Posts (page 2)

I managed to sneak in a few movies recently in between episodes of _Jekyll_ and _Torchwood_. In no particular order:

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (Widescreen Edition)

Hot Fuzz (Widescreen Edition)

Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut)

Gone Baby Gone

3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)

Justice League - The New Frontier (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Congratluations to Paula Creamer for winning the 2008 Fields Open. She had a tough battle down the stretch against "JJ" and Annika, and I thought she might have lost it when she fell behind with only a few holes to play. A few clutch putts and magnificent approach on 18 gave her a chance to close it out with a makable birdie putt, which she drained for the win.

Moonlight Showrunner Exits: " Moonlight showrunner and executive-producer Chip Johannessen has exited the CBS series, leaving executive-producer Joel Silver and the show's remaining writing staff to work on the four remaining episodes of the season without an official head writer, according to The Hollywood Reporter."

(Via SCI FI Wire.)

I can't imagine that's good for the long term future of the show.

Last night's episode of _Smallville_ (titled "Siren") seemed to confirm something that I've been thinking for a long time: the writer's of _Smallville_ do not have any more ideas about what stories to tell about young Clark Kent. Through the past 3 seasons, various "guest stars" have appeared on the show, including: Brainiac, Green Arrow, Black Canary, "impluse" (i.e. The Flash) and the Martian Manhunter. All of these characters have had more compelling story arcs then Superman himself. In addition, other characters such as Lois Lane & Lex Luther have had fairly interesting stories, while Clark and Lana seem to simply tread water in a teen-style angst. I think it's time for a radical change in the direction of the show.

C424a40e-98ad-4119-8676-13f3e6f26478

This is my proposal for _Smallville_ in its new incarnation: _Metropolis_

Step 1: Focus the show in Metropolis
This happens by default anyway, but removing some of the old "Smallville" haunts like "The Talon" and replacing them with new Metropolis versions will be a good way to start updating things.

Step 2: Remove Clark from being the primary protagonist of every episode
With a wealth of characters to draw from, it would be easy to have a Green Arrow-centric episode one week, a Black Canary-centric episode another week and even some Lex-centric episodes here and there. Of course Clark would also have his fair share of screen time, but having some characters with a little more vulnerability and a little less precise moral compass would free the writer's up for new ideas.

Step 3: Develop 3-4 Episode "Mini Story Arcs"
Some of _Smallville_'s charm is that you can watch an episode, miss two, and then watch the next episode not feel like you've missed anything. This is limiting, however, especially as the show moves on to its new, more "mature" state as _Metropolis_. In order to create some sense of tension through the audience, all items of won't be tied up in a nice little package by the 37 minute mark of each episode. Take this week's Black Canary debut as an example: Her character's realization of Lex being a bad guy could have had a lot more strength behind it if she'd spent 2-3 episodes working for him. The first episode in this mini-arc could have been from Green Arrow's point of view, with some mysterious woman messing up operation. The second episode could have been Lex uses his powers of manipulation to convince Black Canary to do more and more questionable tasks. The final episode in the mini-arc would then be Black Canary examining herself and figuring out she was on the wrong side of things. Her ultimate realization could then have been slower to develop and much more powerful than just her getting a stern talking-to from Superman.

Step 4: Have a set of major plot threads that hold the season together
The stand-alone nature of each episode means the only time you really think to yourself "I can't wait to see what happens next week!!" is when the trailer for next week's episode looks cool. Instead of having all items resolved each week (or even ever 3-4 weeks) leave some hanging plot threads that slowly build to a 2-3 part finale. Give the viewer something to look forward to at the end of the season instead of having a final episode that mirrors all other episodes, aside from the fact that it has 4-5 end of season cliffhangers to get you to watch next year. The near complete disappearance of any traces of "good" from Lex and Green Arrow's crusade against various Luthor properties all seem like prime threads that could reach some sort of high impact conclusion at the end of this season if they were handled properly. If the writer's actually plotted out such tactics from the beginning, I'm sure they could come up with some really interesting season-long arcs.

Ffb14ad6-d603-4d16-885e-fe5cecbbd80b

So that's my 4-part plan to revamp _Smallville_. I think a show like _Metropolis_ would be able to both keep the _Smallville_ audience and draw in new viewers, especially in the ever import "Males: 18-35" demographic. 

When I first got into reading comics a few years ago, a friend of mine recommended Gail Simone's _Birds of Prey. I remember seeing ads for the failed television series of the same name, but was no familiar with any of the characters in the comic: Oracle, Huntress, and Black Canary.

I'll leave a full recount of the series for another day, however, I will point out that as time went on, I started really liking the character arc of young Dinah Lance (a.k.a. the Black Canary). I was further excited when it turned out that Miss Lance would be come the new head of the Justice League (though this role has not really been addressed in recent issues).

With that as a backdrop, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the guys at _Smallville_ handle her character debut in next week's episode.

Black Canary Trailer

And of course, any post on a female in the comic book world would be incomplete without a version drawn by Adam Hughes.

For a while I'd heard of the the Season 4 "pilot" presentation they made for Veronica Mars, sort of sample of the new direction that Rob Thomas and the gang would have taken the show if they'd gotten a 4th season. I had  avoided looking it up, for no particular reason, until the other day. If have the 3rd Season of _Veronica Mars_ on DVD, you already have a copy, but for everyone else, here are the YouTube links...it's two parts...

The tenth issue of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight_ came out a couple of weeks ago. Though there are some small plot elements dealing with previous issues, Issue #10 is for all intents and purposes a one-shot (i.e. it stands alone). It was written by Joss Whedon himself and tells the story of Buffy and Willow going on an adventure to stop a demon that's busting through a hole in reality.

For anyone who has watched and loved Joss' shows, especially Buffy, over the last 10+ years, this issue is a near perfect mix of humor, action, and those emotional moments that separated Buffy from your standard television fare. If you're a Buffy fan, you owe it to yourself to pick up this issue, even if you're not currently following the entire Season 8 run.

"If things get dicey, I get Slay-ey. But that's not what we came here for."

I'd been toying with this post for a while, but could never really get something together that really knocked it out of the park. Since the Florida primary is today, however, I figured I had to get those out. Post can be read at kivus.com & johnkivus.com

Just updating my current comic book pull list, here's what I've got going at the moment...

I completed all the missions on Macheist so I took the plunge and bought this year's Macheist bundle. Some really good programs like Pixelmator (which I just bought...grrr...), Speed Download and AppZapper...They're trying to do a little viral thing now, so if you haven't bought it, you can go buy the bundle here and get a Launchbar too....(I think that's how it's supposed to work anyway...)