Friday, August 30, 2013

Atlas Shrugged part 2 (2012)

Part of me felt like I could start writing this before the movie even started. But, much like I made the agreement with Ayn Rnad 20+ years ago, I always wait until I'm done watching, not counting jotting down a note on scratch paper of course. One of the ladies I regularly talk about movies and television shows with tells me how she and her husband watch television and movies - they have something to read or work on while watching. If it's a really good movie, she might only get a little reading or sewing done. I'm not that kind of watcher. It's that whole social contract thing, but at least now, when it's crap I just stop watching.
Okay, I don't know what happened between part 1 and part 2, but damn, there is actually some good acting going on in this movie, and even more so, there are actors I recognize - like the opening scene with Robert Picardo. The drawback is that some actors have been replaced, and they're pretty noticeable changes. For example, oh lets see, how about everyone? Different production company, more money and voila, a whole new cast!
I swear that if I ever hear the phrase "who is John Galt?" again I will likely hit the speaker right in the nose. Truth. (Did I just say that? Gawwww.) Speaking of John Galt, they did continue to underwhelm me with the SF/X. When they dismantle the John Galt railroad line, and they show the super suspension bridge, it''s only one line running across, but in the first movie, it's very clearly two lines and wide enough to have held a third. Completely amateurish. As it turns out it's because they have (literally) blown their load on the bit train collision scene.
Instead of dwelling on the completely unsatisfying ending, let's instead reflect on Ayn Rand, science fiction author. Sure, when I read the book I didn't picture cold fusion engines, super steel or holographic mountains, but that's because I'm not one of the ielite. I only wondered who John Galt was until I saw something sparkley out of the corner of my eye. Did I mention the futuristic stealth jets?
Here's the important part - if you can make yourself sit through part 1, part 2 is the pay off, relatively speaking.

Atlas Shrugged on IMDb

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Atlas Shrugged part 1 (2011)

Do you remember reading this book? I bet you don't. I am one of the seven people in America that read this book of their own free will, by which I mean not as part of class requirement for university or to get in with the hot girls at the Young Republicans meetings. Let's be honest, most of those people didn't read it either. But I did. You see there used to be a time where I believed that once you started a book (or a movie or television show) that you had to finish it based on the notion that starting it was some type of social contract whereby the reader vows to finish the book at any and all cost and the writer agrees to write a book that is worth finishing. I didn't figure out until I was in my late 30s that many writers and even more readers were failing to hold up their end of the deal. If the book sucked from the reader's perspective, there was a clause in the contract that allowed you to complain about the quality of the writing, citing in detail with examples if so desired passages which utterly failed. By virtue of the social contract between Ayn Rand and myself I retain the right to any and all criticisms of the novel, Atlas Shrugged. First of all, it's longer than the Fountainhead which was plenty long enough, thank you very much. It's also downright pastoral in places describing what you see out the train window - reminding me on more than one occasion of the great Russian writers but without any of the interpersonal drama that at least makes those books interesting. Do we even want to go into the politics or gender issues? At least on the latter it was better than the Fountainhead, in Atlas Shrugged a woman could run a company and be subservient to a man instead of just being subservient to men. Okay, you really want politics? I don't think you can handle the politics, but I'll toss a little your way. The book is not as dense as the Fountainhead in this area, not that it was terribly dense. This book is the pinnacle of Libertarianism, wherein is put forth the notion that every person would be allowed to earn what he is worth, which he does by working hard. Oh, and I guess one or two women should get paid too, at least until they get married and can live on what their husband is earning. While the man is working hard and being fairly compensated the government should keep it's hands off his money. Period. There should be no taxes, regulations or required deductions, no exceptions. So, what about the people who can't provide for themselves? If they are unlucky enough not to have a man in their family that can help them out, never fear, because the ultra-capitalists are not immoral - they will give nicely to charity if asked. Rand is so clear in this book writing about politicians - there are no good ones. Thee is nothing that the government does which can be achieved by unfettered ultra-capitalists work in to let the market take care of itself. I must mention that Rand's idea of the ultra-capitalist (my term not hers) are self-made men who are captains of industry, and everyone striving to become these things. They make the best product they can, provide the best service they can, because it is a direct reflection upon their personal character - shoddy work or product equals shoddy character. The left is not very fond of Rand's works, but the right is very fond. The problem I see with this is that if they truly believe in her philosophy (google this and see who claims to be devout believers in her ideals) they will not go into government because all politicians, nor matter how well intentioned must at some point compromise their principles and therefore are not being the best capitalist they can be, and I do mean any compromise at all, not just with opponents. Not to mention that as a politician you take money from others whether they want you to or not, whether or not you are providing a service they want - this would be taxes. Few of the business people on the right could truly be for Rand's ideals because you are morally obligated to succeed or fail based on your own virtues - you can not take a loan or subsidy. Period. I think in some ways Rand and Marx are a lot closer than anyone would like to admit - while Marx thought the oppressed worker would rise up to overthrow the decadent and worthless bourgeoisie, Rand thought that the true captains of industry would rise up and overthrow the decadent and worthless bourgeoisie - same goals, just from the other end of the field.
I realize that no one is even reading at this point because Rand's long-windedness has inspired a bit of my own, but I feel obligated to at least give my impressions of the film.
The first thing you will notice in this film is the acting. It is truly mediocre at best. Every character is being played uni-dimensionally. I find it impossible to get emotionally involved with cardboard cut-outs. Some of the acting isn't mediocre, it's just downright bad and looks and sounds like the actor is reading off a cue card. Some of this is due to the source material - Rand's characters live in a black and white world with very clearly drawn lines. But the screenwriter and the director can still make that seem interesting.
They've updated the story in a few respects to make it reflect modern trends and to be set in the near-future. I don't mind this at all. I do think it is important to mention that the film's makers do not point the finger at one political party, and in fact it's implied that the problems facing the nation have been going on for some time which implicates both parties, but party politics are only implied at best as they really are sticking to the idea that all politicians are sanctimonious demagogues looking to cheat hard-working people out of their money. Kudos to them for staying on point.
Acting aside, because a good film with bad acting is still tolerable, this isn't a good film. I have mentioned it in this blog before, the one sin of film-making, whether it be for the small screen or the large screen is that you can not be boring. You can make me laugh, make me cry, make me howl with anger, but you can not let me fall asleep or change to something else.
Not a show stopper like the issue above, but just downright em brassing in this day and age, you can not use sub-par visual effects and expect to be taken seriously. You can be cheesy for comedic effect, but even that can not just be bad. There are several scenes of the train making it's maiden voyage on Rearden Steel rail lines that look horrible by having the train look crisp even though the scenery is not so sharp. And even bigger, the train traveling through shadowed areas but the shadows never falling on the train. There is one stretch along a waterway where both of these problems coincide, and then the train traveling right to left across the screen moves up a pixel while the backdrop stays still - I don't mean a bump in the track, I mean the whole train moves up a pixel for what must be two dozen frames and then moves back down. How sloppy.

Atlas Shrugged on IMDb

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Road to the Avengers: The Incredible Hulk (2008)

I feel I must start with full disclosure, I liked the  Eric Bana Hulk movie. I thought they took the story and humanized the Hulk as well as giving him an interesting villain to battle which had nothing to do with the comic books. Normally, that's the kind of thing that would piss me off, but I've never been a fan of the Hulk comics so I didn't mind if they strayed away from them. I was also a fan of the 80s Hulk television show and watched it and the live action Spiderman movies every chance I got. It's okay that they were cheesy because I was just a dumb kid and didn't know any better. When I learned that they were making this movie, I learned at the same time that Ed Norton was replacing Eric Bana and that they were going to reboot the story. I was skeptical about why they would need to reboot a movie that I thought was pretty good. I don't know how the first one did at the box office, but I thought pretty well since they were immediately talking about a sequel. At first I thought it might be a money issue, but I can't imagine that Norton made less than Bana for their respective Hulk films. Throw in the other big names that started getting attached to the sequel and I knew something was up, just not what. Then the rumors started that based on the success of the X-Men, Spiderman and Iron Man movies that they were looking to put out an Avengers movie. I could see at once the wisdom of leading off with Iron Man, but the Hulk, no matter who was starring in it would not have been my choice to promote the Avenger's Line. I would have gone with Captain America and then a movie about Dr. Henry Pym in anyone of his heroic guises along with his wife in one of her guises, or was there only one as the Wasp?
This all sounds like I am leading up to saying that I hated this movie, but I didn't. On the contrary, I thought it was quite good. William Hurt was great as General "Thunderbolt" Ross. He was the blustery kind of General that expected to everyone do everything his way whether under his command or not. Liv Tyler's Betty Ross was the weak point but I thought she did an adequate job. Actually, I can' think of anyone who could have done better with the lines she was given and the way that she was portrayed in her professional capacity, where she was made to look like a sidekcik at best. Had their been more in the role, they would have needed a better actor. I don't know anything about the comic book version of the Abomination other than what he looks like and that he's a gamma-irradiated freak. I thought Tim Roth's portrayal of Emil Brodsky was appealing.
What I really paid attention to this time around, it being my second full time through the film, were the small details. There are several references to S.H.I.E.L.D. before the little Tony Stark cameo at the end. It will be interesting to see how the other 3 movies that precede the Avengers show the presence of S.H.I.E.L.D. The first Iron Man movie is literally crawling with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I'm guessing upon rewatch of Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America I'll quite a few as well.

The Incredible Hulk on IMDb

A question for Mr. Dylan

Dear Mr. Dylan,

How, exactly, does one win the war after losing every battle?

Sincerely,

Me

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

G.I. Joe: Retalliation (2013)

I admit that I had been looking forward to this movie. You could almost say that the first G.I. Joe movie (and the Transformers movies) was a guilty pleasure, except I don't feel that guilty about it. They did not remake the cartoons I watched as a kid, nor the comic books I read. But let's be completely honest here, those cartoons and comic books served the sole purpose of selling more toys. Marvel worked a little bit on trying to make the Autobots and Decepticons fit into their universe, mostly with a mini series that featured them and G.I. Joe and Cobra with a small part, little more than a cameo really, by Spiderman. The G.I. Joe comic at least had some mini series spin-offs and developed some story lines far away from what the cartoon did, however they were obligated to throw in at least some of the new characters and contraptions whenever Hasbro released another batch. They mostly provided simple stories for us kids to act with our toys if we had right ones. Present company included. I've got to say that I personally, when left to myself, i.e. not playing with my dollies with my friends, saw G.I. Joe teaming up with the Rebel Alliance to fight the evil Empire which had joined forces with Cobra because those generic Cobra soldiers looked a lot like the Bespin guards who we all know are Stormtrooper wanna-bes. Then legos would get involved to make fortifications quickly followed by the Transformers and some other robot toys, as mechs to help their sides do battle. But, eventually they all joined forces to battle He-Man and his posse. He-Man even though vastly outnumbered would lead his giant troops to victory, only to appear to be thwarted by the Warlord (from DC comics) who lead forces including Hercules who were the same size as the He-Man figures, but they would join forces at the crucial moment and the Star Wars/Transformers/G.I. Joe army would be defeated with the rare exception when the Justic League of America would show up to fight the giants. But mostly I built defenses and little vehicles to prepare for the epic climax.
The first movie was a sci-fi action film with some surprisingly strong characters. This time around the sci-fi is pretty much dropped. Oh, it's there, but is secondary at best. What has replaced the sci-fi part is a ninja part, or more correctly, G.I. Joe seems to be part of a ninja movie.The character building has been completely replaced by more ninja action
With that being said, it's not a very good sequel, but it is a decent movie. Aside from a very small number of characters, it's new folks all the way around. Don't they know that the new toys were always fun because you integrated them with the old toys, not replace the old toys?  I guess not.
I had heard before the first one came out that there was a planned trilogy. I wonder if those plans still exist or if two and three got pushed together. They totally leave the end open for more, but the story arc seems to be pretty well wrapped up. I guess I'll have to just wait and see.

G.I. Joe: Retalliation on IMDb

Monday, August 26, 2013

The Road to the Avengers: Iron Man (2008)

Can you imagine how this film would have gone had they cast it differently? Perhaps you could have gotten some to do the Obidiah Stain character proud that wasn't Jeff Bridges like maybe Ron Perlman. But who could you get to play Pepper Potts? Maybe Charlize Theron. But what about Tony Stark? I can't think of anyone except Downey. Not Brad Pitt, because he's nto charismatic enough, though certainly a fine actor and handsome man. Marvel had already been burned by Ben Affleck in Diredevil (which isn't that bad of a movie). Matt Damon and Viggo Mortenson are great actors but like Brad Pitt are missing that little something. There is Jason Lee who has that kind of personal charisma to pull it off, but not the acting chops. Maybe, just maybe, you could have cast Aaron Eckhart as Tony Stark and pulled it off. He had some of that going on in the Dark Knight. There is one character that you know the actor can be replaced on, and that's the Colonel Rhodes character which saw Don Cheadle replace Terence Howard. So, the alternative cast is Aaron Eckhart as Tony Stark, Charlize Theron as Pepper Potts, Ron Perlman as Obidiah Stain and Don Cheadle as Colonel Rhodes. It might have been good. In an alternate universe that film was made, and if I ever perfect my Transdimensional Inducer Mechanism, aka T.I.M. I swear that I will report back with a full rundown.
In all of the super hero movies over the last few years that are based on comic books, almost none of the characters are as cool or as likeable in the films as in in the print media. Some are as good, like Ron Perlman as Hellboy or Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and pretty much everyone in Watchmen. Out of all of them, there is only character that I like better in the movies, which is to say that I like him in the movies, but don't care for him so much in the comics, and that is Tony Stark. I would say that is about 75% due to Roberty Downey Jr. and about 25% to the writing.
When you think about it, Iron Man is almost Marvel's answer to Batman. I think the main difference is scope. Batman doesn't wear armor but he largely battles street thugs and super villains that are more about brains and schemes then about brute force. Iron Man on the other hand is all about taking on the big causes. In fact, the bigger the better. The other difference is how they approach the issue of being a super hero without any super powers, though both are arguably geniuses. Bruce Wayne turns himself into a weapon and makes do with retasking technology around him to work as the cool toys the Batman uses. Tony Stark on the other hand is always striving for the upper hand through superior tech and devotes his considerable intellect to solving the problem with technology much of which he invents as opposed to making himself a weapon. I think this is Marvel's answer to the problem posed by Detective Comics with their Batman. How can one man with nearly limitless resources but no super powers compete against super powered individuals and make a real difference in the battle against evil? Well, you build a super suit and you fight the good fight. DC, who mind you rolled Batman out some 25 years before Marvel debuted Iron Man, came to the conclusion that you make the man as hard as any man can possibly be. You make him physically hard, mentally hard and emotionally hard.
I'm on an Avengers Film Extravaganza now (though I still need to watch one more flick for the FFE) and I'm going to watch them in order which means that next up is the Hulk with Edward Norton followed by Iron Man II, Thor, Captain America and then the Avengers. I've only seen the Avengers one time so far, but I think not counting any change that may come about from a second watching, I think this is my favorite of the series. Though if the Avengers had included Natalie Portman instead of just showing a picture of her I might be telling a different story.

Iron Man on IMDb

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The 4400 Season 4 Disk 4:

Episode 13: The Great Leap Forward
It's over. The 4400 is 86ed, so to speak. Sorry, that's the best I've got.
This was definitely a series finale episode. Sure, life goes on for most of our characters at the end, but all the lingering questions are answered. I was afraid that they were going to leave a lot of openings, perhaps even create a couple, just in case, you know, there was a grassroots ground swell that got the show brought back. But they did the honorable thing and put her to bed.
In the very first episode we're introduced to Tom who has been recruited into NTAC from the FBI and Diana who has been recruited into NTAC from the CDC and for about the first half of the season they would reference her training as an epidemiologist. It got brought up again in season two when they needed a reason for Diana to be helping Kevin with his research. Throughout the course of the show, however, she acted more like an FBI agent than Tom ever did. I only bring this up because I would like to mention that it would have been nice if they had actually utilized her medical background, and because the way they arrive at the "Great Leap Forward" in the finale is through a power induced promicon virus. Suddenly there were quarantine and airdrops and Diana coordinating with FEMA and the Red Cross. It was nice to see it come full circle.
I've mentioned several times about episodes that remind me of episodes of Alphas, which while coming later than the 4400, I saw first. There have been a lot of similarities and even whole plots lifted by Alphas and I had complained away from the blog about one show ripping off another one. Then, after watching the finale, I watched some of the special features on the dvd, and lo and behold the two main producers for the 4400 are the two main producers for Alphas, also known as the shows creator and shot-caller. Too bad that they made the same show twice. There are so many interesting possibilities that one could do with the super hero genre, it's kind of sad that they limited themselves to this one vision. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed both shows. When the third season of Alphas starts up, and I guess I need to make sure that has not happened already, I will watch it. I do feel like I understand it's characters quite a bit better now, and while the motivation behind certain characters has remained shrouded, I think I know what they're up to.
So, here's the deal with the 4400. Watch the first season. If you like, it, the rest of the series will prove to be worth it. If you can force yourself to get through the first season and are unsure, or maybe just hate Laura Allen, I mean her character. No, I think I actually mean her. If you can hold on just a little longer, the show will change for the better and you will be rewarded. If you can't make it through that first season, it's okay. I understand. Try giving Alphas a shot, it's actually quite good from the very beginning. And yeah, Summer Glau is in both, so you'll be okay on that front.

The 4400 at IMDb

Friday, August 23, 2013

The 4400 Season 4 Disk 3:

Episode 9: Daddy's Little Girl
Summer Glau! I was just mentioning not even an hour ago that I wanted her to come back to the show. I should have said it yesterday. Tess is back, but she's kind of broken since she's not been on her meds. She imagines that she's at her sweet 16 party and holds a diner full of people hostage making them dance to songs on the jukebox. Not a bad little storyline at all.
Another one of the original 4400 regulars is back, too. Richard comes to Promise City to meet with Isabelle and then kidnaps her and tricks her into drinking this water that has been changed by a 4400 that makes her grow younger both physically and mentally. He wants to have a normal life with her so that she can grow up normally instead of aging 20 years physically in one night. That's pretty messed up when you think about what he's doing. He's taking an adult, albeit a 3 year old adult and forcing her against her will to be a child again, well for the first time really, but wiping away all of her memories, presumably including her knowledge which was literally encyclopedic.

Episode 10: One of Us
So (yes, I know I shouldn't start a thought off this way), looks like the showrunners have revealed their hand. The new plot device they shared with us a few episodes back about a group from the future who have taken control of the bodies of influential people to work against the 4400 has put into full action with one of them taking over Tom. Aside from the fact that he's now some crazy mad scientist, he's a lot more personable.
I'm guessing that the Marked (that's what these time traveling muckrakers are referred to as) were an idea that was going to be played out across a couple of seasons, but when finding out that they've been cancelled, they decided to spring them on us now.
The show did one very cruel and mean thing to me...they brought Laura Allen back, but thank god it was only for this episode. Probably. How mean, they give me Summer Glau one episode and then Laura Allen the next.

Episode 11: Ghost in the Machine
The thing about having the main character possessed by another person's will is that you will want to give the audience some satisfaction at some point by having the main character fight back and regain control of his own body.So, (there's that word again) if you spend episode 11 making the possessed Tom being more and more manipulative and evil and don't even show us a little hint that the old Tom is still there, what are you going to do in the final two episodes to show us a struggle and eventual victory of the protagonist? I have this funny feeling that they're going to skip that all together and have the other two main agents figure out a way to get him back. And we already know how they'll do it, since they have been telling us all season that a (roughly) 100 year old book has a list of names of people that must take the promicon and it implies that they'll live through the ordeal.

Episode 12: Tiny Machines
Beware the nanite invasion! I'm positive that at least one other sf franchise has used the name nanites to describe self-replicating nanobots. I'm glad that it was finally revealed to us how the Marked took over Tom and the others. It was a bit predictable since when I brought the season 4 dvds home I read the episode names. There aren't too many things that 'tiny machines' can refer to in this context.
The shooting has started. I guess I should be impressed that they were able to wait until the second to last episode before steeping into the fracas. They did start wrapping up some of the characters story lines, like Tess and Kevin, which means I am unlikely to see Summer Glau in the final episode, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I would like to say that they managed to dazzle me with a twist I didn't see coming, but they didn't. They also did disappoint me by missing any steps. Predictable but good quality television is something I can live with.

The 4400 at IMDb

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The 4400 Season 4 Disk 2

Episode 5: Try the Pie
This was a building episode, laying the groundwork for things to come. We had Maya back in the story, so that was good I guess, except that the actress still kind of gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is about her, but she gets the hair on the back of my neck standing up sometimes. Weird.
The road map for the rest of the show has been laid out in this episode. Sure, I have the advance knowledge that the show was not coming for a fifth season, but I think even without that, I would have known. It is much better to know for sure though, since I have hope that they actually will wrap the show up, where if I was watching this when it aired I would be afraid that they were just going to drag it on forever.
Based on the name of the episode and the fact that this show is set largely in Washington state, I was hoping for a nod to Twin Peaks, and maybe I got a little one when Tom finally ate a piece of the pie and as he finishes turns to the room and calls for a cup of coffee. Kind of weak if it was a nod, likely my just wanting to see a connection.

Episode 6: The Marked
This episode kind of rocked. It reminded me of the Lone Gunmen episodes of the X-Files, whacky and conspiracy filled and in fact so whacky that what they would claim was going on made a warped kind of sense. Not the confused with the series spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which was for the most part, lame.
This was the introduction of a conspiracy of agents sent back from the future to battle against the 4400. The revelation was handled in a pretty unique way, I thought. One of the 4400s makes really bad movies - he writes them, directs them and stars in them. He claims that his ability is manifested while writing the scripts and that the movies are real, in which case he revealed where Jimmy Hoffa was married and the real assassin who killed JFK. The movies look so awful that even Mystery Science Theatre 3000 wouldn't watch them. But, like several of the regulars, i would so watch every one.
The drawback to this episode was that the revelation of the conspiracy was somewhat heavy-handed. The X-Files took three years to reveal what the 4400 did in 20 minutes or so. How are we going to be drawn in if they give away a lot of their secrets at the start? Wait and see, I suppose.

Episode 7: Till We Have Built Jerusalem
I appreciate when a series focuses on telling a story and uses elements from earlier seasons, proving that they weren't just a throw-away plot device. What I really like is when they reward me by not wasting time explaining something that I already know. It's like my fanboydom gets to be it's own reward.
I know that this is episode 7 and there are 13 episodes in the final season. While this was probably the best episode this season thus far, I have to wonder about why it happened so early. There was a confrontation between the government and the 4400 and both sides showed their hands, albeit a brief peak, to the viewers. I hope that they don't do what a lot of shows do after a big episode and just give me a couple of throw away episodes, but I have to wonder what they are going to fill up the last half of the season with. Obviously, my promicon ability is not seeing the future.

Episode 8: No Exit
Remember that bit above where I was fearing that since ep 7 was a big episode relatively early in the season that they were going to give me a throw-away episode next? Totally called it. Wished I'd been wrong.
I was hoping with a name like 'No Exit' that there would at least be allusions to Sartre's play, but instead we got a literal interpretation. In some respects, I am willing to concede that there was a slight similarity to the play, but really it's only in the set up. In the play, we discover that hell is other people, in the episode we discover that people we didn't like really aren't too bad when a building is trying to kill us. That, and Tom has a little ting for his boss, but mostly the first bit.
I've got to say that if my ability were to trap people in a game like scenario while we were asleep so that they would lean to work together, I would feel totally ripped off. I guess if it could be just a game that was cooked up from our collective subconsciousness (esseses) that might be cool, but only if I knew going in that death in the game did not mean death in the real world. Still, it's an ability I would want my friend to get, not me, because it's a pretty lame ability.

The 4400 at IMDb

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The 4400 Season 4 Disk 1

Episode 1: The Wrath of Graham
W00t! I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to finish this series, but thanks to the wonderful librarians at Dora Library (one of the member libraries of the Coos County Library Service District).
It's 3 months after the end of season 3, coincidentally the length that the show was on Summer break. Literally nothing has changed at the beginning of the episode until we meet the new head of NTAC who is conveniently an attractive blonde roughly Agent Tom's age. Everyone who was going to go do something has come back, and Tess runs off because she's off her meds and not dealing well with Schizophrenia at all.
We finally get to see what Jordan Collier's power is, though it's already implied that he's immortal. It turns out that he has the ability to take the powers away from people who were not 4400s but had injected with promicon.
I'm excited because it was terribly melodramatic, focused on 3 stories and used lots of extras. You can tell how well a network it backing a show by how many extras they use for crowd scenes. The crowds in this episode actually looked like crowds.

Episode 2: Fear Itself
The show is still using the double opening format. You would think by their fourth season that they wouldn't need to explain the premise at the start of each episode. The start is the same as the previous three seasons, and now I understand why they chose not to focus on any of the characters during the credits rolling sequence - they can keep using it year after year.
This episode is very interesting. The main story is about an autistic child who has had promicon administered to him by his father in an attempt to combat the autism, or so the father claims. The kid survived the shot and develops a power that induces primal fear in people when he is feeling threatened. The dilemma is what to do about the kid who is not consciously doing this.
We also get the lowdown on Kyle's ability - that's right, he took the promicon during the break. Hey, I hear all the kids were doing it. I knew from the first episode that there was something different about the girl he met. I assumed she was a ghost, but in this episode she said she is his ability as it was being verified that only he could see her. I'm still holding out for her being a ghost, perhaps she is kind of his spirit guide, which would feed into the story arch they've spun for him for this season.

Episode 3: Audrey Parkers Comen and Gone
One of the things I like about this show is that not all of the 4400 or the people who took the promicon injections are young and pretty. Actually, so far this season has largely been about the people who took promicon. This episode is about an elderly woman with debilitating arthritis that developed the ability to project her astral form to anywhere she wanted. She uses this to do good, and when she is murdered later, uses it to tell the NTAC crew who the killer is. She and Diane bond as Diane sees the life that could have been.
They are keeping their focus with three stories an episode, two of them always closely intertwined. I might be making it sound a bit formulaic, but I am not speaking to what happens in the stories, just that they are continuing to use a narrower focus, that stylistically is a much more effective manner of telling their stories. We get enough time with each story to care about what is going on. Fortunately we've been spared the melodrama so far, but that is likely due to the absence of Laura Allen as much as anything. Actually, most of the regular 4400s are gone, just Sean and Jordan. Diana's daughter, Maya, was in the episode where she comes back, but only a very minor bit and not in this one. Having the use of a 4400 ability be illegal has allowed them to shuffle up the cast.

Episode 4: The Truth and Nothing but the Truth
Diane has come back to search for her sister, April. So far, all we knew is what we saw at the end of the last season when she had gotten the promicon. Now she pops up and she obviously survived and has the ability to make people tell the truth. So, of course she uses it to find out the dirt on people so that she and her boyfriend can blackmail them. As you would guess if you had watched the show from the start, April is going to find a way to screw things up. Which she does. But, Diane fixes it.
This episode kept it's focus, but wrapped up the Diane/April arch, pretty much writing April out of the show, though leaving it open for the occasional visit. We got some melodrama in the Kyle storyline and I predict more because he is now pitted against his dad, well sort of. There are going to be lots of arguments about Kyle taking promicon which Tom now knows about and Kyle has to convince Tom to take promicon based on the book he and Isabelle have been translating. It might go okay, but it might go totally South. I know that the show didn't get picked up for a fifth season and I guess you really can never know why a show falls out of favor, but I think you can guess. I think they dropped Laura Allen because people were not happy with her character and storyline. They made other changes that really brought the show around. It will be a shame if slipping back into the old ways is what got them cancelled, but will also be a valuable lesson to anyone trying to write a show for broadcast television. If you want to write something more complicated, with more characters, you need more time because if you rush it, it will end up that the audience doesn't care about any of them.

The 4400 at IMDb

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Goldeneye (1995)

I'm not quite sure how I missed this movie. Could it be that the only time I've ever fallen asleep in a movie theater was while watching the opening of Brosnan's 007 in Die Another Day (2002)? I guess that came after this one, but you can understand why I wasn't in a hurry to rent this one. If this wasn't part of my Famke-Film-Extravaganza (FFE) I wouldn't have watched it now. No disrespect meant to Mr. Brosnan whom I actually liked as Bond, but once Daniel Craig came along with Casino Royale, none of teh earlier Bonds did anything for me. To be honest, I don't mind the Brosnan or the Timothy Dalton Bonds now, it is just they are more comic booky than I like in a spy film, which is kind of ironic coming from me. I don't think you could pay me enough money to sit through a Roger Moore Bond film and the only way I would put myself through a Sean Connery Bond flick is if I had the right motivation, like a bunch of martinis and a pretty lady.
Speaking of Sean, Sean Bean is the bad guy in this movie. It's nice to look back and see what he was doing pre-Lord of the Rings, much in the same way it's fun to see what Famke was doing when she wasn't playing Jean Grey. I know I've said this before, but he needs to get his named worked out. It needs to be either pronounced "Shon Bon" (like a bon-bon but more rugged) or as "Seen Bean" as in, "Have you seen my grean bean?" This having it both ways is a little too much to ask.
Famke's character Onatop was, um, interesting. She was pretty much the main bad ass in the film. And if someone is going to kill you, being crushed to death by her thighs would not be the worst way to go. Onatop didn't seem to have the most consistent accent throughout the flick and I'm going to blame that on how much make-up she was wearing. I knew that Fameke was playing Onatop going in, but she was young enough and wearing enough make-up that it was a couple of minutes before I recognized her.
Judi Dench was great as M. I don't think I had realized just how long she had been playing the character. Or, that 20 years ago she looks almost exactly like she does now, perhaps a bit more white where she was grey, but alarmist exactly the same.
This was an okay film. Not a ringing endorsement, I know. But, as far as pre-Craig Bond movies go, it was pretty good. You can actually see that they've taken Bond away from the Mooreian Bond and ahd started the slide towards the Craigsian Bond.

Goldeneye at IMDb

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Falling Skies Season 2 Disk 3

Episode 8: Death March
In episodic stories, there are two approaches that are generally used to tell the story. One is to create a formula that will be used for the majority of the episodes and create a variation for most of the others allowing for a second formula to be used for special occasions like holiday episodes. This is what sitcoms do and most procedural law enforcement and court shows. It is a time tested way of creating a certain caliber of show, and if you're lucky that caliber is high. The other method is to mix it up with every episode, where some things might stay the same, while the style changes. This works best for stories of a limited span, like television shows with a short season - that way every episode can seem fresh - or comic book mini and maxi series (4 to 12 issues). I like both formats just fine, each has it's own pros and cons, but if the latter kind can be pulled off well, it keeps me more engaged in the story.
Earlier I mentioned the suspense/thriller technique of allowing the audience to remain  a half-step ahead of the characters so that we can worry longer over what will befall them. Related to that technique is taking that half-step away so that we know what they know which the audience to have its emotions manipulated at the same time as the characters are having theirs manipulated. This kind of story works particularly well when the end of the arc is the opposite emotion from the one we've been herded towards for most of the episode, and for it to work properly, it must be a surprise to the audience. Sometimes you build them up just to knock them down, but the opposite, like they used in this episode, works well, too - you tear them down and step on them just to come through at the end.

Episode 9: The Price of Greatness
With the main character being a professor of American history, I expected that sooner or later there would be an overtly political episode, drawing corollaries between the situation in the show, the American Revolution and the cu rent political environment. I kind of assumed that the current political environment would be that of the U.S. which they have by showing us a situation more similar to what is happening in Egypt or Libya.
The leader of Charleston is Tom's mentor, a published and well respected historian, Manchester< that wants to build up the new country away from the eyes of the alien which is achieved by never confronting them. Opposed to him is General Max Headroom, ok not really his name it's just that he's played by the same actor, Matt Frewer, who wants to take the fight to the aliens. Add a kid into the mix who purports to be representing the leader of the Skitter rebellion (I'm pretty sure I just used a racist term against the aliens there) and we're set up with all kinds of grabbing for power that intentionally or not shows Manchester to be more interested in retaining power than ruling the Charlestonians well, while the gung ho General is kind of afraid to be gung ho.
To me it clearly seems that Manchester is being set up to be the bad guy as we see him bribing, or more accurately attempting to bribe, members of the 2nd Mass to get dirt on Tom. Manchester's answer is that he must preserve the state at all costs, even when it comes to rounding up all so-called dissidents, "just in case". This is a thought that crosses my mind all of the time - what happens if Occupy Wall Street movement gets going again and an over-zealous police force cracks down hard and someone loses their life? How long before the political parties, on both sides, mobilize their people and we have rallies and counter rallies exacerbated by issues of racial and economic inequality? How long before the rally is a riot and people start dying? Does the military step in at that point, just like in one after another country in the Middle East and Eastern Europe before it? If it does, will the military be acting on behalf of the civilian government or will it have taken over the civilian government? I'm not too worried about this scenario, most Americans are far too lazy to attend rallies, not to mention apathetic. Yay laziness and apathy???

Episode 10: A More Perfect Union
Knowing the personal relationships between certain characters in the show, I expected title of the season finale was going to be a double entendre about settling the political issues in Charleston and one of the couples getting married. Well, I was wrong. I'm actually not sure where things stand on either one of those fronts, as this was predominately an action episode and they covered as much ground in the war against alien invaders as they have in the rest of the season put together.
While the seasonal arc and the Charleston arc both reached conclusion, many of the character arcs are setting up for next season. The powers that be decided to end this season in as big of, if not bugger than cliffhanger than they did season 1. They went to great effort with a large number of F/X shots for this episode and we got to see some cool stuff that we hadn't seen before. But, there was a trade-off of less time spent on the dramatic and emotional stories. I guess that can be a drawback of using different storytelling mechanisms in each episode, that I might not like one or more, whereas I realize that other members of the audience may have felt this was the best yet. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but to leave so much hanging for another year or whenever it is I get a chance to watch the third season...well, I guess that is the point of a cliffhanger to make sure that the audience will return.

Falling Skies on IMDb

Friday, August 16, 2013

Falling Skies Season 2 Disk 2

Episode 5: Love and Other Acts of Courage
I took a couple of days off from watching this season to watch some movies and to not feel so, um, pre-weepy for a couple of days. I watched the first disk over two days instead of one which allowed me a little more time to reflect on it. I'm at the point where I have become emotionally invested in the story and it's characters. This is what good stories do, they make you, or perhaps the better terminology is, allow you to care about the characters in enough intensity that it transcends the amount of time spent viewing/listening/reading the story. A good story also provide an amplified intensity of the emotions you're feeling that you don't typically get from entertainment across the various media. Some stories make you laugh, this one makes me hold my breath and get all dewey-eyed. Aside from maybe some more of the laughing bit, I don't think I can really ask for a story to do more for me.

Episode 6: Homecoming
Sometimes the best part of a story is that you, the reader/viewer/listener, know what's going to happen but the characters in the story do not. Really good thrillers work this way, whether they're psychological, emotional or physical or more likely some combination of these. This is akin to foreshadowing but typically less subtle as the storyteller had to make sure that you know something is going to happen that the characters don't. Though, I suppose if it's told well, even if the audience misses the hints, the story is still suspenseful, because now they are identifying with the characters who also did not see it was coming. I think for great stories, while this technique may be applied from the beginning, it is put to best use once you have a vested interest in the bad thing, whatever is being built up towards, not happening. The technique is applied as the action builds until it reaches it's crescendo, whether that be the high point of the section or of the whole story arc, and then it is dropped immediately after the big reveal so that the audience can commiserate with the characters. Often this is the point where the storyteller may give the audience one last glimpse of how, let's say, the missing character's return is worse than just the sour homecoming we've have witnessed.

Episode 7: Molon Labe
I have to assume that the name of this episode must be the name of one of it's characters, and since I know the names of all of the human resistance it must therefore be the name of one of the aliens. Look at me all mixing up my inductive and deductive reasoning skills to arrive at some conclusion which I will assume is correct until I check it on Wikipedia, which won't be until I'm caught up with the series of which I am fully one season behind on at this point.
I enjoy stories that while episodic in nature has a larger story arc and the accompanying structure in place. Some series have multiple arcs going - the arc of the episode, a several episode arc, a seasonal arc meaning the current season of the show and a show arc. It seems fairly rare in American television to have more than two of these occurring in the same series, especially the show arc because most shows get cancelled instead of planning on going for a set number of shows and then stopping. Falling Skies has evidence of all four types of arcs in play, the only time will bare out if the show arc pans out or not. All I do know is that so far, so good.

Falling Skies on IMDb

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Falling Skies Season 2 Disk 1

Episode 1: Worlds Apart
...and, they're back. I've really been looking forward to this dvd and viewing the second season of Falling Skies. My life is seriously lacking in science fiction and fantasy television series. And let's not even get into whether what I get is good or not. I think if I restrict myself to good sf/f television shows, I get this, Game of Thrones and possibly Alphas depending upon my mood (there is that new show that is set in St. Louis, but I still haven't seen it). I guess supernatural falls under sf/f, so Walking Undead would be included, too. That's not just the good shows I have access to, but pretty much all the shows i have access to. I do mean currently in production shows, as I can go back and rewatch some classics, I suppose. I've heard tales of some British show with like a time-traveling surgeon or something. Those Brits, they're all a little loopy.
We don't really pick up right where we left off, but three months after the end of last season and the flashback to the intervening time and situation. When I first saw the words "three months later" I was worried about what the aliens would have done to Tom in that time, but we learn that he was with them for only a few days, maybe a week, and most of that time they were ignoring him or zapping him.
There is some suspicious stuff going on, like as soon as he gets back, the aliens change tactics and start tar getting vehicles - the first one being hit was the vehicle Tom was transported back to camp with after he rehooked up with his boys, literally and metaphorically. My first thought is, "why wouldn't the aliens put a tracking device on his person? they would be stupid not to.". You can't tell me that with the aliens access to human's memories that they haven't come across someone's memory of a procedural show where they track the culprit via her cell phone or plant a tracking device in the suitcase of money before giving it to the kidnappers. At least we had Pope mentioning this suspicion at the end.

Episode 2: Shall We Gather at the River
I do not want aliens putting biomechanical bugs in my eye. Or any other kind of bug in my eye. Or in me anywhere. Just as long as we're clear on that.
Maybe the aliens had placed a tracking device in Tom, maybe not. If you're just going to track, why make the bug capable of leaving its target and going back to base, so to speak. We know the aliens like use hybrids, but they have no problem using a machine when a machine is what is needed. And you don't need anything more than a simple transmitter if you're tracking someone. Ergo, they were doing something else.
This show is complex running both the short and long game simultaneously across multiple fronts. But, it's not complicated. If you look at each part of the show, Tom's story or Bens's story, etc. they are simple and easy to recognize. That's part of that makes this show so good. The same things goes for Game of Thrones, the whole damned thing is complex, but look at each character and her story and it's not complicated.
I also really like that this show has a memory. Several times in these first two episodes, specific characters who died last season have been mentioned in a natural way. People talk about shared memories and acquaintances, in fact when it comes to people, most of us have a tale or two to share with people who never knew the person we are talking about. I dislike it when television shows forget this and try to make the characters ones that we can't identify with because they don't resemble us at all.

Episode 3: Compass
And lo the great producer said, "With this hand I shall give you hope." and our eyes did behold a beauteous angel with news of a far off land. "But," the might one continued, "with this hand I shall break your heart." and our eyes did behold the demise of a beloved boy, cut down before his time and there was much crying.
So, Tom called Pope an asshole. Is he even allowed to say that word on television? I mean it's not like this show is on pay cable or something. Actually, I know that broadcast television has a code of standards and censors because they are regulated by the FCC, but basic cable, I think that technically falls under the same rules as the premium channels. I must be wrong about this, now that I take a second to grok it out. If the basic cable channels had the same rules as the premium channels, you know that MTV would have long ago become MFTV with all of their reality shows, and pro wrestling wouldn't have the girls top pulled off just as the referee steps between her and the camera. Anyways, I digress. Pope has been the one raising the ruckus about Tom not being trustworthy since the eye incident last time. Which I think is going to turn out to be smoke and mirrors as things with Ben are pointing towards him being the one the aliens are tracking. We'll see...unless there are bio-mechanical insects in our eyes, then all bets are off.

Episdoe 4: Young Bloods
What is the earth's population, around seven billion give or take? We've got a group of less than 200, heading towards a group rumored to be around 3000. Let's say that represents the Eastern seaboard, so maybe another 3000 on the Westcoast and 3000 in the central regions. Add in another 1000 for all the small little bands and individuals roaming around the continent and you maybe have 10,000 for North America. If you are generous and say that each continent did as well, you have 60,000 people, let's kick in another 10,000 to be optimistic in this scenario and you have 70,000 remaining from 7,000,000,000 and that means 1 in 100,000 people survive. I don't see much chance of beating the aliens, well unless we still have Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, then we will totally kick the alien's ass.
Dan has to face the difficult choice of having his daughter still alive but not with him, ain't never gonna be with him versus her being dead. Of course the first one is the best option, no question, but it's a lot more painful. I'm sure he'd come to terms with her being dead and then to have good fortune of her stepping back into his life for a day ors so rips that all up. Of course there is always the chance that the writers, I mean the fates, will bring them back together.

Falling Skies on IMDb

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Oblivion (2013)

What was I saying just the other day about not many good science fiction options for television? Well, thank god that is not true for movies. Now that I think about it, two of the best I've seen that are non-franchise, i.e. don't have sequels, star Tom Cruise, those being Minority Report and this film, Oblivion. Sure I'm still basking in the afterglow of our little encounter, but this was a damned fine film.
There are only six speaking parts in this film and maybe five or six dozen other parts.  There is a lot of very high quality computer effects for droids and space/aircraft. And that is all it needed. I've got to say that there are a couple of sequences where Jack (Tom Cruise) is flying his vehicle and shooting and I was thinking that I bet George Lucas wishes he could have had this tech to make Star Wars. And then I worried for a moment, waiting to sense a tremor in the force. I was afraid that by thinking this simple but true thought that Lucas would pick up on it and decide to do a Ultimate Special Ninja Turtle version of Star Wars: A New Hope, the version where Luke on his way to Toshe Station runs into former Galactic Senator named Jar-Jar Binks. To the dark side this path leads... But, I remembered that Lucas sold the franchise to Disney.Disney has no soul, so I don't need to worry about it picking up on my vibes. You doubt me about the soul bit? If they had a soul, how could they keep all those movies locked away in the vault, only to haul them out when Scrooge McDuck needed to fill his money swimming pool with new money? Also, John Carter. I'm sorry, I put close to $300 million into a project and I'm not going to call it a flop on opening weekend, especially when with worldwide sales I mad my money back. Bastards...
Anywho... The movie is solid. I found the story predictable in a couple of instances that I won't spoil for you dear readers. Let it suffice to say that as a fan of sf films I was able to correctly ascertain where they were going with a couple of things, but that in no way diminished my entertainment. In fact knowing how one thing goes sets up the ending to be even more appropriate.
Hmm. Tom Cruise. Light sabres. I'm sending out the vibes to Mr. Cruise right now... Not for the next film, because that one is going to be Star Wars 7: Jar-Jar and R2-D2's Summer Vacation, but SW8 doesn't suck yet. Depending on when it's set, Cruise could play the Jedi guy from the games, and Famke Janssen could play Mara Jade. Oh man, this could be awesome! Also, watch Oblivion. It's pretty good, too.

Oblivion on IMDb

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Hudson Hawk (1991)

I watched this the first time when I was a kid. Well, if being college aged counts as being a kid. During my senior year of college, I had an apartment that had cable, and while now the first thing that pops to mind is how I managed to get any school work done at all, I recall that I saw this movie on t.v. and not from a video I rented. I certainly know that the version I saw had no profanity in it, whereas the theatrical release has the dialogue peppered with it. This  is neither good nor bad, just really obvious because the version in my memory had the language dubbed over.
I never thought of this as a great movie, but I was fond of it. It is pretty much your typical Bruce Willis fair, an action film with elements of comedy and romance strewn about throughout the course of the film. Like I said, not great, but completely enjoyable. I was really concerned that the Suck Fairy would have come and made this unbearable to watch. But, maybe she only visits films you watched before the age of 18 or something along those lines, because I think that I actually liked it better this evening than I did 20 years ago.
There ar really a couple of things worth commenting about, first, this film gets all meta a couple of times, including right at the end where highly unlikely things are explained by something equally as unlikely, all of which happened off camera, and second, David Caruso looking much younger and thinner than he would very shortly in NYPD Blue plays one of the bad guys - I kept looking at his face and thinking that he seemed really familiar and then finally figured it out.
As far as corny action flicks go, this is certainly one of, if not the best Bruce Willis vehicle and maybe one of the better ones starring anybody.

Hudson Hawk on IMDb

Monday, August 12, 2013

I-Spy (2002)

I had seen this movie right after it came out and would only watch it again so that I could continue my Famke-Film-Extravaganze (FFE), which is s good enough reason but only barely. I didn't remember the film being as annoying as it was. In my memory the banter between Eddie's and Owen's characters was much more witty. Everything else was pretty much as I recall, though I did notice this time that the song/rap over the closeting credits totally disses Arsenio Hall and in a movie starring Eddie Murphy, there is no way that it was coincidental. The question is whether or not Eddie knew about it and if he cared. That probably happened in post production or whenever they add the credits so maybe Eddie was just as surprised as me when he heard it in the song as the credits rolled.
Owen Wilson did this movie in between the two films with Jackie Chan in the Shanghai series, but essentially it's the same character, which is a slightly less annoying version of the character he plays in all the films he is in with Vince Vaughn. He's the amiable screw-up who accidentally gets the job done in spite of himself. The character is self-questioning and self-loathing one minute until he gets someone to build him up a little bit then he's all cock-of-the-walk. He's not that guy in the Wes Anderson films, so I am still holding out hope that he's a cool guy, though his character in the Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris is pretty much this character, but with, if you can imagine it, even more talking. I do think that Owen's character is actually particularly suited for this movie to play opposite of Eddie's character who is egotistical and confident in the extreme. I also think that this character type, being Owen's not Eddie's, grinds at me a little bit more than it should because of my own lack of confidence - seeing someone who can so easily overcome his own is galling, because it's arbitrary and comedic, not earned through hardwork. Or like, you know, whatever.
Let's be honest, the only reason to watch this film is Famke. There, I've said it. She was super hot when this came out when she was 37, and she was super hot in Taken 2 which came out when she was 47 (I know it's not polite to say, but she's 48 now). Granted that I may be crushing a little bit, but I actually thought her acting was really good. Actually, I think this every time I see her and a number of other actors - they're attractive women who are good actors, but are limited by Hollywood to the roles that are concerned with the former and not the latter. My great hope is that as they age, they are afforded the opportunities of the Meryl Streeps, Susan Sarandons and Sally Fields, or almost any British actor.

I-Spy on IMDb

Saturday, August 10, 2013

I-Spy (2002)

I had seen this movie right after it came out and would only watch it again so that I could continue my Famke-Film-Extravaganza (FFE), which is s good enough reason but only barely. I didn't remember the film being as annoying as it was. In my memory the banter between Eddie's and Owen's characters was much more witty. Everything else was pretty much as I recall, though I did notice this time that the song/rap over the closting credits totally disses Arsenio Hall and in a movie starring Eddie Murphy, there is no way that it was coincidental. The question is whether or not Eddie knew about it and if he cared. That probably happened in post production or whenever they add the credits so maybe Eddie was just as surprised as me when he heard it in the song as the credits rolled.
Owen Wilson did this movie in between the two films with Jackie Chan in the Shanghai series, but essentially it's the same character, which is a slightly less annoying version of the character he plays in all the films he is in with Vince Vaughn. He's the amiable screw-up who accidentally gets the job done in spite of himself. The character is self-questioning and self-loathing one minute until he gets someone to build him up a little bit then he's all cock-of-the-walk. He's not that guy in the Wes Anderson films, so I am still holding out hope that he's a cool guy, though his character in the Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris is pretty much this character, but with, if you can imagine it, even more talking. I do think that Owen's character is actually particularly suited for this movie to play opposite of Eddie's character who is egotistical and confident in the extreme. I also think that this character type, being Owen's not Eddie's, grinds at me a little bit more than it should because of my own lack of confidence - seeing someone who can so easily overcome his own is galling, because it's arbitrary and comedic, not earned through hard work. Or like, you know, whatever.
Let's be honest, the only reason to watch this film is Famke. There, I've said it. She was super hot when this came out when she was 37, and she was super hot in Taken 2 which came out when she was 47 (I know it's not polite to say, but she's 48 now). Granted that I may be crushing a little bit, but I actually thought her acting was really good. Actually, I think this every time I see her and a number of other actors - they're attractive women who are good actors, but are limited by Hollywood to the roles that are concerned with the former and not the latter. My great hope is that as they age, they are afforded the opportunities of the Meryl Streeps, Susan Sarandons and Sally Fields, or almost any British actor.

I-Spy on IMDb

Friday, August 09, 2013

Taken 2 (2012)

How is it that I always forget about Famke? She acted in a lot of movies I like, playing both hero and villain. Each and every time I make a mental about how attractive she is and how weird it is I always forget her. I don't think she's forgettable. She a good actor and has played one of my favorite characters in her cinematic portrayal. Famke, please forgive me. I'll make amends by watching the X-Men films again soon, or maybe I can track down that one you did with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy, and then I'll watch that.
Now, I don't forget Liam Neeson. As soon as I heard this movie was out on DVD I asked the librarian if he was in it and she assured me that he was. I didn't know what the plot was but recall thinking that if his daughter gets kidnapped a second time that it was just bad parenting. But, no matter how lame it was I would give it a try because it has Liam in it. And it totally does not suck.
I've often wondered what happened after the action movie is over. All of the so-called bad guys that die have families. Maybe the family doesn't know what their dead son did for a living. Maybe they thought he was just hanging out with his friends when some crazy ass American dude came along and killed them all. Or possibly they knew but were in denial or cared about the now dead son in spite of drawbacks. In some cases the families might condone or even encourage his participation in whatever ended up getting him killed. They are still going to be torn up over the young man's death. I think many times the families would want revenge. Though, if they were rational about it, some man who could on his own take out your son and his whole group of friends is either very lucky or very good. Either way, you would at the very least hedge your bets. You would not do what the baddies do in this film.

Taken 2 at IMDb

Thursday, August 08, 2013

The 4400 Season 3 disk 4

Episode 11: Terrible Swift Sword
This episode was a little more reminiscent of the classic 4400 because the main story had a lot of fuzzy edges, but it was still coherent. The minor story line is still Diana secretly dating her sister's very recently ex boyfriend. The minor story is so repetitive, I was bored with it last episode. My only hope is that they're using it to endear this guy to us so they can do horrible things to him.
This episode was made better by Summer Glau.
The story is getting rather complex, well, relative to this show. With Collier back and working towards a goal that he is literally willing to sacrifice thousands of lives for, it's hard to tell when he's lying because he at times is telling all parties exactly what they want to hear no matter how contradictory it seems.
Kyle is back as a player, but they're using him differently so it has not been bad so far.

Episode 12: Fifty-fifty
This was a nice season finale. They wrapped up all the season-long arcs, most of them the way you thought they would go, but not all. Some characters, particularly Tom and Richard, were asked to make the big decision and they did, even the consequences didn't turn out to be what they thought they were going to be, which is actually good since even though they were both ready to kill, and I guess tried to, they didn't. Some characters got broke in this episode and one got fixed. But mostly, the characters did what they said they were going to do which was completely expected for most, but I wasn't sure if Collier's game was straight up or not. Turns out it was.
This final episode isn't really a cliffhanger and I think one can get some closure to the series treating this as 'the' final episode - which I only mention because the library system does not have the final season so this might be it for me. Oh sure, I could inter-library-load it, but I'm not willing to spend the $3 when there are lots of other mediocre shows out there that I can watch for free. Maybe I'll just start putting in requests to the library that had these first three seasons to see if they will pick it up sometime. Of course I've been doing that with season 4+ of Doctor Who for a couple of years now and they still haven't done it. But, I get it, maybe I'm the only one requesting it (okay, so I actually know that I'm not) and they are expensive. I just need to find someone that owns it and wants to donate it to the library, or to me, heck they could just lend it to me.

The 4400 at IMDb

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

The 4400 Season 3 disk 3

Episode 7: Blink
I have to remind myself when watching this, that they are not ripping Alphas, that the 4400 aired several years before Alphas even went into planning. There is an episode of Alphas that I thought was groundbreaking in the way it portrayed a drug derived from an Alpha that ended up with several people killing themselves under the influence. Well, guess what, they totally ripped it off from the 4400. I can't even say that they did a better job with it.
This is actually one of the better episodes of the 4400. It's focused. The main story is Tom and Diana being dosed against their will with a hallucinogenic drug, and the minor story is Shawn dealing with the fallout of having sex with Isabelle. Tom and Diana interacted, but also had their own personal story lines. This was great. Each story was given enough time to develop, and while not groundbreaking cinema, each story not only got a decent amount of development, they all received conclusions appropriate to the arc of the episode which may mainly or majorly affect the larger arcs of this season.
Since this was the seventh episode of the third season and it's the first really solid episode, I hold out little hope that there is more to come. I guess the real surprise is that the show lasted four seasons.

Episode 8: The Ballad of Kevin and Tess
Summer Glau! Summer Glau! Summer Glau!
I guess there might have been some other people in the episode, too. Actually, there is a bit of a trend going on as they picked three stories again and only went with them. It wasn't quite as tight as the Blink episode, but it was one of their better efforts. Plus, Summer Glau!

Episode 9: The Starzi Mutation
Kudos to the 4400. This was another good episode. It was tight, and only had two storylines going on, which were fully developed and nicely executed. The shows seems to be stepping away from the melodrama somewhat this season and going more towards the mystery-suspense-drama much like the way the X-Files were handled.
I think this whole season has been significantly better than the first two, and the second part of it here is better than the first part of it. I guess part of it might be that they got rid of the two actors that were really annoying me every time they were on screen, but also because they are putting some effort into actually developing the characters beyond name, rank and special ability.

Episode 10: The Gospel According to Collier
"My messiah's back and you're going to be in trouble." Or something like that. Jordan is back, and thanks to Alanna being brought back he remembers who he is now. It will be interesting to see how this angle plays out - the man who has actually seen the catastrophe that the the 4400s were sent back to prevent. Visionary businessman as prophet, could be very interesting.
The other story line this time is Diana hooking up with her sister's boyfriend, whom Maia has seen her marrying. It raises some interesting questions about free will, which they briefly touch on at one point, but it mostly feels like a set up for something that is going to happen later, and I hope that something is not a lot of melodrama. I'm kind of getting used to this show not having very much of it.

The 4400 at IMDb

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

The 4400 Season 3 disk 2

Episode 3: Gone (Part 1)
Oh first there was a Maia, then no Maia, then there was. Any chance to quote Donovan, right? We don't get to learn Lindsey's power, but Tyler and wonder twins are pretty darn good candidates for Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children. People always underestimate hydrokinesis. or maybe they just haven't thought about it. In the Marvel comics universe, the characters that have control over it pretty much end up like portable fire hydrants. But in George R. R. Martin's Wild Card series, the girl with hydrokinesis can do what these kids did and suck all the water out of a human being if she is so disposed, fortunately since she's a hero, she only does it when it'er her life or their's.
I hope they're building up to something with Isabelle. She seems to powerful, to perfect. If the government knew about her, they wouldn't be letting the 4400 Center have her. It makes me wonder who Matthew is really working for, because we know it's not Jordan Collier because Matthew is one of the few people that know he is still alive and he doesn't want him back in the picture.

Episode 4: Gone (Part 2)
I guess the future heard my musings about Isabelle. It seems the Baldwin men are destined to be assassins. if Tom doesn' accidentally commit suicide before he gets the chance. That was a pretty ballsy leap of faith he made.
What I don't understand is if Isabelle was created by the future folk, why can't they create her perfect nemesis? Htey've shown that they're not afraid to mess with the timeline, so why don't they go back and kill Lily before I have to watch her in this series? I mean before she has Isabelle. Or, they could just not take her to begin with - send themselves a memo from the future. Maybe ther is some kind of space-time paradox that won't allow that, though it seems they could pluck the kids from wherever and whenever. It will be interesting to see the reasoning behind why it has to be Tom Baldwin that kills Isabelle. I hope they reveal it this season, or that I can somehow convince the library who got these to get season 4.

Episode 5: Graduation Day
Well just like that they reveal a major plot mystery and snuff it out 20 seconds later. The makers of the 4400, by which I mean the producers, writers and directors, don't have a very good take on suspense. For them it is all about the personal struggle. Kyle struggling to remember becoming an assassin and dealing with the fallout. Tom struggling with his 'future' mission to become an assassin. They spend so much time on showing these guys making their serious faces and running their hands through their hair that they can't really develop the backstory at all. What a shame. There are all of these interesting power struggles happening now and in the future and we're stuck watching these two get all angsty. If they're going to work that angle, why not go all the way and think up reasons for them to take their shirts off and prance about? I mean, they might as well go for it.

Episode 6: The Home Front
Again we are shown the hero who is considered by all to be a great patriot, sell out his country in hopes of saving his loved one. I'm saddened to see the Alanna character go as she was one of my favorites. The issue is exacerbated by how quickly they did this. It was done all super quick to make it fit.
There is no a new conspiratorial element to the story.

The 4400 at IMDb

Monday, August 05, 2013

The 4400 Season 3 disk 1

Episode 1: The New World
So, Isabelle is all grown up, literally in a moment and Lily ages 50 years in a minute. I wonder if this story came about because they couldn't get Laura Allen back, or if it was always planned. i think it must have been the former. At the end of season 2, Isabelle is grown up and presenting her nekkid self to Shawn, while Lily, still young and annoying is running around looking for her. I wonder why they killed off the character after doing this - it seems they could have worked with a suddenly older Lily.
So, the Nova group are terrorists because they made wheat grow in the desert.Gotcha. This whole story line could really rock or really suck. It is very reminiscent of what they did in Alphas, of course I know it's really the other way around, it's just that I watched Alphas first. I like the notion of a 4400 underground resistance that is both righteous and scary, and I like the notion of a government agency that will throw the Constitution out the window to protect 'normal' humans. We could so totally go down the X-Files path here and have some great commentary on society and politics. But, the 4400 is going to have to go more indepth on both accounts. As I mentioned before, this could be accomplished if they didn't try to do so much at once. Though, with people dying and getting disappeared, and the disappeared still out of the public eye *cough* Jordan Collier *cough* maybe they are thinning the field at least a bit.
It's nice to see Deputy Andy as the gruff, pessimistic NTAC agent. Though, now that I think about, he was playing this role first. Last season, we saw the actress that played Lupo on as Kyle's lab-partner-with-benegits for one episode. It just kind of makes me wish that they hadn't cancelled Eureka and that I'd rather be watching that. Even though it was as a sci-fi procedural with strong comic overtones, they handled the conspiracy element and long story arcs much better than the 4400 is doing. Not that I am not enjoying watching this show. I do like it, but let's be honest, without the sci-fi element I wouldn't be watching this - the stories aren't that strong and the acting isn't that good.

Episode 2: Being Tom Baldwin
So Shawn, pedophile much? Isabelle is like a year old, but in the body of a 20 year old. This has been established by all parties involved. What's moreso is that she's only been in this adult form for a month or so. Is this someone you should me hooking up with? It seems the answer on television and in the movies is always that the guy doesn't want to have sex, but the gal wants to so he has no choice in the matter. Perhaps this is only used for dramatic purposes or for moving the story along or perhaps a bit of wish fulfillment on the part of the writer. But, I kind of think that lots of guys really feel this way. Maybe it's a biological imperative that (most) men will shag anything offering it a chance to be shagged. I don't know what my hang-up is here. If both adults are consenting, then happy-happy-fun time, I don't think there is a requirement to have this consent be a good decision on either participants part. I guess I am bothered because the guys are always shown doing this, and if they don't then something is wrong with them (I'm talking about television/movie portrayals here). If you have a moral system that stops you, or personal choices or have different standards, you are somehow deficient. Meh.
I was wondering how long it would be before there was a 4400 with a mimic ability. I was wondering how they were goign to handle it, like would she or he physically change shape, or would it be trick of the light, or would it be psychological. They didn't go into that in the episode, not because they didn't ask, Tom does posit a possible theory for how it's accomplished, but they didn't go into it because they needed to study it first. What feels like a cop-out at first blush, is actually a very believable way to deal with it. If you don't know what it is, study it. I've got to say that every time I saw the double on screen or someone I thought might be an impostor, my thought was "doppledeaner".

The 4400 at IMDb

Saturday, August 03, 2013

The 4400 Season 2 disk 4

Episode 12:
In what universe does it make sense to split up a 12 episode season (all shows the same length) across 4 disks by going 4, 4, 3, 1? Was that because of all the extras packed on the final disk? Ya, I didn't think so. Dumbasses.
Nice to see that all complex situations can still be wrapped up in 45 minutes of t.v. There is a conspiracy that reaches all the way up the ladder at NTAC and Ryland just goes along with turning himself in. People have killed and been killed over it, and the dude thinks that he made the right decision - and all of his bosses signed off on it. So, why exactly did he just give himself up? I'm a little confused.
Kyle is "healed" of whatever caused him to to be a secret assassin. Good for him. I hope they lock him up and he no longer appears in future episodes.
We finally see what Richard's power is and we see an awful lot of a suddenly grown up Isabelle, in the very literal sense.
As predicted, Jordan Collier is not dead, just really hairy. I guess that means Kyle won't go to prison for killing him. Though, Kyle did "take out" a couple of NTAC agents, and I can't remember if that means he killed them or not. I hope that his taking out was enough to keep him taken out.
And finally, Marco gets some lovin' from Scouris, well, until creepy little daughter shows up and tells them all that the war has just begun.
Last but not least, we see Doctor Whack-a-mole injecting himself with the promiocin so maybe he'll get all super-powery now.
This seemed like a series wrap-up. All the loose ends were tidied up and taken care of. Every single ongoing story arc has some level of resolution. Sure, they tossed out a couple of provacative things, but they seem on the ridiculous side - just the kind of thing you might do if you didn't think your show was coming back. If I remember when I am done with all the seasons of this show, I will look into that. I don't want to check now and accidentally ruin something.
I am excited to start season 3, because I have it on very good authority that Laura Allen will be gone from the show. She assures me that this time it's for real. So, yay to losing the one thing that has stopped me from really buying into this show.


The 4400 at IMDb

The 4400 Season 2 disk 3

Episode 8:
This show is all about justice. Interestingly, they show the flip-side of justice as being forgiveness. They set up this false dichotomy of either seeing justice prevail or forgiving. They do and try to show the permutations, like in certain particular and personal instances you can mete out justice and forgive the person as long as you still punish them. When I think of the opposite of justice and the opposite of forgiveness, the other does not spring to mind. Opposed to justice, I see what, not injustice because using that term in this context wouldn't get me anywhere, but a kind of amoral favoritism. Opposed to forgiveness is spite. I think this episode would have been much more interesting had they not been running four stories simultaneously operating in this (to me) artificial justice-forgiveness spectrum and instead examined maybe two using the double para metrics of two spectrum's an dhow they intersect. I know. I'm asking way too much from this show or any other show.

Episode 9:
Finally the Kyle storyline is starting to get some play and while I'm sure it won't wrap up until the end of the season, I'm glad to see something other than him running around having flashbacks to stuff that I've already seen. While following up a lead on who might have sold that rifle that killed Collier, Diana says to the suspect's wife, "Where is he?" Wife responds with a generic Eastern European accent, "I only married Victor to get my green card. I don't know where he's at." Diana responds, "We know he left the country two weeks ago and went back to Puerto Rico." Seriously? An epidemiologist from the CDC on load to the NTAS (National Taskforce something something) and the boss lady who is working the case with her think that Puerto Rico is an another country? Also by the end of this interview, the wife's accent has shifted several times, at one point sounding vaguely Hispanic and at another point Russian. There is some bad writing going on here, not just as mentioned above, but the whole way they are going about following up leads is pathetic. Look, you can be a sci-fi police procedural and screw a little with the sci-fi aspect because, well, there is no real world precedent for it, but you can't fuck up the procedural part because you look lazy and stupid.
Is it ironic that the last episode was all about justice, or did the writers actually set us up to see the other side of agent Tom's personality? When it's not someone in Tom's family, he is blind justice incarnate, but as soon as he finds out that not only may Kyle have been involved in a murder, but finds pretty good circumstantial evidence, he puts everything on the line to get Kyle away to a foreign country. I'm okay with this hypocrisy, I mean as far as the character goes. I think it makes him more interesting. Now we have a man who wants justice to be served no matter the consequences or situation, except when it's someone he loves. Tom just got a whole lot more interesting.

Episode 10:
This was a particularly annoying episode. Laura Allen was one of the main players, and by players, I mean whiners. Her character has this kind of paranoia thing going on with regards to her daughter, and nobody takes her seriously, even when it really is something, which might actually explain some of her character's whining. Still annoying. Please note that I do know the difference between the actor and her character, what I don't know is how much of her annoyance-causing is her and how much the character. I suspect a fair amount of both.
The main thing going on in this episode is that something is effecting only the male 4400. Okay, I can buy that. But it's transmitted by a specific soundwave that only men can hear. That I can't buy. Maybe most men, or people of a certain age because of frequency. But, all the men and none of the women? Give me some science here, people. The effect being caused by a sound is integral to how it is resolved, so I get that. Now, they could have easily side-stepped this by any number of real or made-up scientific explanations. But they didn't. They suck.

Episode 11:
The 4400 are getting sick and losing their abilities. The government is invoking a quarantine law that allows NTAC to round up all the 4400s and hold them indefinitely in camps. Both sides are talking about a war, the 4400s are afraid of it, but will fight to stay free, and the government higher-ups are denying it. This season is finally getting good. Well, it has had it's moments, like when they took out Collier and almost revealed Kyle as the killer. This is a "to be continued" episode, so I don't know how long they will keep this up, but it now occurs to me that this show at least partially laid the groundwork for Alphas, where the government rounds up and imprisons every single one that they can't make work for them. I would really love to see this show transition into using longer story arcs on a more regular basis. I feel like they should be building on shows like the X-Files, where they are experiencing new and weird things all the time, but against a consistent backdrop that is ever developing as well. I think the folks running this show might have done better to maybe go with three ongoing story elements and really develop instead of the six or seven they have going, especially since a couple are just melodrama and have done very little to advance the story or character development.

Friday, August 02, 2013

The 4400 Season 2 disk 2

Episode 4:
Well, the DVD had this episode and ep 5 in the wrong order, so I watched 5 first and there is no point in watching this one since I already know the outcome to everything in it.

Episode 5:
It's been a long time between this and the last episode for me. Not that I wasn't enjoying this show, but I guess i get easily sidetracked. Somewhere in that time I watched a couple of seasons of other shows, some cable, some British and almost all of them were good. Now, I'm back to this show and I forgot how serious it was, with this weird vibe of comedy like Eureka! especially the opening and interlude music.
This show was trying to be an action, melodrama hybrid with the occasional funny slash quicky character, usually represented by the IT guy. Well, they go the melodrama part down pretty good. And I must admit that most of their action is not too cheesy. But some of the storylines are bugging the fuck out of me. That's right, I'm unleashing my full vocabulary on this mofo. The two are the whole son with black outs who has a thing going on with a professor and the crazy mom with the psychotic baby.
The blacking out son, also known as Kyle, reminds me of some of the characters in Veronica Mars where some of the characters are trying way too hard to portray teen-aged angst because they're actually in their late 20s. If the actor would tone it down just a bit, and maybe brush his hair once in a while, he would lose that annoying factor. But you know who is more annoying is the young professor who has taken a shine to him. One moment they're all talking about wild parties and the next she says him in her hallway outside of her apartment in the middle of the night and she's saying it's the weirdest thing she's ever seen. Really? You went to a college and now work at one, one where I might add that fraternizing with the students does not seem to be off-limits, and some student who has the hots for you is out in your hallway and that is super weird? Now, if she found him hiding in her bedroom closet dressed as Hitler in a tutu, holding a roasted turkey leg in one hand and gold fish bowl in the other with three very dead gold fish floating on the top and when you ask him what the fuck? he is all slurry with a bad Southern drawl, now that would be some weird shit.
Crazy mom and psycho baby. That kind of sounds like the title for this weeks most popular vid on youtube. I really do not care for the actress that plays Lily. I didn't like her in Awakened or Avakenings of whatever it was called - the show about the cop who is in one reality when he's awake and as soon as he goes to sleep he wakes up in the other reality - she was really annoying in that show. She has too acting speeds: whine and whiiiiiiiiiiiine. My theory is that she is either the daughter of one of the executive producers or is an incredible lay. Now the baby on the other end is cute and adorable, yadda, yadda, yadda, it's the story that they've built around that is annoying. She has all these crazy powers and wields them as if she were an adult in an infant's body. Which would be fine, mind you, if that is how they wrote the character. Instead, Isabella seems to be about as advanced as any six month old (never mind that the young actor playing her is obviously quite a bit older) yet she understands clomp ex, adult thoughts like convincing someone to commit suicide or lying to someone else by showing him the Nobel Prize ceremony. I don't buy that one bit.
I am totally willing to overlook all of the other little issues like since when did they teach agents of the CDC to use firearms and combat tactics? Or, how is it that the shooter takes at least four shots at Collier, at least two of which hit, but when Tom looks up at the killer, there is only one bullet hole in the glass? Or that the junkie girl is actually a secret hottie who can kick smack because the cute guy smiles at her.
For the record, scout's honor that I haven't read anything about this show, I don't think that Collier is dead.

Episode 6:
This was an interesting diversion, as we get to see Tom living a life that might have been with a woman that he literally just met. He isn't in the alternate world for just a short time, either, but spends more than eight years there and pretty much gets everything he could ever want, just the way he wants it, including a hot new wife, Alanna, who is the 4400 who has created the world. And it's all because the mysterious powers that be from the future think that his life is about to turn to shit, so they want him to have some warm fuzzy memories to fall back on, and maybe Alanna as well. It is an interesting way to write a love interest into the story with virtually no back-story or preparation at all, and because of that also a bit contrived. But, I think television needs more strong, intelligent women, so I'm all for it. Plus she's old my American television standards, and check this out, she's the love interest and she's not blonde. I dare you to look at American television shows and find me the love interest of the main character who is not blonde, yet not supposed to be 'ethnic'. The only exception to this rule, in fact the opposite of this rule is the sitcom format, where the spouses slash long time girlfriends slash whatever, always have dark hair and the bimbos, if applicable, have blonde hair.
Tom gets a glimpse of Kyle all bloodied and in the backseat of a police car that is definitely not part of the contrived reality (since we see him being all doctorly and cleaned up right after that). Tom doesn't do anything with this, in fact he thinks he might be hallucinating again by the way he is acting, so I guess the producers stuck that in so that we don't forget? That seems kind of condescending, but then I might not be their target audience (if I were we would have longer story arcs and more science and philosophy explaining why things have happened) and I guess when this came out they weren't making episodes with the thought that someone was going to sit down and go through a season in a week or so.

Episode 7:
The opening for this show is so weird. It has a typical beginning, showing scenes from previous episodes, then a bit of story, sometimes you get the "previously on 4400" and then a bit more story, but then they roll credits - it's like they have two opening sequences. And I know I have mentioned the music being off-putting, and I think that at the start of every episode, I feel like I'm watching the start of Quantum Leap.
The 4400 of the week in this episode is from Granite Pass, Oregon. I love when they make up small towns in places that I am familiar with. In this case, she starts off about six hours South of Portland (which actually does exist) which is just about Grants Pass. Granite Pass - Grants Pass, I think we know their motivation for the town's name. Though, the made up city is only 273 people, yet the downtown has a stop light and what was a thriving downtown before everyone died. Obviously, they have never been to small town Oregon. Later, someone in the info chain to our two government agents at the NTAS reports the 4400 "going West on 99", which is a real highway in Oregon, kind of. You've got 99E and 99W so I'm guessing that the writer saw the W and made the mistake of thinking it meant the highway went East-West, which of course is not how it works and totally wouldn't make any sense. When she is finally confronted in downtown Portland, I'm tempted to be cheeky and say they couldn't have gotten that right because it wasn't raining, I won't. The only thing I will say is that showed pretty much everybody in downtown Portland jay-walking, and that just wouldn't happen - I mean everybody doing it - because you would get run over by a bus or the Max (Portland's light rail system), or likely first one and then the other.
Another character has just been introduced out of the blue, Matthew, who is helping to run the 4400 Center now that Collier is (supposedly) dead. It's kind of plausible the way they did it, except they refer to conversations that we weren't privy to. If they can just write people in and out all willy-nilly, then why don't they take Lily away? Laura Allen was less annoying than usual this episode, but that's only because she was giving little speeches and not really interacting with the baby, her hubby or really anyone. Sigh.

The 4400 at IMDb

Thursday, August 01, 2013

-The 4400 Season 2 disk 1

-The 4400 Season 2 disk 1

Episode 1:
There are a couple of things about this episode that I found really annoying, but aren't really the fault of the episode. Let me explain. First, it's a year after the end of the first season. Okay, I'm down with that. In the year that has elapsed nothing has happened, and then inexplicably things start to happen to all of the various groups at once. Really? Give me a reason, even a vague and/or crappy one. This is annoying, but hardly the sole providence of the 4400. Lots of shows do this. If you're a sitcom, or a procedural, well you can get by with it. Those types of shows lead us to suspend disbelief and think that we are just watching another week in the lives of the characters. But, when dramas, or device driven stories do this, they always fall flat. Second, and this is likely only noticeable with the DVD version - to be read commercial free - and that is the way the show cuts to commercial and then comes back. The first half of this double episode the breaks are hardly noticeable, the editor was definitely doing her job, but the second half, it follows the pattern of 'scene ends, keep camera on for a random amount of time longer than one second but less than four seconds and then begin fade to black, cutting completely to black somewhere in the process. Very clunky, very annoying. I got the feeling the producers were about to turn in the show and discovered it was 30 seconds short of their contracted time, so instead of forking over the bucks for cast, crew and writer to add a scene or extend a scene, they just stretched the footage before cutting to commercial. And somehow, it wasn't near as annoying as the filler that Bones started adding in season 6 and relied on heavily in season 7.
Summer Glau. There, I said it. This episode could have been an hour and a half of Wilferd Brimley extoling the virtues of eating oatmeal, with Ms. Glau walking across the screen a coule of times and I would have watched and liked it and wondered why I had a craving for hot breakfast cereal. With that being said, I'm a little disbelieving at her portrayal as a 16 year old. But with that being said, Summer Glau. And H. P. Lovecraft. Oh! And not only Lovecraft, but they actually cited titles and scenes from said titles. That was awesome.
All the mains were back, except for Peter Coyote, who's character has been reassigned to Washington, presumably D.C., since the show primarily takes place in and around Seattle. I mean it wouldn't make any sense to say he's been reassigned to Washington and then they walk down the hall and we see him through the open doorway of a smaller office. Most of the returning characters/actors is a good thing. Most. I don't like Laura Allen. I mean as an actor of course. I'm sure she's a great gal, who probably whines just a little too much for her own good, but is nice enough just the same. You'd think that I would like her since that was my favorite grandmother's name. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that I don't like about her, but she did it in Awaken, and is doing it in spades in the 4400. I'm thinking that it has something to do with whininess. That and when she kisses it's like watching Michael Jackson kiss Lisa Marie Presley.
Everyone else is pretty okay, though the little girl that plays Maya kind of gives me the creeps. That's silly. It must be the fine acting she puts into the character, so that the character gives me the creeps. In the story, she has precognitive visions, and is just matter-of-fact about them. That is a little disarming. But, the characters good, I think that she is supposed to give me the creeps a little bit.
Our pair of agents, FBI and CDC, are back together, which is kind of funny since to us viewers they were never really apart, it's all just back story. How cool is it that one of the agents is an epidemiologist? And that she even tries to apply epidemiological principles to her cases, at least once in a while? Pretty cool. There is a real Muldar and Scully vibe between the two, but not near as extreme. Tom Baldwin is not a true believer like Fox Muldar, and Diana Scouris is not a complete skeptic like Dana Scully.
It was also cool to see Kavan Smith in a role other than Deputy Andy Hey! I love me some Eureka. The only thing that could have made that show better than adding Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day - Summer Glau.
The season starts off promisingly, laying some good ground work and hinting at story lines that might develop. All in all I'm pretty happy with it, except for one thing. A certain person intimated that a certain blond would be gone after this first episode, and I just don't see how that can be - but in a spirit of fairness am holding off judgement until episode 2.

Episode 2:
Agent Navarro is a bit more of a bad ass than the old boss. And by bad ass, I mean playing loosy-goosy with the 4400 to accomplish her own goals.
Telepathy was the focus of this episode, that and the trials and tribulations of baby Isabelle. I thought they did something very interesting with the telepathy. They made it unbearable. They young 4400 with the ability, Gary, is overwhelmed by the "ocean of voices" in his head. He can't turn them off. He can't quiet some to only hear others. It's like being in the middle of a giant-crowded room while everyone is trying to talk over everyone else. Only with anti-psychotics that work as tranquilizers can Gary make it through the day, and conveniently only hear the mental voices of the people that he wants to hear. In comic books and other shows, it's all about hearing only the thoughts that the telepath wants to hear. Usually this comes through practice that is part of the backstory. Conversely, telepathy is often portrayed the other way, with the barest of whispers and the telepath has to learn to hear the thoughts that she wants to hear. I'm of the opinion, if the telepathy switch were just turned on one day, it would be overwhelming.
Isabelle, aka the psychopathic baby can apparently make anything she wants happen, whether it be killing, ripening food, making cash drawers open or giving daddy a slight myocardial infarction. If only she would want to give Laura Allen acting lessons. Since Ms. Allen is still part of the show, I spent more time trying to figure out what it is that bothers me about her characters, and I think I have made some headway. Approximately 80% of the time, she makes her voice sound as if she is about to cry. Combined with the whiney tone and the way that this character acts as if she has never been intimate with another human being before, and it's almost enough to make you want to stop watching the show and read a magazine until her scene is done. Okay, I didn't really read a magazine, I mostly just looked at the pictures.

Episode 3:
Yay for Robert Picardo. He was one of my favorite parts of Star Trek Voyager. I like the way he brings that hint of comedy to all of his roles even up to the comedic. He plays a 4400 who's saliva causes weight loss, more than the person wants. Eventually some people die and a whole bunch of others, including his daughter, get ill because it turns out that he is producing a protein which greatly increases the metabolic rate causing the people to burn calories faster than they can take them in. I would really like to have that problem for a couple of days, and then get the anti-bodies made from his liver like they did, stopping short of the actually starving to death bit.
Then there is the Richard and Lily story. At least in this episode baby Isabelle doesn't try to kill anybody, or you know succeed at it. Laura Allen tried out a new look this time - pouty. It started when Lily thought she might be pregnant (she wasn't) and just kept up no matter what the scene actually called for. I was hoping Allen would have been gone a couple of episodes ago, and I have got to say that the Richard and Lily storyline is not doing it for me because it's all build-up, no resolution or even foreshadowing of resolution.
Maya is back in the future-predicting business and while she raised a few eyebrows, she hasn't freaked anybody out yet, not even me.
Kyle is back in the story too. Technically, he was never out, but until this episode he had just been playing Tom's 21 year old teen-aged son. Just subtract the three years he spent in the coma from his actual age and voila! Teen-ager. He's suffering from some kind of black outs and perhaps delusions. Regardless, it was an excuse for him to take his shirt off so we could see how buff he is. Something about ___ reminds me of a character on Veronica Mars, part of which is that whole 90210-vibe where you strongly suspect the actor to be in his early 30s and playing a teen-ager in a 21 year olds body. I don't know where they're going with his character, but it's the mosrt interesting sub-plot, especially if he starts dating the hot professor.