Dresden Files Defiled

I’m a big fan of the Dresden Files universe.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t read many of the books, but I’ve read a few, played the tabletop RPG, recently did a Fiasco game that will be going up on Red Shirt Crew soon.  I also love television, particularly investigation or supernatural themed shows like NCIS or Supernatural (or Grimm which does both).  So when I found out that there was a Dresden Files television series I was rather intrigued.  Sure, it only had one season, 12 episodes, but Firefly only had 11, so that’s not necessarily a sign it’s a bad show.  I should have just watched something else.

Little background on the setting for those unfamiliar: Harry Dresden is a wizard living in modern day Chicago, where he acts as a private detective, and occasionally a consultant with the Chicago police, on “the weird cases”.  He deals with werewolves, vampires, outsiders (think demons), and faeries (in the larger sense: pixies, centaur, goblins…) as well has having to worry about the wizard’s white council and their wardens.  I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a good starting point for building a show.

Of course, no show can be carried entirely by it’s concept.  It needs good acting, strong writing, decent special effects (if you’ve ever seen bad CGI on a show… *shudder*), and so on.  I can give Dresden Files a pass on special effects because they weren’t painful to watch and obviously some random show isn’t going to have the special effects budget of a Hollywood sequel to the latest mega-hit.  The acting, in general, isn’t that bad.  But the show just collapses in every other respect.

But of all the problems the show had the biggest and the most demonstrative of the problems with this show is the writing.  I just couldn’t understand what they were thinking.  Anyone who has discussed more than about three movies with me knows that I am terrible at spotting plot holes.  So when, in the course of 12 episodes, I can find multiple glaring plot holes, there’s something terribly terribly wrong.  There’s an episode where the bad guys literally seem to do something just for the hell of it, because the writers needed a reason for Harry to get involved in the case.  Or characters that conveniently (or inconveniently) show up at random times, for no good reason.  Just “because”.  Oh, and they happen to have useful information for Dresden.  Not that they knew this when they arrived, he just mentions something that he hasn’t figured out and “poof!” a clue from the dumb-luck gods.

Sometimes people have bad days or a team that doesn’t work together.  Other people just shouldn’t make shows.  Especially when they have so much potential, and just turn out sad.  Or we can just clone Joss Whedon and put him in charge of his own tv network.  I’d be okay with that.  We could call it the BAF channel (Buffy, Avengers, Firefly).  I’d tune in and then put my remote in the microwave.

Matthew Bryant, aka Baker Street Holmes, is an editor for the Red Shirt Crew and deeply saddened by this attempt at murdering a beloved character.  How would you like it if Holmes tried to strangle your favorite fictional character?  Because he’d do it.  For a klondike bar.  You can follow him (and call in literary hits) on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or e-mail him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

A Grimm Tale

Many you have probably heard of the NBC show Grimm.  I love creative variants on mythologies and have been thoroughly impressed by Grimm’s take on a number of classics ranging from the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales to Native American legends.  If you haven’t seen any of it, read on and I’ll tell you, without any major plot spoilers, about the wonderful world of Grimm.

Grimm follows homicide detective Nick Burkhardt as he faces off against terrifying beasts that can hide in plain sight.  To anyone else, they look like normal people, even Nick.  But they are actually wesen (pronounced vessin): anthropomorphic beasts, many of which have a violent streak dating back centuries.  When they want to be seen, they can reveal themselves, but in times of stress, Nick has the power to see through their guises and glimpse the horror underneath.

You see, Nick is what is called a Grimm.  In one episode, a wesen explains that most wesen think he’s just a story to scare kids, like the boogieman.  But centuries ago, one of his ancestors discovered they had the ability to see wesen for what they really are and devoted their life and the lives of all their descendents to eradicating the wesen.  The Brother’s Grimm?  They were amongst Nick’s forebearers, and wrote their stories to teach the dangers of these creatures to others.  Werewolf-like creatures called blutbad, dragon people known as Damonfeuer, wendigos and the witch-like hexenbiest are just the beginning of the problems he has to face.  He must also contend with the ‘Reapers of the Grimm’, an order of wesen who decided long ago to fight back against the Grimms who sought to kill them, and the mysterious Seven Royal Houses.

I love mythologies, but I also love cop shows, and while the wesen are the main focus, it also does a good job as an investigative drama.  Nick’s tactics are unusual, getting help from his blutbad (read werewolf) friend’s sense of smell and another friend of his, a Fuchsbau (read kitsune) who has a background in alchemy.  He has a detective partner who slowly comes to learn more and more about the hidden parts of Portland the rest of the world can’t see, and sometimes, his fiance helps out with her knowledge of veterinary science, though she knows nothing about the intricacies of what she’s really doing.
I think the idea of so many of the creatures walking perfectly disguised amongst us is great.  It explains “wild accusations” across history when a wesen reveals themselves to a potential victim and the victim gets away only to be found crazy.  Creative takes on Rapunzel and La Llorona have also made appearances, and I’ve got to say, when a show can take the story of Rapunzel and turn it into an action packed episode: bravo.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the upcoming new episodes because there is still just so much they can do from here.  It’s in the middle of season 2 right now, but new episodes start again on March 8th at 9:00 p.m. EST on NBC.

Matthew Bryant, aka Baker Street Holmes, watches way too much television and it’s kind of a problem.  You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

TV Turnover

It seems like just when new shows get going these days they’re cancelled for something else.

Junior Varsity here with the scoop on some of this year’s shows, what’s ending, and what we have to look forward to.

Find out, after the break.

I was inspired to write this post upon hearing that Awake had been cancelled by NBC. In case you’re curious about it, check out my article from last month here: Awake

I am of course, sorely disappointed in NBC’s decision to cancel one of their most intriguing shows to date.

This is the time when networks are deciding the fate of many, so here are some other shows I’ve learned about:

Game of Thrones, the wildly successful adaption of George R.R. Martin’s book series by HBO, has been renewed for both a third AND a fourth season. Impressive. For more info, read my article here: Game of Thrones

Alphas, the Syfy superhero show often compared to Misfits or Heroes, has also been renewed for a second season. This makes me happy as well. For info about Alphas, read here: Alphas

Another Syfy show is also returning, quirky procedural Eureka. While some fans have lost interest, loyal followers are glad for the show’s fifth season, returning this summer.

On the disappointing side of Syfy, the Battlestar Galactica spinoff Blood and Chrome never made it past the pilot. The pilot was filmed, but the network decided it was too expensive and gave it the axe. This is similar to other spinoff Caprica, which made it one season before its demise.

Not surprisingly, NBC musical hit Smash is renewed, although much controversy surrounds what direction the show will go in beyond the season finale. For info on Smash, click here: Smash

(You can tell I watch a lot of TV, cause I keep writing articles about it).

AMC’s popular zombie drama The Walking Dead is set to return for its third season. While some fans have been thus far disappointed, signs indicate that the show is moving in a better direction, and that it will improve next year. Good job, AMC.

HBO’s vampire guilty-pleasure True Blood is sending out promos for it’s fifth season this summer. I rather enjoy the show. Filled with fantasy and sex, (and blood, of course) the show would be more enjoyable is it wasn’t suffering from romantic conflict every five seconds. Seriously, Sookie, calm the fuck down.

Also returning will be several shows with shortened, or half seasons. Most or all of these shows will end after this. These include:

FOX’s Fringe, on it’s fifth and final season. Having quite successfully ended its fourth, it’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

Community, by NBC. Marist PlayBoy knows this show much better than I do, but it certainly is funny. This is kind of a surprising move on NBC’s part. The show is beloved, but the ratings are going down. I’m going to attribute this to what is hurting a lot of shows: scheduling. People want to watch TV when they are free, not when the network demands. So when people don’t watch it live, and record it or wait for Hulu to pick it up, the network takes it as a sign of dislike. NETWORKS: THIS IS A LIE.

That’s my only rant, I promise.

30 Rock, for a full, yet final seventh season. Doc Watson has a lot more to say there I’m sure, as he is up to date on 30 Rock, and I am not. All I can say is that Tina Fey is awesome.

A recent interest of mine is Supernatural. It is currently finishing its seventh season, and no word on whether or not an eighth will come. Time will out, I suppose, but it’s got the quirky sci-fi feel that Joss Whedon (praise the Lord of Quirky Sci-Fi) has mastered.

So, Awake joins the early graveyard shared by Firefly and Jericho. We will mourn you.

This has been fun. If there’s a show you’re interested in that I have not mentioned, but you would like to hear about, leave it in the comments below, and I’ll share as soon as I know something.

Junior Varsity, signing out.

In case you’ve been wanting some nuclear action…

Today Junior Varsity talks about a show that, like Firefly, met an untimely demise. Why should Jericho have earned more screentime? Find out after the break.

So for those of you who have never heard of Jericho a day in your lives, I’ll break down the premise.

Jericho follows a family from a small town in Kansas (Jericho – the name of the show), who happen to reunite just when a devastating nuclear attack hits the United States. 23 cities are obliterated in the attack. The first one we know about is Denver, because the cloud is visible from Jericho. Soon we find out about Atlanta, San Diego, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Dallas, the list goes on.

(Remarkably, New York escaped the devastation, because its bomb teams found the nuke before it went off. So there were supposed to be 24 explosions. Yay New York! This series was made in 2006, so not so long after 9/11)

Anyway, in the course of the show, the townspeople have to band together to deal with radioactive fallout, dwindling supplies, strange occurences, and eventually, a threat from another town.

There are very interesting characters that populate this town. The Green family, where the father is mayor and the son is having an affair, and the other son has a dark past. A woman who owns a store takes in a boy whose parents were killed in Atlanta. And an employee of the IRS has to deal with the fact that everyone she ever knew vaporized with DC.

Also there’s a mysterious man who seems very prepared for the nuclear disaster, almost too prepared…and the show goes on to reveal how he had prior knowledge of the attacks, and where the attacks came from.

Of nothing else, it’s a very interesting premise for anyone who likes the Fallout games, and anyone who just likes pondering that kind of scenario. Post-apocalypses are awesome.

The show was initially cancelled after its first season, but after a fan protest, the network actually brought it back (one of those rare occasions) for a shorter second season. After this, it was still binned, so they decided to continue the story in comic book form.

Now why should it have deserved more air time?

A: it was going in a very interesting direction. By the end of the second season, the United States had fractured into several countries and it was getting a very nice political scenario going.

B: the production value is quite good. As far as I could tell, they didn’t really skimp on anything, even when it came to rolling a legit tank into town.

C: the writers did a wonderful job of building tension and keeping the mystery. They captured the panic feeling quite well. I mean, can you imagine living with not knowing what’s going on, what happened? Eesh.

It was a beautiful scenario, and excellently executed. Both seasons are currently on Netflix instant streaming.

Have a great Saturday!

Junior Varsity Out

From the Archives: The Inbetweeners Review

Hey guys. Huge 8itch (Thomas) doesn’t think he’ll be able to get an article up today, so to tide you over, here’s another one of my articles from my old blog. Enjoy!


Needless to say, British people are awesome. They make great over-the-top bad guys and always seem to be the most unlikable of “villains” in most romantic comedies. Unless, of course, they’re the ones seducing our women (which still makes them villains in most guys book :P).

Most importantly, British people know how to make people laugh. Anyone who’s watched anything by Monty Python is well aware of this. So when I went into watching The Inbetweeners, my first modern British comedy series, my standards were incredibly high.

So how’d it do? Let’s just say I put everything else on hold until the series was done, and then proceeded to watch it again.

The premise of The Inbetweeners is far from complicated. Four boys in high school try to do the impossible: get laid. Really, that’s it. There’s really nothing more to the show (with the exception of a possible satirical point in “Work Experience” about the views of the upper-middle and lower classes, but given the tone of the rest of the show, I have to believe it was an accident), but that’s part of what makes the whole experience so much fun. It’s truly a show in which the audience is asked not to think but to enjoy. And boy, is it enjoyable.

Simon Bird plays Will McKenzie, a newcomer to the school who had to drop out of private school because his dad left his mom and took away much of their financial security. Don’t worry if that sounds serious to you, the other boys in his group make fun of it (especially since his mom is supposedly hot; I honestly don’t notice looks since my girlfriend and I fell in love, but hey, if the actors find her hot, you probably will too). In fact, every piece of drama that adds character to the show is presented in such a lighthearted way that you don’t get bogged down by the drama and can instead focus on the laughs. It’s nice to see a comedy remembering its a comedy (I’m looking at you, latest season of Entourage).

Anyway, as the main protagonist who provides the internal monologue for the series, you expect him to play the straight-laced boy to whom all the ridiculous events occur, but that isn’t really the case. In all actuality, he may be the worst character in terms of morals in the show. He’s obnoxious, pretentious, has no respect for his fellow man (or woman, to be honest). It’s hard to root for good things to happen to such a (and let’s be reasonable about this) a massive t***, which is why the series is so satisfying when things inevitably go horribly wrong.

Will’s pretentiousness is matched by Jay Cartwright (played by James Buckley), an incredibly insecure teen who makes up the most ridiculous of stories to seem cool. Unless, of course, you truly believe he lost his virginity at the age of eight and routinely has threesomes while on vacation in a trailer park.

Blake Harrison plays my personal favorite, Neil Southerland. Neil is simply the biggest idiot in all of London. One of the funniest moments in the series came in the third episode (“Thorpe Park”) where Neil was entirely unaware that his fellow coworkers taking his clothes meant they were hazing him and proceeded to entirely gross out his friends. It’s a wonderful scene from start to finish. Episodes in which Neil plays a significant role are automatically better as a whole than those without.

Joe Thomas rounds out the main cast as Simon Cooper. Simon is actually the character you would think Will would be (that is to say, a reasonable human being). As a hopeless romantic, you can’t help but root for Simon to be successful in his exploits, and you can’t help but share his frustration with his friends’ horrible advice that usually ends up thwarting his plans.

Emily Head plays Carly D’Amato, Simon’s love interest. She does a great job of alternating between being intrigued by him and his charming personality and being disgusted with the things that he does under the guidance of his friends. The two have great chemistry that truly comes across well throughout the episodes.

None of the five actors above have large resumes (or, really, any resume; understandable, given they are teenagers) but that may be the reason the show works so well. You truly feel as if the show is simply following four slightly-below-average teenagers on their quest to get laid, and thus the show works. The concept is brilliant, and the actors deliver in such a way as to make me convinced that their script writing process (for which the writers ought to be congratulated; the dialogue is some of the most realistic I’ve ever seen, which was greatly appreciated) was merely the five of them discussing their interactions of the day.

Greg Davies is the only actor with significant roles previously; he plays the school’s headmaster, Mr. Gilbert. His comedian background shines through as he consistently steals every scene in which he is present. Balancing his need for Will to do things for the school and his overall disgust with Will’s character is executed perfectly, and he appears just often enough to be properly utilized without overusing him and losing what makes the character special.

While I love this show, there are some noticeable complaints. The show is very one-note, and if you didn’t like the joke the first time, you probably won’t enjoy it the fiftieth time either. The Inbetweeners is also built on the same sex and potty humor that most twelve year olds find hilarious at times. While the show possesses far greater wit as a whole, there were moments that made me feel as if the show was beneath me (though there is no possible better vomit scene than the one from “Bunk Off”. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s really freakin’ funny. Just saying).

If you’re looking for high brow humor, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a fun way to spend an afternoon, The Inbetweeners is a great option. There were only eighteen episodes, each about 24 minutes long, so it’s more than easy to catch up. If any of you give it a try, let me know in the comments. 🙂

"It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…Wait…It’s a Clone?"

Hello world! I guess it’s my turn to introduce myself to the reader’s out there and post something really random. My name is Dallas (Sallad), and I like a wide variety of things, mainly food and Biology. As a warning, expect my post topics to be extremely random, I’m not even sure how my own mind works. It’s an enigma. *dun dun dun*

I’m sure most of you have probably wondered what my random title is about. I’m a huge Bio nerd (And one of the few science-y people in our group >.<), but I really like genetics. So then, I thought about cloning. Cloning is a thing that has been a staple of sci-fi shows and movies for years, but it's really prevalent in a show called Clone on BBC. The basic plot is centered on the creation and education of the world’s first human clone. The clone was intended to be used as new type of “super soldier,” but it turns out the clone was more likely to hug someone than shoot them. I haven’t watched much of the series, but it is definitely super random. Eventually, the clone and his creator go on a journey, hoping to find something that will trigger his superhuman abilities, all while avoiding some team of security agents whose mission is to kill the clone. Anyways, if you’re into slightly strange shows, this one may or may not be up your alley.

Sorry, for the short post, I’ve been having a lot of writer’s block lately, but I assure you guys there will be more to come. 

Podcast Follow-up: The Black Dawn

Hello, Junior Varsity here, reporting on The Black Dawn series, which we mentioned previously in our first podcast.

Now that I’ve seen the whole thing, I’m much more satisfied than my initial impressions. It is true that the series has a very low budget, however, I think it should be said that Star Trek had a low budget when it first started. Black Dawn might not be on proportion with Star Trek, but it has a lot going for it.

Take the story. At the first glance, one might be tempted to let it go, simply because the scenario seems so implausible. But over the course of the seven episodes, everything about the phenomenon is revealed in a very good way. They tell you what the virus is, where it came from, how it came into being, and even why those specific people survived.

At first, I thought the reason might be because the virus targeted people who carry specific genes (like that episode of Fringe: The Bishop Revival, season two). But the answer here isn’t as obvious as that. I don’t want to give it away, so you’ll have to watch to find out.

Overall, the show went places I didn’t really expect it to go, and it certainly wasn’t shy about killing off its characters. I think the story did a good job of showing honest reactions to a sudden viral onslaught. I mean, suddenly finding yourself with only twelve other people and not knowing why, people are going to behave in funny ways. For similar movie tastes, I would point to the upcoming movie, The Divide. The Divide is about a group of people who get trapped in a bunker by an apocalyptic scenario as well (although it’s not a virus…it’s something else…meteors maybe? missile attack?) Anyway, the mind-bending-crazy-ness is obviously present in the trailer for that, which I think can be found on Youtube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJCxT2d5hzk

Looks freaky, doesn’t it? Also really awesome.

I was curious about The Black Dawn and looked into it after I watched the first episode. For more information, you can visit the project’s webpage, here: http://www.theblackdawn.com/

I was surprised by the end how much I was invested in the characters. The acting is pretty good, sometimes a little over the top, but I thought there were some quality moments of truth going on. All seven episodes that I watched are available for free on Hulu. Check it out.

Now that you’re all updated on that, enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you for my regular post on Saturday!

-Junior Varsity out.