Tv

On Hulu, and it’s a truly excellent show. :) [youtube &w=560&h=315]

I’m speaking as a fan of the books, but I have to say Game of Thrones, Season One, is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Take the acting from Battlestar Galactica, give it the narrative direction you can only get from an established story, and you get ten episodes of compelling television. (DVD and Blu-ray sets out today.) My impressions: You don’t need to have read the books to enjoy the show. They do a fair amount of exposition during the storyline. “They got their True Blood in my Game of Thrones!” Not sure why HBO figured we wouldn’t pay attention to the exposition scenes without a naked woman wandering around, but the nudity wasn’t as exaggerated as I thought from earlier reviews. And, yes, for those who’ve read the books, they show Hodor’s hodor. That being said, is it kid-appropriate? Nope. Too many throats getting sliced. The producers took the opportunity to add in a few non-expository scenes that I don’t think were in the books. They should have been. Having living actors added a new dimension to some of the books’ more one-dimensional characters. Heck, the Lannister kids are even better, and they were good in the books. Cersei is a lot better when being played by Lena Headey. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime is excellent, and Peter Dinklage would have been the perfect choice to play Tyrion even if he’d been 6'4". As in the books, a friendly warning: Don’t get too attached to any characters. GoT has the approximate mortality rate of the actual Middle Ages. Update: Almost forgot: It does continue the GoT tradition of moms are crazy. And, for anyone who has already seen Season One, here’s the Season Two trailer (starts April 1): ...

Just in case you don’t know what I look like, I offer here an accurate representation of myself: Handsome devil, that. All yellow and…ahem…a few pounds less heavy than I would have thought. It’s from the Simpsons Avatar Creator, on The Simpsons movie site. Their application works even better than the one for South Park, but South Park’s does let you become a pirate, which is cool. Link courtesy of Best Week Ever, which tries for Paris Hilton, but I think this might work better as Paris in the Simpsons universe: ...

I love the Akismet integration in WordPress. It does such a great job of protecting me from comment spam I barely have to moderate anymore. 9,048 spam comments and counting. However, sometimes I do wander into the spam room to see what’s popular lately, and this time one particular entry struck me: Thanks for the good site and usefulinfo. I found amanda bynes feet That’s good, Spam. You found her feet. I hope the rest was still attached, and no tragedy has befallen Ms. Bynes. ...

Hmm, looks like Maxim came out with its Hot 100 (supposedly straight), and AfterEllen.com responded with a lesbian version. Let’s see how they match up with a…uh… “random” list of five women. List**Maxim rank****AfterEllen rank**Alyson Hannigann/a74Jenna Fischern/an/aKristen Bell4656Sarah McLachlann/an/aShakira38n/a Yep, looks like my interests aren’t well-represented on either list, but more closely on the Maxim side based on the numbers. However, I was surprised at how much easier it would be to pick a second five from the AfterEllen list. C’mon, Maxim, you seriously listed Lindsay Lohan (#1, no less), Fergie (#10), and Shanna Moakler (I’m not going to bother looking that up) in your top 100? Combine that with Second Life avatars, and it’s just wasted space. ...

I’m going to step out on a really wide, solid limb here, and say that the first season of Veronica Mars was the best show on television that year. (Yeah, that includes Lost.) The second season almost measured up to that standard. Then the CW decided to start messing with it, and then they canceled it. Thanks, CW, for saving us from quality television. :( In the meantime, pick up Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season. You will enjoy it. ...

The Buck Rogers pilot was released in theaters before its TV debut, and X-Ray Spex has the movie’s far different take on the opening credits. While it would be hard to complain about Erin Gray in a silver suit, I wonder why Buck appears to be making out with Tootsie? (Those are some huge glasses/goggles/whatever.) :)

Hee hee hee… :) [youtube &w=425&h=350] Courtesy of PeterDavid.net.

We like to watch the show Beauty and the Geek on The CW. It’s an interesting social experiment, even though it requires a lot of stereotyping to function. However, it normally treats it with a little self-consciousness. However, catching up on recent episodes, we heard this statement: “Guys, we’re going to ask you questions about topics women like to talk about: Fashion, beauty, and pop culture.” The women were asked questions about aeronautics. ...

You know, I missed out on this particular cultural phenomenon, and now I am so sorry that I did. All My Children. Transsexual. Zarf. “I have a penis.” Words fail. http://www.ifilm.com/efp Courtesy of Best Week Ever.