leftover writer's strike goodness

so...

the writer's strike allowed some unusually good things to end up on TV. Remember who's writing this (a guy with a closet full of comics, a wall full of action figures, and faith in the power of people to overthrow capitalism).

I just finished watching the last episode of Jericho (the whole time grinning and saying to Desiree "there is no way this is coming back for a third season"). To sum it up a nuclear attack on 22 US cities sets the stage for social disintegration and civil war. The first season is about how a plucky plains town pulls together to survive. The second season is about the US occupation of Iraq... err... I mean Kansas. It's good stuff. Lots of corn, and apocalypse, I love it. Plus the CIA agent monologues about individual responsibility to act right when it's obvious that the chain of command is unaccountable and totally nuts, while bleeding from a belly wound, while a bad-kid turned special ops military turned private contractor turned returning hero turned sheriff turned insurgent is driving him around in an ambulance with an improvised NUCLEAR FUCKING BOMB; and interlaced with this are scenes of a military commander resigning and convincing everyone in his command to walk with him, and the home town resistance preparing for (but ultimately punking out of) the long fight to cast off corporate/military domination. Torrent it, all of it, start to finish, then watch Jeremiah.

That Terminator show may actually end up a casualty of the strike... I think if the writers had been involved in the final editing process it would have been a lot better.

Now that Lost is down to a 13 episode season it feels manageable again.

And Supernatural completely half-assed it's way through the strike, with hilarious results... go torrent "mystery spot".

And Chuck and Reaper both rule.

but honestly, fuck TV.

what I've been really excited about is audio-drama podcasts. Yes, I AM THAT NERDY.

First go listen to Claybourne for real... and start at the beginning...

Okay, awesome right?

Now back to the nerding.

Any fans of Joss Whedon should be reading Buffy Season Eight and Angel After The Fall AND listening to Buffy Between the Lines. This was the show that started me on this audio-drama kick. The first couple episodes are cute in that "it's my friends band" way but by episode four the whole ensemble process has really hit it's stride and the actors/writers/editors/directors/producers are pulling things off at a near professional level. And what they are doing with the story and character arcs really fills in the between season gap well. I might even get around to submitting my application to do sound editing and be part of season two.

And you all know I'm hooked on Star Wars, which is much more understandable if you know my full bio, and my tumultuous relationship with... you guessed it... my Dad. Fortunately he's not trapped in armor, my Mother didn't lamely die of a broken heart, and I don't have a twin sister to make out with (yuck), but I am a whiny bumpkin with delusions of grandeur. Anyway check out Blue Harvest for an at times awesome and always adequate Star Wars fan service. Neal, the writer/director, is steeped in the Star Wars myth, he's taken a few characters and concepts abandoned by Lucas in early drafts, revivified them and made them his own and come out with a compelling story. The only short coming here is that it mimics too closely the film serials that inspired Lucas. Some resolutions to cliff hangers are a bit too contrived but I suppose that is part of the form (and story, and myth).

The Sonic Society drops 5 hours a month of the best audio-drama-cinema/pulp radio/whatever, every month. My tastes are far too much in accord with Jack and Shannon to even pretend objectivity. Besides these are the folks responsible for Firefly: Old Wounds, which now that I think of it may have been what got me hooked on this stuff, so not pretending to be objective and moving right along...

The March 25th Sonic Society had a promo for an upcoming Battlestar Galactica show from BrokenSea. Not some Jimi-Hendrix-indicates-that-Starbuck-is-a-Cylon Galactica of today, I'm talking full blown 1970's Egyptianesque flight helmet wearing Mormons in space... too bad you can't see the Cylons or the flight helmets.