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Jun. 19th, 2008
I, for one...
Jun. 19th, 2008 03:20 pmThose who have dutifully downloaded Firefox 3 will now type "about:robots" in the address bar.
That is all.
That is all.
Fighting evil, so you don't have to
Jun. 19th, 2008 05:30 pmMondays on ABC Family: The Middleman, based on a comic by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the Lost guys. This one actually was pitched as a television pilot years ago, but it was rejected, and Grillo-Marxuach turned it into a comic book. Now it's back as a television show, and it's good campy fun in the tradition of The Tick, Men in Black, and Buckaroo Banzai. The effects aren't spectacular, but it more than makes up for it in terms of surreality. The pilot is still available on the ABC Family website for those in the US or the usual back channel sources for those who aren't.
Basic premise: Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) is a seemingly ordinary young woman who finds herself recruited by the mysterious Middleman (Matt Keeslar), who receives his orders from a mysterious organization nicknamed OTS2K ("Organization Too Secret To Know"). Their job: to fight evil, so you don't have to. To this end they confront genetically enhanced lifeforms, mad scientists, cursed tubas and so on. Funny and fast paced with snappy dialogue, it's worth a look.
Trust me: quite apart from a hyperintelligent gorilla that quotes from Scarface and The Godfather while trying to take over the mob rackets in the city, anything that is going to involve Kung Fu Mexican Masked Wrestlers is going to be worth your time.
Basic premise: Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) is a seemingly ordinary young woman who finds herself recruited by the mysterious Middleman (Matt Keeslar), who receives his orders from a mysterious organization nicknamed OTS2K ("Organization Too Secret To Know"). Their job: to fight evil, so you don't have to. To this end they confront genetically enhanced lifeforms, mad scientists, cursed tubas and so on. Funny and fast paced with snappy dialogue, it's worth a look.
Trust me: quite apart from a hyperintelligent gorilla that quotes from Scarface and The Godfather while trying to take over the mob rackets in the city, anything that is going to involve Kung Fu Mexican Masked Wrestlers is going to be worth your time.
It's On America's Tortured Brow
Jun. 19th, 2008 07:57 pmIn other pre-air pilot news, I just watched the US version of Life on Mars. It's pretty much the same script as the first episode of the UK version, but of course set in 1972 Los Angeles instead of 1973 Manchester.
Given how much I enjoyed the UK version, I don't think I managed to approach it at all objectively, or maybe I'm too used to the original. It's workmanlike, but the performances and the performers had no chemistry at all, and as a result the whole thing seems actually boring and flat - the biggest tragedy of all being that Colm Meany as Gene Hunt is actually unfunny. Meany's a terrific actor, but his Hunt doesn't have the way Phillip Glennister's has of dominating the screen every time he enters it. One of the best things about Life on Mars was seeing the way John Simms and Glennister managed to focus your attention entirely on the relationship between these Sam and Gene: when they were in the same scene, they were the centre of the universe.
Maybe it'd be better received by someone who's never seen the original. I don't know.
But it seems that it's all moot anyway, since this version of the pilot will likely never make it to air as David E. Kelley has left the show and they're not only changing the location from L.A. to New York, but also making changes in the cast. However, given that it's on the Fall schedule, that doesn't give them much time to get their shit together. And it doesn't look like they're going to.
Given how much I enjoyed the UK version, I don't think I managed to approach it at all objectively, or maybe I'm too used to the original. It's workmanlike, but the performances and the performers had no chemistry at all, and as a result the whole thing seems actually boring and flat - the biggest tragedy of all being that Colm Meany as Gene Hunt is actually unfunny. Meany's a terrific actor, but his Hunt doesn't have the way Phillip Glennister's has of dominating the screen every time he enters it. One of the best things about Life on Mars was seeing the way John Simms and Glennister managed to focus your attention entirely on the relationship between these Sam and Gene: when they were in the same scene, they were the centre of the universe.
Maybe it'd be better received by someone who's never seen the original. I don't know.
But it seems that it's all moot anyway, since this version of the pilot will likely never make it to air as David E. Kelley has left the show and they're not only changing the location from L.A. to New York, but also making changes in the cast. However, given that it's on the Fall schedule, that doesn't give them much time to get their shit together. And it doesn't look like they're going to.
