This is a fantastic article from the New York Times about how baseball dugout payphones are the last bastion of the landline.
The web-site io9 always has some great lists, and I particularly enjoyed their recent list of 10 stand-alone episodes that totally represent their respective shows. Choosing “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” for The X-Files was a great choice.
Quint from AICN has begun posting reports from the set of The Hobbit. Check out Part 1 of his Unexpected Journey here. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson has recently posted the fourth video diary from the set of The Hobbit, this one focusing on the film’s 3-D effects:
Did you catch that glimpse at The Hobbit’s official logo, there at the end? Cool!!
This review of the Star Wars saga on blu-ray from Chud.com is interesting — especially the “fuck you” opening (early in “the lowdown” section)! The reviewer has some interesting comments on all the films, particularly Empire. (Though his rating both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones as better films than Return of the Jedi is lunacy. Jedi is flawed, absolutely, but still way better than those two prequels.) (By the way, so far I have held firm in my vow not to purchase the saga on blu-ray. I’m itching to watch the series again, and I will admit to a morbid curiosity as to what has been changed in this latest version of the films, but I’m still avoiding paying almost a hundred bucks for something that I know will, in the end, just sadden and/or anger me. Still, if anyone wants to give it to me as a GIFT…!)
But the articles that have really reminded me of my love for Star Wars, and that have got me thinking about re-watching the series, is Drew McWeeny from HitFix’s series of FilmNerd articles about showing the Star Wars films, one at a time, to his young kids for the very first time. These articles represent some of the finest writing Mr. McWeeny has ever done, and if you’ve ever enjoyed a Star Wars film, these are well-worth your time. It’s fascinating to re-experience these films through the eyes of someone who has never seen them before. Consider, if you will, two boys who have seen the Clone Wars cartoons but not the films. They think Anakin Skywalker is the hero of Star Wars. Reading how they react to what the film series is REALLY about is poignant and mind-blowing. Start with Drew’s article about showing his boys the original Star Wars (A New Hope) and go from there. Here’s his piece on Empire, and then his pieces on Episode I, Episode… [continued]
Last week I waxed poetic about my favorite TV series finales. Today let’s examine the other side of the coin — what I feel are the three WORST series finales that I’ve ever seen!
One quick note, before we begin: St. Elsewhere is renowned for having one of the most ludicrous series finales ever, in which it was revealed that the entire show was just the dream of an autistic child. However, since that wasn’t a show that I ever watched, it’s finale isn’t on my list.
So what is?
The West Wing — “Tomorrow” — I thought the show would be lost after the departure of Aaron Sorkin at the end of season 4, and the limp season 5 didn’t do much to discourage me of that notion. Season 6 started off just as badly, but about halfway through that season the show completely reinvented itself. Suddenly the story focused on the race for the White House, following a variety of characters, new and old, through their involvement in the primaries and, ultimately, in the Presidential election. Not only did this change bring a lot of new energy and intensity to the show, by moving the show outside the confines of the White House and into new territory, it made it easier for viewers to stop comparing the new episodes to the Sorkin classics. I got really into the show again, and was very excited for the finale to wrap things up in grand style. Sadly, what we got was a tepid, boring hour in which nothing really happened. The much-heralded return of Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) turned out to be barely more than a cameo. Many long-running characters and storylines were ignored entirely (Toby doesn’t appear at all?? No resolution to the long-simmering Charlie-Zoey romance?) or handled in an entirely trivial, superficial manner (Gee, President Bartlett sees Charlie as his son? That was obvious ever since the first season!). Most disappointingly, the first episode of season seven had opened with an intriguing “three years later” flash-forward. It had seemed clear to me that the questions raised in that scene would be addressed in a book-end scene at the end of the finale. And yet, nothing! Why include that scene at all in the season premiere if they weren’t going to go anywhere with it? What a let-down.
The X-Files — “The Truth” — Although the show definitely should have ended after the seventh season, when David Duchovny (who played series lead Fox Mulder) left, I’m not one of those fans who thought the final two seasons to be entirely without merit. There were still a lot of great spooky adventures to be had, and I thought that… [continued]