Entry tags:

north 40, sukeban shachou rena, v, visitors

"V" v2.0

A quick note to everyone having trouble getting to my main site: I've got a trouble ticket in with one of the tech support dudes and he's taking a look at what the trouble could be. Hopefully it'll clear up soon, if it hasn't already. Thanks for your patience!

V was rebooted on Tuesday. While a decent update with some cool moments, it had some odd decisions, mostly in the early going. Like having pointless action (Tyler riding his motorcycle, dodging heavy traffic) while interesting stuff is already going on (like a freakin' spaceship flying over the city). They also used water as one of the reasons the Visitors came to Earth. There's abundant water in the solar system that isn't in a gravity well. I'm also not sure what mineral would be available on Earth that couldn't be found in the asteroid belt (though I could easily be mistaken). And true, it's a ruse, but you'd want a ruse that wouldn't raise alarm bells among scientists. What I didn't like outright was the first scene of someone spraypainting a red "V" was on a YouTube video of some pro-Visitor youths tagging a wall in support of "the V's." And the show lacked a creep-tastic theme like the first mini, though sacrificing theme tunes for more commercial time is the trend these days. Also, that original tune didn't survive the transition to a series, and an appropriately 80's-esque version was composed.

Mostly, though, the structure of the first program seemed designed to "hurry up and get to the bit where the resistance starts," which is where it got really interesting. If the show gets more coherent and less scattered after this, I'll probably enjoy it more. We're going to get four episodes at least, and if the ratings work out, we'll get more "V" in March.

Oh, and a "location 4400" was mentioned, a nice hat-tip to previous work by scriptwriter Scott Peters... who is now no longer helming the show and has been replaced with a producer from "Chuck."

Now a video game item that even non-video gamers might find intriguing: apparently, a game was released in Japan for the Wii, and it had a dismal opening, garnering only 100 sales in its first week. I predict that will change soon, as it's a game so off the wall, I think it will be purchased out of morbid curiosity. From what I can gather, you're a cat trying to pass initiation into a company run by another cat. This is what the trailer looks like, and there are several videos of gameplay which border on mind-boggling. I think we might be seeing the beginning of a legendary title, though perhaps not in the way intended by the creators.

"North 40" continues to do well among critics, scoring an "unequivocally one of the best horror comics in years" from Comixtreme dot com, and the guys from Tales from the Parents Basement were kind enough to let me yammer about it and other things over the phone at them. On the topic of horror writing, it looks like Stephen King is continuing to spend his retirement from writing as a writer, putting out a book called "Under the Dome." It even has a teaser trailer. Is it me, or do you think he got the idea after seeing "The Simpsons Movie?

There are worse places to get inspiration, I suppose, like:

- An interesting experiment in childhood culture: Four children list what they think the names of various Lego pieces are (scroll down for the chart). I just called most of them "that darn piece I can't find."
- I didn't realize that Scientology celebrated the winter holidays or that they had a gift catalog. Someone found it put it online for our shopping needs. I'm not sure I can think of a book set of any sort I'd plunk down 2 grand for, goatskin covers or no...
- After recently posting about the world's largest rubber band ball, I felt I had to offer equal time to the world's largest meatball.
- What with "Ghost Hunters" and other paranormal offerings becoming more common, the webcomic Wondermark gives us the proper plurals for most supernatural entities.
- Here's a cute puzzle game where you explore via clicking and dragging to give a bunny what it desires: Full Moon. To get started, click repeatedly on the rabbit.
- This is either awesome or disgusting, depending on the ingredients: Leftover Halloween Candy Pie.
- Most of these, however, are just plain awesome: New design concepts for teapots. I think Captain Picard's ready room would look spiffy with several of these.
- Here's a clip from the upcoming Doctor Who animated special, Dreamland. I sure hope the writing is good, because the animation looks very low-quality. I think I prefer the previous technique to this "Shrek on the cheap" look. This anime version ain't too shabby, either.
- Weird Al has written a tribute to 'The Trashmen,' the group that gave us the 1964 hit, "Surfin' Bird."
- I don't think I've ever posted a flash-based pinball game before, so here's Power Pinball. It gains extra cred from me because you can use the flippers to "hold" the ball, just like in real pinball.