News Around the Net
This is an old clip (it’s from 2012), but I just saw it for the first time and loved it: a revival of “Who’s on First” with Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, and Jerry Seinfeld!
This made me laugh a LOT. Ladies and gentlemen: Good Will Batman.
This is an interesting article on the production of season two of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, a show I find enjoyable though frustrating. (I was fascinated to learn the reason that season two only ran nine episodes, rather than ten.)
Bill Hunt runs one of my very favorite web-sites out there, The Digital Bits. He recently wrote a phenomenal editorial calling Paramount to task for their terrible treatment of the Star Trek films on DVD/blu-ray, specifically the disappointing blu-ray release of Into Darkness (in which Paramount created all sorts of special features for the movie but, instead of putting them all on the blu-ray, released individual featurettes to different vendors to be exclusive material just for them… making it impossible for Trek fans to get all of this material unless they wanted to go out and buy eight different copies of the blu-ray, each from a different vendor). I agree 100% with everything Mr. Hunt wrote. Well done.
Speaking of Star Trek Into Darkness, Devin Faraci at Badassdigest has written a brilliant evisceration of the film and a disturbing analysis of how co-screenwriter Bob Orci’s conspiracy “Truther” theories about 9/11 made it into the film’s story-line. The idea that those sorts of nonsensical ideas about 9/11 made it into any big-budget blockbuster would be concerning, and the thought that these notions are a part of a Star Trek film — a series justly known for its progressive, liberal tackling of modern-day issues — is hugely upsetting to me.
This is a terrific interview with the show-runners of the new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. This husband and wife pairing can be overshadowed by Jed’s more-famous brother Joss (who is executive-producing the show), but I have loved their work on Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Maurissa KILLS on the musical commentary track!), and even some terrific Terminator comic books they wrote for Dark Horse comics a year or two ago. I have a lot of faith in their talents. I hope all the ingredients come together for this to be a great TV show.
Can this be true? The blu-ray release of Paul Feig’s The Heat (click here for my review) features a commentary track by the original MST3K guys?? Well, I am definitely buying that blu-ray now!!
So… the new Robocop is a Cylon??
So…R.I.P. Futurama… again. In honor of the show’s recent cancellation (the third time that Futurama has been pronounced dead) co-creator and show-runner David X. Cohen has highlighted for Rolling Stone 10 key moments in the show’s history. Here’s hoping they pull off yet one more miraculous resurrection some-time in the future…
Speaking of Rolling Stone, it’s hard not to get behind their recent editorial that it’s time to bring Star Trek: The Next Generation back to TV. Man, I wish.
I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching the trailer, but now I am desperate to see it, and I bet you will be too:
Come on, a heist movie with Kurt Russell and Terence Stamp?? And also featuring Undeclared’s Jay Baruchel? I am there.
2013 marked the 20th anniversary of both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. Here is a great article on the origins of B5. I never watched B5 when it aired — preferring DS9 — but I discovered B5 when they started airing it on the Sci-Fi Channel a decade or so ago, and I fell in love with it then. It has some big flaws, no question, and I still prefer DS9, but there is a lot to love about B5, and I can’t help but adore it’s grand ambition to not only be a “novel for television” but also to have a very different story-telling structure and style than the Star Trek shows.
Speaking of 20th anniversaries of great sci-fi shows, September 10th marked the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The X-Files. I can’t believe that show is 20 years old!! Holy cow. In honor of that show’s 20th anniversary, let me refer you to Devin Faraci’s hilarious article from a few months ago about how The X-Files and Lost are exactly like all his failed relationships and The X-Files’ 20th Anniversary panel at this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con. Also, let me add that I still agree with key X-Files creative voice Frank Spotnitz’s comment from a year ago that “it’s a cultural crime” that they have not given that show and it’s complex mythology a proper ending. Sigh. Maybe someday…