Heroes vs. Lost

Now I love both shows, a lot. But last night's episode of Heroes illustrated a big difference between it and Lost.

For the first few episodes of both shows a whole truckload of mysteries were introduced. 55+ episodes into it's run and Lost still hasn't answered the vast majority of those questions, while still shoveling new questions onto the pile. But last night Heroes actually went out and answered a lot of the mysteries they had spent the previous nine episodes laying out.

We know who Sylar is. We know how Eden hooked up with Clare's father. We know how Nathan Petrelli's wife was crippled. We know a little more about the whole Nikki/Jessica situation.

Were all of the mysteries solved? No, but they cleared the field enough to keep things workable. Lost, as much as I love it, just keeps shoveling new mysteries onto the massive pile of unsolved ones. (sidenote - a great list of the 50 biggest Lost questions can be found here) Tim Kring and crew looked at that great, steaming pile of questions and saw an impediment to the average viewer.

So, to abuse a metaphor, Heroes is the sidewalk that gets shoveled regularly during the winter, you still see the snow but it doesn't impede your progress. While Lost is the monstrous mountain of snow sitting in the mall parking lot that will probably still be there in April.

Whats up with Aqua Teen Hunger Force?

A little more than a month ago I was eagerly anticipating the new season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of the funniest and most unique shows on television.

Now? Wondering where all that unique humor went.

Five weeks into the season and ATHF is batting an anemic .200, 1 for 5. Clever, if wacky, plots have been replaced with an entire episode about 'Dicks'. However I was fine with the show, until last night. Each episode is 11 minutes long. Before this run they had produced three episodes in two years. (yes I know they were making an ATHF movie, its still been three episodes in two years) And after four episodes we get...a clip show. Maybe the clip show only took up half the episode, but considering how bad the rest of the episode was (Tera Patrick as a guest star?) it was still too much.

What happened? Looking back at previous seasons there were always the occasional stinker, but they were drowned out by the great, funny episodes. Did the writers get burnt out working on the movie? Or have they simply hit the wall creatively? I don't know why, but I still hope things turn around, and soon.

Voltron coming to [adult swim]

From TV Squad.

While it hasn't been added to the schedule grid yet, the '80s animated series Voltron will in fact be a part of Adult Swim starting on November 13. However, the episodes will air at 5:30 am, so if you want to see them on television you'll either have to never sleep, or wake up really early.

The good news: it will also be available online at the [adult swim] fix. Now to make me really happy Cartoon Network needs to pick up Transformers (the original), Thundercats, Silverhawks and Battle of the Planets as well.

Alan Moore to Appear on The Simpsons!

Never in a million years could I have seen this coming. (thanks to Warren Ellis)

Moore, aged 53, recorded his lines at The Lodge studios in Abington Square last month for an episode which will be called Husbands and Knives.
The Simpsons' production team are long-time fans of Moore's, whose reputation in the world of graphic novels is legendary.

He features in a sub-plot which sees a new 'cool' comic shop opening in Springfield in competition with the Android's Dungeon, run by Comic Book Guy who is voiced by Hank Azaria.
The new shop has persuaded Moore to make a public appearance.

Random Musings - Cliffhanger Edition

Before the television season started I thought Heroes had maybe a 60% chance to be good and a 40% chance to be successful. Happily it's not only great it's (alongside Ugly Betty) the big new show of the season. Which pretty much guarantees that we'll see at least 3 new superhero shows on the '07 fall schedules. I think they need to stop, or at least slow down, the constant parade of new characters and develop the existing ones a little more, but otherwise it's been tremendous.

I was a little disappointed in the first six episodes of Lost. I know that Kate, Jack and Sawyer are the focal characters of the show, but as of now we've seen too much of them and too little of the rest of the castaways. We've gained a little insight into the Others, and possibly the other Others, but not enough to justify almost abandoning three quarters of the cast for four of the six episodes. I am glad that the hatch is finally gone, but the show otherwise feels like it's treading water.

I've only had a few hours to knock around with it, but Gears of War is every bit as great as the hype made it out to be. Is it the most original game ever? No, but neither was Halo, or Half-Life or Rainbow Six. GoW is in that class of shooters.

I don't see how Microsoft can sell TV shows and movies on the 360 without having a larger hard drive available. Those 20GBs will fill up real fast with HD content.

After six months every issue of 52 has shipped on time and sold 100,000+ copies. Did anyone, could anyone, predict such success?

Random Musings - Playoffs Edition

Heroes has been a lot of fun so far, but after two episodes the only characters I like are Hiro and maybe Mohander. That can change quickly but the producers should have done a better job of making the characters connect with the audience.

While I liked the time-travel twist in the second episode, I think it may have been too soon. Time travel and paradoxes (paradoxii?) generally tend not to play well with most audiences, especially if the characters haven't caught on yet. I think a lot of people may have been turned off by the last episode.

Lost's season premiere was good (well, maybe very good) but not great. The producers actually answered a few questions without completely innundating the viewer with too many fresh ones. I can't really say what I found wrong with the episode. Something just felt...off.

My initial pessimism about Smith seems to have been off base.

Why are there no good videogames based on DC games? I'd love to see a Batman game that blends the stealth elements of Splinter Cell with the acrobatics of Prince of Persia. Somebody, please make this happen.

Jackass 2. Words cannot describe this movie. I have a pretty strong constitution but I had to cover my eyes for a good 20% of the movie. It was that revolting. Now that doesn't mean it wasn't funny, it was, but it was also so very, very hard to watch.

The South Park premiere was everything a fan could ask for. The cadence and inflection Cartman uses while planning and executing the raid was tone perfect.

South Park meets World of Warcraft

I cannot even begin to describe how awesome this is. There is no better way to remind all of you that the new season of South Park begins this Wednesday.
(h/t - Ace)

TV Reviews - Week of September 17th

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - Pilot - Aaron Sorkin's return to TV in this semi-autobiographical look at a fictional late-night TV sketch comedy show is classic Sorkin. The dialouge moves at light speed and the characters seem to be in constant motion. The characters are flawed and conflicted yet, after even one episode, they are also endearing. I'm not sure how long the novelty of seeing the inner workings of SNL-West will last, but for now this looks like a winner. 4/5

Smith - Pilot - I loves me some heist movies, but as I said in my Fall TV preview, that love doesn't necessarily translate to the small screen. Smith, while better than Thief or Heist, still didn't blow me away. The episode was presented in almost reverse chronological order, with the botched getaway shown at the start of the episode and the details leading up to that point filled in as the show progressed. While I usually like the Rashomon/Memento approach in this case it felt like time filler more than anything else. The performances are all top notch, and some of the characters seem likeable, but overall I felt 'meh'. 3/5

Jericho - Pilot - Of all the series concepts I read about this spring this was the one that excited me the most. The rural town of Jericho, Kansas suddenly loses all communications and when the residents look to the western sky they see a mushroom cloud where Denver should be. The townsfolk, convincingly rural without crossing over into hick territory, deal with the situation in a variety of ways, most of which feel realistic. I'm not sure what kind of legs this show has but the first episode was good enough to warrant another look. 3/5

My Name is Earl - Very Bad Things - I was originally worried when the producers said that Earl wouldn't revolve around the list as much this season. After this episode I'm not quite as worried anymore. Earl decides to take Joy's side in an argument for the first time ever, resulting in Joy stealing a truck fom the local furniture store. Earl and Joy spend a while trying to dispose of the truck before they discover that one of the store employees had been trapped in the truck the whole time. Earl was (maybe) the best new show of '05 and this episode continues the excellence. 4/5

New Lost Info With Video

Apparently the Lost alternate reality game has ended and the full set of clips is up on YouTube, including information on what the numbers actually are.

Enjoy!

For those of you like me that are too important to watch the video our friends at Cinescape have the rundown.

Original Simpsons Shorts Available for Download

(H/T Joel @ TV Squad)

For you youn'uns that didn't know; The Simpsons began life as shorts on the long defunct Tracey Ullman Show, which was one of the original shows on the fledgling Fox network.

Wow. Time has not been kind to these shorts. That said these are still fascinating just from a historical perspective, like watching Larry Fishburn on Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

The Path to 9/11 and Freedom of Speech

I normally try to keep my political viewpoints on the back burner, if not out of sight, here on The Nerdly Arts, but this just has to be said.

This weekend ABC will be airing "The Path to 9/11". A furor erupted when Bill Clinton and members of his administration began to lobby ABC to change the film. Depending on which side of the political spectrum you inhabit Clinton was either trying to get factual errors in the film corrected or attempting to whitewash his administration's terrorism policies. Now I'm somewhat conservative to I tend to believe the latter; I think Clinton was trying to polish his legacy while paving the way for his wife's Presidential run in '08. While I think Clinton is wrong to lobby to change a movie he has every right to do so. The same thing with a group of Left wing bloggers who are organizing a 'google bombing' in protest; I think it's hypocritical and wrongheaded but it their perogative.

Then I read this. A letter from the Democratic leadership in the Senate basically threatening the broadcast licences of ABC and it's affiliates if they broadcast the movie. It may be the most overt act of extortion I've ever seen. Here are some relevant quotes

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

This is the legislative equivalent of walking up to a motorist, showing him a gun and saying "Give me your car." Threatening to take down an entire broadcast network if they don't conform to your political orthodoxy in such a public way is the most sickeningly corrupt act I've ever seen.

Fall TV Preview Part 2 - Returning Dramas

Part 2 of this series was supposed to be my top new comedies of the fall season.

Then I actually looked at the list of new comedies.

Not one new comedy looked good. Hell not one new comedy looked even remotely watchable.

So I junked it, and moved on to the next part: My Most Anticipated Returning Shows. Just like Part 1, I'm only covering Fall-debuting shows, so old favorites like 24 & The Shield will be covered in a few months.

Battlestar Galactica - SciFi Fridays @ 10
BSG may be the most complete show on television today. It serves up action, drama, tension and intrigue while still dealing with situations that very few shows would touch with a 10 foot pole. The acting, writing and effects are all top notch and none of the episodes feel like padding. You never get the feeling that things have been 'dumbed down' or 'sanitized' for mass consumption the way they are on most sci-fi shows.

Lost - ABC Wednesdays @ 9
Yeah some of the flashbacks last season felt like filler, and a few characters became down right annoying, but Lost is still the epitome of Appointment Television. The new season promises a whole new group of castaways to focus on (The Others) and even more mysteries to obsess over. This season's broadcast schedule, in which 6 episodes air to start the season and the remaining 18 episodes air without interruption beginning in January after a short hiatus, should make the show a little easier to follow.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Tuesdays @ 10
SVU is like the quiet, unspectacular veteran ballplayer that still always manages to put up great numbers. In the crowded world of procedural crime dramas it always manages to stand out.

The Unit - CBS Tuedsays @ 9
This show was such a great surprise last season. Between this and 24 I'm starting to believe that action shows may actually have a chance on network television once again.

Fall TV Preview Part 1 - New Dramas

Today is one of those rare times of year when my bitter, jaded, cynical heart begins to feel the fain, unfamilar echo of hope. I speak, of course, of the upcoming television season. New shows still have promise and returning shows still have stable timeslots. Today I'm going to rundown my five most anticipated new dramas of the upcoming season. NOTE: For now I'm just touching on fall-debuting shows. Shows that debut after October will be covered in a later post.

Heroes - NBC Mondays @ 9
The Premise - A group of seemingly unrelated individuals begin to develop extra-ordinary powers.
The Promise - This is a lot closer to a prime time superhero show than any network has attempted in a long time, so the concept still seems fresh. It also appears to follow the Lost formula by showing connections between all of the affected individuals. NBC seems to be putting a lot of promotional muscle behind this show, and airing the day after Sunday Night Football can only help. In addition to having a hot lead in (Deal or No Deal) it also doesn't go up against any established shows.
The Problem - If it's percieved as being too much of a comic book show it'll never gain a following. If Deal slips in the ratings it won't have much of a lead in.

Jericho - CBS Wednesdays @ 8
The Premise - A nuclear disaster leaves a small Kansas town cut off from the rest of the world. The residents must deal with their isolation while trying to find out exactly what happened, and if anyone else survived.
The Promise - A very interesting premise for a show. It seems to have all the elements needed for an hourlong: action, drama, conflict and a hook to tie them all together.
The Problem - The thought of nuclear annihilation may be a little too close to the actual news coming out of the Middle East for some. When Skeet Ulrich gets top billing on a show you may have trouble reeling in the viewers.

The Nine - ABC Wednesdays @ 10
The Premise - Nine people are taken hostage in a bank robbery. Each episode sheds a little more light on what actually happened in the bank as the Nine struggle to come to terms with what they experienced.
The Promise - I love a good mystery, and this seems to fit the mold by asking one question "What really happened in the Bank?" You can't ask for a better lead-in.
The Problem - It sounds like it takes the least interesting part of Lost, the flashbacks, and made them the centerpiece of the show. It's got a rough timeslot

Kidnapped - NBC Wednesdays @ 10
The Premise - The efforts to find and save the kidnapped son of a wealthy man unfolds in a one-day-per-episode format.
The Promise - A less restrictive take on 24's real-time format sounds good. A very good cast on this one.
The Problem - A tough timeslot, a poor lead-in (The Biggest Loser) and a very similar show on another network(Fox' Vanished) give this show an up hill battle.

Smith - CBS Tuesdays @ 10
The Premise - A gang of thieves pull of elaborate heists while still trying to live normal lives.
The Promise - I loves me some heist movies. A heist show with a great, big name cast? Sounds like gold to me, especially with The Unit as a lead in.
The Problem - The last two heist shows, Thief & Heist didn't do anything for me. It's got a brutal timeslot

Overall Themes? Lots of shows trying to ape, or combine, attributes of Lost & 24

Hanso Foundation Video on Youtube

For those of you who, like me, couldn't be bothered playing the Lost alternate reality game. It's supposed to be most, if not all, of the little snippets of video you get plaing the ARG edited together into something resembling coherence. Enjoy

Review: Shin Chan

For a few minutes last night I thought I had actually lost my freaking mind. I was sure, certain beyond a reasonable doubt, that I'd broken my brain and had slipped into blissful insanity. Why would I think that?

Because I watched Shin Chan on [Adult Swim].

The show is almost indescribable. It was like a firehose of wierd blasting out of my television. Superheroes, schizophrenics, wierd little children and a cat car are just some of the elements of the show. Oh yeah, and it's pretty adult as well, with lots of sexual innuendo and humor. To be honest I'm not quite sure what happened in the episode; everything was just so random and strange and oh so Japanese, but it was still fun to watch.

Apparently the show, known as Crayon Shin-Chan in Japan, has been on the air since 1992 and is considered by some to be Japan's answer to The Simpsons. While I'm not yet ready to make that comparison, Shin Chan looks to be a great addition to the [as] family.