Lost In GroVont

Rocketship to Mars from an unlikely source, AMC

Disregard the cheesy opening line of this article and skip right to the good stuff.

There might be a green light in the red planet's future. AMC is looking to outer space as it beefs up its slate, developing a series project with writer/executive producer Jonathan Hensleigh based on the sci-fi novel "Red Mars." "Mars," a 1992 novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, chronicles the inhabitants of the first human colony on the planet.

I'm a bit cynical on this announcement. Robinson's Mars Trilogy is my favorite set of science fiction books. However, the cost of a television show to portray the series is going to be astronomical. Does AMC have the money to produce a show the quality of Battlestar Galactica? Or will look like a bad tv movie?

The the concept reminds me of Earth 2 which wasn't given a chance to fulfill its promise of colonizing a new planet. Robinson's story is focused on the characters first which gives it an advantage as a character driven drama, like Battlestar Galactica.

It will likely be a couple years before we see the results of this discussion. In the meantime, I'm going to re-read the Mars books.

Out from under the bright lights, Friday Night Lights can exceed expectations on DirecTV

Today is the premiere of the third season of Friday Night Lights on DirecTV. Due to some odd circumstances, I'm actually going to be able to watch the show in real time on an HDTV. As you may or not be aware, I've moved back to Jackson Hole where I am currently staying in a vacation rental where one of the amenities is DirecTV on a very pretty television. Personally, I have no interest in getting DirecTV as cable with my TiVo suits me just fine especially since everything else is available online in some form. Though it is nice to get to watch one of my favorite shows without having to wait for it or download it illegally.

This summer I borrowed my brother's copy of H. G. Bissinger's book on which the TV show is based. The book chronicles the life of a town which lives and dies by the Permian high school football team in 1988. The struggles of the residents of Odessa outside of football are comparable to current events. In an election year, the first President Bush has a campaign stop in Odessa, and the town's economy goes up and down with the cost of oil. It's an excellent read. The book is controversial as it paints an honest portrait of the town of Odessa, and it was understandably not well-received after it's release by the community.

The movie based on the book, however, was a disappointment. Unlike the television series and book which focus on the entire town, the movie narrows its scope to the football season. I tolerate football mostly because it is a large part of my family's life (my brother is a punter on his college team, my stepdad calls the high school games for local radio). The book focused on the community and football. The television show excels at exploring the relationships, high school, and small town politics with the common thread being football. The movie's emphasis on football is where it fails to live up to the expectations set by the book and the television show. Unfortunately, I saw the movie sometime during the second season of the television show, so my opinion is tainted and maybe a little too harsh.

The television show is often dismissed by the pasty award shows, but it is comparable to other overlooked greats such as The Wire in the quality of production, acting, and storytelling. It's not about just football, and I think it is hard for some to move past the uniforms and see the realistic stories of the hard-working people in the middle-class town. Television viewers seem to seek the escapism of the shows with far-fetched portrayals of snotty rich kids instead of Friday Night Lights. It's been a struggle for Friday Night Lights to remain on the air even though its relatively inexpensive to produce. Only a bizarre deal between NBC and DirecTV is keeping the show in production. Watch it.

Prepare for the return of Joss. Grr. Arg.

This is as close as I want to be to a Frat Boy

Back when ABC Family was the dead zone for repeats of mediocre family friendly sitcoms, I would never have thought I would watch their original programming. The re-airing of the entire run of Everwood is what got me to the channel. Sandwiched in between 7th Heaven and Gilmore Girls, I was fortunate enough to get a second chance to watch Ephram woo Amy through four seasons, and I was able to forgive the channel for airing the 700 Club.

Now, ABC Family has a slate of original shows that are a sound alternative to the lazy programming on the major networks. Previously, I wrote about Kyle XY which also airs on ABC Family. The writing is witty (fitting in well with Gilmore Girls reruns). The cute casts are mostly unknowns who hold their own among the older recognizable face or two filling the "adult" roles. The original made for tv movies are less than stellar, but I recognize that I'm not the target audience. (Cutting Edge 2 and Cutting Edge 3? Way to tarnish one of my favorite movies.)

The show I most looked forward to watching this spring was Greek. The premise of the show is a coming of age comedy set within the confines of three Greek houses at a small state school. I was reluctant to watch at first. Irresponsible frat boys? Keg parties? Ridiculous pass the candle rituals? None of this sounded like something for me. (I had roommates in college who were in sororities. That was as close as I wanted to be to the Greek system.)

Flying to somewhere (Kansas City?) I sat beside a girl who's laptop was playing the pilot episode. I couldn't hear a thing, but I was intrigued from the moment Spitter got his nickname. It only took one episode to get me hooked.

The setting may be the Greek system at CRU, but the story of the two siblings becoming reacquainted as adults is the source of much humour and the most heartfelt moments. Rusty is coming of age and figuring out who he wants to be. His older sister, Casey, is the "it" sorority girl, to Rusty's engineering major. (The running joke through the pilot is that Casey never told anyone she had a brother.)

Two love triangles fight for the affections of both Casey and Rusty. Rusty trying to decide between the party fraternity Kappa Tau led by the charming Cappie, or the polo shirts of Omega Chi. Omega Chi's Evan and Cappie just happen to be the current and former loves of Casey respectively, and both boys want to be a part of her life.

One of the minor plots revolves around Calvin, who is gay, and his acceptance as a member of Omega Chi. Deputy Leo plays Calvin's love interest, and it's nice to see Max Greenfield again. The spoiled daughter of a Senator, Rebecca, is Casey's nemesis who fights for the attention of everyone in Casey's circle. Rusty clashes with his roommate, Dale, who fronts a Christian rock band and starts a group (USAG) whose sole purpose is to eliminate the Greek system. Dale is the source of many laughs in every episode he's in.

There are two episodes left this season, but you can catch up at abcfamily.com.

What the CW can learn from Kyle XY

What can a Mouse funded cable channel do that an oft resurrected network can not? Answer: Create a compelling teen sci fi show.

Kyle XY is an hour long drama focused on the introduction of a mysterious teenage boy, Kyle, into the lives of a nuclear family in Seattle. Kyle has no memory of his life before he appears naked in the woods covered in goo at the physical age of 14-16. Imagine being dropped into sophomore year of high school without the experience of junior high (an idea that is easily a worst nightmare award winner). Plus, we get to watch as Kyle tries to figure out his origins, including a missing belly button, and stumbles upon a bio tech conspiracy that may lead to his own demise.

What can other shows aimed at the younger viewers who can't stay up late enough to watch Lost learn from Kyle XY?

• The sexual jokes do not have to be obvious. My teenage years are long past so I get it without needing to call my buddies. The innuendos are mostly for the adults anyway why beat us over the head with it? In a cute moment between an aspiring couple on the show, Andy says, "I thought you would be better at rubbing wood." Josh replies with a "Heh" and continues trying to start a fire without matches. It's an obvious joke that hits the right mark without any additional need for explanation.
• Don't dismiss the parents or make them too cool for school. Mr. & Mrs. Trager are not idiots, and we don't want them to be. Nicole Trager is a psychologist and becomes the rock for Kyle. She figures out that Kyle is not like her other kids without catching Joyce Summers oblivitis. Not only does Kyle need her to know the truth, we need her to ask the same questions we are from our couches far away from Seattle. The O.C. handled the parents well too by making them sympathetic and likable with a few interesting storylines thrown their way.
• Not all kids have a trust fund. When Josh turned sixteen, he did not receive a brand new car but a fixer-upper. The questionable reliability of the car allowed for some key scenes between Josh and Andy and fueled a few minor arcs over several episodes which were not forced.
• Make the science fiction believable but don't treat the audience like idiots. Again with the trusting your audience to read above a ninth grade level. (We've read a comic book or two and don't giggle when talking about Philip K. Dick.) The references to Einstein when explaining why Adam Baylin and Kyle were able to excel beyond what we believe are the limits of human potential gave the story arc street cred with nerds. It's logical and makes sense. If we don't get it, the answers are only a few keystrokes away.
• Don't be afraid to tell us what is really going on. The biggest complaint from fans about Lost is the lack of answers. Kyle XY started its second season with two episodes packed with explanation without being boring. We met Andy during this time and saw her potential, and we watched the angst of Lori and Declan play out while getting Baylin's exposition in adjacent scenes. The conspiracy is reminiscent of classic sci fi shows, like The X-Files, while the show is still focused on the characters.

Kyle XY is the show I most look forward to this summer. It helps to make the time between May and September go by unnoticed.

Dirt, not unlike the magazine rack

January seems to be the month for the cable networks to introduce all their new shows or begin the new season of old shows.

Dirt is the FX submission. The only pre-show hype I initially paid attention to was Carly Pope's introduction as the lesbian informant "Garbo" by episode three. (Pope was great as "Sam" in the short-lived Popular.) Though the critics were throwing around negative adjectives like confetti even before the new year. After watching the pilot Monday night, I'm intrigued and impressed. The world of tabloid editing in Los Angeles looks glamorous when helmed by Courtney Cox and parade of writers who look more like actors than the kids you sat next to in journalism class. All of the characters on both sides of the camera are desperate for vindication and will go to extremes to get what they want. Maybe I'm so far removed from "Hollywood" that it is easier for me to see the fiction in it all. The part of the show that most impressed me was the surrealism surrounding the schizophrenic photographer. The cinematography was beautiful when it was raining blood and the show put on by pill bottles destined to be cast in a Blue Man Group show.

Dirt airs Tuesday on FX and repeats several times throughout the week.

 

Webisodes

The sky is an ocean blue currently. The Office recently released the last episode in the 10 webisode series so we can find out who "stole" $3000 from Dunder-Mifflin.

The SciFi channel is also adding webisodes to their website, including Eureka and Battlestar Galactica. Unlike the other webisodes, Eureka's 2 minute blips include members of the staring cast. Other shows use peripheral characters in the shorts. Battlestar Galactica is connecting the gaps between seasons and releasing webisodes twice a week until the season 3 premiere on October 6th.

It would be nice to see Rob Thomas hop on the bandwagon and produce some Mac-centric Veronica Mars webisodes.

Dwight Schrute's Schrute-Space

Dwight Schrute's Schrute-Space.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE CAST OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CRASH LANDED ON THE ‘LOST’ ISLAND???!!! First of all, they would have lasers.  Adama would quickly secure the  hatch for his crew.  The survivors of the Oceanic flight 815 would be  herded up like little children and inspected like cattle.

While reading the entire blog entry, I giggled. I think I have a geeky giggle which is different than my regular laugh. The geeky-giggle is a mixture of pleasure, embarrassment, and WTF? all vocalized with a smile. Hee.

For the geek in us all...

SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel.

In Fanboys, [Kristen] Bell plays Zoe, one of several fans who set out in 1999 from the Midwest to California to honor the wish of their dying friend to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and watch Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace before the movie's worldwide release.

Veronica Mars as a geek!?! I'm intriqued.

Also on the SciFi channel is a great new series called Eureka which is somewhere between The X-Files and Roswell on the interest scale in my brain which means I'll watch it for at least two seasons. Plus, they showed a quick preview of the next season of Battlestar Gallactica. Wow!

View the trailer for Eureka:

For better or worse...

Ever wonder what the recurring characters on Veronica Mars are doing in the their free time? Instead of watching the re-airing of last week's episode on UPN, flip over to HBO on Sunday nights and watch Big Love.

Does polygamy make for good drama? Three women sharing one man will definitely create some drama. The concept of the show is interesting enough to keep my attention but I found myself laughing when I should be caring. It's quirky and occasionally cute. I keep watching because I want to know how some of the characters found themselves in this family, and how those who did not have a choice--the kids--feel about it.

The eldest daughter, played brilliantly by Amanda Seyfried who played Veronica's dead best friend, admits to not agreeing with her parent's practice to a friend. In an odd bit of casting, her friend is played by Tina Majorino, who currently is Veronica's friend Mac. Also from Neptune High, Kyle Gallner plays one of the son's friends.

In the world of Veronica Mars, we are getting more clues to this season's super villain. Is mayor Woody Goodman too obvious a choice? And what if the reason the bus went over a cliff has to do with someone else on the bus? Could Meg's mom have hired Curly to kill both her daughter and the boy who knocked her up? (That's my long shot guess. The Manning's are more fucked up than any of the families on Big Love.)

Frakkin' Toaster...

What is so great about this shirt is that only fellow geeks will get it.

Two Sizes Too Small

Broken Social Scene has updated their Arts & Crafts website with one those annoying flash sites. (I think it was flash before too. Grr.) The site has no new information except for the "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" video.

It has been determined that Charon is half the size of Pluto. The size was determined by measurements taken when Pluto's moon blocked light of a distant star, the technique called stellar occultation. Astronomers also discovered that Charon had little to no atmosphere supporting the theory that "Charon was formed in a collision between two objects early in the formation of the solar system."

Grey's Anatomy now has 3 TypePad blogs for the show. Two are boring and fictitious: written by Joe, the bartender, and an unidentified nurse at Seattle Grace Hospital. The third blog, however, is updated after a new show airs by the episode's writer and is actually interesting. It's full of behind the scenes details and information about how the episode was written.

And if you want to learn something from television, check out the Did You Know section which includes education tidbits from each episode like these:

Living organ donation has become more and more common in recent years. It is possible to donate ½ a liver, one kidney or the lobe of one lung to a relative, loved one or person in need.

GCS stands for Glasgow Coma Scale. It measures three components of consciousness - eye movement, verbal response and motor response.

Why does watching porn help my Aunt Sally cope with her pain? Because porn releases endorphins. It releases endorphins. Vague enough for you? The truth is - we don't know why it works. But, if it does, no doctor will knock it.

Our Lord Is So Neurotic

For someone who is agnostic and not a fan of organized religion, I have a great interest in religious studies. I view religious history in the same I look at science fiction. (For those of you cried "Blasphemy!" just then, you may want to Mark As Read and move along.) I look at most science fiction with a "Wow! That's cool! But it will never happen." cynicism. Many of the ideas laid out in the Bible (rising from the dead, talking bushes, heaven, etc.) seem like great tricks but I just don't believe it. Believe or not, I found myself watching PBS intently last night.

PBS aired the first of three installments of Walking The Bible. It had it's issues. I'm going to blame most of them on a limited budget. However, it was pretty interesting.

Our host, Bruce Feiler, traveled all over the Middle East following the stories told in the Torah and later the New Testament. Feiler is a writer and very passionate about the journey. (Too passionate, I thought. I would have preferred a Ted Koppel-esque narrator. Good news for the Discovery channel.) Feiler's constant remarks about the Bible now being real to him were a bit over the top. (Edit exclamations down to one an hour, please.)

The highlights of the first installment:

• Climbing Mt. Ararat with a local named Parachute, the guy who controlled the mountain. No one could make it to the mountain alive without his permission. Feiler did editorialize that it may be a ploy to control tourism in the area. Supposedly, Parachute found a 5000 year old piece of wood on Mt. Ararat which is believed to be from Noah's Ark.
• The ancient ruins of Harran. (Nothing interesting happens there but it is beautiful to see.)
• Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Feiler, and his "co-adventurer" Avner Goren, started their quest in Jerusalem and discussed briefly the impact of the three religions which existed there: Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim. At the end of the hour, we see the tension when the Western crew is almost denied entrance to Temple Mount by men with guns. (Some of the tension could be a televised contrivance, but the men still had big guns.)

It's PBS so the first episode airs again and again this week with the other two installments premiering on the next two Wednesdays.

End nerdiness. (Wait, I went to the library today too!)

Neptune Karaoke

On Beverly Hills, 90210, we were given the Peach Pit After Dark. On Buffy, it was the Bronze. (What is the name of the place Seth "works" on The O.C.?) Veronica Mars is giving us coffeehouse karaoke. Courtney Taylor-Taylor, from the Dandy Warhols, grabbed the mic in the third episode this season, "Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang", and it is being officially reported that Spoon's Britt Daniel is going to be making an appearance on my favorite television show.

What kind of stunt musical guest casting is this? Spoon is one of my favorite bands and I love Britt Daniel's voice, but what purpose is he going to serve on Veronica Mars? Taylor-Taylor's rendition of "Love Hurts" was horrible and it disrupted the flow of the episode's story. Is a 30 second appearance by Britt going to bring the legions of Spoon fans (only 10 of which own tvs) to Neptune? I doubt it.

The New Pornographers are going to be opening for Belle & Sebastian on their North America tour? Where are they going to fit everyone? That is going to be a long caravan. No word yet on where they are playing in the Bay Area.

Pre-orders are available for all three formats of the first single off of Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit. Why three formats for Funny Little Frog? I do not know. However, the band realizes the ridiculousness of it all and is offering a reasonable rate for all three with bonus tracks and videos and such. Offer only available overseas so be warned of higher shipping costs.

 

A long time ago we used to be friends

Want to know what Rob Thomas was thinking? You can download the audio commentary for the Veronica Mars pilot from his website.

Instructions on how to download via TVShowsOnDVD.com:

    •     Click on "Enter"
    •     Click on "Veronica Mars" on the left
    •     Click on "Downloads" on the left
    •     Click on "Downloads" on the right"
    •     Click on "Download" beside "DVD_commentary.mp3" (last thing in the list)

I haven't listened to it yet since I had to re-download the pilot episode first. Let me know what you think.

Does it make you want to read?

USATODAY.com - Is 'Lost' a literal enigma?.

Literary references have been sprinkled throughout the mysteries of Lost: In an episode last season, the character Sawyer was reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, the story of rabbits searching for a safe place in a threatening world. At another point, he read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, about time travel.

Are people going to turn away from the television and pick up a book? The people who write Lost fanfic and play the recurring numbers in the lottery might read the book of the week in order to dissect the mysterious plot, but will the general Lost audience be moved to pick up The Third Policeman from the library tomorrow? I doubt it.

In other news, the NHL season started today. Two years ago, I became a Calgary Flames fan when I stumbled upon the playoff games on television. After the strike, I hadn't really thought about hockey until today. (It helps that I read a lot of Canadian music blogs.)

The Flames play the Minnesota Wild tomorrow.

For those of you who live in your Friends page instead of a news aggregator, this blog has a LiveJournal feed. Add the other Lost In GroVont to your friends list.

Nothing But Green Lights

As my weekend ends, I recollect on it with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Friday night, I saw The Fiery Furnaces. I will do a short recap on the show tomorrow. 

Saturday I caught up on all the tv I did not have time to watch during the week. Nothing important happened on television, which isn't a surprise, I know, but as I am reading Klosterman's chapter  called "Being Zack Morris" I recall this passage:

We like the "process" of watching these shows. The idea of these programs being entertaining never seemed central to anything, which remains the most fascinating aspect of all televised art: consumers don't demand it to be good. It just needs to be watchable.

I like good television, Deadwood is one of my favorite shows and critically acclaimed. But I will also watch The O.C. or Gilmore Girls occasionally because it's distracting from reality and I don't have to think for 45 minutes. My guilty pleasure this season is America's Next Top Model. Yes, it helps that in airs before Veronica Mars and that it has a queer girl in the cast this cycle. I also find myself saying out of character things like, "That dress is hideous!" or "She's such a bitch!" I've begun to care about these "reality characters" far more than I want to admit. I have come to the conclusion the people on reality tv fall in to one of three categories:

1. Someone you want to spend time with.

2. Someone you hope never crash lands on your island.

3. Someone who is not unlike wallpaper.

Ultimately, I want Kyle to win because she stands out from the wallpaper only a little, and the makeover that turned her into a brunette last week transformed her from valley girl cute to sexy. She probably has some annoying quality I'll come to loathe as the season progresses, but right now, she's my pick to win.

After work today, I did a mainstream movie double-header at the multiplex. Serenity and Flightplan. I tried to lower my expectations before walking into the theatre to see Serenity. The part of my brain who loves all things Joss Whedon was happy; the cynical part, let out a sigh of relief. Serenity is a good movie but I want to see a new episode next week, which isn't going to happen. Hopefully, Whedon & Co. will continue to produce "Firefly" films yearly (or at least every other year). Flightplan was an okay suspense film.

Also, check out Tom Vek.

Quoting Weevil.

In my day-planner under goals:

1. Blog more.

2. Sleep more.

3. Read more.

One is conveniently being fulfilled with this (cough cop-out cough) list.

Two also happens to be the number of jobs I have. Extra sleep is not possible.

Three. Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself To Live has been keeping my attention for a week.

The fall television season is upon us. I go through phases with my tv viewing habits. The invasion of bittorrents has increased the number of shows I watch but allows me to watch on my own time. (I do not have cable or Tivo. I only recently purchased a dvd/vcr combo device for my 12" screen.)

Very little about the new season interests me. "Veronica Mars" and "Battlestar Galactica" are the only must sees for me.

"Weeds" on Showtime with Mary Louise Parker premiered several weeks ago and has managed to keep me interested. Every thing Parker does is usually pretty good. If you haven't seen "Angels In America" add it to the top of your Netflix queue.

Over the past week, I have been entranced by season one (via bittorrent) of "House, M.D." A special division of a teaching hospital led by miserable, yet brilliant Dr. House takes on a rare medical case of the week while dealing with the oddities of his team--three damaged doctors too young and pretty to actually be a part of this special medical team. Season two premieres this Tuesday on FOX.

On my calendar for the week is the aforementioned Arcade Fire/Wolf Parade double header on Sunday.

A longer post than I anticipated. Helium's Dirt Of Luck has been in pretty heavy rotation in my head lately. "Oh the wind and rain" was the song of the day yesterday.