Applications are open until October 11th.
Sadly, my henchmen - Butterball and The Human Chihuahua - are on vacation, and training temps at this late hour is just not a headache I’m willing to take on.
I’ll be interested to see what poser gets the spot that is rightfully mine.
One of the things that surprised me most about Dr. Horrible was the quality of the music. I knew Joss Whedon had written a musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that got great fan reaction, but I’ve never seen it, so I didn’t know how good he and his brother were with music.
These two songs, the finale of act 1 and the start of act 2, are easily my favorites (though I love the first song of act 1 quite a bit as well).
I really think musically, “On the Rise” is probably the best song in the video. The interplay of the characters’ voices and lyrics is fantastic, plus it rapidly sets the tone for act two, which shows exactly what the song says - Dr. Horrible’s evil on the rise. This single video almost makes me believe a musical TV show could succeed (but then I remember “Cop Rock” - and I wonder if the general TV audience would be any more receptive now than in 1990).
Combine that quality music with the humor, and the quality story, and you have an explanation for the attention this internet-only little project has garnered (okay, it doesn’t hurt that Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, and Joss Whedon all have rabid fan-bases).
The thing that might get me to actually buy the DVD when this comes out? Supposedly the commentary is going to be done purely in song. That is just too original of a concept to miss.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along blog
I made a quick mention of this once before after seeing the trailer. I just saw the first act (which was so popular it brought down the servers on its release). This is hilarious.
Joss Whedon's internet-only superhero musical
Go watch this. Seriously. It’s only about 13 minutes. I thought the viewer email section went on a bit long, but it was still funny. It really gets good when the singing starts. Neil Patrick Harris does a great job. I can’t wait for Act II.
Top five shows that shouldn’t have been cancelled - Quit Your Day Job:
Lee came up with a good Friday Top Five this week. What are the 5 best shows that met an untimely end at the hands of the network suits?
1 & 2: This is a tie for me. Firefly and Crusade were both handled horribly by their respective networks (Fox and TNT), and both were aborted before they even had a chance—Crusade was even cancelled before it aired. They also both had overarching story arcs that would have been amazing. Crusade had a 5 year plan (as its parent show, Babylon 5, did) and would have taken an extreme turn in the very next episode after it was cancelled. Firefly didn’t have a set time that I know of, but it had an obviously evolving story with a defined end point. When the follow-up theatrical release, Serenity, came out, it was obvious that it was compressing multiple years worth of episodes into its running time. While the movie was great, it would have been so much more satisfying, and a more fully-realized story, to have it all play out over the course of a few seasons.
3: The 4400. It had a great run on USA Network, but it needed to resolve the story. Everything was heating up for the big reveal, and fans were left hanging. I still haven’t quite accepted that it’s not coming back.
4. Journeyman. The only reason this is #4 instead of a three-way tie for #1 is that they found out early enough that they were being cancelled that they wrote a suitable finale. While there was plenty left to sustain multiple future seasons, they managed to make the last show feel like an ending. Thanks for that, at least. Still, it was cut down way too early - and again, handled very poorly by the NBC suits, who didn’t seem to know what to do with it. In their defense, it had a bit of a slow start, but when it started firing a couple episodes in it was top-notch TV. Easily the best show to run last year.
5. The Dead Zone. This one, again, had a good run on USA Network. But just like The 4400, they were gearing up for the big stuff when they got axed. I appreciate that they were kept on as long as they were, but if the writers could have gotten some advance notice of the cancellation, they could have tied the show up properly - even if it had to be rushed into an episode or two.
Honorable mention: Nowhere Man. We’re re-watching this on DVD now. It’s showing its age a little, but I was hooked on this show during its short original run. Again, cut off way too early, but the writers saw it coming and had time to cram an ending into the last few episodes. It felt rushed, but it was good stuff.
Agree? Disagree? What are your picks? Lee has an almost completely different list, but I’d agree they all should have gone on a little longer (except Seaquest DSV… that one had to go. I cringed when it came on.)
I’ve fallen really behind on posting lately. Given the upcoming holiday there probably won’t be much for the next few days either. But I wanted to quickly throw a few things out there in Sci-Fi and Entertainment news.
Hobbit films (report stolen from Slice of Sci-Fi):
Director Guillermo del Toro told reporters during a Hellboy press junket that his first “The Hobbit” movie will stick strictly to J.R.R. Tolkien’s original “The Hobbit” material, however, the second film will take in a wide range of materials from the Tolkien universe inlcluding many of Tolkien’s own notes.
It will be interesting to see what happens with that second movie. Do we have a screenwriter who can take those notes and other materials and make a script that feels Tolkien-ish?
Doctor Who: Parts 1 and 2 of the season finale were extremely good. Like everyone else, I’m waiting with very little patience for the final installment (I hope the Sci-Fi channel runs it in its entirety when it’s their turn - it’s a super-sized episode at 65 commercial-free minutes). Then I intend to be very annoyed next year when we only get a few specials. I’ll do another review of the season after it’s over.
Batman Begins: Heath Ledger continues to get rave reviews on his Joker portrayal. I hope the movie lives up to the buzz.
Starship Troopers 3: Three? Really? Do we need three of these things? Wasn’t one painful enough? If you really want to see the trailer, it’s out there.
Hancock: Apparently this has a pretty short running time. And it’s getting middling reviews. Apparently the first half is pretty good, but then it falls apart. This is really driving me nuts. The more I see of clips and trailers for this, the more I want to see it, but then I find out it’s short and may not live up to expectations? I don’t know if I can throw my money and time at that. I really want to see it, though… blah.
Star Wars: Clone Wars - The new trailer is out there! It’s a bit moodier than the others. I think I liked Trailer #1 better. Still on the must see list, though.
The Prisoner: AMC is remaking 60’s TV show “The Prisoner” in a 6-part miniseries with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan. Top notch actors, ground-breaking original… I hope it turns out well!
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog: Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, has got himself a nice little humorous project with some familiar faces. Looks intriguing.
And finally…
Bruce Campbell, who “starred” in all three Spider-man movies and my favorite western-sci-fi TV show (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.) - and a few well known cult classics - is coming out with a new film in which he plays himself. Sort of. Looks really good to me…
In case I’m too lazy to blog again before the weekend, have a great Independence Day (unless you happen to live in a non-US location, in which case, have a nice normal weekend.)
(Originally posted Aug 06, 2005 on my older blog)
Sci-fi western with an attitude, and a healthy dose of mystery and character building.
I am catching Firefly on DVD. I didn’t watch more than a few minutes of it when it aired a couple years ago. It didn’t grab me then, but I really didn’t give it a chance. Now that I’m paying attention… this show is pretty impressive.
At first the mixture of “wild west” and science-fiction seemed too reminiscent of other shows (Wild Wild West and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., to be specific), but I’ve been won over by superior writing and an excellent ensemble cast. Plus it has one thing that always sucks me in: an overarching plot.
In this case, that plot is primarily about two of the ships passengers. Simon, the genius doctor who gave up everything to break his sister out of a high security “medical” facility, and his even more genius sister, River, who was being subjected to horrific and torturous experiments (and probably conditioning) at said facility. She has been rendered into an unpredictable enigma, at times docile and scared, and at others violent and uncontrollable. As we learn more, it is becoming clear that the experiments were meant to shape her into something, though I haven’t finished watching the series yet, so I’m not sure what that something is.
The characters’ attitude on the show is mostly “noble theives flying by the seat of their pants” with a bit of Star Wars rebellion thrown in (mostly in the person of Captain Reynolds, who is reminiscent of Han Solo). It’s not only an engrossing story, but it’s fun to watch.
The intent here is not to present a synopsis of the show, though I am tempted, but to simply say this: this is a show worth watching that was canceled unfairly (much like Babylon 5: Crusade). I’m glad the story is getting its chance to be told in the new movie Serenity.
[Update: Hopefully I'll review Serenity at some point. Here's the short version: GREAT FLICK!!!) ]
Comcast ran an “exclusive” interview with Joss Whedon, creator of the scif-fi series, Firefly and it’s follow-up movie, Serenity.
Fans of the series have been talking about a movie trilogy and/or a resurrection of the story on TV, but Whedon set the record straight.
In short: it’s over. And there was never any trilogy.
Here are some relevant quotes (in case the page goes away at some point):
So is the story finished?
The, um, the movie is finished. And the story is told. The world is not finished. There’s more to tell, but that’s always the case with everything I do and whether I get the chance to tell [it] or not it is up to somebody else. So I made sure that this movie had completion and didn’t feel like a glorified prequel. It’s its own piece and it wraps everything up. I have a sense of closure that I never had, and I can walk away satisfied. But if somebody tells me not to walk away, I’ll turn right back around.
There were originally plans to make this a trilogy, right?
No, that’s a myth. The original plan was to just make a movie. Had Universal said that they would like to make a trilogy, I would have said, ‘Huzzah!’ But they were taking a gamble on a movie with no-name actors, a first-time director, a universe that’s damn hard to explain, and a premise that’s the same. It was nothing less than a gamble and bless their hearts for gambling once. They weren’t about to say, ‘Let’s do a three-fer!’
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