Thoughts on new V pilot
It could be the power of nostalgia, but I didn’t find the new pilot for “V” to be as intense or as creepy as the original. ”V” is a new ABC series detailing aliens who come to earth, professing peace, but with a dark secret. Spoilers ahead as in this review of last night’s episode.
While I like Elizabeth Mitchell, her character seemed pretty clueless about her own son (Logan Huffman), who immediately supports the visitors (largely because he’s attracted to the character played by Laura Vandervoort.)
Morena Baccarin plays Anna, the leader of the Visitors, who addresses the world first via their spaceships, and then later via a very controlled interview with a TV anchor played by Scott Wolf. Joel Grestch portrays priest Father Jack Landry, who finds his small congregation growing in size once the visitors arrive, though he still doubts their intentions.
As it turns out, the aliens aren’t here for the first time – some of them have been here in disguise for years. (Though at this time, only a small group are aware of this.) The infestation of the aliens prior to their arrival was a little too similar to Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” for my taste, though that’s obviously just coincidental.
Slate points out one interpretation reads as pretty hostile towards President Obama. (The original V was an allegory about the Nazi occupation of Europe.) In the new “V,” aliens promising hope and universal health care are scaly aliens with secret plans. Meanwhile, the only people who know the truth are gun-toting conspiracy theorists.
Troy Patterson writes at Slate:
Indeed, if the show is to have the symbolic import that we expect from a science-fiction story, this is the only possible way to read V as a coherent text. The only problem with this analysis lies in its generous presupposition that the text is, in fact, coherent.
And that’s a fair point: the old “V” showcased a thoughtful allegory in the guise of a high-action sci-fi miniseries. The new show showcases better special effects and higher production values, but I’m not convinced there’s even intended to be an allegory behind it.
ABC is airing the first four episodes this fall, then holding the remainder for spring. (Perhaps somehow like the original “V” aired as a miniseries and was followed up with a season.) I’m intrigued enough to watch a few, but so far this “V” doesn’t seem to improve appreciably on the original.
- Matt Price
Milo Ventimiglia directs PSA starring Masi Oka, Olivia Munn
I had missed this NBC PSA about personal responsibility. I found it today via Olivia Munn’s site. It’s a fun little video with a good message, written and directed by Milo Ventimiglia, who stars on “Heroes” and has his own comic book, “Berserker,” from Top Cow. Masi Oka stars as a guy who just can’t catch a break, and Olivia Munn also appears. Check it out.
- Matt Price
New ABC series V to premiere tonight
Elizabeth Mitchell (”Lost”) headlines “V,” a remake of the 1980s series about an alien occupation. Mitchell plays FBI Counter Terrorist Agent Erica Evans. The rest of the cast, as reported by NewsOK’s TV blog, includes Logan Huffman as Tyler; Scott Wolf as Chad Decker; Morena Baccarin as Anna; Joel Gretsch as Father Jack; Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols; Lourdes Benedicto as Valerie; Laura Vandervoort (”Smallville”) as Lisa. The show airs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC.
With Mitchell and Vandervoort, the show has some Nerdage-friendly actresses on board. Last year, I talked to the show’s original creator, Kenneth Johnson, about his book continuing the series. The new ABC series is a reboot rather than a continuation, however. You can check out a trailer here in advance of watching tonight’s show.
- Matt Price
Hulu may charge by 2010
Hulu.com, which I’ve told many people is the greatest invention on the internet, may be about to get a lot less useful.
Broadcasting & Cable announces that News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey says “Hulu … needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.” And Carey assumes that will happen by at least 2010.
Paying for a subscription to Hulu when you already pay for a cable subscription seems like double-dipping. And if you’re using Hulu without cable, it’s possibly because you don’t want to spend a ton of money on your television viewing.
Hulu provided a way to get caught up on shows that you might be behind on in an easy, cleanly formatted way. And I never had a problem watching a few ads to do that. I’m not one who wants to pirate anything — I like obeying the law — so going to get illegal torrents just isn’t going to do it for me. On the whole, if Hulu becomes a pay site, and the cost isn’t relatively negligible, my response will be to simply watch less TV.
Entertainment Weekly already has 200-plus comments on the story, with most promising to stop using Hulu if it becomes a pay site.
- Matt Price
Who is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
With today’s announcement of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being purchased by Nickelodeon, let’s find out who the favorite Turtle of Nerdage readers is.
Former Oklahoman John Cassaday talks Dollhouse directing gig
The Beat talked to comic-book artist and former Oklahoma resident John Cassaday about directing an episode of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse.” Cassaday is a comic-book superstar, having drawn “Astonishing X-Men” for Marvel and “Planetary” for DC/WildStorm. After the recent wrap-up of “Planetary,” Cassaday says he’s stepping back from major comics work for the next couple of years.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview; click here for the entire thing, which is well-worth reading.
The Beat: Directing? Why directing? How long has this been going on? Was this your childhood goal?
John Cassaday: Directing has always been half the dream for me, the other half being comics. Friends I had growing up would tell you exactly that. I always knew what I wanted, which was to be a visual storyteller…to tell those stories the way that I saw them… I believe there’s a tangible cross-section of thought here. When I read a comic script, I often see the scenes behind a camera—the shots, the movements and sound, the actors… At times, I’ve read screenplays and see the comic page. These things blend in my mind, so I do my best to shape them into what is needed. I believe in cinematic storytelling, whether it’s on a comic page or on film.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Cassaday brings as a director, though I’ll miss his comic work. However, he says in the interview he won’t give it up completely, so I imagine we’ll still see covers and occasional interiors on projects from Marvel and Dynamite.
Let’s hope Marvel will reprint Cassaday’s currently out-of-print “Captain America” to fill some of the demand for Cassaday sequential art over the next couple of years.
- Matt Price
Amanda Tapping: Syfy series ‘Sanctuary’ rose from ashes of Web show
Monsters, aliens and creatures now have a sanctuary. In the Syfy series “Sanctuary,” airing at 9 p.m. Fridays, Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping, “Stargate SG-1”) leads a team of scientists seeking out often-grotesque creatures. If possible, the team, which includes daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) and psychiatrist Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunn) will help these strange creatures, in the vast Sanctuary, a repository for the supernatural and otherworldly.
The show is shot primarily on green screen, using virtual sets.
“Building sets the size and the scope of the Sanctuary is nearly impossible,” said Tapping, who is also an executive producer of the show. “It gave us so much more freedom in terms of where we shot and how we shot, and places that we could go.”
Dangers of past roar into present in Primeval
Juliet Aubrey in Primeval.
Dinosaurs, knights errant and other entities from the past pass into the modern world through time anomalies in “Primeval,” a British action series now available on DVD.
Volume 2 of “Primeval,” which features the third series, came to DVD last month, and a marathon of episodes is airing from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today on BBC America (Cox 176, Dish 135 and DirecTV 264).
Juliet Aubrey stars as Helen Cutter, the wife of Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall). Nick is the scientist responsible for investigating these time anomalies. Nick begins his investigation into the anomalies while searching for Helen, who disappeared eight years ago, but discovers his wife has her own agenda.
Aubrey describes Helen as a driven and ambitious woman who becomes a “time-traveling eco-warrior.”
“Helen … becomes slightly bored with her life and finds out about these rips in time and decides to go and explore,” Aubrey said in a recent phone interview.
“She prefers living with dinosaurs, really, to her husband, so she stays there. … To her, time is a river, and you should be able to dive into it at any point in the past or present or future.”
The series was created by “Walking With the Dinosaurs” creator Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges. As such, the dinosaurs that escape into the world of “Primeval” are particularly well-designed. Aubrey said the appeal of ancient eras added to her enjoyment of the research for “Primeval.”
“I studied archaeology myself, so I’m really interested in those kinds of things, in the past and all of that,” Aubrey said.
Aubrey said the future becomes Helen’s obsession, and trying to prevent an apocalyptic future puts her in conflict with Nick’s team, tasked with stopping the creatures that come through the anomalies. Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) are other members of the team. While Helen’s respect for the environment may be admirable, her methods become extreme.
“(She) believes that humanity has completely destroyed the planet and we don’t really deserve to live here,” Aubrey said. “She’s … definitely dangerous to know.”
- Matt Price
From Monday’s The Oklahoman
Doctor Who unveils new logo
There’s a new Doctor coming in 2010, and the “Doctor Who” show has unveiled a new logo to go along with him. The new logo features stylized letters D and W arranged into a formation to resemble the Tardis. The full name is also spelled out in another version of the logo with new lettering, using the new D and W. Check it out in the above video.
- Matt Price
Online show The Guild coming to DVD, comics
Rather than spending her spare time playing online video games, actor/writer Felicia Day decided it would be more productive to write about them. Thus began “The Guild,” the popular online program now in its third season.
“Around the time I started writing ‘The Guild,’ I was very bored with what I was doing,” Day said in a recent phone interview. “I’m not necessarily your typical Hollywood girl. And I worked enough to keep the bills paid, but not enough to keep me occupied every day.”
She funneled that energy into “The Guild,” based on her experiences with online role-playing games. “The Guild” features the interactions of a group of gamers.
“If I make fun of the characters, it’s only because I’ve lived that or been that myself,” Day said. “So, hopefully there’s an authenticity to it because I am a gamer.”
Day, who plays Codex in “The Guild,” was in the cast of Joss Whedon’s Web series “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” The series, which starred Neil Patrick Harris as a singing supervillain, recently won an Emmy.
“It gave a huge boost to online content in general, as well as to ‘The Guild,’” Day said.
“The Guild” soon will make its debut in yet another medium. A comic-book series, to be written by Day and published by Dark Horse Comics, is in the works.
“I like to write very verbosely, so I have to be a lot more Spartan with the words, and also think more visually,” Day said. One thing the comic book will do that the Web show does not is visit the in-game world of “The Guild.”
“We are going to go in the game world. That was one of the reasons that I wanted to do it,” Day said. “Because I could kind of invent this fantasy world that the characters were living in.”
Meanwhile, the Web series continues. Wil Wheaton is a guest star on Season 3 of the series, and Seasons 1 and 2 recently were released on DVD.
“I think that’s a really cool story of empowerment and how you don’t have to wait for permission to make your art and be able to get your creation out there,” Day said. “I just love the idea of opening the door for other people, and also doing things outside the system. Because I’ve lived in the system for a while, and it can be very frustrating for someone who wants to create.”
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
