BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

Avery Brooks  10-2-48 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Posted under Birthdays

Source: INEWSWIRE

“Despite notable efforts from many in the industry, comics and graphic novels continue to be repeatedly mislabeled as just another children’s book category,” said Warren Pawlowski, online publishing manager for Simba Information and an analyst within the company’s Trade Books Group. “With nearly a quarter of the comic reading audience beyond the age of retirement, there is a misconception that needs to be corrected.”

I always wondered why the ads in comics are still aimed at kids.   They average comic reader is around 28 years old, but the  ads are for yogurt,  breakfast cereal or toys.     The industry is messed up.

Posted under Uncategorized

Last night ABC aired the first episode of the highly anticipated No Ordinary Family. The show stars Michael Chiklis (The Commish, The Shield, Fantastic Four) and Julie Benz (Angel, Dexter). The Powell family take a trip to Brazil and the plane crashes into a river filled with luminous "stuff" that wasn’t fuel, since it didn’t float on the surface. When the family returns home, they have developed powers. Here’s a summary of their powers: Jim Powell is Mr. Incredible. Stephanie Powell is Dash, JJ is a genius, and Daphne is a telepath.

As far as origin stories go for superheroes, it was pretty straight forward. Weird lights in water caused random mutations in family. Sounds an awful lot like the Fantastic Four. A family on a space ship zapped with weird lights which caused random mutations. The writers get no points for originality. I’m sure the source of the mutations, yes I’m calling them mutations (what else could they be), will be a source for future story lines and is probably going to be explained at some point.
I didn’t care for the therapy like session as an introduction to the story. It would have been better as just voice overs. Voice overs are tried and true, and couple’s therapy as a story telling device is a gimmick.

They choose five of the basic superheroes/villains to showcase: the Superman (minus the flying), the Speedster, The Mindreader, The Genius, and The Teleporter. And the obvious Master Villain is, of course, the boss of one of our heroes. When the bank robber was revealed to also have a power and saying, "you don’t think you’re the only one" to Jim Powell, I was surprised. I guess I wasn’t expecting super villains so soon. As we all know, a great superhero is defined by his or her nemesis, so I hope that whoever becomes the main antagonist, which will probably be Stephen Collins, will be a bad ass.

I liked that ABC spared no expense with the effects. Also, I’m glad a network is doing a light hearted drama. Shows with dark themes are getting old and tired.  It has been a while since there has been a good show that has action, drama and some family fun.  I enjoyed the episode.  The dialogue could be better, but that’s to be expected as the writers begin to explore the characters and the actors grow into their roles. 

Despite the obvious comparisons to other superheroes and shows of that ilk, I think this show has potential. The writers have a lot of angles they can work, the main one being how the powers affect family dynamics. I hope this show stays around.

I’ll reserve my rating for a couple of more episodes; if the show lasts that long.

Posted under Reviews, Television

Undercovers premiered with solid ratings numbers. However, solid ratings numbers for a season premiere of a new show doesn’t mean much. A writer’s strike isn’t going to kill this show like Bionic Woman, which premiered with a high ratings number as well.  Let me get the bad things out of the way.

The plot line was thin for a J.J. Abrams show.  It is hard to believe that this show came from the same person who brought us Lost, Alias, and Fringe.  He somehow managed to pull the things that people liked about the soapy Felicity and tried to insert it into Alias.  Those episodes of Alias were the worts ones where he had Sydney channeling Felicity.  Here, he takes it to another level creating a Felicity styled Alias..  He tries to capture us with an opening action sequence, but it doesn’t even involve the lead characters.  If I remember correctly, Alias began with an action sequence and a ragged Sydney Bristow walking into C.I.A. headquarters.  That may not be how it began exactly, but it was a sequence that stuck with you and hooked me into the show.  Our introduction to the lead characters in Undercovers was a catering discussion.  The setup action sequence was wasted.

Action sequences abound, but it doesn’t make up for the weak plot.  So, the C.I.A. needs to bring them back into the fold by finding a missing agent, who may or may not be selling secrets.  And we follow the Blooms, as they globe trot (but yet still manage their catering business) tracking down leads.  They went through each “locale” at a dizzying pace.  I barely had time register what was happening.  Only in the end did I realize that not only had the agent they were looking for had been undercover for 5 years, but that he somehow stole some DOD (Department of Defense) documents and was planning to kill the main bad guy by setting up a sale of those documents.  I don’t even know why he wanted the guy dead and why the agent went rogue.

What did I like about the show?  The production value was high.  I am sure they didn’t actually film in all the foreign locations, but they tried really hard to make it look like it.  I think Boris and Gugu have great chemistry and they look good together.  I like the little moments they have when you are reminded that they are married.  They were believable as a couple who had never worked together as spies before, so the viewer got an insight into the growing pains they are going to have as they explore this new aspect of their relationship.  Finally, there isn’t anything that I haven’t like Gerald McRaney in.

To sum it all up: I like the show and it’s potential.  There are some kinks that the writers need to work out.  I think the second episode will tell us a lot more about how the show is going to play.  NBC isn’t known for sticking with shows that underperform, so let’s hope the ratings stay solid.

Posted under Reviews, Television

This fall there are five new shows that I am definitely interested in watching. I already feel like I have entirely too many TV shows on my viewing schedule this fall with the final season of Smallville, Supernatural, The Amazing Race, Hell’s Kitchen, Chuck, Human Target, House, Castle, Glee, Mentalist, and Fringe. Those are the shows that I can think of off the top of my head and I’m sure there are more. These five shows are definitely going to be squeezed into my viewing schedule one way or the other. My DVR will be working overtime. (Not to mention all the football I’m going to be watching Saturday and Sunday.)

Undercovers and Nikita

I put these two shows together because they are sort of in the same genre. Undercovers is about a married couple and former C.I.A. spys (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who are pulled from their catering business back into the espionage trade. My interest in this movie doesn’t revolve around the fact that they are spies because I have had just about enough of spy shows, (Alias, Burn Notice, Rubicon, Covert Affairs). The fact that this is a prime time show on a major Network which has two people of color in the lead roles is the reason I am going to watch it. Hopefully, since this a J.J. Abrams production, the show will have good story lines. The only thing that worries me is that J.J. Abrams has said that he wanted to have fun energy and be a bit more comedic. I don’t know how a funny hour long spy show will play in primetime on NBC.

Nikita is sort of a follow-up to the French film Nikita and its remake Point of No Return (and the series La Femme Nikita). Nikita having now escaped the Division, the organization that turned her into a ruthless assassin, has come back to help others like her to also escape and to bring the Division down. The show stars Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III), Shane West (E.R., Echelon Conspiracy) and Xander Berkley (24: Day 2). Maggie Q looks good in this role and its great to see her finally get a chance to show off her talents that made her a star in Asia.  If the first episode is any indication, then the CW has a pretty good show to possibly pick up the slack when Smallville and Supernatural leave the airways.

The Event

The Event stars Blair Underwood (L.A. Law, Set It Off), Laura Innes (E.R., Deep Impact), and Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia).  There isn’t much to say about this show other than it stricks the same vein as Lost.  The mystery surrounding the show is going to make this show good.  I like the fact that Blair Underwood is playing President of the United States.  You can always count on him to give a good performance.

Hawaii Five-0

Hawaii Five-0 is a remake of the classic 60s/70s TV show of the same name that starred Jack Lord.  The remake stars Alex O’Loughlin (The Back Up Plan, Midnight), Scott Caan (Oceans 11-13), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica).  I wasn’t a hug fan of the original TV series but my father was.  Networks have done a great job of bringing back classic series and making them modern in recent years, so that’s reason enough to give this show a try.  It helps that it’s a pretty good looking cast, too.

No Ordinary Family

Superheroes in primetime and on network television.  I am so there.  Who cares if it looks like The Incredibles or the Fantastic Four.  The promos look like fun and the show looks hilarious.  Definitely a must see.

Posted under Articles, Reviews, Television

Here’s a promo for the final season of Smallville.  Hate to see the show leave the air, but I think its time.  I do believe there are 2 or 3 seasons that were entirely unnecessary, but we fans endured.  Season 9 was a stellar season and this promo promises that season 10 will be just as good.

Posted under Television, Trailers

Source: CBR

The answer to who will be the new Man Without Fear was answered this afternoon on G4′s Attack of the Show: “Fresh Ink” host Blair Butler announced that Marvel’s Daredevil will end in November with Issue 512 — of course, we already knew that — to be replaced with Black Panther: The Man Without Fear.

The title, which picks up in December with Issue 513, spins out of the “Shadowland” event, and finds Black Panther as the new guardian of Hell’s Kitchen, “living outside of his kingdom and rebuilding his life” without the aid of advanced Wakandan technology.

Black Panther is written by award-winning novelist David Liss, who penned last year’s Daring Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special for Marvel, and penciled by Francesco Francavilla (Zorro), who drew those “Man Without Fear” teasers.

Daredevil returned to its original numbering a year ago with Issue 500. The continuation of that numbering under the new name, a la Incredible Hercules, suggests we’ll see a return to plain ol’ Daredevil before toolong. Meanwhile, the four-issue Daredevil: Reborn, by Andy Diggle and Davide Gianfelice, will launch in January.

We already know Daredevil is coming back in January so how long will this really last.    So T’challa  has destroyed the Wakanda economy ( ok he didn’t have much of a choice)  and left left his younger sister to fix it.    So he can protect Hell’s Kitchen….. .    The writing has to be off the chain to get me to buy this change of venue.

Posted under Comics

Posted under Uncategorized

Okay, I went to more than one panel.  In addition to the Warehouse 13/Eureka crossover panel, which I have more than several pictures from, I also went to see Stan Lee, Kevin Sorbo and Lexa Doig (Andromeda), Laura K. Hamilton,  and a couple of others, but those pictures didn’t come out so well.  I think the Dragon*Con staff screws with the lighting in the ballrooms to mess up pictures.  Anyway, here are some select shots.

Posted under Conventions, Dragon*Con, Photographs

These are some of the more interesting costumes that I saw this year at Dragon*Con, most of them are costumes that I haven’t taken a picture of before.

Posted under Conventions, Dragon*Con, Photographs