Archive for the 'TV/Film' Category

My Christmas presents to you, dear readers

December 9, 2009 | Fantasy, Funny, Holiday, TV/Film

Late to the party I know, but I just discovered this super music video for the online series The Guild (via MamaPop):

Do you want to date my avatar? Written by Felicia Day and Jed Whedon.

And also via MamaPop, Neil Patrick Harris as Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman.

Happy Holidays!

Firefly Fan Girl Squee

October 27, 2009 | Science Fiction, TV/Film

Sneak Peek clip from ABC-TV.

Monday’s episode of Nathan Fillion’s ABC-TV series Castle has the best Firefly fan girl (or boy) squee moment since Adam Baldwin’s rendition of Jaynestown (an easter egg on the Firefly DVDs):

Plus there’s a serious side dish of Buffy-love. All within the first few minutes, so if you don’t want to watch the whole show, you don’t have to, although I highly recommend it. And FYI, the sneak peek clip at the top of this post is NOT the best part.

Castle isn’t the most intellectually challenging crime drama. I can usually figure out “who done it” within the first few commercial breaks. What makes it such fun is the interplay among the characters, and I mean ALL the characters, including the small parts and guest stars. Castle is that rare beast, a true ensemble show.

The other benefit of the squee moment being at the start of the show? It is really easy to watch it over. And over. And over.

Like Firefly.

Mullen scores a hat trick with Boston Bruins TV spots

October 7, 2009 | Advertising, TV/Film

Last night, I was privileged to attend the 49th Annual Hatch Awards in Boston as a media guest of the AdClub. I live tweeted the event and will post from a marketing perspective on Marketing Roadmaps sometime later today. For now, though, I have to share the award winning TV spots Mullen created for the Boston Bruins.

The overall campaign “Bruins Hockey Rules” won gold in the national television category as did this spot “Date”

Other ads in the campaign were also individually recognized with silver and bronze awards.

Awesome. Just awesome.

Kids TV: Characters Parents Love

September 4, 2009 | TV/Film

Last month, I conducted two very unscientific Twitter polls about the children’s tv characters that parents dislike and like the most. I wrote about the hated characters on August 27th. This is the follow-up about the characters we like. Not surprisingly, there are some that appear on both lists, further proof that one person’s poison is another’s preference.

The top vote getters, with two each, were Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb and Spongebob. Everything else was mentioned once. Apparently, we often agree about the most annoying characters, but when it comes to what we like, our tastes are all over the place.

Here’s the list of single-votes:
Kipper
Little Bear
Curious George (with a shout out for the William H. Macy voice-over)
Ang (Avatar)
Dora
Handy Manny
Zack and Cody
Elmo
Sportacus (LazyTown)
Steve (Blues Clues)
Statler & Waldorf (Muppet Show)
The Count (Sesame Street)
Pepe le Pew and all the classic Warner Brothers cartoons
The Wiggles

I cast my votes for my favorites among the current crop my son watches — Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas & Ferb — but looking at the list, I remember Kipper with great fondness. I also would give a thumbs up to the Avatar but my favorite character was the Uncle.

Here’s a clip from Wizards that amuses me nearly every time I watch it.

Eureka! It’s a good show.

September 1, 2009 | Science Fiction, TV/Film

Just this year, we discovered the SyFy channel show, Eureka. It’s been on the air since 2006 but for whatever reason, we just hadn’t watched it, perhaps because it was on a weeknight, and our habit is Sci fi on Fridays.

But, desperate for something to watch last spring after all our favorite shows ended (for the season or for good, depending), we rented the first season from NetFlix. And quickly became hooked.

It’s not the best sci fi show I’ve ever watched. Farscape and Battlestar Galactica are more or less tied for that slot in my world view, for different reasons, with the original Star Trek getting honorable mention for nostalgic reasons. But it’s a good family science fiction show, and I like finding television that we all can enjoy.

Here are a few reasons why I like it:

The plots are always fantastic-strange, with some sort of mystery or conumdrum that needs to be solved, but they are also easy to follow. This makes the show accessible to kids my son’s age. Nothing loses the attention of a nine-year old like a convoluted plot. But it’s not dumbed down; they just keep things simple

While it is an adult show, it’s clear that the producers understand that they have a family audience; there’s no strong language and the youth characters are as well drawn as the adults.

The entire cast is excellent — even the smart house Sarah — but Colin Ferguson who plays the central character Sheriff Jack Carter, is absolutely terrific. Often cast in the role of straight man to the outlandish antics of the other characters, he can speak volumes with a wry look. I’m also particularly enjoying his romance with new character Tess Fontana, played by Jaime Ray Newman.

If you like a good sci fi mystery, I suggest you check it out, Fridays at 9pm on SyFy, with the previous week’s episode repeated at 8pm. There is an ongoing storyline, so it does help to watch in sequence, however, the episodes can be enjoyed stand-alone as well. If you’ve never watched, on September 4th, there will be a daylong marathon of viewers’ choice favorite episodes, with the final two new episodes airing on September 11th and 18th. The show has been renewed for a full fourth season.

BTW, I still think changing the network name from SciFi Channel to SyFy was a bonehead move.