ComicPageOfTheWeekend: Red Lantern/Red Arrow

The awesome mock-up cover done for that Fringe episode (which took place in the alternate universe).

(Click for bigger pic)

© DC Comics/Warner Bros.

What did you do this weekend?!

Hey gang, long time since I did one of these, heh?!
I originally planned on posting this yesterday, but stuff like work and life got in the way :P

This time, let's talk movies, TV and fighting games! (again!)
So this past week was the season finale of Fringe.
God, I love that show!

The last bunch of episodes were all pretty intriguing, the on-going plot crazier each time.

I just love the way it totally embraces its scifi roots. I mean, Fringe's basically an odd to science fiction, with big budget. You find the usual tropes, themes and clichés (time travel, mutants, mad scientists, alternate world, future distopia, science gone wrong, etc.), only with a "Bad Robot" touch, great acting and seriousness.
The epic climatic finale left me wanting for some more, though most major arcs seem to be closed for now...
Fox decided the next 5th and finale season will be shortened to a mere ~13 episodes (screw Fox network!!)

I also watched back Total Recall this weekend.
It had been quite some time since I last saw that one.
I love Scharzie!
Back then they knew how to make a good action blockbuster movie, no cheap CGi everywhere and lame lackluster storylines.

And, hey, it was a less racist time in a way, having big "foreign" guys at the head of all these big budget action flicks, Schwarzennegger, Van Damme, Stallone.. just look at the way people spend their time mocking those guys nowadays, their acting, their accents.. -sigh-

Anyways, enough sidetracking, I loved that movie!
Being a Paul Verhoeven movie, it was also pretty big in interpretation, more than I remembered it being.
What really happened in this movie?
Either you accept it was simply this story of this guy named Quaid who suffered from nightmares involving Mars and some brunette. He got a "Recall" which was fake implanted memories of vacations on Mars often... which awakened some actual memories of Mars that were erased from his mind. He goes to Mars for real, spends the whole movie fighting against bad guys *SPOILER alert on a decade old movie* only to discover he really was this Hauser guy. It was a plan with the main baddie to infiltrate the Martian resistance. In the end Quaid doesn't embrace his old Hauser persona and save Mars.
OR
It was all part of the Recall-implanted memories. Lots of things support this interpretation. He did get "the whole package" as he chose at Recall. He contributed in a Martian revolution, there were blue skies in the end as chosen in the simulation. Heck, he even chose that exact same brunette. Is the whole thing only a dream? (from the moment he was trying to escape from Recall?) The movie does end on a fade to white, which usually means a state of dream or someone dying on films. But you can go further than that, perhaps we, as the audience, were experiencing the whole Recall-memories, from start to beginning. Nothing was real, thus explaining things going further and further into over-the-top action. Deviating.
And even having this big muscled Schwarzy in the main role plays into the audience expectations. We have a certain level of expectations regarding the movie. Perhaps, if we'd were to choose "Martian memories" in the persona of a spy, Schwarzy would be our avatar.

God, I love Verhoeven!

Been playing a lot of fighting games too.

Some Blazblue on my sparetime. A game, I honestly am not a fan of...for a lack of trying.
I mean, since I got the original, I played so very little of the game.
But I wanted to like it!
I liked GuiltyGear, but I just never got around playing BB...
(unlike my 50+ hours into the usual Namco, SNK and Capcom fighters...)

Speaking of which, finally got a copy of Street Fighter X Tekken for super cheap, in second hand, on ebay. That way I won't geel cheated by Capcom whenever I'll buy those additional characters as DLC...
And by the by, when are they gonna release them? October?!!
I already fhought against Pacman, on the online mode, ON MY FRIGGIN' XBOX!!

And finally, Soulcalibur V!!
I wanted to dislike the game, I kept dissing it every new News blog I posted here... And even so... I just love the game!
It simply is a well rounded, well timed, well executed new entry in the long running series. I was afraid the lack of familiar faces, the exponentially over-epic theme, plus the bad after-taste SC IV left in my mouth would ruin it... So I even stared only playing with Ezio at first...

But... like, woah!!
The game is pretty fun! I love the SC-y music, the narrator, the gameplay.. Heck, even the awful *get broke by a combo/super attack and lose clothes* isn't as silly as it was in the previous entry. (though I kinda wish they'd just get rid of it...)
The characters are either new "old ones" in everything but name, children and successors who look pretty much the same, or old returning and older classic SC characters. I'm okay with it. Namco mostly cleaned up the lineup, not everyone was that essential anyway. I still have Maxi around. Mitsurugi. Even *SPOILERs-again* Kilik.
I miss Taki, but there's still a new badass ninja around, Natsu. I miss Xianghua but there's Leixia now. Even Raphael finally looks fun and playable now!

Spent lots of hours on it already, either *local* against my bro, or on Arcade, Quest and Legendary modes. Barely touched the online, but I'm an "old school" gamer, so I doubt I play a lot of it anyway.

~

And that is all I had to say~

#TV News! trailer for J.J. Abrams' new show Revolution

First up, the sad news (at least, for me :P), Bad Robot Productions' latest series, Alcatraz has been officially canceled.
Awww... But...I liked the concept! And the characters were fun...
I'll miss having Jorge Garcia in a show around... And Sarah Jones was great too...aww...

Don't care if you didn't like the show, I'll miss it all the same...
This will be Bad Robot's second canned show. I hope they'll put it out on DVD at least, unlike Undercovers.. (any chance for a "Complete Series" on DVD for Undercovers too? Boyt was awesome!)

On the plus side, Abrams already has a new show coming up soon!
Which will debut on NBC - hope he simply avoids Fox from now on. Fringe will also be ending....with a small ~13 episode-long 5th season...
Anyway, the new show is co-created with Eric Kripke (Supernatural)
Here's the official pitch:

Our entire way of life depends on electricity. So what would happen if it just stopped working? Well, one day, like a switch turned off, the world is suddenly thrust back into the dark ages. Planes fall from the sky, hospitals shut down, and communication is impossible. And without any modern technology, who can tell us why? Now, 15 years later, life is back to what it once was long before the industrial revolution: families living in quiet cul-de-sacs, and when the sun goes down lanterns and candles are lit. Life is slower and sweeter. Or is it? On the fringes of small farming communities, danger lurks. And a young woman's life is dramatically changed when a local militia arrives and kills her father, who mysteriously – and unbeknownst to her – had something to do with the blackout. This brutal encounter sets her and two unlikely companions off on a daring coming-of-age journey to find answers about the past in the hopes of reclaiming the future.

And the first trailer!



This certainly looks promising!

It certainly got a better chance of survival on a network like NBC. (and not FOX!!)
The pilot will be directed by Jon Favreau, no less!
From the looks of things, it will start in September.

#FanFilm Friday - Titanic SUPER 3D

Here's a pretty fun parody of all these movies getting new re-releases in 3D these days...



"Titanic is back, digitally upgraded with new 3D motion feel technology."

Pretty epic XD

#BestOf Undercovers - Bill Hoyt

I miss the short lived Undercovers.

I really believe it had potential!

It was like a more grounded Alias (another Bad Robot shot), featuring more realistic and professional secret agents than Chuck.

Oh well, at least we can still enjoy Ben Schwartz hilarious scenes thanks to reruns and youtube!

Here's the introduction to CIA Field Agent Bill Hoyt: 

Jimmy Kimmel Live - Movie: The Movie

Dat Jimmy Kimmel... gotta love his parodies.

He did it. The impossible. The ultimate film.

For the Oscars' night, Kimmel did the final movie, the sum of all these years of movies success, the parody of 'em all.

Check it out, it like nothing else, it's...

MOVIE: The Movie!

So many cameos! So many memes! So many actors! So many genres!
(evn Guilermo makes an appearance! :P)

This probably took a long time to do, I can imagine him borrowing a little time from all his previous guest over this past year.

Epic beyond words!

Fringe - A Sitdown with J.J. Abrams

So the awesome TV series Fringe is going into hiatus until March 23. (!!)
Boy, it's gonna be a long time to wait for the new episodes...specially after this cliffhanger...

The show's already turned into my favorite series, even more so than Lost previously. At least it embraces and goes exploring science fiction themes more openly.

Anyways, here's a little interview with the show's producer and co-creator J.J. Abrams!
You just don't see him talking about Fringe as often as Lost or Alcatraz (the latest production from Bad Robot).



Epic!
You heard the man! Watch the show, buy the DVD boxsets and support the show!
It's rare to see big epic scifi shows like this one on major networks nowadays, specially one as good as this one. Great production value, and incredible writing!

I really hope we'll get another (and why not even more) season(s)!
Can't they let Abrams direct a two-parter for the opening of the new season?

Anyways, in the mean time, enjoy the series. I'll be watching all the "Fans Ask" videos on Fox's own youtube channel.

Jimmy Kimmel on LOST

It's been a long time since I posted anything Jimmy Kimmel-related.

Jimmy Kimmel was a big LOST fan.
Now I know the show's over and all..but doesn't mean we can't talk about it anymore!
(afteral that's what I always do, talking about old games/movies/etc.)

Here's most of his funny LOST-skits it did on his show back then :P

He "visited" the show's location in this funny little documentary:



It was great to see Jimmy interact with all the cast members :P

That same year he had this "interview" with the Hanso Foundation:



That's when he started making his classic Jimmy Kimmel spoofs, but instead of bringing Guillermo in there like in his past parodies, he did these:



One of my favorites :P



I wasn't able to find proper footage of the 100th episode special. (youtube took them all down)
But Kimmel did another one for just the occasion, here it is:



It saddens me that it is when the show ended that they were finally to play a bit and have fun with the characters.
Proof here with the "Man in black" and Jacob :P




And finally... LOST: The Alternate Finale Ending!



Phew~
That's a lot!
Made me sorta nostalgic and all..

Wanna know what I thought of the Finale?

Hey Eyz! Whatcha gonna watch this season? -2011-12 Edition-

It's time for this year's planning of TV shows.
To watch or not to watch... Following one show too many...?

Well, I can't answer that to you. Some believe there's good and bad shows out there. I simply say, to each their own. Sure, reality TV continue to survive for example, despite how bad it's gotten over the years, but it still is watched by Billions of people (with an Uppercase 'B') over the world! You can't judge the quality of a show by its rating, that's what producers do. Just look what you think will entertain you!

I can decide for you, I don't know what you guys and gals like. So here is like last year my own selection, the TV series I will watch for the 2011-2012 season!

And to open up the topic, a quickly sketched Sheriff Carter from Eureka.

First up, the shows that are missing the call.

I decided to pull the plug on Chuck. Sure, I liked the characters (at least some of them), and even if the first two Seasons went downhill during Season 3 the 4th one last year started great...but the show can't decide if it wants to be a generic soap for teens, a science fiction-ysh take on the spy genre or a comedy... I mean, most episodes of Season 3 and 4 (besides the strong good couple of episodes at the start of both seasons) were about Chuck's feelings or his sister crying all of her screen-time!!
Boring, annoying... Blah!
(I wish it had Reaper that had continued, as the "lazy young adult, that can't decide his own path for his future, gets powers to face evil each week, along with best pal, and gets the girl at the end of the day" show)

Also, Undercovers, J.J. Abrams last recent show got cancelled way too early in my eyes. It started far away from the mysteries à la Lost, and was a more reality grounded Alias...but the characters took too much time developping, which seems to have bored and scared the audience away...
Too bad... I liked it, more so than Chuck for that matter, as a "spy" show.

And The Cape got canceled too.
But unlike recent similar shows that got canceled on their first seasons these last couple of years *cough*Journeyman*cough*, it will be released on DVD! Good thing, I'll be sure to get it^^
At the end of the day, despite haters making a bad rep to the Cape, it was a genuinely fun pulp superhero show. With a sort of similar vibe to The Flash in the early 90s. I liked it!

And finally Batman: The Brave and The Bold is over now!
After a long (but not enough) run, it had some true gems in there! And it was a great showcase of the entire DCU, featuring old school interpretations of characters like this show's take on Superman, Silver Age obscure characters like Kamandi or B'wana Beast and even some more recent elements from our good ol' Post-Crisis DCU with Jaimes Reyes!Blue Beetle, the JLI or Guy Gardner. If only it could continue, maybe with a name change retitled as "The Brave and The Bold" simply?...

Now, let's have a look at the things I'll be watching~



Can't wait enough for Season 4 of Castle to start soon!
I've been watching this show since day 1, and I just love it!
Nathan Fillion, the tone of the show, the light fun yet realistic police stories... Reminds me of Monk from a couple years back. But much better I have to say.
Last Season ended in such an epic fashion, lies, deceptions, treachery and death! Best cliff-hanger in years!



And here it is!
One of the two new shows that will start soon, by J.J. Abrams and the team at Bad Robotos
Person of Interest.
Lost's own Ben Linus teams up with an "hobo" to fight crime, using an amazing supercomputer that can predict the future... Sounds promising!



Meanwhile, Fringe will be well on the way of its 4th Season now!
Approaching a resolution?
(I dunno for you but my ideal for a run of a series, as I always say, it should be around ~5 seasons. not too short nor dragging on like those long running shows like Friends and co..)
What will happen to the world now that Peter combined both alternate universes and seems to have erased himself?!?



And the other new show from Abrams & Bad Robots I mentioned above is Alcatraz. Starting for mid-replacement in 2012.
Lots of talent involved on this one!
I mean, they got Jurassic Park's Sam Neill in here! And even Lost fans favorite Jorge Garcia!



Speaking of which, Steven Spielberg's dino show will also start this month!
Terra Nova will be about a bunch of people traveling back to the past to, errr..., escape pollution in the future by living in the far off past along dinosaurs. I think. Well it sounds messy so far but we'll see how this turns out!
I'm specially watching this because they'll be reusing sets and props from the Jurassic Park movies :P




Meanwhile, my favorite dinosaur-show (sorry Terra Nova, the spot's already taken!) just finished airing its 5th season recently in the UK.
Yep, Primeval only airs in Summer. I still need to catch on those, since the departure of character Nick Cutter from the show, and after some lackbuster episodes, the show was able to find ground and get progressively back to form.



I did not like at all how the first Season of The Walking Dead ended up in such a clumsy lackbuster out of place finale episode, containing both an explanations for the Virus' origin. The way it explained you can't cure it and whatnot. (I much prefer the mystery surrounding it be it in the comic book or in George Romero's "Of The Dead" movies... defining it take that goal off the survivor's mind..which could offer such great story arcs in later Walking ired director/exectuve producer Frank Darabont from the show due to "creative differences". Big loss for them, losing this award winning director and fan of the series... I fear what they're gonna do this season...



The SyFy block now!
Warehouse 13 is airing its Season 3 currently already :D
I just love Warehouse 13, and it's only been getting better over the time! "Newguy" Jinks is a sort of hit and miss. He's kinda funny sometimes, I love it when the others take advantage or make fun of the guy, and he's got a good alchemy with other characters, but he's kinda odd and always sticking out of the group. Plus his "human lie detector"-thing going on is kinda boring...and when they drop it, it's even worse because it got you thinking "Hey?! Wasn't he s'pposed to notice XYZ was lying??"...
Great show anyway!



SyFy already announced the end of Eureka, but I say it's not a reason to panic!
Despite good ratings, the show will be ending soon. It is currently airing its 4th Season, we'll even get a Christmas episode in December.
And then in 2012, the show will wrap up in Season 5.



At least, there's great new shows on SyFy currently.
Like Stephen King inspired show Haven. Fully of little trivia references and pretty similar in tone to both Eureka and Warehouse 13.
The question is, will they also have a Christmas episode and will Haven cross over any of the other shows at some point? :P



And finally there's Syfy latest kid on the block, Alphas.
A show I have to admit, I did not like at all! But the characters kinda grew on me. (not all of them though..)
It looked like another generic superhero gritty show playing the "Hey! We're realistic! We don't have costumes and are more grounded in today's world"-card.
The weakest part of the show...I kinda wish it had more humour like the above three shows. It is trying so much to be serious...



The Office will start with its 8th Season (wooah? already? So many years gone by..) without Steve Carrell.
Can't wait to see how this turns out, though from experience, when TV shows lose their main character/one of the principal actors, it usually goes downhill...
Will it survive long?
I propose more Rainn Wilson to boost the ratings!



MythBusters started its 2011 season a bit earlier this summer.
It's still remains one of the best programs on TV ever!
They've been exploring fan requests (and interaction) more and more over the years.



As for cartoons, Lucasfilm promise a great fun new season for Star Wars: Clone Wars!
The thick of the war is happening! And Anakin is slowly shaping into a Sith!
Also, Admiral Ackbar cameon in the new episodes!



The Looney Tunes Show is going through some solid episodes lately. I've loved the show since day one, let the (fewer each day) haters hate. As a long time huge Looney Tunes fan, I've been through various interpretations of characters, be it the lazy Hannah Barbera-ysh episodes in the 70s. And there's been worse, much woooorse *cough*Baby Looney Tunes/Loonatics Unleashed*cough*.
This cartoon kinda features them as we'd seen them a bit in the movie Space Jam, living in the suburbs, altogether.
Despite the tone or the formula of the episodes, they're splendidly in-characters. With a Daffy as silly, crazy and jerk-y as ever.
The musical parts have been okay. Some pretty good, and other bad. Though I can't like the CGi 3D segments of Wile E. Coyote... I tried.. But it's so bad.. at least it doesn't ruin the episodes much and are pretty forgettable.



Not much is known about the upcoming 2nd season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Only that it will be more influenced by the upcoming Joss Whedon Avengers live movie.
Such as Iron Man and Captain America costumes getting redesigned, Nick Fury turning into Samuel L. Jackson.. Oh and Skrulls.
And more Avengers will join the roster, it seems Miss Marvel and Vision will be part of the team.



The amazing relaunched Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is taking a hiatus, they will take a year to produce new episodes. It wasn't canceled! :)
"And traps will be better~"



I love ThunderCats!
Wait, no... I actually never liked much the ThunderCats. But since this new cartoon, I can proudly say, I'm now a fan of the series!
The episodes are already running currently since it started not long ago. Love the mix of scifi and magic, it really shows the ones that are making it at Warner Bros animations were long time fans, unlike the people behind the badly animated/written original "toys cartoon" that was the classic. They're even making scene of most of the concepts behind the series!



Young Justice: Invasion, that is the name of the second season of Young Justice, which not much is known of at this moment, and it will air in early 2012.




There's gonna be a brand-new Spider-man cartoon, called (and adapted from) Ultimate Spider-man.
Yes, another retelling of his early days as Spidey. I wish they had continued the previous "Spectacular" cartoon.
Oh well.
And it won't follow the current Ultimate Spider-man comics, nor the original one either, but it's its own original product (though following some ideas from here and there). And yes, it was "improvised" as marketing material for the upcoming rebooted movie so it will air in 2012 alongside the movie.
(and it looks like Spidey will be working with/along the help of SHIELD's Nick Fury!?!)



Don't miss out next year the all new Green Lantern: The Animated Series!
Part of me wants to skip it, it looks bland, generic, ugly CGi models, badly animated, etc..
But it's also GL, so I want to give it at least a little look. It does look straightly aimed to kids moreso than other comic book adaptations usually.
Still, it looks pretty bad at the moment, hope they can polish this before it airs! (right now, it looks worse than some 32-bits games cinematics...)

Futurama

Futurama's finishing its 6th Season today actually!
Season 7 will start around somewhere in 2012.



The longest running show ever, The Simpsons, will start Season 23 later this month!
Some hate it, some love it, both still continue to watch it after all this time for some reason...
I'd say, we're already been through the worst episodes, around Season 20 when it got a bit boring and repetitive. But these last two seasons have been great, much so than some earlier ones.
They made me love the Simpsons all over again with some very original and fun episodes!
Also, don't miss next year the historic 500th episode!! (Holy Cow!!! That much already?!)



Robot Chicken will continue airing in October! Finally! Not soon enough!
Why do they make all those long breaks in-between...wait! Oh, yes. Stop motion, it looks beautiful but takes a lot of time...

Currently missing from the lineup are the Venture Bros. They announced the show had been renewed for seasons 5 and 6, with pre-production to begin in June 2011 though. But no news regarding any dates so far.

Also there's that other CGi animated DC cartoon, an upcoming new "Batman: Animated Series". No news on that front though.

And that is all...
That's already a lot if you ask me :P

So, what will YOU watch this season? Any of those above might interest you? What other shows will you follow, any good recommendations?
Make yourself heard, drop me a word!

L O S T - SDCC Epilogue

Certainly the funniest thing to have come out of this year's Comic Con is this new LOST video.
That is, for the 2-3 of you out there who are still fan of Lost despite all the ending-rage.

(Check out my view on the series Finale as well as some of my other Lost-related post by following this tag: Lost)

Enjoy:



The secrets behind everything as well as Smokey/The Man in Black's real name finally revealed!!

Movie NEWS! See the first trailer of new MI movie!

Did you know there's a new Mission Impossible movie coming on?
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol!

This new movie is directed by Brad Bird, still produced by Bad Robots & J.J. Abrams. It's aiming for a Dec. 16, 2011 release date.

Tom Cruise is back, reprising his role as Ethan Hunt.

See Tom run, climb and explode stuff... the usual :D



Sounds like fun!

TV News! Sneak peaks of new shows Alcatraz and Terra Nove

Time to have a look at some upcoming new TV shows!
First up, Spielberg's upcoming Terra Nova!
Forgot this one already?

Anyway, Steven Spielberg new dino-series will start later this summer.
And here's a brand new 3 Minute TV Spot:



Looks alright, I guess.
If anything, a bit random.
It's funny to see so many movie-people turning to TV in these last couple of years.


And now, the first trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Alcatraz!



Awesome!
Mystery, conspirations, Hurley and "Dinosaur-man" himself, Sam Neill!
Looking good, looking good.
I can see this turning into a sort of Fringe-like mystery drama show.

It's coming to FOX for midseason 2012!  (-sigh- so far away..)

Movie NEWS! A super trailer

No, not that Super.
This one:

J.J. Abrams latest project!
Super 8 will be a sort of tribute to the early career of Steven Spielberg and is expected to hit theatres on June 10, 2011.

Here's a small recap:
J.J. Abrams' latest project about a monster being taken from Area 51 to a safer facility in Ohio, that escapes its prison and mode of transportation: a train. It is set to hit theaters in 2011. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Written and Directed by J.J Abrams.

And let's check out the trailer, will ya?



I gotta say...it looks great so far!
Like a twisted version of E.T.
Can't wait :P

Movie NEWS! Super 8 Superbowl trailer

Wooow!
The trailer to J.J. Abrams new flick "Super 8" is finally up! Hooray!
And it looks great, kickass!~



It has a great old school alien film feel to it, no?
While still staying modern!

Also, new mystery box~

TV NEWS! Abrams new mystery box will be...

J.J.Abrams finally revealed details about his future new series (for 2012-13?).

That's right, you guessed it!
Alcatraz will be a show that involve, well, the prison-island Alcatraz.
And feature time travel.

What?!?

Here's an interview from Abrams himself:

ABRAMS: We do. We have a few projects. We have a show for Fox called Alcatraz, that starts shooting on the 19th, which I could not be more excited about.
Is Alcatraz actually about Alcatraz?
ABRAMS: Alcatraz does involve Alcatraz.
Will it be shot in the actual prison?
ABRAMS: Some will be, yes. There are sets being built, but there will be some of the pilot shot in San Francisco at Alcatraz.
What is the series about?
ABRAMS: I don't want to give anything away because no one wants to hear that, but I will say that it's a beautifully written and surprisingly emotional script, although not surprising when you know that Liz Sarnoff wrote it. She's amazing. The show is about an incredibly odd and mysterious turn and secret about the prison of Alcatraz, and a modern-day mystery that involves something very odd that happened there 50 years ago.
Who have you cast?
ABRAMS: The cast is unbelievable. It's Sam Neill, Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia from Lost – who was the first person we cast and is just the greatest with an amazing role – and Johnny Coyne, who's an amazing English actor. We have a spectacular cast. There are a number of other actors and it is wonderful. I'm really excited about the show.

Yay! Another mystery box!

Source: collider

Hey Eyz! Whatcha gonna watch this season?

I'm a big fan of TV shows.
Nowadays even more than movies. (specially since most movie writers aren't what they used to be anymore.. it's adaptation after adaptation after sequel after remake... you get the point!)

As you can see, in my list of 15 favorite tv shows ever, I'm specially a fan of everything science-fiction-esque and other funny things...

Here's my list of stuff I will watch this 2010-2011 season~

 By the way, this was a drawing of my TV selection for the 2008-2009 season~

This year, despite the absence of Lost, or other favorites of mine of these last years (Reapers, My Name is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris...) I have quite a lot to watch and follow up.

I try to mostly watch stuff I really like (and not, like, stuff that everybody talks about or really "hyped" - I never watched 24, Prison Break, Heroes...), entertaining stories and original things.
Not a fan of Reality TV, NOT AT ALL.
I'm not a fan of thrillers, NCIS/CSI-type of shows ...
Also, I've been following lots of cartoons again lately.

Anyway, here goes:



This year will mark Chuck's season 4.
I remember starting this alongside Reaper. I prefered Reaper, now I only have Chuck left..
When Chuck's good, it's great, fun and original. When it isn't..it's pretty bad...
There's been too much drama the last times with Chuck.. I hope S4 tries its best to keep me following it! The concept IS fun!
Geek gets a "super computer" burnt in his brain and can download information as well as abilities.



Castle is a fantastic detective series, in the same style as Monk.
It has Firefly's Nathan Fillion plus several Joss Whedon references (due to "recurring writers").
I really dig this show! The episodes are never dull nor repetitive.
And even the book (with a second one coming soon) "written by Castle" published last year was well received!
Rick Castle, the famous writer, tags along with the NYPD to solve crimes.



Undercovers is the new show produced under J.J.Abrams Bad Robot studio. Since Lost is no more, there's a new show starting out right away.
The pilot will be directed by Abrams.
It will a bit more similar to Alias than Lost or Fringe (but I guess it will go quickly into scifi/surnatural like all 3 other shows)
A married couple of secret agents undercovers goes back to their spy roots.



Fringe will enter its 3rd season already!
It will be a 22 episodes-long season.
It will continue the alternate universe-storyline from last season's ending..so be sure to have least watched some of it before starting this one.
It's quietly growing into my favorite show~
A special division of the government is charged to find out and stop strange "fringe-science" anomalies.



The american version of the show The Office will start its 7th season!
That's a lot of seasons!
There's been some bad in the past..but also some great stuff too...
So I'll be happy to have more of it.
The day and life of a paper company in Scranton.



Okay, not a "show", as in plot and characters development, but still entertainment.
Mythbusters will be back, after a long break and some recut episodes airing this summer.
I always love watching any episode, even rewatching some.
Always fun to watch Jamie exploding stuff...or Adam exploding stuff...you get the idea~
A documentary-experimenting type of show from the Discovery Channel. Every week, a team of special effects-guys, and a gal, try to confirm or bust urban myths,



Starting this season, the adaptation of a classic graphic novel by Robert Kirkman, the Walking Dead, will hit tv!
I have great hopes for this!
Rick, a cop, wakes up in a world destroyed by zombies after an accident.



One of my favorite recent British shows, Primeval had a great first season that made me a fan in a couple of minutes. Then a fantastic well improved second season. Then a very bad 3rd season... :(
(why would anyone **** the main character!!!.... -sigh-)
Now it will be back thanks to an international collaboration with foreign TV channels. (Germany, Canada..)
Will this bring Primeval to the epic level of epicness the former seasons had?!
Portals through time started appearing all over the world, dinosaurs and other primitive monsters are wrecking havok in the streets of England!



Warehouse 13 is probably one of my favorite current modern shows, well it's growing up on me.
(and coming from modern syfy channel, that means a lot!)
It started quite slow, but it's getting great!
My current fav show to watch~
A secret service team is charged to get their hands on "strange" artifacts and keep them in storage in the Warehouse 13. (kinda like the Ark is in the ending off Raiders of the Lost Ark)



As for cartoons...Well, I'm watching a lot more of them now than the last couple of years...
Starting with Futurama, who was back in an all new season..that already ended... But FEAR NOT! Cause a new new season is in the works for November 21 already!
New New York, the 31st century. Futurama follows the adventure of the Planet Express crew in a universe full of aliens, robots and SCIENCE!



Speaking of Matt Groening, The Simpsons are getting their 22th season!!
Woah!
Impressive!
Haters will hate, but I gotta say I'm quite impressed for such a long running show being still made!
And it's a 2D animated show, so all congrats to them!
I didn't quite like the transitional Season 20 (which went HD halfway through)..the episodes were kinda weak...
But the 21st was so much fun...
I wish the staff good luck, and may them make us laugh as much as they did all those past 20-something years~
Do the Simpsons need a summary? Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie need no introduction! They're the most well known "american family" internationally!



Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated really impresses me.
It's the current Scooby-Doo show and I can't stop watching it!
It's great, fun and really updates the overall look of this series.
I wanted to make a little feature on the blog about the various Scooby-shows..but if you read some of my previous comments on Mystery Inc, you probably know I'm already a huge fan of it^^
Who are all these monsters, why are they attacking Crystal Cove?! Scooby and the gang are on the job~



Batman: The Brave & The Bold will be back with the last episodes of thise past season and the new last season as well.
Yes, cause Warner Bros Animation will stop it to leave the way for the new Bat-inspired show...
Great news for more "serious" Bat-fans and bad news for us Brave & The Bold-fans!
At least we still have around ~20 more episodes before the end...to bring this series at 65 episodes for its complete run (which isn't bad, if you ask me)
A true hommage to Silver Age comics and the DCUniverse, Batman the Brave and the Bold is a team-up show between Bats and the various characters that inhabits this very strange world, specially the more underrated type of characters.



Starting now, Marvel will have a new show around, to replace fan favorites Spectacular Spider-man and Wolverine & The X-men.
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, a new team-centered cartoon based on classic Marvel characters.
The style looks modern and a bit stylish in the designs...
Though some (Wasp..) look a bit off to me...
Anyway, this could turn out pretty fun~
Earth's Mightiest Heroes join forces against super villains and world threats of all kind.



Later this year, Seth Green's spoof parody stop motion show Robot Chicken will be back in an all new season.
It's our generation's show, well, us children of the 80s. Lots of references and parodies to obscure cartoons to well known pop culture of the late 80s/early 90s. From Resident Evil to Mario Kart, passing through GIJoe and Transformers...
It's often a bit trashy..but all in a good fun way.
Lately they've been slowly turning more and more into Star Wars features and specials...
Robot Chicken is a parody show about pop culture of the late 80s and early 90s. Composed of little segments of more or less a minute each, it's fast, fun and kinda stupid all in a nice package~



I already talked about this one lately.
The Venture bros are back in an all-new all-original Season 5, or Season 4 part 2, or Season 4.5...well, just call it "The New Season".
Highly recommended spoof of pulp stories and superheroes comics.
Follow the adventures of "previously-young adventurous kid" Dr. Venture and his clo..sons Dean & Hank and their bodyguard Brock Samson. Will The Monarch destroy his arch-nemesis finally?!



Star Wars The Clone Wars will hit its 3rd Season now!
I've mostly followed this show on DVD, watching back to back all the episodes later on.
But I'm thinking about following this 3rd season as it airs...
Darth Maul's unmentioned brother will make an appearance!
Plus many fan favorite ccharacters will be back or joining the cast now~ (The Republic Commando!!!)
The series will reach it's middle point now, so expect things to get epic! (of the 100 episodes planned at the start of the show)
Luke: "You fought in the Clone Wars?
Obi-Wan: Yes. I was once a Jedi knight, the same as your father.
Luke: I wish I'd known him.
Obi-Wan: He was the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior..."



A new DC Comics show will hit the small screen, Young justice!
It won't be based on the cult comic series, but instead share some similar concepts and develop its own original mythos.
I hope this turns out good...fearing a bit...looks too much serioues...hopes it's fun!... *crosses fingers*
Robin, Aqualad, Artemis, Kid Flash, Superboy and Miss Martian. Together they're the new generation of heroes, they're the Young Justice!



And finally..airing later on in mid-season will be The Cape. The highly anticipated (on my part) all-new original comic book-ysh tv show about a guy who becomes a superhero.
But unlike Heroes or say "No Ordinary Family" (other superhero-ysh new show) it will more clearly embrace its comic bookysh roots.
We'll have supervillains here and an on-going increasing rogue gallery and all...
Could this be the new The FLASH?! I hope so~
It could be great and fun...
My fears? Like most good shows, producers might cancel that *cough*Journeyman*cough*... -sigh-

Anyways...
That's all I will be following myself...
And it's already quite a lot, if you ask me~
So, what will YOU watch? Any of those above interest you?
Make yourself heard (for once!), I won't bite!
You can easily write down your opinion in the comments below. Ain't that right Frob'?

LOST - a look back at a 6 season-long "Mystery Box"

 Warning! May contain spoilers to Lost if you haven't watched all the show yet or may not have started watching it!
Oh, and haters...Please if you want to hate-comment try to be constructive!
You can not like Lost but at least if you have to write something explain why and what kind of show you like/or what decision you would have done differently.

 Not recycling a previous pic here.

So it is finally done. LOST's over. 
Our survivors have seen so many adventures, good fighting evil drama, philosophical debates and fans throwing new zany theories every new episode.

You may hate it, but it's hard to deny the impact Lost had on television. Like 24 (a show I've never ever checked, true!) its influence has and will for a long time define future new television dramas, and even a bit movies as well.

As a Lost fan, I wanted to put up a little look back at this series, now that it's over.
I wasn't sure what to write and how to, but after letting the impact of the last episode run through my mind for a few days... I'm finally ready! More after the jump...

These pictures have absolutely no relevance to this article... or DO THEY???

You may disagree, I'm perfectly fine with that afterall everybody's got the right to his own opinion, but I think Lost started getting good when it stopped being mainstream.

Yeah, that's right around the big drop of ratings Lost had from Season 1 to 3 (that all TV shows always have at some point).
In my opinion that's when Lost finally started playing with its mythos, you know other others, Time Travel, disappearing islands, escaping the island and finally coming back to it...
In the beginning of the series, people counfounded Lost with some kinda "survivor" shows, Gilligan Island or some fictive Reality Tv show, when it was in fact a supernatural story right from the start!

I re-watched the Lost pilot just around a week before the finale.
Everything was perfectly laid out in the 2 parts pilot!
A buncha people from many different places, all running from their past or their own lives, have their plane crash on an Island. But not some regular unknown island in the pacific. A mysterious Island with strange proprieties.
In the beginning of this show, they found out some "monster" (the future mysterious black smoke) who kills the pilot of the plane right away, they found a polar bear lost (or is it??) on this tropical island and they "hear" presences in the jungle.
What is this place?!

And so the journey begins, mysteries after mysteries, new layers of the story reveals themselves, new "twists" happen... Some people lose their interest, but it's something natural, you can't introduce or define the genre of a story bit by bit, a Scifi one, and expect Average Joe to keep watching it!
It's like asking for a random person in the street to read Stephen King or Vertigo Comics... People who only liked season 1 or 2 followed Lost because they found the concept strange or original but weren't ready for the science fiction part... But everything was present in the present!

I found the first two seasons interesting (and I was introduced to Lost at that time and watched all episodes back to back), but now, from a finished show perspective I find the 2 seasons the be the more dull and calm. The show didn't move on that much back then and all those episodes look like only 1 season's worth of episodes streched across two seasons! Sure there's the important part of the flashback/character development, but looking at the Island events themselves, things moved slowly back then.

Anyway, it's over now. What does it tell us now?
The story was in fact about an Island, not your regular tropical island, but the place where "a very important light" is always burning. (life?)
So it's a spiritual story, right?
It's the same light as the one that burns in all of us. So I guess it makes this light life or the soul..something like that... (I'm not making theories here, just recapitulating with you, dear reader)
There was this strange woman we saw in one of the last episodes who looks like she supposed to be the guardian (of the light? life? of the soul-spirit-entrance-exit-thing-y?)
She kept (stole) two young babies to make them the next guardians. But destiny had it comin', one (Jacob) killed his brother even if they "shouldn't be able to arm each other". So the second one came back from that light as the Smoke Monster.

Flash to our present days/story.
Jacob was trying to defeat his evil (unnamed) brother with the help of people he brought in from the exterior.
Smokey was trying to kill his brother to be able to leave the island (he couldn't leave it...because he was dead or something? because of the island?)
The pilot introduced us to the notion of good versus evil with the help of a backgammon game John Locke found on the beach. Two sides, good/evil, light/darkness. Well, it seems more players came into this real life game of backgammon.
From the little bits of story we saw during our 6 seasons, it seems that Jacob brought in (allowed on this island lost in time and space) various people through his long life. Like Richard, an advisor-like figure who became immortal with the help of Jacob.
Then around the 70s, Dharma came in.
They're the source of most fan-theories and little mysteries on the island. The more scientific ones.
It seems like they managed to understand and analyse this island's unique proprieties.
It all came down to magnetic proprieties.
They could tap in the island's supernatural abilities and tried working around concepts such as Time Travel, teleportation (it seems the island isn't on our regular plane of existence, not easy to find or access)-

So it's a scifi story, now?

And that's where most haters have problems wrapping their head around.
It's both science fiction and mystic.
What's complicated in that?
You can only accept one aspect or the other? Didn't you ever read in your life? That often happens in stories!

A mystical quest to keep up a mysterious light on (that remind me of Desmond, the time travel-magnetic free dude, and his 4 8 15 16 23 42 code to input all 108 minutes!),
good vs evil,
and the inventions and science the Dharma initiative brought on the island, playing gods!
It seems the Smoke Monster turned Dharma into a evil allie, with the purge he had Benjamin Linus (but we won't discuss every single characters here) do for him. (vengeance for what his fake mother did to him?)
Ben was then given orders by someone we thought in an early season to be Jacob (..or was it??)

Like early in the show, there is a confrontation between Locke and his destiny call and Jack Shephard, a man who had lost is purpose in life because of daddy issues.
The man of faith vs the man of science!

Through the 6 seasons, the roles kinda reversed.
Jack becamse slowly a leader, accepted faith after running away from the island, realised his purpose in life (to be there for the island, the island where he became this leader and helped people, the place where he truly changed and was supposed to be) and became himself that man of faith.
Locke, trying to find back and bring back people on this important Island, where the light has to always shine, lost his faith outside the island... and died there (thanks to Ben).
He was replaced by the Smoke Monster (who could assume dead people's aspect) and was that way turned into Jack's opposite.
Light vs darkness.


So my finale point.
What was all of this really about?

People who were all Lost, lost in their lives, lost in their past (flashbacks!) and lost in an accident (the plane) found themselves on this Island. In return, as Jacob chose them all to defeat Smokey (and many were killed of. Red shirts, like in every good story) were suppose to be there to prove a point and help the Island in the end.
Of course we ain't all saints. We're all capable of good and evil. But once they arrived on the island, they were blank states and were judged from their actions there.

Jack died at the end.
(Duuuude! That's like a massive spoil- oh, yeah right, I wrote it at the top.)
But not for nothing. Everybody has to die at some point.
Jack died to help and preserve the light, the island's purpose.

He found who he truly was on the island, in return he helped back the island.
He was Jacob's successor for like 20 minutes, but in that time he made it count for something.

My favorite part and little twist in all this epic and confusing finale?
Hurley was the true chosen successor of Jacob.
Awesome.
Duuuude, just imagine the adventures of Hurley and his number two, Ben, trying to preserve the light/island.
Awesome.

So, what were the "flashsideways" as people call them. You know, the last season's gimmick way to tell and develop a parallel story (replacing the previous flashback and flashforward)?

Jack died at the end, helping the island, watching the plane with his friends  on board making way out the island.
All this season we were watching a paradise-like/purgatory type of world as flashsideways.
Re-watch the first episode of this season. Rose tells Jack:
"It's okay now. You can let go."

That what happens to Jack at the end of the show.
He's dead, we're watching an alternate/second life. People are in their dream-like new lives.
At first we were fooled to think it was a parallel life after that bomb from last season exploded.
Then some of us thought it was what's going to happen after the show/last episode, an alternate universe-like place, something after saving/defeating the smoke monster/the island.
But it really was just death.

Jack's always bleeding from his cut he got in the last episode.
Then people started remembering their past lives, and it got really weird at that point.
Why was Desmond aiming to bring every character we knew from the Island together?
It was because they were living a dream, their dream and not understanding what did happen to them.
They were all dead, everbody accepted that fact...only Jack was trying to run aways from the fact.. they were in the paradise/purgatory-like place.

He could finally let go.

Yeah, the Island, all the events that did happen in the show, all those seasons we watched did happen!
Stop saying they were all dead from the start! Can't you understand it??
It was pretty clear! Rewatch it.
Me? I liked this ending, a bit sad in a way, we're watching our (favorite) character, people we learned to know, dead.
It doesn't mean they died all at the same time, just that in death they all met together one last time.
(many religions and cults believe in the fact that we join our "soul mates", that we have to remember all the people that did matter in our life, in our death)

All the clues, all the mysteries...did they count for something?
Yes and no.
You're not seeing the big picture if you say no and if you say yes..well they count, they do but not as much as the path our heroes travelled!

"Its not the destination, its the journey."

I think we got many ansers back (I even got some theories for Walt, yes, just try me in the comments below!)
In the end it was a great story, pretty coherent for something as ambitious I'd say.
Every story his improvised little bit by little bit, but the creators should always have in mind the objective! Don't say they made up stuff as they went on, be realistic!! (dialogues, episodes, pages those are made up as they go along be it Lost or books, comics... but something as dense and with tons of throw backs to past stuff are always planned from the start)


The ending was very clever. Very Dark Tower-y from how I see it.
In fact it was very reminiscent of my all time favorite show, Quantum Leap. 
Like Jack and all the survivors in the flashsideways, Sam Beckett found himself in a very strange place in his last "leap".
He was trapped in a little mining village.
And he was already dead, but didn't knew it (not a pun! he he he...)
In the end he accepted it and disappeard in a flash of light not that different from Lost's finale.

For Quantum Leap and Lost, the ending will always be controversial, analysed and new theories made up.
And that's how I loved to Lost ending. As criticized as it may be, forever remembered (or at least given one more year of our thoughts), discussed and us, a bit Lost forever.

"It's okay now, we can let go..."

Excuse me for this super long post, but my blog, my posts! At least I wrote what I had in mind for so long...

Lost's almost over... Here's a sitcom look back at past seasons!

Lost, yes Abrams' TV Show, ends officially today with the final 2 and a half hour series finale!
So I wanted to have at least one Lost-related post today as well : P

Sorry Jack... Once it will be over, you'll have to find other excuses to hang out in Hawaii...

Lost.
You may hate it, or love it. Pick a side!
I, for one, will be sad to see this cult phenomenon coming to an end, a well deserved ending. Everything has to end at some point, may it be shows, stories and life. (duh!)

You can hate it, but don't deny its impact it had on our modern TV programs (and even movies at some level).
Lost brought the shaky cam style mainstream so overly used in today's drama shows or movies, like Matrix with the bullet time not that long ago.
The multi ethnic huge cast as primary characters, the twisted endings/cliffhangers, the suspense and long story arcs back from their radio-drama graves and many more mystery/scifi aspects back in every new "big budget" series.

But I'm not here to discuss Lost this time.

I will miss it, it was great to talk about crazy theories every new episode/season with pals... To discuss, analyse and dissect every little pattern or part of the series' mytho.

No, we're here on this post today to have a little look back, a funny/parodic look back at past early seasons. Back then before going back in time with Desmond, back then before playing backgammon with Jacob thousands years ago on a beach, back then before flashsideways-ing.

Straight from CinematicESP's youtube channel, I wanted to post those parodic Lost Opening themes.
Making Lost into a Sitcom, with a perfect editing & music added to it? I'm sold!

Have fun with these Sitcom openings for Lost! The guy did an awesome work, well done!


Lost: The Sitcom! Season 1 intro  

 
Lost: The Sitcom! Season 2 intro 



Lost: The Sitcom! Season 3 intro 



This one's a bit different. "Lost: The Teen Drama. Season 4 intro"



Lost: The Sitcom! Season 5 intro   


And finally, a little something else from someone's else youtube account.
Another pretty creative work.
I don't really like Smallville... finding it a bit too much drama/emo/angsty/teen sub par adaptation of a legendary Superhero... But this Lost Smallville-styled opening is pretty clever and really well done as well!
Check it out: