Random Reviews

The O.C. is back for another season. The first episode mostly focused on trying to fix what went wrong in the lives of the characters last season, and setting up the mood for this season. While I really didn't think this was a very good stand alone episode, it did whet my appetite for what is to come. I hope that this coming Thursday picks up a bit from the pace that was set this week.

While the new season of most new shows has not started yet, Scrubs started this past week. I thought it was a great episode. In addition to the usual humour that Scrubs is famous for, they dealt with J.D.'s insecurity, and his relationship with his mentor, Dr. Cox. In addition, Eliot dealt with the fact that she feels that she is left out of the group now that her and J.D. have split up. She did make a new friend in Heather Graham's character, even though they did have a bit of a rough start.

Perhaps the biggest moment of Scrubs was when Dr. Cox called J.D. "doctor." Sure it was after he gave J.D. a hard time...but for him to call J.D. anything other than a girl's name is a step up.

I really look forward to the rest of the season, and will likely have several updates on the progress of Scrubs here.

So far the Summer Olympics have been going rather well. I think that NBC has done a great job with their coverage. They have been going back and forth between events so you get a good mixture of all the events without going overboard on one event. Of course there are the odd events that I would love to miss entirely (who in the world thought of synchronized diving), NBC focuses on the events that are most popular, such as swimming and gymnastics. It will be interesting to see how the televisions of basket ball works out later on in the Olympics. The subpar performance of the men's team is likely to drop interest in the sport...but it would be sad if basket ball coverage was cut back to much due to the lack of teamwork on the men's USA basketball team. Of course this might just lead to more women's coverage, since that team has been doing well.

I will post a few more updates as the Olympics goes on.

If you like fantasy and Science fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a must. Every month you get a magazine full of fantasy and science fiction stories. Some of them are from authors who are well known for writing novels, and others are from people who only write short stories. If you want to check out issues without subscribing you can go to fictionwise to buy a few back issues (in ebook form). A year's subscription costs $32.97 and is well worth it.

Well, the Scifi channel has a new stargate show. Thisis a spin off of
the stargate SG1 show. I saw the pilot last night, and it was not
bad...though it was not great either. It seems to be one of those shows
that will do ok over the summer, since there is not much else towatch,
but will have a tough time once the fall season starts.

The idea is that the stargate crew gets an address to Atlantis, the
home of the ancients that built the stargate. Unlike the legends
it is not on earth, but very very far away. Because Atlantis is
so far away it takes an enormous amount of power to send them
there...and they fully expect it to be a one way trip. The show
then follows the group that was sent on this mission and watches them
as they make new friends, and make new enimies in a galaxy far from
home.

Some of the actors seemed to have a bit of a hard time really getting a feel
for their roles, though this is somewhat common for a pilot episode of any
series. More problematic than that is the "bad aliens" that
they must fight in this show. These aliens just seem to be rather flat
and dull. They are supposedly an advanced species, with great technology
and such...but their personalities have not evolved passed the caveman
state. I kept expecting one of them to bust out in a Tarzan voice and say
"Me hungry...Me need food"

Overall, it is worth checking out for some summer watching if you are a huge
fan of scifi or the SG series...but don't expect it to blow you away.

While this does not fit the normal topic of the page, I felt it was important enough to mention. There is a website called Books for Soldiers that puts people in contact with soldiers who request books to read. You can look through the message board to see if people have requested any of your old books and then send them to the soldier's address, or you can post a note listed what books you are willing to donate so people can request what you have. This is a useful service as they don't have a books a million over in Iraq for soldiers to pick up reading material. Even if you don't have books to send, you can check out the addresses of soldiers overseas who don't have anyone to write to them. Your letters can be a source of moral support for them.

I have been bothered by the commercials for the Joe Schmo show. As you know, I have a blog that describes and reviews the episodes of Joe Schmo 2 (Joe Schmo 2). The show is a parody of reality TV, just like the previous season of Joe Schmo. I have mentioned in previous entries that the show is not about poking fun of the real contestants (Matt from Joe Schmo 1 and Ingrid and Tim from Joe Schmo 2) it is about making fun of reality TV. The show is always careful to be respectful of the real contestants...and to make it clear that they are not stupid...or naive, the writers actually work hard to keep the secret for them.

unfortunately, whoever writes the commercials for the show does not get this. I am not sure if some executive from Spike TV who has never seen the show wrote the commercials, or if someone thought that they could draw more of a crowd by making insulting commercials. Whichever it is, the commercials misrepresent the show. They ridicule the real contestants focusing on the fact that they are being fooled. I have found this has made it hard for me to get people to start watching the show, because they think of it as cruel humor. Most people I know really enjoy the show once they see it...and find that the commercials were inaccurate, but why would spike TV want to start off on the wrong foot like that. Commercials should encourage viewers, not scare them away. If anyone from Spike TV reads this, please fix your commercials for Joe Schmo 2 so they more accurately describe the show.

To viewers out there, I encourage you to watch the show. It has a lot of very funny moments...and there is some great writing. Ingrid and Tim (the real contestants) are both very likeable, and Tim has a great sense of humor, which makes the show funny to watch. Besides, where else will you hear the phrase "dip your wick into her flame of love?" Give the show a chance, even if the commercial writers have never seen the show.

For those of you who were fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly, the website for the Firefly movie (called serenity) is up. Here is the address of the site: Serenity: The Official Movie Website. The TV show was canceled by fox, though it was a great scifi show. The premis of the show was that Mal was a captain who fought for the "browncoats" a group of people who wanted to escape from the control of an alliance of planets. He lost, but now he captains a cargo ship that takes whatever job they can get (legal or illegal). He actually reminds me a lot of Han Solo from Star Wars. The site is very interactive with message boards, polls, and contests. People involved with the movie also have blogs posted on their webpage. The page is worth checking out, even if you never saw the Firefly TV show.

Since I have seen many rumors going around about Netflix, I thought I would share my experiences with the service. First of all Netflix has made a lot of improvements over the last year. Last summer I got annoyed as many of the movies I wanted had a wait. The whole point of using a service such as Netflix is to be able to watch a lot of movies...if most of the movies you want are not available you might as well quit.

However, this is no longer a problem. In the last 30 days I have been shipped 13 DVDs (on the 3 out at a time program). Even with this high level of activity I have almost never had a movie with any kind of wait. A couple months ago I did have a movie that was listed as short wait, but by the time it got to the top of the rental queue it was shipped immediately. This shows that active renters are no longer punished (as people have claimed in the past).

Netflix is very easy to use. You simply make a list of the movies you want to see (in an online queue), and Netflix will send you your top 3 movies in the mail. After you watch a movie you simply put it in the postage paid envelope that Netflix provides when you are shipped the DVD, and put it in your mailbox. When Netflix gets the DVD back they immediately send the next one on your list. They almost always ship it back out the same day they receive your return disk. Since there are distribution centers all over the USA the turn around time is short. It generally takes around 3 days from the time I mailed a DVD back to Netflix to get my next DVD in the mail.

As for selection, they have every movie I have ever searched for. I have heard that they don't have all the independent films, but I mostly stick to mainstream so that is not a problem for me. I like the fact that as you rent and then rate movies, Netflix provides recommendations. I have found that many times the movies they recommend are things that I want to see (but had forgotten about). I also like the fact that when a movie is in the theater, they go ahead and load it into their database. That way you can set it to be automatically added to your queue as soon as it is released on DVD.

But by far what I like most about Netflix is the TV shows it has. Unlike my local Blockbuster, Netflix buys the DVDs of TV shows that are released on DVD. This is a huge bonus, as it can be expensive to buy those DVDs yourself. I have rented all of the Band of Brother's episodes, the early ER seasons, 24, Alias, and many others. In my opinion this selection makes it impossible for brick and mortar stores to compete. My local Blockbuster and my local Hollywood video have both started unlimited rental programs...but I will stay with Netflix because of their selection of TV shows, and their rental queue.

If you only rent a couple DVDs a month, Netflix is not worth it...but if you spend at least $20.00 on rentals, Netflix is a far better solution than your neighboring blockbuster.