When Funny TV Goes Wrong

Just a quick post today because i'm settling part-time job stuff, but starting next week i'm going to try and beef up the blog to 2 posts a day (maybe more if extra interesting stuff appears).

When the new seasons of hit comedies Modern Family and Community premiered something like a month ago, I was disappointed to find that the openers didn't really live up to the standard of their previous seasons. Now of course I could have romanticised the shows with multiple viewings, but the high standards both shows set just didn't seem to be present.

Don't worry Jeff, they might not be bothering you much longer...

Now that Modern Family has (hopefully) gotten back into the swing of things with yesterday's hilarious episode 'Unplugged' (Cameron's last ditch attempt at pre-school membership being the highlight), my fears for the series have been conquered. But Community is still rambling along, with one mediocre episode after the other. The problems? Taking it outside of the college, altering the characters too much and trying too hard to be "meta". The show is based around the idea of a group of misfits brought together by going to this awful "school", tackling problems as a group and overcoming their own personal issues. So don't take you characters out of the college, and don't have them facing situations alone, especially one's that appear completely unrelated to their lifestyle, personality and situation (see Jeff's struggle with his own mortality in 'The Psychology of Letting Go'). Oh, and don't make Senor Chang a student, he was great as the insane Asian, Spanish teacher, not a fellow student desperate to join the study group.

So: don't mess with the format too much, sure, tweak it a bit to flesh out some storylines BUT MAKE SURE THEY'RE GOOD ONES. If they aren't, you're going to lose viewers, and that's never a good thing for a TV show in tenuous syndication.

Well, this turned into a rant about Community rather quickly, so i'll wrap up by saying: I realised I have an amazing opportunity to review comics before anyone else due to Australia being in the future. Stay tuned for more.

Hellboy Mania: The Storm and The Fury

Hellboy fans have been treated very well in the past few years, with 'Hellboy: The Wild Hunt' setting up the final stage of Hellboy's battle against the Queen of Blood, further addressed in 'Hellboy: The Storm' and 'Hellboy: The Fury'. With King Arthur's fabled sword Excalibur now in Hellboy's hands, the stage is set for the final battle with Nimue and her army of trolls, giants, goblins and anything else mythic and slightly evil.

I'm reletively new to the Hellboy comic universe, but I have loved the movies for years, and I was worried that by seeing them first my opinion of the comics would be a negative one. Not surprisingly I loved them just even more than the film adaptations, with the mythology of the Hellboy universe very easy to understand and delve into, without sacrificing depth and convolution.

Unfortunately, 'The Fury' isn't going to come out for a while, with Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo taking a break and simultaneously maximising the desire of rabid fans. But all hope is not lost, with two one-shots and a limited series slated for release in the next few months. The 'Hellboy/Beasts of Burden' one-shot teams up Hellboy with the team of paranormal detective animals to solve a mystery plauging their home twon of Burden Hill. With art by Jill Thompson and a script by Mike Mignola and Evan Dorkin, this one-shot looks like it'll be a good story and a lot of fun. In November we're being treated to 'Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil', a one-shot featuring two stories by Mike Mignola and art by Richard Corben. A one-shot comic featuring Hellboy, zombies and mummies sounds like a winner in my book, and with Corben returning his unique art to a Hellboy story i'm really looking forward to this one.

Finally in January 2011, the two-part miniseries 'The Sleeping and the Dead' hits the stands. Mike Mignola tells a classic vampire horror tale, as Hellboy meets a man with intimate knowledge of the coming vampire apocolypse. Whether this ties into an element of the Queen of Bloods war on all that is good and pure is yet to be seen, but the comic still promises to be another hit with fans. Scott Hampton teams up with Mignola for the first time, and even though I haven't seen any of his previous work, i'm confident Dark Horse has picked another artist that'll really gel with the Hellboy universe.

Well until we're given a solid release date for 'The Fury', these are the Hellboy comics we can expect to see in the near future. Needless to say the B.P.R.D. comic series is still going strong alongside Hellboy, and it has just as many releases scheduled in the next 6 months. I stll haven't begun reading it yet, but only because i'm waiting for my B.P.R.D. Omnibus (hurry up February, stupid time). So, until next time, hope this post has been informative and if you're interested, i'll be returning soon with reasons why the Hellboy one of the best comics out there at the moment. But you don't really need my reasons at all, just get out there and read them!

The Perils of Having Cash to Burn

Yesterday my dear grandmother gave me fifty Australian dollars for no reason, and of course my mind went into overdrive trying to think of something to buy. But the possibilities were mind bottling to say the least.

My immediate thought was comic books (of course), but even then, too many options made themselves available. The 'Hellboy/Beasts of Burden' one-shot comic comes out on the 27th of October, and that would also leave me plenty of money to buy Mike Mignola's 'Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects' hardcover. But then I could pre-order the Green Lantern Omnibus Vol. 1, a title coming out in November collecting the first appearances of Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern. This book is going to go gangbusters next year with the Green Lantern movie coming out, so pre-ordering now would be a good idea. I could also pay off the debt for my B.P.R.D. Omnibus, but where's the fun in that?

And then I come home from the dentist today and notice that the next installment in the 'Professor Layton' Nintendo DS games is coming out tomorrow, which would be good at holding off brain-rot over the next five months of my holiday. But then I could put it away and save it for Pokemon White when it comes out next year, but there's no way I could hold onto it for that long.

All in all this isn't going to be an easy choice, and I think i'll be holding onto the money for a lot longer then I would like to, but it's nice to have some cash in my pocket. Even if it does burn like hellfire.

Superior #1 Review

Writer - Mark Millar
Pencils - Leinil Yu

The love affair with Mark Millar has been on for a long time now, and for good reason, with the limited series 'Civil War' for Marvel breaking sales records and changing the Marvel Universe completely. Then we got 'Kick-Ass', a great series about being a superhero in real life. It was raw and had an in-your-face style from the first issue, and it's not surprising the film adaptation was a huge hit as well (even if it deviated from the more poetic narrative of the original material). Then we were given 'Nemesis', a series based around the question "what if Batman had decided to be a villain instead of a hero?". With blood, guts and swearing left, right and centre, Millar went further into the hack/slash story, and while drowning in violence for violence's sake, it still worked.Now 'Superior' is on the table, and if pre-order numbers are anything to go by it's going to be another best selling series for the Scottish author; but is it any good? The short answer is yes, with a little niggling factor at the back of your brain asking "why though?".

'Superior' revolves around the life of Simon Pooni (an unfortunate name for the fictional character and the real dude he's named after, courtesy of an eBay auction for charity), a young American kid with Multiple Sclerosis. Simon's life sucks, he gets picked on, he only has one friend and he went from basketball superstar to severly handicapped in the space of about a year. The comic opens in the cinema, as Simon and his best/only friend Chris take in Superior 5, introducing the hero of the book. From here we get to see how crap Simon's life is: bullies, disablity and what he was before. But as Simon goes to sleep the story changes. Think space monkey, magic wish, Superior. Yeah, that'll do it.

The story of 'Superior' really hasn't moved along yet, with the characters being introduced and the situation set up. The idea of a space monkey is interesting to say the least, but i'm not sure about the "magic wish" part. While this book seemed to be a more "family-friendly" title, the characters indulge in a bit of profanity which is understandble (don't we all?), but it was a bit jarring to see it when I thought this would try and break away from the reality of 'Kick-Ass' and 'Nemesis' and go into the realm of whimsy.

All I can really say about Yu's artwork is that it is spot on, with every character easily definable and the back drops of city streets looking amazing.

All in all the issue was interesting, but the only reason I'd want to keep buying it is to see and learn more about space monkey. I'm really not interested in Superior as a hero. Sorry Mark Millar.

TV Review - Supernatural, Season 6, Episode 4, "Weekend at Bobby's"

'Supernatural' returned not with a bang but a whimper, with Dean happy with his new home life and Sam back for no reason. Of course that last part would be what drives the narrative this season but we haven't really gotten around to it yet.

Thankfully though, "Weekend at Bobby's" signals a return to form for the series, and it doesn't even have the Winchester brothers in it that much. The episode focuses on Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), the man with all the answers, showing what he goes about doing when the Winchesters aren't around. He even gets a catchphrase, 'balls'. Of course.

"Weekend at Bobby's" deals with Bobby trying to get his soul back from the crossroads demon Crowley (Mark Sheppard), the fallout of shoving Lucifer back into his cage at the conclusion of season 5, after he welches on their deal. But with the return of Rufus (Steven Williams) and his new neighbour trying to get his attention (in the biblical sense), this episode finds the balance of comedy, action and drama that the series is known for.

While the episode might not be a favourite with fans looking for some Sam/Dean perve time, Bobby's home life is genuinely interesting, with just as many demon attacks and comedic moments (and the brothers help to provide some monster action). It turns out he is the backbone of many different hunting operations and doesn't just sit around waiting to help the Winchesters out. This episode was great, as Beaver easily has the acting chops to carry it himself, with the other characters involved really elevating the story upwards.

It was nice to see the series regain the high quality it's known for again, and I can only hope the next installment "Live Free or TwiHard" keeps on keepin' on so the sixth season doesn't feel like a tacked on waste of time compared to the fantastic five season run it had in it's pocket. This episode didn't really do much for the overall narrative of the season, but it was nice to depart from the regular formula to have some fun with everybody's favourite secondary character.

Keep and Eye out for: Bobby and Crowley's impressions of each other. Inspired stuff. And Crowley insulting Sam. Basically everything involving Crowley.

Back in Business, sort of...

Well technically I finished all my classes for university last friday, but since I've got my history exam on Monday, I'm still working.

Just quickly updating that i'll be back in full swing next Tuesday, most likely blogging about the recently concluded 'Hellboy: The Storm' mini-series, and hopefully getting into some more up to date titles and hardcovers.

'Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne' issue #5 was released this week and by all accounts it's fantastic, which I think we all deserve thatnks to the lengthy wait and awful Jeanty artwork of issue #4. A review of the stellar mini-series' fifth installment can be found here, all thanks to CBR.com

So, to wrap up, we're going to be seeing a lot of stuff about Hellboy, Batman, Invincible, The Walking Dead, Y: The Last Man, EX Machina, movies, tv shows and maybe even a little Pokemon Black and White. So stick with me, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

What A Fool I was...

It seems like years ago when I said I would be posting more frequently my reviews and thoughts about games and comics. I seem to vaguely recall a notion of giving you my thoughts on Batwoman: Elegy and the Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth hardcovers. And then university decided to sit on my chest wearing a t-shirt marked with the slogan 'ASSIGNMENTS'. But even under its crushing weight I think of this blog and what I should be doing with it, and I swear to the sky and anyone up in it, that at the coming of October the middleth, blood will rain down on the internet as this blog blows up with something new and exciting EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. UNTIL. I. GO. BACK. TO. UNIVERSITY.

Yes, you read me right. Every day, as soon as I finish my last exam, i'm going to post something every day. And not just some passing thought. Oh no. A full, coherent, in-depth observation into a comic, movie, trailer, game and anything else I care to think of. Come rain, hail, snow, sickness, meteors, zombies, the rapture or more zombies, I will keep this pledge.