It was before my time, probably came out after Jonny Quest. What's missing from this intro is the voice over that introduces the family and adds the tag line at the end "All Mighty! All Strong! All Brave!". Cool. I find this show fascinating. One of the reasons: the humans call each other by their first names. No "Dad", "Mom" or "Jr." The first couple of times I watched it I had no idea they were a family. The kid is talking to his father like " Zandar, look out behind you". Weeird. I like little Jonny Quest better
Plus, I don't think the family lives in a house because I never see them in it. The show always starts off with an alien invasion.I think they might live in a treehouse.But I only saw it once. Maybe they're nomads and draw up a tent every night. Also--where are the other humans on the planet? These poor homeless warriors defend their planet every week, and no one is around to thank them. Maybe they are the only humans on the planet? If that's the case, then they're a@##holes. Plenty of room for everybody.
This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night!
I do like the trippy backgrounds. It is a weird looking planet.
Holy cats getting on to the blog is frustrating. Things that I have learned : Google is the product of Satan.
Anyway, just finished watching this series on BBC America and also from some tapes a friend gave me. Wow, another "cop drama with a twist" that I watched this year that I really enjoyed. The first was Dexter, and I think these two shows are the best dramas I've seen this year.
When it first aired on BBC America, I gave it a pass. I think it had to do with that it came out around the same time they introduced Hex--and that is a horrible show. But it stars John Simms who will be a major player in Season 3 of Doctor Who, and I heard great things about Life on Mars, and that there was an attempt to do an American version of it-- so I gave it a shot.
It's hard to describe it. It would probably turn most people off, maybe coming off as silly. Detective Sam Tyler gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973.The show follows him as he struggles to work in a very un-PC, corrupt police department. Lacking in modern forensics, computers, and mobiles phones also add to Sam's frustrations. They bring up the question of 'if he went back in time' or is his 1973 world all part of the coma that he is in back in 2006. I'm pretty sure it's from the coma because the men he has to work with , even though they are the most offensive cops around, are made from the cheesy stuff on tv and movies that we watched growing up. His supervisor Gene Hunt has the DNA of Starsky & Hutch, Charles Bronson, and a good dose Quentin Tarantino.Maybe Gene is named after Gene Hackman aka Popeye Doyle of the French Connection movies. They even throw in some Starsky & Hutch gags, by having Gene knock over some trash cans when he pulls his car up.
One of my favorite things about Sam's relationship with his fellow detectives is that they never successfully get a "buddy cop" vibe pairing that you would expect in most action cop shows. Sam & the guys constantly bitch and fight the whole time.There's tension in every episode. I loved that.
Gene had the best line to Sam: " I'll listen to the snot in my hanky before I'll start listening to you"
That is a great line.
I also like the Prisoner type feel whenever they focus on the issue of Sam being in a coma. He picks up conversations broadcasted through his tv or radio of his doctors and his loved ones talking about his condition. It's creepy and also deeply affecting because it's torturous for Sam. He doesn't know how to wake up. Is there a secret he must face, a truth made known, or some atonement that has to be done that will finally let him wake up.
Really, there is a lot of good stuff going on here. Part cheesy detective show, and part fantasy all hitting the right notes. Unlike Robin Hood where it can't quite balance its cheese factor. This does.
If they still progress with a US version, please, please drop it on Tarantino's desk. I think he's the only one who could handle the tone of this. I've seen his CSI work, he could do it.
p.s. to add: The soundtrack! David Bowie, the Who, Elton John, The Young Rascals, Paul McCartney. Great music, it really adds a cool touch.
I've been on a cartoon streak lately now that I have Boomerang. At night they play Johnny Quest, the Herculoids [ that will be next post] and last night it was my beloved Thundarr.
I'll say it right now:
Thundarr is way better than He-man, yo.
Reasons: 1. It's freakin' post-apocalyptic Earth! Mad Max for kids! When I was a kid, I thought that was pretty disturbing, imagining civilization turning out like that. Now I can't wait for global warming to turn our animals into a giant master race. Yeah!
2. Ookla. He's really like Chewbacca, only he sounds pissed off all the time. Plus he's got a cool looking horse creature.
Saw Hot Fuzz earlier this week. The big question: Is it better than Shaun of the Dead? Answer: No. But wait, it didn't suck. In fact it was very enjoyable, and the third act of the film had the same high energy fun that Tarantino's Deathproof had.
The problem was long middle act. I felt that they should have trimmed some repeating gags. Also the murder mystery plot felt a bit overloaded. But I forgave them when the final act got rolling and all the Hollywood cop movie cliches came together. I had a blast when finally, " The s*** just got real!"
Anyway I'd take this film over "Delta Farce" any day. Saw the trailer for that. Yikes.
Also, Simon Pegg is a really good actor. He's a great comic talent but he can also do soft dramatic scenes that many comedians have trouble with. I really felt bad for him when he was miserable in the little English town surrounded by the dumbs***s.
I finished watching the rest of this series over the weekend. What a remarkable show. Every episode I find myself rooting for Dexter. Hoping that no one becomes suspicious of him, waiting for him to catch the villain, and then I stop and realize that I'm rooting for a serial killer.
This show did such a good job of hooking me in quickly. Dexter is a guy who was orphaned at the age of three, a witness to a grisly crime. He gets adopted by the cop who found him and the smart cop discovered that his little warped Dexter was on his way to growing up to be a killer. So throughout the whole season we flashback quite a bit to see the unique father and son "bonding". Not really bonding, more like lessons. Officer dad is almost like Dr.Frankenstein. He instructs Dexter on how to blend in and act normal. If he has to kill then kill the murderers the cops try to catch.
Now the adult Dexter is working in forensics with the Miami police force, where his sister works as a cop- just like dear ol' dad. The season kicked off with a story arc about the gruesome Ice Pick Killer. The scenes are pretty nasty and to hear Dexter's narration of it as something of a "work of art" over these things is pretty disturbing stuff. At first I was uncomfortable about the show's subject matter. Serial Killer as the lead? But it quickly went away and a lot had to do with Dexter's relationship with his girlfriend Rita and her two kids. It's actually a very believable relationship thanks to Julie Benz [Darla!]. She pulls off emotionally fragile very well. I hope Rita never finds out what Dexter is really is, and I hope Dexter keeps "pretending to be normal' . Living that code that his father instilled in him.
For a show like this, of course the humor is gonna be daaaark. There's a wonderful bit where Dex is slinking around a shipyard stalking his prey. In the middle of his narration, he suddenly wants to plan a family type trip : " I wonder if Rita and kids will like fishing?...FOCUS!" But my favorite bit is Det. Doakes, the only guy in the entire police force who has the correct cop 'gut instincts' and gets creeped out by Dexter. So every other line from his mouth is "Shut up you f***n weirdo" or "where's my report you f***n creep". He's great.
I hear it will be on dvd by August, and I think I'll be adding another series to my dvd collection.
Instead of seeing Hot Fuzz this past weekend, a group of us saw Spidey. By the way I owe $ for the ticket and forgot to bring Devo's birthday present. Happy Birthday Johnny D! From "Cheap Skate" Keegs
Anyway, I heard about the negative buzz this latest one is getting and I can't be on board with those disgruntled fans.I think I'm too much of a sucker for the Raimi & Maguire combination. If the movie was about Peter Parker delivering pizzas, I'd still watch it. Although, to be honest, there were areas that could have been tweaked a little more. A plot point trimmed, a villain introduced a little earlier. Yada, yada. But I'm not a hardcore fan. I was there to have a good time and I did. Even though it was packed and some stupid kid in the row in front me was reading his %@#$ text messages throughout the whole film. That ignoramus with no attention span probably hated it.
So good fun film for me. James Franco [Harry] was definitely a highlight and had the best line:
Read that they are making a movie based on Clive Owen's series Second Sight. From imdb.com: "Second Sight, a popular BBC detective series about a detective feverishly attempting to solve a murder after learning that he is going blind -- and trying to hide that fact from his superiors -- may be made into a theatrical movie by Universal."
Steven Bochco made a terrible version of a 'blind cop' show on ABC a couple years ago. Man, that stunk.
