Review of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

I got ahold of Futurama's Into the Wild Green Yonder yesterday, and have to say I was fairly pleased with this outing of the series - in fact, I think it's the best of the four. Characters were written true to the essentials of each character, the Fry and Leela relationship was addressed satisfactorily, the inside jokes were there but not overly obvious or irritating.
Evolutionary factors were both the villain and hero of these four episodes - the evolutionary forces that caused less robust species to go extinct were labelled "dark ones" and the forces to preserve evolutionary diversity - somewhat mysterious - were the "encyclopods." A strange premise, making personifications of evolutionary theory good or evil.
The best extra was the "making of" documentary, in which...well, let's just say Lauren Tom features heavily, and it's pretty hilarious. You can also watch Matt Groening bounce around at zero G!
It never reached the greatness of the original four seasons, but at no time did I look away in disgust or get so bored I stopped watching (as happened with the three previous movies,) and the ending has some emotional resonance.
Billy West has said there is a possibility than Futurama might have new episodes on Fox, a la the resurrection of Family Guy.

Reasons to Watch Heroes

An amusing and compelling list of reasons to start watching Heroes again on Television without Pity. My favorite reason was "They just generally suck less." Right on!

Second Ep of Dollhouse Review

Joss Whedon's new show agains made me say Meh. This second episode - a re-hash of "The Most Dangerous Game" - with sex! - again made me feel too icky. And now I want to shower.

In other news, the likable show Chuck continues to suffer ratings problems. I'm agreeably interested in Lost once again. And I've fallen in love with the British-show-turned-American Life on Mars.

Would it kill the networks to have a likable, empowered woman on television again? Annie from Life on Mars is one of those, but she has so little screen time.

Vacant Expression Bot - Dollhouse Pilot Review

TO: Joss Whedon
RE: Dollhouse

If I wanted to watch a vacant-expression-bot passively doing the will of men for money, I'd go rent a porno. Or watch "Confessions of a Shopaholic." (Isla Fisher is a talented actress, but in that movie is mostly in the passive-vacant-expression-bot mode.) And what's up with all those soft-core camera angles?

Joss said in interviews he wanted the audience to feel "icky" - well, count me ickified.

Also: For a similar plot, see "Futurama's episode "I Dated a Robot."
DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

New Heroes, Chuck in 3D

So, what did you all think of the new episodes of Heroes and Chuck Monday night?

I think the reset on Heroes is pretty interesting (although I was disappointed that HRG was once again playing on team evil) and hope it continues in an interesting vein, albeit one completely stolen from the X-Men plotlines archive. It definitely looks like we're heading towards the alternate future that was first featured, where the Heroes are hunted criminals.

Chuck 3-D was too bad, since NBC didn't do enough to distribute the 3-D glasses, but a good-enough episode.

Along with Lost, I'm glad these shows are back. I've been down with a broken foot, and good television is very important for healing! In other good news, Reaper is coming back a little bit earlier, around the beginning of March!

I'm finally going to watch a little Battlestar Galactica on DVD, too, though I have flashbacks to the seventies version that I tried to avoid as a tiny tot...