SyFy's 'Being Human' seems more like the X-Men to me, but still watchable...
I just caught "Being Human," or at least, the SyFy version. I also watched the UK first episode right before, for comparison. I have to say that the SyFy take on it is watchable, but it seems to be lacking something present in the original. The people in the UK version seem more realistic, less like hipster-actors (the music in the US version didn't help) playing mopey superheroes. Their normality made them seem more disturbing, and their monsterish tendencies seemed more like a curse, which is almost unheard of in current werewolf/vampire fiction. The US version plays more like a low-budget horror film by way of Scrubs. I was especially disappointed in the American ghost character; unlike the original version, this specter didn't seem terribly put out over being dead or showed the 'habits' that seemed to go with being a disembodied consciousness until later in the program. In the end, the American version goes for more of an action with smart-guy banter over a more dramatic tale, which isn't necessarily bad, but is something that seems all-too common.
Keeping on the subject of the supernatural, I recently blogged about "Red Harvest," the latest Star Wars horror novel. I began to think that if the audience is out there for nightmares a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there are other ideas they can use other than zombies. This first example is what started the wheels turning:
- Star Wars vs. Phantasm: Phantasm is a horror film series famous for its silver spheres that cause death to the protagonists like little flying Freddy Kruegers. It occurs to me that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for someone to do something similar with those little training balls if one wanted to weed out the up and coming Jedi ranks.
- Star Wars vs. Final Destination: This is a natural. The Force lets some Jedi see the future. What if one foresaw his own death and avoided it, and now the Force is out to "restore the balance"? S/he gets little foretellings about his friends, colleagues, and lots and lots of Gungans, trying to keep as many of them from dying (except for the Gungans, of course).
- Star Wars vs. Friday the 13th: Swap out the machettes for some ancient Sith light-sabers and it's a new franchise. There's even a mask that might remind some of a certain Dark Lord. Just take a Degobah-like Jedi training area, throw in that cave where a Sith Lord lived as a training tool, and have something happen that cranks the cave's evil up to 11.
- Star Wars vs. Saw: It's not like half the Star Wars planets aren't set up like industrial death traps already, but tossing in some actual moral decisions for Jedi (and other) characters that could turn them to the Dark Side to save people in the short term might be an interesting idea. Many Gungans can die in this series, too.
- Star Wars vs. The Ring: Make the video tape a 'holocron' and have the ghost-being be a force-sensitive who was offed for scaring her adoptive parents with creepy Dark Side force-powers. Then, whoever watches it gets a mysterious call on their comlinks: "Seven Parsecs."
- Star Wars vs. Cloverfield: Star Wars already has huge space-monsters, so surely there's one big enough to start devouring/depopulating whole planets. Make force-users especially tasty, and the tale can have the extra fun of the Sith and Jedi being driven off of just about every planet in the galaxy until the monster goes away.
- Star Wars vs. The Sixth Sense/The Others: Given that almost every Jedi master seems to have a presence after they're dead, it seems a natural fit to have one that doesn't realize they're deceased. The blue glow would normally be a giveaway, but since Anakin rejuvenated when he came back as a ghost, I'm betting the rulebook on the Jedi dead is pretty flexible.
Though perhaps the biggest scare could be waking up in front of your computer and finding out that one or more of these was now charged to your credit card. :)
Wizard Magazine has folded, which seems both a shame and an inevitability. A lot of what it offered has been filled by the internet (including the humor and cosplay photos), but there was just 'something' about the publication that made me at least thumb through every issue I came across. I guess they'll be concentrating on their convention franchise for the time being.
An image from the upcoming Thundercats reboot has made its way onto the internet. It looks like Lion-O cut down on the steroids and is younger, but there's something about Panthro: He reminds me of another character with that jaw and those muttonchops, but I can't place it, exactly. I'd say he looks almost like a Rankin-Bass character from one of the myriad Christmas specials they animated (which wouldn't be a stretch, since Rankin-Bass developed the original cartoon). Others have noted his resemblance to the anime character Jet Black.
Back to the scripting table for me. That new webcomic needs a month's worth of words to float past them what approves things, and I'm trying to decide if I've put too much plot in thus far. It's also really wordy (big surprise there), so I'm attempting to edit out the fat while keeping the (hopefully) amusing bits intact. I also wanted to lead off the linkdump with news of a Woot-Off, but it wooted off at the speed of light, with most items lasting for only minutes at a go. This cut down on one of the finer parts of a Woot-Off, the amusing complaints in the comment threads. :)
Ah, well, life goes on, and we start with some excellent news:
- Leonard Nimoy does answer prayers.
- Taco Bell is the target of a class-action suit over how much of its seasoned ground beef actually is beef. The non-beef items aren't gross (or at least, no more so than they were before), just not actual bits of cow. Appropriately enough, Holy Taco has a run-down of the ingredients.
- It's kind of a medieval undead version of the classic "Smash TV" with a few extra ways to kill off your foes: Soul Redeemer is a well-presented time and undead killer.
- If you didn't pick up the issue or just want to know, click this link to find out which member of the Fantastic Four died.
- The site is a bit of a popup-fest, but the nominations for the Razzie Awards have been posted.
- A quite good "Fallout" fan-film awaits you, so take a Nuka-Cola break.
- The Indian (or Tamil?) film, "Robot," (dubbed in Russian in this clip, but don't worry about it) shows us a true vision of awesomeness and crazy-go-nuts action concepts. Why yes, it does contain the Wilhelm Scream. :)
- J. Michael Straczynski has apparently done a spec script for Harlan Ellison's 'Repent, Harlequin' said the Ticktockman. I'm intrigued by the possibilities.
- If you must give a less-than-positive answer to someone who's romantically interested in you, this one's not bad.
- Smallville continues to get more of the DCU on screen than any show since "Justice League: Unlimited," adding Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle to its cast.
- I know I've posted photos of old Soviet ground-effect craft, but these are some of the best ones yet.
- The Bucket is a cute little game where you, a flying goldfish, have to gather fruit (like you do) while transporting your friend, a raccoon, in a bucket dangling below you. Perfectly normal premise.