I had a dream this weekend that I went to a party thrown and hosted by Lorelai Gilmore, who in her kindness encouraged me to come move to Stars Hollow. If you've never seen Gilmore Girls, Stars Hollow is the fictional Connecticut town where the titular girls live, a mostly ideal small town with beautiful sights, some historical significance, quirky characters, and a general feeling of peace and security.
Naturally one can't ignore a dream of such prophetic magnitude (pop-pop), so I did some research and google told me that the main town Stars Hollow was based upon is called Essex, Connecticut. AKA "The best small town in America."
All hail the executives of Fox (I know, I know, can't believe it either) who in their brilliance and generosity of spirit have renewed Fringe for a Fifth, albeit final, season!
The announcement comes near the end of the fourth season which has suffered from ratings lows as well as the typical rumors of imminent cancellation. In a gratifying and surprising move Fox has commissioned a final Fifth season for next year to last 13 episodes.
“Fringe is a remarkably creative series that has set the bar as one of television’s most imaginative dramas,” said Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly. “Bringing it back for a final 13 allows us to provide the climactic conclusion that its passionate and loyal fans deserve. The amazing work the producers, writers and the incredibly talented cast and crew have delivered the last four seasons has literally been out of this world. Although the end is bittersweet, it’s going to be a very exciting final chapter.”
While that is a truncated season it will allow Fringe to hit the 100 episode mark, a huge feat for the over-looked show which means it will now be eligible for syndication.
Not only is this news heartening, but as the season finale approaches it gets the fan in me (no small part) very excited, not only about the climax of this season but the inevitably breakneck, no-holds-barred material to be expected next year.
Well done Fox, and congrats to the cast and crew of Fringe.
In other news, a hearty congratulations to Sarah Michelle Geller and her hubbie for their recently announced second pregnancy. (Let's stick to good news today.)
We're still in the first month of Avengers vs. X-Men so all judgments remain reserved, and I'm still pretty excited to see what develops. In fact the slew of AvX titles makes the Pick of the Week a tough choice, what with the first issue of Vs. and Remender's space team face the Phoenix head-on, until I decided to just take them out of the equation and go a different PotW route entirely:
Read on for the full list. And happy new comics day.
Awhile back I wrote about the enjoyable sci/fi gay webcomic Artifice, which has since been completed and is available to be read in its entirety. Alex Woolfson, the writer and seemingly owner/designer of the website, has another one up called the Young Protectors, which is also gay but a superhero ongoing instead of a science fiction one. It's pretty fun already, and has some great art:
As opposed to, say, doing work, I recently made a tour of some of the more highly recommended gay webcomics. Hit the jump for a couple links, pictures, and brief summaries. And to be clear, these are NSFW types of webcomics, though they're well written and with engaging stories, so if that's not your thing...well scroll down really fast for the news link about Jessica Chastain joining Iron Man 3.
After the recent shots of Doctor Who filming in Central Park, some new ones have come online. The TARDIS has gone back to England, and while it's still possible Amy Pond's final episode(s) take place in NYC, she's still his companion, and River Song has joined company as well.
The new photos see the gang in a cemetery, with Rory's absence being a bit conspicuous. Also, Amy is reading a book by Melody Malone, apparently another alias of River Song/Melody Pond. Where does she find the time?
Happy Friday! Like most Fridays, this one brings us a slew of Marvel previews for comics coming out next week, posted around the internet but conveniently in one place on CBR. So this is me getting up early in the morning, reading them, downloading them, and re-posting whichever ones will undoubtedly make next week's Pull List.
Some things to look forward to: The first issue of AvX Vs., the comic solely devoted to the one-on-one fights. Namor pontificating about why he admires Scott Summers. Danny Rand becoming a Phoenix host, or else just its newest biographer. And Beast being nostalgic for the bad old times, while Valkyrie seems to abandon her feminist principles after one gallon of mead and act coquettish and seductive around Thor. Should be fun.
This week brings us a pretty star-studded Pull List, including several flagship titles from big publications. Marvel not only has the second chapter of Avengers vs. X-Men on the stands, but a main Avengers title and no less than five X-titles, whereas DC has their adjectiveless Batman, the only readable superhero comic they release. Despite the amount of marquis comics, none of have been as heavily marketed nor as highly anticipated as the Pick of the Week.
I haven't been watching Castle for a couple seasons now, though my love for Nathan Fillion continues undiluted. However today, thanks to Whedonesque, I found this clip that supposedly aired after last night's Castle episode:
Aside from being just plain super cool and funny, it begs the question: What on Earth is Robert Downey Jr. doing with Nathan Fillion? Aside from the Joss connection, why would he go to ABC and Castle to help promote The Avengers? Doubtless you and the internet will speculate a'plenty, but here's my theory.
As most people know, after The Avengers' exclusive movie premiere last week, several if not all members of the cast re-formed to shoot an extra scene. Apparently the film already bore the trademark Marvel bonus-scene-during-the-credits, yet this could well have been the elongated final scene at the end of the credits.
Bearing that in mind, and the sudden proximity of Nathan Fillion to the debatable star of The Avengers, it seems to me that all the many years of rumors (some egged on by Joss himself at SDCC last year) and fervent fan prayers have come true: Nathan Fillion is Ant-Man!! And he will be introduced to the team after their first cinematic adventure.
Lending some credence to this theory are the recent remarks of Marvel Film Master Kevin Feige, who spoke about the long discussed Ant-Man film project saying "...we are now closer than we've ever been." as well as a tweet from Edgar Wright, the projected co-writer and director of the movie that went as follows: "Was just back behind the camera for the first time in nearly two years. Can't say on what, but it was cool..."
Obviously there's no certainty here, and doubtless there are currents of cross-promotion I know nothing about that would explain the Downey Jr. promo, but still this seems to be the most definitive grouping of evidence to back up the Captain Tightpants is Ant Man theory ever. And O, what a wonderful development that would be.
All that remains, after the inevitable announcement sometime this summer, is the casting of Morena Baccarin as the Wasp, who, as you will recall, did her research and lobbied hard for the part.
God Bless Joss and his occasionally delightful nepotism.
As yet Untitled (it's believed they wish to avoid confusion with Wrath of Khan as well as the complex Star Trek continuity, and it will not be Star Trek 2 but Star Trek: Insert Subtitle Here) the production and filming of the follow-up movie began in January. Despite the great success and acclaim of the reboot, there hasn't been much news about this sequel, perhaps due to the slow process and several years it took to finally get made, not to mention Abrams' notorious secrecy.
However some photos have begun to leak from set, and I for one am very excited. I was never in life a Trekkie, though in principal I chose Star Trek over Star Wars as inevitably having more depth and interest (the latter being the most overrated sci/fi in history) but the movie blew me away. Even now I can rewatch it time and again, the first 5 minutes making me cry without fail, never being bored or anything less than entertained.
(Hit the jump drive, thrusters on full, warp speed to see the photos.)
Space warriors, mutant thieves, Slayers vs. Spies, geek Messiah writer/Directors, and Timelords. Hit the jump for an informative and entertaining news/link roundup.
The Big C started off as such a promising show. Laura Linney, a proven actress, versatile and engaging, playing a slightly repressed, good-hearted Midwestern wife and mother confronting her mortality after a Cancer diagnosis. It's maybe not the most original premise, but it's a showcase for an eminently watchable actor that you would expect to find in some one-woman off-Broadway show, only now with the benefit of good production values and famous guest stars.
The idea that each season of the show would be a season in the life of Cathy Jamison, complete with a seasonal theme taken from whatever Kubler-Ross stage seemed most interesting, was certainly hokey and facile, but at least it indicated a more focused, long-term story arc that most serial dramas lack. And in the beginning it was successful; Jamison fairly glowed with humanity as she kept the disease a secret, exploring new experiences, examining the different ways one can approach life when before she thought there was just the one, digging deep for old memories and for the strength to fight for new ones. The plot and pacing kept things interesting, forcing a Jamison focused on her own existence to confront the unexpected mortality of those around her.
Unfortunately, despite all her struggle and progress and moments of epiphany and joy, the new season has presented a different woman and a different show entirely. Frankly both are shameful.
Despite last week's "optic blast heard round the world" which started the juvenile and enjoyable Avengers vs. X-Men, this week we only see one superhero comic that ties into that heavily marketed war. That would be New Avengers #24, which shall be interesting if only to see what side Wolverine chooses to fight for (my money's on his X-family) but not interesting enough to be Pick of the Week.
Nor is the Pick of the Week the newest Buffy comic, continuing last month's revelation that the Buffy we've been following all season is actually a robot, which swept away the previous' month's revelation that Buffy(bot) was pregnant and going to get that lil' slayer aborted but fast. A) it all feels gimmicky and fake, two adjectives never used when describing a good Buffy episode and B) it's just not written that well. I'm not sure if it's the trying-too-hard dialogue or the pace, but despite the improvement over Season 8, Buffy has yet to convincingly translate to comics. So instead, we have a Pick of the Week that is the most skillful comic being published, and that I wish would translate into new mediums (I want to read all the Tommy Taylor novels.)
It's a bit hard to describe the disappointment I felt watching this movie (though it's considerably less than it would have been a month ago when I was deep in the throes of Hunger Games obsession) however I shall make the attempt in the hopes that my keen, unforgiving eye prevents some unsuspecting soul from seeing this sub par movie and damning the books without reading them.
D- If this were Entertainment Weekly or some glossy, multi-contributor website that gave grades, this is the grade we would bestow upon the recently released film version of the bestselling novel The Hunger Games. I'll hold off for a second on the detailed account, but let me explain the grade. Despite some actors with chops, a devoted make-up and set-design team, and a large budget, this movie was a failure. In a story whose main plot is a battle to the death, the complete disappearance of any tension was staggeringly obvious. The shaky reality-show-type camera work destroyed not only a viewer's concentration, but what I imagine were painstakingly choreographed fight scenes, the actions of which were impossible to follow. And despite their best intentions, a choppy, clunky, uninspired script that kept and changed the most random elements from the original material, destroyed any suspension of disbelief that us true blue fans went in with and foiled even the best actor's attempt to deliver an insipid, badly written line.
Yes I've been out of it, apologies but civic duty takes a lot out of a Captain. Besides, I'm sure if there was some huge news we'd all already know about it. Far more important however, the event hundreds of days in the making, the epic clash of heroes (tagline: Heroes. Will. Clash.) the morally grey conflict that divides a noble community, begins today. In earnest. Hopefully.
And I, for one, am ridiculously excited. Thats why Avengers vs. X-Men #1 is the Pick of the Week (pretty obvious choice, sure, but Daredevil was a close second.)
Check out the full, not very long, exclusively Marvel pull list after the jump.
