Category: TV

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The Simpsons Finally Meet The Planet Express Crew!

simpsons-futurama

It was only a matter of time before the Simpsons and Futurama had a crossover, but I am surprised that it took this long.  I love Futurama, and I was worried that the crew of the Planet Express Ship would merely have a cameo.  Instead this episode started like a Simpsons episode, but then became a Futurama episode, and since Futurama ended at the top of its game while the Simpsons are clearly not at the top of theirs, it was for the best.

The plot was simply that Bender had to go back in time to stop the Simpsons from unleashing a horrible mutant plague on New New York.  Of course since he is Bender he screws up, and it will take the Simpsons working with the rest of the Futurama gang to fix everything.

It was cool to see both of  Matt Groening’s beloved franchises on air together, but this episode would have almost been better without the Simpsons in it.  While the Bender and his pals were making me laugh the Simpsons continued to feel stale.  I hope this is the Simpsons last season.  It is hard to see them limp along like this, and it makes me feel better about Futurama going off the air after nine pretty good to excellent seasons.

After this episode, the Family Guy crossover, the Lego Episode, and all the other “event” shows the Simpsons have lined up, it is clear the Simpsons writers are out of ideas.  It is amazing that the Simpsons have lasted this long, but it is time to let them ride off in to syndication.  Where they can live on for generations to come.

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DC TV Double Shot!

arrow

Arrow started its third season a few weeks ago, but due to the fact the App stopped airing the episodes I got behind, so I had to catch up on Netflix and then On Demand.  I am going to steal this part of the review from Jezebel.com from when they reviewed Evil Dead: Nope nope nope nope nope nope!

That is not to say the first few episodes have not been good, they have.  I am just saying the show is making me very angry right now.  They are also trying to take both a lighter and darker tone, so it will be interesting to see which way eventually wins out.  I am hoping lighter, but the CW has The Flash for that.

Still if you have liked the Arrow’s last two seasons, I am sure you will like what this third season is offering, and for all us nerds out there it looks like the show is taking a more superhero-y turn.  I can’t wait to see Brandon Ruth turn into The Atom!

constantine

NBC kicked-off DC’s forth major TV show this year with Constantine, and I have to start off by saying Matt Ryan is probably one of the best cast comic book characters in a long time.  Probably the best since they picked Robert Downey Jr. to be Tony Stark.  Matt Ryan has that jerky swagger down pat, and guess what?  British guys play British guys very well.

As for the episode, I thought it was pretty good.  It wasn’t great, but like a lot of first episodes it had to explain everything and set the rules for this universe.  I think if they can improve on this good start then NBC will have a good companion for Grimm holding down the Friday night time slot.  I know I will be watching.  If you have been thinking Supernatural has taken a turn for the worse and you need something in a similar vain to replace it, Constantine looks like it will be an excellent choice.

It is also evident that NBC is throwing a lot more money at this show than the other DC TV shows, so it doesn’t look like it will be as cheesy.  I am excited about this show’s possibilities, and I hope they give Constantine some other magical DC pals to play with.

So far DC has launched four TV shows on three networks and none of them have been bad.  That has to be some kind of record.  We will see if they can keep this up with iZombie right around the corner.

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TV Should Be DC’s Earth 2!

justice league unlimited

A lot of people were sad to find out that DC was not going use The Flash and Arrow from the TV shows for their Justice League movies, but I think I have a solution that would make everyone happy.  They should just make the TV shows Earth 2.  For those of you that don’t read comic books, Earth 2 is the Earth in an alternate dimension.  It has most of that same superheroes but slightly different, and every once and awhile they need to travel interdimensionally to help each other out.

This would allow the movie guys and the TV guys to do whatever they want, but still team up at some point in the future.  Like say The Justice League Movie Part 2 where they fight the dimensional traveler Darkseid.  This would also free them up to do my second idea, and that is to rename The Flash and Arrow TV shows to the Justice Society of America (Earth 2’s Justice League).

I know what you are thinking, “But I like The Flash and Arrow!”, and you are right too, but they would still be in the show, leads in it even.  Just now they could highlight all the new heroes and villains they keep adding to the show every week, and better yet they could air it twice a week, or once a week all year long.  As a bonus if CBS lets Supergirl play in the same universe it could air three times a week, but once on a major local TV station.  It would be a lot of fun.

I am sure DC will not do either of these ideas because for some reason they like to ignore good fan ideas, but maybe we will get our TV Justice League …err Society, and our beloved TV characters on the big screen.

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Thank Netflix For Serialized TV!

netflix-logo

I have been finishing off season two of Arrow on Netflix, and it occurred to me that a show like Arrow wouldn’t have been possible without the DVD/Streaming service.  Sure there were shows like 24 and morning soap operas before Netflix, but not a lot of them.  The reason was that if you missed an episode there was no good way to catch up, and TV stations did want to take a chance that you would stop watching if you missed a show, or worse never start watching because you missed the first season.

TiVo was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t wide spread enough, and it obviously didn’t have any seasons you missed.  Now pretty much everyone has a Netflix subscription.  It allows people to binge watch a TV show, and once they catch up they have no choice but to start watching the show live.  If they miss a show they can catch up with Netflix competitors Amazon, Hulu, On Demand, or the Station’s website.  The producers of Breaking Bad and The Killing have both expressed how Netflix is the reason their shows stayed on the air because people could catch up.

TV stations are taking the next logical step.  Neflix was good for business and serialized TV, so now it is time be their “own” Netflix.  CBS and HBO are dropping the cable requirement and launching their own Netflix competitors with their own content, and I am sure a lot of that content will be serialized.  You know like Supergirl coming next fall to CBS.