Direct Beam Comms – Page 22 – Dangerous Universe

Direct Beam Comms #68

Direct Beam Comms, Feature, TVMarch 26, 2017April 9, 2017

TV

Oasis Episode 1 Grade: B+

Last week Amazon Prime launched “pilot season” where they debut the first episode of new original TV series, of which the most viewed will be picked up with full seasons that will be available sometime in the future. The first one I checked out was a sci-fi series called Oasis.

In Oasis, it’s 20 years in the future and the environment of the Earth has started to collapse under the weight of centuries of neglect, overpopulation and pollution. But all hope isn’t lost, in another part of the galaxy lies a newly discovered planet called Oasis that mankind has just started to colonize. And while it seems like Oasis will one day be a home to the 1%ers with the rest of of humanity stuck on a dying Earth, in Oasis there’s just a few dozen scientists, engineers and workers living there trying to setup this colony. Back on Earth priest Peter Leigh (Richard Madden) is called to the planet by his friend and colony manager who tells him his spiritual services are needed. But when Leigh arrives on Oasis he finds a desolate place with workers mysteriously dying and the living experiencing disturbing visions of things they once knew.

If you think Oasis is something like Solaris (people in a far off part of the galaxy experiencing weird visions) mixed with the likes of Earth 2 or Terra Nova (colonists trying to escape a sick and dying planet who find that the place they escape to might be just as dangerous as home) you wouldn’t be far off. But even though Oasis borrows the themes of other movies and series I wouldn’t consider it to be derivative. The creators of Oasis come at those story elements in their own unique way.

One thing I found interesting about Oasis; it’s yet another return to sci-fi based in reality. Or, at least as a believable sci-fi reality that’s possible where people are zipping around the cosmos in spaceships. I guess I didn’t realize how much I’d missed this kind of storytelling until series like Oasis showed me it had gone. Other than shows like The Expanse most sci-fi series of the last decade were space-opera in nature — big bombastic shows that are mostly adventure related. Which is fine, I’m just generally not a fan of those series. I’m more interested in shows that tell stories about people than ones that are all about story. But with both The Expanse and now, hopefully with Oasis, it might mark the return of a more hard-edged realistic sci-fi series to TV.

My one quibble about Oasis is that it’s a sci-fi show about people living on far-off planets which should be every exciting but instead was very slow. A lot happens in the first episode but I wouldn’t say a lot of story is told. In fact, I’m not even totally sure where a season of Oasis might be headed which isn’t a great sign. Still, I was intrigued enough in Oasis that I’m interested to see where it goes. That is if it does get picked up for a full season.

Fargo not season installment 3 promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHGXQ-Ub3NI

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Netflix new season promo

Movies

Justice League trailer

This week in pop-culture history

1931: Leonard Nimoy, Spock of Star Trek is born
1952: Annette O’Toole, Lana Lang of Superman III and the TV mini-series IT is born
1955: Marina Sirtis, Deanna Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation is born
1979: Phantasm premiers
1989: The TV series Quantum Leap premiers
1995: The TV series The Outer Limits premiers
2005: The first episode of the new Doctor Who airs

Direct Beam Comms #67

Direct Beam Comms, Feature, Toys, TVMarch 19, 2017March 18, 2017

TV

Iron Fist Series premiere episode 1 Grade: B+

There aren’t a lot of good comic book series on TV. To be sure, there are lots of them but only a few of them are worth watching. Legion on FX is very good and Daredevil on Netflix is pretty good too. But for the most part the Arrows and Agents of SHIELDs and Preachers of the world are time wasters at best and just plain bad at worst. Into this mass of comic book TV series comes the latest Marvel series to stream on Netflix Iron Fist.

So far Iron Fist has gotten pretty tepid reviews. I’d go as far to say that it’s the worst reviewed series of the four Marvel/Netflix series of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. So when I watched the first episode of Iron Fist I was a little concerned — was it going to be the “turd in the punchbowl” of Marvel TV series that everyone else is claiming?

Actually no — Iron Fist isn’t great, but it’s not a bad series either. In fact I’d say that it’s no better nor no worse than either Jessica Jones or Luke Cage.

Finn Jones plays Danny Rand, the son of a wealthy family who’s plane crashed decades ago in the Himalayas that left everyone thinking all the Rands were dead. Except Danny survived the crash, was rescued and now has returned to New York City to reclaim his spot in his father’s company. Only now Danny is different. Much like with the other Netflix Marvel shows that are action/martial arts oriented, Danny has returned as a kung-fu master who’s able to easily scale the outside of buildings, leap over moving cars and take out corporate security goons without breaking a sweat.

It seems like the first season of Iron Fist will focus on Danny reclaiming his rightful place as majority owner of his father’s company while at the same time trying to uncover a conspiracy of those now in control who want him dead.

I actually enjoyed Iron Fist a great deal and found it to be a lot of fun. It’s not as dark as Daredevil is, which is a good thing, yet still fits in the same corner of the Marvel universe the Netflix series all do nicely. The only reason I can think that other reviewers aren’t liking Iron Fist is that they’re coming to the show with some expectations of how it should be based on the other series like how the creators of Jessica Jones or Luke Cage handled those shows. Except Iron Fist is its own thing and I think should be treated as such. It’s not a Jessica Jones or Luke Cage and I think that’s a good thing — if it were Iron Fist would be redundant and not nearly as interesting as it is.

Trial & Error Series premiere episode 1 Grade: D+

The new comedy Trial & Error debuted on NBC last week. It was a show I was looking forward to the last few months and was something NBC had been pushing hard since last winter too. But after having watched the first two episodes I hate to say that Trail & Error was most definitely not worth the wait.

This series seems to be partially based on the 2004 documentary The Staircase that followed a man accused of murdering his wife and is followed by a film crew in the lead up to trial. In Trial & Error, John Lithgow plays Larry Henderson, a man also accused of murdering his wife who’s also being followed by a documentary crew. Junior attorney Josh Segal (Nicholas D’Agosto) is assigned to the case and quickly becomes lead attorney when Henderson’s funds dry up leaving Segal in charge. Helping Segal is investigator Dwayne Reed (Steven Boyer) and assistant Anne Flatch (Sherri Shepherd) who turn out to be incompetent and are more detrimental to the case than beneficial. Reed accidentally destroys some evidence and Flatch suffers from a variety of maladies from face-blindness to fainting whenever she sees a beautiful piece of art.

If it were just Reed and Flatch who were the goofballs of Trial & Error it might have made for an interesting series. It’s like with The Office that had two strong, goofy characters with Michael and Dwight with a lot of other “normal” characters orbiting around them. With Trial & Error it’s like every character is extremely eccentric and it pushes the balance of things totally out of whack.

There’s Henderson who can’t quite take the murder trial seriously and is more interested in rollercising and skate keys, the prosecuting attorney Carol Anne Keane (Jayme Mays) who wants to get the death penalty for Henderson and have sex with Segal no matter what and even a DNA expert (Andrew Daly) who masturbates whenever he’s stressed. The list of crazy characters goes on and on and is way too much.

Also, can we agree at this point sitcoms that are shot documentary style are passe? When the BBC version of The Office did this 16 years ago it was new, unique and fresh. But these days it seems old and stogy, even if it actually makes sense in Trial & Error with Henderson’s trial being the focus of a The Staircase like documentary.

Usually there’s something with 20 minute sitcoms that I can latch onto and stick with a season or two. Either there’s some tiny spark in the writing that interests me or a different kind of character than what’s come before. But with Trial & Error there were several times during the episodes that I very nearly shut it off since I was bored with the show. But I did stick with it until the end and, upon reflection, I think I would have been better off if I would have turned the episode off and watched something else instead.

Movies

Wonder Woman origin trailer

“It is our sacred duty to defend the world.”

Toys

ARTFX+ Spider-Man 2099

Kotobukiya’s ARTFX+ Spider-Man 2099 statue is gorgeous. It stands 5 inches tall, will retail for around $65 and will be available in September. I love everything about it from the colors to the physique of Spider-Man. My only issue is the Kotobukiya statues aren’t really statues, they’re like this cross between action-figure and statue. They’re not made out of resin so they don’t feel solid, but that makes them affordable.

The Reading & Watch List

This week in pop-culture history

1931: William Shatner, James T. Kirk of Star Trek is born
1948: John de Lancie, Q of Star Trek is born
1995: The TV series Sliders premiers
1999: The TV series Farscape premiers
2004: Dawn of the Dead opens in theaters
2009: The last episode of the TV series Battlestar Galactica airs
2012: The Hunger Games opens in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #66

Direct Beam Comms, Feature, MoviesMarch 12, 2017April 9, 2017

TV

The Americans Season 5 episode 1 Grade: B+

The fifth and penultimate season of the series The Americans debuted last week on FX. I like this show a lot but as the series has progressed I think some cracks have started to appear in the structure of the show.

The last five season of The Americans have dealt with parents Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell), a seemingly typical American as apple pie family living in early 1980s Virginia. Except they’re anything but, the Jennings are actually Soviet agents hidden in suburbia who spend their days as the owners of a travel agency and nights doing bad things for mother Russia. Be it stealing secrets, helping fellow agents or even murdering the opposition. And as the series progressed and the missions the Jennings were sent on became more and more dangerous, a good chunk of last season of The Americans was about the Jennings trying to steal a sample of the virulent and deadly bioweapon, Philip and Elizabeth were also forced to bring their teenage daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) into the family night business since she’d be the perfect commie spy for the 1990s.

Except that whereas Philip and Elizabeth both chose the cloak and dagger life and were borne in Russia, one day Paige went from a typical American teen girl who wanted her MTV to the next finding out that her entire life was literally a lie that lead to a breakdown.

What I find most fascinating about The Americans is that it’s a series that features the bad guys as stars of the show. Philip and Elizabeth are doing everything in their power to bring down our way of life, to try and make it so that in the 1990s it’s not Communism that’s left on the scrap-heap of history, it’s Democracy. And every time they steal some special microchip or murder an American scientist or foil the FBI they’re one step closer to their goal. What’s amazing is that we, as the audience, collectively hold our breath as Elizabeth is almost discovered by a guard or quivers in fear when Philip might have been infected with that virulent bioweapon. When, in fact, since they’re the bad guys we should be cheering anything that might bring their demise.

All of which makes for some brilliant TV.

The one bit about The Americans that’s bothered me the last few years, those above mentioned “cracks,” is that the Jennings take waaaay too many risks which is starting to push the bounds of believability a bit for me personally. They’re called on to steal state secrets, murder people, shepherd assets out of the country, break into classified areas, and on, and on, and on… All of which I’m sure the Soviets did in the 1980s, but I’m guessing they had more than a two agents do. It’s like each week the Jennings stick their figurative necks out to do something that if they were caught would at best mean uprooting the family and running back to Russia and at worse death in a blaze of glory and each week they’re able to squeak out a win. But realistically, by taking on so many challenges and risks I’d think that one time they’d screw up, they’d do something wrong and one of them would be killed or caught which would bring their entire lives crashing down around them.

Still, this is a minor quibble since The Americans has been, and still is, one of the best things on TV and puts most other drama series to shame.

Time After Time Series premiere episode 1 Grade: B-

I’m sure it was unintentional, but the creators of the new ABC series Time After Time have totally won the “2016–2017 TV Bingo” game with their series that hits two of the most popular types of new shows this season; it’s a series that’s based on a film that’s about time travel.

BINGO!

Following the structure of the 1979 movie, TV’s Time After Time stars Freddie Stroma as H.G. Wells who just didn’t write about time machines in the 1800s, he invented one and Josh Bowman as Dr. John Stevenson who’s alter-ego just so happens to be Jack the Ripper. Just before he was captured by the police and just before Wells was able to test it, Stevenson rode the time machine to present day and arrived in New York City with Wells chasing close behind. They end up in New York since that’s where Wells’ machine was on display. And it’s up to Wells and assistant museum curator Jane Walker (Geneis Rodriguez) to hunt and stop Stevenson as he picks up in 21st century New York where he left off in 19th century London with stabbing lots of people.

The first episode of Time After Time isn’t bad, if it does seem to move a breakneck speed as we go from 19th century London to 21st century New York to Walker and Wells hunting Stevenson in the blink of an eye. The series isn’t bad even if it’s not something I would probably watch on a weekly basis. What concerns me most about the show, though, is that it seems like the first season will deal with the hunt for the Ripper. Which to me seems like there’ll be a lot of episode with Wells and Walker almost capturing the Ripper before he slips away until the end of the season where something big will happen. To which I ask if this is what’s going to happen, why watch the season and instead just tune in for the season finale?

Making History Series premiere episode 1 Grade: B

Leighton Meester, Adam Pally and Yasir Lester

The new FOX comedy series Making History is another time travel series this season with university facilities manager Dan (Adam Pally) and professor Chris (Yassir Lester) traveling back to 1775 via Dan’s time machine that’s just so happens to be hidden a large gym bag. In 1775 Dan’s a cool guy with limitless access to ham, which the locals adore, and has a girlfriend (Leighton Meester) who loves his songs like “My Heart Will Go On.” But on his latest trip when Dan returned to present day something wasn’t right with Starbucks serving tea instead of coffee and students eating fish and chips so he contacts history prof Chris to help fix things in the past to return our present to normal.

In some ways, Making History is the comedy version of the NBC drama Timeless, except whereas Timeless has a villain intentionally wrecking the past to try and change the present, Making History has inept Dan unintentionally “Homer J. Simson-ing” the past which alters the present.

One episode in and I feel like Making History does have some promise. It does fall into the “boy, aren’t people from the past dumb” cliche that crops up in time travel series — lampooned to great effect in the Austin Powers movies — but that doesn’t quite work here. But on the whole I enjoyed Making History and am interested in seeing how the series plays out over the season since the first episode ends without any resolution with Dan and 1775 girlfriend arriving in our present and finding that they’ve got to go back and rescue Chris.

Better Call Saul season 3 promo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzav_u7ZCpA

“You will pay.”

Movies

Evil Dead II

It took me many years to finally see Evil Dead II which came out 30 years ago this week. I was well aware of the movie from horror magazines like Fangoria but for whatever reason never saw it until about 10 years ago. I’d seen Army of Darkness when that originally came out on VHS but got on a The Evil Dead kick after that film was finally released on DVD and decided that I couldn’t call myself a fan of The Evil Dead if I didn’t also see Evil Dead II. And, to be honest, I was underwhelmed. In many ways Evil Dead II is a bit of a remake of Evil Dead with most of the same crew but with bigger and better splatter effects. At the time my favorite The Evil Dead movie was Army of Darkness with the crude, yet extremely effective original The Evil Dead as second with Evil Dead II pulling up the rear. But over the years as I’ve been more and more exposed to Evil Dead II I’ve found myself more and more a fan of that film.

It’s true that Evil Dead II is kind’a a remake of The Evil Dead but only really in the first 20 minutes. After that it ventures into its own territory. And it’s a great territory — with extremely effective special effects that covers everything from headless corpses flying around rooms to detached hands crawling across floors and even great monster makeup too.

Nowadays, I’m not quite sure which The Evil Dead movie is my favorite since they all have their strengths. The original The Evil Dead is a great horror movie that’s practically a blueprint for burgeoning horror filmmakers on how to create their own scary films without studio backing. Evil Dead II is an out of control gorefest with chainsaws buzzing, axes flying and shotguns blasting. And The Army of Darkness exists on a whole other realm from those two movies, being this rare comedy-horror gem that at times is really fun while also being really scary too.

But whenever I think of The Evil Dead franchise in general I keep coming back to Evil Dead II as the movie that best represents it as a whole. It’s got the perfect balance of comedy and horror and gore and action that really hasn’t been seen in the movies in the last 30 years.

“The Evil Dead Movies”

Toys

Aliens

There were a few announcements for some seriously cool Aliens toys last week. First up, Super7 is releasing a massive 18-inch Aliens toy that’s inspired by the 1979 Kenner Alien toy that disgusted parents, was pulled from shelves and now commands high prices on the vintage toy market. The Super7 toy is about as close as one could get to the design of the 1979 toy without copying it, yet it still feels fresh and unique. Unfortunately, this new Aliens toy costs nearly $200 which puts it just out of my price range.

A little more affordable, and a lot more smaller, are Alien/s/3/4, Predator and Prometheus statues from Eaglemoss. The figurines stand about 5-inches tall and retail for around $30 each.

The Reading & Watch List

This week in pop-culture history

1943: David Cronenberg, director of The Fly, The Dead Zone and Scanners is born
1951: Kurt Russell, Escape from New York, The Thing and Stargate is born
1956: Forbidden Planet premiers in theaters
1971: The Andromeda Strain is released
1973: The Crazies opens
1984: The Ice Pirates opens in theaters
1987: Evil Dead II premiers in theaters
1989: Leviathan premiers

Direct Beam Comms #65

Direct Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, TVMarch 5, 2017March 8, 2017

TV

Taken – Episode 1 Grade: C-

The parade of movies to TV series this season continues with the latest show Taken on NBC. The TV Taken is a prequel series to the film trilogy of the same name that starred Liam Neeson. This time Clive Standen, who’s a British actor and is I’m assuming mostly unfamiliar to US audiences, takes over the role of ex-special forces operative with a “very particular set of skills” Bryan Mills who was put on this planet to chew bubblegum and kick butt, and has long been out of gum.

The first episode opens with Mills being hunted by a narco kingpin who’s son Mills killed some years before when he was a Green Beret. The kingpin wants to take Mills alive to make him suffer for what he did but what he wasn’t counting on is Mills and his skills at dodging assassins, punching people in the face and not getting shot in any vital organs. Also following Mills since they’re using him to lure the kingpin out of hiding is Christina Hart (Jennifer Beals) the head of some super-secret spy agency who, along with her five or six employees, seems to be in control of all the US intelligence agencies. These six people alternate from interrogating cartel members to attacking compounds SEAL Team Six style.

To me, Taken felt a lot like a 1980s cops and robbers series like Miami Vice or Knight Rider where the good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad in a world of black and white without any grey. There is absolutely no confusion as to if what Mills and company are doing is right or wrong, in Taken they’re doing God’s work in cleaning up the streets, and because of all this and because of how heavy handed everything’s handled Taken is one dull show.

Actually, if Mills had a talking car ala Knight Rider that might make for an interesting series, otherwise I’m done with Taken.

Movies

Bill Paxton 1955–2017

Last week actor Bill Paxton died unexpectedly after complications from surgery. Now I’d guess most readers of this blog would know of Paxton, or at least would know him by sight as a guy who turned up in loads of genera movies over the years and made those roles better. Paxton played doomed punk in Terminator, the evil brother Chet in Weird Science, vampire Severen in the oh-so extremely underrated Near Dark, “…is my specialty!” Detective Jerry Lambert in Predator 2, Morgan Earp in Tombstone, Fred Haise in Apollo 13, Mallroy’s dad in Haywire, Master Sergeant Farell in Edge of Tomorrow and most recently as Det. Frank Rourke aka the best thing about the TV series Training Day to name a scant few. Jesus, to look at just some of Paxton’s roles there and how many hours I’ve spent watching movies he was a part of is mind-boggling.

But Paxton is probably most well known as playing Private Hudson in the movie Aliens who turns from a cocky gung-ho Marine one minute to a quivering ball of nerves meek-man the next after the alien monsters wipe out his squad before becoming a heroic figure by the end of the film. His most famous line “Game over man!” has been loved by some, mocked by a few, made fun of by the clueless and has been in our pop-culture psyche for decades now. I think the reason we remember the line is because of how Paxton delivered it, in his over-the-top totally freaked-out I wanna be anywhere but here way. I think delivered any other way by any other actor that line would have been all but forgotten in a movie that exists in this sea of other great lines and visuals.

“Game over man” kind’a encapsulates Paxton’s career as a whole. He’s the guy who’d turn up in these movies in small to medium-sized parts and would steal the show. There’s been quite a few people over the years who’ve made fun of his dry acting style, but dry or not at the end of the day his style was memorable even when the movies he was in were not. He’s the kind of actor that I’d give a chance to whatever movie he was a part of since no matter if the movie was good or bad, Paxton was going to be great in it.

Over the last few years it seemed as if Paxton’s career was starting to have a second act of sorts. Recently, he co-starred in the critically acclaimed Hatfields & McCoys TV mini-series and began having parts in movies like Nightcrawler and the above mentioned Edge of Tomorrow. And with him starring in the CBS series Training Day it seemed like Paxton might be about to break through to another level of acting stardom.

But I guess that just wasn’t destined to happen but regardless of whether or not Paxton was or wasn’t well-known to most of the movie-going public, to those of us who knew him through his work Paxton will always be a giant of the genera cinema and will be greatly missed.

Lethal Weapon

Lethal Weapon, one of the finest buddy-cop movies ever was released 30 years ago this week. Its writer Shane Black would have a hand in creating some truly memorable movies like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 and last year’s The Nice Guys. Currently, Black is filming the upcoming The Predator movie due out next year.

Alien: Covenant movie trailer

“Where is it?”

Kong: Skull Island movie trailer

“Let me list all the ways you’re gonna die.”

Books

So, Anyway…

So, Anyway… is writer/actor/director John Cleese’s autobiography from earliest memory to right up until the point of the creation of Monty Python. I’m guessing the book stops there since there’s been so much written about Cleese and especially Monty Python from that period that it would be redundant, but still, So, Anyway… is a wonderful book with lots of interesting facts and anecdotes of Cleese’s life. Like, I knew how close he was to Graham Chapman but I didn’t realize things like the second future-Python he met was Terry Gilliam or that Cheese did hundreds of hours of comedy radio while also appearing on TV in various comedy/sketch shows while climbing up the comedy ranks early in his career.

The Reading & Watch List

This week in pop-culture history

1964: The Last Man on Earth opens
1971: THX 1138 premiers in theaters
1972: Silent Running premiers
1978: The TV series The Incredible Hulk premiers
1984: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
1994: Weird Science the TV series debuts
2009: Watchmen opens in theaters
2011: Battle Los Angeles opens in theaters
2012: John Carter premiers in theaters

Direct Beam Comms #64

Direct Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, TVFebruary 26, 2017February 25, 2017

TV

Crashing – Episode 1 Grade: B

HBO seems to be the network that thrives on series focusing on the uncomfortable lately. Divorce last fall was about how uncomfortable it is to watch a marriage falling apart while Girls is about how uncomfortable it is to be a 20-something girl in New York. And while there seems to be two different audiences for those two series the one thing they have in common is that I’m not a fan of either of them. While “uncomfortable” works in sorter form things like films or limited-run TV series, I’m not sure it works in longer shows. Which is why I was suspect right from the start of the new HBO series Crashing which debuted last week.

In Crashing, Pete (Pete Holmes) desperately wants to be a comedian and has dedicated his life hitting open mics and trying to break through. Pete sees his life as having promise, but his wife Jess (Lauren Lapkus) who’s supporting jobless Pete wants more excitement and begins having an affair, and when Pete catches Jess and her new beau in the act his seemingly comfortable life comes crashing down around him. Pete’s comic career hasn’t taken off yet and when his car gets towed and he’s mugged Pete finds himself sleeping on the couch of Artie Lange since he’s got nowhere else to go.

Much like with Divorce and Girls a lot of Crashing is rooted in uncomfortable comedy. Be it Pete’s attempt at stand-up or him walking in on his wife and her lover—twice. A lot of which I found difficult to watch, especially since Pete seems like he’s a nice guy undeserving of what apparently really happened to Pete Holmes in real life. However, I found much of the episode, and the idea of Crashing overall, to be quite intriguing. I’m not sure there’s ever been a show to deal with things like trying to make it in comedy while finding out that the love of your life is cheating on you while also coming at things from a deeply religious background before.

I could see Crashing covering some very interesting ground story-wise over the course of a season but would hope that the series isn’t all about how uncomfortable it is to bomb on stage night after night.

Movies

Alien: Covenant “Prologue: Last Supper”

“It’s a big old sea of nuthin’.”

Oscars

I think the last time I was invested in the outcome of the Academy Awards was back in 1998 when director James Cameron was up for several Oscars with his movie Titanic. And that wasn’t because of Titanic which I hadn’t even seen at that point. It was because of his previous movies like Terminator and Aliens which were/are some of my favorites so I wanted to see him recognized for being an outstanding filmmaker. But other than that, I can’t really remember a time when I’ve looked forward to the awards or even watched them?

To me, awards like the Academy Awards are meaningless. All awards like those are the same. They’re based on a bunch of people getting together and voting on what thing liked the most. And a lot of times what they like the most just so happens to be whatever movie is generating the most buzz at the time of voting.

But the way people vote means a lot of great films that people still watch and love today lose out to movies that are all but forgotten a year or two later. Don’t believe me? What film won the Oscar for Best Picture during last year’s ceremony? Don’t Google it, try and remember it. I’ll be waiting for you below with the answer.

…

That movie was Spotlight. Does anyone still talk about Spotlight? No. Will anyone be talking about that movie in 20 years? Who knows, but if I were a betting man I’d put my money on “no.”

And the same goes for most, if not all of the movies up for awards this year. There’s so much hoopla surrounding them, and there’s so much reporting on who’s a lock to win and who’s got an outside chance of taking home a statue. But in a year or two no one will remember or care.

Ultimately, it only matters what you think about a movie. Do you think that Deadpool was the best movie of 2016? Great, then Deadpool was the best movie of 2016 to you. Or you over there, do you think that The Nice Guys was the best of the year? Super, then that one was the best to you.

That’s why I don’t care about the Oscars. They’re such a big deal at the time that will all be meaningless in a year or two. So why waste the time?

The Reading & Watch List

This week in pop-culture history

1920: James Doohan, Scotty of Star Trek is born
1949: Gates McFadden, Beverly Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation is born
1985: The TV series Robotech debuts
1998: Dark City premiers in theaters
2001: The TV series The Lone Gunmen premiers