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Primeval: Redeemed?

I loved season one and the first half of season two of Primeval, the Brit time travel show with the cheesy monsters. The second half of season two dragged a little, due to some poor plot line choices, most noticeable at the final episode. And the less said about season 3 the better, as they went desperately grasping after straws trying to keep the franchise afloat.

But it looks like they have found their way again with season 4, at least based on the first few episodes. They have re-introduced the dramatic tension from the previous seasons, and also re-introduced some of the core characters. After a year of living with Dinosaurs, Conner and Abby are both noticeably grimmer and much more focused then they used to be, which sets a new tone. The action sequences in the second episode of season 4 seemed much gripping than anything in season 3 as well. It looks to me like they have a decent shot at pulling it all off this time, and I do appreciate being able to see them on BBC America the same day they air in the UK.

Meanwhile, here is a Science Link that you might find entertaining, particularly if you are into molecular chemistry…

Outcasts trailer

From the folks who created Life On Mars (the UK version, not the failed US attempt), a new show is coming: Outcasts. No word on the exact start date yet, but the trailer looks tasty, and hopefully BBC America will continue their recent trend of airing Sci-Fi in the US the same day it becomes available in the UK.

Something to Watch: Online Pt. 2

I am still at the point of organizing my thoughts for this thread; which means I am retaining the limits of yesterday’s post on this topic, just to keep it somewhat under control.

The new Anime season has started in Tokyo, which means Crunchyroll has some new shows, and new episodes of some old favorites available to watch online. Besides watching on your computer, they have apps that play episodes on both iPhone/iTouch/iPads and Android tablets/phones, and many other devices. I watch mine on my iTouch, Cruz Tablet (Android), and Roku box, but I haven’t installed the disk on my Wii yet. All the Apps and software are free, and while you need a premium membership to watch the episodes the same day they air in Tokyo, you can watch them free a week afterwords. You do have to sign up for a free account if you want to comment, post, or review anything, but to just watch you don’t even need that.

One of the new titles that looks like it could be interesting is Kore wa Zombie desu ka?, about a high school kid who is snuffed by a serial killer and wakes up as a zombie servant/bodyguard to the beautiful necromancer who brought him back to undead (I couldn’t exactly say back to life, now could I?). This one gets my vote as the silliest show of the new season, in a good way. In the opening episode we find out the dead protagonist is searching for his killer to stop him from killing others, and we meet a second magical girl who’s magical transformation sequence is short-circuited by the presence of zombie boy. She winds up naked, he ends up wearing the dress and wielding the magical chainsaw; between them, they can just about defeat the monsters she normally battles. Gosick takes place in Europe in 1924, the story of a Japanese exchange student and a brilliant girl who attends no classes but lives in the library reading all the books and solving mysteries that baffle officials. I found the first episode very interesting as to characters and story line, and the teacher urging the protagonist to study ghosts and alchemists was a nice twist, but there is nothing about this that locks it to that year. The costumes are mostly from the 1860’s or the 1940s depending on the character, but nobody actually wears anything from the 1920s, and a few of the comments were also temporally displaced. Despite the story being unbound to its time, I fully intend to watch this series to see where it goes next; the first episode drew me right in.

I am not sure that Rio Rainbow Gate is genre or not, but the Blackjack Dealer and Roulette spinner known as the Goddess of Victory does seem to have supernatural powers and Ninja skills, so I will be following it beyond the first episode as well. And then there is Dragon Crisis!, which so far is the most fun out of the set (except the set is only a single episode per series at this point). In the opening half hour our normal high school student is pulled out of his summer school class by a beautiful second cousin just returned from America so he can help her steal a mysterious case from the Yakuza. In the ensuing chase and gun battle the case is shot open, and out tumbles the girl of his dreams who promptly torches the bad guys; it seems she is a dragon with all a dragons powers. She also has a vocabulary of one word, that being the protagonists name. It appears she has been dreaming of him as well. I look forward to seeing where this one goes.

Finally, I should say that Beelzebub did not impress me, despite having a wacky origin story. There are just too many things to watch to spend time viewing something that did not grab me; perhaps if I hear good things about it later I will give it another shot.

Something to Watch: Online Pt. 1

This is a huge topic, so to begin I will break it down to a tiny subset with a very limited scope, so it doesn’t run away from us right out of the starting gate. Since this is my introduction post to the topic, it will be confined to:

1) Anime
2) Generic Servers
3) Free Sites

There are a lot of places online to watch Anime, which is a great way to pick out the good ones before laying your money down for the DVD’s. I spend so much time watching great animated sci-fi and fantasy this way, I figured it was about time to make it part of my Blog entries. To begin, I just want to mention a few of the generic video servers, and I should also mention the updated Anime Nation App with all new functionality for watching through your iDevice.

Hulu is of course now running Hulu Plus, but it also has just added several new titles to its free Anime Network section, including Xam’d, Blue Drop, Ghost Hound, and the second season of Hell Girl, to name just a few. Outside of that company there are a ton of classic titles, like Full Metal Panic (including all series), Vandread (both seasons and the OVA), Gad Guard, and Kaze no Stigma, and the inevitable whole lot more. There is an entire additional range of recent works, including D.Gray-Man, Sands of Destruction, and Birdy the Mighty: Decode. Those titles are just the tip of the iceberg, and don’t even begin to impinge on whats available in the premium section of the video service.

It gets a bit blurry when you try to follow a given production house, even when they are importing and converting, rather than creating, their works. As an example, Funimation Online Video can point you to their own internal company servers, or the Hulu Servers (that last link was to the feature film Vexille: 2077 Isolation of Japan), or to their YouTube Site where you can watch some great new titles like Birdy the Mighty: Decode and classic recent additions including Vandread and Witchblade. The title duplication was not an accident, just serves to indicate that the edges of what is available from various sources does include a lot of overlap, and rightly so. The more formats and servers supported, the wider the potential audience becomes for a given program; which works very well for the content creators long run, since it helps create the largest possible market for their product. But at its heart, their product is stories about the human condition, whatever the media they use to present them, as all stories must be.

Another great source is Anime News Network, which maintains its own set of streaming servers. This site has a unique set of programs you won’t be able to see anywhere else, and my personal favorite series in their current collection is Oreimo. You get woken in the middle of the night to discover your little sister is an Otaku in so deep she is creating her own Manga’s which are now being turned into Anime’s. As the honorable Big Brother, you do everything needful to protect her.

Finally for today, this link is the winner: you can click to watch the US premiere of Fractal, when it becomes available.

A Christmas Carol and Blackadder’s App; Season’s Greetings!

I hope the holidays find you happy and with loved ones. I wanted to remind everyone that Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol will actually air in the US on Christmas day, mere hours after it airs in the UK. BBC America made that promise about Torchwood for the last miniseries, but failed to follow through with it. Hopefully this time they will do better. I should also mention they will roll out season 4 of Primeval on New Years Day, so there are good things to look forward to on TV this holiday season. In addition, I also wanted to let you know that the new Blackadder Soundboard App By BBC Worldwide is now available to install on your iDevice. With a ton of the best Blackadder quotes, including some from Blackadder’s Christmas Carol and Blackadder Rides Again, this one is just in time for some holiday fun (and at 99 cents it is not overpriced).

Angelic Lawyers, Sci-Fi Party Line

The title may sound like an Anime program, but it isn’t. The team that brought you Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes have a new project in the works which may be just as interesting. The new series, called Eternal Law, is the story of two angels who are assigned to be lawyers to help a community and learn a bit more about humans. This departs from reality on so many levels (to start, have you met any lawyers? Did they seem very angelic to you?) it has to be total fantasy, but has the potential to create some amazing stories, especially in the hands of two writers of such quality. Of course, it also has the potential to fall flat on its face; I look forward to finding out which way it goes.

I was recently invited by Fancy Fembot to join the fine collection of folks aggregated over at the Sci-Fi Party Line News Network. Of course I said yes (I am not as brain dead as I look), and you should stop by there and check out all the fine articles, podcasts, and vlogs. Unless your already reading this from there, in which case Hello! How are you? Thanks, Cat, I appreciate being invited to play in your sandbox.