Brotherly Love

So I wound up watching the season finale's of both Supernatural and Heroes on the same night, which made for an excellent two hours of television viewing, but was also a bit emotional for me. It struck me that both season finales were about familial bonds and specifically those between brothers. Nathan Petrelli and Dean Winchester both made huge sacrificed themselves for their brothers, and while that wasn't really an unexpected gesture from Dean, Nathan's loyalties had been in question. More than anything in the whole Heroes finale, and possibly more than anything I had seen on television all year, I rooted for Nathan to do the right thing, so while some people might have found the season ender a bit of a let down, I was thoroughly moved. There may have even been an audible cheer.

There was plenty of other stuff to cheer about on Heroes too. Claire continued to be awesome, standing up to everyone and just generally being...awesome. I probably cheered a bit when she jumped out that window to get away from Nathan and Mama Petrelli too. Niki was also amazing. All season long I had been a bit frustrated with where they were going with that character. Her arc had its ups and downs, but she came into her own in the finale. I loved seeing this woman who was so fractured become whole and own her powers was incredibly gratifying. I'm really excited to see what they do with her next season. I hope she gets to kick some ass. What I loved most though was that everyone became the hero they were meant to be in this episode. They all contributed and proved their mettle.

They also set up a villain for nest season, and Hiro traveled back in time. How cool is that? I just don't know how I feel about the potential of losing both Petrelli brothers next season. The cast will be significantly less pretty without them. I do feel fairly certain that Peter will be back. With his healing factor, he's hard to kill, but all Nathan can do is fly. How are they going to explain it if he doesn't die? But I really don't want him to be dead. Adrian Pasdar is the best. He doesn't deserve to be killed off now that he finally has a successful show. And did Sylar get away down the sewer, or did someone, or some thing, take his body? I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with the new villain. The thing is, Heroes has proved it has the balls to kill off characters, but it's also based on comic books, a medium in which death is only a temporary setback. Basically, they can do anything, which is what is so unbelievably cool. Also, did I mention Hiro going back in time?

Anyway, tons of love for the Heroes finale. Slightly less, but not by much, love for the Supernatural finale. The thing about that finale was that there was no way they could live up to last year's finale. Last year they rammed a truck into the Metallicar. That's hardcore. This season finale was obviously trying to simultaneously wrap things up in case the show wasn't renewed and set up next season in case it was. That lead to the ending being a bit anticlimactic, but the relationship between the Winchester brothers is even more powerful than the Petrellis'. Dean never fails to break my heart. Between his love for Sammy, his lack of self-worth, and the fact that he's been brought back from the dead at the cost of someone else twice now, what he did was no surprise. I just have no idea what they are going to do to get out of it. There is no way he's going to risk Sam possibly dying. Also, what's the deal with Sam? Did he come back a little bit wrong, because he seemed to take a lot more pleasure in shooting that guy than I would have expected? The one thing I did think was really strange was that didn't even have a line. That was weird, right? It was pretty clear how proud he was of his boys and how much he loved them though.

All and all, I liked how both shows focused on the familial bonds that have beeb so key to everything throughout the season, whether it was Nathan Petrelli protecting his brother and newly found daughter from having to do things that they would never be able to live with, Niki finally realizing that she was the one with the power to protect her family, or Dean refusing to let Sam go, they all touched on the emotional threads that had been building all season. It might have been nice if there was a bit more action in both finales. There was plenty of potential for that in both, but considering how much these shows actually made me feel something for the characters, which is more of a rarity than one would think, I can overlook that.

Nobody's Dead. None of This Means Anything. I Wasted an Hour When All the Interesting Stuff Was in the Last 3 Minutes.

OK, I am so not in the mood to watch Smallville right now. I would much rather be watching The Office, but I said I would do this. I am nothing if not a woman of my word. There better be a kick ass fight scene and a shirtless Tom Welling. Rosenbaum should show some skin too. This would probably be better if I had been prepared with some alcohol. Let's just get this show on the road. Shall we?

There's a previously on Smallville. It illustrates just how much cooler the first half of the season was to the second.

Ooooo...Quebec. I bet even this is Vancouver. I liked the way you saw the red glow of Martian Manhunter's eyes before you saw him. It's an exorcism. Cool! Martian Guts! I see why this isn't working. You need a young priest and an old priest. It's Lex! He's got people with guns. And fwooosh! There goes the phantom!

I so love that the Clark/Zod mid-air cuddle from the season premier is in the credits.

I registered to play that Justice and Doom game, but I never even read any of the emails they sent me.

What is this Hidden Palms? Will it be very trashy? I could get on board a trashy summer soap, but it's gotta be very trashy. And campy.

Oh, Supernatural! There's the show I'm really looking forward to. Jensen Ackles is so pretty!

Lex is giving orders over the phone. Lionel tells him he looks worried. I miss Lionel's hair. If I were Lex, I would be worried too. His minions suck ass. Woah! Lex has security footage? I know they established that at the beginning of the season, but I figured they just forgot about it. Now Lana seems especially dumb. Dumber than usual even, because she knew about the security cameras too. Poor, poor deluded Lex. I know Lex is all evil, but he's just too pathetic.

Hey look! Someone remembers Jonathan. Have I ever mentioned how awful this Martha Kent, Senator thing is? She's never been elected to anything! The people of Kansas are being disenfranchised. Yes! Clark, move out of Smallville. Why are any of these people still in smallville. Grow the fuck up! Get a job! Go to school! Do something with your life! Wait. Who is going to take care of the farm if Clark doesn't? Y'know, they really should have given Martha Kent a better send off. Or something to do this year.

It's Lois, Lois Lane, general Sam Lane's daughter, the reporter, and that blond chick. OK, I admit to not paying that much attention to the last episode, but I do not remember Wes repeating a sequence of numbers. Do you? So Lois knows what happened to Chloe's mom? Does she know that Chloe's a meteor freak? Or that Lex abducted Chloe? This is lame. Also, when did Chloe start advocating backing down? And when did Lois get so smart? And if Lois knew about Chloe's mom, what was the point of the bullshit contrivance of having her know Wess Keenan? Shouldn't everything with Chloe and her mom have been enough for her to want to bring Lex down? This show fucking sucks!

A dam. No Beavers though. I like this scientist guy's voice. Y'know, if Lex and Clark had never broken up, Lex would have plenty of alien DNA. He'd just have to remember not to swallow. There's Lex's army of silver hot pants wearing super soldiers. Only Smallville could make that concept quite this gay, which is why I still kind of love this show sometimes.

What are the odds that FF2 will suck as bad as the first one? Seeing as Jessica Alba is still in it, I'm guess pretty good.

Oh, no. A Clana barn scene. Somebody save me from this crap. Well, at least they're not in the loft. Also, no crappy alt rock music. Superman loves destroying marriages. Yes, the most important thing for you to do is spend all your time protecting Lana, Clark. As much as I hate this, it's about fucking time Clark told Lana the truth. This blows. After all the fucking things they have done on this show, I have serious trouble believing Kryptonite could give Clark more than severe cramps. I get those once a month. He'll take some Midol, and everything will be fine. I don't see what the big deal is.

Good job, Clark. Beat up an old man. Hey, Martian Manhunter and Clark actually talked. Sort of.

Lexana confrontation. This fake baby plot makes no fucking sense. What kind of a monster is he? A really pathetic one. He wasn't even getting laid. It would have been much better if he was like, messing with the fetus, or impregnated her with a clone or something. See, I should be upset that Lex slapped her, but I'm not. He should have followed it up with beating her with a stick.

Martian Manhunter worked for Jor El? That's lame. And where the hell has MM been all these years if he's supposed to have been watching Clark? I bet he could have used his help fighting Zod?

Clark is using a computer! He can do that? Crazy! Right! Lana leaving Lex is completely on par with the super powerful phantom being on the loose. Oh, and Chloe gets to make that hurt face again. Just what I wanted to see.

Lois gets stabbed in the gut yet is still able to knock out the security guard. Of course. Good to know she hasn't actually become intelligent though. Everyone knows you don't pull the knife out. Dumbass. And why call Chloe, instead of say, I don't know 911? She did that in an "Arrow" also and I didn't get it then either.

Why did Lionel look upset that Lex hit Lana? Why does he care? I don't think I like good guy Lionel. Obviously he needs to grow his hair out again in order to get his mojo back. Maybe when his stint on Broadway is done.

Lana's car exploded! Notice how we didn't actually see her get in it. Damn it! I really wanted to enjoy that. I've enjoyed all her other deaths. The spoilers said we were supposed to see and arm. Where was the arm? Where was the ARM?! Did I mention that this show sucks?

My pretend husband is on the MLB O7 commercial. I can't fast forward through David Wright. Seeing him actually made me feel a little better. I think I'm ready to get back to the show now.

Lionel tells Clark about Lana's death because that's totally what he should be dealing with now. That phantom is completely unimportant. Tom Welling tries to cry. It's not of the good.

Lois is dead. It won't last. The good deaths never do. OH my GOD! I knew about the freaking healing tears and it actually managed to be even cheesier looking than I imagined. At least it wasn't green. It was supposed to be green originally. I'm not sure whether Chloe is near death or just catatonic there, but I can't even begin to tell you how pissed off I am that her freaking power is, on top of being a lame, passive one, something that almost freaking kills her. I've ranted about this a lot on line since I originally heard the spoiler, but it sucks. It sucks so much. I hate the fact that she gets victimized be her own freaking power.

Justice and Doom. Stuff happens. I can't read what's going on because I'm not wearing my glasses. I bet it would have been a lot more fun to see a show about that stuff though. Looks like it has superheroes. I wish this show had superheroes.

There's only 9 minutes left and there has been absolutely no action.

Now Lex is strapping little boys to tables. He went from Aquaman, to Cyborg, to Chloe, to this French Canadian kid. Is there no bottom to the depth of his depravity? What a perve. Oh, but the kid killed a guy! Too bad it was Lex's only competent and loyal minion. Still, I love seeing little kids kill people. That was awesome.

I would say it's nice that they named the dam after Christopher Reeve, but I'm not sure how much of an honor being associated with this show is anymore.

Clark goes to beat up another powerless mortal because of Lana. It's a good thing the phantom showed up. Otherwise Clark would probably be a murderer right now. Also, the world would be doomed, what with the phantom leaping from body to body every 24 hours. It'd take a long time, but I'm sure he would have gotten to everyone eventually, not to mention killed a lot of people along the way.

It's too bad the phantom couldn't stay in the little kid. I would have liked to see the Clark vs. little boy battle. Why did a big, silver Superman shield show when the phantom entered Clark?

Hey, it's a Clark double! The fun part of that is Tom Welling playing evil. He does it well. Of course we cut away from the fight to see Lex getting arrested for Lana's murder. I don't buy it. Lex is supposed to be really powerful. If they take forever to arrest actors, they are not going to arrest Lex this quickly. Also, she's not dead.

Great job there Lionel. You made him stronger. "I'm you, only a little more bizarre." Who writes these fucking crappy ass lines? Also, maybe it's just me, but I want my Bizarro to be more than just Clark with a better outfit. Woah! Woah! Did they just run at eachother at superspeed and bounce off one another? That's hilarious. Oh, and now Bizarro's flying away, and has somehow developed Bizarro face. That transition actually kind of looked like crap.

Is it wrong that I don't care how Lois, Chloe and Lionel get out of the dam that's about to collapse. I know they will, and I suspect that, much like in the season premier, they'll have to deal with it themselves since Clark will be off fighting another bad guy who can fly while he still can't. Stupid show. I just hope that in the season premier, Welling is actually wearing Bizarro makeup, instead of that crap CGI.

Well, that was more boring than anything else. There should have been more punching. I'm sure it would have been better had I not been completely spoiled, but it's really not my fault their writers throw there scripts out in public airports where anyone can find them. Stupid writers.

Why Is Everyone So Nice?

Has anybody else noticed anything a bit off about Veronica Mars since it returned a few weeks ago? First we had that episode that so resembled a PSA, or at least an after school special on tolerance, that I don't even think it's worth acknowledging as an actual episode of Veronica Mars. Then last week's episode, while completely awesome by virtue of Paul Rudd's performance alone, also had an episode where everything turned out happy in the end. Last night was the third ultra happy ending for the mystery of the week in a row.

What the hell is going on here? Where's the cynicism? Isn't this show supposed to be noir? Things are looking pretty bright for Veronica right now too. She's got a really sweet and decent boyfriend. She got her FBI internship. She's golden. As for Keith, if he can expose Vinny Van Lowe's connection to the Fitzpatricks, he's golden on the sheriff front. Sure Logan's still miserable, but a happy Logan is like an impossible state of being. Even Dick showed some humanity last night, though I had been expecting that for a while. I just wanted to know what happened to this show. Is the sunnier disposition an attempt to keep it on the air? Was it a network mandate?

I also have some questions about what's going on:

Did we ever find out why Dick was crying at the end of the season premier? He told Logan that he did something really bad?

How did Veronica get an internship with the FBI after being investigated for kidnapping last season? People who once tried pot can't even get into the FBI. I'm guessing this will never be addressed.

Can we have more Deputy Leo please? I was so happy to see him back in the Paul Rudd episode. He better be in the two hour finale next week.

I guess a lot of this stuff doesn't matter all that much, since it looks like the show has been canceled. The official announcement of the CW's fall line up is tomorrow, but considering that Kristen Bell signed up to do the voice overs for the new series Gossip Girl, I'm pretty certain that Veronica Mars won't be on it. I don't know how I feel about that. Considering the change in tone of the last few episodes, and the fact that each season has diminished in quality from the last, maybe it's best that it bows out now before it becomes an embarrassing shell of its former self. On the other hand, while it hasn't been able to reach the heights of the first season since then, it's still better than most things on television. It's certainly better than anything on the CW. Is it better to have no Veronica than a less than great Veronica? I'm not sure.

All that said, the previews for next week look awesome, and back to form for Veronica Mars. I cannot wait.

You Got Your Watchmen In My Heroes

I realize that the new episode of Heroes was on Monday, so this is kind of late, but I figure that it's still relevant since the next episode hasn't aired yet (unlike that post I was going to do about last week's Supernatural). Anyway, this past Monday was the first new episode of Heroes after far too long a break. Fortunately, it did not disappoint. I have to say though that I've been hearing people talk about the story resembling Watchmen for a long while now, but I didn't really get it until last night.

I try to remain in as much of a cone of silence as possible when it comes to this show, because I love it and I don't want to ruin anything for myself. Last night though, I was all, "Oh, that's what everyone has been talking about." The similarities between Linderman and Ozymandias are pretty blatant, and considering how many of the writers on this show are bona fide comic book geeks, no one can claim that they didn't realize the similarities. I have to assume that it is not going to go down the same though, since next week's episode seems to be all about how bad everything is going to be if Linderman's plan goes through.

As for the episode itself, I loved it. I thought Isaac's death was a bit anti-climactic, but the implications of it are pretty interesting. Sylar doing the painting the future thing at the end was just creepy. Either Sylar didn't get any of Isaac's artistic talent, or the future has changed and, instead of Nathan Petrelli, Frankenstein is going to become president. I would be totally cool with that.

I guess that if someone had to die, I'm OK with it being Isaac. I honestly like all the characters now that Simone is dead. I know a lot of people don't like Mohinder, but I think he's pretty invaluable to the story. They need at least one person without super powers. Also, Sendhil Ramamurthy may not be the best actor, but he's awfully pretty to look at. Honestly, I was really afraid that Peter might get killed. I know there are all these visions of stuff that he's supposed to do in the future, and he certainly seems integral to the plot, but he's also unbelievably powerful. Not only does he gain the powers of anyone he is around, he is able to retain them. Pretty soon he will be able to do anything and they won't need any of the other characters. Presumably, the writers are aware of this potential dilemma and will do something about it. Anyway, the whole time he was dead but not really dead, I kept yelling at the television to take the big piece of glass out of his head. Thankfully Claire listened to me. Poor Claire though. It must suck to find out your big hero/crush is your uncle.

I'm actually pretty surprised that Nathan is going to go along with Linderman's plan, since I really thought his love for Peter would trump his desire for power. I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Also, what power do you think Mama Petrelli has? Considering Peter's powers, one would think they would have been exposed by now. Then there's Matt, Ted Sprague, and my favorite, Mr. Bennett and their big prison break. Things are going to be tough for them. Eric Roberts is just plain creepy. He's not even acting. It's an inherent trait.

YAY! Heroes is back! I cannot wait until next week.

But He's Bill Pardy! You Can't Cancel Him!

Apparently Drive has been canceled, which is kind of a bummer. I was enjoying it. The thing I don't get though is why Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear can't catch a break. This is at least the fourth show that Minear has executive produced to get the axe by FOX, and the second for Fillion. By all rights, both of them should still be hard at work on Firefly's fifth season, but barring that, they just deserve better. I especially don't get the lack of success for Nathan Fillion. I would have thought that, despite the relative box office disappointment of Serenity, he would have at least gotten noticed by studio executives and gotten some decent sized roles in some mainstream movies. Honestly, I expected to see him pop up in a romantic comedy or two, or maybe in some small but stand out roles in some big budget action movies, inevitably becoming the next generation's answer to Harrison Ford. Instead, it seems like he's becoming the next generation's answer to Bruce Campbell, which is fine. You know I love Bruce Campbell. I love him way more than I love Harrison Ford. I just thought that Nathan Fillion had a lot more mainstream appeal than that.

Is the problem that Nathan Fillion has actually worked on quality projects, because I am seeing that pattern? I was pretty shocked by the lack of success for Slither as well, which I considered to be one of the best horror movies that I have seen in a long time, in light of how well horror movies have been doing in the past several years. I enjoy movies like Hostel and its like well enough, but I would much rather sit through movies like Slither, Grindhouse, and even, to a lesser extent, Snakes on a Plane, all of which were disappointments at the box office, and all of which were a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the horror movies that make huge amounts of money. At least the Dawn of the Dead remake, which had an over all grimness but still with a sense of whimsy, did well.

Don't even get me started on what passes for science fiction these days. There is little substance to any of it. Some people like to applaud geek subculture moving into the mainstream, but with few exceptions, the stuff that has any mainstream success lacks the originality and intelligence that we geeks have been enjoying for years. I think the fact that X-Men 3 was lauded by critics as a comic book movie that's actually about something for touching on, however ineptly, various social issues, says it all. X-Men comic books have been dealing with social issues since Stan Lee first came up with the idea of mutants. All X-Men 3 did was make weak analogies that ultimately never went anywhere.

The geek subculture hasn't been legitimized. It's been homogenized.

Wow! I have no idea how this turned into a rant. I started out this post simply wanting to say that I was going to miss seeing Nathan Fillion, an actor I can't get enough of, on my television every week. I suppose it's the Firefly/Serenity connection. Anytime I start thinking about Nathan Fillion, it naturally leads in that direction, and then it turns into a rant. Oh well. At least we have Heroes now. At least that show respects its roots and hasn't tried glam up for the masses. It is a show about a bunch of superheroes who do not wear costumes though, which I do think is a concession to mainstream audiences, but that's of far less concern than the fact that there's real substance there. Compare that to Smallville, which simultaneously capitalizes on it's comic book roots and is completely embarrassed by them at the same time, ultimately creating something with no more substance than your sub par teen drama with a bunch of names that will keep fanboys happy.

Anyway, here's hoping that Nathan Fillion catches on soon, so that, while I may not get the quality science fiction, horror and superhero genre adaptations that I hope for, I'll at least a funny, charismatic, talented and really attractive actor to watch in all the crappy movies and television shows I end up watching because no one cares enough to watch anything better.

All the World Is Waiting for Her

So for all the problems the Wonder Woman title - Heinberg and his many delays, the fill-in story for issue #5, the dubious talents of Jodi Picoult - all is not lost. There is good news too. Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told came out today, finally righting that long injustice, and it's been confirmed that Gail Simone is going to be taking over the title with issue #13. Apparently, the fans have spoken and DC has finally listened. It's almost enough to make me stop bitching about how much editors suck, at least at DC. (Marvel editors haven't done anything to redeem themselves yet.)

Newsarama posted this interview with Simone on Friday, and she just put things in perspective. This, particularly, gets me excited about the character:

The book is about the best goddamned warrior planet Earth has ever known, and she happens to carry a mystical arsenal around just for the hell of it.

If a writer can’t make that interesting and fun, they really shouldn’t be writing superheroes.

There are layers upon layers of the character, and we’ll get to them all. But let’s just make it very clear that Diana is the premiere asskicker in the DCU, period. Batman and Superman have other things that make them special. Diana is the one who occasionally carries an axe if someone gives her lip.

This is actually in my first issue, but the quote is, “When a giant robot attacks Metropolis, send Superman. An alien attack? Get Green Lantern. When a car is hijacked by an escaped loony, turn on the bat signal, by all means. But if an ARMY shows up on your doorstep, that’s when you call in Wonder Woman.

Simple.

This part isn't bad either:

This is a great question. First, I hate the supposed ‘dichotomy,’ that she preaches peace while fighting. This is not contradictory at all. It’s not ‘a’ or ‘b,’ it’s ‘a’ AND ‘b.’ It’s like saying a cop is a hypocrite when they say they want to keep the peace, just because they might have to wrestle a perp to the ground on occasion. Diana’s both. She loves the light, but she’s right at home in the dark, too. She can do dark.

Actually, I have to say that this was the thing about Wonder Woman that got me a while back, the fact that, as Simone says, "She loves the light, but she's right at home in the dark, too." I think it's that ability to be both that sets her apart from Batman and Superman as more than just the girl. When I realized that, and I can't even say how and why I realized it (but I'm sure it was probably while I was watching the Justice League cartoon, since the work of Bruce Timm is pretty much the source of all my DCU love), it's when I started to really get the character, and love her. Sure, I still think it makes absolutely no sense that an Amazon is a great symbol of peace, since the Amazons raped, plundered and pillaged with the best of them (which is why they were cool), or that the Greek gods would care about sending an ambassador of peace to humanity, since they were all about messing with and screwing over the humans, but once you let go of all that, there isn't any reason why a person can't preach peace and be a warrior. It's not like she's out there committing random acts of violence.

Anyway, all that character stuff is great, but this is what really made me think Gail Simone was writing specifically for me: "Of course, since she’s punching a monkey off a waterfall on page three, maybe that’s not the best example." Let's just take a closer look at those words: "punching a monkey off a waterfall." MONKEY!

So, in honor of that bit of awesomeness, and, of course, in honor of Gail, I give you:

And if that fills you with joy, like it does for me, you are going to want to watch Smallville this Thursday (4/19). I know that watching that show isn't normally conducive to the bringing of joy, but this week it has Lynda Carter! For her, I would watch even if I wasn't a complete masochist who watches the show every week even without something as awesome as Wonder Woman herself to look forward to. She's still gorgeous too. It looks like it might be a halfway decent episode too.

Supernatural is going to be new as well, so that you definitely don't want to miss.

Who's Gonna Drive You Home Toniiiight?

Who's gonna pick you up when you faaalll?

Ah, the Cars. Weren't they a great band? Now there's the New Cars. It's not the same.

This post isn't about them though.

It's about the new Fox series Drive, whose premiere completely blindsided me on Sunday night because I had no idea it was going to be on. Thankfully, I turned on Fox to watch The Simpsons at 8 o'clock or I would have completely missed it. Then there was another episode on Monday night, which is when I was expecting to watch the premiere. I don't know it it was lack of promotion or just me. I record almost everything on DVR now specifically so that I can fast forward through commercials, so I won't complain about Fox's lack of promotion, since I have no evidence to support it. I will say that I didn't see any ads for it on the internet, which seems odd considering one of the show's stars has an immense internet following. It didn't do too well in the ratings on Sunday night though. I have no idea about what Monday's numbers were.

I liked the show. It didn't wow me like the premiere of Prison Break did last year, but then, I quickly lost interest in that show, whereas by the end of the third hour on Monday night, my interest in Drive was still steadily building. I think that it has the potential to have the same problem that Prison Break has though, in that it's a very high concept that can't possibly be sustained for too long. However, it seems far more plausible to me that the creators of this show will be able to find reasons to keep the characters on the road for multiple seasons than it does for the creators of Prison Break to be able to keep up the jail break theme without it making the characters seem like they are in a Wile E. Coyote like cycle. Also, Drive has car chases, ad can have them all the time. That's cool and exciting. There's also a lot more opportunity for product placement, which I am certain makes the network very happy. (That might even be something that could keep this show on the air if ratings don't improve. Profitable shows always last longer than successful shows.)

I was primarily interested in this show because it stars Nathan Fillion, aka Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and executive producer Tim Minear, who previously worked on shows I loved, like Angel, Firefly, and Wonderfalls. And if you watched and loved any of those shows, there's a lot of reason to tune in to Drive. In addition to Fillion and Minear, a few other actors from those shows pop up, including Amy Acker, previously of Angel and most recently Alias, where she played a complete badass. There's also the serialized nature of it and the fact that mst of the characters are more than they seem. Those are things that have proven pretty popular on television of late, and Minear has proven himself to be incredibly adept at those types of stories.

Nathan Fillion is still my primary point of interest for the show, though, and it struck me at first that his character is a lot like Mal, but after getting a bit of background revelation on Alex Tully, I know think he's Mal in reverse. Mal was a good guy who became a bad guy and is always fighting his heroic nature. Tully is a bad guy who became a good guy and is strggling to maintain is heroism. It's too bad he's saddled with the show's blandest actress as his partner. As for the other characters, oddly enough, I think the father daugter team might be my favorite. There's a lot of pathos to be wrug from that situation and there's a lot of warmth and humor in their scenes. The soldier and his wife have the potential to get really annoying very soon, and the long lost brothers team is interesting, but hasn't really caught me on an emotional level. I think that the character that intrigues me most is the moter who is trying to protect her baby. She's a little bit crazy, but she's sweet, and I think there's huge potential for that character. It will be interesting to see what this race drives her to do (no pun intended) and what lines she will cross. Plus, I think Melanie Lynskey is fantastic.

Anyway, I think this show has a lot of potential, and I hope that Fox doesn't pull a Fox and prematurely cancel it. It's deffinitely worth a shot, and if you, like me, missed all the advertising because you hate commercials, but unlike me didn't have the happy accident of fiding it when you were looking for The Simpsons, the episodes are on MySpace. At the very least, watch it for Nathan Fillion, who is awesome and deserves to be a huge star (though it would have been better if he was a huge star because of Firefly, Serenity and Slither, but it has been log established that people do't have nearly as good taste as the should - more on that later.)

Reason #153 Why Supernatural Rocks

Last season there was an episode of Supernatural called "Skin", in which a shapeshifter kills a bunch of people, narrowly escapes police capture after one murder attempt, and is killed by the Winchester boys. The police are left to believe that the perpetrator of the murders is dead, which is true. The problem is that the shapeshiter looks exactly like dean when he is seen by the police and when he is eventually dispatched by our heroes. At the time I thought it was a great episode (evil or not, I am never going to argue with getting twice the Jensen Ackles), and thought it would be awesome if Dean's apparent death, as well as the belief that he was a murderer, had consequences later on. However, I did not expect there to be any consequences, and was not upset by that. Shows like Supernatural never go back to deal with these things. Even Joss Whedon shows let stuff like that slide on occassion, and Whedonverse shows have some of the best continuity in the history of television. Maybe Veronica Mars, a show where almost everything that happens has significance later, would bring this development up again, but there was little chance that would happen on Supernatural, a show that is basically about pretty boys with guns and demons.

Color me surprised when Dean's status as deceased murder suspect got name-checked later in the first season. I was even more surprised this season when everything from the petty crimes they commit on a regular basis to Dean's supposed murders (and the fact that he is not dead) got Sam and Dean arrested. This last episode, "Night Shifter", blew me away though. Not only was it typically good, but we learned that the brothers Winchester now have the feds on their tail, which makes complete sense, since not only are they wanted for all sorts of things like impersonating federal agents and murder, but they also have now escaped police custody and crossed state lines. Not only are the Feds after them, but they know all sorts of stuff about their family history, and think John Winchester was some sort of militant nut, which, and I probably don't even have to say this, also makes perfect sense.

You'll pardon me if I seem overly excited about all this, but I watch a lot of genre shows, and I watch a lot of shows on the CW, and logic so rarely enters into how the world reacts to the actions of the characters on the show. Take Smallville for example, a show where the good guys are regularly breaking into buildings, engaging in some mighty illegal hacking, blowing up buildings, and just generally using their superpowers in front of random people and no one ever notices and none of the characters ever get in trouble. That's why consequences is reason #153 why Supernatural rocks. If you are curious about the other 152 reasonse, I'll just tell you that they include such things as the Impala, the classic rock soundtrack, Robert Johnson, all the very cool pop culture references, and various details about Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki's overrall prettines.

Some Actual Praise for Smallville

This is my first Smallville related post of the 2006 - 2007 television season. After last season and my numerous posts regarding the show, one may have wondered what happened. Did the show stop sucking? Did Scout finally decide to stop punishing herself with television shows that literally cause her pain? Has Scout finally decided that if she can't say anything nice, she shouldn't say anything at all? The answer to all those questions is, not remotely. (Especially that last one. What would be the point of maintaining this blog if I thought that?) Quite simply, I stopped caring. Lois Lane decided to become a journalist because of a barn door? Fine. Green Arrow had some crazy thugs kidnap Lex Luthor? Sure. Lex wants to marry Lana even though she told him she still loved Clark? I wouldn't expect anything different from this show. Jimmy Olsen is having sex with Chloe and there's whip cream involved? OK, that one's still kind of gross. The point is, I've reached a Zen-like state when it comes to this show's levels of bad. But last week's episode was good, and that shocked me.

Justice was, first and foremost, a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I felt like Smallville was actually a show about a superhero. I guess it's just too bad that all the superheroes were guest stars who aren't sticking around. I wasn't so sure about Green Arrow when he first started this season, but he's really grown on me. Justin Hartley is charismatic and pretty and talented and I look forward to seeing a lot more of him on my television in the future. Then there was Bart, aka Impulse, who is fantastic. I loved him when he first showed up in season four's Run, and I loved him even more this time. Kyle Gallner, the actor who portrays Bart, has made guest appearances on roughly half the shows I watch this season and he deserves all the work. My biggest fear about this episode was that whenever I saw Bart, who was so adorable the first time around, I would only be able to think about Beaver Casablancas and how he blew up a bus and raped Veronica Mars. Not only did he make me forget all about that other role, with all the flirting he threw Chloe's way, I wasn't worried her at all. Cyborg and Aquaman were back too, though their parts were smaller. It was nice to see that Cyborg was more like his comic book self this time around and less like the Bionic Man. Aquaman's lines were blessedly minimal and mostly served to bring the gay, which is always fun (and given his last appearance on the show, that is his greatest superpower). Not that the show's only gay moments came from the fishy one and his naked swimming. The Sparks were in full display between Clark and Oliver and Clark and Bart as well.

More important than all the homoerotic subtext (and that is always enjoyable), this episode was fun because it was fast paced, and while there were no fight scenes, plenty of stuff happened. There was a lot of running for one thing, and of course, there were arrows. There was also Lex acting like a badass. Being free of the horrid pink parasite (Lana was blessedly absent for the entire episode) had a wonderful effect on his inner bad guy. Michael Rosenbaum plays evil deliciously well. His readings on lines like "And I want a ponytail. Disappointment abounds," are impeccable, and he has the perfect villain's swagger. When Lex is like this, Rosenbaum is totally bringing the sexy back. His speech to Lionel about torturing meteor freaks for truth and democracy was everything I have always wanted from Smallville's version of the character. John Glover too deserves kudos for his small but memorable appearance in this episode. Lionel's impromptu alibi for Clark, about Martha's pot roast and new potatoes, was priceless. I have to say too, because I always adore her, that I loved Chloe in this episode and I thought she was worked in rather nicely without her importance diminishing any of the superheroes. She got to be all cool and sassy too.

The only parts of this episode I didn't enjoy were the Oliver and Lois scenes. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with them, per se. As a matter of fact, I found Lois infinitely more tolerable than I usually do (the storyline with Oliver Queen/Justin Hartley really brought out the best in the character and the actress). It's just that those scenes really dragged in what was otherwise a fast and fun episode. The melodrama didn't seem to fit. I also had a bit of trouble buying into all there talk of love and regret. The Oliver Queen of the comics is an infamous ladies man, complete with illegitimate children (which made the whole no sex thing more than a bit ridiculous for me), but mostly, too much of the relationship was developed off screen for me to care.

My overriding feeling when coming out of this episode though was to wonder why it couldn't be like this all the time. Why must I sit through all the soap opera melodrama when I could be watching daring rescues and things exploding? I completely geeked out watching this proto-Justice League doing their slow-mo hero walk away from the explosion. (OK, and I also got a little distracted by how pretty Tom Welling is.) I want to geek out like that all the time. Heroes is a great show, my current favorite, but it doesn't have any of the comic book characters I love and there's not a costume in sight. Are costumes heroes and villains too much to ask for? If I can't have a Justice television series, I would settle for a a Green Arrow or Impulse series.

I'm a Little Heartbroken

There were a few things I planned to post blog entries about in the next few days, but I read something today that had to be commented on immediately. It was reported in Variety today that NBC will be cancelling Passions and adding another hour of The Today Show to their daytime line up in the fall, like the world needed more of Meredith Viera. I don't watch Passions anymore, but I feel this loss deeply. When Fox announced that The O.C. was being cancelled, I was sad. I have a lot of fond memories of the show, but I did voluntarily stop watching that show. With Passions, I can honestly say that I would still be watching today if it wasn't for the horrible truth that I am now an adult and had to get a job. On the rare occasions when I am home on a weekday, I still tune in.

I began watching Passions after its several mentions on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fans of Buffy may remember that it was Spike's favorite show. I naturally wondered what was so inherently funny about this show, and who this Timmy character was who was stuck in the well. I instantly fell in love. Created by James E. Reilly, the man who first brought demonic possession to daytime on Days of Our Lives (Marlena was possessed by a Succubus and it was awesome), Passions was the most cracktastic thing I had ever seen on television. All the traditional soap opera plotlines were carried out to the most extreme degree, and then topped off with witchcraft, incest, portals to hell, relationships that could destroy all the evil in the world if consummated, reincarnation, the dubious acting talents of Liza Huber, pacts with the devil, daytime television's first lesbian sex scene, a controversial Orangutan nurse with an active fantasy life named Precious, Bollywood musical numbers, and, really, so much more. Passions was a soap opera on acid, and it was fully aware of it's own ridiculousness. After the show ends in August, day time television may be a little more sane, but it will never be as fun again.

I end my tribute to Passions, with a tribute to what was by far the show's greatest contribution. While still great, Passions was never the same after the passing of Josh Ryan Evans, and the departure of the delightful living doll Timmy from all of our lives.

I raise a Mar-Timmy to you, Passions, in celebration of your insane and campy brilliance. Like the wonderful Timmy, you will be missed, and my sick days will be far less enjoyable.

Not the Barry Manilow Song

I watched Daybreak, the Lost fill-in show on ABC, o Wednesday. It was OK, but I couldn't shake this feeling of familiarity, and it wasn't just because of the premise. Shouldn't this have been a Denzel Washington movie? Maybe Taye Diggs is making a bid at being Denzel-lite: the TV version. He's good looking enough, but he's going to have to start showing off some of that charisma that made an utterly generic show like Kevin Hill watchable for a full season.

Also, the show is completely wasting the considerable talents of Adam Baldwin. I sincerely hope that they put him to better use in the coming weeks, especially since the mere fact that he is on the show is going to keep me watching for its entire run.

Wanna See Something Really Scary?

Do you know what character I think would make for a really scary Halloween costume?

Jessica Fletcher.

I'm serious. That old broad brought death and destruction everywhere she went. At first, her evil was contained to the sleepy New England town of Cabot Cove, but eventually she ran out of people to kill there. (Eventually word had to get around of what was going on, and once that happened, not even the best tourism board in the world could keep up the influx of has-been, B-list, elderly celebrities who regularly made trips to the town.) The Angel of death spread out, bringing death to the streets of New York, and even plaguing Magnum PI on at least one occasion. The worst part is, no one ever caught on to her game. Jessica Fletcher continued her killing spree beyond the confines of her show and into several television movies.

How Come the Stripper Doesn't Get to Be an X-Man?

Now that we have met Nikki's husband, on last night's episode of Heroes, I'm a little upset that she's not a Colossus rip off since he's the Kitty Pryde of the show. (He should have tried phasing a baseball bat through Nikki's head. That's apparently how Kitty would deal with a betraying spouse.) My big revelation from last night was actually that Nikki seems to be a take off on The Sentry, what with the multiple personalities and all, though her powers aren't as close to those of The Sentry as the other characters are to their corresponding X-Men characters. Maybe I am missing someone and there is an X-Man with a super strong alternate personality.

The other big non-surprise of the night was that Mohinder's annoying neighbor s orkin for Claire's dad. That was so obvious.

The past couple of weeks haven't been as good as the previous episodes, but I am by no means disappointed. This show rocks. Also, November sweeps will have started by next week, so I am expecting things to really amp up, because that is what happens during sweeps.

"Welcome Wagon"

Veronica Mars is back! Finally!

The premier was so good, better than the season 2 premier. We met a few new characters, like Parker and Piz. I can already see how the Neptune sheriff's department is going to handle the rape investigation, because, as we know, Lamb is a complete ass and will surely hold Parker's sexual history against her. I immediately liked Piz. He is adorable and is clearly going to come between Veronica and Logan. The fact that he is so immediately lovable also makes him immediately suspicious. He can't be the Hearst rapist, because he wasn't at Hearst last year, but mark my words, by the end of the season I am sure we will find out something really bad about him. After Beaver Casablancas, I don't trust anyone.

I will also go on record right now as saying that I do not think Dick is the Hearst rapist. (He is an eligible suspect because while he wasn't at Hearst last year, he was in Neptune.) After that ending, it would be far too obvious. I do wonder what he did though. Also, I think that Logan's friendship with Dick will come between he and Veronica also. As much of an idiot as Dick is, he stood by Logan through everything. Logan's not likely to forget about that, and Veronica isn't likely to cut Dick much slack if she suspects him of something.

Fun Fact: The criminology professor, who Veronica's classmate was drooling over, was also the hot anthropology professor on Saved By the Bell: the College Years. By the way, how funny is it that Veronica is taking an introductory criminology class? I'm guessing she'll do well.

Finally, I was so happy to see some of my favorite recurring characters get bumped up to regular status this season. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Tina Majorino (Mac) and Michael Muhney (Lamb) this season. Unfortunately, I am not digging the new credits. I get slowing down the theme song (again) to accommodate the ever expanding cast, but I really miss the sketches. I guess I will just start fast forwarding through the credits now. Eh, whatever, my favorite show is back. Woo hoo! I can't wait to see what happens next.

Shows Named After Bowie Songs Rock

First of all, I have to admit that I am already a bit confused by Heroes. I felt a bit like I started watching it halfway through. However, I am more than willing to go along for the ride and try to make sense of everything that is going on. I thought the premier was fantastic. My favorite character so far is Hiro. He quotes Star Trek, references the X-Men (and Kitty Pryde no less), and you just can't beat the pure unadulterated joy he feels about being superpowered. Conversely, the cheerleader from Texas (I think) really annoyed me, but I am going to cut her some slack for now because her mom is weird and her dad is clearly evil. The character I was expecting to hate but actually kind of liked was the guy played by Milo Ventimiglia (the nurse who thinks he can fly). The press painted him as some whining, mopey youth and he really wasn't. He was just a guy trying to make sense of his place in the world, which I think makes him very identifiable. Sure he was a bit broody, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of my favorite characters brood. The storylines I am finding most intriguing write now is the internet stripper and how she did what she did (it was awfully messy), not to mention what the hell is up with her reflection, and the Indian geneticist, because he obviously has some of the answers.

Next week we get to see Greg Grunberg. YAY! I love him and I hope that this role really gives him a chance to shine. He deserves it. Also, I just found out that Tim Sale is doing the heroin addict psychic's art, so keep an eye out for that because Tim Sale is amazing.

(I posted the answers to the Buffy trivia questions in the comments, so if you're interested, go check that out.)

Farewell, Old Friend

I fully intended to post an update about the awesome Buffy Sing-A-Long I wet to last night, but I think there is something I bit more pressing and monumentous that I should address first. Today marks the final day of programming for the WB before it becomes the CW. To honor the event, The WB aired "A Night of Favorites and Farewells," including the series premieres of Felicity, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dawson's Creek. Naturally, I felt obligated to tune in for the networks final five hours.

I thought the shows that they chose to show were very interesting. All were shows that have been of the air for a few years, and while Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek were both flagships that helped define the network, none were the huge rating successes along the lines of 7th Heaven and Smallville. Felicity and Angel never even seemed to be all that appreciated by the network when they originally aired. That said, I do think that these shows, along with the aforementioned 7th Heaven, will be what the WB is remembered for. And I think the reason for choosing these shows was to showcase the talented young creators (J.J. Abrahms, Joss Whedon and Kevin Williamson specifically) that were given their start by the network.

Over the years, I have bitched about the network's handling of shows, meddling, fostering of the likes Joey Potter and Lana Lang as positive female characters, the overemphasis they place on the hair length of their stars, and the continued existence of 7th Heaven, but there really was a lot of good there. After all, The WB gave Buffy the Vampire Slayer a chance when no other network would (for that alone I can forgive almost all sins). They also gave us Gilmore Girls and four wonderful seasons of Everwood, one of the most intelligent and interesting family dramas ever. Many of the actors and actresses have gone on to bigger and better things as well. Who would have ever expected Jaime Fox to go on to win an Oscar?

I also loved that their final five hours of programming included showing some of the old WB ads, which were always entertaining, if completely bizarre. I especially liked the "Watch the Frog" campaign, which is hard to explain. Essentially, two of the network's stars would be engaged in a supposedly candid conversation (two that were aired tonight featured Michael Rosenbaum talking to Tom Welling about padded bras and Kristin Kreuk and some actress I did not recognize talking about how going to couple's counseling is easier than going through all the work of a break up) and then happening upon Michigan J. Frog, the network's former mascot, and one of them saying "Watch the frog," presumably before the other actor or actress stepped on him. Like I said, the ad campaigns were bizarre. They also re-aired a series of ads that featured James Vander Beek and Scott Foley on a road trip. There were also montages of the bumps featuring all the actors and actresses throughout the years. Say what you will about the talent level of most of the shows, but you can't deny that they were among the most attractive people to ever grace television screens (well, aside from Vander Beek).

Think of me what you will, but most of the shows I watched since the start of the WB have been WB shows. They were very much the pop culture touchstones of my generation since the beginning. I don't know if the CW can really live up to that legacy. Their line up barely features much new programming, let alone anything innovative, and it seems much more focused on reaching out to advertisers than gaining a following with young viewers by providing an alternative programming to the other networks. Veronica Mars is the only risky show they have in their line up and it's going into it's third season. It's a bit depressing really, since burgeoning networks have in the past built themselves up on shows like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer before they went all corporate. However, like the WB before it, the CW will be showing the majority of the shows I will be watching.

Tomorrow: the Buffy Sing-A-Long, a.k.a. the geekiest thing I have ever been a part of.

More Fun With Lists

The whole not including cartoon characters or puppets rule really made compiling the list of my favorite television characters tough, so I've decided that I needed to make a list just for them. For this list, I ignored the rule about having to be a regular character, because that would have eliminated some awesome characters that just could not be ignored. All the characters did have to come from series though, not movies or specials. Sorry, still no Barney Rubble.

As always, this list is in random order.

1. Buffy the Vampire Salyer

OK. Fine. She never actually made it into cartoon form, but it would have been awesome. I'll start over now.

1. Spider-Man
2. Winnie the Pooh
3. Grover
4. The Tick (the only character to make both lists - unless you count Buffy)
5. Gonzo the Great
6. She-Ra
7. The Question
8. Harley Quinn (the most adorable psychopath ever)
9. Lex Luthor (nothing but love for the Super Friends version, but I'm talking Timmverse all the way)
10. The Flash (again, Timmverse)
11. Kermit the Frog
12. Cyclops (included not because he was ever in a very good cartoon, but because I first became aware of him through a cartoon, and that deserves acknowledgement)
13. Brak
14. Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law
15. Brock Samson
16. Homer Simpson
17. Firestar
18. Iceman
19. Ms. Lion

Hehe...Just kidding...

19. Optimus Prime
20. Bumblebee
21. Skeletor
22. Snuffleupagus
23. Oscar the Grouch
24. Snoopy
25. Charlie Brown
(I figure there are enough Peanuts specials out there for it to be considered a regular sort of thing and therefore they can make my list.)

You know what? I don't actually think that's a great list. I bet if I limited it just to a top 10, it would be a really strong list. Maybe I should have just done a list of my top 10 JLU characters. Whatever. I'm leaving it the way it is.

Fun With Lists

A of at Whedonesque.com directed me to James Gunn's blog and I realized two things: 1) James Gunn is very cool, both as a person and as the director of the Dawn of the Dead remake, and 2) this blog needs more lists. So, in that spirit, I am going to list my 25 favorite characters, just like James Gunn did. Later I might even take another page from Mr. Gunn's book and list 100 things I love and 100 things I hate. Anyway, a note before I begin, unlike James Gunn and Joss Whedon's lists, Whedonverse characters will be all over this motherfucker. However, I will try to stick to the rules of not including any puppets or cartoon characters (making it a very difficult list to compile) and to only include characters that are regulars on the show.

Now on to the list of my 25 favorite television characters, presented in no particular order:

1) Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - OK, this one actually is in order, since she is deffinitely my favorite television character ever.

2) Jack Bristow (Victor Garber, Alias)

3) Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, Alias)

4) Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars)

5) Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion, Firefly) - James Gunn may have left him off but I sure as hell wasn't going to.

6) Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman)

7) Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin, Firefly)

8) Brother Justin (Clancy Brown, Carnivale) - the rules say no cartoon characters, but Clancy Brown had to be represented, even if not as Lex Luthor

9) Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks)

10) Spike (James Marsters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel)

11) Spock (Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek)

12) Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr, Freaks and Geeks)

13) The Tick (Patrick Warburton, The Tick) - Thank god there was a live action version

14) Captain Kirk (William Shatner, Star Trek) - Shatner's Roast is on right now and I realized that there is no way the greatest Star Trek captain does not make my list

15) House (Hugh Laurie, House)

16) Buster Bluth (Tony Hale, Arrested Development)

17) Gob Bluth (Will Arnett, Arrested Development)

18) Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan, Arrested Development)

19) Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke, The Dick Van Dyke Show)

20) Dr. Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart, The Bob Newhart Show)

21) Wesley Wyndham Price (Alexis Denisof, Angel)

22) David Brent (Ricky Gervais, The Office UK)

23) Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report)

24) Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black, Farscape)

25) Timmy(Josh Ryan Evans, Passions)

Man, that list was so hard to come up with. I didn't think I could make it to 25 without cartoon characters, but now that I'm done I feel like I left people out. Oh well, I'm sticking with it. Who do you think I should have put on the list?

Embarrassing Admission of the Day

I am actually looking forward to watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels tonight. I'm the first to admit that the world doesn't need any more reality shows, especially not of the kind where some celebrity puts himself and his loved ones on display for cash, an image change, or some desperately needed exposure. I'm sure this show is an attempt by Simmons to return to the spotlight and appeal to a new audience, much like The Osbournes did for Ozzy. (Eventually, KISS is going to have to make good on those retirement claims.) That's actually the main reason for my emabarrasment. Nothing Simmons ever does seems to have a motivation other than profit and self-aggrandizement. A reporter recently asked him if he was worried that the show would hurt his image, and therefore his future earnings. Simmons responded by saying that it might, but he already had enough money. I have to wonder how much money he's still making off that image now anyway. The KISS Army is there, and I don't think anything he does is going to lessen there willingness to buy anything he slaps a picture of his giant tongue on, but I don't think that image is really pulling in the kind of profit it used to.

The clips I have seen look pretty amusing though, and you know that Simmons' ego, which is bigger than his platform boots, isn't going to be able to remain intact with teenager children. Seeing him get taken down a few pegs just by being in a domestic setting. (I saw Being Mick. Even Jagger doesn't get to play rock god with his family.) However, I mostly think this show is going to be interesting because the Simmons Family, while unconventional, seems pretty functional. That alone sets it apart from other shows of its kind. I remember some conservatives complaining about The Osbournes, but they should be far more concerned about a show like this. Here we have a rock star and a former playmate who have never wed and aren't even monogymous raising two well adjusted, intelligent and apparently very un-Osbourne-like children. That's pretty subversive stuff when you think about it.

On a somewhat related topic, the newest Entertainment Weekly had a small feature on Gene Simmons' past television roles. While that was amusing, and I welcome any mention of KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park and the bizarre casting choice for Ace Frehley's body double (too bad they didn't work in a mention the fact that that wasn't even Peter Criss' voice), it's a shame it was limited to television. I can't be the only person who wants to talk about Wanted: Dead or Alive, where Rutger Hauer memorably shoved a live grenade in Gene Simmons' mouth. That was good stuff right there. Man I miss the 80s.

By the way, if you didn't figure it out, this whole post was just a flimsy excuse to mention an almost twenty-year-old Rutger Hauer movie. Why would I do such a thing? Because I am at work and have nothing to do and no supervision, thereby eliminating the need to pretend like I am doing work. Also, it's always a good time to mention Rutger Hauer. I would do a whole blog entry on him, but quite frankly I can't remember much about his films besides little details like shoving a grenade in Gene Simmons' mouth. Good times.

For the Honor of Grayskull!

I am SHE-RA!

Not really, but it would be so cool if I was. For one thing, I would not be suffering the physical effects of helping my friend move yesterday. However, I did just finish watching the Best of She-Ra DVDs. After all these years, my memory of the show was a bit fuzzy. I mostly just remembered the basic story and how much I loved the show. I was a little afraid that it wouldn't hold up, but it turns out there was no reason to be afraid. Sure the style was very different from what we are used to now, even in cartoons, but it was like reading a comic book from the 80s, different but still good.

Overall, the show is still really strong. She-Ra and her alter ego Adora are wonderful characters, every bit the equal of their male counterparts, He-Man and Adam. Actually, Adam could be really insufferable, while Adora was always intelligent and capable. As, J. Michael Stracznski (former She-Ra writer, creator of Babylon 5 and current writer of Amazing Spider-Man as well as several other comic books) notes in the documentary on disc 2, when Adora becomes She-Ra, she becomes even more of who she really is. Embracing her power allows Adora to become more confident and bold. This is illustrated in the episode "The Stone in the Sword," my favorite episode on the disc (and the only one that doesn't feature and characters from He-Man). In this episode, the stone in the sword (hence the title) cracks during battle and Adora loses her ability to turn into She-Ra. In order to save Bow (the show's damsel in distress was naturally a guy), Adora must get the crystal repaired by journeying to the top of Sky Dancer Mountain and down into the Etherian Underworld without becoming She-Ra. She proves that she is worthy of becoming She-Ra and the stone is repaired. That is why she is such a great role model. Also, she kicks ass. The importance of that cannot be underestimated.

On The Secret of the Sword audio commentary and in the documentary, it is mentioned that Etheria was set up with the evil Horde in control as a reaction to Eternia, where the good guys ruled. In short, He-Man works for The Man, while She-Ra is a rebel. It makes sense that they wouldn't want to be telling the same story on both shows, but it also works as an unintentional feminist statement. The rebels, most of the regularly recurring supporting characters being women, are trying to regain power that was taken from them by the evil Horde, lead by the male Hordak. Sure Hordak had several henchwomen, but it's not like there aren't any anti-feminist women. At the end of The Secret of the Sword, She-Ra, He-Man, and the rebel army even restore a woman, Queen Angela, to the thrown of the Kingdom of Bright Moon. I knew this show had to be the root of my feminist beliefs. Thanks, Filmation! Filmation gets bonus feminism points for employing the first ever female director for animation, Gwen Wetzler. It's fitting that she would work on a show that was all about empowering girls. Rock on, Gwen Wetzler!

I am happy to say that my love for She-Ra has been re-ignited. I cannot wait for the full season DVDs to come out. I never bought the He-Man DVDs because they are far too expensive, but She-Ra is worth it. She is the first of many kick ass female action heroes that I love.