Not much of anything...

I don't have a whole lot to say today.  Maybe it's just because I am in dire need of lunch, but my writing muse seems to have buggered off.

I had the day off from work on Thursday and I finally got to do my Star Wars marathon that I have been meaning to have since August.  I watched Episodes I, II, and III all in a row.  It was wonderful.  

I know most people didn't like them, but really there was no way that they were going to be able to live up to the originals because there were 20 + years in between the sets for people to build up their expectations.  

For my money, I just love them because I still think they're fun, even though I will admit they are much darker in tone than the original trilogy.  But anyone watching them is watching from a point of knowing that these three are leading us into the bad times that start off the original films, and things do get better from there.  So the darkness, in my mind, is necessary.  There are still plenty of spaceships and light saber fights and cool droids.  Plus you've got R2-D2 being awesome as always and Ewan MacGregor managing to make Obi-Wan Kenobi sexy.  Shouldn't be possible, totally is.

  My marathon did have one random side effect though.  It made watching the new Clone Wars episode last night a little odd.  The voices seemed more off to me than they normally do because I had so recently seen the actors they are trying to sound like.  Also it was just bizarre watching the clones be so essential to the fighting and so depended on, and liked, by the Jedi and the Republic.  I know that they are the foundation of the Storm Troopers, but still...I really was digging the clones.   It's a little harder to do though so fresh off of the "Execute Order 66" scene.  Oh well.  Probably by next week it will be okay again.  I hope so, cuz it looks like the next episode is very clone-centric.

Let's see, what else?  Oh, saw The Duchess Friday night.  I really enjoyed it.  Even though, as is usually the case with the very long and beautiful Kiera Knightly period pieces, I realized I had to pee a third of the way through, but being stubborn, waited until the film was over to go.  Ergh.  

Seriously though, it was a very good movie.  If you enjoy films like Gosford Park or Atonement, I highly recommend it.  Not necessarily if you're taking your friend out the night before she's getting married though...not a good "happy marriage" thoughts movie.  It definitely made me glad we no longer live in the era of arranged marriages, or of pre-20th century undergarments, come to think of it.

Anyway, lunch is calling my name.  I wish you all a spectacular week!

C

Wow...

So it has been a very long time since a television show has actually given me a jaw-dropping moment, but I had one this past Friday while watching Stargate Atlantis.  

(Major spoiler coming up if you haven't seen the episode and don't want to know what happened before you do).

The episode was the conclusion of a two-parter that involved Dr. Daniel Jackson coming to Atlantis (yay!) in search of Janus the Ancient's secret lab.  He enlists Rodney's help and they find the lab, only to accidentally alert some mysterious race on some far off planet to this fact when Rodney's ATA gene wakes up every device in the lab.

We join this episode with Rodney having realized what nasty side-effect is caused by the Ancient Wraith-destroying device he is forced to turn on by the mysterious aliens.   That side-effect is that all of the Stargates in the Pegasus galaxy will blow up when turned on while the device is running--as we found out in Atlantis.  Thankfully Sheppard and Zelenka were the only ones in the control room when the gate blew and they were able to take cover before that happened.  Meanwhile on the Daedalus Todd the Wraith has taken over the ship because he thinks the Lanteans lured his people into a trap in order to use this Ancient device on them, even though no one on the crew has any idea what is going on.  Keller and Ronon managed to avoid capture and are working to take back the ship.

So, really, a lot going on.  In the course of things everyone ends up at the planet that Rodney and Daniel were abducted to and it becomes a race to turn off the device/destroy the facility without killing the missing scientists in the process.  We even get to see the Travellers again, and not just Laren, but apparently another hot female ship captain.  Sheppard must really have it bad for Laren though because he doesn't even flirt with the new chick, just asks if Laren ever talks about him.  But Rodney and Daniel manage to turn off the device, while getting Daniel  pretty much electrocuted, Sheppard and the Travellers (with their very Kaylee-esque engineer) manage to save the Daedalus from its collision course with the planet, which it was put in by Todd as he and the other Wraith escaped in the 302's, leaving the humans to fend for themselves.  Then Woosley, in a particularly bad-ass moment (though maybe in a bit of overkill) has the facility bombed anyway once Daniel and Rodney are safely aboard the ship.  

Before escaping and doing their part to save the day however, Daniel and Rodney make the discovery that was the cause of my previously mentioned jaw-dropping.  Turns out the bad guys were Asgard.  Yeah, the little grey aliens are back, only these guys are much more evil than their now extinct counterparts that we in the Milky Way knew and loved.  I don't even know if evil is the right word.  Just selfish bastards really.  They wanted to turn on the Wraith destructo beam so they could move freely about the galaxy, even though they knew about the exploding Stargate side-effect of the device.  They don't use the Stargates, and what do a few million human lives matter if they can fly around without worrying about defending themselves from Wraith.  Seriously, did not see that coming.  Even Loki wasn't that bad.  He at least returned his victims back home with nothing more than a few disturbing memories.  

All in all this was a truly excellent episode.  It wasn't as predictable as it can be (not that I have a problem with that as long as it is entertaining), and Jackson makes an excellent addition to the Atlantis crew.  He and Rodney have a wonderful bit of screen chemistry going.  Sigh.  I know Shanks wants to move on past the role of Daniel Jackson but he's just so good at it.  Logically, in the world of these stories, Daniel Jackson ends up in Atlantis.  I just wish real life would let it work out that way too, but alas.  But I digress.  Seriously, it saddens me that this is the last season of Atlantis, because they seem to be finding a really awesome stride.  Of course, that could be only because it is the last season and they figure they don't have anything to lose.  

My other Friday night viewing was pretty enjoyable as well.  I felt like this episode of Sanctuary was maybe a little too full of information (seriously, ten minutes until the end of the episode I thought it would be a "to be continued" but then they managed to wrap everything up in those ten minutes), but it was still fun.  Next week begins brand new territory though and I am really looking foward to that.  I am also totally digging Clone Wars.  It is everything a Star Wars cartoon should be, IMO.  There are lots of space ship battles, lots of light-saber fights, lots and lots of expositional dialog that could be so much better written...plus there's R2-D2.  I love R2-D2.  

I was setting my DVR for this week and I see that a large chunk of my shows will not be coming on due to MLB on Fox.  But we do get a new Fringe at least.  Guess I'll be working through some DVDs this week maybe.  

I hope everyone is doing dandy.  Until next time!

C

Tentative "Hurrah!"

So, I actually kind of dug the first episode of American Life On Mars.  I am still withholding judgement though, because the first episode had to be pretty damn near spot on the original series' first episode just to set up the story.  I'll have to wait and see if I still like it once they've really started deviating from the original series.  Although at this point that is possibly a good thing, maybe it will be like BSG, take the idea but go your own direction with it...

At any rate, we'll see, won't we?  Fingers crossed that the deviation from the original series means excluding that whole key party episode entirely.  One can hope.

Happy Friday y'all.

Peace,

C

Sanctuary, Star Wars, and Geeks, oh my!

I have been so worthless this weekend.  I spent most of yesterday watching Birds of Prey and finished up the series.  Good stuff.  Sigh.  I would have been very curious to see how the series ended up progressing if it had been picked up for a second season.  I think that it would have been quite interesting to have Batman make a brief reappearance in New Gotham and have a showdown of sorts with Huntress.  I wonder if that ever happened in the comic?  Hmm...now I have a new comic series to think about getting into.  As if the forthcoming Farscape comics weren't enough.  

Did you catch the premiere of Clone Wars on Cartoon Network this weekend?  I really enjoyed it.  Like the movie, I felt it was just a nice bit of fun in the way that the original trilogy was.  There's nothing groundbreaking and no shocking new information, but it's characters we know (and sometimes love) just doing their thing.  It's pure entertainment with no higher value or deeper meaning.  Frankly, that's all I want out of a Star Wars cartoon.  Well, that and Yoda completely kicking droid butt.  Good stuff.  I will be continuing to watch this one.  Perfect weekend fodder.  

Also caught the premiere of Sanctuary on SciFi.  I loved it.  I don't know how many of you watched the web series when it was online a year and a half back, but I was really into it.  The television premiere was a much expanded and reworked version of the first eight webisodes--the central origin point of the story.  It was fascinating to see what they changed and what they kept the same, plus getting to see it on my big screen as opposed to my laptop was just wonderful.  

I have heard so many people complaining about Amanda Tapping's British accent on the show, and I have to say, I don't feel these people are actually watching the show.  I am no judge on how good or bad her accent may be, but honestly, I find it difficult to believe that such a trivial detail is what people are focusing on.  I mean, there is some really incredible special effects work going on (something like 90% + of the show is shot on green screen) and I think the story is very engaging.  But that could just be me.  Although apparently enough people felt the same way to get the web series promoted to a full-on television series.  

A few differences of note:  Kavan Smith's cop character was promoted to an actual detective, and from the way they were setting him up, I have hopes that he might make more appearances down the road.  Huzzah!  With Atlantis going away, I have to get my Lorne fix somewhere after all.  They did completely write out David Hewlett's psycho killer character, but I am hoping that means they may bring him back in a different role at a later date.  Much as I am hoping that the fact that the arms dealer, originally played by Peter Deluise, being recast means that said Deluise might be back later on in a different capacity as well.  Of course I am fully aware that most of the recasting probably had as much to do with who was available now as it does with changes to the story arcs and such.  I really am excited to see where it goes.  

One thing they kept the same that I have to say I am very happy about is Ryan Robbins' character of Henry.  He plays exactly the kind of tech guy/nerd/smartass that I just want to hug.  I love it.  You may know him better as Ladon Radim on Stargate Atlantis or from his appareances as the bartender on Battlestar Galactica.  I am happy to see him whenever he pops up, but I think his role on Sanctuary is my favorite.  I like him much more when he's not throwing Cylon collaborators out of an airlock or faking Lorne & team's deaths so he can do genetic research on them...

Also, looks like Christopher Heyerdahl's character of Jack the Ripper is going to be playing a much bigger part in the series than I originally would have guessed.  You've got to love a present day monster-series that includes Jack the Ripper.  From what I understand, they might even be bringing Sherlock Holmes in at some point.  Excellent.  Besides, Heyerdahl is just kind of an incredible actor.  I think he's probably good to have around.  Stargate fans know him as both Halling and Todd the Wraith from Atlantis.  He also did a stint on Smallville as Clark's crazy Kryptonian uncle Zor-El.  

That may be one of my favorite things about this series, honestly.  Aside from Amanda Tapping, the main roles are pretty much unknowns to me, but all of the guest and recurring characters are a veritable who's who of sci-fi actors.  It means more chances for me to get to play my little trivia game.  

Anyhoo, as you can tell, I was very pleased with the new product.  Looks like next week's episode wraps up the last of the stories told on the original online run, and after that we'll start to get into brand new territory.  I can't wait!

In other news, I did give The IT Crowd a shot and loved it.  It was a perfect combination of nerd and British humor.  So I will be adding that to my lineup.  Good thing Tuesday's aren't that crowded for me.  Also, it reminded me to be nicer to the IT guys at my office.  Seriously, it's a bad idea to get on the wrong foot with the people who make your computers function.  

And last but not least, my hubby and I have been making our way through Freaks and Geeks whenever we get the chance to watch some DVDs together.  We're up to episode six I think.  It baffles my mind how many brilliant shows just get killed before their time because they don't appeal to the Deal or No Deal crowd.  I think the networks have lost sight of the actual purpose that should be served by television and are just aiming to make money these days, apparently at the cost of their souls.  Sigh.  Okay, will end rant before it can get a full head of steam.  

It is a little weird (in a fun way) watching this show now that John Francis Daley is a regular on Bones.  In some ways I kind of feel like his character of Sam Weir on F&G could totally have grown up to be his character of Dr. Sweets on Bones.  I want to give them both a hug either way.  

Well, that's all I've got for you.  Methinks I will start watching season two of Eureka today.  I can get my Fargo fix so I'll last until the show comes back next year.

Take care all.

C