52 Or Shatner: Week 20
Sep 28A bit of catch-up…you know the drill. Click on. You know you want to. Will you get fanboy ramblings about DC’s weekly comics series, or a digital capture of the glory, the wonder, and the majesty that is…SHATNER????
They Could Be Heroes…
Sep 27…just for one season. Or ten. Who knows.
Watched the first episode rerun last night of this new X-Men meets Lost series (even though I saw Ali Larter talking about how it’s NOT The X-Men on some NBC local news promo shill over the weekend, she’s WRONG, shocker) and it was not at all bad.
The dialogue is frequently too “on the nose,” just a bit too easy. It felt somehow comic-booky, like I’d totally buy the occasional bit of heavy handed exposition if it were written instead of spoken.
But otherwise, I’m intrigued. The characters are an interesting mix, the direction and editing created some very cool/spooky moments (especially when Larter’s character wakes up after killing those dudes–WHOA) and since there’s at least one comic book writer on board (Jeph Loeb), I think they’ll keep the revelations coming fast and furious, unlike another show that Mr. Loeb used to work for that takes place on a desert island.
No, not FANTASY Island. Idiot.
Dresser – 25 years
Sep 25What happens when a guy has the same pair of dressers from childhood as a cartoon fan student to adulthood as a cartoon fan, rockstar, and Dungeons and Dragon illustrator?
You get nerdness as Anthropology.
Martin + Jessica 4Evah
Sep 22If you’re like me and Spaced and The Office are two of your favorite shows of all time, you probably got all crazy-excited when Jessica Stevenson and Martin Freeman cameoed together adorably in Shaun of the Dead.
Similarly heart attack-inducing is their pairing in the new flick Confetti, which features a whole mess of people from U.K. TV (I saw it with Brit TV expert Katherine, who pointed out the non-Jessica/Martin folks to me). The movie is a mockumentary about three couples duking it out to plan the most original wedding of the year. Jessica and Martin play a very sweet couple who want to have Busby Berkeley-esque musical extravaganza.
I think the mockumentary thing is tough to do these days. We’ve got Christopher Guest and both Offices and we’re pretty used to the form. We know that it’s hard to get the tone exactly right. But Confetti pretty much nails it in a way that’s funny and touching and all that good stuff.
And really, Martin and Jessica are the heart of it all. They have wonderfully hilarious moments, but nicely dramatic ones as well. And, as hinted at in Shaun, they’re just so goddamn cute together.
You, Me, and iTV
Sep 22“What Apple’s up to” in the American living room is a subject that has fascinated me for some time.
Last week, we got a tiny peek at the answer to that question, in the form of the iTV.
Let’s call this for what it is–the BIG move. When the video iPod came out last year, some speculated that this level of entertainment domination was in the cards for Apple. At that point, you could just take video and audio and stick them in your pocket and carry them around.
When Steve Jobs sold Pixar to Disney earlier THIS year, he cemented a relationship between Apple and one of the world’s biggest content providers. Suddenly, that rumored iTunes Movie Store didn’t seem too far off. And we got the movie store last week, too.
But we also got a glimpse at the iTV. And in it, we see our future.
With the iTV, Apple has created a foothold into the heart of the home, the living room/family room/den where the TV lives. The specifics are almost incidental–Bob Iger at Disney has commented in public that the iTV will ship with a hard drive; no such feature was mentioned by Pope Jobs in last week’s keynote. There’s a USB port in the back, so anything is possible, and there could even be a hard drive stashed inside, for all we know. Also missing at this stage: a TV tuner. So it’s not the next iteration of the TiVo…although again, that could change in the next few months.
It’s a start, is what it is. It’s the first step, a cautious one, because if this synergy were to take its full form so soon, it would rock the entertainment industry to its knees. Suddenly, time and placeshifting would connect together to the entire television landscape in a format widely used and understood by people around the world. The iPod’s existing user base would have a reason to buy a device that would give them total control over how, when, and where they experience popular culture. Stars would align, birds would sing, dogs and cats would live together.
Instead, to pacify the raging madmen on the content side of things, who see their carefully-constructed house of cards losing a few decks every day as the proliferation of delivery channels render their antiquated ad-and-ratings-based economy into oblivion, Steve Jobs has just given us stage one of his vision. We get to watch stuff from our computer on the TV–all those iTunes videos, music, and probably stuff in other formats, will beam from our computer straight to the TV. Hell, maybe it’ll even bypass the computer and come to the TV direct if we want it to.
But someday, and someday soon, the rose will reach full bloom. And that, my friends, will be SOMETHING TO FUCKING SEE. I for one can’t wait.
