Horror aplenty on TV, now and in the future...
/Film has a trailer and clips from an upcoming ABC show called 'The River,' directed by 'Paranormal Activity' creator Oren Peli. It looks pretty good and uses the 'found footage' method of telling a scary story, which I think will work better on TV. At least, it won't be on a screen a mile high giving me motion sickness like 'The Blair Witch Project.' :) It's part of what seems to be a kind of golden age for TV horror, and I think that's because it's the only thing allowed for adult viewing in prime time on network TV. We've got restrictions (both from the FCC and implied by fear of advertisers getting jittery) on sex, language, violence, etc. with or without context, but showing someone getting their innards wrecked by a Shoggoth is considered as wholesome as massacring human-acting robots by the score with a light saber. I'm not knocking the scary television movement, as I've always been a fan of shows like 'The Outer Limits,' 'The Twilight Zone' (except for the most recent version), and 'Supernatural,' which have figured out what the censors haven't: There are some things that can just be implied that are a lot more disturbing (not that it's a bad thing) than a hundred f-bombs in a row. In a way, it's like avoiding the FCC the same way designer drugs avoid the DEA (at least for a while) by altering a few atoms of an illicit substance to make it legal. If the censors say you can't show a man bludgeoning someone to death, just substitute something that doesn't exist in reality for 'man,' and you're good to go. :)
Keeping with horror, the last episode of Doctor Who had a tough act to follow (an episode written by Neil Gaiman), and while it somewhat lacked in the whimsey department, it tried to make up for that in the scary monster department. It was also the most recent episode that put me in mind of classic Doctor Who: We had a facility that did something dangerous (in this case, pumping acid) for no apparent reason (who is it for and where is it coming from?) with a futuristic solution to minimize deaths among the workers which naturally gives rise to an ethical dilemma that quickly turns hostile. Like classic Who, the TARDIS becomes inaccessible, which is the equivalent of Captain Kirk being deprived of his communicator. In the new series, things happen so quickly that the show rarely has the time to lose the TARDIS, so to actually have it taken out of the picture for a time was kind of nostalgic. Anyway, the ambiguity over the goodness or evilness of the monster was pretty rushed, unless the Doctor has some bit of history about it he's yet to reveal. And this is also another opportunity (the second possible one, I think) this season where something could pose as the doctor or potentially look like him, which would give the writers an easy out for a supposed final event seen in episode one. Just sayin'...
And 'Supernatural' closed out this season on a strong idea for the next one: An angel, and a former ally, has proclaimed himself God 2.0. The show's mythology about how souls work and why some entities want them seems to point to an inevitable conclusion: the afterlife follows the 'Highlander' model, as there can be only one and the more essences you have, the bigger and badder you are. Souls are described as 'nuclear reactors,' and whoever has (absorbs? contains?) the most gets to be the Super Sayan who can cause their enemies to explode in a bloody mess. Castiel, angel-cum-supremeo dios, is set to become a mixture of the old adage about absolute power combined with good intentions and a dash of zero tolerance. Crowley is still on the lose, so we'll likely see him again. There's also the disturbing possibility that if souls = angel fuel then souls could be consumed by whatever is using them, which is a bit of depressing prospect (there's a place in the comic book 'Planetary' where you can go if you don't want your immortal self being used as otherworldly unleaded). We'll also have to wait and see if the nature of a being's soul-gas is reflected in their nature, as Cas is running on monster souls. While I didn't like the start of the season, the payoff is a more interesting setup for another go-round than I thought we'd get.
Hey, back to the Whoniverse for an honest-to-Rasilon trailer-preview thing for the next Torchwood series, 'Miracle Day.' They might have heightened the slam-bang-kerpow for those unfamiliar with the show (nothing draws a crowd like fire), and I have to say I'd never have expected to see Gwen with a missile launcher. I think I'm going to miss Cardiff, though. Maybe there's an abandoned Torchwood facility in the U.S. that Jack can revive (which would be kind of fun in our security-obsessed age), as I'd hate to see him going begging to whatever the nearest CIA/NSA/FBI building has to offer. Still, this beats another world-shaped bomb with a voiceover promo, so I'll be glad for what we got.
As for my 'real life,' not much beyond work, keeping the boy from finding new uses for dirty laundry (hat, telephone, bullwhip, interior decorating), and trying to keep the house from falling apart while the wife slaves over the last week of school before summer. I think a lot of those who want to cut salaries for educators ought to be forced to live with one for a year, and at the end of every week they have to recount to the teacher, in a locked, soundproofed room, why they think they deserve a pay cut. Assuming they survive (especially around May), we'll see if their vote changes. So in conclusion, here's a 45 million-year-old spider encased in amber. Toss a little radiation on that, send it to Isla Nublar for a weekend, then allow it to be accessed by a teenager or two, and we've got ourselves a new superhero, I think. Before I come up with any more bright ideas, I'll just give you these:
- By popular demand (and me realizing it wasn't online anymore for some reason) here's the ps238 Application for Minionhood used by Zodon and Victor.
- I may have found a salve for my bruised Minecraft building skills: Extremely mundane places rendered in Minecraft.
- As one who still ties my shoes (as my wife puts it) "like a three-year old," here's a video about tying your shoes correctly. It's from those TED talks, so it's definitely educational.
- Just in case you ever damage the lens on your digital camera, it's amazing how much abuse the resulting images can cope with.
- This is one of those "could be used for James Bond stuff, but probably will be put to more nefarious use" gadgets: A cellular listening device that requires only an active SIM card to work. Just dial it up and listen to whatever it hears.
- The days of the cute platform-game where jumping on things is how you deal with problems are not over as Dimension Diver shows. Bounce on enemies, don't plummet off the screen, and double-tap left or right to dash.
- The music may not be to everyone's taste, but I have to admire the amount of sci-fi-geek that went into the lyrics and visuals for Full Steam Space Machine. All those 50's flying saucer films weren't made in vain.
- NBC not only passed on the Wonder Woman TV series, they did so after they changed the costume yet again to the original swimsuit-shorts. The belt buckle looks really strange now, though.
- Some restaurant at one of the larger comic cons needs to print the Geek Zodiac for their placemats. Apparently, I'm a ninja. It explains why I sometimes feel unnoticed by those around me. :)
- Now this is the Green Lantern trailer that should have been released first: One that gives you a summary of the Green Lantern Corps and doesn't have any attempts at comic relief. It almost gives me hope (though not enough to be a Blue Lantern).
- Pixel Oven Mitts! Caution: Only use in preparing meals that serve 8... bits.
- Here's an impressive collection of minimalist film posters. I especially liked the one for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- An author/critic didn't care for the game, "The Conduit 2." The game's creative director decided to suggest other employees 'review' the critic's novel on Amazon. I played the first one, and for the Wii, it was okay, but (spoilers ahoy) the ending for Conduit 2 is pretty unexpected, even given its 'National Treasure'-style plot.
- I'd forgotten there was a CG film of 'Asterix' in the works, and here are some stills. Note to the ghouls who made 'Yogi Bear' and 'The Smurfs': These guys still look like their cartoon counterparts and aren't disturbing because their eyes don't look like they came out of a real person's head.
- I figure this makes sense, as a quick lunch break between Episodes IV and V.
- With the approval (and tears of laughter) from my wife, here's a clip where Craig Ferguson and his robot skeleton sidekick, Geoff crack themselves and everyone present up. With harmonica.
- I think this closing game will resonate with a lot of people here: Help the Hero is a game that should be familiar to anyone who has ever used one of those grid-based inventory systems. As the loyal hireling, you have to sort the loot as it goes by into the hero's inventory, rotating and combining to make as much fit as possible, then equip the hero each round so that he can survive a monster pummeling.