Saturday morning entertainment potpourri

Would a Serenity direct to DVD sequel be a good idea? Personally, I think that I would take more Firefly adventures in any format I can get them. Eventually, someone will attempt to capture the "pay as you go" model for delivering ad-free content outside the studio/network model, and there's probably no better person to try than Joss. Think about it. Would you pay $0.50 or $1.00 per episode for new adventures of with the crew of Serenity? Or in the Buffy/Angelverse? I would. The weekly budget for production for a new show is typically in the $1,000,000 range. That would mean 1 million fans would have to pony up a buck each week to watch a show. Fans in larger numbers pay that each week to download episodes they've already seen for free from I-Tunes. And great, great shows that aren't exactly CSI or Grey's in terms of total viewers average 2 - 4 million viewers each week, and that's enough to get you cancelled. If half of those folks ponied up the change left over from coffee each week, that would be enough to support an ad-free, direct sell show. Just something to think about, and fans of Joss are among the most rabid and supportive.

Speaking of Joss, two more items. He's going to direct another episode of The Office. And those Buffy "sing alongs" in theatres? Canceled, because of greed. Hey, I'm an Ayn Rand/Gordon Gekko fan from way back. But were these things really "hurting" anyone? Was someone attempting to generate enough funds to build a secret army or buy up real estate like Lex Luthor? No, they were mainly a labor of love, and a way for fans to celebrate a common passion. I was fortunate enough to participate in one a few years back at Dragon-Con, but also wanted to attend one of the updated versions touring the country right now. My dear Atlanta friends the Es went to one during one of my recent trips down for a UGA game (I didn't go -- I was busy watching a different type of horror show: a Willie Martinez coached defense), and said it was a blast. Unfortunately, they may have attended one of the very last ones. That just sucks.

Earlier this week, I posted my "daemon" from The Golden Compass. As I noted then, I haven't read the books, but now I'm even more inclined to pick them up. Any thing delusional zealot and blowhard Bill Donohue thinks is bad, I would tend to like. I didn't check out the Narnia movie, because of the religious backstory and ham-fisted allegories. ("It's just like Lord of the Rings! Except more poorly written and full of God!") It's well known that CS Lewis wrote those stories with a rather thinly veiled agenda, and I find it amusing that Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy tries to provide a balance to that and is getting blasted by believers in one fairy tale who condemn another (that is just as equally and logically plausible).

A meeting of the geek-verses. Kevin Smith loves Lost.

The Top 20 Starship Captains. Yes, there are some facts wrong in there. But it's a fun list. And any "top 6" that includes Jean-Luc Picard, James T. Kirk, Han Solo, Mal Reynolds and Bill Adama is fine in my book (But Kathryn "I never met a temporal rule or Prime Directive I couldn't break" Janeway? Please).

The new TV season has been all over the place for me thus far. I will say that of the many new and returning shows I was excited about, there are still two lurking in my faux "Now Playing" list that I haven't yet watched: Reaper and Pushing Daisies. I'm looking forward to watching both of those.

Many of the returning shows just haven't done it for me. Law & Order: SVU has been downright terrible. Heroes has been lackluster (the "Lucky Charms" gang? The spanish Wonder Twins?) and only the Kensei story and the return of Sylar are keeping me interested. HIMYM has been okay, but seems to be missing something. The Office has had some great moments, but the hour-longs tend to wander too much and have characters behaving too stupidly for their own good occasionally. On the other hand, Desperate Housewives has been better, particularly with the addition of the devilish and MILF-tastic Catherine Mayfair (Dana Delany) and her husband, Captain Tightpants. House has delivered one rock solid and laugh out loud funny ep after another. Bones has been very good. Law and Order: CI's move to USA hasn't hurt it, either. It's always been my favorite of the Law and Order troika, and I dig Logan's new partner, the quirky and scorching hot Alicia Witt (who is replacing another quirky hot "firecrotch" -- as Witt's character was called on Thursday's ep -- Julianne Nicholson -- while she is on maternity leave).

Of the news shows I've seen, I'm really digging Chuck. And Bionic Woman is all over the map. The pilot was okay. The second ep was terrible and leaden. The third ep was outstanding. Michelle Ryan hasn't exactly won me over with her flat line readings, but she has nice lips. The star of the show, however, is Katee Sackhoff as the "Faith-esque" first bionic woman Sarah Corvus, and lights up the screen whenever she's on. Although they weren't part of the fall network premieres, I have really enjoyed Mad Men and Torchwood. In fact, I since we don't have BSG or Lost right now, I would proclaim Mad Men the Best Show on TV. It just keeps getting better and better, and I'll be sad when the season finale airs next week (though it will be back for a second season. Yeah!). Tragically, I don't have Showtime here in temp living land, so I can't say anything about Season 2 of my favorite new show from last year, Dexter. Guess I'll have to catch up on that via DVD next year.

I was all prepared to hate Moonlight. It has an unbelievably troubled development history, got panned by several prominent critics and its premise seems like a complete rip-off of one of the all time classics, Angel. However, I've seen three eps now and I'm quite entertained. No, it's no Angel, but the leads are charismatic enough and if it can inject just a bit of wit, it should be a keeper.