Friends,
I hope you had a good Independence Day weekend. Janice spent a few days in
Maine (I'm still too new at my job to request vacation leave this soon). Unfortunately,
David I.S. and Dexter V.H. had to postpone their planned
visits to the Boston area. Congratulations to Corbin A.Y. & Andria K.Y. on
the birth of their daughter Maia J.Y.!
Janice
and I enjoyed the July
4 fireworks, pancake breakfast, parade, flea market, and model sailboat
regatta in Needham,
Massachusetts. It was nice to run into former co-worker Brian F. and his
family. After a month of rain, we were also glad that the weather finally
cooperated, taking some walks.
In
addition, I caught the sword-and-sandals 10,000 B.C. and gritty
Western remake 3:10 to Yuma.
I'd recommend Conan, Stargate, or even Kull before 10,000 B.C.,
but I've seen much worse. With a strong cast, 3:10 to Yuma was better.
I've
posted a
discussion about
recent and planned genre
remakes to the "Dimensional
Corps Online" message board. Other fans and I have also criticized the
SciFi Channel's rebranding
as "SyFy" and how that cable television network and others (such as the
Cartoon
Network) have drifted from their core audiences.
Still,
there are new TV
shows to look forward to this summer.
I thought SyFy's premiere
of lighthearted paranormal conspiracy series Warehouse 13
was promisingly
similar to Friday the 13th: the
Series, The X-Files and Fringe, and Eureka. I look forward to BBC America's Doctor Who (the latest solid Christmas special recently aired in
the U.S.) and depopulated Torchwood: Children
of Earth, as well as USA's caper series Leverage
and silly sleuths of Psych.
There are even more genre programs being
readied for the autumn
season, but we'll see which pan out and eventually join
the ranks of memorable
shows, and there are some more summer movies in the meantime,
most notably, Harry Potter [6] and the
Half-Blood Prince. Here's my preliminary viewing schedule:
Monday
·
8:00 p.m.: Heroes
(NBC, metahuman melodrama) **
·
8:00 p.m.: Chuck
(NBC midseason, espionage slacker comedy) **
·
8:00 p.m.: Spectacular
Spider-Man
(Disney XD, animated superhero) ***
·
10:00 p.m.: Castle
(ABC, comedic mystery) ***
Tuesday
·
9:00 p.m.: Warehouse 13
(SyFy, new supernatural conspiracy)
**?
Wednesday
·
9:00 p.m.: Human
Target (Fox, new thriller)
·
"V" (NBC, alien invasion
conspiracy remake)?
Thursday
·
8:00 p.m. Flash
Forward (ABC, new supernatural
conspiracy)?
·
9:00 p.m.: Fringe
(Fox, supernatural conspiracy) **
Friday
·
Batman and the Brave
and the Bold (Cartoon
Network, retro animated superheroes) ***
·
Wolverine and the X-Men (Nickelodeon,
animated superheroes) **
·
8:00 p.m.: Smallville
(CW, metahuman melodrama) **
·
Star Wars: the Clone Wars (Cartoon
Network, computer-animated space opera) ***
·
Psych (USA, comedic
mystery) ***
·
Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sara Jane
Adventures (BBC America, time-travel drama) ***
·
Sanctuary (SyFy,
cryptozoology) **
Saturday
Legend
of the Seeker (syndicated fantasy) **
Gene's Worlds 