Eureka: Shower to the People

I really want to look forward to Eureka because it’s a good show. It’s typically got a decent science fiction idea or two, a fair amount of humor, characters that i like and even some drama. All of that said this last episode just left me a little flat.

I think there are three problems going on here. The first is one that so many serialized dramas seem to come up against, though Eureka has it is spades. That is the formula. The problem is that because they use so much science, and they feel the need to explain it it becomes clear that whatever science they use is going to be in the solution to their problem. This is the murder mystery problem you run into in series. You always know that one of the people introduced on the show this week is the killer.The second half of this is that Carter is always the one to put this together. You have a engineer who can build a time machine, the head of global dynamics, a SETI researcher with a doctorate, an expert on radiation and biocomputers and Fargo this episode and none of them think to use the technology.

The second of the issues is that that I am still a little disappointed by their misdirection earlier in the season. This is a show that I could believe would have some type of alien probe land and instead it was a chance to bring an old cast member back for a Camino. Not that it wasn’t an interesting enough plot only that it isn’t as interesting as what I had hoped for.

The third thing is that it largely felt like the seasons arc is over. There is of course still a great deal of information to take apart but there is no sign so far that the information is of any value beyond simply being interesting science.

I will continue to watch Eureka and I will continue to enjoy it, but I hope that there is something up the writers sleeves because at this point it’s starting to feel stale.

Defying Gravity: H21K Review

As only the second episode of Defying gravity that I have seen i have to say that I enjoyed H21K far better than the previous episode. Perhaps it is simply because I understood the characters a little better having started without seeing the pilot but I suspect it is because I understood the threat a little better.

The entire plot of the episode is really quite simple. The ship is having mechanical difficulties, but it allows for a great many interesting things. One of the best is the explanation of their artificial gravity and why they aren’t floating around the ship all the time. It’s fun te see a show that is really using realistic problems, because though I enjoy shows like Star Trek the technology is mostly fantasy.

The shows flashbacks made far more sense to me this week too and although I’m not entirely convinced that they are needed I can understand the idea behind it. If the show took place entirely on the ship it could begin to feel claustrophobic, but I suspect that might be a good thing if you’re trying to get people connected to the audiance.

Realistic science fiction is harder to do that epic science fiction in many ways, but it is also something I have wanted to see for quite some time and so I am going to continue to watch this show and hope that it can keep the show at the quality level of H21K

Eureka: Ship Happens

With the ship coming to Eureka I was ready for aliens. I enjoy I felt like something that truly shook up the show might just be a good thing. Now that it hasn’t happened though I am just fine with that. I can understand why the writers would be reticent to inject something into the show that would necessarily take over a huge part of the series and what they did with the plot bringing back Kim, sort of is something that will be interesting to explore.

Much of the episode was about Henry dealing with the return of the woman he loves expect it isn’t really the woman he loves. It looks like her, even sounds like her, and in some ways she acts like her bu it isn’t.

With the return of an old character it helped to remind me just how much I miss Stark on the show. He filled a role that they need to fill again. A rival for Carter. Someone who isn’t actively doing anything wrong and is useful but competes more with Carter.

The other thing that I liked is that the solution for this weeks episode wasn’t something they introduced this week. Having one of the technologies that have appeared return is important because one of the logical problems I’ve had with Eureka is that they tend to create new technologies one week and then never use them again even though they would be very useful.

Overall I am very interested to see where they go with Henry and Kim, and if the show can just find a little more conflict between the cast again I will be quite happy with it.

Eureka: If you build it…

One of the things that makes a show difficult to watch is when you are ahead of the characters, this is especially problematic when you are dealing with what is supposed to be a collection of the smartets people in the world, and finally when the cause of their problem is the thing that every one of them is focused on it becomes almost frustrating.

This is generally what happened on Eureka. It seemed odvious from the first minute that something odd was being built and they said there was no reason for anyone in Eureka to do it that it was probably the ship comming towards earth. They almost had me beliving they wern’t going to go there with the smart roads, and I like how they worked that in, but it still f elt as if they were just taking too long to figure it out.

The smart car system was fun and Fargo was entertaining as always. I appricate that they make fun of the man, but he’s still smart enough to figure out the solution once in a while so you know why they keep him around.

As for the product placement, NBC is becoming blatent with it, but i realy don’t mind when it is in light hearted shows like Chuck and Eureka. If on the other hand I am watching a more serious show it will effect me more. THis is the way things are going to have to go with more and more people using DVRs to fast forward through the commercials. Perhaps they can even do it well enough to take a couple minutes of commercials out of some of the programming.

In the end I really enjoyed this weeks show, but I wish they would have sped up the “mystery” part of the episode and focused on some of the other interesting parts because it was a little easy to figure out this week.

Darth Vader Jobs

It’s always sad when former celebrities are forced down the levels, so here are the various jobs one of the most famous celebrities of the 70’s has been forced into

Futurama has its actors back

The Toronto Star has reported that an agreement has been made for the actors of the show Futurama to all return. Both sides gave in a little with the studio offering more money and the cast accepting less than they originally demanded. I’m not hugely suprised by I am pleased.

A few previews from comic con

Tron Legacy looks good, but I think they lose something with the light cycles when they act like real bikes. The unreality of Tron was one of the things that made it so much fun.

I don’t care all that much about Halo but from what I’ve heard of this they are doing a few interesting things. Also, the first person talking at the beginning sounded like Nathan Fillion to me, does anyone know if i’m right.

I hadn’t seen anything about this before, but I like the idea of a TV series style for a video game. It makes quite a lot of sense in the level structure they tend to have.

Lost Videos from Comic Con

I Don’t know if these videos are hinting at anything, but they do remind me that I miss lost and I really want to see how it ends.

Futurama returns

Rumors about the return of Futurama have been flying around the internet for years, but it appears that they are finally being confirmed. Futurama is going to return for another season it seems, though it is not yet clear whether the voice actors from the original cast will be returning.

I don’t know what to thisk about this. It is certainly good news that the show will be returning, and they havn’t yet said that the voice cast won’t be returning but it will just feel wrong if the voices comming out of the characters are different, and I’ve never been a fan of people trying to imitate others.

Over all I’ll be glad to watch new episodes of Futurama but if the voice acting distracts me too much I may wish I hadn’t.

The picture is from Daekazu

Warehouse 13: Magnetism — review

The third week of Warehouse 13 and it’s growing on me.  This episode did a better job of combining the humor and danger of the situation as well as showing how the writers are able to examine the characters better through the use of the artifacts in the show. In this episode it made people act on their subconcious desires.

Much of this episode dealt with the tension between the two investigators and while this was fine for a single episode I hope that the suggestion at the end of the episode that they may have dealt with this will prove mostly true. It isn’t that I want them to get along perfectly but it’s going to get old quick if they continue to fight all the time.

More interesting to me were the parts in the warehouse. The actor who plays their boss is entertaining and this is the ongoing part of the plot which is the part that most interests me. i hope that they have someplace interesting to go with it, some type of ongoing villian would be good, an enemy organization who wants to use these objects to control people.

Overall the episodic nature of this show is the least satisfying part to me and while I know that they aren’t likely to completly abandon that nor would I want them to, I just hope that they can find a way to combine episodic with a story that continues to grow, because by itself I just don’t care enough about the situations to see myself watching it for very long.