Joss Whedon

I'm starting to become a fan of Joss Whedon. After Becky started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she became a fan. I remember watching a couple of Buffy episodes when it was on tv, I even tried a couple of Angel episodes, but I never got hooked.

Years later I saw the movie Serenity. It was a continuation of the canceled show Firefly, which I hadn't seen at that point. Even without knowing anything about the preceding show, I ended up really liking that movie. Becky and I watched Firefly within the last year, and I ended up really enjoying it. The last episode definitely left me wanting to see what was going to happen next.

Also within the last year, I borrowed Whedon's The Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1) from the library. It was a good read. I think I liked it because I already knew the characters and their back story so I didn't have to invest so much time into finding out who they were and what they were about. Instead, I was just able to just follow the current story arc. Whedon's writing was definitely good and unique. His campy humor was evident even in the X-men. A couple of weeks ago I read volume 2 and it was incredible. It was one of the best stories I've read in a long time.

Anyway, the point of this blog is that I'm actually excited about how Whedon's next project is going to play out. It's a tv show called Dollhouse. The premise of the show sounds good, but I'm more interested in watching how the show's characters develop. I think Whedon does a good job in making his characters three dimensional and letting them evolve, which is a far cry from the character development I've seen in Smallville for example.

I just hope Dollhouse has the same kind of success as Buffy did and doesn't get cut short like Firefly.

Here's the trailer:

My other car is a Battlestar.

I found out last night that season 4 (the current season) of Battlestar Galactica is the final one! I'm so depressed. I felt my heart drop when I found out. It is such a great show that I don't want it to end.

Who Needs Cable?

Who needs cable when you have broadband? Becky showed me a website called www.sidereel.com where you can watch nearly any tv show online. They even have old episodes of Alf!

No Writers On These Shows.

Now that I have been spending more time at home while I am looking for a job, I have also been watching more daytime tv. Out of everything on during the day, I really enjoy the judge shows, especially Judge Alex. I even find myself watching Judge Judy, even though I can't stand her.

I also get to catch COPS, always a great show, and The Price is Right with its new host, Drew Carey. Drew's great. He's one famous person I would really like to meet.

Good Stuff.

This is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

Tolerable TV.

I just finished watching an episode of Heroes on NBC. It's a decent show but it has a lot of plot problems. The biggest one I noticed on tonight's episode had to do with the blonde lady and her kid. She drove them both into the desert at night in a convertible with the top down. She parked the car and proceeded to use a shovel to dig up a corpse a few feet away from the car as her son was sleeping the back seat. Later she opened the trunk, removed two dismembered bodies and buried them. She didn't finish until what looked like noon, just as her son woke up.

Now even if this kid isn't a light sleeper, who wouldn't wake up with a trunk opening and closing a few feet from your head? Also, what kid sleeps until noon in a convertible with the top down in the desert? When I'm camping I have a hard time sleeping past dawn. It just gets too bright for me. If I was sleeping in the desert, I think the heat and dehydration would have woken me up.

My favorite character is Hiro, the Japanese guy with control over space and time. Peter is my second favorite, but the cop is growing on me. The character I have a problem with is the cheerleader girl. I have to say she is pretty damn lucky her power is to cheat death and have a Wolverine-like healing ability. I've never seen anyone get mangled more than this chick. Even Wolverine TRIES to avoid using his healing ability. This chick accidentally impales herself on sharp sticks, puts her hand in a garbage disposal, jumps off of grain silos, etc. Isn't self-preservation still one of the few instincts that humans have? Millions of years of evolution have hammered that into every fiber of our being, so wouldn't you still feel some doubt about your power even if you knew that you couldn't die? Personally, I would find it more plausable if this chick would think, "well I didn't die those other dozen times, but maybe my luck will run out the next time." That would definitely add a little more realism to the story, which I belive the creator was going for. Then again, he was probably just jumping on the comic-book band wagon and sold a half-thought-out idea to NBC. I read somewhere that he never read comic books and he wanted to get a more realistic take on people with powers. I don't think he succeded.

Anyway, this show definitely needs some more thought put into the storyline. Clearly, it's no Lost. It's a lot more similar to one of the creator's earlier attempts at a superhero tv show, Misfits of Science (I LOVED that show).