New Promo Pic of Hannibal, for ‘Hannibal’
Alas, Poor Yorrick. He was delicious.
Is this Hannibal’s Halloween party, or is he doing some interior re-decorating? Either way, Hannibal Lecter, and his portrayer Mads Mikkelsen, looks very pleased with himself.
This is the latest tidbit we’ve received from the upcoming NBC crime drama, Hannibal, which re-tells the initial meeting and collaboration between cannibalistic killer Lector, and FBI profiler Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy). The series was created by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies).
There’s no release date for the series yet, but NBC has ordered 13 episodes, so hopefully we’ll see the series sooner rather than later.
Source: Geek Tyrant
Wichita Cast for ‘Zombieland’ TV Show
Things are progressing pretty quickly for Amazon’s Zombieland television series. Only last week we learned Tyler Ross and Izabela Vidovic had landed the roles of Columbus and Little Rock, and today THR is reporting Maiara Walsh has been cast as Wichita. Sure, she’s no Emma Stone, but I’m hopeful the brunette’s got the comedic timing and zombie bashing skills to fill the role.
The official show description for Wichita is, “a natural con-woman and tough girl who with her younger sister Little Rock teams up with Columbus to survive the zombie apocalypse and search for survivors,” which isn’t all that different from how the movie set her up, either.
Now we wait to hear who’ll be filling Woody Harrelson’s shoes in the role of boisterous ass kicker and Twinkie connoisseur, Tallahasee. Who do you think would make a good fit?
Source: Coming Soon
Review: ‘The Walking Dead’ — The Suicide Kings
I don’t know why they didn’t call this episode “Broken”, because both sides of the divide are clearly in a state of disarray following the first real dance of combat and bloodshed between Woodbury and Team Rick.
For the Governor, he’s merely mopey and withdrawn thanks to the death of his zom-daughter, his missing eye, and the invasion by the Rickers, an attack that has spooked Woodbury’s supply of sheeple into trying to jump out of the frying pan and into the zombie filled oven.
For Rick, it’s much worse. He’s seeing ghosts, Oscar is dead, Michonne has splintered off from the group to destroy the Governor’s aquarium, and Daryl ran off and got caught, forcing Rick and Maggie to rescue him and his brother. Something that might have been a bit more exciting had the promos not completely blown that for us.
Of course, the central conflicts this episode aren’t between Rick and the Governor. They’ve backed off that a bit to show the repercussions from “Made to Suffer” and to show the similarities between these two leaders who have been made anew by the awful transformation of the world. Two leaders who have put too much on their shoulders.
This time around, the big conflict is between Rick and himself as he struggles to keep it together while seeing more ghosts, driving away Daryl (who chooses Merle), and keeping his distance from Michonne and Tyrese — warriors who could be vital for the coming firefight with the Woodbury folk that is likely brewing.
Now, I can’t speak to how far down the rabbit hole the show plans to take Rick before his inevitable resurrection, but I welcome the change, provided that the show can deliver some consistency — something they have struggled with before. Rick has endured too much to not experience a break like this, and if Rick is down, they need to let him stay down for awhile while Glenn and Hershel take the reigns in the name of showing us something different.
Best:
- As always, Melissa McBride steals every scene that she is in. Her bond with Daryl has always been sweet and obvious since last season, but after she processes Daryl’s departure, her remarks about the similarities between her and Daryl as abused people and her fears about what she would do if she saw her husband again hit the right note. Carol is quickly becoming my favorite character on the show, which means she’ll be dead by next week.
- Darryl grabbing the crossbow. Nuff said.
- Rick silencing Merle. It bordered on slapstick humor, but it was a nice throwback to season 1.
Worst:
- Andrea’s speech to the Woodburyians. These people barely know her and she’s supposed to quell an uprising based on fear and the sudden disappearance of their leader with 30 seconds of oratorical empty calories? More than a bit ridiculous. “When they write about this…” good lord…
- Ghost Lori/Wolverine Shane/The telephone. I love the phone device in the comic and I was thrilled when they brought it into the show, but the further they take this, I almost wish that Rick’s insanity were allowed to manifest itself with only his actions, rather than these big, “Now Entering Crazyburgh” signs. Lori was just another example of that, though I’m glad they did it right and brought back Sarah Wayne Callies — even if we couldn’t really see her.
- This isn’t about the show so much as it’s about the promos. I know AMC has to try and get eyes on the show, but they’ve got to strike a balance and preserve some of the shock factor for viewers by not blowing big reveals in their previews.
- Though I should expect nothing less, I really thought there might be some humanity from Merle upon being rescued. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m also surprised that there wasn’t more of a conflict between Merle and Rick. Producers went down the middle instead of delivering either of these extremes, and the end result was a profane jackass that foolishly left behind an offer of shelter to go it alone with Daryl.
Overall, I give “The Suicide Kings” a 3 out of 5. Coulda done it better, but at least it wasn’t just a bunch of mindless violence and worthless character culling.
Caro Skinner Confirms the Return of Another Classic ‘Who’ Villain
If you’re a Whovian with a hankering for less Weeping Angels and Silence, and more classic Doctor Who villains, you’re in luck. Talking with SFX producer Caro Skinner has confirmed the classic monsters, the Ice Warriors, are indeed returning. They’ll appear in the Mark Gatiss-penned submarine under siege episode, the ninth of Series 7 Part 2.
We’ve got the most fantastic episode by Mark Gatiss where we are bringing back the Ice Warrior… on a submarine! It’s a really wonderful kind of ‘bunker’ episode, and a classic monster which Mark has brought his own inimitable twist to.
We wanted to bring them back because they’re wonderful! In the mix of stories that we were planning for this year it felt as if doing something very bold with a monster that hadn’t been seen for a while would be really cool. Mark is an enormous fan of the Ice Warrior stories and came up with the idea. The sense of a monster of that scale and that size trapped in a really small, contained environment such as a submarine was a really brilliant story to be able to tell. And obviously we’ve had a huge amount of fun going back to the traditional designs and recreating them, bringing the Ice Warriors back to life again.
They were such a beautiful original design, and are genuinely really scary in terms of what they look like as they’re coming towards you in that armour. Letting a huge Ice Warrior loose at the heart of a classic Hunt For Red October style submarine movie was exactly the kind of story that the Doctor should get mixed up in.
They’ve got really scary voices as well. I spent quite a lot of time on set trying to hiss like an Ice Warrior…
I’m really excited to see their new design. Frightening and imposing they may have been in the 60s, but today, like a lot of classic Who monsters, they’d be laughable.
Excited for the Ice Warriors? Any other classic monsters and villains you’d like to appear in the current series?
Source: Doctor Who TV
George R.R. Martin Takes on Bigger Workload with HBO
Readers at home may be eagerly awaiting news that George R.R, Martin is finally going to finish his Fire and Ice series. Alas, we here at Nerd Bastards can not report that news, for it does not exist. But what we can say is that Martin is going to be a busy boy in the near future, seeing as how he’s just signed a new two-year deal with HBO.
In addition to sticking around as executive co-producer for upcoming seasons of Game of Thrones, he’ll be putting together some new projects for the folks at HBO. What he has planned in a mystery, but one does have to wonder if Martin’s new workload may end up delaying the sixth season of GoT for years, being that the book for that season is in limbo.
So what do the folks at home think? Are you eager to see what Martin might bring to the world of HBO programming? Or do you think we should all gather together, kidnap the author and lock him in a room until he finishes the last two damn Fire and Ice books?
At least we all have a new GoT season to look forward to, come March 31st.
Thanks to Deadline Hollywood for the heads-up.
The First Companion Cast for ‘Doctor Who’ 50th Anniversary Docudrama, ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’
“Grandfather! Grandfather!”
Yup, The Doctor’s “granddaughter”, Susan, played by Carol Ann Ford on the series in the 60s has been cast for An Adventure in Space and Time. Yesterday we saw the first glimpse of the production as filming kicked off on Sunday, and today we learn relative newcomer Claudia Grant will play Ford, and therefore Susan, in the 90 minute docudrama from Mark Gatiss. Here’s Grant’s head shot for a comparison,
That’s a pretty darn good likeness, if you ask me. Doctor Who TV also report Jamie Glover is playing William Russell, fellow companion and Susan’s teacher Ian, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Honestly, I think I’m getting more excited about this docudrama exploring those early days of Doctor Who than I am whatever celebration Moffat and co. have planned for the series proper. So much of what makes Doctor Who, Doctor Who was created during those early years and it’ll be wonderful to see it all brought to light.
What are you most excited for when it comes to Who‘s 5oth anniversary?
Welcome to Binge Watching Anonymous – Or, How We’re Consuming TV
Hello, my name is Sarah and I’m a television binger (that’s with a hard ‘g’). It’s nothing new, all my life I’ve binged on media whether it be books or video games, but with the steady increase of available television shows, often seasons at a time, television binge watching is an ever-growing epidemic. Some of you may be unfamiliar with television binge watching, others may be sufferers yourselves, but together, we can all help in raising awareness.
On Friday, Netflix premiered its new original series, House of Cards, and in what is beginning to become the trend they dropped all 13 episodes at once. That means as I’m typing this it isn’t out of the question for somebody to have by now watched the entire season. Consider what this means for a moment. Those Monday morning “water cooler chats” will have to be segregated by those who’ve only seen a handful of episodes and those who’ve binged on the entire season. The risk of spoilers has significantly increased. And a story that would normally take weeks, possibly months to enjoy has been compressed into a weekend marathon session.
We are at a point of television evolution.
There was a recent New York Times article that touched on this concept of binge watching and it’s what got me thinking about this change in the way we’re watching television. The TV I regularly watch can be lumped into three categories: binge shows, weekly shows, and hoarded shows. The first is comprised of shows I’ve discovered through streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. They’re shows that have either finished airing, like Stargate Universe, or shows I’m several seasons behind on and want to catch up, like Mad Men or Boardwalk Empire. This leads to hours, maybe even days of watching one show and one show only until I’ve either finished or am current with the series.
My weekly shows are programs I’ve been watching from the beginning and make sure never to miss an episode for fear of being spoiled. Shows like The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time, and Game of Thrones. Though, once those seasons are completed and added to one of the many available streaming services, I’ll watch ‘em all over again in a binge session.
Then there are the shows I’m hoarding. Shows I never catch up with while they’re airing and since they’re as of yet unfinished, I’ll hoard them until I can watch the whole series in a marathon. As of now I’m only hoarding Breaking Bad, though I’ve always kept Lost on the back burner in case I run out of things to watch. But few shows will I ever hoard because my compulsion to know what’s happening and be 100% up to date is too strong.
Then there’s a show like Downton Abbey. I binged on the the first season via Netflix and was quickly ravenous for more. Months later I when season two aired on PBS it quickly became my new weekly. By then I was so hooked I researched when the show would air in Britain, something like six months before it airs in the U.S., and began watching it through ITV’s website when it aired across the pond. See? I can’t stop myself! If I know there are new episodes out there and I’m not seeing them, I seek them out.
This is a serious compulsion I and thousands others share, and companies like Netflix and Amazon are starting to wise up and learn how to profit from it. Just yesterday it was announced Amazon had secured exclusive streaming rights to Downton Abbey and are now offering the final episodes of season three, which have yet to air on PBS in the U.S., to Prime members who purchase a season pass. PBS handles their advertising differentlt from other networks so I’m not sure what ill effects they’ll suffer, but imagine if other shows had their current seasons preempted by the complete season becoming available online before it’s finished airing? Those networks would freak! And we’re talking about a legal service, this doesn’t have anything to do with all the thousands of hours of TV illegally downloaded every day.
Netflix is clearly banking on the popularity and demand for shows like House of Cards and the new season of Arrested Development to bring in new subscribers. In fact, they’re offering the first episode of House of Cards to anyone with access to the Netflix site, subscriber or not. And since the TV shows on Netflix are already offered whole seasons at a time they’re decision to release new series the same way isn’t much of a risk. They’ll leave it up to us and our own willpower to decide how quickly we consume them. And in my case, it’s going to be during an unhealthy binge session where I’ll do nothing but sit on my ass, glued to the screen. Super Bowl? Forget about it, I’ve got five more episodes of House of Cards left and I’m not leaving the warm glow of my TV until I’m finished.
What’s next for the TV programs of tomorrow? Our consumption of media is changing all the time and with the influx of more and more shows available on demand the traditional weekly airing of our favorite shows might become a thing of the past. Will there be a day where episodes are no longer necessary and we’ll settle in for eight, ten hours programs we can pause when and where we like? Personally, that’s too drastic a change for me. The episodic format is nice, like chapters in a book or checkpoints in a game, and making it so far so quickly is like a badge of honor. Or depressing sadness when you realize you haven’t left your house in days, your friends have stopped calling, and you smell worse than the inside of tauntaun. Achievement unlocked: The impression of your butt has become a permanent fixture of your couch.
So, what are your habits when it comes to TV consumption? Are you a weekly watcher? Do you hoard? Binge? Let me know in the comments. We TV bingers need all the support we can get, and, since come Monday I’ll likely be finished with House of Cards, I’m looking for recommendations of what I should binge watch next.
REVIEW/RECAP: ‘Doctor Who’ Episode 7.1 – “Asylum of the Daleks”
A key reason why I’m such a stalwart fan of the Moffat era of Doctor Who (and do, in fact, prefer it to the Davies era, though David Tennant is still my Doctor) is its ability to constantly upset any sense of a comfort zone we might get as viewers. We’re now in our third year of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and his companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), and despite the fact that we’re now watching the longest continuous pairing of Doctor and Companion(s) in the history of the revived series, nothing about this show ever feels safe. The balance is constantly upset, and that element of uncertainty is even more prevalent now that we know the Ponds are about to make their exit in an as-yet-unknown way. With “Asylum of the Daleks,” Steven Moffat kicked off his third series as Doctor Who showrunner up to all his tricks, throwing plenty of curves into the story, putting the Ponds on already-shaky ground and introducing us to a new face (sort of).
NOTE: I will keep the first portion of this review as spoiler-free as possible, but near the end I’ll want to talk a bit about some major plot points, so there will be a SPOILER ALERT hitting you later on. Watch for it if you don’t want to know about something you haven’t seen.
A message from a mysterious woman ends in a trap for The Doctor, and he suddenly finds himself surrounded by the Parliament of the Daleks alongside Amy and Rory (who aren’t having the best time as man and wife at the moment. But this time, it’s not about the Daleks fighting to exterminate their old enemy (at least, no yet). This time, the Daleks have a mission for The Doctor: visit a legendary planet-sized asylum filled with crazy Daleks (yes, there are things even the Daleks consider to be unreasonable) and deactivate a force field so the Dalek parliament can purge the asylum of all those crazy exterminators. Of course, if he succeeds, The Doctor will probably be killed too, but at the moment he doesn’t have much of a choice.
On the asylum planet, the Doctor finds his two friends squabbling, a problem that seems nearly impossible to solve, and a mysterious woman stranded in a crashed spaceship communicating with him through the Dalek security system (because, apparently, she’s a genius). Oh, and the Daleks have a new trick: they can put themselves in human bodies.
Despite often inventing his own new adversaries for the Doctor, Moffat has said more than once that the Daleks have always been his favorite. But, as with the last Dalek stories he showed us, he’s not interested in exhibiting them in the form we’re used to. Odd as it might seem, there’s an element of raw, painful emotion to these creatures, and here it’s put front and center. Moffat shows us a world where Daleks, a species dominated by a searing hate for things that aren’t like them, can in fact become some overwhelmed by that emotion that even they go crazy. That’s intriguing in itself, but by the end of this episode Moffat has taken the mentally unstable Dalek conceit much, much further, and the result is a deep new layer in Who mythology that’s likely to keep resonating for a long time.
Moffat also shows us a new layer of Amy and Rory that few people could have expected: the unhappy one. Yes, we’ve seen them bicker for two years, but it’s not the same this time. It’s a deeper wound, one that could have big implications for their exit later, and that’s not even taking into account how this affects The Doctor. When these two elements – Amy and Rory and the crazy Daleks – combine, we get an episode that’s equal parts breakneck, plot-heavy joyride and deep-cutting, mythos-altering storytelling.
For me, “Asylum of the Daleks” actually managed to be a better season premiere than last year’s “The Impossible Astronaut” (an episode I really loved), not just because it returned the Daleks to the forefront, but because it set up something bigger than “Will the Doctor die?” which is a question that has a very obvious answer. Something big is happening here that, though we only have a few episodes to explore, could dig into the Doctor’s inner darkness more than Moffat ever has before, and that’s saying something.
Now comes the part where we talk SPOILERS. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet, look away now.
Seriously, I’m not holding anything back past this point, so if you don’t want to know things….
Still here? OK
So, obviously the first thing we have to talk about is the appearance of Jenna-Louise Coleman, the Doctor’s new Companion, a good while before most people expected her to show (a lot of people, including me, were guessing Christmas special). And not only did she show up, but she had a big role to play in this story. It’s interesting for several reasons, but the thing that occurred to me first is that we usually don’t see the new Companion until the old one(s) has gone. Usually the Doctor simply happens upon his new friends in the midst of an adventure, but Moffat promised us something different here, and we definitely got it. And then the big bombshell came: Oswin (Coleman’s character) is only formerly human. She’s been converted into a Dalek, but she’s still holding on to her human identity. So, as it turns out, she’s the craziest Dalek of them all. But she made an impression on The Doctor. Unlike some previous companions, she’s not intimidated by him or blown away by his power (she’s a bit like Donna in that respect). She can hang with him verbally, she’s sassy and smart and funny and she’s definitely got some kind of edge going on. But how will Moffat work around the whole Dalek thing? Time will tell.
Then, there’s the news that Amy and Rory are on the verge of divorce when we first rejoin them, only to be reunited after a very poignant resolution of their issues by episode’s end. That’s all well and good, but really look at what happened there. The big implication is that they probably would never have reconciled had it not been for The Doctor. Last season was all about how The Doctor hurts the ones he loves, even if he doesn’t mean to. Will this year be about the tragedy of Amy and Rory’s dependence on The Doctor? It certainly seems to be skewing that way, and if that’s really the case it could be the seed of their downfall.
Next week: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”
Michael Dorn Pushing ‘Captain Worf’ Spin-off with Some Success
Three years ago brought us the new J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Trek universe. This reimagining was met with mixed reactions from fans but the popularity of it was unquestionable, as evidenced by the release of the second installment in the new franchise coming to the screen next year. Since then, the desire to add to the Star Trek mythos has grown, attracting some big names that also happen to be big fans.
The Bryan Fuller/Bryan singer super-combo have expressed interest in making new Star Trek episodes for television, though not much has been heard on that front. Some months ago, everyone’s favorite Klingon, Michael Dorn, proposed a tentatively titled project by the name of Star Trek: Captain Worf. Though this seemed at first like a pipe-dream, it looks like Dorn might be making serious headway on his brain-child.
When talking about the project with Trek News, Dorn had this to say about its conception and his motivation:
I had come up with the idea because I love [Worf] and I think he’s a character that hasn’t been fully developed and hasn’t been fully realized. Once I started thinking about it, it became obvious to me that I wanted to at least put it out there, which I have, and the response has been pretty amazing. We’ve been contacted by different individuals-I can’t say who and all that-about wanting to come on board and be part of this.
And these comments on the likelihood of the project coming to fruition:
Interestingly enough it has gotten traction. I was very surprised, I was on a movie not too long ago, where one of the producers was basically lobbying to be part of it. He was like Michael, I’d love to write it, if you haven’t.” So at this point, my agents and my manager are looking at all the avenues and trying to figure out which is the best one. My agent and manager have been in the business for awhile, so they’re very savvy about where to start and how to get it going. Like I said, in this business you never know and I’ve been through pitching things and I never want to do that again [laughs]. It’s pretty brutal, but definitely I think once again, if Paramount or CBS or anybody thinks this is a viable thing, they’ll jump on it.
Well, sounds good so far, right? Like maybe it has a chance somewhere down the road? The main problems is, with the reboot changing the face of the Star Trek universe and a second movie coming up that will establish the new world’s boundaries even further, everything is in a state of flux.
Only time will tell if Dorn’s dream (and the dream of countless fanboys/girls) comes true. If he does get a shot, it’s highly probable that he’ll have to unlearn all the back-story from his decades of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and various movies. Abrams’s vision is almost certain to lead all future Star Trek productions, which means Dorn will be following his lead.
So what do you folks think? Good idea/bad idea? Reboot world or original recipe? Speak your mind, for we hath commanded you!
Thanks to screenrant for the heads-up on this one.
‘The Walking Dead’ Prison Set Tour, Courtesy of Robert Kirkman
Season 3 of The Walking Dead is coming up fast – just over a month away, in fact. But for those that can’t hold in the excitement for another 4 weeks there is more to tease you. The latest comes in the form of a video that Robert Kirkman put together giving fans a tour of the new prison set that will become the main base for our zombie-survivor pals. Give it a watch and see what Kirkman has to say:
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Make sure to check out season 3 when it starts up on October 14th.
And thanks to blastr for the heads-up.
How Five Doctors are Helping One of Their Former Companions
Many of us are familiar with Janet Fielding for playing the Fifth Doctor’s companion, Tegan Jovanka. Recently she was diagnosed with cancer and Peter Davison is rallying the troops to cheer her up. See, she’s been an avid spokesperson for the the charity Project Motor House which seeks to turn an “old motor museum” into a cultural center for the downtrodden community of East Kent. Here’s their official proposal,
For more than two years, a group of residents has been working on a plan to save the derelict West Cliff Hall (aka ‘the old motor museum’) and turn it into an exciting mixed use venue where people of all ages can enjoy themselves and where Thanet’s young people can be introduced to a business culture and get the hands-on experience they need to feel confident about starting their own businesses. We intend using low carbon techniques to renovate the building and foster interest in the burgeoning low carbon economy of East Kent.
To help with Project Motor House, Davison has devised Project Motor Mouth in honor of Fielding with all the proceeds from the event gong to the charity. And he’s enlisted some pretty big names to help out. In addition to Davison, former Doctors Colin Baker, Sylvestor McCoy, Paul McGann, and David Tennant will all be making appearances as the one day event. The booking of Tennant is especially noteworthy because he so rarely makes convention appearances. But could he really say no to his father-in-law? Didn’t think so.
You can visit their website for more information, but to no surprise the event is already sold out. Still, how swell of all those Doctors coming to together to help out not only Fielding, but the community in East Kent.
Oh! And if you haven’t heard Peter Davison (@PeterDavison5) has recently joined fellow Doctor, Colin Baker (@SawbonesHex) on Twitter so you can thank them yourself for being such cool dudes.
Source: Blastr
“Are You…?” – A Nerdbastard Review of ‘Dexter’ Season 7, Episode 1
First things first – if you haven’t watched the last season of Dexter you might want to go away now, cause season 7 relies heavily on the climax of season 6 and you will be ruined if you read this. Also, I’m not writing this spoiler-free, so best to watch the episode before reading. That being said, on with the show.
Last season ended with a great cliffhanger that pretty much guaranteed people would be tuning in for more. Deborah (Jennifer Carpenter) walks in on ol’ Dexter (Michael C. Hall) doing his thing, complete with plastic wrap, big shiny knife and all. There’s no way to hide the situation, so Dexter is backed into a corner.
I have to first say that I was pretty skeptical going into season 7. Dexter has a long habit of writing itself out of corners in ways that are fairly half-assed and leave one feeling like they just tried to get drunk off of nonalcoholic beer. I thought they might do something similar with this one, having Dexter just explain away the situation and then Deb, after a brief inner conflict, accepting the situation and moving on. If this had been the case, I may have given up on the show forever. But no sir, they did not deus ex machina this one. Instead, they jumped right into the lion’s mouth and the quality of this episode is directly reflected in that decision.
Episode 1, “Are you…?” begins in the middle, a silly attempt to make us think that Dexter is making a run from the law. Just ignore the first minute or two and you’ll be fine. From there it goes back to the church, with Deb trying to figure out “What the fuck?” is going on. Dexter attempts to lie his way out of the situation, claiming temporary insanity of a sort. After finally getting Deb on his side, they dispose of the body and life moves on. Well, sort of. Something about what happened doesn’t sit well with Deb and she just keeps looking into it deeper and deeper. This is a sign that the writers were thinking, not trying to play Deb as a dunce who couldn’t eventually figure out the obvious. She notices the inconsistencies and familiarities of the situation and tries to put the pieces together.
In the meanwhile, old characters are reestablished, a character gets killed off (must not have renewed his contract) and Dexter forgets a wee bit of evidence at the crime scene. Louis Greene (Josh Cooke), the jackass hacker from last season, decides he’s going to start fucking with Dexter. And Dexter tries to deal with the Deb situation while also indulging his need to make bad guys into corpses. A typical day-in-the-life of the show, really.
The actors all did a fine job, with special props to Jennifer Carpenter who had to perform what is probably the most complex character twist in the history of the show. She managed it amazingly, never letting her anxiety drop for even a second. Whether she was in the middle of a shot or just a piece of the background, she was always in character.
Things are ramping up and we can see what’s being prepared for our enjoyment of the seventh (and second-to-last) season of the show. Greene hates Dexter and has mad hacking skills. LaGuerta has a piece of evidence that could be trouble for Dexter. And it looks like the Russian mob will be poking about pretty soon as well. Not to mention the whole fucked-up relationship between Deb and Dex. There’s been nothing said about the “Deb loves Dex” story arc yet, but I imagine it’s not too far behind.
In the end, I have to say I was pretty impressed – a very strong start to what will hopefully be a great season. The last few seasons have left me hollow. Even though the cast has done a great job, the writing has been mediocre. I am hoping this one will make up for the others and if the first episode is any indication of things to come, this could be the best season yet.
Check back next week for a review of the next episode of Dexter, “Sunshine and Frosty Swirl”, once again brought to you by yours truly and a generous helping of Nerdbastard power!
G4 Announces Cancellation of ‘X-Play’ & ‘Attack Of The Show’
It’s the end of a nerdy era over at G4 TV. Today the network announced the cancellation of two of it’s longest running shows, Attack of the Show and X-Play.There’s not been any official word on what will replace the shows and it’s anyone’s guess at this point.
G4 posted the announcement on it’s web page:
G4′s two longest-running and defining series, Attack of the Show! and X-Play, will be ending their run at the end of 2012. Both shows will include original episodes through the end of the year, and will look back at their most memorable moments as we lead up to their final episodes. A rotating lineup of guest co-hosts including John Barrowman, Michael Ian Black, Josh Myers, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Horatio Sanz will join AOTS hosts Candace Bailey and Sara Underwood, and X-Play hosts Morgan Webb and Blair Herter as part of the farewell shows.
With well over a thousand episodes each, Attack of the Show! and X-Play have defined gamer culture for a generation, serving as the launch pad for prominent personalities including Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Chris Hardwick and Adam Sessler. Attack of the Show! debuted March 28, 2005 and from the start was the ultimate guide to everything cool and new in the world of technology, web culture, gaming and pop culture. X-Play made its debut almost two years earlier, on April 28, 2003 (on G4′s previous incarnation: TechTV), and immediately became the go-to destination for young men seeking the latest video game news, honest reviews, hands-on demos and exclusive video game trailers and footage. The year-end celebration will take you back through highlights of these landmark shows’ history, including its exclusive live-from-the-floor coverage of San Diego Comic-Con and E3.
Both long-running shows helped define, as well as expand, the pop culture and gaming TV experience for a generation. We hope you’ve had as much fun watching them as we have had making them, and sincerely hope you join us in bidding a fond farewell to Attack of the Show and X-Play’s as we look back over the next two months and head towards each series’ finale.
Now the question remains as to what will replace these shows. I only ever really watched the channel, on purpose that is, for Attack of the Show‘s coverage of Comic Con. Looking over what is left at G4 one can only wonder if there are replacement shows in the works or retools of the two canceled shows coming with a complete wipe of the existing programs.
What do I think will happen? Sadly, I think that G4 is going to go “Reality” shows, old movies, and repeats of old television shows.
What’s your take on this announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.
Via: G4
Interviews: R.L. Stine Talks Spooks, Scares, ‘The Haunting Hour’, and ‘Red Rain’
If you were born anytime after 1980, chances are that the last thing you saw everynight before you went to bed was the page of an R.L. Stine book. Stine, the master of horror for kids and pre-teens has been at it for 20 years, churning out over 100 “Goosebumps” books, a TV series, and now Hub TV’s R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.
Last week I had the chance to chat with Mr. Stine, armed with questions crafted by myself and my newfound partner in crime, Anne Sisk, and I got to ask the King of Spookiness what scares him, why we want to be scared, how it is writing children’s books in the internet age, and all about the challenges of writing his adult novel, Red Rain. Here is what Mr. Stine had to say:
Is it harder to scare kids now and have you changed your style at all with kids increasingly moving away from books and turning to TV and the Internet and that kind of thing?
I don’t accept that, kids are reading a lot. Years ago the children’s book business was tiny, it was a very small part of a publisher and now it’s a billion dollar industry. Kids are reading. Children’s book sales are up eight percent for this year so I think kids are reading which is a really wonderful thing.
I really haven’t had to change much, when you write scary books you don’t have to change much because the fears never really change. You know; being afraid of the dark, being afraid of what’s under the bed ready to grab you, being afraid that you’re being chased, that never changes so that’s kind of lucky for me.”
Why do you think we want to be scared by spooky stories when we’re little and even now as adults?
Well, I think kids like to be scared a lot, but they have to know they’re safe at the same time. It’s really fun to go out and have these creepy adventures and fight the monsters and battle all this adversity if you know that you’re safe reading in your room at the same time. And I’m very careful with my books, like with the Goosebumps, that kids have to know that this is a fantasy. This is fantasy horror, this isn’t going to happen, this can’t happen to you. Yeah, it’s very creepy, but they have to know that it can’t happen and it’s not going to go too far.
Has there ever been a fear or a theme or an image where you’ve started to go in that direction and then you’ve had to pull yourself back, you didn’t want to go that far. Is there anything you consider “off-limits”?
Very rarely, I’m kind of conservative with it. A lot of times my editors are saying “Hype it up. Make it scarier, make it scarier.” I hear that a lot more. Every once in a while I will, like the very first Goosebumps book is called Welcome to the Dead House, this kid moves to a new town and all these kids come up to him and say “I used to live in your house” and it was the very first one I did and they’re all like zombie kids and they’re out to get him and right now I think it was too scary. I think that book went too far, the first Goosebumps book.
And after that one I kind of realized it and I pulled back and I started adding a lot more humor.
Is there still a challenge for you? You’ve been doing this for so long.
I find it much more of a challenge cause it’s twenty years of Goosebumps, twenty years, it’s over one hundred books and so I guess I’ve done every story you could possibly do, right? So to find new scares and new plot lines and not repeat myself has become a lot more of a challenge, but that’s kind of fun for me.
How do you, just as a writer I have to ask, how are you that prolific? How are you able to day in and day out pump out high quality material like that for such a long period of time?
I don’t know, it’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at, you can ask my wife really. It’s the only thing I’m competent at and I just love it, I’ve been doing it since I was nine years old and I still look forward to getting up and sitting down at the computer and banging out ten more pages a day and getting new stories.
I don’t know what else I would do all day, but the writing is fun for me because I do so much planning first. I do all my planning before I write.
I chart out the whole book; I do very complete outlines of every book I write before I sit down to write, so by the time I’m writing I know everything that’s going to happen in the book. And then I can just fill out the outline and have fun with the writing and enjoy it and that helps me I think to turn out more books than having to plot it as I go.
I noticed in the ‘Weeping Woman’ episode of the Haunting Hour series, I noticed a bit more social commentary and implied marital trouble, are kids these days responding to that kind of stress more? Can you now add those kinds of pressures?
I don’t do it much, but the Haunting Hour is sort of aimed more for teenagers and for families and so they’re pushing it a little farther, the writers. They decided to make the Haunting Hour a bit darker then the Goosebumps books and they’re teenagers instead of kids involved so they’re getting into some of those issues that I wouldn’t do in the books.
In the ‘Weeping Woman’ the basis of the story is the myth of La Llorona, so you kind of have this cross-cultural terror happening. Do you find yourself pulling inspiration from different cultures like this or is it more like these are certain fears that undercut all cultural differences?
I think the fears all are the same, but there are wonderful legends in all these cultures and it would be nice to be able to explore them. But that’s the same fear, that statue is not very much different from Lilly D, that doll that came to life is it?
You just released Red Rain, which is a novel that’s targeted for adults. What’s the bigger challenge: creeping out and scaring kids or scaring adults?
Oh for me scaring adults because I’m not used to it, so it’s a much bigger challenge and I just wrote it because I thought I needed a challenge. Kids’ books are a lot of fun and they’re so easy, they really are a pleasure for me and I thought why not do something hard? Why don’t I do something a little more ambitious?
And then I have all my readers from the 90s who’ve grown up, all those Goosebumps/Fear Street readers who were 10 back then are all in their 20s and 30s, and they’ve been telling me “write for us, please write something for us”. So that’s why I wrote Red Rain, but I found it was a challenge.
How long did it take you to write it?
Five months and I did research for a month, mainly on that island. You know, it takes place on an outer banks island off South Carolina and I’ve never been there, so I just sort of deliberately did it as a game for myself to see if I could really research it and get it right and get all the details right; the vegetation, the birds and do it right. So, I spent about a month doing research and then five months writing it which is a lot for me because the Goosebumps books take a couple weeks.
Is that something you want to continue to pursue. do you want to keep writing for adults or mix and match?
If people like it, yeah I’d enjoy doing more. I love writing for my original audience, I mean those are my kids, those are my people from back in the 90s and I love writing for them, but it just depends if it’s a hit or not. If people really buy it and enjoy it I would love to do more otherwise nobody will ask me to do more.
I’m sure that won’t be a problem.
They won’t answer my calls.
What scares you?
I have no good answer for that, I don’t get scared. I have normal adult fears of course, but horror doesn’t scare me at all. I go to a scary movie or something I don’t know what that feeling is of being scared, I always laugh. When I read a horror novel it makes me laugh, I always find horror funny.
People say “Oh, I was up all night because of your book, you scared me so badly” — I wish I could feel that. I’ve never had that feeling I always find that funny.
Who is your favorite horror writer? If you have one.
Steven King is, I think he’s a wonderful story teller and there are a couple of Steven King books that I think are amazing. Pet Cemetery is one and Misery is another book I just think are brilliant, maybe the best book ever written about writers and editors.
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour airs on Hub TV at 6PM ET on Saturdays and you can learn more about the show here. If you want to pick up a copy of Red Rain, you can get it at Amazon.com and wherever fine books are sold.
Special thanks to Nick Bungay for all his transcription help.
“Killer Within” – ‘The Walking Dead’ Recap/Review
‘The Killer Within’ is simply too big of an episode for this to be a spoiler free review. So if you have yet to see the it, please turn back now and don’t think that reading this article and then watching the episode will make the events of the ep easier to deal with. This episode will eviscerate you, no matter how prepared you are for it or how many times you watch it.
Before I really start with the review I just need to get this out of my system and say what we are all thinking, “OMFG WHAT THE FRAK JUST HAPPENED?”
So anyway….. !!SPOILERS!!
In the fourth episode of the season we’re back at the prison and we also spend some time with the Governor. What happens in Woodbury isn’t as dynamic as what happens in the prison but groundwork is being laid for major drama. While the Governor tries the smart tactic of appealing to Michonne’s warrior sensibilities, he doesn’t count on her being more than just braun. She’s too smart for his manipulation and is unmoved by his flattery. Andrea on the other hand is hooked on life in Woodbury and is clearly charmed by the Governor, whose name we now know is Philip. Andrea’s readiness to be wooed is likely due more to exhaustion than with the Governor’s ability to flirt. She’s even slightly charmed by Merle, so the only explanation is that this girl is just at the end of her rope and will believe anything if it allows her to pretend that she’s not in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
In the prison, someone (probably Andrew) is feeding the zombies dead animals and using that as bait to lead the zombies into the prison. But before these walkers make their way to our beloved gang, we get some much needed moments of group interaction before all hell breaks loose.
There is some adorable levity when the gang discovers Glenn & Maggie having sex in the guard tower. But the fun is short lived when the two remaining prisoners show up and beg to be part of Rick’s crew. Despite saying this is no longer a democracy, Rick does the right thing and let’s everyone share their opinions and he also explains why he doesn’t want to budge on his decision to keep them away from his family. In the end, the majority of the group decides agrees with Rick and the prisoners are locked outside to fend for themselves.
T-Dog is really the only one who wants to give thse guys a chance. But Rick poses a very solid question to him, “Who’s blood would you rather have on your hands? Maggie’s? Glenn’s? or theirs?” T-Dog’s response is “Neither,” and while that response is one most of us are likely to say, sometimes in dire situations you need to make tough calls. This scene may not be important to the story overall, but it is a key part of T-Dog’s narrative and his character’s humanity. He does believe in making tough calls and he makes the toughest call ever in this episode.
The writers amp up the feelings of hope by having Hershel take his first steps outside in this episode and everyone in the group has all the good feels until the zombies that were let into the prison at the beginning of the episode attack and it’s horrible and intense and I hide under my couch for the rest of the episode crying and eating my hair.
It is complete chaos and as a viewer, it was slightly hard to follow what was going on but it was clear that was a purposeful directing choice. I expected someone to bite it (heh) and truly thought it was going to be Hershel, Carl or even Lori but the one to succumb to the zombie horde was our hero, T-Dog, who is bitten on the shoulder. He’s still able to run inside the prison with Carol but when they get trapped by more walkers, he sacrifices himself to the zombies so that Carol can escape. We know he’s going to die regardless, he knows he’s going to die, Carol knows he’s going to die, he’s been bitten – but that doesn’t make his death any less tragic or emotional. His heroism in this episode was beautiful and ultimately one of the goriest things ever in the history of all things.
The horror doesn’t stop there, as the stress of the invasion causes Lori to go into labor. It’s not an easy birth, she starts to bleed out and needs a c-section. Her group has been separated from Carol, leaving Maggie to perform the operation that will ultimately kill her friend. It’s worth mentioning here that the only people with Lori at this time are Maggie and Carl, her son. This is the only time I’ve liked Lori and marginally liked Carl. Sometimes there is wisdom in loss. Lori’s final speech to her son is heart-wrenching and brilliant. Sarah Wayne Callies always does a great job with Lori, as much as I dislike the character, and she made this death scene as heavy as it needed to be without going over the top.
To prevent Lori from coming back as a zombie Carl makes the choice to shoot her in the head. This episode is all the more tragic when you consider that Lori was killed, essentially, by both of her children. The title of this episode ‘Killer Within’ refers to three different things – most obviously Lori’s baby, but also the zombie virus which is lying dormant in everyone’s system waiting for the right moment to activate. Then there is the more metaphorical killer which, like the virus, lies dormant in all of us – the ability to take a life. Carl finds his killer within tonight. He does it for the right reasons and it is the honorable thing in this case but at the same time, I think it’s safe to say that the Carl we’ve seen these past few seasons died tonight along with his mother.
“Goodnight, love,” indeed.
This is only the fourth episode and I’m excited and terrified to see what will happen in the future.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
A First Look at ‘Arrow’s’ Firefly
The CW’s superhero drama Arrow has been making merry sport mining the DC Universe for potential enemies and allies for its young Emerald Archer. Next villain up for bids is Firefly, the pyromaniac with wings who typically plagues Batman, will soon be stopping by Starling City to get something started – like a fire.
In this episode, which is entitled “Burned,” Firefly is recast as a former firefighter who was severely burned on the job and apparently he decides to take out his rage on the issue by setting a few fires of his own. Firefly will be played by Andrew Dunbar, who you’ll recognize from other Vancouver-area shot sci-fi series like Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Universe.
Below is a photo gallery from the episode released by The CW. “Burned” will serve as Arrow’s midseason premiere when the show returns on January 16 at 8 pm ET/PT .
Source: Blastr
Steven Moffat Talks TARDIS & Teases 50th Anniversary Will “Take Over TV”
Last night we got our first really good look at the new TARDIS interior. Our best look will come when it’s officially revealed during the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Snowmen” in six days. It’s hard to imagine it’s so close, yet still so far away.
Now, I had assumed the TARDIS was getting a facelift in celebration of the series reaching its golden anniversary, and while that’s probably true, Steven Moffat shared his reasons for the redesign at a screening of the new episode,
I thought we’d been getting progressively whimsical with the interior of the TARDIS. And I started to think, ‘Well, why is that? It’s not a magical place. It’s actually a machine. And actually potentially, as you’ll see more spectacularly later, quite a scary place sometimes. We make a lot of use of that.
It’s true the TARDIS has looked very different throughout the series’ reboot than it did during its previous 26 year run. I’m definitely a fan of this new retro look, you?
Besides the TARDIS talk, Moffat also teased more about their plans for the big 5-0 celebration. And in true Moffat style, he reveals absolutely nothing,
[Plans] are immense, they are considerable. They will be full of tremendous surprises. But they wouldn’t be surprises if I accidentally said them now, would they? No, we’re not telling you. But I promise you, we’re going to take over television. Trust me.
I do trust in Moffat, and I only get more excited thinking about plans which would “take over television.” The series officially returns in April, should we expect April to be Doctor Who month? And what about the actual anniversary date in November? Surely they’ll have something planned for then.
Source: Doctor Who TV
Matt Smith on his Eventual ‘Who’ Exit: “All Good Things Come to an End”, Plus Another Peek at the New TARDIS
In two weeks we’ll get our holiday dose of Doctor Who, the Christmas special that’ll hopefully keep Whovians content until the season returns later in 2013. Ha! Like it’s possible to be content and happy with the Who you have, we’re always craving more.
Continuing to promote “The Snowmen,” Matt Smith was chatting with Bangshowbiz and was asked again about his Who exit plans,
We’ve got Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary coming up in November 2013, and one assumes there’ll be another Christmas special after that, and I’d hope to be part of it. I take each year as it comes. All good things come to an end, but my mum is aghast at the thought of me ever not being the Doctor. The show is the star and will continue without me.
I’m committed to it next year and will sit down with Steven Moffat and see where we go from there. I’ve no immediate plans to leave. I’m around for a whole year and that’s a long time.
Maybe someone could play the Doctor for seven years like Tom Baker, but… it’s 10 months a year.
Thinking back on it now, it’s almost unbelievable Tom Baker was The Doctor for seven years. Today it’d be impossible to ask an actor to commit to a role like The Doctor for that long. I don’t believe Smith will be leaving the role any time soon, he’s only now moving on to his second companion. I’m hoping there’s still much to come from him and Moffat. I’m also predicting the two will leave the show at the same time, much like David Tennant and Russell T. Davies.
But let’s not continue to speculation on the when and why Smith might leave, let’s talk about what’s coming next. Like the new TARDIS we’ll be seeing on Christmas Day! Hit the jump for another peek at the new TARDIS interior.
Things are sure lookin’ different with The Ponds gone. What do you think of the new design so far?
Sources: Doctor Who TV, Bleeding Cool
“Do You See What I See?” – ‘Dexter’ Episode Review
Before even starting this week’s episode of Dexter, I had some high expectations. This is the second-to-last episode of the season and it’s an important point where the story can be broken by poor writing. There are issues that need to be resolved while at the same time tension needs to be built for the eighth and final season. Sometimes, writers can push things to the side, resolving story arcs in half-assed ways because they really weren’t as important as viewers thought they were the entire season. Dexter has fallen flat in previous years, but this time they managed to pull through.
When we left off last episode, Deborah had a lead that could possibly pin down her brother’s girlfriend, Hannah. Dexter was breaking his code and killing just because people were in his way. He’s all messed up in love and making bad decisions. LaGuerta was getting closer and closer to finding out Dexter’s little secret. And Quinn had officially become a murderer himself, putting a bullet into a Russian to save his lady stripper. It’s the chaos typical of Dexter and there are only two episodes to get the majority of it resolved as well as set up for the last season.
MORE AFTER THE JUMP
This week’s episode, ‘Do You See What I See?’ has Dexter seriously thinking about his future. He’s digging on Hannah and has visions of growing old with her and living a somewhat normal life. Not the artificial normal that he tried to do with Rita back in the day, but a nice sort of normal with a lady that doesn’t give two shits that he’s a killer. But, of course, nothing is that simple.
While Deborah is investigating Hannah, she ends up blacking out in her car and having an accident. The first suspect is, naturally, Hannah with her mad poisoning skills. She just happened to have visited Deb the night before, trying to make peace with her for Dexter’s sake (and the sake of her own continued freedom) and the nature of Deb’s brush with death is way too close to Hannah’s MO. Dexter suspects something and so does a bit of investigating, finding a water bottle filled with anti-anxiety medicine that Deb was drinking while on her drive. Who put the drugs in the water? Dexter figures it was Hannah and has to make the hard choice between his sister and the woman he loves.
As poor Dex deals with all this crap, he also has to deal with LaGuerta and her side-kick Matthews. Since Dex is a suspect in LaGuerta’s “who is the real Bay Harbor Butcher?” investigation, Matthews goes to question him. Dex strikes back against those trying to pin him down and plants some evidence for them to find that further implicates Doakes. Matthews appears to buy it, but LaGuerta is still not convinced and has one more play to make before giving up. Luckily for her, the last living killer who took out Dex’s parents is up for parole. She pulls a few strings so the guy can walk and then waits for Dex to go hunting. Dex finds out in the nick of time, but things go to shit and now our favorite serial killer is in danger of being caught for sure. But that will have to wait until next episode.
This episode shifts gears to a less physically confrontational format and concentrates on the various players trying to outsmart each other. There’s Hannah vs. Deb, Dex vs. LaGuerta and eventually Dex vs. Hannah. They each make their moves and while at one moment Dex and Hannah appear to be on top of things, the next moment shows that they’re really in deep shit.
It’s nice to see the mind games taking precedence for a change. It gives the show a different focus but still manages to build tension levels and keep them high. Past seasons have tended to rely on Dexter making the last moves of his hunt in order to prepare for the last episode resolve, but since the writers know there’s only one more season they can plan accordingly. I’m guessing there’ll be more than one cliff-hanger waiting for us next Sunday.
Another thing I noticed about this episode is that the maneuvers of each character are more plausible than they have been in previous years. One thing that’s always bugged me about Dexter before has been the way half-assed, shoehorn excuses have dominated problem resolution. This time around, I wasn’t rolling my eyes whenever one person outsmarted the other.
And so, all the pieces are in place to wind up the seventh season of Dexter. Our hero is in danger of being caught, Hannah is out of his life (yet another blow to push Dex over the edge) and while Deborah is still on his side, for how much longer remains to be seen.
Check back next week for a review on the season finale. It better be a good one, or I’ll probably cry a lot.
Doctor Who Christmas Special: Nerd Favorite Is Voicing The Villain
***Spoiler Alert, click on this link only if you really want to know, if you are unsure, DON’T CLICK THE LINK, if you plan on clicking the link and then wailing about spoilers in the comments section, DON’T CLICK THE LINK.***
This year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special is called The Snowmen. These frozen monsters share one voice and that’s where this episode’s surprise guest star enters the picture. The Snowmen will be voiced by none other than Sir Ian McKellen!
That’s right, the man behind Magneto, Gandalf, and The Prisoner’s Number 2 will be the voice behind the latest villainous creatures fighting Doctor Who (Matt Smith). McKellen joins a group of talented individuals like Kylie Minogue (Voyage of the Damned) and Micheal Gambon (A Christmas Carol) who made their Doctor Who appearances in Christmas Specials.
This should help attract additional viewers for the special. Could this lead to an onscreen appearance in the regular series by McKellen? Could be, I’d love to see him make that move.
What do you think?
The special airs on BBC America Christmas Day at 8:00PM.
Via: Blastr
Netflix Scores Deal to Exclusively Stream Disney Movies
I know someday a week will go by where we don’t report on anything from the House of Mouse, but not today. Yesterday came the monumental announcement (Sure, not Disney/Lucasfilm monumental, but what is?) that Netflix had reached a deal with Disney to become the exclusive streaming home for all their films. If you were still on the fence about becoming a Netflix subscriber I believe the eventual access to the entire Disney, Pixar, Marvel and now Lucasfilm library might be a deciding factor.
Of course, this doesn’t mean the whole Disney vault has been made available today, it’ll happen in stages. Beginning in 2013 all of Disney’s direct-to-video offerings will become available, then in 2016 the newer theatrical releases will come to Netflix. Yup, including Star Wars Episode VII!
The deal is made a little sweeter by the addition that some titles are available to stream now, like Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Muppet Movie, and more. All right, most of what’s there is a lot of their live action junk, like High School Musical 1-50, but it’s a promising start.
Below the cut you can read the official press release, but what are you thinking about this new partnership?
Source: /Film
Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) today announced a new multi-year licensing agreement that will make Netflix the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run live-action and animated feature films from The Walt Disney Studios.
Beginning with its 2016 theatrically released feature films, new Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Disneynature titles will be made available for Netflix members to watch instantly in the pay TV window on multiple platforms, including television, tablets, computers and mobile phones. Also included in the agreement are high-profile Disney direct-to-video new releases, which will be made available on Netflix starting in 2013.
Separately, Disney and Netflix have reached agreement on a multi-year catalog deal that today brings to U.S. Netflix members such beloved Disney movies such as “Dumbo,” “Pocahontas” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
“Disney and Netflix have shared a long and mutually beneficial relationship and this deal will bring to our subscribers, in the first pay TV window, some of the highest-quality, most imaginative family films being made today,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix. “It’s a bold leap forward for Internet television and we are incredibly pleased and proud this iconic family brand is teaming with Netflix to make it happen.”
“With this cutting-edge agreement, we are thrilled to take our highly valued relationship with Netflix to the next level by adding Disney’s premier films to their programming line-up,” said Janice Marinelli, President, Disney-ABC Domestic Television. “Netflix continues to meet the demands of its subscribers in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, and we are delighted that they will have much earlier access to our top-quality and entertaining slate,” she continued.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“Made to Suffer” – ‘The Walking Dead’ Episode Review
The mid-season finale of ‘The Walking Dead’ did not feel much like a finale. Perhaps that is because every episode this season has run at such a high velocity that they all packed the finale punch. This episode, penned by Robert Kirkman himself, moved fast, showed growth, introduced new characters and hinted at the terror that will come in the second half of the season.
“Made to Suffer” opens with a glimpse at a group very much like those we know and love. It can be easy to forget there are other survivors exactly like ours. Usually, when we see other survivors, they are dangerous, or presumed to be dangerous. Tyreese, a long awaited character from the comics, and his crew seek refuge in the prison, not realizing it is already occupied by more than the undead.
Carl, meanwhile is settling in as man of the house. Sadly, but smartly, he is operating as if his father is never coming back. Judith, Hershel, Beth and Carol are all he has. It is this practical and fearless attitude that leads him to find Tyreese and the others in the prison. Carl makes the best decision possible and locks the newcomers out of their section of the prison but he leaves them access to food and water. Tyreese immediately understands Carl’s reasoning and realizes that in order for the others to accept his group, they must play by the house rules.
This scene exemplifies what is so great about this season. There is no need to telegraph the obvious. It seems as if the writers trust the actors more to convey the unsaid and trust the audience more to understand the nuances of these interactions. I wish they had that trust in season 2.
Carl’s line of thinking is said aloud in a different scene and by a different character. While Maggie and Glenn are recovering from their torture, Maggie says, “all this time running from the walkers, you forget what people do.” The true horror of any zombie apocalypse is never the zombies, it’s always the people left behind, driven insane by tragedy.
Glenn is not about to wait around for Merle or the Governor to come back and torture them again. Last week I said Glenn was clever and resourceful. This week he uses the bones from the zombie he killed (while tied to a chair!) as makeshift weapons. Their attempt at an escape is thwarted by Merle, who, in turn, is thwarted by Daryl and the gang. Reunited, everyone finds a safe place to hide and regroup, while Michonne goes in search of the Governor.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to feel any sympathy for the Governor and his rotting daughter after last week. The show tries but it never translates. We all understand why the Governor has lost his mind but his actions are beyond the pale, no matter his motivations.
Michonne enters the Governor’s home and discovers Penny. She mistakenly and stupidly thinks Penny is a real girl, until she pulls off her hood. The Governor walks in as Michonne is about to kill her. This is where we are supposed to feel sorry for the Governor as he pleads for Penny’s “life.” I don’t. Neither does Michonne. She puts her sword through Penny’s mouth. He lunges at her and they fight. The Governor holds his own for a while, but his fish tanks full of heads do not survive the brawl. Eventually, Michonne stabs him in the eye. She is about to kill him when Andrea walks in with her gun drawn. Andrea is clearly disturbed by the zombie heads all over the floor but she does not waiver. She does, however, allow Michonne to leave. Numb with sadness, the Governor barely notices his missing eye as he cradles his twice-dead daughter.
Meanwhile, Glenn tells Daryl about Merle’s role in their kidnapping and subsequent torture. Of course, Daryl wants to see his brother but Rick asks him to choose between saving his friends and seeing his brother. Daryl chooses the good guys. As they make their finale escape attempt, there is a full on shootout between our crew and the residents of Woodbury. Unable to see who is who due to a smoke bomb thrown by Daryl, Andrea has no idea that she’s firing on her friends. Oscar is shot during the fight and Rick, apparently still not quite over his psychosis, hallucinates that it is Shane who shoots Oscar.
Any humanity left in the Governor died when Michonne finished Penny. That act also killed any sense of loyalty or trust the Governor had in Merle. The episode ends with the Governor rallying Woodbury against the “terrorists” that attacked them. He throws Merle and Daryl into the Zombie Thunderdome and incites the citizens of Woodbury to cry for their blood. Andrea looks horrified but she’ll probably be mooning over the Governor in 5 minutes – or in February when the show comes back.
The Walking Dead returns Sunday, February 10, 9/8c on AMC.
First Footage of Chad Coleman as Tyreese on ‘The Walking Dead’
Not too long after being confirmed Chad Coleman is joining the cast of The Walking Dead as the former linebacker, current ass kicker Tyreese we get our first glimpse of him in this new, international promo. Thanks to FOX Latinamerica and YouTuber BestUSATVSeries, here’s their promo featuring Tyreese and fellow survivors entering the prison,
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src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ex3IWMkc_gU” frameborder=”0″ width=”600″ height=”350″>
Who do you think is with him? I figure one of them is his daughter and her boyfriend, but I’m not sure about the others. Zombie fodder?
This Sunday is The Walking Dead’s mid-season finale, and you won’t want to miss it!
Source: CBM
Updated! CW Reveals What Kind of Wonder Woman They Want for ‘Amazon’
With Arrow a sure-fire hit for the CW, it seems that the network is looking to its next superhero crossover hit, a new take on Wonder Woman called Amazon. Not letting themselves be deterred by David E. Kelly‘s recent attempt to make a Wonder Woman show, it seems that the project, this time being overseen by TV writer (Grey’s Anatomy, The OC) and comic book author (Young Avengers, Wonder Woman) Allan Heinberg, is ready and waiting at the casting phase, but with a twist….
Yes friends, they are looking for a young woman to play an Amazonian princess set loose on our mortal world, and yes, they want her to be a tall girl (5’8 according to the casting notice), and her name is Iris. Wait, did I just type “Iris”? Let’s go the rest of the casting notice:
She comes from a remote, secluded country and until now has spent most of her life as a soldier and a leader on the battlefield. Because of relentless brutality of her life at home, Iris looks at our world with absolute awe and astonishment. She’s delighted and just as often horrified by the aspects of everyday life that we take for granted: skyscrapers, traffic, ice cream. It’s all new and fascinating and sometimes slightly troubling to her. Iris is completely unschooled in our world, our culture, our customs. And she’s completely inexperienced at interpersonal relationships. She has no social filter, does not suffer fools, and tends to do and say exactly what’s on her mind at all times. She’s bluntly, refreshingly honest. She can tell when you’re lying to her. And she doesn’t have time or patience for politics or tact because she’s too busy trying to experience everything our world has to offer. There are too many sights to see and things to learn and people to care for. Hers is a true, noble, and generous heart. And she will fight and die for the people she loves. Iris is a fierce warrior with the innocent heart of a romantic and she will fight to the death to make the world safe for innocents and true romantics everywhere.
So is this another Warner Bros bungle? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Maybe they’re fudging the casting notice to that people don’t get hooked on the past failure of the previous Wonder Woman pilot, or maybe they’re saving the Diana Prince Wonder Woman for the big screen while having a Wonder Woman named Iris for TV. Either way, if Arrow is any indication there maybe reason to hope that this time TV might get Wonder Woman right.
What do you Bastards think? Do you have high hopes for the new Wonder Woman? Any hopes for that matter.
Source: Deadline (via Coming Soon)
UPDATE! Geoff Johns has since tweeted, clearing up any concern or worry about Wonder Woman being a woman named Iris,
If a WW show happens her name is of course DIANA. Codenames (like IRIS) are used in casting a lot to try and avoid speculation. #TV101
- Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) November 30, 2012
Whew! Thank, Hera!
Source: DC Women Kicking Ass
