Author: S.J. Borger

SJB lives in Southern California, though she can't remember deciding to move there from San Francisco. She got a degree in theatre and enjoyed the student loan debt so much she went for a Masters in Film and Television. Per Los Angeles County regulations, she declared herself a screenwriter upon arrival and is often seen typing away in her local Starbucks in order to maintain the persona. She plays a healer on World of Warcraft and therefore will never be allowed to stop playing. You can follow her on Twitter @sjbwrite!

Finally! Blizzard Announces No More Auction Houses In Diablo 3!

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 22, 2013

Blizzard announced earlier this week that it will be shuttering the auction house in Diablo 3 on March 18, 2014.

Diablo 3, which was released in 2012 to record numbers, is a co-op role-playing-game where players could run around and kill various monsters in various ways; the game mechanics encouraged multiple play-throughs as players received better and better gear—and fought harder and harder monsters—as they played through each level a second or third time.

Launched with the game was a controversial in-game Auction House where players could spend real money on gear and other items—including buying in-game currency. While the Auction House has been extremely successful in World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment’s MMORPG, the WoW AH does not allow players to use real money—in fact buying gold is expressly forbidden—and other games use a downloadable content (DLC) system where players can either buy items directly or buy game currency with real currency in order to buy in-game items, an in-game hybrid had never been tried before.

Players were intrigued when it was announced. Some were openly cynical.

And indeed, the AH was a problem almost from the beginning. Being able to buy upgrades meant players could essentially skip whole levels of the killing monsters/get better loot mechanic; co-op play become unbalanced between purists and auction house twinks. Blizzard attempted various hotfixes, none really worked, and finally, Blizzard decided to yank the whole system.

In a blog post by John Hight, Diablo 3’s Game Production Designer, Hight recounted the reasons behind the decision. Saying that the AH was “initially designed and implemented…[to] provide a convenient and secure system for trades,” Hight goes on to state that the AH “essentially undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.”

While some players have greeted the news with less than sanguine reactions (one Battle.net Forum user was quoted as saying: “Good job killing the game.”)but most are relieved and heartened by Blizzard’s announcement.

Reaper of Souls, Courtesy of Blizzard Entretainment

Blizzard is also preparing an expansion for Diablo 3, Reaper of Souls, which is due out in 2014 and will feature an updated loot system as well as new content and classes.

Geekscape Recap: World of Warcraft, Patch 5.4

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 22, 2013

Blizzard Entertainment released patch 5.4 for World of Warcraft last Tuesday (with the requisite 127* hot fixes afterward), which implemented a large number of changes across various platforms: class, world, dungeons and raids, gear and mounts.

Blizzard took a hard look at some of the classes—hunters and paladins got the most changes but no class was left untouched—continuing the trend they started with the Mists of Panderia expansion, changing spells and abilities from talents into class skills. Does the new system make playing one’s class easier? Definitely. Gone are the hours of research and game theory over points spent on talent trees. The abilities that define a class and a spec are no longer left to the player to decide; rather Blizzard has defined them for us, and served them to each class as a fait accompli.

This is not a bad thing, but it is symbolic of the dumbing down of the game that has occurred since its Wrath of the Lich King expansion. While it was never considered the hardest of hard core MMOs—Everquest and Final Fantasy XI share that title—WoW at one point required skill and knowledge in order for a person to reach end game raiding. Blizzard’s attempts to appease both its audiences—the casual player and the hardcore raider—has mostly succeeded. But gone are the days of rep for resist gear, arguments over swords vs. daggers, raid progression being counted in months rather than days, Holy-Disc priests and Shock-adins. And occasionally, when we see a talent that used to be a choice become a required spell in our rotation, we miss those days.

Timeless Isle. Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

Another Island Flying Mounts Don’t Work On

Patch 5.4 does not buck this trend. More talents became known skills. Things that once had to be glyphed have become passive abilities. Epic gear is literally on the ground for people to trip over (these 496 ilevel epics are now known as welfare epics. Cruel, yes. True? Yes) allowing anyone with mobility to acquire gear and raid (at least in Looking For Raid). The new isle—which players are sent to by Chromie (welcome back, Chromie!) is out of time (a clever trick to allow for Blizzard to take away flying mounts, because why would a player want to use something they’ve spent hours working for?) and heroes are needed.

As Heroes we are, off we go to the Timeless Isle, to be greeted with a ‘go explore the island’ quest. Seriously. They didn’t even try to get you to deliver a letter or a desperately needed potion or anything. We’re also encouraged to open any chests we see lying about, and oh, here’s a new rep grind and new coins to collect.

At this point we liked to say a few words about rep grinds. We have, contrary to popular opinion, a real life. And in that real life we have daily tasks like dishes, and cooking dinner, and doing the laundry, and picking up the living room. Rep grind dailies are the WoW equivalent of having to do the dishes. They were never fun, but Panderia took them to the level of a full time job. A day’s daily quest on one toon could take four hours. And, if you want the Legendary items available through the Black Prince quest lines, then add in the required LFR, Normal or Heroic raids for another six to eight hours weekly.

At Least the Scenery’s Different

While 5.4 addresses this somewhat (gear is now found in boxes rather than having to slog through seven different reps) there is still a lot of ‘just run and kill things’

‘how many things?

‘ALL the things.’

Which is essentially what the Timeless Isle is. It’s Maine the day after deer hunting licenses come out. People travel in packs and kill every elite in sight. Rares die in seconds. The island’s timeless because what you’re doing never changes. Ride around in a circle, and kill things. By the time you’ve completed the circuit, there are more things.

Is this drastically different than before? No. Any MMO—or RPG for that matter—is going to have a requisite number of ‘go kill ten wolves and come back to me.’ It’s how you gain experience and level up. But the Timeless Isle is for level capped raiders. Why do we need to massacre turtles for two hours every day?

Is it new content? Yes. It’s even fun, for a little bit. Opening chests and finding purple has a certain awesome cachet about it (especially for those of us who remember how hard purple gear used to be to get) and it does allow for people to sidestep the never-ending rep grind (unless they want mounts…) and still be geared enough to LFR. But with all the things Blizzard could have done, the Timeless Isle feels a little…easy.

The fact that there is content only accessible to be players who completed certain quests already (the Black Prince quest line and the cooking profession quests) is a nice nod to players who achieved certain things in the prior patch and something we wish Blizzard would do more of, other than the random achievement.

Prepping before one of the new bosses in Siege of Ogrimmar. — Prepping before one of the new bosses in Siege of Orgrimmar.

Time to Take the Fight To Hellscream

The new Siege of Orgrimmar (SoO) raid content offers fresh bosses but the mechanics don’t start getting innovative and different until the last wing (the eleventh to the fourteenth boss). So far, the really exciting thing in 5.4 is Flex Raiding. Harder than LFR, easier than Normal, with no ilevel or role restrictions–and cross-server friendly–Flex raiding is an alternative for players and guilds who wish to experience new content without the PuG mentality of LFR but who maybe aren’t 100% ready for Normal or Heroic difficulty. It also allows guilds to gear more than 10 people in order to create a stable roster of geared players. While the first two wings of Flex have been criticized as being too easy, the theory behind it is sound and we look forward to seeing how it is implemented in later raids.

Proving Grounds are another new thing introduced in Patch 5.4. These solo instances allow a player to pick their role (dps, tank or healer) and then sets them against NPCs to ‘prove’ their skills. Gear is normalized to a 463 ilevel (higher level items with procs will still proc, but the rate is adjusted, though legendary proc remains the same) and the encounters are a test of skill and class knowledge. The grounds come have Bronze, Silver, Gold and Endless rounds and the achievements are already becoming requirements for high-end guilds.

The round’s difficulty scale is a little off, Bronze and Silver are deceptively easy compared to Gold. Potions don’t work and a player is never out of combat (except in Endless, where there is time out of combat every ten waves for drinking/eating) so cooldowns and mana/energy/rage/focus management are key. Players do get the full 8/8 buffs and can flask and food buff up if they want. There is a reforger there, as well as vendor with Dust of Disappearance, as talents, glyphs and stats set up for optimum raiding dps/healing/tanking are not always the best set-up for the proving grounds.

Proving Grounds. Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

A Solid Update to the Game

Patch 5.4 is a solid new expansion; Players who liked World of Warcraft before will continue to play (with minor complaints); people who have never played will probably not be compelled too, and those who have left the game will not feel pangs of regret. As always, some classes are a little over-powered, and others have been nerfed a little too much, but Blizzard has always had a see-saw approach to class balance.

Patch 5.4 went live on Tuesday, September 10^th, with the new raid content in LFR available on Tuesday, Sept. 17^th.

World of Warcraft and its expansions are available from Blizzard.

*not an accurate number in regards to hot fixes. There may have been more.

Geekscape TV Review: ‘Sleepy Hollow’

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 18, 2013

Sleepy Hollow Pulls Ahead

Sleepy Hollow, the new genre-tastic show from the powerhouse team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Fringe, Star Trek: Into Darkness) along with Phillip Iscove and Len Wiseman, and starring fan favorites John Cho, Orlando Jones and Clancy Brown, with Nicole Beharie (42) and Tom Mison (Salman Fishing on the Yemen), premiered last night on Fox to a whopping 10 million viewers—a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49–making it Fox’s highest rated Fall drama premiere in six years.

And let’s hope that those numbers stick around, because the show looks to only get better once these world-building, exposition-laden episodes get out of the way (and they are pretty exposition-laden!).

Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane. Mison has already been voted Fall 2013's Breakout Star by the Television Critics Association, according to the Hollywood Reporter. — Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane. Mison has already been voted Fall 2013’s Breakout Star by the Television Critics Association, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Just a Story About a Guy, and a Girl,and a Headless Horseman…

Sleepy Hollow is a modern retelling of Washington Irving’s classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But this one has a modern action flare right from the start. In the teaser opening, we meet Ichabod Crane (Mison) in 1781, busily—and quite handily—killing British soldiers in the Revolutionary War; in a rapid series of shots we see Crane kill the Horseman; the Horseman reviving only to slash Crane open; and Crane decapitating the Horseman; then, suddenly, we’re in modern day Sleepy Hollow and a dazed Crane is digging himself out of a grave and stumbling out into the fog, where he eventually meets up with Beharie, who plays Deputy Sheriff Abbie Mills, a sarcastic, ambitious, slightly pushy deputy sheriff who manages to remain likeable even while slogging through a number of the tepid, trope-heavy procedural scenes.

The first twenty minutes are engrossing, startling, funny, engaging and, quite honestly, great television. The show moves, the actors seem at home in their characters, the dialogue sparkles and pops, doling out enough information to move forward but never seeming forced or out of place. The first twenty minutes of Sleepy Hollow are pretty darn close to perfect television—the Starbucks conversation between Crane and Beharie is short, funny, blisteringly socially aware while also being deprecatingly self-aware and there’s only about five lines of dialogue. This is when Sleepy Hollow is at its best.

Series leads Mison and Beharie complement each other—on-screen together, they have the easy give and take of a long partnership, at times combative and other times comedic. Mison, in particular, portrays a man-out-of-his-time with wry humor and a bleak, buried sorrow that lends a gravity to him that would have been hard to manage in a lesser actor; Beharie inhabits her deputy-sheriff-with-a-past with a natural ease and great charm. The supporting cast—Cho, Jones and Brown—make the most of the limited screen time they have, and they all play off each other superbly, taking even some of the more monotonous lines and imbuing them with an honesty which enriches the whole show.

Courtesy of FOX. Beharie as Deputy Sheriff Abbie Mills and Mison as Ichabod Crane.

And Then Things Got a Little Weird

Unfortunately, after about twenty minutes, the show got pilot-itis, and started trying to explain itself. Three or four scenes in particular stand out for their overly-expositional, stridently info-dumping tone; which is so discordant when compared to rest of the episode, we can only assume an executive at Fox got nervous, and started suggest/insist-ing that more exposition was needed—and those info-scenes got added to the detriment of others (i.e.: information is alluded to late in the episode that was never actual given during the episode itself, which smacks of a cut or deleted scene). It may not be the nicest thing, to blame the Execs, but they can take the punch, since they still owe us all for cancelling Firefly.

It’s a pity, because what was good was so very, very good that the audience probably could have stood for being left a little confused longer—even two or three episodes in—in return for the quality remaining high throughout. Again, we’re going to blame the Fox executives for that. Since, you know, they cancelled Firefly.

Things got a little weird—there seems to be an odd blurring between the Sheriff’s office (usually an elected official beholden to a county council) and the police precinct; the Horseman turned in his axe, which was MAGIC, for a shotgun (which may also be magic…since the shells do burst into flame); George Washington is also apparently a supernatural/demon hunter; and the apocalypse figures in (don’t worry about being confused, because the show will spell that out for you three times before the end of the pilot).

Courtesy of Fox. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him

And Then Clancy Brown Quoted the King James Bible

However, despite the occasional ‘what, wait?’ and the sudden onset of pilot-itis, there is an intriguing heart to Sleepy Hollow. The cast is invested and believable, there’s plenty of humor, the murder-mysteries could be intriguing, and the scare factor is definitely there (there is one scene, with a blurry demon…well, no spoilers. Just…phew…). Plus, you get a pretty hardcore “these bad guys mean business” ending.

The pilot is often the weakest episode in a show’s history—many successful shows have had problematic pilots. Sleepy Hollow has much more going for it than against it, and the second episode looks to be full of even more absurd odd couple/crime solving/Armageddon preventing adventure.

We don’t know about your Monday’s, but ours could do with a little more of that.

Sleepy Hollow airs Monday’s on Fox at 9 p.m; the pilot can be viewed online here.

Score:

Pilot Episode: 3.5/5

Overall Show: Possibly a 4, even a 4.5 out of 5. Excited to see how the next few episodes do!

Geekscape Games Previews: ‘Insurgency’

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 17, 2013

Beta Phase is Go!

New World Interactive’s (NWI) first person shooter, Insurgency, has just entered its Beta phase after a lengthy Alpha on Steam.

Insurgency is the sequel to the free-to-play Source mod Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat, and the game stays fairly close to its prequel’s hardcore, realistic sensibilities, which should delight the dedicated fans of the original game mod, while its power-to-the-players development cycle is intriguing and should help build a large player base.

NWI set out wanting to create a game that was responsive to the comments and suggestions from the players, and to further that goal, they kept the development phases open to those interested. The Alpha phase has been available on Steam since April 2103, and now the Beta phase has been released. The Beta gives players full access to the current maps, a fairly varied weapon inventory, and the opportunity to not only give suggestions and critiques, but to play with the developers themselves.

The Nitty Gritty

The game allows players to choose which server, modes (four MMO or two Co-Op), maps (eight different ones with different objectives), team (Security, a private military company, or Insurgents, which is, yeah, what it sounds like), type of squad/function on team (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta squads all have slightly different builds and perform varied functions; Alpha and Bravo are assault, with Charlie and Delta providing cover and heavy artillery) and character build. No gender choice—it’s a man’s’ world out there.

The gameplay is unforgiving, gritty and realistic; there are no friendly HUDs or cross-hairs; aiming is done either through the true-to-life iron sights, or by just holding down the trigger and pray-and-spray-ing. Teams survive—and eventually win—by taking and holding strongholds and objectives on the Map. The gameplay can go from prolonged tug-of-wars for dominance to minute-long lightening strikes, depending upon the map and mode chosen. How teams work together obtaining and retaining objectives effects the upgrades available and has a long-term impact on the team’s ultimate victory, which reinforces team play and coordination.

Weapons are realistic (AKs, M-16s) and are upgradeable in-game (hints of Counter-Strike here). Upgrades are gained at a pre-determined rate based upon mode and type of gameplay—forcing players to choose the upgrade best for the fight at hand, not necessarily for the long term. These sort of get-me-out-of-this-situation-alive-and-I’ll-deal-with-tomorrow-later decisions are part of what make the game feel so visceral.

And…Then…There’s Just One Thing

NWI tries to strike a balance between one-life gameplay and prolonged action. For seasoned players, they succeed. However, for players new to FPS co-op play, this may not be the best game to start with. With no single-player option, tutorial mode or even a ‘noob’ server, players are thrust right into the action with more experienced players. FPS co-op play is not where you want to cause other people to wipe—its players aren’t known for their cuddly, loving, supportive, hug-it-out approach to people not playing well. That being said, the game is in Beta and if the changes made since Alpha release are any indication, we’re excited to see what the final product is.

The game’s Beta is currently open to all via an early access pass on Steam for $19.99. The full game is expected to be released in 2014.

Already playing Insurgency? Be sure to let us know your thoughts below!

‘Arrow’ Set to Welcome The Flash, Grant Gustin Cast As Barry Allen

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 13, 2013

Briefly: Glee’s Grant Gustin is set to play Barry Allen, a.k.a The Flash, on The CW’s Arrow this season.

The Flash will appear in episodes eight, nine and 20 as a set-up for a spin-off series; episode 20 is expected to be a backdoor pilot. The Flash character will be introduced as the non-super powered Barry Allen, a forensic scientist visiting Sparrow City to investigate a series of unexplained robberies.

Arrow co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andreew Kreisberg are on board for the spin-off, as are director David Nutter and DC Entertainment’s Geoff Jones (director/writer, respectively).

Barry Allen will gain super powers—and become The Flash—in what has been described as ‘extraordinary events in the world’ by Kreisberg. The spin-off is expected to take place in a different city entirely, and except for possible cross-over events, should not impact the main cast of Arrow.

Picture courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter; Grant Gustin will play Barry Allen (The Flash) on The CW's Arrow this season. — Picture courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter; Grant Gustin will play Barry Allen (The Flash) on The CW’s Arrow this season.

Gustin, returning to the CW after a stint on Glee as a member of the all-male group The Warblers, told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’m unbelievably excited. I’ve been a lifelong fan of DC Comics, so I can’t be more honored and can’t wait to get started.”

Arrow returns to the CW on October 9^th. Are you happy with the casting choice, or is there another actor you’d rather have seen in the role? Sound out below!

Geekscape’s Guide To The 2013-2014 TV Season

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 4, 2013

Below is the definitive list of new and returning shows on network and cable (excluding the smaller niche channels such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon) that could possibly have a fandom, be near a fandom, or be fandom adjacent…

Peruse through the list, watch some trailers (though not every show has a trailer yet), and have fun!

So. Alphabetical order. Nice and neutral.

Starting with:

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

ABC, Tues, 8 to 9 p.m. Air Date: 9/24

Whedon’s back on the small screen, folks, and he’s brought Coulson. And Lola. While not necessarily a super-hero show (Coulson runs a small team of normal, if talented, people who track and contain—if needed—new superhuman talent), it lives and breathes at the intersection of Marvel and Whedon so really, anything could happen. Whedon has said that the new series is Avengers adjacent, taking place after the events of The Avengers, but focusing on the normal people on the peripheral of the super-hero action. It is expected that the show will interact with both Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well as the upcoming Avengers sequel.

Clark Gregg reprises his role as Phil Coulson (you could hear the screams of joy as far as Montana when he was revealed as being alive at the 2013 South by Southwest Festival this year). He is joined by Ming-Na Wen (Mulan, Stargate Universe, Eureka), fan favorite J. August Richards (Angel), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, Avengers), and Ron Glass (Firefly, Serenity) along with a host of new, interesting characters that round out the team of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Quite possibly the most anticipated show airing this season—the pilot has gotten high scores at IGN as well as positive reaction from the San Diego Comic Con crowd—its pedigree and fan base should guarantee significant support—the question is will it appeal to a larger audience? Hopefully its adventure-of-the-week, underdog format will make it accessible enough for both the fans and the soon-to-be fans.

Once Upon A Time in Wonderland

http://youtu.be/vqOwV-2B5_w

ABC, Thurs, 8 to 9 p.m., 10/10

A spin-off of ABC’s hit Once Upon a Time, now in its third season, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland follows a now grown-up Alice, almost convinced her adventures were the ravings of an insane mind, as she escapes from a Victorian London insane asylum and goes back down the rabbit hole.

Wonderland, however, is also a victim of the same curse as the residents of Storybook, Maine, prompting Alice into new and—hopefully— thrilling adventures.

The show is expected to cross over with Once Upon A Time and share characters and settings, as well as having the blending of ABC/Disney mythology that Once Upon a Time is known for (Once Upon A Time deals entirely with the Disney version of fairytales, stretching the premise as far as possible to include other characters, such as Mulan, Peter Pan, etc.).

Once Upon A Time had a similarly exciting premise that was never fulfilled, stuck instead in a mire of bad dialogue, over-exposition, predictable ‘twists’ and flashbacks with painfully obvious ‘lessons’ (only Rumpelstiltskin, played by Robert Carlyle, was ever able to convincingly play both sides of his characters). Hopefully Alice will not be plagued by the same issues.

Created by the same team as Once Upon a Time, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (who were also responsible for Tron: Legacy), Alice stars newcomer Sophie Lowe as Alice, with Emma Rigby (Hollyoaks, Prisoners Wives) as The Red Queen, John Lithgow (Third Rock from the Sun to name one….) as the voice of the White Rabbit, and Naveen Andrews (The English Patient, Lost, The Adventures of Sinbad) as Jafar.

Midseason

ABC also has two shows slated for a midseason premiere which skate along the borderline of geekdom:

Mind Games

http://youtu.be/s2P9Qc5tgzo

ABC, Sundays, 10 to 11 p.m., 3/9/14

From Kyle Killen (Lone Star, Awake), Mind Games stars Christian Slater and Steve Zahn as brothers who use psychological manipulation to help their clients solve problems; from the preview it looks a little like Franklin and Bash meets Leverage with some Lie to Me thrown in for good measure.

Resurrection

http://youtu.be/8MFrquHzlWA

ABC, Sunday, 10 to 11 p.m., Limited Series, 2/24/13

Based on Jason Mott’s novel The Returned, and co-produced by a long list of people including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Resurrection stars Omar Epps (House), Francis Fisher (Eureka, Sons of Anarchy, Torchwood: Miracle Day) and Kurtwood Smith (That ‘70’s Show, Star Trek IV, 24). The show follows the lives of the citizens of Arcadia, Missouri as their loved ones begin returning from the dead—not as zombies, but as living, breathing, alive people the same age as they were when they died.

Castle returns to ABC on Monday, Sept. 23rd.

Returning Shows:

With renewals for both Once Upon a Time (Sun 8 to 9 p.m., 9/29) for its third season, and Castle (Mon, 10 to 11 p.m., 9/23) for its sixth season, ABC is a strong second among the networks for geek friendly fare.

BBC America—known for quality geekfare such as Merlin, Torchwood, Orphan Black, Being Human, Misfits, Vex, Spaced, Black Books and, of course, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy—only has one new offering for the Fall 2013 season.

Atlantis

BBC America, Saturday, 11/23, Time TBA

Atlantis is a fantasy adventure program created and written by Howard Overman (Misfits and Vexed) and Johnny Capps (Merlin). The show’s main cast reads like a Guide to Greek Myths (Jason, Hercules, Medusa, The Oracle) and the series is set to be one of the most expensive projects on the BBC Wales studio. There is no official preview/trailer yet, but numerous six-second teasers can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/bbcatlantis

Atlantis looks to be very much in the BBC Sword-and-Sandals adventure genre, and we can safely expect well written, well-acted episodes with the occasional extremely cheesy special effect.

Midseason

The Musketeers is slated for midseason debut, but there is little information on it other than the newest incarnation of the Doctor, Peter Capaldi, was filming the show (he’s Cardinal Richelieu) when he was offered the role of the Doctor. Also starring Santiago Cabrera (Heroes, Merlin) and Luke Pasqualino (Skins).

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary is slated for 11/23/13

Returning Shows

While disappointingly low on the new shows slate this season, the returning shows more than make up for it. With the Doctor Who 50^th Anniversary special on 11/23/13, as well as season 8 coming up (and a new Doctor), Orphan Black returning midseason (March 2014), and of course, the ubiquitous Top Gear (I won’t say which season, its re-run so much it’s nearly impossible to tell).

Sherlock Holmes will return for its third season as well, but will air in America on PBS.

CBS is next in our little alphabetical list…and they have nothing. Not the geek-friendliest network, CBS. Mid-season has a new show coming out called Intelligence (Mon, 10 to 11 p.m., air date 2/24/14), which basically looks like a not-as-funny Chuck. Which makes sense for the network that also has The Mentalist, which is basically a not-as-funny Psych.

Ah, the CW. Where else could we find such unabashedly sexy fare? As well as very, very, very geek friendly. And quantity, one might say, over quality. We have to at least give them credit for trying: of all the networks, the CW continuously has the most fantasy/sci-fi/speculative/comic-book based shows every season. And they don’t even require proficient storytelling or decent ratings when it comes to renewing them. This throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach has brought us Arrow and Beauty and the Beast; but it also brought us Supernatural and Nikita.

However, it has to be said that most CW shows can be boiled down to “pretty (mostly white) people with (Insert bad guy/thing here) problems hook up with each other while maintaining bouncy, shiny hair and flawless skin.”

This year the CW gives us five—that’s right, five—sci-fi/fantasy shows. Three premiere this fall, the other two have mid-season dates. True to mold, they all have a large cast of young, nubile and extremely good looking people who seem to spend a lot of time with their shirts either off or unbuttoned. Not to complain: sometimes it’s nice to sit back and watch the pretty.

The Originals

http://youtu.be/WTKj52BUEeU

CW, Sneak Peek: Thurs, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/3; Regular Timeslot: Tues, 8 to 9 p.m., 10/8

A spin off of the popular Vampire Diaries, The Originals follows the lives of various supernatural characters (vampires, witches, werewolves, half vamp/half wolves…) in hot, steamy New Orleans. For some reason that sounds really familiar…but we just can’t place where we’ve seen something like that before.

The series focuses on the Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (Claire Rhiannon Holt) Mikaelson, vampire siblings–and the world’s original vampires–as they return to New Orleans—a town Klaus founded, centuries before—and enter a power struggle with the local supernaturals to reclaim to city.

The Originals has a sneak peek immediately after the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries before it moves to its normal timeslot on Tuesdays, leading into Supernatural.

Reign

CW, Thursdays, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/17

CW’s attempt at The Tudors; Reign follows the young Mary, Queen of Scots, as she is courted by rival princes: the French (Catholic) and English (not-so-Catholic). The history of Queen Mary is fascinating. She had a legitimate claim to the English throne and was backed by English Catholics; she was married three times and was viewed as a powerful player in the socio-religious politics of the time; she survived multiple assassination attempts and was put under house arrest by Elizabeth I of England for eighteen years before eventually being executed for treason.

Unsurprisingly, the CW’s version is about high school age girls being flirted with by high school age boys who all just happen to be princes and princesses. Lots of pretty costumes and slow motion while a song that sounds a whole lot like Bones from MS MR plays underneath (clearly a lot of people saw the Game of Thrones season three preview and said, wow, we should make ours look just like that).

Oh, and Nostradamus as an articulate, court-going prophet. Who knew?

That’s not to say it couldn’t be the surprise hit of the season. Stranger things have happened.

The Bible, airing on the History Channel, was the surprise hit of the 2012-2013 season.

The Tomorrow People

http://youtu.be/3wi0PnEIdjc

CW., Weds., 9 to 10 p.m., 10/9

A remake of the popular 1970’s BBC show of the same name, The Tomorrow People follows a group of young, pretty people who are the next stage in human evolution. The Tomorrow People have psi powers that ran the usual gamut of telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, etc., and the use them to fight the good fight against evil, bigoted humans.

It’s unclear how closely it will follow the BBC show, where the group was not only involved in saving humanity from threats on a weekly basis but also part of a galactic organization that monitored and assisted telepaths—the trailer features a lot of Mark Pellegrino (Lucifer from Supernatural)–random trivia, he’s the uncle of Stephen Amell, aka Arrow–as Jedikiah Price chasing down our super-evolved heroes because, as Price says,: “I’m systematically rounding up your kind and wiping you out, because I am evil.”

While the shows seems to be gleefully stealing from all manner of sci-fi before it (the teleporting looks a lot like Jumper, at one point there is a force lift, followed by a frost-shock, followed by a force choke, and the hidden subway station HQ has been seen, well, everywhere) and there are clear parallels to Alphas as well as X-Men (Marvel even used the term Tomorrow People, starting in 1963, as a taxonomic designation for the X-Men and other Mutants in the Marvel Universe).

The Tomorrow People was created by Phil Klemmer (Chuck, Veronica Mars) and stars Robbie Amell (cousin to Stephen Amell of previously mentioned Arrow fame) as Stephen Jameson, Luke Mitchell as John Young and Peyton List as Cara Coburn.

Midseason

Not content with just three new casts of incredibly good-looking people with powers, The CW has The 100 and Star Crossed set to premiere midseason.

The 100 is based on the book of the same name by Kass Morgan, and it centers on 100 petty thieves and criminals (all young and pretty, with excellent muscle tone for people born and raised on a space station) who are sent from their space station homes to post-apocalyptic Earth to see if mankind can survive on the harsh surface.

Star Crossed looks rather like District 9, if the aliens were all super-hot models who were trying to integrate into all-human US High Schools. The trailer seems to have a lot of imagery that’s set to invoke the civil rights battle of the 1960s, which doesn’t quite ring true as the only seemingly physical difference between humans and aliens are an abundance of six-packs and some tattoos. There’s also a Romeo and Juliet plot between a human girl and an alien boy. Because why else would you travel light years across galaxies if not for true love?

Supernatural returns for season 9 on The CW in October.

Returning Shows

The CW has renewed The Vampire Diaries (Thurs, 8 to 9 p.m., 10/3), Beauty and The Beast (Mon, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/7), Supernatural (Tues, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/8), The Arrow (Weds, 8 to 0 p.m., 10/9) and Nikita (Fall 2014, no air date as of yet).

FOX, which seems to be aware that it will never, ever, ever make up for cancelling Firefly, is trying to retain some geek cache with two new shows this Fall.

Sleepy Hollow

FOX, Monday, 9 to 10 p.m., 9/16

The second most anticipated show of the Fall, directly behind Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sleepy Hollow is created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Transformers, Star Trek) and is based on the short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving.

Sleepy Hollow follows Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison from Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, One Day, Parade’s End) as he is mysteriously transported to modern day Sleepy Hollow, and attempts to hunt down and stop the Headless Horseman (in the original story the Horseman is an 18^th century German mercenary brought in by the English to fight during the revolutionary war) who was brought to the future as well.

Ichabod must join forces with local Sheriff Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, Shame, 42) and adjust to cultural, societal and technological difference of the 21^st century (including radically changing his racial and gender stereotypes) in order to stop the Horseman’s nightly killing spree.

With a strong cast and an all-star writing team, expectations are high the Sleepy Hollow will be the show to watch this Fall.

Sleepy Hollow rounds out its cast with Orlando Jones (Godzilla, Evolution, MadTV) as Captain Frank Irving and John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Go On) as Andy Dunn.

Almost Human

http://youtu.be/ykwxg534yAw

Fox, Mon, 8 to 9 p.m., 11/4

JJ Abrams—who doesn’t seem to be content unless he has four or five projects going—is producing this sci-fi procedural starring Karl Urban (Star Trek, RED, Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick, Doom) and Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell, Flash Forward, Underworld: Awakening) as unwilling partners in the LAPD thirty-five years in the future.

It’s typical buddy cop formula: an off couple forced to work together and eventually growing to trust and even like each other.

The twist? Karl Urban’s tough-as-nails cop, John Kennex, doesn’t trust Michael Ealy’s Dorian for one good reason: Dorian is a robot. And not just a normal, super-efficient robot, but a slightly malfunctioning one.

While the trailer gives a Deus Ex meets I, Robot vibe, and doesn’t really introduce any new themes or arguments that sci-fi fans won’t already be thoroughly versed in, both Urban and Ealy are worth watching and the trailer certainly captivated interest.

Almost Human was created by J.H. Wyman (Keen Eddie, Fringe) and J.J. Abrams is one of the executive producers, so hopes are high.

With Neil deGrasse Tyson hosting, Cosmos is set for Jan 2014 debut.

Midseason

Midseason has two more shows set to debut; Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey and Wayward Pines, though the air dates are still not announced.

Cosmos will star Neil deGrasse Tyson and was produced by Seth McFarlane and Carl Sagan’s widow (the original show was hosted by Sagan and aired on PBS). When it does air, it will air simultaneously on Fox and the NatGeo channel, expecting to launch in 48 countries in over 140 languages. Also, the bridge of Tyson’s ship looks almost exactly like the Illusive Man’s from Mass Effect. Just saying.

Wayward Pines brings Blake Crouch’s mystery/thriller novel of the same name to the small screen. M. Night Shyamalan has developed it as a multi-part series for Fox. It has been compared to Twin Peaks by just about everybody, and Fox hasn’t released very much information other than a 2014 release.

24--and Jack Bauer--are back on Fox in May 2014. — 24–and Jack Bauer–are back on Fox in May 2014.

Returning Shows

Fox does not have much in the way of the Geek returning; The Following is set for a midseason premiere on Mondays, 9 to 10 p.m.; and under the heading of old-shows-don’t-die-they-go-to-mini-series, 24 is slated to return as a limited run in the Spring.

NBC is not offering much this year for us geeks, with only one offering in the Fall. We’re hoping this is an improvement; previous years, which have had a glut of nerd-tastic shows, perhaps in some desperate attempt by NBC to gain some geek-cred (The Cape, The Event, Flash Forward, V, Bionic Women, Journeyman). This make anything with a slightly Lost-like feel strategy hasn’t fared well for the Peacock, so maybe just one new show means NBC knows it has a hit. And it case it doesn’t, it has two midseason shows ready to wash the taste from your mouth.

Dracula

http://youtu.be/Z1jVcmDH43Y

NBC, Friday, 10 to 11 p.m., 10/25

A limited series with only a ten episode run, Dracula is a retelling of the classic tale by Bram Stoker. Created by Cole Hadden, with Daniel Knauf (Carnivale) as showrunner, Dracula stars Jonathon Rhys Meyers (The Tudors, Mission Impossible III) as Dracula, who returns to Victorian London to seek revenge for a betrayal years before. This is another show whose trailer draws heavy inspiration from Game of Thrones.

The plot stays somewhat in line with the book; Dracula falls for the lovely Mina, there’s a Van Helsing on hand to fight him…there’s a lot of pretty people in period clothing walking around dark London streets. If they weren’t all in their thirties it’d be a CW show.

Dracula stars Katie McGrath (Merlin), Nonso Anozie (Ender’s Game, Game of Thrones) and Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, The Pianist, Blade II, 24).

Midseason

Two shows are slated for a midseason release: Believe, another J.J. Abrams produced show, directed by Alfonso Cuaran (Harry Potter) about a little girl with special powers and the ex-con who has been tasked to protect her (Sundays, 9 to 10 p.m.); and Crossbones, created by Neil Cross (Luther) and starring John Malkovich as the pirate Blackbird. Slated to air in 2014 on Sundays, from 10 to 11 p.m., there is little other information out there as of yet.

NBC also recently announced a mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s Tommyknockers in 2014, but no dates or casting information has been forthcoming.

Returning

Returning to the Peacock this Fall are Revolution (Weds, 8 to 9 p.m., 9/25) and Grimm, Fridays, 9 to 10 p.m., which if you are not watching, start—there’s still time to catch up before the new season airs on 10/25. Community is slated for a midseason release.

Black Sails is set to debut on Starz in 2014.

Networks Waiting for Midseason to Debut All Their Geekery

Not every network has new content slated for the Fall, but midseason will serve up some highly anticipate premieres:

SyFy announced Helix with a premiere date of Jan, 2014. Ronald D. Moore (BattleStar Galactica) created the series about a group of CDC scientists sent to the Artic only to discover the fate of mankind may rest in their hands. Starring Billy Campbell (Eureka, The Killing, The 4400) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Speed Racer, Lost, The Wolverine).

TNT is bringing two shows that may not deal with a fandom in their content but certainly do with their talent: Mob City (formerly Lost Angels) stars Simon Pegg and is written and directed by Frank Darabont. The series follows the LAPD/Mob wars in Los Angeles in the 1940’s.; and Legends with Sean Bean as the best-of-the-best undercover agent who is struggling to find where his cover ends and he begins. Both shows are slated for 2014 premiere.

Simon Pegg in Frank Darabont's new cable drama, Mob City, on TNT. — Simon Pegg in Frank Darabont’s new cable drama, Mob City, on TNT.

The Last Ship isn’t set to premiere on TBS until Summer 2014, but this Michael Bay produced end-of-the-world-via-virus show looks to be next summer’s big cable hit. The show stars Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Serenity, Chuck) and Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy).

Penny Dreadful is set to premiere on Showtime in 2014. Called a pschyo-sexual horror series, produced by John Logan (writer: Rango, Gladiator, Skyfall) and Sam Mendes (director: Skyfall, American Beauty) it stars Josh Hartnett, Eva Green and Billie Piper. The series will be set in turn-of-the century London and will deal with the origins of literary horror monsters such as Dorian Gray, Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster.

Starz has Black Sails set to debut in January 2014. It is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Treasure Island, set twenty years before the events in the book. Fan reaction at the San Diego Comic Con was so strong Starz has already ordered a second season. It’s got pirates, islands, beaches and rum, so all things point to a hit.

The Outlander is also set to premiere in 2014 on Starz. Based upon the bestselling novels by Diana Gabaldon, the series follows the adventures of time-traveler Claire and her Scottish husband, Jamie Fraser, as they live through historical events from the Scottish revolt under Bonnie Prince Charlie to the revolutionary war. Lots of adventure, lots of romance (and sex, to be clear) and a great deal of historically accurate details made the books a must-read; if Starz follows HBO’s example and lets the novels guide the show than expectations should remain high.

This image--and a short clip--have been teasing the internet about J.J. Abrams new show for weeks now. — This image–and a short clip–have been teasing the internet about J.J. Abrams’ new show for weeks now.

Rounding off our report are two shows which are nothing more than whisper and rumor at the moment:

The Stranger, J.J. Abrams’ bit of marketing masterpiece: just a grainy black and white video with no information at all.

The Sector is a Ridley Scott produced, sci-fi procedural a la Blade Runner. Originally picked up by Cinemax, it was dropped in 2011 but the Science Channel recently announced it is picking up the series.

American Horror Story: Coven premieres on Oct 23rd.

Returning Shows to Keep An Eye Out For

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, Oct. 13th at 10 p.m. Season four has yet another new showrunner in Scott Gimple, who will guide the show through a season set to introduce a host of new characters joining our ragged crew in the prison as they attempt to shore up and defend against walkers and humans alike.

The American Horror Story: Coven will be returning to F/X on Weds., October 9th, at 9 pm. Continuing the tradition set in season 2, season 3 will have returning actors but a completely different st of characters and plot. Returning this season are Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Francis Conroy and Dermot Mulroney; Kathy Bates, Patti Lupone and Angela Bassatt round out an all star cast. Coven focuses on the secret society of witches and an outside evil which is attacking them. The season will flash between modern day and 1830’s.

http://youtu.be/TkPwDPt4JOA

HBO will be bringing back Game of Thrones in the Spring of 2014. Be prepared, the show’s finished seasons are now more numerous then the remaining books…R.R. Marting better write fast.

SyFy is bringing back three shows this season: Being Human, slated for a Jan. 2014 premiere; Warehouse 13 will come back (if only for six episodes) for its fifth and final season in 2014; and Haven premieres its fourth season on September 13 at 10 p.m. (with a guest star stint from everybody’s favorite Sheriff, Colin Ferguson).

Starz has renewed Da Vinci’s Demons for a 2014 premiere. If you didn’t see season one, now’s the time to go back and watch (the complete season can be pre-ordered on iTunes). Created by David S. Goyer, co-writer of the The Dark Knight Trilogy, Da Vinci’s Demons is a solid show steeped in mythology and renaissance Italian/Catholic politics.

TNT is bringing Falling Skies Back for a fourth season in late Spring/Summer 2014, so check back for more information on what will happen to Mason and his regiment later.

That’s it! We hope you enjoyed our guide, and be sure to let us know if there are any titles that we missed!

What’s New In ‘World Of Warcraft’ Patch 5.4, Siege of Orgrimmar?

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 2, 2013

We’re just a week away from the launch of the newest patch to World of Warcraft, 5.4, which goes live on September 10th.

In it, Hellscream finally breaks from the Horde of Thrall; the remaining Horde must join forces with the Alliance and embark on a Civil War which looks to change the face of Pandaria.

In the official trailer, Hellscream poisons the wells and drains the Vale of its water–taunting his enemies to come to his fortress; and threatens anyone who would rise against his ‘new horde.’ Orgrimmar, of course, is the new raid, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the new and updated content in this patch.

A complete, in-depth look at all the changes can be found here, but here are some of the things we’re most excited about:

1. Flexible Raid Difficulty: with this feature, 15 or 22 or 13 man raids are possibly. The difficulty of the encounters and player’s spell range will adjust depending upon the number of people in the raid; the loot will be somewhere between LFR and normal. Players will be able to invite Battle Tag and Real ID friends.

2. Proving Grounds: A one on one instance where a player can test their skills/spells/gear against mobs designed at five different difficulty levels. Finally a way to figure out new rotations without having to apologize the the 24 people in LFR.

3. Noodle Vendor: A player with maxed out cooking will get a quest, which once completed, allows them to set up a noodle cart and sell powerful soups to their faction.

4. New Area: Timeless Isle; New world bosses, new gear, new rewards. Also, this intriguing sentence: “The Isle is filled with secrets and mysteries, many of which dynamically become available to explorers. Keep an eye on your minimap!”

5. Significant Class Changes: Blizzard took a hard look at the classes and made some significant changes, especially to hunters and paladins.

6. Linked realms: Low population realms will now be permentantly linked, allowing players to interact with each other as if they were on the same realm.

We’ll be online bright and early next Tuesday and get you some on-the-ground coverage of what the changes feel like. Let us know if you’re looking forward to the Siege of Orgrimmar!

Geekscape TV: A Cheat Sheet For The Fall 2013 TV Season

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 2, 2013

It’s that time of year again, geeks, and we’re here to answer the burning questions held in the hearts of each of the fandoms: what network is airing what? When? Is it worth it? Will it break our collective hearts or spin us into new, ecstatic heights? Will it be everything promised in the previews? Will it be another Firefly, cancelled too soon, or a Fringe or a Chuck, waiting to be saved season after season? Or maybe it’ll be a Revolution, which somehow got renewed despite being an insult to all post-apocalyptic speculative fiction everywhere, or a Once Upon A Time, which we just keep hoping will somehow become the show it could have been.

Well, we’ve got the answers to some of those questions (pilots haven’t been viewed, however) and our best guesses on some of the others.

We’ve written up the definitive guide (coming up in the next few days) and broke out the most exciting, geektastic shows coming up in the 2013-2014 season and put together a cheat sheet just for you.

Want more information? Check out our in-depth posts on each channels’ upcoming shows. We recommend starting with ABC (because it starts with an A). It has nothing to do with the small, little known show it’s premiering. You may have heard about it? It’s by this guy, Joss Whedon?

Anyway, here’s our must-see/must-DVR/DVR if you have time and no other show conflicts rundown; check out our by-channel breakdowns for more information.

Must See:

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

ABC, Tues, 8 to 9 p.m. Air Date: 9/24

Clark Gregg reprises his role as Phil Coulson (you could hear the screams of joy as far as Montana when he was revealed as being alive at the 2013 South by Southwest Festival this year). He is joined by Ming-Na Wen (Mulan, Stargate Universe, Eureka), fan favorite J. August Richards (Angel), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, Avengers), and Ron Glass (Firefly, Serenity) along with a host of new, interesting characters that round out the team of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Sleepy Hollow

Fox, Monday, 9 to 10 p.m., 9/16

Sleepy Hollow follows Ichabod Crane, mysteriously transported to modern day Sleepy Hollow, as he attempts to hunt down and stop the Headless Horseman.
Created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Transformers, Star Trek)

Almost Human

Fox, Mon, 8 to 9 p.m., 11/4

JJ Abrams—who doesn’t seem to be content unless he has four or five projects going—is producing this sci-fi procedural starring Karl Urban (Star Trek, RED, Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick, Doom) and Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell, Flash Forward, Underworld: Awakening) as unwilling partners in the LAPD thirty-five years in the future.

Record on the DVR:

Dracula

NBC, Friday, 10 to 11 p.m., 10/25

Jonathon Rhys Meyers (The Tudors, Mission Impossible III) as Dracula, who returns to Victorian London to seek revenge for a betrayal decades before.

Atlantis

BBC America, Saturday, 11/23, Time TBA

Atlantis looks to be very much in the BBC Sword-and-Sandals adventure genre, and we can safely expect well written, well-acted episodes with the occasional extremely cheesy special effect. created and written by Howard Overman (Misfits and Vexed) and Johnny Capps (Merlin).

Once Upon A Time in Wonderland

ABC, Thurs, 8 to 9 p.m., 10/10

A spin-off of ABC’s hit Once Upon a Time, now in its third season, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland follows a now grown-up Alice, almost convinced her adventures were the ravings of an insane mind, escapes from a Victorian London insane asylum and goes back down the rabbit hole.

The Tomorrow People

CW., Weds, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/9

A remake of the popular 1970’s BBC show of the same name, The Tomorrow People follows a group of young, pretty people who are the next stage in human evolution. The Tomorrow People was created by Phil Klemmer (Chuck, Veronica Mars).

Record on the DVR, but only if it doesn’t conflict with any other two shows you want to watch

Reign

CW, Thursdays, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/17

CW’s attempt at The Tudors; Reign follows the young Mary, Queen of Scots, as she is courted by rival courts: the French (Catholic) and English (not-so-Catholic).

The Originals

CW, Sneak Peek: Thurs, 9 to 10 p.m., 10/3; Regular Timeslot: Tues, 8 to 9 p.m., 10/8

A spin off of the popular Vampire Diaries, The Originals follows the lives of various supernatural characters (vampires, witches, werewolves, half vamp/half wolves…) in hot, steamy New Orleans. For some reason that sounds really familiar…but we just can’t place where we’ve seen something like that before.

That’s it, folks! Be sure to let us know what you’ll be watching this September!

Musings on the End: A Second Take On ‘The World’s End’

by S.J. BorgerSeptember 1, 2013

The World’s End is the third installment in The Three Flavors of Cornetto trilogy (also known as the Blood and Cornetto Trilogy–personally I think of them as the Blood, Cornetto, and Simon-Pegg-Falling-Over-Fences Trilogy). I won’t say final; Douglas Adams has proven that when it comes to oddball, speculative, brilliant British entertainment, trilogy does not mean three.

Here’s hoping, at any rate.

The trilogy refers to the Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright collaboration of movies: Shaun of the Dead

Hot Fuzz

and now The World’s End.

Each has blood (you’ve got red on…) and different flavored cornettos appear at least once in each movie (strawberry, original and mint, respectively). For those of you who don’t know what a cornetto is, to the google with you.

Pegg co-wrote the movie with Wright, and co-stared in it with Nick Frost (along with the full merry band of Blood-and-Cornetto-ites, who appear, in varying degrees, in every movie).

Besides blood, cornettos, cast mates and Pegg falling over fences, the film shares the same sense of gleeful joy and deprecating self-awareness that made Shaun of the Dead an instant hit and elevated parts of Hot Fuzz to sheer comedic genius.

It lacks, perhaps, the homage that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz had, in parts satirical and in parts sincere, to the great movies that had gone before them in their genre; it’s social commentary doesn’t have the light, piercing touch that Shaun of the Dead did, nor does it use parody paired with comic, over-the-top violence to explore bonding, community and friendshi– and the depths to which we would go to defend those things–as well as Hot Fuzz.

The World’s End tries too hard sometimes, is a little too on-the-nose at others—it gets a little loud and a little in your face and a little dark; and at the end the biggest emotion is a dazed sense of “WTF, boys, WTF?”

So, just like a night of hard drinking, when you think about it.

The movie starts slow, with a voice over and flashback sequence that not only proves unnecessary—the information is immediately given again in dialogue between the now-adult, estranged friends—but also deflates the power and impact of most of the reveals later in the movie.

However, once we get past the over-exposed-so-you-know-it’s-a-flashback beginning, the movie picks up.

Pegg plays Gary King, a somewhere-near-forty-year-old who has decided that his only chance at feeling anything is to complete the twelve-pub crawl in his hometown that he and his five high school friends were unable to finish twenty years prior.

Through lies, manipulation and a cocky inability to hear the word no, he reunites them with the plan of drinking one pint (or more) at each of the 12 pubs in LechtWorth, New Haven.

The next hour or so is a rollicking good time, with excellent dialogue—the comedic talent onscreen is enormous, and the witty give and take between the core five friends is hugely enjoyable and quite often hilarious.

The story of a lonely, lost man trying to recapture his youth any way he can is handled well—if sometimes relying a little too much on a known trope or two—and the rescue-the-town-from-the-evil-not-quite-robots-and-don’t-forget-to-save-the-girl is a fun, fast-paced adventure, liberally sprinkled with some exceptional fight choreography (there is a bit with Pegg and a pint that is particularly good). Nick Frost, especially, shows not only a moving amount of emotional depth but also an unexpected ability to kick major ass.

And, it must be mentioned, kudos to Simon Pegg, his costumer, and his hair/make-up people, for making him actually sexy as bad-boy Gary King.

By the time we get to the eighth pub (or was it the seventh…) the movie has more than made up for slow start; if a few things seemed too easily explained away, if one or two decisions seemed unclear, the pace was so fast, the acting so good, the dialogue so clever, that we were willing to forgive the odd slip here and there.

And then we got to the World’s End, the last pub.

And there the movie stumbled quite a bit.

The dialogue went from crisp and droll to histrionic and sermonizing (though there was an excellent cameo by Bill Nighy); the plot suddenly took a left turn (no spoilers, I promise) and then, just as you settled down in the new direction, it took a sharp right.

And then it added a voice over.

It was not ever a bad movie; at times it was a brilliant movie. It did have more weak points then the other two installments; it was also took much braver, larger choices. The World’s End was almost perfect; the story it wanted to tell was large and grand and even a little bit beautiful; but in the end it didn’t quite know what to do it with it.

So then there were explosions. ‘Cause explosions are cool.

All in all, it’s a recommend, but maybe at the matinee ticket price.

3.5/5

‘Firefly’ Is Back As A Dark Horse Comics Exclusive!

by S.J. BorgerAugust 27, 2013

Dark Horse Comics sent the Whedonverse into paroxysms of anticipation this weekend when it teasingly tweeted: “#wheresSerenity” followed by a link to their blog, which merely had the graphic below and a deliberately vague press release. They followed up with a social media blitz of concept art of Serenity herself and other links on their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages, all with the hash tags #firefly or #wheresSerenity until just a few hours ago, when Dark Horse confirmed the return with another tweet:

This is not a drill! @DarkHorseComics is bringing back #firefly.

Promotional media from Dark Horse for a new season of Serenity comics. Notice the floating leaf? Right in the fandom, Dark Horse, right in the fandom... — Promotional media from Dark Horse for a new season of Serenity comics. Notice the floating leaf? Right in the fandom, Dark Horse, right in the fandom…

Details are still few and far between, though speculation is that this heralds a new start for Firefly in the comic universe as a true comic series, with seasons, much like how Buffy and X-Files continued in comic book form, Or so fans hope. Donna Dickens at Buzzfeed notes; Firefly fans know how to hope.

Previously, Firefly had only been published in comic book form as mini-series or stand alone stories.

Dark Horse is promising more information in the months to come, so for now follow DH comics @DarkHorseComics and watch for #wheresSerenity and #firefly–and check back here, of course–for updates and all the Brown Coat news fit for the ‘Verse.

Source: DarkHorse