Best episode of television that I’ve seen in years! Seriously.
Also the best issue of BATMAN comics that I’ve seen in years. Just as seriously.
Category: TV Review
Robin Reed Reviews BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: BLOOD & CHROME
by Robin Reed
I was glad to see that the new Battlestar Galactica movie, based during the first Cylon war and starring the young and enthusiastic Bill Adama, later to be the older and wearier Admiral Adama of the other SyFy series, was not a jingoistic rah rah war movie. It was more in the tradition of Vietnam War movies in which the reasons for the war are unclear and the motives of the leaders who order young people into battle are murky.
And yet, this movie is a jingoistic rah rah war movie, because as someone said, you can’t make an anti-war movie. War is exciting, and addicting. It is more interesting than getting a job and having a family. For many people, once they have experienced it, they want to go back to it. You can call it meaningless and question why it happens all you want, but just showing it is attractive to many people.
This movie takes place after the Cylons, robots created as warriors, then used as servants, have rebelled against the humans of the Colonies. (Ask colonies from where, and you get into the never-explained backstory of the original 1980’s Battlestar Galactica. They seem to be colonies from Earth, but when did they leave Earth? In the original show, the viper pilots had helmets that looked Egyptian. Did ancient Egypt have space flight? The show never said. Oh, and the Cylons were an alien race in the original show, they weren’t created by the colonies.)
HOUSE OF CARDS Is a Losing Hand.
HOUSE OF CARDS, is meant for the likes of me in one respect: I have recently streamed the entirety of shows like DOWNTON ABBEY, BREAKING BAD, SONS OF ANARCHY, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, GAME OF THRONES and the old and the new versions of UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS.
I enjoy watching serialized shows that leave me wanting more, but because I waited I don’t have to wait.
A Writer’s Sad Goodbye to His Cartoon Network Favorites
It Was Good While It Lasted
by Marc Alan Fishman
Last year I wrote an article about the wave of amazing comic-book related cartooning that was going on. Well, here we are now and I’m sitting on the stoop with an Old English tipped towards the curb. Ounce after putrid smelling ounce of malt liquor spatters on the pavement. The yeasty brew gurgles and slushes into an adjacent drain.
THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE – A Lesson in Economics
We’ve always loved this little show, not merely because it was brought to TV by an old friend of LB’s (Rick Sigglekow: Hi, Rick!) but also because of the important life lessons it teaches. Including this one about – cronyism?
The Baffling Economics of the Island of Sodor
by Alex Knapp
Being the father of a toddler, I spend a lot of time watching Thomas the Tank Engine. As a writer for a business magazine, my mind can’t help but be puzzled by how the economy of the Island of Sodor actually functions. It seems to me to be dreadfully inefficient, and for the life of me I can’t figure out how anyone on the Island turns a profit – especially the railways. Here’s just a few questions I’ve had while watching the show: