The writer, obsessed with quality hour-long dramas, sits glumly on her couch. She is certain that just last week she was enjoying a sexy and socially aware period series, but it now all seems increasingly vague and far away. AMC, the benevolent network, reassures her that there is something to fill the void.
America means many things to many people, but to those who know and love it best America means the world's finest TV shows about aliens. As last week's rapturously received premiere of V made clear, Americans just can't get enough of things from outer space who want to invade, share, hide in or otherwise disrupt our personal space. It's a key element of the rich tapestry of American history, right alongside muscle cars, democracy, professional wrestling and deep-fried everything. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I'm going to tell you a secret and then immediately after this post is published you'll probably never hear from me again because I'll be whisked away to a secret location and killed or be forced to undergo extensive plastic surgery and a total identity change. Kurt and I are the same person, much in the same way Janet and LaToya and Michael Jackson were the same person, just with different hats. Kurt and I go to see the same movies because we are one and the same. Then we have differing opinions on said movies just to mess with you.
I'm pretty sure this is true. Or maybe the trailers that I saw before The Men Who Stare at Goats got to me.
I wasn't too much older than my kids are now when I had one of the great formative experiences of my youth: the original broadcast of the miniseries V in 1983. To call it awesome was to understate the nature of awesomeness — giant spaceships, alien subterfuge, the Beastmaster hisself fighting for the forces of good, and HOT ALIEN BABES WHO EAT RATS. For those of us who sat rapt with attention for night after night after night of this true miniseries event (remember when they had those? and it actually meant something?) watching this stuff unfold, it was life-changing stuff.
Tonight, ABC will air the first episode of the long-awaited reimagining of the 1984-1985 series, V. And if you for some ludicrous reason haven't already pencilled it into your Day Runner, set a reminder in your iCal or programmed your Tivo to record it, I'm here to demonstrate why you bitches crazy if you're not planning to watch this show.
As an extension of MamaPop's ongoing effort to bring you the best in wholesome, family-friendly fun, we'd like to offer you the following list of some of our favorite murderous psychopaths. Some you may know, some you may not... but all of them deserve a very dark, twisted and frightening part of your life.
One thing I love about the Halloween season is that there is a plethora of horror movies on television at any given moment. I've been a huge fan of horror films my entire life, and October always brings a neverending crop of bloody, disgusting, terrible, horrible, no good very bad movies. It's my favorite month and results in my favorite holiday.
This October, the horror movies in theaters include the no-budget blockbuster Paranormal Activity, a remake of The Stepfather, and the SIXTH installment of Saw. The success of Paranormal Activity is a delightful example of how good movies can be made for practically nothing. The Stepfather is another in a loooooooong line of horror movie remakes (did anyone think the original Stepfather was so nice, you wanted to see it twice?) And then there's Saw. Number six. Six installments of shameless gore. And people still go see it.
The question is WHY.
MamaPop has spent a fair portion of its time bringing the love for this uneven but compelling series that debuted last season to low ratings and finished to even lower ratings (seriously, it was like watching a boat sink for months). In a rational world - the one we inhabited even five years ago - it would have been cancelled after a dozen episodes and gone down in Whedon history as another Firefly.
But that didn't happen this time. Why? Some spoilers ahead if you haven't watched the first season.
Last night was the season premiere of Heroes, brought to you by Boston and clam chowder. I was excited. I was also tired after dealing with important parenting matters. Heroes was to be my escape. It was 2 hours long, now with an extra hour of commercials!
It turns out that I couldn't remember crap from last season. I was lost at times, but instead of a smoke monster I had a warm beer and a lot of questions. Apparently last season didn't leave much of an impression. I checked to make sure House was being recorded.
I just got back from the premier of District 9, (but it was only the premier in that it was the first time I watched it, not the actual tuxedo one that I NEVER seem to get invited to) and I really have no idea what I just watched. Or whether or not I liked it. I think I did. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did. I might have to get back to you on that one. Also I'm not sure how to categorize it. Is Surgery Channel-Sci-Fi-Fake Documentary-Horror a category? Because if it is, this movie is getting the fucking Oscar. Because it was definitely the best one of those I've ever seen.
So these two got back together.
Had your breakfast yet? LET'S LOOK CLOSER!
I posted a bootleg of some of this footage almost a year ago, but now we have the full, glorious mint version, and wow. Just WOW.
And in IMAX. Squee!
The Tron: Legacy site Disney has up is basically just a placeholder page at this point, but that new trailer says 2010, and god I hope so. I feel like I've been waiting for this movie since... well, since 1982.
This week's edition of the bible of popular culture - aka Entertainment Weekly - features on its cover the three stars of a movie that actually won't be released until sometime in 2010, which scientific research shows is actually a reference to next year despite sounding like some make-believe time in the way-off, far distant future. The movie in question, of course, is Iron Man II, and features the improbably successful Robert Downey Jr. as the title superhero, Mickey Rourke as some superbadass, and Scarlett Johansson as... uh... someone who is apparently in the movie to piss off Gwenyth Paltrow. Personally I'm somewhat indifferent to the dynamics of Johansson vs. Paltrow, but if it features either one of them looking reasonably hot and wrapped up in spandex, then - if I may be so bold as to speak for the heterosexual males of North America - boo to the yaa.
Of course, not every superhero movie/comic book adaptation has been quite so star-studded, critically lauded and mainstream-embraced as the first Iron Man, or The Dark Knight, or.... well, you get the idea. Between the launch of the modern superhero movie with 1978's Superman and next year's Iron Man II, there have been a handful of less-renowned but nonetheless culturally essential films du genre worthy of your attention. And insofar as that the good people of MamaPop live to educate and enlighten, we hereby present you with a quick overview of some comic book adaptations that might have slipped past your otherwise foolproof radar.
ABC has acquired the rights to Gravity, a science fiction show from the U.K. about eight astronauts who undertake a six-year mission. But the producers want you to know, LADIES, that you shouldn't be scared of those words like "science fiction" and "astronauts" and especially "science."
This is "vagina-friendly" science fiction, apparently.
They released a trailer for the remake of V last week and I pretty much passed out from dorkgasm right away and when they found me I was quivering on the floor and holding myself in a fetal ball and muttering "Not the hamster!" which my fresh-bought-from-the-Jer-Store friends totally thought meant something else that had nothing to do with aliens who are reptiles in people-skin eating rodents and birds. I need to get new friends.
It's a holiday here in the U.S., which means that there are many grills being fired up and many beers being consumed. Besides the obvious memorializing that takes place today for all of soldiers who gave their health and/or lives in war, it's not a day for heavy thinking. Er, well, at least not for me. So, I present to you some really cool pictures.
Friends, Lost Fans, Geeks, the day we have long dreaded and anticipated in equal measure is now upon us. Yes, today is Lost Season Finale Day. And I don't know about you, but my excitement for tonight's culminating two-hour episode is definitely tempered by some very serious anxiety about what the hell I'm going to do on Wednesday nights starting next week. Should I pick up knitting? Portrait painting? cough Ship-in-a-bottle making cough? Sigh. Each time a season of Lost ends I'm reminded of how barren the televisual landscape is without the show, and just how awful it will be to see it end after next season. Oh the woe and the weeping, the tearing of clothes and wailing and gnashing of teeth... Let's hope there's a support group or something I can join, as I expect the Lost withdrawals to be formidable.
That said, tonight's ending thankfully foreshadows next season's beginning, and we still have a great big chunk of Lost ahead of us to look forward to [wipes sweat from brow]. And who better to help us navigate through the show's narrative and its complex machinations than Entertainment Weekly's Delphic-Oracle-Like Expert On All Things Lost, Jeff "Doc" Jensen? That's right, NO ONE. Which is why I'm beyond excited -- thrilled, quite honestly -- that Doc took time during what must be an incredibly busy week for him to answer our questions about tonight's finale, how he thinks the show will end, who he thinks that Jacob dude is, and more.
Full interview with Doc after the jump!
MAMAPOP IS SMART POP CULTURE ANALYSIS, COMMENTARY, MERCILESS FUN-MAKING AND OTHER SUNDRY AWESOME, DISHED UP DAILY BY PARENTS, FOR PARENTS, AND ANYONE ELSE WHO UNDERSTANDS THAT PLAYTIME IS BETTER WITH VODKA. PLEASE TO ENJOY. READ MORE...
