Chess, Suspension Of Disbelief, And Dollhouse

The positioning of chess pieces on the set of a TV show or movie is a good litmus test for how seriously the producers of an imaginary world take the reality they’re creating. I was very disappointed to see Dollhouse fail this test in last night’s episode, especially since the show is normally so good.

Look at the lower-right square on the board (from Topher’s point of view). It’s dark. That’s wrong. The lower-right square, from each player’s point of view, is always the lighter color. Read the rest of this entry »

SciFi Channel Admits Whole “SyFy” Thing Was A Joke

And it’s a good thing, too. “SyFy” makes it sound like the channel is trying to distance itself from the geeks that made it popular to begin with. Sci-Fi stands for Science Fiction, but SyFy stands for nothing.

The implication of the whole change, in fact, would be that SyFy isn’t about science fiction, but something else, something more modern, more informal.

More cool. Read the rest of this entry »

Kari Farrell Escapes, Revealed As TOK Series Terminator

Kari Farrell, recently taken into custody, has broken out of the Philadelphia jail that held her. According to several witnesses, she punched through a wall with her bare fists and tossed aside guards “like they were made of paper mache.” Photos from bystanders also reveal that in the melee, part of Farrell’s face was blown off, revealing an adamantine endoskeleton.

This is really interesting, for several reasons.

This might not be Kari at all. As we’ve seen in the recently-cancelled TV show, TOK series Terminators are often modeled on specific humans. This unit might have already killed Kari and assumed her identity. If that’s the case, then who knows how long ago the world lost the “real” Kari?

Many people from Kari’s past (including myself) have noted a profound difference in her attitude towards other people between then and now. What happened? Well, maybe it’s because she’s been replaced by a cybernetic killing machine from the future. Read the rest of this entry »

United States Of Tara, Kansas, And Missouri

Diablo Cody’s new-ish comedy about multiple personality disorder, starring Toni Collette, takes place in Overland Park, Kansas. I grew up in a house in Prairie Village, the city adjacent to Overland Park, and I spent a lot of time in Overland Park. Overland Park and Prairie Village are both part of Johnson County. And if you’re from Kansas, then “Johnson County” is the label that you’d apply to me most readily.

So far (we’re near the end of the first season), The United States Of Tara has depicted Johnson County with startling accuracy. Offhand references to landmarks and neighboring areas are all accurate. The characters’ living situations match their socioeconomic status in a distinctly midwestern way. One character, who is the 20-something manager of a stand-in for TGI Friday’s, shares a modest but comfortable house with a friend, in a nice part of town. Tara’s family of four has a nice two-story house and a “shed,” actually a comfy unconnected building in the back yard where Tara’s alternate persona T creates and stores her artwork. (What exactly Tara’s husband does is, I think, still a mystery. But that, too, is midwestern. Your occupation doesn’t define you as much there as it does in a big city… at least in New York.)

Johnson County is, in many ways, the perfect place to set a story about someone with a confused sense of identity: Read the rest of this entry »

Terminator/Cheers Crossover Cancelled

Fox is doing something really ground-breaking with the future of the Terminator franchise, and I haven’t seen it discussed in depth anywhere else, so I’m going to talk about it here. When I was in LA last week, I found myself having lunch on set of a new project that includes some of the old team from Fox, and they told me it would be okay to jot down some remarks.

It’s true that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has not been renewed or a third season. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any more episodes.

“The idea came up one night last year when all the writers were out having a drink,” said show creator Josh Friedman. “And somebody said, well, if they cancel the show, then we just sneak into the prop room, flip on the energy bubble machine, go back five years, and start writing prequels.”

“And then somebody else said, well, why are prequels even necessary? I mean, the characters have a time machine. Read the rest of this entry »