Outcasts

The new BBC Sci-Fi miniseries about a human colony on a new planet and the struggle for civilisation. After catching the first episode I really wonder if I can bring myself to watch a second episode. The show is boring aimless and makes little sense at the moment, I know the UK have their own approach to show running but it always helps to drop a little origin or lore in the first episode so we know what the hell is going on. When you watch UK Sci-Fi you are often struggling to wrench the plot from little hints given to you, though to be fair the exposition in some US shows can you make you feel like the writers are treating you like an idiot so perhaps it is a difficult route to follow.

On second thought I really think I will try the next episode just to give it a shot I hope they open up the plot and maybe this time actually include some action of some sort to keep us interested. That is about it from me sorry about the short review.

Sci-fi Saturday

OUTCASTS

So there is a new Sci-Fi offering from the UK coming to our screens. All about humans escaping to a new world after some sort of cataclysmic event on Earth. It even has one of the stars of Battlestar Galactica in it which I think might unfairly lead to comparisons being drawn. I have no expectations about this show and I am happy to give it a chance but the last UK Sci-Fi miniseries I watched “The Deep” was so incredibly boring and slow paced sometimes while watching it I thought I was moving backwards in time.

Still British Sci-Fi isn’t all bad Primeval for one is ok, Hex was fantasy but that come under the broad heading of Sci-fi and at the moment I can’t think of any others though after I press Publish I am sure my mind will start working again.

Collateral – Now I’ve been a Smallville watcher since the beginning back when we just used to call this Dawson’s Creek with powers and I have seen it go through some rough patches. However the return episode after the winter hiatus ‘Collateral’ is something to behold. It is one of the worst episodes of Smallville I have ever had the misfortune of watching not since ‘Noir’ have I wanted to stop an episode while it was being shown.

I know Smallville is on the way out but that is no excuse for this bad Matrix rip off attempt. This is the sort of stuff I expect to check out on YouTube from an up and coming independent film maker group although they were unlikely to get Allison Mack to do some awesome martial arts stuff.

Also we seem to be missing the rest of the members like Star Spangled Girl who we totally ignored. I despise lazy writing if you can’t explain what you did last episode maybe you shouldn’t have written that in the first place. Oh well I will put this episode’s awfulness up to the fact that it is a coming back from a hiatus and my expectations had risen during the break. I am sure the next episode will be a step in the right direction.

THE CAPE FLAPS NO MORE???

NBC are pulling the last 3 episodes of The Cape from production, which by itself does not mean it is cancelled it says everything BUT that by this accident. You can check out the story here thanks goes to @flightwoman who we will be talking about later.

The Cape was the NBC Sci-Fi show that at least us Heroes fan saw as its replacement, well it certainly did not live up to Heroes beater levels. While that show definitely went south after the initial season the Cape started down in the dumps. While watching the show I was never sure whether to take it seriously or not and the storyline chaffs badly.

Summer Glau is just ok in it, I mean it is Summer Glau she is just gorgeous and the sort of woman you like at and in each new scene you find another aspect of her non traditional beauty that you find intensely appealing, her character however is overly simplified but that could be because of the early nature of the show, who knows in the second season we might really get to delve into why she seems to be the daughter of Chess and why he doesn’t recognise her on sight.

Noticed how I just skipped over the so-called star David Lyons it is not entirely his fault but he just doesn’t scream central lead to me and he isn’t helped by the plot, the cape is hard to accept as a superhero device and the interesting physics involved just don’t help matters.

I feel bad that a show like this is being cancelled but in my opinion it doesn’t take a genius to see that this was a bad idea from the beginning. I just hope that this won’t scare away networks from making sci-fi and fantasy programs. Shows like Lost Girl show that good shows can be made without US style budgets.

TWITTER TIME

How did I find out about this it is all thanks to my go to woman for news and entertainment articles @Flightwoman follow her and although your timeline will take a beating from time to time the news stories she brings you will be useful and kind of cool.

Skins and other stuff

So this has been a fairly hyped event the return of Skins easily one of the most identifiably British programs out there and also seemingly one of the best exports of the British TV industry around the world. Don’t believe the hype around Doctor Who it is a good show but nothing sells quite like teenagers drinking, taking drugs and having sex.

I came to Skins pretty late I missed the first class so to speak I just didn’t think it would be for me and the sheer amount of hype just put me off the initial series I remember it was even big on Myspace. Anyway I decided to take a chance on the new group and was pleasantly surprised by the show, that and the fact that the female cast was absolutely gorgeous helped a lot to ensure I made it a regular appointment to catch the series on E4 every week.

Onto the current season and the first episode of the new season. To put it succinctly I didn’t think all that much of it, indeed the most interesting thing I found from it was the fact that Frankie is Dakota Blue Richards who came to the public’s notice when she was named as Lyra Belaqua in the Golden Compass the film adaption of the first book in His Dark Materials.
She has a definite interesting look, pretty but something more than that and I have at least some hope that she and the series will get better.

The first of the Southern Vampire series which most will know as the book series that inspired True Blood. I wasn’t entirely sure about reading the book series after watching the show, I have found in the past the show can somewhat ruin the books if you go in that order as the character development is already fairly set in stone as far as the viewer is concerned. For instance the jarring differences between the Dexter books and TV show took some getting used to but eventually I found that the books offered a more rounded Dexter in my view while also not needing to do the same old will Debra find out his secret thing that drives me nuts while watching the TV show.

The differences between the TV show and the books is intriguing and I think I enjoyed it a lot more as I was prepared somewhat for what to expect and made an effort to dispel all the notions and impressions I have of characters just reducing them to the facts that are unlikely to change, Sookie is a telepath, Sam is a shapeshifter and Jason is a man-whore.

I think I am going to thoroughly enjoy these books though it would be better if my damn snacks would arrive. £5 for delivery which takes a week is just ridiculous and I’m not happy.

You Should Watch This

So I have been adventuring around the world of the Interweb and I have found for you. Obviously I did not do all the work and I link where necessary. Now onto the fun the first thing I will be discussing which is the new HYPE Podcast by Andrew Sims and Ben Schoen. You may know these guys from MuggleCast one of the biggest Harry Potter podcasts in the world. It is a podcast all about pop culture and is definitely worth a listen. I've checked out the first two episodes which leads into the next subject.

There is a lot of... well hype around one Sam Tsui on YouTube



So I chose this as one of the standout performances from this guy. He's already been on Ellen which helped out that kid who did the Paparazzi cover to a record deal so who knows. I for one think he would be awesome in Glee.

And what is this yet another YouTube vid, well yes but it is a good one so give me a little leeway. We all know about lightsaber fights indeed the last one I had cause to watch featured Harry Shum Jr. of Glee fame this video though takes things in a slightly different direction so take a look.



There we go folks that is all for now. Have a good week. I am off to write a story based on a dream.

Lucky Me

Wow so this has been an interesting week all in all although it is not hard to be interesting compared to my average weekly schedule. Only two bits of good luck to share but those two outshine anything else that has recently been overly positive that has come my way. First thing's first while walking to the corner store to reup my electricty supply I reached into the pockets of my coat and began sifting through various receipts and other useless pieces of paper checking them as I went so I could just throw them in the bin outside the store. To my surprise in my investigation I pulled out a £10 from the pocket, which may not seem like much but when you had been living the previous 3 or 4 days without even spending a pound a day outside of the already paid bills can mean a lot like a nice ice cold beverage for instance.

The second bit of impressive luck was some unsolicited mail from our government which took the form of a tax rebate. Yes you heard me right the government actually decided to give me back some money never mind the £100+ they have cost me in bank charges due to their mess ups but it is still nice regardless of that stuff. I would be interested to see how far this lucky streak will go but hey other things to consider.

Anyway some updates:

Last few books read -

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan
Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
Halts Peril by John Flanagan

Next book Dead Until Dark by Charmaine Harris

An Ode to Caprica

So the much anticipated and somewhat controversial prequel to the Battlestar Galactica reboot has come to an end. I understand why a lot of people stayed away first of all it is nothing like BSG itself no epic space battles here and the whole politics thing is on a much smaller scale. I remember when I first heard about I thought I was going to give it a miss and would have if not for the casting of an actor I really liked from Kyle XY I would have.

After the first few episodes I was still ambivalent but the show eventually began to grow on me. Add into that one hell of an online twitter campaign spearheaded by the star Alessandra Torresani who before this I had never heard of. The online community that got behind Caprica was incredible but as so many fandoms know from Jericho to Heroes, fan presence alone can’t save shows when viewing figures tank.

I am definitely sad to see Caprica go even sadder when I finished the last episode of the previously withheld final batch of episodes and saw the 5 minute taste of things to come which gave us a taste of what season two might have been, and from what I saw it might have well been AWESOME.

So goodbye Caprica and I guess hello to Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome I hope it learns from the mistakes made by its predecessor.