Tag: TV

This is just Dean-lightening

So for those of you who don’t know, PBS funds a show on youtube called ideachannel. It features some fantastically out there ideas, usually backed by pretty solid evidence. It’s pretty entertaining to watch, and they just did an episode on Community… so… you know I’m all over that. Anyway, take a look. video after the jump. Continue reading “This is just Dean-lightening” →

An Open Letter to ABC and Comedy Central

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is regarding your decisions to let your content broadcast contract lapse with Hulu in favor of broadcasting streaming content on your own websites.

Your companies are smart, tech savvy and moving forward to be on the edge of modern entertainment. You’ve done an admirable job so far of making sure that your income from advertisement stays reasonably steady, and that your content stays available, reducing the draw for illegal download.

All this leaves me with one question: What bonehead tech company did you contract with to assemble your website and stream your videos?

The websites are overdone, cluttered messes. The videos, when they work, have bugs in the interface that make them almost unwatchable – shading into completely unwatchable. Videos and advertisements sometimes don’t stream at all.

Go ahead – check. Ask your viewers what they think. Watch the videos themselves. Go to your own website. I’ll wait.

I don’t download content illegally. I also don’t choose to support badly put together websites. And since I’m not willing to support your network’s website, I’m not going to buy your content on DVD either – which is sad, because I enjoy having a DVD copy of my favorite shows.

You have good shows, but unless you can get your website together or give streaming licenses to the people who know how to do it (i.e. Hulu), you’re going to lose a lot of viewers like me.

With Sincerest Regrets,

Arthur

Human Target: Good show. No, man, REALLY good.

I just saw the pilot for the new show Human Target.

For those of you who haven’t seen the advertisements, the premise is that the main character, one Christopher Chance, is a private eye who offers a specialized service – he’ll go undercover, flush out the bad guy, and take him out.

I didn’t walk in with high expectations. Matter of fact, the only reason I saw it at all was pure accident. I got up too early for a medical appointment and had some time to kill before getting out the door. Lucky me, because I made a pleasant discovery.

I was blown away by this show. The cinematography was eye-catching, the fight scenes were so realistic and complex I thought I’d stepped into a Bourne movie,  and the supporting cast was made up of people who can act blindfolded and hog-tied – and do it better than ninety percent of their peers. I particularly noticed Tricia Helfer, who played the stunning and complex role of Cylon Number Six in the new version of Battlestar Galactica. Her acting was, as usual, a treat. Jackie Earle Haley was extremely entertaining as Guerrero, Chi Mcbride (who most people will remember from his well-turned role as Stephen Harper on the show Boston Public) turned out with his usual panache as Winston, the Human Target’s agent, and Mark Valley, the Human Target himself . . . words fail me. In a good way.

I mean the show even has a good THEME. A good theme, fer chrissake! smart, catchy, but not trite or inane. . . this is a theme that feels like the theme from the A-team or Paladin (“Have Gun, Will Travel”), where it’s so perfect at setting the mood that it almost doesn’t matter whether the episode is good or not.  Give it a shot. I doubt me you’ll be disappointed . . . but I’ve been wrong before.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Network – Television is a goddamned amusement park – Google Videos

Vodpod videos no longer available.

And that’s about all I have to say about that.

*goes out to play in the sun, forgets it’s winter, freezes his damned ass off, and goes inside to read a book by the fire (for those who must know, it’s ‘Twilight Watch’, by Sergei Lukyanenko)*