaction and season-long dance.

Avon is an old-school banger, and despite the massive amounts of money their organization has accumulated, he can't move past that thug mentality. Stringer, on the other hand, wants to take that wealth and move into more legitimate business, having taken business courses at college and buying up real estate. Increasingly, he has to do this without Avon's knowledge or approval.

It all is working okay until Avon works a way to get himself out of prison early. He returns to the neighborhood to get everything back in order, and that's when he and Stringer start to butt heads. Compounding everything is Det. Jimmy McNulty's personal investigation into the prison 'suicide' of Avon's nephew (and Season One main character) D'Angelo Barksdale. D'Angelo's death was ordered by Stringer (without Avon's knowledge) because D'Angelo was planning on flipping and turning all of them in.

So the amazingly tense conflict for this season ramps ever higher episode by episode. Our sympathies as the audience shifts from scene to scene, as we admire Stringer for attempting to move out of the drug trade. But we sympathize with Avon because of Stringer's betrayal and ordering the murder of D'Angelo. But we side against Avon because he can't pull himself out of the lowest-common-denominator lifestyle. But we like Stringer because he's the only person on the street with a plan. But we side against him because of how D'Angelo's mother was lied to about his death. But we side against HER because she is the one that convinced D'Angelo not to flip on the organization. And on and on and on.

I marveled constantly at the airtight plotting that allowed these shifts to occur and to be so powerful. And much of the conflict has its roots all the way back in the first episodes of Season One.

For anyone remotely interested in writing TV (or anything for that matter), this show is a masterclass on plotting and dialogue. It doesn't cut corners or go for the easy story at ANY time.

All the while, the good guys' story is compelling as well, but not nearly to the extent of Avon vs Stringer. These two kingpin's ultimate fates is pure Greek tragedy with a healthy dose of Shakespeare. Brilliant.

I could go on for days exalting this show. It just never makes a wrong step.

The ultimate compliment I can pay it is that I have to steal from it now. The Wire has the exact tone I was seeing and hearing and feeling in my head as I worked on "Going Nova". I want that kind of uncompromising honesty in my story, regardless of how unpleasant it might be or how bleak (for some characters) it might prove. Because if nothing else, The Wire has me thinking about drugs, crime, education, politics (and the News industry, I'm sure, after I watch Season Five) in a completely different light.

It's going to be hard watching regular TV ever again after experiencing this show.

The Wire - Trouble on the Docks? Season Two Review

Thanks to a really bad cold that confined me to my bed this past weekend, I managed to burn through all of Season Two of The Wire in just two days. You could say I was watching them feverishly.

I haven't had much luck with Season Two's lately. Dexter S2 totally let me down, to the point where I don't think I want to watch Season Three. Heroes S2 lost me only two episodes into the season. It totally jumped the tracks. Lost had a bumpy S2, as did Battlestar Galactica (although both of those recovered well enough over the short term).

I'm not sure what it is about second seasons that prove to be such bugaboos for the creative teams. I guess it's that during the successful first season, they never really had time to analyze what they were doing, and just reacted on pure instinct, which turned out to be right. After S1 ends, they sit back, and TRY to figure out what audiences liked about the show and try to break it down to the point where they believe they can construct the second season using only the good stuff, and none of the fluff. And almost every time, they're wrong. Recent movies have shown the same tendency. The Matrix sequels and Pirates sequels were wrong wrong wrong on just about every level. Utter disasters. Peter Jackson guessed wrong with King Kong, figuring that if we loved the cool Legolas scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that we'd LOVE a whole King Kong movie filled with nothing but those wildly over-the-top sequences. What worked beautifully ONCE per film became mind-numbing in King Kong. And I even have a personal example. The first Addy Awards we did in 1995 was received amazingly well (or so we're told, since we were too chicken to go to the show to see if anyone laughed or jeered what we did), leading Don and I to approach the 1996 show with a bit of over-confidence, and the belief that we could 'nail it this time'. Didn't work out that way. While it was received well enough, we knew almost right away that we'd missed the mark.

Point is, it's tough to catch lightning in a bottle twice. And that was the mindset I was going into for Season Two of the The Wire.

I'm happy to report that The Wire mostly safely navigated the dangerous waters of Season Two. My review? 8.5 teeth out of ten.

Some specifics- I loved how they continued everyone's stories, even the street characters, even though their stories seemingly came to an end after S1. We got to follow Avon and Dee in prison, and Stringer Bell as he attempted to hold together the crumbling pieces of the Barksdale empire. We got to meet a few new street characters that promise to feature prominently in seasons to come.

Omar became the Boba Fett of this series. It took me a while to figure out what made his character so appealing and interesting (besides the fact that I've never before seen a homicidal gay thug as a sympathetic main character). He doesn't have a whole lot of airtime, but like Boba Fett, the time he's given he makes the most of. He's decisive, he has a strict code that he sticks to (he only robs people in "the game"), and most of all, he moves easily back and forth between the worlds of the good guys and the bad, working with whoever serves his purpose at the time.

The cops story had some interesting turns. It took until the eighth (of 13) episodes until the whole team was actually back together. They ways they managed to keep them all together, even though they were all working in different departments, was pretty clever, but a weeee bit TV-ish, which is where I docked a quarter of a tooth.

Where the show lost most of its points was in the overall Port Murders plotline. The mystery itself was excellently done, it's just that a few of the aspects of the Greeks, the bad guys of this season, were a bit too fiendishly evil. Season One's drug lords and street thugs all had believable motivations for doing what they did. but The Greek, and Vanos were evil with no balancing good traits to make them human. The one thing that really confused me was the FBI leak. I'm still not sure how that guy worked, but the whole time, it felt very much like just a plot device to eventually lead to betrayals and twists, which is exactly what happened.

The Dock workers themselves were pretty good and I can't dock them any points except for a half-tooth for some cheesy dialogue late in the season. Especially good were the actors that played Ziggy and Nico. They had very tough roles with very fine lines they had to walk. But they were given strong parts to play. They were on the opposite side of the law, but were made human by making all their decisions, especially the bad ones, fit perfectly within their worldviews.

We got one major new character, Beadie Russell, played by Amy Ryan, who was really good, and who I hope they bring back in the final three seasons (early word is that she does return, but probably as a love interest rather than a member of the team). Prior to this, the only place I knew Amy Ryan from was her amazing performance in Gone Baby Gone. As it is, I didn't recognizer her at all, so different is this character and her portrayal, and in fact, I only knew it was her by looking it up on IMDb.

One of the things I like so much about this show is its unrelenting bleakness. There's no way for the Law to slow down or make the endless wave of Crime even NOTICE. The cops know they are only putting band-aids on the problem. But they go to work knowing that for a while at least, they can fractionally stop the bleeding. While it would be nice to think that The Wire offers up a far too pessimistic version of the war on drugs and crime, I tend to think that it portrays it pretty accurately, bleakness and all.

The Wire S2 missed the mark a tiny little bit, but as far as second seasons go, it is easily the most successful according to ME. I was riveted from first frame to last. I'm invested in these characters and mourn the loss of those that unexpectedly didn't make it to the end, including my favorite character, the one character who seemed primed for a nice redemption arc. But...his act of reaching for redemption is what ultimately cost him his life. Rest in peace, dude...

And with that, I get ready to fire up Season Three. I have no idea what it's about, and I love it. But from everything I HAVE allowed myself to read, it seems that Season Two was the show's only bump in the road and that it only got better from here on, with Season Four being a masterpiece. We'll see...

The Wire - Best TV series ever? Season One Review

I'm a TV and Movie curmudgeon now. I freely admit it. I go into every bit of filmed entertainment looking for, and waiting for, that point in which a show or movie jumps off the tracks. For me, there's no excuse for any TV show to get lazy or silly or fall into cliche'.

My favorite TV shows of late (notably "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica") seem to eventually not have any idea what they are doing. Until "Lost" got its act together late last season, it was on the verge of my declaring it the most disappointing show ever produced. This season has restored nearly all of my anger towards the show, but ultimately, I can't forget that for a while, "Lost" was unfaithful to me. You can forgive, but you can never truly put it out of your mind. As such, "Lost" and "BSG" will forever be "almosts'.

Earlier this year, I wrote reviews of "Dexter", both season 1, and season 2. That show had an amazing first season, and then completely jumped the rails in the second season. I was convinced that finding "The Best TV Show Ever" would prove to be a pointless endeavor.

So, it was with that mindset that I sat down to finally watch "The Wire". Not sure what prompted me to pick up the first disk of season one, but there I was last week, putting the disk in the DVD player and sitting down to watch.

And I have to say, that season one delivered, 100%. I don't have a single bad thing to say about season one. I normally don't even LIKE cop shows, finding the procedure tedious and cliche'd.

However, "The Wire" did everything right.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, "The Wire" is a police drama set in Baltimore. Season one centered on drugs and featured both the law and the street. It's hard to say if there truly are 'main' characters, as the cast is a couple dozen deep, all given major screen time. They range from the lowest of the low (homeless drug addicts), to the top (police commissioners and judges). And what's most remarkable is that more successfully than any movie or TV show has dome, "The Wire" has given every character both good and bad qualities. One of my favorite characters was one of the drug dealers. The ostensible 'hero' of the series, Jimmy McNulty, is a completely screwed up mess. These are all real people who exhibit the best and worst of humanity.

Part of what makes this show so good is that it never once compromised the logical next step of the story for a cheap Hollywood cliche'. No character was ever put in false danger for the sake of drama. Even the non-case related situations (such as the home lives of some of the characters) was handled perfectly and added to the overall tableau.

This show has been described as 'televised novel', and I'd have to agree. None of the episodes have forced themes or situations. They all form once chapter of what feels like a book.

Best of all, it seems obvious that each season was intricately plotted and planned prior to filing, so that there doesn't seem to be any abandoned plotlines, or abrupt changes in direction. And best of all, no filler episodes.

What makes this show even more gritty and realistic is that it is 100% realistic in its portrayal of these characters, especially the language. This show aired on HBO, so make no mistake, the language is pretty raw. I learned a few dozen new ways to use profanity. Every once in a while it seems a bit gratuitous, but for the most part, it seems pretty authentic to the characters and this world. It really stands in stark contrast to typical, neutered TV language. I have no problem with keeping the language clean on broadcast networks, but at the same time, when the language is authentic to the story, I have no problem with excessive profanity.

Adding to the authenticity is that "The Wire" casts many of its minor roles with local people who have little or no prior acting experience. Some of them are painfully obvious to point out, but even those ultimately work, making everything feel more like it's a documentary rather than a fictional drama.

Again, the acting across the board was uniformly brilliant. Every actor is interesting, and no matter what character they switch focus to, it's always exciting to see what happens next. Proof of this is that as I stated previously, even all the bad guys are sympathetic.

I could go on writing for hours about this show (and will probably return to it at some point), but I simply have this to say-

SEE THIS TV SERIES AT ALL COSTS.

It's that good.

Ten teeth out of ten.

(Coming soon, review of season two)

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 4

Good episode overall. Not great, but at least continuing this season's string of solid stories. Rather than delve into plot details (there's plenty of sites of the web great for that), I'll instead focus on the show from a director/writer's standpoint, and what I may have derived from this episode.

For starters, not much happened to drive the meta plot forward. Mostly what we had was fallout from the first three episodes. The focus was very tight and character-based. While in the past, I've tended to dread these episodes (as they are usually filler), this one didn't suffer from that at all. Three of the four secret Cylons (Tory, Tigh, and Tyrol) all had the hems of their sanity start to fray a little bit. I imagine the encounter between Tigh and Six might have looked pretty dicey on the page, but the actors pulled off these scenes fantastically. Solid writing and acting all around.

The one area where I feel the show is sliding in the opposite direction is Baltar's journey into Christ status. In spite of the fact that they've been setting him up since the finale of Season One to be some sort of eventual religious figure, it still rings totally false. I don't buy his character converting. The fact that Baltar is so often played for laughs tends to undermine the power I think his religious arc is supposed to have. The writers seem to drift back and forth from making it seem like it really IS a genuine religious conversion, to making it seem like it's 100% fakery on Baltar's part. I think it needed to pick one or the other. Instead of being intrigued by Baltar's journey, I'm bored and skeptical.

In any event, it looks like Baltar is headed for Christ status, as it seems destined that Baltar be killed or sacrificed for the sake of his religion. I'll just continue watching and continue cringing every time Baltar starts spouting off religious mumbo-jumbo.

Finally, I have to say that the scene where Head Six seems to pick Baltar up was amusingly well-done. Casts more doubt and wonder on exactly what's going on with Baltar's innter Cylon.

Next week looks like we get to spend a lot more time on the Demetrius.

Dexter Season 2 - Deeply Disappointing Disbelief

Okay, so season one had me stoked for season two, and I wasted no time in tackling it. From all accounts and reviews from trusted friends and family, season two was much better than season one, and diverged greatly from the subsequent Dexter novels. I couldn't wait to see it.

Everything started off great. It was about a month after the conclusion of the first season, and happily, it looked like continuity was going to be very important to this show. Constant callbacks to things that happened in season one, while building and expanding. So far so good.

I was especially excited when what looked like the overarching plot for season two was revealed- the discovery of the bags of body parts Dexter has been dumping in the ocean all these years. The search was on for HIM. I even liked the addition of the new love interest, Lila. Everything was going great.

But then the seams started coming apart. The awkward love triangle with Rita and Lila, Dexter's 'drug addiction' (this was tolerable at the beginning, but got silly the farther it went along, until the entire subplot was dropped from the show), the chain of command battles with LaGuerta and her replacement.

Then the show turned into "24", with innumerable sequences and subplots concerning intercepting and deleting files, destroying evidence, sneaking into and out of the headquarters, and on and on. If you like all that stuff on "24", then you'll love this. It became a bit tiresome and a lot contrived and manipulative (just for the sake of stretching out some episodes).

But in spite of all this (and many more increasingly annoying things), I was still with the show. Still liking it a lot. In fact, episode 11, "Left Turn Ahead" was an incredibly well-written episode and more times than I remember in any TV show or movie, I found myself nodding with appreciation about a certain line of dialogue, or a plot point. Very very well done. Until the last five minutes.

The short version of the events is that based on his world collapsing around him and the police about to catch him and all of his loved ones being put in danger by his actions, Dexter seemed about to really make a change and give himself up. It was a beautiful climax to everything that had come before. I actually felt sorry for him, and proud of him at the same time. But then... at the last possible moment before he's about to reveal his secret to someone close to him, he gets a revelation and has a change of heart and basically reboots himself to full serial killer status, but without all of the 'rules' his mentor (his foster father, Harry) had given to him to control his bloody urges.

The season finale is just a big convoluted, ridiculous wrap-up to the season, hitting a lot of the same beats as season one's finale, only about 20% as successfully.

Where my profound disappointment comes from is that for a brief moment, this show had a chance to really go somewhere special. It was RIGHT THERE. It could have allowed the natural sequence of events to follow through and let Dexter turn himself in and face his consequences. It would have been a great ending to the show, or even a great beginning to a new chapter in his life.

But... no.

No, we get what EVERY other TV show does, and that's make sure that even though there may be significant events that happen in the show (fare thee well, Sgt. Doakes), in the end, everything has to stay the same. Dexter reset itself at the end of season two. Everything is as it was at the beginning of season one. Dexter's a serial killer who loves what he does and has no qualms about killing. He has a girlfriend. He works in a police department lab. No one knows his secret. And in season three, we're going to get another serial killer that ultimately will have some convenient connection to Dexter, or to a member of his family, or to someone he works for. There will be people that suspect him of being the killer. There will be lots of covering of trails and destroying of evidence. There will be more awkward moments as Dexter lies to Rita and Debra about what he was doing. And at the end of the season, there will be a tidy, exciting climax that wraps it all up and resets the show for season four.

Now, I never expected that Dexter would ACTUALLY turn himself in. Even as he was contemplating it and moving inexorably on that path, I knew the show creators would nip that in the bud. BUT... the lead-up to it was so well done, and such a logical continuation for the character that anything besides that inevitable ending where he turns himself in screamed out as being totally false to the character and to the story and to the themes of the show. I felt heartsick when the show lurched back to predictability with the last-minute change of heart (back to his murderous ways).

Sigh...

It's just left me in a really deep funk. Not because of the show or the characters, but because I'm wondering if it's just NOT POSSIBLE to create a TV show that sets up a concept and a world and characters, and stays TRUE to that story, following it through to its logical conclusion, regardless of ratings or popularity. Dexter would have been a MASTERPIECE as two six-to-eight episode seasons with a definite ending after season two. But instead, we got two ten-to-twelve episode seasons, with lots of useless filler and ultimately all for naught as we reset the show for what looks to be a prolonged series that rehashes the same ground over and over.

Two other almost-brilliant TV shows are in their home stretches, Lost and Battlestar Galactica, each have formally announced definitive endings to their series, but for both, it's ALMOST too little, too late. BSG tonight begins its final season, but this only after a disastrous season three last year. After an absolutely amazing first five episodes of the season, the show totally fell apart, with silly subplots and homages and finally, a massive retcon where four major characters were suddenly revealed to be Cylons (if you don't follow the show, just nod your head and know that what the creative team pulled in the second half of season three of BSG was a major betrayal of the storyline). BSG really really WANTS to be seen as a show that has been moving towards this conclusion since the beginning, but we know that it's really not the case. They are making this up as they go along and have abandoned numerous ideas and themes and subplots over the course of the show. Such is the problem of having to fill twenty or so episodes each season while at the same time having to indefinitely forestall actually getting to the obvious conclusion of where the show is going.

LOST faces a similar crisis of trying to make it look like everything was planned all along. It's not entirely successful in that, but I DO believe that they've known where the show was going since sometime early in season two, and it seems they've more or less stuck with that plan. The second half of last season and most of the episodes this season have been great, and you can really sense that the show is no longer treading water and is actually moving towards a definite goal.

The point of all this is that some shows can go on indefinitely and others are designed to have an ending. Lost, BSG, and now Dexter definitely have an ENDING. CSI, Law and Order, ER, and most sitcoms aren't under these restraints and CAN go on forever (as long as the ratings justify it). They don't have an ultimate climax that the shows are building towards.

I just want it to be that if a show IS one that has a definite ending, then figure that out ahead of time. Make it an EVENT, rather than something you (the network brass) hopes will be a lucrative franchise for years and years to come). Announce upfront that a series will only run for two seasons. Make every episode count. Bring a story to its logical conclusion.

Please.


So in conclusion, Dexter season two squandered what had the potential to be a masterpiece. As season three approaches, I've lost all interest in the show, and I've lost all hope that we'll get something that isn't more of the same. But... I'll have to at least give it a chance to see if it can prove me wrong...

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 3

Good episode. Not near last week's standard-setter, but still good. Very dark. More than anything, it seemed to be positioning the show for the remainder of the first half of the season.

It looks like the Cylon Civil War is now in full swing. Lee's split with Roslin is complete, probably leading to his presidency later on in the season. Cally's fate was pretty shocking. Didn't see that coming, especially not at Tory's hands. Looks like Tory is the first one of the Four to fully embrace her true nature. Should set up an interesting dynamic the rest of the way. And the craziness on the Demetrius seems primed to bear fruit at some point.

Good episode. Not great.

7 teeth out of 10.

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 2

Hey! That was a pretty good episode! I can't think of a single thing to gripe about, and I'm even kind of on board with the "Final Five Cylons" angle that I felt so betrayed about at the end of Season Three. The acting was stellar all around.

Good job, guys!

I think what I like best about the first two episodes of this season (and hope it continues this way the rest of this season) is that they are just telling the story. No special homage episodes, or standalone episodes (although I'm sure those are coming). So far it's just telling the story and doing it very well.

I observed myself watching this episode, especially since I went into this episode skeptical that I'd enjoy it. I noticed that I break it down by if, or how, I buy each individual scene or line reading. I have a sense of where I think the scene should go, and if it opts to go in a stupid "only on TV" moment, I recoil. But I didn't have any of those moments tonight.

Well, there was ONE moment. When Cavill said "I'm machine enough to admit when I'm wrong." Groan. There was no need for something that cutesy.

Final verdict: 9.5 teeth out of ten.

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 1

Okay, I was pretty harsh on Season three of BSG, and deservedly so. It really went south after the first five (classic) episodes. I was a grump about the show the entire rest of the season.

But... it's been nearly a years since last season's finale. My anger has subsided. The wounds have healed...mostly. I'm going to give BSG the chance to make it all right. I'll give it a fair chance.

Tonight was the premiere of season four, and so far, so good. They've covered their tracks pretty good so far, at least as far as the 'reveal' of four of the final five Cylons from last season's finale. The return of Starbuck was handled... adequately. The amnesia is a bit too convenient, but I'll go with it for now.

Baltar's new subplot is a bit unconvincing, but I suppose there is enough precedence from last season to justify his sudden 'faith'. Terrible job on his fake beard, though.

I'm kind of dreading the new direction they are setting up Lee for, with some sort of government position. Not sure where they're going with that except to make Lee president or vice president. Seems like just a way to set up more father-son tension down the line. Yawn...

But the best part of the show, and it's been this way since the beginning, is the stunning special effects work. I really can't say enough about how amazing the battle scenes are each time, and how they all have their own flavor. I'm not sure how a weekly cable show can put the special effects (space battles, anyway) of the most recent Star Wars movies to shame. I'd love to see a BSG space battle on the big screen one day.

Anyway, good episode. I give it a solid 8 out of ten.

Dexter Season 1 - Disturbingly Delicious Debut

I'm a little late to the Dexter party, as the show is about to move into season three, but...better late than never.

For those of you that don't know, Showtime's "Dexter" is a drama about a serial killer (based on a book by Jeff Lindssy called "Dexter Darkly Dreaming"). But he's a serial killer with a conscience and only kills the really bad guys. Dexter himself is painted as a sympathetic character and is most definitely the 'hero' of this show. The debate over making a serial killer the main character is certainly a worthy one, and should be lively, but that won't be taking place here today. Suffice it to say that Dexter is one of the most intriguing and unique characters ever seen on TV.

The short review for season one is that it was fantastic. Through the first six episodes, I was sure I was witnessing a modern-day classic. The writing was sharp, the directing inventive, the cinematography stunning, and the acting top-notch. We were learning about these characters, their world and the 'rules' of this show. Everything was clicking.

But then episode 7 came along and we had our first filler episode. Not a lot of relevant stuff in it. Things looked a little cheaper and less creative than in the batch right before it, etc. It was distinct and had me a BIT worried. But it picked back up over the remainder of the season and while the last three episodes weren't as great as the first six, the whole thing wrapped up pretty nicely.

An observation I made (that would be borne out literally in season two) is that at its core, Dexter is just a superhero TV show. He only fights/kills the bad guys. He has a secret identity/life. He has a mentor. He has a special set of tools. A secret origin. And finally, he has an arch-enemy that is (almost) his equal, and in fact shares his origin. It's all there, if a trifle bloodier than most comic books.

In the rush to the climax, the show really starts to get sloppy with believability and logic, but not to the point where it spoils anything (heads up: I can't say the same for season two).

The season finale does a great job in tying all the plot threads of the entire season together and provides a few surprises (which shouldn't have come as surprises after my mid-season epiphany that this show is really about a superhero).

I hungrily watched each episode and had the whole first season finished in three days (which is quite an accomplishment considering my usual hectic schedule.) Using a secret source (okay, it's my brother), I obtained copies of season two that he had recorded off of Showtime, and couldn't have been more eager to dive in...

On the Lot - Episode 2

Okay... for the 3rd week in a row, they've changed up the format of the show with no explanation (however, it's obvious that because of the disastrous ratings, they are going to continue to tweak the show until something hopefully clicks with the viewing public). So this week, instead of seeing a short film from each of the 15 remaining contestants, we are only going to see five, with one going home next week. I'm guessing they'll do this same format for the next two weeks, with five filmmakers getting put up for vote each week. I wouldn't be surprised to see the format change again three weeks from now.

Anyway, on to the films.

On the whole, the films were 1000% better than last week's efforts. Which is odd, because last time, they had a whole week to do a one minute film, and this week, they only had five days to produce a three minute film.

Film up was Sam with "Broken Pipe Dreams", a comedy about a guy who has to retrieve an engagement ring from the toilet where it had just fallen. It was okay, decently staged and shot. It didn't seem to know what kind of comedy it wanted to be, though. From that perspective, it was a bit aimless. I'd place it number three for the night, though.

Next was "Teri" by Trever. It was a typical blind date film where the guy's fears of who this person might turn out to be are manifested before him. Nothing at all original about this in any way. However, the lead actor is a British guy who could probably stand in as a young Christian Bale. I'd put it fourth for the night.

Poor Hilary. This show has been an absolute nightmare for her since the first episode. She can't do anything right. I'd be shocked if she doesn't go home this week, and I'd be even more shocked if she was just as relieved to go as the rest of America is to see her leave. The judges were again vicious about her film, and for good reason. "The First Time I Met the Finklesteins" was cliche, typical, boring, poorly acted, poorly written, poorly directed. She just doesn't get what connects with viewers.

"Dough:The Musical" was next in line, and it was the best of the night, in my opinion. It was a story about a man and a woman, both consumed with dough, she money, and he bread. The song was clever at times, and well-performed overall. The visuals were all relatively interesting (despite what guest judge Michael Bay had to say).

The final film of the night was a documentary by Shalini called "Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey" about a gay Indian (from India) comedian. It was a serious look at this person, and was well made overall. It's obvious that this is her comfort zone. I'd put this number two.


Overall, the one problem that each film had was that they were all too long. They each took every second of their three minute maximum time. As such, most of them dragged badly in places. If they had to fit the same films in a two minute span, I think they all would have benefited.

But as I said, much better this time around. If Hilary doesn't go home next week, then the voting system for this show is broken.

On the Lot - Episode 1

Well, not episode one, but the first of the episodes where they show the contestants films in their entirety and viewers at home get to vote.

And after watching 18 of these short one-minute comedies.... enh.

There were only four of them that didn't fall totally flat for me. Will Bigham, Zach Lipovsky and Shira-Lee Shalit and Sam Friedlander. Of those, I'm voting for Will Bigham's "Lucky Penny" film which clearly was the best tonight. Zach "Special Effects guy" Lipovsky was technically the best.

Of course, as an aspiring filmmaker, I was watching these with a "could I have done better than these?", and the answer, at least tonight, was absolutely. I didn't enter this contest, partially because I thought I wouldn't be in the class of what they were looking for.

Oh well...

On to the individual films this week.

Dance Man - clever idea. I was mildly amused. Solid filmmaking overall.

Deliver Me - Shot interestingly, but a bit incoherent as to what the film was supposed to be about.

Spaced Out - Not bad. I wasn't as amused by the projectile puppet puke as some seem to be. But overall, well made.

Wack Alley Cab - ?????????? Bye bye Kenny... What a mess. What was he possibly thinking?

Bus #1 - I didn't get this. I got what the joke was supposed to be (urine smells bad! LOL!!) but I didn't get why she thought this would be a good idea to make a film out of. Still scratching my head.

The Big Bad Heist - The trailer was all imagery and no story. I agreed with the judges that he should have followed the rules and made a short FILM, not a trailer. When he said "I want to take risks.", I thought to myself, you mean like not following any of the rules of the contest? Good idea.

Lucky Penny - For me, this one was the best overall effort of the night. A coherent story from beginning to end. Interesting angles. Can't say it was that FUNNY, but I thought it was the most complete FILM. Nothing jumped out at me as wrong.

How to Screw in a Light Bulb - I didn't get this one at all. What was she thinking?

Soft - Interesting idea, but horribly executed. None of the camera angles matched, color-wise. The humor was way too obvious. Sorry, pal. I didn't like it.

Blind Date - Again...?????? What was she thinking? This was a total wreck.

Getta Rhoom - I totally agreed with the judges. The first thought was that this poor fellow had Downs Syndrome, and it turned from potentially amusing to uncomfortable. Even if that's not what he was intending, a good director would have recognized that the actor had drifted all the way over into Mentally Challenged, rather than Nerdy, and would have corrected it.

File Size - I get what he was trying to do, and appreciated the camera work, but overall, this was sloppily conceived and put together.

Danger Zone - While I didn't think it was all that FUNNY, it was clearly the most competently put together of all the films. While I didn't put Zach at the top this week, I think he is clearly going to win this competition. He's the one that most GETS what filmmaking and creativity is all about. Even if he doesn't win On the Lot, he'll win in the long run.

A Golf Story - Tried to hard to be clever, and in the end didn't do exactly what the judges were saying. It didn't have any mini-golf shots (which are funny in and of themselves) or anything that really played off of the silliness that a mini-golf championship should have had. Looked nice. But nice try, but sorry.

Love in 2007 - Again, another film that makes me question if this filmmaker has ever seen a film before, or any sort of narrative.

Please Hold - Could have been good, but totally went off the rails with that first shot of the girl doing her nails while waiting on 911. And I thought the whole 911 thing was great the first time I heard it... on the Simpsons back in 1994. "You have selected regicide! If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one."

Check Out - I thought this was one of the better ones of the night. Well made all around. An actual beginning, middle and end.

Replication Theory - I put this one number four for the evening. Funny idea, and ambitiously shot (with a variety of locations and settings), but it wasn't pulled off as well as it could have been. It took me a while to figure out what the title (Replication Theory) had to do with anything. A better title would have done more to set up the joke a bit better. But overall a solid effort.


Overall, the show is an odd duck. On most of these reality shows, the person showing their talent actually gets to be the focus of the presentation, but with this, they are the behind the scenes people, so it's hard to really gauge their personalities. Perhaps they will show more making of stuff as the show progresses.

But after having done a couple of 48 Hour Film contests, the films that these people came up with (with significantly more than 48 Hours) weren't any better than the average 48 Hour Film (which isn't saying much). I was really expecting a lot better, especially since a vast majority of these filmmakers attended some sort of film school.

We'll see how the survivors of round one react to the comments their first films got and see if they were really that clueless, or if they were just a bit nervous.

Going home (three people) I predict will be Kenny, Jason, and Claudia.

[Television] I find this tv...acceptable

My new favorite TV show-- Acceptable.tv

The above video is just one of nearly two dozen similarly brilliant short videos made for this new show.

It's a filmed-comedy-sketch show that premieres on VH1 every Friday night (9Central) and replays numerous times throughout the week and is also available on their website, acceptable.tv (it's just acceptable.tv, no dot com) What makes this show particularly interesting to me is that it's attempting to wrangle this viral video phase the world is going through and bring some order to it.

The premise of the show is that each week, they debut five short "pilots" for new continuing sketches, each one about two and a half minutes long. Of those, you can go to the website and vote for the two you like best, and new episodes of those will be filmed for the next week's episode.

These 'official' pilots are produced by the Acceptable.tv repertory company, but each week, they play one user-submitted video, also voted on by the website visitors (actually, you have to be a registered member to vote... it's free though).

It's a really neat concept, and so far I'm loving it. Of the skits that the official group have produced, I've really liked almost all of them. In fact, out of 21 current skits, there are only two that I'm lukewarm on.

The people behind this show are executive producer Jack Black, and the group from Channel101, the people that have been doing stuff like this before they started getting financed by VH1/Viacom. Previous Channel101 alums are the Lonely Island guys, of which three of them are now SNL writers/performers. They're living the dream all us video producers nurture.

I could tell you about the funniest videos, but thanks to embeddable flash video, I can just show you. There's a bunch of them, and they are all funny. Enjoy. And if you like these, there are many, many more at the official website.

Movie Review - Elektra

This was on the stack of "Movies that I want to watch that I know won't be any good, but I want to watch them so I can figure out why they didn't work."

I was only marginally impressed with Daredevil, and thought Jennifer Garner was miscast as Elektra. I wasn't looking forward to Elektra when it came out, and less so when almost all the reviews were harsh. But it popped up in the list of movies coming on HBO, so I went ahead and set it to record with my trusty Time Warner (soon to be Comcast) DVR. And there it was sitting in my recorded list as I sat down to eat some grub last night so I opted just to watch Elektra for as long as I could tolerate it.

Turns out I could tolerate the whole film. However, don't take that to mean I enjoyed it or give it a positive rating.

This falls in the category of movies that really didn't need to be made. It didn't bring anything to the action genre or the comic book genre. The story was basically a slight rehash of Terminator 2, where a villain must overcome their evil tendencies to help out a chosen one who has been marked for death. If you've seen a movie, you've seen Elektra. There weren't any surprises in this.

The best I can say about it was that I was never bored enough to stop watching. Some of the effects were neat. The characters were cardboard, but generally likeable. But surprisingly, there wasn't a whole lot of action, and only two scenes were Elektra worer her iconic red costume. There was a lot of talking and running.

Anyway, this movie would probably be better in a group setting with the intent being to ridicule the movie as it plays in the background.

5 teeth out of 10.

NaNoWriMo - Update

Okay. Here it is, mid-January. I got sidetracked in November by work and life in general, and am currently stalled out at 33,000 words. I hope to get it kick-started tonight or tomorrow and try to get to 50,000 by the end of the month. Not likely, but I'm going to go for it. In any event, I should be able to finish the rough draft of Word War III over the next month or so at the worst.

But before I do that, a couple of movie reviews.

NaNoWriMo - 7 - Day 5/6 - Back on the Horse

Now it's really starting to get fun. After three days of feeling practically helpless to get any traction on this story and to get myself out of the rut I was already in, I had a really good writing night tonight. Nearly 3000 words. I made up a whole day today, almost. Now I'm only 2200 words off pace, and with two good days, I can be right where I need to be.

The story is really starting to take some shape. I have a vague idea of where I want it to go a chapter or two ahead of time. Characters are starting to take shape and tell me things about themselves that I didn't know. More eloquent words and phrases are starting to flow from my fingertips rather than the typical "he glanced" or "he replied".

This is really fun.

I think I can actually do this. After Thursday and Friday I had serious doubts, but now... it's entirely possible.

Can't wait to see what happens next with this story.

And I never in a million years thought I'd be writing a political thriller...

NaNoWriMo - 6 - Day 3 - Chugging to a Halt

Okay... I am/was starting to get worried. I'm getting NO momentum going on this story. I spent all day working on emergency print ads and making some changes to the Global commercial. Then I had to go buy some wireless networking gear for my mom and then go to her house and set it up, and (this was the good part), eat some fantastic gumbo. After that I went to my sister's house and enjoyed their hot tub and spent a nice evening with my sister and her husband (Ryan and Tamara were both home sick tonight). And then I came home and watched a great episode of Battlestar Galactica.

So it was after midnight when I finally sat down to maybe think about writing. I almost just called it an evening, but managed to get in a fair amount of writing. Not a huge amount, but enough so that I feel like it wasn't a total waste of a day, NaNoWriMo-concerned. I'm now up to 1867 words, which is WAY behind where I need to be, but I was able to get back on the horse which is good. Saturday really SHOULD be a good day where I catch up. We'll see.

And I did pretty good today about not bogging myself down with editing and rewriting as I go. I came thisclose to grinding to a halt while looking up the actual geography of downtown Washington DC. That can all wait, and I successfully just plopped something down quickly. I think I'll get better at just going with the flow the longer I do this.

Okay... time for bed again, and a bit of "No Plot, No Problem" reading. Tamara is going garage saling in the early morning and I will try to wake up to join her. It's the mega-neighborhood sale, so there are usually good things to be found.

Out.

NaNoWriMo - 5 - Day Two

So it's 11:45 and I'm just finishing up work for the day (a major commercial for Global Industries). I haven't had a chance to write a single word today, and I'm totally wiped out. I think I'll try to go to bed early tonight (midnight) and wake up really early tomorrow and start writing to catch up.

One good thing I did last night before I went to sleep, was I read a good chunk of the "No Plot, No Problem" book written by the guy that started NaNoWriMo. There was a ton of good stuff I learned because I almost didn't read it, thinking I knew what he was going to say. The main thing that was re-iterated to me was that this month-long contest isn't about quality.. it's about quantity. If I'm going to edit and proofread and rewrite as I go, I'll never finish. Yesterday, I was so caught up in trying to make Craig's first chapter have a different voice that I got bogged down...in chapter one. I just need to WRITE it, as fast as I can, and really get it in my head that I'll be able to edit it later and rewrite it later.

So hopefully, tomorrow will be a more productive day, novelish-speaking. I might have a commercial to produce, but if I don't, then I'll be able to spend a good part of the day working on the novel. I should be able to catch up and maybe even get ahead. We'll see.

One really positive note, Tamara really likes the idea of the book and what I've written so far. It's the first time I've ever seen her interested in, much less excited about something I've written. So if SHE likes it, I might just have something.

Okay... on to sleep.. after a bit more reading of the "No Plot, No Problem" book.