Zombies and Reality TV

In my small sample of British TV I've been able to digest, I've noticed a recurring theme. It seems the British like there TV with heavy meta aspects. Last year, I think, I watched a bit of a show I can't quite remember about the writers of another show, that I can't quite remember. This week has another meta mini-series, Dead Set. Basically, 28 Days Later if it took place on The Big Brother set.

Zombies and Reality TV, that sounds awesome. The show seems to ask if you want Reality TV stars to be some of the last humans alive in the Zombie apocalypse. It doesn't seem like it.

Over all this show is great. It's scary and jumpy when it when it needs to be. (I've been watching it late at night with the lights off and my stomach hurts from being tensed so much) The only problem I have is the over use of the trendy shaky cam technique. It makes sense in a chase scene but when characters are being develop the camera man with Parkinson's probably shouldn't shoot the scene.

The series only ran for this week and ended today on Halloween. So far I've only watched through the 3rd episode.

The first episode blew me away. And maybe because it was so good, the next two episodes seemed to be like a parody of the show. Not that it was funny, it just didn't hit as completely as the first episode.

I definitely love watching it. And I want more like it.

iPod Games

I downloaded and paid for my first real iPod game a little while ago: Square Enix's Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes. This seems like the only real game for the iPod video, too.

You play as Ziggy, who is a Conductor and creates Tune Troopers to fight against evil robots. Zero, your brother, gets kidnapped and you need to save him. So you wait five years and then go out to find him. If I was Zero I would be a little pissed if my brother waited five years before saving me. Really? That's an awful long time.

The cool, kind of trap of the game is you use the songs on your iPod to make Tune Troopers. This is why I bought the game. I wanted to see how this worked. Unfortunately, it really seems to be randomly generated characters. The tempo or volume level of the song doesn't seem to effect the type of fighter created.

The controls are god awful, too. The iPod click wheel was not made to be used this way. It's clunky when it's inconvenient and slippery, too. Basically, the iPod touch would have a better control system, but it's not made for the touch. And I don't know why.

The story is solidly an RPG story. Robots try to take over the world and humans need to fight back. Only one person has the ability to fight back and he must save all the good in the world. Beyond that the RPG is really simple. It's not good but it's not bad either. Or it is bad, but it's on the freaken' iPod.

Over all the game sucks, but for $5 it's nice. Also it's nice to play on the bus when I have an hour to kill and 50 strangers in my personal space.

TV Shows

I've been watching The Clone Wars. I assume it's the Cartoon Network show fallowing the movie that recently came out. It's entertaining, and the animation is ok. What's fun about it is you can see the cannon from in between the main movies. What's annoying is that there are a lot of stupid jokes. Droides and any unimportant characters are always saying something quick-whited and cutesy.

Also,

I wrote about a pretty good British show called Life on Mars a long time ago. Now, in the great American TV way, Life on Mars has been transformed into an slightly crappier American show. The first episode was basically a shot for shot recreation of the first British episode, except it was based in America. There is really no need for this show, but it is.

Windy City Comicon

I went to the First annual Windy City Comicon.

I guess Chicago is big enough to have its own Comicon. Why not earlier?

It was fun if not a little small. Seriously, only one guy dressed up like a storm trooper? Does it really count as a Comicon then?

I bought 3 comics for myself for $1 each. I honestly went there not wanting to spend any money but only a $1 for a comic book . . . and I had 3 in my pocket. Sounds like kismet to me. I got one "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD,""The Invincible Iron Man" #153 and "New X-Men" #130.

Keep in mind I know nothing about comics. I didn't grow up reading them or even read them in high school, when a nerd is supposed to come into his own. (Maybe this means I can't call myself a nerd anymore)

All and all, I had fun and I'm glad I could go. Good on Chicago for getting a Comicon and becoming a real city.

Fat Suit

What is it about famous Black comedians in there 40's, that compels them get into a fat suit for comedy. I watched D.A.G.'s new Comedy Central show, Chocolate News, the other night. I thought it was going to be a humerus African American perspective on the news today. Sort of a Colbert Report only less white.

I was excited for that. And it started out pretty good, with a funny rant about Hip-Hop being dead. But then he brought out the makeup and body prosthetics. Maya Angelou one minute, some old guy the next, a gross rapper after that. Really?

David Alan Grier was funny. Why does he need to make the same noise dive into concrete as Eddy Murphy?

This could have been good, too. It could have extended the Daily Show/Colbert Report hour into an hour and a half Chocolate News/Daily Show/Colbert Report news explostion. Instead Fat Suits.

Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising"

I watched Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising" the other day. The movie is free to download iTunes for now. And everyone seems to think it's great to see big name movies online for free.

In my youth I was really into Michael Moore/liberal/Bush-bashing. I probably considered myself a punk and I think I liked to finally have the ability to say no. "No, I don't like the President's opinion," I would have said many times not really knowing what his opinion really was. (Not that I agree now, but I know more then before)

So I liked Moore's books and movies. I went to see Fahrenheit 911 and enjoyed it. I wrote an embarrassingly biased report on Moore in high school. I thought I was sticking it to the man.

That all being said, this movie is awful. It's boring. It's slow.

All it is is a camera following Moore on his Slacker Uprising tour, 60 cities before the 2004 election. He rails against everyone. It's everyone else's fault. The media is biased, conservatives are honorable, the public is stupid. These are the feelings I get from the movie and I think I'm just tired of that.

It's also a little annoying to think that the money he gets from even one speech probably paid for the production coast. That doesn't make me feel great about it being distributed for free. It makes me feel worse that eventually someone will pay money.