You are currently viewing archive for October 2005
I'm here, I'm watching stuff, I'm just not writing enough.
Part of the problem is that I have been watching such a variety of things lately, that I can't seem to find my voice on any one thing ... Except for the idea that cleaning off a DVR is hard work. In the past week, I have watched about 3 hours of Justice League Unlimited (the new season was great, love the Legion of Doom, must have more) 3 hours of The Batman, several episodes of Family Guy, and a smattering of other things.
The DVR is now only 50% full. An improvement from 90%, but its still a bitch to get through.
All that remains is some random shows to comment on such as Loonatics Unleashed, BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo, more Family Guy, and of course more Naruto. I'm hoping I can polish this stuff off by the time Comcast shows up for the broken DVR swap, but at least the priority stuff is done.
Random notes: things to watch for on CN. Boondocks starts next week on Adult Swim and IGPX on Toonami.
Part of the problem is that I have been watching such a variety of things lately, that I can't seem to find my voice on any one thing ... Except for the idea that cleaning off a DVR is hard work. In the past week, I have watched about 3 hours of Justice League Unlimited (the new season was great, love the Legion of Doom, must have more) 3 hours of The Batman, several episodes of Family Guy, and a smattering of other things.
The DVR is now only 50% full. An improvement from 90%, but its still a bitch to get through.
All that remains is some random shows to comment on such as Loonatics Unleashed, BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo, more Family Guy, and of course more Naruto. I'm hoping I can polish this stuff off by the time Comcast shows up for the broken DVR swap, but at least the priority stuff is done.
Random notes: things to watch for on CN. Boondocks starts next week on Adult Swim and IGPX on Toonami.
/rant on
WTF happened?
I watched the first four episodes of the new Teen Titans season last night in my fight to clean off the DVR. The last season ended with such a bang I was really looking forward to the batch of new episodes. Then they go and give me this crap?
Homecoming 1&2 introduces Beast Boy's old team, the Doom Patrol, and their arch nemesis, the Brotherhood of Evil. The Doom Patrol is, what I assume, DC's version of the Fantastic 4. It appears that Beast Boy was raised by them and left the team for unknown reasons. Well, he left for no explicit reasons, but I can name at least one: the team is made up of a bunch of unlikable jackasses.
We have to sit through two episodes of posturing by Beast Boy's surrogate father Mento (who uses mental powers and a huge ego), the Doom Patrol leader who really seems like he could not lead his way out of a wet paper bag. Throw in Elasti-Girl (another plastic superhero), Negative Man (negative in personalty as well as charge), and Robotman (wonder what he is) and you have a group of superheros that does not seem to know how to work as a team. To make matters worse, they dismiss the rest of the Teen Titans because the are "a bunch of kids."
It's no freaking wonder the Brotherhood of Evil was able to rebuild their black hole device a second time.
For their part, the Brotherhood of Evil is a grating and uninteresting group of villains: the Brain (just a brain in a robot body with an annoying robot voice), General Immortus (some zombie that has trained all the great generals in history), Monsieur Mallah (a smart ape man), and Madame Rouge (another elastic/waxlike woman). There is nothing fun or interesting about these characters, or the first 2 episodes. In the end, the Brotherhood of Evil is defeated by the Titans ... and they decide they have a new enemy and vow to destroy the young superheros.
Episode 3, Trust, is even worse in some ways. The Brotherhood of Evil decides they need to steal a Titan's communicator to eavesdrop on the heros, and goes about trying to get one from some of the honorary members. Madame Rouge sets her sights on Hot Spot, and a strange game of cat and mouse ensues. Robin gets involved as well, and neither he nor Hot Spot seem to show any bit of intellect in dealing with the "sneaky" Madame Rouge. Robin is uncharacteristically dense and ends up being fooled by her disguises. All-in-all, it's a very annoying episode as well.
A small bright spot comes in the episode For Real. It's a funny bit with Control Freak as the antagonist, fighting against the Titans East who are housesitting for the main Titans team. There are some good bits and smacks at Fanboys in there, and it was a welcome relief from the horrid first 3 episodes of the season.
Honestly, I just hope the rest of the season does not go like this, it's a very unwelcome change for a very good show. It's too early to call, but the Titans may have "Jumped the shark" with the Season 5 opener. Let's hope the shows get better.
/rant off
Grade: C-
Reviewed by Johaan
WTF happened?
I watched the first four episodes of the new Teen Titans season last night in my fight to clean off the DVR. The last season ended with such a bang I was really looking forward to the batch of new episodes. Then they go and give me this crap?
Homecoming 1&2 introduces Beast Boy's old team, the Doom Patrol, and their arch nemesis, the Brotherhood of Evil. The Doom Patrol is, what I assume, DC's version of the Fantastic 4. It appears that Beast Boy was raised by them and left the team for unknown reasons. Well, he left for no explicit reasons, but I can name at least one: the team is made up of a bunch of unlikable jackasses.
We have to sit through two episodes of posturing by Beast Boy's surrogate father Mento (who uses mental powers and a huge ego), the Doom Patrol leader who really seems like he could not lead his way out of a wet paper bag. Throw in Elasti-Girl (another plastic superhero), Negative Man (negative in personalty as well as charge), and Robotman (wonder what he is) and you have a group of superheros that does not seem to know how to work as a team. To make matters worse, they dismiss the rest of the Teen Titans because the are "a bunch of kids."
It's no freaking wonder the Brotherhood of Evil was able to rebuild their black hole device a second time.
For their part, the Brotherhood of Evil is a grating and uninteresting group of villains: the Brain (just a brain in a robot body with an annoying robot voice), General Immortus (some zombie that has trained all the great generals in history), Monsieur Mallah (a smart ape man), and Madame Rouge (another elastic/waxlike woman). There is nothing fun or interesting about these characters, or the first 2 episodes. In the end, the Brotherhood of Evil is defeated by the Titans ... and they decide they have a new enemy and vow to destroy the young superheros.
Episode 3, Trust, is even worse in some ways. The Brotherhood of Evil decides they need to steal a Titan's communicator to eavesdrop on the heros, and goes about trying to get one from some of the honorary members. Madame Rouge sets her sights on Hot Spot, and a strange game of cat and mouse ensues. Robin gets involved as well, and neither he nor Hot Spot seem to show any bit of intellect in dealing with the "sneaky" Madame Rouge. Robin is uncharacteristically dense and ends up being fooled by her disguises. All-in-all, it's a very annoying episode as well.
A small bright spot comes in the episode For Real. It's a funny bit with Control Freak as the antagonist, fighting against the Titans East who are housesitting for the main Titans team. There are some good bits and smacks at Fanboys in there, and it was a welcome relief from the horrid first 3 episodes of the season.
Honestly, I just hope the rest of the season does not go like this, it's a very unwelcome change for a very good show. It's too early to call, but the Titans may have "Jumped the shark" with the Season 5 opener. Let's hope the shows get better.
/rant off
Grade: C-
Reviewed by Johaan
There is one distinct problem with DVRs. If you ever, EVER have a problem with one ... you'll lose everything on it when they replace it.
My DVR missed a recording this week. It is the third time it's happened as of late, and it happened to miss Desperate Housewives. For me it'd be no big deal, I don't watch the show. But, to keep my housewife from becoming desperate, I can't have her miss any more episodes.
So now I have to go through and watch as much of my backlogged shows as I can before they come out to replace the damn thing. Teen Titans, Batman, Justice League, Loonatics, Family Guy ... everything must go! So, if there were every anything to break me out of my Naruto binge, this is it.
And speaking of Naruto, I just finished off the fansub of season 3 (dipping slightly into season 4). I've got to say, the show just keeps getting better. We finally get to see foxboy fight for real, and the results are pretty wild. I've watched ~80 episodes since I started last month and it has been a great ride.
I even watched last week's dubbed episode on Toonami. Viz is doing better, I did not catch any cuts on the first pass through it ... and that's something I can't say for the eariler episodes. Oh, that reminds me, I'll be posting screencaps in the near future of scenes cut from the American version of Naruto. It's an opportunity too good to pass up, just excuse the hardsubs.
My DVR missed a recording this week. It is the third time it's happened as of late, and it happened to miss Desperate Housewives. For me it'd be no big deal, I don't watch the show. But, to keep my housewife from becoming desperate, I can't have her miss any more episodes.
So now I have to go through and watch as much of my backlogged shows as I can before they come out to replace the damn thing. Teen Titans, Batman, Justice League, Loonatics, Family Guy ... everything must go! So, if there were every anything to break me out of my Naruto binge, this is it.
And speaking of Naruto, I just finished off the fansub of season 3 (dipping slightly into season 4). I've got to say, the show just keeps getting better. We finally get to see foxboy fight for real, and the results are pretty wild. I've watched ~80 episodes since I started last month and it has been a great ride.
I even watched last week's dubbed episode on Toonami. Viz is doing better, I did not catch any cuts on the first pass through it ... and that's something I can't say for the eariler episodes. Oh, that reminds me, I'll be posting screencaps in the near future of scenes cut from the American version of Naruto. It's an opportunity too good to pass up, just excuse the hardsubs.
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