Nick returns! Dave is on his honeymoon, so Nick is back to help fill in. Billy and Nick blow way past $20 each in this week’s 20, talk about what they’re both reading right now, as well as the new iZombie TV series, their mutual love of Mike Allred, and Nick’s recent reread of the Starman omnibuses. Who’s ready for some comic talk?
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When I first heard about the documentary Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, I was understandably intrigued. I mean, you don’t start a movie and TV review site without a curiosity about the behind the scenes work involved in putting these programs together.
Showrunners is excellent. I can see this documentary becoming required viewing at film schools nationwide. If you are someone who wants to write for film and television, you must watch this movie. It’s 90 minutes of advice from the current top showrunners in the industry. JJ Abrams. Joss Whedon. Bill Prady. Michelle and Robert King. Damon Lindelof…among others. Part of what I like about the film is that Director Des Doyle didn’t limit the interviews to just network shows or just cable shows. Some of the showrunners interviewed debunk the notion that having your show on cable is a better. Though it does seem that everyone who runs a show on HBO loves working for HBO.
The real beauty of the movie is that it covers the entire job of being a showrunner. It doesn’t just focus on the creative side, and it doesn’t just focus on the business side. A showrunner is more than just a head writer. A showrunner is the one whose vision is guiding the show forward. A showrunner is also the one who answers to the suits at the network. It’s an interesting skill set that is required to being a good showrunner, and it’s discussed in the documentary. One of the showrunners interviewed in the film points out that not all good writers make good showrunners. Sure, you need thick skin to succeed as a writer, but to be a good showrunner, you need to be a good writer, have thick skin, and be a good manager. The more I think about it, the more I can see this becoming a movie shown not only in film classes, but in business classes as well.
Even if you’re not interested in having a career in television, I would recommend watching this movie. Unless you’re someone who doesn’t own a television, there is a good chance that the person behind one of your favorite shows is being interviewed here. The Big Bang Theory. Sons of Anarchy. The Good Wife. Boardwalk Empire. The people at the top of these shows are all interviewed, among others.
Showrunners is my favorite documentary of 2014. If you’re a writer, watch Showrunners, then read the book of the same name, and then rewatch the film on a regular basis to keep the fire of inspiration burning in you.
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The second episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD aired last night. During the preview at the end of the first episode, we were teased with the phrase “Oh-eight-four.” In last night’s episode, we found out what an 0-8-4 is. It’s the code for an object of unidentified origin. The last 0-8-4 Coulson dealt with was Thor’s hammer in the dessert. This 0-8-4 takes the team out of the country to a South American jungle.
The episode began excitedly, with a gaping hole in the SHIELD plane’s hull mid-flight. We then immediately flashback to the start of the mission. I know this cold open with the plane in distress was used to lure in viewers, but I think I would have preferred finding out about the hull breach when it actually happened. This opening telegraphed Camilla’s betrayal too much.
Speaking of Camilla, when she first started flirting with Coulson, I started to think that Coulson was like Will Ferrell’s character Detective Gamble in The Other Guys. Hot women are just throwing themselves at him. We find out later Camilla had other plans.
Another thing about Coulson: he bleeds. After he gets punched in the face, Coulson is clearly bleeding from the mouth. If Coulson is some kind of Life Model Decoy, he’s an advanced one, with blood pumping through his veins…or tubes.
FitzSimmons continues to delight. They are easily my favorite part of the show.They remind of equal parts Doctor Who companions and Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter. I would watch a FitzSimmons spin-off.
Ming-Na Wen’s character Agent May is my other favorite. She’s just so bad ass. I like that the mysterious bad ass agent with a past on Agents of SHIELD is a woman. It seems like a refreshing change of pace from most shows. But I honestly wouldn’t expect any less from Joss Whedon.
The only downside to this episode is that it felt a bit uneven. While the episode served to bring this team of disparate individuals together as a unit, the build-up in the first half of the episode was on the slow side. The focus shifted a bit too often, but I guess that’s a problem when you’re still introducing a cast this big to the audience. I’m hoping future episodes, once we know everyone, will be a bit more streamlined. But the episode still has all the wit and charm you’d expect from a Joss Whedon show and I don’t see that stopping, so I can’t complain too much.
This episode’s fanboy service comes to you courtesy of the SHIELD team’s airborne mobile command center, whose call sign is SHIELD 616. In the Marvel Universe, 616 refers to the Earth where all the classic Marvel superheroes live. Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, if you grew up reading Marvel comics, chances are you were reading the 616 universe. This term originates from a Captain Britain comic from the 1980s, in which Captain Britain discovers he’s a member of an interdimensional group of Captain Britains. He’s the Captain Britain of Earth-616.
How awesome was Nick Fury’s appearance at the end of the episode? It felt like an after the credit scene in a Marvel movie! The fact that we got Samuel L. Jackson in this episode makes me hopeful that we’ll get some of the other bigger names from the Marvel Cinematic Universe showing up in future episodes, even if it’s just for a cameo. Maybe a debriefing with Thor after the team handles a problem of Asgardian origin, or an appearance by Jon Favreau as Tony Stark’s head of security Happy Hogan if the team needs to secure something on Stark property.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you Josh Whedon! So many people predicted in the press that you couldn’t bring all these A-list Hollywood actors together, put their egos behind them and create a great ensemble film. Those people were so wrong. Could The Avengers have been more perfect? I was grinning during this movie from the opening scene through the second end credits scene. You did stay for the second end credits scene, right?
Actually, I was grinning from the Dark Knight Rises and Amazing Spider-Man trailer through the end of the movie. I thought last year was the year of the comic book fan at the movie theater. But clearly, it’s this year.
I liked Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, but Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk makes me want a Hulk movie.
SPOILERS AFTER THIS PICTURE OF THE HULK PRACTICING SHOT PUT!
Like anyone affected by the deaths of Wash and Shepherd in Serenity, I had a feeling that Joss Whedon was going to kill off a fan favorite in The Avengers. I didn’t know who it would be. Black Widow? Hawkeye? But Agent Coulson? Why?! No!! Damn you, Whedon!
First end credits scene: Thanos! Thanos! Thanos! Are we getting The Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 2? Please say yes. What about the Thanos Copter?
There were too many comic book movies this year. As a lifelong comic book reader, I never thought I would say that. But it’s true. There were too many, and they were released way too close to each other. X-Men: First Class and Thor were both great, but when Green Lantern came out to middling reviews, it transformed all the I-gotta-see-all-these-movies momentum I had for comic book movies into “Eh, maybe I can wait for Netflix on a couple of these.”
That said, Captain America is wonderful. I rank it a little under X-Men: First Class, which I loved and a little above Thor, which I really liked. Marvel had a banner year for movies this year and I am super-excited for next year’s Avengers movie. Joss Whedon + Mark Ruffalo + RDJ’s Tony Stark = I will not be waiting for this movie to hit Netflix!
The CGI in Captain America is really cool. At first, I thought another actor was playing Steve Rogers before he was injected with super soldier serum. But then I realized no, that’s Chris Evans, special-effected in a reverse-Hulk way to make him much punier than he actually is.
Stanley Tucci continues to be the King of Supporting Actors, playing the German refugee scientist Dr. Erskine, creator of the Super Soldier formula.
If you are a Captain America comic book fan, there are so many Easter eggs dispersed throughout this movie. My second favorite was seeing the original Human Torch encased in glass at the World’s Fair pavilion. My favorite was when Dr. Arim Zola was first shown, and his face was seen distorted through a lens as if it were on a screen, foreshadowing his appearance in the comic. It sent my geeky heart aflutter.
I really recommend seeing Captain America, as well all of the other Marvel movies that are leading into next summer’s Avengers.
If there is an award for the movie trailer that served its movie the least at next year’s Tuesdees, Thor’s trailer is definitely going to win. When I watched it during the Superbowl, I immediately thought “There’s a movie I can skip.” And I love comic books. Love them. Granted, I was never a big Thor fan, but the end of Iron Man 2 and knowing that Joss Whedon is directing the upcoming Avengers movie had me interested in seeing Thor. Until that trailer was released. The trailer for Thor makes it look as cheesy as a Kraft factory.
But then a week before Thor was released, people who saw sneak previews of it started talking about how good it is. People whose opinion I respected were telling me to go see this movie. And all I could think was, “Really? This movie? No, clearly you mean some other Thor movie.”
Finally the praise that just kept getting stacked on top of more praise got to me and I grabbed a bunch of friends to go see it the Saturday night of opening weekend.
Quick math problem: A group of seven people are seeing Thor, a major summer blockbuster, at 9 PM on the Saturday night of its opening weekend. How early do you show up to the theater? Note: This is New York City; there aren’t any Arclights here where you can reserve your seats in advance. So, how early do you show up? 45 minutes early? An hour? We stopped for pizza on the way to the theater and showed up a little less than 30 minutes early.
I know. We were screwed. There was no way we were all sitting together, or if we were it was going to be in the first two rows.
Except, when we walked into the theater, there were four people in the theater. Four people! Four people! Is the recession that bad?
Some of you are thinking, “What? Four people? Impossible, I say!” A few of you though are thinking, “Oh, so you saw it at the Battery Park Regal?”
You guys, the Battery Park Regal is my new favorite theater. It’s clean. It’s empty. It’s really, really empty. No joke, all the Foursquare tips for the place are “Don’t tell people about how empty this movie theater is.” But I have to say something. Because I don’t want this movie theater to fail. So please go see a movie there. It’s the anti-Court. St.
Thor was great. I loved it. I’m not a huge Thor fan and I wondered how they would make him interesting. But they did. How? Slapstick. I was very surprised by how much slapstick comedy made its way into Thor, but I’m all for it. Maybe the Asgard scenes would have been more enjoyable if they had the level of slapstick that the Earth scenes did.
WARNING: This post not only spoils plot points in Brothers, it also exposes both your eyes to a little explicit language and your ears to a little explicit language combined with some very off-key singing.
I recently got into Joss Whedon’s short-lived but excellent TV show Firefly. I know, I’m late to the party on this one. My favorite part of the show has to be the theme song. Anytime I watch an episode, I end up with the theme song stuck in my head for days.
It was stuck in my head while watching Brothers and I found myself singing about the movie to the tune of the Firefly theme. I realized the best way to express my thoughts on Brothers here on the blog would be through song and got to work on some more Brothers by way of Firefly song parody lyrics.
Please enjoy.
Words by Tuesday Night Movies
Music by Joss Whedon
Take my fam, take my life
My brother Tom fucked my wife
That’s what Bella told me
Gyllenhall is too sexy
Take my love, Take my fam
I’m stuck in Afghanistan
It’s okay, thought I was dead
So you fucked her in my bed
Trashed the kitchen ‘n TV
Better call the cops on me
‘Cause Tobey’s gone a bit crazy