Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Ray Stevenson

Anyone who has seen the series "Rome" would probably be a fan of Ray Stevenson He passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 58 while filming in Italy. He has appeared in other shows and will be in the Star Wars Ahsoka series coming out in August.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Stevenson






Wednesday, April 26, 2023

So, I finally watched ANDOR...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piU_nSo2OW4&t=51s

Even people who don't like Science Fiction might love Andor.

The phrase, "They've gone to the island." means that they were murdered.  It is a reference to the movie, "The Island", which BTW is a terrific movie.

Friday, April 7, 2023

Andor's Worldbuilding: On The Verge of Greatness

Pulp Fiction | 'Nobody Ever Robs Restaurants’ Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer

Amanda Plummer does such a fantastic job as the main villain in the 2023 season 3 of Star Trek Picard, where she is truly badass, I tried to look up what else she has played.  This is the opening sequence of the movie Pulp Fiction from 29 years ago.



Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The Original Changeling . Questor Tapes 1974 vs Star Trek Picard / DS9


I watched this made-for-TV movie in the 1970s.  It was enjoyable at the time.  The lady in the scene is Majel Barret Roddenberry.  Gene Roddenberry created the story.

 It stars an actor who would later show up on Star Trek.  

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

The Last of Us Season 1


The Last of Us Season 1 is an extraordinary experience.  It is only 9 episodes long, which is a bummer since we have to wait at least 10 months to see more of the show.  This entire series is adapted from a very popular 2013 video game and follows the same story.

The series starts like a standard dystopian future zombie apocalypse.  The difference here is that fungi are turning people into zombies by infecting their brains.  Where the series shines is in the relationship that slowly builds between Joel and Ellie as they are on a cross-country journey to reach a hospital in Salt Lake City.   It turns out that Ellie is the only human who is immune to the infection, and they hope to meet up with some doctors who are searching for a cure.  However, along the way, there are plenty of things trying to kill them, which are mostly other survivors.

Eventually, we find out why Ellie is immune.

Joel is a very hard man because he lost his daughter early in the fungi pandemic.  He has no interest in Ellie.  He only wants to get across the country to find his missing brother.  He makes a deal with a friend to take Ellie with him in exchange for some supplies he needs.  However, she gradually melts his hard exterior and they grow closer.

The show is very violent and dark.  However, this relationship between Joel and Ellie is a light in the darkness.  When the entire world has gone to hell, it becomes the only thing that really matters.

We see a completely different side to Pedro Pascal than we do in The Mandalorian.  Ellie is played by Bella Ramsey of Game of Thrones fame.  She has so much charisma that she practically steals the show. 

Rating:  A.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Road signs in the streaming series "The Last of Us" season 1 episode 9

While streaming "The Last of Us", I saw a scene where the characters come upon some road signs that say "I-80 West" and "I-15" North".  I knew that this could only be in Salt Lake City, although initially, they don't say that on the show.  However, these road signs don't make sense to me.  The area of Salt Lake City where these roads split contains the intersection of many roads and is quite complicated.  There are many signs leading to roads going in many directions, so I used to refer to this area jokingly as "spaghetti junction". 

I can't capture an image from the streaming service, but I found the equivalent picture from the video game that the show is based on.  The series actually follows the video game story very closely.



The series is not actually filmed in the United States.  It is filmed in Canada, so the road signs are fake.

In the show, there is not much delay from the characters going from Colorado to Wyoming and then to Salt Lake City.  They do this on foot, which would be very difficult since the total trip is over 500 miles.   However, I should point out that many of the early Mormon settlers also did this journey on foot.

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Friday, March 10, 2023

one clip from every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer



On the surface, Buffy The Vampire Slayer seems like a silly comedy, but it had some great drama and a few occasional moments of extreme brilliance.  Joss Whedon is a controversial person, but he is a genius at writing and directing.  He described the series as a metaphor for growing up and accepting responsibility.  He also wanted to emphasize female empowerment.

In seasons 4,5, 6, and 7, Wheadon created one experimental episode that was pretty different from normal television.  Season 4, "Hush" had almost no dialogue.  The season 6 musical, "Once More with Feeling" is the best episode of the entire series.  This idea of having a musical episode has been copied by other series.

it is one of my favorite shows and for good reason.  It is a comedy, drama, soap opera, that just happens to have monsters.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

The Bad Batch Season 2 - The Outpost Episode Review

This is why The Bad Bad Batch is a great show.


From the start, the show made me want Lieutenant Nolan to die, and I wanted Crosshair to kill him.

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Star Wars & Dr. Who- ArcAttack

Cool.

1899

 

I have said for some time that there is a big difference between good science fiction and cheap science fiction.  Good science fiction has many good ideas, and there is no better example of this than The Empire Strikes Back.  

On the other hand, cheap science fiction might have just one good idea, which somehow has to keep the audience entertained for the length of the program.  So they introduce a mystery early on, drag this mystery out as long as possible, and then finish the show with a big reveal that is supposed to surprise everyone.  There are many movies that have followed this pattern, including The Signal, Annihilation, Moon, and maybe to a lesser extent, Primer, Super 8The Abyss, Another Earth, and Arrival.

Using mystery to drag out a TV show is nothing new.  The trouble with The X-Files is that it never seems to go anywhere.  The same could be said for Twin Peaks and Invasion.  The king of "mystery boxes" is Lost, which presented the viewers with a ton of mysteries and only resolved about two-thirds of them.  Both Lost and Battlestar Galactica, which are two of my favorite TV shows, ended their series with supernatural explanations in a way that nobody saw coming.

The Netflix series 1899 is about a group of passengers on a transatlantic voyage in the year 1899.  Events on the ship keep getting weirder with every new episode.  The problem for me is that I could easily predict where the show was going and what the big reveal was going to be at the end.  I can think of another series that had an almost identical ending, so I won't mention it here.

In fact, 1899 reminds me of Outer Range, not because the stories are the same, but because of the identical way the two shows drag out the mystery.

Nevertheless, both shows have good enough characters to keep us entertained.  Most science fiction also has to be a soap opera because the shows live or die based on the interaction of the characters.

Whereas Outer Range was renewed for a 2nd season, and shockingly so was the rather dull Invasion, Netflix canceled 1899 after just one season.

Rating:  B.

The Most Toys

This is kind of an amazing story.


One of the more memorable episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation is called 'The Most Toys." In the story, Kivas Fajo kidnaps Mr. Data so as to have him as part of his collection of rare and valuable items.


The actor David Rappaport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rappaport) spent two days filming scenes for this episode, but on a weekend break tried to kill himself. They had to scramble for a replacement actor, and Saul Rubinek did a terrific job in the role.


The actor Brent Spiner talks about this ...



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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Richest Comedians in world 2023💰🙂

Check out the richest one...



John Coffey
0 seconds ago
That's not Mel Brooks. That's Carl Reiner.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

This Is the Single Most Important Moment in TV History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kkox1kG0hY

The third episode of The Last of Us features a side story about a gay couple who survive the zombie apocalypse.   For this reason, Ben Shapiro hates it.  It does have the problem of being a big detour from the first couple of episodes.

I disagree that it has no relationship to the story because the couple does interact with the main characters.  There was an episode like this in the first season of The Bad Batch where the main characters only have a brief appearance, and it was one of the best episodes of the season.  Also, an episode of The Book of Boba Fet was controversial for not having the main character in it.

Sunday, January 29, 2023

The Bad Batch


The Bad Batch characters go on a dangerous search for treasure.

For me, this episode barely qualifies as entertainment. I was annoyed at how eager Omega was to run into danger and to follow Geona who is at best a wreckless character, if not someone with ulterior motives that would betray them if it suited her needs. Then we get the Indiana Jones ripoff story that leads them to a weapon of mass destruction that is like a mechanical Godzilla. There is not much here that we haven't seen before.

The fact that they go on these hair-brained adventures takes you out of the moment. I was expecting Omega and the rest of the gang to be more mature. At best we get a weak morality tale for kiddies about not endangering yourself for illusive treasure.