Siderite's Blog

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It started brilliantly: a Stargate series off-shoot that takes place in a very distant galaxy on a ship that runs itself with a bunch of stranded humans on it. And Robert Carlyle plays the role of the grumpy scientist! The feel of the show moves away from green pastures and ridiculous Goa'uld with their Jaffa and their sticks and goes to a much darker place where human nature and politics define the game, not only blazing heroism and implausible luck.

And then... people wanted their fucking green pastures! The ratings were in the millions, but still not enough for the greedy networks who decided to cancel the show. To be honest, it is not only the fault of idiotic executives and imbecile TV viewers, but also of the show writers. But the number of solid episodes so outnumbers the number of faulty ones that the blame cannot in good faith be attributed to the people working on the show. The actors played well, the scripts were mostly interesting and consistent. There were no self referential or parody episodes at all and the humour was left to the situation, not the mandatory smart quote before springing into action.

Of course, the potential of the show was mostly wasted in the so many average episodes in which they found a stargate, dialed in, then proceeded with the almost the same ideas as in the other Stargate shows, but there was a major difference even then: people has their own agendas, they pondered on their role in all of this, not just acted like automatons playing the same part over and over.

So yes, I think this show could have benefited from the slowly rising tide of people that don't watch shows the first time they air, but much later, when they ask their friends "do you know any good sci-fi series?" and someone answers "Have you seen Stargate Universe? It's awesome!". But no. If random morons who wouldn't understand a stick if it didn't hit them with the end they expect don't like the show, it must be cancelled. I've heard people react to Universe with repulsion and even hate. "It is not in the spirit of the Stargate shows that I liked!", they said. Well, I am sorry to tell you, but that spirit is the spirit of Harry Potter, Tom and Jerry and Prince Charming: impossible situations with incredible solutions from people that cannot exist. The ever successful recipe of "heroic people with which you would identify [for no real reason] battle the odds and succeed every time. And they do it smiling!" it nothing but a fairy tale. You are watching bed time stories. And yes, I want my bed time stories as well, but not the three year old ones!

I dedicate this post to so many people that believed they thought they understood Stargate Universe and similar shows that got cancelled for no good reason: you are idiots!

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Ok, time for a summary of TV shows I have wasted my time with since I've written the last post. As usual, my opinion is king and everybody else's sucks... or so I think the usual disclaimer should have sounded. So, here it the dough:
  • Doctor Who, Torchwood and even The Sarah Jane Adventures - these British shows are a bit ridiculous, but they are meant to be. I continue to watch them. Torchwood is the only one that goes towards the classic team of professionals battling the forces of evil or whatever, so it was bought by the American Starz channel. The other two are goofy and non violent, which is what I actually like about the Who concept.
  • Eureka - nothing has changed, really. There were some stirrings in the storyline, where time travel has changed the future and only some of the people involved are aware of it. I think it's a courageous thing to do in a story, but also a pretty lame cop-out for previous script errors. It's all in the motivation, really.
  • House MD - wife watches it, I mainly just fall asleep at it. It has become almost completely non medical and totally confusing. Did you catch the one minute romantic relationship between Cuddy and House? OMFG, OMFG!.. not
  • Criminal Minds and Criminal Minds - Suspect Behavior - I like Thomas Gibson and I have always felt like he was the one "making" the Criminal Minds show. What better way to test that theory than make a Criminal Minds spin-off, while taking him almost off the original series episodes? The result is a slightly more boring Criminal Minds and a horrible, horrible Suspect Behavior. And the thing is, I like Forest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo, so I can't for the life of me understand how a spin-off of a show I like starring these two can fail so miserably!
  • Dexter - the show went in a rather boring direction for a while. I mean, you start with a serial killer and you make him a father of three that has a family, all the while trying to make it exciting. Yes, he was almost caught a thousand times and each time the solution was more and more outrageous. Towards the end of season 5 it seemed as Dexter was back on track killing people, but who knows that they will do to him in the sixth season? The latest Dexter book is about cannibals. Yumm!
  • Big Love - this show started as interesting, mostly because it was about a culture I know nothing about: polygamist Mormons, and because it starred Bill Paxton. Towards the end, though, it became so repetitive, with all kinds of moronic twists to keep the viewer interested, that I never got the will to watch it end. The episodes of season 5, last of the series, are waiting for me to watch them.
  • Fringe - Peter and Fauxlivia are having a baby! Yay! Once I stopped bitching about how lame the show is, how ridiculous the science and how bad the scripts are, I actually enjoyed it. The best show to end a hard day or to start a morning when nothing seems to work. It requires no brain power to watch. Actually, having brain power available makes it unwatchable.
  • True Blood - I still enjoy the series, mostly because people are making an effort to act well and keep the script interesting. Also because I started liking it for the vampire/werewolf Louisiana atmosphere mixing the supernatural with the superstupid and the superredneckness and they are still going strong. (yeah, I make up words as I go along)
  • Californication - the original smartness of the character spiced with a little sex turned into a lot of gratuitous sex and not too much smartness, but then it turned both sex and smartness up. (What a turn on!) I can't say if that is good or bad, but I've watched season 5 and I am looking forward to the sixth
  • Secret Diary of a Call Girl - the show ended, but left avenues open for a continuation. Billie Piper playing a prostitute was a guilty pleasure in itself, but the show was actually very enjoyable. The last season was not nearly as good as the ones preceding so I guess it is a good thing the series ended when they did.
  • Entourage - can one keep a show consistent for eight seasons? A lot of people have tried, not many actually succeeded. I enjoy Entourage still, but I feel that the original spunk and friendly youthful energy of the show has dwindled to nothing. Let's see what happens in the eighth and last season.
  • Stargate Universe - used to the other two Stargate shows, I was expecting that the last episodes of Universe be ridiculous, self referential, "screw you, we are done" style, below average quality episodes. But no! They are actually going strong and some of the mid season script and acting is making me angry for the show's cancellation. Whoever heard of great episodes in mid season AND when the show is cancelled? Blasphemy!
  • V - the second season (and probably last) ended up in a Mortal Kombat way: Shao Khan wins, muhahahahaha! It was a no brainer, really, and I won't feel bad whether it continues or not. The things that I found funny was to use some of the actors in the original series. (yes, indeed, there was another V series in 1983. And yes, I was old enough to watch it then and I did watch it and I don't really care if you don't watch anything created before 1990 :-P )
  • Men Of A Certain Age - the show is still smart, funny and tasteful. I keep wondering why is it still on. I can't wait for the second half of the second season
  • Weeds - I have to agree with the wife here: enough is enough. The show isn't even about marijuana anymore! And it gets more and more ridiculous by the episode.
  • The Good Wife - another great Tony and Ridley Scott work, pun not really intended. Characters are consistent, complex, while the story keeps me interested. Just enough human relationships to make it real, but not too much to make it soapy.
  • The Walking Dead - I was expecting a bit more from a zombie series. Apparently it is based on a comic book strip and someone told me it pretty much follows the story there. Well, it doesn't have to! [hint! hint!]
  • Haven - the first season of this supernatural "loosely" based on a Stephen King short story ended in an unexpected twist (which was to be expected). Am I waiting impatiently for the second season? Not really.
  • Rubicon - show was cancelled. I can't remember anything remotely interesting about it.
  • Royal Pains - doctors. That about says it all. This particular brand still has three unwatched episodes waiting for when both me and the wife want to watch it. It doesn't seem likely to happen soon.
  • Lost Girl - waiting for the second season. Does not require brain. Still sexy. Canadian.
  • Nikita - inertia. That's the only reason I keep watching. I have big mass, you see.
  • A Game of Thrones - oh yes! Finally something I want to talk about. Hasn't started yet, but I've read the books and they are great. A feudal fantasy world that is focused on the political machinations in the Seven Kingdoms, with a little magic thrown in to spice things up, but kept nicely in the background. I can hardly wait! It is set to start on the 17th of April
  • No Ordinary Family - about a superhero family, I have not really followed the show and meanwhile it was cancelled. bye bye!
  • Better with You - it started as a funny show to watch with the girls. It seemed as a humorous comparison of the different stages of marriage. But it became the usual background laughter at people's blatant stupidity thing and I am not enjoying it anymore.
  • Shattered - interesting concept, bad execution. Cancelled.
  • Falling Skies - a replacement for V? Aliens attack again and a resistance is formed. Set to start in June.
  • The Cape - Batman's poor little brother is trying his luck in a city that looks more like Robocop's Detroit than Gotham. Show was lame and has been cancelled, too.
  • Outcasts - oh, the humanity! A show with so much promise and so little in the way of proper execution. The premise is that humans fucked up the Earth and in a last ditch effort sent a few colony ships towards a distant planet they named Carpathia. I expected something akin to Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri (yes, old enough to have played that, too!), but in the end it became the quasi mystical "planetary alien entity" thing, mixed with really bad acting and inconsistent scripting. So it got cancelled. It was British, it was cheap, it has potential. They still screwed it up.
  • Endgame - I am yet to find the time to watch the pilot of this show. Apparently, it is a Canadian show about a chess player that uses his skills to... you guessed it, solve crimes! If it is anything like Numb3rs, I'll watch the hell out of it. Something tells me it won't be quite like that, though.
  • Southpark - still funny as hell and I continue watching it


There are the usual anime shows, too, but I won't list them. The blog entry has gotten long enough.

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Pete Postlethwaite is dead. This has hit me hard and it is difficult to describe why. He has played in so many movies that I loved, but I also loved his acting and manner. Now, at only 64, he died peacefully after a lengthy illness. How can anyone die peacefully of cancer is beyond me. This disease is just ridiculous, somebody get rid of it already!

Anyway, Mr. Postlethwaite was a great actor and I will personally miss him.

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I've remembered this song when reading a review of the third movie in the Lost Boys franchise and watching its trailer. Really, you should watch the first one. The others two are a probably a completely different thing. I haven't watched them, yet. The remade version of the song in the trailer immediately rekindled some of the feelings I had when watching as a kid the atmospheric original film; this is proof of its value, I believe. Also, many artists have covered the song in different and interesting ways, listed below.

I will not get into the whole "Poor Corey Haim" thing, I didn't really have much love for the guy, but in Lost Boys he was cool. Here is the song, with a fan made video:


Some nice covers from the tube:
by Ashford Twins
by Blutengel
by Nikki McKibbin
by Carfax Abbey
by Ventana

Enjoy.

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I've just seen the last episode of the first season of Caprica, the series offshooting from Battlestar Galactica. There will be no second season, as the show has been cancelled. Why is that?

Let's start with something other than pure financial interests (oh, you TV network Guatrau!) and discuss the effort that was put in the series. You have a very successful and innovative series like Battlestar Galactica, creating an entire universe with its technology and religions and cultures, and then you go further and create a new series that actually reproduces the lives of people on those worlds. You get cultural criminal organisations, religious fanatics, technologists, robots, AI, virtual worlds, space travel, fashion, music, everything! This is the hardest part of any story: the setup. So you get the setup done and then you... stop writing the story because of low viewer turnout? Are you stupid?! Just tell it in a way that will please your stupid audience and also continue the effort, or can't your little brain get around that?

Then it is about the actor effort. God(s), I hated Clarice Willow and you know why? Because Polly Walker did a great job playing that character, down to the microexpressions and little scheming eye movements. Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, even the teenagers and kids played well, creating really complex likeable or hateable characters. The creator, Ronald D. Moore, which I totally hate for ruining the end seasons of Battlestar Galactica, also did his best and I can see that it is a great show. And you are going to piss on that? The success of any project lies in the motivation to do it. All these people were motivated and you, money grabbing assholes, pissed in their faces. Shame doesn't begin to cover it. I don't want to shame you, I want you to die a horrible death, you soulless vampires!

And then there is the audience, your precious little numbers. Do you guys know why your network is called SyFy for? I will tell you, so you can say "oh!" with your carefully arranged heads; I guess this is coming as a surprise: it comes from the old name of SciFi, which in turn comes from science fiction. Now you fuckers get what your audience is? Or did you rename the channel only because you have no idea what it was about anyway? Kudos for HBO for raising the standards cause you are just letting them drop in the gutter.

So, in conclusion: Fuck you, SyFy Channel and all your executives, and as you are doing everything possible to stiffle creativity, I wish you a very creative and painful death!

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It is time for another exhaustive list of TV series I have been watching. Some are great, some are horrible, but the moral of the story is I just can't stop :) Here it goes:
  • Caprica - A spin-off from Battlestar Galactica, it showed a lot of promise, tackling the culture of the twelve colonies, issues like emergent AI and virtual life. However, it did not appeal to the public so it was cancelled. I am yet to see the last episodes from the series, but I expect the quality of the show to have plummeted long before the official news of the cancellation. When a network exec puts limits like "get me audience or die" people just lose interest in doing something and it quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • Doctor Who - one wacky adventure after another, I still watch this British series. What it lacks in budget it compensates with weird plot lines and original writing. Quite refreshing.
  • Eureka - a silly sci-fi comedy, I would have expected it to die after a few seasons. Alas, people like easy, silly, pointless shows and only resent the ones that makes them think. Season 4 is expected to resume in July 2011.
  • House MD - I am kind of stuck watching this less and less medical series, because my wife likes it. I am bored by the plot, characters and almost everything in it except the occasional interesting medical fact. I hear season 8 might be the last.
  • Criminal Minds - some episodes are pretty stupid, others are brilliant. The exposure of the minds of serial killers through behavioural analysis is a great subject. Alas, they put too much focus on the procedure and too little on the actual principles behind the work of the FBI unit. Don't fret, though, a spin-off with Forest Whitaker as the lead of another crime fighting group. Unfortunately, the joint episode from Criminal Minds that shouls have presented the new characters was weak and the new team pathetic.
  • Southpark - this animation comedy series has its bad moments, but usually it is exceptionally funny and making fun of recent events.
  • Dexter - the show keeps holding strong, even if they kind of drifted from the perfect quality of the first seasons. I hear season 6 might be last, even if the fourth book in the Dexter series, Dexter is Delicious, is now available. Lucky for the TV series, they only got inspiration from the books which were not of such good quality as the show.
  • Big Love - interesting story about a mormon family trying to maintain their plurimarital beliefs in the face of adversity from goverment and other mormons alike. The 5th season is to start soon, but it is also the last. It kind of went bad from the third one, anyway.
  • Fringe - I am yet to watch the episodes from season 3. It is a pretty dumb show, so people like it. I am waiting for a period in which I have nothing to do in order to watch it.
  • True Blood - I like True Blood! It's not the vampires, but the feel of the backwater town that is plagued by all kinds of supernatural creatures. I think the show did great, but lately it kind of stuttered. Season 4 is to start somewhere in June
  • Californication - luckily, father Christmas brought us two preair episodes from season 4 which should have started next year. I still like the show, but it is a far cry from the greatness of the first season, during which I wanted to make a son and name him David Duchovny.
  • Breaking Bad - is it good anymore? The show started great and I did watch it religiously, but it does seem to get less and less interesting. It's a crystal meth male version of Weeds.
  • Secret Diary of a Call Girl - Billie Piper could not have been more perfect for this series. She was delicious from the first time I saw her in that silly video clip of hers. The show was sexy, interesting, and will continue with a fourth season, which is said to be last. Why, God, why?!
  • Entourage - this series is another television gem. It features the Hollywood adventures of a talented actor and his close childhood friends. The show managed to maintain a consistent positive feel for five or six seasons, which made it both great and original in this world of TV drama. The last seasons, though, went for a dark weird vibe and the eigth season will be both short and the last. A feature film is in the works, maybe, but it doesn't matter, since the original feel is pretty much destroyed.
  • Stargate Universe - Yeah, finally a Stargate show that takes itself seriously! Or so I thought. When the audience didn't like the dark and gritty atmosphere, the black wind of show cancellation made everybody not give a damn. The result is a half baked show, troubled by financing and screenwriting issues. Poor Robert Carlyle did a marvelous job, but a single good Scottish actor can't save a show from its evil masters. The second season of Stargate Universe will also be the last.
  • Torchwood - A Doctor Who spin-off, it took a big break after an attempted publicity stunt. Season 4 is to start next year. Fun series, but when you take Doctor Who, you Americanize it and then you make it even sillier, you are bound to miss somewhere.
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures - another Doctor Who spin-off, directed almost exclusively towards young kids. Of course, I watch it and enjoy it very much.
  • V - the original miniseries was not great, but that is no reason to make a stupid show like this. It is about aliens invading Earth via subterfuge and manipulation and the human resistance. It quickly turned into a involuntary parody of World War II movies with dumb Germans and smart Allies.
  • Men Of A Certain Age - suprisingly good and serious, it is about three middle aged guys and childhood friends living their lives. It is funny, but deep, with characters that feel real and jokes that really make you think and smile. Way to go, Ray Romano! Season 2 just started.
  • Weeds - the show just ended its sisth season. The seventh should be its last. Not even the babeliciousness of Mary-Louise Parker could save the last season, which was boring and kind of pointless. Started so well, though.
  • The Good Wife - it is a lawyer show, mostly directed towards women, but I like it. Characters are complex enough, the law cases feel real and the plot is interesting.
  • The Walking Dead - woohoo! Zombie series! Also made after comic books, so they can't fail too much. I like it, but since it focuses on the personal drama of the survivors and not the survival itself, and since the zombies are slow and ridiculous... meh! :)
  • Shattered - Canadian show starring Callum Keith Rennie, which you may know from Battlestar Galactica, it is about a cop with split personality disorder. Not very realistic, with a 70's feel to it, even if it is supposed to take place in the present, but I watch it nonetheless. I wonder if there will be a second season to it.
  • Haven - supposedly based on a Stephen King short story, it is basically a mashup between Fringe and Twin Peaks. It's worse than both, but it is easy to watch when you shut your brain down.
  • Rubicon - The wife watches this, I can't. It is like somebody accidentally dropped a bit of Lost in Nikita, but also removed the hot chicks.
  • Royal Pains - an easy medical slightly-comedy show. Started funny, now it's just boring. I will tell you when it's over.
  • Identity - British police drama that had some potential. The Brits cancelled it after it's first season, but the ABC network is said to want to make their own series.
  • Lost Girl - Canadian show again, this time a sort of supernatural thing with a hot bisexual chick that is also a succubus as the lead. Buffy like, nothing serious, but at least it's sexy.
  • Nikita - Nikita is now an American-Asian, still bad-ass and with Michael wrapped around her little finger. Pointless show, really.
  • No Ordinary Family - a family of super heroes! What could be cooler? I stopped watching it after the pilot episode.
  • Better with You - my attempt to watch something really easy with the girls, a show with background laughter and stuff, it's about three couples of different ages and their developped manierisms. Instead of actually analysing the causes and finding solutions, though, they just focus on the inevitability that all comedy American couples look and sound the same in their age group. Yuck!
  • Pioneer One - this is a show that is created by an independent studio (read: two guys in a garrage), freely distributed via Bittorrent (legally) and financed through donations. For 20000$ an episode, it is pretty cool. I donated some money since I really want this to work. Don't expect a master-piece, but I personally enjoy it and await the release of the third episode.


Phew, that's about all. But there are also the shows that I intend to watch! :) Here is the list:
  • Terra Nova - a show that is supposed to start in the fall of 2011. The synposis sounds kind of ridiculous, but hey, it's sci-fi!
  • Tilda - an HBO comedy about two blogger women journalists: Diane Keaton and Ellen Page. Both are annoying, but good actresses, and HBO does good shows. Let's see how it goes.
  • Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior - I mentioned this show as the spin-off from Criminal Minds. I don't hold high hopes for it, though, based on the episode that presented the new team.
  • A Game of Thrones - I've read the books and they were great! I predict the show will be epic, since the books themselves were detailed, complex, with great story and a bit of fantasy as well. I can't wait for the show to start.
  • Falling Skies - aliens are attacking, again. I wonder if they started this show to finally bury V, which sucks. However, how much better can another show be when the plot is that an advanced technological race comes to Earth to occupy it. I mean, this dump?!


Ok, now it's over... or should I mention the anime series I am watching as well... how about the web series? Hmm... :)

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I've just finished watching episode two from the first season of Pioneer One, a sci-fi show made by amateurs, financed by donations and freely downloadable via Bittorrent. That is just fabulous! An episode is done with 20000$ and they need about 40000$ more to finish the last two episodes of the series.

I thought of this kind of system myself a year or so ago as I was observing that almost all movies and shows I watch are made by Americans, through gigantic media outlets that are only interested in profits and cancel any good show on the basis of money alone. I was wondering: where are the people that would be to TV what bloggers are to printed press? Of course, writing an article in a free public place like Blogger is a lot simpler than making a movie, but the idea is there. Mangakus do it all the time, in the US the comic book is back, why not TV shows?

The series is really good for the money that went into it. Except for some clueless actors that play very small parts, the people involved act decently and the atmosphere of the show is powerful and enticing. The dialogue is also strangely good, as I am used to clichees being sprouted in scenes of a certain type and when that doesn't happen, I have an eery feeling of unreality!

Pioneer One is not the only show like this. There is a network, called Vodo, with the motto: We love free! that helps distribute a lot of these Creative Commons licenced films and shows. I really want this to work. This gets the money from people interested to watch and gives it to the creators, rather than some vampire distribution network.

On that note, I would like to also talk about another TV show that is about to appear, called S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Yes, indeed, it is a TV series inspired by the game with the same name, which in turn was inspired by Roadside Picnic, by the Strugatsky brothers. The show is made by the Ukranian company that made the game and you can follow the progress of the series by going to its official site. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. show would not be freely released, but at least it is not part of the official channels for TV distribution. The story itself sounds cool and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe counts about 40 books already (in Russian, unfortunately, but give it time).

It moves slowly, but surely. I am convinced that in a few years people will make and distribute work via the Internet, directly sponsored by the people interested in their creation. All the salesmen in the middle will just be bypassed and creators will be controlling the cultural market rather than distributors. It only feels natural: if you distribute something under a Creative Commons licence, there can be no piracy :) So there, what I've always said comes true: the death of piracy is synonimous with the death of mammoth distribution companies and all their bullshit.

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I almost expected the guy to be Canadian. :) This series of fantasy books is a masterpiece of writing. Not only it is complex of plot and emotion, but the characters are many, diverse and (most of all) different.

So far, the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, written by American author George R. R. Martin, consists of four books, the first published in 1996 and the last in 2005. At least three other books are planned in this series. The plot is a historical fantasy, but one unlike the books I've read recently. The aspects of magic and otherworldiness are rare, the bulk of the writing being about the feudal world, with kings, knights, low borns, maidens and whores, thieves, rapists and murderers, plotters and honorable men. No wonder that, lacking a lot of special effects, the story has been selected as the basis for a TV series.

But what is more important than anything is that the writing is really good. The characters are all human, with needs, desires, qualities and faults. You can't help but empathise with them, only to suffer at the cruel fate the writer bestows upon them. Not one escapes unscathed from the malice and pettiness of other people or from shere bad luck. You get to like the characters, then Martin fucks them up. I really wanted to use a more elevated language here, but it's the truth: the world he depicts seems horribly real, not a fairy tale of valiant white knights and pure maidens, but of ridiculous people grabbing lustfully whatever life offers them as it is unlikely their fortune is going to last long.

For the bad part, though, I think the author went too deep, got himself responsible for a lot of characters that he must now move forward, in gruesome detail. The fourth book became so large that he had to split it. He did so by character and geography, rather than by time, so a lot of the characters were missing from the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, and left for the fifth, but acting in the same timeline. At the end of A Feast for Crows the author explains his decision to not just split the book in the middle with a "To Be Continued" ending, and hopes for a publication of the second half in a year. That was in 2005. Ahem.

A lot of people are a bit confused by the long wait for the fifth book. Martin keeps making promises that he doesn't keep and, in July this year, he announced that A Dance with Dragons is already 1400 pages long and 5 chapters close to completion. I hope he does finish it quickly enough, although that would only prolong my suffering anyway. I am sure the fifth book will be as brilliant as the others, but then I will have to wait another 5 years for the sixth. I know TV series usually have no plot, but at least they come weekly ;)

Bottom line: The books are great, I recommend them to any lover of fantasy or even historical novels. I can hardly wait for the TV series, A Game of Thrones, as well.

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Anyone visiting my imDb comments page would notice that I haven't been writing much there and that is because I have been watching a lot of TV series and those I do not comment on imDb. But I do occasionally list the series I have been watching and a small synopsis on the blog. Here is the latest "TV series I have been watching" entry.
  • Virtuality - a show about a state of the art spaceship exploring the Solar System, where the crew is being entertained by a complex virtual reality machine. Which then starts having thoughts of its own. The idea was pretty promising, reminding me of movies like Space Odyssey and books like Frank Herbert's Pandora. Alas, it quickly turned into a jumbled, psychotic, pseudo spiritual mess. No wonder the show was cancelled after the pilot
  • Defying Gravity - the sister show for Virtuality, in the Hollywood tradition of trying two obnoxiously similar ideas at the same time so that people focus on similarities and not on how much better they could have been. Same spaceship exploring the Solar System, but this time they are actually on a secret mission as well to collect pieces of an alien that are spread on each of the major teluric planets. The alien is like a small god and soon enough the entire show is about the faith of people and how they feel, etc. It still could have been saved, but in this Lost day and age, people must be vaguely religious, things must never make any sense and the sheer volume of melodrama must suffocate. It survived a first season, but it was cancelled before a second one
  • Caprica - spin-off series from Battlestar Galactica 2003. It explains how the twisted AI of the Cylons appeared, in a world divided by religious fervour, terrorism and virtual reality. I kind of like it, although it is clear that the ending can't possibly be good. And since the start is not brilliant as BSG's was, I feel conflicted about recommending it. It is is clearly sci-fi, though.
  • Doctor Who 2005 - Season 4 ended with the Doctor, played by David Tennant, dying and regenerating. Season 5 has begun with a new Doctor and a new companion. It is consistently weird, low budget and innovative. The new girl companion is a fiery Scottish redhead who is ocasionally almost as hot as Billie Piper, so I can't complain :)
  • Eureka - a show about a secret US town that hosts the most brilliant (and wacky) minds of the country. The series is a light sci-fi comedy so I guess it takes a little from both crowds and survives. The fourth season is supposed to start airing on the 9th of July, with 22 episodes, two of them... musicals. And I am serious here.
  • Numb3rs - a series about a brilliant mathematician applying science to help his FBI brother. The show has been consistently nice, even if the math involved has dwindled to the point of exctinction in favor of the procedural police work Americans love so much. It is very likely that the sixth season will also be the last one. Too bad.
  • House MD - don't ask me why I watch it. It started as an interesting medical drama only to turn into a farce. I really wish for a show that actually shows good, real work, not the feelings of the people involved. The small amount of medicine shown is beginning to sound more and more surreal
  • Criminal Minds - about an FBI unit that catches serial killers by profiling their behaviour and catching them based on that. I like the show, but not too much. Besides, it can't last, the same thing is done by Google, and they just do it better ;-)
  • South Park - this animated series has reached the 200th episode (the fifth in the fourteenth season), a two parter, set on making fun of everybody they ever made fun of in the show, which is not an easy task. The episodes usually concern a current issue, mixed up with a famous movie and parodied to the extreme. The jokes are smart, even if sometimes a bit crass, and I enjoy it immensly
  • Dexter - yay! A really cool HBO show about a serial killer working for the police and killing other serial killers. The characters and scope of the show have evolved in unexpected directions, digressing from the books, which, in this case, is a good thing, since the script is smart and catchy, while the books mostly sucked. I can hardly wait for season 5, after a great season 4 finale. I am pretty curious to see how the script writers will go on, since the next book in the Dexter series is not even out yet.
  • Big Love - I love Bill Paxton. He can play just about anything, including a mormon guy with three wives, practicing "the Principle" and also trying to deal with the society disaproval of it. Unfortunately it turned too much into a "Desperate Housewives" type of show, with useless drama and artificial problems. I am waiting for season 5
  • Fringe - getting worse and worse by the episode, this is the new X-Files and it is created by the antichrist, J.J. Abrams, himself. Even my wife stopped watching it.
  • Heroes - watching heroes is like playing tower defense games. It makes no sense, but you do it anyway. Waiting for season 5
  • Legend of the Seeker - this fantasy series is turning, alas, more and more into Hercule+Xena=Love. Based on the Sword of Truth series, which I have no read, it has some very cool episodes drowning amongst many mediocre or completely bad ones. It's fun, but degrading quickly
  • True Blood - another cool HBO show, again based on some books and diverting from the story there, again coming up on top from the original work. HBO series are really worth watching. Waiting for season 3
  • Californication - a show about a grumpy and sexy writer, humping everything with breasts and also trying to keep alive the relation with his former wife and daughter which he loves. A really good show in the first season, the quality of the show is diminishing by the season. I still have high hopes for season 4, planned to start airing in August
  • Breaking Bad - a show that is at the same time harsh, funny, horrible and good, a dark comedy about a chemistry professor that enters the crystal meth manufacturing business because he has cancer and wants to leave his family something. Season 3 just began and I am always sad when an episode ends
  • Secret Diary of a Call Girl - sexy Billie Piper in the role of prostitute/writer/blogger Belle de Jour. Yummy!
  • Entourage - another great show! Following a group of friends trying to make it in Hollywood, with ups and downs, but always a feeling of healthy optimism, even at the worst of times. It really feels good watching the series. Series 7 is supposed to start in June
  • Stargate Universe - this show is to SG1 what Deep Space Nine was for Next Generation: a dark, politically and humanly charged adventure. I really hope the ratings will be high, because it started as a pretty smart sci-fi series and I would really hate to see it cancelled or mauled by the marketing
    • Flash Forward - again weird and unexplainable shit that makes people start thinking of god and everything revolves around the same people and some of them are FBI. A mash-up of all the shows of the genre, it is a confused mess that I hope will get ended soon
  • Eastwick - Rebecca Romjin and Jaime Ray Newman and some other chick star as the witches of Eastwick, with great Paul Gross as the devil. Unfortunately, even bountifull sexiness and Canadian charm could not save this show from becoming "Desperated" and becoming so stupid it had to be cancelled
  • Torchwood - spin-off from Doctor Who, it's still weird, but a little more action packed. Not much, though. Season 3 was in fact a 5 part miniseries, used to champion the unveiling of BBC America. Season 4 is supposed to air in 2011
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures - another Doctor Who spinoff, it is oriented towards children and, even if it is fun, it is really more like a fairy tail
  • 10 things I hate about you - a show about a single father raising two daughters, one being the gloomy smart one, while the other the popular air head. The pilot was so bad that I decided not to watch it.
  • Bored to Death - another "personally cancelled" series about a guy who pretends to be a private eye out of boredom. I just stopped watching.
  • The Guild - this is not a TV show, but a web show. It is partially sponsored by Microsoft and it is about a group of MMO players and their weird group dynamic. The lead character is a really sexy chick, which makes about 60% of the reasons I am watching this. There are episodes that are hilarious, though.
  • The Forgotten - I like Christian Slater, but this show just didn't feel right. A group of do-gooders volunteer to help the police solve old cases where the victim's identity could not be determined. I don't think there will be a second season
  • V 2009 - aliens come to Earth, all filled with good intentions... or are they? Silly script, but then again, the original wasn't a gem either. Sexy actresses in it, though, so who knows? :)
  • Paradox - the Welsh version of Flash Forward, it kind of made more sense, if one ignores the premise of the show completely :) It only had 5 episodes and it wasn't received very well. Doubtful that it will see a second season, but still better than Flash Forward
  • Men Of A Certain AgeScott Bakula, Ray Romano and Andre Braugher as midlife crisis best friends. It is a smart and funny show, I hope it continues to be so in season 2
  • Weeds - another show about a drug manufacturer, this time it involves marijuana and the person in question is a woman, played by the so very hot Mary-Louise Parker. The first seasons were really cool, but in seasons 4 and 5, it became sick with "Desperitits" and so it started getting worse. I am waiting for season 6, maybe they can came back to the surface with it. More light than Breaking Bad, but still pretty cool
  • The Good Wife - it's a lawyer show. Not much to say about it, the main character is a wife getting a job as an attorney when her husband is (more or less wrongly) imprisoned. I like the show and the main actress (Julianna Margulies)
  • Damages - another lawyer show, this time a bit tougher, with a touch of "The Devil Wears Prada". We watched the first episode and we've decided to not watch it. My work colleagues like it, though


That is it, folks! The bottom line is that while more and more shows get infected by the pandemic of Lost and Desperate Housewives, there are still others that fight the illness and fight for quality, a major player in this direction being HBO, which started sucking as a television broadcaster, but makes consistently good TV shows.

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Ever wanted to leave your office and go see the world? Well, here's your chance!

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In previous entries I have described how I got hooked on the The Teaching Company courses and especially on the ones lectured by the mathematician Edward B. Burger. After Introduction to Number Theory and The Joy of Thinking I only had one such math course to watch and that was From Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers.

At first I thought it was a tame version of the course about number theory, only a bit more historical. It started up with how people moved from counting thing to an abstract understanding of numbers, then the evolution of the concept of the number with the advent of zero, negative numbers, rations, irrational numbers, complex numbers, Π, etc. However, at the end, the story split quite a bit and became a course in its own right so now I am pretty glad I watched it as well.

It did start to bother me that the level of understanding required for these classes is pretty low and as such the lecturer is forced to repeat and over-exemplify things and avoid as much as possible math notation and equations. The model makes no sense to me. If the people watching were to be uneducated, would they really want to watch the courses? If they did, would they have the money to spare for them if they were stupid? And if they were not stupid or they would be young people interesting in the basics of science, wouldn't they be smart enough to raise the bar a bit? I mean, it's not TV. People actually have to make an effort to purchase and then watch these courses.

Anyway, Mr. Burger was cool as always, but I had issues with some of the concepts presented in the course and how they were presented. After a plethora of information about Pythagoreans and natural numbers and Π, the lecture about the number e was really basic. No real proofs, no examples of use, it was like it didn't belong in the course at all.

Then there was the thing about 0.(9) being equal to 1. I understood the theory behind it, but it just got me wondering what about integer part of 0.(9)? And, if one could use the reasoning behind the idea, then how come S=sum(x^n) with n=0..infinity is not always 1/(1-x) regardless of x? And how come it is considered possible for a real number to have different decimal expansions? Shouldn't it there be a theorem about the uniqueness of said decimal expansion for a specific number just as it is about the prime factorization in order for some of the proofs in the course to make sense? I intend to write an email about it to Burger himself and if (with a godly voice from the sky :)), he answers me, I will be able to complete this entry.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the course, although the one about number theory remains my favourite from this lecturer.

Update: Mr. Burger was kind enough to answer my questions. Here is his reply:
You are correct, there are examples for which the decimal expansion is not unique (and it only happens when we have an infinite tail of 9s). Here are two quick ways of convincing yourself about 0.(9):

1) I bet you feel very comfortable with the identity: 1/3 = 0.(3). Now multiply by 3: 1 = 0.(9)! Fun.

2) Suppose that 0.(9) does NOT equal 1. Then I'm sure you would guess it would be SMALLER than 1. Now recall that if we have two DIFFERENT numbers and we AVERAGE them, then the average will be larger than the smaller number and also smaller than the larger number (the average is in between them). So let's find the average: add: 1 + 0.(9) = 1.(9). Now divide by 2 and we see the average is 0.(9)... but that's one of the numbers we were averaging! Whoops.. therefore the numbers must be equal.

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Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas is an earlier math course, staring a long haired Ed Burger and his Texas U colleague Michael Starbird.

Many of the ideas in Introduction to Number Theory have obviously originated here, however I didn't find this course so interesting, maybe because it was not so well thought trough or maybe because it was clearly targeted at a lower level of understanding and the many repetitions of basic ideas kind of turned me off.

The content of the course is structured into three parts: Numbers, Geometry and Probability. The first part contains very little that has not been covered in Introduction to Number Theory. The geometry section is a bit interesting as Michael Starbird takes us through some topology, talking about the Möbius strip and the Klein bottle. The last part is basic probabilities, although there are some interesting problems studied there.

Overall, a fun course, better suited for people that are really not into maths, but more into interesting ways of thinking. The last lecture summarises the life and thought "lessons" learned from this trip into mathematics.

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What a fun course this was. The lecturer of Introduction to Number Theory, Ed Burger, a math PhD, looks like what one would expect a mathematician to look like: thin, tall, geeky looking, wearing a rather bland costume, but with a colorful tie, curly hair and large glasses, with a sincere smile that seems a bit sad. The thing is, he is also a lot of fun and his enthusiasm regarding mathematics is not only obvious, but catchy as well.

The course itself requires very little if any mathematical education to understand, being mostly about ideas, rather than formulas. It is a Teaching Company course, and each lecture builds upon the understanding from the previous ones, making surprising and really fun connections.

I was very sad when the course ended, I wanted more! Happily, I've got "The Joy of Thinking" and "Zero to Infinity - a History of Numbers" that are also lectured by Ed Burger and I can't wait to watch them all. I highly recommend the course, even if one is not interested in math. It opens the mind on a way of thinking, useful in any situation, rather than anything specific.

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Every time I've heard about this anime I refused to watch it for the very simple reason that the American "brand name" was Samurai X, which pretty much sucked tremendously. But, while reading a list of Shōnen anime series, I've decided to give it a try. And it, real name Ruruoni Kenshin, was a decent anime.

Staged in the beginning of the Japanese Meiji era (the reconstruction, as they call it, after American battleships forced the country to open its borders to the outside world) it features the adventures of former samurai assassin Himura Kenshin Battousai, fighting for the imperialists in the Tokugawa era, now reformed as a wandering samurai and having vowed not to kill anyone anymore. He manages this feat by using a "reverse blade" sword, which has the cutting adge on the inside. He thus manages to beat the crap out of people without actually killing them.

The series reminded me of Twilight Samurai, the movie that I liked so much, because it shows the feelings of people in the middle of great social and political change. Featuring 95 episodes, it is split in three main parts.

The first is how Kenshin moves into a sword dojo ran by a beautiful and single girl (heh!) and how they save a little boy from thugs and thus they become sort of an unofficial family. His "man slaying" past is slowly eroded by the contact with this pure hearted people. During this period he gets to fight several enemies, each stronger than the others, but keeping his vow not to kill anyone.

The second part is a large story arch in which he fights against a plot to overthrow the Meiji government and bring Japan to another period of chaos and war. The story culminates with the battle against a former "manslayer", the mastermind of the said plot.

The third part is mostly a mix of different stories that pretty much breaks the spirit of the first two parts. Instead of getting better, it grinds to a stop and then even gets worse. In this section he gets to fight "Feng Shui" masters and participate in all kind of filler episodes.

I felt that the series had a very nice feel to it, so I would recommend anime fans to watch it, but with the third part optional. There are also several OVAs that I am yet to watch. Happy viewing!

Update: I have watched the 6 OVAs and I was blown away. There are 4 episodes that make up an "origin story" for Kenshin, then a fifth episode which kind of summarises the series (badly) and then an ending that is both positive and extremely sad (in that typical Japanese suicidal way :) ). The animation is way more mature, the plots more complex, the characters have real feelings and there is no comedy whatsoever, getting back to that good feeling I had when I started to watch the series. Also the audience is different: the battles are realistic, with wounds and lots of blood, no magical mambo-jambo, while the characters behave more traditionally, with the women being more passive and the men more closed up.

All in all, the origin story makes the series seem childish at best, however I would recommend it being watched after seeing the series, just as I did.

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I've had the priviledge recently to be able to watch two batches of horror movies from start to end without interruption, what I lovingly like to call FrightFest@Home. All my movie comments can be found here as well as another list, ordered by my vote here. The permanent links are in the top right of the blog as well.

However, after this, I felt compelled to also write a blog entry about them, since, as the horror genre goes (and, why not, the entire movie class), most of the films I have seen were rubbish.

So, these are the movies I have watched. I will cross out all the movies that are not worth seeing and bold out the ones that I felt need to be seen. I reiterate: all the movies in the list are horror (or at least marked as such on imDb). I would like to add a special thanks to M'hael from The Horror Club blog who recommended many of the films in the list. Here is goes:

Have fun!