The Right Spin

FX has got a new series by Steven Bochco called "Over There." I have not seen it yet so I will not pass judgement upon it. In fact, I had planned on skipping the whole thing altogether. I cannot trust the entertainment media (or news media for that matter) to paint a truly non-partisan picture of the conflict in Iraq. Aside from Fox News that is. That many of the elite in the media claim to "support the troops" but not the current Administration, while brining up Abu Grabe and Gitmo at every oppertunity, rings hollow to me. It was soldiers who misused their authority in these situations and to constantly bring it up, especially after all soldiers invloved have been tried and punished, only makes the jobs of the hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women in our military harder. How is this "supporting" the troops? And now the ACLU is filing a Freedom of Information Act petition with the FBI to force them to release all Abu Grabe photos. Why? For what purpose? To make those who have already been found guilty more guilty? What sense does that make? None. It would only be used to hurt the Bush Administration and that's it. The guilty have been punished and the debate as to what is appropriate treatment of non-Geneva Convention POW's is currently engaged.

So, you can see why I'm nervious about this new show. It could be a great medium to present a balanced (if fictional) depiction of what life is like in Iraq for our military. And I strongly feel that a balanced look will only help real life soldiers. A short interview Mr. Bochco had with Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday has raised my hopes. In it Bill stressed that he felt the men and women serving in Iraq were exceptionally brave in that they were fighting for the freedom of strangers in a strange land. While that fight does have postitive effects here in the U.S., as it was intended to, it has far more profound implications for the Iraqi people. This is not something that should be spat upon. Mr. Bochco acknoledged this and stated that his program isn't designed to pass judgement one way or the other on the conflict. Though he was sure ideologues on both sides would read whatever they wanted into it. Instead he wants to tell stories about real people in this extraordinary setting.

If this is true then I hope his new program ends up being compelling, honest and entertaining. If not it'll only serve as another example of the media turning on those it claims to respect.

Well, the revelations miniseries has ended... and it was completely predictable. I saw this thing coming a mile away. If the dude wanted to redo The Omen why didn't he? While it was mildly entertaining if you couldn't see the ending coming from a mile away you weren't watching. Of course they weren't going to kill the Antichrist. Now we're left with a bland "cliffhanger" and everything goes back to normal. Heck, no one of consequence even died except Dr. Masse's assistant but who gave a flip about him? Up until that moment I was hoping he was a Satanist plant but I guess I gave the writer too much credit. Oh, and Hawke, he's an idiot who needs to get his ass kicked. Grow up you whiny brat. But, I guess he's supposed to be a rebel because he owns a skateboard and scowls a lot. And I mean a lot.

So, let's summarize. Bland. Predictable. And nothing really gets resolved.

It could have been really, really cool. But from the first episode they threw the script the miniseries drew its name from away and tried to rehash a 30 year old film into a 6 hour version of a 30 year old crap-ass story.

La La Land Records is going to release the soundtrack for first season of the new Battlestar Galactica. Those who pre-order now will get an autographed copy completely free! I've ordered two CD's from them in the past, both pre-ordered therefore autographed, and have had no problems. So, if you watch the series and like the music do yourself a favor and pre-order this thing!

For me. Just me.

Yeah, so, I never watched Family Guy when it first aired on Fox because, well, I didn't watch much on Fox. But, I grew to like it once it began to air on Adult Swim. Eventually I purchased both DVD boxed sets containing all three seasons. Then... I listened to the commentary. Seth MacFarlane is so liberal and foul I couldn't stand to listen to more than a handful of his commentaries. What I find hilarious is that during one of the commentaries Alex Borstein tells him to back off a bit on it.


So, now, Fox has brought Family Guy back and while I thought Seth MacFarlane was a complete tool I generally still liked the show. After watching this first new episode I'm done. Is Seth MacFarlane so petty that the first episode of this new run makes fun of a movie that came out over a year ago? Did The Passion of The Christ offend his liberal sensibilities so that he held onto this feeling for over a year only to let it out long after the event passed? Talk about holding a grudge. And really, really bad timing.

I'm not trying to bash anyone who had a problem with that film even thought I felt it was brilliant. Heck, I think South Park was dumb for doing the "Passion of The Jew" episode. But at least that episode came out shortly after the movie did. Not a 14 frickin' months later!

It just proves to me that some people simply cannot tolerate an opposing point of view and will keep that chip on their shoulder long after the time to speak up has passed. So, I congratulate Seth MacFarlane for providing further proof that Hollywood despises conservative Christians.

Anyone watching the new Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi? I cannot say of any series that I've watched that I've been absolutely enthralled by every episode. And this is just season one! I can't even say that of my favorite scifi series of all time Babylon 5. A good chunk of season one of that show makes me cringe.

But Battlestar Galactica has been gritty and realistic since, well, I'd say the pilot episode but it all started with the miniseries. I wanted to hate this show so much. I never saw the original series (it went only one season, right?) but I knew the gist of it. It felt to me that some of the changes they made for the new series seemed to be done arbitrarily or simply for PC reasons. The most annoying change was the sex change for Starbuck - male to female. This change made no sense to me. Not to mention that it seemed to press some PC agenda of putting more women in the military. My friend Dean noted that the military already had female pilots and didn't see what my objection was. I reminded him that while that was true none were combat pilots. You can see a further discussion of my feelings on women in the military on my old blog. Surprisingly the only person who objected was a man. Every woman who commented (and there were many) wholeheartedly agreed.

Anyway, the new Starbuck. I gotta say I like her. She shed that "bad girl" skin fairly quickly and in a believable way. I suppose one would kind of have to adopt a more team orientated mindset when there are only 47,000 humans left in the galaxy and you are one of 40 or so who must defend them.

I think my favorite characters overall are President Roslin and Commander Adama. I completely understand and appreciate where each is coming from and what each is trying to do. They are wonderfully written and superbly acted. Hell, I'm thrilled to see Mary McDonnell on such as great show. I've had a mild thing for her ever since "Dances With Wolves".

So, if you're not watching this show - What's wrong with you!? Head on over to scifi.com and go to the Battlestar Galactica page. You can watch the pilot episode, "33", streaming in its entirety. This was the episode Dean persuaded me to watch despite my objections and it is an incredibly suspenseful ride. Do yourself a favor and at least watch this episode. If you're not hooked then never look a BSG again. But, if you are, you know who to thank!