It seems that unless somebody tells the story, or in today’s times, makes a movie, nobody will know. For the past few weeks I’ve been watching Into the West on TNT, which weaves a dozen different stories of settling America’s frontier into one six-week mini-series.

Tonight’s episode introduced and finished off (much too quickly) a story about the slavery disputes in Kansas that touched off bloody fighting and became a precursor to the Civil War. It became known as Bleeding Kanasas. Into the West told the story of an attack on Lawrence that left the city a smoking ruin.

Continue reading Ignorant of Bleeding Kansas →

See. I’m not the only one who thought the PTC’s worst clips were a bit odd. (link via CT’s weblog)

I just watched the first episode of SciFi’s Battlestar Galactica online, uncut and commercial free. The idea of watching a TV show online like that is new and funky, and I like it. You have to watch it streaming in a Real Player, but with my broadband connection it came through just fine. I recommend opening it up in Real Player so you can stretch the window–it loses some image quality, but still looks pretty good.

For a first episode they really throw you into the middle of the action. There’s even a ‘last time on Battlestar Galactica’ to catch you up on what you’ve missed. I don’t know if that means there was an earlier episode, or if that’s just intended to bring you up to speed so they can start in the middle, so to speak.

The basic idea is pretty cool. This creepy alien race (the Cylons) have destroyed earth (I’m assuming from the ‘last time’ clip that’s what happened) and are chasing down the remaining humans on board a starship fleet. It seems the Cylons can also infect people, much like a computer virus, to infiltrate the fleet.

Pretty funky stuff. I’d love to keep watching, but alas, no SciFi channel for me. I’ll have to wait for DVD. (link via Nick Ciske)

NBC is trying to court Christians with upcoming shows “The Book of Daniel,” about a pill-popping Episcopal preist with his own personal Jesus (literally) and “Revelations,” an apocalyptic thriller starring Bill Pullman as a scientist who teams up with a nun to stop Armageddon.

Wait–didn’t Pullman already avert the end of the world? Lonestar! (link via CT)

I’m not entirely sure I understand the Parents Television Council. I guess they’re trying to help parents make good choices about the TV their kids watch. That’s a good thing. But so often I don’t understand what they’re talking about. It’s as if context rarely matters, or only matters when it’s helpful to them.

(a long rant follows after the jump)

Continue reading Parents Television Council: No Thanks. →

Since before we discovered the joy of TV on DVD, my wife has been waiting and waiting and waiting for the release of what she would call the best television show ever: The Cosby Show. While I don’t want to get any hopes up, that moment may be coming soon.

USA Today tipped me off, and a quick search found an August 2 release date. But before we get too excited, some sources suggest that no deal has been made.

I’m not sure where that leaves us, but it’s a good bet Cosby may be coming to the Hendricks household.

Star Wars music for the award ceremony? Wha?! Can we skip the ticker-tape and championship hats and get on to the Simpsons?

There’s the U2. All Because of You. Very nice placement (better than the Sunday Bloody Sunday earlier).

Verdict: The commercials were so-so (though I probably missed a bunch), nothing amazing. I never understand how you could spend millions of dollars and not put a truly amazing commercial together. What a waste o’ cash. Next time they should just give it to me.

Simpsons in less than 10 minutes? 10 minutes? But I want it now!

We’ll be back with more shameless promotions–at least they have a sense of humor.

Yikes–get Darrell Waltrip out of there. Darrell, we want you to hype NASCAR on Fox. What, make a bunch of dumb jokes and never actually hype the Daytona 500? I can do that. Ah, screw it. Let’s just skip to the Simpsons.

Hey, Best Web Site Ever. (Meh, nevermind. It looks like they have extra videos online–Lute Fruit w/ Martin Prince–but they just open with photos, no video.) The Flanders riff on The Passion is great.

Best line: “I’m the worst thing to happen to sports since Fox!” – Homer

A chimp photocopying his butt. Primates–is there anything they can’t do?

It just goes to show that you can’t have a Super Bowl without chimp commercial.

Wow, that Napster commercial sucked. It gets attention points by doing something different–nothing. Make me actually read what you put up there? Lame. Apple employee Josh Lewis rips the service a new one (would you expect anything else?), but he has a point.

More car commercials: The Honda Ridgeline belt buckle commercial was a bit better, but it’s still not outstanding. They’re trying to break into a tough market and they’re failing to hype the real differences between their truck and the real kings of the trucks: Dodge, Ford, Chevy. The Prius commercial was inventive, but ho-hum. There are so many better ways to sell an eco-friendly car.

And I’m not so sure if I care about Verizon’s broadband TV phone. Why would I want to watch trailers and music videos on my phone? Meh. The Olympus M-Robe (mRobe, MRobe, mrobe?) looks pretty funky and could be a nice challenge to the Photo iPod (why just hold pictures when you can take them as well?)–but what’s up with that name?

Movie commercials: Sahara looks cool (but what the heck is it about?). War of the Worlds looks crazy (but I’m sorry, I don’t think an old school Chrystler minivan would be able to escape tumbling freeway). Batman Begins looks interesting (though not as exciting as I’d expect).

What? The game’s over. That sort of got interesting.

Here’s some other Super Bowl bloggers: Timothy Goddard and USA Today (Why are they blogging exactly what’s happening on TV? Aren’t you supposed to have some commentary? Some stupid jokes? Some inane comments?).

That Cadillac commercial with the eloping couple was pretty good. Though I was wondering what the mom’s car was if it could beat the fancy-schmancy roadster.

Haven’t seen it yet. Thank goodness.

And what’s up with the giant video screen floor things? Weird.

At least McCartney’s playing entire songs (so far). Reminds me of the U2 show in 2002. Mmm… good times. It’s a lot better than the medley-fest they usually give us.

Hey–he’s playing a Guns ‘N Roses song! (ha-ha, stole a joke from Abby). Actually, it would be hilarious if Axl Rose came out for a duet (yet another joke stolen from my wife–maybe I should give her the laptop).

Hey–everyone whip out your lighters (um, pen lights?) at the exact same moment. Ah, so much for spontanaity (thanks a lot Janet!).

Ah, scandalless. Was it me, or did McCartney’s backing bass and guitar players look like the Foreman brothers from Switchfoot?

So the live local music is over and I’m watching the big crazy Super Thingy. I’m also surfing on the laptop (go wifi!), which makes the game a lot more interesting because I only have to look up when something cool happens (though as we learned last year, that means you can miss something R-rated).

I’m not much of a football fan, though I can enjoy a game when cool stuff happens. Haven’t seen much cool stuff yet.

I’m more into the commercials at this point. I’m liking the Pepsi/iTunes commercials. Those are fun and creative. I also like the In-Action Man commercial, featuring Mama’s Boy–of course it’s not very effective, just good for laughs (who was that for? Oh yeah, Degree deodorant).

Hey, touchdown. Tie game.

I’d also like to go on record as saying that car commercials are stupid. I’ve seen the Cadillac “Bang” commercial and the new Honda truck commercial (that’s how you introduce a new truck? LAME.). Too bad Lincoln dropped their lusty priest commercial–that was at least funny. (UPDATE: Ooh, the convertible Mustang commercial was pretty good. The Fargo music was nice.)

And where’s the good blogging about the game (or the commercials)? AdFreak has some interesting “live” blogging going on, but I haven’t seen much else. I must read the wrong blogs. (the presidential election had a lot better blogging going on).