Murder, They Streamed

When the pandemic first hit back in March and we were all stuck indoors with little to no warning, Claire and I needed something we could share in the evenings that wasn’t too heavy after a long day of anxiety and worry and two very energetic kids. 

We had just gotten Amazon Prime Video so I fired it up and quickly discovered all twelve seasons of Murder, She Wrote was available. I grew up watching it on Irish TV with my mum back when it was prime time, must-see TV, and have many, many fond memories associated with this murder mystery series. 

Centered on senior widow turned mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, Murder, She Wrote felt like a very different show from its contemporaries even when I was a kid. Despite being about a new murder every week, it seemed unusually goodhearted, lead in no small part by the personality of Angela Landsbury in the lead role. 

So we started watching season one in early May, and quickly found ourselves watching several episodes a night after the kids were in bed. Because one of the core tenets of the show is that all the clues to solve the case must be presented on screen so that an obsevant viewer could fessibly solve it along with or before Jessica, it’s great fun to bounce theories off each other during the episode. I remember the joy I felt as a child the few times I solved the case, and that hasn’t diminished with age. 

What has come with age, however, is a much deeper appreciation for how progressive the show is from episode one. Not only does it break the mold with a female lead that is much older than the norm, but it is ahead of its time in social awareness too, taking time to be positively diverse and unconditionally suppportive of minorities. 

In an early Season 1 episode, Jessica follows a suspect off a bus and into an alley at night. A young Black man stealthily follows her off the bus. When Jess gets cornered by two white men in the alley, the young Black man steps in to rescue her. Turns out he was a fan of her books and recognized her on the bus. He knew it was a rough neighbourhood and wanted to make sure she was safe. Little moments like that happen all the time. 

Jessica rarely trusts the words or actions of the middle and upper class white people she crosses, while repeatedly benefiting from the knowledge, kindness and observational skills of sympathetic Black people around them. 

One of the tropes Murder, She Wrote is best known for is that of the useless law enforcers. The police and homicide detectives Jessica regularly runs across are almost always dismissive of her opinions and observations, and are often just straight up comically inept. But, the first one shown to be smart, intelligent and insightful is a Black small town sheriff in a season 2 episode. 

We’re only halfway through Season 5, but so far, the only time we see a Black murderer was in (er... Spoiler?) an episode with a predominantly Black cast. I think we can give the writers that one. Even then, the reason for the murder was sympathetic, not out of greed, lust or vengeance like most of the others. The victim was revealed to have been trying to murder another character out of greed, and their murder was to protect that innocent person! 

We’re really enjoying watching Murder, She Wrote, and it’s shocking just how progressive and clever it is for a show from the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. At a time when several shows are pulling individual episodes from streaming services due to very problematic (read: blatantly racist) scenes, from the very pilot, Murder, She Wrote is refreshing. 

In closing, if you’ll indulge me, two more examples of how cool the series was: 

S02E09, Jessica Behind Bars is set in a women's prison, and there’s not a single male speaking actor in the entire episode! A few male cops show up in the final scene, but none of them have a word of dialogue! 

S03E21 used footage from a 1940's movie to set up the plot, presenting the movie clips as flashbacks, and recasting almost all of the original actors as the older versions of the same characters in the "present day"! A stunningly crafted episode.

Almost Sleepy Agents

Ask me six months ago what new show I'd be most excited about watching every week and I would have said Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. without hesitation. Ask me today, and it's a different story.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is set in the shared continity universe of the Marvel Studio movies that include Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. Lead by Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), whose first appearance in Iron Man cemented him into the Marvel universe, the team is made up of two highly skilled field agents, Melinda May and Grant Ward, two scientists, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, and a civilian computer hacker and activist, Skye. They operate out of a mobile command centre in the form of a huge retrofitted cargo plane, stamped with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo everywhere.

References to the movies are natural and common, with mentions of the greater organisation beyond Coulson's team dropped in regularly. While the series is unable to have regular cameos from the principle actors from the various movies, there have been some nice surprises, including Cobie Smulders in the pilot reprising her role as Agent Maria Hill, that give us hope that Robert Downy Jr. or Chris Evans might drop by for a chat in a later episode.

I'm really enjoying S.H.I.E.L.D. I understood from the before the pilot aired that I should expect something closer to Warehouse 13, and I'm loving that that is what we have. Some people are dissappointed that there aren't super-powered beings leaping all over the screen in every episode, but it's a TV series! And the first season. They don't have the budget to do that. Instead, the team investigate strange artifacts or weapons, and occasionally run into someone with powers.

The cast is strong, and the characters are becoming more defined. The writing is clever and sharp, and there's some great dialogue among all the action and tension. And in true Joss Wheadon fashion, there's a deeper mystery at work for the fans to follow and ponder over. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is lots of fun, and some great weekly viewing.

But it's not my favourite show right now.

Originally, I pretty much ignored Sleepy Hollow outright. I disliked the premise: Injured in his own time, Ichabod Crane wakes up in the modern world and has to defeat the Headless Horseman in a strange, new land. It just didn't sound particularly inventive. But people kept telling me great things about the series, and then Claire started hearing about it and growing interested. Only one male caucasian on the main cast (two, if we assume Headless is one two, I guess), and, pretty early on, the writing staff realised what the fans knew from the seccond episode: Ichabod isn't the main character, it's Lt. Abbie Mills, Ichabods police officer friend who has seen and knows more than she's willing to admit.

So we tried out the first episode, and we both loved it! It's clever, very funny, and wonderfully cast. Ichabod reacts to the modern world in a real way, obsessing over electric windows and the number of Starbuck's within a block of each other. Big things like cars and computers seem almost too much for his brain to handle, so he focuses on the smaller changes, and it's wonderful. At one point, he's handed a pistol for his own protection and told "It's works just like the old ones. Point and shoot." I immediately smiled at the important fact that Abbie took for granted, and, sure enough, after firing once, Ichabod throws the gun away, thinking it spent. A great moment, well crafted.

The show is suitably creepy for it's source material. It's never gorey or downright scarey. It's just that subtle find of creepy that sends shives down your spine and leaves you wanting more, but maybe tomorrow, or next week. The end of the pilot is especially shiver-inducing. If you're a fan of the Dresden Files series of urban fantasy novels by Jim Butcher, then you'll understand when I say that the thing in the mirror at the end of Sleepy Hollow's pilot is how I imagine He Who Walks Behind should be portrayed in a movie or proper series adaptation.

Plus, Sleepy Hollow has Orlando Jones as Captain Irving (a nice nod to Washington Irving, author of the original poem), and he's always great to watch.

And then there's Almost Human, a sci-fi series filmed here in Vancouver staring Karl Urban as Det. Kennex and Michael Ealy as his android partner, Dorian. Rather like Sleepy Hollow, I was unimpressed with the lack of creativity from the trailer for this show. A human cop is injured and his partner killed when their police android decides that they are not a priority based on mission parameters. This leads to him hating on androids, bu being forced to work with one as an active officer. He's given a "defective" unit, an older model that displays too much emotion, and they bond. It sounds like something one of those automated plot generators would spit out:

He's a white cop with an artificial leg who hates androids. He's a black android who feels too much emotion. They fight crime!

And it does hit a lot of the generic clichés: A tough but kind hearted older female superior officer, a young, sexy collegue, a rival officer who thinks the main character is a has-been, and who thinks of androids as lifeless tools, and even a missing ex-girlfriend who may or may not be mixed up in something bigger.

It sounds like it should be unwatchable, but they pull it off. For one thing, it's fun. The banter between Kennex and Dorian is well written and delivered, and I especially liked the discussions on life, love and death from episode two. The "Stop scanning my testicles" was a great character moment between the two. I like their view of a future that is "normal", not a dystopian nightmare, or a utopian paradise, but a world of hope and crime in a big city. The ills of the world have not been solved, but we haven't degenerated into chaos either.

Almost Human is a fun show to switch off and woatch. It has a lot of heart for a sci-fi action show, and, as suggested by the title, it takes a bit of time to discuss the line between human and not human in a world where androids can be programed to be "too human", a "condition" that causes that line, the DRNs, to be discontinued and shelved in favour of more conventional models. I'm really looking forward to seeing more from this series, and hope we at least get a season or two out of it. I think it has glimmers of the fantastic within it's first two episodes, and has a whole lot of potential beneath it's skin. Also, someone must have written fan fiction of how Almost Human is the setup world for Battlestar Galactica![1]

Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human are all on my weekly viewing, each providing it's own style of entertainment and surprise. If I had to pick one fo the three to recommend, I think it would be Sleepy Hollow right now, though Almost Human has the potential to usurp that given a few episodes of development. Maybe it's my levels of expectation versus my levels of enjoyment on viewing, but S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't left me as excited as the other two shows after each episode. It's still a great show, and I'll be watching every episode, I just think the others, for now, are a little greater.

[1] - I'd love to see one of the BSG Final Five actors appear in Almost Human as one of the creators of the androids, with another appearing as the programmer for the too human DRN line! Actually... excuse me a minute. I have something to start writing...

Psychological Trauma

Not having a work permit for Canada means that I've had plenty of time recently to catch up on quality television. Over the last year in Vancouver we've been so busy enjoying ourselves that my old number one time waster has fallen to the wayside. Staying in touch with the newest shows and episodes was once important, but lately I haven't been watching anything. I have yet to touch many shows that I was looking forward to seeing, including the dino-series Terra Nova.

Instead, I've been playing catchup. I'm currently racing through season four of Burn Notice, one of my all-time favourite spy shows. Built in the mold of MacGyver but "with more violence", as my wonderful wife once observed, it was an instant success as soon as they dropped Fiona's Irish accent in the second episode. I've been watching since the pilot, and wrote about it way back then. It helps that not only does it star Bruce Campbell, but also the fantastic Sharon Gless, whom I've enjoyed since watching Cagney and Lacey with my mum back in the '80's.

Along with Burn Notice, I'm hoping to catch up on Community and Fringe with all this time off as well, but all this began with me finishing a show I started way back in 2008.

Battlestar Galactica was a mind blowing experience right from the pilot episode. The first season kept that going from it's opening episode, 33, that put the fleet at the head of an unstoppable chase to it's close, when... well, stuff happened. I got distracted originally late in season two, then got as far as the fifth episode of season three a few years ago.

My enthusiasm was peaked again during our trip to Seattle when Claire and I visited the Experience Music Project, home to the Sci-Fi Museum as well. We had seen the museum in 2008 during our Epic Holiday[TM], and didn't really have much interest in seeing it again. But on arrival, we discovered that there was a BSG exhibit, as well as a James Cameron's Avatar one!

The Avatar exhibit was incredible. There were amazing props, design specs from the production, and other fascinating trinkets throughout. We got to play with not one, but two Microsoft Surfaces and stand in the shoes of an Avatar, literally! The movie was pants, but the designs behind it are incredible.

Of course, the main attraction for me was the Battlestar exhibit. It covered both the new and original series, with costumes, props and models from both. The exhibit was centered around three full-scale ships, a classic Viper, a new Viper and a Cylon Raider. Not only was there pilot and crew costumes, but they had Imaginary Six's red dress as well. There was a neat display related to the series musical score, playing a space combat scene and a switch to alternate between "Action Score", "Emotional Score" or "No Score", illustrating how there can be more than one "prefect" piece for any given scene. Conveniently, it also illustrated what a genius Bear McCreary is.

One of the highlights was seeing one of the Command Center's combat phones against a wall and asking Claire to get a photo of me holding it. I picked it up and put it to my ear, and my eyes widened. Felix Geata was ordering me to battle stations, declaring "Set condition red". For a moment, I was instantly transported right into the heart of Galactica, right there, rubbing shoulders with Commander Adama.

When I got back to Vancouver I picked up where I left off and watched the final two seasons in a short space of time. There were several episodes that had me, literally on the edge of my seat. Given how many episodes ended, I was only too delighted to have waited; I didn't have to bite my nails for a week to find out the resolution to the mutiny, or the identity of the Final 5[1].

In the end, I watched the final ten episodes, as well as the final special created for the big finale all in one day. At approximately 45 minutes an episode, and a feature length finale, that adds up to nine hours of Battlestar Galactica in one day!

It was quite the rush, and an emotional ending.

However, that night, and for several nights after I had the weirdest dreams, involving Cylons, robots, androids, Lego Cylons, and all sorts of other things. It was getting to the point that I didn't want to go to sleep for fear of what I'd dream of this time.

So, the moral of the story, kiddies is: Don't watch nine hours of Battlestar Galactica in one go, especially not the blood pumping, adrenaline charged, non-stop roller-coaster ride that is the final nine hours. It's not good for you health.

[1]- If you watch BSG you know what I mean. If you don't, explaining it won't matter. If you are planning to, or currently in the early seasons... forget I said anything. Move along.

Bringing Peace And Justice To All

Growing up in rural Ireland, Sunday Mass was not an option, it was a ritual. Every Sunday we were woken up at 8:30am to have breakfast, as we couldn't eat an hour before Mass, according to some arcane tradition. At 9:50 we all bundled into the car and trundled up the road to the small local church dedicated to St. James.

And every Sunday at 9:59am, I prayed to God.

You see, the terrestrial Irish television station, RTÉ 2, loved to air children's programming while my family and I were at Mass. This was the reason we had to be almost dragged out the doors some mornings, as we just had to see the last few seconds of whatever show had started at 9:30. 10am was Sesame Street, so I never felt like we lost out on much.

But it was the show at 10:30 that had me kneeling in my pew, praying for a hasty conclusion to the weekly events. Everything rode on which priest walked through the door of the sacristy to deliver Mass. Most gave me a 50/50 chance of getting out on time, while the sight of a select few was met with joyous praise to the Allfather, as it guaranteed a short Mass, home well before the 10:30 deadline. But there was always the risk we had the one who loved his sermon’s, dragging them out to what I felt certain must surely constitute a war-crime against children, choosing the long form of the prayers, and refusing to read the clearly marked shorter version of the Gospel.

Of course, Sunday Mass was not just about sitting, kneeling or standing in church reciting prayers in a monotonous, hypnotic fashion. I also had to contend with the adults hanging around the church gate, catching up on the weeks gossip.

So what was it that had me so anxious? What show could have me praying to God to ensure the shortest possible devotion to that same deity? Only the best, most epic cartoon of it's time, one with a rock ballad opening score that still makes my heart jump to this day and floods my mind wit happy memories, dashing through the front door to turn on the TV and snuggle up by a fire for this weeks adventure.

The original, in all its glory, can be viewed here.

Applied Correctly, It Could Move The World

A few months back I read this webcomic about an agency to assist the dearly departed who have left something unresolved in this life. I made an off-hand comment that I thought it would make for a great RPG concept: A party of supernaturally sensitive friends that have a Private Investigation firm that caters for the deceased, helping to complete whatever is making their eternal rest restless. The hook was that each week one party member would allow their body to be "rented" by the ghost, becoming a "ghost host" if you will. That player would get to put their normal character sheet to one side and play as someone completely different.

This off-hand comment planted itself in my mind and sprouted roots, slowly growing until I knew I had to do something with it. Originally, I had planned on using my system of choice, FATE 3.0 for the game, but on outlining my ideas to a friend, I was pointed towards something that might work better. The ghost would need some help to find who murdered him, or protect his family now that he's gone. Perhaps someone is messing with an artifact connected to the spirit, or one of his descendants has become a dick and needs to be taught a lesson. In short, the adventures were not going to be straight up hack'n'slash affairs. The ghost needed a team that could function without brute force. He needed someone that could provide Leverage.

The Client
Leverage The Roleplaying Game is based, unsurprisingly, on Leverage the hit series from TNT. I had been a fan of the show since the pilot, instantly hooked on the its unique blend of humour, heist and heat-pounding action. The series follows the adventures of a band of ex-criminals and their leader as they try to make the world a better place one problem at a time. The episodes usually open with a Client explaining why she needs their help, which the Crew succeed at through a heist or caper that inevitably requires last minute tweaking, adjusting or all out replanning to overcome unforeseen obstacles.

The roleplaying game follows this mechanic, allowing the players to put together a Crew of skilled experts to solve a myriad of problems that the GM, or Fixer, will throw at them over the course of a session.

The following review is based solely on the book itself and my impressions from reading it. I have yet to play it, so I'll try to avoid making judgements related to actual play here. It's also worth mentioning now that I have never actually played anything using the Cortex or Cortex Plus systems, the later of which is the system Leverage is built on. With that out of the way, on to the meat of our story.

The Caper
The Visuals: The first thing that is obvious about the Leverage RPG is how pretty it is. Everything is clean and bright and I was particularly taken with the choice of blue print on a white background as the primary colour scheme throughout. It's clean, effective and eye-catching. That's just a personal thing. Blue is my favourite colour, and I think plain white backgrounds work well enough that they should be left alone. Photos and screen shots from the series are used extensively throughout the book, breaking up long blocks of text and keeping things interesting.

The System: Prior to reading Leverage I was not familiar with the Cortex or Cortex Plus systems in any way. Years ago, a friend had bought me the Serenity RPG as a gift, but I never really read it or tried it out. I love the Firefly, the series it is based on, but had no real interest in reading the RPG. As it turns out, Cortex Plus is my kind of system!

Like FATE 3.0, Cortex Plus is, at it's core, a system for telling stories and having a good time. It is reasonably light on mechanics, instead allowing players and GMs to focus on the collaborative story-telling side of RPGs than the combat focused, hack'n'slash of other systems. There is no rule for moving 6 squares in order to flank an opponent, but there is nothing stopping you from describing how you managed to use the crates in the warehouse to sneak around him and FLANKED d6 him.

Characters are equally clean, maintaining the tight focus on story driven, rather than dice controlled, adventures. There are six Attributes, five Traits and a handful of Distinctions and Talents, giving you an absolute minimum of things to keep track of and allowing you to concentrate on the task at hand, ruining the baddies day. There are no lists of skills covering most of the page, no weapon bonus' or damage modifiers, there isn't even a health track!

The play mechanics are blissfully simple. Regardless of what you do, you always role at least two dice, one for the Attribute you're using, the other for the Trait. You can role more if the scene allows and players are encouraged to elaborate on the scene for additional dice,like in the FLANKED d6 example above. Regardless of how many dice you role, you only total the highest two in most cases.

Things get interesting, but not complicated, when you start including Assets and Complications and spending Plot Points to effect the scene, but basically the Cortex Plus system is designed to keep everything flowing along and the players having a good time.

So far so good. The system takes the gameplay I enjoy and runs with it. But there's one key element still to come, one unique feature that sets it apart from other games.

In any good caper, and all RPG adventures, nothing goes according to plan. The Crew must think on their feet to solve complications as they arise, avoiding the FBI that just appeared on the scene; dealing with the armed mercenaries that everyone had previously thought were just gym-enthusiast office workers or by-passing the biometric lock on the safe that they were told had been installed in the 1930's!

In great capers, like Leverage or Oceans 11, the seemingly unexpected situation was planned for all along. The Crew had called the FBI to arrest the bad-guys in the act; the lunch everyone saw the office workers enjoying had been laced with a sleep inducing (but not dangerous. We are good guys after all!) narcotic; and the Hacker had uncovered the invoice for the new safe while reading the bad guys private emails, equipping the Thief with the appropriate gear.[1] Events like this are usually explained in TV and cinema through the magic of the Flashback. Now, you can too!

The Hook: When the Crew is stuck in a difficult situation, with the enemy closing in all around, sometimes things just seem hopeless. That's exactly the moment when the Mastermind smiles, looks the baddie in the eye and throws in a new, unforeseen Plot Point. The baddie swings around and, expecting his own band of highly expensive thugs to be at his back, is dismayed to find himself looking down the barrel at a HIGHLY TRAINED d8 POLICE OFFICER d6. Turning back to the Crew, his jaw drops. Where the cornered heroes once sat is the supposedly disposed of crate of baby milk formula containing unlicensed cheap ingredients that have caused nothing but harm to hundreds of babies in the poorer district of the city. The Crew themselves are nowhere to be seen.

How did all this happen? That's what Flashbacks are for. Flashbacks are the Hook that Leverage uses to reel in its players. Linking in to events in the adventure, Flashbacks allow players to go back in time and alter or add to a scene that occurred previously. Remember when the Hitter took out those thugs in the garage earlier? They happened to be the ones tasked with disposing of the evidence. Or how about the start of the previous scene when the baddie walked in on the Grifter talking on the phone. Thought she was talking to the rest of the Crew, didn't you? Nope. Calling in a tip to the local authorities regarding some unscrupulous dealings.

Flashbacks give the players a level of control over the outcome of events that seemingly go against them. Leverage is an RPG where success is always the only option. The question is, how interesting and exciting can you make the journey toward that destination be for yourself and your Crew mates? As in the series, Flashbacks allow you to establish character traits from events that occurred at an earlier point, sometimes earlier that day, sometimes in your characters life before the game, or even as far back as her childhood! Similarly, they allow the players to wrap up loose ends after the Job is completed. How did the Thief know that the head body-guard was sleeping with the baddies wife? These things are story elements that make the game fun and exciting, and very similar to the show.

Again, so far so good. Everything about the game seems to be geared toward my preferred  play-style. The new elements that the game uses to distinguish itself against the competition read well and seem to be enjoyable Assets. But, in the world of Leverage, where there are Assets, there are Complications.

The Twist
Leverage The Roleplaying Game is based on the hit series from TNT. This is important, and bares repeating here upfront. Not only does it give the RPG an immediate audience of fans who enjoy the show and RPGs, but it also means that there are probably a few sales that will go to fans of the series that have never owned, seen or played in an RPG. This in turn lends itself to my first and biggest problem with the book.

As an experienced role-player, I am familiar with how to read RPG books and how such books are laid out. While I never hold issue with seeing "What is a Role-Playing Game" on one of the first pages in any RPG (in fact, I love reading how different authors try to explain the basics in a single paragraph to people who have possibly never heard of such a thing. Always amusing), I don't feel I need to be hand-held throughout the text. I'm an adult reader, and consider myself smart enough to figure some things out alone. There are several moments in the book where the author stops to explain who "you" is referring to in this section. Other times, I almost feel like I'm being talked down to, having basic concepts over explained, in overly simplified terms. The whole thing comes off rather amateurish feeling at times. It feels like this is written by a fan of the series as a home-brew game, rather than what it is; a thoroughly play-tested, proof-read, professionally designed, published document. There are moments when the author is chatting to the reader in an informal, friendly fashion that make those sections sound like a blog posting.

Should I blame the author for this? Or marketing? Actually, I've chosen neither. I don't particularly like it, but I have to look at it in the light of what this is. A licensed product that needs to appeal to everything from non-role-players, through first-time GMs, to experienced veterans (for the record, I fall somewhere between the latter two).

The other fault I have with the book is related to content, and, like the language used, is a by-product of something else. Leverage The Roleplaying Game is clean, clear and concise, thanks to it's use to the Cortex Plus system. It forgoes detailed charts and situation modifiers for story-telling and genuine thrills. The downside of all of this is that it's surprisingly easy to explain everything in a short amount of time, or in this case, ink.

The Leverage RPG book comes in at just over 200 pages thick. Less than Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide at 224 pages and half of either Spirit of the Century or the recently released Dresden Files RPG, both of which clock up over 400 pages! This is great, right? Yes, and no.

Even at a paltry 200 pages, Leverage has an unprecedented amount of filler. The whole last chapter, The Record, is a synopsis of every episode from the first two seasons in game terms. It is filler of the highest order. It still doesn't beat the Stargate SG-1 RPG level of filler where they produced game supplement books of the series episodes in seasons, but it's pretty close. Add to this seven pages of examples of locations that seem to be just stating the obvious, and you have over 30 pages of material that I don't need for any game I run myself. Not just don't need, I don't have to read over or even look at them!

The question then becomes, should they have printed a book of only 170 pages? The problem is that the less you print, the less you can justify charging, and the less buyers will be willing to pay. At some point you have to charge enough to cover the costs of printing, or cut the quality of printing to match the cut in price. Given the high quality of printing on show in the book, maybe having that filler is a necessary evil (there's a villain for a Leverage game: A company deforesting whole areas just to print books twice as big as they need to be so they can charge more and increase profits!).

The Mark[2]
Having read through the book, I find that Leverage The Roleplaying Game stands as a wonderful, beautiful introduction to the world of criminals, capers and roleplaying games. It has it's flaws, but nothing is ever perfect, and the flaws seem to be easily ignored, or simply don't do much to effect the overall quality of the product. The system is a joy to read and learn about, even if I haven't had the opportunity to actually playtest it myself yet. I look forward to using it either in a game based in the Leverage setting, or in my own world of body renting ghost detectives. If you like telling a great, fast paced, rules light, collaborative story where it can be more important to be cool and funny that effective, then Leverage The Roleplaying Game is for you. Like the show, the book is great fun to look at and belongs on any gamers shelf that enjoys story driven games like Spirit of the Century, Dresden Files and Doctor Who.

The Flashback
Over the course of this review I have mentioned things like FATE 3.0, Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files. FATE 3.0 is the system that runs Spirit of the Century (SotC), the only game I've ever successfully run a full campaign in. I have long been a fan of the system and associated games, owning the limited edition hardback print of SotC, as well as having preordered and purchased the enormous Starblazer Adventures, a book big and heavy enough to kill someone with, and most recently picking up the Dresden Files RPG (DFRPG), the most recent iteration of the FATE 3.0 rules system. FATE, SotC and DFRPG are all by Evil Hat Productions, and I had long been aware of the names associated with them. Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue and Ryan Macklin are three of the very short list of games designers whose names I would recognise[3].

I purchased Leverage The Roleplaying Game, got home and started reading through it. As is usual, I skipped the credits page and skipped right to the good stuff. It was only after I was most of the way through the book before one of my friends pointed out the crossover in creative minds between Evil Hat and Leverage. I was stunned I had never heard about it before, but there you have it. Sometimes, it's not what you like, but who you like[4]!

[1] - In terrible capers, it is revealed that all the supposed complications and bad luck and events that went against the team were entirely planned and nothing was accidental and the Crew perfectly predicted exactly how the baddie would act, such as Ocean 12. Don't do this.
[2] - See what I did there? The final mark for the review. The Mark. Gettit? Yeah, it was a terrible pun, but I couldn't resist.
[3] - Before anyone says anything, yes, I know there are a lot more people involved in the making of an RPG, but they're just the names that stick out to me. Sorry if you feel left out. Console yourself in the knowledge that even if I didn't name you, I am eternally grateful for the amazing job you did on my favourite games.
[4] - Huge shoutout to the design lead and author of Leverage The Roleplaying Game, Cam Banks. Great job, man! Hope you're not too hurt by my negatives toward your work. Just remember, don't get mad, GET EVEN d10.

Bow To The Future

io9, one of the sci-fi heavy news feeds on my Google Reader feed, posted a wonderful chart on the evolution of Cyborgs in cinema and TV, created by Online Schools. As an extra cool feature, they provided the HTML code to embed the chart in your own site, so I have.



I'm a big fan of the small screen Terminator series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The main friendly Terminator in that show, Cameron, was very cool. Thanks to Summer Glaus training, the killer cyborg had a wonderful weight to her movements, while still looking like a young, agile female. Such a pity it got canned before things were wrapped up. John Henry was a joy to watch as well as the once evil, now under "rehabilitation" Terminator. Even the parts that really shouldn't have worked worked really, really well, like, for example, casting the lead singer from Garbage, Shirley Manson, as the sinister head of a major computer company clearly interested in the future development of Skynet.

Other than the Terminator franchise, there are lots of other cool cyborgs on the list, from the Borg, the Cybermen and the Cylons facing off against the heroic figures of Robocop, Steve Austin and Tony Stark.

With that kind of power on both sides, I wonder who'd win in a fight between the good cyborgs and the bad? On one hand, humanity is defended by Iron Man. On the other, we also have Inspector Gadget on our side.

We're doomed.

I'll Know My Name As It's Called Again

BBC have released a wonderful promo for their Winter/Spring 2010 drama lineup. The promo introduces us to new shows such as "Lennon Naked", starring ex-Time Lord and comic-book evil genius Christopher Eccleston and "The Deep", starring the always fantastic James Nesbit as he gets stuck on a submarine, as well as the welcome return of old favourites "Ashes to Ashes", "Being Human", and of course, the eleventh Doctor makes his appearance in "Doctor Who". This is the fifth season of the relaunched classic time travel series which brings it up to an astounding 30 seasons of Who since it's launch in 1963!

As well as an enjoyable piece of viewing, the promo is wonderful to listen to thanks to the track "The Cave", from Mumford & Sons, an English folk rock band from London. I loved the piece as soon as I started watching the promo. This is the second time I can recall an advertisement introducing me to an artist I'd never heard of before. The first time was Vodafones advertising campaign featuring Regina Spektor, though it took talking to Cian before I knew whose voice that was.

Anyway, watch the promo and enjoy. 2010 on BBC looks like it's going to be another wonderful year.

Edit: I'm really digging these Mumford & Sons guys, even more since reading the first paragraph from their latest News post. Come back Knuckles!! All is forgiven!

New Season Brings Glee

At this point we're well into the new season of television, with the start of a number of new shows, and the welcome return of others. Most shows are hitting episode seven or eight this week, so we have a fair idea of what to expect from the brand new offerings, as well as the season story arcs for the new season of those series we've watched for years.

Smallville has introduced Zod in the awesome form of Callum Blue, a move that almost makes me want to catch up on the series I left way back in season three. But there are just too many other great shows to invest time in, and while I'm sure many people who know me think I spend all my time either playing games on my Xbox or using it to watch tv, I really have more important things to do than sit on my couch long enough to watch everything that's available. How I Met Your Mother, House and Heroes are just three of the many shows I've let slide, while repeated recommendations like Dollhouse, Chuck, Sons of Anarchy and 30 Rock haven't even been given a chance.

There are just far too many good shows to watch right now. Returning Big Bang Theory and Mythbusters are joined by the immensely enjoyable Castle, starring everyone's favourite space cowboy, and the intriguing mystery series FlashForward, which I hate to think will become the new Lost, giving question after question and no answers, but I'm finding myself sucked into regardless of caution.

But there is another that has taken me by surprise. I never even knew it existed until I stumbled onto it from a completely unrelated article online. It sings to my inner love of cheesy music and cringe-worthy but hilarious situations. It plays on my desire to be a famous singer/dancer (admit it, everyone has that dream, right? ... Er... Right?). Watching it makes me smile and laugh. It brings me great Glee.

Glee is about a music club in an American high school. In the past, the club was popular and successful, but now they are nothing, while cheerleading and football rule the school. The series starts when Will, the Spanish teacher, volunteers to be the new Glee teacher as well, and recruits new members, including the football teams quarterback.

All the clichés are there. The thickheaded bully is a fantastic singer, the bitch cheerleader can sing as well as she dances, in fact, the entire cast is full of highly trained singers and dancers, most coming from Broadway. Unlike Fame, people don't spontaneously burst into song in Glee. Instead, any song is a product of the clubs rehearsal, stage production, or the individuals exorcising their personal demons in front of a mirror. As of the end of the third episode, the only example of someone bursting into song and causing people around her to dance in perfect choreography was, of course, part of a dream sequence.

But it works. I love it! It's hilariously funny. The cast is excellent, both vocally and in acting ability. The dynamics of the characters are fun, and the relationships are interesting. The cast are strong and all seem to be truly enjoying themselves. Thankfully, the network seems to agree. If TV.com is to be believed, Fox has picked up the show for a full 22 episode first season.

In the end, the show is just fun. The songs are fantastic and the choreography is flawless, making the many numbers during each episode fascinating to watch. It's a great addition to the weekly viewing, moreso because of it's core nature. In Glee, life is good. It might be tough sometimes, but ultimately, it's an enjoyable ride. While every other show of television has murder, tragedy, affairs, broken relationships, jealousy and hatred, Glee has songs, laughter, music and dance.

And when the credits roll, Glee leaves you smiling and humming a tune.

I Have A Question

Here's something I just thought of while I was writing my previous post.

What if a large media company, such as Fox, ABC, NBC, or any number of other such media outlets made their shows freely available for download through a torrent network of their own? What if the quality of those downloads was exceptional, full HD, broadcast quality? What if the only catch was that the show you downloaded had ads embedded, either as banners similar to how networks currently advertise what's coming up next, or as a more standard "ad break" format?

Would you use the official site, or stick to the current ones?

The Obvious Pros:
The network gets advertising revenue, but you have to put up with ads. Except, the shows you download now usually have a ton of ad banners during them anyway from when they were ripped.
You have a guaranteed quality, know exactly what you're getting, and have no fear of an attached virus.
Worldwide simultaneous distribution.

The Obvious Cons:
Advertising would have to be regionalised. Don't know the details of this, or how difficult that would be to do.
It would kind of remove the revenue from selling shows to regional stations, such as our own RTÉ.

Of course, there are millions of variables and details to be worked out. The biggest and first that springs to mind is would the network stagger releases across geographical locales, so that Europe gets the show a month or even a week later? This would still be an incentive to go to the alternative torrent sites. But just as a straight-forward, worldwide release, no nonsense rather than the inclusion of revenue producing advertising, what do you think? Would it work?

Personally, I'd go for the official site. Advertising doesn't bother me. That said, given the choice, I'd certainly prefer banner ads over ad breaks. Happily, in this hypothetical system, banner ads would be better, as you could just fast-forward an ad break but you won't skip a chunk of an episode just to ignore a banner at the base of the screen. As I said before, I currently see numerous banners in the shows I watch. This would just be a way for the network that paid for the show to benefit from it!

Television At Top Gear

Recently, I've spent a lot of time complaining about the ills of the newest season of television, suggesting, perhaps, that there was very little worth watching these cold winter nights. That could not be further from the truth, and while I still have to say that I cannot in good conscience recommend Heroes right now, there are some other shows that you should at least try and see if they're your kind of flavour as well.

How I Met Your Mother is a rare treat when it comes to Stateside comedies. In a show that proclaims from the outset to be about relationships, love, life and above all, friendships, all the cliches are avoided. No secret loves (even if there is a season long mutually obvious, but mutually avoidant one), no best friends sleeping with best friends girlfriends, and no "We were on a break" moments. It's hard not to see parts of yourself and your friends in the characters. They are realistically thought out, and deal with situations in a realistic manner... well, almost. This is a comedy after all. Sometimes things just get wacky! Worth watching for Barney alone, an ingenious idea for a character that feels so real, yet I hope doesn't actually exist in reality anywhere in the world!

House. What can I say about some of the best writing on television. Every episode follows an identical format. Patient arrives with unexplainable illness, team look at combination of symptoms and come up with the answer, treat, treatment fails and patient gets worse, team reassess symptoms, come up with new answer, treat, patient gets better for a while, then- OH NOES!!- patient crashes, almost dies, team stabilise patient, Dr. House remembers some random, inane fact from Act One, such as patient doesn't like hospital food, and suddenly the answer is obvious! Team treats patient, patient recovers, everyone goes home happy. What makes the show spectacular is that, despite this, every episode is griping TV, and the few that break the pattern are some of the best 45 minutes of drama you'll ever see. The patient and the treatment are not the important reason for the show, and only rarely for the team. Instead, it is the relationships, interactions and friendships that the extended cast of characters go through. Season four has added a new excitement, as House picks a new team, starting with a class of over thirty and eliminating it down week by week. Wilson still ranks as my favourite supporting character in any series.

Balancing karma has never been funnier than in My Name Is Earl. Jason Lee is almost unrecognisable as the title character, Earl, who, after winning $100,000 on a scratchcard and then getting hit by a car, realises he has to make up for all the bad things he's done in life to everyone. He creates a list, and, in a random order, begins to do good deeds related to the bad in order to cross them off. Some are easier done than others, and as the show continues, the list gets slowly added to, either because Earl remembered something new, or his emotions got the better of him for a moment. My Name Is Earl is kind of like Quantum Leap without the time-travel element. Both have to right wrongs, and both are controlled by God, fate, karma or whatever. I'm gonna leave that analogy there, because some people don't see the genius in connecting those two shows.

Top Gear is the reason I originally started this post. Claire and I watched episode five of season ten last night and both of us almost died of laughter and excitement! What other show could follow up a mind-blowing trek across the spine of Africa with a trek across London in rush-hour Monday morning traffic and have the London episode come out tops on the "Edge-Of-Seat" scale of television viewing?!? If you have yet to see it, the episode involves a race between James May in a four-wheel drive people carrier, the Mercedes GL, Richard Hammond on a bicycle (skin tight shorts and t-shirt included!), Jeremy Clarkson in a Cougar sport racing boat on the Thames, and finally... well, some say, when he was born, his heart was replaced with a miniature Formula One engine, and that because all he knows is speed, he has no concept of money or mobile phones. All we know is, he's called The Stig, and he took public transport. The race was from the extreme west of London, Knightsbridge, to the extreme east, at London City airport. It was riveting viewing, side-splitting all the way, and totally unpredictable in it's craziness. Favourite moment: The Stig stares blankly at his mobile phone, seemingly with no idea what this funny little noisy thing is for. The ring tune is the Coronation Street theme. But who won?!? You'll have to watch for yourself. The results are just too good to give away here!

So there's a selection of viewing material to watch while it's dark and wet outside on these long nights. Have I missed anything? Is there something I should be watching? I know there are lots of other good shows out there, but I only have so much free time. I need to blog too, you know!

Him

I really dislike seeing Christmas advertising when it's still early November, and worse if we haven't even had Halloween yet, but sometimes someone comes out with an advert that is simply inspired! This year, everyone will be hard pressed to do better than the genius piece created for Marks & Spencers. An absolutely stunning ad that actually works! There are a tonne of great ads for which I can't recall the brand they were selling, but even a week after seeing this, I was still able to find it on a single search of YouTube.

Well done M&S. Simple, elegant and completely free of the usual Christmas schmaltz.

Fall Of The Heroes

NaBloPoMo has been running now for just 10 days, one third of the month, and I have had a post a day at least, and more some days!

Anyway, to keep things moving without break, let's just mention Heroes, 'cause, you know, everyone else is!

Season two, in my humble opinion, sucks. Thankfully, I'm not the only one to think so! In fact, so many have agreed with me, that Season Two may well finish with the December episode. Ok, so the Writer's Guild Strike is a factor as well, but seriously, the creative staff obviously know that they've failed to meet any potential. I found this article which summarises the contents of an interview in The Los Angeles Times, as well as my feelings on the show. Unfortunately, I've lost the link to the source of this particular piece. Sorry for the shoddy reporting, but here you go (emphasis by me):

Tim Kring not bugged about criticisms of hit NBC show, says episodes seven to 11 are "best episodes we've ever done."

Heroes has been on the tips of television-viewers' tongues a lot this year, but not for the same reason as last season. The superhero show was a breakout hit last year, but this season it has been the target of critics who cite disjointed storylines, too many characters, and a lack of direction for disappointing fans. Viewers have also tuned out; last week's episode rang in the worst numbers in the key 18-49 demographic ever for the series, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But there's one man who isn't fazed and thinks fans shouldn't be worried either: series creator Tim Kring.

Speaking with The Los Angeles Times, Kring dismissed the numbers much like many other television executives have: DVRs, online episodes, the Internet. What's more, ratings drops are taking their toll on almost all shows, not just Heroes.

As for the rest of the criticism, Kring is promising that it will all make sense. "It will all be paid off by episode 11," Kring said. "From seven to 11 are the best episodes we've ever done." The Heroes crew has always said that this current season would be split up into "volumes," with the current one, titled "Generations," concluding midseason.

"One of the things that we found is that, by the end of the (first) year, we were dragging a tremendous amount of story behind us that had to be paid off in that final episode," Kring said during a conference call, according to Salt Lake City's Deseret News, "which made for an episode that the (audience) expectations are so high that it's hard to meet everybody's expectation."

But that didn't stop the writers from adding several new characters in the offseason, and the result is too much story to pack into one hour of television per week to satisfy everyone.

"Part of what happens on any show is that you enter a relationship with your viewers where you teach them how to watch your show and they teach you what they seem to be responding to," Kring said, reports the Deseret News. "And we, I think, are in this process right now of teaching the audience how to get used to the idea that not everybody is going to be in every single episode."

Some think that Heroes is just undergoing a sophomore slump. However, Kring may be thinking that viewers are looking at season two a bit too harshly by elevating season one unrealistically. "People tend to look at last season and see things in it that were not in it. We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]."

Now the "last week's episode" they mention at the start is actually Episode 6, from two weeks ago. The article is a bit dated. Anyway, I find the last line, "We haven't deviated that much [from last season's formula]" hilarious!! He says this like it's a good thing! That's one of my biggest criticisms about the show. Why am I watching the second season if it's gonna be just the first one again?!? I should go back and watch that. At least that had a focus right from the opening episodes. This season is all over the place, and I have little to no idea where the show is going. Also, the special effects are atrocious. Everything is poor green-screen sets with either dull stock photography or awful photoshopped images! In particular (related to Episode 6, so spoiler hidden just in case), Peter in the empty "future New York" was laughably bad! I've seen better quality green-screening on Bosco's Magic Door!

And this week, creator Tim Kring admitted as much! He actually apologised to the fans for Season Two. Now, I have to give the man credit for admitting he's wrong, but this is ridiculous! NBC have spent millions upon millions on six, possibly more, episodes of tripe! Despite hoping to start "Volume Three" on a clean slate, I have an uneasy feeling that the ride is over. The only reason they still have a chance at Volume Three is because they are with NBC. If this was Fox, we wouldn't even get the resolution to Volume Two!

Call Me, Beep Me

I just finished watching the finale to the fourth season of the Disney Channels Kim Possible. If you haven't heard of this amazing cartoon, then you really have missed out on the show that has set the standard for all childrens action entertainment. Like Gargoyles, another Disney property, Kim illustrates how a cartoon aimed at a younger audience can build an astounding, passionate and vocal fanbase among older viewers.

For the uninitiated, Kim Possible is a 30 minute cartoon series following the adventures of high school cheerleader and part-time world saver Kimberly Ann Possible, known to friends as Kim, or KP. Tagging alone by her side is best friend Ron Stoppable, and his naked mole rat, Rufus. Ron is well meaning, lovable and clumsy, and bears a huge crush on KP, though never really does anything about it, instead, helping her ask the guy of her dreams to the ball, or comforting her when things go bad. Ron also has a habit of losing his pants at every available moment, much to his annoyance.

The colourful cast of villains are the true strength of the show. While most cartoon series can manage to have a strong, well written main character or two, Kim Possible manages to also have incredibly well written villains as well. It's almost impossible to not love Dr. Drakken and his far more capable female sidekick, Shego, Senior Senior Sr. and his son Señor Senior Jr., or the nefarious fashion orientated evil doers, the Fashionistas, among others. While the writing and character developments go a long way to making these fun villains, the voice actors can claim a lot of the credit themselves. Dr. Drakken is voiced with obvious relish and joy by John DiMaggio, Futuramas Bender, while Señor Senior Sr. is voiced by Ricardo Montalbán, Star Treks (arguably) most loved villain, KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

One of the greatest aspects of the series, and also that which sets it apart from almost 100% of every other animated series I can name is the character development throughout the four seasons. Over the first three seasons, Kim and Ron attend Middleton High, with the final episode of season three not only mentioning that they are moving into their final year in high school, but also dramatically altering their relationship. At the time, the third season finale was to also be the series finale, the TV movie So The Drama. The new relationship would not be an issue, as there would be no more episodes to deal with it. But when season four was green-lit, the creators promised no backing out, and better yet, no soap-opera drama. This has the previously unheard of, entirely unique result of the two main characters in a childrens cartoon series by the Disney Channel remaining together throughout the new season, and not only that, they have locked-lips on-screen more than once! Mature writing and an insistence on the part of the creators to not "write-down" to children meant that this was pulled off with grace, and proved once again that a childrens show does not have to ignore certain real-world issues to succeed. Kim and Ron are high school seniors, and their actions within the newest season are realistic and believable.

By the close of season four, Kim and Ron are still the happy couple. They continued to have crazy adventures, while exploring the new territories of their relationship. Not once throughout the 22 episode run was their relationship ignored in favour of plot, nor did they break-up in favour of drama. While the relationship did allow for some new areas of comedy, Kim and Ron stayed not only as a couple, but also as best friends through to the end. And while Kim and Ron are now old hat at the dating thing, the final two-parter ended with love blossoming rather unexpectedly for two of the other characters.

It will be interesting to see if KP ever gets a fifth season. Kim and Ron are on their way to college, allowing for new friends, new situations, and new settings. The creators were smart enough to wrap everything up for the end of the season, while allowing room for more TV movies, or even, so many fans now hope, another season. And as unlikely as a fifth season might sound, it is clear that the Disney Channel love Kim as much as the fans do. In order to celebrate the last episodes, they ran a megamarathon of every episode and TV movie ever made, over three days at 18 hours a day, culminating with the first airing of the series finale, Graduation.

Daily Double Homicide

I was at home for a few days from Sunday through to Thursday of this week. Originally planned as just a nice trip home to see the family and chill out with no commitments or pressures, it would seem some higher force felt otherwise. However, more of that later.

While I was at home I got the chance to catch up on some television viewing. As some of you know, I don't have a television in my house, or to be accurate, I do, but it's not plugged in to any aerial, so technically I'm only short on channels, not the physical box. Anyway, the one show I enjoyed most while I was at home was an old favourite of mine, Murder, She Wrote.

RTÉ One are currently airing two episodes a day of J.B. Fletchers adventures in Cabot Cove, from 3:30pm in case anyone wants to catch it. I remember when we were really young my brother and I were let stay up to watch Murder, She Wrote when it was considered prime time viewing. My mum loved, and indeed still loves, this show, and we all watched it together. I often asked why we never saw any of Jessicas books in the bookstores, as I really wanted to read some of her stuff! Ah, the innocence of youth!

Watching it again, I know why I loved it so much back then, and I still do now. The show is incredible! When it's hitting its stride, the plots are clever and suspenseful, the dialog sharp and witty and the acting strong and engaging. The style and look of the show is classic, and even walking in during an episode, before Angela Lansbury appears as the master-mystery-writer-turned-detective, you can name the show simply by the framing of the shots, the colours and the movement of the camera. There is something distinctly unique in it.

Angela Lansbury is riveting to watch on-screen. She has a power that few actors possess, and her presence is powerful, yet never seems to overshadow the accompanying actors. Speaking of which, in the five or so episodes I caught of the show over the time I was home, Jessica was in three of them for less than five minutes each! Instead, master-thief-turned-detective (pattern emerging) Dennis Stanton headed up the case, getting into mischief along the way! Although I enjoyed this character, played with flair by Keith Michell, he wasn't Jessica. A little research into the matter proves I'm not the only one who thought that. Episodes like these I saw, as well as a few narrated by Jessica as one of her novels, and one or two other master-whatever-turned-detective were used to give Angela a break from the hectic shooting schedule, however, negative fan reaction meant that they were dropped in later seasons.

Watching Murder, She Wrote at home again was a joy. After seeing it I did some research and discovered the following:

• Angela Lansbury is the only one to appear in all 263 episodes of the series, during its 12 seasons, from 1984 to 1996, on CBS, as well as the four subsequent TV movies.
• On it's 12th season it was moved from it's Sunday evening slot where it had been hugely popular for over a decade to Thursday evenings, putting it against Friends. This was because CBS was trying to make Sundays more teen-friendly. The show floundered and was announced to be finishing on that season. The last four episode returned to the Sunday slot, receiving high ratings once more, the final episode being the 16th in the ratings and the most viewed show on CBS that week!
• None-too-subtly, the final episode is titled Death By Demographics and sees a station head changing the stations focus from classical to rock'n'roll to reach a younger audience. The experiment fails, and he ends up dead! Hmmm...
• Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski spent time as producer on the show, writing a number of episodes. He is credited as spending the most time emphasising Jessicas career as a writer, making deadlines and such a part of the episodes.
• I read somewhere that Straczynski attributes his time on Murder, She Wrote as invaluable in helping him learn how to write mystery's with effective foreshadowing. Apparently, writing for the show allowed for no short-cuts, as the audience had to be able to see all the clues in the episode, and potentially piece them together themselves. Straczynshi has said that this helped him in crafting story elements that would pay off much further down the line for everything from Babylon 5 to Rising Stars and even his run on Spider-Man!
• Angela loves Ireland, owning a home in West Cork. Because of this, there are a number of episodes based in Ireland, particularly in the south. Two of them are titled A Killing In Cork, and Another Killing In Cork. How imaginative! The most recent TV movie is also based in Ireland, The Celtic Riddle.
• And finally, in 1986 there was a cross-over with Magnum P.I., which began in Magnum and concluded in Murder, She Wrote with the episode Magnum on Ice! Sweet! Two of my favourite shows!

Sorry if all that was a bit long winded! I just loved reading about the show, and wanted to share! Besides, if you don't like it, tough! My blog! I get to write what I want! Ha! Anyway, thanks for reading, as always. I'll be putting up more over the next few days, including why my time at home wasn't all fun and games, what I thought of The Bourne Ultimatum (I'll save ya reading that one! Freakin' awesome is the summary!) and one or two other interesting bits and pieces that are itching to get onto the internet! Until then, have fun!

I Claim Sole Credit

Purely on the basis that my blog is the only place I've seen it complained about, I'm taking all the credit for this one! What am I talking about now? Read on.

Not too long ago I posted about the pilot of Burn Notice, my summer viewing for 2007 (along with the second season of quirky mad science based series, Eureka). In it, I lamented the physical pain and suffering the pilot induced in me any time Michael Westens ex-girlfriend Fiona appeared on screen. Her voice was unbearable!

Well, thanks entirely to the work of this very blog, I no longer suffer! As of the second episode, Fiona speaks like a human! Her first appearance in this episode had Michael question the new accent, to which Fiona replied, "Well, I'm in Miami now. I can't very well be talkin' like a friggin' leprechaun, now can I!"

Woo-hoo! No crappy Oirish! And the show gets infinitely better! Well, a bit better anyway. It was great to begin with. All that small change really means is that Fionas scenes are just as enjoyable as the rest! Feel free to use the comments section to shower me with praise and worship.

Sure, she's still an ex-IRA girl, but they don't make much of an issue of it. I'm guessing it's just their excuse for having her good with guns and gadgets.

While I'm back on the topic of Burn Notice, let me point you to Micheal Westens Ask A Spy Video Tips, fun little weekly extras for the series. Less enjoyable, but still kinda interesting to browse across is Fionas Blog! There are lots more on the main site, so check it out if you get the chance. I'm a big fan of the Sams Stash area of the site, even if it is bandwidth heavy, and I can't figure out a single item match up, even after years of point'n'click adventuring.

Use "box" with "melon". No. Use "knife" with "melon". No. Use "knife" with "box". No. Use "melon" with "lightbulb that I can't even see, but I can still click on because this is a stupid game!". Oh great. That worked. Now what do I do with a melon with a lightbulb screwed into it?!?