Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tuesday Odds & Ends: Potter, The Cell and mind-controlling kitties

+ It's getting down to zero hour for the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." So far, the reviews are looking good. How many of you are seeing the midnight show tonight?

+ Stephen King's "The Cell" is being turned into a four-hour TV mini-series, penned by a fellow named John Harrison who wrote the "Dune" mini-series for SyFy.

+ Speaking of horror, you should see the pants I'm wearing! Ha, ha...sorry. What I meant to say was, speaking of horror, CBS' "Harper's Island" will not be renewed for next season. I stopped watching that mid-way through for some reason. Did it end well?

+ TV Guide has an interview with Titus Welliver (owner of the world's coolest name) about his role as "Lost"'s Man in Black. (via Televisionary)

+ Have you heard the great debate about whether or not "Battlestar Galactica"'s finale was the worst ending ever? Here's what IO9 has to say about it and here's the original essay. The man has obviously never seen the ending of "The X-Files" if he thinks BSG was so bad. I have to admit, I'm flummoxed on how much hate has surfaced for that ending. Yes, the Starbuck thing was frustrating and yes, the whole Times Square thing at the end was lame but other than that, I loved it. I think I might be in the minority on that though.

+ And finally, science has proven what we've known all along: our cats control us. I always thought it was through telepathy and the fact that they steal pieces of my soul while I sleep, but turns out, it's just high-frequency meows.

13 comments:

Kyle said...

My buddy and I both loved the BSG ending. I really don't have any beefs with it at all! Though I knew that the "unkown" factor would have some people up in arms. The thing with shows like Battlestar is that they are not engineered to be a one-size-fits-all show. It is very much the creative goal of mostly Ron Moore, but also everyone who was involved. And that to me, is its greatest strength.

Ms. Meg said...

I am so psyched for the midnight show tonight!

Liz said...

Kyle, I totally agree with you. It was never going to please everyone nor should it have tried. I like that the show went out ambitiously and aimed for something big. Even if it didn't succeed 100 percent, at least it aimed high. I applaud that.

Meg, I'm so jealous. I'm afraid I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it. Hope you have a great time tonight!

Kaylia Metcalfe said...

The cell as a miniserries? Hmmm. I never got around to seeing it ont h big screen....

I think the hate for BSG is because people loved it so much, had such huge expectations... People are going to hate the ending of LOST for the same reason.

Sara Jo said...

It's gonna take me days to read the original essay by Brad Templeton! It looks awesome so far. He definitely brings up some good points, and it's clear he really loves the series, so it's not like he's just totally bashing it. The level-headedness is much appreciated.

I _loved_ the final 2 hours and 11 minutes of BSG, and I bawled almost through almost the entire show. Then I watched it again when it reapeated immediately and bawled only slightly less.

I was prepared for the "God did it" ending, though. Religion was a major component to the BSG universe, so what else would be behind the mysteries?

Midnight showing of Harry Potter is sold out at the theater near my house! Going tomorrow at 7pm.

Hojo said...

FB status this morning: "You know you've been unemployed too long when you start bargaining with the cat."

crone51 said...

telepathy, soul stealing and embezzling.

( a nod to Steve Martin).

Unknown said...

I agree about the BSG ending. The religion and mythology was a huge part of the show, and it would have been odd if the ending hadn't involved the same themes. I loved it!

*sniffs* I think I still miss Roslin though.

Cara King said...

I thought the BSG ending was fairly weak, but it didn't annoy me as much as it did some viewers. I think that's because I had long before concluded that although BSG was a great show, it was not very good science fiction, whereas those folks who still thought they were going to get reasonable explanations for everything that happened were (from what I could see) often more disappointed.... :-)

Your Husband said...

Cell a miniseries on a channel that typically does poor quality miniseries? What happened to Eli Roth doing it for the bog screen. Boooo. Stephen King stories are ruined when not done on the bog screen.

Michelle said...

The BSG ending wasn't epic and therefore, people were going to hate it.

The Harper's Island ending was confusing, but fun. I would have liked a better motive, but I enjoyed it as a cotton candy fluff show and as such wasn't disappointed.

HP tomorrow at 7!

Anonymous said...

Just got back from the midnight HP! Good movie, but it does stray from the book. Still, readers will catch the quick references in the movie to parts that were essentially cut out or cut down (a must to be able to get through the story). Alan Rickman rocked!

Did anyone see if the Ravenclaw diadem was in the Room of Requirement? I had to sit in the second row, so it was hard to see everything on screen!

Shanna Swendson said...

Count me in as another who liked the BSG ending.

It was more the middle that I had trouble with -- the part of the series that was essentially C-SPAN in Space.