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Warren Shea

Archive for the ‘TV Shows & Movies’ Category

glee

Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 2:25 am

I started watching Glee….right now I’m on Season 1 Episode 20. It’s a good show, not a great show.

The musical numbers are pretty good. Sometimes.

The high school drama is…. repetitive. It’s less dramatic than say, Dawson’s Creek or One Tree Hill.

I think Dianna Agron is very nice to look at (and I enjoyed her appearance in I Am Number Four, despite being a terrible movie). But she sounds like she’s always got a cold. And also, she can’t act. It’s like watching January Jones in the X-Men.

I think Lea Michele is a great singer. But her character is SO OBNOXIOUS.

I think Matthew Morrison is like an older, less vocally strong Justin Timberlake. He’s good…but…not spectacular.

Anyways, what I really enjoy is that every once in a while, they’ll do a fantastic musical number. It’s nice just sticking around for that…

Also, every once in a while, they deal with difficult issues. I love that they have a physically disabled character in the show. The group has a lot of ethnic diversity. I love that the group is filled with all the cliques; jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, goths, geeks, and homosexuals. The group deals with all the issues that a cast of misfits like these would deal with. Racism, teen pregnancy, sexism, homosexualism…and well, just dealing with jerks most of the time. Every once in a while, they give me a show that makes me feel something, while the rest of the show is just…well, a series of events where I have no emotional attachment to. It’s more real now than it was at the beginning, but it’s still so…..high school. Most of the time.

Anyways, I should sleep…just wanted to write a bit about this show now that I’ve almost finishes Season 1. After that: Season 2 and then…who knows!

House S04E15 and House S04E16….(and Life & Death).

Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 11:30 pm

I haven’t watched House in about a week. Despite watching episodes constantly lately, starting from the beginning and powering through the seasons, I stopped at S04E14. Why? I knew S04E15 and S04E16 would be great…and I wanted to give them more than usual attention. I didn’t want to watch it while I was tired, or grumpy…I remember those 2 episodes being good…so while I couldn’t wait to watch them, I wouldn’t watch them under ideal circumstances.

Now, House is the kinda show that…is ridiculously episodic. As someone who hates episodic shows, I care less about the disease per episode and more about the characters. The episodes that interest me are character driven, not plot driven. And generally, except in rare cases, only the season finales are that strong. With the exception of a Foreman double parter in Season 2…and maybe one of the House/Cuddy episodes from this season, they’re all mostly plot driven.

To be honest, I don’t know which category House S04E15 falls under. But I can stay, after re-watching this episode, that this is by far my favorite episode of the entire series thus far. I put it on expecting to watch it, but not expecting to give it my full attention (I was supposed to blog while watching it)…but I couldn’t turn away. I was just captivated by it all. Even knowing the mystery behind the episode, I still couldn’t look away.

So while I’ll put the S04E15 episode as my favorite episode of House, I’ll also say that, in my opinion, S04E16 was definitely the saddest. I remember tearing up, possibly even crying when I saw it the first time. This time, I also couldn’t stop tearing up…but I didn’t have tears. I would have to say, it’s probably because Z was with me, watching it as well. I can see that if I were watching this alone, or late at night when I sometimes hit an emotional euphoria and/or emotional dysphoria, I can see myself balling. As I’m watching this show, I’m thinking that Wilson’s the nicest guy ever. And I’m thinking…he’s watching someone he loves, die right before his eyes…because of some random act of chance. He’s too nice to put real and inaccurate blame on someone (ie. House). Sometimes, life is just…unfair.

And I’m sitting here….watching him deal with this, wondering how I would react in his place. What if someone I loved were dying…what if I had to say “goodbye”. It’s something we don’t face everyday but it’s something we’re likely to face eventually. When I was younger, I used to contemplate my own death. Who would come to my funeral? What would be said about me? But at my current age (god I’m old :/), I contemplate the death of my loved ones. What am I going to say at my mother, or father’s funeral? Will I do them justice? How can I express the feeling of pride, how thankful I am, all the things I just can’t seem to say on a daily basis. Do I even know them well enough to speak for them? As I get older, and my acquaintances (co-workers) get older, I’m forced to see their family members pass away. I write my condolences on a card for them and while I know it means nothing, it also means everything…if that makes any sense. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a morbid kinda guy….the concept of death…intrigues me probably more than anything. While I’ve had my grandmother pass away, I wasn’t very close to her. I’ve had repeated hamsters pass away and while I’m sad, I find myself “over it” relatively quickly. Such is life, after all. But…eventually, my parents are going to go (before me). Or, by some freak accident, someone I’m close to. Or, by some simple careless mistake, I could die randomly. I don’t know what it feels like to experience a great loss. Maybe that’s why I’m trying to put myself in Wilson’s shoes…to try to feel what I might feel, never having had experience it. Or maybe I’m trying to prepare myself for the inevitable feeling of grief and loss and the bottomless void created that will never fully heal. Or maybe a bit of both. Hmm, as I wrote that, it’s quite possible that I’m putting far too much emphasis on death and not enough emphasis on life. Really, it doesn’t matter what happens when someone dies….but it matters how they lived.

Anyways, I didn’t intend to get all….deep, dark, and intense….that was an interesting side rant, despite the fact that I’ve quite possibly repeated it earlier, in previous blog posts. It’s so hard to tell nowadays. My posts feel so episodic, nothing memorable at all. Oh well, I always have new readers to read old content….

Anyways, on to what I was supposed to be blogging about….

Dark Angel – Review

Friday, December 24th, 2010 at 3:54 am

It was 2000 when the Dark Angel series began. I had seen television commercials promoting the show, emphasizing creator and director (of the pilot and series finale) James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Titanic, Avatar).

“A group of genetically-enhanced children escape from a lab project. Years later we meet Max, one of the escapees who now works for a messenger service in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.”

That was the premise. An electro magnetic pulse “nuke” goes off in 2009 in America completely turning all the 1s and 0s of electronic information (such as bank account information) to plain old 0s. America turned from financial powerhouse to poverty nation overnight. We meet Max, a genetically engineered child raised to be an expert soldier and assassin. Escaping the facility where she was being trained, Manticore, she and her brothers and sisters separate and blend in with the rest of the normal population. Skip forward to 2019 and we begin the story…

My Dark Angel items
My Dark Angel items

The order of the items, in chronological order (of story)
Dark Angel – Before the Dawn (Novel) – (2002)
Dark Angel – Season 1 (TV) – (2000-2001)
Dark Angel – Season 2 (TV) – (2001-2002)
Dark Angel – Skin Game (Novel) – (2003)
Dark Angel – After the D (Novel) – (2003)

Dark Angel – Before the Dawn (Novel)
To be honest, I thought this novel was terrible. I absolutely hated many aspects of it. While much of the beginning was a complete recap of some of the earlier season 1 episodes, but in novel form, the other storylines that filled the timeline between Max’s escape and season 1 were really weak. The whole thing with Moody and the Chinese clan just seemed a bit unbelievable – simply because there’s no reference of ANY of it in season 1 or season 2 of the television series. Same with any mention of Seth. Now, I get it. That’s the point of the prequel…I just found it very unbelievable. Also the meetings with Original Cindy and Kendra seemed forced, Original Cindy’s voice wasn’t really captured well. Also, much of the story leads all the way until the last 20 pages or so, where Max and Seth finally meet. It seemed like such an incredibly long wait for the climax, which seemed anti-climatic in my opinion. I read 280~ pages, 40 or so(?) were probably recap. I didn’t think I could go on….

More on this novel later though…it wasn’t that bad when you combine it with the television series and novels.

Dark Angel – Season 1 (TV)
I found season 1 to be very interesting. The main villain was Colonel Lydecker and Manticore. The characters were established and Max slowly turns from selfish girl to savior. Season 1 focuses on covert government ops, escape and evade, it’s very stealthy. It’s more about the military, guns, crime, as well as Max’s X5 brothers and sisters.

Dark Angel – Season 2 (TV)
Season 2 was a bit different, I disliked the introduction of dog-boy Joshua as well as the story and villain of Ames White and his cult. The series went further into genetics, “transgenics”, religion, cults and stuff. Pretty much non-existent this season was crime, guns, Max’s X5 siblings. The best parts of the series were the various X series characters and Alec (Jensen Ackles). My two favorite episodes being “Brainiac” and “The Berrisford Agenda”. My least favorite being any Joshua focused episodes…though the Annie stuff was pretty touching and surprising.

Dark Angel – Skin Game (Novel)
Now, we finally get to the interesting part of the story. What I had been waiting for for 8 years (though to be fair, I could have read this 5 years ago if I knew they existed…). Now, it’s possible I found the prequel novel, Before the Dawn, incredible long because I really just wanted to get to this book. Anyways…it’s great: Alec, Mole, Logan, Original City, and Sketchy are back. Normal makes an especially heartfelt appearance. Newly introduced Clemente and Ames White return with a whole mess of other characters as well as resolving plot lines.

I’ll summarize the plot quickly:
This occurs right after Freak Nation (series finale). Max tries to hold off the National Guard/Army invasion of Terminal City while a serial killer loose in Seattle kills, and skins people. Eventually, we find out the serial killer, “Kelpy”, is a transgenic who has chameleon powers. He is released from his Manticore prison by Max in Season 2, episode 1 (Designate This) but because of his blending powers, you don’t see him, even though he is there. Sneaky. He falls in love with Max and tries to “wear skin” from the people he’s killed so that he can “become human” and prevent his uncontrollable camouflage powers. He eventually tries to kill and skin Logan so that Max, who loves Logan, will fall in love with him (Kelpy). In the climax, he touches Logan but apparently steals some of his DNA…so when Max kicks his ass, the virus that plagued the Max/Logan relationship in Season 2 kills him. Interesting twist on things. I didn’t expect it. By catching the serial killer and co-operating with the police, the transgenics of Terminal City prove that they are on the side of the law and the invasion of Terminal City is delayed. Also in the end, Eyes Only broadcasts that Kelpy was created/influenced by Ames White. This effectively puts Ames White on the run from the NSA as well as his Familiar cult brothers.

A lot happens…I couldn’t wait to read the 3rd book…

Dark Angel – After the Dark (Novel)
…which I started reading the day after I finished the second. The third is…different. 6~ months have passed since book 2. Terminal City is slowly becoming a normal part of society. The gang all celebrates the advent of Christmas (how ironic/coincidental that I read this novel given the time I read it…) and by accident, Logan and Max touch. The virus from Season 2 appears inert and it is explained that Kelpy had taken the host virus from Max and the “target” DNA from Logan (ehh!?!, I didn’t really buy this but whatever) which basically made the virus disappear. Basically, the virus becomes a non-issue. It is then that Logan decides to tell Max about Seth (from book 1, which I should mention, is foreshadowed in the first novel). There’s some distrust and they have a fight instead of, you know, have sex. Immediately after the fight where Logan and Max part ways for a bit, Logan gets kidnapped by Ames White who tries to leverage Logan to get back in good graces with his cult group, the Familiars. Max, after the fight with Logan, visits Jam Pony to cool off and talks to Original Cindy who smacks some sense into her that Logan loves her. By the way, Normal makes an appearance here and I have to say, the Normal character development between the 2 books are my favorite moments in the novels. I really loved what the writer did with Normal and how he was written. Kudos on that. Anyways, back to the story. Logan gets kidnapped by Ames White, the ransom is Ray White, Ames’ son. In a slightly disturbing move, Ray get killed along the way which means there’s no leverage for Max. In the end, Max and company kick Ames White and company’s ass. Terminal City Transgenics >> Ames White’s cult. Joshua does the final deed of ripping Ames White’s head off, something well deserved since Season 2. Max and Logan make up and it’s implied that the last thing they do…is have sex. How nice.

All 3 novels combined
Now, going back to novel 1: Before the Dawn. Like I said, I hated it when I read it but by the third novel, I had appreciated the story. Also, the story in novel 2: Skin Game, also played a part in the final novel. I again gotta say, I love it when the plot lines connect and the stories combine to a coherent, solid story. Which is exactly what happened in all 3 novels. There was some open ended questions in the third novel but nothing that you really needed to know (the open ended plot is that Lydecker was still alive and knew where Max’s mom was). The premise for another novel but not really necessary to the story…it’s brand new so for me, it’s whatever.

Conclusion
The novels, eventually, portrayed the story and conclusion that I longed to understand and read. It was definitely worth reading all of the novels to see the completed storyline. While reading wiki’s and this post might provide you with a summary of the story, the fun part is the journey. So if you’re a fan, I recommend reading everything. It’s always great to see how characters you’ve grown to love have matured and changed over time as well as finding out their (sometimes final) fate. Closure. It’s all about closure.

Side notes/facts I learned:
3 Battlestar Galactica actors/actresses make appearances in this series:
Grace Park (DA: “Female Breeding X5″ – BSG: Lt. Sharon Valerii – Boomer)
Nicki Clyne (DA: X6 / Fixit – BSG: Cally Tyrol)
Rick Worthy (DA: Lieutenant Clemente – BSG: Simon)

In “The Berrisford Agenda”, it’s actually Jensen Ackles playing piano. He said that he studied very hard for 2 weeks to play that and he can’t remember any of it. I always found that awesome and ridiculously crazy because it is played VERY well…and he just learned it for a couple of minutes in one episode. That’s some crazy actor determination. I really liked the character Alec and it was great to see the serious side of him in this episode. It’s always great to see the skilled part of his X5ness and not the “I get my ass kicked cuz I’m a fool” part.

How to Train Your Dragon – Review

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 at 2:56 am

I’ve seen this movie 3 times, once in theaters in 3D and twice on my newly purchased blu-ray. I watched it yesterday once…and I couldn’t get the music out of my head all day today (well, I was listening to the soundtrack at work all day) so I decided to watch it again.

I gotta say, I really love this movie.

I love the plot, the cute dragons (this movie kinda reminds me of an Ash/Pikachu combo), but I really love the music. It fits the movie so well…I liked these songs (below), and put them on the site if for no one’s benefit but my own (as I know I’m going to be listening to this @ work tomorrow). I suggest you give them a try, it takes a bit sometimes for the song to pick up…it’s also probably better if you’ve seen the movie first…


Forbidden Friendship

Test Drive

Romantic Flight

Coming Back Around

When I go over good movies, I basically rate them on what they did wrong over what they did right. I mean, if it’s a great movie but I didn’t like one thing or there was a plot hole, I’d detract from my overall score…but I can’t find anything wrong with this movie…
I’ve only seen Toy Story 3 once in theatres and a couple of times elsewhere but I can’t really find a flaw in that movie. It’s especially emotionally overwhelming at some points which knock it up a few notches.

While How to Train Your Dragon doesn’t have “emotionally overwhelming” points, there are some really emotional, awesome moments…and if you know me, I love movies that can affect you.

warrenshea.com rates – How to Train Your Dragon – 10/10!

Better icons soon…it’s just so late and they didn’t come out as I planned (they’re more fugly than I thought they’d be).

Smallville S10 E04 – REVIEW – EPIC of EPICNESS

Monday, October 18th, 2010 at 1:05 am

****Spoiler Alert****

WOWOWOWOWOWOWowowow I can’t even count off the top of my head how many awesome things happened this episode. Usually in every episode, there’s 1 or 2 interesting things. This season, every episode is cramming in 3 or 4 (because this is their last season). They’re fitting in SO MUCH in this 10th season, it’s ridiculous. Like, you can’t have every episode of a show like this….or it becomes Heroes, all cliffhanger endings until they aren’t shocking anymore…..and no plot behind it to back it up and it just flops.

But with Smallville, there’s 10 years of history…

EPICLY AWESOME THINGS:
1. Reappearance of Lana Lang (S01E01), if only in a Flashback
2. Reappearance of Chloe Sullivan, again…just a flashback.
3. Brainiac (James Marsters), villain of season 8, returning O_O
4. Giving closure to Clark’s father’s death.
5. The future: Superman on the newspaper
6. The future: Lois and Clark together
7. The future: Future Clark Kent, glasses and all.
8. The future: so many little easter eggs on the whole Superman thing
9. Lois and Clark declaring their love for each other
10. Green Arrow/Oliver Queen (Justin Hartly) outing himself as Green Arrow
11. Lois and Clark dancing at the end, Clark flying….because he’s with Lois

11 EPICLY AWESOME THINGS all in one episode (that I can think of right now). I have been waiting 10 years for some of these things…and it all paid off so beautifully. BEST. EPISODE. OF. SMALLVILLE. EVER. EVER.

Ah…my heart just melted watching Clark float off the ground as he danced with Lois. I fought back tears a couple times during the episode when Clark was at his father’s gravestone, saying goodbye. And also at the end…Clark’s had an issue with flying for 10 years. He can’t get it. It’s a feat that, if forced, becomes impossible to accomplish. And then at the end of the episode, he and Lois just…man, you can totally see why their love is epic and spans like, 100 years on continuity. Anyways…Clark lets his doubts and fears wash away and his dance with Lois….she’s the key! The key to his flying. Like they say those things about being in love makes you feel like you’re flying or whatever….but they totally like, showed it! ARGH. I KNOW IT SOUNDS CHEESY….but man, it totally worked on me. I was completely touched…

Lois and Clark. I could really see how perfect they are for each other this episode.

Man, it’s like, 25 minutes after I watched the episode and it has still taken my breath away. I’m just….so emotional! *fans himself*

/going to buy a skirt cuz this post was written by a 10 yr old girl…named Wareena