Roque's Corner » TV

TV: Battlestar Galactica Season Finale

Roque — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:47:28 +0000

I’m a week behind Battlestar Galactica this week, so this review is a little late, however…
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen the Season Finale, then you’re like me, behind. STOP READING HERE!
Holy smokes. Talk about an intense episode. It wasn’t plodding like this week’s Lost (in which they introduced two “new” characters which they promptly killed. Ehh, they promised someone would die soon in this episode, but IT WASN’T ANY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS! What a cop-out).
There have been a lot of complaints about this season, but I’m still a fan, I like a lot of the meat they’ve been adding to the characters (that and I listen to the podcast, so I know the difficulty they’ve been having writing a lot of the ideas they want into the show, so it’s easier for me to forgive them with this insight) Although some of this season has been “what’s-the-point-of-getting-them-off-New-Caprica-when-they’re-pretty much-back-to-where-they-started” some of the stuff has been pretty good me-screaming-at-the-television stuff.
First off, the trial of Baltar was going on, and I had some interest in it, just to see where it was going and how Lee and his father were going up against each other. Somehow, you knew Baltar would get off scott-free, but true to form, he was smug about it- which made me like him even less (not a negative “hate”, but sort of the kind of character you love to hate). Put in a corner once again, Baltar prevails.
Then the really cool stuff started happening. The Cylons streamed in for the kill, Lee climbed back in the pilot’s seat, after giving up his wings because of his conflict with his dad.
While all this was happening, they revealed who the Cylons were. Yep, Cylons- plural. When you thought they were going to just slowly and painfully reveal the final five one at a time- they revealed four of them -and it was a shocker! Talk about glued to my TV. This also leaves room for the “final” Cylon reveal, which makes you salivate for next season.
Finally, during the “almost” battle, Apollo drops out of formation because some is behind him, and it’s revealed that it’s the thought to be dead Kara. No big shocker (I thought she would be one of the Cylons), but she reveals she’s been to Earth, and she’s going to lead the fleet there.
The final shot showed Earth, although still far away, it seemed that the fleet was definitely closing in on it.
Overall, the last few moments of the show made it worth the price of admission. I really can’t wait until 2008 now!

TECHNOLOGY: Custom TV- The Time Has Come

roque — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:00:20 +0000

This whole idea was bought about by me watching Heroes episodes online, “TV on demand”. I watched a Lost episode online previously, but didn’t think much of it, but the more I get into the online thing the more I see that it’s an exciting untapped market. And there’s a ton of programming online that no one knows about because no one is marketing it.

There’s the TIVO. I own a SlingBox. There’s Comcast Video On Demand. Programming delivered when and where you want it. Why haven’t we finally gotten to a point when we can get delivered content on demand? Why are such technologies being challenged, stifled, and left to rot on the store shelves?

The “powers that be” originally decided it was a bandwidth issue. Then YouTube came along- sure the video was bad, but watchable and enjoyable. The ‘powers that be” decided to pull their copyrighted material off YouTube threatening lawsuits. They are now they’re trying own hand at these things, with no success due to them trying to adapt this new model to there.

It seems that the powers that be still want to stuff the same Reality-TV nonsense down our throats rather than allowing us to choose what we want to watch. I regularly disregard anything on mainstream TV because of its lack of substance. Good shows are regularly cancelled in place of trite (Arrested Development anyone?) and were forced to watch fixed content at regular time intervals rather than picking up a show on our time, when it convent for us.

Isn’t it time for user driven content- when and where you want it? Isn’t it time for our own custom programming when we want it? Isn’t it time for us to choose what we want rather than have it chosen for us?

I can do with the commercials within the on-Demand content, after all, the creators have to make a buck. I even can stand whatever product placement they have online. What I can’t stand is when I turn on the TV that I’m forced to watch time blocks pre-programmed to be whatever the power-that-be want it to be. It’s an ancient mentality driven by old ancient fools that refuse to change their business model. There is a ton of money to be made on the on demand model if the programming dinosaurs can sit-up and take notice.

TV: ATHF

roque — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:50:57 +0000

Aqua Teen Hunger Force. It stirs fear into law enforcement everywhere, this group of miscreants consisting of mainly an anthropomorphized versions of an order of fries, a shake, and a..err…meat thingee.

Makes you wonder about Boston: is the divide between the “hipsters” and the “squares” that wide? Should I worry about making pop culture references around the people in charge there, for fear of being marked a threat to society? The panic shown by Boston law enforcement over these meager animated billboards has me scratching my head in a definitive “Huh? – Wha-?”

You’d think that someone somewhere would’ve been aware enough to recognize this advertising gimmick from a mile away, but the disturbing thing is that (like the mercury scare a few weeks back) it shows not only how ill equipped those we pay to protect us are, but how out of touch they seem to be from what’s going on around them. It also has one wondering: can the law enforcement really tell the difference between glowing electronic diodes and real WMD (my guess is, no- not really).

Wasn’t at least one person the police force who didn’t stay up late at night to watch Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network? What about the recent trailers that have been cropping up on the Internet?

I don’t know what we should be more worried about- the fact that the responders took a forever to react, or how out of touch many seem to be with culture that is occurring right under they’re noses. Maybe they should get a clue. Or better yet, swallow their pride, and ask someone at the risk of looking dumber than they already look.

“A child of five could understand this. Quick, fetch me a child of five.”

It’s a cartoon about fast food products. It’s not a plot to disrupt the city and spread fear and panic. I hope someone learned a valuable lesson from this.