The Mix : What are people talking about today?

1000097468dvdlef1-4703625

Review: ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Season 2 on DVD

1000097468dvdlef1-4703625When we first heard about The Big Bang Theory, we weren’t sure if geeks of all shapes and sizes were going to be ridiculed, mocked or used as comic foils. Fortunately, the producers came with a pedigree for smart, funny comedies, headed by Chuck Lorre ([[[Dharma & Greg]]]). His take was that if the media declared the geeks had won and were taking over, they were ripe for a sitcom, using their foibles and interests for fodder. Coupled with a cool theme song from the Barenaked Ladies, the show debuted to good reviews and middling ratings, good enough to get a second season.

We should all be thankful since the second season strongly builds on the characters and situations, deepening the quintet of friends and sharpening the humor. The four-disc second season set is being released today by Warner Home Video and is a Must Have for ComicMix readers.

For those unaware, the show features four geeks, all respected professionals in the field of physics who also embrace every geek interest under the sun, from Renaissance Faires to World of Warcraft to the Wednesday ritual of New Comics Day. Two, Sheldon and Leonard (hopefully a nod to the great sitcom producer Sheldon Leonard), share an apartment where the others – Howard Wolowitz and Rejesh Koothrappali – congregate with regularity. Living across the hall is aspiring actress Penny, who works as a waitress. Having a hot chick next door was a launching pad for much of the first season humor, especially as Leonard fell for her despite having nothing in common with her.

The second season’s 23 episodes allow the characters to grow and evolve with wonderfully humorous results. Good humor should stem from the characters and situations while working on multiple levels. You don’t have to know the science fiction shows referenced to understand how outlandish some of their rituals and comments are. Penny acts as the audience’s Point of View, showing her befuddlement. On the other hand, those of us in the know, get extra giggles from the attire, decorations or one-liners.

The first episode shows how comfortable they have grown with one another as Penny actually calls Sheldon a friend, putting them on a path towards the wonderful Christmas episode when he tries to over-prepare for a gift exchange and she gives him something beyond his expectations. The gentle ending is a highlight. Sheldon is actually coming to grips with having someone like Penny in his world and while he accepts her, doesn’t always approve of her “common” ways.

Penny has also grown, evidenced by “[[[The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition]]]” which shows how far she has come when another hot, more successful blonde moves into the building. On the other hand, the additional depth we see when she deeply wounds Howard in “[[[The Killer Robot Instability]]]” shows how some of these guys need to mature.

The show is helped by solid guest stars and recurring players such as Leslie (Sara Gilbert) who has dated Leonard and this year dates Howard and Christine Baranski as Leonard’s cutting, clueless mother. A geek highlight is when the four encounter Summer Glau on a train and its Raj, fueled with liquid courage, who actually connects with her.

All comics fans must see “[[[The Hofstadter Isotope]]]” for Penny’s first visit to a comic shop. And of course, here’s the introduction of the hand game “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock”.

The season ended with the four guys off to the arctic for a three month research assignment with Penny coming to realize how much affection she actually has for Leonard, setting things up for the new season, debuting next Monday.

The box set comes with three nice features: a look at the contributions made by UCLA’s Prof. David Saltzberger to keep the science accurate; a look at how the characters have changed and grown with comments from the cast and crew; and a wonderful Gag Reel.

I deeply wish the show continued success and hope it reminds others how good, solid comedy can be structured, written, and performed. These shows stand up to repeated viewings thanks to the sharp writing and wonderful performances (kudos to Jim Parsons for his Emmy nod).

John Buscema museum show in Palma, Spain

  • News
  • September 15, 2009

Rob Harrigan posts that there will be a major John Buscema retrospective opening on Thursday in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and running until November 17. Private collections spanning his entire career will be on display publicly for what may be the first time. 

One wonders if they’re going to show the front of the pages of art or the back.

Newsarama has a virus?

  • News
  • September 15, 2009

Yep– looks like they’ve picked up a virus somewhere. If you visit the film section at newsarama.com/film (no, we aren’t linking) you’ll potentially be exposing yourself to viruses and malware. Of the 6 pages Google tested on the site over the past 90 days, 2 pages
resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without
user consent.

So far, the comics sites are clean.

If their status changes– in either direction– we’ll let you know.

Patrick Swayze, 1952-2009

  • Uncategorized
  • September 15, 2009

Patrick Swayze has just lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 57. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi.

In a remarkable career, ranging from The Outsiders to Dirty Dancing, from Red Dawn to Steel Dawn, from Ghost to The Beast, and even To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar– there are still people who will know him best for this:

See you in the next life, Bodhi.

The Point Radio: More On FRINGE

  • News
  • September 14, 2009

We continue our look at the upcoming second season of the Fox hit series, FRINGE with both Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv giving us their views on what we can expect. Plus Tyler Perry has a Big Box Office and can you stand the return of Captain Jack Sparrow and The WEEKLY WORLD NEWS?
pt091409-4770848

PRESS THE BUTTONto Get The Point!

And be sure to stay on The Point via badgeitunes61x15dark212-6529857, RSS, MyPodcast.Com or Podbean!

Follow us now on facebook212-2551037 and twitter212-3507671!

Don’t forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24 hours a Day – 7 Days a week!. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special programming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVEFOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys


trans33-7957629

884986-2375795

Review: ‘Primeval Volume Two’

884986-2375795The world of Primeval is a duplicitous one, with schemes within schemes, most of which take far too long to play out. When the BBC series was renewed for a third season, they were given a ten episode order and they decided to change things up while introducing new threats, leaving things more muddled than necessary.

Airing this spring in England and here on Sci-Fi Channel, the series garnered good reviews and very solid ratings. However, ITC, facing a cash crunch, canceled the series, paving the way for a big screen adaptation currently being mounted by Warner Bros. For fans, though, they can relive the exploits with [[[Primeval: Volume Two]]], released Tuesday by BBC Video.

The series, about a team of specialists protecting the citizens of the 21st century from prehistoric beasties that have come though spatial anomalies, had two shorter but stronger seasons. Between seasons one and two, an event in the past had dramatic repercussions, removing Claudia Brown from reality. Season two opened with Jenny Lewis, an exact replica of Claudia, newly hired to handle the press and public whenever the creatures got spotted. Given that Claudia had a romance developing with Nick Cutter, this threw the team leader for a loop. While he had feelings for her, she was slow to recognize the same emotions for him. As that developed, Cutter’s ex-wife Helen continued her mysterious comings and goings with some mysterious purpose and as season two ended, she wound up shooting and killing the team’s action ace, Stephen Hart.

Season three continued to stir things up as Cutter wound up being killed and project director James Lester assigned the leadership to the ill-equipped Jenny. After only a handful of assignments, she withdrew from the team and the series. All of a sudden, Jenny’s old pal Danny Quinn talked his way not only on to the team but was named its leader. The team was also rounded out by Egyptologist Sarah Page and Captain Becker, a military escort.

In addition to Helen’s ongoing threat, a new menace rose in the form of bureaucratic rival Christine Johnson, who wanted access to some artifact that actually came from the future but wound up in the team’s hands.

Over the course of the ten episodes, Helen and Christine played cat and mouse with the team – and the viewers – while each week the team had to keep London safe from creatures great and small, all the while coping with the grief of first losing Hart, then Cutter then Lewis. Personal story arcs, such as the slowly simmering romance between Abby and Connor were tertiary concerns although they were the bits that made us care most about the characters.

In fact, while the creatures were visually fun thanks to improved CGI, too often the chase sequences and fights were too long, robbing the characters of a chance to evolve. Bits between players, such as Connor’s temporary lodging with Lester, were given short shrift in favor of chase scenes that wound up being boring and prolonged.  Becker is never given any depth (or a first name) while Christine wound up being a cardboard opponent.

The writers get credit for changing things up, such as the time a Knight in shining armor chased a creature through a portal and thought modern day London was Hell. On the other hand, Abby’s brother proved an annoying distraction who was better off dispatched by a beast rather than allowed to live another day.

In the end, we learn that Helen has been trying to prevent the hellish future she witnessed from coming to pass and do so in a dramatic fashion. The climax in episode ten actually left the entire team in a predicament demanding resolution which hopefully will come via special, movie or even a novel. As it is, the ten episodes, while entertaining, truly resolve very little, which is a disappointment.

The second volume three-disc set has some episode commentary that sheds a little light on the series overall. The two extras are not nearly enough to provide context for the changes made to the series. One is a look back at Nick Cutter’s journey form first episode to last, which is nice, and then there’s a documentary on the guy who won a design a creature contest, showing how his amazing drawing got used in Episode 8.

There’s a lot to like about Primeval, its setting and its characters but it also suffered from some inconsistency that should have been ironed out well before the third season. With luck, they will be granted another opportunity to come back and enthrall us.

Frederator Studios signs with Sony Pictures Animation

  • Uncategorized
  • September 14, 2009

frederator-studios-8173329

Frederator Studios has signed a multi-year deal with Sony Pictures Animation to develop animated feature films, according to Cynopsis.

Founder Fred Seibert, formerly President of Hanna-Barbera Productions, launched the Frederator animation studio in 1998 and has developed animated properties including The Fairly OddParents, Dexter’s Laboratory, My Life as a Teenage Robot, The Powerpuff Girls and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!  Frederator is currently in production on Fanboy & Chum Chum, the CG animated series launches this fall on Nickelodeon, and Adventure Time at Cartoon Network set for May 2010.  Additionally, Frederator is developing a feature film based on the animated series Samurai Jack at Paramount Pictures with Bad Robot Productions.  Seibert was also the original creative director of MTV: Music Television and later toiled for Nickelodeon and helped create Nick-at-Nite. 

Sony Pictures Animation’s newest movie, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, opens nationwide this Friday.

Happy birthday, Uncle Sam!

  • News
  • September 13, 2009

On this day in 1766, Samuel Wilson was born. At the time of the War of 1812, he was a prosperous middle-aged meat-packer in Troy. He
obtained a contract to supply beef to the Army in its campaign further
north, which he shipped in barrels. The barrels, being government
property, were branded with the initials “U.S.”, but the soldiers would joke that the initials referred to “Uncle Sam”, who
supplied the product. Over time, it is believed, anything marked with
the same initials (as much Army property was) also became linked with
his name.

Later on, he’d become known for the most famous poster in the world, and became a comic book character, first for Quality Comics, then later for DC as the leader of the Freedom Fighters and as the star of a miniseries by Alex Ross.

Review: ‘The Next Doctor’ on DVD

The [[[Doctor Who]]] Christmas Specials have normally been delightful affairs, bridging the events of one season with teases for the forthcoming season. This time, though, The Next Doctor actually kicks off a season of four specials featuring the last time David Tennant will command the TARDIS as the doctor as he makes way for young Matthew Smith in 2010.

When the special aired last December, there was intense speculation whether David Morrissey was actually being introduced early as the replacement. It certainly felt that way as we learned the villains would be the Cybermen and that Velile Tshabalala had been added as Morrissey’s companion, a woman named Rosita, which more than echoes the now gone Rose Tyler.

Clearly, that was not the case and was an interesting premise with so-so execution. In short, while visiting London on Christmas Eve, 1851, the Doctor comes up against a new threat but also a man acting, sounding and even looking like he might be, well, the Doctor. He spoke of the TARDIS and proclaimed to possess a sonic screwdriver but as the men began investigating together, the real Doctor figured out how a poor, mentally stressed man was led to believe he was a Gallifreyan Time Lord.

Along the way, the two have to learn the secrets of the Cybermen’s scheme and then foil it, clearly doing so before St. Nick arrives to dole out gifts to one and all.

The first half of Russell T. Davies’ script is nicely paced by director Andy Goddard and sets things up well but the second half is lots of running, chasing, fighting and noise-making without making an awful lot of sense. The escapade is being released on DVD this Tuesday from BBC Video, oddly timed considering the following special is already available and it’s a wee bit early for the holiday season. Regardless, the story reveals to us that the poor man was accidentally imprinted with details about the Doctor that had been prepared for the Cybermen. As a result, its weeks before he realizes that his family is dead save his young son who must be found and rescued.

Morrissey does a good job as Jackson Lake, adding some nice pathos to the part. He and Tennant also play nicely off one another but Tshabalala has precious little to do and Dervla Kirwan as the villainous Miss Hartigan is a one-dimensional serial villain.

There’s a lot of stuff and nonsense and in the end, the character arcs are truncated in favor of the shouting and jumping around as if everyone discovered they were short on time to properly finish the story. As a result, it’s a good but far from spectacular effort. Being one of the final Tennant episodes, it’s a wasted opportunity.

The delight of the disc, though, is the special feature, the [[[Prom 13: Doctor Who Prom]]] concert that was performed in England on July 27 of last year but aired only in January. The hour-long concert, specifically designed to entice children to the orchestral experience, shone a nice spotlight on Murray Gold, the composer of Doctor Who music since the series’ revival in 2005. Hosted by Freema Agyeman with a cameo from Catherine Tate, the performance included many of the aliens and menaces from the series, walking through the audience and interacting with them. There was also a seven minute “Music of the Spheres” video presentation featuring Tennant aboard the TARDIS which discussed the importance of music. The storyline involved interaction with the orchestra such as the Doctor tossing his sheet music into the air and having it land in the hands of the performers.

Definitely not the way to introduce newcomers to the Doctor but certainly worth having by the diehard fans.

Eating Your Favorite Film in Brooklyn

  • News
  • September 13, 2009

If you’ve ever craved cupcakes while watching your favorite movie or set out a themed feast for an afternoon with friends, or just happen to be in Brooklyn for today’s Brooklyn Book Festival, you should meet Daniellan Louie. She got her start baking confections for her friends and family and, in 2006, she opened Ivy Bakery. Now she has a menu with over 300 items, which she makes from scratch herself, specializes in custom orders, and has a list of many impressive clients including Marvel Comics, Columbia Pictures, and the Tribeca Film Festival.

I first ran across mention of Ivy Bakery on Twitter when some friends were tweeting about Princess Bride-themed cupcakes. Since then, I have been following the bakery on Twitter for daily updates on what she is baking ( today’s offerings include: “Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Buttercream shaped like Kingdom of Hearts Key” ). I know that many people in fandom have dietary restrictions, and may be lamenting the lack of cupcakes in their lives, but Ivy Bakery also has many gluten-free, dairy free, vegan, and sugar free items as well as the traditional ones. I recently had a chance to ask Daniellan Louie a few questions about Ivy Bakery, and especially about her awesome movie-themed cupcakes – which she decorates by hand!

What movie-themed cupcakes have you made in the past?
I
just started making the movie-themed cupcakes this summer, but have
made many cakes related to movie/tv characters. The movie cupcake
collection currently consists of The Breakfast Club, Twilight, and The
Princess Bride, the next set coming in the fall will be The Little
Mermaid. I put a pause on the work because it’s been a very slow and
rough summer. I’ve also done characters like Yoda from Star Wars and
would definitely like to do several sets on popular Sci-Fi movies like
Back To The Future, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter.

If you were to make movie themed cupcakes just for yourself, what movie would you choose?
Hmmm,
one of them would be The Princess Bride, but I already made that. For
myself I’d actually be more interested in doing Mario Brothers theme or
classic video games from the past.

If you haven’t yet, would you ever do a Lord of the Rings trilogy triple batch of themed cupcakes?
Definitely,
I haven’t made them yet, but it’s on the to do list, along with Star
Wars, Twilight Series & the Harry Potter Series

Of all the themed items you have made, what was your favorite?
It
would probably be the first Twilight movie. I think the cupcakes came
out very well, I did a double batch with 24 cupcakes since there were
so many characters.

I saw on your site that you had a Pac-Man themed cake. Do you get a lot of 80’s pop-culture nostalgia orders?
I
do, the Pac-Man cake was one of my favorites to make. I’ve also done
Mario Brothers, Sesame Street and a few others that I can’t quite
remember off the top of my head.

 Anime and Manga are very big right now. Have you ever made a cake based on one?
I
haven’t yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I have a friend who
actually draws a lot of Anime and I’m always saying how we should get
together and do cupcakes or cake designs. It would be fun to do a
Sailor Moon cupcake set, I’m not sure if that’s cool or in, but I
remember watching that when I was younger.

Your client list
is impressive! I’m sure our readers are most interested in the fact
that you have baked for Marvel. Can you tell us what you made for them?
Ahh,
Marvel, I’ve never done any custom designs for them, it was all just
corporate orders, cupcakes, cookies, brownies for the office. But if I
was ever approached to do something I would love to. My friend who used
to work at Marvel suggested I do a set of Marvel/DC Logos for the
different heros and villians.

Have you ever catered for a Science Fiction convention?
No, I haven’t, but I would love to, it would be a lot of fun I bet.

I love following your Twitter feed of what you are baking throughout
the day! Most bakeries don’t seem to be online.  Has your internet
presence made a difference for your business?

Definitely, I like
to keep up to date with what’s going on with pop culture in terms of
technology and the net. If everyone is on Facebook, Ivy Bakery has to
be on Facebook, same with Twitter and all the other networking sites.
Twitter has gotten me a number of new customers and exposure throughout
the country. I have so many people asking about my sweets from other
states and wishing that I was closer to them that I would love to go on
a baking tour and bake for anyone who wanted me to. All I need now is a
sponsor.

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks