Just a couple of things I felt like commenting on:
-The MTV Movie Awards
-The Game Show awards
-Conan taking over the Tonight Show
-Medium
-The new superhero cartoons
Read if you care…
What happened to the MTV Movie Awards? It used to be the most fun awards show on TV. So inventive and zany, more like a rave with awards thrown in. But this year it felt like a watered-down Oscars. The host had no chemistry, the skits were no fun, and WTH was that with the guy with exposed buttcheeks landing on top of Eminem? (And did Will Smith walk out on disgust?) The MTVMA used to mock the other awards shows, now it’s just become the same. Boo.
On the other hand, The Game Show Awards (on the Game Show Network, hosted by Howie “Deal or No Deal?” Mandel) were a GREAT surprise. They actually formatted it as a game show, with people participating live for prizes!! This was in addition to the actual awards, mind you. Plus the comedy skits were FANTASTIC – ranging from a guy proposing for real to his girlfriend in the guise of a game, to Chloris Leachman in a dance number (a comeback at one of the judges from that Dance Reality Show who made a crack about her) to the guy who was on Jeopardy without losing for two months losing to CHARO!! (Note that all the questions were slanted so only she would know the answers. :P) Now THAT is how you entertain an audience! Take note MTV!
Does anyone here watch “Medium”? I didn’t- I know it’s been on the air, what, three years? But I only started watching it after this year’s seasons of Chuck (which rocked) and Heroes (which sucked) concluded, and even then only because NBC ran several episodes in those timeslots. (I’m a creature of habit.) I must say, however, that I’m impressed. The premise (psychic woman helps the police solve crimes) is so cliché that it never attracted my attention, but after watching it I must say, this is very well written and acted. Oh, the fact her powers only show her what the story needs her to know at a given time is annoying, but then, visions are like that- supposedly. And the script does wonderful things with it, like in that episode were she got hired to help a company visualize its future investments (makes a hell of a lot of sense if you ask me) only to be threatened to be sued by them if she didn’t stop “wasting time helping the police!” (There was more than that to it, but the ideas are cool by themselves.) Plus the acting is good enough to make even the episode where she switches bodies with a man (!!!) actually work! Too bad the series just ended its current season; I hope they pick it up again, because I want to see more.
As you may have heard, Conan O’Brien has replaced Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. I wish him well, really, but I miss Leno. Yeah, he will have his own show -at 10 PM- starting this fall. But for the last 17 years I’ve gone to bed after laughing myself silly to Leno and his guests (seriously, my sister, who lives upstairs, sometimes complained. :P) and neither O’Brien, Letterman, or any of the other Late Night Talk Show hosts does it for me. What can I say? I like lame jokes. When delivered by someone likable, anyway. O’Brien and the rest are either too smart-alecky or just plain too unfunny for my taste. I should be glad Conan didn’t drag his worst stuff (like “The Masturbating Bear”) with him to the show, though. (The network probably didn’t let him.)
Comparing the various new superhero cartoons… I must say I’m puzzled. That we get new Batman and Iron Man cartoons shortly after their hit movies is no big surprise. The specific versions we got are. Batman gets a team up series, The Brave and The Bold, which is actually based on an old Batman comic. That’s not a bad idea; it helps other, less famous DC characters get some exposure… except, the whole thing is (mostly) played for laughs. Think Super Friends or Adam West Batman. Well, not quite THAT bad, but this is certainly no “Dark Knight”. I guess the movie had to be softened for kids, but if you’d told me I’d ever see things like B’wana Beast or Babyface Nelson on TV, I’d laughed. The writing is inconsistent… it ranges from surprisingly good (the Owlman/Joker two-parter) to how-did-this-get-past-the-censors (the tragic events in the Red Tornado episodes.) They need to get their act together.
As for Iron Man: Armored Adventurers- OK, I have NO idea what they were thinking here. “Let’s reinvent Tony Stark- AS A TEENAGER!!” Yeah, because that worked SO well in the comics! (Note: in the 90’s, they actually replaced Stark with his own teenage self for a while in some crazy time travel story… which is now universally HATED.) In the cartoon, NOBODY is even close to what they are in the comics. Stark HATED his father. Rhodey was not a techno-geek. The Mandarin was not an uppity kid. PEPPER WAS NOT A MOTORMOUTH DITZ!!! …Let’s face it, this is just a teenage superhero show that just happens to use the names from the comics. And I hate its CGI/Cell Shade/Whatever it is they are using. People look fake and the bad guy’s armor designs look unwieldy.
…However, IF you ignore this is supposed to be “Iron Man”, the show itself is not that bad. It has an interesting premise, quite a bit of humor and enough action. There have even been clever moments here and there. As movie-based cartoons go, I’ve seen worse… but I’m still puzzled about some of the changes.
That’s all for now. Though I may give the cartoons more comments in the future… we’ll see.
Oh right, forgot about that one! But then, it came out before it’s movie tie-in did.
Anyway, I think “Wolverine And The X-Men” is good, perhaps the best X-Men cartoon yet. The story is surprisingly serious and well-written, the characters are great, and there’s a few twists even I didn’t see coming (like Rogue betraying the X-Men to the Brotherhood.) I think it’s the closest to the comics they’ve come, while still being not as dark (in the comics, most of Wolverine’s acquaintances are dead, often at his own hands; that doesn’t seem the case here.) Add some pretty good animation and designs (and one kickass opening theme) and you have one enjoyable cartoon, certainly better than Batman: TB&TB or Iron Man: AA. Though those are good too.
I’ve also been watching The Secret Saturdays, but I haven’t made my mind up about it yet. It’s one weird show, sorta like The Incredibles meets Johnny Quest. More comments later…
From what I’ve watched of the Secret Saturdays It’s more like Johny Quest meets Scooby Doo + Hercloids (its too late at night to bother looking up the correct spelling right now) with I guess some Teen Titans thrown into the mix. The only reason why I don’t watch it anymore is because the good guys are a bunch of scrubs, though the villain is great(he’d be TT’s Slade if Slade were a Scooby Doo villain (of course he doesn’t need to be that overpowered anyways considering that the only way he’ll ever lose is due to having a complete deus ex aimed squarely at him)).
Also have you given either Transforms: Animated or Star Wars: The Clone Wars a spin?
The problem with Secret Saturdays is that it can’t make up its mind about what it is. For a “secret family of scientists that investigate cryptids” they sure spend a lot of time OUT IN PUBLIC in their full costumes and with their weird pets (or are they family members…?) :eek: in full view. And the main villain has HIS OWN KID’S TV SHOW? O-Kay…
I can’t get into Transformers, I’m burned out after following it for literally decades. I’ve checked Star Wars and it’s definitely a good show, but the fact that, you know, all the good guys are DOOMED sort of dampens my enjoyment of it. Couldn’t they have done a series based on Han and Leia’s kids instead? Sheesh.
No one wants to watch a show about Han and Leia’s twins. They totally don’t come in in the movies and hence, and uninteresting to most people that would watch the show. Many people, I mean, seriously, they’d expect kids to watch this show, and they wouldn’t know about stuff that happens, for example, in Star Wars books.
I would watch it, but I think I’m the exception that proves the rule.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of Clone Wars, and only because its, for some reason, being shown on Adult Swim, so it comes on and I’m like, whatev, and listen to it while I read/post on here.
That pretty much falls in line with what I was saying though. The protagonists are such failures that even if they were to change into street clothes they’d probably trip over their untied shoelaces or something like that. Hell they’re so bad they make the Wonder Twins look good. And the villain having is own kids’ show is there just so that he can point and laugh at them.
As for T:A I can’t blame you for feeling that way as the two previous shows alone were all kinds of awful. That said I found Animated to be at least comparable to Beast Wars (it’s only downsides were it’s length, and the lack of a flamboyant Megatron, although if it had just one more season to tie up some loose ends it’d be the best damn thing to ever happen to Transformers ever).
As for CW granted they’re not going to live for very long. But then again, who does? Otherwise it’s not a bad show (and Anakin’s VA is a colossal improvement over the original actor).
Actually, I find the Saturdays, even the kid, pretty competent- and the fact they all commit mistakes is refreshing, this isn’t another of those “the parents are always right and it’s the kids who screw up” shows. It their M.O. that confuses me. For people trying to keep the existence of cryptids hidden, they’re doing a VERY poor job. And the villain is like a cross between Doctor Doom and the Crypt-Keeper. But hey, points for originality…
As for CW granted they’re not going to live for very long. But then again, who does? Otherwise it’s not a bad show (and Anakin’s VA is a colossal improvement over the original actor).
What puzzles me is that this show came out after Episode Three, rather than Two. Now, most of its target audience must know what a traitorous idiot Anakin turns out to be (well, die hard fans knew it already but today’s kids might not) so it’s kinda puzzling that they expect to cheer for him and his (doomed?) apprentice. Too bad, because otherwise, this IS a good show, with good CGI (not perfect, but better than Iron Man’s) and good enough writing. Btw, I understand the Star Wars kid novels are NOT canon, so they could just rewrite them for an animated TV version. I think that actually would have worked better. IMHO.
I would not consider the ones I’ve read to be aimed at adults. I’ve read, Crystal star, Tales From Jabba’s Place, Darksaber, and the Jedi Search trilogy.
I believe there are some Star Wars books for kids. I remember reading some way back in the day when I was younger. No clue what the name is, but they exist.
There is a lengthy series about the jedi academy, it follows the adventures of Jacen and Jaina with a few recurring characters. It is written in Nickelodeon quality and I think they refer to it as “The Jedi Academy Series” or something uninspired like that. Plus there’s the one where Anakin “annoying kid version” fixes the sink for the jawas.
I find this, and the new X Men, to be reinventions of the older cartoons that preceded, specifically the last iteration. The same actor from the old Batman cartoon from when we were kids (and by we, i mean this generation of 20somethings) does Batman. The Xmen show retained the same theme song, only a little more… I dunno, extreme or something. For that fact, I love them both.
As for the Clone Wars, I love it. But I’m also put off by the obvious - that all the good guys are gonna die and that Anakin kills them and the whole thing is a big disaster. A show about Han and Leah’s Kids, or at least a show about Luke Skywalker. Sheesh - theres a lot of source material for a show like that.
I think the sign of a good cartoon is that parents can watch it with their kids. This is hard, it requires a gentle intertwining of adult action and humor with childrens themes and relevent events. These shows do this very well.
Leno only ever does stand-up and usually only about politics. Conan’s comedy has so much more breadth and depth. I feel sorry for anyone who ever preferred Leno.
Yeah, Hades. I feel sorry for people when their preferences don’t match mine, either. I mean… you watch late night network television. I feel sorry for you.
