Man, just, bad ideas all around.

So the internet pretty much exploded today with the news that not only is there definitely a big screen Buffy movie in the works, and not only is it a total reboot with completely different characters (aside from, I would assume, Buffy) and mythology, it also is proceeding completely without the input or benefit of Joss Whedon.

WTF???

There's so much going on here, I don't even know how to get it all into words.  I think I'll just address each of the three points above and maybe go from there.

So--Buffy on the big screen.  WE DON'T NEED THIS.  And I say this as a total Buffy fan, one who will just randomly get the urge to watch the ENTIRE series all the way through periodically (and follow through on that urge).  I know that there's a huge camp in the fandom who just want more more more.  And part of me understands that.  It was a wonderful show and it had a lot of influence on all sorts of areas (vampire lore, science fiction, girl power, etc.), but we don't need another Buffy movie.  

I'll admit, when the series first came out on television, I wouldn't watch it, because I actually liked the movie.  Okay yes, I was and will always be the first one to admit that the movie was completely horrible, but the whole concept jived with me and I am often known to love bad movies when the things that make them bad are things that make me laugh at the movie.  I didn't really get into the series until the end of season six because I had a new roommate who was obsessed and there was really no way to avoid the show and live in my house.  

Here's the thing, what made the movie fail (primarily, anyway--it really was a bad bad movie for many reasons) and what made the television series succeed was the simple fact that this story is too big for the big screen.  To understand Buffy the character, and to really appreciate why she, as a slayer, is so unique and why we, as an audience, should root for her, you need to know what she deals with at home, at school, and at work.  You need to see her friends, with and without her, and how they react to her situation and find their places in her world.  You need to see all of the different monsters she has to deal with, and why the villains are villains and why they're in Sunnydale and what their end game is.  

You could make a movie about a "vampire slayer" who just goes around killing vampires and that's her job and she deals with it and oh, look at all of the dead/destroyed monsters and cool special effects, yay!  That would be fine.  I mean, that's basically just Van Helsing in a skirt.  But if you are going to make a movie about Buffy the vampire slayer, you need the whole story.  And that story needs room to stretch out in order to be properly told.  Some stories just need that.

Besides, if the big screen movie were going to be a continuation of current Buffy canon, which is what anyone actually clamoring for a Buffy movie actually wants to see, well, in my opinion, there's not really anything left to tell that can be summed up in one chapter such as a movie would give us that would satisfy anyone.  For one thing, the series ended too well, and made it very clear everyone was spreading out.  Even if you haven't read the comic books (which show everyone all over the world dealing with all of the new slayers), from the ending of the television series I just don't see where they would get a good story for a movie.  Basically, if you want more official Buffy, go read the comic books.  If you just want more stories in that universe and don't care if they're official, then there is plenty of fanfic out there for you.  A lot of it isn't porn, and some of it isn't too badly written.  

This leads into my second issue with a new Buffy movie.  They don't want anything to do with the original Buffy movie or the television series, other than, as far as I have been able to glean, the name of the main character and the basic concept.  I can think of two extremely clear motivations for a studio thinking this is a great time to reboot Buffy--there's a built-in fanbase that they are assuming will guarantee them butts in the theater, and vampires are hot right now.  Thanks to Twilight and True Blood vampires are just all the rage, and this is just someone's idea of jumping on that bandwagon without having to go to the trouble of finding new source material.  "Vampires are money baby, what do we have with vampires?  Well, there's Buffy...  Buffy!  Great, let's reboot that!"  

Geez Louise.  I am sorry, but I don't understand what is going on in Hollywood.  For the last several years almost every movie that has come out has been a continuation or reboot of an existing franchise or an adaptation of a television series or book or a remake of a pre-existing movie.  Clearly something is broken.  Where has all of the original content gone?  I mean, don't get me wrong, it can be really cool to see a story adapted from one medium to another, and sometimes the idea of just going to see "Things Blowing Up 3" is nice, because it means if I've seen TBU 1 and 2, I don't have to think too much about the story, I can just sit back and enjoy it.  But remakes of existing movies just drive me nuts.  That right there, that's the sign of someone who just wants to make money and is making movies for no other reason at all.  I don't like giving my money to those people.  It just makes me feel dirty.  I mean seriously, if the original was good enough that you think people still might like it today, why can't people today just enjoy the original?  Huh?  Huh?  I will admit, occassionally an exception to that rule comes along, but at the very least there should be a 30 to 40 year MINIMUM window between the original film and the remake.  And as much as I enjoyed the Star Trek movie, reboots are only slightly lower on the icky scale.  But that's probably enough to be a topic for a whole other post so I am going to stop this train of thought for the moment.

This leads to the last issue with a new Buffy movie, and that is no Joss.  Okay, first off, here's what most people are overlooking--the people who have obtained the rights to write a new Buffy movie and are shopping it around the Kuzuis--and they worked with Joss on the original movie as well as on all of the television series and on Angel.  They know what the concept of Buffy is just as well as Joss.  BUT.  But...  But they aren't Joss.  That's what it boils down to.  Buffy is his creative baby.  If I am understanding the story of the movie properly, Joss came up with the concept and wrote the script and the studio said, okay, but make these changes, and let's have someone else to the rewrite.  And those changes and that rewrite made it the disaster it is.  Then several years down the road Joss got a meeting with someone and pitched Buffy as a television series and said, look, the movie was horrible, but here's why, and here's what I can do to fix it.  And it worked.  So yeah, I am nervous that someone who isn't Joss is coming in and saying "I want to make a new Buffy, one that's darker and more relevant to today and doesn't have anything to do with what came before."  

Let's not overlook the fact that the overwhelming majority of fans of Buffy are fans of Whedon himself.  We love Buffy because it is a creation of Whedon, as much as for its own merits.  And while I would not categorize myself as a zealot, well, there are more than enough people out there who are.  And they are scarily organized.  You can expect a lot of vitriol directed at the new movie just because there is no Joss involved, even if he does come out and give it his stamp of approval at some point.  You can bet that this is going to also backfire big time in the faces of the people expecting an existing fanbase to inflate the movie's success.  These are the people who boycott stuff.  This is not a fanbase that likes executives messing around in their universe.  At the very least, it's going to make the internet a very scary place for anyone who isn't a zealot and happens to puruse any Whedon-related site for quite some time to come, I can tell you that.

Intellectually I know that a new Buffy movie won't erase the original or the television series.  Those will always be on my DVD shelf waiting for me to watch them whenever I choose.  I can always go back and enjoy what I love.  But still, I worry that the new movie is going to make people who might have stumbled across the series instead avoid it like the plague for the rest of eternity.  That just makes me incredibly sad.  So, yeah, I feel like a new Buffy movie is a BAD IDEA.  It doesn't matter what the movie itself actually ends up being, it's just that the bottom line is, the world doesn't need it.

Sigh.

Sadly, that's not the only bad idea out there as of today.  Just the biggest one. 

io9 is also reporting that Disney, in going through its vault of old movies that need to be remade, has chosen Flight of the Navigator for their newest project.  Sigh.  Flight of the Navigator is a beautiful and wonderful movie and it is the embodiment of my childhood in the 80's.  We don't need a new one.  

Seriously, where have all of the original ideas gone?

So yeah, until next time,

C

Summertime...

Ahh, summer time...that magical time of year that was once rife with television reruns--a chance to catch up on missed episodes or enjoy favorites over again.  Now it's full of God-awful reality programming on the big networks and actually a pretty decent selection of original programming on cable networks.  

Already this summer we've got In Plain Sight on USA and Primeval on BBC America.  I have been enjoying the new season of both of these shows so far.  Good stuff.  But wait, there's more!  June and July are bringing back some great shows that I am really looking forward to.  Here's what's on the horizon for my viewing schedule this summer:

TNT:

The Closer

Leverage

Raising the Bar

Also, I am hoping to see the rest of the season of Trust Me--I assume they'll be burning those off as soon as basketball (bleah) finishes up.

USA:

Psych

Burn Notice

Monk (last season!)

SyFy:

Eureka (huzzah!!)

There may be some other shows on SyFy premiering this summer but I'm not too sure at the moment about that.

BBC America:

Torchwood

Also, ABC is going to air the last few episodes of Eli Stone on Saturday nights in June (the final episodes of Pushing Daisies started last night I think, for fans of that show).

Is it just me or does it seem almost easier to get excited about the summer's cable shows than the networks' fall schedules?  The schedule itself may not be as full, but the quality, to me at least, seems to be a lot higher of late.  Sigh.  

Speaking of fall schedules, upfronts ran this week, so we finally got to find out what's going on come September.  Dollhouse and Chuck did get renewed, huzzah!  Even if they both only got shortened seasons, that's not necessarily a bad thing, it gives the writers a chance to make much tighter story arcs which can lead to better viewing for us.  It is going to suck having to wait until January or February for Chuck to start airing though, since it is sharing a timeslot with the shortened season of Heroes.  I have to say, I am a little bewildered by how packed Thursday nights are going to be.  We've got Bones, Grey's Anatomy, and The Office all running at 8 p.m. (central).  Sigh.  Of course, I blame Fox.  They just have to mess with their schedule, don't they?  They just have to shuffle Bones around onto some random new night again.  Honestly, so amazed that show has survived, the way they treat it (but hey, it got renewed for two seasons, not just one, so that's awesome).  I keep telling myself it will only last a few months though and then Fox will need to rearrange and it will be the first to get moved.  We'll see, I guess.  I am really hoping that ABC has full episodes of Grey's available online.  I think that's the one that is going to have to get bumped from the actual television viewing, because I always try to watch Bones live and The Office is a show my husband and I make time to watch together, which is harder to do at the computer than on the couch.

And finally, in some rather exciting (for me at least) news--Neilsen is sending out surveys to select new households to include in their ratings research and I got one.  So, there's no guarantee I'll be selected, but it is a possibility.  I feel giddy with the promise of power.  

And that's me.  Until next time, happy viewing!

Primeval is back!

Last night the first episode of the third season of Primeval aired on BBC America.  This show is back just in time, as all of my regular shows have just wrapped up (except for a straggler or two finishing this week).  

We pick up with our anomaly-hunting friends sometime after the events of the season two finale (i.e., the death of team member Stephen).  Cutter is bummed because his wife got his best friend killed by prehistoric (and a few futuristic) critters.  It isn't bad enough that she, you know, slept with the guy, but then she turned him against Cutter, and then got him killed trying to make up for it.  Helen is a bitch.  I'm just saying--that's something anyone who is going to watch this show needs to realize.  There are no redeeming qualities about this woman--none.  But anyway, so Cutter is bummed.  He knows it's not his fault his friend is dead but he still feels like he should have been able to stop it from happening.  In comes Jenny Lewis to remind him that he can't change the past--and he has a wonderful response to that, coming from her--and ask if he wants to grab some food.  Cue the anomaly alarm.

This week's anomaly has appeared in an exhibit at the British Museum.  Yay, Egyptology!  We get a big crocodile monster from 55 million years ago that kills the curator and threatens a scholar before running off into London to generally terrorize the poplulation around the Thames.  With the help of the Egyptologist, who swears that the creature is an ancient Egyptian goddess, and with a new military commander (replacing the guy who got killed in the anomaly in the penultimate episode last season), our team of scientists manages to get the critter back home just in time for the anomaly to close (of course).  

Some cool things were set up for the rest of the season in this episode.  First off, when I say the anomaly was in the exhibit, I mean it was actually trapped inside the exhibit.  Made of a highly magnetic metal, the artifact was apparently created to trap the anomaly--move the artifact and the anomaly moves with it.  In addition, Connor accidentally electrocuted the anomaly, causing it to harden in a way--still active but nothing could get in or out for a brief period.  This gives the team all sorts of interesting new avenues of research to follow when they're not out chasing critters.  Now we know anomalies can be contained and maybe even rendered harmless while they're open.  Ooh...interesting.

Also, we get two new team members--the new military guy, Beckett, I think, as well as the Egyptologist, Sarah Page.  Her insistence that the croc-monster was what the ancient Egyptians believed to be one of their gods leads Cutter to think that perhaps all of the fantastical creatures throughout history (the chimera, pegasus, the krakken, etc.) might be critters that slipped through anomalies.  He thinks if they can track down the origins of these myths, they might be able to better detect a pattern on anomaly appearances, so that's what Dr. Page's job will be.  

Then there's a new government higher up trying to take over the ARC and get on Lester's nerves.  We learn right off the bat that she's got some hidden agenda tracking down some artifact that her whole special ops team got wasted by the future bat-monsters trying to recover.  

And not to be left out, Helen is back, and hey, she managed to get the artifact after the special ops team got wasted.  She and her army of look-alike goons are setting up in a warehouse with some as yet unrevealed nefarious purpose.

So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful episode.  I really enjoyed it, with the exception of all of the completely unnecessary destruction of ancient artifacts while the creature was loose in the museum.  That made the archaeologist in me want to cry.  There was of course plenty of wonderful Connor-based humor.  I had two favorite bits.

First was when Connor almost got dragged through the anomaly by one of the croc-monsters (only one got loose but a few tried to get through while the team was guarding the anomaly).  Sarah reached for something to whack the monster with and realized she had picked up an ancient Egyptian kitty artifact, so she hesitated, not wanting to hurt it, and instead ended up grabbing a two-by-four (probably a better choice anyway, really).  

Second was the whole "curse" that Sarah made up.  Connor picked up a piece of the anomaly containment artifact that broke off when a wrench got sucked in by the magnetism, and Sarah told him that the artifact was cursed and anyone who touched it would be plagued for the rest of his life.  She later reveals to Abby that she made that up but they both agree there's no reason to tell Connor that fact.  I love it.  This has potential to be a wonderful running joke this season, and I hope that the writers don't pass up the opportunity they left themselves here.  Also, totally makes me approve of the new addition to the team.

Good stuff all in all.  I am really excited for this season.  Apparently there's an American movie version of this series in progress, and I am not to sure what to think about that.  Also, there are new rumors that there's also an American television series in the works too.  Gah.  I am a bit nervous about that--though I did see the phrases "spinoff" and "expanded operation out of the UK"  in connection with the American series, so I have some hope.  If it's actually another team set in America, tracking anomalies on this side of the pond (which makes sense that they'd be all over the world), then I could get behind that.  Especially if the events of the mother series were acknowledged and the potential for crossovers was in place.  Can you imagine Cutter having to deal with an American scientist?  That might be beautiful.  

For anyone who has missed out on the first two seasons of this wonderful series, SciFi Channel is airing them on Friday nights at the moment, so you can probably get all caught up pretty quickly if you're interested.

Hope everyone has a great week!  I think I'm off to watch Titan A.E.--I discovered yesterday that Joss Whedon is one of the writers (I loved this movie before I fell in love with Whedon), so that's got me kind of wanting to watch it again.  

Ciao bellas!

Some thoughts on the finales this week...

So most of the finales I want to talk about aired tonight (Um, MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT), but I would be remiss if I didn't also mention Tuesday's closing episode of Fringe--which closed nothing but opened up all kinds of new possibilities.  Yay Fringe!  I just absolutely adore this show.  It is silly and completely unrealistic and yet still fun and smartly written and well acted and creative and engaging.  Even if what the show makes me think about is how unlikely the phenomenon of the week may be, it never fails to make me think at least for a little bit.  Plus, Joshua Jackson, yum.  And there's a cow.  Who doesn't want a cow in their workplace?  My husband works in the Fort Worth Stockyards, and one of the best parts about visiting him for lunch is getting to see all the cows hanging out back of his building (I kid you not).  That, plus the kitties.  There are lots of kitties there too.  

Where was I?  Oh yes, Fringe finale.  Anyway--I for one loved this.  Okay, yes I am not someone to avoid spoilers unless they are on a show that I just don't care about/will never watch, or if it's somehow a show that will really be ruined for me if I don't have an inkling...so, I saw the spoiler that the gravestone Walter visits in the episode was very important--as soon as he went to visit it in the episode, knowing also that we would find out what the "big weird" about Peter was in this episode, I put two and two together and realized that the Peter we know and love is not the Peter from this dimension, because the Peter from this dimension died as a kid.  So, yeah.  Not really a surprise.  It did not, however, diminish my enjoyment of the reveal.  I will admit I was hoping for a bit more Nemoy, but the fact that they finally told us we've never seen him up until now is because he actually lives in another world/dimension was pretty sweet.  Plus, he's signed on for at least a few more episodes next season and has been quoted as saying he's up for continuing to do the show as long as he's having fun with it.  

Also, there's already some controversy surrounding the final shot--revealing that in the alternate world where Bell hangs out, he does so in the still intact Twin Towers.  There are people screaming that this is inappropriate and insensitive.  To which I reply, wow, really?  You get one shot to show just how "alternate" this other world really is--I think showing that the Twin Towers still exist is a really good way to do so.  We are talking two different worlds here.  Certainly there are inappropriate and insensitive ways to stick the Towers into something but I don't think that happened here.  That's all I'm saying on that.

Okay, on to tonight's gala of season enders.  

Bones.  Wow.  Well, I feel much better that they didn't completely ignore the fact that last week Booth had a freaking tumor removed from his brain.  While I felt that the idea of the episode was a little too high concept, and while it was fairly obvious (to me at least) from the beginning that this was either someone reading Booth a murder mystery while he was in the hospital or a dream he was having in recovery or something--I still really enjoyed the episode.  It was fun to see them take the events and mythology of the entire series (at least from season two on--we were missing the original boss man) and rearrange them into a different setting.  (Have I mentioned that when I was deep in my fanfic phase, alternate realities were my absolute favorite?)  As enjoyable as the episode was though, I was starting to feel a little bit disappointed towards the end--just because it seemed to be such a one-off episode, with no payoff to get us to next season and no real wrapping up of this season.  Granted this season didn't really have much of an over-arcing story or anything, other than the revolving interns (and we learned last week that Cam is down to three of them and just has to choose one).  Still, after last season's rushed finale, I was hoping for something a little more cohesive--right up until the last minute when we realize that Booth may have woken up from his coma (which thankfully we didn't actually have to endure), but it appears it may have come with a case of amnesia.  It's something of a cliche season finale cliffhanger I guess, but at the same time it ties together something that has been going on all season and gives us a starting point for next season.  Also, we had Zack back.  Yay, Zack!  So...yeah.  I liked it.  I wish they would actually have Booth and Bones hook up and not hit a reset button, but they are doing a decent job of not letting the tension between the two of them overwhelm everything else in the series or distract from the stories, so I am prepared to be patient for that to happen.  

Next up, Grey's Anatomy.  Good golly.  Okay, I will admit that in my last post I may have sounded like last week's was the season finale--which is because I am a doof and completely forgot there was still an episode left.  I don't even know where to start on this one, there was so much packed into the two hours...but okay, let's see--my favorite moment was when Arizona confronted the Chief--crying in anger all the while.  That was adorable.  I love her.  I am super glad to hear that they are in talks to make her a full cast member next season.  There was a lot of relationship going on in this episode (of course).  As much as I feel for Bailey, I am glad that they are finally resolving the issues with her marriage, even if it sucks and means she's getting a divorce.  I am also glad that she told the Chief that after his ultimatum she was leaving him because if the marriage had gotten to that point it was clearly over.  Good woman--he told her to choose him or her career and she chose herself, I approve.  Arizona and Cally had a nice little moment as well--we get to learn more about Arizona right along with Cally and we get to see that they are willing to accept their differences of opinions.  I loved Sloan getting shot down by Lexie as well--I definitely want them to stay together but it is too soon for them to move in together and it is good for Sloan to realize that just because for the first time in his life he's in a serious relationship that doesn't mean he has to jump into the fast lane straight away.  Poor Alex--he got put in a bad situation.  It is always good to get to see his more sensitive side, whenever he has to care for a woman in his life that comes out.  I just hope he doesn't get completely broken by tonight's events--he's got potential.  This character has seen some real and actually believable growth over the course of this series and I think he's still got room to go a long way.  Very good to see Owen and Christina trying to move forward together.  I think these two can be really good for each other.  And last on my list--Meredith and Derrick.  Okay, what the heezy?  They didn't get married.  Writing your "vows" on a post-it note does not equal marriage.  I know that they're weird and crazy busy, but dude, take the three hours to go to City Hall and get it over with.  I am annoyed because I will not put it past Shonda to just leave it at that for like the next four seasons.  Bleah.  

But aside from all of that relationship hoopla, we had the two big character arcs--Izzie's brain tumor and George enlisting.  I honestly thought that at least one of them would survive and go on to just leave Seattle Grace.  While I admit that we obviously don't know for sure that either one of them is dead, it seems pretty clear that they both died at the end, at the very same moment (creepy).  While it was definitely a little evil to see Izzie finally get her memory back only to then fall over dead (I was starting to think maybe she would be the off-screen character that was still around, like Tino or Heather Sinclaire--she would be off-screen having all of Alex's babies and not practicing medicine any more), I am still glad that she's gone cuz if the actress wanted out that badly they needed to let her go.  And we got some really good material for Alex to build on down the road.  But George, man, George.  His farewell just sucked.  And by that I mean it was completely appropriate for that character's story arc.  He decides to enlist, tells like three people, and then the Chief sends him home--only to get hit by a bus saving a stranger and end up back in the hospital and unrecognizable to his friends and colleagues.  Said people who then find out (while he's in the room no less) that he signed up, get all indignant and bitch about it (around the poor unidentified and semi-conscious patient), and think of ways to keep him from going, not realizing that all the while he's dying under their very eyes.  Poor George.  At least they let him go out a hero.  I wish that actor all of the best.  

So after all of that drama, I needed me some silly and keyed up My Name is Earl in my DVR.  I have to say, this show has been so uneven of late, though as I said to my husband the other day, at least Earl isn't in a coma anymore.  But with this episode they were finally back on track.  Of course it was the last of the season, so no more till fall, sorry.  But seriously, we got Earl addressing his list, which has been missing of late.  We also got some really interesting info to set up for next season, if there is one, I honestly don't know if this is coming back or not, I keep forgetting to check.  On any other show, the end of episode reveal that Earl actually is Dodge's real father while Darnell is not, in fact, Earl Jr.'s father would just be too much, but it is perfect for this series.  So all in all I have to say I liked this season ender.  Of course now I am once more conflicted about whether or not to get the new season on DVD when it comes out.  Sigh.  

But yeah, so crazy night.  And now I think that only two shows I watch have any episodes left this season--so bring on the summer series!  I am so ready for Psych and Burn Notice and The Closer to come back.  

Anyhoo, now it is past my bed time, so I am going to skedaddle.  I'm planning to take myself to see Angels and Demons tomorrow, so I will probably have my thoughts on that for you this weekend.  And if not, I've got this lovely little Star Trek v. Wolverine debate going on on my head I may figure out how to write down one of these days.

Take care y'all.  Have a super weekend!

Star Trek...it's awesome!

Just wanted to pop in really quickly to say that the hubby and I did go see Star Trek last night and it was stupendous!  

(Even with the baby doing the Conga in my belly for the last 45 minutes or so...)

I prepared myself yesterday by watching Galaxy Quest and Spaceballs.  My theory was this:  If I ingested enough cheesy space opera beforehand, I would be prepared to love this movie no matter what direction it took.  And it worked!

Though I will say, the movie is not at all cheesy, I swear.  It was a lot of fun though.  I was laughing my tookus off on several occasions, and I know I probably missed at least half the inside jokes.

Just for those who want a little perspective on this:

I have very little exposure to Star Trek in general other than the pop culture working knowledge of it--so this is a good movie for "non-fans" to dive into the franchise with.  And I'll say this, it made me want to go and watch the original series and the other series and movies just to see what all of the fun is about.  I think that's pretty good.

My husband, on the other hand, moderately strong Trek fan.  He also very much enjoyed it.  Every so often he'd lean over and tell me something they had just done or said was a total tribute to the original.  I've heard this movie described as a "love letter" to the fans, and he agreed that it was.

Here's the thing that I really respect about this "reboot" (which I honestly have a hard time calling this).  Abrams, Kurtzman, and Orci didn't just jump in and say "look, all of that stuff that you know happened, that canon that you acknowledge and love--well, it never happened--what we're showing you is what really happened."  That's not how they went.  They made changes, but they made them in a way that completely acknowledged that everything we know to have come before did indeed come to pass, it's just that so did this version because somebody got it in his head to go back in time and change the timeline up big time.  So some of the characters evolve a bit differently, and the circumstances of how they all end up together aren't exactly how they were.  And while an alternate timeline story has huge potential to feel forced and contrived, this one very much isn't.  It is extremely well done, and that makes all of the difference.

So if you are at all a fan of scifi and are looking for a truly good film to go see, I would very much recommend this one to all of you out there.

Also, as a side note to my fellow Stargate fans, the wonderful Paul McGillion (who we all know and love as Carson Beckett) makes a brief appearance in the film.  You may remember he auditioned for Scotty, but lost the part to Simon Pegg (who I can't begrudge the role because he is freaking amazing).  But, the casting group liked Paul so much they found him a different part.  It's a nice little Easter Egg.  

So, that's all I've got for you guys.  

Live long and prosper, y'all.

My week in nerdiness.

So there was a bit going on this week in the realm of things I could blog about.  I thought I'd just give you a little bit of a day by day.

Monday

The week started off with what was actually a pretty slow day.  DVD-wise I watched a disc of Friends (I am working my way through the whole series and remembering all over again why I love this show).  TV-wise there was no new Chuck or Heroes (and NBC, despite announcing most of their fall schedule that day still refused to tell us if we're going to get more Chuck or not next season).  Did watch The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, of course, as well as Castle.  I am so in love with Nathan Fillion.  He is just so good at playing the guy that you know you really shouldn't like but you can't help it.  Think about it:  Mal was a serious hardass but inspired loyalty from his crew and the audience alike; his character on Drive (no idea what the name was) had some serious issues and a very shady past, but you wanted him to beat the system he got pulled into; Captain Hammer was just a jerk, but still, we kind of wanted to hug him (even if we were rooting for Billy to kick his butt and win the girl); and Castle, well, Castle is an egomaniac and he keeps getting in the way of Detective Beckett, but not an episode goes by that we don't get shown that he truly is a decent human being despite all of that--mostly through the relationship with his daughter and mother.

Anyhoo, other than that, on Monday I made a big dent in my video game (Lego Indiana Jones), and that was about it.  I may have read a bit (Winter's Heart, book nine in the Wheel of Time series).

Tuesday

Went to see Wolverine.  I've got to say, I actually rather enjoyed it.  I'm with the Flick Filosopher on this one--it is just a movie that is pure popcorn.  There's no real substance to it, and it doesn't in any way enrich your life, but while you're experiencing it you can't help but enjoy.  Yeah, I thought that they did cram as many other mutants as they could in there, making it less of an origin movie for Wolverine alone.  But lacking the knowledge of pretty much anyone's actual backstory, I felt like for the most part it made sense to the evil bad guy's plot to have so many mutants running around.  I get the impression more people are mad because of the specific mutants that got "shoehorned" in, and the deviances from who should have actually been there and such, so I guess in this case ignorance is bliss.  I know that a lot of people have panned this for just being an inexcusably bad movie--but I think those are people who were expecting it to be on a level with the first two X-Men movies, and clearly this wasn't going to be that.  I just expected it to be fun and silly with pretty explosions, and you know what, that's exactly what I got.  That's all I was asking for, too.

Before I went in to the movie I had lunch and wandered around the mall with the friend I went to see it with, and in Hot Topic found this awesome Star Wars jacket on clearance.  It is a black zip up athletics type jacket that says "Star Wars" in white print on the front and has a stormtrooper helmet over crossbones on the back.  Pure awesome.  I tried to walk away but after the movie I still hadn't forgotten about it so I went back to buy it.  I am weak.  But dude, coolest jacket ever.

Got home, started playing my game a little bit before Fringe came on and meant to stop in time to watch but got caught up and played until bed time.  There's nothing like finding all of the artifact pieces to make a girl feel good about herself.  Also, once I figured out the trick to getting all of the artifact pieces in the mine cart level, it was nowhere near as annoying as I thought it would be.  I generally tend to dislike the levels that are basically "race" levels in these games, but LIJ actually was much better than Lego Star Wars on this front, overall.

Wednesday

After spending an ungodly amount of time at the car dealership getting my baby all tuned up and respectable again, I came home decided to watch Fringe while I ate lunch (this is actually never a good idea--don't eat while this show is on, you never know when there's going to be an eyeball in an omelet or something, and yet, I can never remember this when I make such decisions).  Of course, American Idol ran long so the last two minutes of the episode got cut off of my DVR recording.  Thank God for Hulu though.  Wow, I am pumped for the season finale!  The whole dimension-shifting thing that Olivia has got going on was a really nice little addition to things.  Also, bye bye Harris, at last!  Then, we get a little suspicion thrown on Peter for disassembling random lab equipment--we all know there's something shady about Peter and are still trying to figure out what--only to find out he was making a nice little toy for his dad to help him concentrate in the lab.  Aww.  I may be completely crazy (well, on this front at least--we know I am in general), but I kind of wonder if maybe that video Walter has of kid Olivia in the corner of a burned room is the result of the Firestarter twins and not actually her doing...since it doesn't seem like explosions are her thing at the moment.  Just a thought.  Also, I was super glad that Walter left the complete ZFT manuscript in plain sight when he hared off with the Observer.  Here's hoping Olivia finds it in the next episode and can start to forgive him a little bit.

After Fringe I watched another disc of Friends ("We were on a break!") and then the Scrubs season finale.  I adored the Scrubs season finale.  I blame it on my pregnancy hormones, but I was totally crying during the montage at the end where J.D. was imagining his future (I also must download the Peter Gabriel song they played over the whole thing).  I know it isn't, but I really wish this was the series finale.  Yeah, they can continue the show without J.D. but who is going to be the voice of the show now?  Will we connect with them on the same level?  Will it just be a rehash of old plots with the new characters?  Is Elliot going to be around, as she was sneak moving in with J.D. during this whole episode?  I get the feeling that the new season, unless there is some last minute decision to call the whole thing off, is going to give us a completely different show, if only because of the shift in perspective.  And honestly, I think that they finished it well.  Of course, if there's still money to be made off of it, what does that matter?  Good story over profit?  Never!  Bleah.

Played my game some more, got all of the free play levels of last movie completed, yay!  Stayed up a little bit longer to finish my book.  Dude, the cleansing of saidin!  Such awesomeness.  That's probably my favorite thing that happens in the whole series so far.  Watched Ben Harper on Letterman (the drummer is a good friend of my husband's), then bed.

Wednesday was kind of a big day.

Thursday

Did I mention it's College Tournament week on Jeopardy! yet?  Well it is.  Missed Wednesday's episode due to car maintenance, but have been enjoying it the rest of the week, nonetheless.

I tried to start my next book (Crossroads of Twilight) in the series while running errands--getting my car washed and such--but didn't get very far.  Matter of fact, I still have about ten or twelve pages of prologue left on that thing.  Gah.  Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, completely abused prologues.  The man can spin a yarn, but when the standard chapter in your books is 25-35 pages, a 94 page prologue is TOO LONG.  Okay, end rant, sorry.  

So.  Came home from errands, watched another disc of Friends (starting season four, woohoo!) and painted my nails.  Yes, I am a girl.  Sometimes I do girly things, nerd or not.  

After my nails were relatively dry I turned on my game to finish off the three bonus levels and reach 100% completion.  As awesome as it feels to have absolutely finished the game, playing the bonus levels last was definitely a letdown.  What I like about this game is that there are objectives, and payoff for these objectives.  You make it through the level in story mode, you unlock new characters.  You find all of the artifacts in a level, you unlock extras you can use to get more money and find more artifacts (or do silly things like make your characters all wear fake mustaches).  But the bonus levels didn't really have any of that.  There was nothing to find in the one level that was actually structured like the others, you just have to go from point A to point B, and in the other two you just have to get a certain number of studs to complete.  Though at least the Ancient City level had puzzles to solve to get all of the studs.  In the Warehouse level you are distracted by all these things to set up a race course (with no payoff for doing so)--and have I mentioned how I feel about race levels?--when all you have to do is get a bazooka and blow up everything that can be blown up and then just aim it at a target for long enough to get all of the required money.  Bleah.  Sigh.  Oh well.  It was a lesson, I guess.  And, I did accomplish something, game wise.  I am not usually someone who does all of the little side quests and buys all of the extras and such.  Usually just doing the quests that interest me and finishing the playthrough, beating the big bad, those are enough.  But the Lego games are nice because there aren't a zillion little side quests.  There's like three or four different goals to aim at aside from just playing through.  First you play through in story mode, then you go back and play through in free play (where you can switch between characters and access things unavailable in story mode) to finish everything off.  Plus you get that little meter that tells you your completion percentage.  It's a challenge not to try to hit 100%.  

Anyway, so I finished my game and then it was time for dinner and Thursday night television.  Bones was awesome.  I have been worried since it was announced on Ausiello that there would be a guest appearance by Stewie Griffin (yes, that's right, the cartoon baby from The Family Guy), but I actually feel like they handled the whole thing really well.  Plus, it led us to find out something was wrong with Booth that they had actually been building up to all season.  Though from the previews from next week it doesn't seem that there are any consequences from his brain surgery.  Of course, it's just a preview.  Those rarely give you all the info you need for a show as rich in character and story as Bones.  Hopefully they don't just brush his brain tumor aside.  It seems silly otherwise to have spent a season leading up to it and then just say, oh, yeah, brain tumor.  Well let's operate in this episode and then by next week everything is back to status quo.  Plus, Bones with baby fever, and just assuming Booth would hand over his swimmers was pretty priceless.  And have they picked an intern?  It's clear they're down to three, and I enjoy all three choices, so I look forward to seeing who wins the season long competition.  Of course, next week Zack is back, so who knows?

Then there was the Grey's Anatomy season finale.  I absolutely love how that show can take such a horrible accident like a semi crashing into an SUV full of college kids on their graduation day and, even though it's just the thing going on in the background of all of these crazy doctors' drama, they don't diminish that it is a horrible event and it needs to be dealt with.  Also, I totally was not surprised that it was Alex and Izzie who ended up at the altar rather than Mer-Der.  I mean come on, who really didn't see that coming?  But it was well done.  Now they can kill her off and make Alex a much deeper character.  I mean...um...yeah.  Though I thought the George going off to join the army was supposed to happen this season, I guess they are wrangling him into at least a few more episodes.  Sigh.  I hate that he has to go, but I totally understand the actor's motivation--they completely under utilize him.  

After Grey's I watched My Name is Earl (I will hold off on The Office until I can watch it with my hubby this weekend, as per usual).  I have enjoyed this show, but I think it may be time for it to take its final bow.  This whole two-parter mystery about the disappearance of a character we have never met until now was really just not all that entertaining.  It certainly wasn't enough to warrant a two-episode story arc.  And while when they do the "COPS" episodes they can be a nice little showcase of how things used to be in Camden pre-list, this "Inside Probe" thing was just lame.  Bleah.  No more.  They seem less and less to be focusing on Earl's list, and to me that means that maybe it is time for the show to be done.

After Earl I needed to do something fun and silly, so I started up a new video game.  The first Lego Star Wars game (episodes 1-3).  I finished this one in story mode way back in the day but never went back in free play, so now that I have completed Indiana Jones, I wanted to give this one another go.  So I played through the first two levels in story mode, trying to get used to the controller (went from Wii to Playstation 2), and learning just the basic differences in game play between the first Lego game and the most recent (there are quite a few, it turns out--each game seems to have its own little unique pieces, not counting that they take place in different universes).  

Friday

I kept forgetting yesterday was Friday for some reason.  After doing my usual Friday errands though I sat down with some lunch and another disc of Friends.  Then I popped in my video game and finished playing through Episode 1 in story mode.  I was quite rudely reminded of how much I frickin' hate pod racing.  Remember when I said I don't like the race levels?  Yeah, this level I played yesterday is the underlying reason for that.  There's one other level in the game (I want to say in Episode 2) that is just as bad.  But at least I found all of the mini-kits in that level the first time through.  I may wait to do that one in story mode until I can buy a stud multiplyer so I can hit the full stud amount for that level right away and not have to stress over it.  Just saying.  

After that I was feeling kind of aimless.  I had about two hours until Dollhouse but didn't really have anything I felt like doing until then.  So I ended up popping in yet another disc of Friends (and now we've met Emily and set the state for the Chandler/Monica hook up, huzzah!) and then since that overlapped Dollhouse, I waited to watch that until after it was done.

So, Dollhouse season finale.  Wow.  Holy awesome show, batman!  I seriously hope that we get a second season of this.  I want to know what happens next!  Does Ballard become Echo's new handler?  Or maybe replace Victor?  What are they going to do with Victor now that he's a "broken" doll like Whiskey was?  I hope they keep that actor around, he's kind of awesome.  Also, plus, dude, Dr. Saunders was a doll?!?  That's pretty sweet in the evil and awesome kind of way.  And why did Topher program her to hate him?  What's up there?  She may not want to know who she is, but now I really do.  Alpha can still be the big bad, only this time he doesn't want Echo to rule by his side, he's going to want revenge on her.  I like that her composite event made her go a completely different direction than his did.  I think maybe it confirms Ballard's belief that you really can't completely overwrite someone's soul.  But yeah, so, totally dug it.  Please Fox, please, just this once, don't be evil, kay?  Give us a season two.  We promise we'll watch!

After that, I read for a bit and then went to bed.  Still in the prologue that never ends, sigh.

And that was my week.  Right about now my husband is reading this and thinking maybe I need to go back to work after all...

It's not like I don't do other stuff, like clean the house, in between all of this.  But really, no one here wants to hear me bitch about cleaning the floors.  So...yeah.

My hubby and I are tentatively planning to go see Star Trek tonight--I am kind of excited for that.  May is seriously the month of a zillion movies.  

 Anyhoo, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a super week.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!  Take care.

Dollhouse had better get a second season...

Wow.  Just finished watching tonight's episode, and wow.  

~~~SPOILERS ABOUND!~~~

Okay, first off, Alan Tudyk, yay!  

Second, Jane Espenson wrote the episode, love her.  

Third, Ballard made it into the Dollhouse at last.  

Fourth, Topher totally got what was coming to him, even the tree-hugger thought so.  

Last but not least we have Echo's forbidden memories coming up with the most interesting timing, hindering Ballard's attempt to rescue her and reaffirming her bond with Boyd.

And Victor wins for best line of the episode. "People were fighting on me."  (That may not be the exact phrase, but the line and the delivery were just perfect.)  Topher's usage of "frak" was also pretty nifty, but since the writer of this episode was one of the executive producers and writers on Battlestar it's more of a nice in-joke than an awesome tribute.

I have to say, I was getting pretty annoyed about what I perceived to be the glaring plot hole of the episode--that Alpha would be living under an identity that he had previously used and that Ballard could track him down like that.  Why the heck wouldn't the Dollhouse have been able to find him if that was the case?  I was especially surprised with such a misstep since this was penned by my favorite TV scribe.  But as soon as Sierra in her FBI Forensics Expert guise (which was beautiful, almost Bones-esque) called DeWitt with the identity of the slashed up body in Tuscon, and it became clear that Alpha had been pulling the strings all along--good gravy. 

This was just an incredible episode, and the previews for next week's finale just about made my poor little head explode.  Can.  Not.  Wait.  

Sigh, I really really hope this gets a second season, oh man I do.  I know it's not a shoe-in to get canceled, but it's definitely not a shoe-in to get renewed.  Gah...up fronts will not proceed quickly enough for me.  

Interestingly enough, a writer over at Not a Planet Anymore (a really cool blog I recently discovered thanks to Whedonesque) has been looking at the future of Dollhouse in comparison with and as a result of Buffy.  You can read the whole series here (it is several well written posts long), but in the concluding post I think the author totally nails the problem with Dollhouse right on the head.  The thing that makes Dollhouse (and all of Whedon's shows) so awesome is the thing that is going to kill it.  You have to actually watch the show to understand, and therefore enjoy, the show.  There is no coming in at the middle of the episode or missing an episode or three then picking back up later without complete confusion.  Forget trying to start watching halfway through the season or jumping on the bandwagon after a few seasons (unless you're willing to catch up on Hulu first or have a friend who is willing to give you a very thorough debriefing).  

I don't believe that the television audience reviles this type of story-telling--I for one relish it and this is exactly the kind of television show I love to watch.  I think the reason that shows like this aren't successful though is because television networks have no patience for this type of story-telling.  It doesn't fit into their archaic ratings scheme and it doesn't let them play around with scheduling whenever they feel like it.  Also, the simple truth is that with the rise of popularity for "reality" shows (the bane of my television watching existence), network executives simply don't believe that an audience is willing to actually invest in a series.  So when a network does take a chance on a show like this, it rarely ends up lasting past the first season (if it survives that first season at all) because the network doesn't know what to do with it, and isn't willing to let it build an audience who will be rewarded with story payoff and in return reward the network with consistent viewership.  Let's face it, these days, simply consistent viewership isn't what the networks are looking for anyway.  And that is truly a shame.  

So while my fingers are crossed, when it comes to Dollhouse, it is definitely a "hope for the best, expect the worst" kind of situation.  But man, I am hoping hard.