Help Nathan Buy Firefly - The website address says it all. The best thing Joss Whedon ever created was Firefly.

Mortal Kombat Web Episodes - This is so dark, it’s brilliant. Some of the acting is a bit hammy, but the direction is excellent. Can’t wait to see the rest those 10 episodes.

Periscope Studio Does Mad Men Art - Love this series, love these collectives of comic book artists that decide on a theme for a week and do some art. It’s just pretty good fun.

The following is something I wrote a whole year ago, but I never completed and never published. I’ve taken tweaked a few words here and there, but by and large it remains untouched. I still feel the exact same way a year on. It’s insane how much of an impact that documentary made on me. If you’ve not had a chance to look at it, I highly recommend it.

I'm talking of course about new year's resolutions. In this regard I'm not different than most people. A year is a long time. Life always throws new things in your general direction over the course of the year with amazing regularity. We're human beings and so we get bored, we get excited by the new.

After watching Objectified, I definitely look at things I buy with a lot more care. I want to see the love put into everything that I buy. I want things with soul. I don't want shit cluttering up my life. As such that was a life time resolution. It comes with some difficulty, due in part to the fact that I can't compromise, which is harder, but this is a resolution I've decided to keep. If it's not necessary and doesn't get used, what's the point in having it.

These are resolutions to keep for a lifetime. They are a way of life. However it's always nice to have smaller more mangeable goals to try and achieve in the meantime.

The Walking Dead trailer - From AMC, the new HBO. With Mad Men and Breaking Bad under their belts, they’re going for the hat trick with ‘The Walking Dead’ based on the Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard series of graphic novels.

Lost: The Complete Collection - Must have. Must buy. September is looking good for a Lost marathon.

Sawyer’s Nicknames - While I’m on the Lost bandwagon, this is excellent.

Loved And Lost - Amazing interactive picture of all the characters with a brief recap of who they are and what happened to them. Looking through this, you just start remembering all the questions they just didn’t bother answering.

Google TV - I guess it was only a matter of time really. Now that I’ve moved to Lebanon, i’ll probably not be able to use something like this for many many years (proper internet connection was one of the things I gave up here).

Guillin Fishermen - One of the best adverts I’ve seen for HSBC (it’s old, but I’m going through all my draft posts trying to get them below 50).

LOST Posters - Awesome minimalist posters. It’s definitely en vogue nowadays to do these, but I still like them.

As a teenager, I was never ashamed to pledge my allegiance to this show (the original version, not the shit that has turned up this year). Up until the second year of University, this show was golden - I’m still not.

Happy 9.02.10!

The Complete Chart of Characters’ Past Connections - Leading up to the season premiere next week, i expect a lot more of these things flying around (via @noscope)

The Gates Notes - Excellent looking site from Bill. Is it me, or does it feel as though he’s generally distancing himself from both MS and Fester (Steve Balmer).

Iconic TV Posters - by Albert Exergian. Also be sure to check out his site.

The Carousel - If you want to know why Mad Men is one of the best shows on TV, have a look at this 3 minute scene from the show. Everything is perfect, from the music to Don’s fantastic voice. What’s special to me is that it obviously makes you remember things from your past. Fantastic television.

Bill Moyers interviews David Simon - Fantastic interview which details loads about ‘The Wire’ of course.

BSG Worst Ending in the Sci-Fi History - I’ve not had a chance to read this yet, but this is definitely one of those rants that seem like they are really worth reading, when I’ve got a couple of hours to kill and feeling a bit BSG nostalgic.

Top Gear Series 13 Trailer - The boys are back. Good casting on the young top gear stars as well.

MacFarlane confirms Family Guy Movie - Will he learn from the Simpsons movie? Will he learn from the South Park movie? Is there anything to learn from that piece of shit, or will it also be just a really really long episode?

Christian Bale Goes Bat S**t on Peter Griffin - It never ceases to amaze me how on the pulse Family Guy is with today’s pop culture. These guys never miss a beat.

Battlestar Galactica promo - Deadlock - And since we’re talking about BSG, here’s the promo from next week’s episode. Can you imagine the conversation that Sol will have with you-know-who. Awkward. (Obviously don’t go if you’ve not see the final episodes)

This was a HUGE Battlestar Galactica Episode. This post is rife with SPOILERS, so if you’ve not seen the episode go somewhere else, nothing to read here.

No Exit answered many questions that have been lingering with most of us for years. As the EW review says, I definitely feel like i’ve deserved this particular episode dammit. I sat through years of BSG goodness, and dammit I wanted some resolution. However this episode didn’t give you everything. It answered (or tried to answer) a number of questions, however these are some of the questions outstanding.

Who Nuked Earth?

Eventually these guys (over the course of several 1000 years) forgot how to do this, because they didn’t need know. The lingering question remained however was who nuked Earth? Was it themselves? Unfortunately this little interview snippet doesn’t really shed much light on that question. For the sake of argument let’s just say that a war began between the Cylons and Humans from Kobol. The 5 Cylons were warned (through the ‘Head’ characters) and so they went off to stop the same from happening to the rest of the colonies and trying to actually live together in peace.

Update: Alan seems to think that the Cylon Humanoids of the 13th Colony actually created their own servant cyclons and they were the ones that rebelled.

The Plan

Daniel

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Episode 15 Promo - No Exit - Don’t click on the link if you’ve not seen the latest episodes, because it’s got a pretty major spoiler attached. For all those who have seen the latest episodes, this one promises to be an even better episode that the last two that we’ve just had.

BSG Episode 11 EW Review - Good little write up regarding the Friday episode which kicked off the last of Battlestar Galactica. Spoilers Ahoy, so if you’ve not seen it I suggest you don’t click on that link.

Catch up with Battlestar Galactica - Good little summary of what’s happened on BSG for last 4 seasons, in preparation for the new episode which aired last night (downloading this as I type this).

BBC1’s Christmas Indent 2008 - Featuring Wallace and Gromit. Can’t wait for the actual episode that’s supposed to air this Christmas day.

No Caprica on the horizon, maybe - Why oh why did the frakkin' Sci Fi channel have to get a hold of the BSG universe. A more respectable network like HBO would have aired and promoted this show correctly.

Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb off Heroes - Seems like a bit of a radical knee-jerk reaction. When Lost was in trouble they recruited a comic book writer not got rid of a couple (especially considering the subject matter).

If you’re in the UK (and maybe you’ve heard from on far) the ongoing ‘saga’ of the ‘terrible’ affair regarding Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’s messages left on Andrew Sachs' answering machine. Here’s the full transcript in case you wanted to have a quick read.

It’s gotten so ridiculous, that the BBC suspended Ross and Brand over the whole event, which obviously led to Brand’s resignation. From my pov, this has definitely been blown completely out of proportion.

Fair enough when there is some serious foul play (money or flat out defamation and lies) but this was obviously a joke, a bad one, but still a joke. Have we really gone so back that it’s not possible to say anything without fearing hurting anyone and everyone’s sensibility? Comedy is always at it’s best when it’s left to push slightly far. I’m not saying in this fashion but slap down the highest paid presenter in BBC history sends a clear message for everyone else, which basically means sugar coat everything and feed everyone non-offensive shit.

EW on what’s wrong with Heroes - You’d think I would love a show like Heroes right? I only watch it because more superior shows are over (The Wire, Sopranos) or not on the net (Battlestar Galactica, Lost). Heroes has always had hammy acting and generally lamish storylines; they’ve just gotten even worse. But this is no where near the fall from grace that ‘Prison Break’ has endured this season. I think I’m going to start watching movies again.

Battlestar Galactica season 5 to begin airing on the 16th of January - 11 hours in total of BSG goodness, with a reported 3 (or more) hour finale?? So many levels of awesome.

Fair warning - Spoilers abound young ones, spoilers abound.

So I watched the first two episodes of Prison Break last night. With the exception of a few brief moments of brilliance (mainly from Alex Mahone, who continues to be the coolest character of the series) this show has taken the single biggest plunge into ridiculous territory I have EVER seen. After the exceptional first season and the great second series (which remained good until the very last episode), we get the A-Team, minus BA Baracus and the most ridiculous hurried endings to ongoing plot threads I have ever seen. The term lazy writing doesn’t even do what I’m thinking justice because they really showed how much they’ve hacked this concept to bits.

First of all removing all of Michael’s tattoos is a complete joke. Seriously. Not that the tattoos had anything to contribute in the last season, but still it’s such a crock of shit that he got all of those tattoos removed overnight. If only it were that easy.

And then of course there is the whole Sarah is not dead issue. See we had made our peace with the character moving on. No instead they’ve brought her back because her scheduling issues have been sorted out. WTF man? I take solace in the fact that Michael is no longer whispers when he talks…speaking of Whistler, that was quick. I mean seriously he lasted what 2 minutes into the fourth season? His whole international man of mystery routine was far too token.

Sona burnt down? I mean of all the lazy, stupid fucking idiotic plot turns this one really takes the cake. You spend a year watching them trying to break out and the conveniently it burns down and all the inmates escape unscathed and back in the States. You can’t see me now, but I’m rolling my eyes.

And then there was one. T-bag. Easily the character that is going to really have a massive face off with Michael by the end of the season, something tells me that he will come out on top. That or Alex will give himself up (since they killed his family) to take down T-bag. This then lets that idiot Link forgive him or some such rubbish. Hell I’m only watching this now because I enjoyed the first 2 seasons so much. That’s where they should have ended it. Damn you Paul Scheuring, you sold out man. You could have had something great, but instead you extended it into mediocrity.

Continuing my mini reviews for the last Battlestar Galactica season, I

Frakking toasters by Jeanette Atwood is in many ways the best commentary on Battlestar Galactica I’ve ever read (the fact it’s a comic is just icing on the cake for me). Shame there is no RSS link. C’mon Jeanette, sort it out.

For the last Battlestar Galactica season, I’ll be reviewing each episode from this 3rd episode, ‘The ties that Bind’. So if you’ve not seen the episode yet, I suggest you stop reading and come back once you’ve done so. I guess you can consider this your SPOILER WARNING (that’s for the entire post in case you were wondering).

Plot Threads

So Kaylee was the centre of this particular episode and the fact that she found out that her husband, Colenl Tai and Tory are all Cylons and obviously her obvious murder once that toaster kills her after she’s taken the child from her.

It’s a shame that this character died in this fashion, but I guess finally we’re dealing with some proper ramifications in this season. It’s been a pretty slow burner as the first two episodes have been pretty mediocre as far as I’m concerned. Definitely did not provide the correct level of punch that you would expect from a final season. There’s no time for them to frak around with silly exposition. Each episode has to be complete dynamite, seeing as they only have 22 episodes (19 now) to wrap the entire story and tie up all the loose ends…after a fashion of course. I’m sure they’ll leave some questions for the audience to decide for themselves, but my hope is that the major elements are discussed and explained.

Meanwhile, Kera is commanding a ship through space trying to find Earth, while fucking off everyone around and acting like more of a bitch than she normally can be. obviously she’s changed and it’s going to be interesting to see what exactly happened in the 2 months that Kera was away and why she’s acting the way she’s acting, completely spaced out. Is she the last Cylon?

Then you’ve got the Lee Adama thread. obviously they’ve put him in this position seeing as his and kera’s love thing is all but over, and she’s got her mission and Anders has his, he can now do his thing and screw around with Rosaline’s administration and play politician. Out of all the characters on this show, I guess Lee has had the most change than any other character on the show. He’s had the most friends become enemies, enemies become friend type scenarios than anyone else and they’re poised to continue that fine tradition throughout this series as well. Do you get the feeling that he’s hoping to take over as President once Rosaline kicks the bucket?

As if that’s not enough plot threads, you’ve then got the crazy civil war that’s going on with the Cylons. So half want them to get the Diana’s up and running again and the other half want to neuter everyone apart from a specific number of models. I’m not sure where this is going to be honest.

CGI Cylons One thing that i definitely noticed and wish they go back and sort out for the rest of the seasons, is the new look of the kick ass Cylons. The whole chromed goodness is pretty awesome as far as I’m concerned. I used to think that this was one of the weakest aspects of the actual CGI work that BSG elevated but they’ve really brought their game up for this one.

Overall I liked this episode a lot more than the other 2 episodes, however they’re still not giving enough information as I’d like and not progressing certain elements of the story as much as you would hope them to, however looking at the trailer for the next episode, they do seem to be kicking things up to the next gear. Here’s hoping.

Battlestar Galactica season 4 trailer is online. It seems it’s an old one, but i really like what they’ve done with the shadows coming in and out. The good news is that at least it’s coming in March, as originally I thought Sci-fi was going to try and put it out in April. Is there any news as to how far into everything the team is in the development of the series? ie will we be expect some more waiting in between episodes or are they going to show the whole thing in one chunk (yeah I know wishful thinking and all that).

New Sony Bravia advert. Unlike the last couple of times this one has got bunnies and plastesine. I’ve got to say, it only gets really good and actually worthy of the legacy of the previous two adverts towards the end, so be sure to watch it all the way through.

Moore on season 4 of Battlestar Galactica. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. This was a panel that was discussed at San Diego, although none of the major comic book websites mentioned anything about it. There are some interesting little nuggets, like the fifth Cylon to be revealed towards the end of the series and the fact that D’Anna (Lucy Lawless’s character) is coming back as well for a few episodes. Also they mention Lampkin coming back which would be brilliant as he was the standup character to get noticed in the Season 3 finale.

That’s MUCH better. After the complete and utter BOREDOM that was the Monaco grand prix, the Canadian Grand Prix delivered in spades. I seriously enjoyed this race for more than one reason. I’m a bit disappointed for Nico Rosberg, whom I think is an exceptional little driver and seriously one of the future stars of Formula One. He had it there to be much higher up there, but alas if Mclaren can get it wrong for Alonso, I think I can accept that the Williams team fucked it up for him and caused him to get a 10second stop go penalty.

However good on Wurz for coming out of friggin NOWHERE and claiming third. The guy was 20th on the bloody grid. That is a superb drive all around, no matter how fortunate you get with the safety cars etc. Speaking of safety cars, 4 of them. There was more crashes in this race then I can care to remember. Some of them were seriously lame, others like Robert Kubica’s unbelievable take off into the walls was pretty scary. Crashes on the race track are only acceptable (it’s part of racing at 320km/hr) when the guy in the cockpit gets out shakes the dust off and gets onto a motorcycle back to the paddock. Good to hear that the man got off pretty lightly with just a broken leg. Ralf never really recovered from the crash in America a few years ago.

Tomorrow however you know that all the news will be on Lewis Hamilton’s maiden victory. It’s amazing if you think about it since he’s only driven 6 F1 races in his life, so rather than wait 100 races or whatever he’s had it in the first 6. That’s pretty amazing and probably going to raise all expectations that he could be a world champion this year. The thing is and I know it’s not his fault, but I’m REALLY starting to get pissed off at the ITV coverage. They’ll spend something like 30 minutes before the race concentrating on Lewis and asking the drivers and everyone about him rather than concentrating on other aspects of the sport and other drivers. It’s really over hyping and it’s just getting annoying. Yes he’s having an exceptional debut, yes the story leading up to him getting the drive is great, but honestly how many bloody times do I have to hear it again and again.

Major SPOILERS abound in this post, so move on if you've not watched this yet.

I didn’t realise what the deal was with the season finale and I only watched the first half, thinking that was it. As I found out, the season finale is actually 2 episodes long, ooops. So here are my quick thoughts on the season in general and these final episodes:

1. Charlie - It's weird but I started liking this character towards the end. Originally I couldn't really connect with the character in any way but he's evolved into someone that has developed friendships with both Hurley, Jin and Desmond, while at the same time sorted out his love for Claire and even came clean about his involvement in Sun's abduction.

2. Mikhail - Why won't this fucker stay dead for the love of god. There has got to be something going on here which is just really annoying. Nothing seems to work on this psycho. I really thought he was going to actually do something about not following Ben blindly but the idiot goes and kills the other women.

3. Ben - Loved the scene were Jack pummels Ben. That was brilliant. Get that bloody smirk of his face, the little shit. Of course the half assed dialogue between Ben and Jack doesn't really help. I mean if it's really the end of everything and it requires Ben to go there in person to try to stop them, then why the hell won't Ben just tell him the full implication of what is actually going on here and maybe Jack won't run into things blindly, instead of blackmailing him? What's he trying to prove? Of course if any of us were in Jack's place we'd probably do the same thing, trying to get everyone off the island.

4. Lock - What a dick. I'm sorry but what's the deal with this guy. He won't kill his father, but will get Sawyer to do it, but he'll kill some woman he has no idea who she is by throwing a knife in her back. So he's already overstepped every possible boundary he could but he won't go forward and do the same to Jack? What he decided to learn restraint right at the end? What the hell's that about? Where the hell is Walt? And what the hell is he doing back on the island? How the hell is Lock back on his feet? Is he got the same healing powers as friggin Mikhail?

5. Jack and Kate - Ok the flash forward. That was very cool indeed. It was a great build up which basically answered a bunch of questions and then gave us a whole slew of new questions. So we know that they eventually make it off the island. Jack cannot come to terms with it and has completely broken down even though he's completely the one that will probably do it.

   We don't know who's in the casket. Is it Ben? It would make sense since nobody came to see him at the funeral. He doesn't have anybody there that know him anyway. We don't know who Kate has to get back to before they find out she's away. Is it Sawyer?

So I’m talking to Fern yesterday on Facebook, and when I say talking I actually mean ‘Wall-ing’ her (yeah it’s not the technical term for it but alas it sounds funnier). Anyway, so she’s dissing 300 and calling it gay porn or some such rubbish, so we started talking movies. I asked her whether or not she was excited for the new Chinese flick that’s getting prepped for release in the UK this weekend, Curse of the Golden Flower. Her response, I’m quoting here:

It's one of those Chinese films for foreigners. The trailer didn't even have any words! Even if it features Jay Chow.

See the thing is I’ve heard this kind of response nearly EVERY time I’ve asked someone Chinese about a Chinese movies that makes it into Western theatres. For most people the Chinese outbreak came with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee a few years ago. I was raised on a staple diet of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies. So much so that my parents have had to watch Drunken Master 1 & 2 several times over with me because I kept renting it from the video store again and again, mainly because I’d seen all the ones in the store and because I loved the interaction with his Master when he was training him. I also loved the food scenes, where you know he’s going to eat the entire house, then get drunk, then not have any money to pay then have a big massive fight. To be fair though I’d not really experienced the full extent of Asian cinema, not by a long shot.

So today I decided to goad Irene into telling me what the deal was with the dislike of Chinese people to exported certain exported Chinese films. So she gave me the standard foreigners line, followed by a curve ball (I’m not actually quoting Irene here but work with me people I’m getting to my point):

It's nothing we haven't seen before, since the 1950s. In fact some of the better stuff weren't movies but TV series.

That’s fucking interesting. Where the hell are they? What are they called? What’s the deal? Name them. Of course they’ve all got Chinese names. C’mon guys it’s not my fault I’m not Chinese, I’ve come to accept that you’ll never hand me the Chinese menu at the restaurant (you know the one with all the authentic good stuff), why are you being stingy with your bloody cinema and tv programmes?

So I’m asking everyone that knows of any good Chinese series (preferably set in the Emperor Chinese era) that are actually ‘good’ and not for foreigners (but with subtitles) for me to get into. After all Battlestar Galactica won’t be back for like at least 6 months, Prison Break won’t be back for a similar amount of time and Lost can only keep my attention for like 45 minutes a week.

Ok if in case you didn’t read the title of this post, it has the word spoiler in it for a reason, not interested in finding out what has happened on the end of the third season then pretty please with a cherry on top go somewhere else and you don’t ever need to blame me for ruining anything for you. Good everyone else here?

Watched it yesterday and I’ve got to say I was pretty damn excited about this episode. I got back home at a normal time and went straight to downloading the episode. All the while I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The big massive revelation; who is the Cylon, who is the Cylon. I don’t get one I get 4 of them, definitely didn’t see that one coming, especially Saul as one that’s come out of NOWHERE. I’m sure they’ve thought this one through, but seriously how the hell does that actually work? He’s like over 50 years old and that’s how old the Cylons are right? At least that’s what we were originally led to believe.

So I did a bit of researching. Ron Moore’s podcast isn’t up on the scifi channel yet however if you look around you’ll be able to find a couple of interviews scattered around the place where he talks about things.

The biggest twist of couse was definitely Starbuck’s appearance at the end of the show. I honestly didn’t expect that. I’ve got to say that while listening to Ron’s commentary regarding the reasons to kill off Starbuck never rang true with me. It seemed as though it was all about the AUDACITY of it all, which felt a little bit on the weak side. It’s nice to see how they’ve pulled one of the best cons in recent television history. ‘Kill off a character’, have actress in on it as well so all her interviews point that she’s going to be moving on, don’t insert her name in the credits of the actual episode and then have her come back right at the end. Of course there are a lot of unanswered questions but it’s definitely one of the better endings on the show which always has pretty spectacular cliffhanger season endings.

Also I really loved ‘All along the Watchtower’ cover by Bear McCreary and his brother, definitely will be getting that once it’s available from somewhere.

Battlestar Galactica season 4 official press release! It’s about Frakking time they made this official. After last month’s story on cbr that they were thinking about cancelling the series this is good news. Notice the rubbish about it being renewed for at least 13hours though. What’s that all about? Those assholes got it wrong the first time when the first series aired in the UK for the first time because they thought it wasn’t going to do well in America.

Anna kept telling me to watch this series again and again. I do actually remember the TV spots for this series, which preceded the actual series being broadcast over here in the UK. I remember really thinking the idea was very intriguing however as you can imagine I completely missed it, since I’m honestly not very good at keeping to a schedule brought about by the TV box. It’s funny but I’ve watched more TV in the past couple of months than in the last few years, mainly because I can download and watch whenever I actually choose to watch them.

Anyway back to Prison Break; without a doubt one of the smartest and most gripping TV series ever made. I know bold statements but this is a very very different kettle of fish to all other great TV series of the past year or so (we’re talking Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Heroes, My Name is Earl etc). What makes this series so damn special? I guess part of the success in my eyes is it’s incredibly tight plotting.

The story centre around Michael Scofield (fantastic name, best one after McGyver) who orchestrates him being admitted into prison so that he can save his brother who’s on death row. Already the story resonates with me because it’s taken the prison story and flipped it in a direction I’m not used to. We’ve seen several ‘prison break’ type movies in the past (led of course by the exceptional Shawshank Redemption) but not exactly like this.

See Michael’s had a while to prepare for this. He’s put contingency after contingency after contingency. The really amazing thing is of course that absolutely EVERYTHING he’s planned gets a spanner in it at the end of every episode. The cliffhanger endings are pretty amazing and the tension is exceptionally well produced. There are several exceptional twists within the story and I think I counted one scheme where the acting was terrible (but that was from a supporting actor rather than the main cast).

Which leads me to the actors themselves. All the cast is exceptionally well chosen for their roles which is weird as I’ve not really seen (or can remember) seeing them in anything prior to this.

I love that the warden is actually a good guy. I think there was only a single moment in the entire first season where I thought he was a building up to being a bastard and I guess that’s another definite asset of this series, not following with specific stereotypes that I’ve become used to. Obviously the fact that the guy’s an engineer resonates with me a little bit (ok a lot) and it’s great to see how he gets himself out of one bad situation after another.

Ultimately however this series is about what one brother will do for the other one. The answer is a lot and those who have brothers understand this pretty well. Growing up you might want to kill each other or were constantly bickering about stuff, but ultimately after everything you knew that you couldn’t stay mad with each other for more than like 10 minutes. What impresses me the most about the story is when you finally are told the WHY. Why would Michael risk EVERYTHING he had, put himself through hell, enter prison to save his brother. Apart from the fact that it’s his brother, what would possess him to take matters in his own hands like this. The answer is basically the core reality of what brotherhood is all about. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone because I really loved the explanation and I think you’ll feel the same way.

I’ve been meaning to talk about the latest season of Battlestar Galactica since it began airing 3 weeks ago now. For all those who don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and read (which reminds me I really should go back to my old posts and format them accordingly, how embarrassing). Without a shadow of a doubt the great TV show that is currently on the air. Groundbreaking in many ways and essentially just a damn good story.

Matt beat me to the punch with his review on the latest Battlestar Galactica episode (season 3, episode 4) Exodus Part 2, but it most definitely was a complete rocket (no pun intended). As of right now I’m going to get into details so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a cherry on top, go somewhere else because I’m going to be throwing SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.

So what did I like about this episode? So many great moments to think about. I absolutely loved the scene with the Galactica jumping into the atmosphere and launching the Raptors; classic scene, the flames the idea itself and a flawless execution.

Gaeta is a great little character. If there was one person that I think would be me on that show it would be Gaeta, except I would have definitely pulled that god damn trigger. In any case I’m still holding that Baltar is a fraking Cylon, based on the completely dodgy way in which he escaped his ‘death’ in the pilot. Everything blows up and he’s hiding behind Number 6’s skinny (and incredibly lovely legs). Bollocks the man is a Cylon.

The scenes with Tigh and Ellen were brilliant. I think Saul is a complete fuck up however he’s been put in a pretty bad position time and time again. Most people would have cracked under the pressure. He kind of has, however at the same time he keeps fighting, even though he probably wishes he would die. Listening to Ellen give her final goodbye was just great. Here you had a woman that obviously would do anything for you, and has had to. This is war and in war you do ugly, terrible things, in order to survive. I don’t think Ellen was evil, more like completely stupid and misguided, but she loved her husband, after a fashion.

The Pegasus coming to the rescue was completely predictable and I was wondering when they were going to get rid of that ship. There can be only one Battlestar, although Bill’s now back to being a Commander rather than an Admiral, which is a shame, I really liked that growth of character.

Speaking of growth in character, that is actually one of the most important aspects of this little jump the writers have put into this particular season. All these character are now even more fucked up and damaged than what they were before the invasion. Now the inter-relationship politics are even more intense, however we have no idea what caused this rift. What happened in that one year. I guess we can expect to find many of these questions answered in the coming weeks. I’m going to try and do this analysis on a regular basis.

Also for some reason, listening to the podcasts, while I do like the fact that the team is actually doing these, some of the magic is actually taken away from the show by them talking about their practical consideration, room and the cost of an episode. I dunno, I guess the show really does suspend my disbelief that I don’t want anything to bring it back.

Democrcy Internet TV Platform - in all it’s open sourcy goodness. Just in time for the new Battlestar Galactica series (how the hell did so many months go by since season 2 ended, it really does seem like an eternity), the new My Name is Earl series and the new Lost series (still need to finish watching the rest of Season 2).

The first season of easily one of the funniest and best series on TV in a good long while came to an end this week. Thankfully it has been renewed for a full second season, so there’s more Earl to come, which is brilliant news.

If you’re not sure what the hell I’m talking about, grab a seat and let’s talk Jason Lee. Without a doubt the greatest asset to all of Kevin Smith’s movies was bringing Jason Lee’s awesome talent to the screen. Easily one of my favourite actors; I generally don’t follow actors as it’s very hit and miss with the kind of roles they choose and the movies they participate in. Jason Lee however is golden in all the appearances he’s ever made (Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Dogma, Almost Famous), so I was very excited about his own TV series.

What’s great about this series is the quality of everyone involved. Even though Earl is a great character, the supporting cast around him make his role that much simpler. Without a doubt my favourite character is Crabman. I want a friend like Crabman. Always looking out for you and has a soft spot for cheese. His brother Randy is easily Ethan Suplee’s best role to date. He’s not had many that I can remember to be honest, but he plays the hapless brother in an extremely great way.

My only complaint would be that the show didn’t really give Catalina a great deal of time; we saw Joy a lot more, which isn’t a bad thing, but I would have much preferred some more airtime for Catalina. If you’ve not given this series a shot, definitely watch it because it’s one of the few feel good shows on the tube right now. It’s easy light watching, that will completely take you away for 20 minutes. It’s not meant to be the smartest series ever made and there are times when it does fall flat, but when it’s on fire, nothing can beat it.

Can’t believe I missed this, but Andreas Katsulas has passed away. For all those scratching their heads going:

Who?

Andreas was effectively the best thing on Bablyon 5 after the writing by JMS. If anyone every complained about Babylon 5’s hammy acting, I could always point in Andreas' direction and all those comments would evaporate because the man was a pro. Especially bearing in mind he wore so much latex on his face and yet could deliver more emotion than anyone else in the entire show.

I actually got upset when I read about it this afternoon since that means there won’t be any more G’Kar moments. Not that I was holding my breathe but he has come back to reprise his role several times. However my philosphy in life is not to be sad about the loss of a human being, but rather celebrate what they did during life. As such I’ll be reviewing Babylon 5 very soon and why (until Battlestar Galactica) was the best sci-fi series ever made.

In many many ways, it was elevated due to this man, Andreas Katsulas. RIP.

Not really what I was hoping to hear, but the Firefly Season 2 news that has been making the rounds, doesn’t seem to be anything but a lot of hot air and one fan’s dream. It’s nice that he likes it so much and stranger things have happened but I doubt we’re likely to see another Firefly series which is a crying shame. If you’re more interested in new Serenity stories head over to Splash Panel as I’ve just done a review for the gap between Firefly season 1 and the Serenity movie.

Just to be perfectly clear, this post probably has spoilers, or links to spoiler materials, so if you’ve not watched the first season, take it from me and go buy it then come back a week later and read the post.

Seeing as we don’t seem to agree on comic book movies (you are soo wrong), I thought it was weird that I effectively bought into the new Battlestar Galactica series based on his ‘recommendation’. I mean Mike’s a space geek (and proud of it), so he was bound to like it. When I saw the ads for it a while back on Sky I was intrigued, but unfortunately I don’t do TV, with the odd exception (Smallville, F1 and Lost). It’s not so much that I didn’t want to watch it on TV, it’s just that because I’m actually not programmed to wait for a program it slipped off my radar, and by the time I remembered it, it was like 3 episodes into the series, and I hate playing catchup.

So Michael’s recommendation and a small throwaway blurb in Wired and I was well up for this series. I started watching it something like 2 week ago, half way through the mini-series, Sylvane comes in and see the pyrotechnics and decides to stick around and see what’s going on.

For the next week we’d watch a couple of episodes a day, that’s how addicted we got to the program.

Storyline

If you’re reading this because you’re still on the fence here’s a quick synopse of the first 10 minutes of the mini-series. There’s a lot more to it but this sets the scene for you, then go out and rent/buy whatever and watch the series:

The story centres around the 12 colonies. They exist somewhere in space, and they are very advanced humans. 40 years ago the man-made Cylons (read: robots) revolted against the humans, their masters. The war waged for a while (can’t remember how long) but a stalemate was reached, and the Cylons gathered themselves and left. A space station was made to act as a port where Humans and Cylons can talk things over. Every year the Humans send a representatives, every year the Cylons send no one…until now.

What follows is an intricate plot through the complete extermination of the human race. I’ll leave it at that because I’ve said too much already.

Characters

Now I’m probably in the minority here, but I really love Gaius and his relationship in his head with Number 6 is great fun. Sylvane and Archie got really bored by these scenes and annoyed at the music in the background that would always play whenever these two decided to talk to each other. Can’t really say that it bothered me, since I was enjoying the dialogue that was being exchanged. The good Doctor also had the most memorable lines and scenes in the series… and not all of them were with Number 6 directly.

Obviously I love Commander Adama, lots' of presence on the screen and his face is just fucked up enough and wrinkly for you to believe that he’s been through war. His voice is just like the guys in the cinema trailers, you know the ones that have been smoking since they were 5 years old, so it’s this harsh voice. He shows a lot of inner anger and the role of a man with the world literally on his shoulder. The nice thing about this guy in direct comparison to say Sheridan in Babylon 5 is that he’s not the hero Commander, in that he gets into the fighter and tries to act like he’s 20 years old. He knows his place, and knows where he has to be and that he makes the decisions, while others execute; if they’re good soldiers they do as they’re told. Definitely adds a bit of realism to the whole situation.

Special FX

Just a little history, I’m not a Star Trek fan, I’ve seen my share of Generations, but just bored me to tears, and well the storyline was a bit too generic for my liking. I’m a Babylon 5 nut. I love the series to bits. Admittedly it does look a bit dated now that I’ve gotten into Battlestar Galactica, but B5 set the pace for all other television space operas; what being the first to use CGI properly, compared to the models that were used for all previous space operas.

So how are the fx in BG? Astounding is the word that comes to mind. It reminds me greatly of Robotech, in what they’ve done with the sheer amount of Cylon ships that are sent one after another. The missiles also have that trailing gas effect best seen in the Macross Plus series.

One thing that I wasn’t really impressed with, which makes Firefly that more special, is the fact that there is sounds in space. We all know in space no one can hear you laugh. Sound doesn’t travel, so that was a bit disappointing, at least because I got pretty excited about that. Also let’s not forget that while Babylon 5 actually explained how artificial gravity was created in space, these finer points in the BG universe are just glossed over as with most space operas.

Final Word