Mockingbird Lane on Hulu.com

Let me begin this entry on the right that everyone to like what they like. When you go a summer movie, you want to be entertained – point blank. Fanboys watching a movie, on the other hand, would crucify the film makers if their favorite superhero movie fails to live up to their expectations. Whereas a non fanboy, could not care about such details but like the movie anyway. Just like I’m sure some non Star Trek fan liked Nemisis because I sure didn’t. Now if you’re a fan of Battlestar Galactica, the original series, will know that BSG, the rebooted series by Ronald Moore, made a lot of fans upset by casting the roles of Starbuck and Boomer with female actors. I believe that over the time, when the series aired, we saw a much more interesting series than the original. That’s just my opinion, (I still love the old 70′s show.) I had just about enough, over the years, of reboots and re-imangings till I’m blue in the face; not like a Smurf. Now, enter The Munster, or rather Mockingbird Lane, to the growing lists of series/movies being remade.

Right from the beginning, I was not loving the series which started with a scene ripped off from the movie Prophecy, not the one with Christopher Walken but the one about a mutant bear from the 70′s. As the pack of boy scouts were being attack by an unknown creature, one camper was stuck in sleeping bag and tried to hop away. As seen in the movie Prophecy, the creature smacked the kid into a tree and all the stuffing came out. (Major facepalm).  Then we get Jerry O’Connell as Herman, who we see as a shadow of the Frankenstein’s Monster. As he moves out, he’s normal looking except for some stitch work around his neck. Sigh, creature makeup f/x on the cheap; reminds me of Smallville’s No Flight No Tights mantra. Next, this Lilly did not look at all like the pasty undead matriach and now can become a mist. So, 10 minutes in, I was really hating this series.

When I watched BSG, Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck became a non issue after I saw her in a card game. She had a stogie and almost perfect grin ala Dirk Benedict. She captured the essence of that character and then made it her own. BSG was more than just the original series. The show could stand on it’s own merits and go beyond. On Mockingbird Lane, Eddie Izzard as Grandpa Munster was my Starbuck. He looked nothing like the original character but I was drawn to him right from the start and me continue to watch the pilot. He delivered his lines in a beautiful, dry brit wit that made relish everything he was saying. From that point on, the pilot really came together and was on its own terms.

Much like creator Bryan Fuller‘s other series, Pushing Daisies, if Mockingbird Lane were to be continued, I can’t see this going past one season. It’s not a knock against Fuller but rather, the tone and humor of the series is really darker than I expected to and I think finding an audience would be limited. And yes, those who saw this with Grimm, which I dislike, would think this would make a great Friday night pairing lineup much like the Scifi Channel had many years ago with Farscape. Hell, I would continue to watch the series even on the Syfy channel if it were to be picked up. Watch the show on my blog or on Hulu and would love to hear your thought and comments.

G4′s ‘Attack Of The Show’ And ‘X-Play’ Cancelled As Network Transition Begins | /Film

I am at a loss of words for G4 cancelling Attack of the Show (AOTS) and X-Play. While I have not had cable for some time, I miss those days of geeky goodness. Like all things that must change  not all change is good. The Scifi Channel, sorry The SYFY Channel, has long been dead in my eyes for a very long time. The changing of the channel’s name failed to capture the essence of what made this channel great.  Hell, even MTV, back in the day, used to show non stop music videos. Then the channel created shows to showcase videos and then added other shows that moved away from playing videos all together. And yet, they had to create M2 to showcase music videos; huh, fancy that.

What are the plans for G4? I’m not in favor of making another channel for guys ala Spike TV. That channel was originally TNN (The Nashville Network) and completely remade itself. Fine. If that’s what you want fine but when you are not really changing a whole new identity what is the point. I feel that the same target audience that G4 is looking to attract is going to be the same audience as before. If that is the case, make better programming.  The SYFY Channel could have save itself by seeking quality scifi and well as older scifi series. I think that AOTS and X-Play would make a fine addition to the channel rather than having wrestling which I understand this was done for rating purposes but it does not fit the channel’s identity. In the meantime, enjoy the YOUTUBE clip of AOTS. X-Play and AOTS, you will be missed.

G4′s ‘Attack Of The Show’ And ‘X-Play’ Cancelled As Network Transition Begins

Posted on Friday, October 26th, 2012 by Germain Lussier

Two of G4′s signature geek shows, Attack of the Show and X-Play, will officially be cancelled at the end of 2012. The network is slowly starting its rebranding process to a more upscale, male audience (a la GQ) and the two pop culture centric shows aren’t part of that plan. Each will continue to air new episodes through December, including tributes with returning hosts, guests and more, leading up to their series finales.

Read more about the plans, as well as some new rumors on G4′s new direction, after the jump.

TV Guide broke the news of both shows ending their runs and ran this quote from G4 Media general manager Adam Stotsky:

via G4′s ‘Attack Of The Show’ And ‘X-Play’ Cancelled As Network Transition Begins | /Film.

 

First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome! | Tor.com

UPDATE: FRAK!!!!! Click here to find out more.

It LIVES!!!! The first bit of exciting scifi news I had today and this is a winner in my book. From just this preview alone, I can tell that this is not Caprica-ish in the least respect. Not that Caprica was bad but the slowness of the story telling and lack of action made this prequel unworthy to be mentioned in the same breath as BSG. They only sticking point is the SYFY logo in the trailer which kills me. The SYFY Channel is an empty husk of what I used to love about the channel. Even back in the days of SCIFI, there was the long lull between seasons and even mid seasons episodes when BSG was on the air. Farscape was this first series to have suffered this fate and thus, I have yet to see seasons three and four. Hell, MAD MEN took 17 months off between seasons. Stop the nonsense and the fans will support the show. Don’t yank the fans, SYFY!!!!

Enjoy the trailer below!!!

First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome!

STUBBY THE ROCKET

The second spin-off of Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica reboot looks to be a bit closer than we thought. Here’s the first footage:

So, ignoring the strange choice to basically make the trailer the bastard cousin of the U.S. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trailer, what are we seeing? Well, to start, we’re seeing little Bill Adama! In a viper! Being awesome!

In all honesty, it looks like this was the BSG prequel we’d really been waiting for. A lack of movement (and enough likeable characters) killed Caprica off pretty quickly, and Blood and Chrome is already looking a lot more like the BSG we know and love. It’s possible that this spin-off may rely more heavily on action, and CGI will clearly be a sizeable component since we’ve got lots of early cylons to contend with.

What are you hoping to see? And do you think Blood and Chrome has what it takes to be the “gamechanger” Syfy is heralding it as?

via First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome! | Tor.com.

Star Wars: Underworld (and why we won't see it any time soon)

Reblogged from The Daily P.O.P.:

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I had written about the Star Wars TV series project way back in 2008 (how young we all were back then) and its probable use of Boba Fett (see here). Lucas has stated that the program would explore a seedier, darker side of the Star Wars universe as the Empire extends its reach. Fans were anxious for more... but nothing ever really materialized.

Read more… 205 more words

I am more eager to see this happen rather than the 3D conversion of the Star Wars movies.

TV Show – The Walking Dead’s “T-Dog” Irone Singleton Talks Exclusively to CultureMob | CultureMob

TV Show – The Walking Dead’s “T-Dog” Irone Singleton Talks Exclusively to CultureMob by Allie Hanley | 11/01/11 |

We’ve got three episodes under our belt, and 10 more to go for Season Two. Fans want details on what’s going to happen to the survivors. Will there be others? Will Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) be back (word is not this season)? Who’s going to stay in the group and who’s going to go their own way?

I’m getting emails and instant messages on Facebook, asking me what I know. Since that information is on lock-down it’s hard to get details from any of the cast, so you have to read between the lines and then guess.

For example, last week, at The Walking Dead panel in Seattle at ZomBcon, fans cheered for their favorite characters with cast member Norman Reedus who appeared. As the panel progressed fans discussed the motivation behind character Lori Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) for sleeping with Shane (Jon Bernthal) so soon after her husband Rick (Andrew Lincoln) supposedly dies after a gunshot wound. As we saw hinted in episode two, ‘Bloodletting‘, things weren’t so rosy for the couple before the pandemic. I guessed at this, and was wondering when the show would get around to enlightening us as to her actions. For all we know, Rick was a lying, cheating husband.

We get snippets of who they were before the pandemic, and we get to see who they are now, but we don’t always know why they do what they do. The character development is part of what makes The Walking Dead so intriguing to millions of people. The ratings on the show are setting records for cable TV! 11 million people watched the Season Two premiere two weeks ago, that had 7.3 million on the first showing and combined to 11 million for the back-to-back premiere of episode one which aired twice.

Principal cast of The Walking Dead.

Another character who has been there from day one (or in the real world, episode 2) is T-Dog. Best known in the show as the guy who drops the keys to the handcuffs that led to Merle Dixon cutting his hand off to escape the cuffs. I had a very cool opportunity to speak exclusively with T-Dog, actor IronE Singleton. Now that the show has been picked up again (there will be a season 3 already announced) the writers are going to have the time to explore and develop all of the main cast including T-Dog

via TV Show – The Walking Dead’s “T-Dog” Irone Singleton Talks Exclusively to CultureMob | CultureMob.

Hulu – Misfits: One – Watch the full episode now.

Hulu – Misfits: One – Watch the full episode now., posted with vodpod

Tired of the summer blahs even though summer begins tomorrow? I don’t know about you but I am in need of something big to rev my scifi appetite and having to wait for the next half season of Doctor Who was not making this fan happy. As I was reading the numerous blogs for my google reader, I came across this bit about Misfits. This show is not on cable or regular channel. Syfy or whatever the channel had better not monkey up with an US version like what they did to Being Human. No, this show in on Hulu. This online video content provider has always been a favorite destination to visit and now that I dumped cable several months ago, I am truly rewarded with a scifi series that has the right elements to make this a HUGE hit in my book.

When describing this series, I would have to do this kind of mashup – think The Breakfast Club meets Teen Titans meets X-Men. This is a must watch series and can rival my once beloved Heroes Season 1. (Still saddens me that the series never continued after that; I wonder why?) I really don’t want to get into further details because I don’t want to give anything else away. All I can say, if you follow this blog and recently noticed the lack of postings, this show has re-energized my passion for all things scifi. I hope you will agree with me.

Okay, ’nuff chat. What the show posted on the blog and tell me what you think. FYI – NSFW due to language and adult themes but then again, why would you be watching this at work?

Doctor Who S6 E1: The Impossible Astronaut – Commentary

******SPOILERS AHEAD******

Anxious to see something new in the world of scifi, Doctor Who Series 6 was the perfect fit to fill that void. It is by no means, one of the best episodes of the Doctor but it does cram in a great deal of storytelling in 1 hr.

One of my favorite moments belong to River Song. I have not only grew to love but watching her throughout the episode and remembering the loss of Elizabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane, I could easily see a spinoff series for this character.  For the first time, I truly had a sense of who she was and what she was about. There was a line where she was talking to Amy about her first meeting with the Doctor and the profound impact that had on her life. Much like Sarah Jane, River can hold her own against the Doctor and whatever the universe will throw her way. I want to see her more.

Amy’s revelation about her pregnancy to the Doctor as I read over the weekend will play a larger role over the course of the series. My thought was the reveal of the little girl in the astronaut suit to be Amy’s child in some weird timeline experiment going horribly wrong. We’ll see how it turns out but I did have a gripe how it ended. Towards the end, we see the astronaut that killed the Doctor at the beginning of the episode. Amy was able to get a shot from the gun belonging to the unconscious Canton Everett Delaware III and in an almost cliché scene, we don’t know who Amy shot but at the last moment, we know that the Doctor was okay but then there was this look of horror on Amy’s face. While we, the audience, are led to believe that Amy injured or killed the astronaut, we see in the upcoming previews shows the astronaut alive with a grazed bullet mark on the helmet. I’m not sure if Moffat, the show’s runner, meant for this to happen but this poor decision does not leave me with an OMG moment but now I know that the astronaut is okay for the most part.

Rory. Poor Rory. As I was beginning to see an all to familiar pattern with the third wheel à la Mickey as seen in earlier series,  no longer was he the bumbling idiot, Rory became something more towards the end of Series 5. In my eyes, he was a worthy companion to break up the potential unrequited love scenario between Amy and the Doctor. Finally, we had a trio that would show us some light-hearted fun that the series really needed. The 2 mini episode “Time” and “Space”, after last year’s christmas episode, best exemplifies my point about the fun aspect of watching this show. Sadly, in this premiere episode, Rory remains not as major player but just someone along for the ride. Granted, this is just the first episode but I want Rory to continue to be a wonderful character as I remember him from the last season.

Finally, we get to the Doctor. Matt Smith as our latest doctor picks up his almost maniacal pace of always being several steps ahead of his companions. However, this time around, I felt a sense of ease watching Matt playing the Doctor. It’s as if Matt broke in a new pair of shoes and he is truly comfortable to play the Doctor his way. There was a great moment between the Doctor and Amy which rewarded fans who paid attention. As this story goes, the Doctor, age 1103, was killed only to see the early Doctor, age 908, show up several scenes later. Fearing that telling this early Doctor of what had happened would cause a paradox, they needed this Doctor to go back in time to 1969. Not believing anyone, Amy came up to bat.  The Doctor asked Amy to swear on something that mattered to her. Her response, “Fish fingers and custard.” “My life in your hands, Amelia Pond” was the Doctor’s response. Brilliant!!!

The overall story still left me wondering how all of this will be worked out. Then again, isn’t that the point of watching Doctor Who?

Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled | Ology

Throwing in my two cents on this topic, there are a few things that I want to chime in about on Firefly. Having just come off watching Buffy/Angel only on dvd, I was eager to see this show despite it being on a friday night. The first episode that aired was, “The Train Job.” This turned out to be the second episode in the show but the first one to be aired.

Watching the first couple of minutes, I quickly got it. What nailed my love for this show was Mal kicking one of the henchmen into the Serenity‘s air in-take vents when he refused to take the money back. Mal tried it again with another henchmen and it worked but it was one of those moments, “He f$%&ing killed a bad guy” and yet it was one of the funniest moments of Firefly I truly loved.

Having said all this, I remembered that Joss hated the fact that Fox played the episodes out-of-order. I understand this completely but for once, I agreed with Fox on delaying the pilot episode till much later. The Train Job quickly filled in to us as to who are these people are and the world they lived in. I’m all for a pilot to show how this group came together but I had I watched it in the original order I might not have loved the show in the same manner. It’s like watching Star Wars Episode 4 first and then 5, 6 and then the prequels 1, 2, 3. If you watch it numerically the impact and the reveal of Vader as Luke’s father is completely lost. The same can be said for Mal’s humor and point of view.

So, where does this leave us? Back where all of us are, wanting more Firefly. Can lightning in the bottle be captured again? I don’t think so. Let Firefly rest in our hearts and dvd players as is.

Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled

By NATALIE ZUTTER

Whedon on the set of ‘Serenity’ with Gina Torres, Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, and Alan Tudyk.[ Image Source ]

Firefly, Joss Whedon’s short-lived space western from 2002, has been in the news lately, with fans getting extra revved over the announcement that The Science Channel would air reruns of the show. After Nathan Fillion made an offhand comment about wishing he could buy the rights, fans launched a campaign to do just that; Fillion gently told them to calm down.

Why all the hubbub? Perhaps it’s because for many, Firefly represented the best of Whedon’s gritty, funny worlds, with commentary on government control, religion, and morality. Perhaps because it’s his show with the shortest run. (Even Dollhouse got two seasons on Fox, from 2009-2010.) But as evidenced by charity screenings and comic continuations, the Browncoats’ love will never waver.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got a chance to chat with Gail Berman, who served as the Fox Entertainment president during Firefly’s run and had to be the one to cancel the show. Despite her personal connections to Whedon–indeed, she’s served as executive producer on Buffy and Angel–Berman knew that she had to make the painful decision.

via Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled | Ology.

Is The Sequel To Monsters Going To Be A TV Series Or A Movie? Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

One of the complaints I had with this movie is the slow pacing and the lack of action as the poster hinted at. However, I did enjoy this movie immensely with incredible cgi work. As for the notion to make this into a tv series, there could be some incredible concepts to be played with ala Alien Nation for example.

Alien Nation the movie was a great popcorn flick with lots of humor and scifi action. On the bigger picture, there were issues of prejudice and xenophobia that reflected on how we still treat each other today but in a future setting. The Alien Nation tv series really expand the roles of Sikes and Francisco and pushed other issues to the forefront like what is being a man really mean when Francisco was with child.

With Monsters, there was a sense that these creatures were not here to take over the world but rather adapt to a new way of life and with other creatures of their kind. In this context, I’m sure animal activists would have issues with military being used to kill off these creatures. Or look at the issue of whale hunting still going on today, we could have the monsters being hunted for some properties and then killed like collecting fur. Political issues could also give rise to some interesting drama as the creatures were not being contained. Other countries would threaten the U.S. and Mexico that is the aliens are not destroyed, there could be a potential of war with other nations.

In a few minutes, I came up with some plot points that could work in a tv format. If the sequel of Monsters will be another feature film, there needs to be a great deal more action like Aliens was to Alien. As for Edwards, he is going to be busy with the new Godzilla which I can’t wait to see.

Have you seen Monsters? What are your thoughts?

Submitted by Brendon Connelly on February 4, 2011 – 6:24 am (0) comments

I’ll use a couple of interviews from the same outlet to illustrate this story. First of all, an interview from last August, in which Gareth Edwards tells Dread Central that his low-budget movie Monsters might get a spin-off TV show:

“I just don’t know if Monsters in the future would involve me or not, but I do think there have been discussions about looking into a television series based on what we created with Monsters. I know I’d like to try something different for my next project and then maybe see what happens from there”

via Is The Sequel To Monsters Going To Be A TV Series Or A Movie? Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors.

Monster Scifi Show Podcast Episode 23 09/10/2010