And that's probably the end of that topic until next year.
More on television: We finished the first (and so far only) season of Alphas last night and I'm going with a whole-hearted rec for it if you enjoy that category of genre TV. The setup: A psychiatrist is working with a group of human beings with special abilities, called Alphas, to solve crimes committed by other superhumans. He is loosely affiliated with the US government, which has an interest in using and understanding Alpha abilities that might or might not be benign. Meanwhile, other Alphas are working together in a group called Red Flag that the government describes as a terrorist organization. And since they tried to assassinate the doctor, he tends to agree. Complications ensue.
So it's a riff on the same theme as X-Men, Heroes, and classic SF like Slan. It's character-driven rather than explosion-driven. The team doesn't necessarily get along with each other or even cooperate when they should. Expect a grittier feel than Warehouse 13 or Eureka; people do get killed and the protagonists will make mistakes & fail sometimes. It's got good writing, good acting, some fun guest stars (Brent Spiner, Summer Glau). I wasn't once tempted to throw anything at the TV screen over epic plot stupidities, which is unusual.
It's a Skiffy Channel original series. Should be streamable in high quality online from all the usual services as well as watchable on the Skiffy Channel's site.
I don't feel particularly fannish in the creative sense about this one, but I'll be watching the second season as it airs.
So it's a riff on the same theme as X-Men, Heroes, and classic SF like Slan. It's character-driven rather than explosion-driven. The team doesn't necessarily get along with each other or even cooperate when they should. Expect a grittier feel than Warehouse 13 or Eureka; people do get killed and the protagonists will make mistakes & fail sometimes. It's got good writing, good acting, some fun guest stars (Brent Spiner, Summer Glau). I wasn't once tempted to throw anything at the TV screen over epic plot stupidities, which is unusual.
It's a Skiffy Channel original series. Should be streamable in high quality online from all the usual services as well as watchable on the Skiffy Channel's site.
I don't feel particularly fannish in the creative sense about this one, but I'll be watching the second season as it airs.
Gary is another amazing character. I expected him to annoy me but instead that portrayal has charmed me. His interactions with Bill win.
I think Nina needs a little more development. I liked her character development episode (the one with Summer Glau) but there was too much else going on there.
Rachel has probably changed more than the rest of them aside from Rosen. Definite character movement there.
Just about the only off note for me was the predictable romantic subplot. "Really? Are you really going to go there?" I said at the first hint of it.
Edited at 2011-10-10 03:25 pm (UTC)
I'm only on the 4th episode, but what I like so far is that each of characters are complicated, real people without their flaws being cheesy, if that makes sense. I mean, we can see Rosen's denial about stuff regarding the alphas and the whole treating them differently thing, but it comes off very genuine and his conflict seems real and not forced. Even the FBI agent guy kinda irritates me, but then he's just quirky enough to offset it before I start really disliking him, lol. Same with super-trajectory guy. I'm a bit lukewarm about the girls so far, but maybe that will get better.