Another One Bites the Dust...

Man, can you feel it?  It's getting closer--it's almost that magical time of year when we Whedonites across the globe like to gather in order to celebrate our leader and to help raise money for a good cause to boot.

I am of course talking about Can't Stop the Serenity, a global series of screenings of the wondrous movie Serenity on or around Joss Whedon's birthday in order to celebrate the man and support his favorite charity Equality Now.  

If you're a fan of the shortlived but absolutely incredible series Firefly, you should totally head to the CSTS site and find out if your city or one nearby has signed up for a screening this year.  Usually screenings will occur the last week and a half or so in June, but apparently they can run all the way through August, so check it out.  This is a truly fun event for a truly worthy cause, and a great excuse to get together with other fans and just enjoy each other's company.  My husband and I have gone the last two years and have really enjoyed the experience each time.

Alas, if the Dallas event this year happens in the normal timeframe, my silly husband is going to be out of the country at the time.  He's going on tour with his band or some such thing like that.  But I digress.  While generally I am fine going to the movies by myself, this is really more of an event, and it's usually all the way out in Arlington or Dallas, where I do not generally go alone (especially not when I will be 7 months preggers).  So I have been working on finding friends to accompany me for this year's event, and in the progress, I managed to add another convert to the way of Firefly.  

A friend of mine who is a fan of Buffy and Angel but who has never really had the chance to see Firefly or Serenity seemed like she might enjoy the event and was amenable when I asked her about it.  Since I didn't want her to go in blind, however, I was going to just loan her the DVD set of the series.  Due to some other plans falling through last night, we ended up hanging out at my house instead of going out and we went ahead and popped in the first disc of the series.  And now she's hooked.  I have been informed that she's been plugging away at the rest of the series since early this morning.  I am so proud.

So yes, Firefly, it is awesome.  Share it with your friends and loved ones and improve their general quality of life.  

The only downside is that now I want to watch the rest of the series again too, and she's got my DVDs.  Hmm.  Oh well, she's going through them pretty quickly.

I hope you all have a great week.  I am off to settle down with Lost in Austen, so that should prove pretty exciting in its own right.

Laters y'all!  

Television doldrums...

So, I know I have kind of vanished lately but it's because I haven't been watching that much teleivision--at least, not anything I've been paying attention to.  I have been deep deep in the world of Wheel of Time (rest in peace, Robert Jordan).  I just started book nine (out of eleven published so far) yesterday.  I've been pretty wrapped up in that and so haven't been doing too much with the DVDs during the day--though my cat seems to have taken exception to this:

I did manage to watch season seven of Degrassi the Next Generation this week though.  This was the first season that I didn't watch at all on television (I got through half of season six when it aired on The N but then got fed up with their scheduling issues and lost track), so it was a completely new experience for me.  That was kind of fun.  I spent a couple of my morning walks with my husband catching him up on all of the stuff that went down this season (he has never really watched the show but is amused by my enjoyment of it and is so peripherally aware of what goes on with it).  I honestly have no idea why I still watch this show, it's gotten so far from where it started.  It's not the same as Smallville, in that it is still very much enjoyable, but it is definitely in my eyes a completely different show than it was.  Still, I'll keep getting the DVDs as long as it keeps going.  When my daughter gets old enough, I'll let her watch these for sure, but with the caveat that while this is one of the more "real" shows out there as far as teen life goes, it still doesn't necessarily illustrate good judgement on the part of, well, any of the characters, and she should understand that most of these kids are idiots purely to up the drama factor.

Anyhoo.

Wow, I only have one set of DVDs left in my "pile" for the firs time in over two years.  I am not quite sure what to make of that.  

I was super excited to find out that Lost in Austen, the British series that I could never find on cable in the US (though apparently there was a channel that aired it, just not one I was aware of) was coming out on DVD this month, and at a steal for only $15 from Amazon (it clocks in at a total of three hours for the season, apparently).  So that is what I will watch this week.  I really can't wait.

After that, I think I am going to watch all of the Harry Potter movies again--though I might wait until July for that marathon, and then I need to decide which of my existing series I want start a rewatch of.  I am leaning toward Stargate, but that is the last series I tried a rewatch of and I only got through season five before I ended up with the beginning of my original DVD pile up that I am just now finishing...also, there are quite a few series coming out in June and July that I'll be getting, so I don't want to start a ten season series rewatch if I am only going to get halfway through it before I need to set it aside again.  Hmm...this will take some thought.  Also, I am kind of thinking my rewatch will be accompanied with a blog-along review.  It had occurred to me watching something recently that I need to do some liveblogging, and this might be better than for new content...so we'll see.  

I must say though, finishing up my DVD pile gives me hope for my reading pile...oy vey, is that massive....

I think that's all I've got for now.  I hope this finds you all well!

Have a super weekend, don't forget to watch Dollhouse tonight!

Bummer, dude.

Sigh, Ausiello is saying he's hearing rumors from people who would actually know that The Sarah Connor Chronicles has actually been cancelled.  

Of course Fox's official stance (as with Dollhouse) is that no decision has been made or will be made until the network's upfronts in May.  This is patented ridiculous, of course.  At this point they are a month out from said upfronts and you know that at this point they are preparing their presentations and so therefore by now know exactly which shows are gone from next season's schedule.  Sigh.  Like it's going to cause any less of an internet uprising to wait until upfronts to officially confirm/announce a series cancellation.  

Oh well, just another piece of evidence for the "Fox is EVIL" file.  

But back to Sarah Connor...

Except for the weird pervy teenage robot sado-masochism scene, I really totally dug the episode.  I loved the ending, and I feel like it set us up for a really potentially awesome third season--where we have one foot in the post-apocalyptic future with John and one in the present with Sarah and Ellison.  

One thing I keep hearing though is the speculation that by John leap-frogging into the future where he is unknown he has somehow created some alternate timeline where he was never the leader of the human resistance since he wasn't around for the apocalypse.  Funny thing is, that is so totally not how I read it at all.  I totally felt like his jumping into the future was in fact the event that actually enabled him to become a leader of the resistance.  He jumps forward with all of the knowledge and skills he needs to lead the human rebels and only lacks his army--but he jumps right into the middle of one of the scattered groups of humans--perfectly placed to start gathering them up in a much more strategic manner and making them an actual army.  

Of course, it's totally academic whether his time jump was a predetermined part of his destiny or whether he has totally changed up history by skipping ahead.  But still.  I feel like it looked too close to the glimpses of the future that Derek and Jesse had already given us--a future in which we never actually see John Connor, and so have no idea of his true age.  I feel like if his jump forward had been a big change, the humans would be in a condition much more dire than where they were under the leadership of John Connor--if that makes any sense at all.

Another thing I have seen some debate about is whether the appearance of Summer Glau at the end of the episode was as Cameron the terminator or as Allison from Palmdale--the human resistance fighter that Cameron was based on.  To which I say--check out the dog, yo.  It has been clearly established in Terminator canon that dogs do not like metal--and they made a point to show her being all warm and cuddly with the dog escorting the band.  It was Allison, I don't even feel like that was intended to be up for debate.  (Also, I feel like this is support for my theory that John was supposed to have jumped forward, because this suggests he's jumped forward some time before ever starting to send people back in time.  Though, of course, in the way of the wonderful circular logic of time-travel debate, I can see where this would also support the alternate timeline theory--since if John Connor never existed there would be no reason for the metal to kidnap his trusted friend Allison in the first place...and on and on...)

And now I guess it looks like we'll never know--though it gives the forums plenty to debate about for years to come.

So yeah.  Just wanted to weigh in, I guess.

Fingers crossed that American Idol doesn't bleed into Fringe again tonight.

Have a great one!

Fox, you are bleh.

You know that there's someone, somewhere, at Fox going, "gee, I don't get why the ratings for our shows seem to be so inconsistent all of the time."  Man, I can tell them how to fix that issue right now.

Stop jacking with the flipping schedule!   

This past week I have been thinking about the love/hate relationship I (and I would have to assume a good chunk of the other viewers) have with this particular network.  

Part of it was my rant about the whole Bones second season episode that got wedged into the third season without any effort at continuity.  

Part of it was what happened Tuesday night when viewers across America tuned in at 8 p.m. (central time) to finally, finally, get a new episode of Fringe and were subjected to ten minutes of overflow of American Idol before the scheduled program aired.  I have never hidden my irritation or general disgust with this show, and while I acknowledge there are apparently plenty of people out there who watch it, it's just not cool to let it bleed into another show's timeslot without any sort of prior announcement--especially when the two shows have such completely disparate audiences.  I am just lucky that I was planning to watch Fringe live--I can tell you right now my DVR didn't catch the last ten minutes of the episode, so I can only imagine the anger of anyone else who had set up theirs to record in advance and then planned to watch later, only to have to fast forward through a bunch of AI crap and then have the episode cut off before the ending.

And then there was the whole bruhaha with the Dollhouse season finale episode "Epitaph One" that came out this week.  The long and short of it is this--Fox paid for 13 episodes.  Because Joss scrapped the first filmed pilot episode to make a new one (using lots of footage from the first pilot), Fox Network feels like they are not obligated to air this final episode because it is technically the 14th episode made.  So, they paid for 13 but are only going to air 12 because 14 were made.  There's still a lot of debate going on as to whether or not "Epitaph One" will be on the season one DVDs, because Fox Studios want a 13 episode DVD set, and the first pilot, to them, doesn't count--since it didn't air and it is a lot of the same footage from the pilot that did air.  So, we may get the unaired episode on the DVD set, we may not, but we are definitely not going to be seeing it on our television screens this season.  No one that I have seen has brought up the possibility of just airing it as the season two opener (especially since supposedly it is mostly a standalone episode, the preceeding episode "Omega" wrapping up a lot of the season one storylines).  This is because no one knows if there will be a season two or not--Fox at this point is flat out refusing to tell anyone until the upfronts at May.

The thing is, all of the stuff listed above is perfectly typical of Fox, and that is so maddening for me.  

On one hand, Fox continually takes chances on cool new shows that no other network would even let see the light of television--Firefly, Kitchen Confidential, Greg the Bunny, Tru Calling, Dollhouse, just to name a few that I have enjoyed.  Then, Fox turns around and totally kills the shows by constantly moving them around on the schedule, putting ridiculous (usually reality show induced) hiatuses in between new episodes, airing episodes out of order, failing to actually market/advertise shows that might need some attention drawn to them in order to gain/maintain an audience, etc.  

This is no way to run a business.  As far as I can see, Fox invests all of this money in these potentially awesome "high risk" shows in hopes that some of them will smash through and be a huge hit, and then doesn't know what to do with the shows once it has them, essentially just throwing all of that money down the toilet.  Yes, all of this does go on at other networks on some level or another, but at Fox it seems to be the rule rather than the exception, and that is where my problem lies.

Someone may point out that Fox can't be all in the wrong here, because, hey, Bones has had almost all of those things done to it and it is currently enjoying its fourth season.  Frankly, I am completely baffled that this show is still on the air.  Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite shows--maybe my actual favorite--currently on the air, and I cross my fingers every spring that it gets the green light for a new season, but I have no idea how it keeps happening.  This show has not only started on a different night almost every season, but in every season it gets moved to a new night halfway through each season, and still gets put on continual breaks due to American Idol and Major League Basesball.  

I can't even argue that it's the high quality of the program, because honestly, some of the stuff that gets canned is just as good and some of the stuff that's been on as long or longer is absolute crap, so quality is not something to go by.  And to tell you the truth, in this day and age, I don't believe in ratings--because I think the networks only use them as an excuse nowadays to get rid of shows they don't feel like dealing with anymore or to justify holding on to shows that really need to be wrapped up because they've gone on way too long.  I can only guess that someone very high up at Fox completely adores this show and until they get replaced or decide they don't like it any more, we will continue to enjoy new seasons, if we can figure out when it's on.

I realize that television production and programming planning today are done in a vastly different environment than even, say, ten years ago.  A lot of expectations have changed--for networks, advertisers, and viewers alike.  But I don't think that justifies what Fox is doing.  Because what Fox is doing, in the long run, is completely disregarding the value of viewer loyalty--to the point where they don't even try to develop or encourage it any more.  

Let's say that you start the season out by airing your show on Tuesdays.  Then about halfway through the season you decide to move it to Thursday nights--and at a different timeslot to boot.  There may be many reasons in your mind to do this (you want to pair it with a more complimentary show, you have something else you think would do better on Tuesdays, the ratings aren't what you expect for that day/time so you decide to give it a try in another spot, etc.).  So, you decide to move it--but you make the decision to move it after, say, the winter holiday hiatus.  So there's a two month period in between when it stops airing on Tuesdays and when it starts airing on Thursdays.  Here's what's going to happen:  some people who couldn't watch it live or at all on Tuesdays may be able to start watching it live on Thursdays (yay!).  But, most people trying to make up their mind about the show will just not bother to follow when it makes the move, people who watched on Tuesdays but have another show they watch in the new Thursday timeslot will have to decide between the two shows--some are going to keep up with your show, more will decide to keep watching their other show live and DVR your show to watch later, and some will decide that they don't care enough about your show enough to follow it to the new slot and stop watching altogether, and finally, quite a few people will totally miss the memo and just not watch the rest of the season because they think the show disappeared.

So while the experiment may give you a small ratings boost from new viewers who couldn't watch it (or at least couldn't watch it live) on the old night, there is far more likely to be a larger loss of viewers (or at least live viewers) who are inconvenienced by the move.  And let's be frank, for any kind of serial show, it's not too reasonable to expect a lot of brand new viewers halfway through the season--people generally don't like going "what the heck is going on" the whole time they are watching something.  Yeah it happens, but not as often as the networks seem to expect it to.  

Far better to leave the show on the same night for the rest of the season and then if you still have enough faith to renew it for a new season, move it then, when everyone else is rearranging schedules as well.  If you must move it, at least keep it on the same night and switch the timeslot.  It's a lot easier for your average viewer or DVR-er to find a show that's on at a different time than a show that's on at a different time and/or on a different night.  

In my mind it just seems that keeping a show consistent makes it a lot easier for the viewers to find and to continue watching--even if their hearts aren't in it any more, they'll still watch out of habit, and usually at some point they'll decide it's gotten good again and so keep on watching.  Heck, I continued to watch Smallville to halfway through the current season despite the pure crap it has become--just out of habit.  I mean, look at Friends--on almost every Thursday night for ten years--and people kept watching through good times and bad.  Or hey, let's look at an example on Fox itself.  The Simpsons.  Need I say more?  Okay, well, you know I will--The Simpsons has been on the air for 20 seasons.  20.  And to my knowledge it has been aired on Sunday nights the whole dang time.  This started out as a highly controversial show (and sometimes it still is)--but Fox supported it and nurtured its audience and didn't jerk them around--and so while the people who started watching 20 years ago may not still be tuning in, their kids sure are.  Never underestimate the value of a loyal fanbase that has been developed by the network proving the show is worth the loyalty.  If the network treats the show like it's just one of the bazillion on the schedule, or like it doesn't really matter next to their brand new reality show, then the audience is going to think the show isn't worth following and will tune out.  Guaranteed.

Okay, one last point, and then I'll stop, I swear.  Aside from the moving the shows around for days and times--there's the preempting the shows for weeks and months at a time for other shows and events.  I'm not talking about the Olympics or the Oscars here--something that happens one night a year or for a set period of time every few years.  Allowances can be made for that stuff.  What I'm talking about is American Idol and baseball season.  Fox has a tendency to just stop airing their serial shows for weeks at a time so they can air American Idol every night or so they can run baseball games.  The problem is that a serial show is usually a show with a building story.  The show runners themselves work hard to make sure that one episode tends to flow into the next and tell us an immersvie story that we want to find out the ending to--and then the network goes and puts huge breaks in the middle of the story.  Then they get surprised when the ratings tend to drop off as the show returns--you wait long enough and people a) lose interest in finding out what's going to happen next and so don't tune in, or b) forget what was going on and are completely confused when the show comes back and so stop tuning in because it's not worth trying to figure out anymore.  It's not like Fox is giving us reruns to keep what's going on fresh in viewer minds during these breaks.  Add to that moving it to a new timeslot after the break and well...the word "watershed" comes to mind.

I do understand that some breaks are necessary--the holiday break, the summer break, etc.  But the problem here is that Fox has a tendency worse than any other network to break for things that they can and should be planning around.  Baseball season (and I love baseball people, don't get me wrong--I just would rather watch the next episode of Bones) happens the same time every year.  It shouldn't be that hard to plan a show's run so that it finshes up beforehand or starts afterwards (hey, new content when everyone else is in the summer doldrums--there's a thought).  And American Idol--gah.  Fox has complete control over when American Idol airs.  Just figure out a schedule for that show and plan your other shows accordingly.  Say that American Idol season will run from point A to point B and again, plan your shows to finish up beforehand or start afterwards, don't just throw a reality show in the middle of the season.  You notice that Fox isn't breaking up the episodes of the reality shows but running then all in a nice steady block...hmmm....

With all of this going on, Fox still gets surprised at the crappy ratings and shows that don't do well in their freshmen seasons, and it just kills me.  There is no element of surprise here--if people can't figure out when a show is on, or if you keep moving it around on the schedule, they're just going to DVR it, watch it online, or stop watching completely.  If you keep interrupting the flow of the story, people are going to lose interest or get confused, and again, stop watching.  It's that simple.  

So here's my finishing thought, a message of advice for Fox:  

If you're going to gamble on a new "risky" show, give it chance.  Be nice to your viewers and you might find they can be nice you to.  Stop screwing around with our timeslots and constantly interrupting our stories, and we probably will keep on watching and maybe even tell our friends to watch too.  

Don't be evil Fox.  That would solve a lot of your problems.  

And with that, I say good day.  

Happy Easter y'all.  Hope it's a great one.

Okay, I have a bone to pick.

Today's post is about the series Bones.  See what I did with the title there?  Nice play on words, eh?  Um...okay, I will stop patting myself on the back now.

Wow, so yesterday I was a completely unproductive bum and spent almost the entire day watching my season three Bones dvds.  All I have left is the last disc which is actually the first three episodes of season four (more on that in a bit).  

So up front, let me say, season three was actually a pretty awesome season, despite the fact that the major story arc got wrapped up so hurriedly due to the strike shortened season.  As disturbing as the whole cannibalistic serial killer Gormogon arc was, it was also really interesting.  I loved that they started off the season with this case and ended that first episode by acknowledging how big the case actually was.  The show runners right there were promising us viewers that they were going to actually give us a story with some meat on it, in addition to the usual fare of cases that could still be resolved in a single 42 minute episode.  

A lot of stuff gets introduced very casually in the first episode that has repercussions throughout the entire season.  Zack returns from Iraq and even though he seems mostly like his normal self and ready to just jump back into his old life, it is clear that he is starting to reevaluate some of his choices in life thus far, as well as how and where he fits into the world in general, not just the lab.  Brennan and Booth are starting to examine their relationship not just as partners but as what they mean to each other outside of work.  Part of that, but also separate I believe, is the fact that Brennan's father is in jail facing trial for murder (arrested by Booth) and her brother is in hiding because he skipped parole and is believed to be a material witness to said murder.  Brennan has to work through her feelings towards her family knowing that despite what criminal acts they may or may not have committed, they are still her family, back more or less "together" for the first time in sixteen years.  Hodgins and Angela are dealing with Angela's past and the sudden discovery of her husband--not only do they need to find him so that they can move on with their future together, they need to now address how well they know each other and what their expectations of that future actually are, and do they mesh?  Also, you know, Gormogon.  Like I said, a lot of stuff.

Despite the shortened season, the show runners manage to mostly resolve all of those story lines except for the Hodgins/Angela story--and even in that case they found Angela's husband, they just have to figure out how to proceed after learning that the husband does not want a divorce.  That's pretty darn impressive for fourteen episodes.  In addition, we get two recurring cast members introduced this season who I just adore.  First there's Dr. Sweets, the ridiculously young and enthusiastic shrink assigned to Brennan and Booth, who ends up not just serving as their therapist but also becoming part of the team by helping to profile the various murderers they are trying to catch.  I love John Francis Daley, especially in this role, and I was super happy when they made his character a full cast member in season four.  He just adds to the playful spirit of this show in a truly wonderful way.  The second recurring character is Dr. Clark Edison (played by Eugene Byrd).  He is introduced as a potential replacement for Zack while Zack is still in Iraq, and returns again to help Brennan as the forensic anthropologist for the defense when Brennan's father is on trial.  I like him because he doesn't fit in but he totally should, if that makes sense.  Hodgins is bang on when he says to Brennan in episode one that Zack is irreplaceable (which I love that they have emphasized in season four by the revolving door of interns)--but if Zack had never been, Clark would have been the perfect addition to the lab.  While Dr. Sweets adds to the playfulness of the show, Dr. Edison's lack thereof (and baffelment by the disregard for professionalism he perceives in the lab) is a wonderful foil to the playfulness.  There is probably a better way to explain what I mean here, but it is totally eluding me.  If you watch the show, I am sure you know what I mean though.

So, overall, season three--rocked.

But why then, you may be asking (or maybe not, you've probably wondered off in search of coffee by now), does the post title indicate displeasure?  Ahh, and now we've gotten to the meat of the thing, haven't we?  Why yes, yes we have.  My issue is not with the show (almost never with the show, I love this show)--but with the DVD set itself.  And some of this stems back to the season two DVD release, actually, but I'll get to that.

Issue the first:  What's with the crazy late release date, Fox?  Season four of Bones started airing first thing in September of '08, but the DVDs for season three (the very shortened season three), weren't released until the end of November of that year.  Most companies plan their season DVD releases to correspond with or preceed the starting of the next season, so watchers can get caught up and get excited about the new season.  It's not like the networks are airing reruns throughout the summer any more.  As mentioned above, a lot of stuff happens in season three, and the season three finale is terribly emotional and crazy--it would have been nice to get to review that before jumping into the new season.  Also, because they delayed the release so far, someone thought, well, we'll make it better by including some of season four's episodes too.  Yeah...that was...weird.  Why are there episodes from season four on the season three DVD release?  

Intellectually, I get what happened, I do.  Because the season was shorter than normal, only fourteen eposides (more on that in a bit) as opposed to the regular 20-24 due to the strike, the people putting together the DVD sets were somehow worried that purchasers would feel cheated.  Well yeah, if you had released a set with fewer episodes and charged the same as a full season, sure.  So instead of selling us the season that we got (like everyone else who had shortened seasons did last year) for a slightly smaller price, in a timely manner, they instead held out until well into the next season and included what would be the first disc of the season four DVD set so that they could still charge full price (hey, well, I guess that works out for Fox, at least).  Bah.  Of course, you know they will conveniently forget this and include that same exact disc in the season four DVD release and charge full price for this season as well.  So those of us who buy each season get to pay twice for the same three episodes.  Oh, lucky us.  Bah.  I maintain we would have all been happier had Fox just released the season as it was and knocked a few bucks off of the price.

Issue the second:  The phantom episode.  I will freely admit I have been on a slow burn about this ever since the season two DVDs came out.  You may have noticed I keep saying that there were only fourteen episodes in season three, yet the DVD release (and IMDB) has fifteen season three episodes.  Here is what happened.  

In season two the episode "Player Under Pressure" was filmed and scheduled to air sometime in the spring of that season.  The main plot of the episode centered on the murder of a college basketball star on his campus, possibly by another student.  There was also a minor little B-plot revolving around Hodgins and Angela shortly after they had started dating but before it was widely known by the rest of the lab or really a public/serious relationship.  Then, in the real world, the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech occurred and Fox decided to yank this episode.  (I will note that I am still unclear if the original story was closer to the VT incident and was retooled before airing).  The decision not to air an episode dealing with a college-related murder so close to the Virginia Tech shootings totally makes sense.  I am not at all objecting to that, let me be clear.

Because this was pretty much a stand-alone episode, with no real development of season's two running story arc, it made sense that this episode just ended up not getting aired, especially since its originally intended air date was so close to the end of the season as it was.  What doesn't make sense, however, is not including the episode in the season two DVD release.  General public impression at the time was that the episode would indeed be included in the DVD release.  You've got to admit, an unaired episode is a nice little incentive for fans to buy the DVDs.  And yet, for some reason, it wasn't included, which sucked and was annoying.  But okay, whatever.

It is possible that the decision had already been made to air the episode as part of season three.  Which is, indeed, what happened.  "Player Under Pressure" was aired as episode eleven of season three.  I get that with the strike-shortened season it made complete sense to go ahead and air an already completed episode that had never been shown before--free new content, yay!  What makes no sense whatsoever is that the fact that they didn't include the episode in the season two DVDs indicates that it had already been decided to include it in season three way before the strike happened.  So why the heck did they not film some new material to update the continuity of the episode for when it did end up being aired?  Plenty of time was had by all to fix this--but as the episode aired, all of the non-case elements made no sense whatsoever.  Booth reveals to Brennan that he was a jock in high school/college and she gives him a hard time about it--even though there is an earlier season three episode resolving Booth's jockiness with Brennan's braininess (wherein Brainy Smurf played a large role).  Also, the Angela/Hodgins story would have taken very little editing to bring up-to-date with their current circumstances at the point the episode was aired.  Also, by the point in the season this episode aired, Zack had already gone over to the dark side, and when watching the DVDs already knowing about that, it is pretty clear that he's different in all of the episodes except this one (which was filmed before Zack ever went to Iraq and started down the path that made him join forces with a serial killer).  It's jarring to see him his old sweet self without the apartness that he has started to develop by that point in the series.  

I just feel like wedging this episode in where they did without updating it throws a big kink in the overall flow of the story, and it annoys the crap out of me.  They should have included it in the season two DVDs and then aired it during the strike as a way to fill space but it should not have been part of the season three DVD set.

So overall--season three was awesome, but the people over at Fox Video who put together this DVD set need to seriously lay off the crack pipe.  It's all I'm saying.

And with that, I bid you adieu.  Ciao!

Huh. I guess there was life on Mars after all...

Well, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the (American) Life on Mars series finale.  When they said they were going with something completely different, they totally weren't kidding, but they still made it work.  

I have to say, looking back overall I really did end up enjoying this version of the series.  While it still can't hold a candle to the original, it was a fun trip that I am glad I got to take.  Though I am glad it only got one season, and a shortened one at that.   While seeing how they had planned to end the series does make me think in hindsight that maybe they might have been able to sustain it over several seasons--I still think this story idea is one that works best in the short term.  Then again, most of this show's more entertaining moments/episodes were those that weren't trying to steal from the British series, the good stuff was when they went their own way.  Maybe passing the original number of episodes/plotlines to steal would have demanded more creativity on the part of The Powers That Be and we would have gotten a really cool sustained series.  Oh well, guess we'll never know now, huh?

*Spoiler Alert*

Below the awesome bird picture (done by my lovely sister) there be spoilers for both the British and American finales.  

So let's just compare real quick how the two series endings differed, for the heck of it.

British version:  Turns out Sam was in 1973 as the result of a coma caused by the whole being hit by a car thing.  He wakes up from the coma to find himself back in 2003 and realizes that real or not he belongs in the "dream" world of 1973 that he had been living in.  He also realizes he left all of his friends back there to die and tries to figure out a way to get back to them and save them.  In the end, Sam jumps off of a building, committing suicide in the present--to go on to what we can only assume is some sort of "afterlife" in 1973, returning in time to save the day.  He lives happily ever after.

American version:  Just as Sam finally resolves his daddy issues and realizes he loves Annie and doesn't want to leave 1973, he wakes up in 2035.  Turns out he is actually an astronaut (yay, Spaceman!), part of the first crew to actually go to Mars.  The crew spent two years in a VR stasis type situation.  Sam had set his simulation to play out that he was a cop in 2008 but a glitch that occurred in the system after the shuttle flew through a meteor shower changed his VR to 1973 but left his 2008 memories intact in error.  In a very "Wizard of Oz" moment, all of the people from the 125--Annie, Chris, Ray, and Hunt--are his other crew members.  Also, turns out that Hunt is actually his dad.  The show ends with Sam realizing that maybe he has a future with Annie--Colonel Norris in "real" life--and with the crew stepping foot on the red planet.  

Completely different.  Also, I am pretty sure my description is not doing it justice--but it was actually very decently executed.  As I said, quite pleasantly surprised.

As this did end up just being the one season, I very seriously might try to sweet talk my hubby into getting it for me on DVD when it comes out.  It wasn't nearly the disaster I was afraid it would be this time last year.  And the soundtrack--A1 stuff man.

In other slightly related news--I have given up on Ashes to Ashes (the sequel series to the British version of the show).  While it is expected to be somewhat derivative, it just seems to me to be more of a pale copy of the original rather than trying to do something new and unique or to further the universe of the first series.  Detective Drake has just as many mommy/daddy issues as Sam did, and she is more annoying because she thinks she knows what is going on and, IMO, is not handling it very well--at least not in a way that is entertaining to me as a viewer.  I mostly just want to smack the bejeezus out of her.  Also, they seem to be trying to make her hook up with Hunt, and that just...no.  No.  Nope, can't go there, I just can't.

Rather unexpectedly, as well, the reprisal of the roles of Chris and Ray just don't work for me at all.  Chris was always one of my favorites on the British LOM, and I never really paid much attention to Ray at all.  He was a main character, but not one I cared about.  Oddly enough though, the American versions of those characters seemed to have so much more depth, and watching their British counterparts out of context, so to speak (in the 80's rather than the 70's) is just kind of surreal.  

Anyhoo.  So there you have it.  

And now it's just about time for my bedtime.  So long, Life on Mars.  

And it all comes back to David Bowie.