TV: Friday Night Lights....the BEST show on TV

If anyone from outside of Texas ever asks me what it's like living in the Lone Star State, all I have to do is give them my Seasons 1 & 2 of Friday Night Lights and say, "Watch this. This is what living in Texas is like."

Ever since the very first season, critics have called this one of the best shows on TV. The great thing about it is that while football is at the core of this show, it's not what the show's about. The show is about people.

The characters in the show are so well written, even minor, on-the-side characters are given story arcs that are meaningful and poignant. You end up really caring for what happens in these people's lives.

The acting by leads Kyle Chandler (of "Early Edition" fame) and Connie Britton (of "Spin City" and The Brothers McMullen fame, and also the woman of my dreams) is spot on. Britton, who is one of two returning actors from the Friday Night Lights movie, fits into the role of coach's wife perfectly, and she and Chandler have that rare onscreen chemistry that seems like these two have been married for years. Chandler, as Coach Eric Taylor, comes across as devoted father and hardass coach, while never changing his character one bit. The rest of the cast is full of mostly unknowns who are now getting the attention they deserve, because they're fantastic actors. Even those that I wasn't too keen on at the beginning have started to grow on me.

The thing that I really love about this show isn't the acting, the writing, or the gorgeous women (though I do LOVE the gorgeous women on this show). It's the fact that for the first time on television, it shows how Texas really is, not some Hollywood version of Texas, but Texas as a real place with real people...who have real problems. The second season had some WTF moments, but the show weathered the storm and never jumped the shark. I think that one of the reasons this show appeals to people and tugs at their heartstrings is because the majority of people who watch it come from small towns themselves, and this show reminds them of home.

It reminds them of people saying "hi" or "howdy" to you on the street. Of carnivals on the town square. And of Friday night football games. Whenever the main theme of the show starts playing, it takes me back to my adopted hometown, a small little place north of Houston, population around 4,000 people, and the comfort that I found there. That's what this show means to me.

If you don't watch this show, you should. Watch it online, or DVR it, or catch it on iTunes. Don't let this be one of those shows that you pick up the DVD in a few years and fall in love with. This is a show that you need to love NOW...because it might not be around very much longer. And that will be the greatest shame.


PS - for your information the gorgeous women are the aforementioned Connie Britton, Minka Kelly, Adrienne Palicki, and Aimee Teegarden.

Bunter's dream girls come to life and star on an NBC tv show.

TV: The Eleventh Doctor Revealed!!!

I know that TK was at some point a Dr. Who fan, and I've become a fan in the recent six months or so. David Tennant will always be what I consider the quintessential Doctor, and it saddened me when I found out that he was going to be retiring in 2009.

However, I was also excited, because that meant I would see a changing of the guard! A new Doctor would be introduced to the world, and the more I read the interweb about who would replace David, the more excited I got. Would it be the always fantastic (and sorta Tennant-looking) Robert Carlyle? Or would they finally have a Doctor of color with Dr. Who alum Colin Salmon? Or would they go an even different direction with the first female Doctor, played by my current English crush Billie Piper?

News came down today that the Eleventh Doctor would be played by English newcomer Matt Smith. This is an interesting take on the Doctor, and I think the new producers are hoping to bring in a younger demographic.



Dr. Who has always been on the periphery of my sci-fi geekdom. I never got into it before I started watching the new series on the Sci Fi channel, and that was only because the show came on right before Battlestar Galactica. With Tennant as the Doctor, I was hooked. I even went back and watched the first season, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. He wasn't really my cup of tea (insert English joke here), but his companion was the lovely Rose Tyler, played by the before mentioned Billie Piper. If you haven't seen the current seasons of Dr. Who, try and catch them on BBC America or on the Sci Fi Channel. They are fantastic, with equal parts humor and adventure.

Since I found Serenity, You can't take the sky from me

About five years ago, I heard about a new show on the Fox network that was supposed to be pretty good. It was a far-out concept...a sci-fi western. Now, I'm a fan of both sci-fi movies and westerns, but this sounded too far fetched for me. Even though I heard great things about it, I never checked it out, and when I finally decided to watch it...it was canceled. After 11 episodes. I thought to myself, it must not have been very good if it was cancelled after only half a season!

Boy, was I wrong. The creator was none other than Joss Whedon, the genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two shows that I really dug. And this was his baby, the project he had always wanted to do, so he put his heart and soul into it. So much, that when his show was cancelled, he told his cast and crew not to worry, he'd find another home.

And a few years later, he did. But not as a TV show. As a full length movie. It's one of the only times in history that a cancelled television show has been brought back as a feature length film.


The show was called Firefly, and if you were a fan of the only 13 episodes in existence, and the film Serenity, then call yourself a Browncoat. I Netflix'd the series to watch while I was stuck at home during Hurricane Ike, and I couldn't stop watching them. So much so, that when I got done, I went to Best Buy and bought the whole thing on DVD (a steal at $34!!!).

It's because of the DVD sales of the series that the movie was greenlit, and that might be the saving grace of the Firefly 'Verse. Fans have really kept this franchise alive, and I for one am glad about it.

The tv show is a really great, really well written show, and it makes you really feel something for the characters. Listening to the commentary during the series, you can see that the crew and cast really liked each other, and thought that they were making something important, which is evident in the product they created. Unfortunately, Firefly was broadcast on the Fox Network, which doesn't allow a show to find its audience, and due to scheduling conflicts, it never found any ratings.

But I think the popularity of sci-fi now was helped along by this little series that could. Shows like Battlestar Galactica might not have gotten made if shows like Firefly hadn't paved the way.

If you're intersted in seeing a great cast, great stories, and a well made tv series and movie about space cowboys, then check out Firefly. Who knows? If you buy enough DVDs, maybe another movie will get made!

http://www.geekroar.com/film/archives/firefly_cast_small.jpg

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"Spaced" - now on DVD!!!

By now, American audiences should know who Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are. If you don't, then go to your video store and rent "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz".

Before they got famous here in the States, though, they (along with Nick Frost and the beautiful and talented Jessica Stevenson/Hynes) starred in "Spaced," one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.

There are certain times in my life when I see something that speaks to me. The first time was when I saw "Mallrats" and thought, This is the movie I should have made. Watching "Spaced" gives me that same feeling.

The writing, by Pegg and Stevenson/Hynes, talks to the geek culture that I'm proud to be a part of. There are pop culture references a plenty, but even if you don't get them, you'll still like the show.

The show starts off by introducing Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson/Hynes), two twentysomethings who live in London, but find themselves without a place to live. They meet up in a coffee shop, and find an ad for an apartment that would be perfect, except that it's only for a professional couple. So, they pretend to be a couple to get the apartment. The usual hijinks happen when they almost get caught in their lie, and the supporting cast is great.

There's Marsha, their constantly drunk landlady. Brian, their downstairs artistic neighbor. Twist, Daisy's best friend. And Mike, Tim's best friend, played by Simon Pegg's real life best friend (and at the time, NOT an actor) Nick Frost.

The show is hilarious, and it speaks to me, because that was kinda the life I was living at that time, being twenty-something and loving comic books and hating "The Phantom Menace". And Edgar Wright's camerawork is gorgeous, much better than anything on American TV. The show is shot in the style of a horror movie, and it's because of one of these episodes (Episode 1.3 "Art"), that "Shaun of the Dead" got made.

You can get the whole series on DVD now, and I'd recommend doing just that, especially if you've seen the other two movies.