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  • 30Jan 08

    28012008, 3450, 52, f

    'Nuff said

  • 6Dec 07

    In the chains of practical constraints

    Wow, my last blog is from 2 months ago! I just wanted to let everybody know that I'm not gone, I just have a very hectic life at the moment, which basically leaves me with around 0 hours of free time per day. I'll try to be around more in the future than I have been lately, but I'm not sure I'll make it

    Oh, and two pink fluffy points go to the first one who names the source of the blog title

  • 7Oct 07

    Go East!

    Ok, I'm trying to write a blog since Monday, but I didn't get too far... So I'll try to keep it short, so that I'll finish it

    On Tuesday the week before we had our topping out ceremony, which was a great party. But on Wednesday a had a bad hangover, even though I thought that I hadn't drunk that much... I still had the hangover on Thursday and on Friday and on Saturday, ... So it seems it was no hangover after all, but some kind of virus

    On this Wednesday I had a few important meetings which didn't went as good as I wanted with me not be to concentrate or articulate a whole sentence SO before I knew it, I was set for a business trip to Russia the whole next week. But instead of seeing an airport, a hotel and a company, I won't even see that much, because our meeting will take place in the hotel, great... Oh and I was chosen to present some products I have never heard about, so this will be one wasted week... It also meant that I had to prepare the trip and the presentations for this meeting over the last couple of days (of course in addition to normal work... I have to learn to say 'no' to my bosses once in a while ) which is the reason I haven't written a blog in that time.

    I also met with my electrician to perform all the planning for the house, and after we were nearly done, he mentioned that it seems that I forgot two important things in my plans - Computer network and TV! Yes, I know, as a member of tv.com, these should be the first things to think about, not the ones I completely forget

    Nevertheless, I managed to finally read noahcrash's Serial part 4! Great, wicked, freaky stuff!

    Oh, and I somehow managed to get to a new level for the first time in a long while So I should re-start submitting to finally get to my favourite level, #22...

    Oh, and I watched some TV, as always. Here a few tidbits:

    Moonlight (Pilot):

    Worst opening exposition ever! It was obviously tagged on after the episode was already finished and it was so sloppy, it even managed to ruin scenes half an hour later. The rest of the episode was some standard nothing out of the ordinary vampire PI stuff. Oh, and hello writers, if you do a murder mystery, please include more then 3 guest stars, it keeps the who done it rather easy to guess...

    Still: 4/10

    Life:

    A police officer who was incarcerated for 10 years for a murder he didn't commit, gets a big settlement, including him being promoted to Detective. He is just a bit off, what makes this kind of a different procedural, a bit like Raines was last year. Add to that an ongoing storyline about him trying to figure out what really happened 10 years ago, some great actors (Damian Lewis, Adam Arkin, Robin Weigert) and you have quite an interesting series.

    7.5/10, will keep watching, witch means another procedural has to go... buy-buy Numb3rs.

    The second episodes of Reaper and Chuck both did not live up to their pilots, with Reaper still being better than the similar Chuck.

    I liked the second episode of Journeyman, even though the connections of his time travels to the desired end effect is very far fetched...

    Stargate Atlantis started its 4th season, without anything spectacular. I don't see how Samantha Carter will fit into this, SGA already has 2 geniuses with Rodney and Zelenka...

    What if:

    Life: A friend/colleague of yours was in prison for a long time for murder (and you were convinced he did it). Now he is released and his name cleared. How do you react towards him?

    This happened today in the past: 1985: The Achille Lauro was hijacked by terrorists and 1000 people held hostage.

  • 25Sep 07

    Walking on the Moon

    As the title of this blog indicates, I went to the 'Police' concert this weekend and to sum it up, it was just great!

    The scheduled time for opening the gates was 4:15pm, so we were at the stadium at 4 pm to get a decent place not too far from the stage. There were less people than I expected already waiting in front of the entrance, and that for a reason - the entrance wasn't opened until 5pm, I just got a wrong time from the website But it was a good thing as I was as near the stage as never before on a big concert; about the third row standing, with perfect view onto the stage!

    The people around us were nice, the weather was sunny and warm, so the time until the start of the supporting band (scheduled for 6:15 start 6:45) went by fast with drinking a few beers, eating sausages and Brezn.

    Fictionplane

    The opener was 'Fictionplane' a band I had never heard of before, but the lead singer is Stings son, so you know why their were playing

    The played some straight, plain rock for an hour, nothing extraordinary, but just the right thing to get the audience into the mood. We settled for more waiting afterwards, as 'The Police' was not scheduled before 8:30 and with all the 'accuracy' of the schedule before I expected them to start around 9. I think the whole audience (especially those with fixed seats who wanted to arrive just in time for 'The Police' ) was surprised when the show began shortly after 8pm.

    The Police live

    And it was as good or even better than I hoped for. The show itself was concentrating on 3 excellent musicians playing great songs, so there was no big special effects show as you sometimes have at big concerts. It was basically 3 large screens at the backside of the stage, featuring the 3 guys and some (ok, a lot) light show. The play list read basically like a 'best of' album, as expected, with a few not so well known songs (I think there were 1 or 2 I had never heard before) mixed in.

    As I wrote before, all 3 performers were fantastic, with Sting playing a lot with the audience (and the 50.000+ people doing what he wanted ), Andy Summers doing some great guitar work, but the one I have to single out is Steward Copeland, just AMAZING! Starting with his outfit, his expressions and the quality of his play, he also has to be in an awesome physical shape for his age. He had different kinds of drums all over the stage, running through them, playing different sty*les on different instruments, throwing about a dozen sets of drumsticks all over the place

    So after 2 hours of 'The Police' it was over and we managed somehow to get out of the city again (At the same time about one million Oktoberfest attendees took the same trains we did...)

    Ok, enough of that, today's our 'topping out' ceremony, so my next blog will probably about that And you'd never guessed, I watched some TV, too!

    Burn Notice, Season Finale

    burn notice

    Over the past 12 episodes, this show has become my favourite summer show. Those of you who read my review of the pilot might remember that I wasn't so sure about it. But the show found its footing easily and got better and better. So in the season finale (the next season is already ordered, so it's definitely no series finale), Michael tries to finally get hold of the guy who burned him, while Sam is doing a small, easy side job with a little help from Fiona. It's the season finally, so it's not as easy Michael meets the guy who is instantly shot and killed after revealing a few bits of the background of the burn notice, while Sam and Fi realize, that the opposition they are facing is better then they are, even with the help from Michael (This has to be the first time in the series that our team of spies and terrorists seemed totally out of control of the situation). So they needed outside help - Michael's brother, who did a nice turn from stupid, overconfident a-hole to a reliable help! I'm sure we'll see more of him next year.

    So overall, great finale of a great show: 9/10

    Journeyman, Pilot

    Journeyman

    Dan is a journalist who suddenly disappears for days as a time for as what he believes are strange dreams, while he actually travels back in time without any idea what's happening to him. As obviously no-one believes him, his friends and family try to get him into drug therapy and his marriage is about to break on his unexplainable disappearances. It takes him some time to realize that his trips follow the life of a man and that he, Dan, is affecting this life significantly. And what is his dead ex-wife doing there in the past?

    I liked the protagonist, the supporting cast, the set-up and the reaction of the people around Dan. What I didn't like was the story 'in the past'. That part was just boring... Oh and please, does every story with inexplicable time travel things need a plane crash as the catalyst?

    Shows promise, if the writers are able to write interesting 'past stories': 6/10

    What if?

    Journeyman: What would you do if a family member would suddenly start to disappear for days at a time without an explanation and acted wierd and delusional?

    This happened today in the past: 1789 U.S. Congress passes 12 amendments to the constitution, including the ten amendments known as the "Bill of Rights".

  • 19Sep 07

    Where Have All the Hours Gone?

    Just a short blog to let you know that I'm still alive

    The last few weeks (and the next few to come) were quite hectic for me, so I managed less and less time for leisure (like tv.com). Therefore I have to apologize for not reading or commenting on blogs or even answering PMs, sorry! (I admit I have seen a few things on TV though, see below )

    So how come my time is drastically reduced? First, I got a big new project at work which alone would give me enough to do to cover my workday, but then, my other projects (which also cover my whole workday) don't just disappear...

    Second, the construction on my house is running in over-drive. Mid August, there was nothing, just a plain strip of land... By the end of this week however, the building shell will be completed (including cellar, brickwork and roof structure)! This means for me that I have to work a lot with the construction people to define the pipe-work, electrical stuff, exact type of windows etc., select interior details out of a multitude of possible options, fill out applications and forms and a lot of bureaucratic stuff to get gas, water, electricity and so on - all in a time frame of the 2 weeks since I've been back from vacation. And a bit of controlling the construction workers isn't a bad idea either.

    So that's about everything I do at the moment. I try to spend a few minutes each day on tv.com but I don't always succeed

    But enough of that It was all my own choice, wasn't it?

    The summer season comes to a halt and the fall season is here, so let's have a quick look on what I've seen to far (Spoilers, obviously, and lots of them):

    The 4400 Season 4 finale:

    The 4400

    A lot happened in this episode! The tables are turned and the world is no longer what it was before. At least 9000 dead, at least 9000 new Promison positives, including half of NTAC. The Marked are severely weakened and the 4400 have their own Genosha now. When will the government start building Sentinels?

    Even though I have some issues with the flow of this episode, as some things were resolved far to easily like the 'medicine' and others made not much sense (killing Shawn's brother, even though there was an easy way to keep him alive and well), it works great as a season finale: It gives enough closure to end the series right here if there is no renewal, but at the same time opens up so many possibilities for a new season, that a S5 would definitely be interesting and entertaining. 8/10

    Prison Break:

    Prison Break

    Michael Scofield is back in prison and he has to get out fast, this time without a plan and proper preparation. But what a prison that is! The guards have pulled out, the prison is run by the inmates and everyone who tries to leave the prison building is shot on sight. But at least, the inmates get food and water delivered from the outside.

    Basically this whole setup doesn't make too much sense. It's saidthat whoever is thrown in, never comes out again, but then people that haven't been tried yet are put in, awaiting their trial! I understand that in Michael's case The Company is behind that, but what about Mahone, T-Bag and Bellick? Oh and people are walking in and out without proper background checks it seems... So The Company can pull all sorts of strings, but they cannot arrange to get someone out of this prison?

    Also, new opening credits and a variation of the theme (which is less effective then the old one IMHO)

    Not a very good start of the season, but let's see how it turns out: 6/10

    K-Ville:

    2 Years after Katrina, New Orleans is still a mess. People are leaving the town, reconstruction is slow and the police under-staffed. The show follows the investigation of 2 police officers after some fund-raisers have been hit by drive-by shooters. One of those 2 seems to be an alcoholic, the other one is an ex-con. Yes, it seems like they take everybody as a police officer. The whole show didn't do much for me, the set-up is intriguing, but the story and the characters are not. So one episode and out for me: 4/10

    What if?

    K-Ville: If your home town was hit by a natural disaster and your home destroyed, would you re-built what's left or move to a different, safer place?

    This happened today in the past: 1982: Scott E. Fahlman uses ASCII characters to display joke markers - the emoticons are born

  • 6Sep 07

    Back in Bavaria! Beaches! Books!

    I'm back from vacations! I got nearly 2 weeks of uninterrupted relaxation, which I haven't gotten in years So this is where I went:

    It wasn't as bad as it looks on the picture, it was mostly sunny with a few short rain showers in between. The water was actually warmer than the air (approx. 18 °C), so swimming was good, too! One challenge was the stormy wind which made our biking tours quite interesting (especially with my daughter playing breaking parachute at the back of my bike )

    Oh, and those guys where always around being completely indifferent about those humans around them.

    I didn't watch any TV besides some football, so I have quite some backlog to watch and comment on, but I read a few books. So instead of my typical TV reviews, here a few thoughts about those books (in the order I read them):

    Death of a Superhero by Anthony McCarten

    Somebody read the blurb on the back of this book, saw that it had something to do with comic books and movie scripts and thought: "That's something for Mark". Well, the second is true, the first only vaguely: The book is about a 14 year old boy in London who suffers from terminal cancer. It describes his attitudes his thoughts and how he copes (or doesn't) with his life (he is a 14-year old boy, so, obviously, most of his thoughts are about sex&hellip The book also delves into how this boy affects and changes the life of his psychiatrist. So where is the comic book and movie script connection, you ask? Well, the boy draws a superhero comic book, which serves as his version of an abstract diary. And it is not written like a typical book but more like a script, with scene descriptions, shots, typical script-like dialog, deleted scenes and outtakes! This book is funny, sad, moving, crazy, thought-provoking and just great. Read it!

    Overall: 8/10

    Storm Front (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher

    After watching the series on SciFi I decided to read the first novel of the book series. For those of you who now neither, Harry Dresden is a shabby, always broke Wizard in Chicago – and he is the only one you could find in the yellow pages. He also is on probation for using magic to kill somebody (in self-defence) and his next (minor) offence will get him the death penalty. So when he stumbles about a case of 'death by magical ritual' he does not only get in the crossfire between the Mafia, the police, the killer and others, no, he is also the prime suspect. But this just seems to be a typical day for Harry

    I like Harry Dresden, I like the world he lives in and the cast surrounding him. The case itself was better-than-average but not stellar and knowing a lot of what happens by watching the TV series surely didn't help. Nevertheless, still a good read: 7/10

    And the 3rd one:

    The Surgeon by Tess Geritson

    The story of a female surgeon who was attacked by a serial killer 2 years ago and managed to kill him just before he could kill her – but then the exact same killings start again, in Boston, the town she moved to after the events 2 years ago… The story is suspenseful, the scenes in which something actually happens are written extremely well and exciting, but it is a serial killer murder mystery and in that regard it falls apart. The detectives seem to be one of the most incompetent I have ever encountered. Things that are obvious to the reader are thought about by the investigators about 100 pages later and even then the one who comes up with the obvious conclusion is laughed at by his or her colleagues. The essential questions to solving the case are either not asked at all or if they are asked, they don't try to get the answers – because this would get the murderer caught much too soon for the plot to go where the author wants it to. And why should a detective ever ask the straight question that would get the answer they are looking for, if one could ask indirectly and get lots of exposition that way (that is only relevant for the reader or the plot, not for the detective&hellip. I also suspect that the author has some issues with men, as every single woman in this book has suffered from the never-ending cruelty of men, while the men are either a) complete macho a-holes b) total sissies c) psychopaths or d) love interests…

    In the end, I finished reading it and as I said at the beginning, if you are just reading it without thinking to much about it, it is probably quite good, but personally, I try to figure out all the clues in a murder mystery… Still: 5.5/10

    Ok, that's it, so I'll start trying to catch up on everything that happened the last two weeks

    This happened today in the past: 1522: Ferdinand Magellan's 'Victoria' returns to Spain, completing the first ever circumnavigation of the world.

    What if? Gilmore Girls: Imagine you are completely estranged from your parents, you made your own life out of nothing after running away from home, without ever relying on their vast resources. Now, under which circumstances would you ask them for help?

  • 16Aug 07

    Flash: Master of Californication

    Yesterday, we had a public holiday here (Assumption Day). And by 'here' I mean just the part of Bavaria I live and work in! So the rest of Germany and parts of Bavaria had to work, while we could enjoy a sunny day with 30°C! You have to love our federal system and our not so total secularization sometimes

    Back to TV, here a few new things I watched since my last TV related blog:

    Flash Gordon:

    This new SciFi series again takes on an old clas-sic and 'revamps' and 'modernizes' it. Worked pretty well for BSG, didn't it? Well, not so good for 'Flash Gordon'. I endured the whole over-length pilot of this show and while it wasn't laughably bad (at least you could have MST3Ked it then), it was just uninteresting and boring. It had a certain 'Smallville' feel about it (no, don't hit me yet, read on first... *ouch*), but without any interesting characters or story and the dialogs in 'Flash Gordon' are, well, bad. Oh, and hitting a big metal robot with your fists if you are not super-powered, should seem like a bad idea to anyone... I think having one of your show stars named 'Cliché' sums it up quite well. 4/10

    Masters of Science Fiction:

    This series of televised versions of short stories from famous science fiction writers was cut short by ABC even before the first episode aired. After watching the first 2 episodes I can understand why. Basically I see 2 major problems: A) Those are short stories, padding them to 42 min. air time just drags them out and removes the necessary punch of the obvious-to-come end twist. B) The stories are simply out-dated. The first 2 stories are clearly stories from the cold war, both dealing with the threat of nuclear holocaust and in that it has been done to death and doesn't have the cultural reverberation as it had 30 years ago.

    Compared to the show above, at least it has competent actors and no cringe-worthy dialog.

    Overall: 5.5/10

    Californication:

    I typically don't watch half-hour comedies, but this one was recommended to me (Thanks DJU!) so I had to check it out

    The show centres around a successful author (or one hit wonder, not sure about that), played by David Duchovny (who seems not to have aged much since X-Files!) whose book was made into an (awful) movie with Tom and Katie. Also, he was left by his long-time girlfriend and mother of his daughter and also moved from New York to California. He is quite down, can't write a word (well, ONE word he can write) and tries to cope with his situation, which consists in sleeping with as many (strange) women as possible and pissing off a lot of people. Basically he is also sleeping with the women to piss off other people...

    I really liked this pilot, but I can't say exactly why. It doesn't happen too much story-wise, it's not laughing-out-loud funny and no it's not because there is a different naked woman in every other scene But the whole feeling of the show, the acting, the characters just have the right vibe to me.

    And there is one other thing: There are series that take me a couple of episodes to get into, some have me hooked after 5 minutes, but this series made me like it after a complete 2 seconds - and I don't think that what I saw in those 2 seconds was even intended by the director So I hope the spoiler tags work again, because otherwise you all have to skip through this boring explanation and also get the first 2 seconds (well, that's an exaggeration, it probably takes only 1.5 seconds) spoiled:

    -- cut here --

    Keep in mind, this show is called 'Californication' and this is the first shot of the show. Not even a spectacular shot, it's something every director seems to have in his repertoire and is using it:

    So you have a close up on a thing that could be an old 19th century well or fountain, it's a bit dark, and out of focus there is a lot of water spraying like rain. So from this shot, we pan up and widen the shot: that is indeed a fountain, it is actually very sunny, the spray water comes from a lot of sprinklers and our protagonist drives by in his Porsche convertible! So I saw this shot (as mentioned, not even 2 sec. long) and thought 'Ok, this IS New York to California in one shot!' I warned you that this paragraph wouldn't be interesting.

    -- cut here --

    So to put it in numbers: 7/10

    I also started (re-)watching the second season of Robin of Sherwood and the 'Making Of':

    I found it hilarious that the first time that Guy of Gisburne comes up with and executes a decent plan to capture Robin Hood, his plans are sabotaged by the King and the Sheriff's brother!

    As for the 'Making Of', it's from 2000, so already 7 years old, but boy have those actors aged, I barely recognized Michael Praed and would never have recognized Ray Winstone but for the lots of movies he makes these days. (Actually I thought: 'Wait a sec. THIS is the Ray Winstone from Robin?')

    Anything else?

    Oh yes, 'Burn Notice' was renewed for a second season! The series grows on me and I enjoy every new episode, so 'Yay' to that.

    This happened today: 1977: Elvis Presley died in Memphis due to a heart attack.

    What if?

    Californication: If your greatest achievement, basically your life's work was warped beyond recognition by other people, but this 'warping' made you very rich in the process, how would you feel about those people, about the end product, about your own work?

    Posted via filmspot BETA

  • 12Aug 07

    Lost Tales or how I translate 'spiessig'

    Happy Sunday everyone!

    Some TV reviews below, so if you want to just skip over the personal stuff…

    How does our involvement or expertise change our personal perception of things? Well, over the last couple of days, there were a few things were I realized that my thoughts about the subject would have been quite different just 1 or 2 years ago. I'm talking about minor stuff and details, not about world changing events (and yes, this has some minor relevance to the reviews later in the blog ).

    So earlier today, I drove through an area were a lot of new houses were being built. Instead of just driving through, I was looking around, checking out gardens, thinking about colour schemes (What happened to me? When did I become this square/bourgeois?? ARG!) But the most worrying thing was thinking about bricks. I looked at the half-built houses and all I could think about was "How could they use those bricks? They have bad thermal coefficients and they don't even use additional thermal insulation."

    VS.

    Another example is, a couple of days ago I watched a Danish(?) horror short movie about a 5-year old girl with seemingly demonic powers. Ok, the short wasn't very thrilling, but the thing I remembered the most was "This father is so irresponsible, he is driving at high speed and he didn't even fasten the seatbelt of his daughter correctly"…

    So obviously something weird is happening to me… Perhaps I should see someone about that

    But enough about my obvious transformation towards a dull, middle-cla$$ white collar kind of guy and on to some TV related stuff:


    Everyone who read some of my previous blogs knows that I highly anticipated the release of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. My DVD finally arrived here on Thursday, so I made sure that I could watch it without any disturbances, opened up a beer, lay on the couch and started the DVD. So before I go on, I have to say that I really enjoyed The Lost Tales very much, which might not become so apparent in the next few paragraphs

    (There be spoilers):

    So the first of the two stories started with a great new credit sequence. The new Babylon 5 cgi-model was of course much more high-def than the one from over 10 years ago. The station looked shiny, but somehow it looked too smooth, but still great. So the first story began with Col. Lochely encountering a case of what seems to be demonic possession and asks for help from a catholic priest… I don't want to go in the details of this story, I think it would make a good or even great Twilight Zone story, asking some interesting questions about faith and self-sacrifice but it didn't fit in Babylon 5 at all for several reasons:

    - They have encountered the strangest aliens, highly powerful telepaths, etc. and Lochley's first thought is actually "possession"?

    - You have demons (the biblical kind) that are bound to Earth, banned by a single creator god. In the B5 universe, Earth and humans are not the center of creation, but just one race of many. So this story implies that Earth either IS the center of creation (which doesn't make much sense with the First Ones around) or that Earth literally is Hell aka The Home of Demons.

    Vorlon Angels

    - The priest says, that when humanity reached for the stars, they travelled through heaven and they found no God, no Angels and no Seraphim. Aehm, hello? This is Babylon 5, where humans actually encountered 'Angels' (in form of the Vorlons) just a decade earlier!? And it doesn't even get mentioned? Not a question if this possessing entity is perhaps a servant-race of the Shadows?

    As I said before, interesting story, wrong universe! I should also mention that "The Lost Tales" is very low budget, so the whole story takes basically place in one set with 3 actors.

    First episode: 6/10

    So I was quite disenchanted after the first story and the second one started… for some reason I began grinning and didn't stop until it was over. Bruce Boxleitner just is John Sheridan, the story itself is very good, Galen (Peter Woodward) great as ever and the Centauri Prince Regent is acted fantastically by Keegan MacIntosh. You can just feel that he is his father (Emperor Cartagia)'s son, he is so likable (unlike Cartagia), slightly mad and scary at the same time and this is what is needed to make the story work.

    Everything in this episode feels real and Babylon 5ish. When the Prince Regent talks about what Londo told him, you can just imagine Peter Jurasik delivering the lines, and when Lochley tells Sheridan that Dr. Franklin took a trip beyond the Rim, you see how not only the characters but also the actors are affected.

    It seems also that most of the budget went into this second episode, as you have quite some expensive looking Special FX, a big (if very brief) space battle, etc.

    But I have to point out a few nitpicks, even if it was a great story:

    - Vir Coto as the number 2 successor to the throne seems to contradict the existing stories, as he AFAIR should be part of the Resistance by the time of this story. And it was an off-hand remark, so it was not as it was necessary to p toint that out.

    - Isn't it a nice coincidence that the Centauri Prince Regent just happens to like Human Starfuries?

    - The ending was a bit too saccharine for my taste.

    - Hundreds of Ambassadors and Officials from all over the Galaxy are on B5 and we see only a handful of ships and a nearly empty station?

    So, overall second episode: 9/10

    I've also to mention the specials on the DVD: there are two touching memorials to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs, some interviews, a bit of behind the scenes stuff that mostly explains how this show would have worked had they used sock puppets instead of actors, and a nice shout-out to some of the people you typically just see in the credits, like the script supervisor or the 1st AD.

    Overall, I'd recommend it to every B5 fan, even though the first story could be better. I just expect that the following DVDs (if they happen) will try to top the second story.

    Ok, this was quite long, so I'll handle the other stuff I watched this week, like the first episode of 'Californication' and 'Masters of Science Fiction' in the next blog

    The 'What if' obviously has to do with 'The Lost Tales', even though it's probably more a question to think about than to answer:

    "Would you sacrifice everything you believe in, so that this that you have to sacrifice for yourself might come true for other people?"

  • 6Aug 07

    Pushing Chuck damages the Bionic Woman!

    After my short excursion into movies in the last blog, back to some TV related stuff:

    I managed to watch a few pilots of the new season, so here a few short tidbits about the shows I saw:

    Damages:

    A mid-season show on FX about a small but renowned law firm that is fighting a billionaire who managed to swindle 5000 of his employees out of their retirement funds. Seems clear cut and black&white? Well, it isn't. Glenn Close as the CEO of the law firm is a scheming, manipulating b*tch for whom everybody is a pawn and every means justifies her goals. Ted Danson as the billionaire is far more sympathetic, even though he is obviously the bad guy and does enough to prove that. In the middle of it all is a young, brilliant female lawyer who realized too late that joining the law-firm was not only a bad, but very dangerous, move.

    Ok, I typically don't like lawyer shows, but this one is a good mixture of "Pelican Brief" and "The Firm" with a serial storyline (always a plus for me), so I give it 8/10.

    Bionic Woman:

    I haven't seen the original show, so I cannot say what was changed and what was kept. All I can say is that the pilot is awful. There is no story to talk about, the lead actress can't act, I didn't care for any character and some of the people who were introduced had a sign hanging around their neck stating "I'm absolutely irrelevant at the moment, but they will do an episode about me in the future, so I HAVE to be in the pilot." Oh and the dialog is cheesy and cliché. Did I mention that all members of this ultra-secret, highly financed government agency are totally incompetent? Obviously NBC agrees with me on some of the points, so they will change a lot before the official broadcast. Everything they do can only improve the show, even if they use sock puppets instead of actors. 2/10

    Pushing Daisies:

    A man gains the ability to bring the dead back to life, but there is a drawback: If the deceased stays alive for more than a minute someone else in the vicinity (random pick) dies! But it is not some dark drama, but a fairy tale! It's all extremely colourful, even the most grave and tragic situations are presented in a light and funny way - and everything is told by a narrator. For me, the last one is the only weak point of the series. The show has great acting, a unique sty*le lovable characters and it is quirky (which probably will lead to early cancellation). But the narration doesn't supplement the visuals or the story, but everything just supplements the narration. After half an hour, all I could think of was "Shut up, I'm SEEING it, you don't have to TELL me about it". It is probably the only TV show, where you could close your eyes for the whole episode and don't miss anything important. So, only 7.5/10, but with potential to improve.

    Chuck:

    Chuck is the leader of the 'Nerd Herd' at the local 'Buy More' (Best Buy), plays a lot of video games and still hasn't got over his ex-girlfriend who left him 5 years ago. But he is no total loser like the guy from 'Reaper' but he actually knows his (technical) stuff, has at least some ambition (he applies for the job as assistant manager of the shop) and is intelligent. This comes in handy, when the combined databases of NSA and CIA get loaded into his brain So while figuring out an assassination plot he is being chased by agents of different agencies and in the end saves the day. I can't pinpoint what it is, but while I liked the pilot, it felt as if something was lacking. 7/10

    What if:

    24: What would be the first thing you do after a 24-hour day in which you've been shot at, tortured, your family kidnapped and everything turned out ok?

  • 4Aug 07

    Master of Movies

    The Fantasy Film Fest is over, so I want to give some impressions about a few of the movies I've seen there. (I only managed to see 23 films this year, a low for me ).

    But first things first I am currently "The Master" as can be seen on my blog banner! Well, actually I'm not "The" Master, but "A" Master, as the lead is currently shared by Dan , mrn and me. However, I fear I will not be able to remain on top for long as my next topic is Grey's Anatomy and I have watched exactly ONE episode of this show.

    The house construction is finally beginning! The old building has been demolished this week and on Thursday they started the excavation!

    Didn't I say I was blogging about movies? Ah ok, let's start with a small selection:

    There was a change in management of the FaFiFe, what was clearly reflected in the movie selection this year: Less horror movies and slasher films, more thrillers and 'mainstream' films.

    Black Sheep: The festival opened with a movie from New Zealand about sheep... frightening sheep... agressive, murderous, human-eating sheep. The movie had a lot of fun ideas, unfortunately not enough to fill a whole movie, so there is a lot of running around. But it's worth the price of admission alone for the scene where a herd of sheep comes over a hill top, charging at a group of businessmen. A scene clearly inspired by the charge of Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan at LotR:TTT. So, beware of sheep!

    Stuck: Some of you might have heard it in the news some time back, about a nurse that hits a man with her car, drives home and parks her car inside her garage - with the man still stuck in the windshield! So the movie is based on that story with Stephen Rea playing the stuck man. I didn't think you could do a whole movie out of this story, but you obviously can - and it's the best black comedy I've seen in a while. The fighting spirit of the man, the indifference of the people that get aware of the man, the drug dealing boyfriend with the gangsta reputation who is a total sissy... it's just hilarious.

    I'm a Cyborg, but that's ok: The title says it all. This film is from the same guy that brought you Old Boy or Sympathy for Mr. Vengance - and I don't know what drugs he took while making this film, but I want some! The movie plays at a sanitarium and all the people in there are not only mentally ill, but totally over the top crazy. A sweet little girl who thinks she is a cyborg, sucks on batteries and dreams about killing everybody with her integrated machine guns; a young notorious thief who steals emotions or skills from the other patients, a wanna be superstar singer who is yodelling and singing about the Berner Oberland(!) and a lot more extremely exaggerated and bizarre people... Oh and it is all very colourful. If you like strange movies, watch this one!

    The Lookout: I don't know how this film managed to be selected for the festival as it doesn't really fit there. It is a great film nonthe less, about a young man who had everything: rich family, good friends, lovely girlfriend, he was a college hockey star. Howeve, after a car accident he caused, two of his friends are dead and he himself has suffered severe brain damage. This film is about how he tries to cope with life and how other people try to take advantage of him. Sad and funny at the same time with great performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels as his blind roommate!

    Macbeth: A modern australian take on the famous Shakespeare play. Very stylish, lots of action, great performances, teenage witches in school uniforms and shakespearean English with an Australien accent (which means I understood perhaps half of what was said ) Personally, I liked this movie much more than the DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet.

    OSS 117: Cairo, nest of spies: OSS 117 is a spy in the best James Bond tradition of the 1950s. His job: Find out who killed his best friend, bring peace to the middle east, increase the influence of the French Republic in northern Africa and sell chickens. A hilarious parody on James Bond and similar to the Inspector Clouseau movies from Blake Edwards. This guy will do everything to make sure this Arabic babarians understand the superiority of the French civilization. This includes attacking a muezzin because of disturbance of the peace of night, or telling the prime minister of Egypt how to improve his dirty country.

    Mr. Brooks: As I said earlier, this year there was more mainstream films at the festival, so here we have a thriller about a business man and obsessive serial killer played by Kevin Costner, chased by Demi Moore as a police officer and William Hurt as Brook's killing urge Honestely, I'd never expected this film to be that good! Intelligent, surprising, well acted, good story with a protagonist (or antagonist) who you only could compare toDexter. (Thinking about it, Dexter vs. Brooks would be one great match-up)

    Day Watch: I would like to write something about the closing night film, but a slept through a part of the big showdown, so I'm not qualified to really give a statement on the film. Basically, everybody who liked Night Watch, liked this one too, most found this second part even better than the first.

    What if:

    Pushing Dasies: What if you had the ability to bring someone back from the dead, but at the expense that someone else (random selection) would die. Would you ever use this ability? If so in what circumstances?

    Next blog: Back to TV! Pushing Dasies, Chuck, Bionic Woman, Damages and more!

    • Posted Aug 4, 2007 2:50 am PT
    • Category: Movies
    • 12 Comments
  • 23Jul 07

    Horror! Physical Work! Robots!

    It's this time of the year: It's hot, the sun is burning, everybody jumps in a lake for some short cooling and refreshment and I – will be at the cinema for one whole week!

    Tomorrow starts the Fantasy Filmfest, the 21st International Festival for Science Fiction, Horror and Thriller. The title says it all, and after I missed it completely last year, I have a festival pass again this year! This means I'll be watching about 25-30 movies in one week (yes, I'm a freak! ) after which I'll probably need some time to recover, so expect me to be back in 2 weeks

    And now for something completely different: Physical work! The demolition of the old building on my property will start next week, but demolishing a building sounds easier than it is. Why that? Two words: Waste separation! So you cannot just smash a house into small pieces and get rid of it. Actually the small pieces may not include wood, Styrofoam or paper (like in 'wallpaper' ). This discovery led me and 4 other guys to try to remove every wallpaper, wooden ceiling, parquet, etc. of a large building. And remember the first line of this blog? Exactly But it's ok, I actually like physical work as it is a good change to my job that is mostly working on the phone or the computer. Only problem: I'm not used to physical work anymore

    TV stuff: Some pilots of the coming season fell in my lap, but before that, I watched another episode of Robin of Sherwood, and it had Michael Praed in it, of cause:

    robin

    The first new show I saw was Reaper:

    The best I could describe it would be Clerks meets Ghostbusters. A 21 year old clerk at the local hardware store becomes a bounty hunter for the devil. His job: Bring back all those people that escaped from hell! So he teams up with his fellow clerks, equips himself with stuff from the store and goes to get the bad guys. It's funny, witty and I want to see more! 8/10

    The second new pilot I saw was The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

    SCC

    It's 2 years after Terminator 2, Sarah and John Connor seem to live a relatively normal and save life - until Sarah realizes it may be to normal and save and they run. When Sarah's fiancee is talking to the police about the disappearance of th e two, not only the FBI learn about it, but also some machines from the future. But who has to fear a Terminator if he has Summer Glau as his school-mate? It's fast, action-packed, fits well into the established Terminator mythology, but somehow didn't convince me. Basically there are 2 reasons for it: A) John Connor: What happened to him, he was already a tough kid in T2 and then got some military training and now he is just a whiny teenager? Didn't buy it. And B) The choreography of the action sequences. Somehow all this action sequences and fights should be exciting, but they are quite bland. After you run through the fourth wall, it becomes repetitive... If you pay so much money for those scenes, get a decent choreographer!

    Overall: 6.5/10

    Wow, you have already reached the end of this short blog, so some more 'What if':

    Sarah Connor Chronicles: If you had prove that the invention you are working on, your life's work may cause a nuclear holocaust, how far would you be willing to go to stop it?

    And Z-8:

  • 19Jul 07

    Building Blocks

    So, I want to build a house! I bought some ground a couple of months ago and finally got all the permits needed from the city.

    Yesterday my contractor called to meet at the property to discuss the uprooting of the existing trees and the demolition of the old building. My idea was to start this work early next week. Obviously the contractor had something else in mind...

    So he arrived with 2 trucks and a big excavator. You have to imagine, the property is the last parcel in a small and winding dead-end street. Nobody knew he was coming like that so the small street was packed with parked cars. It was around 1 pm, so the car owners were all at work at the time. I have no idea how he managed to manoeuvre to the property, but in the end he succeeded! Then some of the neighbours-to-be came and protested that they weren't informed and that this is not possible and that we weren't allowed to cross a certain part of the road that is private property! So we had a bit of a heated discussion (not only because it is still 35°C) and then the constructor had to get all the equipment to the back-end of the property as due to the neighbours he could not enter the front - more manoeuvring.

    Finally the workers could start to cut the trees and I had a chance to discuss the work to be done with the contractor - and he started to explain which kinds of works are not included in the price we agreed for building the house and I was simply shocked. I'm now looking at expenses of about 25.000 € that are not included in my calculations and I have no idea were to get this kind of money... I have still to explain that to my wife

    In order not to think to much about it, change of topic: TV stuff!

    I watched the latest episode of The 4400 this week. Not sure I like the direction this show is taking. Is there any one character left to root for?

    Robin of Sherwood

    And I started re-watching Robin of Sherwood! I saw this show last when I was a kid and had very fond memories of it. Most of the shows from the beginning/mid 80s I loved then and have seen again in the last couple of years aged badly, so I didn't expect much but surprise, surprise, it is still a great show! Ok, I don't understand why they all have 80s hairdo in a show that is set at the beginning of the 13th century, but I can cope with that. The only thing that I was quite shocked about was Sir Guy of Gisburne. I remembered him as some menacing man, a great villain. But he is just an arrogant, spoiled kid! A joke! How Could I ever be imitated by this guy? Oh and the picture quality of the DVD is quite bad, like Fawlty Towers-bad. Also to my surprise, I still like the Clannad music.

    Overall, I still think it's the best adaptation of Robin Hood on TV or movies. Soif you've never watched it, do so!

    As another surprise, I got a sneek peak at the first episode of the second season of Dexter! Without spoiling anything, I think it started out quite slow but the second half of the episode was great! Really looking forward to this.

    What if:

    Lost: You crashed with your plane on a pacific island - and survived (even though the plane was not built out of 'black box material' ). One week has passed, no rescue party. What is your state of mind/reaction? Despair? Anger? Actionism? Finally a worthy challenge? A new beginning in life? Desolation?

    Some small tidbit from a discussion with a friend after I asked him what he thought about the finale of 'Lost on Mars'

    We had an accident, and we woke up on a strange island. Are we mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like we've landed on a different planet.

    Z-12:

  • 9Jul 07

    Hidden Rome Notice

    After my rant in the last blog, let's get back to TV and what I watched this week, which wasn't that much:

    Hidden Palms: I watched the finale of this so-so show this week and, well, it gave good closure to most plot points and I have no idea what they would have done for a second season, but the way all the information was revealed was quite anti-climatic (even though it was clear for a couple of episodes that it would be revealed that way). Overall: 5/10

    Burn Notice: Second episode aired this week on USA. It's about a spy that get's fired (more or less) and finds himself without money, papers, job or anything in Miami. It's a good premise and it has Bruce Campbell in it, so I will continue watching it, but I'm not yet sold on the series. I don't like Jeffrey Donovan in this role yet, I don't know why. Also it seems after the first two episodes just like a typical PI series set in Miami with this whole spy background as additional flavour instead of the main driver of the story. Oh, and I like the editing on that show, gives it a unique feeling. Overall: Much potential, but not there yet.

    Rome: I saw the pilot of this show back in 2005 and thought of it as a high quality soft porn show. I never watched a second episode. So yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the German airing of the Pilot. As they showed it at 8:15pm (Which equals a PG-12 rating in Germany) and because as an HBO series it would always run too long in a standard 1-hour slot, I read before that there would be some excessive cutting. So let's see how dubbing, cutting and translations were.

    Starting with the translations I have to say that I don't remember the original dialog too well, so I can only say that I did not spot serious and obvious mistakes.

    The dubbing was ok, the voices are fitting IMHO and in general it seemed like they put quite some effort to do it well.

    Cutting: Ok, they cut it different than I thought. The cuts seem not to change too much in the overall flow in the episode (much better than Life on Mars). While Romeis still violent, they cut out some very graphic violence, but done in a way that you don't feel like that there is missing something. Oh, and they left most of the sex scenes, all full frontal nudity etc. in it. Shows the difference between Germany and the US: While in the US even a glimpse of a female breast has to be cut, in Germany you can show it all in prime time, but you have to cut the blood and the violence which seems no problem for the US.

    Overall: Better adaptation than most US series in German TV, and a better series than I remembered it. 6/10

    Prison Break: I'm currently watching the commentaries on the first season DVD set. I have to say, while I like that there are quite a number of commentaries on the DVDs I don't like the distribution of those commentaries. While most episodes have no commentary track at all, the ones that have, have 2 commentary tracks each! Come on, I like watching an episode with commentaries, but the same episode twice in a row with different commentaries? Not so much. I hope they distribute them better on different episodes in the 2nd season set. Overall: Still a great show and interesting info given by cast, producers and writers!

    TV.com submissions: Still broken.

    What if...?

    Babylon 5 (Had to get to that show sometime, didn't I? ): Would you change your life and if so how, if you knew that you would die in 20 years at the latest?


    Shameless plug: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (Vol. 1 ) is out on DVD on July 31st in the US, Sept. 3rd in the UK and Aug. 24th in Germany. Order it now,to ensurethat there will be a Vol. 2!

  • 6Jul 07

    Security criminalized

    German lawmakers, you got to love them.

    Today the last hurdle was passed on the introduction of a new law concerning computer security. The goal is to improve the existing laws concerning hacking and intrusion into computer systems, but obviously no one understood what they were talking about and all abjections by computer experts, security forums, lawyers, etc. were completely ignored. So now, as soon as the law is in effect, it will be criminal to produce, procure, provide or distribute tools used to spy on or intercept data (including tools to penetrate system security measures).

    criminal?

    Not only the act of doing it is criminal, but the possession of tools that can do it!

    So what does that mean? Well, if you are a system administrator who has to test the security of his own system, you'll become a criminal. If you are developing security software that should prevent the intrusion into computer systems, as soon as you verify your software, you are a criminal. If you are a professor lecturing about system security and you want to demonstrate something to your students - yes, you are a criminal!

    Criminal!

    So in the same sense, you should be a criminal if you own/use/sell/borrow a bolt cutter, because as we all know from numerous movies and TV shows, its main use is for breaking and entering!

    Which reminds me, I should re-watch the first 2 seasons of Prison Break!

    (Edit) What if (thanks Dan for the reminder!):

    John from Cincinatti: What would you do/think if you'd look down and realize that your feet are 10 cm (4") above the ground instead of touching it, as it should be.

    • Posted Jul 6, 2007 5:36 am PT
    • Category: Computers
    • 13 Comments
  • 23Jun 07

    Where the Middle-Earth are you?

    OK, the title is grammatically incorrect. So what?

    I saw the following map today:

    Middle Earth Map

    So the map is from Peter Bird, Professor of Geophysics and Geology at the UCLA. It seems he took the different maps out of Tolkien's books, put them together and put in an overlay of Europe. The Shire, as expected, is in rural England, while I'm living in Rohan, near Edoras! So for you Europeans out there, where in Middle-Earth are you from?

    Concerning TV, I finished watching the first season of The Shield. Great stuff. I understand why the L.A. police didn't want to have anything to do with this series

    Also watched Studio 60, the current multi(4?)-parter is really good. It shows that Sorkin needs something with substance to put his teeth into instead of just superficial entertainment stuff

    Saw the two episodes of Hidden Palms from this week and have to say, the mysteries are revealed fast and it seems quite obvious what happened, so I'm waiting for the big twist. Really like the Jesse Jo character and Bob, Johnny's step-father. The rest of the cast? Not so much...

    And finally, Traveler. I really like it, even though the conspiracy of a conspiracy inside a conspiracy stuff gets a bit old But really likable main characters and some interesting twists make for good TV. But what is it with the cars in this show? Did they try to get deals with the car manufacturers and were rejected by every single one of them? Or why else are they removing all brand emblems from the cars? Even from taxis and police cars!

    In order to get some common thing inside my blogs (and inspired by Dan's 'Things to ponder', starting with this blog, I'll ask a 'What if...?' kind of question related to a TV show:

    So the first one (Life on Mars): What would you do if you were instantly transported back to 1973?

  • 16Jun 07

    This is so bugging me!

    Ok, just a short rant for today:

    My wife is at a concert today, which means, I'm at home babysitting with a lot of time at my hands (which is rarely the case). So I decided I'd play a game of Bloodbowl with a friend online and do some submissions afterwards, as I have a bit of a backlog due to my business trip this week.

    So it is clear that this strange level 1, some% bug hits NOW, that it is not temporary but needs to be fixed manually which will probably not be done before Monday.

    Well, nothing you can do about it, so I will probably just watch some TV (without taking notes! I can't submit them anyway ) and have a few beers.

    Oh and on the TV front, just some short shots: Traveler is really great, even though some things just happen very conveniently, but that is part of the genre I think. Still not sure about Hidden Palms. As there are only 8 episodes (5 left) I will probably watch it to the end. And I really like Studio 60 at the moment. But I can't believe that the young doctor and the Navy captain BOTH are that snappish (is that the correct word?) towards people in their care that are under extreme emotional stress at that time.

    [EDIT] Just went up - from L1 22% to L1 52%. Something is happening, but not the correct thing. Still not able to submit.

    • Posted Jun 16, 2007 1:54 pm PT
    • Category: Rant
    • 6 Comments
  • 8Jun 07

    Fans DO matter?

    Ok, didn't get around to write this earlier, so it will be old news to a lot of people.

    My world view was shattered this week (on multiple occasions, but I keep it to the positive one): It seems that normal TV viewers can influence decisions at a network! This week, CBS' President of Entertainment Nina Tassler announced that Jericho is renewed for 7 episodes with the possibility of more! (depending on the ratings, as always).

    Even though I participated in the campaign I never really expected that it would have an effect. I mean, we are talking about CBS here, where everything under 10 million viewers is up for cancellation. So within two weeks, 20 tons of nuts were delivered to CBS, which while a great feat, probably wouldn't have caused CBS to lose some sleep over it, but it was a great way to get media attention. And the media attention forced CBS to do - something. It was a great campaign with a good structure and organization (even if I hated the 'Ranger' and 'command' talk some of the organizers were using.)

    My special shout-out goes to Jeffrey Braverman from www.nutsonline.com. Not only because of his tremendous help to get this campaign on its feet with the way he organized the nuts delivery and made it easy for all fans to contribute in this effort - even though he hadn't seen one single episode of Jericho when the campaign began! My main congratulations go to Jeff because he seems not only to be a great person and a hard working nut distributer, but because he has a really good business sense. This campaign, while making no direct monetary gain for nutsonline, must be one of the best advertisements a company like that has had in quite some time. His company was mentioned in a lot of major newspapers with country-wide exposure, something that other companies have to pay millions of dollars to get. If I think about ordering nuts, I think about nutsonline, and I guess there are many, many others who think the same way. During this campaign he also made good working relationships with a west coast company, so I'm sure those two companies will work well together for their mutual benefit in the future.

    So to summaries this whole paragraph: I bow to Jeff, CEO.

    Oh and I can't stop writing this blog without mentioning the last sentence of CBS' Nina Tesslers official announcement:

    "P.S. Stop sending us nuts :-)"

  • 31May 07

    Back in town.

    Ok, I'm back from my trip to the middle of nowhere! (Actually 2 different middles of nowhere...)

    So first I went to a hut somewhere in the Bavarian backwaters with about 40 other guys and gals for 3 days of hardcore gaming, meaning 18 hours a day of playing board games, RPGs, TCGs, 'active' games (aka team sports), 2 hours of eating/showering/trying to wake up and 4 hours of trying to sleep with 5 other people snoring in the same room

    Special experience: playing ultimate frisbee with trees on the playing field at 30°C! You should try it sometime (or not, depending on your willingness to suffer ).

    Afterwards, a 5 hours drive to a small village of 500 souls in the west of Germany to celebrate some Pentecost fair with my in-laws. It was hot the whole week (see above) but with my foresight I packed for mild weather - you never know... Well, "mild" compared to the previous heat. Walking 2 hours at a procession in the pouring rain at 5°C was NOT what I expected.

    Well, I didn't feel too good the rest of the day, especially not the next day (no, NOT due to the hangover ), so off to the doctor I went the next day... No, no cold, no flu, nothing to do with the weather at all! At age 33 for the first time in my life, I have chickenpox! At least that gives me a few more days off from work...

    Ok, was has all the above to do with TV.com, you ask? You are right, nothing!

    So back on topic: It seems that NBC managed to show a new episode of Studio 60 without anybody noticing it! Those slick bastards I thought this show was canceled for good, but it looks like they are burning off the remaining produced episodes, even though the production of those episodes seems unfinished. Or why else would they broadcast an episode that's 5 minutes short?

    And a short update on the 'NUTS!' front:

    Over 31,000 lbs of nuts delivered to CBS headquarters, lots of media coverage, ad campaign in Variety and Hollywood reporter, a lot of donations to a real small town in Kansas that was devastated in a tornado (Yes, the Jericho campaign is actually helping people!) and a very defensive Les Moonves on WSJ.com. Let's hope CBS sees the potential in an audience that is giving a lot of money away on such a campaign. Les, those people could spend that money to buy products from your advertisers!

    • Posted May 31, 2007 6:23 am PT
    • Category: N/A
    • 6 Comments
  • 23May 07

    Nuts and Heroes

    Ok, let me start with the statement that I never participated in any of the numerous 'Save Show XY' campaign. And the reason is simple: I thought it would be futile anyway. I mean, every show has at least a handful of hard-core supporters, so the networks are used to getting e-mails, letters, phone calls etc. whenever they decide to cancel a show. 

    This time however I participate in the 'Save Jericho' campaign. Why? Hm, good question. I really like the show (necessary but not sufficient requirement), I love the idea of sending "NUTS!" to CBS, it is really easy to participate even from outside the U.S. (just check out www.nutsonline.com/jericho it's a great way of getting PR for them and an even better way for people to participate), and even before the campaign got into gear, CBS responded to the fans that they might think about perhaps consider doing - something...

    I just hope nobody at the CBS offices in New York is allergic to peanuts...

    Also I watched the final episode of Heroes yesterday. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, i put it in

    ***SPOILER***

    I also participated in the chat yesterday, it was quite good as it was not so crowded as the Jericho chat (at least not until I left at 00:30 a.m.) and you could actually answer to something before it scrolled out of the window

    Oh, and completely unrelated, I tested the tv.com scripts I made sure to have exactly 500 submissions to see if I get the symbol (or if I need 501 submissions, or 500 accepted submissions or whatever.) It seems everything is working fine

    • Posted May 23, 2007 7:57 am PT
    • Category: N/A
    • 9 Comments
  • 19May 07

    Drive!

    Yay! Finally got my first show - Drive!

     

    Drive

    For those few who don't know, Drive was a show on Fox, co-created by Ben Queen and Tim Minear, starring Nathan Fillion. As a Tim Minear show, I was sure that I would like the show, I also knew it wouldn't make it to a full first season (see Firefly, Wonderfalls and The Inside). But pulling the plug on a new show that seemed quite expensive to produce, had 6 episodes in the can after which a longer hiatus was planned anyway - after just 8 days (First episode was shown Apr. 15th, the fourth on April 23rd), has to be some kind of record.

    So as I said, there are two more episodes already produced that were not shown due to the cancellation.And Fox, unlike other networks, is not showing them only online, but will broadcast them (kuddos to Fox!) as a two-hour special, on a day worthy of celebrating such an event - 4th of July. No-one in the U.S. will watch it then, but I'm not complaining, at least they are showing them.

    That means, on the 5th of July, I will get lots of submissions (hopefully), which makes me a bit nervous. My queue has never been red, so the thought of hundreds of submissions on one single day... well, we'll see.

     

    • Posted May 19, 2007 9:17 am PT
    • Category: TV
    • 8 Comments
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