I'll take potpourri for $7,200, Alex

Time for some links of note:

7 Great Movie Endings Demolished by Test Audiences.

SFX looks at the Top 20 hottest names working in sci-fi now.

Empire looked at the possibilities of fictional bands playing the Glastonbury music festival.

12 great sci-fi speeches. (Note: if you're catching up on Buffy or BSG, beware SPOILERS). Also, they don't like the "Why I hate X-mas" speech in Gremlins? That's brilliant.

I live in one of the best places to live, apparently. I'll remember that when I'm flying "home" to Georgia every weekend in the fall.

8-Bit Trek. I really need this on a t-shirt. So fucking adorable.

Speaking of Trek, here are "14 things you didn't know about Star Trek." (I knew 10).

Paste lists their Top 10 sci-fi and fantasy shows of all time. And also their Top 11 most villainous sci-fi species.

SFX published the results of their Top 200. Lots of great geeky lists there.

It's rare that I agree with Glenn Beck, but yep, he's right. (Bonus points for the Jefferson quote which nicely sums up my political philosophy).

As you know, Torchwood is coming to US TV via Starz. (WooHoo!). And they've got a writing staff that resembles the '27 Yankees.

FINALLY, Coach and Mrs. Coach get a little Emmy love. About damned time. And the actors are just as adorable as you'd think they'd be.

Fun photo mashups: Firefly crew as original Trek, and Mad Men as Trek:TNG.

Second thoughts on Friday Night Lights

After watching 11 episodes of S1 of FNL, I offered a few thoughts on the show. Well, now I've blazed through the remainder of S1 and all of the writers-strike shortened S2. Here's where I stand on the show:

I don't know if it's possible to love Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton more than I do. They're the primary reason to watch this show, and their acting is just unparalleled. Other actors who deserve significant praise include Brad Leland (booster Buddy Garrity), Jessie Plemons (quirky "sidekick" Landry Clarke) and Adrianne Palicki (Tyra). For the most part, the acting across the board is terrific, with the notable exception of Minka Kelly, who brings every single scene she's in to a screeching halt.

S1, despite a few plot contrivances and too many last minute football miracles, is pretty much a perfectly formed first season. It's right up there with some of the all time greats (Lost, Sopranos, Deadwood, Firefly, The Wire, etc.) in creating a believable and interesting world, and introducing us to all the characters therein.

However, season two? Yee gods, what a mess. Yes, there was a writer's strike, but you'd think the writers of S1 were still on strike all year and replaced in S2 by the scribes from One Tree Hill or 90210. There was a ridiculous and horribly handled murder. (Murder! CSI:Dillon!) There was the theft of a ferret-loving meth dealer's money. There was a ludicrous romantic subplot about a Latina caregiver. 47 different ways attempted to keep paralyzed QB Street still involved in the plot. Really, it's a testament to the power of Britton and Chandler (and a few strong drinks) that I was able to make my way through this FEMA disaster of a season with any fond memories of S1. Other things that kept cropping up that diluted my enjoyment of FNL:

• I realize all shows can't be Arrested Development or Lost, where continuity and details are the gifts that keep on giving. But how old is everyone and what grade are they in? There's no way to tell, and the answer seems to be "whatever is convenient for the plot this week." I thought the Taylors were moving around from job to job prior to landing in Dillon, yet there are continued comments about them being there in town all their lives. Smash is supposedly a highly visible, highly recruited RB, yet in all the games we get to see, he's benched or performing poorly. The police investigation into, and legal ramifications of, the season-debilitating "murder plot" were so haphazardly handled you'd think Barney Fife was the town sheriff and the chicken from Futurama was the DA. Just....wow. It's one thing for a procedural, or a wacky sci-fi fantasy, to ignore last week's developments and just move on to another 42 minutes of entertainment, but for a show that wears its verisimilitude on its sleeve, FNL S2 bungled the details badly.
• The handling of the "coach returns" story was also mishandled. We saw zero fallout, professionally, over his decision to leave a bigtime college program. We also saw none of the community reaction to his return, save for a few comments in the shower from Saracen and the occasional "sports talk radio" commentary.
• I've bitched before about how much I hate kids and teenagers on my TV shows. Of course, there are exceptions (this show, Buffy, Glee, Freaks & Geeks and Gilmore Girls, to name a few) where the writing and the performances overcome the fact that Children: I'm Just Not That Into You. Some of the kids here (Tyra and Landry - except for their absurd plot - Saracen, Riggins) are terrifically watchable. But Julie, who was somewhat tolerable in S1, turns into a whiny, fast-forward button worthy brat in S2. After her behavior this year, I would completely understand if Coach and Mrs. Coach got separate bedrooms and never considered intimacy again. But the worst of all is...
• Lyla. Yes, the perhaps soon to be Mrs. Jeter is very attractive. But wearing a cheerleader uniform doesn't make you an actress, or Toni Basil would have been nominated for an Emmy. She is a terrible, terrible actress. And saddled with even worse plotlines. Turning into a sanctimonious Jesus freak, who winds up dating smug asshat Logan Huntzberger, while becoming the obsession of otherwise man about town Riggins? Ugh. Every time she pops up on the screen, I want to commit sepaku on my couch. Has anyone this talent-deficient been regularly featured on such a critically acclaimed show? Maybe the Sopranos kids?
• And speaking of kids, we add two frakkin' babies to the mix? The Coach-tot, and now, the miracle spawn of Jason Street and his one night stand waitress? Can we PLEASE just play some football games, and have the team debate the merits of the 3-4 vs. the 4-3 or something?

It sounds like I'm complaining a lot about season 2, and I guess I am. But the thing is, the show engendered such goodwill with its rookie season, and Britton and Chandler are so spectacular, that I'm willing to give this trainwreck a pass and move on to season 3 to see if it has a sizeable rebound even close to the quality of what came before.

First thoughts on Friday Night Lights

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to attempt to play "catch up" with some of the more highly regarded TV shows of the Aughts that I may have missed during their first go-round. Freaks and Geeks was first up, and gets an emphatic recommendation from me.

Next, I popped in the DVD for season one of Friday Night Lights. I thought about watching FNL when it premiered, because I love football, enjoyed the movie, found the book fascinating, and generally appreciate director/producer Peter Berg's work. Plus, it featured the underrated Kyle Chandler (who is also a UGA alum!). However, it focused primarily on family dynamics and the lives of a bunch of kids and teenagers, and without a more compelling (for me) "genre" hook, it's just not a subject that particularly moves me to pick up the remote. Still, friends I trust suggested I watch, and along the way, it picked up plenty of critical hosannas (if not Emmy accolades).

Well, I'm 11 episodes into season one, and I have to admit, the show is pretty damned good. I won't do a full plot recap or even a critical analysis of the show thus far, but instead, just offer up a few stray observations:

• Leads Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton do absolutely sensational work. Even though I'm only halfway through the first season, it's shocking to me that neither has been nominated for an Emmy. They both give life to real, three-dimensional characters, and make me believe in, and appreciate, their relationship. Just top-notch work.
• Britton's Tami Taylor gains immediate access to MILF Hall of Fame, right there with Lorelai Gilmore.
• Not sure if it's the video transfer, or the chosen result of the handheld shooting style, but the image quality is rather granular (though not in a completely distracting way).
• Minka Kelly is scorching hot. I'm not sure she's a great actress.
• What the hell is up with this "Landry" character? I can't get a handle on him.
• I mentioned this on twitter, but there are some distracting "timing" issues. For example, one of the characters suffers a debilitating injury in the pilot / first game of the season. In a later episode, they're talking about the character's recovery, and how it's been two months since the injury. Then, in an unrelated scene, two other characters are discussing how the football team has played four games. Okay, even taking into account a bye week (which is actually shown on the show, in preparation for "rivalry week" against a big foe), that just doesn't make sense. Two months would be 8 or 9 weeks, yet only 4 games have taken place? It took me out of the show for a bit, but since I readily accept smoke monsters, time traveling islands, vampires, mind-wiped dolls, rodent eating aliens, cyborgs and other fantasy elements, I just moved on. Still, for a show that in every other way seems so grounded and realistic, it was annoying.
• The scoring is by the legendary W.G. Snuffy Walden, a frequent Aaron Sorkin collaborator. While it's effective, and appropriately emotionally manipulative, I still feel like people should be walking endlessly down a hallway nattering on about unrealistically idealistic politics.
• The football scenes are well shot, particularly for a television series, but thus far we've had way too many Rocky-esque miracle finishes. You could still convey the same heightened drama without all the hail marys, fumbles, staggering fourth quarter comebacks and diving last second touchdowns.
• I understand the nature of small towns, but I really hope we don't continue to spend so much time in Dillon's churches.
• There's been a refreshing lack of teen pregnancy, the old trope that infects virtually every high school show.
• I'm the last person in the world to complain about political correctness or representation of minority characters, but thus far the two most prominent black characters (Voodoo and Smash) are irritating, cliched asshats. (And Aldis Hodge, so appealing on Leverage, is a total tool here as Voodoo. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out in season three he was involved in a dogfighting scandal).
• Having gone to high school in a small southern town, the producers and writers totally nail the whole community vibe, without hitting you over the head with it.
• As I mentioned, Chandler and Britton are both fantastic. Hell, you could take out all the kids, and I'd watch a show that consisted of nothing but them sitting around their house talking. Their interactions are realistic, compelling, grounded and adult, without being tedious or artificially dramatic.

And finally, on a completely trivial note, did I see Julie Mayer briefly show up as a shot-slinging trollop at the post-Homecoming party? (by "Julie Mayer," I mean actress Andrea Bowen, who plays Julie on Desperate Housewives). I looked at Bowen's imdb page, and did a cursory google search, but there's no record of her having appeared on the show. But I could have sworn it's her. Check out this grainy screencap:

That's all for now, and as you can tell, despite some initial misgivings and concerns, I'm impressed with FNL thus far and will continue to dive into the DVD sets.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose, y'all.