fandomonium

And we’re back! For all the right reasons!

mira — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:33:33 +0000

Good news for fans of FANDOMONIUM:

I will probably never be able to afford my last semester of college, so you’re going to see a huge increase in blog posts, which will probably get more and more manic and desperate as my job search continues. Hooray for new content!

Bad news for fans of FANDOMONIUM:

I really like The Bachelorette. I mean, I REALLY like The Bachelorette. A lot. I look forward to Monday nights like Christmas morning. More, actually, because at least on Monday nights my family doesn’t gather to speculate about whether I’m anorexic. So, sorry guys, I’ll eventually get to why X-Men: First Class is my favorite movie ever, but first…a detour.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into a ton of detail here. There’s a new episode tomorrow, and plenty’s been said about Jeff’s mask and Bentley’s….I don’t even know. I just wanted to talk about William, who somehow won me over by crashing and burning spectacularly on national television. I think he summed it up best himself when he stared balefully into the camera and said, “I’m an idiot.”

From his sweetly pitiful belief that the Bachelorette Roast would somehow rocket him to stand up comedy stardom, to his misguided and undeniably cruel string of unfunny cracks at Ashley’s expense, watching William obliviously knock himself out of the running went way beyond hard to watch. And I pretty much figured that was that – no way was this clown getting a rose after that trainwreck. But here’s the thing… he stopped spouting off cocky bullshit for long enough to realize what a jerk he was being, and then he actually had the decency to feel bad about it. Really bad. So bad that he actually got choked up and ran off to berate himself in… various stairwells and entryways around town (because it’s still The Bachelorette).

Hey, I don’t know. Maybe I’m as bad a judge of character as Ashley (who fell for the biggest asshole on this show in like, 10 minutes even though she’d been warned about him) but I like William. He recognizes his mistakes! He feels remorse! And okay, so he thinks he’s going to find true love on The Bachelorette, but we all have our delusions.

Just look at his face when Ashley gave him the final rose of the night:

Now, that is the face of a guy who ~~has learned something.~~ gets to be on TV again next week.

Any Bachelorette fans out there? Who are you rooting for? If your answer isn’t “JP, because he is the sweetest and most adorable human on the planet,” then there’s probably something wrong with you. Am I right?

Tagged: reality TV, The Bachelorette

Please be my new favorite show, Grimm.

mira — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:36:38 +0000

It’s that time of year again, lovelies. The very special time when all of the networks buy a bunch of pilots, and some of them sound really great, and I get my hopes WAY UP, and then most of them I never hear about again, and a handful I do, and then they BREAK MY HEART. I’m talking to you AGAIN, Undercovers. You are my Fredo. (That’s a little Godfather humor for you.)

This season, NBC’s ordered a pilot called Grimm, and I can already tell I’m going to be crying over it someday, for one reason or another. According to EW, it’s a “dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales exist.” Not only does that sound awesome all on its own, but the creative team behind it includes Jim Kouf (Angel) and David Greenwalt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), so I’m gonna go ahead and put all of my eggs in Grimm‘s basket. Oh yes.

I know what you’re thinking.

It probably won’t even get picked up. And if it is, it’ll be a disappointment. Or worse, it’ll be the best new show on television that no one watches for about 9 episodes. You know what, I don’t even care. I’m very very excited. This is going to be the best pilot season ever! Right?

Right?

Tagged: Angel, Buffy, Grimm, NBC, pilot

Whatever guys, this is totally relevant.

mira — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:32:33 +0000

If you’ve talked to me for, let’s say…ten seconds out of the past two months, you know that I’ve been having a nonstop Boxleitnerpalooza ever since I watched TRON (1982) on a whim in early December. I went on to watch TRON a billion more times, and then TRON: Legacy, and then Babylon 5 (which I’ll probably be ready to ramble about in a week or two, once I’m done weeping bitterly), and THEN, during a spree of Bruce Boxleitner YouTube Comic-Con video watching (shut up, that’s a thing), I found THIS:

And I thought to myself, what the heck is Scarecrow and Mrs. King? Gee, that show must have been terrible/cancelled after nine episodes, because I have never heard of it. So I did a little more YouTubing, and I was wrong, I was wrong, I was so very wrong. This show is my new favorite thing. I will tell you why.

Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983-1987) was a 60 min. spy show on CBS, starring Bruce Boxleitner and Kate Jackson. Boxleitner plays Lee Stetson (code name: Scarecrow), an intelligence agent who frequently works on cases (often against his better judgement) with housewife and single mother Amanda King (Jackson). Amanda’s a sort-of accidental spy born out of the agency’s constant need for a suburban housewife who can “blend in.” Yes. It ran for four seasons (89 episodes) and directly influenced contemporary shows like Castle and Bones. It’s a classic “will they won’t they,” with a fair amount of silliness and hilarity, and so much gorgeous 80s hair. If you’re not already convinced, here are a few notable plot lines to tickle your fancy:

Amanda is kidnapped by a “white slavery ring” and Lee has to save her, while searching for a missing microdot chip.
Lee gets shot, and Amanda has to take care of him, in a cabin in the woods, on Christmas Eve. Oh yes.
Amanda and Lee go undercover on a “Wedding Cruise” while searching for a missing informant, and have to get married or risk breaking cover.
A vindictive parolee hires a look-alike to impersonate Amanda and kill off agents – and Lee is next on the list.

Boxleitner and Jackson have incredible chemistry, and watching Lee and Amanda get each other out of sticky situations while grudgingly and adorably growing to admire one another is endlessly charming. Other reasons to watch:

Kate Jackson co-produced the show, and is listed first in the credits. She’s also Emmy nominated for her performance.
Kate Jackson is gorgeous and hilarious.
International episodes are filmed on location in London, Munich, Salzberg, Rome, etc. (Take note, Undercovers.)
Amanda’s escalating lies about where she’s been.
Amanda’s mom and kids going camping every single weekend.
Whatever guy Lee is investigating immediately hitting on Amanda at parties. (Lee trying to look like he’s not pouting.)
Amanda showing up at the agency in Cub Scout and baseball outfits on the way to her sons’ after school activities.
Lee’s evolving delivery of the oft-used phrase, “Oh, Amanda.”
Lee jumping on the hoods of moving cars.
Lee appearing in Amanda’s kitchen window.
Lee’s disguises.
Lee kissing Amanda’s hand.
Lee.

Now, unfortunately, only the first season is out on DVD. If you want to watch seasons 2-4 you have to get a little…um…creative. But season two is being released on March 11th, 2011, so now’s the time to buy/Netflix season one and get caught up. Believe me, you need this show in your life.

Extras:

Check out this spectacular Scarecrow and Mrs. King fan forum.
Here’s SMK Cooks! A site with recipes inspired by the show, so that’s awesome.
There are several fan-written virtual seasons online as well, because SMK fans are heroes.
All images are (C)Warner Home Video, y’all.

Tagged: 80s television, Bruce Boxleitner, Kate Jackson, Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Being Human (for Yankees)

Toben Shelby — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:41:46 +0000

I should preface this by putting it out there that I haven’t seen the original BBC version of Being Human. Not one second of it. So while my thoughts on the Syfy adaptation of the show will lack insight into how it compares to the original, there will also be a lack of whining about how one version or the other is clearly superior/inferior. With that out of the way, I thought the debut of Syfy’s Being Human was pretty solid and one of the better new shows I’ve seen so far this midseason.

For those who don’t know, Being Human tells the tale of Aidan (Sam Witwer), Josh (Sam Huntington) and Sally (Meaghan Rath) – a vampire, werewolf and ghost, respectively. They’re roommates and are trying to live relatively normal lives, despite being supernatural creatures. I figured I’d check it out because I’ve been jonesing for something new to latch on to and I’m usually willing to give new shows a chance or two.

After soldiering through the opening voice over (which in general I find to be hit or miss – worked for Veronica Mars; Heroes, not so much), I soon found myself engaged in Being Human’s world. This would probably be due to the show diving right into the thick of things – no origin stories, no time in the normal world. The supernatural is not a novel or foreign concept to TV viewers anymore and there doesn’t need to be a lot of setup or time spent being wowed about vampires, werewolves and ghosts. So I appreciated that we joined the protagonists after they had gotten over the shock of whatever led them to no longer being what they had been.

About halfway through the series premier I was definitely getting a vibe from Being Human much like that of the CW’s Supernatural. The drama and humor mixed nicely, with the show seemingly able to switch fairly easily from one to the other. And overall the show seemed to have above average production values – something that can’t be said of every Syfy show. After checking out some of the crew on imdb, the vibe makes a lot of sense – some of the writers’ previous credits include Supernatural and Reaper, as well as Doctor Who and the original Being Human. So if nothing else, the Yankee version of Being Human has a solid pedigree.

I found the acting on the show to be pretty good as well – nothing spectacular, but nothing underwhelming. Some other reviews seem to have singled out Rath’s character as the weak link, but having only seen one episode (one half of the premier) it’s too soon for me to say. I definitely feel Witwer and Huntington worked better, but that could just be a result of them having way more screen time than Rath and thus more time for the viewer to get used to them. It was very easy to buy the two male leads as pretty good friends trying to watch out for each other. Special props to Huntington for mastering the ‘oh crap’ look in a vital scene toward the end of the episode that put a knot in my stomach.

Also – Mark Pellegrino. That guy seems to be ubiquitous, showing up on some of my favorite shows over the past several years: Lost, Dexter and Supernatural. He plays a vampire looking to get Aidan back into the fold and totally nails the bad guy role. Pellegrino does creepy well, but he’s not over the top, and he adds enough humanity and emotion to make him believable as someone who’s up to no good, but still cares about the protagonist.

I don’t know where Being Human is going (another perk of having not seen the original), but it’s a show I’ll be following for the season. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, but I don’t think its faults are deal breakers and it’s a much more well-rounded show so far than many other of the new midseason offerings. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but it certainly handles vampires and werewolves better than certain book/film franchises that shall not be named.

A quick final note – if you’re thinking of checking out Being Human, avoid the end of show preview (something I need to start doing for all shows). The preview I saw completely gave away some major plot points that had been left up in the air by the premiere. Thanks for that Syfy…

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Like what you hear? Parts 1 and 2 of Syfy’s Being Human premiere are streaming here, at syfy.com!
Images (c)2010, Syfy.

Toben Shelby is a freelance writer at times. He co-hosts and produces Spoiler Alert, a radio show that discusses movies, games, TV, comics and more. It streams live online most Thursday nights on http://kruaradio.org from 8-10 p.m. PST. He also usually writes stuff like this late at night and hopes you excuse any lack of flow or proper sentence structure…twitter.com/spoileralertak

Tagged: Being Human, guest blog, Syfy, TV

“LOST” reference in NBC’s “The Cape?”

mira — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:15:17 +0000

Am I crazy, or did that…ah…decorative…light thing in the background during the Pilot episode of The Cape look a lot like the Oceanic Airlines logo? Oceanic has made appearances in everything from Alias and FlashForward (obviously) to Buffy (the comic) and Chuck. I don’t think it’s completely outside the realm of possibility.

I don’t know, thoughts?

Tagged: LOST, Oceanic Airlines, The Cape