Joining the Hulu-lujah Chorus

I've seen the reviews online for the new Hulu desktop app - available for both the Mac and Windows. Basically, it's everything I like about Hulu: content, content, content, and seamless playback - something that some of the other network specific players haven't realized is important. (Yes, I'm calling you out ABC.)

But they've added a little more: Hulu Desktop adds remote awareness. This turns the computer into a TV and includes that full coach potato feeling, where you don't even have to cross the room to switch what you're going to watch anymore.

On the other hand, maybe the Hulu commercials are more accurate than we thought and they're really working to create docile, vaccous Hulu fans for the alien overlords to chow down upon.

Ashes to Ashes

While I was in London, I picked up the first series of "Ashes to Ashes". I just had a chance to watch the whole series over the last few days. It was only eight episodes -- UK series tend to be shorter than we have here in the US -- but it was absolutely incredible.

I loved "Life on Mars", the original, and I had heard that they were going to be doing a sequel. At some point, it'll come to cable over here, but I've never been very good at waiting. So when I saw the series, I had to pick it up.

It continues with some of the same characters: Gene, Ray and Chris, but they've moved from the outskirts of Manchester to the crime infested city of London. They've continued with the great fish out of motif of the modern day liberated copper dropped into 1981, where many of the social changes that we've taken for granted haven't happened yet. The cops then are rough and tumble: racist, homophobic, alpha males that don't fit into the way we see the world today.

And as we saw in "Life on Mars", the main character (Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake) is struggling to understand what's happening and the rules of the new world that she's in. There's also an interesting mystery element throughout the first series having to do with Drake's personal history.

I recommend it highly. I can't wait to see the next season.

Thank you, MythBusters

The MythBuster have brought us... Leonardo - a ... Well, it's best if you see it...

It's really awesome.

Ryan in the News

WGGB, the local ABC affiliate in Western, Mass., covered a fund raiser for Autism that the family had for my nephew, Ryan.

http://www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8892621

Reaper Review

I had been waiting for this show to come to iTunes, so I could finally get a gander at it. Kevin Smith mentioned it when he was here in London for one of his "An Evening with..." monologue and Q&A sessions.

The early reviews that I heard about it were pretty solid. And it's got Ray Wise, who I've loved since seeing him on Twin Peaks.

I got all the episodes so far and just laughed my ass off. The premise is a little silly, Sam (the titular character) works at the equivalent of Home Depot and seems to be going nowhere with his life. It starts off on his 21st birthday and, as any writing teacher recommends, right in the heart of things.

That's the day that he finds out that his soul was sold to the devil by his parents. And that's the day that he meets the devil himself. The devil (played by Ray Wise) is smarmily perfect as a hands-on manager/mentor/tormentor. Sam is now a bounty hunter for the devil, chasing down lost souls for Satan and returning them to hell.

The shows are a bit formulaic with monsters of the week, but what makes the show stand apart is the light-hearted camaraderie between the main characters: Sam and his best friends, 'Sock' and Ben.

Enjoy the ride.

"Damages" on F/X

Okay, normally, by the time shows get to the UK, it's already too late to say anything about them. This might be one of them, but wow. It's on F/X, which shouldn't really surprise me. They've got a history of absolutely fantastic shows, if their stack of emmy nominations and awards are any indication.

I had seen articles about this show online and every critic has been favorable. I downloaded the season on iTunes. Saw the pilot last night and was blown away. Glenn Close is just absolutely fantastic in her role as the ruthlessly manipulative Patty Hewes.

I can't wait to see the rest of the season and hope that it'll get picked up for another year.

Andy Barker, PI

If anyone's seen this show, please let me know what you think.

I'm a big fan of Andy Richter and heard lots of good things about "Andy Barker, PI". The mix of hard boiled accounting and slapstick detective stories is enough to make me giggle. It was even better, when I heard an interview on WHYY's Fresh Air with Andy Richter about the show. He considers the show a Quinn Martin comedy.

Sadly, that sounds right up my alley.

Dexter

I loved Michael C. Hall on "Six Feet Under", so when I saw that he was on "Dexter", I was intrigued. I read a couple of the books: Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. (The new one Dexter in the Dark isn't out yet, but I'm looking forward to reading the next installment.)

A couple of my friends had told me how good it was, but it wasn't until I was able to see a few of the episodes that I fell in love. The producers, writers and directors had a difficult act with this show. They had to show a psychopath as sympathetic and managed to pull it off. They took the characters and plots from two books and both stayed close to the cannon and expanded it for dramatic purposes thanks to a stellar cast.

The first thing that they did was throw out the standard view of compacting things down. They took the story of the first book and stretched it. They kept the wonderful scenes and inventions from the book and gave us more of the day to day in between scenes from the book. Secondly, they decided to fluff up the secondary characters that were given short shrift in the books where the main attention is rightfully on Dexter himself. With flashbacks to Dexter's foster-father, Harry, and his interactions with the younger Dexter (with his horrible haircuts), they have given even more depth to young Dexter, so that we can see how he came to be what he is today and how the lessons have strengthened him.

While this isn't an ensemble series, such as "Lost" or "Six Feet Under", the juicier secondary roles have gotten a handful of good actors that bring the series up to be something special.

I just wish that broadcast TV would learn that lesson. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of all the best shows being on cable.

That said, I recommend this show highly.

Dresden on iTunes

Okay, I can get access to US TV for $19.95 for a season pass to various TV shows. For that, I get my TV shows in easy to digest half a gig iTunes format. That'll take about a half hour to download and almost forty-five minutes to watch. The picture will be tiny (though it can be expanded until the picture looks more than a little off) and the sound (at least in the one iTunes episode that I've watched) will be a little sketchy.

I'm not sure if I want to do that again. I think I may be happier whining about missing a show I want to watch and catching it on DVD next year.

That said, I liked The Dresden Files. Much like the TV show, Bones, it varies in many major areas from the books that the series is based upon. That said, I think I like it and I think it could stand on it's own well. The main character was easy to look at and the character has a similar mix of hard-boiled and caring to the character of the same name that Butcher has written.

They removed some of the things that I loved about the character in the conversion to the small screen: difficulties with technology, the beloved VW, and the sort of wizard's cave of an apartment. Hell, they even changed Bob, the skull. But I can see why some of these changes had been made and I'm certainly willing to see where they go with this.

Dresden Files

Yet another reason, why I wish I was home with my ReplayTV:

The Dresden Files on the SciFi Channel.

I am so going to be bugging my friends regularly to find out how this is turning out. :) Expect my calls.

Back in the States and Heroes...

Let's see — made it to the States without a problem.

Well, I was a little late, an hour or so, but not the end of the world and I was able to spend the evening with my friends. The perfect response to a long and arduous day of travel.

The hotel that we stayed at has high speed broadband access. Which means, I can watch the episodes of Heroes online.

Everyone that said that I would love the show wasn't kidding. This is friggin' incredible. AIGH! And I'm in the UK.

Damp Room Redux

Thank you to all the people that offered ideas or recommendations on how to fight the damned mold and mildew.

I spent last night, after work, scrubbing the walls with a bleach solution. Unfortunately, I found that the corner of the room is only the tip of the iceberg, the black yuck has spread behind the headboard and also all over the window behind the curtain. I got the walls last night. The window will be tonight.

Yuck.

An evening of scrubbing. And I don't even have a DVD of Battlestar Galactica to distract myself afterwards.