Television

[Agent M]

Wait... Star Wars Clone thingie is supposed to be anime????? It doesn't look anime at all!! It looks more like a cross between Superman and something else.... lol.

[db_pr]

I know! But some people think it's actually anime. hmph!

[Agent M]

Well then they don't know what anime is.
Ugh. POOT!!!

[Quill]

kli6--Yeeah, I agree w/you for the most part on CSI, except that I'm driven to write fic about it, which bothers me when I haven't seen some of the pivotal eps. At this point I still haven't seen half the third season, I guess. *sigh* Why aren't there any cop shows like "In the Heat of the Night" any more?

[Kathy Li]

Err. I don't think anybody who knows animation would even consider Star Wars: Clone Wars to be anime. Anime-inspired, maybe, like its predecessor Samurai Jack, but not anime. Of course, for me, just because something's anime doesn't necessarily make it good, either.

OTOH, a ton of stuff that folks think of as US cartoons aren't animated in the US. Like, say, The Simpsons and just about every other cartoon out there, is mostly animated in Korea. You'll see all the usual suspects in the credits: Akom, Sunrise, Koko, Studio Juno, etc). Of the shows I've watched only Batman had TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), and Gargoyles (first season only, had the Disney Tokyo group animating) could lay claim to any Japanese animation at all.

Oh, and for those who didn't know, the whole pointy-face big-eye look isn't necessarily infallable in identifying Japanese animatin. All those Rankin-Bass stop-motion and drawn animation (e.g., The Last Unicorn, The Hobbit and Rudolph) were also done in Japan.

Quill...ah. Yes, if you're gonna be fan enough to fanfic, than you gotta mop up what continuity there is. At least DVD sets are available for CSI up to Season Two. And two words should suffice for why there aren't any more good cop/sf/written shows: reality tv.

Happiness! Bravo started up Cirque du Soleil's Solstrom and Angel is back this week.

[Zgirl]

Has anyone watched the show MADE on MTV? I think all of you should it's really good, I also like Vh1's Best Week Ever, it's funny.

[Kathy Li]

Anybody else catch Prime Suspect 6. I had a much better time with it than I thought I would. Probably the result of not having seen a Jane Tennison mystery in about 7 years. Much much better than either 4 or 5. My only problem was knowing that Helen Mirren's fluent in Russian, and expecting Tennison to be, too.

May sweeps coming (sigh). I'm looking forward to the CBS **** Van **** Revisited special, but overall, sad that all my shows are going bye-bye soon... but then, the summer shows start. I'm so looking forward to Dead Like Me, especially now that Wonderfalls is gone.

[Kathy Li]

Whoops. Watched the Harry Potter movie on ABC last night, and apparently A Wrinkle in Time has been moved up in the schedule. It's airing tonight!! (Monday, 10 May). 8pm-11pm. ABC.

[Chani]

Yeppers... That would be 7pm PST (my time too). Looks really good except I will be at work and will miss it and one can only record one thing at once.

So, tell me how it went.

[Kathy Li]

Actually, with enough vcrs and a splitter, (or the right model tivo) you CAN record more than one thing at a time, but I know what you mean, it's a real pain. The good thing is that a lot of the made-for-tv Disney stuff on ABC ends up DVD (e.g., Eloise at the Plaza).

[Chani]

Hey.. and I have to admit, I have that movie. Cute.. really cute.

*sigh* Well, it isn't all that. With cable, you can't record and watch something at our house at the same time, cause the cable guy hooked up the cable through the VCR (I am not particularly fond of the guy.) So... being unable to change it, I just have to put up with it. Guess I could spring for TiVo, but... well, that would mean a second job for me and the part-time one I currently have (which there are no extra hours available for) is about all I can do at the moment. *big sigh* It's okay... I'll manage.

[Kathy Li]

I don't think it'd cost more than $20 to get a splitter, hook it up to the cable from the wall, and then put one signal into the tv, and the other into the vcr. But that assumes you're not worried about digital channels, cable box descrambling, and that your television has more than one set of inputs you can easily switch between...

[Chani]

Ahh... but I do. And therein lies the crux of the problems. I have to worry about them. (deep breath) I really don't have enough time to watch all three things anyway... that is unless I give up my time here... hmmm.

[meteorite]

I just watched some of the Disney version of A Wrinkle in Time...

Bad Disney! Bad ABC!! No cookie!!!

I know they were trying to "update" it for present day audiences, but ugh! I could only stand about 45 minutes of it before I had to watch something better, like Family Guy. There was only a passing resemblance to the original book, of which I have very fond memories. When they had Mrs. Which saying "Children?! You must get rid of them immediately!" I cringed. And what did they do with Meg's glasses? Those are only a couple of the bloopers I saw in the little time I was able to stand of the made-for-TV stomachache.

Did Madeleine L'Engle have any creative control over this? I'm surprised she wasn't screaming bloody murder over this painful botch. I can see why DD is leery of allowing her novels anywhere near the parasitic lifeform known as a television network without stringent controls.

[Quill]

I taped "Wrinkle" but have not yet watched it. However, Neil Gaiman's blog offers a link to a Newsweek interview with Ms. L'Engle, here exerpted: