Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category

Announcing BashinginMinds’ first giveaway: two Dollhouse Season One DVD sets!

Season one of Joss Whedon’s controversial series Dollhouse will be hitting the streets on July 28, but you can win one a week early. All you have to do is tell me this:

Why would you hire a doll?

Please keep comments under 50 words or so, and relatively PG-13. Otherwise, go wild.

Entries must be received by midnight EST on Friday, July 17, 2009, and there will be two ways to win. First, I’ll select the best 10 and put those up for a vote, winner gets a DVD set. And I’ll select a name at random from all the entries for the other set. Winners will be announced Tuesday, July 21, so folks going to Comic-Con will know if they should be trying to buy one or not…

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Good news! I can tell you about most of the upcoming Dollhouse DVD set!

Bad news: reviewers only get the first 3 discs with the aired episodes, but not the final disc with the extra goodies. So I can’t tell you about the unaired episode 13 “Epitaph One,” or the original unaired pilot, or the features, or the deleted scenes. FOX wants to keep those under wraps until the release date and I can understand that even as I secretly hoped their shipping department would mistakenly send me the wrong disc. But I did get to listen to the commentaries from creator Joss Whedon and star Eliza Dushku, and those were well worth it.

The show

The Dollhouse is an illegal underground company spoken of in whispers, where you can hire an attractive young person for literally any purpose you can imagine. These people, known as “actives,” have had their memories completely removed so that they can have new memories and new personalities imprinted in them to order. Actives can temporarily become perfect lovers, thieves, assassins, companions, detectives, whatever the very well-heeled clients want, and afterward their new identities are stripped away again so they’re ready for the next engagement. Only, one of them is starting to remember…

Dollhouse stars Eliza Dushku as Caroline/Echo; Harry Lennix as Boyd Langton, Echo’s handler; Fran Kranz as Topher Brink, the amoral genius behind the Dollhouse tech; Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt, the boss of the place;  Reed Diamond as her creepy chief of security Laurence Dominic; Enver Gjokaj as Victor; Dichen Lachman as Sierra; and Tahmoh Penikett as FBI agent Paul Ballard. Regular guest stars included Amy Acker as staff physician Dr. Claire Saunders and Miracle Laurie as Mellie. The series had an uneven start, with the first episodes being mostly standalones that simply showcased what actives from the Dollhouse are hired to do with only a passing nod to any ongoing story arcs or show mythology.

The commentaries

Now, there are three types of DVD commentaries. There’s the one where the people talking get caught up in the show and forgot to comment on anything, but I’ve rarely seen that on a Whedonverse DVD. Talkative bunch, they are. Then there’s the type where the commentators are just having a blast, reminiscing and cracking each other up and offering funny little behind the scenes moments. That’s what Joss and Eliza do in their commentary on the aired pilot episode, “Ghost.”

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In ABC’s “Castle,” Nathan Fillion plays a best-selling mystery novelist. So when they need a cute tie-in to drum up interest in the show’s second season what better way than to publish one of his books?

Starting Aug. 10 ABC will publish chapters of Richard Castle’s “Heat Wave” as they air reruns of the show, leading up to the season premiere in late September. The book will reportedly include elements from the shows — which makes sense, given the premise, that he’s following the cops to get story ideas. The book itself will be published September 29 by Hyperion.

There’s one problem with stuff like this: what if the book by this fictional bestselling writer sucks? No one’s saying who the real author is. Personally, I hope it’s Nathan. Look for these to show up on Fillion’s autograph lines real soon.

It’s about time for a new Weird Al song, and he doesn’t disappoint. Already available at various online outlets like  iTunes and Rhapsody, but I favor Amazon since there’s no DRM on it. You can also buy the video you just saw.

This drove me nuts trying to identify the specific Doors song he’s doing, but it’s actually one of the style parodies he does sometimes, aided by original Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Nicely done, sir. Just how much hootch did you have to suck down to get the mannerisms right?

Professor Farnsworth: “Yes? I see… Good news, everyone! Those asinine morons who canceled us were themselves fired for incompetence. [The crew cheers] And not just fired, but beaten up, too…and pretty badly. [The crew cheers doubtfully] In fact, most of them died from their injuries. [The crew remains silent. Bender laughs] And then they were ground up into a fine pink powder.
Fry: Why?
Professor Farnsworth: Oh, it’s got a million and one uses. [Pours some down his pants] Ah, that soothes the fire.

Sometimes shows do come back…

Just announced, Comedy Central has placed an order for 26 new episodes of Futurama to run over two seasons. Apparently the four 2-hour movies released during the 7-year hiatus of the show helped, and I’m glad to see it. The last movie left the crew of Planet Express with an open-ended future, so it’ll be great to see where they go with it.  Much as I loved The Simpsons, Futurama quickly took over as my favorite cartoon.

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You know those fan-made superhero movie trailers that hit the Internet sometimes and just amaze you with their quality and professionalism? Like the Green Lantern one, and Batman: Dead End and World’s Finest and even one for the Thundercats?

This isn’t one of those.

After all is said, done, and awarded, he performs a kickass closing number to bring it all home.

The second of the last three unaired “Pushing Daisies” episodes is on ABC Saturday night at 10 p.m., and you won’t want to miss it! This one costars… well, let’s go to the synopsis:

“Water and Power.” Emerson gets a lead in his daughter Penny’s whereabouts when he investigates the murder of millionaire Roland Stingwell (guest star Fred Williamson). The prime suspect: Penny’s no-good mama, Lila Robinson (guest star Gina Torres), who ran off with the girl years ago. Meanwhile, an awkward Randy Mann (guest star David Arquette) tries to romance Olive. Written byPeter Ocko,  story by Lisa Joy & Jim Danger Gray.  Directed byDean White.

Can’t wait to see Gina doing comedy again. She’s got a brilliant sense of timing, perfect for a bizarre show like this. For more of a sneak peek, check out the exclusive coverage over at ThePiemaker.com.

If you miss it, don’t fret. Just be sure to preorder the second season DVD, coming July 21.

Sigh. Only one more to go after this. Here’s hoping for comics, a movie, something. There are too many loose ends still dangling in a very dangly way!

If the DVDs and  soundtrack isn’t enough – and it isn’t – go check out the free Dr. Horrible comics at Dark Horse Presents. First up is “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me,” written by Zack Whedon, drawn by Eric Canete and colored by Dave Stewart. Excellent look at Captain Hammer’s life before the events of the show, and hilarious all by itself. Read it here.

Then there’s “Moist: Humidity Rising,” Dr. Horrible’s sidekick’s awesome origin! Well, kind of awesome. Well, not really. I wasn’t as impressed with this one, even though Zack penned it as well (art by Farel Dalrymple and Dan Jackson). It hits all the points – got his powers, met Billy, dreamed henchmen dreams – without any memorable lines or interesting twists or much plot at all. It’s just… there. Which, come to think of it, also describes Moist, so maybe it works after all. Read it here.

And out this week, “Penny: Keep Your Head Up,” by Zack Whedon and Jim Rugg, a sweet tale of her activist beginnings.