Watching The CW

Anne and I were walking around the floor at NY Comic Con, and as we walked towards the Sega booth, I saw Mark Sheppard (the lovely, lovely Badger from Firefly). He was standing talking to another guy by one of the games. Turns out that Mark is the lead character in a new Wii game called The Conduit. He saw us standing there, me in my Serenity hoodie, and he said to me, “great jacket.” Which it is. Then he told the guy with him something about how there’s this whole universe that he’s a part of and how “she’s in it, too!” Yes, that is true. We stood and chatted for a bit and he told us about the new Sega game. Then I asked about his dad and he told me that his dad was still over in the booth. I think he was going for lunch when we ran into him, cause as I was leaving to go talk to his dad, he said they would be back and we should come over to the booth later. Sadly, I didn’t get back there, cause I would have liked to have gotten his autograph or a picture.

But I did get to see Mark’s dad, William Morgan Sheppard. For me he is and will always and forever be Blank Reg from Max Headroom, but he has actually been in a gazillion different shows and movies. Most recently, he is in the new Star Trek movie. He was completely adorable. I was really syked to meet him, cause I’m just geeky that way. Morgan was so genuinely nice and friendly. He keept holding my hand and he even kissed my hand at one point. He signed my autograph book, “Toni - Best wishes and thank you for all those evenings - Morgan Sheppard.” Awesome!

Reminder: If you care, you should check out my other blog at Watching Sitcoms, where I’m also blogging about different Comic Con stuff.

You didn’t think these were over, did you? Hardly.

This category in the Hulu Awards is important to me. It’s for the Best SciFi/ Fantasty TV Series. I like each and every one of the nominees, which are Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Fringe. This does pose a slight problem for me since three out of the five are Joss Whedon shows. (And did you know that Zach Whedon wrote - or possibly co-wrote - two the eps of Fringe, so far?) So you see my problem. But the bottom line is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my all time favorite show. Of all time. So that’s the show that gets my vote. It should also get your vote.

I’m not kidding. Don’t make me (more…)

Just finished watching the two-hour season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was very nearly like torture. I tried, but I haven’t liked this show since the very beginning.

It’s crazy, too, cause I just can’t seem to really pay attention to it. Last night, while it aired, I kept getting interrupted, by phone calls and other interrupty things. I had DVRd it and I knew I could watch it later, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. But its just par for the course of what has happened every time it’s been on. In any case, today, I sat and tried to watch it all the way through, uninterrupted. And I realized something. It wasn’t that I kept getting interrupted, it was just that the show doesn’t hold my interest enough for me to ignore the interruptions and keep on watching. It also honestly felt like no matter how hard I tried to keep track of what was happening, they still managed to lose me. Like, I couldn’t figure out why they were doing whatever it was they were doing, or why they were going where ever they went.

Probably the most interesting part, that got my attention, was when Derek (Brian Austin Green) faked out the guy who had the Turk (I’m sure he has a name, but I don’t care enough to go find out) and who was blackmailing them. The guy was holding a gun to John (Thomas Dekker) and Sarah (Lena Heady) had a gun on him, but couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting John or that the guy would kill John first. Derek comes out the door with his gun to the head of a little girl (played, adorably, by Bailee Madison, who I did care enough about to look up) and the guy disclaims that she’s his, Derek says she’s not his either, and then in one swift move, he covers the little girls eyes and shoots the guy in the head. It was great. It reminded me of Firefly, when Mal (Nathan Fillion) shot that government agent who had a gun to River’s (Summer Glau) head. The scene is similar, but it accompanies a much better episode of TV.

I was watching an ep of Angel today on TNT. I realize Angel isn’t on the CW, and actually isn’t on anymore, except in repeats. But I’m using that same logic that allows to write about shows like Firefly on this blog. Angel was on the WB, which merged with UPN to make the CW. Therefore, I consider it fair game.

In any case, I was watching this episode, “Peace Out,” from the end of the fourth season. As I watched, for the first time, I felt sorry for Angel’s son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser). I never really liked Connor much. I always felt that his story line messed up the show. Honestly. I used to think that somewhere in the middle of the third season aliens had taken over at Angel and I wasn’t happy with what they were doing. (Don’t even get me started on how miserable I am about what they did to Cordelia!) I just didn’t like the direction they took the show and I guess I kinda blamed Connor. Maybe I’m too old to just appreciate Vincent as being cute or whatever as well, but I just wanted him gone. I rejoiced when he finally left and we could have the fifth season mostly without him.

But today, for the first time, I really felt sorry for Connor. I stopped to think about his life for just a moment and see how he was constantly being manipulated by people he chose, unwisely, to trust. He’s stolen from his father, when just a baby, by Holtz, who raises him in a hell dimension. Holtz’s sole motivation is vengeance. He doesn’t care at all about Connor, but he is using him. Holtz even set up and uses his own death to manipulate Connor.

He is then manipulated by the Beast Master, parading around in Cordelia’s body, in as personal and intimate a way as possible. I mean he’s still just a young kid and he’s never had anyone close to him who just loved him and protected him. Angel would have, of course, but Connor never gave him a chance.

Finally, Connor is taken in by Jasmine. Of course, everyone is originally taken in by her, but it’s almost worst for Connor, because he knows what she is all along, but he was responsible for creating her and he feels bound to her in a way the others can’t. In the end, even through all that, he does the right thing in destroying Jasmine, but that basically drives him over the edge. He realizes that he can’t trust anyone and that there is no one who really cares for him.

For the first time, I’m glad he got to go live with a real family, and have all his bad memories wipe away so he could live a normal life. And not just glad that he was gone from the show.

I’m sitting here today watching a marathon of back to back episodes of Firefly on SciFi. How do I love this show, let me count the ways. It always makes me cry when I think of all the stuff that could have happened, all the questions I would have liked answered, all the things I wanted to learn about the characters as time went on. It makes me hate Fox more and more, as well. It’s so sad when a show with this much potential just isn’t given enough of a chance. Tears did come to my eyes, more than once, as I watched a particular scene, one I’d probably seen close to a dozen times before, but that still has the power to move.

I loved all these characters. I mean, really, really loved them. Also, I was in love with them, which is vastly different and much more intense. Like, I wanted to have their babies. You know what I mean? Dong ma? I even love that ship. It was as much a character on the show as the actors. There’s not another man anywhere like Malcolm Reynolds, or Jayne Cobb, for that matter. There aren’t other people on TV today that are as perfectly right as Kaylee, River, Simon, Zoe, Wash, Book and Inara. There’s no other ship as alive and real as Serenity. I just miss this show so much. Today was great, cause I was home and could just sit here, for the most part, able to watch and enjoy.

If you haven’t seen this show yet, you have to. I mean it. Right now. Go get the DVDs. Also, you need to find these actors and watch whatever they are doing now. They deserve it. They, along with the most wonderful and mighty Joss Whedon, gave us 15 hours of amazing television and a lovely, lovely movie, Serenity, to boot.

“Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care I’m still free, you can’t take the sky from me. Take me out to the black, tell them I ain’t coming back. Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me. There’s no place I can be since I found Serenity, you can’t take the sky from me.”

I didn’t know about the snogging.

I’m not surprised or anything, I just didn’t know. The first episode of the second season of Torchwood was interesting to say the least. And to a rabid Whedon fan like me, it held lots of fun little moments. Maybe they didn’t even realize it, but I caught lots of stuff.

Even my husband noticed when James Marsters’ character, Captain John Hart, told Jack he needed a blond on his crew. Was this a veiled reference to Buffy? Probably. In another scene, Captain Hart knocks out Gwen with a kiss from his poisoned lip gloss. Much like Saffron did to Mal in the episode “Our Mrs. Reynolds” on Firefly. Plus, Jack and John were stuck in a time loop once.

There were other little things just like that, but I don’t want to ruin them all. You really need to watch the episode for yourself and see how many you can count. Oh, there was also a Star Wars reference that made me clap my hands in glee (cause I’m a total geek). In one scene, Jon Hart leaves a voice mail message for Jack. When Jack plays the message its a hologram, very reminiscent of the Princess Leia message in R2D2 for Obi-Wan. I’m watching it, thinking it’s just like that, when John Hart ends his message to Jack, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” and then he sorta looks back over his shoulder. See, there was glee.

James, of course, was awesome as usual. His character on Torchwood had bit of Spike, which was fun, but was also his own person. Charming, yet evil. Just the kind of person who you end up trusting in spite of yourself and then, of course, realize you shouldn’t have. I really loved it. I like that they ended the episode with the chance that John Hart might be back, too.

I just didn’t know about the snogging.

Torchwood, James Marsters, Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Star Wars

OK, so I watched the third ep of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox Monday. I’m still not impressed. I want to like it, I really do, but honestly, no matter how well I try to pay attention, I can’t seem to follow what’s happening. Even my husband, who was watching with me, got up and walked away when there was only about 10 minutes left and said, this is moving too slowly and its confusing. I felt exactly the same way. There was no wall smashing this week, so at least it had that going for it, but without all that, it was very slow and kinda dull.

I wish it was better. I want it to be better. From what I read elsewhere, people seem to like it, so maybe it’s me. But honestly, what about that episode was interesting or exciting, or even mildly entertaining? What would make anyone want to watch the show again?

I think one thing that bothers me is that Summer Glau’s character, Cameron, is very similar in affect to her character of River Tam on Firefly and Serenity. Very smart and not emotionally connected. And a good fighter. This can’t be good for her as an actress. I’ve seen her in other roles and she can act, but playing two characters cast in the same basic mold has got to start her on the slippery slope to being type-cast. Maybe I’m just letting that bother me too much so it takes away my enjoyment in the show.

I’m gonna keep watching, but I just hope I see something worth watching soon.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Summer Glau, Firefly, Serenity

So I’ve been wracking my brain to find a way to make this blog about the CW when I haven’t seen anything new on the CW in about a month. So, here goes.

Last night we decided to watch a movie on our new TV (I’ll probably stop talking about it eventually) and we chose Serenity. I just got the collector’s edition for Christmas and I was really interested to see how it would be on the big screen with surround sound. (Awesome, btw).

So the way I got here? Serenity was the movie version of Firefly (which aired on Fox, so that was no help) written and produced by Joss Whedon, who was also the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which was on both the WB and UPN, which joined together to make the CW. See? See how I did that? I used to like to do that on the Serenity movie site, as well. The six degrees of Joss Whedon. I think that stuff is a lot of fun, but only if I have the time to sit around and randomly web surf. Which I just don’t.

My husband has just recently taken to counting the number of times I use the word “random” each day. So far the count is - several.

Back to Serenity. If you haven’t seen it, you should. (You should actually see all 15 episodes of the series, Firefly, and then see the movie, cause it will make it all that much better.) I saw that Serenity is On Demand right now, too. I think on Starz. It’s really such a great movie. I cry and I laugh at the same stuff every single time I watch it. And I’ve seen it many times. Don’t ask me to count.

I also cry every time when I think how incredible it is and how much I love that gorram ship and its shiny crew and now they are just gone, gone, gone. Do you think Joss will ever do another movie? I’d watch it.

(Just so you know, we are having a little problem with comments. If you comment and it doesn’t show up right away, not to worry. I’ll try to make sure they get approved as soon as possible.)

the CW, Serenity, Firefly, Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer