Direct Beam Comms #52

TV

Ash vs Evil Dead – Grade: B+

The second season of Ash vs Evil Dead debuted back in October, so I’m a little late in reviewing this one. But that’s because I don’t get Starz, the network that airs this series, so I had to wait for a free preview weekend to catchup on this show.

Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2 2016I loved the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead from last year but with one caveat — the last 10 minutes of the last episode didn’t fit with what had come before whatsoever. So, rather than going into the this season as excited as I’d normally be instead I went into the latest Ash vs Evil Dead with a bit of trepidation. The good news is that it seems like the writers did a quick course correction on the show and brought things back into line. The bad news is, well, I’ll get to that here in a bit…

The second season of Ash vs Evil Dead opens a few weeks/months after the end of the first. Ash (Bruce Campbell), Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) are living the a wild frat-boy 24/7 party live in Jacksonville, Florida when the truce they had with the evil things brought forth via the Book of the Dead from the first season is unexpectedly cancelled throwing the trio back into the fight and on the lookout for current possessor of the book Ruby (Lucy Lawless). They find themselves in Ash’s Michigan hometown where he’s known as “Ashie Slashie” from the what all happened in The Evil Dead (1981). Just when the trio are about the close in on Ruby and get the book back they find that things aren’t as clear as they seemed down in Jacksonville.

One thing I really appreciate about Ash vs Evil Dead is just how much abuse the actors of the show, and stunt people, take each and every episode. If the actors aren’t being covered in gallons upon gallons of blood, bile or pus, then the stunt people are being catapulted across rooms to crash through windows or onto walls. In an age where seemingly every stunt is done totally by CGI the ones in Ash vs Evil Dead are truly something to appreciate. And the story this season, of Ash returning home where he’s not welcome, even by his dad Brock (Lee Majors) is unexpected and clever as well.

The bad news, I don’t think Ash vs Evil Dead is going to appeal to anyone who’s not already in love with Ash or the whole Evil Dead franchise or doesn’t appreciate the seemingly never-ending gore/buckets of blood that permeate each episode of the show. Then again, if you don’t appreciate Ash vs Evil Dead then I don’t think we can be friends. 😉

Incorporated – Grade: C

incorporated-syfyThe first episode of the sci-fi series Incorporated aired last week on SyFy. The series takes place about 60 years in the future where a warming climate has changed weather patterns that caused chaos around the globe leading to the fall of most governments with mega-corporations stepping in to fill in the void. Now there are haves like Ben (Sean Teale) who lives in gated communities, get the best food and generally don’t have to interact with the lower classes who live in septic, crime ridding slums. But Ben is hiding a secret that might threaten his comfortable life.

Incorporated has an interesting premise but fails in a big way in that the creators of the series essentially built their show by taking elements from other sci-fi movies to construct their own. So, instead of writing a traditional review I’ve decided to record all of the elements Incorporated “borrowed” to construct their own series that I happened to catch.

  • RoboCop: Corporations are now more powerful than governments.
  • Starship Troopers: People need a license to have kids.
  • Dredd: There’s a drug that once taken causes people to experience life in slow-motion.
  • Gattaca: A person from the lower-class is trying to break into the upperclass by hiding his identity. Also, blood is drawn by an automated finger prick to determine one’s identity.
  • Running Man: Kids and teens are indoctrinated to join corporate armies/security forces.
  • Johnny Mnemonic: There are corporate assassins.
  • Elysium: Because of climate change, the slums of cities now resemble desert wastelands.
  • Aliens: The ties businessmen wear have changed and are futuristic/odd looking.
  • Minority Report: Computer displays are now so advanced that they’re everywhere and nothing looks like screens anymore. Also, cars and now driverless to the point that passengers no longer face looking forward, they now look at one and other in order to better converse.

So, rather than watch Incorporated I’d recommend checking out the movies that the series took from instead.

The Expanse season 2 TV spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHFMK9l5cCg

Movies

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJQ_0puczI

Cool Sites

  • Lost Minis Wiki: Lost Minis Wiki is a non-profit site dedicated to identifying, photographing and documenting fantasy miniatures.

The Reading List

On the Horizon

Last week I completed and turned in my last article of 2016 — “The Best TV Series of 2016” which will be published on December 16 via this site and The Fort Wayne Reader. I always start off each year thinking, “How in the heck am I ever going to think of enough things to write about this year?” Yet somehow I always do. I’ve already started mapping out dates and things to write for next year and am coming up with things to write about throughout the year. Since we seem to be getting more and more horror, sci-fi and comic book TV series and movies each year it means that I’ve already got more than half of my 2017 articles already planned out throughout the year. Which does concern me a bit since if I’m already planning on writing about things like the upcoming Power Rangers, Mummy and IT movies, am I making it so that I’m less flexible on what I can and can’t write about if something interesting comes out of nowhere? I think probably not since just because I’m planning on writing about something, doesn’t mean that I’ve actually written it, so I suppose I do have a bit of flexibility that way. And I remember a time too when I had to come up with alternate article ideas like “Disaster Du Jour” to be able to write about things when I couldn’t think of anything to write about. Now the problem’s almost that I have too many options and not enough weeks!

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1952: Michael Dorn, Worf of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine is born
  • 1979: Star Trek: The Motion Picture opens in theaters
  • 1984: 2010 is released in theaters
  • 1989: The last episode of the classic Doctor Who (the original series) airs
  • 2003: The TV mini-series Battlestar Galactica debuts
  • 2011: The first episode of Black Mirror airs
  • 2013: Oblivion debuts in theaters

2016/17 TV Preview

New series

It’s been a long while since I can remember the last time I was as disinterested in the crop of new TV series that are set to start debuting on network TV this fall. Usually, there’s at least something I can look forward to, some series I can get excited about. But honestly this year looks like it’s going to be mostly a bust on the networks.

The Good Place
The Good Place

All that I’m looking forward to on network TV this fall is the comedy The Good Place on NBC starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell about a woman that died and accidentally went to “the good place” rather than the hot one and Star Trek: Discovery on CBS. Though this sixth Trek TV series is set to only air once on CBS before it moves to their streaming service.

And there’s a few new shows I’m looking forward to on cable and streaming too, one of which is Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is on BBC America and is based on the Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) book of the same name. This new TV version of the Adams novel is being written and produced by Max Landis (Chronicle). On Netflix is Marvel’s Luke Cage that’s a sort’a spin-off of the Jessica Jones show about a man, Cage (Mike Colter) who’s super-strong with super-tough skin that brushes aside bullets who decides to clean up the streets of New York.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to scoff at on network TV next fall than to look forward to.

If the last few years the networks have been trying to turn as many come books into TV series as they could, then this year it’s all about turning once popular movies into TV series, or rebooting once popular past TV series into modern ones. Which I have no problem with, except that nothing I’ve seen from any of these new shows makes me thing that the networks have anything other than a bunch of creative duds on their hands.

Time After Time
Time After Time

Based on the movie of the same name, Time after Time on ABC features author H.G. Wells (Freddie Stroma) building a time machine in 1893 and traveling to present day 2016 New York City to find Jack the Ripper who’s also travelled to New York City in the same time machine. Convenient, ain’t it? If the movie version was a love story between Wells and a modern day woman, then the TV version seems to be setting the two up as a male/female investigative duo ala Castle, Blindspot, The Blacklist, etc., etc., etc.

Emerald City on NBC is the latest attempt at a network to create a TV version of the Wizard of Oz story that various channels have been trying to do since at least 2002. This version of the Oz story has Dorothy being swept off to a totally reimagined and harder version of Oz that seems to be a mashup of Game of Thrones and Once Upon a Time.

Fox has two shows based on movies set to premier this fall; The Exorcist and Lethal Weapon.

The Exorcist
The Exorcist

The Exorcist looks to be essentially the story of the novel/movie about a girl possessed by a demon — with a little bit of things like The Conjuring thrown in for good measure. My one question about The Exorcist is if the entire season will be about the girl’s possession, or if each episode will be about some other evil forces possessing some other poor souls? It doesn’t help matters that The Exorcist is the second “possession” series on TV with Outcast also about demonic forces already on Starz.

The TV version of Lethal Weapon seems to take the zanier elements of the movie from Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford) having a death wish which makes him practically fearless and his older, world-weary partner Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans Sr.) who has to deal with Riggs and is “too old for this @#$%.” But somehow I’d imagine that if it does take the zanier elements of the Riggs character that it’s not going to use the movie version of him being suicidal and his substance abuse problems. You know, all the stuff that made him seem human and not some cartoon character.

Frequency on The CW, takes the elements of the 2000 movie where someone from the present, here Raimy Sullivan (Peyton List), is able to talk with their father from 20 years in the past via a ham radio. And because she’s able to send information to her father in the past she’s able to change events in her present. But if other time travel movies/TV series have taught us anything, it’s that meddling in the past will being about unintended consequences in the present/future. Time After Time should take note!

MacGyver
MacGyver

On CBS there’s a series based on the movie Training Day and one on the 1980s TV series MacGyver. Much like with the movie, the TV version of Training Day follows a young, idealistic police officer (Drew Van Acker) sent to spy on a seasoned, up to no good, “King Kong ain’t got !@#$ on me” detective (Bill Paxton).

MacGyver (Lucas Till) is a younger take on the character but with the overall concept of the original series — solving crimes/rescuing people/stopping terrorists by making whatever’s needed with what’s on hand to get the job done — intact. I was a huge fan of the original MacGyver as a kid, but somehow I doubt that this middle-aged man is going to be a fan of this new version of the show.

returning_tv

Returning series

black-ish
black-ish

If new series this year look crummy at least there’s a slew of great and interesting shows to look forward to.

Out of the gate early this fall are ABC comedies The Goldbergs, black-ish and Fresh off the Boat. While black-ish and Fresh off the Boat get a lot of good press for their diversity and somewhat controversial storylines, I’m more concerned with whether or not the shows are funny or not and these are.

The Goldbergs and black-ish return September 21 and Fresh off the Boat October 11.

Ash vs. Evil Dead
Ash vs. Evil Dead

I was a huge fan of the Starz series Ash vs Evil Dead right up until the very end of the final episode of the first season when things kind’a fell off the rails. That series deals with sad-sack Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) who accidentally released evil spirits from the bound in human skin Book of the Dead. And in Ash vs Evil Dead it’s up to Ash and his two friends Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) to figure out a way to undo what he’s done.

The show was everything I’d ever wanted in an Evil Dead TV series with over-the-top action, comedy and lots of gore. But that ending, it was so out of tone with what had come the previous nine episodes that it really frustrated me. That being said, I’m ready for loads more wise-cracking Ash in a second season of Ash vs Evil Dead which starts back up September 23. As long as they do some ‘splaining about that ending I’ll be back for more gore!

Star Wars Rebels
Star Wars Rebels

Existing alongside the current film franchises, the animated Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD tells the story of what was going on in the galaxy when the evil Empire was consolidating power and trying to wipe a nascent rebellion out. The stories of Rebels can be surprisingly deep and emotional for a series we already know the end to. Hint — none of the characters of Rebels show up in Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope so… Star Wars Rebels returns September 24.

The British series Black Mirror is available on Netflix October 11. This anthology series that originally debuted back in 2001 that’s a bit like The Twilight Zone but updated for modern day originally didn’t have a series run here in the US until Netflix picked it up a few years ago. And boy am I glad they did — this show about what happens when technology and all its uses goes wrong is consistently one of the best things on TV. Black Mirror can be so intense that I’ve yet to be able to go back and watch old episodes again even though I loved them the first time around.

The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle

The alterna-history The Man in the High Castle returns to Amazon Prime December 16. I was surprised as to just how interesting a show High Castle was since I’d never really been interested in any of the other original Prime series. Here, it’s an early 1960s where Germany and Japan won the second world war and now occupy most of the planet, the US included. These two superpowers are engaging in a Cold War of sorts with what’s left of the US set to be the battleground for World War III. Except that events in the first season of High Castle reveal that this may just be one reality of many, one where the allies won the war (ours) and others where Germany or the Soviets won it all.

Better Call Saul
Better Call Saul

Another sci-fi series The Expanse returns to SyFy this January. Based on the book series Leviathan Wakes, The Expanse takes place in a future where mankind has colonized most of the solar system and has brought along all of the problems we have here on the Earth like racism, war, disease, hunger… But all this pales in comparison to what starts happening when something’s released on an asteroid outpost that threatens to consume all of humanity.

Also sometime in January a fourth season of the PBS series Sherlock is set to return with, I’m assuming, four new episodes. The series has been on since 2011 and has so far aired a paltry 13 episodes of TV. They may be “paltry” but they’re also darn good!

And the show I’m looking forward to most returning next season is Better Call Saul on AMC, the third series about how lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) goes from a guy trying to go good to someone who’d have people killed if it would earn him any money which is set to debut sometime early next year.