The Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto started out on Radio in 1933, and ran about 40 shy of 3,000 episodes, ending in 1954, a mighty impressive run. The program had a spin-off in 1938, in which the Lone Ranger’s nephew Dan’s son, Britt Reid, became The Green Hornet with his faithful sidekick, Kato. Except, as we all know, Kato ended up becoming the hero in that one, and the Hornet the sidekick. There were several movie serial series in the late 30s and early 40s, in one of which he had a second sidekick named Juan who went on to become the Cisco Kid. I first ran into him with the TV Series When I was 4 years old, coming in about half way through its run, which lasted from 1949 to 1957. I can still remember the Lone Ranger movie in 1956, the first time I ever saw the show in color, TV being only black and white in those days. I can not wait to see what Johnny Depp does with the part of Tonto in the new Lone Ranger movie; even if they hose the whole rest of the film (not something I would expect from the crew which created the Pirates of the Caribbean series), that performance alone should be worth the price of admission, as this trailer tends to indicate.
The original Primeval series was a bit uneven (more than a bit, and I can give you my season-by-season breakdown some time if you like), but I enjoyed the hell out of a few specific seasons, and still had fun watching the others, even with their flaws. I am now looking forward to Primeval New World, but even though they have run 7 episodes in the UK and Canada, the US does not have a contract for this one until 2013. At some point next year they will begin running this on Syfy, with VOD rights going to Hulu and Hulu Plus, but if there is an announced launch date I have not found it yet. I am kind of surprised that BBC America did not pick it up, considering the ratings they pulled with the original series, but the Syfy Channel is running a lot of programs out of the Vancouver studios that are making it, so they probably got a discount for a bulk order.
We have a good one for Wednesday, in the form of the re-release of Monsters, Inc: 3D, a Pixar favorite of mine that has never before been available in a 3D format. I am afraid I am going to have to go see it, if for no other reason than to get ready for the new Monsters University. Although not quite genre, Jack Reacher is quite a twisty little murder mystery based on a great series of books. There are a boatload of other films this week, hopefully you will find the one you want to see in a theater near you.
While a lot of the releases this time around are on the normal Tuesday timeline, there seem to be a number coming out on Friday, the 21st as well. I am sure this breakup is to target the panicking holiday shoppers and make sure they have something fresh to buy for last minute gift giving. I am not going to indicate which disk gets released on what date since the dates listed at different shopping sites sometimes contradict each other, but everything mentioned here is coming out on one of those two dates.
In movies, Total Recall is the 2012 version of the film, which went back to the original Philip K. Dick source material rather than remake the earlier feature presentation. I am still disappointed they dropped the Mars aspects of the story, but this one definitely qualifies in the adrenalin category. Resident Evil: Retribution is no slouch in the action/adventure arena itself, and continues this well known game and film franchise.
For TV the winner has to be Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season, which is not genre but does at least have a certain geek and nerd appeal.
In anime, Steins;Gate: The Complete Series Part Two brings the conclusion of one of the best time travel anime series ever made. The protagonist keeps sending text messages into the past to get people (including himself) to do things differently to improve the state of the present, but things keep getting worse and worse. Taking place in about the same universe as Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, and sharing a creative team with them, this group of series is definitely worth watching.
Another excellent sci-fi series, A Certain Magical Index is a new tale in the universe of A Certain Scientific Railgun, where an entire major metropolis is set aside for the training of espers and psychics, and where scientists study and improve those talents. This time a nun named Index has 103,000 volumes of magical knowledge stored in her memory, and scientists and sorcerers alike are out to capture her and steal her knowledge. Luckily a boy named Kamijo with a power of his own befriends her and helps protect her from her enemies. I definitely recommend this program, in both its series. And just so you won’t have to wait to see how it comes out, both parts 1 and 2 of the first season are being released together.
Also this week, Kobato: Complete Collection is about a girl with a magic flask that can help mend broken hearts and shattered dreams, but her nonhuman mentor isn’t certain she is up to the challenge. And Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky puts the whole story into a single box. If you are an American fan of the game and disappointed a US release of parts two and three never happened, you can watch the collected OVAs here to get the storyline and find out what happened.
Kurozuka: The Complete Series is a story about a 12th century Japanese swordsman who falls in love with an immortal vampire. He is betrayed by his servant, and wakes up in a post nuclear apocalyptic Japan under control of the Red Army. Now he must find his immortal love and defeat the invaders. Ultraviolet Code 044: The Complete Series is a 2008 anime series based on the 2006 sci-fi movie Ultraviolet, about a genetically engineered super soldier (the trade off was a much shortened life expectancy) who goes renegade from the government which had her grown. Viper’s Creed – The Complete Series takes place after World War III leads to environmental catastrophe, and many of the worlds cities have drowned. The Vipers are an elite military group trying to rebuild and defend their portion of the planet.
In continuing series, One Piece – Season 4 Part 3 brings episodes 230 through 241 home for the viewing. Shakugan no Shana Season Two is being broken up into two box sets of about a dozen episodes each. Shana and Yuji continue battling supernatural foes and going through the emotional turmoil of high school while trying to protect both worlds.
The NASA GRAIL mission has been flying for about a year, two satellites orbiting the Moon at low altitude to create a detailed gravity map of our nearest neighbor. The project has been a total success, generating all kinds of new knowledge on the current density over different parts of the surface which can lead to knowing where to prospect for useful metals, volatiles, and other resources. But it has also revealed a lot about the surprisingly shallow and fractured crust, generated by the massive bombardments of rocks all the planets and moons of the solar system went through during the latter part of the formation of our solar system. Now the two orbiters are almost out of fuel and have been scheduled to crash into a remote area on the north pole of the Moon, to make sure they do not disturb any of our landing sites. Unfortunately, the event won’t be visible from Earth (the low on fuel detail means they have nothing left to explode), but these satellites have added greatly to our knowledge of the evolution of the planets and the available resources on the Moon for a very small monetary outlay. And don’t forget, every penny that was spent, was spent right here on Earth, so none of the money ever left the planet; it is still circulating, doing its part to help the economy get stronger.
This fun little video edit was put together by the very creative Debbie Saslaw, and is just what its title infers: a supercut of the phrase There’s No Time To Explain. If you have some video editing software and a favorite phrase you see in TV and movies all the time, you could build one of these yourself, and I know for myself it would be a good practice project to help me overcome my editing suites learning curve. I think the first thing I might learn is that this kind of project is a bit harder than it looks. Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads up on this one.