loonyblog.

All I'll say about last week's Smallville...

So beautiful...should have sent...a poet.

Both movies were simply stunning. Hero, with its bright, bright colors and sweeping camera movements was just jaw-dropping (particularly the fight among the leaves). And Days of Heaven (in my opinion, the best looking film ever made) just popped off the screen. And because DoH was shot in a 16:9 aspect ratio, it ran totally full-screen (like most recent films, Hero was shot in a larger aspect ratio, so it's shown anamorphic, with slight bars on the top and bottom of the screen). The scene with the locusts and fire in Days of Heaven should be seen on every HDTV ever made.

I went with the Sony KD-34XS955 for a few reasons. One, that I only have room in my wall unit for a 34 - 42 inch screen. And secondly, because of the image quality on all sources. This thing makes regular television look great (except for things taped off the WB, as that comes in really dark for some really annoying reason), Xbox games look amazing, and DVDs naturally look great as well. Plus it was relatively cheap for an HDTV. LCDs, rear-projection televisions and plasmas may get all the press, but believe me, if you can support the obscene weight (this thing weighs 200 pounds!) it's worth it.

The one thing I haven't tried on here yet is a pure HD signal. Time Warner's being their usual pain in the neck, and it looks like I won't be able to get a Cable Card until Friday. This year's Oscars will have to be in SD instead. I'll live.

Lois, Lana and the state of Smallville.

Read on if you're interested.

Continue reading "Lois, Lana and the state of Smallville."

Things I hate in Superman stories.

Read on for the list if you've got a geek tolerance level of 50 or above (level 3 nerd also qualifies).

Continue reading "Things I hate in Superman stories."

How I briefly hated TiVo.

Everything was going great. The TiVo was plugged into my TV via a component video connection, the audio was a digital optical connection to my receiver, and the cables from my cable box were all set to go into my TiVo. The problems started when I plugged it in and began Guided Setup.

But of course, it's never that easy. Read on for the whole story.

Continue reading "How I briefly hated TiVo."

TiVo, your days are numbered.

Here's the deal: Comcast is coming out with a Motorola DVR that has 60 hours of standard TV, can record HD broadcasts and HD on demand, and has two tuners to record multiple shows at once. All of that for just $10 a month extra on your cable bill? There's just no way TiVo can compete with that.

So far TiVo has survived the onslaught from cable company DVRs on quality alone. Those DVRs never had season passes, or any of the features us TiVo lovers have come to enjoy so much. But it's only a matter of time before those cheap DVRs get as good, or better as TiVo. It pains me to say it, but unless TiVo gets a deal with a major cable company, their days might be numbered (especially if the DirecTV deal expires, which has been rumored for ages now).

Yay for the Babylon 5 movie?

I actually found Galen to be a bit on the grating side on that show, although since the show was so mangled from its original vision who knows how much of that was intentional. In any event, Galen was a significant character in the post-B5 novels (not including the technomage ones, as I never read them), so clearly that's a character JMS cares about quite a bit.

While I absolutely love B5 and always will, I'm a bit disappointed in this news, to be honest. Legend of the Rangers was such a steaming pile of poo, and actually, only one of the B5 movies didn't suck, that I question how well JMS can work in such a condensed format.

Still, more B5 == ROCK, so I guess I'm happy. And I'm certainly looking forward to this more than Serenity/Firefly, because let's face it people, that show sucked.

T.V. that doesn't suck?

A few things you should know: I don't like live action sitcoms very much, and generally my favorites tend to be episodic sci-fi shows like DS9 and Babylon 5. Having said that, the problem with shows like that is that you need to watch from the beginning, and it's tough jumping in right in the middle. I've thought about tuning in to Enterprise this season, but I feel like I've missed so much at this point that I really need to wait for the reruns to get caught back up.

But anyway, any suggestions are much appreciated. Post 'em in the comments if you've got any.

So uh...

"I won't be your monkey"

I haven't watched the Daily Show in years...after 9/11 I decided I no longer had much of a tolerance for that kind of cynicism. But seeing Stewart rail into these two (he also called them hacks and even at one point called Carlson a dick), I gotta say, I'm setting the TiVo now. Whatever silliness I see on the Daily Show, no matter how cynical, it can't be any worse than the nightly minstrel shows on cable news channels.

If you missed it live (and chances are you did -- I certainly did), do yourself a favor and check it out over at IFilm, as they never re-run Crossfire.

The Amazon sale to end all sales.

I also ordered the first seasons of Angel and 24. Angel I've seen and enjoyed, but 24 I never watched since you really have to watch it from the begining for it to make any sense. For $15 bucks (with free shipping), it's cheap enough where I'm totally willing to take a chance on it. Too bad The X-Files isn't that cheap. Milennium stunk and $15 is way too much to spend on that.

How sad.

Odyssey's end.

Well, I looked around, and checked the show's official message boards, and sure enough, the final six episodes of the show, which up until now have gone unaired, will be broadcast on Showtime Too starting on Friday, October 1st, with two episodes each Friday for three weeks.

Incredibly, this conflicts with another sci-fi show Showtime's quietly killing off, as Jeremiah is showing two episodes every Friday on the main Showtime channel. But at least they're re-airing those episodes through the weekend, so I can catch back up on the ones I'm skipping to catch O5.

It's sad to see O5 go like this, but then, technically, it ended two years ago. I'm happy I'll get the chance to see the last six episodes without having to buy the inevitable DVD boxed set (which I can't see myself ever doing...I mean I liked the show, but not that much).

The blog post of the review of The Batman.

Continue reading "The blog post of the review of The Batman."

Today's rhetorical Star Trek question...

Having said that, I don't care how goofy the Borg Megacube is...I still want it.

The Babylon 5 set I'm skipping.

I thought about it a bit, and it occurred to me that I already own two of the movies in that set, as I bought the pilot and In the Beginning when they were released as a two-pack well before the season-by-season sets started up. That thought was quickly followed by the realization that the rest of the movies really suck.

It's still tempting to buy this for the commentary tracks, but really, the other movies are so bad (at least when compared to the rest of the show), that I couldn't possibly imagine myself ever wanting to sit through Thirdspace or River of Souls again.

Having said that, the inevitable question is whether or not I'm going to bother picking up the complete Crusade collection when it comes out. Crusade I really did like, although it was cut so short that I'm not sure it's worth the price of admission. Still, there's a better chance of that than the movies collection. Crusade may have been tragically neutered, but at least it's enjoyable. I can't say the same thing for Thirdspace.

Sci-fi swan songs.

As most of you should know by now, I'm something of a sci-fi buff. I love sci-fi novels, movies and possibly most of all, sci-fi series television. Thanks to the wonders of DVD (and Netflix in one case) I recently watched through three of my favorite series of all-time straight through (over the course of many, many, many months -- not all in one sitting!): The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Babylon 5. So just for the heck of it, I present a head-to-head-to-head comparison of the three series. Not in total, mind you, but merely their last seasons. It's pretty long, so read on for the whole thing.

Continue reading "Sci-fi swan songs."

The mind boggles.

On a less-exciting, but still kinda cool note, is word that Manny Coto (who let's face it, sounds like a sci-fi character himself) is joining Enterprise as a show runner next year. While I haven't watched Enterprise for a long time, and at all in over a year (due to its ever-increasing mediocrity), Coto's addition might help the show out a bit. Coto is the creator of the short-lived Showtime series Odyssey 5, which I suspect I was the only one actually watching, let alone enjoying (there were many reasons why I enjoyed it, but the fact that one of the cast members was really cute didn't hurt).

Say what!?

I've been meaning to write a piece about the jumbled mess that Smallville's mythology has become (and the sudden sorta-but-not-quite-entirely appearance of Kara Zor-El in the season finale just added to that), but this just takes the cake. For what it's worth, the fact that a quote attributed to producer Alfred Gough misuses the word "it's" suggests to me that this is less-than-trustworthy news.

Let's hope so, because personally, I'd like to see a Superman movie that wasn't tied to some of the sillier plot twists in Smallville. I like the show, but that would be such a burden on any movie.

Update: Well that didn't take long...The Superman Homepage contacted Gough directly, and it turns out that those quotes are indeed a whole lot of bunk. Typoed bunk, at that.

To live and die in starlight.

RIP Richard Biggs

RIP Richard Biggs: Best known for 'Doctor' roles on "Days of Our Lives" and "Babylon 5", actor Richard Biggs died unexpectantly Saturday morning of what appears to be either an aneurysm or a massive stroke. He was in good health and just 43. Our sincerest condolensces go out to his friends, family and many fans

Update: a statement from JMS was posted to the comments over at Shacknews. It's well worth a read.

The very reason I own a DVD player.

In the mood for more classic animated superhero action? At last compiled in extensive collections, on July 6th Warner Home Video will release Batman: The Animated Series - Volume One, a four-disc set which features 28 "awesome adventures" of the famous crimefighter. Presented in 4:3 full screen, extras include audio commentary by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Eric Rodomski and "Batman: The Legacy Continues" featurette.

Oh, I'm giddy like a schoolmarm. July 6th can't possibly come fast enough. If you can't wait either, it's already available for pre-order at Amazon complete with a pretty hefty discount and free shipping.

Anybody watch The Shield?

Wacky.

Yikes.

Yowza. You'd have to be pretty infatuated with Fred to go through all that effort (not to mention toner!).

Alias renewed.

Yay! Another season of outlandish and preposterous plot twists!

You know, I love Alias (I really do), but at times those plot twists are so silly it borders on self parody. And this latest one (again spoiler in the article) is yet another silly twist on silly twists.

I figure I'll keep watching until Sydney and Vaughn get married. The second that happens it'll become unwatchably lame (I cite the case of Lois and Clark versus television viewers everywhere as my reference). Then again, they could just decide that Vaughn is actually a cyborg hybrid cloned from Sloane's secret daughter's cousin's best friend's father...who is actually...Jack Bristow!!!!

Oh jeez...I probably should have marked that with a spoiler warning. I tell you what: if I just revealed the big twist at the start of next season, I'll blame it on my clone. Or Sark. Or Rimbaldi. That guy can be blamed for anything these days.

Pointless TV on DVD.

The overwhelming popularity of something like Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond sort of ensured their release (and there are sets of Seinfeld coming in the next year). But how well do you think the first season of the Dick Van Dyke Show is selling? Okay, okay that has the classic audience, and they'll buy anything. How about Party of Five: Season One? Oh right...Neve Campbell's hot. Okay, how about Little House on the Prairie: Season Four? Or Felicity: Season One?

Those not good enough for you? How about Saved by the Bell: Seasons 1 & 2, The Best of Laugh-In or Sanford & Son: The Complete Fourth Season? And you really know they're scraping the barrel when Good Times: The Complete Second Season is available (I guess the first season sold well enough to warrant a sequel). And let's be honest here: who really loves Gumby enough to shell out $100 for a seven disc boxed set?

Clearly these shows all have enough of an audience to warrant these boxed sets...I mean, I guess there are a lot of people who would wonder why on earth anyone would want the complete collection of The Critic...but I think that's easier to justify than some of the above mentioned shows. I would hope The Critic is outselling Good Times. Good lord do I ever hope so.

Drool.

But the promise of dual layer burning is too hard to ignore. As I've said here before, I've taken to archiving shows from my TiVo onto DVD, but because I can only burn to single-layer discs, there's a two-hour limit per disc. While I recently picked up some dual-sided single layer DVD-R discs, it still means that for maximum quality, I'm forced to burn a two hour movie as a flippy-disc, and nobody wants that.

I'm guessing that Apple's next version of iDVD will support dual-layer burning (for up to four hours on a single disc!) and their next superdrive will support dual layer DVD-Rs. And that for me, is the holy grail of DVD burning.

Well this made my day...

<NMankaniTZ> Greetings! What are your plans in terms of releasing box sets of the "DC Animated" properties such as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Teen Titans on DVD?

<warnerbros> There will be season boxed sets of both BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES and SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. TEEN TITANS is scheduled as well.

Now here's a first...

It probably won't do any good, and UPN has reportedly already passed on picking up the show, but I'm liking this season and would very much like for it to continue.

This can't be serious.

Dragonball Z: "Smallville" spunk Tom Welling is being rumoured for Goku.

Well, I guess there is something there...although I think some serious prosthetic hair is going to be necessary in order to complete the illusion:

I'm seeing double! The resemblance is truly uncanny.

Saving Angel.

Which brings me to the latest such campaign, the one to save Angel, the Buffy spinoff that has proven itself to be a fine and entertaining show in its own right (and last year was a hell of a lot better than Buffy's final season). The show's been canceled, and the general consensus is that it's a really big long shot that any campaign, no matter how big, will manage to convince The WB to bring it back for another year, or UPN or any other channel to pick up the show. But I admire the concept.

So far they've raised over $9,000, and will be placing full page ads in both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Their next goal is to raise another $8,000 for a "Guerilla Billboards campaign" (I'm not sure what that means exactly). Whether it's successful or not, these campaigns have gotten much more organized, and like I said, I admire the effort.

And hey, if it works, all the better. I like Angel. I'd like to see it continue for another year or three.

I am lord and master of the DVD.

So instead, I labored to find a solution, and can now actually say that I've figured it out. Of course, iDVD has a really annoying 2 hour limitation, so I needed to split the movie in two and burn it to two separate discs...but it's worth it.

While I've long known how to do it using Toast, that was a bare-bones affair. Because I used iDVD, I was able to include the easy-to-make custom tracks and menus, and anything less to me wouldn't have felt right.

Ahh...I rule.

If I'm feeling ambitious, I might post a tutorial on how to do it one of these days. It's a bit complicated and convoluted, but once you get the hang of the process it becomes second nature.

Remote patrol.

As I said, this is a favorite subject of mine. Since I have so many electronic devices connected to my surround sound setup, I used to have a serious problem with remote controls. My solution was to invest some serious money in a Philips Pronto TSU2000, and after a great deal of time tweaking and programming the device to my custom specifications, I was able to replace 14 remotes with that single device.

In doing so, I did a lot of thinking about what features are really needed in a remote control. Programming a Pronto is a lot like designing a web page, and while the TSU2000 isn't as flexible as the newer ones are (which basically give you complete freedom to design whatever you want), I think I was able to make it as simple as possible. I basically took off completely anything I never use at all, and moved less commonly used features (like the subtitle, angle and audio commands for my DVD player) to secondary screens. I put in little touches like the "All Off" button that's on the main TiVo page (since that's the screen that's used more than anything else), created a screen filled with favorite channels, and made a whole screen of macros to switch between the most common devices (TV to DVD, TV to PS2, DVD to TV, etc). I got to go through this all over again when my father got a Pronto, and for him I dumbed things down even more.

If anyone's curious, my Pronto CCF file is up at Remote Central. It may not be the flashiest one around (well it does have custom graphics for 11 different console systems...I think that's pretty cool) but it's worked perfectly for me for a few years now.

The return of Captain Power.

If all of this sounds awfully familiar, it's because it's been done before. Back in the 80's there was a live-action show called Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future that basically did the exact same thing. You could buy special toys and spaceships that "reacted" to events on the screen. The results were exceptionally lame. If a ship blew up on screen, your toy would suddenly eject its passenger, or make chirping noises. Even people who liked the show itself were of the opinion that the whole idea was really silly. But at the time, Captain Power was primarily competing with first generation consoles from Nintendo and Sega (and the remaining stocks of Atari and Colecovision systems). In an age when most kids already have a platform several hundred times more sophisticated than this, is anyone going to go in for it? I doubt it.

"The Batman" is "teh suck"

Sigh.

I wonder who's actually working on this show? The Batman: TAS staff has branched out big time, and now you can find staffers on Justice League, Static Shock, X-Men Evolution, Teen Titans and others. All I really want are more episodes of the original series...I'm willing to accept that I won't get them, but hopefully the rumored (or was that confirmed?) next direct-to-home video animated movie won't be as dull as Mystery of the Batwoman was. That one was a real bore, and the suggestion of a romantic relationship between Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon really gave me the willies.

Today's superheroes-in-Hollywood roundup.

• The Batman (New Animated Series): According to Newsarama, this new series will be known as "The Batman" and will take place in year three of the Batman continuity. Confirmed voice actors are Adam West as the mayor (insert Family Guy reference here) and Gina Gershon as Catwoman. Comments to Newsarama's post suggest that Kevin Conroy will not be playing Batman/Bruce Wayne, but that part will instead be played by the person who voiced Peter Parker in the Spider-Man series on MTV. As far as I'm concerned, Kevin Conroy is Batman, so I seriously hope this isn't true.


• Superman: Apparently Beyoncé Knowles is actually up for Lois Lane. Shoot me now.


• Tintin: Dark Horizons has some new casting rumors for Spielberg's planned Tintin movie, but what's really wild is the rumor that none other than Roman freaking Polanski wants to make an alternate adaptation of Tintin in Tibet. I think Polanski's a great director...but Tintin???


• Wonder Woman: Apparently these shots of Sarah Michelle Gellar dressed as Wonder Woman for a skit at the MTV Movie Awards have some people talking that she's up for the role in the movie, but Superhero Hype! doesn't buy it. Which is good, because SMG looks like a twelve year old out on Halloween in that outfit.


• Batman: Intimidation Game: Some official details on Christopher Nolan's new Batman movie are up at Dark Horizons, and they do sound promising indeed. The plan is to make this as grounded in reality as possible, and so rather than go with a Tim Burton-style fantasy Gotham City, the current plan is to use exterior shots filmed in New York and London. Sounds great to me.

The new Space Ghost.

Yeah, you read that right.

Here's the description from writer Joe Kelly:

“It’s really a hardcore, pulp-feel story, with him being betrayed by the police force and taking his revenge. It’s really dark, and it’s going to be a blueprint for them to revamp the character and keep it going.”

Sigh. What's next? An evil version of Herculoids? I can picture it now:

When enemies from beyond invade the planet Quazar, it's up to Zandor and his family of badass supercommandos to take back what's rightfully theirs. You've never seen violence until you've seen Gloop, Gleep, Zok and Igoo go on a killing spree.

Say what?

The series picks up in present-day Seattle, where doctor Victor Frankenstein and his creature reside, having survived the past two centuries through the doctor's genetic tinkering. Their story is augmented with that of a female cop and her partner who, through a seemingly standard homicide investigation, unravel the myth of Frankenstein. Skein will have close-ended elements thanks to the cop franchise, which envisions the original Frankenstein monster teaming up with the cops to battle both Dr. Frankenstein and his small army of genetic freaks"

The TiVo of my dreams.

It's a combination TiVo and DirectTV receiver that includes a whopping 250GB hard drive. But what makes this particularly amazing is the fact that it records HDTV content alongside regular television, and it will hold 30 hours of HDTV or 200 hours of standard TV, or any combination of the two. Now obviously those numbers are inflated and probably at the lowest quality setting...but even if I only get 100 hours of standard TV and 7 of HD, that's still pretty darn amazing.

But wait, it gets better! This TiVo can record up to four broadcasts of either regular or HDTV programming at once! Four! In HDTV! With full 5.1 digital surround sound! Ohhh...my geek lust is in overdrive.

Someday, when I have the money to buy an HDTV, this, or something a lot like it (possibly with an even bigger hard drive) will be mine. And truly songs will be sung about that day.

Review: B5: I've Found Her

I'm really not a fan of the genre, so I can't say how this ranks up against games like Descent: Freespace, Independence War or Freelancer (which has been sitting on my stack for ages now). But just in terms of getting across that B5 feel, it does an excellent job. The only thing that's been released so far is the "Prequel Campaign" which will tie-in to the eventual full campaign. Don't let the fact that it's free fool you...IFH sports full in-game cinematics, voiceover work and music, just like any retail product. And if nothing else, it's a stunning testament to the dedication of B5 fans.

The official IFH site seems to be down at the moment, but when it's back you can download it at this URL.

May god have mercy on us all.

But the show sucked!

The show sucked.

Face it, people. The show was a dud. The captain was lacking in charisma, the "mysterious" girl was downright annoying, and don't even get me started about the "spunky" girl mechanic. The show had some decent aspects, but by and large, it was just a world of suck.

On paper, Firefly wasn't a bad idea by any means. I like the idea of a universe without aliens, where colonists are reduced to old-world technology. That's a clever twist on the usual sci-fi thing. But the problem is that they took it too far. Instead of seriously attempting to do a modern take on a wild west type scenario, they literally made it a western. Right down to the dumbass, unconvincing accents. I mean, I understand that people would go back to using old world technology, but did everyone have to say silly things like, "I reckon" and so on? Star Trek was a sci-fi western too, but Roddenberry had the common sense to disguise it.

I love Buffy, I'm enjoying Angel, and I'd like to see Joss Whedon stop wasting his time attempting to resurrect Firefly. His comic series Fray was a heck of a lot better than Firefly ever was, and I'd much rather see a movie version of that than his lame, rightly canceled series.

Good thing I'm not a fan.

"We realized the only way we could improve on the original is if the Cylons could have sex," quipped co-executive producer David Eick at Tuesday night's Los Angeles premiere. The chrome-domed "walking toasters" from the original TV series are succeeded by -- well, really hot blond chicks, who infiltrate human society to engineer its doom.

Cronenberg the actor.

Directors trying their hand at acting is nothing new, and vice versa. Woody Allen doesn't quite count, because he was a comedian first, and a director second (ditto for Charlie Chaplin, if you want to go all the way back), but guys like Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino (who actually did do acting work long before he became a director) have been doing it for years. But what's somewhat unique in Cronenberg's case, is that most of his acting work is for other people's movies, not his own (and therefore isn't quite as egotistical as the others mentioned above).

Clive Barker made a wise decision to cast Cronenberg as Dr. Decker in Nightbreed, a role that allowed him to act really sadistic and evil. Come to think of it, looking at his various roles over the years, Cronenberg seems to play a lot of oddball doctors. He even cast himself as a gynecologist in a cameo in The Fly.

Cronenberg probably doesn't have much of a range as an actor, but his presence always adds something unique to a movie. Take his extremely brief appearance at the end of To Die For, for example. He's only on screen for about a minute, but he has a great, creepy presence, and as soon as he shows up you know something bad's about to go down (I won't spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it).

Another interesting director-turned-actor, is Curtis Hanson, who for some reason I really liked in his brief cameo in Adaptation. I think some directors just have a unique presence. Some people, like Hanson and Cronenberg can pull it off. Others, like Tarantino or Steven Spielberg (both of whom have a manic energy that really belongs behind the camera) should leave the acting to the professionals.

Okay, maybe it won't suck.

• 1.33:1 Full Screen
• English DD2.0 Surround
• English subtitles
• Clip Compilations
• Audio Commentary for 8 episodes
• "Creating The Critic" featurette including interviews with James L. Brooks, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, and other co-creators
• "White Rabbits": Pop-ups during episode 113 which allow you to watch 3 of the scenes in a split-screen fashion showing comparisons of storyboards, rough animations, and the as-aired final animated version of the scene

Never has a box cover been more appropriate.

...and nothing else.

No commentaries, no interviews with the creators, not even the shorts made for Shockwave.com. How disappointing is that? I had hoped to see audio commentaries along the same lines as the wonderful Simpsons and Futurama sets, but I'd be willing to accept the lack of those if there were some kind of meaningful extras. But there's nothing. And they have the gall to charge $49.95 for this thing?

The box cover says it all. To quote Jay Sherman, "It stinks!"

And yet Futurama's still dead.

There aren't many shows that were criminally killed off before their time. Most of the time it's for the best that they end when they do. But Futurama was still in its prime when it ended, and it's simply a better show than Family Guy. Don't get me wrong, I like Family Guy as much as the next geek, but given the choice I'll always opt for Futurama. It's smarter, funnier, and wildly original.

Lex Luthor's Personal Chinaman

Boy, that Lex Luthor sure knows how to live. As depicted on Smallville, not only does the guy have a huge mansion, expensive cars and lots of faux antiques lying around, but the guy's even got his own personal Chinaman.

Yes, that's right, as this image and movie clip from last night's Smallville shows, Lex Luthor actually employs an Asian servant who looks like he walked right out of a Charlie Chan movie (except, I imagine for the fact that the actor is actually Asian, not a white guy pretending to be).

The first time I saw this character (who I have dubbed "Ming" for no particular reason), I couldn't believe it, but then last night he showed up again. Obviously, there's nothing patently offensive about the fact that Lex Luthor employs an Asian servant. But there's something particularly grating about the way he's clothed and his demeanor that strikes me as being an odd throwback to the 50's. And not a particularly good one at that.

To be fair, not every ethnic servant in old movies was necessarily a negative stereotype. Long debates have been held as to whether or not the character Mammy from Gone with the Wind was a positive or negative role for a black woman. While there will always be some who disagree, it's always been my impression that by and large Mammy was a positive character, especially when compared to others from the same time period.

So with that in mind, take a look at this clip where Lex dismisses Ming, and tell me if you find anything creepy about it. For some reason I just get the feeling that Ming is off to go moonlight as a rickshaw driver somewhere. It seems weird to me to see an old stereotype manifest itself on such a modern show.

Smallville is teh suck.

Continue reading "Smallville is teh suck."

Hey, what happened to Lex Luthor?

Odd, isn't it? I remember there being some flack online a while back when the Superman Adventures comic (which is based on the animated series) lightened Lex's skin. I guess whatever argument caused that to happen spilled over onto the new series.

(thanks to JLAnimated for the image)

Krypto: The Animated Series?

Comic fans can also look forward to a certain Kryptonian hero getting his own show on the Network. No, not Superman. Not Supergirl. Not even Superboy.

It's none other than Superboy's dog Krypto who is poised to take the spotlight. Alan Burnett of "Batman: The Animated Series" fame is currently scripting the venture.