Once of the greatest cartoons, and Jason Alexander’s only decent role ever, is getting it’s long delayed release on DVD. On September 16th, you’ll be able to buy seasons 1 and 2 of Duckman! (This is also the date for the US release of Torchwood Season 2) Support the release so we can get seasons 3 and 4 as well.
Part of me almost admires this guy. A principal of a South Carolina high school resigned rather than force narrow minded beliefs on others and impeded his fellow citizens’ pursuit of happiness. Eddie Walker objected to the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club. Rather than attempt to block the formation or make a draconian decision and terminate all extracurricular activities, Mr. Walker took responsibility for his choice to follow certain religious beliefs. He realized choosing these beliefs made him unfit to participate in public education and withdrew.
Now we need many other public school administrators to follow his lead, along with a slew of pharmacists.
Have a safe and fun Memorial Day. I’ll be doing nothing and loving every second!
The Wrath of God is a bitch, ain’t it, Mrs. Kern.
An interesting season finale to Bones was on tonight. Having Zach be the inside man was an interesting twist. I enjoy it when writers don’t treat the main cast as sacrosanct and surround them with character shields. My favorite pop culture reference was Booth listening to Social Distortion’s “Bad Luck” in the tub. I got to hear them play it live at the album release party at CBGB way back in 1992. Woo Hoo!
The Insurance Services Office keeps track of severe weather conditions that cause catastrophic losses to the property and casualty insurance industry. A catastrophe is an event that causes a combined loss of $25,000,000. This year Oklahoma had five of these losses. This is the same number of losses in 2006 and 2007 combined. Four of these five losses had biblical style events such as tornadoes, hail and flooding. These four losses also occurred after Sally Kern made her incredibly disparaging remarks about LGBT people. Is this a coincidence or did she manage to piss God off? I’m leaning heavily toward the latter.
Keep talking, Sally. Maybe a pillar of salt is next.
The best news of the day is: Reaper has been renewed for a second season! Neither low ratings nor a months long writers’ strike could kill this delightful little gem. What started out as a harmless comedy about a bunch of slackers stuck forever as minimum wage minions of a home improvement chain dealing with a very peculiar twist, has subtly shifted into a much more sinister gear.
The first episode was delightful in setting the scene while the next three continued in an acceptable, if formulaic fashion. It wasn’t until “What About Blob?” that the incongruities of the mundane worker bee life against vs. the insane bounty hunter from hell life clash was sent to the background bringing focus to a more deeply ingrained and ancient plot. Sam managed to get a copy of his parents’ contract with the devil. His father offers to help him out with it, but the episode ends with him tearing out select pages of the interminable document and burning them. It’s our first indication that things are more than what they seem. Sam will need to do more than balance work with the devil’s trade and trying to bring his relationship with co-worker Andi to the next level. Eventually where we get to the point where Sam’s heritage is suspect. We’ll have to wait for next week’s finale to find out.
Besides the unique storylines, Reaper is one of the most perfectly cast shows on television these days. Sam is basically a good guy making the best of an impossible situation. Bret Harrison is cute and talented and plays the role well, but he’s the straight man of the comedy team. The Reaper world revolves around Sock. Tyler Labine looks like Wolverine’s younger, chubier brother and seems to be in it only for himself. But when you examine him closed (and how I long to do that!) he lives by an adendum to Murphy’s Law that states: “If a job isn’t worth doing at all it certainly isn’t worth doing well.” As a corollary when he thinks it is worth doing, he does give it his all. And, above all, he thinks his friends are worth it. Time and again Sock has put himself on the line to keep his friends intact and in his life. (There’s also the homoerotic element to his friendship with Sam. I can honestly say I’ve never woken up with my best friend tossing M&Ms into my mouth while I sleep.)
Reaper’s brightest sattelite is Ray Wise’s devil. Few actors have ever been able to exude cool like this guy. Even when he’s pissed off beyond belief, he’s got a level head and is in control. This is, perhaps, one of the greatest casting jobs in the history of television. Watch out for Gladys. The underrated Christine Wiles was born to play this part. Anyone who can go from Dead Like Me’s ultra perky Delores Herbig to the DMV demon drone has got chops to spare. The writers were smart to elevate her from background character to an independent force with her own agenda. She owes Sam big after the last episode. I hope something comes of this.
So next week is the finale and then Reaper returns as a thirteen episode mid-season replacement. It may actually do better when not run against network powerhouses like House MD. I certainly hope so.
Nova M Radio made the mistake of signing on Randi Rhodes and XM made the mistake of carrying it during the 3PM slot, robbing me of the pleasure of listening to true liberal Thom Hartmann. I imagine Randi is still propagating the huge lie that she supports first amendment free speech rights, however I know better and won’t be listening to her attention whore fabrications. With The Bill Press Show fairly disappointing, I may cancel the next renewal of XM. Anyone know of any good books on disc?
I’m one of the biggest jerks in the DC Universe!
You are Green Lantern
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Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.  |
So, The Doctor met his daughter. It’s really just a cheat. Everyone was expecting some insight into The Doctor’s family. Except for a few glib references, the only evidence of family was Susan, the even more mysterious granddaughter. The companion exists as a proxy for the audience to ask all those questions we’d otherwise be shouting at the screen. Susan was made The Doctor’s granddaughter to alleviate any implications that the somewhat elderly William Hartnell was a dirty old man traveling the universe with a fifteen year old bit of crumpet. As it turns out, daughter Jenny is not Susan’s mother.
Enough about that. How was the episode? To be honest, it was average. The second half brought back memories of “The Invasion of Time” with the group running through endless corridors and even running into the previously kidnapped companion. The alien antagonists, the Hath, are one dimensional, mostly unexplained and not overly imaginative. I wonder if the human colonists are referred to as the Hath-Not. Even the colonists aren’t fleshed out except for the leader played fairly well by the uniquely voiced Nigel Terry. The accent was triggering a feeling of deja-vu. Then I realized, this is a much older King Arthur from the excellent “Excalibur“. While effectively acted, the character is the typical selfish bastard, jerk that colonists from about 1,000 years in the future in the Doctor Who universe are. There’s even a sly reference to "The Keeper of Traken" with the plot device of The Source.
Now Georgia Moffett, who really is The Doctor’s Daughter, puts on a spectacular performance and she’s obviously loving it. While the bright spot of this episode, she reveals the casting error done in the first two series by giving the role of Rose to the dreary Billie Piper instead of this dynamo. We could have been spared twenty-seven episodes of Tammy Faye makeup and inaudible diction. She worked incredibly well with David Tennant even with an overwrought death scene in the mix. Fortunately, it turns out, she has enough in common that she doesn’t really die. (Why she managed to revive herself instead of regenerating into someone else will hopefully be explained in a future episode.) She really does need to be seen again as Jenny.
Speaking of companions, Freema Agyeman returns for the third of five episodes this series as Martha Jones. While I absolutely love Martha, Freema seems to have lost some of her enthusiasm for playing her. Fortunately she gets kidnapped early on and we only she her half assed, phoning it in intermittently. This leads us to the current companion, Donna Noble, played with a certain panache by comedian Catherine Tate. When Donna first showed up in The Runaway Bride, she was brash, grating and all around annoying. I don’t believe I was the only one who was not thrilled at the news of her becoming a regular. The producers gained the wisdom to tone this down and give her a Jiminy Cricket role to someone who is so old, damaged and jaded he can’t really see the little things anymore. For someone who can point a gun at someone’s head and state “I would never,” The Doctor’s reactions to devastation he is directly responsible for can be disturbingly nonchalant. During their first meeting, Donna told him he needs someone to stop him. Donna has been fulfilling that role spectacularly. I am really enjoing a companion who isn’t mushy for the Doc and can act with some objectivity.
One last thing about the good ol’ Doc himself: The survivor’s guilt that plauged the Christopher Eccleston version of the character seems to be returning. He enters, with far too much enthusiasm, every situation that can lead to his demise. Any mention of a topic that can remind him of his past seems to send him into a combination of anger and depression. Has spending so much time around humans made him too much like us? Or has Tennant, while certainly brilliant in the role, lost the ability to cast the alien aura the Eccleston was able to so easily project? Or maybe the writers are at fault…