YouTube, I tube, wel all tube for...something or other...

Well, the penny's finally dropped at Moore towers. Several of my internet friends have been doing nothing but watching YouTube videos for months. I've looked at links people have sent me and chuckled, but I've never really seen what all the fuss is about. Now however you can count me amongst the converted. Search for any show or film you can think of, just about, and hey presto, 3 minute clips of the best bits neatly arrnged for you. I spent a good hour doing a kind of Scrubs "Greatest Hits" and bloody good fun it was too. Quite often you'll find whole episodes split up into 3 or more files. While this is good, and reminds me a bit of the late, lamented CraftyTV.com, it suffers the same drawbacks as crafty did. The quality is invariably a bit shoddy. There's no fullscreen option, and vitally no "always on top" windowed mode. Any video longer than 3 minutes is useless if you can't hover it somewhere on the page and get on with something else at the same time. I've been tempted to embed a few choice clips in this journal today, but I can't change the width they appear at, and it fucks up my template, so that will have to wait until I con one of my clever friends into making this page look pretty.

This whole business brings me on to a topic I've been trying to avoid for a while, that of Fan Films. I watch quite alot of these, just because I feel I should, and your first instinct would be right, 99% of them are fucking terrible. Usually people who have the time and inclination to put the necessary amount of effort into producing these things are the saddest, saddest people on the top of a very big pile of very sad people. And, of course, 90% of the medium is made up of Star Trek and Dr. Who tributes.

Let's just take a whole new paragraph to make it clear that Dr. Who is shit. It's always been shit, and always will be shit. It's shit because the premise is that because the writing and acting are so great it doesn't matter that the production values and special effects are terrible. And, of course, that it's scary. WRONG. It's embarrassing. Everything about it screams "CHEAP!" and it makes me ashamed to be British.

Anyway, there are some rare exceptions to the fan film rule. As Paul Calf once said, inside every bag of shite there's a Crunchy wrapper. There's some links here of stuff that's actually not bad. Some of them actually made me laugh quite alot, and one or two, while not actually good, are impressive just for the time and energy put in to produce half decent production values on a zero budget. Where possible I've linked to a version on YouTube, but some of them are too long for that so they're hosted on iFilm, which carries adverts. Sorry about that, but hey.

Losing Lois Lane is what started my quest to find half decent fan pics in the first place. It's well acted, and very, very funny in places. Helps to have a bit of DC character knowledge, but not essential. This is the one I really think you should bother watching. I's about 20 minutes though, so if you can't hack it at least try this 3 minute YouTube clip.

Faast Times at Hero High is pretty funny. Again, it's a bit heavy on the in-jokes, but worth 3:30 of anyone's time. Daredevil's cameo appearance creased me up.

This Superman/Batman trailer is not fantastic, but it does make me really wish someone would make this film, so it's a success as a trailer.

Finally for today, Batman: Dead End is probably the pick of the lot. Bat's looks a bit tubby and gay, but then he's supposed to really, and I kind of prefer this to all the black body armour they put him in for feature films. The makers of this have done a great job on a budget of nothing at all.

Hope you enjoy some of these, and yes, I know how sad I am.

Autumn Preview, Part 1b

Back from the bank, let's get on with it shall we?

Next up a personal favourite in the shape of 24. Who will Jack get to torture this time? They've done the president now, so my guess is Kofi Annan and a busload of schoolkids. Since 24 doesn't begin its run until January details are still thin on the ground. They currently seem to be busy repopulating the cast after the mayhem of season 5, but there's little point me telling you who's going to be in it until I know what characters they'll be playing. The info is out there if you're really that interested. What I do know is that the 6th season will start some 12-15 months after season 5 finished. Also, LA is out this time, with most of the action taking place in NYC. Don't expect to see Jack's escape from the clutches of the Chinese, as his flight time back to the US would eat up about half the series. Do expect to see Chloe back, along with Curtis, Bill Buchannan, and also, interestingly, President Logan and his wife, Martha.

So, that's the situation on the big boys so far. I'm never entirely sure what to cover and what people are watching/interested in. If there's a show you really want covered chances are I watch it and have some details to share. Leave any requests in comments and I'll look into it.

Autumn Preview, Part 1.

Watching Prison Break yesterday has got me all excited about the start of the new season, although it's still 5 weeks away. In celebration of this anticipatory mood, I thought I'd share with you what info I have on the shows that matter. I'll be doing films and new shows in seperate posts, and today I'll be looking at the returning shows that'll be worth watching come September.

Firstly, Smallville. Season five ended strongly, and I expect season 6 to start well, and hopefully last a few episodes before descending into its usual mid-season dross. General info suggests all the lead characters survive their cliffhangers from season 5, and are contracted for the whole season. Many people take that to mean no deaths in season 6, but Jon Scheider was contracted for the whole of last season and was killed off half way through. The full season contract kept him available for flashbacks and ghostly appearances, and we all know how great they were. There're two new seires regulars joining the cast this year. Firstly Justin Hartley
plays billionaire Oliver McQueen. He's a campaigner against corporate injustice, which obviously brings him into conflict with Lex. The comics literate among you will also know Oli McQueen is also Green Arrow. Arrow makes his first apprearance shortly after McQueen, and I'm told he'll involve Clarke in trying to set up a naescent Justice League.This could mean more Aquaman/Flash apprearances in season 6, but no news on that yet. Secondly Aaron Ashmore joins the cast playing Jimmy Olsen, a well known character from the DC Superman universe. He's been mentioned in the show before, and will be a love interest for Chloe. The first episode will see Clark escaping from the Phantom Zone (with a little help from a mystery friend) and doing battle with Zod on earth. The producers have said this will be a "really big" episode. For more bits and bobs visit Kryptonsite, which is in the links on the sidebar here.

Next up, Lost. There's more info and rumours doing the rounds than you can shake Mr. Eko's shitty stick at, so I'll do my best to condense if for you. First of all, if you're a fan of the show you should really check out The Lost Experience. It's a very, very complicated multi-ledia game connected officially to the show that reveals little bits of mythology. Luckily there's no need to actually get involved as that blog posts all the relevant revelations for easy digestion.The first 6 episodes will form a "mini-series" according to the show's Producers. We'll find out what happens to Jack, Kate, and Sawyer in the hands of The Others, and what became of Desmond, Locke and Eko when the hatch went nova. The Others will be the focus of the third season, and we'll find out their origin and motivations. In the first couple of episodes Kate will "make a choice". I assume this to mean between Jack and Sawyer, but that's by no means certain. As The Others take center stage Michael Emerson joins the cast as a season regular playing Henry Gale. Penny will be an important character in season 3 and the relationship between the island and the outside world will be explored as a result. Libby will still feature despite her death on the island, so we assume that'll be in Desmon and Hurley flashbacks. Three rumours persist more than others, and if they're to be believed then amongst other things we'll see an underwater hatch, learn more about the Polar Bear, and learn that the monster and the black smoke are one and the same. The producers have quashed the notion that the black smoke is made of nanobots, and also stated clearly that the word "cloning" will never appear in connection with Lost. Episode one, "A Tale of Two Cities", will follow the captive trio. It'll be Kate-centric, and a 60yo woman and handsome 20yo man have been cast for the flashbacks. Lost returns on the 4th of October.

A bit of light relief now with My Name is Earl and Scrubbs. Nothing much to say about sit-coms, other than they're both back late September and both retain the full cast. I do hear rumour that Scrubs will be doing a musical episode this season, a-la Buffy. In further synchronicity the episode will be Season 6 episode 6, and Buffy's musical episode was also 6/6. Also, Kim, Elizabeth Banks' character, is definitely pregnant, but will only be around for a few episodes. Could be some tragedy in store for J.D.

Oh shit, I've got to go to the bank. Check back tonight for 24.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Well, the first of the big hitters is back after the summer break. I'll be the first to admit was very dubious about the prospects of Prison Break going into its second season. I could be heard proclaiming loudly during the first run that there *couldn't* be a second season, as what's the point in "Prison Break" once they're outside the prison. Equally, if they'd not escaped at the end of season one, the whole thing would have got stale. However, looking at how things stand after last night's episode, I'm pleased to report there seems to be a fiar bit for season two to get stuck into.

A quick recap for the hard of remembering; Michael, Lincoln, Jon, C-Note, and Sucre are on the run, directly pursued by an enraged Belleck. T-bag is out on his own, having had his hand rudely amputated by Jon. Tweener and Haywire are also going their own ways. Veronica has located the supposedly dead Terrence Steadman, and confronted him in his remote hideaway. Meanwhile Dr. Tancredi clings to life after an apparent suicide attempt.

The action picks up exactly where season one left us, with Michael and company heading into the woods with a search party hot on their heels. Needless to say they manage to slip away by means of some classic hunter/hunted action that keeps the tension and pace at a reasonable level. The interesting stuff is happening elsewhere though. William Fichtner (Invasion, The West Wing, Pearl Harbour *snigger*) joins the cast as Buck Mahone, a super smart FBI bloodhound. He's convinced the ket to tracking Michael down is to get inside his head, which he begins to do by unravelling the secrets of Michaels tattoo. Obviously this puts him at loggerheads with the bullish Belleck, and no doubt there'll be more fireworks to come from that pairing. Infact, seeing as the introduction of an FBI agent indicates the man hunt will be going inter-state, and Belleck's jurisdiction ends at the state line, don't be surprised to find Belleck goes rogue, chasing Michael down over a personal vendetta.

Veronica's confrontation with Steadman promises to bring the whole affair to a premature conclusion by clearing Lincoln, and she advises him to hand himself in to the authorities. Yeah, that's smart love. He'll get off the murder charge, but escape carries something close to life so not much gain there really.

Also, the good doctor comes round from her drug-induced coma (thanks to dream-flash images of Michael. This is the only really cheesy and poor sequence in the episode) only to find herself under pressure from the FBI to give up info on the escapees.

Finally, we get to see T-Bag out on his own, which despite the reprehensible nature of his character is something every fan of the show has been wanting to see. The show being what it is things are predicatably stupid, and T-Bag forcing a vet at screwdriver-point to reatach his severed hand with no anasthetic is a Prison Break classic.

I won't spoil any more for you as I guess many of you reading this at work won't get a chance to see it until tonight, but safe to say it seems there's some life in the show yet. The format is familiar, ratcheting up the tension to a reasonable pitch before setting up the next episode with a clever final twist. The writing is as tight as ever, with hardly a line wasted. There's plenty been left in the tank for the rest of the run too. Lincoln's son LJ is bound to feature at some point, as are the two cons we've not caught up with yet. There must also be something major in store for the druggie doctor seeing as she's been saved the chop.

The only real gripe with PB is again the scheduling. Fox should really have looked at the figures from last year and given this great breakthrough show its very own slot. Instead, once again it has merely been "loaned" 24's Monday night slot, from which it will be rudely ejected as soon as the annual torture-a-thon kicks off in January. Sort it out Fox, you've a gem on your hands here.

Prison Summer Break

Just a quick note to say I've been in PAris over the weekend, hence the lack of posts. A splendid time had by all. I've popped on to say that summer is officially nearly over. Prison Break season 2 kicks off tonight (Fox, 8/7c) and should be available for the rest of us in the morning from the usual sources. Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm lead to believe there'll be another 3 MONTH break after christmas to let the 24 juggernaut steam through.

*SPOILERS*

30-year-old FBI agent Buck Mahone gives a press conference at the prison about the escapees and makes sure Americans understand that those men are the most wanted criminals in the country. When reviewing intake pictures of the escapees, Mahone is highly interested in Michael's tatoos. Why would a structural engineer get such tatoos? Bellick and Mahone don't see eye to eye as to how they should track down the escapees: Bellick wants to be on the field, Mahone prefers to tap into the public's fear and try to understand the men... Let the competition begin!