Shmee.Me

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013

Community Vs. The Big Bang Theory

There are two sitcoms that are generally considered to be “geeky”, Community and The Big Bang Theory, and they have both done quite a few shows in common from Dungeons and Dragons episodes to Paint Ball and Even Sci-Fi/Comic Book conventions, but they could not be more different, and it all comes down to how they treat their characters.

Community is about a study group at Greendale Community College, and the different fiascos they get in to due to their diverse makeup and the strange social disorder that Abed Nadir has where he compares everything to TV shows and Movies he has seen, so it gives the show a very meta feel.

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of very smart doctor level scientists, an engineer, and a waitress, and how the group with its socially awkward tendencies and disorders cause humorous events.

You would think that due to the fact that one show is about a community college and that the other is about scientists that The Big Bang Theory would be geekier of the two, but that is not the case. Community understands geek culture and sometimes makes jokes that only someone with a knowledge of the subject would understand.

For instance in the season four finally of Community, Abed Nadir goes to the darkest timeline, which is a rip-off of Star Trek’s Mirror Universe, and meets himself, and since he is the most like Spock he finds that he is the same in both universes, just like Spock, but they don’t explain the Star Trek connection. You either get it or you don’t, and they don’t care if you don’t get it. The Big Bang Theory would never do a joke like that. Sure they have had Leonard Nimoy on the show, but the Star Trek jokes they make are basically that the guys like Star Trek, so no knowledge of the show is necessary.

My biggest problem with The Big Bang Theory is that a lot of the jokes are at the main characters’ expense. You are not laughing with Sheldon Cooper, you are laughing at him, and while it is true you do laugh at people in Community, you get the feeling that they are in on the joke, and they make sure that the situations they are in are funnier than the people themselves. With The Big Bang Theory it seems that I am supposed to laugh at the characters because they are nerds, and that they are doing nerdy things, and as a nerd it is a little insulting.

It is nice that when you watch Community and they have a D&D episode that they are making fun of the situations inside the D&D game, and the craziness that the group comes up with. Unlike The Big Theory, which half the joke is that the guys are playing D&D in the first place.

All that being said (or written in this case) The Big Bang Theory is funny and they have a group of great writers that make the show good, but I just get a little nerd rage after I think about the humor afterwards. Community on the other hand is very self referential and doesn’t care if you are having a good time or not, and when they lost Dan Harmon the show’s creator last season, they lost their geeky soul, so it has dropped off a bit, but good news he is back next year!

They are both good shows, but I feel that Community embraces geek culture while The Big Bang Theory makes fun of it, and it is nice to be in on a joke instead of the butt of it, so that is why I am a big fan of Community.

June 1, 2013June 3, 2013

MST3K: The Crawling Eye!

Another day another MST3K movie to review, and this week I have duesy. The Crawling Eye! This is an older MST3K episode from when they adlibbed the jokes, so sometimes they aren’t the greatest, but the movie is so delightfully bad that you can make up your own jokes.

This movie takes place in a small town near Geneva where the local mountain the Trollenberg has been covered in fog and people have been going missing, or ending up beheaded when they try and climb the mountain. It turns out that the fog is a localized atmosphere so these eye like alien creatures can breathe and I guess eat people’s heads, so don’t climb the Trollenberg. But people keep climbing it and dying, and it turns out this has happened before in the Alps, so I guess we should have known better, but that would be boring movie.

This is one of those movies where everything is the right kind of bad: cheesy acting, horrible special effects, and an awful script, but they keep up the pace so it doesn’t get boring. It is a shame that some of the jokes from Joel and the Bots don’t land, but this is before they hired TV’s Frank, so they were down a writer.

If you are by yourself this movie may not be as fun to watch since you will have to make up your own jokes, and you will have no one to tell them too so you will be talking to yourself, but if you are like me then that is a common occurrence anyway, so it was a fun movie to watch.

May 31, 2013May 31, 2013

Join Shmee for the Tron Uprising!

Tron: Uprising was a show on Disney XD for the Summer of 2012, and it has since landed on Netflix. Since I love all things Tron I had to try it out and watch it, and I am glad I did since it may be the best entry into the Tron franchise.

The show is about a young program named Beck (Elijah Wood) trying to lead a revolution by taking Tron’s name against the local occupation while being instructed by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) himself. He has good friends to help him along the way Mara (Mandy Moore) and Zed (Nathan Corddry), and some other old Tron characters may show up along the way. This series serves as a way to bridge the gap between Tron and Tron: Legacy.

Elijah Wood’s performance nails the young program trying to be more then he is, and anything with the real Tron Bruce Boxleitner in it is awesome. The rest of the cast do their jobs well, but the show really hinges on Tron and Beck, so it is good that they cast them so well.

The look they created for the show is great. They took the aesthetic from Tron: Legacy and then stylized it even more, so the show is full of deep blacks with cool neon accents. There is a ton of action in this show with Disc fights, and light cycle/jet/ATV chases, and it seems like they have a new way to frame it every time so it doesn’t get old.

I really like this show, so it stands to reason that its future is uncertain. It did not get the viewership ratings to justify a second season, but Disney knows it has a good thing going so they haven’t officially canceled it, and they are looking for somewhere else to put it, but even if it does get canceled at least we got these nineteen episodes.

May 30, 2013May 30, 2013

Don’t fall Asleep with Alan Wake

Alan Wake is a game made in 2010 by Remedy Entertainment, and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is Remedy’s second franchise after Max Payne, and I am glad to say that they continue their tradition of quality with this game. I know your asking why I took three years to try it, but that is because I am cheap and it was five dollars on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Alan Wake starts off with the title character Alan Wake and his wife Alice on a trip to a secluded Washington town called Bright Falls. They are going there to take a break and hopefully find a cure for Alan’s crippling writer’s block: Alan is a writer but he hasn’t been able to write anything for two years. During their first night in Bright Falls something happens and Alice goes missing, and Alan can’t remember what happened, and the town’s inhabitants seem to be turning into monsters when the lights go out. Can you save Alice and Bright Falls?

The game is separated in to six episodes, and each one starts off with a “Previously on Alan Wake”. The creators did this because they love the show Twin Peaks, and used it for some of the setup for this game. There is also a lot of Hitchcock and Stephen King to found here too, but it all comes together and works. This is a very creepy game, and it made me jump more then once.

The gameplay is deceptively simple, you must shine your flashlight on the bad guys to where down their darkness and then you can shoot them with whatever gun you have with you. It makes it kind of a dual wielding/lock on mechanic that works very well. You can also make light traps to end the foes that follow you in the dark.

Also along the way you can collect pages to the book that you are apparently writing, it fills in the story, and lets you in on some of the secrets of Bright Falls.

This is a great game, and it was well worth my five dollars, and if you are looking for a game to play this summer you should add this to your list.

May 29, 2013

Hang out with The Duchess of the Shallows

The Duchess of the Shallows is book written by Neil McGarry and Daniel Ravipinto. It is the third book I have read out of the indie fantasy bundle I got. They did a good job with this book, and it was a fun read.

The book is about a teenage girl named Duchess that is living on the streets of the fogy city Rodaas in the district known as the Shallows. She was given a mark, a brass coin with a ‘P’ on it, and she is hoping that it will help her get in with the Gray, a sort of thieves guild. But in order to cash in the mark and join the Gray she will have to complete an almost impossible task all while staying out of the way of the Red, a militia that takes care of the poor, and the White that takes care of the upper classes, and the Black Arms that are just mainly for hire, but also act as the city guard.

Even though this book features kids on the street, and the things that they have to do to survive, the authors keep a sense of humor, charm, and adventure that keeps this book from being dark and depressing. It is a good change of pace from the last book I read.

I also appreciate how this book is not a supper grand adventure that if not completed the world will end. It is just a simple story in a fantasy setting about a girl trying to better herself, and by doing that we get to know the Duchess better, and they also set her up well for future books.

I liked this book a lot and I will be on the lookout for future Duchess of the Shallows books.