Category: Television & Movies

So…that’s it. I’ll be as non-spoilery with my thoughts as possible.

I got a chuckle out of Ron Moore’s cameo (reading the magazine article toward the end).

For what it’s worth, the ratio of what was paid off and tied up vs. what was left open ended did not displease me. This was a conclusion that did not leave me so disappointed that I got pissed off at the entire run of the show for wasting countless hours of my life (i.e. Voyager, Enterprise).

The people who complained about the Shadow War wrapping up a few episodes into season 4 of B5? I’m sure they’ll launch an all-out bitchfest about this one. There’s no shortage of action, but the writers did not neglect our need for closure either. Anyone who expected the entire show to end with pyrotechnics (A) will be disappointed, and (B) didn’t know this show very well.

Overall…a satisfying ending…and a welcome one. Galactica’s been exhausting to watch. I noticed, in the Big Frakking Special, that there was a lot of interview time given over to the question “How dark is too dark?” Galactica went too dark a few times for my tastes…and way too dark a few other times.

But I think, for at least a few decades if not longer, we’re going to see this Galactica put on a pedestal, and not entirely unjustly. Entertainment Weekly said it best a few weeks or months ago when their reviewers decided that Galactica, even more than 24, was the one popular entertainment that really captured the zeitgeist of this decade better than anything else. And sure, to some extent, that’ll date it down the road. I mean, it’s not like, 40+ years on, we’re talking about a TV sci-fi show that captured the zeitgeist of the sixties, because what relevance would that have to anything going on now…?

Oh. Yeah. Wait. Cancel that. I think Galactica’s importance on the TV landscape is pretty secure. 😛

But what about its entertainment value? There’s the real iffy thing. Often thought-provoking, I found Galactica simply too dark in a few places to be truly entertaining. As Evan became mobile, and aware of the idiot box, Galactica became a thing to avoid – a thing to download and watch later, in the dead of night after the boy was asleep. I’ve talked to some of my friends with young ones who are in the same boat. And here recently I’ve struggled to be in a mood to watch it at all.

I’ll probably be sitting out Caprica altogether; maybe I’ll check out the upcoming early-release DVD of the pilot, and make my decision then. But as demanding and exhausting as Galacitca has been…I’m not sure I’m up for more of that. At this rate, I’ll be doing good to stick with Lost until the end. I’m ready for a little more escapism in my diet – and the revised-Galacticas and Losts of future TV seasons will probably have to do without me for a while.… Read more

For some reason – maybe a bit of boredom, admittedly – I watched Babylon 5: The Lost Tales for what has to be…well…frankly…the second time. For some reason I’ve just had B5 on the brain lately, and for some reason it’s been bugging me that I’ve seen, to pull an example out of nowhere, The Fall Of Night probably 20-30 times. I watched The Lost Tales once, on the day I bought it, and I was so put off by what I saw that I never went back for seconds until now. … Read more

Interesting – not really what I was expecting at all. This is the five-episode season that’s supposed to play out one episode per night over a single week. Supposedly it’ll air almost simultaneously (i.e. same day) on the BBC and BBC America in July.

As for what I wasn’t expecting…I guess I thought “Children Of Earth” was going to be more metaphorical than literal somehow. Kinda like the Children of Time. I’m also still a little bit bummed that, in a year that’s going to be light on Doctor Who, we’re only getting five episodes of Torchwood and they’re blowing the whole wad in one week (again, metaphorically speaking).… Read more

I’m not sure what it is, but my reaction to the final 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica getting started is falling into the category of “Good, let’s get this over with.” Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the series overall (otherwise I wouldn’t do goofy stuff like this little animation you see running here), and I think it’s a show with great value now and in the future; I forget which magazine it was that nominated Galactica over 24 as the show with the most insightful artistic peek into the national mindset of the Bush (Jr.) years, but I believe that’s a really fair assessment.

Could it be that, as ready as I am to kiss off the Bush years, I’m also ready to see the back of a show that’s epitomized them pretty well?

The funny thing is, my feelings about Lost starting up again are a bit more upbeat, and yet at the same time, there’s still a little bit of “let’s get this over with” there too. Despite its utter lack of spacecraft and robot assassins, Lost strikes me as the more fantastical show; it’s just more “out there,” and – perhaps more importantly – it’s fairly apolitical. The same goes for Doctor Who and its spinoffs; compared to Galactica or even Lost, keeping track of the continuity and backstory of Who is a nearly epic task, but even the newer, more emotionally-involved Doctor Who isn’t quite as taxing as Galactica. I’d cite Babylon 5 as the most direct antecedent of Galactica, and as dark as it went, it still had more of a sense of fun. Galactica has done an outstanding job of laying out its sociopolitical background and developing its cast of characters, leaving us thinking about the disturbing lack of easy answers, and keeping our eyes busy with its visual effects (and Tricia Helfer, who’s kind of a visual effect herself). But for the past couple of seasons, I guess it’s been nagging at me – the question of how entertaining the new Galactica has been. Last night’s beginning of the sprint down the home stretch, which included most of our heroes coming off the rails and descending into an alcoholic stupor or just plain suicide, hammered that question home. Throught-provoking? No question of it. But has it wound up too dark for its own good?

Maybe right now, we need a little bit of escapism. Or maybe I do. Given how I’ve grown to feel about Galactica, the further thought has occurred that I may not be up for Caprica. Let’s see how the new season of Lost – and the gaping lack of Doctor Who and related shows – hit me this year.… Read more

Patrick McGoohan, the creator, writer, frequent director and, oh yeah, star of The Prisoner, died earlier this week at the age of 80. Sadly, McGoohan’s only Emmy wins came from guest shots on – of all things – Columbo, but one has to imagine that he had to be aware that there was massive, if belated, critical acclaim for The Prisoner as well. I was hoping that maybe he could be persuaded to put in a cameo appearance on the new version AMC and Sky One are shooting to air this fall.

I hope that, in all the eulogizing, the man gets his due as not just the actor, but the creator behind the Prisoner as well. It’s fairly well known now that McGoohan devised The Prisoner as a response to the kind of get-off-scot-free, consequence-less adventure of the spy series he was starring in (Danger Man, a.k.a. Secret Agent Man), and in going for the gusto and creating a show that was designed to be a massive mindf#$%, he really secured his spot in the TV history books – in a way, The Prisoner was kind of like the precursor to Burn Notice…after dropping a healthy dose of acid. Shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica (at least the new one) borrow liberally from The Prisoner’s playbook (J.J. Abrams has, in fact, copped to Lost being an overt valentine to The Prisoner), and respect is due.

There’s something trippy and solidly 1960s about The Prisoner, and yet something timeless as well – any serious student of television as a medium for quality storytelling and social commentary should watch through the entire series at least once.

And it’s also time to bid Ricardo Montalban farewell – Fantasy Island is closed for business. Say what you like about Mr. Montalban or the sort of shows and movies he appeared in, but regardless of what role he was playing, the man just oozed dignity. I don’t ever recall seeing him just phone it in – even if he was appearing in something that seemd a bit lowbrow (the first Naked Gun movie, for example), he found the absolute conviction of the character he played and did not let it go. If he was playing an over-the-top villain, he did not allow that character to be anything less than a force to be reckoned with. You didn’t smirk at the very sight of the man. And sure, while there are a whole raft of cliches that emerge over time with repeat viewing (something that can happen with anyone), or through his abundant commercial spokesperson/voice-over work, there’s never a sense that he was just going through the motions. And you better believe that it’s that absolute conviction in whatever he was doing that kept the man employed in such a variety of roles throughout his life.… Read more

The BBC will announce the 11th actor to play the Doctor tomorrow night on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential, once again proving that nobody keeps spoilers under wraps like the Beeb. Lucasfilm just wishes they could clamp down on stuff like that.

There are a lot of names being thrown about, including Catherine Tate (!), which would put me in the really strange position of having to admit that I have a little bit of a thing for Doctor Who, and then hastily explaining that I don’t mean Tom Baker or David Tennant. My own dream pick would be, sadly, someone who isn’t free from their last gig just yet (Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick), but really, I’d kinda like it to be someone I’ve never heard of before. One of the reasons Tennant cemented the public’s affection for him, aside from playing the part brilliantly, is that he was hungrier for the exposure than his predecessor was: he was up for the demands of publicity and promotion. Eccleston is a much more private guy and just seemed like he wanted to hide after the first round of appearances. Surely someone had warned him that the phrase “I am the Doctor” carried with it almost a certain level of responsibility.

So in that vein, it’d be neat if the eleventh Doctor was someone who was as hungry for the exposure – all of the exposure – as Tennant has been. Which probably means someone relatively unknown and youngish (I am resigned, at my age, to the probability that from here on out, Doctor Who – one of my fictional heroes since I was around 8 years old or so – will be younger than I am).

I did get a chuckle, however, at Russell T. Davies’ reaction when he learned that Robert Carlyle was out of the running because he’d taken the lead role in the upcoming Stargate spinoff, Stargate: Voyager…no, wait, sorry, Stargate: Universe – apparently it was along the lines of “What was he thinking? Has his agent even watched the show?” 😛… Read more