The Hysteria Channel

Has anyone watched the History Channel lately? I'm having a hard time finding much history in its programming. In fact, the History Channel has disintigrated in recent years into sensationlist, tabloid-grade tripe. Since its inception in 1995, the History channel has gone from showing seeminly non-stop WWII documentaries to a popular, ratings driven enterprise. Don't get me wrong. There are some good shows (Modern Marvels and and Dogfights are excellent), but most of the programming today is just silly.

For example, Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers are reality shows that document the on the job drama of timber workers and truckers. History? Yes, according to History Channel execs. Apparently, they couldn't ignore the ratings of shows like The Deadliest Catch over at the Discovery Channel (Why a show that chronicles the day to day lives of Alaskan crab fisherman is a mainstay of the Discovery Channel, I'll never know either).

A more curious trend has been the History Channel's strange, fatalistic obsession with end of the world scenarios, as evidenced by shows like Mega Disasters, Last Days on Earth, Life After People, and Comets: Prophets of Doom. It seems as though the only history the network is interested in is the end of history. It's depressing. At least there's programs like Gangland, Shockwave and Tougher in Alaska to enrich my understanding of human history.

Surely the same can be said for shows like the Lost Book of Nostradamus, Vampire Secrets, MonsterQuest, and UFO Hunters. Apparently, the History Channel needed to nail down that crucial black helicopter demographic, as well as fans of the X-Files.

Seriously, isn't the History Channel essentially endorsing the notion that history is boring and has no bearing on our lives if they feel the need to sensationalize it and substitute Bigfoot for the British Empire?

Revenge of the Fanboy!

You have to hand it to George Lucas. After virtually ruining the Star Wars mythology and tainting the greatness of the original trilogy with his pathetic prequels, he at least is willing to give other creative people at shot at reparing the damage he's done to the Star Wars legacy.

The first non-Lucas project was handled by emmy award winning animator Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack. He created two 1/2 hour Star Wars cartoons called the Clone Wars that tell the story between Episodes II and III. I was amazed by how much I enjoyed them. They were more exciting and more inspired than their big screen counterparts. It seemed laughable that a cartoon done by a bunch of fanboy animators could be better executed, with better writing and acting than a movie created by professional producers, directors, and actors. And yet there it is.

Well now it looks like Lucas is about to be outdone again. A new CGI animated movie called Star Wars: The Clone Wars is scheduled to be released in theaters August 15 of this year. It will be the first chapter in an ongoing television series that will follow. This series also takes place between Episodes II and III. Here are the trailers:



sneak peek

trailer #1

trailer #2

I don't know about you, but this looks pretty dang cool. It looks like everything I hoped the prequels would be, but weren't. So thanks George Lucas, for realizing that you suck, and letting other people tell the story of Anakin Skywalker the way it should have been told in the first place.

Movie Review: Iron Man

While the action, SFX, and plot are serviceable in this most recent comic book flick, it is Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as billionare industrialist Tony Stark that places this movie among the the best of the genre. Not since Christopher Reeve in the 1978 Superman, has an actor so embodied the role of the superhero protagonist. Stark's transformation from arrogant, carefree genius to arrogant, hero genius is handled by Downey and director Jon Favreau with the right mix of gravity and fun. The supporting cast of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, and Terrence Howard is also excellent. If they can bring everyone back, there's no reason not to make a sequel.