#Syfy being human. Us version

[moonlight-fan2008]

My favorite early-mid 2000’s shows that were short lived or cancelled (in no particular order)

[kingwuko]

Hey-lo King!!!

What would be yar supernatural/monster AU headcanon for Wuko and the Krew??? Meaning Wu and Mako would be a vampire/werewolf/shifter/whatever tickles yar fancy 😁

Hiiiiiii this took me a long time to answer because I had to think about it and then I got busy and forgot 😅

my absolute FAVORITE show featuring supernatural monster characters is the SyFy US version of Being Human, and I love the lore in that setting. So I'm going to lay out a Being Human AU for you!!! Spoilers for Being Human if you haven't watched it.

Mako is a vampire, and he becomes friends with Korra, who is a werewolf. In an effort to help each other lead somewhat normal, human lives, they move into a house together to live as roommates.

When they move in, they quickly realize it's haunted—by Wu! Wu is a ghost who was murdered in the house (idk by who... Zaheer maybe?). He cannot leave the house at this point, so Mako, Korra find themselves an extra roommate! (In Being Human, supernatural beings can see ghosts, but regular humans cannot.)

Bolin is also a vampire. He and Mako used to belong to a vampire coven lead by Zolt. At some point, they left the coven, but separated. Bolin joined another coven (Kuvira's coven makes sense since that who he joined in canon!), while Mako is trying to leave the vampire life behind and only live off of donated blood.

Korra, at some point, meets Asami, and they start dating (without Asami realizing Korra is a werewolf) Korra accidentally turns her, and before long, Asami moves in with them as she tries to learn to live as a werewolf (in this universe werewolves are not shapeshifters. They turn during the full moon and pretty much lose control, so much of their struggle is to find a safe place to turn). As an extra fun bit of drama, Asami 's father is a Hunter!!!

Opal is a human, but she is a psychic who can see ghosts. Wu meet Opal first and that's how she would get brought into the group.

Eventually, Bolin will leave Kuvira's coven (she's probably doing Bad Stuff) and seek refuge with his brother, and that's when he meets Opal and they develop a relationship.

Mako and Wu would have a rocky start to their relationship. Wu would be kind of a lot at first because he's been stuck in the house with no one who could see him or talk to him. He and Korra would become pals (Butch twink besties in every universe). Maybe when Asami first comes around, Wu is kind of annoying and distracting as Korra tries to get him to leave them alone so she can enjoy a date with her new girlfriend, then when Asami becomes a werewolf, she suddenly realizes Wu was there the whole time and has some feelings about that lol.

Wu has a lot of character growth as he figures out what he needs to do to move on to the afterlife, but something always prevents him from really moving on.

Mako and Wu's friendship then relationship goes through lots of crazy ups and downs, but eventually they manage to have a romantic relationship after a while.

Annnnd idk what else!! In Being Human, the ghost character, Sally, has a whole arc where she gets resurrected and then becomes basically a zombie and then dies again, and then does some time traveling/alternate timeline stuff. That could be fun torment for Wu to go through lol.

[ncisfranchise-source]

The CBS fall 2024 season takes one of its most popular franchises back in time with NCIS: Origins. The NCIS prequel is set in 1991 and centers on a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) earlier in his career as a special agent at the fledging (NIS) Naval Investigation Service’s Camp Pendleton, which eventually becomes the iconic NCIS division we know today.

Gibbs joins a ragtag team led by Mike Franks, with Kyle Schmid stepping into the role originated in the flagship series by Muse Watson. The weight of taking on this legend is not lost on Schmid. It’s arguably the biggest gig to date for the Canadian who got his start on Disney Channel in the early ’00s and whose recent resume includes starring on the History military series Six and recurring on Syfy’s Being Human and ABC’s Big Sky.

Despite being fatally stabbed in Season 8 of NCIS, Mike Franks would appear from time to time to guide mentee Gibbs (Mark Harmon) as an almost guardian angel. Here, Schmid, who is expecting his first child with his wife Caity Lotz, gives us an early tease of what’s to expect from the flashback spinoff.

What does it mean for you to be part of the legacy of this NCIS franchise? What kind of resource has Mark Harmon been for this new cast? 

Kyle Schmid: I think it’s a great opportunity to be part of something grandfathered into the industry as a standard for procedural television. It has been running for what’s going to be seasons. Mark Harmon did it and put his stamp on it and kind of led the way for everybody. It has been a really neat experience because he has lent his expertise and advice and help to all of us through emails and calls. Just time spent piquing his brain has been really important.

At a stage of your life where you’ve gotten married, having a kid and you get to shoot at Paramount in Los Angeles. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. I can’t wait to continue to work with the cast that was put together. I’m a legitimate fan of everybody they put together for this show. Incredible wife, job, house, and a baby on the way. My life has just become very complete, so I’m very lucky.

Have you had much communication with Muse? 

He and I have become friends. We talk every couple of weeks and catch up on life. Having his blessing to play a younger version of a character he developed has been very cool.

How would you describe where we’ll be introduced to Mike at this point in his life and career? 

He had been part of NCIS for a while. In 2001, when you meet him he is a little older, a little more jaded. He has seen a lot that I think he wished he could have had more control over. So, we’re seeing him at a point in his life where he has paved his own way and earned the respect of the agency. Now he has the opportunity to build a team that he sees as being some of the most promising agents in NCIS. We get to meet those people and see those people grow. He is still at a point where he gets to mentor Gibbs. I think we’ll get to see why Gibbs was who the world fell in love with in the original NCIS and how he came to be that way. And Mike Franks is a big part of that.

With the show taking us back to the 1990s, what kind of vibe do you see us getting? I’m looking forward to feeling that nostalgia. 

The music is what excites me. I was born in the early 1980s, so I like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Those are still on my daily playlist. I failed to mature with music and am stuck in the 1990s. We have incredible music. I think it’s fun to play with the dynamics of the male-female relationship in the workplace. We get to live in a world where things are a little backward compared to today. I think it’s going to be really interesting how David [J. North] and Gina [Lucita Monreal], who are our showrunners and are phenomenal, decide to tackle that.

We get to see how Mike Franks gets to play a 40-year-old in an industry in 1991 that we in present-day America have forgotten, and have tried to change. I think that will be really interesting for the show. I did a show with Tom Fontana a few years ago. He is one of the best writers I’ve ever worked with. He said to me that there are no black-and-white characters. There are only gray characters. The people who are the bad guys don’t know they’re bad guys. They are just doing the best they know. I think 1991 in Los Angeles is a very poignant point in history with a lot that happened. We’re going to be able to explore all of that with phenomenal directing. I think with a younger and edgier cast, it will make for an edgier show in the process. This is super exciting because we have phenomenal actors who really get to dig into this stuff that I’m hoping will blow teh doors wide open.

You’re going into filming this show at a time when you’re becoming a dad. Just moved into a new house with Caity still working as well. How are you all preparing for all that? 

It’s a good question. Luckily, I have the best wife in the world. Caity’s mom is going to come to town. My dad’s coming to town. I love working. Working is something that gives me energy. I get to go to work, which I love, and then come home to a family I love. I’m absolutely burning the candle at both ends with this.

[bengiyo]

I'm still relatively new to the world of BL and not fully immersed in it yet either so I could potentially be working off only partial (or even slightly incorrect) information here BUT

Why do there seem to be so many remakes in the world of BL? Don't get me wrong, I know there are plenty in the non-BL sphere too (Boys Over Flowers seems to be a prefect example of a drama that has been remade by multiple countries about 5000 times) but it does feel like it happens more frequently in BL and I'm wondering why that is, especially when the shows they pick to remake are often considered classics or have their own very distinctive character that's... not necessarily conducive to a positively received remake.

Does it just feel this way because BL is a much smaller pool so it's easier to encounter remakes of shows we already know? Or is it because each BL producing country wants their own version of a hit BL series once they know it has a chance to be a success? Or is there another reason all together that I'm missing?

So, cross-culture adaptations of other work exist everywhere in media. It's not unique to BL. Every day I wake up and find that a new European country has decided to adapt Skam. The USA network show Eyewitness is an adaptation of Norwegian show. Shameless was originally a UK show. Same for Queer as Folk. The Cleaning Lady on Fox is an adaptation of an Argentine work. Being Human was adapted by SyFy channel from the UK. Here's a wiki page on this just focusing on America.

Coffee Prince is a popular (to put it mildly) Korean drama that has been adapted multiple times by other nearby cultures.

So, adaptations are fairly normal. We just notice it in BL because of the genre aficionados. Besides, Japan is the origin country and it's interesting to see what some of their beats look like interpreted in other cultures.

Also, it's hard to sell romance. BL is also a niche genre. They'll rely on any bit of familiarity to get the buzz going on a project. Even my doubts about My Love Mix Up will make people curious about it because Gemini and Fourth just picked up huge popularity from Moonlight Chicken and My School President. The fact that some of us are doubting them means people who love them are going to be even more excited because it indicates that GMMTV is putting a lot of trust in them. It also means that Kieta Hatsukoi fans are likely going to cross over in the first week at least even if it's just to judge the show.

Adaptations are just good business sense for both parties. The Japanese team gets to monetize their IP further, and it often leads to secondary purchases and engagement with the source content.

[mizgnomer]

Excerpts from the SyFy Wire & Film School Rejects interviews with Claire Anderson, the Emmy-nominated costume designer for Good Omens:

[ Film School Rejects - by Ciara Wardlow]  “I worked through it with gut reaction images. So, two guys. Two guys, kind of close, nearly in love, if you like,” she said. “I just went in and we had a really big, very open conversation about how you related to these people in the script and how we would make them real and plausible, but give them a fantasy element. Give them something otherworldly.”

While Anderson says that she ultimately took this approach with more or less all of the characters, mixing period and modern elements to give characters somewhat timeless, yet also somewhat fantastical “out of time” looks, in the early discussion stages it was all about Aziraphale and Crowley. For one thing, Sheen and Tennant were already cast, which was a major help in determining their looks. It took some time to settle on the duo’s main, contemporary looks, but once these were locked in they played a significant role in determining everything else they wore.

[...] Aziraphale maintains a look with significant nods to the late Victorian era. Crowley too, although he manages to put an edgier twist on things than his angelic contemporary. “We re-appropriate bits of period stuff so that it echoes. [Aziraphale and Crowley] echo one another in their visual identity with pieces from their past—where they’ve touched each other in the past perhaps, or bumped into each other.” Regarding how Crowley manages to keep more of a modern, cool vibe, Anderson gives David Tennant’s performance the lion’s share of the credit. “He’s a very nice man, but he’s very sexy. He brought all of that swagger, that rock star, snake-hipped sexiness, and we built on that.”

[ SyFy Wire - by Jennifer Vineyard] GARDEN OF EDEN, 4004 B.C. -  Anderson looked at everything from Pre-Raphaelite paintings to Al Pacino’s hippie clothes in Serpico to determine just the right flow for Aziraphale’s rough-hewn robe, which has gold embroidery on the shoulders and side. Aziraphale is also wearing a golden ring, which later becomes a signet ring stamped with wings in the Victorian era.

NOAH'S ARK, MESOPOTAMIA, 3004 B.C. - “As aged as I am, I wasn’t there,” Anderson says, laughing. “And there wasn’t any painting or documentation from this era. But what we do know is that tunics remained pretty simple, and the earlier shape would have served them well for many years.” Aziraphale’s robe becomes more streamlined, and he wears gold beads at the neck.

THE CRUCIFIXION, GOLGOTHA, 33 - By this time, both Aziraphale and Crawley — now Crowley — are wearing turbans and head wraps, which Anderson attributes to “a bit of vanity.” Plus the wrap helps Crowley conceal his snake-like eyes (it’s too soon for glasses). Aziraphale dons a soft leather coat over his tunic, while Crowley wears female attire of the region — an abaya.

ROME, 41 -  Switching from tunics to togas was difficult, since togas contain 6 to 12 meters of fabric, which is a lot to carry around on camera. Anderson reduced the size by cutting the togas to fit for the character’s movements, and she gave each actor a thematic decorative pin to hold their togas together — Crowley a serpent and staff, Aziraphale a pair of wings (both courtesy of George Easton at Danegeld Historic Jewellery). Although history might argue that it’s too soon for sunglasses, Crowley starts to shield his eyes with a very small, eye-shaped lens. “It’s suggestive, rather than historically accurate,” Anderson says. And as a sign that Crowley is adapting to the humans around him, he also wears a silver laurel wreath.

ARTHURIAN ENGLAND, THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX, 537 - Anderson sent character descriptions and visuals for Aziraphale and Crowley to armor specialist FBFX, which sent a van to London full of pieces that could work for angelic and demonic armor. Instead of focusing on historical accuracy, Anderson looked for shapes and fit that suggested an ethereal — or snakelike — quality, once the pieces had been painted black or silver. For Crowley, she found a helmet that had a smaller face that could suggest a snakehead, and for Aziraphale, shoulder pieces that were slightly wing-like. To add to the wing effect, Anderson added a white fur caplet to Aziraphale’s armor. “It was terribly grand, but not very practical,” she says. “And the poor guys, it was murderously uncomfortable to stand around in that armor.”

GLOBE THEATRE, LONDON, 1601 - Crowley and Aziraphale catch an early version of Hamlet, looking more period-appropriate than ever thanks to the Globe’s vast archive of costumes. Aziraphale’s wardrobe, which includes a neck ruff edged with gold thread, has a metallic look with a hint of iridescent blue, which opens up his color palette. Crowley, meanwhile, wears a cleaner neckline and leather on his doublet, as well as fabrics that provide sheen and luster to suggest his snaky origins.

REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE, PARIS, 1793 - This is not a period to be dressed like an aristocrat, but Aziraphale couldn’t resist a lace collar, gold brocade and fitted jacket — which explains why he’s stuck in a prison cell (at least until Crowley intervenes). Crowley, more mindful of what revolutionaries would wear, dons a dark red jacket that’s almost as dark as his usual black. When Aziraphale miracle-changes his clothes, he wears the red cap of liberty. “It’s a soft beret that falls somewhere between a modern French beret and a pirate headdress,” Anderson notes.

ST. JAMES' PARK, LONDON, 1862 - This is the time period with which Aziraphale gets most comfortable, fashion-wise, and settles into a Victorian look with tartan flair. Anderson also bestowed some heavenly nods to his angelic nature — a feathery velvet top hat, a stopwatch with angel’s wings on the chain, and the signet ring. Crowley, meanwhile, wears a pair of long, elegantly cut trousers that we will see again in the 1960s. “The trousers repeat, which is basically what fashion does anyway,” Anderson says. “And it’s what the story does. There are notes backward and forwards.”

THE BLITZ, LONDON, 1941 - Aziraphale’s tartan necktie becomes a bow tie, and his penchant for wide lapels, a nod to his wings, continues, this time with a spear-point collar. Crowley, who comes to save Aziraphale once again, is dressed more formally, in a full double-breasted wool suit that must have been hard for David Tennant to wear in the South African heat. “The rest of the crew were in flip-flops and T-shirts, and David was in the suit, hat, and those big boots,” Anderson says, recalling the shoot.  “He had to be very physically active in that scene, and yet David didn’t complain about the heat or anything. He’s amazing.”

SOHO, LONDON, 1967 - Crowley, as noted, continues to wear his Victorian trousers, which are right up to date, and which he pairs with a black paisley velvet jacket with contrasting lapels. His sunglasses now have more of a John Lennon vibe. Aziraphale, perhaps inadvertently, is also looking stylish with his Victorian topcoat, spear-point collar, and cravat (modified from his scarf in Victorian England). “You can’t avoid being affected by changing trends,” Anderson says. “However bookish you are, you still notice other people. And you would have had Rolling Stones and Beatles fans wearing that kind of thing. That was our argument for Aziraphale wearing his Victorian topcoat all the way through, and Michael Sheen loved it. He said it inspired him. And the cravat rang in the changes and helped us with the passage of time, rather than always having him wear a bow tie.

[onlydylanobrien]

Director Christopher MacBride must relish in screwing with people's minds. His previous film, 2012's The Conspiracy, found two documentary filmmakers drawn into the world of conspiracy theories and wondering what was real... or not. His latest endeavor, Flashback – formerly entitled The Education of Fredrick Fitzell – is another head trip.

The movie follows Fred (Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien), a 30-year-old man suffering from violent flashbacks that harken back to his youth. Brutal and scary, the visions lead him on this journey to uncover the truth surrounding the mysterious disappearance of his high school classmate, Cindy. To get answers, Fred hunts down his former teen drug buddies. One night, they end up at a crazy drug-den party, where these strangers are all strung out on the substance Mercury. Everything spirals out of control from there, as past, present and future versions of Fred come into play.

SYFY WIRE has been following the film's progress throughout production, visiting the set as far back as 2018, where we chatted with the cast. As the film gears up to finally hit theaters, and in the wake of a delay caused by the pandemic, here's our chat with MacBride from that set visit in Toronto. The director sat down with us to discuss the project's bigger themes, high-concept science fiction, monsters, and casting O'Brien.

The original title of the movie had "education" in it. What does Fredrick learn along his journey?

The "education" definitely has multiple meanings. One of them is exploring the idea of how a human being is educated in a broad sense. How do we learn basic building blocks of life that affect us 30 years later? Experiences you have as a kid, as a child, how do those basic educational building blocks that get instilled in you. How do they then influence you when you are a grown man? Another part of it is a chunk of the story is about growing up. There's a coming-of-age aspect to it. Fred is a guy approaching 30. He's on the cusp of full-blown adulthood, in a lot of ways. He's in his first serious relationship. Is he going to commit to his girlfriend? Is he going to give up his dreams of becoming an artist and take up an office job? Is he going to become a responsible adult? His mother is also on her deathbed, which is another rite of passage when you are no longer a child. So, the education is about how to be an adult, but it's also him learning about the forces in his life that control him.

Can you talk about infusing the science-fiction element into this narrative?

Sci-fi is my favorite genre. The type that I gravitate towards most is the Philip K. Dick-type mind-bending science fiction. I love stories like that, whether it's novels or movies… high-concept, brain-teasing sci-fi. Flashback is definitely influenced by Philip K. Dick. The idea of not understanding your own identity is really interesting to me. Mind-bending sci-fi is such a great way to explore these themes of identity. A Scanner Darkly is a great example. It's stuff that could be pretentious or not fit in a straight-ahead drama. But in sci-fi, it gives you license to explore it in that way.

Where does Flashback's shapeshifting creature come into play?

The creature is a mystery in the film. I wanted an antagonist that wasn't a conventional antagonist. It's not a horror monster that is trying to gobble you up or kill you. It's something the main characters perceive when they are on this drug, that seems almost godlike. It seems to be everywhere at once. It has a Lovecraftian vibe to it. He often has creatures referred to as "you can't fathom what they look like, and you would lose your mind if you did." This is my attempt to build something like that, that looks and moves and acts like no other monster in any other movie. We are still in the process of putting it together, so we will see how it ultimately comes out.

Are the effects practical or computer-generated?

A combination of both. Audiences have seen every kind of CG monster. No matter how good the technology gets, there's always that uncanny valley where you always know it's not really there. I like things that have a Cronenberg, sticky-tactile nature to them. I want the creature to feel like it's made up of something that you don't understand, and it moves in a way you don't understand.

How did casting Dylan O'Brien as the lead come about and what did he bring to the table?

When we started casting, we wanted a good actor. But we also had certain criteria. We needed somebody who could be 17 and 30 realistically, which is tough. One of our producers, Russell Ackerman, brought up Dylan O'Brien and asked what I thought. I said, "Yes," and I went and watched American Assassin. I could see how he had formed a real character in the movie. I could see it had boundaries and limits. I could see he was a real actor. We met and he got the script. He not only got the role, but he got the whole story, so I was really impressed.

Flashback premieres in select theaters and VOD on June 4.

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Jordan Claire Robbins, The Umbrella Academy

If you’re a fan of The Umbrella Academy, you probably recognize Jordan Claire Robbins, who stars as Grace/Mom along with Ellen Page, Colm Feore, and Tom Hopper. Jordan's other tv credits include Netflix's Anon opposite Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen, Supernatural, Man Seeking Woman, and SyFy's 12 Monkeys. Before she set her sights on acting, Jordan had a successful career in modeling. When she's not on our screens, she enjoys singing and playing the piano. Jordan hails from Bermuda and currently resides in Vancouver. She took a few minutes to chat with us about The Umbrella Academy, funny moments on set, and more. Check it out:

Despite the creepy Stepford Wife vibes, on balance, Grace has been a better parent than her maker. What is it that drew you to the role?

I love that there is more to Grace than meets the eye. The writers did a brilliant job of revealing Grace’s depth as the first season went on, while also constantly making you wonder what she was capable of – she’s such an enigmatic character. There were all these beautiful flashback scenes where she was the perfect mother figure she was programmed to be, but also moments when you see a dissonance of sorts when she can’t protect the children from pain inflicted by their father figure. And when the story starts off she’s a shadow of what she once was. She’s lost under this faulty programming and she has so much to fight against to find her own voice. Then when she is given another chance at life she’s this different version of herself, one that makes her own choices and has agency for once. It certainly kept me on my toes, getting to play these different versions of her and also finding a balance between perfectly programmed AI and a hidden humanity, a consciousness I believe she developed over her years with the children. I also really loved how Grace’s story, while being very distinctly non-human, mirrors the life women led not that long ago. I did a lot of research (one of which was Stepford Wives!) to have a better understanding of the template Grace was built in as a 1950’s housewife, and was just so struck by how trapped they were in the gender role of being the perfect wife and mother, to never push back against what society expected of them. There were so many obstacles to them feeling free and empowered, just like Grace. Her inability to leave the house, and totally losing the identity and purpose she was programmed to have when the kids left, felt like such a beautiful, heartbreaking parallel to what so many women have struggled with through history and I loved being able to tell that story.

You've successfully made the leap from modeling to acting. Do you think your experience as a model has helped you in your career change/expansion?

I think the more experience you have in life, the better an actor you can be. Modeling definitely gave me lots of practice getting comfortable being in front of the camera, not taking rejection personally, and being a part of telling a story. Modeling feels very collaborative, the same way acting is, and I think my years of physically transforming to contribute one part of a bigger picture at shoots really helped me understand the creative process that goes into every day on a film set. The biggest challenge for me coming from modeling to acting has been learning to embrace my imperfections, and be okay with letting the camera see them which felt very vulnerable and uncomfortable at first. In modeling there’s a ton of pressure to be this and that, essentially to be flawless, but playing a human being onscreen requires the opposite. Humans are complicated and messy, and the more you can embrace the unattractive parts of yourself the more depth there is to draw from.

In your free time, you like to sing and play the piano. If The Umbrella Academy were a musical, what would Grace's big number be?

Ooh, great question, music is such a huge part of the show, so a musical episode would have been amazing! I listened to a ton of music from the 40s and 50s to get into character, and in my audition tape for Grace I hummed Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ - it’s a funny coincidence because the moon ended up being such a huge theme in Season One. I think it’s perfect for her since it’s so romantic and classy, and because she was always longing for her children, for an escape from being under Hargreeves’ eye so the lyrics are fitting.  

If you could play any other character in the show, who would you choose, and why?

I think Klaus would be a blast to play, he’s so free with no boundaries or self consciousness whatsoever, but he’s also tortured from a lifetime of numbing his pain. Recognizing that I would not be a good casting choice for Klaus (and since I can’t picture anyone playing Klaus besides Robert) I think it also would’ve also been fun to play Cha-Cha, with her dry sense of humor and all of those great stunts. Plus I love Cameron and would love the chance to have scenes with him!

Can you tell us about any funny fails/stories that happened on set?

There’s a scene in episode 3 of season one when Allison and Luther are questioning Grace while she cooks them breakfast. I was supposed to cook eggs and bacon, plate the food into smiley faces, and then bring the plates over to them while avoiding their questions. But I’m not a great multitasker when food is involved and it was the last scene up on a very long day of shooting, so I somehow plated them two really sad looking frown faces. The camera was on me through the middle of them and when they got the giggles it was near impossible to stay in character. For the rest of the night the three of us had a hard time keeping it together – it actually turned out to be one of my favorite scenes, probably because we had so much fun shooting it!

What advice would you give to young people looking to get into modeling and/or acting?

I would say to make sure you stay connected to your sense of self. Neither are particularly easy industries, and it can be hard not to take rejection to heart, but the most important thing is being really grounded in yourself and what makes you happy. There really is no way to do any of this “right” and the most successful people are always the ones who own who they are because that’s the most endearing quality, so if you keep honoring yourself you can’t go wrong. Other than that, be a “yes” person when it comes to taking opportunities to learn and grow! The more you push fear aside and make it your goal to get out of your comfort zone, the further you will go and greater your work will be. The world needs more brave voices to share their stories.

Who do you look up to as an actor?

Jordan Peele is so incredibly talented, he’s obviously a master at comedy and he’s making such original, intelligent projects that look at social issues like racism in a way that’s never been done before. I would love to work with him one day. I’m also really taken with Phoebe Waller-Bridge – I love the boldness she brings to her work. Fleabag is so beautiful, raw, hilarious, and Killing Eve is brilliant, we need more strong female driven stories and she has such a unique voice. And I have always looked up to Helen Mirren. She radiates this strength and classiness while also being so playful and irreverent - and she makes aging sexy in an industry where women can feel so much pressure to stay young.

Thanks for taking the time, Jordan! Season two of The Umbrella Academy is now streaming on Netflix.

[femalechibiblogger]

5 Underrated Cartoons That Were Cancelled Too Soon

1. Clone High

Clone High is set in a high school in the fictional town of Exclamation, USA, that is secretly being run as an elaborate military experiment orchestrated by a government office called the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures. The school is entirely populated by the clones of famous historical figures that have been created and raised with the intent of having their various strengths and abilities harnessed by the United States military. The principal of the high school, Cinnamon J. Scudworth, has his own plans for the clones, and secretly tries to undermine the wishes of the Board (Scudworth wants to use the clones to create a clone-themed amusement park, dubbed "Cloney Island", a decidedly less evil intention than that of the Board). He is assisted by his robot butler/vice principal/dehumidifier, Mr. Butlertron (a parody of Mr. Belvedere), who is programmed to call everyone "Wesley" and speak in two distinct intonations.

The main protagonists of Clone High are the clones of Abraham Lincoln (referred to as "Abe"), Joan of Arc, and Mahatma Gandhi. Much of the plot of the show revolves around the attempts of Abe to woo the vain and promiscuous clone of Cleopatra, while being oblivious to the fact that his friend Joan of Arc is attracted to him. Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy's clone (referred to as "JFK"), a macho, narcissistic womanizer, is also attempting to win over Cleopatra and has a long-standing rivalry with Abe. Gandhi acts in many of the episodes as the comic relief. Also on a few occasions, the characters that we see learn most of "Life's Lessons" the hard way.

Why it was cancelled: An article in Maxim Magazine depicting Mahatma Gandhi being beaten up by a muscular man sparked outrage in India. Clone High was caught in a crossfire when citizens in the country conducted internet searches on the Maxim article but also found out about the show's Gandhi character on MTV's website. This sparked an outrage in India over the show's depiction of Gandhi. On January 30, 2003, the 55th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, approximately 150 protesters (including members of parliament) gathered in New Delhi and vowed to fast in response to Clone High. Tom Freston, the head of Viacom (owner of MTV), was visiting the network's India branch and was "trapped in the building", according to Miller. In 2014, he recalled that protestors "basically threatened that they'd revoke MTV's broadcasting license in India if they didn't take the show off the air". MTV offered a quick apology, stating that "Clone High was created and intended for an American audience", and "we recognize and respect that various cultures may view this programming differently, and we regret any offense taken by the content in the show". Miller would later recall that executives at MTV enjoyed the show, and asked for the duo to pitch a second season without Gandhi. Lord and Miller's two potential versions of a second season included one that made no mention of Gandhi's absence, and another that revealed that the character was, in fact, a clone of actor Gary Coleman all along, and the show continued as normal. "We pitched that, and it went up to the top at Viacom again and it got a big no," he remembered.

2. The Awesomes

The show follows a group of superheroes who step in and replace the members of a legendary but disbanding superhero team. Under new leadership, The Awesomes attempt to put themselves back together in the face of intense media and government skepticism.

Why it was cancelled: On December 17, 2015, Hulu canceled The Awesomes after three seasons and did not renew it for a fourth season due to low ratings. The Awesomes was the first time Michael Tavera composed music for an adult animated series.

3. Invader Zim

Zim dreams of greatness. Unfortunately, though, he's hopelessly inept as a space invader. Desperate to be rid of the annoying Zim, his planet's leaders send him on a mission to infiltrate Earth, providing him with leftover, cobbled-together equipment. To their consternation, Zim succeeds in setting up a base on Earth and infiltrating human culture, posing as a human child as he plots the planet's downfall. Only Zim's archnemesis, Dib, recognizes that Zim is an alien, and of course, nobody believes Dib's claims.

Why it was cancelled: On the subject of why Invader Zim was cancelled, creator of the show Jhonen Vasquez said, "I could go on and on with variations of the most fantastic reasons for why the show was cancelled, but in the end, even I couldn't give you the whole and accurate truth for why the show got pulled," he wrote in a lengthy post on his website in 2010, nearly eight years after the show wrapped. "The most likely culprits are simply ratings and the sheer expense of the show, which was monstrously expensive at the time, especially when compared to more modern, flash-based savings fests."Nearly nine years later in 2019, Vasquez was interviewed by Syfy and said:

I never point to any one particular thing [as the reason for why Invader Zim was cancelled. The show could've come out at any point in history and I don't think it would ever really be appropriate... I think there's always horrible things happening in the world and genuine comedy comes from horrible things. At the time, it just happened to be things like Columbine and 9/11 and then people freak out because they don't want to offend anyone's sensibilities. It's a justified response to a certain extent; there's people who have been affected and they don't want to be reminded of this awful stuff… I just think that it did not jive well with Nickelodeon's image.

In an interview with Syfy in 2018, Richard Horvitz, the voice of Zim, was questioned about why the show got cancelled; he responded:

There's been a lot of rumors that have abounded for years about why Invader Zim was canceled. People think it's the Bloody GIR episode, because there's a quick subliminal shot of GIR all bloodied, but that’s not it at all. Nickelodeon knew about that shot and they didn't seem to mind. But what [the cancellation really was] is this plain simple fact: We had horrible ratings. There were two things that were going on in 2001. Our ratings were not doing well, our demographic at the time was not The Fairly OddParents demographic, which is what we premiered with, and we premiered to really, really good critical acclaim. But ratings-wise, the only real barometer [was the] target audience, 6 to 10 year olds, and I think that it was a little too much for that [demographic], and the parents also might have thought it was a little graphic for them. Our ratings never really got off the ground. One other thing that people often forget, is that the show premiered in March of 2001. By September of 2001, we had the horrible downing of the twin towers. Given the mood of the country at the time, I don't think people wanted to see shows that were about any kind of destruction or anything that had to do with someone trying to conquer the Earth.

4. The Oblongs

A clever comic parable of society's ills, "The Oblongs" depicts the warped world of a bizarre yet loving family of have-nots who live in a toxic valley and can't seem to beat the caste system of the beautiful people living high on the hill. The animated series is based on characters created by author Angus Oblong ("Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children").

Why it was cancelled: Could not find a specific answer. The WB network just decided to cancel it even though it had good ratings. 

5. Wander Over Yonder

The series follows Wander, a nomadic and overly-optimistic intergalactic traveller and his best friend and steed, Sylvia the Zbornak, as they travel from planet to planet helping people to have fun and live free, despite the continuing encroachment of Lord Hater, one of the most powerful villains in the galaxy, and his army of Watchdogs.

The show's first season is episodic; there are very few strong ties between episodes, and they can be viewed independently of each other. In the second season, however, a more sequential story is introduced; as Lord Dominator begins to conquer the galaxy, the show's tone becomes more serious and the focus moves from stopping the rather incompetent Lord Hater to stopping the extremely competent Lord Dominator. As a result, the episodes are more closely linked and there are several developments in the overarching plot.

Why it was cancelled: The creators of the show were not given a specific reason, even though they had plans for a third season.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

If angels and demons walk among us, as they do in Good Omens, how are we to tell them apart from us mere mortals? The longer they live on Earth, the more human they can appear, which is usually a good giveaway. The thing is, "more human," doesn't necessarily mean "more fashionable," as the Amazon series' costume designer explains.

Aziraphale doesn't care quite as much about fashion as his archangel boss, Gabriel. In the original script, author Neil Gaiman noted that Aziraphale is a "kind-looking gentleman whose sartorial style runs to bow-ties. He thinks a little tartan is nifty, and would use the word 'nifty' with pride."

With that being her primary direction, costume designer Claire Anderson tells SYFY WIRE that she decided Aziraphale would have a more traditional look and would wear clothes that look like he's worn them for hundreds of years. She decided on Victorian-era clothing, and added gold threads to his bow-tie — a look that actor Michael Sheen approves of.

"I wanted him to look like a comfortable sofa," Sheen says. "He likes quality and craftsmanship, so he's elegant, but he's also a bit threadbare."

Gabriel, however, would never tolerate looking a bit rundown. As played by Jon Hamm, the archangel wears bespoke suits and coats when he pops down to Earth (thanks to a Zegna tailor on Bond Street), and cashmere is his primary fabric, even for his running clothes. "Cashmere just floats around you," Anderson says. "It sits where it touches. It's delicious to wear. It feels sensational. And it just drips off of him."

"The celestial heavenly creatures were festooned with the best of everything," Hamm explains, "but they don't get any joy out of it."

"Gabriel thinks of his luxury clothes as more disposable, and would just wear it for a season and be done with it," Anderson noted. "That's not very angelic, is it?"

Gabriel's clothes have a lilac color scheme – silvery pearl-gray and blue-gray – to give him a bit of iridescence and match his otherworldly eyes. "To make Jon Hamm the most beautiful man in the world, what more can they do?" Anderson says. "He's already tall and handsome and he looks great in everything. So it's tiny, but we gave him Elizabeth Taylor eyes."

Not Elizabeth Taylor-like eyes, but her actual eyes. "Gabriel went and stole Liz Taylor's eyes and put them in his head," Hamm says. "He thought, 'Those are beautiful and unique and perfect, so I'll take those.'"

The effect is done, of course, with colored contacts, as are the various reptilian eyes of our respective demons. Hastur and Ligur, who don't come to Earth as often, aren't as skilled at hiding their true selves, and don't seem to realize what they look like they've just emerged up through the ground.

"I love the demons," Anderson says. "When I did my first drawings of them, I thought about the fires of Hell, and thought they should have burned feet and shoes that could be boiled and greased and given scorch marks. The bottoms of their coats are scorched. Their clothing is blackened and shredded at the hems. Everything is muddy and broken down and distressed."

Hastur, Ligur, and other Dukes of Hell wear what they died in, but Crowley (played by David Tennant) has been on Earth the longest and has had 6,000 years to acquire a good wardrobe. Like Gabriel, Crowley also appreciates human style, but only so it can make him look like the coolest guy in the room.

"He's sort of like Christian Bale in American Psycho," Tennant says. "He's kind of what yuppies were 30 years ago, so whatever version of that exists now. What currency does that give you? Crowley thinks he's really cool, and he wants to adapt his coolness to the time period, and so he's very profligate with his looks, his version of what's on trend."

Unlike Gabriel, Crowley is not too tailored — his clothes have an undone quality about them, although with sharp lines, to feel more modern. He's rather like a snake who sheds his skin, constantly updating his wardrobe (even if he remains a bit behind), wearing a few things that are a bit too tight so they're wrapped around him, and shirts that tumble open. And most of his look — from the serpentine eyes well-hidden by sunglasses, the serpent tattoo sideburn, a belt with a snakehead with gleaming eyes to the snakeskin shoes with red soles — harkens back to his origins as a snake with a red underbelly.

"He has slicks of red around his collars, and red embroidery in his fabrics," Anderson says.

Most of Crowley's clothing was made for the production, but there is at least one designer piece — a cropped Balenciaga jacket worn in an Episode 1 flashback ‚ that adds to his rock-star swagger. "Aziraphale looks at Crowley and thinks, 'I could never get away with that,'" Sheen says. "He would never dare."

[illusionlockarchive]

romeos huge rant on comedy, horror, and how they interlap

ok, so. full disclosure, what got me to make this post was this joke post right here.

so the initial premise is funny, haha okay. yeah. oh youre a kid and your punishment at school is that you have to stay at a room full of wasps. its funny because its absurd. it couldnt happen irl. youd think it wouldnt happen irl. youd hope so.

the thing about comedy and horror though? is that they actually operate on very similar concepts.

and that is, the absurd. the uncanny valley. what youre expecting the least. what youre not seeing and not registering. jumpscares are effective if at least to get you to jump, even if they are cheap. meanwhile, jokes where they completely twist your expectations to get you to laugh do the same thing.

it may be hard for you to believe me, but in the end, the bad ending of tattletail is the other side of the same coin as a joke that goes “i swallowed a tablet with some water. everyone on the apple store was terrified of me.”

i have not read the wasp story, but i can guaranteee you, i CAN imagine it being scary, if the right tones are used and suspense is built up nicely. with the right twists and turns, knowing when to keep things quiet and when to blow things out of proportion.

OR it can end up being unintentionally hilarious, if the characters in it are way too cliche to be real and feel more like caricatures of teachers and students, if things are rushed and details lose their meaning and value, if we are just to focus on being an audience watching a kid get chased around by a swarm of wasps, instead of putting ourselves in their place.

im neglecting to mention something though. horror is not the TRUE other side of the coin to comedy. no, thats tragedy. and im sure many more people have heard of that. the two masks used in theater, one happy, the other sad.

and now we come to two very interesting modifiers. im sure youve heard of the term ‘horror comedy’ to refer to a subgenre of horror that does have jokes and silly things still happening, and may not take itself all that seriously. but why is it a specified subgenre? because MOST horror is tragedy.

this is why, despite liking many horror games or even stories, in the end i still dont consider myself someone who actually likes horror as a general genre. most horror focuses on the seriousness of the faults of humans, on our fragility, on all we can lose or are even bound to lose, on the fear that what we feel so confident about having close to us can be snatched away in a second, that our sense of reality can crumble. most horror? doesnt end well.

comedies in general tend to focus on the absurdity of life, on how many silly, strange, or even uncanny situations can happen that can challenge us, but not in a harsh way, but in a way that, despite so many bad things happening, we still get to point and laugh it off and be okay at the end of the day.

literally, all it takes for a tragedy to become a comedy, and vice versa, is a tonal shift. when i told of my idea to create this post to my boyfriend, he backed me up, and told me “the difference between horror and comedy is in the soundtrack and silly sound effects”. hes right.

of course, there are things that you should have the decency to not laugh at, still. to keep your mouth shut and know when to reject. but good comedy knows how to stray away from that, and good tragedy knows how to handle it respectfully without making it torture porn.

so, as horror hinges on tragedy, on the fear that we all know we must face in our lives, because a scream is as natural as laughter, so horror comedies are born as an interesting paradox.

a year or so ago, i got the opportunity to watch the banana splits syfy movie. i was a huge fan of the banana splits as a kid, and would often watch their reruns. those silly furries meant a lot to me. but im not stupid, i know thats a horror movie, i went in kinda knowing what to expect.

it was a gore fest, and for about two or three nights i had trouble getting to sleep. i wasnt actually scared of my childhood friends in animal costumes, as i knew how absurd and irrational my fear was, but just the images of the massacre being fresh in my mind were enough to send me into a panic if i lingered for too long, which can happen, you know, when youre about to sleep.

(TW FOR DESCRIPTION OF A MANS DEATH AND GORE, IF YOURE SQUEAMISH JUMP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH)

i think a scene that perfectly blurs the lines between comedy and tragedy, as well as just plain horror in it, is the scene where a man gets killed by being put in a magicians box and sliced in half as a ‘magic trick’ by fleegle, the dog. as he pleads for his life, and his soon to be wife watches in horror and pleads for the robot dog to stop (yeah theyre robots in this, weird), fleegle continues to slice him in half and blood spurts out, until he is dead, and fleegle just happily and proudly showcases what he has done, as if he just did a real magic trick.

(END TW FOR DEATH AND GORE DESCRIPTION)

watching that was horrifying, of course it was. but at the same time, it was what i wanted and expected when i thought about “banana splits horror movie”. fleegle just did something completely absurd and entirely uncalled for. and what doubles the uncaniness of it is that it was supposed to be something harmless, a magic trick. think about this if it was in an adult swim cartoon. the same thing could still happen, but be treated as just a weird, gross joke. fleegle could even swear, say ‘heres your fucking magic trick damnit! oh you dont like it, well i quit!’ n then throw his hat on the ground and step on it.

they are essentially the same scene, but the cartoon version of it is presented in a way that shows full on just how absurd and unexpected it is, without any seriousness to it, probably without any moody music to accompany it. meanwhile the movie one focuses on the fear, grief, and horror of putting us in the shoes of a woman who just watched the man she loved be killed, with the shots being extra impactful.

in the end, the banana splits syfy movie is a horror comedy though, because most of the movie is spent finding the most creative, absurd, borderline funny ways for people to be killed off. as you watch it along, you dont know whether to laugh at the weirdness and absurdity of the events or to genuinely feel grief and fear over the bodies piling up.

i could also just go over a million other examples available to me right now. in fact, as of the time im writing this, i have the latest vinesauce corruption stream pulled on youtube. during corruptions, the most bizarre and absurd things happen, and often times, things get scary. we see the video game characters we love be deformed and twisted in ways that you can only imagine hurt, but they still act as if thats normal! so you cant help but laugh.

earlier today, i watched a gameplay video of bonbon. its a short horror game, with a very... different antagonist. i wont spoil much, because, i dont want to deter people from buying it. but i will say, there is a reveal at the end, which slaps you in the face with the realization that you have been played for a fool all along, and the developers would probably laughing at you if they saw you after youve beat the game. its a joke, and the fear that they cultivated so lovingly, is the punchline. your fear becomes a punchline. to me thats one of the highest forms of blurring horror and comedy, and one i prefer to some more gory and harsh attempts.

and i mean, i have to mention fnaf here, dont i? its a great example too, particularly because, if you look at the games by themselves, they generally take themselves pretty seriously as horror stories, minus a few odd cases or references. but they just have enough wiggle room that, if you look at them from afar, as an audience, you can take these characters youre supposed to be afraid of, and have fun with them, because it is pretty damn absurd, and even funny at the end of the day, that youre expected to be afraid of essentially big, robotic childrens toys. and thats when many fun, fan renditions that focus on lighthearted situations pop up. vanny herself is pretty funny even! the idea of a person who dresses up in a full fursuit to do crimes is pretty hilarious.

all in all, i think i just really appreciate how horror and comedy can converse with each other and how that says something about how we, as humans, are easily made impressed, made to be surprised and shocked, to jump or to laugh. and we are always looking for that thrill, it just depends on if youre looking for laughs or screams.

so yeah, maybe ‘wasp room’ can be a pretty good story. is it a horror story or a comedy? we wont know until we read it. (also if you made it to the end reading this holy shit i love you , i fully recognize i talked way too much)

[disneytva]

Extra Wild ETs: Justin Roiland & Mike McMahan’s ‘Solar Opposites’ Lands at Hulu

Misfit aliens from space trying to adapt to life on Earth have been a popular staple of sitcoms such as My Favorite Martian, ALF and 3rd Rock from the Sun. This spring, a new brood of aliens make their impressive debut in Hulu’s Solar Opposites, the hilarious new animated offering from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and former head writer Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks).

The series, which overflows with the inspired lunacy you might expect from the madmen who gave us Rick and Morty, follows a team of four aliens who have crash-landed into suburbia after escaping their exploding home planet. Two of them, Korvo (Roiland) and Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) believe their new home is awful and polluted, while the other duo Terry (Thomas Middleditch) and Jesse (Mary Mack) love humans, their junk food and pop culture.

Roiland, who won an Emmy in 2018 for executive producing Rick and Morty (and yes, he also voices both Rick and Morty for that hugely popular show) tells us that he had the idea to center a show on a pair of odd-couple aliens about 14 years ago. “At some point, it was going to be a live-action series, but it never happened,” he recalls. “Mike McMahan and I were trying to develop another show, between the second and third season of Rick and Morty, but everything we did felt really laborious. So, we decided to put that other idea down and try the odd-couple alien pitch again … and then, once we went back to the original premise, everything became very easy.”

Loving the Aliens

“Justin has all these books of random sketches and ideas from years past,” says McMahan. “We flipped through them and landed on a rough drawing of Terry and Korvo, which we used as the inspiration to build out the family. I was a new dad at the time, so I added the kids/replicants and the baby/Pupa character, we were going for a classic sitcom/FOX look from afar, which would get weirder the closer you looked. The tone we wanted to hit was ‘funny and fun over everything else at all times,’ which you can still clearly see in the finished show.”

McMahan and Roiland then put together the story for the pilot, which is very close to the final version that viewers will get to see on Hulu this month. “We originally had interest from Netflix and Syfy, but those didn’t happen, and then Hulu stepped in,” says Roiland. “We then added [exec producer/writer] Josh Bycel (American Dad!, Happy Endings) along, and things really got moving. It was a lot of work, but everyone is really kicking ass — and it’s been a lot of fun, too.”

In addition to the show regulars, the series also boasts a phenomenal list of guest voice actors. The first season alone features the likes of Alan Tudyk, Tiffany Hadish, Tom Kenny, Alfred Molina, Christina Hendricks, Rainn Wilson, Eric Bauza, Amanda Leighton, Maurice LaMarche, Miguel Sandoval, Nat Faxon, Natalie Morales, Phil LaMarr and Kari Wahlgren. The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and the animation is handled by Green Portal Productions and Vancouver-based Bardel Entertainment, which also handle Rick and Morty.

Roiland says he and McMahan had a great time brainstorming about the aliens, their weird biology and how they interact with the world in unexpected ways. For example, whenever they get stressed, their bodies begin to emit little creatures that look like a hybrid between a giant virus and a pink booger (they’re called gooblers).

“It’s funny to think about humanity from the perspective of alien beings,” says Roiland.

“We are going to have lots of fun with the gooblers, but I can’t tell you more about it because we don’t want to ruin the joke.”

Overall, both Roiland and McMahan say the show is a bit sillier and looser than their other collaboration, Rick and Morty. “Our process of writing and producing is quicker, but we still strive for the same level of humor and surprises. We have so many ideas about how these aliens survive on the planet. But when you think about it, it’s really an immigrant story,” Roiland points out. “These characters are very new to their environment, and we get to have fun by looking at things we take for granted and build jokes and sketch storylines around those ideas.”

McMahan says one of their biggest challenges was to always keep the comedy and the tone of the show as light and fun as possible, even when pouring their efforts into making sure everything was professionally executed. “It’s easy for a show to become ‘right,’ but also lose the frivolity that made you like it in the first place. Solar Opposites is always a balancing act between, ‘we have to make a really good, emotionally solid TV episode’ and ‘let’s do some crazy, effed shit that makes us laugh. I’m really happy with how the first season ended up in that regard.”

Juggling Toons Looking back at the past few years, Roiland says the big challenge was juggling the production of Solar Opposites, all of his Rick and Morty duties and launching his own gaming studio Squanch Games in 2016. “Everything was happening at the same time,” he says. “But luckily I had an amazing team. Mike and Josh were amazing and did a great job of running the room day to day. It’s the old adage: You have to surround yourself with talented people and get out of their way. We are having so much fun with this show and our voice cast brings so much to the table: They truly embody the characters and add some hilarious improv material to the show, as well.”

Roiland, who says he was hugely influenced by shows such as The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-head, Ren & Stimpy and Liquid Television when he was younger, says fans could see a possible appearance by Rick and Morty on Solar Opposites in the future. “In an infinite multiverse, everything is part of the multiverse, so they could easily be a couple of realities away,” he says.“I have no idea how you would navigate the IP waters, but that would be really friggin’ cool!”

“Our initial pitch to Hulu always included a heavily serialized element, so there’s a big part of the show that’s always been designed to be binged,” adds McMahahn. “I’ve never worked on a serialized animated comedy, and I don’t see a lot of them, so I heavily nerded out that we got to make a serialized show along with a goofball comedy. What you see on the screen (in that respect) is exactly what I wanted it to be from conception through execution, which is a rare treat for a creator. Also, the art team and the voice actors are insanely talented, everyone gave it their best, and you’ll see that the first season is something special.”

Roiland says he hopes the audience will get some entertainment and some happiness by watching his new show. “Things are pretty sad out there in the real world, so we hope Solar Opposites and new episodes of Rick and Morty will offer people a little bit of distraction.”

“I hope audiences will sit down to watch a show about crazy funny aliens, and then be surprised as they keep watching how serialized and thought-out everything is,” adds McMahan. “In any other time, this show couldn’t exist. To me, the only reason a show should exist on Hulu (or any streamer) is because it feels like a miracle, like you can’t believe what you’re watching. Sometimes that feeling comes from a cancelled show being resurrected. For Solar, it’s the jokes, language, what we can show on screen (Solar is TV-MA, which is crazy what you can do) and the serialized elements. Somehow, this show feels like a classic, broad network sitcom and like an insane cable show that fell out of another dimension, all at the same time.”

[antiquecompass]

Untamed Fest Day Thirty-One

Because Halloween.

Dad’s birthday parties were always an event. Part of it was because, well, Halloween. Part of it was because Papa spoiled Dad most days, but especially around his birthday. And part of it was that nothing made Dad happier than to be surrounded by the people he loved gathered together and having a good time. His dad’s fortieth birthday plus Halloween plus them holding it at their huge mansion that some of his fellow classmates now called ‘the murder house’? 

There was no way it wasn’t going to be an extravaganza.

He’d overheard kids bartering homework, various contraband Lan Academy sweets, and actual money for invitations and while he wanted to explain to them that honestly, they could just stop in for candy and to wish his father a happy birthday, Jingyi actually tackled him to the floor when he tried. 

So it was going to be an interesting night, to say the least.

Especially since half his classmates still thought his house was actually haunted. 

There were still a few hours before the party’s start. Last minute touches were being applied to the decor. The catering company had taken over the kitchen. Family were starting to arrive, taking over the guest bedrooms and bathrooms as they donned their costumes. 

And Dad? Dad was trying to negotiate for just a little more drama. Poor Uncle Cheng had been nominated as he keeper while Papa played host long enough for Dad to finish his costume.

“You’re going to make me explain this one more time, aren’t you,” Uncle Cheng said. He took off his hat and placed it on the table covered with all sorts of make-up pallets, brushes, sponges, and wipes. “You can’t have a fog machine inside because it will possibly damage your very beautiful, very historical home.”

Dad frowned and then yelled when Uncle Xuanyu pinched him. “Stop!”

“Then stop moving and ruining my work,” Uncle Xuanyu said. “Unless you <i>want</i> to look like the White Rabbit after he’s been mauled by the Jabberwock?”

“That could be cool,” Dad said.

“No,” Uncle Cheng said. “The peachicks are here. You promised Yanli you wouldn’t scare them.”

“Or Jingyi,” Sizhui piped up from his place on the couch, waiting for his turn at the make-up station.

Dad had chosen an Alice In Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass theme for his party. He accepted any interpretations and adaptations, as long as they were on theme. If they were off theme, they were forced to stand at the gates all night and do Trick-or-Treater Duty. They gave out full-sized candy bars and all the local kids knew it. Candy duty was an all night affair. 

Dad had picked the White Rabbit for himself, Papa would be the March Hare. Auntie Yanli got the Queen of Hearts, with Uncle Zixuan as the King, and their younger children as the guards. Jin Ling and Zizhen had picked Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Uncles Cheng and Xichen had gone the Syfy Alice route, as Hatter and Alice. Uncle Xuanyu was the Cheshire Cat, with a truly impressive face full of make-up to get that smile. Uncle Huaisang had picked the traditional Alice and Uncle Mingjue the Caterpillar. Jingyi was happy to win the role of the Dormouse by default and Sizhui got the honor of being a more traditional version of the Mad Hatter. 

The grounds had been decorated to look like the Queen of Heart’s garden, including an opportunity for guests to paint the “roses” red. An entire croquet court with flamingo-esque mallets was set up near the old oak tree. There was an outdoor dance floor that resembled a chess board. Tables of various sizes, some normal, some gigantic, some miniature, lined the porch and the hallway and the dining room containing various bottles of drinks and cookies and cakes. Their rarely used formal dining table was decorated to look like a neverending tea party, tea pots of all different designs and mismatched cups and saucers placed on nearly every available surface. The entire main floor of the house and the grounds looked like a different world. 

Uncle Huaisang had truly outdone himself this time. 

Though Uncle Cheng had helped him and Jingyi stuff his parents’ bedroom with garish ‘Over the Hill’ birthday decor. None of them would dare ruin Uncle Huaisang’s hard work and aesthetic, but they couldn’t let this birthday completely pass without some mockery.

Dad shifted and rubbed his left arm. “I still can’t believe you hit me forty times,” he complained to Uncle Cheng.

“Forty-one,” Uncle Cheng corrected. “And you’ll get your revenge next year.”

“I’m going to use a bat.”

“You can certainly try.”

“Okay, you’re done. Get out of my chair,” Uncle Xuanyu said. “Sizhui, come on down.”

Dad looked dignified with his white wig and bunny ears attached to a top hat, in a rich red and black brocade coat, with a large golden pocket watch and chain. His make-up truly made him look rabbit-like, not like a cartoon version, but unsettlingly close to a human-rabbit hybrid, especially with the pinkish-red contacts. Once again Sizhui had to marvel at Uncle Xuanyu’s skill.

Dad smoothed down his coat and looked to Uncle Cheng.

“Fine,” Uncle Cheng said. “You can say it. Hop along and go find your husband, birthday boy.”

Dad grinned. “I’m late. I’m late. I’m late. For a very important date!” He stumbled into Uncle Xichen. “Nice dress,” he said, breaking character. “The blue, of course, suits you, And I’m stealing that jacket.” He then waved. “No time to say, ‘hello!’ ‘Goodbye! I’m late. I’m late! I’m late!” 

“I thought he was only supposed to have decaf today,” Uncle Xichen said as he sat, dusting a speck of dust off his boots.

“He whined to your brother about a headache and needing caffeine, so Lan Zhan went to Starbucks, in full costume, to get him an atrociously large coffee full of sugar and who knows what else,” Uncle Cheng said. “I got him through his make-up session. He’s his husband’s problem now.”

“But what if he goes outside to test those croquet mallets?” Uncle Xichen asked.

“Fuck,” Uncle Cheng said scrambling up and running out of the room.

Sizhui tried to stay still as Uncle Xuanyu did his make-up, he really did.

“Who gave that fucker a trumpet?” Uncle Cheng’s voice spilled into the room as he ran after Dad down one of the garden paths. 

How was Sizhui not supposed to laugh when all Uncle Cheng got in response was the opening notes of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy?

[thenightling]

The Dodged Bullet

Warning: This is deliberately bad!

The dodged bullet:  

The following is the horrific notion of what would have happened if The CW, Fox, or Syfy adapted Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman instead of Netflix.   This is going to poke fun of common tropes of Fox and CW shows.  See if you can spot them all.

I am going to deliberately write this very, very badly.

             The generically attractive young man in his early-twenties walked toward the crime scene.  He wore a long leather jacket, designer sneakers, expensive brand-name jeans, and a stylish and perfectly fitted black polo style shirt under the jacket. It was rumpled but just so as to hint at what a great body he had under it.  He had thick, dark brown hair.  Brown eyes, a smoldering gaze and a dazzling smile.  He’s Caucasian and generically attractive.  He’s thin but not rake thin, more like sexy male model thin.   He’s got muscle tone.  

           At the moment he looked stoic, hands resting in his pockets.  He crosses the yellow crime scene tape without anyone stopping him.  No one questions his presence but he is not invisible. This is “grounded” in reality, folks.  

           The Sandman solves crimes!  The Sandman is a private investigator with a secret. He is a real Sandman!  Hidden in his jacket is a leather pouch which will probably get used maybe once or twice an episode (budgetary reasons).   And he gets confused by certain social cues and pop culture references but otherwise he’s just a generic hot guy.

           He’s probably portrayed by a Tom Mison type. He might be American. There’s an English accent but it’s so slight (so hidden by Americanisms) that it’s almost undetectable.   He approaches the pretty, ninety-pound, college age female detective with perfect, blond hair.   She looks up at him.  

           “Hey, Murphy.” She says in a friendly tone.  Yes, Murphy is his alias. She thinks he’s just eccentric and thinks he’s The Sandman but he gets results!  

           “Detective Walker.” He smiled with obvious affection. He crushes on her, pines for her. But she mustn’t ever know the truth. It is forbidden for one of his kind to be with a mortal.  Even if she is a Vortex.  And her great power may one day destroy the world…  or save it!  That’s the real reason he was here, to watch her. He had never expected to fall in love with her…

The show has almost no scenes in The Dreaming and when there are it’s about 90% CG over green screen, like the Enchanted Forest sets of Once Upon a Time, or the under-whelming Hell of Lucifer.  There’s probably a throne room with a starry night sky behind it, and an under-whelming “vast” library on par with Belle’s library in Once Upon a Time that will be shown very rarely.

           “We’ve got another one.”  She said gravely.  “Eyes torn out.  Pretty girl. Whoever this creep is- this predator must be stopped!”   The implication here is the victims are all damsels who have been targeted by an evil man targeting them for misogynistic reasons.  But don’t worry!  The show is totally not sexist!   Detective Rose Walker kicks ass!   And in season four she’ll be raising her own long-lost little brother!  Even though it’ll take her at least five seasons to learn Murphy’s secret (if she ever does).  

           “I thought the ‘me too’ movement would have at least reduced some of this.” She said with a shake of her head in disappointment at the world.

           The line of dialogue doesn’t actually really make sense under easy scrutiny.  Why would “Me too” actually make a serial killer reconsider his life choices?  Oh, well, the audience doesn’t have enough time to question it.

           “Me too?”  The adorable, awkward, pretty “Murphy” questions.

           “Boy!  Where have you been?  In a cave?”            “Actually I was trapped inside a prison cell for a hundred and five years and before that I resided in another dimension.”

           She rolls her eyes.  “Not this again.   Tell me you can at least figure something out with your ‘Dream powers’” she said cynically.   He might have been insane and socially inept but he got results!

           Morpheus knelt down next to the body and placed his hands on the corpse. There isn’t even any SFX for this. He’s just sensing something.  He grunts in a sexy portrayal of sexy CW level pain.  

           “What? What is it?”

           “I think I know who did this…”

           “Who?”

           “Corinthian…”

             (Opening credits here.  Maybe the opening riff of Enter Sandman by Metallica.  No, wait, Fox and CW can’t afford that.   It’s Mr. Sandman by the Charlottes!  It kills the mood but everyone knows the song.  You’ll be sick of it by episode five if you weren’t already.  And it will get a LOT of use since the song is cheap / practically public domain.)

           The next scene is not present day.  It’s a flashback.  And by flashback I mean a hastily put together set in Vancouver Canada.  It’s probably someone’s private stables being passed off as a medieval village.  No, wait. Its eighteenth century.  There’s a sexy other character wearing slightly anachronistic style sunglasses hiding his eyes (No CG here, the production team figures the glasses are enough).  In fact his eyes might not even be weird at all. He just likes sunglasses!  There, that’s better, no wasted money here.   He’s wearing a badly fitted white wig over white hair.  

           “My king,” the sunglassed man says with a bow. We have to be blunt for our easily distracted audience, so there’s the reminder that this is the dream king. “Thank you for letting me accompany you to the waking world.  There are such delicious things here.”

           “Yes, the food is rather pleasant.” Morpheus replies. His costume is decently fitted but obviously borrowed from another show, possibly a left over from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  Those props and some period costumes still get use.  Isn’t Morpheus adorably oblivious, though?

           Morpheus is wearing a dark blue frock coat and lace. His trousers are exceptionally tight to show off the actor’s perfect ass.

           The Corinthian’s costume is cream colored. There was a behind the scenes fight and as small victory for the one crew member who actually read Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman in getting the cream outfit.  Others working on the show wanted the costume to be black to make it more obvious he was the bad guy.        

           An attractive, tall, black man (probably American), under the age of thirty, is behind Morpheus.   This is his loyal manservant, Lucien.  But it’s totally not racist making the dreaming librarian / butler black when the show hasn’t had any black characters yet.  No, it’s inclusive!  

           The attractive black man speaks.  “My Lord, I think he intends to do harm to the mortals here.”

           “Nonsense, Lucien. I’m certain it’s fine.”

           The Corinthian wandered away from his master and he soon drags off attractive young female into an alley, hand over her mouth.   No, The Corinthian isn’t gay anymore in this version.   But it’s okay.  Hob Gadling, Morpheus’ immortal friend (who now runs a bar for some reason) is gay!  He’s very gay.  In fact that’s the extent of his entire personality.  But isn’t this diverse and inclusive?!   And there’s no more problematic gay nightmare, even though in the original comics The Corinthian gets uncreated and the second Corinthian is a relatively decent guy for a nightmare.  

           After some persuasion Morpheus finally listens to Lucien and walks down into the alley.   He stops in his tracks when he sees The Corinthian has killed the girl and his licking his fingers, having obviously already eaten her eyeballs (gotta keep that TV-14 rating!)   He lets out a gasp.  “Corinthian, what have you done?”

           We cut back to present day and “Murphy” is walking into the bar owned by his friend, Hob Gadling . Hob sees him and smiles. “Murph, oh, honey, you look like Hell! Come sit down and tell me all about it.   You know I love juicy gossip.” He says in a naisly, lisping voice.

Imagine this scene was written by some very straight guy whose only exposure to gay people were 1990s Will and Grace reruns.  

           Hob places a shot glass in front of Morpheus and Morpheus downs it quickly. “Have you seen Matthew?”

           Matthew was Morpheus’ straight human friend and roommate.  He had learned Morpheus’ secret in the pilot episode when Morpheus rescued him from a car accident using his dream magick.   Ha!  And you thought we’d have talking birds in this thing. Lol!  No!  Grounded, remember?

           “Matt?  Oh, sweetie, you can do better than him.  I keep telling you, he’s just not your type.”

           Morpheus raises an eyebrow but says nothing about the implication about his sexual identity.  There will be a LOT of queer baiting on this show without confirmation in regard to his sexuality.  

             “I need to talk to him.   One of my nightmares is loose in the city.”  You can tell this was written by a New Yorker because they take for granted “The City” to mean New York.  

           “One of your Nightmares?   Why couldn’t it be one of those sexy wet dreams?”  Get it?  Because if the character’s gay he has to always be horny!!!  Ha-freakin’ –ha.  

(Please know I don’t actually feel this way. I’m mocking bad TV writing.  This whole thing is a spoof.)    

           There’s an awkward pause intended for the viewers to laugh.

           “I don’t believe any water nymphs have escaped The Dream dimension.” Morpheus replied in confusion.

He calls it The Dream Dimension in the show because “The Dreaming” didn’t sound hip enough according to some executive.

“I’m afraid it’s The Corinthian.  So now I have two problems.”

Hob nodded sympathetically.  “The detective you might have to kill…”

“And now this.”   This is an idiot proofed recap for people turning on the show late or just watching it in passing while doing other things or playing on their phone.  CW does this sort of in-story forced, shoe-horned exposition all the time.

The episode plays out a little bit like an episode of Lucifer mashed into an episode of True Blood.

While they’re trying to find the killer, Detective Rose Walker meets Murphy’s roommate, Matthew, and the two hit it off while chatting about Murphy’s weirdness.  They decide to start to date.   As Morpheus has feelings for Rose that he won’t admit to this causes a strain between him and Matthew Raven (There’s that bird reference!  What?  That should be Lucien’s last name?  Naw!)  And between him and Rose Walker.  

Morpheus lashes out rather than admit to what he is truly angry at and he and Matthew argue over something petty and this leads to recovering alcoholic Matthew to start drinking again as sad music begins to play.  

Morpheus eventually finds The Corinthian and is forced to destroy him.  He had to kill his own creation so he is kneeling in angst crying prettily while the sand left over from the uncreation slides through his fingers.  Some new female cover of Queen’s Who Wants to live Forever? Is playing in the background.  The original version is “too old” and too expensive for use. So here’s a very generic sounding cover done in a style that makes it blend in with every other pop song played during the forty five minute mark of a CW show’s run time (including commercial breaks).  

           The song plays as we cut to Matthew drinking alone sexily in an alley.  He’s sweaty and wet, but he just looks like a wet fashion model.   Morpheus is sexy crying over the sand that was the Corinthian, and Rose going to sleep prettily in her bed, no bed head here.  Oh, and she sleeps in perfect makeup!  There’s no scene where she even remotely looks like she’s out of makeup.

 She’s having strange dreams but they look pretty mundane.  Like real-world mundane.  It’s her living room set that we probably saw a few minutes ago, just dimmer lighting and some haze to make it clear this is a dream.  Because even with a show about The Dream Lord, dreams have to have an old fashioned camera fringe haze.  Murphy is there with his back to her.  He looks sad.  He turns to look at her and she gasps.   She sees a star (lense flare) from Murphy’s eyes in the dream as he looks at her in surprise like he wasn’t expecting her to see him.  She wakes up with a gasp, and everyone in her apartment building also wakes up at the same time, signifying that their dreams were connected.

And so ends what was probably the third episode of CW (or Fox’s) The Sandman.  

And that is pretty much how CW or Fox would have done The Sandman.

[brokehorrorfan]

DVD Review: Shark Bait

Shark Bait collects six schlocky shark movies - Swamp Shark (2011), Ghost Shark (2013), Zombie Shark (2015), Ozark Sharks (2016), Mississippi River Sharks (2017), and Santa Jaws (2018) - along with a bonus alligator flick - Alligator Alley (2013) - for good measure. The fin-tastic DVD set is available now from Mill Creek Entertainment in celebration of Shark Week.

Although Mill Creek presents the features in no discernible order, I opted to view them in chronological order to see if there were any patterns or growth over the seven years spanned. They're all cheesy, but it's interesting to see which of the movies embrace their inherent absurdity, which makes them easier to swallow. Case in point: Sharknado became a cultural phenomenon because it went all-in on the concept.

In viewing all seven of the movies over a short span of time, the formula is apparent. A cast with a couple of celebrities past their prime and a bunch of wooden, inexperienced actors play one-dimensional characters that spout unnatural dialogue (usually with an obligatory Jaws reference) in between animal attacks accomplished with laughable CGI.

Another fascinating fact is that a mere two directors are responsible for all seven movies. Griff Furst (Lake Placid 3) was in the director's chair for Swamp Shark, Ghost Shark, and Alligator Alley, while Misty Talley helmed the other four. I imagine making these movies is good fun, although it likely becomes tedious after a few. But their work was clearly successful enough to warrant repeat hirings, so more power to them.

Swamp Shark is an example of a pre-Sharknado creature feature that takes itself far too seriously. An animal smuggler accidentally releases a rare shark with a virtually impenetrable exoskeleton into a Louisiana river. Despite the swampland being infested with the added threat of alligators, the opportunity for shark vs. gator action is sadly missed. While the shark is predominately created with crummy CGI, a couple of shots admirably utilize a good, old-fashioned rubber head.

Kristy Swanson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) toplines the film as the person tasked with stopping the flesh-hungry shark before it wreaks havoc at the annual Gator Fest. The cast also includes Robert Davi (The Goonies), D.B. Sweeney (Spawn), and Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs. After years of independent and made-for-television work, Swamp Shark cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore recently shot the new Hellboy.

Ghost Shark is a strong contender for the most entertaining movie in the set. It starts with a practical, fake great white in the prologue until it's killed, after which point it becomes the titular, translucent Ghost Shark. It can materialize in any water, and its appearances become increasingly more outrageous, from the ocean and a swimming pool to water pipes and a slip and slide. I won't give away the most ludicrous highlight, but it's a rare unforgettable moment in a Syfy movie.

Levity is key, which is why the last act becomes more tiresome when it focuses on the why and the how, although I appreciate that its mythology is taken seriously despite the silly premise. Mackenzie Rosman (7th Heaven) stars as a girl with a personal vendetta against the specter. Richard Moll (House) brings surprising nuance to the role of the alcoholic lighthouse keeper with a dark past. Thomas Francis Murphy (The Walking Dead) plays the small town’s sheriff.

Zombie Shark (also known as Shark Island) finds a shark - named Bruce, of course - escaping from the scientific facility in which it was the subject of experimentation. It proceeds to find food on the shore of a nearby, secluded island. The shark spreads its undead virus to other sharks and, eventually, to humans. There's no shortage of voracious fish action, including a first victim that caught me off guard; a rarity in these oft-predictable films.

Cassie Steele (Degrassi: The Next Generation) stars as one of four friends on the quaint island for a getaway, and Jason London (Dazed and Confused) co-stars as the facility's head of security hunting down the shark. Although not a "name" actor, Roger J. Timber provides solid comedic relief as an islander who serves as host to the guests.

Ozark Sharks follows a family's long-weekend trip to an Arkansas cabin that holds a special place in the grandmother's heart, only to find that bull sharks have invaded the nearby lake. This happens while the town is gearing up for a big firework festival. Much like Zombie Shark, the first kill is a welcome surprise, but the film culminates with an unnecessarily melodramatic finale.

Allisyn Ashley Arm (A.P. Bio) stars as the angst-ridden lead who becomes the final girl of sorts. Thomas Francis Murphy is back, this time playing the soothsaying owner of the local bait shop. He owns an arsenal of homemade weaponry that adds a dash of fun to the bland proceedings, including a giant air canon, an oar turned into a high-voltage cattle prod, a double-bladed katana, and a crossbow that shoots dear antlers.

Santa Jaws not only has the best title, but it may very well be the strongest effort in the set. Although it lacks the star power of the other movies, it offers a radical deviation from the creature feature formula; it's a coming-of-age movie. When a dorky teen boy receives a magic pen that turns its drawings into a reality, he uses it on his comic book, Santa Jaws. Soon there's a killer shark with glowing, red eyes, a candy cane horn, and a Santa hat on its dorsal fin targeting his family amidst their Christmas gathering.

The result is something like Jaws meets Krampus by way of Ruby Sparks, if it were produced by the Hallmark Channel. Shark excitement takes a backseat in this one, and there’s a whole lot of unintentional camp present, but the youth-driven approach to the material is a breath of fresh air. With no hackneyed military or science roles, the characters feel more natural and developed.

Though not quite as far a deviation as Santa Jaws, Mississippi River Sharks spices things up a clever meta element. Jason London plays a fictionalized version of himself, the star of the Shark Bite franchise. He's the celebrity guest at a podunk town's fishing competition, and his inflated ego leads him to believe that he's the most qualified person to save the day when sharks start attacking. Unlike his blase role in Zombie Shark, London lights up the screen in this supporting role.

The real hero is Cassie Steele's Tara, but it's Dean J. West (The Hunt) who shines when London is absent. In the comedic role of Tara's friend, Wyatt, he's an overzealous Shark Bite fanboy who relishes the opportunity to live out his favorite movie... even if he doesn't know what he's doing. A brief cameo from Jeremy London (Mallrats) - Jason's twin brother - furthers the meta aspect.

Alligator Alley is included as a bonus film. Thomas Francis Murphy plays another pivotal role, this time as a bayou redneck who brews chemically-enhanced moonshine. He dumps a string of bad batches into the river, mutating the local alligator population to the point where they can shoot spikes from their tails. He has a long-standing family feud with another local Cajun family, with two star-crossed lovers - one played by Jordan Hinson (Eureka) - caught in the middle, but they must band together to stop the gators.

The first half of the film is a bit dull, as you're essentially waiting for all of these annoying characters to get eaten, but the pacing picks up when concept that can only be described as weregators is introduced. The left-field plot point is so preposterous that it makes the film vastly more interesting. And maybe it's because I had just watched six shark movies and water is hard to animate, but the CGI isn't half bad considering the time and budget.

Shark Bait crams all seven films onto two discs. Compression is apparent in every movie (particularly with murky underwater footage, for whatever reason), and of course there are no special features, but it still beats watching them with Syfy's incessant commercial interruptions. Each one clocks in at under 90 minutes, so even the poorly-paced movies - of which there are several - are over before you know it.

Although far from high art, the best films in the collection - Santa Jaws, Ghost Shark, and Mississippi River Sharks - subvert expectations by mixing up the trite formula, and they don't shy away from levity. If you're lamenting the lack of a new Sharknado film this year - the franchise concluded with its sixth installment last year - fill the shark-sized gap in your heart with the Shark Bait collection.

Shark Bait is available now on DVD via Mill Creek Entertainment.

[comixconnection]

Counter Monkey John Arminio looks back at ‘Resident Alien’

While all the world is a-tizzy over what Marvel and Star Wars properties Disney is releasing and on what platform (and whether or not they will contain Spider-Man), we can take comfort that other, more idiosyncratic, and wonderful stories are also being adapted from comics.

In 2012, Dark Horse began publishing a strange, utterly original yet remarkably comfortable and familiar detective/mystery/science fiction series called Resident Alien. Written and illustrated by Englishmen and 2000AD veterans Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, respectively, the series concerns an alien (of the extraterrestrial variety) attempting to hide in plain sight and live his life in peace amidst the humans of the American rural Northwest after his spacecraft crash lands on Earth. Taking up the name "Harry Vanderspeigle," the alien refugee rents a cabin in Patience, Washington, posing as a retired doctor, which is where we first meet him. Harry values his privacy and goes to great (but not conspicuous) lengths to remain independent of the normal goings-on in the town. It is only when Patience's real doctor dies that the desperate townspeople approach "Dr. Harry" and ask him to provide medical care, and possibly contribute some forensic insight into the previous doctor's demise.

And thus unfolds a murder mystery. The increased mental and social stimulation being a medical doctor and a murder investigator brings to Harry only serves to make him realize how bored he has become since his crash. Despite the grisly circumstances that brought him out of his isolation, helping people brings Harry to life, both in his capacity as a murder investigator and in providing medical care. Even if his has to keep his true identity obscured from the townsfolk, he seems very willing to see the good in all of them, even if they are drug addicts, philanderers, or hiding secrets of their own.

That is what is so immediately enjoyable about this series. While the Private Detective archetype can lean towards the misanthrope (see: Jessica Jones) or the loner (Mike Hammer, Sam Spade), Harry is energized by his interaction with others. There is an element of anthropological curiosity on his part, as every human interaction is a new experience for him, and he gets to learn about this strange species inhabiting Earth even as he is curing their maladies and solving their crimes. A definite touchstone for Resident Alien in Harry's characterization is the version of Phillip Marlowe seen in the Robert Altman film version of The Long Goodbye. Not that Harry is slumming it in a dump apartment in 1970s LA like Altman's Marlowe, but he is a man out of time and place, puzzled by the strange behavior of the humans around him, dedicating himself to doing the right thing nonetheless.

It's the characters that make a murder mystery. Sure, the mysteries each detective investigates can be thrilling and unpredictable, but if the detective at the center of it all, the villain who committed the crime, and the supporting cast aren't interesting, it's really not worth caring about. That is where Resident Alien gets the genre so right, as Harry's combination of loneliness, otherness, and empathetic fascination with his human companions makes him perpetually fascinating. The population of Patience is realistic and varied, from skeevy-yet-competent mayors, cookbook authors, to goth Native American nurses, the cast is fully realized and engaging. As for the "villains." they are more often tragic than nefarious, making one bad decision too many as they fight against circumstances that none of us would find tolerable.

What really sets Resident Alien apart from so many other detective stories is the art. While there are the necessary shadows and mysterious figures smoking cigarettes in the dark, so much of the book, being set in the rural Northwest, is full of lush, green landscapes, glowing blue bodies of water, and rustic cabins. It's a world so inviting, we might want to go there on our next vacation. The sewers of Vienna in Carol Reed's The Third Man this is not. Steve Parkhouse is able to imbue his characters with subtle facial expressions and gestures, rendering both human and alien characters with instantly recognizable and relatable emotions. Harry, as an alien posing as a human, could easily come off as cold and unreadable or ridiculous self-parody, but Parkhouse somehow finds something universal in his art and helps us connect with Harry across galactic distances, and in the distance between the reader and the page.

Resident Alien is set to be adapted into a TV series for SyFy starring the great Alan Tudyk as Harry Vanderspeigle. It's the perfect casting, as Tudyk is able to embody the subtle humor and warmth underneath the false veneer of introverted bitterness that is required for the role. Whether or not the series is a faithful adaptation or commercially successful, the source material remains an outstanding melding of genres and a wonderful story in its own right. Buy it now so you can tell all your friends "the book was better."

[tomeandflickcorner]

Alice (SyFy) Livewatch

Huge thanks to @xemmaloveskillianx and @the-alice-of-legend for helping me find this movie!  I’ve been curious about it for a while.

Under the cut for length:

Tim Curry is in this movie?  Well, I’m in for a treat.

Is this their version of foreplay?

So the mother is letting Alice find her missing father, but doesn’t seem to be actively helping?  That’s a bit strange.

Well, that’s a bit sudden, dude!

I don’t blame Alice for her response here.  Under normal circumstances, that seemed to escalate quickly.

Is the mom basically saying Alice shouldn’t have called it quits with Jack?  Because the fact that he’s virtually asking her to marry him after only a short time dating.....

And this was the scene that served as a trailer.

And we’re in Wonderland, I guess.

Strange design for Wonderland  It more looks like The Wiz’s version of Oz.  All ghetto-like.

Weird tattoo.  What does it mean?

Oh, the Drink Me potion.

Yeah, curiosity killed cat.  But satisfaction brought him back.

What the.....?

Oh, they all have the tattoo.

Did just he call her an oyster?

That was...both smart and dumb.  Hope you can swim, Alice.

Ratcatcher?  I don’t remember a ratcatcher in Wonderland mythos.

I don’t think they understand the concept of American currency, Alice.

Oh goodie.  We’re on Wonderland Wall Street.

Why am I getting flashbacks to those Emotion Patches from that one Doctor Who episode, Gridlock?

Oh, it’s Hatter!  The number of times I saw this guy appear on my dash....

So, they call people from our world Oysters? 

Wait!  You mean they drain the life force from humans?  To create these emotion potions?

Dude, she just met you two minutes ago.  How is she supposed to trust you?

Why are you saying ‘black jack’ in that seductive tone?

Oh, this is how they drain people.  Gotta say, this is a rather subtle anti-gambling message.

Oh, the Walrus and the Carpenter are chemists?

So, they’re saying people of Wonderland can’t feel emotions on their own? That sounds horrible.

Uh...what are they going to do with her?  I’m scared for her.  Especially since she has kids.

Oh.  That’s clever!  She took the ring from the box!

Wait... alive yet?

TIM CURRY!  He’s the Dodo?

Shouldn’t have done that, bucko.

Yep, she goes back to save him.  

Is Jack even his real name?

That’s just creepy.

Hmm.  Did Hatter have a history with the Assassin Guy before he got the cookie jar head?  I don’t know why I got that vibe.

Ooooh.  Jabberwockey is in this!  Can’t wait to see  him!

COOL DESIGN!

That was very lucky that they didn’t fall on one of those spikes,

This guy is nuts.  But considering he’s probably spent years in solitude, it’s not surprising. 

Hatter is by far the best character in this movie!  I wonder what else that actor was in.

Smart!  Covering up your tracks!

Cheshire cat?

Wait, Dinah?  When did they establish Alice had a pet cat?

Yep.  Cheshire Cat.

Wait, did Alice revert back to a kid?

Oh, you mean that was all a dream?

Uh-oh.  Rabbit Head Dude’s back.

Who’s this?

So...what’s the truth? Is Jack good or bad?

Okay, we have’t forgotten the subplot with Alice’s missing father, then.

The Tweedles?

Yep, the Tweedles.

What?  Pig in the crib?  And they’re talking about Humpty Dumpty?  What’s going in?

So was the map a decoy, or did Alice really betray the location of the ring?

Flamingos?

I love the dialogue in this movie!  ‘I have a thing about flying!’ ‘I have a thing about bullets!’

This is by far a better rendition of the Wonderland story than that Tim Burton film.

So the motive has changed.  Instead of Alice looking for her sorta-boyfriend, she’s looking for her father.

Wait, he’s not a true White Knight?  He was just a former squire?

I forgot about these guys!

Aw, they almost kissed!

Wait...he’s the Caterpillar?

Oh, he’s just the agent for the Caterpillar. 

Aw, Hatter. don’t go!

*Sniff*  My heart is breaking for poor Hatter.  He clearly cares for Alice.

Come on, just show us who Alice’s dad is!

So they brainwashed the father to think he’s the Carpenter who works for the Queen of Hearts?

Oh, come on, Charlie!  This was your big chance to redeem yourself, and you once again chicken out?

Uh, typical manipulate mother.  Using guilt to make it sound as if the child should be fully obedient to her.

Oh, of course Alice would object to little girls being snatched up.

Face your fear, Alice!

Pretty sure those are just skeletons.  

And I’m right.

Do these guys really not realize they’re just bones?

Does the Duchess have a heart after all?

Awwww.  Hatter/Alice hug!

Is the father starting to remember?

Did Charlie just die?

Aw crap.  Daddy is going to die now, isn’t he?

Good job, Charlie.  Now you can die in peace.

Hehehe.  Threatening to cut off her finger.  Love it.

Wait, Charlie is alive?  I thought he died.  Not that I’m complaining.

Awww.  Poor Hatter.  He thinks they’re still together.  *Sniff*

Oh, Hatter.  Dear, sweet Hatter.  Just tell her how you feel, you lovable idiot.

So how long was Alice gone from her world?

Oh, only an hour has passed outside of Wonderland.

Construction worker?

Hatter!

So Hatter went after Alice immediately and posed as a construction worker called David?

AAAAHHHH!  They finally kissed!

Haha!  The mother is so confused!

I’m so buying this movie off iTunes!  This was great.  And I love Hatter/Alice!