Shmee.Me

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016

DC Is Trying To Make You Forget About The Jonah Hex Movie!

According to Entertainment Weekly the CW is adding another superhero to the Legends of Tomorrow lineup, the scarred antihero cowboy Jonah Hex. Jonah was last seen in a terrible movie staring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, so the move to TV makes sense. Maybe the CW show can scrub the thought of that film out of the audience’s collective memory. Though I am more interested in the bigger implications. If they are adding in Hex, what other heroes might we see along the way? I hope they find ways to sneak in a lot of the lesser DC heroes. If they can’t make it on the big screen it would be fun to see them on the small one!

January 8, 2016

Downton Abbey Is Back For One Last Year!

The sixth and final season has begun for Downton Abbey! It looks like the much promised change and rise of the middle class will finally hit the show this year, so we will see how the Granthams deal with the end of the Edwardian era. Honestly it seems like we have been waiting for this to happen since the show began, but it looks we will finally see the fall of aristocracy, well lower Lord and Ladies anyway. We can only hope that Tom comes back from America to say, “I told you so!”.

I will say that my biggest concern is what will happen to all the staff when all the jobs they have trained for all their lives disappear. The Granthams will be just fine I am sure since the show always seems to let them out of their troubles, with the exception of killing them off from time to time. I hope this last tour of Downton Abbey is a good one.

January 6, 2016

Shmee Ventures Into The Badlands!

You know what the holiday season is good for? Binge watching TV shows. Mostly the wife and I binge watched Harry Potter, but we did manage to squeeze in ‘Into the Badlands’. The new Kung-Fu show from AMC. The story was a little iffy, but the action was top-notch.

‘Into the Badlands’ is about a post-apocalyptic future where guns have been outlawed, and Barons rule the Badlands with their sword wielding ‘Clipper’ forces. A young boy (Aramis Knight) has been found with a mysterious past and amazing powers, and everyone is trying to use him to escape or rule the Badlands.

Really the setup is just an excuse for everyone to punch each other, and it relies to much on a bunch of killers deciding to take people alive for ‘reasons’. Though it does get much better as it goes. I think it just takes awhile to find its footing. Which is a shame for a short six episode season. Though the punching is really good!

Much like the story, the actors all seem to get better as the show moves along. I think they start to get a better feel for the roles they are playing. Maybe they were able to come up with some personal motivation for the punching or something. I do think some better dialog would help them out.

All in all I liked ‘Into the Badlands’, and I would like to see a season two. It would be nice to have it be a truly good show, and not just the best Kung-Fu show on television. I look forward to next year with great interest to see if we are in for more stylized punching. If you need a little more action on your TV set you should give ‘Into the Badlands’ a shot. You will probably like what you see.

December 24, 2015December 24, 2015

Celebrate Christmas With He-Man And She-Ra!

It seems like every show has a Christmas special, but some are more special than others, and none are more special than ‘He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special’. I don’t mean special as in good. No, I mean special as in that dog that keeps running in to walls or tripping over its own tail. The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas special is a wonderful kind of nonsense.

To be fair, as a He-Man fan I can tell you that the classic show was never actually any good. It was a collection of crazy looking characters punching each other to sell kids toys, so the Christmas special has to viewed through that lens, and even then it doesn’t make any sense. The whole plot is that Orko accidentally kidnaps some kids from Earth, and that Horde Prime wants them dealt with before they spread Christmas cheer throughout the land, so He-Man and She-Ra do a bunch of random stuff to save the kids, which they fail at. Leaving Skeletor to save the day.

Sorry to spoil it for you, but hey it came out in 1985, so you had 30 years to watch it. I am sure that to a bunch of executives a ~~toy line~~ cartoon show airing a Christmas episode makes perfect financial sense, but for She-Ra and He-Man it ended up being even more bonkers than usual. I am sure had I watched it as a child, I would not have questioned it one bit, but watching it for the first time as an ‘adult’, I can tell you I had a hard time keeping up with what was going one. It wasn’t until I gave up on the story that I could enjoy it for what it was, capitalism. Pure child centered capitalism, and it made me feel young again.

I really shouldn’t recommend ‘He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special’, but I am. It brought me back to a time when cartoons where pure advertising and plots were optional, and I loved every minutes of them. I had a lot of fun with this inane mini-movie, and if you grew up when I did, you may too. Merry Christmas from Eternia everyone!

December 22, 2015December 22, 2015

(sobbing)…The Soup Is Over!..(wailing)

After 11 and 1/2 years The Soup has been canceled. I know this to be true, I have watched the final episode. It wasn’t the best episode they have ever produced, but it was a good send off. It featured a cavalcade of Joel McHale’s favorite celebrity guests, and his 11 favorite clips. Not to mention several snippets of famous bits they have done over the years. We have seen those clips and bits several times before, but it was nice to see them one more time.

I found it humorous E! took The Soup’s departure as an opportunity to start the advertising campaign for their new reality show featuring fitness guru Jillian Michaels. It was the least self-aware act of promotion I have ever seen.

In the end The Soup was canceled because some suits thought they could do better (or maybe cheaper?) at 10PM on Friday nights. I hope they are wrong, and that the time slot is cursed as a viewer void and a money pit for decades to come. I know for me, they have gotten rid of the last good thing on their channel, and there is nothing for me to go back for.

TV is now worse because they have gotten rid of the mirror that showed us the ridiculous stuff that we were watching, and laughed at it with us. To Joel and Co., thanks for memories and the great TV. Twelve seasons of any show is a major accomplishment, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. That includes you Mankini <sobbing><whispers>..that includes you Mankini.