I, Istarius

(I’m writing this post mainly for my own benefit, but if it interests anyone, all the better.)

Here is the unofficial countdown for shows—shows I’m interested in—returning or premiering this fall:

Never before have I been so diligent in watching pilots for new shows, no, generally I have no idea what’s new on TV until it airs, and often even later than that.

First up is a drama/mystery show called The Secrets of a Small Town. In the small town of Santa Ruiz, two twin girls go missing after a party. Shortly after, one of them is found dead, murdered. The whole community is shaken by the event, which makes national news. A young reporter, Bethany, initially from Santa Ruiz but who left some eight years ago to persue her career, relunctantly agrees to return to her home town in order to cover the story. Her sense that going back might be a mistake is partly validated by a difficult reunion with her sister, the local sheriff.

Although in a genre I’m particularly fond of, I’m not sure about this show. It has a slight Point Pleasant feel about it, and I mean that in a bad way. (Is there any good way to remember Point Pleasant?) It’s the kind of show I believe must be story-driven, rather than character-driven, if it should succeed. I’ll say one thing positive though, I can’t wait to see the next episode.

Another one that seemed worth checking out is Angela’s Eyes. Angela, a twenty-something woman working for the FBI, has the unique gift of being able to tell when people are lying. She supposedly got this gift because her parents were spies working against USA. I might have tuned out there a while, because it didn’t really make sense.

The whole concept seems a bit weak to me. It’s slightly reminiscent of Psych (although this show is not a comedy), and maybe even more of Alias—another show I never liked. I might be a bit biased: I normally hate these slick agency type of shows. They’re always a tad too unrealistic for me to accept. I’ll just leave it at that.

The third up could very well be my favorite for today: Heroes. All over the world, people are discovering they have different super-hero powers. They don’t know why it’s happening, it just is; but a vision of the future shows a burning New York, and it’s not a huge leap to suggest that our new heroes are supposed to try to stop this from happening.

I love it so far. It’s one of those shows where I don’t care about the fine details. I mean, it was a bit ridiculous every time they tried to scientifically explain something, but the show doesn’t rely on it (Numb3rs comes to mind, yuck), so it doesn’t matter. Otherwise, the acting and writing seemed solid. It shows all promise to be a highly entertaining show with an interesting story.

Got any interesting new shows to tell about? Feel free!

Man, there are sure a lot of new pilots turning up these days. I already wrote about Jericho in an earlier post, so that one can be skipped.

After Jericho, it was time for Traveler. Seems this show won’t air until January 2007, and I sure can’t wait. This show has everything: a fascinating story, excellent writing, and good enough acting.

Jay, Tyler and Will, three young men freshly out of college, decide to celebrate their graduating with a road trip. Their first stop being New York, they begin by visiting The Drexler Museum of Art—non-existant in the real world. Either way, Will (who dragged them there) suggests that, as a prank, they race down from the top of the museum on rollerblades. While Will lingers behind, Jay and Tyler race through the building. Shortly after exiting, they get a phone call from their friend left behind, who says nothing else than that he’s sorry. A moment a later, a explosion goes off inside the museum. As Jay and Tyler are identified as chief suspects, they realize they’ve been set up. We learn via Tyler’s father that someone knew that this would happen, because that someone made a lot of money on it—or at least avoided losing a lot of money.

Speculation: Will is pretty much the bad guy right now. Jay and Tyler can’t even prove he ever existed! Nevertheless, I can’t help but think this’ll turn out the next 24: there’s definitely a larger conspiracy here. Before they can prove their innocence, Jay and Tyler will continue to run from the FBI and the police. I highly doubt Will is dead. He even had an escape vehicle ready! (Remember, he parked the car in another garage.) But who is the black guy helping Jay and Tyler escape from the police van, and what’s the deal with Will filming everything?

Next one up is The Nine. What seems like a regular day turns into a nightmare for the people who happened to be in the Fidelity Republic Bank. Two bank robbers storm into the bank sometime in the afternoon. Cut to 52 hours later; we see a hostage situation that took place inside the bank finally being resolved. Evidently, something had gone wrong in the robbery and the robbers started taking hostages. We learn that one of the nine shot one of the robbers, who ends up in a coma, and subsequently, the police managed to take control over the situation. At least one person lost its life in the situation: Eva, a bank teller.

The nine people who are hostages to the end are: Jeremy (surgeon), Lizzie (nurse, Jeremy’s girl friend), Malcolm (bank branch manager), Eva (bank teller, killed), Franny (bank teller, Eva’s sister) Felicia (Malcolm’s daughter), Egan Foote (office employee, shot one of the robbers), Nick Kavanaugh (police officer), Kathryn (assistant DA).

Speculation: After the event, we continue to follow the lives of the nine and how they all cope differently with what happened. This show will not, however, turn into a drama about how they get on with their lives. I believe we’ll learn that one of the hostages was, in fact, “in on it.” Egan’s life has changed for the better, but is he really that innocent? His behaviour at the bank was a bit erratic. Malcolm didn’t want his daughter inside the bank; did he know something? All of the nine are such unlikely suspects, ironically meaning it can be either one.

This fall everybody will be saying Jericho this and Jericho that. At least, that’s what CBS hopes. And after seeing the pilot, I think they’re justified in their belief.

The premise: Jericho, a small town in Kansas, is cut off from the outside world shortly after a huge explosion (causing a familiar mushroom-shaped cloud) is seen in the direction of Denver. Left without electricity and not knowing what’s going on, the citizens drift towards panic.

From there, it can really go anywhere and my hopes are very high for the story. There are some problems, however. For instance, some scenes I just didn’t buy—the mass panic, the speech of the mayor to calm people down, etc.—and seemed rather cliché. Something that never stopped shows like Prison Break, though. Another is the acting. Maybe surprisingly, Skeet Ulrich (Jake) did a rather well job, but otherwise, it felt a little bleak. I am skeptically positive. If they can make it fly, it’ll fly far.

Yesterday, I saw a movie I’ve been awaiting for some time now: Hard Candy. Although it wasn’t exactly what I had expected, I think it was great. Without giving away the plot, I can say that paedophelia and torture (there are no graphic scenes though, it’s all psychological) are major themes. That may scare away some, but if you’re only going to see one movie about paedophelia and torture this year, make it this one.

The acting is superb, both by Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page (whom, after looking at her IMDb profile, I recall seeing in ReGenesis), and that’s really what makes this film work. All in all, Hard Candy manages to walk a fine line in a controversial subject without being too biased. Eight thumbs up!

The past weekend UFC 61: Bitter Rivals was held. It sure had promise! Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz was one of the most anticipated matches this year. Ah, and how I longed for Andrei Arlovski vs Tim Sylvia to fight again. At their previous encounter, Arlovski’s loss was due to over-eagerness. But, instead of something great, UFC 61 turned out one of the most disappointing UFC events I have ever seen.

If you’ve seen the fights, you’ll know that the Ortiz-Shamrock match was finished rather quickly. Tito got an early takedown and ferociously started dropping elbows. After four or five hits the judge stepped in and stopped it, since Ken wasn’t defending himself intelligently. 1:18 it lasted. I have seen people defending themselves a lot less intelligently for a much longer time before the judge decides to step in. While the safety of the fighters are important, in this case the judge robbed the audience and the fighters of the match that should’ve been.

Sylvia vs Arlovski was sort of the opposite. For the first two rounds were interesting; one was waiting for either a big punch from Sylvia or a combo from Arlovski. As the rounds went on it got boring. It’s ridiculous a fight like that lasts five rounds. I blame Arlovski–had he only been more aggressive it would have been more exciting.

None of the other fights were very impressive either. Frank Mir is still really rusty and unlikely to get back to his former level. You’ve got to admire that he’s continued fighting, though. Joe Stevenson’s and Josh Burkman’s fights were possibly the highlights of the event. And honestly, those fights were average at best.

Nevertheless, awesome news that Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell will fight on November 18, provided Chuck defends his title against Babalu. My money is on Wanderlei, but you never know. Additionally, MMAFighting.com reports that other Pride fighters will step into the octagon for this event.

Update: Seems like Wanderlei and Chuck won’t fight after all. Pity.

I, Tiberius Istarius Drusus Nero—, uh, let me start over. So, first entry. What should I write here? Most people seem to favor some kind of introduction, so here goes. I’m presently 24 years old and I’m studying for a master’s degree in computer science. My master’s thesis is about scan matching, but it’s unlikely you’ll hear anything about that here. I have myriads of interests on an amaetur level though: philosophy, math, science, web development, typography, MMA (as a fan, that is), gaming, and movies, to name a few.