TV this week:
- Ghost Hunters: "Touched by Evil" - The Southern Mansion in Cape May, New Jersey. Interesting enough place, with good stories. But the evidence was limited. You can't trust a door that seems to be closing on its own unless you can prove the door never moves without human intervention. And the "Shave and a Haircut" echo sounded just like an echo in the room to me, not a definitive answer like they seemed to think. Not impressed, sorry.
- Destination Truth: "The Jersey Devil; The Yeren" - The Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens, featuring a Ghost Hunters team member... heh. They claim the Jersey Devil is older than Bigfoot, but there are Native American stories of Bigfoot going back hundreds of years before Europeans came over, so I think they are a bit off on that one. Josh is just as snarky about American airports as international airports. Kris: "You guys are crazy. I don't have to worry about anything eating me at my work!" And she hunts ghosts normally. As expected, they found nothing of value for the hunt, although a couple of odd sightings add to the mystery. They next visit China to hunt the Yeren. Gabe is acupuntured in a scary-looking hospital, and they play at badly-dubbed movies on a boat. And this gem: "Nobody's better at almost finding monsters than us!" Then Josh lets off fireworks in the middle of the street... ok. Running around in a dangerous forest in the middle of the night had to result in injury, and it was predictable that someone would fall. A pretty fun episode all told.
- Battlestar Galactica: "Resurrection Ship: Part 2" - Wow. This show just gets more intense as it goes along. This episode deals with Admiral Cain, and not at all the way I was expecting. This show is just cool.
- Battlestar Galactica: "Epiphanies" - Last episode on this disc, and it's another big one. The president finally is dying, and decides to take care of a last few problems. I found this one distressing to watch. I like Laura, for many reasons, and the flashbacks show a little more of what she is and what she needs. Balthar is a really sick guy in so many different ways.
- Who Do You Think You Are?: "Brooke Shields" - Not sure what to think of this one. Brooke herself isn't bad, but the whole seach isn't all that interesting. Family feuds and deaths make for some drama, but it's hard to feel much for her when she checks out the royal side of his ancestry. It wasn't horrible, but I'm looking forward to the next one in three weeks.
- Dinner Impossible: "Balloon Blowup" - Robert doesn't have any idea what sort of mission he'll have before going shopping, because balloons are bringing him mission parameters. Not easy, and he has the usual equipment problems PLUS a sous chef that is not used to mission impossibilities.
- Ghost Hunters: "Haunted Reform School" - A neat building in California, but as usual there just wasn't much there to see. It sounds like a very creepy and extremely dangerous place to be wandering around at night. The floor that started to collapse under Grant was spooky in a non-paranormal way.
- Destination Truth: "Haunted Mining Town; The Taniwha" - A desert in Chile to visit a couple of ghost towns originally used for mining, complete with a special guest from a show I don't watch. I like how they found the towns (using paragliders over the desert). Ghosthunting in a ghost town's cemetary is really freaky. Those open graves were very disturbing. The thermal image at the school seems to me to be a living person, so I'm not sure what to think of it. After ghost hunting, the team goes cryptozoological in New Zealand to find a sea serpent. I'm not sure white water river rafting is the best way to look for dangerous water beasts. For that matter, scuba diving at night seems a little dangerous as well.
- Doctor Who: "The Beast Below" - Hrm. Um. Hrm. Well. Um. Er. It's a show. Not sure what else to say. The awful bow tie is still there. Pity.
This week's movie was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both of us wanted to see this movie, but neither of us were expecting much from it after the panning it got when it came out. To our surprise, it was just a standard Indiana Jones adventure. Amusing at times, silly at others, with a fantastic and somewhat outlandish premise. We enjoyed it. I'm not really sure why it got such terrible reviews, unless people were expecting Harrison Ford to be twenty years younger or something.
- Doctor Who Ongoing #9 - Martha comes to the comic, and the artwork improves slightly. But there's still an annoying overall arc.
- Doctor Who Classics Series 3 #1 - And enter Frobisher! I don't know that I've ever read his first tale before, but I'm amused by it and glad to see him show up. All Hail Frobisher! All Hail the Big Talking Bird!
- Green Lantern #52 - Eh. Amusing cover, otherwise a miss.
- Power Girl #10 - This book gets better with every issue. I find the casual jokes to be wondeful, just kind of funny drive-bys. More books like this one, please.
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold #15 - The funniest opening three pages in comic book history. Or at least since the Sugar and Spike opening. The rest was ok, but nothing special. But those opening three pages... wow. Worth the price of admission.
- Tiny Titans #26 - Green. Very green. Needs more Aqualad.
- Northlanders #26 - Two more issues of this, and I'm not sure how they are going to survive this winter.
- Incredibles #7 - Finally all explained. With a good set up for future tales. Not bad stuff. Poor Dash.
- Oz/Wonderland Chronicles: Prelude to Evil #1 - I have no idea what this series is about, or even if we've got all the issues, because of the slow pace it is being released at combined with the various mini-series and one-shots. However, each issue tends to be good. Someday I'd like to sit down with the whole thing and figure it out.
- PS238 #43 - I love this book. I really love this book. More like this, please! Want to see how this storyline ends.
- Blackest Night #8 - Those last few pages almost make this eternal event tolerable. Except... where's Garth?
- Justice Society of America #37 - Want alternate timeline story to end.
- Justice League of America #43 - Little bit of Aquaman, but not enough to make me happy. Multiverse, though, that might be promising.
- Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four #3 - Coming up on the end game after what, five years? I'm curious to see how it pans out, but enjoying the ride enough that I may actually be sorry when it ends. Each new iteration of the boys is fascinating to see, as they step towards being true villains without seeming to see that they are doing the exact same thing they despise Silver Agent for.
- Legendary Talespinnders #2 - Shades of Neverending Story in here, but with more anchors. I'm not sure what we'll be seeing as this moves along, but it's not a bad start. How many issues is this, again?
- Usagi Yojimbo #127 - Another consistently good book, with consistently cool stories. Always worth picking up, even if you aren't familiar with the book. This is a perfect one-shot, so go out and get it if you haven't read any Usagi and want to try it out.
My library book this week was Mennyms in the Wilderness by Sylvia Waugh. With the prospect of their home being torn down, the Mennyms move to the country. Lots of little problems in this one, lots of fun stuff, a handful of twists, and a regular human dealing with the Mennyms and their secrets. It's a nice story worth a read if you enjoyed the first book.
2 comments:
My first ever issue of DWM (I think!) was the first part of Frobisher's first story. :-) (Of course, that was the period where finding issues of DWM was a rare and wonderful thing in the US, so my next issue wasn't until years later...)
As for "The Beast Below," my initial reaction (barring your dislike for the bow tie, which I kinda love) was pretty much like yours, but it does improve a lot with a second viewing.
I will eventually watch "The Beast Below" again, but right now the flaws are glaring at me more than any good sides. And that horrid bow tie continues to annoy me.
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