That kicked butt in a small, quiet but incredibly cool way! I really hope that it makes it, but in these days of flash in the pan series that have tremendous potential we'll always have dvd. Having said that, if handled properly this could do very well.

I'm sure the "evolution" message will bother some folks, but it's a comic staple. The powers are handled well considering that they don't have the budget to do flashy. The "villain" is definitely menacing. I love that Hiro "gets" it, but I love more that there are characters that don't want this power.

I really want to know what Niki's power is (some kind of duplication?) Definintely tuning in next week.

Well I'm still totally into it. I'm guessing Glasses Dude is the super villain. Hiro's jump ahead caught me by surprise, but establishes a nice timeline. Niki's blackouts remind me of Crazy Jane. All in all I'm happy with it. Is it melodrama? Yeah, okay maybe. I really don't care. It's an attempt to put superheroes on the small screen in a "realistic" way. I applaud the attempt and will continue to watch as long as they keep it on the air.

It was good. I say that with a little reservation because there were a few problems I had with it. And regardless of what I said in the spoiler thread I'll save my complaints for the jump.

BBC America's Jekyll came on last night and I enjoyed the crap out of it. James Nesbitt plays Tom Jackman who, we come to find out, has blanks in his memory. Rather than simply being caused by the horror of his realizing that he's not American, it turns out that he becomes this evil, insanely strong and fast psycho with much better fashion sense. He distances himself from his family and hooks up with a really hot psychologist (Michelle Ryan who will be the Bionic Woman) to see if he can control the beast within. Eventually we find out that he's somehow related to the original Dr. Jekyll (who is in this universe real, though that's not widely known) and that the good doctor is a foundling.

This is another of those instances where if we Yanks had done this it would have sucked. We would have added all manner of CGI and Hyde would not have been nearly as scuzzy-cool. And as is the case with a couple of other Brit shows I've seen this is more mini-series than series. There are six episodes and that's that. I've see the first two and can't wait for the rest.

Rumor is that Nesbitt will be playing the next Dr. Who. Also during this show I got to see previews for Torchwood a sort of X-files thing. I'll be checking that out as well.

God bless you cable for bringing BBCA into my home!

Surfing my favorite links site lead to the 50 Greatest Commercials of the '80s which lead me to a search on a long forgotten favorite tv show which lead to the Max Headroom chronicles: H-H-H-Home Page. Looks like we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of what I remember as a cutting edge, darkly-funny tv series that lasted for too short a time. If you have similar fond memories of Max then please browse this site. There ain't much, but there's a lot more than there shoud be given how long this has been off the radar. I need this and Thundarr on DVD stat. And not some crappy bootleg TYVM!

I saw the newest Bourne movie and it was good. It would have been reeeeally nice if i had rented number two first. It's not a must, but it's a good idea.

I caught up on Jekyll on BBCA. I'm not sure if BBCA rawks so much because American TV largely sucks or if it just does because it does. Either way, we win!

We went on a trek to Pilot Mountain. I will post pics tonight.

I rented Hot Fuzz. If you are like me and tend not to make it to some of the awesome movies while they're still in the theater, you should make this a priority rental. It has a fair amount of British swearing, a surprising amount of grue, references Point Break and Bad Boys 2 a number of times, and all of that works in a remarkably hilarious way.

I did manage a short Tech Stew cast, solo this go 'round due to someone else having a social life (and no he didn't call first).

I also managed to make it on The Political Ride though not the Religious one. Next week I'm planning to make it to all three.

Heroes starts tonight at 9:00. I love this show. I would have this show's baby were that possible. It's not without its problems, but I was there every night without fail in season one.

This year there is a problem. Every other Monday I have this thing at church. It lasts until 9:00/9:15. And then there the Political Ride also at 9:00. Now see, the grup thing to do would be to not watch the show as it airs and instead use some sort of 21st century monitoring/recording device to ensure that I get my fix. We'll see how that works out since I don't have such a device.

at being a blogger and NaNoWriMo-er. No writing of any kind this weekend. I'm flying to California on bidness Wednesday and hope to get some writing done at some point between then and Friday when I return. We'll see.

Food for thoughts:

I think Hillary crying sexism is pretty funny, but is she right when she intimates that being sexist in this country is easier than being a racist? I think so.

Olympians won't be able to carry any religious items into the Olympic village in China. I'm not surprised, I'm not even angry. I'm something I'm just not sure what.

The writers strike hurts good shows and helps crap (reality) shows. I'm not a big fan of unions and strikes and in this case I think that if writers are so worried about their monetary future I think that they should be creating it instead of clinging to DVD sales. Still they are in some sense fighting the power and so rock on with your bad selves.

The JLA movie will rawk hard as will Iron Man. Don't pinch me.

Why do people inist on building houses where they know they will burn down/blow away?

TTFN

Apparently Tim Kring hasn't been too happy with Heroes this season. Numbers are dropping and fans are complaining. So he issued an apology via EW. When I love something I tend to overlook problems even the most glaring ones. I don't know that I love Heroes, but I like it a great deal. As such I overlook a number of the issues he says it has, but I do agree with him. Pacing has been slow. I think they should have brought the virus in a little sooner. Claire's love interest sucks. Having said that I disagree with him on two points.

Hiro - I love me some Japanese geek. A lot of non-fans and heck probably some fans don't muchy care for him and find him annoying. I think he adds some heart and some comic relief, both much needed. He's also the geek representative. Some call that "pandering". Fine, whatever, I like him. I flat out love the "historical" Japanese bits. Yeah they shouldn't have made Kensei a gaijin. It's more than a little played and lord knows there's enough Japanese talent out there. Still the Hiro/Princess thing was fun. It ended just as it needed too. Any less and some of the friendship development with Hiro and Kensei would have been lost.

The Newbys - I'm glad they injected some fresh blood. I don't have a problem with how they were introduced. It's the way it should have been done. This is a small enough world what with everyone being related to each other or the old school H's. I had hopes that this would be an all new crew save Hiro to act as a bridge. As it is I hope they keep a couple of the new characters and ditch almost all of the old ones for vol. III.

So I'll keep watching Heroes. It's a good lead in to Journeyman (another flawed, but lovable work). Just tweak things a bit, keep the pace up, and inject some more powers. Once this writers' strike is up I want to see more.

This is a bit of a downer.

NBC let the Dec. 11 deadline pass for it to pick up additional episodes of its low-rated time-travel series Journeyman, in effect canceling the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The network let its option lapse on the 20th Century Fox TV-produced series, which starred Kevin McKidd as a San Francisco journalist who finds himself unstuck in time. The show posted its lowest rating among adults 18-49 on Dec. 10, when an episode aired without its usual Heroes lead-in.

Journeyman was able to complete production on its 13-episode order, despite the writers' strike. The remaining two original segments will air as scheduled in coming weeks.

Still in limbo is NBC freshman SF series Bionic Woman, which has been sliding in the ratings since its premiere. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

Granted it wasn't the strongest show on the airm but I enjoyed it anyway. I suppose that the nice thing is that since I'm not going to be watching much in the way of TV next year I won't be missing future episodes.

Tomorrow would have been Mr. Fred Rogers' 80th birthday. As such it has been designated Won't You Wear A Sweater? Day.

YouTube - Mister Rogers: "Won't You Wear a Sweater?" Day

I didn't really watch Mr. Rogers much as a kid, I was more of an Electric Company fan. Still I'd be a cynical old fart if I didn't acknowledge what that man did and encouraged. Imagination is a HUUUUUGE part of my life and it was key to his life and ministry. Yes I'm almost positive that he viewed what he did as God's work. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister and elected (heh) to work in TV rather than preach.

So, it may be hot where you are, it may not, but consider putting on that sweater, taking a picture of you in it, and thinking of the power of imagination and what it was like to be an innocent kid building worlds with your toys, books, and just maybe a nice man in a cardigan.

RC at Strange Culture is all about getting the blogging community together for group write ups. This time around he wants to look at dads in the media.

My overall impression of dads in most movies and TV these days is that of the dimwitted bumbler. I'll grant you that that's not true of every TV show or movie, but the trend is there and nothing really very new. Homer and Peter jump out at me as being the biggest/most obvious exampled of that phenomenon. Perhaps that's not fair though considering those characters are supposed to be over the top idiots and not representational of fathers as a whole.

So I think to myself, if I were looking at TV and movies of the last five years, who would I want to be sending a Father's Day card to this weekend?

Alan Eppes (Judd Hirsch) of Numb3rs - This no nonsense dad loves and understands his sons. He's smart, well rounded, and knows when to stick his nose in and generally when to stay out.

Joe Dubois (Jake Weber) of Medium - A dad that's this smart and loving on TV? In this day and age that's something to be applauded. He doesn't always love his family well. He is flawed. That's especially true in the most recent season where he has lost his job and reputation is threadbare. He remains true though and tries hard to be a good man.

Travis Gornicke (Jeff Daniels) of RV - The Gornicke clan are the highlight of this movie and they are incredibly down to earth and love each other well. Travis would be a most excellent dad.

Ben Parker (Cliff Robertson) of Spider-Man - Granted Ben is Peter's Uncle but is at the same time a great surrogate father. It's not a role that he's entirely comfortable with. Being a father to a teen when you're retirement age is hard, but he loves Peter and wants to do right by him.

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) of The Pursuit of Happyness - The crushing poverty and defeats that Gardner suffers could have and maybe should have been enough for him to give up. Instead his desire to make a life for him and his son pushes him on. He's far from perfect, but again that love shines through.

I don't ask that fathers in media be perfect. These men all have flaws and that's as it should be. As a father myself though, I need to be able to display the wisdom, love, and ability to sacrifice that these men do. In a sea of mediocrity and ludicrousness, these on screen dads shine.

How about you? Who's your Daddy?