Fox wants you to know that they have a new superhero show too! This is the trailer for the trailer, but from the looks of things Gifted will fit very neatly in to the overarching Fox/X-Men universe. Though it is a little disappointing to see that it will not be as original as FX’s Legion.
The Tick Officially Returns This August!
Our sad pathetic Tick free lives get much better August 25th! Because The Tick is returning to TV, or at least the internet that connects to our TV! Will it be as funny as I remember? I don’t know, but if MST3K can come back better than ever so can our favorite blue bug man. Spooooooooon!
MST3K Is Back!
I was nervous that the new MST3K was not going to be funny. It turns out that I was worried about nothing. I am two movies in and loving it. The new cast is great, though the new robot voices took a little getting used to, and it seems like they have amped the jokes per minute, so there are fewer of those jokeless lulls that sometimes would plague the older MST3K episodes.
If you are unaware of what Mystery Science Theater 3000 is, let me clear that up for you. Pretty much the ‘Bads’, Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and Max “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank” (Patton Oswalt), go out and find terrible movies and then Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray) and his robots Crow (Hampton Yount) and Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn) make fun of them. It is a simple setup, but it works well.
If you have been missing Mystery Science Theater 3000 like I have, the new Netflix series is a return to form. I look forward to watching the remaining twelve flicks with Jonah and his robot pals. Now that MST3K is back, I hope it stays back. I don’t want to go through another long period without them.
Carmen Sandiego Is Hiding At Netflix HQ!
With just about all of my childhood favorite shows making a comeback it was only a matter of time before someone went to the map to find super-thief Carmen Sandiego. If Netflix takes the same care with Carmen Sandiego as they did with Voltron, we are in for a treat! The Gina Rodriguez staring vehicle will hit the small screen in 2019, and I will be there trying to track her down.
Shmee Witnesses 13 Reasons Why
Leave it to Netflix to drop a TV show about one of the most troubling issues in America, teen suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people from 15 to 24, and 13 Reasons Why takes it head on. I am generally unaffected by what I watch. Sure my friends will tell you that I jump out of my seat during a horror movie more than anyone they know, but I will sleep like a baby that night. Not so with 13 Reasons Why. It is keeping me up at night, and not just because I want to watch just one more episode. Though that is true too.
The show starts in the aftermath of the suicide of Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) and fellow Liberty High classmate Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) is not taking it well, and it gets even worse when a box full of cassette tapes is left on his front porch. Each tape is narrated by Hannah Baker chronicling a reason why she decided to end her life. Clay is informed that he is on one of these tapes, and he has no idea what he did. He just knows he has to listen to the tapes and then send them to the next person on the list.
What is on the tapes is tragic, and Clay has a hard time listening to them. He is our proxy for what is going on, and every tape devastates him further. Of course he can only listen to the tapes a little at a time, so it takes him days to finish this task, which is convenient for the plot. Some people are worried that this show glamorizes teen suicide, but this show is anything but glamorous. It is sad and heart-wrenching, and it makes you angry at all the people involved in this poor girl’s life.
Granted with real life suicides we never get to hear the forlorn narration of why a person would make such horrible choice. They are just gone, and they leave people to try and pick up the pieces of their lives. Which is why I am torn about 13 Reasons Why. On one hand it is an amazing drama that doesn’t shy away from its troubling theme, but on the other, as sad as it is, it is still not a realistic portrayal of a real life issue. All I can say is that 13 Reasons Why is very good, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if it keeps you up at night.