Television

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    Five Reasons Why Fringe Was a Dark Warning For Our Future

    I was a big fan of Fringe when it was on. I haven’t watched any episodes since they aired, but I know I can drop in on them anytime. This article explains what I loved about the show and why it still resonates today.

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    Foundation — Season 2 Official Teaser

    I was generally pleased with the first season of Foundation. It helps to lean into the “adaptation” part of the adapted from Isaac Asimov’s novels. Practically everything was new except for names of people, planets, and psychohistory. Overall, it worked pretty well. Season two looks great.

    This should fit in nicely after watching Silo.

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    All the Enterprises

    John de Lancie, the incredible actor behind the mischievous character Q in Star Trek and Picard, offered a wonderful tour inside the bridge of every USS Enterprise for The Roddenberry Archive. For this, de Lancie describes the history and evolution of each ship. He also explains how it was designed, how it was used on set, for which series it was used, and in what year.

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    What Makes Poker Face a Triumph

    Spencer Kornaber, writing for The Atlantic, has a great in-depth story on the success of Poker Face.

    The brutality contained in Poker Face’s 10 episodes is outweighed by humor, humanism, intelligence, and, perhaps most crucially, optimism. The fact that the show is a hit speaks to a hunger for entertainment that counterbalances cruelty and kindness. In Poker Face’s America, justice depends less on vigilantism or the law than on regular people making authentic connections with one another. (I won’t significantly spoil any plot details.)

    Easily one of my favorite TV shows of 2023.

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    Gods and Monsters

    James Gunn shares his vision for the future of the DC Universe and the upcoming slate from DC Studios.

    I wish him all the luck in the world.

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    The Big Hollywood Quiz

    This Saturday Night Live sketch was on point. Everybody remembers the finale of _MAS*H _and All About Eve, but we don’t share those experiences as a society anymore. There’s hundreds of streaming choices on dozens of platforms that anybody can watch anytime.

    There just aren’t any touchstones.

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    Foundation — Official Season 2 Sneak Peek

    Here’s a sneak peek at season two of Foundation.

    I generally liked the first season even though I don’t think it uses it’s source material much. Dune was a better adaptation. Still, I get they had to deviate significantly from the original Asimov to make any of it work in the 21st century.

    The bottom line for S2, I want to see the Mule.

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    Doctor Who's Stylish Fifteenth Doctor

    Very much a Ten and Rose vibe. Love the rings.

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    Every Star Wars movie and TV show, ranked

    Joshua Rivera, Pete Volk, and the Polygon Staff, writing for, you guessed it, Polygon, created a ranking of the best Star Wars movies and TV.

    I thought I might not agree here, but surprisingly, it maps out pretty much the same way for me as well. Granted, I have not seen all the TV shows, but I have seen most of them.

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    Detonation by Design

    Ian Douglass, writing for The Ringer, has a great profile on Tony Khan and AEW.

    I was lucky enough to interview Mr. Khan several years ago, right when AEW was just getting started. He was as enthusiastic and excited then as he is now.

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    Kevin Conroy, RIP

    Kevin Conroy, known for his iconic performance as the Caped Crusader over a range of media starting with Batman: The Animated Series, has passed away at the age of 66.

    I love this…

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    Batman Speaking with Bruce Wayne

    I don’t remember why there’s a seal in the chair…

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    Barney

    Depending on when you grew up, Barney was either a caveman, a dinosaur, an alcoholic, or a womanizer.

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    Will Sandman Get a Second Season?

    Boy, I hope so. There’s a great deal of story to tell.

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    Nichelle Nichols, Trailblazing ‘Star Trek’ Actress, Dead at 89

    Nichelle Nichols has died.

    My only encounter with Nichelle Nichols involved standing in line to get a few autographs from Star Trek actors at a comic book convention. I put the Star Trek Compendium in front of her to sign. She then proceeded to go on a five-minute rant about the cover (it featured Shatner and Nimoy and no one else). It was entertaining as she aired a lot of dirty laundry for anyone to hear. She then passed the book along the table sans autograph and flashed me a tremendous smile.

    Shellshocked, I just moved on. I never got her autograph, but I got a hell of a story.

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    Homelander is Just Donald Trump

    Justin Carter, writing at Gizmodo, has a story I can’t quite believe.

    You can say a lot of things about Amazon’sThe Boys, but you can’t exactly call it subtle. The show, based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s acclaimed comics from Dynamite Entertainment, focuses on a group of corporate owned superheroes called The Seven, and a semi-covert group of average people named The Boys who’ve taken it upon themselves to kill the heroes. Across the show’s three seasons, it’s always been pretty upfront with the kind of satire it’s going for and who it tears down.

    In the case of the show’s vengeful Superman-alike, Homelander (Anthony Starr), the show has said so many times in so many words that he was conceived as an analogue of former president Donald Trump. Season two even ended on him literally getting off to the idea of how much power he has over everyone else; and if that didn’t say it all, a cosplayer showing up as the character during a MAGA rally in 2020 would do the job. And should you have missed the text of the show, you’re in luck: showrunner Eric Kripke, Robertson, and even Starr himself have tried their damnedest to tell folks who Homelander really is.

    Still, in case you need yet another reminder, Kripke discussed this in a recent interview with the Rolling Stone. He was upfront in saying that this season in particular was more direct in calling out the ex-president, and that the writing team really worked hard to drive that point across in comparison to the first two seasons. “He [Homelander] has this really combustible mix of complete weakness and insecurity,” said Kripke, “and just horrible power and ambition…Of course he would feel victimized that people are angry that he dated a Nazi.”

    I find it utterly hilarious that people had to be told this…

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    The Bill Maher Prediction

    Bill Maher on his program, Real Time, said the following: “Here’s the easiest three predictions in the world. Trump will run in 2024. He will get the Republican nomination. And whatever happens on election night, the next day he will announce that he won.”

    The clip is getting some traction around the internet.

    I think he’s wrong.

    His belief that it doesn’t matter who runs as the candidate for the Democrats is wrong. It will matter a great deal. I could not accurately predict who it might be, but it absolutely matters.

    Also, the American people already voted for the Jesse Camp of the political world instead of the Dave Holmes. They aren’t going to do it again.

    Could there be some sort of coup more successful than the one that sorta kinda happened in January? I don’t think so. We learned.

    There will never be another successful hijacking of an American passenger jet because everyone knows what to do. There will never be a successful coup because everyone knows what to do.

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    The Problem with Jon Stewart

    I watched the first episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart. At first blush, I think this is a fine show, but not super newsy and not super funny. It’s trying to walk that edge, and it works mostly because Jon Stewart is an incredibly smart and engaging guy.

    This first episode addressed something I didn’t know: U.S. soldiers suffering from exposure to toxic chemicals from “burn pits.” His point, as you might imagine, is this is bad. He then goes on to tell us this is bad in a million different ways. The best one was when he interviewed VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who with a word could end the practice of denying claims and danced around the reasons why not…and gave us the perfect insight into why government sometimes doesn’t work the way we think it should.

    I can understand the only reason Stewart came out of self-imposed retirement was this opportunity to address issues that are important to him and need a wider audience. Still, The Problem with Jon Stewart isn’t nearly as funny The Daily Show, and that’s a problem.

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    Super Dave Osborne and “Mean” Gene Okerland

    I find it odd that Super Dave Osborne, the alter-ego of Bob Einstein, and “Mean” Gene Okerlund both passed away at the age of 76 within days of each other. It probably doesn’t mean anything, but damn that’s weird.

    When I used to watch Late Night with David Letterman religiously, you knew it was going to be a good show when Super Dave Osborne was booked. His sketches were always basically Wile E Coyote-style mishaps and had me laughing hysterically. He was always serious, but everything around him was silly. I watched a lot of Evel Knievel as a kid and Super Dave was the epitome of poking fun at professional stuntmen and providing the “crash” most fans were waiting for with Knievel.

    I’m a big fan of one of his earliest bit — Wrecking Ball.

    I was never much of a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he’s probably better known as Marty Funkhouser than Super Dave. For me though, he was always the trained professional with danger as his middle name. His ability to sell the realism of whatever silly daredevil stunt he was about to “perform” was probably one of my earliest exposures to satire.

    Speaking of deadpan delivery and realism, “Mean” Gene Okerland was the best. Never breaking character. Never shooting. Never doing anything, but bringing his cool demeanor and smooth voice to whatever chaos was happening with whatever professional wrestler he was interviewing.

    “Mean” Gene was at his best with the craziest of wrestlers. I’m a fan of his interview with “Macho Man” Randy Savage (“I am the cream of the crop!”) and the Ultimate Warrior (HUUUUULK HOGHHAN!).

    Both Okerland and Einstein brought countless hours of entertainment to the masses. They will be missed.

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