Bent Corner

Sheri and I were out and about today doing some Christmas shopping and we stopped by her mother’s house for a visit.  My mother-in-law was watching a movie on the Sci-Fi Channel.  I knew this because the Sci-Fi Channel logo was proudly displayed in the bottom right of the TV screen.

If it wasn”t for that logo, I never would have known I was watching the Sci-Fi Channel.

The scene on the screen featured a young woman being accosted by two men who proceeded to wrap her legs in duct tape.  They then placed a metal pipe under her feet.  Then one of them took a hand axe and cut off her feet.  At least that’s what I thought was done to the poor woman.  The camera cut to her face and from the look she was giving the camera, she looked to be in severe pain.  As though she just has her feet chopped off.

Why exactly was this movie on the Sci-Fi Channel at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday?

Ubisoft has announced that they are no longer planning on producing a Heroes video game based on the NBC television series.

The game was officially announced back in July of 2007 and it was supposed to be released this year. Being that “this year” ends next month, I already figured the game was dust. Computer games based on TV shows usually always suck. In fact, other then the MMORPG based on The Love Boat, I can’t think of one other computer game based on the TV show that didn’t make me want to drink Draino.

Maybe Ubisoft could still make a game loosely based on Heroes, but instead of having it mimic what’s happening in front on the camera, it could mimic what has been going on behind the cameras. Players could write crappy stories involving new, boring characters and then try to avoid getting fired by the executive producer.

That actually sounds like it might be fun.

Writer-Producers Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander have been fired from the once hit NBC TV show Heroes.  Both men led the show’s day-to-day production operation under the direction of creator and executive producer Tim Kring.

The ratings for the third season have been bad for Heroes.  I watched the first 2-hour episode, but the rest have been sitting on my DVR collecting dust.  Not that digital content sitting on a hard drive can actually gather dust, but you get the picture. I might get around to watching them or maybe I wont. I still haven’t decided.

Personally, I thought the second season blew. The show already had too many characters. For some unknown reason, even more characters were added to the cast.

I guess this means that Jeph Loeb will have even more time on his hands to write sucky comic books.

Say it ain’t so! The Fox network has decided not to renew King of the Hill. This makes me sad on more then one level. To me the show demonstrated what animation could be when it was treated as just another medium that could be used to tell a story.

Though it was extremely funny, it wasn’t silly. It was less the Simpsons or The Family Guy and more like a standard situational comedy except it was funny. You could take almost any script from any King of the Hill episode and shoot it using actors instead of animated characters. [The Hollywood Reporter]

The HBO series True Blood premieres tomorrow (7 September) at 9:00 p.m. It’s based on the superb Southern Vampire Mysteries series of books written by Charline Harris.

True Blood takes place in the deep south two years after vampires came out of the coffin (so to speak) and announce to the world that they actually exist. A Japanese pharmaceutical company invented synthetic blood and produced it under the brand label True Blood. Fake blood meant that vampires would not need to feed off humans anymore.

I like the books. A lot. When I first heard that HBO was producing a series based on the books, I had my doubts that they could pull off the series to be as good as the books. Charline Harris is a gifted writer that has crafted an entire world comprised of interesting and unique characters. I was able to watch a screener copy of the first episode (don’t ask) and I was pleasantly surprised.

It didn’t suck and it followed the story in the first book (Dead Until Dark) very closely.

My only complaint is that the premiere episode did not include my favorite character in the books, Eric Northman. He’s a very old vampire who used to be a Viking. He doesn’t make his appearance in the book until later in the story, so it’s understandable that he wasn’t in the first episode. I did some investigating online and I discovered that the part of Eric is played by Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard. While reading the books, I always imagined him as Triple H, the wrestler.

I’ve always wondered what happened to Agent Dana Scully from the the TV show The X-Files. Gillian Anderson seemed to fall off radar (cue spooky music) after The X-Files went off the air. I regularly see David Duchovny pop up, but not Gillian Anderson. Until now.

She will be appearing as one of the hosts this January on PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre. She will host the first 10 episodes.