Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

Alcatraz is the latest offering from genre mogul J.J. Abrams, and he once again manages to deliver a show that rises above most of the other sci fi shows on the broadcast networks and cable channels. In the pilot episode, we discover the reason that Alcatraz was shut down in 1963 is because all of the inmates (as well as the guards and wardens) mysteriously disappeared. But now in 2012, they are beginning to reappear (apparently one at a time) and resume their criminal ways. A task force is put together (which includes Dr. Diego “Doc” Soto played by Lost’s Jorge Garcia) to track down these criminals and to also find out why they have returned and who may be guiding their actions.

Admittedly, premise sounds rather convoluted and high concept, but so far it has succeeded. The show has followed a mostly procedural format through its first four episodes (which network execs like), each of which involves the arrival of an ex-Alcatraz inmate, but framing those episodes are elements of a larger story arc (which appeals to the show’s sci fi fans). Flashbacks are also included, in typical Abrams style, and these are used to flesh out the back-stories of the inmates and also expand on the story of the 60’s Alcatraz setting in general.

I have enjoyed this one so far, finding it well-scripted with engaging stories. Some genre fans may be put off by the procedural format which delivers little in the way of sci fi elements, but I’m thinking patience will reward us with a deeper dive into sci fi as the series progresses, much like what we saw with Lost. And the cast is spot-on excellent with Sarah Jones, as Detective Rebecca Madsen, giving us a strong female lead and Sam Neil, as the mysterious leader of this team, delivering a creepy and at times sinister presence. And then Garcia is onboard as a criminologist/Alcatraz expert, evoking some of the traits of his Hurly character, but still establishing Dr. Diego as his own person (he has yet to utter “Dude” through four episodes).

The show has a lot of promise and can attract a cross-section of viewers, appealing to those who like crime dramas while still offering plenty for sci fi fans to enjoy as well. And it started out strong in the Nielsens, pulling a 3.3 rating in the 18-49 demo and ten million total viewers with its initial outing. It has slipped some since then, but not bad and currently looks like it has a good chance of earning itself a second season.

FOX also gave us a preview last week of another of their new genre entries Touch, from Heroes creator Tim Kring and starring 24’s Kiefer Sutherland (Jericho’s Carol Barbee is also on board as an executive producer). In this one, Sutherland plays a former journalist who’s autistic son is a math genius and can apparently see patterns that predict the future. The pilot episode gives us a first look at this young savant and shows his father first understanding the boy’s talent to predict future events.

I have to say that the preview episode was rather convoluted and confusing, a Tim Kring trademark, and I’m guessing that if you broke it down and tried to thoroughly analyze it then it would not hold up. But then it was not guilty of gaping leaps of logic like we saw in the later seasons of Heroes and for the most part I rather enjoyed the episode. Sutherland heads up a fine cast that also includes Danny Glover, and Lost’s Man in Black Titus Welliver shows up in the episode in a guest-starring role.

My question at this point, though is how are they going to get a weekly series out of this? Does Jake predict a new event each week that his father tries to prevent? And at what point does Jake predict one of Tim Kring’s trademark apocalyptic futures? The series has some potential if approached correctly, but we all know how Kring went far astray with Heroes starting from that show’s second season. Maybe Barbee’s presence will act as a guiding force to keep the series on track, as she did a good job with Jericho. In any case, the series got off to a strong start with a 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demo and twelve million total viewers, so it has piqued the interest of viewers. It will start its regular run on Mondays in the 9 PM EST slot beginning March 19th, after Alcatraz wraps up its first season.

You can watch episodes of Alcatraz and Touch online for free at Hulu.com

Sci Fi TV on Blu-ray and DVD at Amazon.com:

The Sci Fi Web: There’s a lot of great sci fi/fantasy web series out there that too many genre fans don’t know about. This column is dedicated to filling you in on what you are missing. Currently, we are focusing on the winners and nominees from the 1st Annual IAWTV Awards.

Cell: The Web Series

Web Series (One Season of 13 Episodes Completed)
Credits: Mark Gardner (Creator/Writer/Director), Danny Cameron (Brian), Jourdan Gibson (Woman), Kevin McCarthy (Man)
IAWTV Nominee: Best Drama Web Series, Best Writing (Drama), Best Female Performance (Drama), Best Male Performance (Drama), Best Cinematography, Best Original Music

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)

Synopsis: This Prisoner-esque series begins with a man named Brian waking up in a cell, but not knowing why he is there. He screams to be released before he discovers that another person is in the neighboring cell; a woman who claims she does not remember her name and she warns Brian to keep his temper under control. A man then shows up, we do not get his name, and proceeds to punish Brian for his misbehavior with an electric cattle-prod and other means. The man tells the woman that it is her job to teach Brian and keep him in line and from there follows a progression of humiliations to break the will and identity of both the inmates in an at times nightmare setting.

Review/Commentary: This production delivers a series in the vein of The Prisoner and Lost, though in much tighter quarters, giving us engaging drama, confounding mysteries, and an emerging mythology, and accomplishes all that on a single set with no more than three actors (until the final episode at least) and practically no special effects. And while this is definitely a small, intimate, claustrophobic story, it also has plenty of hints toward a grander tale much like what played out on Lost.

The synopsis above basically gives you the set up for the series, but you’ll want no more information than that going in because this tale does not follow the direction you would expect and delivers several shockers. And it also gives us some intense, riveting, drama. There were times that I found myself just staring wide-eyed at the screen with my jaws agape because I was so astounded by the events transpiring. The series runs thirteen episodes of around eight to twelve minutes each (some shorter and the finale goes twenty minutes) and I sat through it all in almost one sitting because I found myself so engrossed. It reminded me of the way I reacted to the early episodes of Lost, amazed by the subtlety and complexity that the writers weaved into the stories. I should note that the acting falls short in a few places and the series kind of drags in the middle, though count those only as nitpicks. For the most part the actors do an excellent job and the few stumbles barely detract from the overall excellence of the production. And Cell definitely manages to outshine much of the more “professional” work we see on television and delivers a much more challenging viewing experience.

Mark Gardner, who has some professional, work on his resume, created, wrote, and directed the series, and I would definitely count him as an emerging talent. And this series has received several awards and many accolades since it first came out last year. It recently received quite a number of nominations (six total) from the IAWTV awards, but unfortunately no wins, which I consider a travesty. While the other web productions that took away multiple awards like RCVR (more about that one at this link) and Aidan 5 have their merits, I consider Cell one of the best productions that I have encountered on the web and this is the one that should have walked away with multiple trophies. Still, the nominations alone speak to the show’s accomplishments and will hopefully bring more attention to Cell: The Web Series and help it move forward with production of its second season.

Links/More Information: Another area where this series succeeds is its website. So many web series out there have barely adequate websites at best and quite a few have next to nothing in the way of a homepage making it difficult to figure out where to view the videos and which one to start with. Not so with Cell: The Web Series. This show’s site (link below) gives you everything you need. It provides a brief description of the show, gives information on the cast and crew, links to reviews, and more. And most importantly, you can watch all thirteen episodes from this site. More web productions should follow Cell’s example and set up a similar, easy to navigate, all-encompassing page like this. You can also watch the entire series on YouTube, if you prefer, at the link below.

Visit the Cell Homepage at this link.

Watch Cell on You Tube starting from episode 1 at this link.

Watch the Trailer:

The Audio Files: Reviews of audio adaptations of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror works. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Book Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)
Audiobook Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: A strange and enormous creature is sighted by many ships at sea and an expedition is dispatched to hunt down what is thought to be a giant whale or a mysterious beast. The U.S. ship the Abraham Lincoln confronts the creature and is seriously damaged in the encounter. Professor Pierre Aronnax, his assistant Conseil, and Canadian harpoonist Ned Land are thrown overboard in the skirmish only to discover that their quarry is a giant submarine. Its commander, Captain Nemo, brings them unboard, lest they drown in the ocean, but tells them that they can never leave the ship. The three then accompany Captain Nemo and his crew on many adventures beneath the ocean in his submarine known as The Nautilus.

Review/Comments: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is of course the world famous early science fiction novel by Jules Verne and a true masterpiece from among his works in my opinion. The story of the self-exiled Captain Nemo carrying out his vendetta against the surface-dwelling human race in his infamous submersible is widely known and many people who have never read the novel can at least rattle off the highlights of its plot. But how many readers today have actually gone back and journeyed through Verne’s original page-turning tale? If you have not, do yourself the favor. If you have, then perhaps it is time to revisit the story, and the audiobook version gives the perfect means of re-encountering it.

This early genre work delivers a true science fiction tale as the technology behind its premise is rooted firmly in the scientific knowledge of the time. And Verne employs the fantastic elements of his story to also deliver a very human tale of a man torn by the suffering he has seen the human race inflict and that he seeks to avenge. With this novel, Captain Nemo unfolds as one of the great tragic characters of literature and it is his tale that engages the reader and draws us into the world that Verne creates, even if it is told at a distance from the perspective of Professor Aronnax. As a bit of a warning, this book can be quite wordy and at times reads almost like a textbook on oceanography. You may find yourself skimming through several passages (or your attention fading if listening to the audiobook), or you may find the scientific information enlightening (even if parts of it are outdated). But the meat of the story comes with the tale of Captain Nemo and that is what makes this book truly soar and a must-read for all science fiction fans and students of literature.

Comments on the Audiobook: Seeing as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is now in the public domain, there are several audiobook versions available (including an adaptation from Librivox.org read by a volunteer voice cast for free download). I went with the edition read by British actor James Frain (who recently had a stint on True Blood as the psychotic vamp Franklin Mott). I picked the version read by him over others probably for no other reason than I liked the timbre of his accent, but I found he did a very good job with the material and with distinguishing the different characters. As mentioned above, Verne tends to go pretty heavy into the detail on oceanography and the other science he works into his tale, but that’s not too much of a problem when listening to the audiobook version. Maybe some facts interest you and maybe others just fade into ambient noise for a while. But there is still plenty of story here to keep you engaged between the science lectures and Frain’s voice-work succeeds in easing us through the dryer parts of the novel. This version is available from Audible.com and there are several other versions also at Audible as well as eMusic.com and BooksFree.com. And the free version is available from Librivox.org.

The Sci Fi Web: There’s a lot of great sci fi/fantasy web series out there that too many genre fans don’t know about. This column is dedicated to filling you in on what you are missing. Currently, we are focusing on the winners and nominees from the 1st Annual IAWTV Awards.

RCVR
Web Series (One Season of Six Episodes Completed)
Credits: David Van Eyssen – Creator/Director, Daniel Bonjour (Weber), Lexi DiBenedetto (Charlene)
Winner IAWTV Awards: Best Drama Web Series, Best Male Performance (Drama), Best Cinematography.  Also Nominated for Best Writing (Drama), Best Directing (Drama), Best Design (Art Direction/Production), Best Makeup/Special Effects, Best Visual Effects (Digital), Best Editing, Best Web Site Design

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: Taking place in 1974, a mysterious organization known as SIGMA investigates UFO sightings and alien contact and tries to convince people who have had these experiences that extraterrestrial beings are not involved. The agents of this organization, though, are actually looking for people known as RCVRs, humans who receive knowledge from alien intelligence that results in huge leaps in the human race’s technical skills.

Commentary: This 2011 web series snagged the Best Drama Web Series category at the recent IAWTV Awards, and I can see why as it has first rate production values (it also won Best Cinematography), decent special effects, and good acting as well (picking up the Best Male Performance Drama award). Think of it as somewhat of a retro-X-Files, but with Mulder and Scully demonstrating a more sinister intent (at least based on what we saw from the first season). The six episodes from Season 1 (which average about seven to eight minutes each) set up the premise and establish the main characters and the central mystery driving the story. And Van Eyssen’s very professional directing helps propel the series forward so that it never wanders or goes astray. It does fall a bit short of fully exploring its potential during its first season, but that effectively just leaves the viewer eager for the story to continue with a second set of episodes.

RCVR is an ambitious, transmedia property that also offers a conspiracy-laden Twitter account and blog (lings below) where the fictional Alvin J. Peters is tracking the government cover-up of the people who have had contact with alien beings. And Van Eyssen has visions of this branching out to a TV series and possibly a movie as well. And currently the web series has something that few other similar productions can boast: a corporate sponsor in Motorola. I’m not certain how much they contributed to the funding of the project, but they can definitely help this one get some good exposure, and with the show grabbing some big wins (and a ton of nominations) at the IAWTV Awards, a second season seems almost assured.

RCVR shows the potential of the web series format and it makes good use of supplemental content on the web to help build up its mythology. It is definitely worth checking out for all sci fi fans whether they are new to web series or well-seasoned with the format.

Links/More Information:

You can begin watching the series from episode 1 on YouTube at this link.

You can watch the entire first season in one video (46 min) on YouTube at this link.

Browse through the Sigma Agency mock website at this link.

Visit the ProjectRCVR website where Alvin J. Peters provides more info on the government conspiracy at this link.

Follow Alvin J. Peters’ Twitter site at this link.

Read an interview with series creator David Van Eyssen at AssignmentX.com at this link.

Trailer for RCVR:

Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

The sixth episode of Pioneer One is now available online and for download (and it’s actually been there for a month–sorry, I’m behind) and this wraps up Season 1 of the acclaimed web series. For those not familiar with the series, it comes to us from creators Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith and delivers a speculative fiction tale about a man who returns to Earth in a Russian spaceship and who was allegedly the child of two Soviet astronauts sent to Mars in a secretive mission during the 1980’s. The story has unfolded across six episodes that range in length from thirty to forty five minutes and has focused on the investigation run by two Homeland Security agents to unlock all of the mysteries surrounding the crash-landing of the ship and its sole occupant. The series received extensive support from the sci fi fan community in the way of donations to fund the project and has received high praise from critics and fans alike and has also been nominated for several awards (it won 2010 Best Drama Pilot at the New York Television Festival and was nominated for Best Drama at the 2011 The International Academy of Web Television Awards).

I have to admit that I was a bit deflated by the final episode because it did not provide the resolution that I expected but instead set up the show for its second season. In retrospect, though, the direction that Bernhard and Smith took with the series finale makes perfect sense and it’s the same as you would expect from a series airing on television. And after my initial disappointment, I have to admit that the episode has since sat well with me and I want to go back and re-watch the full first season now.

In episode six (WARNING: Spoilers to follow, skip this paragraph to avoid), a group of mercenaries, allegedly hired by the Russians, breaks into the base and abducts Yuri. One of the key personnel involved in the project is killed during this attack, and the blame for that death and the loss of Yuri falls on Tom Taylor’s shoulders. He is pushed to address a press conference supporting the officially sanctioned terrorist explanation of the crash of the spaceship and mentions nothing about the possible Mars connection. Taylor then resigns and faces a committee to determine if he will be held criminally liable for his actions. He is acquitted (with a friend pulling strings to help him out), but knows that he still wants to find out the truth. He then seeks out Dr. Walzem and convinces the professor to go with him to Russia to track down Yuri.

I consider Pioneer One to be a triumph of independent film-making and a clear indication that the web truly offers a new range of options for episodic sci fi productions. The story is quite excellent, a rare piece of thought-provoking speculative fiction, and definitely hit a nerve with the sci fi community as Pioneer One would likely not have made it through six full episodes without their donations. And the production values for the series are excellent considering the budget it was produced on (I believe the full six episodes cost less than $100 thousand, a fraction of the cost of a single episode of a network or cable production). Of course the series had little in the way of special effects and it was rougher around the edges early on, but it made significant leaps forward with each episode and I believe that it delivered a much more satisfying viewing experience than the mediocre sci fi entries the networks have thrown at us of late, such as FOX’s recent mega-dollar misfire Terra Nova.

The question at this point is whether Pioneer One, or other shows like it, can continue on for multiple seasons in their current format. I have watched quite a number of web series that have produced great first seasons but then nothing after that because the funding and/or motivation just isn’t there. Creators tend to get invigorated by an idea and find it in themselves to produce an initial run for a series, but they typically exhaust their resources and/or burn out by the time they have that completed. And currently there is just not a good model for them to recoup the costs of an independently produced web series. Even those that run adds during the episodes do not get much back in the way of revenue from what I have been hearing. And while the Pioneer One guys have been able to fund their project mostly through donations, that covers just the expenses and does not compensate them (or the cast and crew) for the hard work they put into the production. And how long before the donation well dries up?

That said, I do believe that Pioneer One has a better chance of soldiering on than some other web series that I have encountered because Bernhard and Smith have demonstrated commitment and perseverance with this project. And perhaps one of the cable networks will pick up season one and give it some exposure or maybe a DVD release could reap some financial rewards for them as well. And I would definitely like to see this one continue. It has delivered some rare, intelligent science fiction and deserves the chance to unlock its full story.

Go to the Pioneer One Website to Watch and/or Download Episodes and to Get More Information About the Web Series

By Sam Christopher

Rating: ½ out of 5 Stars

I remember watching an interview with Dennis Hopper—I think it was on Tom Snyder’s MSNBC show—about Waterworld. The problem Hopper had was that it seemed to him that everyone outside the production he heard talking about the film seemed to be hoping it would fail. It was one thing to see a picture and not like, but to want someone’s work to be below par seemed wrong to him. I agree with him. I know in the past some readers have complained that I was hard on certain films but it was only after I had seen them. I give breaks on effects and acting talent for films made on thin budgets but I just don’t think money has much to do with the creativity of the writer(s) and director(s) (although I do understand that producers can often meddle so much as to damage the final product). I try and look forward to seeing the films I’m going to review, even when the trailers and/or commercials aren’t too thrilling. Which was not at all the case with this film, as the commercials and online trailers I saw made it look very good. That plus the fact that it was the top box office attraction this past weekend and I had heard nothing bad about it (from the only one person I know that saw it, an admittedly small sample) made me feel pretty hopeful about seeing it. But then…

First, there was the trailers before the picture, an utterly forgettable montage of images that only served to make me ever so glad I own a television. The only ones I can remember anything at all about are: The Cabin in the Woods, which doesn’t look very good to be honest but is being produced by Joss Whedon, so maybe it’ll work out; the new GI Joe picture, in which a US President apparently tells the entire world at a press conference that he dispatched a gang of assassins to murder America’s elite fighting force (yeah, that guy will be re-elected); and then there was one that starred actual Navy SEALs doing… something (I think they were trying to save some CIA operative but I’m not really sure). And I just remembered there was something made by the people who did Borat and it looks awful. Then our main feature started and no one in the audience suspected that the trailers would come to be viewed as the highlight of the evening.

The film starts off very well. Shot in cinema verite, it creates an interesting situation with a triple homicide apparently committed during an exorcism and subsequently follows the efforts of the murderer’s daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade), to speak to her mother (the murderer). Then the film shows us a couple of priests who will no doubt eventually be “drummed off the force for playing by their own rules” and then runs us through various hoops and flashes various mcguffins at us for the remainder of the film. Basically, this is a cross between The Exorcist (minus the truly scary portions, the fine acting, and the literate script) and Fallen (minus the star power of Denzel Washington). And the ending… I can’t think of a worse one. I mean, I’ve seen some bad endings but I honestly think this one might be the absolute worst; it is truly Night of the Zombies bad.

Now I know I haven’t said much about the actual story but that’s because I quite frankly can think of nothing that garners interest, other than the beginning. The rest is mostly just a mish-mash of events that never really gel into a horror story. This happens, that happens, and then the end comes and the viewer is left wondering what the hell just happened. And who do I see to get back that last hour and a half of my life?

Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

The Dollhouse Epitaphs comic book from Dark Horse just made it to its fifth issue, and I have to say I have really been enjoying this continuation of Joss Whedon’s TV series Dollhouse and wish that he had taken this approach when the show was still on the air. For those unfamiliar with the ill-fated series that eked out two shortened seasons, it followed the Rossum corporation that had turned several people into “dolls” who could have custom-made personalities imprinted on their minds. The series took place in the present-day world and the “cases” the dolls were assigned to which could vary from romantic interludes to hostage negotiations. Two episodes from the series, though, looked at the near future when Rossum had turned this technology viral and had reduced the majority of the population to mindless yet violent zombies (an interesting twist on the zombie-pocalypse theme). This is where the story really got interesting and this is where the comic book picks up.

In the comic, penned by series veterans Jed Whedon, Andrew Chambliss, and Maurissa Tancharoen, we follow Echo and several other of the series regulars (including the schizophrenic Alpha) as they seek out the tech that will reverse what Rossum has done. This provides for a rather gripping post-apocalyptic tale, much different than the “imprint of the week” stories the TV series delivered in its first season or the conspiracy-laden tales from year two. True, you needed those to set up the post-apocalyptic setting, but they could have done that through flashbacks and given us a series with storylines in both the before and after settings. That approach I believe would have made for a more engaging series and would have attracted more viewers and a more devoted following. Unfortunately the show as it was (which was apparently hampered by tinkering from the FOX execs) never really caught on and I’m not sure many fans followed the story into the comics. And it appears that issue #5 of the comic will be the last, but there’s still plenty more story to tell. Whether Dark Horse will continue this later (which seems unlikely because the letters column suggested it was cancelled) or whether the creative team takes this to another company remains to be seen. But I would definitely like to see more of this story and wish that they had taken this approach for the get go.

Among other comic book series that I have been following lately, the Kirby Genesis books have proved interesting, though I’m still not quite certain how much I like them. The main title, Kirby Genesis, has thrown together a plethora of characters that Jack Kirby created in his later years such as Captain Victory, Silver Star, the Ninth Men from the Secret City saga, as well as some others that he worked on but which never saw publication. This series brings them all into the same universe and creates a storyline that throws them all together as it leads up to a climactic confrontation. It’s nice to see all these Kirby creations, but it’s sort of like taking his imagination and turning it on us with a fire hose. Definitely a case of comic crossover overload.  However, the series does introduce us to quite a number of characters and groups that could live on in their own spin-off series and Dynamite has already gone that direction with Kirby Genesis: Captain Victory and Kirby Genesis: Silver Star (and Kirby Genesis: Dragonsbane will follow shortly). Of the two (both of which have only had one issue), I see a lot more potential in the Captain Victory strip. It looks like this one might follow a similar route to Kirby’s Fourth World books from the 70’s and he had written in some tenuous links to that pantheon in the original series published by Pacific in the early 80’s (which suggested that Victory was the son of Orion and grandson of Darkseid, referred to in the comic as Blackmass). I will definitely keep following Captain Victory for now and the upcoming Dragonsbane (which will mine Norse and Greek mythology for its characters) should be worth picking up as well. Haven’t decided where I stand on the other Kirby Genesis titles at this point, though.

I have also been following the Atlas revival with the three titles Ardden Entertainment has released so far: Phoenix, The Grim Ghost, and Wulf. These have all been okay so far, but less that spectacular, with The Grim Ghost disappointing the most at this point. That one just seems muddled and too distant from its original premise which showed some promise (where an executed bandit worked for Satan bringing evil souls to Hell). Phoenix and Wulf have both improved on their original books and both provide at least an entertaining distraction. All three books are now leading into the inevitable cross-over series: Atlas Unified which should come out some time this month. I’ll pick that one up and probably stick with Phoenix and Wulf for a while, but I can’t say that I’m hooked at this point.

Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

The first half of the current season is just about over with several shows having wrapped up for the holidays and several more with just a few episodes left before the Winter hiatus. And I have to admit at this point that the season has been somewhat of a mixed bag with most of the new shows disappointing, while some of the returning shows picked up the slack and showed some new vitality.

Tops so far this season is the same show that delighted last year, AMC’s The Walking Dead. Despite the behind the scenes turmoil of Frank Darabont leaving the series and the budget cuts, this show has continued to maintain, if not exceed the quality of its first season. True, it has moved at a rather plodding pace this season and the soap opera elements detract from the overall quality (the same is true of the latter in the comics), but each episode delivers at least one holy crap! moment that makes it all worth it. This show has ventured into Battlestar: Galactica territory with its hard-hitting moral ambiguities and gut-wrenching drama, and I’d say it’s on course to quickly work its way into the upper echelon of science fiction and fantasy shows.

Another returning show that has pleased this season is Fringe, now in its fourth (and possible last) season. This show has long strived to be a contender among genre shows, but has suffered from inconsistency. This season, though, the show finally seems to have hit its stride with the combined universes and Peter-Bishop-out-of-time storylines. Its continued ratings slide suggest it may not last into a fifth season, though, but hopefully FOX will give the producers ample notice so that they can wrap up the majority of the plot threads before the show is put out to pasture.

Supernatural has also seen an upswing in quality after two sub-par seasons. The Leviathan storyline seems to have reenergized the series and it has managed to stay pretty consistent this season after suffering from some wild swings last year. If The CW elects to wrap up the show with this season, then at least it will go out on a strong note.

Among the new shows, I think I like Once Upon A Time the best. I say “I think” because I’m still not quite certain about this one. Its fairy tale lore meets the modern day world premise has potential and it surprisingly got off to a strong start. But it’s since been all over the board consistency-wise (sometimes in the same episode) and at times verges on bad camp and the absurd. Lost veterans Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have kept it from slipping into the abyss thus far, but we will see how long they can continue to tread that fine line. I consider this a guilty pleasure at this point, but not quite a must-watch show.

I had just about given up on FX’s The American Horror Story, but found myself pulled back in when Zachary Quinto arrived in a ghostly recurring role. The problem with the series is that I just don’t like any of the main characters. I don’t really hate them either, they’re just kind of blah and annoying. The show shines from the performances of ancillary characters like Quinto and Jessica Lange, but how long can they carry it? The muddled storylines don’t help either. Still, it does kind of grow on you after a while and it has me intrigued enough now to stick around for the upcoming season finale.

J.J. Abrams’ Person of Interest seems to have missed the mark, and I’m wondering if CBS neutered the show to fit their standard risk-free slate of programming. It has basically become another procedural-with-a-twist with very little in the way of genre elements and nothing much yet in the way of an ongoing story arc. Which takes two of Abrams’ trademark elements out of the series. It has also failed to inject any of the paranoia, anxiety, and/or cynicism you would expect from a show about omnipresent surveillance, not has it really taken advantage of its two leads, Michael Emerson and James Caviezel. I’m thinking CBS didn’t really want a J.J. Abrams show, just the recognition that goes with his name and a cookie-cutter procedural with a gimmick. This one will likely go down as a huge missed opportunity.

NBC’s Grimm is another show that just hasn’t lived up to its billing as its Supernatural meets dark fairy tale creatures premise has delivered sub-par episodes thus far. And FOX’s high profile Terra Nova has completely disappointed, which I discussed in much more detail at this link. I do admit that I have not tuned into that one for a while and have heard some good feedback on more recent episodes, so maybe I will give it another try. But I don’t have my hopes too high.

One of the biggest surprises to me is the fact that we have made it to December with no cancellations among the genre shows. That said, CBS’s A Gifted Man is almost certainly on the way out as is The CW’s Nikita, Fringe, and Terra Nova is wavering while Grimm has to be considered a toss-up despite the fact that NBC is trying to play it up as a hit. I will have a comprehensive look at the cancellation prospects of all of this Fall’s genre shows in a special Cancellation Watch column in about a week or two.

Sci Fi Ramblings

By John J. Joex

This season has brought us two genre shows with fairy tale roots (and the networks mulled even more during the pilot season), but neither of these have quite won me over to this new trend yet. Of the two, I definitely prefer ABC’s Once Upon A Time, but I haven’t decided yet if I consider it a must-watch show at this point. As far as NBC’s Grimm, it showed some potential early on, but I’m quickly losing interest in that one.

For those who have not tuned into Once Upon A Time (which airs Sundays at 8 PM EST), this series tells us that the fairy tale world is real, with Snow White, the dwarves, Prince Charming, evil queens, Jiminy Cricket, and the whole lot, but a curse has cast them into an eternal state of obliviousness. They all live now in the modern world in a small New England town called Storybrooke, though most don’t know their true origins or the fact that they are trapped by a spell cast by the evil queen. However, one person has the ability to free them. She is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming who escaped from the spell into the modern world twenty eight years ago (by our time). She also does not know her origins, but her estranged son whom she put up for adoption seeks her out and convinces her to come to the town and now he tries to prove to her that fairy tale characters are real and living in Storybrooke.

If that premise sounds rather hokey, well, it is. But surprisingly the creators (Lost veterans Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz) and the rest of the crew involved have managed to pull it off much better than you might expect. The pilot episode was actually quite strong as it delved into the darker subtext of fairy tale stories and seemed to lay the groundwork for a potentially strong fantasy series. Since then, though, it has flirted heavily with the camp elements that the early previews suggested, and it switches between modern day story threads and flashbacks to the fairy tale world. But is has not completely descended into camp yet as it weaves a somewhat interesting story of personal rediscovery combined with fairy tale elements (with the two naturally complementing each other).

As far as the fairy tale lore, Once Upon A Time dips directly and deeply into the Disney pot (remember that ABC is owned by the Mouse House) with a few fun twists here and there. And the cast is definitely a strong point for the show with Emma Swan giving us a good, strong female lead for the series and Jared S. Gilmore thus far steering clear of the annoying, cute kid trope. And Robert Carlyle (previously seen as Dr. Rush on SGU) is clearly having a grand time hamming it up as Rumpelstiltskin (though for God’s sake, could they please do something about the horrible makeup job he has in the fairy tale world ).  The series has potential, but then it could also quickly go far astray.  I’m sticking with it for now, but I’m not quite sold yet.

NBC’s Grimm (which airs Fridays at 9 PM EST) also draws from the fairy tale bag, but it has a darker angle and less of a direct connection to its source material. In this one, detective Nick Burkhardt finds out that he comes from the family line of Grimms, ancient hunters who seek out and kill dangerous supernatural creatures (the ones that inspired many fairy tales and fantasy stories). In the modern world, these creatures adopt human form, but he has the ability to see through their disguises when they lose control. He is informed by his dying aunt that he is one of the last Grimms and that he must now carry on the family tradition.

While this series draws some inspiration from fairy tales, it also lifts readily from The CW’s Supernatural (its timeslot competitor) as well as many other genre and cop shows. Its premise is weak and hackneyed at best and thus far, after a slightly better than average pilot, the show has done little to build up its mythology into a credible, coherent story. If the Grimms are the only ones who can see these supernatural baddies, why didn’t they make busy breeding like rabbits long ago to keep the family business going strong over the years? And why exactly is it that it just so happens there are so many of these mythological terrors hanging around Portland, Oregan where Burkhardt happens to be on the police force and how does he keep lucking into cases that involve them?

This one strains our suspension of disbelief a bit too much and it also doesn’t play too much on the familiar fairy tale elements that supposedly inspired it. Okay, in the first episode we did have the “big bad wolf” and  perhaps the second episode gave us the descendants of Goldilocks’ bears. But what fairy tale or fantasy lore did those bees in the third episode come from? On top of all that, David Giuntoli who plays Burkhardt seems too pretty-boy for the part, and the rest of the cast seem to play their roles mostly by the numbers. So far, the only standouts have been Silas Weir Mitchell as good “big bad wolf” Eddie Monroe and Kate Burton as kick-ass Aunt Marie. Unfortunately (SPOILER WARNING) Marie is out of the picture now, but Eddie should stick around to liven things up.

Ratings-wise, Once Upon A Time is surprisingly one of the biggest hits of the season. It debuted with a 4.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic and has thus far dropped no lower that a 3.8 rating with subsequent episodes. It is regularly the top rated scripted show on Sunday nights and ABC has picked up the back nine episodes giving this one a full season order. Grimm started strong with a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demo, pretty good numbers considering its Friday night slot and the fact that it debuted against Game 7 of the World Series. It has dropped each week since then, though, down to a 1.6 rating in its last outing. It needs to hold steady there it it wants to stick around, and it did receive the good news that NBC has ordered additional scripts (though only two). It has a chance of surviving if it can hold onto its audience, but it needs to improve its writing if the show wants people to stay interested.  Both shows are available for free online viewing at Hulu.com.

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By John J. Joex

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Neil Gaiman has established a name for himself as a well-respected genre author over the last two decades, but it’s likely that many people in the United States have missed out on the BBC series he wrote and co-created called Neverwhere. But now that this series, which originally aired in England in 1996, is getting a 15th anniversary release on DVD (just out on November 15th), it’s time for sci fi fans to give this one a look.

This six-episode series (it’s common for a British show to have a shortened run like this) takes place in the world of “London Below”, a hidden parallel world that exists beneath the actual city of London (referred to in the series as “London Above”). Here we find that the homeless and dissolute actually live a secret life unseen by the people above that is a throwback fantasy world that hearkens back to Medieval feudalism. A man from London Above (Richard Mayhew played by Gary Blakewell) helps a girl from London Below (Door played by Laura Fraser) and finds himself drawn reluctantly into this alternate underworld.

The premise is interesting, though the delivery sometimes falls short and has a familiar feel to it and the story ultimately bogs down beneath multiple genre tropes. But it is the performances of Paterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas as well as Hywel Bennett and Clive Russell as the delightfully wicked Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar that elevate this to the next level. These three alone transform this from an interesting if lackluster fantasy series to an exceptional example of genre television. Though beware that the series does suffer from the low production values common to BBC shows, though fortunately it does not rely too heavily on special effects.

Neil Gaiman fans who have missed out on the series (though they may have read the book) will definitely want to check this one out. And most all science fiction and fantasy fans will likely enjoy it as well, as long as the set expectations properly considering the show’s production limitations and tendency to slip into cliché. But at only six episodes of thirty minutes, it’s a quick watch and well worth your time. And there’s also rumors floating around of a possible sequel series or maybe even a big screen adaptation on the horizon. Note that this set has some new special features not on the previous (out of print) edition including an audio commentary that Neil Gaiman participates in.

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