Greg's Blog of Clue-by-Fours

Unfortunate Implications in the Knights of Justice

2012-02-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

I hate this cartoon. I hated it when it originally aired and I was a kid. It was just terribly lame. But tonight, while bored, my brother and I discovered that this was on Netflix and watched the two-part pilot. It was even worse than I remembered it. I could go on about the characters all shooting missiles at each other, dragons popping out of shields, and outright saying that football players are better than knights, and the outright racism. If I ever do a full review, and I have something different planned for this one, I'll get into all of these things. But for now, I want to talk about what struck me the most.

Okay, the premise is that Morgana le Fay imprisoned the real King Arthur and his knights somewhere, and she and her army of warlords are rampaging across the kingdom, laying siege to Camelot, and they kidnap Guinevere. So Merlin reaches into the future and abducts a team of football players and they become the new King Arthur and knights of the Round Table. Their first mission is to rescue Guinevere from Morgana's dungeons. Okay, so this football player, a guy from Connecticut (cute, very cute) with a crew cut named Arthur King (lame!) is supposedly the spitting image of King Arthur, and the rest of them all look like the knights. Even though they have two black guys and one Asian guy.

So, Merlin shows them a magical image of Guinevere to inspire them, and he shows it like he's an Amsterdam pimp modeling his prostitutes. I thought I was seeing things, but as the show progressed it got creepier and creepier. So they rescue Guinevere, and she thinks the guy is her husband and writes off his changed behavior as the result of his war experiences.... he's partying like a 20th century jock!

Merlin then trots out what he calls "cheerleaders" for the other knights, one for each. Again, like a pimp! And it becomes very clear that this fake Arthur is going to go have sex with Guinevere, even though he's not her husband, he knows he's not her husband, and he knows she has no clue. Her actual husband is imprisoned somewhere.

Ahem, rape by deception is still rape. Now, I can sort of buy this from Merlin, he did help Uther Pendragon rape Duke Gorlois of Cornwall's wife, Igraine, in order to sire Arthur in the first place. But, here's the thing, Uther is not the hero of the story. This show is telling kids to look up to an athlete who rapes a woman. Seriously, that's what this show is doing!

This raises another question. One of these knights, named Lance, looks like Sir Lancelot too, and for all intents and purposes is Sir Lancelot. Is he boning Guinevere too? He certainly leered at her in these two episodes enough... but then, all the "knights" did. So Guinevere is married to King Arthur, cheating on him with Lancelot, being raped by Arthur King, and cheating on Arthur King while she is being raped by Lance.

You know. For kids!

Amazing Spider-Man Trailer

2012-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Hmmm…. maybe I am going to be sold on this one.

It’s nice to see Gwen Stacy in this. Let’s be honest, Gwen was in all three Raimi movies. They just gave her red hair and slapped the name Mary Jane Watson on her. Then MJ showed up for a little bit in the third movie, but with her hair bleached.

Spider-Man is actually funny. Grant he mumbles a lot, but I like this guy better than Maguire already. Toby can act, but he had maybe a little more charisma than Hayden Christensen.

Lizard is looking better. Not a fan of the design. But better. I still wish he had the lab coat and a snout.

I am sure that, if George Stacy survives this movie, he’ll become Spidey’s supporter among the police.

Am I in love with what I’m seeing? No. I still don’t like the costume. But while the Raimi trilogy had a more faithful costume, they took a lot more liberty with the characters. This is taking a lot more liberties with costumes and look, but seems to be a lot more faithful to the characters. And that always wins with me.

If they introduce MJ, and at some point either in this movie or the next, they will…. I am expecting that classic introduction.

Call Me An Enthusiast

2012-02-05T16:44:00.001-08:00

Because I cannot wait to purchase this once it hits this side of the Pacific.

The Hell?

2012-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, they managed to make a trailer for "The Phantom Menace" that's even worse than the movie itself.

How do you do that? How!

Now, I know some of you Lucas Apologists reading this will say "Star Wars" was always for children, and fair point. But the prequels are among the worst cases of dumbing down a product for the youth that I have ever seen. "Batman the Animated Series" and "Gargoyles" didn't dumb themselves down for anyone. And, once upon a time, neither did Star Wars.

Now that's podracing!

Yipee!

Meesa sorry!

Pulgasari

2012-01-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

True Story: Once upon a time, there was a South Korean director named Shin Sang-ok. He was married to an actress named Choi Eun-hee. The two of them divorced and in 1978, Choi was kidnapped from her Hong Kong hotel room. When Shin went to investigate, he to was kidnapped and brought before the "prince" of North Korea. You may remember the "prince" of North Korea...

Now that the "prince" had his director, and his former leading lady, at his "recommendation" they were re-married and produced several Communist propaganda films at his pleasure. One of them was a giant monster movie called "Pulgasari."

We open in Feudal Korea, where a nobility of Evil Tyrannical Capitalists are twirling their mustaches and being mean to villagers because they can't find a group of bandits that stole a small pile of their iron. Of course, the villagers are hiding the iron, and the Evil Tyrannical Capitalists arrest a few, throw them into cells and, GASP, give them food. They are also questioned as to the whereabouts of their stolen iron. The old blacksmith tells them that the legendary Pulgasari ate it.

Honestly, I don't know what the big deal is. There is no iron anywhere in this movie, just aluminum foil. All the swords bend in the wind... or when placed against someone's skin. But, if I were an Evil Tyrannical Capitalist, and I had to wear plastic Walmart Halloween armor, and had a bendy sword, I guess I'd be peeved too.

The old blacksmith refuses to eat. When his daughter and his other gender-ambiguous child throw rice into his cell through the window, instead of eating it, he carves the rice into a small toy.

The old man starves to death and his body is given to his children to bury. His daughter finds the doll and while sewing, she pricks her finger and bleeds on it. The doll comes to life and begins consuming all the iron. As it eats, it grows. And as it grows, the Evil Tyrannical Capitalists behave like douchebags.

Eventually, Pulgasari grows to be about a hundred feet tall, and starts obliterating the Capitalist Army. Everything they throw at him gets beaten back. You've all seen Godzilla movies, you know the drill. I will give them credit for one pretty creative sequence where they lure Pulgasari into a cage, set fire to it, try to burn it alive, it fails and they all try to escape into the river only for Pulgasari to plunge in after them and because he is so hot, he boils them all alive.

Yes, you are looking at Kim Jong Il's Mary Sue. You're welcome.

Lots of mayhem, and eventually the Evil Tyrannical Capitalists are destroyed. But, what about the iron eating Pulgasari? Here is where the movie finally gets a little interesting. And by interesting, I mean Shin Sang-ok delivers a pretty big "fuck you" to Kim Jong Il, which is so blatant, I can only assume Kim Jong Il was a moron who couldn't see the obvious. Pulgasari doesn't go away. It demands that the people keep feeding it. It's big, it's dangerous, it's become their tyrant. Gee... sound familiar?

Do I recommend seeing it? Well, if you're in the mood to laugh your ass off at a really stupid movie, with a pretty wacky back story to how it came into being, sure. But don't pay for it. I didn't. I pirated it. I stole from North Korea. I hope SOPA, or whatever Congress is calling it now doesn't mind.

So, what did we learn? That Shin Sang-ok was awesome... then he escaped and started making "Three Ninjas" sequels, and that Communists can't do anything right. Oh, and Capitalists have echoing evil laughter, funny hats, and carry aluminum foil swords and wear plastic Walmart Samurai armor.

My only regret? That Kim Jong Il didn't live long enough to slash his Mary Sue with Mothra.

The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy

2012-01-21T00:41:00.000-08:00

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

Ash nazg thrakutulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

I'll never forget that night, when the lights dimmed and we heard the music and Galadriel began narrating in the elvish language, Sindarin. For the next three years, from the premiere of "The Fellowship of the Ring" to the release of the extended edition of "The Return of the King" on DVD, I was obsessed. I lived and breathed these movies and Tolkien's novels. As such, when I received the Extended Edition Trilogy on Blu-ray for Christmas, I was ecstatic. I figured it was time for a retrospective review of the Holy Trilogy.

I watched all three of them again and, what can I say? The passion was still there. Do I see more flaws in the trilogy now than I did several years ago? Of course. Does that diminish my love for these films, or their greatness? Not at all.

I decided to review "The Lord of the Rings" as one long, eleven and a half hour epic, as opposed to just three films. They were shot all at once, and I think I can do that. I will start with saying that, these movies whether as a whole of by themselves feel different than anything else I've ever watched. They are an experience. It is a journey, and you go on it with all of these characters, particularly our four leads.

Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) is our protagonist. He is somewhat of a messianic character, but with a lot more character flaws. He goes on this journey to save the world, and he loses himself on that journey. That is far more powerful than the standard movie hero's journey, where everything turns out hunky dory at the end of the picture. Some times you can't go home again. What is the real price one must pay when one faces true evil? Thankfully, few of us will ever have to learn that lesson in real life. While I have heard some people accuse Frodo of being weak, I argue against that. He is stronger than most of us. He may not be able to wield a sword as well as a warrior, but there are different kinds of strength. No one but Frodo Baggins could have gotten as far as he had.

Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is the far more traditional hero for a tale such as this, and we go along with him as he embraces his destiny to become the King of Men. But what I like about Aragorn is that he is a supporting character in a story that he would be the hero in any other time it's been told. What is his most heroic moment? Drawing the Eye of the enemy away from our hero, and being prepared to sacrifice his life and the lives of his men to save the world.

Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) is, I've always felt, the true hero of the tale. He's not the ring bearer that Frodo is. He is not the destined king that Aragorn is. Sam is a humble gardener that follows Frodo into Hell on Earth. As Frodo himself points out, he wouldn't have gotten far without Sam. To me, what Sam symbolizes is that no one hero can or will triumph over hero all by himself. Defeating evil requires that we all do our part, whether it's a little or a lot. Sam did, well, a lot. Were it not for him, Frodo would have been eaten by Shelob and the One Ring would have returned to Sauron, and Sauron would have destroyed the world of men and dominated all life for the rest of eternity.

And then there is Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellan), who serves the ever critical role of rallying us and teaching us to rise up and finally defeat Sauron. This was his task, like an angelic mentor. He can help us, and does help us, but ultimately he cannot win this war for us. Nor could he. But an angel in the body of an old wizard who is that father figure we all want to have. My favorite scene with Gandalf is not the one where he faces the Balrog, but when Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mount Doom. The look on his face says it all, like a father who's hearing that his son enlisted to go fight in a world war, wishing it didn't have to be, but knowing it has to be done.

The rest of the supporting characters are terrific. I really enjoyed John Rhys-Davies as Gimi, the dwarf. Orlando Bloom was adequate as Legolas, the elf (and on a personal note, the only role I ever enjoyed him in). Merry and Pippen (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd) were great comic relief that really got to grow into courageous heroes as the story progressed. And what can I say about Sean Bean as Boromir? Some would say his was the finest performance in the entire trilogy, and I would be hard pressed to argue even though I think everyone was terrific. And that's only the Fellowship!

The characters the Fellowship meet along the way also make this movie. Hugo Weaving as Elrond, who so desperately wants to have hope in men. Cate Blanchett was radiant as Galadriel, the white lady of Lothlorien. Bernard Hill as Theoden, king of Rohan. Miranda Otto as Eowyn, Karl Urban as Eomir, David Wenham as Faramir. John Noble as Denethor. As far as I'm concerned, these people didn't just play these characters, they were these characters. Never, not once did I think I was looking at actors playing iconic characters. They were here, brought to life.

I should also address Liv Tyler as Arwen Evenstar. To this day, she seems to be controversial. But, I don't agree with any of the negative comments that Arwen has received. It was all right there in the appendices. Tolkien, himself has said in his letters that he wished he included her more in the story, which is why he wrote "The Tale of Arwen and Aragorn" in the appendices. Yes, I am aware they were originally going to be more radical with the character, but they didn't do it. The final product is what matters, not what they thought about doing while they were in development. I enjoyed Liv Tyler as Arwen, and I would not change a single thing they did with her. That scene where she has that flash forward to the death of Aragorn is just sublime.

But how can I forget Andy Serkis as Gollum. They nailed him, this was Gollum. He was the greatest special effect in the history of film when these movies debuted, and now, ten years later, he still looks terrific. While I have my issues with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels, I think only Davy Jones comes close to topping him. Aside from that, no Autobot, no Decepticon, no alien in a galaxy far, far away comes close. Of course, we can thank Andy Serkis for his performance that propelled Gollum from just being a special effect to being a real flesh and blood person, on the screen. The details may have been added in post production, but this was a performance. And like everyone else, I never thought of the actor, or the CG team. As far as I was concerned, Gollum was there, being the hateful and yet pitiful creature we've all come to know and love.

This being my blog, I wasn't going to let this go without discussing the forces of evil. It's hard to do evil on this scale with a straight face and not come off as laughable. George Lucas tried it in "Revenge of the Sith" and his Emperor Palpatine was an over the top embarrassment. But here, we had some honest to Eru high octane nightmare fuel.

I loved all the orcs, goblins and Uruk-hai. No two looked alike. Any we spent even a small amount of time with were their own characters. They seemed like an actual savage, barbaric race. Never once did I feel like I was watching a legion of faceless bad guys. I was also really happy that these were actors and stuntmen in costume, as opposed to CGI creations. The food soldiers of darkness get a thumb's up from me.

If I don't mention Christopher Lee as Saruman the White, I am afraid he might hurt me. As with everyone else, this was perfect casting. Saruman was a terrific villain, and served as a good face of evil throughout the first two movies, and the first twenty minutes of the third. As in the book, his greatest weapon was his voice. Well, who better to project a menacing, eloquent, charismatic voice than Christopher Lee?

The Balrog was a one scene wonder, but a great one. Now, I am usually not a fan of all CGI creations if they can be done any other way. The Balrog couldn't. And the moment it appeared, we were all in awe. If Hell exists and demons dwell in it, I am pretty sure this is what they look like. They created something primal here, and I loved every second of it.

Speaking of primal fears, you can't get more primal than Shelob. As if being a giant spider is bad enough, she is a cold, intelligent, force of evil. A killing machine from the darkest depths of your nightmares. If I hadn't gotten over my arachnophobia before this movie came out, Shelob might have been almost enough to bring it back. She certainly warranted the loudest reactions from the audience every time I watched these movies in theaters.

When I read the books, the Black Riders were always a powerful image. As such I was happy to see how these Nazgul, these Ringwraiths were executed on screen. Exactly as I always imagined them. From their black cloaks and horses, to their winged Fell Beasts. And the Witch King of Angmar? Were I a Dark Lord, I would want him as my lieutenant.

The theatrical release may have forgotten the Mouth of Sauron (Bruce Spence), but the extended editions didn't, and neither will I. His scene was short, but oh so sweet. I loved his design, and that helmet. I will admit, I always wanted to know more about this guy. I know Sauron had lots of humans (Black Numenorians, Easterlings, and Haradrim) serving him, but this was the only one we got to actually "speak to."

And finally...

Evil's greatest servant. The Maiar spirit, Sauron. The Dark Lord. The titular Lord of the Rings. Except for the prologue, Sauron spends all of these movies as an unseen character. But we don't need to see him, everyone is always talking about him. Everyone is always talking about what he's capable of. What he's doing. What he's going to do. And how much worse it will be should he recover the One Ring. And considering how well he's doing without the Ring, the thoughts of how much worse it can possibly get are best not to think about for fear of depression. When I hear the word "evil," Sauron is who I always think of first. Evil perfected. Evil personified. He is what all the worst dictators throughout history have wanted to be. Thank god he's a only a fictional character. Even when all we see of him manifested is the Great Eye, he never descends into cartoonish evil. You can really feel how dark and powerful he is, even when all we hear are whispers of his name. The One Ring itself is a character and a villain in this movie, but it is an extension of Sauron, and a constant reminder of his evil.

But I can't just leave this with only brief summaries of the characters. How about that New Zealand countryside? Or, as I like to think of it: Middle Earth. Middle Earth is real and Peter Jackson and his crew found it and filmed it. The scenery is breathtaking. More beautiful than anything that can be created by man in a computer. Some time in my life, I plan to visit New Zealand. I am a big city urban guy, but if any countryside has caught me with its majestic beauty, it's New Zealand's.

I also appreciate all the miniatures of the cities, towers, and fortresses that were built. All the practical effects that were used in addition to CG. This series was the perfect marriage of the two techniques, and they still hold up today. As opposed to other productions that rely on CGI and CGI alone and look only like Playstation 2 games now.

The movies also captured the themes of the books perfectly. Hope, friendship, love and death. The classic story of good vs evil, and what must be sacrificed to defeat evil. It wasn't a Hollywood production, even if it was financed by Hollywood, and we're better off for that. War has cost, and that cost has to be painful. Otherwise it's not real. And even with elves, wizards, goblins, and trolls, your story still has to be real. You give me a hero and I'll show you someone who has sacrificed everything. That's what this story is about, and I thank Peter Jackson for not dumbing it down.

Is it perfect? No. There are some places in the films where I felt a little more restraint would have been appreciated. But I feel like I am looking for the flaws in the brush strokes of the Mona Lisa by saying that. No, it's not perfect. But this is as close as it comes. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be horrified, you'll feel joy. It is a true journey. If you haven't seen them before, what are you waiting for? If you haven't seen them in a while, see them again. But make it the Extended Editions. This is a world and a story that isn't just a casual view, but something you'll want to immerse yourself in as you take a trip to another world.

Continuing to Pick on George Lucas

2012-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

GEORGE LUCAS ADMITS TO INDY FRIDGE SCENE - Blame me, he says. Okay, we will

The fridge scene is the least of the movie's problems.

The golden rule with action movies is that if you're having fun, you don't care about pesky facts, logic or science getting in the way. The real problems were things like pace, motivation of characters, that no-one has any affection for Shia LeBouef, and most of all that the movie just has no heart.

What makes "Raiders of the Lost Ark" such a great movie is that it's an action adventure where you actually care about the characters. What's Raiders really about? No, not the Ark of the Covenant. It's about these two people who loved one another, well if not wisely, coming together. That's what people like Lucas and Michael Bay just don't get. You can have all the giant robots and explosions and massive CG spaceships, but at the core of it all, you've got to care about the characters and the story. That's why films like "Lord of the Rings," the first two "Star Wars" films, "Aliens," "Jaws," and "Wrath of Khan" are still watchable today.

Lucas apologists can babble all they want about "Lucas Derangement Syndrome" but the reality is the guy hasn't made a movie with a heart since at least the 80's. How many times can he have major influence whether producing or directing on terrible films before people finally admit he's lost his touch as a storyteller?

Oh, and by the way. "Red Tails" is currently at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews read like every other Lucas film of the last few decades:

"When the heroes crash, they go up in blazes of digital glory that seem just as artificial as the plotting that brought them to their fates."

"More often than not, Red Tails feels like it's pandering to every focus group that it never even tested... It's so cautious as to be lifeless, which is a shame on a lot of levels."

"Lucas' clout may have brought this important story to the screen, but his filmmaking shortcomings keep it from being told effectively."

These reviews could read like the reviews for Phantom Menace or Indy 4 or even Howard the Duck.

Paradise Lost

2012-01-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

Recently I read "Paradise Lost." Actually, I read it twice. In a row. I had read it a number of years ago, but I really wanted to study it, just to make sure I wasn't crazy. I think it's a terrific poem. A true epic. However, I think John Milton was trying to get a certain message across that he failed to properly convey. I believe he was trying to write an evil villain, but wrote an antihero instead.

Milton tries to make Satan's declaration that God is a tyrant untrue because it's Satan who says it, but reading the God books of "Paradise Lost" kind of makes God look like a tyrant all on its own. So Milton's experiment to make clear the ways of God toward man failed. Satan, when he's soliloquizing without anyone to tempt, expresses his wish that he could change, but he was made the way he was, so it was God's creation that made Satan so proud.

I don't buy the argument that it was intentional to show that men were fallen people. Why make your message so covered up in man's sin that it's mistaken for truth? He may not have meant to, but Milton's Satan was a humanist. He was the hero of "Paradise Lost" who rebelled against injustice and who brought knowledge to the humans, like Prometheus gave fire to humans. He is a lot easier to relate to and possesses many heroic qualities ("I'd rather suffer in hell than be a slave in heaven"). This led William Blake to write that Milton is "a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."

Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea about me, because I know religion is a touchy subject, I am not a Satan worshiper of any kind. I don't worship anything. I like to think of myself as a hopeful agnostic, and I don't want anyone to feel like I am slandering their religious beliefs. But I read "Paradise Lost" cover to cover twice, and this was the interpretation I took away from it.

George Lucas Is a Retard

2012-01-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Or, George Lucas Plays the Race Card Brilliantly

George Lucas made another movie. A movie that, for once, doesn't involve lightsabers or archaeologists with whips. It's called "Red Tails" and it's about a crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II.
Let's quote the man, shall we?

“We’ve been working on it 23 years. I financed it myself, and I figured I could get the prints and ads paid for by the studios, and that they would release it, and I showed it to all of them, and they said noooo. ‘We don’t know how to market a movie like this.’
“It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all. It’s one of the first, all-black action pictures ever made."

Really, George? Really?!

Not to mention:

Bad Boys

Shaft

Dead Presidents

Miracle at Santa Anna

Set It Off

Glory

Buffalo Soldiers

Posse

Have you been to a movie at all in the last forty years? Are you that cut off? Newsflash, we have a black President now. But maybe you don't know that. You're still the fucktard who gave us Jar Jar Binks! You know, an annoying racist caricature.

Actual dialogue in the heat of a dogfight: "Congratulations, [character name]! You're the first Negro to ever kill an enemy in air combat." (or something like that) That's some great screenwriting there, George. Nice to see you haven't gotten any better. As a great man once said, "George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can't say it."

George Lucas is either a liar, or he's stupid. Personally, I think the answer is both. Remember when he told everyone he has nine "Star Wars" movies all mapped out? We, of course, all know this is bullshit. Hell he didn't even know Darth Vader was Luke's father until Leigh Brackett came up with the idea, died before the movie came out and was no longer alive to contradict you.

Five Questions

2012-01-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

1. Greatest Movie You've Ever Seen

Easily "Casablanca." I know it's a cliche to say this, but that doesn't make it any less true.

2. Worst Movie You've Ever Seen

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Words cannot describe the loathing I feel towards this abomination of a movie.

3. Favorite Movie Trilogy

"The Lord of the Rings." Particularly, the Extended Edition. I recently re-watched it all on Blu-ray, and it's still thrilling. Maybe a retrospective review is in order.

4. Most Overrated Movie You've Ever Seen

The "Star Wars Trilogy." To this day I don't understand the pandemonium. I just don't. The first one is okay. Flawed, fun, but nothing special at all. "The Empire Strikes Back" is easily the best one, and I like it, it's good. But it's hardly great cinema. "Return of the Jedi" was terrible, and the prequels are among the worst movies ever made.

5. Favorite filmmakers of all time

Oh, this one is tough. I'd love to say Francis Ford Coppola for the first two "Godfather" movies and "Apocalypse Now" but the rest of his filmmography doesn't do it for me.
Martin Scorsese is an easy favorite, I think.
I also like David Fincher and Christopher Nolan a lot.
Akira Kurosawa is a no-brainer.
Quentin Tarantino may not be for everyone, but his films are definitely for me.
Roman Polanski is a gifted artist, but a terrible person.
I love Steven Spielberg when he makes movies for grown ups, but hate crap like "E.T." and "Jurassic Park."
I've attended Federico Fellini film festivals and always enjoyed them.
Alfred Hitchcock is truly the master.
Krzysztof Kieslowski, especially for "The Decalogue." But that's really more of a "film cycle" than a film itself.

One More Time...

2012-01-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Woman Claims Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails Told Her to Burn Her Parents' House Down

Christina Paz says she learnt her parents wanted to kill her through rock music messages

Music does not force sane people to do anything. Neither does the television, the radio, posters, books, or any other form of media. Influence, perhaps... but not control.

If you believe you're being controlled by any form of media to perform an action, if you believe that music is talking to you directly, or that the glowing screen is your master, or that you've decoded a hidden message in "Catcher In The Rye" that requires you to strangle exactly eleven strangers to appease Zuul... see a licensed psychiatric professional. Please.

Santorum

2012-01-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

I promise that politics is not going to become a regular, or even a frequent recurring feature on this blog. But this needs to be spread.

Supporting a candidate who opposes marriage equality is supporting a candidate who opposes American values. It violates freedom of religion. It violates equality under law. It violates the right to privacy.

You don't want gay marriage in your church: go for it. I support that 100%. You don't want to associate with folks who are homosexual: go for it. I support your right to associate with folks of your choosing. The problem lies in when you ask the state to step in and demand that everyone support that choice. It is against American principles. To be fair: I think that the bans on homosexual marriage are unconstitutional. Under freedom of religion. Under equal protection under the law. It is likewise against the vision of smaller government imprint in our lives, which is supposed to be the hallmark of American principles.

We have a sickness in the party, and the support of Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Catholics and Mormons who oppose marriage equality under religious grounds is in violation of the supposed stalwart attempts to a strict Constitutionalist interpretation of our governance. Every time you tout states' rights, that means that you should be supporting states that have decided enough is enough, and if the Federal government won't get off its butt and take this all the way to the Supreme Court to strike down these gross violations of citizens' rights.

The party of LIncoln should in no way, shape, or form be a supporter of limiting citizens' rights. And that so many leap to abrogate their responsibility to freedom of religion... that means that folks are free from other folks' interpretations of what their faith ought to be... it angers me, because that isn't the Americanism I was brought up on. It shames me, and it shames the nation.

Freedom of religion means that sometimes folks do things you don't like. But so long as it's not in your church, then it's none of your damn business.

Thanksgiving With the Santorum Family!

2012-01-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

For a while now, I thought there was something very familiar about the Santorum family. Creepily familiar. Then I remember that all of America got to join them for Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago.

Tonight, the part of Rick Santorum will be played by John Lithgow.

Spread this, please. Spread this!

Jobs Are Jobs...

2012-01-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

And people are people.

Recently, I've seen Rooney Mara, who has achieved critical acclaim for her role in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," come under some fire for giving her candid opinion on working on remake of "The Nightmare on Elm Street." That candid opinion was less than kind, as was her candid opinion of working on "Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit."

This is nothing new. I've seen Ewan McGreggor get some crap for trashing the Star Wars prequels. He was hoping they'd be better movies than they were, was a big fan of the original, and was as disappointed as anybody with good taste was. I will admit, while watching "Revenge of the Sith" I felt sad for McGreggor. Not because of Obi Wan's plight, but because he was trying so hard to make the best of a shitty movie. Look at his face, you can tell what he really thought of everything.

What do I see people say in response to sentiments like this? Usually they're called ungrateful, or even advised to give back the money they made off of these movies. Well, I think anyone who does this has forfeited the right to complain to anybody about their first job at Walmart or at McFastFood. Or are they also ungrateful? Should they not return the money they made working at either of these establishments? Or at any job they've expressed to others that they hated?

Or do these people just like the Star Wars prequels, the Nightmare remake, or any other movies or shows that would apply and can't stand to see anyone trash them, much less an actor who worked on them? Personally, I think this is the case.

Consider Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward Cullen in the "Twilight" movies. He has publicly expressed his hatred for the characters, for "Twilight" and said that Stephanie Meyer is insane. Where are these same people to say he is ungrateful, or that he should return all the millions of dollars he's made off of the Twilight franchise. No where to be found. If anything, the same people will congratulate him for telling it like it is. Why? Because they hate "Twilight" therefore it's okay for Robert Pattinson to hate. I've also noticed the people who love "Twilight" like to claim that Robert Pattinson never said such things, and that it's fake.

The point is, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And everyone is entitled to express that opinion if they are willing to live with the consequences. Ewan McGreggor, Rooney Mara, and even Robert Pattinson are also entitled to that right. Sometimes it can backfire, as Megan Fox learned last year... but no one denied her the right to speak her mind. And I certainly would never expect her to give back the money she made working on two terrible movies.

Would I be happy if Marina Sirtis came out tomorrow and said "Gargoyles" was a terrible production, and Demona was a poorly conceived character? No. Would I tell her to shut up, that she's being ungrateful, and to give Disney back the money she made playing Demona? No.

2011 Movies

2012-01-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

I did not get to the movies as often as I would have liked to this year. But I thought I would muse on what I did see, and give overall grades since with the passing of time, I was able to reflect on them.

Black Swan

This movie was and remains magnificent. I know it didn't come out in 2011, but I didn't see it before 2011, so I'm counting it here.

It was an A+ movie when I first saw it, and it still is.

The King's Speech

Same as Black Swan, I didn't see it before 2011. Yes, it is very good. But it certainly didn't deserve last year's award for Best Picture. That was "Black Swan." But, "Speech" was the safe bet as opposed to the dark, disturbing "Black Swan." Still, I give it an A-

Thor

It was a very fun movie when I first saw it, and it still is a very fun movie. Chris Hemsworth was great. Tom Hiddleston was great, and it left me pumped for "The Avengers." Ultimately, as much as I enjoyed it, I didn't care for Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, and subsequent re-watches make that particular plot even worse. It's not enough to ruin the movie for me, but overall, I give it a B+

X-Men First Class

I expected this to suck. We all expected it to suck. But it didn't. If anything, it was the pleasant surprise of the year. I liked the script, I liked most of the casting, and I thought our two leads were great, especially Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Kevin Bacon was having a great time as Sebastian Shaw. But I didn't care for January Jones as Emma Frost. Overall, I give this one an A-

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

It's more of the same. A Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay. We all know what these are by now. F. Fail!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

This movie had to deliver. Ten years after the first movie hit theaters, a lot was riding on this. Deliver it did. Very well done, the cast was great. The effects were great. It was great. I give it a solid A.

Captain America: The First Avenger

This one took time to grow on me. The first time I watched it, I did not have a good time. Honestly, I think it was the 3D and the horrible audience I saw it with. But time and subsequent viewings have gotten a change of heart from me. I've since seen it for a fourth time, and it's really grown on me. My initial grade was a C- but now, I give it a B+. It's not without problems, but it's grown on me.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

My review is barely a week old. Still, this one is an F. Hell, I think I'll go out and give it an F- just for being worse than Michael Bay's flaming sack of dog crap.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Best film I saw all year. A+! A+! A+! But I suspect it will suffer the fate of "Black Swan." It will be nominated for the big prize, and cast aside for the safe choice. I just wish it was making more money than it is. But, when you market it as "The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas," I suppose that is to be expected. Still.... A+

Now that it's 2012, I plan on seeing even more movies. I have high hopes for 2012.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2011-12-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been wanting to see this movie since the trailer hit, and I wasn't disappointed. I thought it was excellent. But it's a movie I find hard to recommend to most people. Why? Roger Ebert has a quote: "No good movie is for everybody, only bad movies are for everybody" and that sums this up. It's a dark, and bleak film. Most audiences aren't into dark and bleak. And when I say dark and bleak, I mean that this makes "The Dark Knight" look like a Disney movie in comparison. This is easily the feel bad movie of the year, and it was excellent.

Nine times out of ten, I hate remakes. This is one of those one in tens. Now, I haven't seen the original Swedish movie, and I haven't read the book. My friend who accompanied me had seen the Swedish, and didn't like it. But he enjoyed this. I was willing to give this one a shot because David Fincher was the director, and that man is easily one of Hollywood's most brilliant talents. I like that he brought back Trent Reznor to do the music also.

Daniel Craig stars as Mikhael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist hired by an elderly man played by Christopher Plummer to solve a forty year old murder. I've been a fan of Daniel Craig since long before he became James Bond, and I loved him in this movie. He is a flawed protagonist. Divorced for carrying on an affair with his co-editor, which continues even until the end of the movie, despite her being married herself.

Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a researcher for Milton Security and competent hacker, and a ward of the state. Lisbeth is a ward of the state since she has been declared mentally incompetent, and when her legal guardian suffers a stroke, she is appointed a new one who seizes control of her finances and only cuts her checks to live after he abuses her. First in a scene where he forces her to perform oral sex on him, and then later on handcuffing her to the bed and anally raping her. This, of course, eventually culminates in the most cathartic scene of the film.

Like I said, this is not a feel good movie. Sexual abuse, rape, murder. My fourteen year old cousin wanted to see this, and while I've been showing her "South Park" since she was three, I am glad I did not bring her to this one.

Our two protagonists' stories don't intersect until well into the movie, and I remember wondering when it was all going to line up. But it does, and while not conventional, it allows us to get to know these two people before fate thrusts them together.

Everything about the movie was excellent. The pacing, the cinematography, the acting, the music. I have no negatives about this one. It just might be the best movie I've seen of 2011. But, again, it's hard for me to recommend as it's not for the faint of heart. It's dark, it's disturbing. The heavy material is given the attention and respect it deserves, and presented in a rather frightening manner. It's a thriller directed by David Fincher, if you know exactly what that means going in, you will be fine.

I expect this to get a Best Picture nod in the coming months. But I do not expect it to win. This movie goes places that Best Picture winners rarely go. But my personal grade is an A+

My Lord Is Darker Than Your Lord

2011-12-27T01:01:00.000-08:00

For ten years now, the debate has raged on. Who is the better Dark Lord? Who is the better villain? Who is the better character? The Dark Lord, Sauron; or Lord Voldemort. Well, better at what exactly? Let's take a look at these two masters of darkness for a moment.

Sauron is a fallen Maiar. A spiritual being who predates the existence of the world, so think of him as a fallen angel. He followed his master, Melkor, into the world and served as his chief servant. Melkor being the Satan of Tolkien's world was defeated and cast into the void. Sauron arose to claim the mantle of Dark Lord and attempted, for thousands of years to conquer the world, and bring about his own semblance of order by corrupting others and seeking to dominate all life. Had Sauron had his way, he would have ruled us all as a God King and sapped us of our very free will. Sauron is a primeval force of darkness.

Voldemort was born from a loveless union and abandoned to an orphanage where he grew into a dangerous psychopath. He was a self loathing bigot with something to prove, and he wanted to destroy all non-pureblood wizards, and eventually conquer the world. In short, Voldemort wishes he could be like Sauron. But of course that doesn't make him an inferior literary creation in the slightest.

Both of them fill archetypal roles as the Dark Lord. But Sauron represents a primeval force, and through the One Ring, that darkness which exists inside all of us that we are sometimes tempted to release. Sauron, as a character, isn't so much a person, but an idea. And an idea can often times be more dangerous than any singular person.

Voldemort, on the other hand, tried very hard to become this. He was even close to succeeding when his very name was considered a forbidden word, but ultimately, he was a petty, sadistic old man who destroyed himself through his fear that one young man would kill him. Try as he might to deny it, try as he might to change it, try as he might to alter his physical appearance, Voldemort was very much a human being. Not that this makes him a lesser villain, after all, what's scarier than a human being?

Personally, I think such a debate is pointless. I know why it's brought up. Both are very domineering Dark Lords in the two biggest fantasy series (both book and film) of the last one hundred years. Both command legions of followers, and in the end both brought about their own destruction either directly or indirectly. But those similarities are superficial at best. And I don't even think they're close enough to be superficial, both fulfill different purposes to their narrative.

Voldemort is definitely Harry Potter's enemy. Because of his fear of a prophesy, he is determined to kill Harry. He killed Harry's parents, he is responsible for the death of Sirius Black (Bellatrix may have pulled the trigger, but Voldemort was the reason), and so many other deaths. If Voldemort wants you dead, he will personally come after you and make it happen. He is an on screen person, as opposed to Sauron's off screen force.

Sauron is the main villain of "The Lord of the Rings." In addition to being the reason everything is happening, he is also the title character. Is he Frodo Baggins' enemy? No. I don't think he even knew Frodo existed until it was too late. No, Frodo's enemy is Gollum. Nor is Sauron really the enemy of Gandalf. That would be Saruman. Gollum and Saruman both are fallen versions of their respective enemies. I suppose you could make a case that Sauron is Aragorn's enemy. That makes sense to me, and it was Sauron's hate and fear of Aragorn that allowed him to be distracted from watching his own lands long enough for Frodo to make it to Mount Doom. But even then, he is not an on screen character. He is represented by his effect on everyone and everything around him, and his minions represent him appropriately, especially the Nazgul. And being an off screen character, Sauron would have his minions deal with you, or have you brought before him in his tower.

Like I said, the debate is pointless. I think both accomplish what their respective authors wanted accomplished masterfully. And both translated well when adapted into other media exquisitely. Okay, so I wish Voldemort had red eyes in the movies, and I think the Eye on top of the tower looked a little cheesy, but they were still very effective. But, at the end of the day, this is like comparing Lucifer to the Joker. Pointless.

But they're both better than Darth Vader.

Looking Ahead

2011-12-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

I don't make it to the theater as much as I would like, but here is a tentative list of what I refuse to miss.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

I actually wanted to see this one yesterday, much more than I wanted to see "Sherlock Holmes." But my brother had to work the next day, Holmes was shorter and playing at an earlier hour. Needless to say, we regretted our choice.

But I love David Fincher, and I suspect there will be a trip to the theater soon to this one. I am sure it will easily wash me clean of the foulness that was Sherlock.

"The Avengers"

I'm a Marvel Zombie, always have been. I can't not see this one. And after five movies of build up, I am confident that if anyone can deliver, it's Joss Whedon. Six of Marvel's best heroes up against one of my favorite villains has me giddy to see this. Loki was the best villain of the Marvel Studios' films so far, and he is looking even more vicious this time.

"The Dark Knight Rises"

Do I really have to explain it?

"Prometheus"

I will admit, I have reservations here. Ridley Scott has not made a good movie in a long time, and his return to this well strikes me as a little desperate. But "Alien" was my favorite of the Alien Duology (they only made two movies), and I am interested in seeing what he does here.

"The Hobbit"

This is, for me, the big one. The movie I am looking forward to most in 2012. I've waited for so long for the rights to untangle and for this to be made, I almost can't believe it is happening. I loved the trailer, and have been following the production, and wishing I was down in New Zealand getting Sir Ian McKellan his coffee.

I think "The Hobbit" will be the biggest movie of the year, the only real contender to that being "The Dark Knight Rises." But since both are Warner Bros. productions, I am sure they're quite happy.

"Lincoln"

Directed by Stephen Spielberg, and when Spielberg makes movies for grown ups, they're always good.
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis. What more needs to be said?

"Abraham" Lincoln Vampire Hunter" is also coming out, and that could be fun. We'll see.

"Killing Bin Laden"

Another war movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow. And this time it will be a dramatization of the death of Osama bin Laden. If nothing else, it will be the most cathartic movie in recent history.

A Game of Shadows

2011-12-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

Fuck this movie.

I saw the first "Sherlock Holmes" movie two years ago, also on Christmas, in the theater. It was a very fun movie, that reminded me of the fun I had watching the first "Pirates of the Caribbean." It was a solid, entertaining popcorn flick and I had a great time. It wasn't an award winning movie by any means, but it was very entertaining.

"A Game of Shadows" wasn't entertaining. There were moments when it was on, but then it was followed up with something lame or bland. There was just no energy there. For example, there is a ten minute action sequence where they escape from Moriarty's munitions factory through a forest. If half the slo-mo had been cut, it would have been a two minute sequence. This was worse than a Zach Snyder flick.

I thought Professor Moriarty was horribly miscast. Jared Harris had no presence in the role, and it didn't help that his marksman sidekick has the same hair and beard color, and there were moments when I had to remind myself who was presently on screen. Mark Strong, in the first movie, had a lot more charisma, presence, and really seemed like an intellectual equal to Holmes, while this new movie just told us Moriarty was his intellectual equal over and over without showing us until the chess game at the end. And while that chess game was pretty cool, especially when they were just calling moves without even touching their pieces anymore, it was too little too late.

It also didn't help that Moriarty's scheme was plucked directly from the horrible "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" movie. Yes, yes, it's a decent plot to give Moriarty, but you really don't want to make think of that movie. Moriarty was the villain in that movie too, someone should have told them.

There's a section in the movie where Moriarty has a sniper shoot someone through a window, and at the same time, to cover the assassination, he has a bomb go off which kills everyone in the room the target was in. This makes the sniper entirely pointless, except as a plot device to give Holmes a clue. Because this Moriarty is kind of dumb.

The editing was atrocious, there were more jump cuts than a Michael Bay movie in this, and I really think the editing was a big part of the problem this movie had. The whole movie was very incoherent, and all over the place. It never gave me a chance to to care about any of the characters or take in the atmosphere. The first movie was big too, but it at least let you have fun with the characters, and get to know them.

I did like the action sequence on the train, that was a lot of fun. Reminded me of the action sequences from the first movie.

The ending really pissed me off, because it defied all logic. I saw it coming, because I've read the books, but when Holmes and Moriarty went over the balcony and fell into the waterfall, I was thinking "that's it!" And Holmes' survival defied any and all logic! He smuggled in his brother's oxygen apparatus. Um.... no. The fall from that height would kill any human being. Hitting water at that speed, from that height, is like hitting concrete. And by some miracle, even if he had survived thanks to his oxygen, the hypothermia would kill him. But that was, what, a ten thousand foot drop?!

But the worst part was turning Watson into an idiot by not being able to see Holmes in a "camo suit" sitting there in his office. That's a trick that can fool a camera, but it cannot fool the human eye sitting less than ten feet away! Besides, why keep up the charade at all? What's the point of Holmes letting the world and his friend think he's dead? Moriarty's scheme was found out, Holmes was a hero at that point!

I could point out that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended to kill Holmes for real when he and Moriarty fell to their deaths, even though he was forced to bring Holmes back. But gods... Doyle didn't want to bring him back, that death in the book was final! So was the death here!

I love action movies. The first "Sherlock Holmes" movie was both an action movie and a mystery. This one was just an action movie, and that's okay... when it's not Sherlock Holmes.

Congratulations, Guy Ritchie, thanks to you Michael Bay doesn't have the honor of directing the worst movie of 2011 anymore. You should feel proud.

Now, after all that, I would like to promote a good movie. A good Sherlock Holmes themed movie. See "The Great Mouse Detective." Yes it's an animated Disney movie with mice in the roles of Sherlock Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty, but it is MUCH, MUCH better than this movie was. Remember when I said Moriarty had no presence in this new movie. "The Great Mouse Detective" gave us Professor Ratigan as portrayed by Vincent Price. You cannot go wrong there. And it was much, much closer to the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Stupidest Thing Ever Said

2011-12-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Scroll to about 3:30 and you will see that hack, Stephenie Meyer compare herself to literary masters and declare her superiority to them. I'm talking about Jane Austen and William Shakespeare!

Please compare and contrast:

Stephanie Meyer from Chapter 23 of "New Moon":

Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars - points of light and reason. And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.

William Shakespeare from Sonnet 43:

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

That takes balls. And not the good kind of balls. This is just as moronic and offensive as Roland Emerich's "Anonymous." In four more centuries, those who read will still nod to the Bard of Avon in reverence and say, "Stephanie... who?"

The Demon Rises

2011-12-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

I normally don't review the "Young Justice" comic book, but maybe that will change. What I really wanted to do is talk about this issue, and how much I loved it. At the same time, I'm going to discuss why I only like but don't love the "Young Justice" animated series.

Let me get this out of the way, on every technical level "Young Justice" is a very well produced show. The writing is great, the animation is gorgeous, the voice acting is top notch, and the direction is beautiful. It's a very solid production. It's produced by one of my favorite writers and producers and a close friend. And yet, with this show, for me anyway, there is a pretty big disconnect. It took me a very, very long time to figure out what that disconnect was, and why it hasn't sucked me in like "Gargoyles," "Spectacular Spider-Man," and even the second season of "W.I.T.C.H." did.

For me, the problem is that we really only get one point of view, and that's the point of view of The Team. Now, I know they're the stars, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's still the only perspective we get. On "Gargoyles," "Spectacular Spider-Man," and "W.I.T.C.H." we got to see much more of the world the characters inhabited, and the perspectives of other characters and factions. And in the case of "Gargoyles" and "W.I.T.C.H." those were also ensemble shows.

On "Young Justice," we're eighteen episodes in and the villains are still a complete mystery to us. Sure we know who the members of The Light are, but what else do we know? The answer is not much. We knew much more about the Green Goblin in "Spectacular Spider-Man" in his first appearance alone than we do about The Light this far in the game. And the Goblin's identity wouldn't even be revealed to us for another seventeen episodes. We knew a ton about Demona and Xanatos at this point in "Gargoyles" even with her background still being a mystery. By this point in "W.I.T.C.H." we knew Nerissa pretty well too.

My favorite episodes of "Young Justice" are "Humanity" and "Secrets" because they did what I feel the rest of the series is missing. "Humanity" gave us things from the perspective of T.O. Morrow and Red Volcano. "Secrets" showed us things from Harm's perspective, granted we saw it through the prism of Artemis, Zatanna, and Secret, but it was there.

Now, I recognize and understand that the single perspective is a conscious creative choice, and by the time the season is over, I'll most likely understand and appreciate why that choice was made. That is my hope, and I trust this creative team to deliver in the end. But right now, it's a creative choice that's not working for me based on my own preferences.

On that note, I thought #11 of the "Young Justice" tie-in was great. It gave us not just Robin's perspective, but also Batman's, Alfred's, Ra's al Ghul's and Talia's! We knew who everyone was, and what they wanted to do, what motivated them. Had this been the first time I saw Ra's al Ghul, the issue would have told me everything I needed to know about him. Talia was interesting, with just a few lines of dialogue we saw the conflict between her love for Batman and her loyalty to her father. The scene in Ra's al Ghul's lair when he comes out of his Lazarus Pit was classic al Ghul material.

I also really enjoyed the cut to Kent Nelson's funeral, and we could see how his death affected everyone, particularly Wally, while setting up something with Artemis that looks interesting too. I am really anticipating the next issue, and I say this as a guy who has never read a DC comic book in my life.

In short, this issue summed up everything I like to see in Greg Weisman's work, and why I am a fan of his. I really wish this had been an animated episode of the show. Again, I don't mean to be so rough on the show, I do like it. But, it comes down to a stylistic preference, and this issue of the comic delivered on my preferences in way the show mostly hasn't.

Top Twenty "Gargoyles Universe" Villains

2011-12-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

The holidays have rolled around and, well, I love "Gargoyles." I love that universe. And I love villains. I've thought about writing this list for a while, but could never seem to quite justify it. Well, the holidays are here, and I'm giving myself a present. Here are the Top Twenty "Gargoyles Universe" Villains!

For every hero, or group of heroes, there must be villains. The villains test the hero, the villains make the hero. In the realm of superhero lore, Batman and Spider-Man have been cited as having the greatest rogues' galleries in comics. And I do not disagree. Sadly, other heroes or teams seem to come up lacking. Sure they may have one or two great villains, but the rest seem to be meh. The FF have Dr. Doom and Galactus, sure. The X-Men have Magneto and the Sentinels, Green Lantern has Sinestro, but the rest of their rogues galleries have always seemed, at least to me, to be okay at best. I know some will contest this opinion, but it's my opinion and as far as this blog goes, that's the one you're stuck with.

Personally, I always thought the Third Great Rogues' Gallery belonged to "Gargoyles." So, let's honor them.

First of all, here’s who didn’t make the list and why:

Wolf - Nothing against Wolf, he's fun. He's a big dumb thug, but he's fun. But, as of yet, I haven't found him to be very interesting on his own. And I always thought his teammates were more interesting and fun to watch.

Tony Dracon - I like him a lot more than a lot of other "Gargoyles" fans seem to. He's usually fun, but he didn't quite have enough to make this list.

Oberon - I never thought of him as a villain, and I still don't. Even when he was trying to kidnap Alex. Did I agree with him? Not at all, but I don't think he was in the "legal" wrong either.

Robyn Canmore, Dingo, Matrix, Yama, and Fang – If you don’t know why, shame on you. Buy the damn book!

Second of all, here’s who I hope to add to the list some time:

Queen Mab - Come on Disney, let Greg do it!

Morgana le Fay - Ditto.

With that out of the way, let's dive into list.

20. Duval and Peredur fab Ragnal

At present, we’ve seen too little of these two to know muchabout them. But what we have seen has been enough to give us an intriguingmystery, especially if you’ve been following ASK GREG for the past fourteenyears. They are the guiding hands of the Illuminati Society, which was createda century after the Fall of Camelot, by Sir Percival to “set things right.”Which of these two men is Sir Percival? Well, I have my theories on that.Peredur fab Ragnal is the Welsh name for Percival, and Duval sounds like amodern alias for Percival as well. In fact, for years Greg Weisman told us thatPercival was Duval, and then when the comic comes out we get Peredur. Followingthat, he said nothing changed from his original plan? So, who is Sir Percival,and what’s the deal with the other guy? Again, I have my theories.

But I imagine that should new material ever come our way,one or both of these guys will shoot up on this list.

I also enjoy the idea of Duval being cybernetic, but I thinkhe needs a bit of a re-design. Especially in what he wears.

19. The Banshee/Molly

The Banshee may have only been in one episode (with a cameoappearance in another), but damn did she leave an impression. Everything aboutthis character was executed flawlessly. The character model, the animation, thevoice, the effects! I loved how ghoulish she appeared, you could see the backgroundthrough her.

It also helps that “The Hound of Ulster” is one of the bestWorld Tour episodes. The script is tight, the animation is gorgeous, and a lotof the character actions are subtle and over the top when they need to be. Lookat Molly’s brief, brief exchange with Rory’s father for the subtly, whichcontrasts the wonderful over the top performance as the Banshee.

18. Duncan

This guy was a jerk. I mean, really. A paranoid tyrant whothought the world was out to get him. Well, not the world so much as hiscousin, Macbeth. I suppose I can understand seeing Macbeth as a threat to thethrone, but he just seemed to go out of his way to make Macbeth miserable. He reveledin it. When he died, we were all happy to see him bite it.

17. Hakon

Batman has Joe Chill, and Spider-Man has the Burglar.Goliath has this Viking chieftain who massacred his clan. Well, Hakon may nothave acted alone, but with the swing of his mace, the series really began. Like his descendant, Wolf, he’s prettyone-note. But he plays that note masterfully.

But perhaps the better story isn’t even the one where heshattered the clan, but the one where his vengeful spirit attempted to driveGoliath insane. That episode was the perfect send off for Hakon, even more sothan falling off a cliff to his death. His angry, vengeful spirit was trappedalone at the bottom of a cavern for all of eternity without anyone or anythingto hate. At least that’s where I thinkhe should have stayed. Hakon might have ranked higher if he didn’t come backone last time in an episode that I thought was one of the show’s only misfires.But hey, sixty-five episodes, eighteen comics, and only one misfire. You’restill golden.

16. Coldsteel/Iago

Now this guy is fun. I love his design, both as a gargoyleand as a robot. I love his Doc Ock-esque tentacles, and I loved Xander Berkeleyin the role. Coldsteel is a manipulativejerk, and it’s fun to watch him work. His favorite victim is usually Coldstone,and his goal remains unchanging… possess Coldfire. In a nutshell, he’s a creepystalker.

What’s also fun is that he’s had three voice actors, and notbecause Berkeley was unavailable. Whenhe controlled Coldstone’s body, he was played by Michael Dorn. When hepossessed Brooklyn, he was voiced by Jeff Bennett. And they both did it withouttalking like their regular characters. Watch “Possession” again and listen to“Brooklyn” speak. It’s obvious who is in the driver’s seat.

I also enjoyed his appearance in the comics, working forXanatos to distract our heroes from the theft of the Stone of Destiny. Wherewill he go from here? I’m not sure. I tend to think he works better when he’steaming up with other villains than acting on his own. Well, he did seepotential in the Coyote robot, so maybe that’s not over; one could see himworking with Thailog too; perhaps even re-team with his rookery sister, Demona…they did get along quite well in “High Noon.”

15. Constantine III

What can I say about this guy? He follows a long traditionof Disney tyrants, and is just as fun to watch as any of them. Sometimes Ithink the tenth and eleventh century villains are even more vicious than themodern day villains, and Contantine sums that up.

When we first meet this guy, he uses Finella, the woman wholoves him, to lure King Kenneth (who is in love with her) out just so he canmurder him in cold blood and take his crown. Then he casts her aside so he canmarry Princess Katharine and better secure his claim to the throne. And hetries to keep in control with barely veiled threats against her charges. Harsh.

But even better than that is his return in the “Gargoyles”comic book where he’s hunting down and murdering every gargoyle clan he canfind, and trying to find Katharine and her friends. By now, he’s been in powerfor two years and rules with an iron fist… which leads to a civil war. This guyis such a jerk that he even kills the messenger that the army of the ThreeBrothers sends. You never kill the messenger.

And then there was his rather creepy relationship with hisnew protégé, Gillecomgain, which led to the two inspiring each other in a verytwisted ways. Constantine is inspired by Gillecomgain’s scars to wear them aswar paint in battle, and in turn, Constantine inspires Gillecomgain to becomethe Hunter. As if Gillecomgain needed any more inspiration. Which brings me to…

14. Gillecomgain

Let’s face it, even as a kid, Gillecomgain had issues.Obviously there was a lot of darkness instilled in him by his father, whohimself had some very understandable issues also. What did these issues leadto? One rogue gargoyle was going through their barn, and Gillecomgain pointed apitchfork into the shadows to scare a thief only to get slashed across theface. What did THAT lead to? Arguably the events of the entire series.

Gillecomgain’s life didn’t get better. Constantine III took an interest in him whichset him on the path of becoming a masked political assassin, not to mention hiscontinued hunt for the demon that scarred him. Like dominos, this led to eventsthat made Macbeth the man he is today, the Canmore clan what they became, andset the tone for centuries of hatred and pain. And all because of one scratchin a barn.

As a character himself, Gillecomgain stacks up well. Thereis a moment after his arranged marriage to Gruoch, who obviously doesn’t lovehim, where you almost wonder if you should feel bad for a man whose wifeobviously despises him. Then he crushes her rose underfoot. What does thismean? Here’s a hint, Luach might not have been Macbeth’s son. Powerful stuff.

13. Falstaff/John Oldcastle

Okay, this guy is fun. Him and his gang of LARPers gone bad.They appeared only in the final two issues of “Gargoyles: Bad Guys” but theymade an impression. I loved the buildup Falstaff received. We see him take ayoung Harry Monmouth (who would grow up to become Dingo) under his wing. Trainhim to be a thief, and take pity on the poor boy after his mother ran out onhim. Only for that shocker of a final page where we see Oldcastle with hishands wrapped around the throat of her already dead body.

I really love his gang. At first glance, they seem superhuman, but are in fact incredibly skilled. And I love that Oldcastle, maybe theworld’s greatest thief, named himself after Shakespeare’s king of thieves. Helooked the part, and just seemed to take so much joy in everything he did, andthat helped make it a joy to watch him do it.

I hope we get more at some point, because I want to knowmore about him. Why did he murder Dingo’s mom? And when did the Illuminatirecruit him? Does he have any other responsibilities for the Society other thanguarding their giant vault? Well, until next time, and I believe there will bea next time.

12. Shari

Of all the new characters introduced in the comic books, themost intriguing has to be Shari. Is she Thailog’s new executive assistant, ordoes she own him? So far it seems to be a little bit of both. But I’m sure it’s far more one than the other.

I love the narrative device of her storytelling, and Iwonder where her knowledge comes from. Sure, she’s a very high member of theIlluminati Society, but there are some things she just shouldn’t know. And yet,she does. Like I said, she’s intriguing. Now, I have my theories on who shereally is, in fact I think it’s so obvious, I almost wonder what the point ofnot revealing it was, aside from the fact that I can’t see a place in thestories released to do it.

And as a final bit of trivia, Shari’s look and basic designwas inspired by stage actress and long time “Gargoyles” fan, Zehra Fazal. I’veseen her perform on stage, and she is brilliant. She definitely deserved to beimmortalized in “Gargoyles” canon in such a way.

11. The Archmage

Who would have thunk it? A one-shot villain if “Gargoyles”ever had one. You watch “Long Way to Morning” again, and you’d never think thisguy would have become so important in the grand scheme of the series. Well, let’sjust say that David Warner kicks ass.

While I do write off his appearance in “Long Way to Morning”as ‘obvious one shot villain,’ he’s still fun, even there. But I think whateverybody remembers most is his turn as the villain in the “Avalon” triptych. Iloved “Avalon Part Two.” I thought the script was brilliant. I thought DavidWarner’s dialogue with himself was tremendous. The entire endeavor was justwonderful.

Do I agree with the decision to kill him off? Absolutely. Idon’t think he would have had any staying power in the modern day material. Theguy is a clichéd sorcerer, even if he’s a very fun one. However, that doesn’tmean I think the character is done entirely. There is plenty for him to do in acertain spin-off that takes place during the “Dark Ages.” Or maybe evensomething to do if one were to TimeDance and have an encounter with him.

10. Coyote

What can I say, I have a soft spot for this glorifiedtoaster oven. At first glance he may seem like Ultron wearing half of Xanatos’sskin, but the influence from Xanatos is evident. This robot has a sense ofhumor, sometimes even a perverse one. Granted it’s not sentient or self-aware,but it almost seems close enough to fool you.

I love all the designs he goes through. They’re alldifferent, while at the same time reminding you of who you’re looking at. But my favorite will always be the first one.I loved the look, I loved his perception-warping weapon the most. I wish he’dused it more often.

What’s next for this character? Well, Greg has keptextremely tight-lipped. We know more upgrades are on the horizon, but come “Gargoyles2198” … well, let’s just say I think I know what the Xanatos of “Future Tense”was actually foreshadowing.

9. Jackal and Hyena

The “Gargoyles Universe” is well known for their complex,complicated villains. But sometimes, it’s nice to just cut loose. Enter thesociopathic Jackal; and his twin sister, the psychotic Hyena and we’re in for agood time whenever they show up. These two will crack you up one moment andthen make you sick the next.

The first time they appeared, they didn’t seem THAT bad.Then, come their second appearance, you have Hyena nearly slicing a fan’s faceup, and smiling when she gets arrested. Following that, we have Hyena fallingin love with a robot. And then, after that, the two volunteer to trade in theirbody parts for cybernetic implants. Frankly, it’s rather sick.

Jackal almost seems normal when you compare him to Hyena. “Normal”being very relative, until we get to “Grief” where he becomes the avatar ofAnubis, giving him power over life and death, and what does he do? He decideshe wants to end all life on Earth. Yeah….

I’m glad these two are close siblings, because they deserveeach other. Still, whatever else they are, they’re very fun bad guys. Hell,even a friend of mine named his gold colored Aztek after Hyena.

8. Anton Sevarius

Dr. Anton Sevarius earns points for being the creepiestvillain we have encountered so far. He’s even creepier than Jackal and Hyena!Sure, he’s pretty much a hired gun, but the guy enjoys it. He revels in it. Ican sum up Sevarius with one quote. After he was asked why he was doing this:

“For science, which as my associate Fang indicated, mustever move forward. Plus there’s the money… and I do love the drama!”

This guy is only slightly more ethical than Dr. Mengele! AndI also need to give a ton of credit to Tim Curry for really bringing this guyto life. Apparently, Brent Spiner was the first choice to voice Sevarius, butCurry got the role, and Spiner was cast as Puck. Thank god for those decisions.

Another moment that really stands out was when he was allover Angela in “Monsters.” Does he have a sexual interest in her? I don’t know,probably not. I think he just took pleasure in making her as uncomfortable aspossible.

I think my other favorite Sevarius moment comes from “DoubleJeopardy” where he thinks he’s taking part in a Machiavellian scheme of Xanatos’sand decides to act the part… very badly, I might add. So much fun, even when hemakes you scream.

7. The Weird Sisters

Okay, let’s get this out of the way. Silver haired Luna isthe Sister of Fate; Raven haired Selene is the Sister of Vengeance; and Goldenhaired Phoebe is the Sister of Grace.

The Weird Sisters are, for the most part, a completemystery. They have plans within plans that stretch through the centuries, afterall what is time to them? They could even give Xanatos a run for his money.What is their agenda? Only they know. We’ve seen two thirds of the story, withLuna ascendant during “City of Stone” and Selene ascendant during “Avalon.” Butthere is a missing piece, where does grace fall in their plans for Demona andMacbeth? Hopefully time will tell.

These three are great fun to watch. I love how they can beboth nowhere and everywhere. And I love how they can and will take on differentforms depending on who is looking at them at any given moment. Where do their loyaltieslie? Well, it seems to be with Oberon, but I’ve long suspected there issomething bigger at play with these three.

It would be easy to say they were plucked straight out ofthe Scottish Play, but in several folklores and mythologies, the Weird Sistersare present in some form. There is just something elemental and primeval aboutthem. And that’s part of what makes them a great element of the series.

6. Fox

Any woman who David Xanatos would marry would have to be cutfrom the same cloth he is, because anyone else would be beneath him. Fox isthat woman. Hell, sometimes she gets the better of him, whether they’resparring in the dojo, or playing chess. And he doesn’t resent this; it’s justfurther proof that he’s found the love of his life.

It’s weird to watch her in “The Thrill of the Hunt” attimes, because Wolf, Jackal, Hyena, and Dingo just seem so far beneath her, shealmost seems out of place there. And yet, at the same time, the more we learnabout her, the more it makes sense. When we meet Halcyon Renard, a huge pieceof the puzzle is put into place. She was never a daddy’s girl, in fact, quitethe opposite. She was clearly motivated, for years, by just annoying herfather. Maybe her mother too.

And I think it was just as much of a shock to her that sheloved David. But I wonder what their relationship was like before her prisonsentence? Obviously Xanatos made her a television star, but what else was goingon there?

She was his lover and employee. And a trained mercenary, let’s notforget that.

Like her husband, she grew and developed as the seriesprogressed, and is every bit as interesting a character as he is. In fact, in an alternate universe, I wonderhow the series would have played if Fox was in Xanatos’s role from the get go.Honestly? Similar but different. At least that’s what I think.

5. Thailog

Ah, the prodigal son… and he’s a bastard. Literally.

I love this guy, he’s just a hoot. Thailog is as powerful asGoliath, as brilliant and amoral as Xanatos, and as hammy and immoral asSevarius. All at once. And it shows. In every single appearance, it shows. Theguy is a walking Oedipus complex, what with his desire to prove his superiorityto his fathers. I suppose one might say that he’s already gotten the better ofSevarius, since he has the good doctor on his payroll. And while he outsmartedXanatos once, I don’t think he’s done. Turning Nightstone Unlimited into apowerhouse to rival Xanatos Enterprises is obviously a means to this end. Butwhat next?

I think my favorite thing about Thailog is that while he isa clone of Goliath, that’s the last thing that comes to mind when I think abouthim. He’s a fully developed character in his own right, and not simply Goliath’sevil twin. On that note, I’m happy his coloring is different, because the lastthing this show needs is an entire episode where the gargoyles try to figureout which one is the real Goliath.

And how can anyone not find that maniacal laugh of his to beanything but endearing?

4. John Castaway

No, I am not talking about the rabid maniac from “TheGoliath Chronicles.” Nor will I ever talk about that rabid maniac from “TheGoliath Chronicles!” I don’t know who that guy was, but the only list of minehe’d ever make is a list of poorly conceived characters.

John Castaway is a fascinating character, hell to crack thetop five, he has to be. Castaway is a weak man, and at the heart of everything,a frightened child. Too weak to stand up to his brother and say “this is wrong”and too weak to admit he was wrong when he pulls the trigger and everythinggoes to Hell. I think the only thing that has changed is his support system.

Now that the gargoyles have been revealed to the world,Castaway represents a political movement who are moving against them. And it’srather frightening. Not for being a group of hooded thugs, they are not, butfor being like a cross between the neighborhood watch, and a support group. Oh,there is a violent wing of the Quarrymen, we know that. But with Castaway’s shrewdness,and the Illuminati’s backing, I don’t think he would do something stupid likefire anti-aircraft cannons in Manhattan, or hijack a train. No… because thatwould make Castaway much less difficult to defeat than he is. And even then,who says that happens? The Quarrymen are destined to be a problem for at leastthe next two hundred years, and like the Hunters before them, his descendentswill lead the organization.

Keep in mind, we can all trace this back to a scratch in abarn in the tenth century.

3. Macbeth

Well, where do I start? Well, I suppose I will start bysaying that I almost feel bad for putting him on this list at all. He has astrong sense of honor, if skewed. He’s worked against our protagonists and withthem. But, in the end I think the only side he’s on is his own. While he ismore of an ally now, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been part of the problembefore and won’t be part of the problem again.

His story is terrific. Rather than follow the Scottish Play,the story we got was a loose adaptation of the true history of Macbeth and hisreign over Scotland. Yes, we had Demona and gargoyles, and the Weird Sistersand sorcery, but we also had a history lesson unfolding, even if we didn’t knowit at the time. And it’s terrific. To this day, it’s my favorite tale in theentire mythos.

When we first meet him, the centuries have certainly takentheir toll. He is not above attacking the gargoyles, taking hostages, andcommitting grand theft. And yet, we never once think of him as evil, despitedoing some pretty unethical and amoral things. That changes with “City of Stone”when we learn his story and feel sorry for him. But at the same time, I thinkthe perception among many fans has swung around too far. Yes, we understand himmore now. But that wasn’t his redemption. Far from it.

I think the tail end of “Sanctuary” and “Pendragon” is wherethe change begins, and I stress this, begins. In the former, he learned that heis still capable of love. In the latter, while some didn’t quite get why hecompeted so violently against King Arthur for Excalibur, well, it always madesense to me. This is a man who has suffered so much, who viewed his existenceas sad and endless, that he was looking for something to give it meaning andmaybe justify every terrible thing that has ever happened to him. Being the newOnce and Future King would serve that purpose, wouldn’t it? Well, it doesn’tquite work out for him, but over the course of the series we have seen this mango from suicidal renegade to a man who doesn’t think life is completely worthliving, and now seeks purpose in his existence. Did he look like a foolclutching that broken sword? Well, he was a broken man. And once you hit rockbottom, the healing can begin.

2. David Xanatos

He was designed to be a heroic character, and he was cast asthe villain of the piece. That, right there, is what makes this character sobrilliant. He has so many positive qualities, so many admirable traits. He’ssmart, he’s cool, he’s suave, he’s practical, he knows his priorities, he doesn’tsweat the small stuff, he doesn’t hold a grudge; the titled heroes have morepersonality flaws than he does! But he is also incredibly ruthless, and whilehe’s not evil, he is incredibly amoral. He seems to be the walkingpersonification of Frederick Nietzsche’s ubermensch when one stops to thinkabout it. And he is awesome.

I am actually struggling here, what more can be said aboutDavid Xanatos that hasn’t already been said? He’s designed many tropes all byhimself. There was never a villain likehim in animation before, and even after he’s left, there still has never beenanyone quite like him. He doesn’t surround himself with dimwitted henchmen andbeat them up and scream when they fail. No, quite the opposite, he is alwayssurrounded by incredibly competent people. His assistant and majordomo, OwenBurnett comes to mind. And he so rarely loses. In sixty-five episodes, andeighteen comics, I can count the number of actual losses on one hand. Asidefrom that, he always comes out on top. Always. But when he doesn’t, he doesn’tthrow a fit and scream, he shrugs it off and moves on to the next plan. Thereare always contingencies. This guy is the coolest guy in the series.

His character arc throughout the series is brilliant. I lovehis rivalry with Goliath, and I love how he doesn’t hate or even dislikeGoliath. He likes Goliath a lot, admires him, and regards him with what I canbest call a mix of interest and benign amusement. That’s far more interesting than Megatron’s hatred forOptimus Prime. And I really love how Goliath would often use the word “evil” todescribe Xanatos. Sure, Xanatos has done some evil things, but Goliath’s viewof him for the longest time was very two-dimensional. It almost represents howmost audiences, especially in animation, were trained to view the villain. No,Xanatos wasn’t a Dark Lord, or a diabolical evil. He was simply a trickster. Ahuman trickster.

While Xanatos and Goliath seem to have made some form ofpeace, that still didn’t make Xanatos one of the good guys! I love that! In away, he’s still the enemy, and now the gargoyles are living with him, and theyknow it! He still has plans and schemes, and while he likes the gargoyles andhelps them out, that doesn’t stop him from manipulating them to his own ends,or even working against them. And best of all, as far as Xanatos is concerned:it’s nothing personal.

I also have to give a ton of credit to the performance ofJonathan Frakes. He made Xanatos sound so sophisticated, fun, and erudite.

David Xanatos, he should run a seminar on villainy. Often imitated, never duplicated.

1. Demona

The access code is... alone.

Demona is the clear number one on this list, for reasonsboth grounded and very esoteric at the same time. At the most minimal ofglances, she seems very typical. We’ve seen genocidal human haters before. Butscratch the surface, even a little, and we get the deepest creation of not onlythe series, but one of the deepest creations in the realm of fiction. I’m goingto say this now, and roll your eyes all you want, but Demona would not be theslightest bit out of place in Russian literature. Or William Shakespeare’s forthat matter. I love this character.

Let’s start with the surface elements first. She’s got a terrificcharacter design, and was so very well animated. Marina Sirtis deserves atremendous amount of credit for the work she did bringing her to life. Sheembodied that character so completely that I never want to hear anyone elseever voice Demona on any animated project. No one can do it. Period. HearingMarina Sirtis voice Demona was just as much of a revelation as hearing MarkHamill’s Joker. And I will stand by that statement even under threat oftorture. She is also just such a badass! An intimidating warrior, an immortal, a sorceress, and she transforms into a human during the day! Hell, in both forms, she's pretty hot.

Now, for the esoteric. She has a guilt complex that makes Peter Parker’s look tameby comparison, but she spreads it around to everyone else rather thaninternalize it. And considering how much she has to feel guilty over, thismakes her arguably the most dangerous character in the series. She cannotaccept her own culpability for the terrible things that happened to her, andfor all intents and purposes, murdering her clan. She may not have swung themace, but her ambition, her bigotry, and her cowardice put them in front of it.

Her favorite scapegoats are humanity as a whole, who make aneasy and convenient target for her to project her guilt and self-loathing on.Now, does she have a point? Yes. Let’s face it, humans can be bastards. We’vedone terrible things as a species. But, just as you cannot blame every Muslimfor the attacks on September 11^th, or every German for theHolocaust, Demona is wrong to blame every human for the terrible actions of a few.And at the end of the day, she was either directly or indirectly responsiblefor those actions. She betrayed her clan, and caused the massacre; she createdthe Hunter, and betrayed Macbeth. Demona created her own pain, and she intendsto wipe out every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth just tojustify every damned stupid choice she ever made.

Despite all of that, she is an eternally conflictedcharacter. She is not a one-dimensional cut-out. Deep inside, she knows she’swrong, she knows what she did. But she cannot and will not acknowledge that.And that’s what makes her hatred for Elisa Maza so interesting. The one humanshe hates most is the one that has been a true friend to the gargoyles, becauseElisa is living proof of just how wrong Demona really is. And the fact thatElisa and Goliath are now in love doesn’t help considering Demona’s lingeringfeelings of jealousy.

Of course, there is Demona’s biological daughter, Angela.She is probably the one person Demona cares about in the world. My singlebiggest regret about the cancelation of the comic book is that we didn’t get tosee the two of them interact again. I am beyond curious to see where this goes.But one thing I am confident of, it’s not heading towards a hysterically easyredemption. Nope, if we take the plan for the “Gargoyles 2198” spin-offseriously, and I most certainly do, Demona is still plotting against humanitylong after Angela has died. Is it sad? Yes. Is it tragic? Yes. Is it Demona? Absolutely.

I also love how she is a walking mess of contradictions. Herbelief system is based so much on lies she tells herself, that she willrationalize anything she can to fit her world view. Why? Because thealternative is admitting she is wrong, and right now, she will not do that.Cannot do that. Sadly for both her and Angela, I see tragedy in their future.

Demona’s through line is one of the main reasons I am sodesperate for “Gargoyles 2198” to be produced. I want to see how her storyends, and if it’s going to end anywhere, it’s in that spinoff. This is a storyI am dying to see, and if Disney never produces it, well… one way or another Iintend to find out what happens to her. What her ultimate fate is going to be.We know she’ll have an epiphany of some kind. How does it happen? Why does ithappen? What’s the fallout? How does her story end?

Demona is an endlessly fascinating character. We’ve neverseen anything like her in the realm of western animation before her debut, andI don’t think she’s been replicated since. Why? I don’t know. But lightning hasbeen caught in a bottle, and I am rather happy that no one has attempted toimitate this unique and perfectly conceived character but tragically flawedperson.

This is the Way the World Ends

2011-12-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

The Father, the Son, and the Serial Killer

I have a feeling many reviews, articles and blogs will be using the above line. But, it's shockingly appropriate when discussing this episode. Another season of "Dexter" has come and gone, and I would be lying if I said this was the best season. But it was a large step up from season five, and I think I enjoyed it even more than season three. "Dexter" is always good TV, and like all good TV shows that have run for more than three seasons, they start getting compared to themselves. Will "Dexter" ever be as great as its fourth season again? Who knows, but that's the highest bar, and I don't think a TV show should ever be under pressure to top itself. Now, with all of that out of the way, let's discuss this episode.

I love "Dexter" season finales, they are always fast paced, blood pumping and suspenseful. The villains on this show are easy to hate, and Travis Marshall has had a long overdue appointment with Dexter's table. And that final scene was glorious! Just watching Dexter peel Travis' delusional excuses back layer by layer before plunging his knife into Travis' heart was so... satisfying. Of course, I doubt that's what everybody is going to be talking about, but I'm getting there. Don't worry.

Quinn, as I have said before, I've never liked. I'm with Angel on this one, he needs to get transferred out of homicide, stat. Yes, he saved Angel's life, but had he been there when he was supposed to, Angel wouldn't have been in that situation to begin with and Travis would have been caught much sooner. Live are on the line, and this is a job that Quinn is not qualified for. But I suppose the Miami Police Department could use an extra hand writing parking tickets.

I really enjoyed Debra's development this season, mostly (I'll get to it), and I don't care what LaGuerta says, I think Debra is already a good lieutenant. She still has a lot to learn, but that department needs someone who actually cares, and doesn't just play politics. I thought the advice that LaGuerta gave Debra at the end was rather horrible. I still hate the development that Debra is in love with Dexter, but I said my peace on that last week. Which brings me to...

FINALLY!

As Dexter delivers the killing blow to Travis, in the church, Debra walks in. She knows. Now, I saw this development coming all season, and it was all but confirmed for me the moment Debra asked Dexter to go back to the church to do some more work. But that didn't make the scene any less satisfying. And it won't make the wait for season seven any more torturous. What a moment to leave us on. Perfectly calculated to leave us talking about it, speculating and waiting. Just like the sixth season finale of "Weeds" when Nancy Botwin turned herself in to the authorities.

I will maintain that I do not think Debra being in love with Dexter was a necessary element to up the tragedy. They were and are brother and sister, and it was a very well done brother and sister relationship. This new element doesn't add to the drama, it distracts from it. They're going to have to work very hard in season seven to make this works.

Until then, the episode accomplished what it needed to accomplish. It finished off Travis in a satisfying manner, and will keep the show on our minds until the next season rolls around. Me? If anyone has a Delorean, or a Phoenix Gate, so I can go and see it sooner than the rest of you, please let me know.

Talk To the Hand

2011-12-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

For the love of the same god that Travis worships, they cannot be serious!

Let me talk about the elephant in the room before I move on. Debra's psychiatrist thinks that Debra is in love with Dexter. And now, Debra is beginning to think so too. Dexter Morgan and Debra Morgan are brother and sister. Yes, Dexter was adopted, but they've been raised as brother and sister since he was three or four years old, and she is younger. I don't care if they are not biologically related, this is messed up. They are brother and sister! I'm not opposed to incestuous relationships in fiction, depending upon how they are presented, but this?

I was thinking and hoping that Debra would have a big realization about Dexter this season, but I did not want this to be that realization. Why? Do they think it will add to the tragedy when Debra actually does discover what Dexter actually is? If so, it is unnecessary! They were already very close as brother and sister. It doesn't need an element where Debra wants to fuck him!

The rest of the episode was very enjoyable. I thought the first half hour was very intense, and when Dexter shoved Doomsday Beth into that airtight room, killing her? Great stuff, very suspenseful. Granted by the time Dexter and Deb made it back to the station, I knew she wouldn't succeed, but I did wonder earlier than that if she would kill a lot of police officers.

Travis needs to learn how to tie knots. Both Angel and Dexter were able to escape from knots he tied, the latter was a scene more over the top than usual for this show, but the Lake of Fire imagery was very cool.

So, Travis thinks Dexter is the Devil? Appropriate.

Louis is going to be the villain of season seven, calling it now. Aside from that, not too much else to say about him. But he seems to be the best investigator at Miami Metro.

Finally, yes finally, I can't feel bad for Matthews. Yes, LaGuerta blackmailed him earlier in the season to get her promotion, but he should have gone to Deb directly to get her to close the book on that case, instead he tried to get LaGuerta to do it, whom he knows hates him and wants his job. What did he think would happen?

I know it won't happen, but if the writers need to manipulate a situation that doesn't feel organic, manipulate one where LaGuerta ends up on Dexter's table, not one where Debra wants to fuck Dexter.

Ricochet Rabbit

2011-12-11T12:56:00.001-08:00

I am beyond late with this review, and it's going to be brief, sorry.

Now with the truth about Gellar revealed, Travis steps up as the sadistic bastard I've suspected he was from the get go. And man, what a transformation. He's almost as creepy as Edward James Olmos was. And his new disciples.... you see, this is what unemployment can lead to. Fix the economy, Congress!

So the master plan is to unleash a chemical attack on Miami. Chilling. But considering all the plagues in the Bible, not too surprising. But not as chilling as tracking down the one he got away and cutting her up on the yacht.

Batista revives his tradition of getting into deep trouble as a finale is up and coming. First, being stabbed by Brian Moser, then being accused of sexual assault by Lila West, and now this. Poor guy.

Debra is going to find out who her brother really is, I am convinced of this now. And it's long past time. When she was reading off Travis' psych profile, it was a dead ringer for Dexter. I love the parallelism.

And as for Dexter himself, it's about time he started arguing with "Harry." But it's also about time he tipped off the police. This is bigger than him and his Dark Passenger now.

I'm pumped up for tonight's episode. Five hours away.

The New Christmas Icon!

2011-12-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus is an overplayed corporate shill. Anyone who has ever worked retail for Christmas knows what I'm talking about when I say that the holidays are broken. I don't know how fixable they are, but I say we start with a new icon. A new face.

I nominate the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Oh, don't give me that look. He's perfect! He's exactly what we need! And, as a proud American citizen and somebody who is always right, let me explain why in two easy reasons.

1. The modern Santa Claus was invented by Coca Cola. I think this holiday would be better represented by a creation of Charles Dickens.

Now, I have nothing against Coca Cola. As a caffeine junkie, I thank Coca Cola for sustaining me all my life. But they're not my go to company for Christmas.

2. What does Santa Claus represent? Let me sum it up: Buy! Buy! Buy! If you love their kids, you will buy them everything in FAO Schwartz! Or else you're worthless! And you retail slaves, you will work late on Christmas Eve and you will like it! Oh, don't like it? Well, enjoy Christmas at the homeless shelter!

What does the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represent? Don't be a dick, and treat your fellow human beings with care, respect and dignity or I'll show you a future where everyone is glad you're dead and chuck you into your own grave.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come! The proper choice for decent minded people.

An Old Joke

2011-11-30T10:56:00.001-08:00

A junior film executive struts into his supervisor's office at a Hollywood studio. "Good news, boss!" he says. "We got the MPAA to change the rating of the movie from NC-17 to R!"

"How'd you manage that?" asks his boss.

"Well, y'know the ending, where the hero has the passionate sex scene with the love interest?" asks the younger man.

"Sure," replies the executive. "As I recall, that was the part with which they had the biggest problem."

"Yeah, which is why we re-shot it," answers his protegé. "Now, instead of making love to her, he kills her."

MPAA "logic" - Caress a breast? NC-17. Cut it off? R. In the minds of the ratings board, violence is better than sex every time.

Why do I bring this up?

Will Shame change the game for the NC-17 rating? - No, it won't.

Let's not pretend this is an MPAA problem. This is an America problem. Even on most forums, places where people often tear each other apart and make pedophile jokes are not exempt.

It's fine if I post this picture on just about any forum:

But this one would get me banned (NSFW).

Or, to put this into even further perspective, "The Human Centipede" got an R-rating. Think about that.

Get Gellar

2011-11-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last hour mulling over this one. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. On the one hand, I called the twist with Gellar being dead way back in the first episode of the season. On the other hand, the season has been so thrilling that I do not mind too much. In fact, I might also compare it to the Green Goblin mystery in "The Spectacular Spider-Man." I pretty much called it and how it was done very early on, but that didn't make the story any less thrilling.

I'll also be honest, I don't think Gellar being dead is even going to be the big twist of the season. I think the creative team wanted us to pay attention to this to distract us from something else they're building up to. What could it possibly be? Who knows, but I suspect it's going to involve Debra. Hell, I am sure that this is the season Debra finds out the truth about Dexter. There has been a theme of brothers and sisters all season. Travis and Lisa Marshall, Angel and Jamie Batista, Dexter and Debra Morgan.

I don't think any of us were surprised that Matthews was the one who ordered the cover up of the dead hooker. While he didn't kill her, his career is on the line. Now the question is, will LaGuerta carry out his wishes or allow his career to end so she can take his position. Knowing LaGuerta, she will act in her own self interest, just as she always does.

And then there's the Louis subplot. Turns out he bought the Mannequin Arm piece from the Ice Truck Killer case for his "collection." Where this subplot is going, I am not sure about just yet.

Great episode, three more to do.

Top Twenty Favorite TV Shows of All Time

2011-11-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

First of all, here’s what didn’t make the list and why.

Pinky and the Brain: This series was very close to making the list. It was a hair away from making it. But it was just slightly edged out by another show. So, consider this #21 on the list.

Any Star Trek Series: Don’t get me wrong, “Star Trek,” particularly the original series, has a lot of brilliant episodes. But over time, it became less about telling great stories and more about franchising outward. I’ve always considered it to be the Burger King of science fiction, while “Star Wars” is the McDonalds… they are less about telling stories and more pop cultural institutions.

Battlestar Galactica: I’ve never seen an episode, and I’m told I’m missing out.

Berserk: I considered it, but ultimately, I prefer the manga and decided to give the spot to something else.

Buffy & Angel: I love both of these shows, but when they were weak, they were very weak. When they were great, they were genius. Sadly the weaker seasons bumped both shows off the list.

Mad Men: Like “BSG” I’m told I’m missing out. I have seen the first three episodes though, and I do like it.

Avatar the Last Airbender: I like this series. I like it very much. But I don't love it. I don't mind the occasional fling, but I won't go steady with it. I don't think it broke any new ground, but I do think it did what other shows did extremely well.

Any Dr. Who: Never seen any of it, sorry.

20. Titus

Christopher Titus’ semi-autobiographical series was truly one of the great, underrated sitcom comedies. The relationship between Titus and his father, played by Stacy Keach, was my relationship with my father. Right down to my brother’s ability to walk away from conflicts with him while I would stand up to him, and often make mistakes on when to pick and choose my battles.

The series was a black comedy, and it went places that many sitcoms didn’t go. If other shows did go there, it would usually be with “a very special episode.” Not this show. This show adapted the true story of Titus’ mother killing one of her husbands and later committing suicide herself and it made it funny. Let me repeat this, Christopher Titus took his own mother’s suicide and played it for laughs. The fact that it worked is a testament to how brilliant this show was.

19. Black Adder

I love British comedy, I love the works of William Shakespeare, and I love history. This series was the perfect combination of all three. This series was a hard sell for me, because I was not a fan of Rowan Atkinson prior to this. I did not like “Mr. Bean” and I still don’t. But I rented the first season, and it opened with a satire of Richard III. I was sold.

The series is brilliant, especially if you’re well read. There are a lot of jokes in here that the layman is not going to understand. I suppose that makes the series, or at least my write-up of it sound a tad elitist. But it is what it is, especially in later seasons. But I think there is a lot in there to enjoy even if you are not well versed in Shakespeare and British history. The jokes are great, and the timing is perfect.

18. Weeds

You’ve heard me talk about this series. A lot. I’ve reviewed the entire seventh season episode by episode. So, I’ll keep this brief.

If I were to have created a TV series, this would have been it. In fact, when I was in film school, we were pitching ideas for movies or TV, and I suggested a series about an expose on suburbia starring a drug dealing single mother. Then I was asked if I’ve seen “Weeds.” Well, I did later, and I was jealous because Jenji Kohan got to it first and she did it far better than I could.

Mary Louise Parker plays the character of Nancy Botwin to a tee. And the rest of the cast is terrific. It’s a great ensemble piece featuring a lot of funny characters played by great actors. While some people didn’t appreciate the series re-inventing itself every few seasons, I rather like it. It helps the series stay fresh and exciting. The first season dealt with suburbia, seasons four and five dealt with the Mexican border and their drug cartels, season six was the Botwins seeing America, and season seven took place in Manhattan. All the while, Nancy sinks deeper and deeper into the world of crime.

17. Daria

If you went to High School in the 1990’s, then you can relate to this show. This show really caught the culture, and was, honestly, way too smart for MTV. Daria Morgendorffer spun off from “Beavis & Butt-head,” a show that, quite frankly, she was way too good for. While “Beavis & Butt-head” seemed to glorify and revel in crass stupidity, Daria was smart, witty, intelligent, and to this day I’m surprised MTV ever produced it. Smart, witty and intelligent are not in MTV’s vocabulary. But what should we expect from the network that imposed “Jersey Shore,” “Teen Mom,” and “My Super Sweet 16” on the culture.

Daria was a likeable protagonist who approached the idiotic world with the perfect weapon, witty sarcasm. I related to her in High School, and I still relate to her now. Although I like to think I’m more social than she is. Her supporting cast was terrific, and everyone was funny. It was great, character based humor and I don’t suspect we’ll ever see anything quite like it on TV again.

16. Seinfeld

I honestly have no idea what happened here. Jerry Seinfeld is generally not funny. His stand up is weak, and except for this show, I have never enjoyed one of his projects. But, throw him into a writing partnership with the brilliant Larry David, and team him up with three characters to play off of, and that not only saved him, but created the “Citizen Kane” of television sitcoms. Let me clear this up, Jerry is the least interesting character on this show. He’s the comedian and yet he plays the straight man. I can only conclude that he knew this to be the case. George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer made this show what it was. Jerry was simply the glue that held them together.

The series is fairly timeless, I can still watch it and except for a few movie references here and there, and the lack of cellular phones, it plays today as well as it did during the 90’s where it both reflected the culture and influenced it. And it influenced every single sitcom that ever followed it. Seriously, watch a sitcom now, you can trace something in its DNA back to “Seinfeld.”

15. Firefly

I’ve been a fan of Joss Whedon’s work since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” premiered. It was consistently a brilliant show, but it hit a few bumps in the road in its seven year run, same with “Angel” in its five year run. But along the way was a short lived series whose fans will never let the world forget it, the space western, “Firefly.”

Before he was Richard Castle, Nathan Fillion was Malcolm Reynolds, a once idealistic man who lost his faith in the universe around him. Knowing he was out of place in this world, he decided to gather together a rogue band of misfits and build a life with them, traveling the solar system and doing odd jobs here and there. If the jobs were illegal, well, it was his way of giving the oppressive government the finger.

Space really is the final frontier, and nowhere is that concept truer than in “Firefly.”

14. Cheers

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came. Cheers was the archetypal hangout. If we didn’t have a place like this in our lives, we all wish we did. This series also had the perfect ensemble. Everyone was an archetype as well as a fully realized character in their own right. And they all grew and changed as the series progressed, with one exception.

The first five seasons, especially, are brilliant TV. We watched our two leads, Sam Malone and Diane Chambers’, relationship grow from hate to love back to hate, and go through every emotion in the book. It was hilarious and it never felt forced or dishonest. And everyone was growing around them, especially a relative latecomer to the series, Dr. Frasier Crane. If there was one flaw, it was after Diane left the series; Sam Malone began to regress as a character while everyone continued to grow around him.

Still, it was smart, every episode was funny, and the show knew when it was time to finally bow out. “Cheers” was a huge part of the pop culture, and it did not overstay its welcome, nor did it leave to early. It knew when it was time to go, and it left us feeling nostalgic to this day.

13. South Park

“South Park” is terrific. As “The Simpsons” before it, it changed the face of primetime animation. Unlike “The Simpsons,” the show never declined, in fact with their formula of producing an episode in six days, it has always managed to reflect where we are as a culture and a society and holds a mirror up to us to show us how stupid we’re behaving. Every time something big happens in the news, or in pop culture, I always wonder what “South Park” is going to say about it. It even had me questioning at one point what was worse “Jersey Shore” or al Qaeda.

No one is safe on “South Park,” there are no sacred cows. And honestly, this is a good thing. There shouldn’t be any sacred cows. And anytime a sacred cow is propped up, I think the best thing one can do is to tear it down. And through four foul mouthed fourth graders, “South Park” does this week after week.

12. Married With Children

Once upon a time, this was the most crass and irreverent series on television. And it’s still up there. Meet Al Bundy, a former High School football star who became a poor shoe salesman. Adding to his misery is his lazy, unemployed wife, Peggy, his vapid, bimbo daughter, Kelly, and his scheming, perverted son, Bud. Not to mention his feminist neighbor who hates his guts.

The original title for this show was going to be “Not the Cosbys” and it shows. Where the Cosbys were wholesome, loving, supportive, and so sweet they made you want to puke, the Bundys were the exact opposite. I think every family is dysfunctional, some are just more dysfunctional than others. And it was funny; it was laugh out loud funny.

I prefer the earlier seasons with David Garrison as Steve Rhodes to Ted McGinley’s Jefferson D’Arcy. Steve was the exact opposite of Al, a successful banker, kind of a geek, and utterly whipped by his wife. So it was fun to watch Al slowly, over time, destroy this guy. I didn’t care for Jefferson’s lame “I’m a CIA agent” past. That was around the time the show became a live action cartoon. It was still funny, but it wasn’t the same.

11. The Venture Bros.

In the past, I’ve pitched this show to people by describing it as Greg Weisman getting together with Matt Stone and Trey Parker to make an adult cartoon. “The Venture Bros” is brilliant. Brilliant in its satirical humor, brilliant in its references to comic books, old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and 60’s 70’s and 80’s music and pop culture. And it’s definitely genius in its overarching story arcs and actual character development.

The theme of the series is failure, and “Venture Bros” presents it in a way that is just sublime. Our protagonist is Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture, a bitter, self-centered, dick who didn’t live up to the expectations the world had for him. He is far more concerned with getting rich and getting laid than he is with raising his sons, Hank and Dean, or worrying about his arch-enemy, The Monarch, who is probably the only person on the planet just as pathetic as he is.

The show always makes me laugh, and it’s also the sort of show I get together with friends to discuss what happened, and what could possibly be coming up. Like I said, the story arcs are brilliant, and if they’re not pre-planned, they certainly feel like it. A little seemingly throwaway line of dialogue in season one becomes an important plot element by the third or fourth season. It’s just genius, and I would love to work on this show in some capacity.

10. Batman the Animated Series

Before anyone crucifies me for daring to put other animated series ahead of this one, I love this series. I love it. I can and often do pop my DVD in and tune into a random episode when I am in the mood. I thought the seasons that ran on Fox Kids were brilliant. I didn’t care much for it after the move to Kids WB, but before the move, this series was the most groundbreaking thing to happen to television animation since “The Simpsons.”

Before this series came out, action cartoons were terribly animated. Take a look at shows like “Transformers” and “GI Joe” and take a look at Batman’s contemporaries like “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” and look at how cruddy the animation was. There were so many details in the character models that those characters could barely move. I feel for the animators in Korea who had to draw Wolverine’s body hairs over and over. Bruce Timm was a genius; he came in and simplified the designs to allow for fluid movement. And the style of the series was dark and moody. It was the most atmospheric cartoon to ever air on American TV.

The writing was brilliant too. While I greatly prefer overarching storylines and character development, when it came to done in ones, Batman was the best at it. Each episode was packed and told a complete story, with some great character writing. Without this show, American animation wouldn’t be what it is today.

Yes, it did spin off an entire universe of shows, “Superman,” “The New Batman Adventures,” “Batman Beyond,” “Justice League,” Justice League Unlimited” and while I like some of those shows better than others, none of them matched "Batman the Animated Series." They caught lightning in a bottle with “Batman the Animated Series” and created a timeless classic for the ages.

9. The Colbert Report

Every time I tune in, I ask myself just what the hell Stephen is going to do next. This man is dangerous, and dangerous in the good way. Stephen Colbert plays himself, sort of (but not really) as a faux conservative commentator very much in the vein of Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Like a small child who thinks he’s the center of the universe, and he finds a way to make every story about him.

Whether he’s calling President Obama a “scary black man” or warning us about the danger we are in because of the Bear Agenda, Stephen Colbert is fighting for us. Who doesn’t love that he has his own Super Pac? And I do want to know how many people in Iowa voted for Rick Parry. There are so many segments I can point at and say “look at this, he’s brilliant!” But my all time favorites will always be the “Better Know a District” segments where he sits down with these congressmen and makes them look like the fools that they are, except for Eleanor Holmes Norton who had his number. Of course, he doesn’t do this segment much anymore, I think most of Congress is afraid of him and rightly so.

Stephen Colbert, if there is a god, you are doing that god’s work.

8. Frasier

Spin-offs seldom work, and it’s even rarer that they exceed the series they’ve spun off from. “Frasier” was better than “Cheers.” I loved the ensemble; I loved the premise, and the setting. After Dr. Frasier Crane divorces his wife, Lilith, he leaves Boston and moves back to Seattle where he becomes a radio psychiatrist while trying to re-connect with his father, who he has always had a distant relationship with.

The writing was funny but mature at the same time. This was definitely a sitcom for grownups. Not that you need to be well read to appreciate it, but it helps. I probably knew more about what Frasier and Niles were talking about than what Martin was talking about when he went on about sports. Niles was my favorite character in the series, and I thought he had the best lines in the series, maybe even on television. His wit and sarcasm still slays me even to this day.

When “Frasier” ended, I don’t think the void has ever been filled. Most sitcoms since then seem to be voids of vapidness. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some gems since then, like “Arrested Development.” But nothing quite like “Frasier.” I hope this is rectified.

7. Dexter

I was a latecomer to this series. I didn’t have Showtime. I knew about it, I knew the basic premise, but I had not seen it. Hell, I didn’t even know what Michael C. Hall looked like. I’ve had friends rave about it for years. After one particular friend of mine went several weeks talking about nothing else but “Dexter” I finally checked it out.

This show is brilliant. I love it when ethical questions are raised, and this show raises them and makes our rational sides confront our own inner savages. Dexter is a serial killer who kills other killers, child molesters, the worst dregs of society. We root for him as he does this, but then we ask ourselves is this right? Is he a monster and are we monsters for applauding this behavior?

The closest real life comparison I can think of right now is the death of Osama bin Laden. Was it the right thing to do? I say yes. Was it legal? Well, we did invade a sovereign country. It wasn’t the legal thing to do. But the trash needed to take out, and this was a long time coming.

When my brother and I watch this show, the thing we seem to discuss the most is Dexter’s foster father, Harry. Did he do the right thing or should he have gotten this kid extensive therapy? Would therapy have even helped? Ultimately, Harry was a man; a good man, but a flawed one. I think he loved Dexter as much as he hated the system which let many murderers walk.

Also, one thing about the show is how Dexter is the outsider trying to blend in, I think on some level we can all relate to that one. We all have our own inner demons, and I think each one of us has our own dark passenger. Most of us aren’t killers, but we all have impulses.

6. The Spectacular Spider-Man

I’ve talked about this show a lot, so I will keep it brief. Not only is this the perfect adaptation of Spider-Man and his mythos, this is also the single perfect superhero show. Peter Parker has always been the everyman, and his life has always been just as interesting as Spider-Man’s crime fighting career; maybe more so. This series balanced the two aspects of his life perfectly and every character felt real and alive, as opposed to previous adaptations of Spider-Man where everyone was a walking plot device.

“The Spectacular Spider-Man” did for Spidey what “Batman the Animated Series” did for Batman. As Bruce Timm did before them, Vic Cook and Sean Galloway simplified the designs to allow for fast and fluid movements. And did it ever pay off. I’ve never seen action scenes in an animated series as lively and dynamic as the ones here. It was breathtaking.

This series also, for me, represents a time in my life where the possibilities were endless. I was living in Los Angeles, going to film school, while the series was in production and being aired. I was down at the studio so often I may as well have been working on the series. I didn’t, beyond helping to get a few character references when Marvel was slow in providing them.

Most of all, the series had heart. Everyone involved had a great deal of love, affection, and respect for the series, the character, and the mythos and it shined on screen. Most other adaptations of the wall-crawler lacked that, and were mostly put together by people who didn’t care for much except their paycheck. I’m looking at you Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and John Semper Jr.! “The Spectacular Spider-Man” shows that a creative team can’t just be competent, they have to love what they do, because the results do pay off.

5. The Sopranos

If “Seinfeld” changed the face of sitcoms, “The Sopranos” changed television dramas, and really put premium cable on the map. For the eight years this show was on, it was the one show everybody talked about. Even presidential candidates made references to Tony Soprano in speeches, debates, and commercials. It was everywhere.

In a lot of ways, it was modern day Shakespeare. Family tragedies in modern America, but instead of royalty, it used a mafia family. When you think about it, aren’t Mafia families the closest thing we have to medieval royal families in this day and age? Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola understood that.

The series benefited from powerful writing, understated acting, and characters we could relate to. These characters felt real, and most of the time it seemed like someone was actually documenting the lives of a real family.

I think what we could all relate to was the feeling Tony had that he was born in the wrong decade. The heyday of the Mafia is long over, and as I look at this terrible economy we’re living in, I wonder if the same could be said about America. Are we over as a country? Is the American dream dead? “The Sopranos” asks this question.

4. Cowboy Bebop

“Where has this been all my life?” That was the first thing I said after I watched this series for the first time. I’m not a fan of anime, but I loved “Cowboy Bebop.” After I was done with “Bebop” I went on an anime/manga spree, and aside from “Berserk” I didn’t find much else that appealed to me. But “Cowboy Bebop” remains one of the best pieces of art I’ve ever exposed myself to.

The music is brilliant, the characters are lively. I love Spike Spiegel, one of the all time great heroes of any medium. The guy running away from his past, but no matter how far he runs, he can never escape it. I adore Faye Valentine, the woman without a past so desperately trying to find it.

It’s funny, it’s tragic, it’s dramatic, it’s sad, and it’s joyous. Except for one mediocre episode, all twenty-six are pure gold. It’s like listening to a classic vinyl album again and again. I always come back to this show. Words cannot describe how in love with it I’ve always been.

3. Babylon 5

I’ve dedicated an entire entry to this show, so again, I’ll be brief. “Babylon 5” is everything good science fiction should be. It asks questions, it speculates, but it doesn’t answer those questions. That’s our job. As series creator, J. Michael Straczynski, said “a good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument… and the occasional bar fight.” And this series is good at that. Great at that.

It also sadly seems to have been forgotten in the annals of television history, and that is a great pity. If anything, it’s done more for television science fiction than any other series. It was the first to stand up to the big bully that is Paramount and prove you could have a successful space faring science fiction series without “Star Trek” stamped to it. And Paramount tried hard to kill it. They stole from the series bible and pitch when J. Michael Straczynski pitched the show to them, announced “Deep Space Nine” shortly after B5 was accounced in the trades, rushed their pilot out to beat it to the airwaves, and tried to pressure sponsors and weaker networks into not supporting it. But “Babylon 5” persevered and told its story. The door was opened for others.

Love the new “Battlestar Galactica?” Thank “Babylon 5.” Adore “Firefly?” Thank “Babylon 5.” Enjoy “Stargate” and “Farscape?” You get the idea. “Babylon 5” picked a fight with the school yard bully and paved the way for you all to come in. It may not have had the best sets or the best special effects, but unlike post original series “Star Trek,” B5 had writing and vision. It was the first five year novel, and it impacted the way I think.

Remember how I said that “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” were the McDonalds and Burger King of television science fiction? Well, “Babylon 5” is that amazing, four star restaurant where the steaks are perfect.

2. Gargoyles

Okay, you’ve all heard me talk about this show before, so instead of discussing the show specifically, I’ll just say what it did for me. “Gargoyles” is what inspired me. It inspired me to become a writer; it was the first time I ever asked myself questions like “who wrote this?” “Who acted in this?” “Where did this come from?” While I’m sure that would have happened anyway, “Gargoyles” was the catalyst.

It also started a life journey. I started reading a lot of Shakespeare, became something of a fanatic, I started reading the classics, really self educating myself, and eventually I went to film school and started writing my own works. I can safely say the path I am on would not have happened if not for “Gargoyles.” And I can watch this series any time and never get tired of it.

"Gargoyles" followed in the path of "Batman the Animated Series" with simplified designs that animated beautifully, but unlike "Batman," it brought long term story arcs and character development to the world of television animation, and a lot of other shows have since followed in its footsteps.

Now, before I move on to #1. I just want to say that this was tough. I didn’t know what was going to be #1. So I flipped a coin and decided that I hated being predictable.

1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

If “Gargoyles” inspired me on my path in life, “The Daily Show” is what keeps me going and makes me want to kill myself less. I look at the state of the world, the news media, our government, our economy, and frankly our culture and the people in it, and I am disgusted. Then Jon Stewart manages to make me look at it, and laugh at the same time. All the while making sure I never give up hope that this world is worth living in. Make no mistake, I’m not suicidal, it’s all just a figure of speech. But Jon has saved me from complete depression more than once.

Jon Stewart might possibly be both the smartest and funniest man on television. Sure he is just a comedian, but he understands the issues and what’s going on better than many supposed experts and our elected representatives. His shining moments being his first broadcast after the attacks on September 11th, when he brought down “Crossfire,” and when he shamed Congress into passing a bill to take care of 9/11 first responders. The man is an American icon and an American hero.

Jon Stewart is the Mark Twain of our era, and I think he will be remembered as such after he is gone.

Sin of Omission

2011-11-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

I've theorized about the nature of Professor Gellar all season. But now, if we must make bets, I am taking a stand. May I be proven right, may I be proven wrong, I feel like making my prediction official. Professor Gellar is not real.

If Gellar's cunning enough to elude Miami Metro for weeks, by being out in broad daylight several times even though his picture has been plastered all over the city (a city that is terrified by this guy mind you) and strong enough to knock out Travis, kill his sister and stage the whole "Whore of Babylon" tableau, then drag Travis back to the church and chain him up all by himself then why does he need Travis in the first place if he could do all that by himself? Why was Travis even hiding out back just to make sure his sister was safe. He could have just came to see her in class like he always does.

I think we are dealing with split personality. He blacked out as his Gellar personality took over and did all that artistic stuff and even going as far as chaining himself up in the church. Something traumatic happened to him when he was younger that made him hate women and Gellar brainwashed him or something when he was his student. Gellar is probably dead and buried somewhere on the church grounds. Dexter looking for something that was not there was all to surreal.

Remember all the womanizing that Gellar did when he taught at the university? I think this is what broke Travis' brain, so he killed Gellar and made up his own version of the Professor that became his Dark Passenger.

I have loved the direction that Debra has been taken this season. At the end of season five, I really thought she was about to find out what Dexter really is. She didn't, but the door was opened for that development. Now, eight episodes into season six, she may finally walk through that door. It's been a long time coming, and I want to see it happen.

LaGuerta continues to be the detestable character she's been since the first season. Now she's covering up a for a potential murderer. As for who killed that hooker, I'm leaning towards either Angel or Matthews. I don't think they'd go in that direction with Angel, and after what happened with Lila, I wouldn't want them to. So, I'm guessing it's Matthews.

Great episode, I've been enjoying the season, but I think the arc is really kicking into high gear now.

Just Spreading the Word

2011-11-19T21:06:00.001-08:00

I did not write this essay, credit for this piece of work goes to Kathleen Coffin, an English major who wrote it as her final term paper. She got an A.

And with this garbage in theaters and stinking up our pop culture, I really wanted to say something about it. But I will not read them, I will not watch them. So here it is from someone who has.

TWILIGHT AND TEENS
Romanticizing Abuse, Obsession, and Anti-Feminism Since 2005

“Yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin,” (Meyer, 2005) This quote, from Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular series Twilight, aptly describes the obsessive, sexist, and often abusive relationship between a vampire and a human which is portrayed as romantic. The main character, Bella Swan, falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen, who loves her devotedly but does not know if he can control his rampant lust for her blood. (Meyer, 2005) Their tragic relationship has gained mass amounts of attention and fame. Twilight has topped the New York Times best-seller list and has grown a massive fan-base. (New York Times, 2007)

“I love Edward,” Alyssa, 15, from Muncie IN, proclaims. “He’s my favorite. He’s so sparkly and pretty!”
Her friend Nina (15) disagreed. “I liked Jacob—he seemed a lot tougher,” She muses. “And he never left!”
“Edward came back!” Alyssa cuts in pleadingly.
“He still left,” Nina replied flatly.

When looked at from a feminist and psychological perspective, Bella and Edward’s relationship is anything but ‘romantic’. According to the book Young Femininity, “Young women are encouraged to relate to their bodies as objects that exist for the use and aesthetic pleasure of others…” (Aapola, Gonick & Harris, 2005) When Edward refers to Bella as ‘his brand of heroin’, we can see an exact example of what Young Femininity was talking about. Bella is seen as an object, something to protect and coddle. She is written as co-dependent—the constant damsel in distress, whereas Edward is overprotective and possessive.

In the first few chapters, Edward saves her from a truck that nearly crushes her. When she gets nauseous in a biology classroom, he scoops her up and carries her out the door. When she is in Seattle and accosted by several men, Edward drives into the scene and saves her again. When an evil vampire decides to come after Bella, Edward once again carts her off to a different locale to protect her. Not that it makes much difference. Rather than listening to Edward like a good, obedient, girlfriend, she decides to sacrifice herself. So of course, when Bella decides something on her own, it’s something unintelligent that nearly gets her killed. Naturally, Edward saves the day. (Meyer, 2005) This is only in the first book. In the second, we get to see Jacob Black, an American Indian werewolf, (only briefly mentioned in the first book) enter the picture and also save her when she goes hiking by herself. (Meyer seems to be saying that when a woman does anything on her own it will inevitably lead to a near-death experience) Jacob saves her again when she jumps off a cliff in hopes of hearing Edward’s hallucinatory voice. Not once does this cultural icon influencing thousands of girls save herself.

Bella is not the only female character that represents anti-feminism. The three most prevalent females in the books are Alice Cullen, Rosalie Hale, and Leah Clearwater. Alice and Rosalie are vampires, adopted sisters of Edward whereas Leah is the only female werewolf in Jacob’s pack. (Meyer, 2007) One might think that vampire and werewolf women would represent strong female archetypes. But this is not the case. Alice Cullen rarely disobeys Edward’s orders and bribes, even going so far as kidnapping Bella in exchange for a car. (Meyer, 2007) She loves shopping, adores parties, dressing up Bella, and seems to represent pure femininity. There was more hope for Rosalie as a strong female vampire, especially since she found her mate Emmett, and saved his life by carrying him all the way back to the Cullens. (Meyer, 2005) But Rosalie is portrayed as selfish and vain, obsessed with beauty and good looks. She is shown negatively in all three books and in the final book appears to care for Bella but is more interested in taking care of Bella’s child since she is unable to have any of her own. (Meyer, 2008) Leah Clearwater is the best hope, being the only female werewolf in the entire pack. But yet again, Meyer cannot seem to bear to have a strong female character in her books. Leah is bitter and angry because Sam (the alpha of the pack) ‘imprinted’, or chose as a mate her cousin Emily. She antagonizes everyone and when she joins the battle in the third book, they nearly lose because of her. (Meyer, 2005) Sound female characters apparently aren’t what make the series popular.

Aapoloa brings up the point on how the norm in society is for a teenage girl to have a boyfriend. Young women provide evidence of their maturity and worldliness by having boyfriends—being accepted by young men is represented as an accomplishment. (Aspola, Gonick & Harris, 2005) When Bella arrives at her new school she is immediately lavished with attention from admiring boys and halfway through the book Edward declares himself her boyfriend. She is the envy of all the girls—some who try to befriend her and some who are merely catty towards her because of her popularity. As she befriends Edward more, it is clear that the entire relationship is hanging upon him and that he has the perfect right to order her around whenever he pleases. “‘Are you going to tell Charlie I’m your boyfriend or not?’ he demanded.” (Meyer, 2005) “‘I’m not going along with that.’ ‘Then I’ll have to stop you.’” (Meyer, 2007) This presents young girls the idea that relationships are up to the men and they will be outcasts until they get a boyfriend. This is not generally a good thing to impress upon young adolescent girls who are just starting to develop their identity and are insecure because of it.

We also see over and over the claim that Edward and Bella are passionately in love. That’s the point of the series after all. But nowhere in the books, in any of the books in fact, is the explanation on why these two love each other. Meyer compares the lovers to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, (Meyer, 2005) Romeo and Juliet, (Meyer, 2006) and Heathcliff and Cathy. (Meyer, 2007) All of these characters (with the exception of Romeo and Juliet, their love was more of a ‘love at first sight’) had specific reasons for why they loved each other and how they fell in love. Though Meyer has the gall to compare her paltry vampire series to the great classics, she never explains why Edward and Bella love each other. We get description after description of Edward’s dazzling beauty (over 100 counted in the first book alone) but that is it. What’s the difference between Bella’s relationship with Edward and her relationship with say, Mike or Eric, one of the many guys that vied for her attention? Mike was just as overwhelming as Edward, even friendlier to be honest. (Meyer, 2005) The difference was that Edward was devastatingly beautiful, whereas poor Mike did not sparkle like a sequined prom dress. There is nothing in Bella and Edward’s relationship that does not go beyond sexual fantasy and personal appearance. So what does this teach adolescent girls? That the primary reasons for dating someone should be based on physical appearance? “The meadow, so spectacular to me at first, paled next to his magnificence.” (Meyer, 2005) What use do the beauties of nature have when you have an attractive boyfriend?

Another topic to discuss is if Bella and Edward’s relationship is necessarily healthy. Not just because he craves her blood—is the relationship as a whole a good relationship? This is particularly significant because thousands of girls wish to have what Edward and Bella have and might not recognize a dangerous situation because of these fantasies.

According to a volume of Journal of Women’s Health, the authors state that dating violence usually has three types: emotional and psychological, physical, and sexual. (Teten, Ball, Valle, Noonan, & Rosenbluth, 2009) They define psychological abuse as isolating a partner from his or her friends and family, controlling or jealous behavior, and acts of dominance such as assertion of power over decision making. (Teten, Ball, Valle, Noonan, & Rosenbluth, 2009) The most immediate example of how this relates to Bella and Edward’s relationship takes place in the third book Eclipse. Within the first chapter, Bella has to ask Edward’s permission to go see her friend Jacob Black. To make sure that Bella doesn’t disobey him, Edward goes as far as dismantling her truck to keep her from sneaking off to visit him. (Meyer, 2007) He claims he does it to protect her, for her own good—and because he loves her. How many times have women in an abusive relationship plaintively say that their significant other beats them because they love them?

The main problem with Bella is her lack of personality. Any of these flaws and messages could be acceptable if she was purposely written as a pathetically weak female character. But she is not. Meyer herself claims the character is ‘realistic.’
But the problem with Bella is that since the entire book series is a complete wish-fulfillment fantasy, it’s easy for young girls to insert themselves as the main character. Bella is shy and quiet—in the beginning of the first book she nervously wonders how she will fit in at her new school. (Meyer, 2005) What adolescent girl doesn’t worry about fitting in? Bella is terribly clumsy—girls go through adolescence stumbling and tripping as their bodies struggle to catch up with them. Suffice it to say, Bella is every teenage girl, which is why the ideas presented in this series are so very poisonous.

Bella is the hapless victim in a story that objectifies women, victimizes women, and romanticizes abuse and obsession. But thanks to a physically attractive savior, a mania painted as tragic, angst-ridden love, with just a dash of bodice-ripping sexual fantasy, we have a bestseller. One can only hope that girls will be able to recognize psychological abuse when they see it and not see it as something to aspire to.
Because that is what Twilight is really about—anti-feminism, sexism, and abuse.

Here is a link to the essay on facebook.

And here is a link to Kathleen's blog.

Secrets

2011-11-19T12:37:00.001-08:00

I am speechless. This episode was perfect. I loved it, and I say this as a guy who has been wanting to love this series but so far has only been able to just like it a lot. I loved this episode.

Harm was a deliciously creepy villain. Everything about him was chilling. His speech patterns could have easily been corny, but thanks to great writing and terrific voice acting they were very unnerving. I spent most of the episode wondering how Artemis and Zatanna were going to defeat him. Scratch that, not just wondering how they were, wondering IF they were. And as a thirty-year old jaded TV watcher, I hardly ever wonder IF the bad guy is going to be beaten.

The story was very heavy, and the truth about Secret was heartbreaking. I've heard of Secret and Harm before, but I didn't know their story, and I had no idea she was dead, never mind that her brother killed her. Child murder in a cartoon? Okay, there's been plenty of attempted child murder, but the real deal? Harsh. Very harsh.

The B-plot balanced out the dark drama with a lot of humor. While Artemis and Zatanna fought for their lives, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash were attending a school Halloween dance and there they warded off... a prank. I would like to say that Marvin the Martian with Godzilla's roar is the single greatest thing a human being could ever have come up with.

Martians invading, eh? Ooh... foreshadowing for season two? And here I thought Darkseid was being set up for season two. Hmm, maybe he is. Maybe he'll be in cahoots with the White Martians. Maybe I am reading too deep into this. It wouldn't be the first time.

The brief C-plot was about Aqualad, Red Arrow, Robin, and Batman discussing who the traitor was. At this point, I have no idea. I'm leaning towards M'Gann. Or maybe it's Aqualad.

If I had one complaint, it was about Artemis taking the news that Superboy and Miss Martian are a couple that hard. She only expressed interest in him on screen once, and that was in her first appearance. Aqualad alluded to it a few episodes back, but I think we needed more. Artemis, aggressive as she is, could have flirted with Superboy more. But that doesn't detract from this perfect episode, because it's not this episode's problem. The episodes that preceded this one should have laid a little more pipe.

BTW, Marvel Zombie... very cute.

A+, Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, Encore! Encore!

Nebraska

2011-11-19T09:49:00.001-08:00

Okay, who didn't chuckle at Dexter and Brian's "American Gothic" pose?

This episode was nice. A nice throwback to previous seasons that tie us back to arguably Dexter's two best "Big Bads." His brother, Brian aka Rudy aka the Ice Truck Killer, and the Trinity Killer... although, John Lithgow does not put in an appearance.

After the death of Brother Sam, Dexter embraces his darkness which takes form as his brother, Brian. What follows is a twisted buddy comedy as they travel to Nebraska after word reaches Deb that Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer, found his family in Witness Protection and killed his daughter and wife in a manner consistent with his killings. Of course, Arthur Mitchell is dead. Dead, cut up, and thrown in the ocean. The obvious culprit is Mitchell's son, Jonah. And it's up to our intrepid murderers to find him, and put him in the ground.

Of course, it's not that simple. Jonah's sister committed suicide, and in a rage, Jonah killed his mother. His guilt weighing upon him, he tries to force Dexter to end his life. Brian, like an evil Jiminy Cricket, encourages this. But, in the end, Dexter doesn't do it. Jonah doesn't fit his code, and will have to learn to live with it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Travis leaves Gellar's services. Or so we think. Their latest intended victim tells the police she was being held by two men. But she was blindfolded and never saw anyone. We don't know how many voices she heard. I'm still not convinced Gellar exists, and if anything, I think this episode, especially the scene where Brian (actually Dexter) stabs that redneck pot dealing with a pitchfork is setting up the Gellar isn't real twist.

Overall, a great episode But there is one thing that's driving me nuts. Why did the death of Brother Sam trigger this descent into darkness for Dexter? Okay, I know why. But what bothers me is that Rita's death didn't.

Damn, Hammster...

2011-11-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

A review of the Dexter episode "Nebraska" is coming as soon as I am healthy enough to write it. I've been sick all week.

In the mean time, Greg revealed/confirmed something I've been wondering about for a while now.

Out of curiosity, how old was Silver Sable in season two of "Spectacular Spider-Man." She doesn't seem older than thirty... I'm just curious, because if Hammerhead worked for her dad before he went to prison, twelve years prior was she above the age of consent when they had a relationship?

Greg responds...

I don't think so. Which is part of the reason Hammerhead (1) now has a new skull and (2) why he no longer is working for Silvermane.

Damn, Hammy is a pig. This also makes Silvermane a lot more awesome.

Disordered

2011-11-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Well, this episode was, in some ways, a pretty big reminder of just how hokey the DC Universe is. But the hokeyness aside, it was a terrific follow up to last week's episode, and it's obviously setting the stage for things to come.

The A-plot centered around the true nature of Sphere, and I was wrong about it being from Apokolips. Sphere is actually from New Genesis, but was obviously stolen by Apokolips. The Forever People from Fourth World come to rescue Sphere, and they end up teaming up with Superboy to find more technology from Apokolips, which has been supplied to Intergang by Desaad.

As someone who is not at all a DC fan, I raised an eyebrow when I saw Infinity Man, and again when I heard the name, Infinity Man. I know comics, from both major companies, are full of ridiculous elements, but DC always took it a bit too far for my tastes. That being said, it was very well handled here. An absurd idea was well executed. I thought Andrew Robinson's script was terrific.

I remember Desaad well from "Justice League" but found him to be even more chilling here. His design was creepy, as was the way he carried himself. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him, and I am confident we will. I enjoyed his creepy reference to "The Wizard of Oz"

All that being said, I preferred the B-plot considerably. Some things we've suspected are finally spelled out as each of the teens has a therapy session with Black Canary. Artemis doesn't want The Team to know who her family really is, and she likes Wally; Miss Martian is a White Martian, even if it's not spelled out, it's confirmed; Aqualad doesn't feel like he's qualified to lead The Team, but doesn't think anyone else can; Wally is Wally.

The meat was learning just how badly Robin was messed up by the training session, and how as much as he tried to be Batman, he can't be Batman and doesn't actually want to be. Superboy's revelation was chilling, combine that with his revelation in the comic about dreaming about killing Superman, and you know there's trouble in his future.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see Queen Bee in this episode. The Sphere was last seen in Bialya, and I figured that's where Apokolips was delivering it's tech. But I suppose that is just where they were testing the delivery system. But, I admit, I was also really hoping to hear the lovely voice of Marina Sirtis again.

When I enjoy an episode that reminds me of why I couldn't care less for the source material, you know it was fun.

Just Let Go

2011-11-08T23:43:00.001-08:00

Well, this episode caught me by surprise. There were some things that I didn't see coming, even though I should have. And one thing I definitely did not see coming. If you saw the episode, you know what the latter was.

Dexter is distracted from tracking down Travis by the shooting of Brother Sam. The identity of the shooter becomes a brief "who done it" after the chief suspect is arrested before Dexter can get to him. Dexter then discovers it was Nick, who Brother Sam has been trying to help and even baptized.

When Brother Sam asked Dexter to forgive Nick, and to pass on his forgiveness before passing away in the hospital, I will admit I was wondering which way he would go. Of course, had Dexter embraced the light that Sam saw in him, we wouldn't have a show. I'll elaborate on that in a moment. But I thought the confrontation between Dexter and Nick was brilliant. It went through so many moods, and while some of us who genuinely like Dexter as a person and wish he could have a happy ending somewhat hope he will heed Sam's words, I think we were immensely satisfied when Dexter "washed" that smirk off of Nick's face. I loved that scene.

Meanwhile, Travis gets cold feet and instead of preparing "the Whore of Babylon" for their next kill, he releases her. We don't get pay off for this development this week, and I am still not at all convinced Gellar is a living person, but I look forward to seeing what happens next.

We learn more about Gellar as well, as his belongings are gone through by Miami Homicide. Turns out Gellar isn't sending us a warning about the end of the world, he's trying to cause the end of the world. Apparently these murders will unlock doomsday. Well... leave it to the mind of a psychopath. And Gellar, either alive or dead, was clearly a psychopath.

Finally, Debra needs to take away Quinn's badge. The guy is a loose cannon. He's dangerous, and he's already jeopardized the case, as well as acted beyond unprofessionally for most of the season. I understand that he is hurt, but lives are on the line and people depend on the job he does. A job he is clearly not qualified to handle. I am calling it now, Quinn is going to end up dead later this season.

Speaking of dead, after Dexter kills Nick, he is visited by the spirit of his deceased big brother, Brian aka Rudy aka the Ice Truck Killer. I nearly applauded, before the credits rolled. And next week's episode looks like it's going to be amazing.

Now, a brief tangent. I've said this before, but Dexter is not going to go the way of Brother Sam, and he's not going to embrace religion. In Brother Sam and in Travis and Gellar, we have the two extremes. If Dexter embraces God, he'll either reform like Brother Sam did, or God will become his Dark Passenger, as it has with Gellar. I am sure he will learn a lesson, but what that lesson is, I am not sure. I'm just having fun going along for the ride.

Anonymity & Logical Fallacies

2011-11-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

I want to set a couple of things straight.

First and foremost, I don't take anonymous posts as seriously as posts with a name attached. However, if you are anonymous and generally respectful, I tend to overlook that. If you are anonymous and antagonistic, as far as I'm concerned, you are a coward. And a pretty loathsome coward at that.

If you disagree with me, that's cool. I welcome and enjoy conversation. But if you disagree with me in a disrespectful manner, expect me to return that disrespect. Actually, expect me to multiply it. In other words, this is my house and I believe if someone comes into my house and behaves like an asshole, I have the right to kick their ass.

Now, if you have a problem with my opinions, guess what, nobody is making you read my blog. I'm not going to sanitize and sugarcoat how I feel so as not to offend your precious little sensibilities.

Shifting gears, let me discuss a couple of logical fallacies that have shown up in the comments section here. Actually, I suspect these both are originating from the same guy. But they were anonymous posts, so I don't know for sure. Although the similarities are pretty close. Personally, I suspect this individual has a condition.

Someone took issue with my reviews of the 2011 "ThunderCats" series (fuck that show!) and said that I should refrain because there are people who put in a lot of long hours and work very hard on that show. So because of all the hard work, I shouldn't have been as hard on that show as I was. Of course, that very same person did not mind that I am so hard on Michael Bay's movies, or the "Twilight" movies or the "Star Wars Prequels" or any of those atrocities. And, I don't know, maybe I'm taking crazy talk, but a little bird told me that there were pretty big production teams on those and they all worked very hard.

I remember pointing that out to this person, and he accused me of making bad comparisons. Of course he just didn't want to admit that he came up with a very stupid defense, and he would not apply that defense to material he didn't care for. Just material he does care for. Sounds hypocritical, doesn't it?

Of course, I think the idea that work shouldn't be criticized, even severely, because people worked hard on it is just stupid. I'm judging the work, not the people behind the work. If a movie or a TV show sucks, I'm going to say so. If I go to a restaurant and order a steak, and the steak sucks, I am going to say so. If a house is built, but comes crashing down later, regardless of how many people worked hard on it, something in the work itself was deeply wrong.

Finally, my opinions on the "The New Batman Adventures" episode, "Over the Edge" generated some controversy. I expected that, of course. That episode is a sacred cow in geekdom. But another anonymous poster (probably the same one) not only could not handle my criticism of it, but decided he had to get personal with me specifically. Well, when you do that, out come the claws.

He accused me of "slandering and berating btas" and went on and on about how "Batman the Animated Series" was groundbreaking and at the time no animated series had strong continuity or character development, and he felt I was holding "Batman the Animated Series" to some very unfair standards.

First, I feel I should point out the obvious. I was not even criticizing an episode of "Batman the Animated Series" much less "slandering and berating it." I was just voicing my dislike for one episode. One episode that isn't even an episode of "Batman the Animated Series" for crying out loud! "Over the Edge" is an episode of "The New Batman Adventures" which is a spin-off of "Batman the Animated Series." And don't tell me it's not, the series was retitled, the series was re-designed, they jumped forward in time a few years, the story tone and style was different. It was a sequel series.

Second of all, yes "Batman the Animated Series" was a groundbreaking series, and I wasn't criticizing it at all. But honestly, I should be allowed to if I want to. As my friend, AJ Wells said: if there isn't a criticism-related logical fallacy in which a work must be treated fairly simply because we ought to be grateful it broke ground, there ought to be one.

And I think most would agree that "The New Batman Adventures" was an inferior show to "Batman the Animated Series." And before someone brings up "Mad Love" that episode was written for the former show, and made into a comic. It wasn't a "New Batman Adventures" episode, it was just adapted into one.

The complaint I received was that in 1992, hardly any animated series had continuity and character development, so I shouldn't be pissed off that "Batman the Animated Series" didn't have it. And guess what, I'm not. However, "The New Batman Adventures" premiered in 1997, and by then continuity and character development were quite common in action dramas. Now, I'm not criticizing them for choosing not to have it (although, I still hate that it was teased in "Over the Edge" and squandered, but that's a whole other post), but if they decided to evolve the art style and change the tone already, maybe they could have tried something new. Or maybe not.

But I hardly slandered or berated "Batman the Animated Series." If anything, I was the one being slandered and berated in that exchange. And by an individual too cowardly to even sign his name. I am sure he is reading this, and I am sure he will likely post to continue his anonymous berating, as well as completely miss the point. But, to quote Tony Soprano, those who want respect give respect. And I will give him just as much respect as he gives me.

Failsafe

2011-11-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

Well, this one kept me guessing. Mostly between dream and simulation. I know that teleporting beams were a possibility, but one I dismissed. Story structure wise, you don't do something this, well... apocalyptic, early in a series. I knew a twist was coming, but I had no idea which of the two it would be. Surprise, surprise it was both.

I've already seen people compare it to "Over the Edge," an episode of "The New Adventures of Batman" I always thought was severely overrated. In that episode, Barbara Gordon falls off a building and dies, Gordon blames Batman and swears vengeance; Batman is publicly unmasked, becomes a fugitive; Gordon is kicked off the case and then hires Bane to help him take down Batman; Bane betrays Gordon; Gordon and Batman die; and then Barbara wakes up and it was a nightmare induced by Scarecrow's fear toxin. She then vows to tell her father the truth to prevent something like that from actually happening and then doesn't. And then I throw my remote control at the TV. What a crock! Not only is there no internal logic to the nightmare, I mean... who has a dream or nightmare where they are dead and their mind is playing this? And then she decides to do something that would result in character development and change the status quo in an interesting way and doesn't? Really! Then I got on the internet and found out this was one of the most revered episodes of the series.

I've seen "Failsafe" get compared to "Over the Edge" several times already, and while "Failsafe" isn't perfect, it doesn't cheat anywhere near as much as "Over the Edge" did. If it did, the entire Team would have been killed in the first two minutes and this still would have been their simulation and dream. That, and the outcome of what happened here will likely have lasting consequences as opposed to Barbara deciding to tell and then not tell her dad she was Batgirl. I'm a firm believer in continuity and actions having consequences, and while I loved "Batman the Animated Series" and its spin-offs quite a bit, it tended to shrug off long term consequences to keep a certain status quo.

I think a closer comparison would be to the "Gargoyles" episode, "Future Tense." Like "Failsafe," that episode was both a dream and an illusion. Apocalyptic things happen, and you keep waiting to find out what the twist is going to be, but it also throws so much at you, you're distracted from thinking about it... you just know that something is wrong. Overall, I thought "Future Tense" was far more effective at distracting you on that first viewing. I also felt that it played fair more than "Failsafe." In "Future Tense," we never left Goliath. He was in every scene, and we saw everything he was seeing, and nothing else. While "Failsafe" was cutting to civilians hiding in bunkers, and other moments that no one on The Team was witnessing. And if they weren't witnessing it, why was it part of the simulation and their dream?

"Failsafe" was better than "Over the Edge" but not as good as "Future Tense." But then, few things are. It may be a little unfair of me to make the comparisons either way, but that's where my mind went and those were the comparisons that I drew. A comparison to a similar premise in a DC animated production and in another Greg Weisman production.

I really enjoyed seeing General Wade Eiling make his animated debut, at last. And with his proper design and the correct pronunciation of his name. Eiling appeared in "Justice League Unlimited" but with a different look, since General Hardcastle's design was pretty close to Eiling's comic design, and back in 2007, when Greg Weisman and I were having lunch together at a Taco Bell near the Sony studio he was producing "Spectacular Spider-Man" at, we briefly discussed Captain Atom, and I pronounced Eiling the way JLU did, and he corrected me. Since he co-created the character with Cary Bates, I think he'd know. Just like Dennis O'Neil knows the proper pronunciation of Ra's al Ghul even if Christopher Nolan does not.

I hope to see more of Eiling. I've read some of Greg and Cary's Captain Atom run, and he's a terrific character.

The ending of the episode opens a lot of possibilities and lasting consequences. M'Gann is more powerful than previously thought. I have some theories on where this will lead, but I am not well versed in DC lore, so I intend to keep them to myself... except for one. I am convinced she is a White Martian. And hey, this episode has plenty to make both people who love and hate the character happy. People who like her get a great episode that focused on her. While the people who hate her can make an animated gif of her getting stabbed by Martian Manhunter. Everybody wins.

Great episode, and if you will indulge me one more comparison to "Future Tense," well was it a dream or a prophesy? With the second season being titled "Invasion," that's something to ponder.

Villain Protagonists

2011-11-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

I was recently thinking about how my three favorite television characters of the past decade are Tony Soprano, Dexter Morgan, and Nancy Botwin.

Tony Soprano needs no introduction. Dexter is a serial killer who kills other killers. And Nancy is a pot dealing soccer mom who gets deeper and deeper into the world of criminal activity, and all three are the protagonists of their respective shows. And they're all either amoral or immoral. Or, in Dexter's case, messed up morals.

I guess what I am asking is, do you think we will ever see a western produced animated series with a protagonist like this that is not being played entirely for laughs? And would you want to?

I'm all for it. Variety is the spice of life. But is there a market for it? I'd like to think so, but I think as long as television animation is (incorrectly) viewed as a medium for just children, this is unlikely to happen. Moral Guardians would have a field day with it.

Are there any villains who I think are strong enough to carry there own animated series? Of course. I think the Joker is a prime example of a baddie who could do it, and I would gladly watch a show starring him and his misadventures with Harley Quinn.

Demona from "Gargoyles" could easily carry her own series. Easily. There's a nine-hundred and thirty-seven year long gap between her falling out with Macbeth and when the gargoyles were awoken in Manhattan during the pilot. Just open a history book, think of a role she could play and already you have a cornucopia of material. Throw in Macbeth and the Canmores hunting her and you have something.

And then, there is always something original, built up from scratch.

The Angel of Death

2011-10-31T12:06:00.001-07:00

I love Debra Morgan, only she would move into a house where there was recently a murder/suicide. I've really been enjoying her character arc this season, and while she is still going through an adjustment period, I think she's performing her new duties rather admirably.

I have never liked Quinn. Ever. And this season is doing a good job at jusitfying that dislike. Yeah, I feel for the guy. Being rejected sucks, I can only imagine how painful a rejected marriage proposal is. But to sleep with a potential witness? How could he be so stupid to do that? More importantly, how could Batista not drag him out of that bar? Yeah, I know that led them to Gellar's old journal in her apartment. But Quinn has been drinking the idiot juice.

At this point in the season, the big twist won't be "Professor Gellar is a figment of Travis' imagination," it would be "wow, Professor Gellar is actually real." Which is why I am not taking a stance on this either way. I think the writer's are too clever to use such an obvious trick, or maybe they want us to think that while they pull something else out of the deck.

I did enjoy seeing Dexter catch up to Travis, as well as that entire confrontation. Even though he released Travis in the hopes of being led to Gellar. Yeah, Dexter is convinced there are two killers, but I'm still not. Actually, considering how incompetent Travis was when he tried to kidnap that girl, I wonder just how many people he does have in his head.

Looking forward to next week.

A Horse of a Different Color

2011-10-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since we've seen an episode where Dexter doesn't kill anyone. After the ending here, Dexter committing a murder on one of Miami's several thousand psychos would be most welcome. In any event, you know it's bad when even Dexter is repulsed by the murders rather than fascinated.

Let's talk about Deb, talking about Deb makes me happy. And, as unprofessional as it might be, I wish more high ranking police officials would refer to murderers as "fuckers" during press conferences. She's nervous, and fumbling, but I think she's doing okay so far. Would Batista do better? Probably. But I want her to prove LaGuerta wrong.

Gellar and Travis Marshall's (Greg, if you're reading, I hope you smiled at that one) reign of terror continues as their kills become even more elaborate. Travis flirts with a waitress, takes her out on a date only for Gellar to rear his ugly head. Next thing you know, the girl is bound up like an angel and a trap is laid when the cops find her, trip a wire, and she is dropped and hung like an angel, as you can see in that delightful picture at the top of this entry. I hardly ever do this, but I looked away for a moment once the trap was set. And then, to top it all off, a swarm of locusts are released.

We learn more about Professor Gellar. He runs a doomsday website, and he's been missing for years, after stealing a sword that belonged to John the Revelator. After this episode, I am more convinced than ever that Gellar is dead, and Travis sees him in his head. No one else ever reacts to him. At the restaurant, the waitress didn't even glance at him when she poured Travis more coffee. Sure he was standing over her when Travis came in to the kitchen after getting out of bed to find her bound and gagged, but she still didn't react to him, and Travis could have easily done this himself and is likely suffering from a split personality of some kind.

As for Dexter himself, is he going to embrace religion? Brother Sam is certainly trying to make that happen, and while Dexter may flirt with it, I don't see it happening. He asked God, briefly, to help Harrison pull through an operation after his appendix burst. But I doubt Dexter will do it, because if he does then one of two things will happen. Either he will stop being a killer, or he will start killing for God instead of for the Code. Brother Sam represents one side, while Gellar and Travis represent the other. Dexter will likely continue to go his own way.

On a lighter side, I enjoyed Masuka a lot in this episode. We saw just how dedicated he is to his job when he correctly fired Ryan from stealing an Ice Truck Killer memento from the evidence locker. It's little things like this that make a three dimensional character.

One more episode before I am caught up, but for now I'm going to watch something lighter. Too much darkness in one day is not good for you.

Smokey and the Bandit

2011-10-30T18:31:00.001-07:00

No, not the Burt Reynolds movie. Although, I think Burt is certainly crazy enough to end up on Dexter's table.

I liked this episode a lot, certainly more than last week's episode. What was the basic plot? Dexter searches for his boyhood idol to kill him. A killer known only as the tooth fairy who terrorized Oregon for years and was never caught. Now, he is a seventy-two year old man, retired in Miami.

I will say that this episode paints Dexter himself in a harsher light. Harry saw what Dexter was at a young age and raised him to do good... albeit a very twisted version of good, by taking out the trash. Like a laser beam, Dexter seeks out the most evil among us and prevents them from doing more evil. But to find out that he looked up to and idolized a serial killer before he himself became a killer. It really illuminates the razor thin wire Dexter has walked since the series started.

Deb's first day as lieutenant goes about as well as one would expect. Already she seems to be a weapon being used by Mr. and Mrs. LaGuerta against each other. Angel wants Deb to succeed because every day she does, LaGuerta looks worse. And for the record, I personally do think Deb made the right decision by hiring the transfer from Chicago. Now, the next question is how soon does she sleep with him?

I said in my last review that I was confident that Professor Gellar was a real person. Well, I am now doubting this again. The one time he appears in front of the victim, we don't see a reaction of any kind. Granted the victim had other things to think about. But, I was jumping the gun by assuming the reality of Gellar.

How chilling was the last shot of the episode? It takes a lot to sicken me, but that set up of the Four Horsemen was nauseating. I'm not going to describe it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I think this is up there with the hotel room full of blood in the first season.

Speaking of the first season, Masuka's intern is obsessed with the Ice Truck Killer case from way back in the first season. We don't know much else, but it looks like Dexter's past will be coming back to haunt him.

Great episode, especially the end where Dexter made sure that Walter Kenny died as Walter Kenny and not as the Tooth Fairy.

'Once Upon a Time...'

2011-10-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

Weeks behind, but getting caught up on "Dexter." Finally.

I don't have too much to say about this one, we're still in the beginning of the season and everything is still set up.

I know longer believe that Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) is a figment of Travis' imagination, like Harry is now for Dexter. I thought that scene where he burned himself to insure Travis' obedience was chilling.

Brother Sam has the potential to be an interesting recurring character, juxtaposed with Geller and Travis. Turning to God reformed Sam from a life of crime, while Gellar and Travis murder in the name of God. We'll see what happens here, but I somehow doubt Dexter is going to find God and purge his own dark passenger.

But the real meat of this episode was Deb's promotion to lieutenant and how everyone around her reacted. Batista is outwardly supportive, but inside he's angry. Her relationship with Quinn was all but dead when she turned down his proposal, and this might be the killing blow. Dexter congratulated her, lamented that she might one day be leading the chase against him, but is happy Quinn is no longer with her.

I haven't seen the episodes that follow this one yet. Time to do just that. I feel like I half assed this review, but bear with me, and I'll be up to date soon.

Can It Be?

2011-10-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

So, Disney sent me this:

Greg,

Thank you for your e-mail. We appreciate your interest and are happy to answer your questions.

There are tentative plans to release the rest of this series in 2012. No further details are available at this time.

To view our release calendar and see what great titles are currently available and coming soon, please visit http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/release-calendar.htm.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Sincerely,

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Consumer Relations
US and Canada

I'm buying the champagne, but I'm not popping the cork... yet. But this is a great sign. In the mean time, it would not hurt to keep showing interest: disneyinfo@disneyhelp.com

An Update & Some Thoughts

2011-10-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

1. Yes, I intend to keep reviewing "Dexter." I hope to get caught up this week. The second episode aired as a terrible head cold hit me, which left me mostly incapacitated for a week, and threw off my schedule. I haven't seen the third or fourth episode yet... but I plan to re-watch the second one, review that, and then hit the next two before continuing.

2. Yesterday was the seventeenth anniversary of the premiere of "Gargoyles." I considered doing a special review of "Awakening" but I figured I covered it well in my Top 11 list. Not to say I won't eventually do it, but I had nothing new to say. Maybe in 2014... or sooner. Who knows. But I did watch part one today, and plan to watch the rest over the course of the week. October 24th on a Monday, when was the last time that happened?

3. I am dying to see David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." Normally I shy away from American remakes of foreign films, but this is David Fincher.

If the movie is as good as the trailer, this might be the film of the year. We shall see.

4. My dear friend, the ever charming and beautiful, Jennifer L. Anderson, recently raved about "The Dresden Files" series of novels to me. And, I think she sold me on it. It certainly deals with elements and ideas that interest me, and I like the sense of humor she gave me a sample of. I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it, but it's on my list.

5. I've been re-reading "The Clone Saga." Some parts of it are terrific, a lot of it is crap. I think it's obvious which aspects are which... I might be reviewing it soon. We'll see, but I'm thinking about it.

6. I am now the official "Young Justice" reviewer for World's Finest over at ToonZone. James Harvey liked my approach, as someone who knows jack about the DC universe and mythos. And it's true, I google characters constantly when episodes end.

7. There are rumors that Disney is planning to release the rest of "Gargoyles" on DVD in 2012. They originated from a very unlikely source, but other people are reportedly receiving word from Disney that this is in the works. I'm still waiting to hear back from a source myself. I wrote to and e-mailed one department, but considering the way these things work, it might not be on the official list yet. It certainly hasn't been announced yet. Personally, after all this time... I'll believe it when I see it. However, I've supported the property this long, I am eagerly hoping to be wrong.

8. I love Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It's the perfect fast food lunch.

9. New York Comic Con was a blast. I had short but pleasant discussions with Peter David, Lauren Sankovitch, Steve Wacker, got beat up by SHIELD agents, worshiped Lady Loki, got into the Avengers movie panel, and hung out with the Nostalgia Chick and Todd In the Shadows for a bit.

10. I posted it in an earlier entry, but I am encouraging people to commission Karine Charlebois for any nerdy or geeky artwork you want. She is a professional comic book artist and storyboard artist, and is as pleasant as she is talented. She drew #5 of "Gargoyles" and most of "Gargoyles: Bad Guys" for SLG. And again, take a look at what she did for me. I've been showing this piece off a lot, but I am very happy with it. I hope to commission her again some time.

Humanity

2011-10-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying that I know nothing about Red Tornado. I know nothing about Red Torpedo. I know nothing about Red Inferno. I know nothing about Red Volcano. I know nothing about T.O. Morrow. As ignorant as I am of the DC mythos, I am even more ignorant in the mythology of Red Tornado. Up until now, he was that robot that got blown up in an episode of "Justice League Unlimited."

This was an awesome episode. It was a crash course in all of this without ever feeling like an info-dump. From a writing stand point, it felt less like exposition and more like an organic part of the story. That sort of thing is hard to do, but it really worked. Two episodes built up to this, and the pay off was stunning. It takes great writing to make me care about a glorified toaster oven, but this episode did it.

I also liked Zatanna. I liked her a lot. I'm assuming that was Lacey Chabert doing her voice. The cast list attached to the end of the episode was obviously for an episode set down the line, so I don't know. But if it was, it was nice to hear her again. Both her and Vanessa Marshall as Black Canary. I'm hoping we hear more "Spectacular Spider-Man" alumni later on.

Zatanna was a lot of fun, and I liked her chemistry with Robin. I was actually a little disappointed when the episode ended with her seemingly not joining the team. I would like to see more of her and I think she fits right in. I can think of one character I wouldn't mind swapping out in exchange, but that's neither here not there.

I thought Red Volcano made a pretty menacing villain. That scene where he was tearing T.O. Morrow apart was pretty brutal, although I had guessed that Morrow was a robot based on how young he appeared as opposed to how long ago those flashbacks took place. I got an Ultron-vibe from Volcano, and if he is anything like Ultron... or the Coyote robots, I doubt he's gone for good.

I thought the flashbacks to the Justice Society were fun, and added a lot of history to make this world feel more real. I also couldn't help but be reminded of Watchmen" while watching that. And was that the Alan Scott Green Lantern? Cool.

If there is one nit I had about this episode, I don't think Wally's plan to talk to Ivo in the hopes of finding Morrow was a dumb idea at all. In fact, the idea made so much sense, logically, I'm rather surprised Batman didn't think of it. Someone tell Wally to think of dumb ideas to solve more problems, we'll have world peace and an end to hunger and crime in no time.

The script for this episode was personally penned by Greg Weisman. Now, a few years ago, he was writing a "Red Tornado" mini-series for DC, which got shelved. I wonder how much of that found its way into this episode. Because if the two were anything alike, that makes the comic's cancellation even more of a shame.

Overall, I'm not sure which episode of the season is my favorite so far. But it's a tie between "Humanity" and "Targets." Great episode. Like I said last week, the extra credit is being turned in.

A Handful of Thorns

2011-10-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

What follows is most likely the nerdiest thing I've ever been involved with, and one of the most awesome. A Radio Play crossover between "Gargoyles" and "The Spectacular Spider-Man" written by Greg Weisman and starring many of the original voice actors, including Marina Sirtis, Keith David, Josh Keaton, Steve Blum, and Vanessa Marshall. Most of you reading this blog have probably seen this already, but I felt like reminiscing. It's been about two years since we did this Radio Play at the final Gathering of the Gargoyles, but it is still awesome. And it was definitely a highlight of that weekend.

I'm just going to embed the playlist here, so you should be able to watch it all here.

It brings back so many warm memories. The art piece at the top of the entry was just a little something I commissioned from Karine Charlebois. I think it came out beautifully.

Revelation

2011-10-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

I've been up since early in the morning, I'm still recovering from the flu, I spent all day running around New York Comic Con, and I will be doing the same tomorrow. I need a lot of sleep. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to miss out on watching and reviewing "Young Justice."

This was, to use a term coined by J. Michael Straczynski, a wham episode. So much happened, and fast. A lot of action, a lot of suspense and, yes, a big revelation. Although one that, I think, was guessed by many people before the episode aired. I will elaborate on that momentarily.

Giant plant creatures are terrorizing the world, and are being organized, seemingly, by the Injustice League. Count Vertigo, Wotan, Poison Ivy, Black Adam, Ultra Humanite, and the Joker. The Justice League faces the plant creatures while The Team are sent in to take down the villains' means to control the plants, ergo facing the villains.

The biggest surprise of this episode was Aqualad using the helmet of Dr. Fate to defeat the Injustice League, particularly Wotan. The battle was very suspenseful, and I was actually glad that in addition to Dr. Fate, The Team was bailed out by the Justice League. I think it would have strained credibility if The Team was able to defeat the Injustice League on their own.

The episode ends with both the League and The Team thinking they've defeated the secret society of villains that have been conspiring against them before we finally cut to Vandal Savage, and the revelation of the identities of The Light. The only real surprise in this line-up was Klarion, as action figure photos from ToyFair and those playing cards that were given away at San Diego Comic Con pretty much gave away everybody else, except for Ra's al Ghul and Lex Luthor who were revealed as members back in "Targets."

I like this line-up. A lot. I am especially excited that Vandal Savage is clearly the head honcho in this organization instead of Lex Luthor. I remember being rather disappointed when "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" were airing and after introducing Vandal Savage, who had all the makings of a great Big Bad that would have helped the series better achieve their own identity, they defaulted (constantly) to Lex Luthor which helped make these series look more like direct sequels to "Superman the Animated Series."

I'm also very interested to learn more about what drives him. The way he uses the word "light" makes me think that, to him, this is more than just a cool name for his little secret society. This is a word that sums up something he deeply believes in. I also like his design, he looks like a savage and a neanderthal. I am curious to learn where those three scars across his face came from. Hmm... did he have a run in with a certain demon in Scotland back in the Dark Ages?

The voice cast in this episode was quite interesting. First, I rather enjoyed Brent Spiner as the Joker. His performance has been getting some mixed reviews across the internet. I personally thought it was terrific, but there were times when it felt wrong to me too. And I know exactly why it did, because we've imbibed Mark Hamill as the Joker for nineteen years now. Hamill owns that role, at least as far as voice work goes. That's a lot to live up to, but I think Spiner will rise to the challenge and while he will never own the Joker the way Hamill does, he is already a worthy one.

Alyssa Milano sounded great as Poison Ivy, but I can tell she's new at voice acting. This is not a knock, with more time to play this character, and especially with a genius like Jamie Thomason directing her, I'm sure she will grow into it. I am reminded of Emma Samms in "City of Stone Part One," and how she grew as a voice actor by the time part four aired.

And I loved hearing Steve Blum again. He's been a favorite of mine for a long time.

The only things that felt a little bit odd to me was Wotan being a part of a group that was trying to ransom $10 billion. I'll admit, before tonight, I had never heard of Wotan. After the episode aired, I looked him up on wikipedia, and based on what I read, a ransom scheme doesn't seem like his style. He seems like someone who plays at higher stakes. Likewise, Klarion, seems too petty and impatient to be a part of an organization like The Light. But time, and more episodes will tell. This production team chose these characters for these positions for a reason, and Greg Weisman has not erred on his previous shows.

The other thing, I felt Aqualad was able to remove the helmet a little too easily. Yeah, he mentioned that Kent Nelson helped, but I hope the next time someone puts that helmet on, taking it off does not come so easily.

This episode was a real game changer, and it leaves me pumped to see what comes next. So far, this show has taken time to grow on me. I liked it, a lot. It's an A+ show, easily. But "Gargoyles" and "Spectacular Spider-Man" were A+ shows with a lot of extra credit. But now, for the first time, I am pumped on this show. I think the extra credit is about to be turned in.

Oh, and if you didn't love Artemis's line about feeling naked and not in the fun way, you have no soul.

Alpha Male

2011-10-08T16:27:00.001-07:00

If I didn't know for a fact that Greg Weisman wasn't on drugs, I'd ask him to share whatever he's smoking. It should be impossible. How do you take something as corny and frankly stupid as a French brain in a jar whose' best friend is a gorilla in a French beret and make that intimidating. "Young Justice" managed to succeed at that.

The teaser is great, and the inciting incident is brilliant. Mayor Hill of Gotham City is in the jungle when a gorilla steps out of the trees with a mini-gun and shoots them all up. I'll admit to being amazed Mayor Hill is even still alive after that. But I did enjoy his cameo. I have no idea if he was in the comics, but I know he was in "Batman the Animated Series."

This episode is about the fallout between The Team and Aqualad after the latter keeps to himself that there is a mole on the team. I thought Superboy's reaction was well handled, and while I have seen a lot of complaints about how The Team reacted to this, I think they all ring true. What many people seem to forget is that these are teenagers. They are not the professionals that Batman and the Justice League are. Not yet anyway. This entire team was founded upon these teenagers being pissed off that the League was keeping secrets and not trusting them. Of course they'd be pissed off at Aqualad. But, by the end of the episode, after speaking to Captain Marvel, Aqualad takes charge and the team seems to get over it. But I am sure this will continue to have long term consequences.

This brings me to something else. A while back, I saw someone say and I'm paraphrasing from memory "Teen Titans reminded me of what was fun about being a teenager, Young Justice reminds me of what sucked about being a teenager." What? Why should the less fun parts about being a teenager not get depicted in a show about teenagers. My memories of being a teenager are not exactly happy ones. God forbid fictional teenagers get written like real ones, instead of a fantasy version of teenagers. Yes, I know this is a fantasy world, but that doesn't mean everything should be run through and sanitized to a point where the less fun stuff is glossed over and ignored. These aren't adults waiting for a growth spurt, and yet a lot of the complaints I see are from people who think they should be written that way. I think the problem here is that many fans are looking to their favorite shows or books for wish fulfillment rather then drama. People want to escape to a fictional world where they can vicariously live out there fantasies via their favourite hero. But there is no drama, and that's not real. This actually ties back to what I said two weeks ago about Superboy and Miss Martian's romance... of course it's not real. These are two hormonal teenagers who have a lot of growing up to do.

Finally, Captain Marvel was easily the highlight of the episode. I loved his child-like enthusiasm, and even though I knew about his secret identity, I still thought the epilogue of the episode was played perfectly. Fun stuff. I hope to see more of him as The Team's new den mother.

Homefront

2011-10-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

On this week's installment of "Young Justice," Robin and Artemis return after an extended absence. And it is a welcome return. At first glance, the plot of this episode seems like your standard "powerless heroes triumph over the odds story, but we get a lot more than that.

This episode excelled at two things: character moments and suspense.

For the first time since she appeared, we really got to know who Artemis is. We got to see passed her cocky attitude and saw some very reasonable and very human fears. Without backup, and when things got too hot for a normal human being to handle, she fell apart. I've seen the character getting some grief for this online, but be honest, I think in the face of such things, most of us would crack at least a little. And as the end shows, courage isn't a lack of fear; courage is doing what you have to do despite that fear. And act, she does.

We also saw more of her background and received confirmation that Cheshire is, indeed, Artemis' sister. I've suspected as much since "Infiltrator." And, not that I thought for one second she was, but there is no way at this point that Artemis is the traitor.

Now, not being a DC reader, all I know about Red Tornado is that he exists and he is a robot. I have never heard of these other two robots, but as has happened in previous episodes, we have seen another Xanatos Gambit take place. Red Tornado was obviously the true target, as The Light tried to reprogram him through Mr. Twister way back in "Welcome to Happy Harbor."

The action sequences were intense, and I loved the use of flames and water as effective weapons. Especially the flame thrower. While I did not care for the robots as villains much, their powers were effective and intimidating.

I also enjoyed that, despite being held captive, Kid Flash and Superboy were far from helpless, and participated in the victory. Too often in plots like this, the powerless heroes would do all the work and single-handedly save the day. As such, this was a nice change of pace.

And really cool to see a cameo by Barbara Gordon. I wonder if she's already Batgirl. Hopefully time will tell.

Those Kinds of Things

2011-10-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

Note: The premiere episode of season six of "Dexter" has yet to air on Showtime, or any other network for that matter. However, the episode has been leaked onto the internet, and I couldn't wait. So be warned, there are SPOILERS! Thank you.

Season six of "Dexter" begins with a bang. As per previous seasons, we have our self-contained story within the episode, while a larger season arc begins to take shape.

Dexter attends his twentieth anniversary High School reunion to take down a jock who married a girl who was nice to Dexter, and murdered her three years ago. We get a lot of fun moments and scenes where Dexter finds that he's popular for the first time. He's better looking than he was twenty years ago, he has a cool job, and there is a lot of sympathy and pity thrown his way over Rita's murder. He even gets an unexpected blowjob from Tricia the prom queen. Maybe there's hope for me when I attend my twentieth reunion. ;)

While this is going on, our arc is set up when two men, one older and one younger kill a fruit vendor and replace his intestines with baby water snakes. When the body is discovered, powerful writing and great directing keeps this scene effective, as the CGI snakes did look pretty cheesy. The murder had a religious element to it, as the Greek signs for "Alpha" and "Omega" were stitched into the victim.

The overall theme of the season appears to be religion and faith. Dexter is trying to get Harrison enrolled into a Catholic school that Batista sent his daughter to, while asking questions about faith himself. He and Deb have a conversation, where Dexter reveals that he doesn't believe in God (Deb's response to that is causing some controversy on the internet, and I'll address that momentarily). Meanwhile our two villains are clearly religiously motivated.

While all this is happening, LaGuerta got promoted to Captain, and she and Batista divorced between seasons. Why? Apparently because that marriage wasn't getting LaGuerta ahead, so they decided to divorce while they're still friends. Batista is promoted to lieutenant. On the one hand, while I do think it's a little cheap to do this between seasons, I don't think it's uncharacteristic of LaGuerta, who has always been so career oriented that she is willing to step over and spit on anyone to get ahead. And she only got the promotion by blackmailing the Deputy-Chief to get it.

As for our two villains. One is an older man, and one appears to be about Dexter's age. Maybe a little younger. The older man is giving the orders, and the younger one is committing the murders, pulling snakes out of the swamp, etc. I suspect we're getting an evil version of Harry and Dexter here. The older man looks like he could be the guy's father. In fact, since we've so far seen the older man do nothing but issue orders, I'm even suspecting he's not alive and the younger man is having visions of him just like Dexter has visions of Harry giving him advice.

And now, Debra's quote:

"I'm no the most religious person in the world-- mom practically had to drag me to church-- but, seriously!? A set of rules to follow so you don't get in trouble? Sounds like something I might teach a puppy.... it just sounds kind of cold and empty. You can believe whatever you want to believe, or not believe whatever you want to believe, but it's not just about you anymore. You're a father. What about Harrison? You have to think about what you want him to believe".

A lot of people seem to think this is a big gigantic swipe against Atheism. Well, speaking as someone who borders between Atheism and Agnosticism that doesn't like religion 90% of the time, but I sort of agree with Deb's point. I really think it's the fact that he said he follows a set of rules so he doesn't get into trouble that Deb had a problem with, not that he's an Atheist. It does sound sort of cold, to do things just to protect yourself, compared to the whole "love thy neighbor" and so on that religion preaches. "Act this way so you don't get into trouble" isn't something I'd want to teach a kid. Kids need to learn to be genuinely decent people and so on, not to just act it so they "don't get into trouble."

She could've been a lot less obnoxious about it, but... she's Deb. I'm sure she just wants the best for Harrison and for him to be able to grow up as normally as possible.

Dexter - Some Spoiler Free Thoughts

2011-09-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Like "Weeds," I was a late comer to "Dexter." It had been on my list for a while, but I just, somehow, managed to miss it. Eventually, several people I respect raved about it, so I decided to check it out. I watched the first four seasons over the course of a month, and then got up to the penultimate episode of season five the night before the finale aired, and I loved it.

The first season fired on all cylinders. I loved the cast, loved the characters, and loved the plot. The revelations were stunning without ever feeling forced and contrived. We were introduced to this abnormal protagonist and his city. A Miami that makes Gotham City look like Candy Land in comparison. As the season slowly unfolded, we learned just who Dexter Morgan was, and the elements and tragedies that made him what he is.

The second season is, arguably better, arguably not as good. It depends on when you ask me. Personally, I loved it, and I flip flop often on which of the two opening seasons I think is stronger. This is a season about Dexter seeking a soul mate, and understanding. The first season ends with the one person who would understand him dead, but along comes someone new. Someone who can make him feel like a person. This, as can be expected, also ends badly. But that's a theme of the series, Dexter looking for someone to open up to.

Season three is about Dexter making his first real friend. Yes, he has his sister; he has his co-workers; and he has his fiance and future stepchildren; but he's never had an actual friend. In this season, he finds a friend and someone to mentor just as he was once mentored by his adoptive father. But power corrupts, and this all goes badly. At the same time, Dexter learns that life is worth living when he finds out he's going to be a father. I enjoyed this season, but not as much as the first two.

Season four is my personal favorite season, it was just perfect. In the fourth season, Dexter meets another serial killer who is a town hero, a family man, a pastor, and seemingly well adjusted. Under an alias, Dexter gets close to him, but doesn't kill him in order to learn how to balance his life as a killer and his life as a family man. He pays for this. Dearly.

Season five, well, I almost feel like I am being unfairly harsh. Nothing following up the fourth season could live up to that. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it was easily the weakest of the series. But even weak "Dexter" is stronger than almost anything else on television. I can't really discuss this season without spoiling the previous one. But Dexter pays for his biggest mistake of the previous season, and learns to deal with the great tragedy of his life.

I think what is the most brilliant thing about "Dexter" is that it makes us, the viewer, wrestle with our own morality. We root for Dexter. We want him to win. Most of his victims are terrible, evil people. Murders and killers. The worst society has to offer. Creatures the world would be better off without. We take a perverse glee every time Dexter cuts one of them up, and we feel that justice has been done. Then, afterwards, we calm down and ask ourselves if this is actually justice. Should we be rooting for this guy? We all have our own inner savage, our own dark passenger, to one extent or another. Is this a good thing? Probably not.

What is morality? What is justice? What is revenge? What is evil? "Dexter" asks all these questions and lets us answer for ourselves. And that's good television.

Update

2011-09-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

And now, until season eight is announced, "Weeds" is over. Not that my reviews got any comments anyway. These days, it seems I need to say something nasty about the new "ThunderCats" cartoon to get any comments. So, on that note... ThunderCats is a big pile of shark jizz blasted into Osama bin Laden's rotting, fish bait corpse. ;)

"Young Justice" reviews will continue, I'm having fun with those. I am also going to review season six of "Dexter." Expect a post about how I feel about the first five seasons any day now.

I've been re-reading the Clone Saga, that infamous era of the Spider-Man comics. I have the first two graphic novels, and I am considering reviewing those also. I haven't decided yet.

I have also started watching "Arrested Development" for the first time. Maybe I'll review that, maybe I won't. I have yet to decide.

In any case, I have a big mouth, I'm an opinionated bastard, and I'll always have something to say.

Do Her/Don't Do Her

2011-09-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

And season seven of "Weeds" comes to an end. While the episode as a whole may not have been the bang that previous season finales were, the episode itself ends on a bang. I will go more into detail on reviewing episodes by themselves and the entire season as a whole shortly.

For Silas, the white hot anger passes early on in the episode and then he realizes that he did wrong. That he shouldn't have used Stevie as a weapon. So, Andy takes him to a funeral for a friend and the two exchange words and realize what is truly important. Silas and Nancy, shortly after, reconcile.

Speaking of reconciliations, Nancy and Jill finally have it out. All the years of anger and jealousy erupt and the two exchange words that should have been said long ago. But they do have one thing in common, they both love Stevie. And Jill has always been jealous of Nancy and found living one day of her life to be thrilling. So, again, thanks to wise words from Andy, the two sisters decide to try something different. I'll get to this in a bit.

Shane and the detective have their conversation, and none of Shane's lies and manipulation seem to work anymore. The detective's former stepson hates him, and finally... to protect Nancy, Shane decides to give the detective the one thing he wants. A surrogate son. Himself. Shane secretly joins the NYPD.

The episode ends, two months later, with Nancy buying a grow house for Silas to do whatever he wants with, on a compound that the entire family will live on together in Connecticut. Jill, along with her two creepy twin daughters and Stevie have moved out from California to participate in the family business. All seems happy until a sniper nearby aims his gun at Nancy's head and the episode fades to black and we hear a bang.

I thought it was a pretty good episode. Not as good as the second, fifth, and sixth season finales, but I enjoyed it. It said a lot about being in a family, making compromises, and how we can say and do the harshest things in white hot anger, and how we go about fixing things once that white hot anger has passed. It was a very universal episode.

I thought Dmitri was written out in a fairly weak manner. He was there all season, we barely learned anything about the guy, and he is arrested off screen and sent to prison for five to ten years for stealing a crate full of lobster tails. Okay. It makes me ask what the point of the character was in the first place.

But the thing everyone is talking about is that last shot. And I mean the shot. Who was the shooter? I'm leaning toward someone working for the Mexican mafia. The Reyes Cartel may have mostly been shut down, but that would never have happened without Nancy. Esteban may have died in prison, but we never heard what happened to Guillermo. I believe that he is in prison and while he was definitely not the sniper, it's possible the sniper was someone acting on his orders. He hated Nancy. She sent him to prison twice, and he did vow to kill her.

The other suspect, the popular one, is Tim Scottson. The son of Peter Scottson, the crooked DEA agent that Nancy briefly married and, for all intents and purposes got killed. This was back in season two, and we haven't seen Tim since season three. But Tim hated Nancy and was very aggressive and even violent. So, while it's less likely in my mind, I do believe it's possible.

As for season seven, while I liked most of the episodes individually, as a whole the season was the most disjointed. I'm not saying it was bad. The good outweighed the bad, in my opinion, but it could have been better. Subplots came and went, and it was very episodic. And then there were things that were outright pointless.

Take Dmitri and his sister. We never learned a thing about them. Dmitri didn't do much this season, except do business with Nancy and do Nancy. We never learned what his deal was. Why he had all those grenades and explosives. I thought he was connected to the Russian mob. But we never learned a thing. And then there was his sister, Nancy's ex-cellmate. How did she get out of prison? She mentioned making a deal. What was the deal?

The other flaw was I don't think they took advantage of New York City as their setting. In the first three seasons, Agrestic felt like a character as much as a setting. So did Renmar and Tiajuana in seasons four and five. And America itself felt like a character in the sixth season road trip. But New York City? I felt they could have set this anywhere. The only time it felt like NYC was when Doug was working on Wall Street. Granted, I know they didn't film this in New York, but still.

I give season seven a B. Will there be a season eight? Well, the show has yet to be renewed, but I suspect it will be. But, if this is it... good-bye Nancy, may you rest in piece.

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

2011-09-25T19:15:00.001-07:00

Say what you will about "Weeds" but every single season always builds up to a fantastic close. In the penultimate episode of the season, we are left on the edge of our seats, biting our nails waiting to see what happens next.

In the previous episode, Nancy and Silas had their big split. This conflict has been brewing for some time. Throughout season six and through out the entire seventh season. This time the final straw came when Nancy (correctly) had a rival drug gang taken down by the cops. Silas, who has been thinking with his dick for since he met Emma (Michelle Trachtenberg) has now struck out on his own as Nancy's direct competitor.

Things go bad when Nancy's fuck buddy, Dmitri, without telling her has his friends violently rob Heylia and Dean as they are driving in to deliver a new shipment of MILF to Silas... and things spiral out of control from there.

- Nancy wants to return the MILF and end this.
- Silas wants to hit Nancy back and hit her hard.
- Emma wants to hand Nancy over to the cops and seems to be doing so.

A lot happened in this episode, but it is near impossible to critique the plot points without knowing where everything is headed. I am usually pretty good at predicting the directions movies and TV shows will take, but "Weeds" always manages to surprise me with it's finales. I really have no idea what to say, or what to call.

However this episode was masterful and bringing the classic humor "Weeds" was always known for and for being suspenseful. The season finale airs tomorrow night, and I will shortly after post a review of the episode and the overall season.

So stay tuned, same stone time, same stoned channel.

TGS - A Regretful Retrospect

2011-09-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Note: This entry is about "The Gargoyles Saga" fanfiction project. Not "The Goliath Chronicles" and not the original series.

First of all, let me preface this by saying, I have a huge amount of respect for most people who worked on "The Gargoyles Saga"... well, not for Sobotka or Revor or anyone. It's very hard to write by committee, and for the most part, with a few exceptions here and there, it was cohesive well hashed out.

But I was recently reflecting on the first two seasons of TGS, and felt there were still a lot of flaws. No one's fault really.

It was very ambitious, and I'm surprised TGS has lasted as long as it has. I know some are still trying to keep it going, and more power to them. But they've been saying this for over five years now, and I'll admit, even if they ever do materialize, I won't be taking a look at it.

But anyway, looking back, there are things I think should have been done differently, or not at all. Let's see.

I'm only going to handle the first two seasons here. Season three was a train wreck with some of us pulling the season in one direction, and Sobotka pulling it in another. Some of us wanted to give TGS a pair of testicles like the original cartoon had, and Sobotka was saying things like "You can't have Thailog do that, it's mean!" I wanted to delve into the conflict between Angela and Demona, while Sobotka wanted the gargoyles to fight robot ninjas. You can see the behind the scenes tug of war as you read those stories. But, since more people are familiar with the first two seasons, the first two seasons are what I shall cover.

The Disbanding of the Quarrymen: I just thought it was too easy. The Ku Klux Klan has been around for over a hundred years, and we know Greg planned to keep the Quarrymen around well into 2198. And then we replaced them with these terrorists... I think they were called Phoenix Rising, which only lasted two episodes before we realized they were dull. But, the Quarrymen played an important part in the gargoyle/human dynamic. Once they were taken down, all that was left was PIT really. It was between PIT and people who didn't care either way. Too easy, too simple.

And, I have to point the finger at one individual here. This writer had a massive ego, and it shines through when their pet characters, the Harrison brothers are the main players in the downfall of the Quarrymen. John Castaway is reduced to being a supporting character in the story, and Jason Canmore has a half a page cameo, if at that.

Okay, George and Richard Harrison are brothers who join the Quarrymen, one realises gargoyles aren't bad, and goes up against his brother who is a hardcore gargoyle hater and Quarryman... sound familiar? This should have been Castaway and Jason's story. Seriously.

By God I hated the way the Quarrymen were used, playing second fiddle to some geek and his half fairy brother. Then they get wiped out and replaced with a bland, generic rip off. And when they were used, they were every bit the same as "The Goliath Chronicles" Thugs R Us... and Castaway was a raving lunatic. Just like in TGC. TGS made no attempt to get away from that, even though getting away from TGC was one of the original mission statements of the series.

And hey, the Quarrymen were all about protecting humanity from the demons and the monsters, from their twisted point of view anyway. They should have taken part in fighting the Unseelie Court as well... not teamed up with the gargoyles though. That would never have happened.

At the end of that short story arc, the police disbanded the Quarrymen and wouldn't allow them to reform... because the authorities have every right in the world to disband organizations they don't like, regardless of Constitutional rights. That's exactly the same reason why Barack Obama had the Tea Party disbanded and outlawed... remember when that happened?

Counselor Demona Troi: Ah, the controversial one. I'm sorry, but I do not believe for even a second that Demona would stop plotting against humanity just because Angela yelled and waved a finger in her face. I just don't. Demona is too fanatical in her hatred of humans, blaming them for her misery, she's too far gone at this point. She loves Angela yes, but Demona has always been her own worst enemy. It's a fundamental part of her character. She's more likely to use Angela's very existence to justify further plots against humanity. Protecting her daughter from them. Hell, the existence of the Quarrymen proves her point in a lot of ways... oh wait, they were removed after only a month or so... how nice, that makes everything much more convenient.

I mean, it wasn't half way through season one, and she's sitting down with the Manhattan Clan to join them in their Christmas feast. Um... I don't think so. On the timeline, this is maybe two months after she tried to commit mass genocide. And why? Because Angela in TGS was a stupid see-you-next-Tuesday and threw a fit to have her there.

Demona is easily the character who has the most variety in fan interpretations. Check out most fics, everyone has their own, very different take on Demona. But, for a series that truly wanted to carry on the spirit of the TV series, you can't de-fang your greatest antagonist, replace her with an evil fairy card-carrying villain, and have her befriend a hippie, lesbian artist and tell her "I love you."

When I became Head of Edits, halfway through production on the third season, I slammed down the gauntlet and said "we are making Demona the primary antagonist again!" and believe me, I did not allow that to be put up to a vote (I would have lost if I had). Had things gone differently, and season four and five of TGS been written, you would have seen a Demona more in line with the actual canon Demona.

I really never get the logic behind this fast track redemption. I never did. Even the newer flashbacks were added just to show "hey, look, she's not so bad. She was friends with Nostradamus!" It's about a hair's width away from "Springtime for Hitler" played straight.

Oh, and she suddenly became a chocoholic too... gee, I wonder where that idea came from.

The Unseelie War: A great idea on paper. I just think it could have been executed better. The material in the first season, particularly Nicholas Maddox's "friendship" with Lexington and how he used and manipulated and mutilated him, was pure gold. There was a lot of promise in the second season. But well, we were all amateur writers.

First and foremost, Madoc Morfryn was not Goliath's enemy. He was an adversary. But look at Goliath's conflict with Demona, or Xanatos,or Thailog, or the Hunters. Madoc doesn't even compare. The only reason he wanted to kill Goliath and Elisa was because he was afraid of a prophesy saying a union between gargoyle and human would one day destroy him. It was not personal. It had no drama. Yes, Madoc had a great conflict with Merlin, that was personal. And his conflict with Oberon was okay, even if not touched on often.

Also, Madoc was as powerful as Oberon, and his legions of followers could have overwhelmed the world easily, but they just sat around a lot. Yeah, there was nothing stopping him from just appearing at the Eyrie Building and going Dragonball Z on the place during the day. They just didn't feel like it.

Honestly, Madoc's powers should have returned slowly, and the entire Unseelie Court should not have gathered all at once. There should have been a slower build up. Let the Unseelie slowly come out of hiding, they are waiting for their powers to fully return, and then, when the armies are finally gathered, when Madoc's power is at its peak, then he'd attack the world.

I think "The Darkest Hour" and "The Rising" should have been one single event.

And Jesus Christ, there should have been a major casualty. It was a war. Greg Weisman killed off the Magus cause he felt the events of "Avalon" were a war. And war has a cost, and that cost has to be painful. But no, it ended with a broken arm, and new clan members.

I'll admit, I was gung-ho about the Unseelie War when the ideas were proposed and we began producing it. Then it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger... and then Madoc became the main character of TGS altogether.

Gargoyle Culture: It just seems to me like the gargoyles lost their culture. They were picking up more and more human customs. In the future they were raising their hatchlings like humans, instead of communally like gargoyles. But, alas, a lot of the writers didn't much understand what they were writing about.

But then again, I have noticed that a lot of fans seem to want to "Christianize and civilize" gargoyles in their fics. More often than not, they are turned into what I have dubbed: "Humans With Wings." To be fair, this isn't just a problem with TGS. Just about every single fan writer and fan artist has been guilty of this.

It's kind of creepy, because it smacks of a different kind of prejudice. Looking different is okay, but thinking fundamentally different is not.

Brooklyn's Kids: Hated them. They were annoying stereotypes. Hated Sata too, I thought she was beyond dull. That being said, I enjoyed our first glimpse of Katana, Nashville and eventually Tachi in the actual canon, and hope to see more.

The names there made no sense. "Sata" is not Japanese for one thing. It would be "Seta"... and that is not a real word anyway. The closest translation to English would be "Was." And the names Graeme and Ariana? Those are human names! Not gargoyle names... and there was no thought put into them. Where did the names come from? Back in 1997, when this project was being considered and discussed for the first time, someone who didn't even become a TGS staffer threw those names out there at random in the Station Eight Comment Room, and someone on TGS liked those names and stuck them in TGS.

Keep in mind, this was before Greg Weisman revealed the names Katana, Nashville, Tachi and Fu-Dog. But he did reveal them months before the TGS stories went live, and there was time to change them. While I understand TGS wanting it's own identity, and won't begrudge them that for new characters... I thought the pot shots that first story took at the name "Fu-Dog" were completely disrespectful towards the man who created all this in the first place.

"I still like 'Fu-dog,'" Ariana said, coming a little closer, looking shyly at Hudson. "It's cute."

Graeme snorted. "And I still say it sounds like it came from a really cheap Japanese cartoon."

"You LIKE cheap Japanese cartoons!"

"Yeah, but --"

How disrespectful is that? That quotation was from the TGS story, "Out of Joint Part Two."

Oh, what did TGS call the gargoyle beast? Nudnik. That's right... Nudnik. Why? I don't know. Yeah... that's so much better than Fu-Dog. I can only conclude that certain people did not know what a Fu-Dog was.

Nashville? Well, when we saw him in the canon, he was wearing a United States Navy t-shirt. Considering his father is named Brooklyn and if you know anything about the navy, especially in the Pacific Theater, you can figure this out. Tachi? Consider the name Katana.

"Requiem:" First off, this was a beautiful story. Very, very well done. Unfortunately, it gave way too much away, and tied a lot of hands. Angela and Broadway still alive well, well into the future. Random lines thrown out, and characters we needed to shoehorn into seasons four of "TimeDancer" and even season five (when we were planning it). I don't know. Mixed feelings overall.

David "Mr. Sappy Good Guy" Xanatos: This was "The Goliath Chronicles" version of the character... to the core. In fact, the reason I left TGS... well, there were a lot of reasons, but the final straw came when there seemed to be a full on staff uprising because I decided to depict Xanatos as an amoral, manipulative schemer. I did not typo. Portraying him the way the show did was bad, but having him throwing barbeques for the gargoyles while wearing an apron that says "MONEY TO BURN" is good. Okay, okay, that apron is kind of funny, but you know what I mean. Wait... no it's not.

Don't get me wrong. I liked a lot of what was in the first two seasons. Just looking back in retrospect, it could have been done better, and that is without factoring in what Greg revealed and what was in the comics. That and I just like Greg Weisman's take on things much better.

Terrors

2011-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

And "Young Justice" returns in a big way with what has become a staple of Greg Weisman shows, the prison episode. Okay, I know a lot of shows utilize this, but Weisman really, really loves this trope. "Leader of the Pack" and "Turf." "J Is For Jewel." "Group Therapy" and "Opening Night." All good stuff. Great stuff

Batman sends Superboy and Miss Martian undercover as the Terror Twins inside Belle Reve Penitentiary to find out why all the ice villains from the pilot are there. Well, Icicle Jr and Mr. Freeze both demanded their lawyers transfer them there from, well, easier places to be incarcerated. As the episode ends, Superboy and Megan finally kiss (AND IT DIDN'T TAKE THEM THIRTEEN OR SIXTY-FIVE EPISODES!) as we discover the whole escape attempt was a ruse to have Amanda Waller removed as warden, and for the Light's own agent, Dr. Hugo Strange to take her place.

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. I still don't know jack about DC Comics, but I enjoyed both Icicles. I kept on wondering who Icicle Sr was voiced by, it kept nagging at me... and, OF COURSE! James Remar! I could have sworn Icicle Jr was voiced by James Arnold Taylor, maybe because I was getting a Harry Osborn vibe from him at times... son trying, in vain, to please his sociopathic father. Guess Junior there doesn't take the Code of Icicle seriously. *ducks as tomatoes are thrown* I could not resist.

I do admit, I am curious as to why Superboy was chosen for this mission. He was well programmed, don't get me wrong. But he was also practically born yesterday and found in a Cadmus lab. That doesn't seem to be ideal to me. But looking through the rest of The Team's male line up, I can't think of anyone else that would fit.

Miss Martian was far less grating in this episode. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of the Miss Martian haters, but she is my least favorite member of The Team. But it was nice to have less of her 50's sitcom attitude here, and I admit that I enjoyed Superboy calling her on it in their therapy session with Dr. Strange. I'm not saying it's bad. In fact, I am sure there will be significant pay-off for it. I'm just saying it's not my favorite aspect of the show.

Now, if I may, I need to address some comments I have seen where people say they don't believe that these two characters can possibly be truly in love, and are dismissing it all as poorly thought out. I think they are missing the point. These are teenage hormones. The connection there is that they both think the other one is hot. It's like Romeo and Juliet. They are young, they dig each other, and they might think they're in love. But it is all hormones mixed with a not fully matured psyche. Right now this might be the most important thing in the world, just as Romeo and Juliet did, but Romeo and Juliet also died young. Had they lived long enough to mature, they might have seen their tryst and secret marriage as a mistake. Assuming Superboy and Miss Martian survive, I don't see them as a couple, let's say, five years down the line. It's a huge teenage crush, and those tend to be pretty consuming. But that's my analysis and it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

Finally, I loved the Riddler's cameo. All the crap he got, all the disrespect, and he was the one who managed to escape. Hope to see him again down the line, but knowing how Weisman loves to lay pipe and plant seeds, I am confident we will.

Great episode.

Une Mére Que J’aimerais Baiser

2011-09-17T16:05:00.001-07:00

If you know what the title means, good for you! Things seem to really be coming to a head as we approach the end of the season, and possibly the end of the series. The central, emotional conflict of the season has been between Nancy and Silas, and with this episode, there is a big split.

Silas seems to have fallen hard for Emma, a rival drug dealer who has damaged the Botwin Family's plans. But while Silas struck a business deal with Emma, Nancy manipulated the police into arresting her, and taking her down. So Emma is in jail, and Silas decides to cut ties with Nancy for doing this, never mind his mountain of other issues with her.

What do I think? While I think Silas' many gripes with Nancy are legitimate, in this case he is allowing his dick to do his thinking for him. I don't type this often, but Nancy is right. Especially since the police already had enough intel on Emma's operation that a bust was coming sooner or later anyway.

There was also a subplot with Nancy, Doug, and Andy attending a party in the Hamptons, and Nancy observing a lot of rich people drinking expensive wines for the prestige, so she gave her blend of pot a fancy French name, called it exotic, and managed to make a lot of money selling to these people. Meanwhile, Andy really gets into his act, and gets drunk in the process, making an ass of himself.

It was a very entertaining episode. But we're nearing the end, and judging from history, "Weeds" will climax spectacularly.

Two Shows One Script

2011-09-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

So in 1981, there were two Spider-Man cartoon shows on the air. One aired on syndication and had Spidey going solo, while NBC ran "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends." In both series, the Green Goblin appeared once each. And both scripts had some striking similarities.

The writer of this episode(s) also provided the voice of the Green Goblin in both. That laughing was recorded as he ran away with his paychecks. This is lazier than my previous review of "Weeds."

System Overhead

2011-09-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

I know this review is very late, but I have been a bit busy and I haven't had the chance to re-watch the episode. So I apologize for how brief this is. And how lazy it is.

This is the first time all season that Nancy seems to be on top of things. Shane messed up and got arrested, and Silas is an idiot who lets his dick do all of his thinking for him. Nancy not only got Shane out of trouble by concocting a clever lie that was clever and believable, she was going to take her competition out with help from the police.

Then Silas went and made a deal with the competition, and I am sure hilarity will ensue. Actually, all that aside there is a good question as to who made the better deal. Silas' deal makes good business sense, while Nancy's deal takes out a competitor entirely. But, considering what Emma pulled in recent episodes, I'm inclined to agree with Nancy... and Andy's nail gun.

I liked the episode a lot, and it left me eager to see the episode that will air exactly 95 minutes from now. And I promise that next review will be much better thought out and less lazy than this one.

Ten Years Later...

2011-09-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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September 11, 2001

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A Typical Episode of the 90s Spider-Man cartoon

2011-09-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

NOTE: I did not write this. This was written by Hobo-Goblin of the Spider-Man Crawlspace Message Board. And I am reprinting it here for fun. The original can be found here.

(It is a sunny day on the ESU campus. Muscular everyman PETER PARKER spies his one true love, MARY JANE WATSON nearby.)

PETER: There’s Mary Jane. I’m gonna go talk to her!

(We suddenly hear a disembodied voice- PETER’S NARRATION.)

PETER’S NARRATION: Best not to get involved with her. My horrible mutation disease will only drive her away.

PETER: But then again, maybe it won’t be like that. And DAMN, those jeans must be painted on!

PETER’S NARRATION: No, she couldn’t possibly love me. I’d better just not go over there.

(Mary Jane sees Peter looking at her and shouts over to him.)

MARY JANE: (Overacts) Oh Peter! I love you! Ohhhh!

PETER’S NARRATION: Holy crap, you’re golden! Go for it, buddy!

PETER: (Dubious) What?? Wasn’t I just thinking I shouldn’t go over there?

PETER’S NARRATION: Look, just stop talking to yourself before people think we’re Deadpool.

PETER: You mean “Destroypool”.

PETER’S NARRATION: Uh, right.

(Peter starts walking over to MJ, but FLASH THOMPSON blocks his path.)

FLASH: Well, well! If it isn’t “Puny Parker”!

PETER: Flash, I’m more jacked than you. Why do you insist on calling me that?

FLASH: Haw! Look at the scrawny wimp think he’s all big! You’re a wimp who is also scrawny, Parker!

PETER: Out of my way, Thompson!

(Peter throws a punch…which turns into a grab at Flash’s jacket mid-flight. Peter easily hoists Flash over his head. Flash looks down at him and laughs.)

FLASH: HAW! Look at Puny Parker think he’s tough! You’re a weak wimpy wuss!

PETER: (Angry) STAAA-OP MOCKING MEAAAAAAAGH!!!

(Peter throws Flash twenty feet into the air. Flash lands with a violent thud on his head, then just gets back up and starts laughing again.)

FLASH: Ha! Puny Parker can’t even throw me right! What a loser!

(Everyone in the immediate vicinity stops what they are doing to point and laugh at Peter. Peter looks down, fuming.)

PETER’S NARRATION: I’m such an outcast! A handsome, muscular outcast!

(Suddenly, from out of the sky, MORBIUS the Living Vampire swoops down!)

MORBIUS: Bleh! I hunger foar deh plasmah!

PETER: Oh no! My most enduring, implacable foe, Morbius!

(Morbius snatches Mary Jane off the ground and begins to fly away. Peter reaches out to Morbius’ retreating form with a desperate, outstretched arm.)

PETER: (Screams) MAAARY-JAAAAAAA-NE!

(Morbius flies through the city, carrying Mary Jane to his secret hideout. He passes the DAILY BUGLE building. J. JONAH JAMESON and ROBBIE ROBERTSON run out onto the street, seeing Morbius pass overhead. Jonah looks to some nearby cops and shouts at them.)

JONAH: Quick, shoot him with your standard-issue police lasers!

ROBBIE: Jonah, as an outspoken yet reasonable black man who knows his place, I must say that’s a bad idea! They’ll hit the girl!

JONAH: (Not listening) I’ll bet Spider-Man is behind this!

(Detective TERRI LEE walks up behind Jonah.)

TERRI LEE: Jonah, Spider-Man is a good guy!

JONAH: I refuse to listen, Ethnic Jean DeWolff stand-in!

(Meanwhile, SPIDER-MAN is swinging between incredibly poor-looking CGI buildings, trying to catch up with Morbius.)

SPIDER-MAN: If I don’t get there in time, my worst enemy Morbius will hand-suck Mary Jane‘s plasma and possibly send her to the next dimension! I’ve got to hurry!

(Suddenly Spider-Man is surrounded by pink mist and we hear another disembodied voice.)

MADAME WEB: Spi-dah Meah-An...

SPIDER-MAN: Oh go the fuck away.

MADAME WEB: I’m Stan Lee’s wife and you WILL listen to my extremely tedious platitudes!

SPIDER-MAN: Sigh, fine. God!

(Meanwhile, the KINGPIN of Crime watches events unfold on a giant monitor with his lieutenant HERBERT LANDON.)

KINGPIN: Behold the power of cheese, eh Landon?

HERBERT LANDON: Why am I here? Why am I Two-Face?

KINGPIN: (Laughs heartily) Indeed!

(Meanwhile, having endured Madame Web’s banality, Spider-Man arrives at his worst enemy Morbius’ secret hideout.)

SPIDER-MAN’S NARRATION: A perfect place for a trap! I’d better be careful!

SPIDER-MAN: Shut up, narration! You don’t own me!

(Suddenly there’s an explosion. Spider-Man leaps away from it, web-swings through a different setting for a moment, then returns to the Morbius secret hideout backdrop. Spider-Man kicks open a door and finds his worst enemy Morbius inside, with Mary Jane tied to a pillar nearby.)

SPIDER-MAN: MAAARY-JAAAAAAA-NE!

MORBIUS: My secret hideout! How did you find it?

SPIDER-MAN: Let’s just say an old lady told me.

MORBIUS: Very well! Let our epic struggle commence!

(Spider-Man fires a web at Morbius, it sticks to him. He rips it off. Spider-Man jumps at him. Morbius steps aside so Spider-Man just tackles air. Then Morbius tackles Spider-Man and sends the two of them to the ground, rolling back and forth together. Suddenly, we hear another voice from off-screen.)

WOLVERINE: You two girls done foolin’ around?

(Spider-Man and Morbius get up and see WOLVERINE standing there for no reason.)

SPIDER-MAN: What? There’s nothing wrong with two grown men in tight uniforms rolling around on the ground and grasping at each other!

MARY JANE: I’ll say.

WOLVERINE: I’m here for a gratuitous guest appearance! Anyone lookin’ to start trouble? Cuz I got trouble… (unsheathes claws) -RIGHT HERE. And by "trouble", I mean these claws.

MORBIUS: No! I must find a cure for myself and my horrible condition so I won’t bother you anymore!

SPIDER-MAN: I’ll NEVER let you cure yourself, Morbius!

MORBIUS: (Pleading) Why are you so cruel???

WOLVERINE: REH-ARRRRRRRRRRRRH!

(Wolverine unsheathes his claws and charges at Morbius, screaming. Morbius stands perfectly still as Wolverine runs…right past him, keeps going until he reaches a metal pillar that is roughly twenty feet behind Morbius, and slashes at its base repeatedly. Morbius and Spider-Man just stand still and watch him as he keep slashing. Finally, he cuts all the way through and the pillar falls towards Morbius. Morbius raises his arms in apparent shock, but makes no move to avoid it. The pillar falls on Morbius, pinning him to the ground.)

MORBIUS: AH! Noooo! Now I’ll never get to be with my beloved Fel-eeee-sha!

WOLVERINE: Serves ya right. (Looks off-screen) You can take it from here, Blade.

BLADE: (Runs in) KNOWING SPIDER-MAN DOES NOT…MAKE YOU…”COOOOOOL”!

(Spider-Man web-swings away, without Mary Jane, because that’d require the use of NON-stock animation.)

SPIDER-MAN’s NARRATION: Maybe one day I’ll make up for allowing my Uncle Ben to be destroyed by a thug with a laser, but for now…I MUST SWING ON!

THE END

Things To Do...

2011-09-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've been distracted lately, but I plan to get this place moving at a brisker pace very soon. Here's what I have on my mind.

1. This weekend I'm going to review the most recent episode of "Weeds," before the new episode airs on Monday. I don't want to fall behind.

2. I am planning to watch "The Big Lebowski" with a friend of mine who hasn't seen it before. I'll talk about that a bit, and review the movie. It's a favorite of mine.

3. "Young Justice" is starting up again on September 16th with "Targets" officially airing at last. Since I've already reviewed that, expect me to continue reviewing the series week by week. After the animated abortion that is "ThunderCats" it will be very nice to be reviewing a quality animated series again. I also plan to review "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" episode by episode too.

4. In relation to #2, I plan on doing a lot more movie reviews. Old and new. Hope you like them.

5. This is more a question than a comment, but do any of you who read this care when I blog about something that is not comic book, animation, or geek related? If I were to post a review of the classic movie "All About Eve" would you all even read it?

Artists' Bane

2011-09-03T17:24:00.001-07:00

A problem which plagues all artists: what do you do once you've established yourself? There are two main routes, and no matter which way you go, you will have detractors.

First, you can continue doing what made you successful in the first place, with subtle variations. This is the idea behind most procedural TV shows like "Law & Order," and while that's an interesting show and can be entertaining, there's only so much you variation to be found in between the primary events: crime, arrest, trial, verdict. People who dislike these types of art claim that a creator is one note, boring, afraid to try something new, and ultimately, not truly creative.

On the other hand, you can take whatever made you successful and push it out in new directions, or even do something completely different. This I would say is more common in music, where a band will transform itself and its sound over time. Look at the most popular rock band ever, The Beatles, as they transformed from well-groomed suit-clad British blokes singing about holding hands to long-haired bearded hippies singing about the glories of LSD. Of course, critics of this path say that you're abandoning what made you popular and by extension your original fan base, that you've "sold out" or weakened your product by not sticking to what people originally liked you for.

Personally, and I still hope I one day reach a point where I am faced with this dilemma, but while you are damned if you do and damned if you don't, I would choose the second option every time.

The Royal Tenenbaums

2011-09-03T02:24:00.000-07:00

I will admit right off the bat, the filmography of Wes Anderson was an acquired taste for me. A friend of mine, as far back as High School loved "Rushmore" while I was rather meh on it. I didn't get it, I didn't appreciate it. That has changed, and I may write a blog entry on "Rushmore" some time, but tonight I am focusing on Anderson's magnum opus, "The Royal Tenenbaums."

With "The Royal Tenenbaums," Wes Anderson turns his lens to the American family, and all the drama that can entail. The Tenenbaums are a dysfunctional family, the parents have been separated for decades, and Royal (Gene Hackman) is a disbarred attorney who has long since moved out of the family's enormous town house. The children, all geniuses and overachievers in their own way, are then raised by Etheline (Angelica Houston), an archeologist. Chas (Ben Stiller) is a financial wizard; Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), is adopted and was a published playwright at 11; and Richie (Luke Wilson) is a tennis prodigy. We are given the family history at the start of the film, then are introduced to the family twenty-two years later. Chas is still a financial wizard, but, having lost his wife in a plane accident is now the paranoid father of two small sons. Margot is married to Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray), is depressed and hasn't written in years; and Richie, after having a nervous breakdown on the tennis court a couple of years earlier is traveling the world by boat. Still hanging around is Eli (Owen Wilson) a long time family friend from across the street who is now a literature professor and successful novelist. Etheline is being wooed by her accountant, Henry (Danny Glover) and when Royal gets wind of this, he embarks on a bid to win his family back after not speaking with them for years.

Wes Anderson has an unusual style of film making that has been static throughout his career. Highly theatrical, almost in the style of a play, he presents the story of the Tenenbaums to us as if it were taken directly from a novel, so much so that if you were to read the few sentences that are visible in the book that accompanies the beginning of each "chapter" you would see that the written narrative follows the action to the letter.

Anderson favors primary colors, and characters that are identifiable by very distinct appearances. Chas and his sons have their red track suits they always wear, Margot wears the clip in her hair, Izod dresses from the 80's and dark eyeliner surrounding her eyes, Richie wears the sweatband around his head, Eli is in cowboy gear and Raleigh looks like a Freud knockoff. One of the results is that there are varying degrees of recognition for the actor in "real life." When seeing Raleigh, it's easy to forget that it is Bill Murray, and Margot for that matter is so different from how we are used to seeing Paltrow.

Anderson also favors point of view shots, characters looking directly at or addressing the camera, and is also one of the few modern masters in the use of music. The soundtrack to 'The Royal Tenenbaums' features some classic songs (Ruby Tuesday, Hey Jude) but also has some obscure tracks that are bizarre and fit the scene beautifully.

'The Royal Tenenbaums' has a phenomenal cast, and all of the actors are excellent in the film. I get the strong impression that, since Anderson isn't a mainstream film director, A-list actors sign up to work for him because of his alternative vision and his obvious talent.

Coming from a "broken home" I can relate to the high dysfunction of the Tenenbaums as an adult and embrace the story beyond the presentation, despite its highly stylized format. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is a brilliant film that is both emotional and eye-catching, and truly cements Wes Anderson as a talented filmmaker.

The black comedy counterbalanced with the drama of the issues raised in this film left me feeling like I'd witnessed a film event, rather than just another film. I loved every frame of it, from the Alec Baldwin narrated opening, to the final tying up of ends. It never dwelled on melodrama, or the more potentially unsavory elements, and it didn't sink into the schmaltzy "We all love each other" end it could well have. It began perfectly, and it ended perfectly.

I can't recommend this movie more highly. It's a must see for anyone who loves quirky and emotive storytelling, great characters and beautiful dialogue.

The family really reminds me of the family from "Franny and Zooey" (terrific book by the way, totally worth reading). All the people in it are slightly dark and pretentious, and they were all famous at a young age only to have their family torn apart by death and dysfunctionality.

"The Royal Tenenbaums" is one of those movies that you will either get, or you won't. I can totally see why people wouldn't though. It's an extremely slow movie and the comedy is targeted at a generally small audience, many of the characters are unlikable if you don't like the comedy portrayed by them. It's very niche. Very subtle, very tongue in cheek. If you're the type of person who thinks "Mrs. Doubtfire" or "Napoleon Dynamite" are good comedy, you will probably not like this.

I loved this film. Wry, poignant and beautifully understated.

George Lucas Strikes Back

2011-08-31T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, the New York Times confirmed with LucasFilm that this is legit. I would be lying if I said I liked "Return of the Jedi" but this was one of the few genuinely powerful moments in the movie. It is also the epitome of the phrase "Show, don't tell."

The original cut told you everything Vader was feeling in spite of his inanimate mask. The music, editing, and reaction shots gave it all to you. But, it seems like George "Money Bags" Lucas decided it was too vague for the dumbest in the audience to get, and had to throw in a gigantic neon sign saying "VADER DOES NOT LIKE THIS!!!! HE'S TURNING GOOD NOW!!!!!!!!!"

Again, show don't tell.

I was on the fence about getting this release, now I'll be saving my money instead. I just want to remind you that George Lucas once spoke out against colorizing classic films. The irony should not be lost on you.

Honestly, at this point I think Lucas is just trolling. He knows the changes have not been well received, and he knows that people hated Vader's giant "NO!!!!!" in "Revenge of the Sith." I think he's actively trying to piss his fans off. He's not THAT out of touch, he can't be. At first I thought there was no way this could be real. Lucas has done some crazy shiat, but he's never gone this far. But then I remembered Vader screaming, "No!" at the end of episode 3, and keeping in mind how much of a hack Lucas is these days, it's pretty obvious that he thinks this is a clever way of connecting the two movies thematically. To him, he's probably thinking, "Oh man, adding this in is so smart. I told everybody I can still write. I know I've made some questionable decisions in the past, but there is no way that anyone can complain about this. This is just good writing."

And while I'm here, I want to plug my friend's blog post on why she's stopped watching "ThunderCats"

Count Me Out, As of Now

2011-08-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

I just watched episode six of "ThunderCats" and, wow, where should I start? I think they have dropped any and all pretense of being more interesting and three dimensional than the original series. The lizards are nothing but evil villains, and Slithe is now the typical Dumbass Minion. Welcome back 80's, it's the White Hats vs the Black Hats. Good is "attractive" and Evil is "ugly." We get the back story on the Book of Omens, and how it was hidden in order to keep it out of the hands of the other animals. The other animals, the lizards, happening to be evil.

So, why did Clawdus send Panthro and Grune on an impossible quest to find the Book of Omens when all he had to do was ask Jagga where it was? The entire premise here just falls apart. Grune's betrayal now makes even less sense than it already did, if such a thing were even possible.

Remember in the premiere when Mumm-Ra was about to transform, but fled due to the rising sun? They made a big deal about sunlight being his weakness. And here he is walking around in broad daylight as if it were nothing. Um, I do not have the attention span of a goldfish. I remember this. You made a pretty huge deal out of it. All they had to do was set this episode at night to avoid this stupidity.

So, the temple just happens to be right next to where Lion-O and his merry felines are camping out. I know this is a kid's show, but kids are much smarter than you give them credit for. Don't insult their intelligence like this. That was cheap, and trust me, they'll know it.

Panthro cannot swim. He was one of the greatest warriors in Thundera. He was skilled, well trained, and the king valued him enough to make him a general. We saw him rise through the ranks. You have this extremely well trained soldier, and he cannot swim. The pampered princes can swim. The cleric can swim. The two annoying brats can swim. The one guy with any real military training cannot swim. Pardon my French but what a crock of shit! And then he finds an exit that just happens to lead to the room above the one being flooded?

Mumm-Ra finally transforms into his more powerful, demonic form. Or whatever it is. In the pilot, in his weaker form, he is able to take out all the clerics, and crush all resistance. In his more powerful form, he cannot defeat a band of five. It was laughable. He was much more intimidating in his withered form, believe it or not.

And I still have no clue why he's supposed to be evil. They had this line where he gloated about killing Clawdus that I guess was supposed to be his "BWA HA HA! I AM EVIL! HA HA HA!" moment, but it falls flat on its face because, again, Clawdus was an evil, bigoted king who was conquering and subjugating others. Oh wait, I forgot, the lizards no longer have a point of view anymore. Cats good, everyone else bad.

We saw a brief flashback where Mumm-Ra commanded a space fleet of ThunderCats. The ThunderCats were once a spacefaring race... and yet, that scene is just thrown at us. I guess we're supposed to find it intriguing, but the way it is presented is more like a "what the hell" moment, instead of easing us into such a revelation. We get no further context, and it is all forgotten about as the episode progresses.

And this is where I step off the wagon. I gave it six episodes. That is far more than a fair shake. I gave "ThunderCats" a chance. But this is it, I'm done. I will not be watching any more episodes after this. Why? Because I hate people who despise TV shows and yet keep coming back week after week, year after year. If you hate a show that much, find something better to do with your time. That's what I'm going to be doing here.

The animation on this show is gorgeous. The character designs are well drawn. The direction and boarding is good. The voice acting is good. But the writing is atrocious. The characters are bland and one dimensional. There is nothing intriguing about the story arc. This is a stupid, stupid, stupid show and I predict it will run for at least five seasons.

Ronald Reagan is dead, and I hope the 80's nostalgia craze joins him soon. And that is all I have to say for the abysmal creative failure that is "ThunderCats." Or, to further drive home how terrible this show is, I would rather watch all of "The Goliath Chronicles" again than endure another second of this crap.

"Now get the HELL out of my nuptuals!"

2011-08-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

Bruce Boxleitner and Melissa Gilbert are getting a divorce... here is exclusive footage from inside the courtroom:

Tick, you're married. Tock, you're divorced. The only way out is to surrender to tock.

Cats! Cats! Cats!

2011-08-22T23:45:00.001-07:00

Well, that went well. We're two thirds of the way through season seven of "Weeds", and the game has changed for Nancy Botwin and her family of wacky criminals. What happened? A lot.

Nancy is free of the halfway house, and now free of the SEC. The latter thanks to Doug Wilson, who discovered that Vehement handles the pension plans of the SEC. If Vehement goes down, their pension plans go down with them. So Doug was able to get the case dropped, and Nancy blackmailed the wire tape back from them and they both walked free. I thought it was rather contrived, but this show is a comedy and not a drama. Not to mention the scene was so well done, I'm forgiving a little contrivance.

I thought the CEO of Vehement falling for Nancy fast enough after sleeping with her once to invite her to run away with him was a tad weird. Nancy must really be terrific in the sack. I mean, don't get me wrong, Mary Louise Parker is hot. But I didn't buy it. But when he leaves and hands Nancy the keys to his townhouse, it was a great way to finally get rid of Zoya...

... and good riddance. I don't know how many more episodes of her I was going to be able to take. Don't get me wrong, she was well written and acted. But they did too good a job there. I felt Andy's annoyance with her and was glad to see her go.

Shane landed himself in trouble by stealing documents from the police department. The episode ends with him in handcuffs. Guess he is not such a great criminal mastermind after all.

And now, the real meat of the episode. Silas and Emma, played by Michele Tractenberg. Silas decides that he's hot for her, and wants to hire her away from the competition, Pouncy House. So he buys her lunch, they talk, she expresses frustration with her boss, and agrees to switch teams. He gives her the grand tour and tells her about the entire operation. They have sex, and he wakes up to discover that she is the leader of Pouncy House and their stash and plans have all been stolen. Silas is smart in a lot of ways, but really dumb in others. As idiotic as Nancy is, she wouldn't expose this much information to an outsider.

So, no matter what the Botwins do to one another, I suspect they are going to band together around Nancy, who will get Shane out of jail and take care of the mess Silas made. Like the Bundys before them, don't mess with them.

This episode was packed. So much happened, it felt like three episodes. Four more episodes, lets see what happens. I also suspect, at this point, it is safe to assume "Weeds" will receive an eighth season.

My Patience Is Wearing Thin

2011-08-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

So, in the pilot for "ThunderCats," Clancy Brown's character, Grune, betrayed the ThunderCats to Mumm-Ra because "serving Clawdus got him nothing." We needed an explanation, we needed to see growth and character development, and what did we get? Something George Lucas could have written.

So we find out that Panthro and Grune are old friends who served in the military together. They rose in the ranks and became generals, but Grune got pissed because he was passed over to become general of the entire military, instead he and Panthro were trusted with a sacred mission to find the Book of Omens and bring it back. Oh, and there was something about how Grune wanted to be king despite not having any claim to the throne, and no daughters to marry.

So, while they're on their mission, Grune is summoned to Mumm-Ra's pyramid and frees Mumm-Ra from his sarcophagus. Mumm-Ra talks about rewarding him, explains to both cats that the jewel in the Sword of Omens was once his, he wants it back. Panthro and Grune start fighting, and Grune has been behaving for the whole time like some mind controlled psychopath, all while copyright safe rip-off "Duel of the Fates" soundtrack is playing. Grune knocks Panthro into a pit, and Pantho is seemingly killed.

Cut to the present, Panthro has his cool tank, and correctly won't take orders from Lion-O. They go to this mine that Grune and some lizards are mining crystals from to power up the tank. Grune is not a drooling rabid beast like he was in the previous flashback, they throw insults at each other, nothing happens, Lion-O proves himself hallowly to Panthro and Panthro agrees to follow Lion-O's orders.

What a crock of shit. I'll start with a smaller complaint before I get to the big one. Lion-O is the king of NOTHING! The first thing they should have done, if they had any brains, would be to put Panthro in charge. There is no more kingdom. All of them are younger and far less experienced. Panthro was a military general, Lion-O is a teenage pampered prince.

If they are that obsessive about tradition, then have Lion-O formally appoint Panthro to be their regent, which was often done when monarchs died too soon for the heirs to take power. Lion-O is not qualified for this.

Again, will someone please tell me why Mumm-Ra is supposed to be evil? Again, what has he done that is wrong. He wants his property back, and he struck down an evil king of an imperialistic nation. And during the flashback, nothing happened in his pyramid until Panthro got verbally hostile.

And that was it? That was what Grune was pissed off about? That he was passed over just once? Really? Really?! That was so abrupt. This should have been a two-parter, this is a story that should have developed more. He goes batshit crazy after being mildly annoyed by the king just once? And what did Mumm-Ra promise him? To be king of the ThunderCats? So, to accomplish his goal of being king, he is going to kill everyone who would be one of his subjects and be king of a desolate wasteland? Really? Well, it is indeed as well thought out as Anakin Skywalker's character arc in "Revenge of the Sith."

Maybe, just maybe, it would have been better if Grune actually sympathized with the bigotry the lizards were facing. That would have been interesting. However, NOTHING will be done with the idea that the cats were racist bastards and the lizards had a reason to attack the kingdom. And you know, by this point they're probably never even going to have the lizards discover Grune was using them. It will be about how Mumm-Ra was using them.

One more episode, "ThunderCats." You get one more episode. And I am rooting for Mumm-Ra. I hate these cats.

Synthetics

2011-08-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

While being in situations over her head are hardly anything new for Nancy Botwin, I think having a cold blade rubbed up against her nipples by a psychopathic lesbian is definitely a new one.

Zoya is out of prison and, as predicted, making things awkward at best, and chaotic at worst. I don't know what was worse; how psychotic Zoya was behaving during her version of foreplay with Nancy, or that Dimitri (Zoya's brother!) seemed to be getting off while watching it. This is way outside my kink zone.

Picking up from last week, Nancy asks her boss, Foster, the CEO of Vehement out on a date while wearing a wire in a deal with the SEC to get her out of the halfway house. Naturally, acting against her best interests, Nancy tries to sabotage the mic, because she obviously likes this guy. Well, is a white collar criminal really that much better than a Mexican drug kingpin? Or a dirty DEA agent? At this point, I am convinced her first husband, Judah, was a criminal of some kind. She doesn't fall for anyone that isn't a crook.

Shane's apprentice hood with this detective continues, and we're learning more and more about him as the episodes continue. This is only his third. However, it also serves to highlight how little we know about Dimitri. He's been in the show all season, and we haven't seen anything beyond Nancy trading him back his grenades for some weed, and stopping buy for booty calls. In fact, why is he even involved with Nancy and Silas' drug business? Heylia seems to be the supplier, and Silas is going back and forth, how does Dimitri fit in? It feels a little contrived.

I do give the episode credit for the single most awkward moment I have seen in television in a long time. Nancy brings Foster home, he's drunk and clearly thinks he's getting laid. Dimitri is there with her family to talk about the drug business, and then Zoya shows up, kisses everyone and embraces Nancy as her lover. All while the SEC is listening in their van outside.

Also, this episode introduces Michelle Trachtenberg as a rival drug dealer who looks like she's going to be a love interest for Silas. I'm getting flashbacks to Mary-Kate Olsen in season three. We'll see how this goes.

What I liked most about the episode was the moment in the first act when the woman who ran the halfway house sat Nancy down to tell her the honest truth, that Nancy was a lifer, one who would always be working an angle. Nancy, as one would expect, knows what she is and brushes off the judgement.

Fun episode. But I want to know more about these Russian siblings.

Top 11 Gargoyles Episodes

2011-08-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Nostalgia Critic just did his Top Eleven Episodes of Batman the Animated Series list, and I can't really argue with it, and this is definitely not what this entry is about. I considered doing my own list of Batman episodes, but it would be close enough to his to be redundant.

So, instead, I am going to do my "Top Eleven Episodes of Gargoyles" list instead. I will admit, this one was harder to do. While Batman's episodes are all mostly stand-alone, when it comes to "Gargoyles" episodes, it is such a tapestry with events of one episode flowing into the next, you almost want to pick out entire story arcs. And I feel I am already cheating enough by counting multi-parters as single episodes. But, the Nostalgia Critic counted the two-part "Two-Face" as a single, so I feel okay with doing the same.

Anyway, without further ado...

11. Future Tense
I love this episode, but I don't love it for the same reasons a lot of fans do. I never found the events of the episode shocking, or even dark. When I first saw the episode, I knew there was a twist coming. There is no way this could be real. And there is no way this show or these characters would even go in this direction.

But I did see the episode as a loving homage to dark futures like X-Men's "Days of Future Past" and the "Terminator" series. Obviously Puck has seen these movies, read these comics, and was genre savvy. Goliath, on the other hand, is not genre savvy. Wouldn't watch these movies, or read these comics, and this would all be new to him. It also showcases how Goliath was always ready to believe the worst whenever it came to Xanatos. Tricksters are often confused with Satan, and while Goliath is angry, you can almost feel him kicking himself when he discovers that this dark image of Xanatos does not actually exist.

Now that being said, there is a lot of very effective imagery in here. The blind Broadway, the cybernetic and corrupt Lexington (hell, one of his scars even vaguely looks like the Pack symbol), a reformed Demona fighting on the side of the angels, the destroyed Clock Tower, and the Eyrie Pyramid just looks really cool.

This episode also raised the question of how much of Puck's nightmare scenario (all just to get Goliath to hand over the Phoenix Gate) will actually come true. A few things already have, and what was just clearly a fantasy. Only time will tell.

"Future Tense," while nothing in that vision was new, the twists and turns of Puck's epic mind game were a pleasure to watch, and beautifully animated as well.

10. The Reckoning
Family ties come to a head as Goliath's biological daughter, the heroic and naive Angela meets her mother, the genocidal Demona for the first time. Throw in that Demona is shacking up with Goliath's evil clone, Thailog and you have a very exciting episode of "Gargoyles" or a very typical episode of "Maury."

This episode has been building up for a long time. When we first met Angela, it was very obvious who her biological parents were. She was already getting along well with Goliath, but every "Gargoyles" fan was waiting for her to meet mommy. Goliath did all he could to keep Angela away from Demona, because... well, let's face it, Demona is a female gargoyle version of Adolf Hitler. And, let's face it, Goliath did a terrible job of it and pushed Angela away from himself and downplayed the biological connection. However, he was Angela's father by any definition, including the gargoyle definition. So, he was coming off as a distant father and all because he feared what Angela could become if Demona got her talons into her. Angela and Demona met very briefly at the end of "Sanctuary" but there was no follow up on that until this episode aired.... Six. Months. Later. We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.

Not only that, but we waited for a resolution to Demona's doomed romance with Thailog, who didn't care about her beyond the things she could do for him... both financial and sexual. Gotta love Thailog, not even one year old and he already had himself a very rich meal ticket who hadn't gotten laid in over a thousand years who had to be ready and more than willing... and yet not only did he betray Demona, while he was cloning the Manhattan Clan, he created a clone of Demona as well, and mixed in a little bit of Elisa Maza's DNA, to cosmetically alter the clone to be Demona but with Elisa's features. Ouch.

While very exciting, the reason this episode doesn't place as high is because I felt it needed a lot more. Funny enough, "The Reckoning" was originally meant to be a two-parter and the season finale of the second season, but circumstances which I will get to later necessitated a change. So what should have been a very great episode was only a very good episode. But good enough to earn its place on this list.

Where will Demona and Angela's dynamic go from here? Here's hoping we some day find out.

9. Vows
Ah, time travel. It's hard to do time travel well, as it is a storytelling device that is often abused, and many series find it hard to not violate the rules they themselves set. I'm looking at you, Marvel! I found it very refreshing to see a series where the time travel was not only well utilized for dramatic stories rather than "wouldn't it be cool if we did this," but also utilized in a way that made logical sense.

In the "Gargoyles Universe" you cannot change history, you can only fulfill it. If you go back in time it will be because you always did. Demona learns this the hard way when she travels back and tries to convince her younger self to change history and become the all powerful ruler of a human free world. Of course, Demona herself remembered this discussion because she had experienced it herself, and yet she still tries to spit in destiny's eye to force this change. Likewise, Goliath tries to change the younger Demona's outlook and maybe even avert the massacre of their clan. This does not work out for either of them.

However, things do work out for Xanatos who was able to lay the stepping stones that would lead to his eventual fortune via this time travel. How did he know how to do this? He received a letter from his future self. Xanatos fulfills destiny and he is the only one 100% aware of what he's doing throughout the entire ordeal.

This episode is also great character-wise as Xanatos and Fox get married while Goliath finally gives up any semblance of hope that he and Demona will ever reunite. And ultimately, everyone is happier in the long run. Except Demona.

8. Deadly Force
This episode is a given. What can I say about it that hasn't been said already? Everyone knows this episode as the one where Broadway watches a Western movie, goes to Elisa's apartment, picks up her gun and accidentally shoots her. It teaches a strong lesson about the importance of gun safety while never once feeling forced or preachy.

Perhaps the most intense image from the episode is Elisa lying in a small pool of her own blood. This sort of thing was very rare for television animation back then, and still is to this day.

This is followed up by Broadway laying her onto a Hospital stretcher and then gasping at the sight of his hands covered in her blood.

This episode was acclaimed and helped put "Gargoyles" on the map pretty early on. It was even praised by parents groups that normally go after action cartoons. Sadly, the episode was kept off the air by Toon Disney (now DisneyXD) for several years. They thought the episode promoted violence and completely missed the point of what the episode was about. Although they now air an edited version of the episode, and I doubt that shot I posted up there is even visible.

7. Temptation
This episode is memorable for many different reasons. First off, Brooklyn has become a real break out star, building up his own fan base within the "Gargoyles" fandom. While he does have his detractors, one cannot deny that Brooklyn made an impact. And it all started with this episode.

But as strong as this episode is for Brooklyn, it is just as strong a Demona episode. Like Brooklyn, Demona was also a breakout character, and very popular within the fandom. And here we get to see how devious and manipulative she can be. Using half truths to get what she wants and convincingly showing Brooklyn the darkness of humanity.

Jeff Bennett and Marina Sirtis should both be credited for their exceptional performances in this episode, and Jamie Thomason should be credited for directing them through some very powerful scenes that are mostly dialogue.

"Temptation" made an impact, and really set the stage for what "Gargoyles" would be very early on in the show's run.

6. The Mirror
If "Temptation" helped set the stage, "The Mirror" all by itself blew the world of "Gargoyles" wide open. Demona steals an antique mirror from the Metropolitan Museum as our inciting incident, and what follows is a revelation.

We are introduced to an entire new species when we meet Puck, and by extension the Children of Oberon. Before this episode, we had no idea that there was a third race inhabiting the world. This episode alone opened so many doors, you can easily call it a game changer.

It also set up the romance between Goliath and Elisa, as Goliath realizes just how attractive he really finds her. And the feeling is obviously mutual. They have trusted each other, and been close friends for a while now. But for the first time, they see each other in that sexual way. We've all been there where we see someone we have known for a while again for the first time. And funny enough, this happens in the same episode where we learn that part of Demona still wants Goliath. The scene near the end where Goliath wants to discuss his feelings with Elisa only to be cut off is damn near heartbreaking.

The script is clever, the animation is gorgeous, and it plays like a Shakespearan comedy. And I love the final twist at the very end when Demona gets her initial wish to not turn to stone anymore only to look in the mirror and see the thing she hates most staring back at her.

A real classic.

5. Awakening
Let's be honest, pilots are hard. They have to do so much. They need to build a world; introduce the main characters; set up their dynamics; make sure we know what the rules and conventions are; and tell a well developed story that engages the audience. Sadly, most pilots either fail at this, or drop the ball in one of these areas. Either way, the whole ball suffers.

The Disney Afternoon on the other hand had a pretty good track record with pilots. So, when "Gargoyles" came along, and "Awakening" was aired over the course of the entire week, we were treated to a pilot that did everything right and told a very engaging story. You really have to applaud them, because it was a big story that covered a span of a thousand years. It built two worlds, one in medieval Scotland and one in 20th century Manhattan, as well as supporting casts and villains for both time periods and all without ever once dropping the ball. It never felt slow, and the pacing never stopped to introduce us to another character, or a critical rule or event. It was very organic, very natural.

Goliath starts out as a very strong lead character as he undergoes a terrible tragedy, finds himself a stranger in a new world and learns to trust Elisa Maza, and through extension, humans again. Elisa herself quickly proves herself to be more than just another human friend for fantastic protagonists, and is fully fleshed out character in her own right who is never a token female character, or token "normal person."

The rest of the gargoyles also, while not quite having as much to do as Goliath still feel like full characters, and are never dead weight. While their real growth and development comes later, we get just enough in the pilot for all of them to be likable.

And among all that, we are introduced to two of the strongest villains television has ever provided. And while their best material is yet to come, they still shine here. We see Xanatos at his most erudite and manipulative. Arrogant and confident without ever being unlikable. And in Demona, we see one of the all time great female villains, and all time great villains period. From the Dark Ages to the reveal of her betrayal, it all comes full circle.

Had "Awakening" been a five episode mini-series by itself, with no "Gargoyles" episodes ever being made to follow up, I would have been satisfied. It told a great story that while a terrific beginning was also strong enough to stand alone. I've even said in the past that if Disney ever wanted to make a live action "Gargoyles" movie, all they would need to start out with is this same script, and then go from there. In fact, had this gotten the feature film treatment in 1994, I think it would be fondly remembered as one of the better Disney animated features.

But I am glad there was more, and "Awakening" was the perfect introduction to "Gargoyles" and as perfect a pilot as any series in any medium could ever hope to receive.

4. Shadows of the Past
The first, and arguably best episode of the World Tour kicks off with Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx visiting Wyvern Hill in Scotland. But painful memories and vengeful spirits nearly drive Goliath mad as old fears, and a lot of guilt surface. It all culminates in a confrontation with the ghost of Hakon and the Captain of the Guard who perished all the way back in "Awakening Part Two" and ends on a theme of redemption and forgiveness.

This episode features a strong script and is one of the most atmospheric episodes of the series. Keith David turned in a very solid performance, as did the rest of the cast. The animation was gorgeous, and it all came together as a very powerful episode, but unfortunately one that seems to be overlooked by a portion of the fandom.

I am one of those who thinks this is where Hakon should have been left, it was a powerful ending for such a loathsome villain, and I felt bringing him back after "Shadows of the Past" was one of the series' very few missteps. But, all the greatness, and the missteps are what make "Gargoyles" the flawed masterpiece that it is to this day.

3. Hunter's Moon
There is a phrase in the world of show business. Leave them wanting more. "Hunter's Moon," the final episode of the second season, and the final episode of canonical "Gargoyles" does this in spades. Everything comes full circle while a door is opened to the future.

The Hunters come to New York to carry out their generational vendetta against Demona, and the world changes forever. The clocktower is destroyed; the gargoyles are revealed to the world; Elisa almost finds love with one of the Hunters; Demona nearly unleashes Armageddon, Xanatos and the gargoyles reach an accord, and Goliath and Elisa finally kiss.

As "The Reckoning" was originally intended to be the season finale, "Hunter's Moon" was originally meant to be a direct-to-video movie. When the video was cancelled, "Hunter's Moon" became a three-part finale, and "The Reckoning" became a single episode. Was the trade off worth it? Absolutely. It's dark, painful, and yet bright and optimistic at the same time. "Hunter's Moon" takes everything that is great about "Gargoyles" and shines a spotlight on it. The world is changed forever, and yet life goes on. Isn't that an honest truth?

Sadly, it would be ten years before we got more and when we did, it was worth the wait. If you haven't read the three "Gargoyles" trade paperbacks, pick them up. They're terrific and they're canon.

"Hunter's Moon" was a strong contender for number one on this list. A very strong contender. So, let's segue into...

2. The Price
This episode is arguably the most character driven episode in the entire series. There is action, no question. But the real meat of the episode is just Xanatos and Hudson talking while Hudson is in a cage. Only there are moments when Xanatos may as well be the prisoner.

In this episode Hudson does what no other character in "Gargoyles" has ever done before, he finds the chink in Xanatos's armor. As Xanatos talks about becoming immortal, Hudson correctly points out that Xanatos fears growing old. And I'll be damned, but the normally cool collected and always in control Xanatos very nearly loses his shit. He then belittles Hudson, which would normally be behavior that's beneath him and storms off. We've never seen Xanatos run from anyone before, but here he is running from a very uncomfortable truth. We've never seen him do this before, and we've never seen him do this since. But for one, brief moment, Xanatos was brought down to our level, and we saw he could be as petty as anyone else.

However, while not giving up on his quest for immortality, the moment Hudson breaks free, Xanatos just lets him go. He could have easily had Hudson subdued, but regaining his strength of character, he lets Hudson walk. That is powerful writing right there. Even when Xanatos loses, he keeps his own sense of self-respect.

This episode also features gorgeous animation, and a pretty exciting battle as the rest of the clan is battling a robot designed to mimic Macbeth. And it ends on a strong yet ominous note when Owen makes a sacrifice on behalf of his employer.

1. City of Stone
And this, right here, is "Gargoyles" at its very best. Mighty heroes and powerful villains, and enough tragedy to satisfy William Shakespeare. The sheer scope of "City of Stone" has not been matched since, as the series once again tells a story that not only covers one thousand years, but several decades within that time frame.

I often felt a more appropriate title would be "The Tragedy of Demona & Macbeth." While the modern day story is very exciting, the real meat is in the flashbacks which tell the story of Demona and Macbeth. We see the tragedies that led to their survival across the millenia, and their mutual hatred for one another. While my preferred title might be a little too on the nose, it does have that Shakespearan feel to it.

"City of Stone" made a very bold choice in not adapting Shakespeare's play, but rather telling the story of the historical Macbeth who did rule Scotland during the eleventh century, with Shakespearan elements as well as "Gargoyles" elements. And it all adds up beautifully, and never once feels contrived.

The modern day story is just as exciting also, as Demona turns most of Manhattan to stone and then proceeds to go on a killing spree. And why? Because she is angry, vengeful, bigoted, and because she can. She manages to enjoy at least one night of slaughter, before she is confronted by Macbeth, and both are confronted by the Weird Sisters who, along with Goliath talk Macbeth down from murdering Demona in cold blood, and then Demona has her own breakdown. Powerful stuff, and it is a very powerful statement against the endless cycle of vengeance.

I could write an entire blog entry on "City of Stone" alone, and I am more than tempted to do so right now. It just does everything right. There are no right or easy answers. We come to understand Demona and why she became the demon she did. We sympathize with Macbeth, even when he's part of the problem and not the solution... he's not there to save the world, just get his revenge. We end on cliffhangers where Xanatos and Fox, two of the villains are at risk and care about what their fate are. And we're with Goliath as he almost contemplates killing Demona to end her slaughter, but he quickly abandons the idea with the manipulation of the Weird Sisters. But this is his ex-mate, so those thoughts don't come lightly. One gets the feeling if it were anyone else, he would have gone through with it.

Yes, this is a children's show. But, to this day, I have yet to see any children's show go places that "City of Stone" did. Even the other gem of that era in animation, "Batman" didn't delve as deep as this four-parter did. The gem of animation in the last decade, "Avatar the Last Airbender" didn't do it either. Hell, "Gargoyles" itself never quite got this dark ever again. I could be wrong, but I doubt you'll ever see anything like "City of Stone" in television animation again. It was that intense. And I still feel this way, all these years later.

While I liked "Gargoyles" a lot up until this point, "City of Stone" turned me into the lifelong fan that I am to this day. These four episodes were probably the most powerful thing I have watched throughout my then fourteen years being alive. It really stuck with me, even to this day, and displayed the raw power of something as simple as telling a story. Honestly, without "City of Stone," I doubt I would ever have tried my own hand at writing, and attempted a career in the entertainment industry.