Essentially, King sold the rights for The Dark Tower series to JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof for $19. Yep, that’s right nineteen bucks. Damon expresses that this will probably happen after LOST wraps. It’s an exciting proposition. I think Abrams and Lindelof can do a good job. Roland’s story is such a complex tale and I think if anyone can do it, these guys can.
I am currently reading the last book book now (I took a break to read Watchmen). I’ve been a fan of this group of stories since the came out and I for one, am very excited about this development. I’ll continue to dig up some info and post any developments.
Look, I don’t have as much ire for the Microsoft ads starring Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates than everybody else seems to. I did get a chuckle out of them. If taken a face value (and in a world where Justin Long and John Hodgman don’t exist), they were OK. Not $10 million OK, and not kick off a $300 million campaign OK..just OK.
Trying an image campaign like this is tough. Apple has succeeded in making Windows Vista look like a pathetic mess through its MAC/PC ads. Curiously enough though – Microsoft Office seems to fair pretty well in image from those commercials. This campaign is obviously trying to play on the hipness of the MAC/PC campaign, but it just can’t match it. When it comes to marketing Apple has always been the lead horse – ever since the 1984 ad, they haven’t stopped (They couldn’t, their market share was so small relatively – and still is – that they needed to separate themselves to survive). I am sure Cesar or Jason (my Windoze-using fellow iconogeeks) will chime in here about the virtues of Windoze, but me and Brett (my fellow MAC-using iconogeek) know the truth…if you use a Mac, you’re just, well, “cooler.”
Trying to make Microsoft look hip by admitting it is out-of-touch with real people just makes it seem desperate. Microsoft is an enormous company with tons of bad-will over the past years and to get past that by dropping Seinfeld in the mix just doesn’t make sense. The fact that Microsoft pulled the ads and is now laying some bullshit about an intended “teaser campaign” is ridiculous. They yanked them because they aren’t working. It doesn’t matter if I felt they were kinda clever, the bottom line is that they didn’t work, and they won’t work. Maybe Microsoft should just concentrate on releasing an OS that doesn’t suck, instead of dropping $10 million on a latex salesman.
So last night was the premiere of Fox’s new JJ Abrams’-produced “Fringe”. I’ll start by saying that Fringe is like a cross between X-Files, Lost, and 24. Allow me to expand on that statement.
Fringe is like X-Files because of it’s basic premise. Crazy things are happening and it’s up to a wiley boy/girl team to get to the bottom of all the craziness. You have your stiff, enigmatic government suit who is in charge, some interesting side characters, but truly the focus here is on Anna Torv’s “Olivia Dunham” and Joshua Jackson’s “Peter Bishop.” Olivia is the FBI Agent who doesn’t believe but really does. Bishop is the skeptic scientist. Oh yeah, and the whole conspiracy theory stuff.
Fringe is not like X-Files because of it’s basic acceptance of these strange things. Where the X-Files showed you the baddies and crazy things, essentially Mulder was the only one that saw this stuff. Even when Scully was getting abducted, she still held fast to disbelief. This show goes for the gusty and puts it all out there – melting people? Check. Bad guy with a motive? Check. Interesting twist? Check. Continued intrigue? check. Everybody sees they crazy stuff? Check. The basic idea here is wrapped around science, no aliens here and I like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hanso makes an appearance.
Fringe is like LOST because of JJ Abram’s and his amazing storytelling sensibilities. Abrams certainly comes from the Joss Whedon school of tough female leads and I like that. All of his heroines are believable and multi-faceted (Kate and Sydney anyone?). Fringe shares a common soundtrack with LOST especially on the outros to a break. The crescendo of dissonance is a welcome reminder that this show is really not all in your face…you do need to look deeper (if you dare Muuuhhahawahawhhwhwhaaa).
Fringe is not like LOST because it wrapped up the first story in the Premiere! Seriously, a nice complete, contained story with a lead-in to a larger enjoyable story arc. Good thing too, because I think my brain only has room for one LOST right now, and I’m still recuperating from last season.
Fringe is like 24 because it’s heroine will do anything to save the people she loves. I mean…well you’ll see, if you didn’t catch the Premiere, Fox is airing an encore (check your local listings). Just like when Jack Bauer gets in all sorts of insane situations (torture, etc.) Olivia jumps into dangerous situations no questions asked (or very little for that matter) – It’s Bishop that is the voice of reason.
Fringe is not like 24 because right now it doesn’t suck. Ever since they killed off Dennis Haysbert’s Palmer, I was done.
In the end, I enjoyed Fringe, it provided a welcome escape from a stressful day and gave me enough thrills and homages to keep me entertained. A couple notable items:
The titles They are beautiful. Amazingly rendered and placed into the scene so as to become a character. I kept looking (upon location change) for how they where going to do them next. Excellent.
John Noble
As the crazy Dr. Walter Bishop, he’s Dr. Emmet Brown, CSM, and Jeffrey Goines all rolled into one.
My only gripe with the Premiere is that by the end of it, the characters where a little too neat and wrapped up. I know they want to get the stories moving, but I would have liked to see a little more strife, it was a little bit predictable.
On a whole, I’m going to give the Premiere of Fringe a 7. I think it was a solid opener with some complicated plot points, but all-in-all, I think they pulled it off. I’ve set a season pass on TiVo and I will continue to watch.
I stumbled across this new Stephen King 25 episode web-based series. Just watched the first 5 installments (all that’s there). So far, pretty good. Great art, it’s done in a graphic novel feel with still plates and limited animation. But with a very high quality voice over.
Seriously, if you haven’t been watching Burn Notice, now’s the time to get on board. In its second season, this USA series is light, fun and action packed. Kind of like a cross between MacGyver, the A-Team, and Magnum PI the show features Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Weston, a covert operative burned by the CIA. Left out in the field, with no resources, his accounts frozen and dumped in Miami (his hometown) Michael has nothing but his wits and a few friends to get his life back on track. Michael is a classic hero-type, trying to solve the puzzle of his burn notice, while helping out Joe Average with his worse-than-average-problems.
The show delivers a lot of heart, great stories and humor with an excellent cast that reads right out of the nostalgia fanbook. First up, Sam Axe played by…wait for it…Bruce Campbell, a boozing, philandering ex-seal. He’s the trustee side-kick and confidant. The girlfriend, played deliciously by Gabrielle Anwar (“Things to do in Denver when your dead”, and the cancelled-too-soon “John Doe”) is tough, sexy, smart, and tough. She’s the on again, off again flame and all-around goto girl.
Sharon Gless shows up as Michael’s chain-smoking, neurotic, psycho-somatic mother. Excellent job, and it’s great to see a veteran actress of Gless’s caliber on the screen again.
The thing I really like about this show is that it is total escapism. It’s a great balance for LOST with all it’s heady intrigue and mystery. Burn Notice allows you to jump in at any time, and enjoy the ride. Much like X-Files, it has a longer running mythology (why was Michael burned, who did it, what do they want him for) with episode long stories that start, fulfill and end satisfyingly. The show has a great visual style with some touches of Guy Ritchie thrown in (but not too much) and all those great whooshing sound effects to keep it fun. Oh and Jeffrey Donovan’s cheeky, dead-pan VO lends great exposition without being corny.
Oh and for those of you STILL not interested, Tricia Helfer has made a cameo as one of the Burners (maybe 2nd in command?). Not sure what side of her bread is buttered, but judging by the hoops she’s had Michael jump through, it can’t be the good side.
All-in-all I’ll give this show a solid 8. Real good TV.
Finally, Hollywood has thrown us weary fans a frickin’ bone and apparently decided to green light a big screen version of Fox’s short-lived phenomenon that was Arrested Development. IMDb.com has it set to release in 2009, and with the writer’s strike over, I think this is a possibility.If this flick turns out to be half as good as season 2 of the show, I’ll be satisfied. For a show that was so short lived, I have supreme confidence in presenting a list of past/present comedies that AD is better than.1. Friends 2. Will & Grace 3. Everybody Loves Raymond 4. How I Met Your Mother 5. Family Guy .That’s right, I said Friends, watch the show and you’ll be looking forward to the movie as much as I am.
OK, I’ll post more later after I re-watch the episode, but it was damn cool. I gotta say, I feel satisfied with the episode. I’m not chomping at the bit for next season because I really just want to mull over EVERYTHING for the next couple of months and get prepared. They gave SO much info it’s a bit overwhelming.
****** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***********
First tidbit: the call that Kate received was backwards. Here’s the reversed audio.
Dharma’s doing space/time experiments – I’m curious to read timelooptheory.com‘ s take on the new space/time info and so should you.
Michael is dead. Jacob’s emissary (Christian) tells Michael he “can go now.” This does not mean, “get off the boat,” it means he is no longer in service of the island, he is released to do what he came there to do…die.
F’you, Jin is still alive.
I must say again. Ben Linus is the man. So over on Dube’s blog she theorizes that Ben moved the island forward in TIME, not space about 3 years. I think I agree with the time thing, but not the 3 years. Does anyone (Cesar) have info on when Ben appeared in the desert? Also, Ben took out a special forces guy. Come on seriously…he’s badass.
OK, more later, too much to think about. Oh yeah, this ep gets a 10. No question. Cliffhangers, answers, questions…all good.
So the latest episode of LOST, “No place like home, pt1″ was quite excellent. But I’m not here to talk about the show so much as I am about the writers. We see the Oceanic 6 get off the island. I mean really get off the island.
So what?
That’s right, I said it. But not how you think. I say “So What?” because the storytelling on this show is so amazing, that I now don’t care about them getting off the island. I’ve known they get off the island since last season, but that is now NOT the focus. The writers have deftly switched us to care more about them getting BACK to the island.
The island has now become a living breathing character on the show (to be fair, I don’t think it actually breathes – live yes, breath no). I know want to see why the six got off the island and why it’s only them. Where’s Jin? What’s up with Swayer? Is the island OK? etc.
Some highlights:
Keemey is sooo gonna regret “capturing” Ben
LOVED the return of the numbers on the camaro’s odometer. LOVED it.
Jack’s revelation about Aaron and Clair
Sun kicks ass – to stand up to her Dad like that, awesome. BTW Jin isn’t dead, it’s still a front. There is a VERY good reason why they can’t tell anyone about the other passenger’s. A reason yet to be revealed.
Yep, Claire’s dead. It all started when the mercenaries bombed the Other’s camp.
“But Chuck, she can’t be dead. She’s all talkin’ and breathin’.”
You say defiantly.
“Sawyer found here, lifted her up and brought her back. She just had headache.” you smugly say.
Well, yes that’s true, but riddle me this… why is she with Jack’s (her) dad in Jacob’s cabin all chummy (Christian’s avatar sure was never chummy with Jack on the island). Why would Christian tell Locke “It’s best you don’t tell anyone about her.” Why? I’ll tell you why…
Because she’s dead.
The headache was a symptom of a fatal head trauma that took several hours to kill her. She died in her sleep. What Miles saw was her Island reinforced spirit/soul/avatar walking away. She is now an agent of the Island, in it’s service. Locke has no idea that Claire is Christian’s daughter, so why would he see the two of them together? Why? I’ll tell you why…
Because she’s dead.
This is the reason why Claire is not one of the Oceanic 6, It would have been paramount to the survivors to get Claire and the baby off the island. But why wasn’t Claire one of the 6? Why? I’ll tell you why…
OK, the latest episode of LOST (“Something nice back home”) had a ton of stuff in it, but I’m going to concentrate on Jack for this post. First of all, what the hell is wrong with this guy? He can’t be happy unless there is something to fix. This has been a running personality trait since the beginning of the show. However, in the flash-forward, he completely sabotages his happy life. Did you notice it happened the second he told Hurley he was happy? And what was his next move? Of course it was to ask Kate to marry him! This character is nothing if not true to type.
Jack is in an unending loop of Tragedy…Fix Tragedy… Be Happy…Sabotage Happiness…Tragedy…well, you get the idea.
Okay, first…Aaron. When he tells Kate “You aren’t even related to him” it was said in a way that the next line could have been “but I am, I’m his Uncle!” I think they know. What do you think?
Second, let’s discuss the Appendix issue. Since I am a firm believer that NOTHING is a coincidence on this show, it is no accident that it was Jack’s appendix that became an issue. The appendix has no apparent function in the human body except to become infected, burst an spew toxins and waste into the human body. Jack’s appendix is a literal allegory to what’s happening with him. He can’t control his surroundings, everything is coming crashing down, and he’s realizing he can’t save everyone – so what happens? His body begins to process the bad and needs to get rid of it, but since he has an inability to ask for help, there’s nowhere for this stuff to go…but to his appendix.
My theory is that while people don’t get sick on the island – the island is trying to purge Jack of his idea of rescue. It is becoming increasingly evident that these people are meant to be on the island. And that the island will do what it needs to do to keep them there.
OK, so let’s talk about the Flash-forward. Jack is shirtless. Why? He’s never been shirtless on the show before, Sawyer handles the beefcake, not Jack. So why? Since, coincidences are not option, my guess is they want us to see that Jack does not have an appendectomy scar. Now he would have healed just fine (Island physics), but would he heal scar-less? I don’t think so. So that being said, is Hurley right, are they dead? I doubt it, but Jack is seeing his dad, and so is Claire…and so is Myles. Yes, Myles…these are not hallucinations, they are manifestations.
The island wants Jack back, and this is the beginning of his decent into madness as we can see by his drinking binge.
Overall I liked the episode, good stuff for the future, good reveals, in the grand scheme of the show, I give it an 8.
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On a whole, I’m going to give the Premiere of Fringe a 7. I think it was a solid opener with some complicated plot points, but all-in-all, I think they pulled it off. I’ve set a season pass on TiVo and I will continue to watch.
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