Leviathan is not only a bigger baddie, it's a savvier one.
"Supernatural" aired an episode called "Slash Fiction," which is a risky move, given what's (most likely) been done to the characters in various fanfics around the 'net. Still, it had some refreshing things in the guise of a nigh-unstoppable enemy that makes use of technology (without itself being of technology) and confident enough in its abilities to gladly tell all about its plans and activities, even to the point of yelling answers to questions it overhears a room away. Of note was the appearance of Kevin McNally, also known as "Pirates of the Caribbean" character Joshamee Gibbs (who could also play an older Patton Oswalt if that was ever needed). Then Michael "Col. Saul Tigh" Hogan showed up. I believe this episode was the first for a new writer, and they did well for their debut. I'm sure having to review previous shows led to some pretty good self-referential humor from "Sam" and "Dean" along with the aforementioned Mr. McNally. I think they won't have officially run out of ways to go a bit meta in the scripts until it turns out the Leviathan is actually "Q" and played by John DeLancie. Anyway, a lot of setup for the future in this episode, including what I'm sure is going to see Crowley return as an uncomfortable ally. The "next episode" kind of lessens the dramatics in this episode's final scene, but it's not unexpected.
Last week saw the return of Mike Judge's MTV hit, "Beavis & Butthead." I saw B&B from the beginning, when they were part of various animation collections, seen (before YouTube) on late-night cable TV, college auditoriums, or indie film festivals. Judge had them as part of his "Inbred Jed's Homemade Cartoons" series, and they were pretty offensive (at least to frogs. Don't click if frog cruelty and sudden demise, even in animated form, causes consternation). As I remember, the criticism for the show (other than not liking it, and it's not everyone's cup of tea) was mostly centered around others imitating the idiotic things the characters did. While I agree there are some people out there who would, indeed, find that a fun way to spend an afternoon, I'd say that the show was far more responsible than other animated fare. I say that because unlike other shows where a dumb person does dumb things for comedic purposes, B&B usually were punished by their own actions in the end, often painfully (in this case, with Hepatitis-C). While I enjoyed the Simpsons and other similar shows, I often felt the dumb guys were let off the hook too easily. The show itself pretty much picks up where it left off, opening titles and all. I think there were a few computer-drawn backgrounds, but otherwise I think everything from the original made the transition. I will miss Judge's "King of the Hill" humor, as his protagonists don't get a lot of time to wax philosophical about things. Still, having B&B making fun of "Jersey Shore" probably came closer to creating a planet-devouring black hole than the LHC could ever hope to do. Given how good the ratings were for their return, maybe MTV will let Judge make a few more movies. I could stand another "Idiocracy" or two.
The third book in "The Strain" is (thus far, about halfway through) equal parts horror-adventure and nerdnalysis of the vampires and what their social order would be like running the world. One thing I would have done differently was to shift a few paragraphs about a character's mother back one or two books. Nora, a doctor and part of a love triangle (square, really, but one of those points isn't a reciprocal romance), is saddled with her elderly mother who has late-stage Alzheimer's disease. In a world where stealth and guile are needed to survive, having someone who blurts and yells at people is hardly someone you'd want along. I came to resent the mother character, because she was doing nothing but being an obvious and unsympathetic obstacle to our heroes and their progress. All I needed to accept her as part of the group finally came in book three. It's not a spoiler, just needed detail. It's not until she's finally messed things up royally that we learn about her relationship with her daughter beyond the biological. It's nice to finally have it, but given all the internal monologues the daughter has had, I'm wondering why her history was so long in coming. It would have made her plight more sympathetic and tense if we'd known why Nora was willing to risk toting a demented relative with no hope of recovery through dangerous territory.
Sometimes you run across something that finally answers a nagging question. By way of Reddit comes a story about a guy who says he's the last master of the Indian martial art, Shasta-Vidya, and he wants to pass on his know-how. What struck me, though, was the sword in the photo. While I didn't find anything under the name they used, I did find it going by the name, "Talwar." It turns out I've had one in my closet for years and didn't know what it was. Mine looks nowhere nearly as ornate as the ones in the photos, and I found it in an antique/junk store here in KC for about thirty bucks back in my "swords would look cool on my walls" phase. It looks kind of used (not in a "slew many enemies" way but a "driven over a gravel road with lots of bumps" way), and while it's not sharp, it was either made sharper than most ornamental swords these days or someone sharpened it at some point. Anyway, the grip was way too small for my meaty fists, the large pommel wouldn't let it fit in an el-cheapo sword hanger I bought, so it eventually wound up in storage until today, when it allowed me to bore everyone to tears with it. So... a worthwhile purchase, I suppose. :)
Some quick game items: Postal 3 will come out in December, and will most likely manage to be as offensive as previous installments (if you don't know about Postal 1 or 2, I'd probably avoid googling at work). There's no Gary Coleman, of course, but they got Uwe Boll (who directed a movie based on the game, which I didn't subject myself to). It'll be released on Steam, so I'll be interested to see how many achievements based around visiting violence upon ol' Uwe will be present. A more wholesome (kind of) game, "Portal 2," will soon have a pretty easy-to-use interface for making custom levels (at least, it looks easy). If they could just make something like that for the "Fallout" games, I'd... never do anything else but make mods, especially out of the classic "Gamma World" modules. I'd need some good mutant chicken models for "Famine at Far-Go," which could be a fowl task...
And if you think that was bad, how about hearing the news that the George R.R. Martin edited anthology "Wild Cards" is set to made into a film, followed by reading the studio attached: SyFy Films. Oy. Okay, so they're partnered with Universal, according to their website, and they say they want to produce one or two films a year with budgets of $5 to $25 million. For a movie where most of the principal cast are mutants, mutants with superpowers, or superheroes, that's kind of a small budget, assuming they take the franchise along that route. George might want to send over one of the many heads from "Game of Thrones" to remind them what his fans expect. :)
I hope everyone out there has a safe Trick or Treating tomorrow night. We'll probably take Josh around to a few neighborhood houses before settling in for some movies and popcorn. At age two, he makes a very cute rock star (tie-dye shirt, jeans, toy guitar, hair-spray mohawk), though he gets pretty tired of lugging even a thin plastic toy instrument around on his back. I'm sure that'll change once the costume + any discomfort = sugar equation clicks into place. He seems awfully into sports (able to identify each kind on TV) rather than all the weird stuff Daddy is into, but maybe there's room for compromise?
And with that, we're off to scarier things:
- So the cast and crew of David Tennant's final season of "Doctor Who" lip-synced to "500 Miles" by The Pretenders Proclaimers. Be sure not to miss the groovy Ood.
- Continuing Doctor Who-related amusements, here's an amusing short about why Sonic Screwdrivers are banned from action movies.
- I probably posted this before, but I like Simon Pegg's take on why slow zombies are a metaphor for death. Granted, other monsters have a lot of death involved with them as well, but it's Simon Pegg, and he was awesome back in 2008, too.
- There has to be at least one game appropriate to October 31st, so here's Terrific Halloween. It's a "click the difference" game, and a fairly challenging one (and I didn't even get to try the "hard" version yet).
- Using SCIENCE! to "carve" a pumpkin is fun!
- It's been a while since I've played "Magic: The Gathering," so I'm not sure if this is part of a new expansion or not.
- I'm not just posting this animated short because comedian Bill Bailey lends his voice to it (bit of a language warning): Pythagasaurus is also educational.
- Matt Owen does some amazing minimalist and iconic movie (and other stuff) posters.
- At just about every convention with water coolers, this should be come a thing.
- If you've ever wanted to ride behind a steam boiler, an inventor is working on the bike of your dreams.
- Algorithms similar to those in Google Translate were used to crack a centuries-old cypher from 18th century Germany. The article contains a link to the translated text.
- Much like a lot of things I thought I was good at in life, it turns out my Lego skills are sadly lacking.
- Just a reminder not to leave plastic bags out where your cat can find them, and not just for the safety of your cat...
- We all need a little more mad science in our lives, so here's Absorbtion, a game where you can dematerialize and rematerialize objects (and creatures) in an attempt to solve each puzzling room and get to the exit.