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On the post about Final Fantasy, I realized that most of the series follow the same basic premise. And yesterday, after watching the next season of “Heroes”, I realized that most TV series also follow the same idea. That’s when I came with the reverse ideas for those things:

Reverse Final Fantasy: The forces of Light and Darkness most be in balance, or the universe will explode. Unfortunately, the Light is getting over and so the Warriors of Darkness must be summoned to save the planet. To do that, they must pillage villages, destroy families, corrupt kings and such. Honestly, I think it’s cool because you’ll end doing wrong things for the right reason.

Reverse TV series: This occurred to me when I saw “Continue in the next episode” in the end of the first episode of “Heroes.” Almost every TV series starts showing the personalities of the main characters, then add some action, add some cliff-hangers, try to connect every main character in a way and (in the really well written series) it ends closing all the open plots and shows a happy ending. What I’m thinking here is a series which the first episode is the happy ending. Everyone is fine, the universe is saved, the villains are in jail… and it ends with “Continues in the previous episode.” So the whole thing is a lot of retcons over and over again, trying to explain how character X became the villain, how Y found his/her super-powers, how the city was destroyed…

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Battle - TV Squad
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Battle

Posted Feb 12th 2007 10:53AM by Wil Wheaton

Ok, Wil surely know how to write and he knows what went wrong in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I just hope someone finally realizes that the future for Star Trek lies in “Star Trek: Galaxy Quest” and put Wil to write the scripts.

So Heroes entered a hiatus and the last two episodes of the season will only be aired in January. So, now it is a good time for you guys that don’t know the show to see the episodes on the official website (in streamer format).

But I would like to put some guesses on what is coming on the next episodes.
Read the rest of this entry »

What if you could feel you could fly? Or that you know you could bend space and time? Or you could see an evil yourself on every mirror? Or seeing your paintings of disasters becoming real on the newspapers? Or seeing yourself getting hurt and healing in just a few seconds, without any scar? And how to tell this without sounding like some childish comic?

“Heroes” seems to take the same premises of “Smallvile” and “Batman Begins”: the story of super-heroes, from the beginning, when they wren’t heroes. But, instead of going comic-like, the authors decided to take a “real-life approach”. They don’t understand their powers, they don’t know how to control them, they don’t know why they have them or, most importantly, they don’t know what to do with them.

The only weird thing is that they all appear in New York or, for one reason or another, they come to New York. Nice coincidence, uh?

The idea isn’t new. There was another series that explored the idea of people with super-powers, like “Smallvile” and “The Last American Hero”, but the series took a more comic approach, showing the powers and putting super-villains. “Heroes”, on the other hand, start exploring the conflicts inside the special people, when they realize there is something weird with them. The point the powers appear could mean anything: they could be daydreaming or suffering schizophrenia. Even you could start doubting they have super-powers in the first episodes — and that is very well explored.

One thing is for sure: the girl that can heal quick is really freaky. Seeing her with a dislocated shoulder, with ribs coming out of her chest or with a broken neck really freaks you out. On the other hand, she is the the first to do a hero job before anyone else.

Acting is movie-like: good acting, not cheesy acting and really really convincing. I mean, if they wanted to do a movie with it, they wouldn’t need to do another screen-test or change actors or even take another director of photography. It is that simply good.

The only problem with the series appears in the sixth or seventh episodes. For some reason, the authors decided to add some “conspiracy”-like mistery, with people showing some marks after blanking out. I really thought it was complete unnecessary at this time, they could have explored their super-powers a lot longer and than add something weird in it (government, strange agency, whatever). Ok, a conspiracy could add some spice in the story, but it is stealing the good stuff in the series: the heroes and their super-powers.

Anyway, that’s a series worth watching.

Como tive que ficar na casa da minha avó na terça, tive o desprazer de ver “Casseta & Planeta” depois de quase dois anos (porque o resto da programação da tevê aberta consegue ser pior que isso). E, sinceramente, o pouco que o Casseta tinha de engraçado sumiu a muito tempo. Olhei uns três blocos e tiver vontade de sair na rua, procurar um daqueles tijolos sem furos e atirar com toda força contra a tevê, na esperança dele se transmitido pelas ondas de tv e atingir alguém lá na Globo.

A pior parte é que todos os demais canais “temem” o Casseta: nenhuma outra emissora está tentando vir com um programa pra competir com eles só por causa da história que o Casseta tem, quando, antigamente, ainda era um dos programas engraçados no ar.

Como dizem no popular: “Não cagam e não desocupam a moita”.

There are few things more fun to watch than anime series with giant robots. Not many, but there are.

Gundam Seed Destiny meets its quota of mecha, and has a strong storyline.

The events in the story happen a few years after a great war (told on Mobile Suite Gundam SEED), and a new one is appearing in the horizon. Unfortunately, it goes on, and two factions, Earth and Plant (an artificial planet, populated by genetic enhanced humans) got to arms against each other, with the small Earthan island Orb crushed in the middle, trying at any costs not going into war.

There are a lot of twists in the story: first you think one side is the right, then you see they are not what they look; you pick the other side, just to find out they are also not what they look; and the rest isn’t very good either. But that’s not a bad thing, as we also have these kind of duality. So you are no seeing something too different from real life.

There are some very strong scenes on this series: in the first episode, when one of the main characters loses his family in the war, you are shown them lifeless, torn bodies. Not a nice scene. Of course, even shocking as it is, it gives you a since of the grieve he is carrying. Also, when the story turn to the second “good guys”, you see them killing an enemy, whose last words are the name of a woman. His sister? His mother? His lover? We don’t know, but it shows that, inside that mobile armour there is a man, with a family. Is it right to fight justice and peace when someone like him leaves a broken heart behind? That kind of questioning goes all the way in the story, making yourself ask what is right in a war. A lot of thoughtful moments, I can tell you.

As you would see in the Wikipedia page, there are a lot of criticism about the series. Unfortunately, I must agree with some points, but that doesn’t mean the series isn’t worth your time.

After AXN moved “Star Trek: Enterprise” for a weird spot in their programming (17:00 on sundays) and decided to replay the 3th season, I decided it was time to use this thing called “internet” and find the episodes by myself. Fortunately, I found a torrent with the whole season and spent my Saturday watching every episode.

Before going on with this review, let me say that I just loved the 3rd season. The main reason I watched every Star Trek up to day is the “what would I do?” factor, where I try to find out what would I do if I had a problem like the characters were. I didn’t care a thing about the “temporal wars”, which were way too much criticized by other Trekkies.

So, we have the end of the cliff-hanger left in the previous season with “Storm Front”, parts 1 and 2. Not bad, but a little dry. They closed the temporal wars, as it was getting critics by every Trekkie around (not me).

Then, they screw it up.

“Home” is a critic to prejudice against races, but they focused on so many characters you can’t even get a feeling for any.

“Borderland”, “Cold Station 12″ and “The Augments” tries to focus on the story about the race Khan (yeah, for “Star Trek II: The Revenge Of Khan”) but, again, it is so out of focus that you can’t follow the story correctly. It is nice seeing Brent Spinner (Mr. Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation) playing a more emotional character, but I think his years playing Mr. Data really screwed up his acting talents as a emotional character. The only thing up take from this three part story is the joke in the final episode.

“Awakening” and “Kir’Shara” focus on the Vulcan religious logic and how the federation got a vote of trust from the Vulcans. And that’s it. There is nothing worth on these episodes.

“Daedalus” is a story about ghosts and the after-life and how we don’t let the past die, when we got a hold so strong on someone that isn’t there anymore and how we forget to keep living. It is a way to the roots of the “what would I do?” days, but you didn’t feel anything for the characters and the episode simply dies. And you have nothing to got a hold on it.

“Observer Effect” is the return of “what would I do?” at full strength. All cast should be proud of their actings here, as they play two characters on the same body, without leaving their personalities behind. Also, there is a nice discussion about the first rule (”do not interfere with other species”) when you are in the other side of the coin.

“Babel One”, “United” and “The Aenar” pull the Enterprise back to the diplomatic issues and present the Romulans. There was a great deal of controversy over this episode, as the original series never mentioned them, and TNG points that no one has ever had a contact with a Romulan before. Not great episodes, in my opinion, but saved by the final touch in the “Aenar”, when Trip leaves Enterprise.

“Affliction” and “Divergence” try to “fix” the Klingons with rugged foreheads when they were flat on the original series. I felt they where excellent in keeping the tension. One thing that could’ve made a great addition to the series was the presence of Columbia, the sister ship of Enterprise. So you have double the crew, double the ships and double the opportunities for new stories. Also, Trip keeps moving from ship to ship, just to add tension to his relationship with T’Pol.

“Bound” again focus on the relationship between T’Pol and Trip and gives the old Trekkies another taste of the Orion dancers. A lost opportunity here, as T’Pol and Trip are the only ones immune to the dancers pheromones and it is explained by the Vulcan physiology and a bound between T’Pol and Trip. It would be a lot more interesting, in my opinion, if their immunity could be explained by their love.

“In a Mirror, Darkly” is a two part episode again create to satisfy old Trekkies. Who forgot about the bad Kirk and bad Spock episode? This episodes focus entirely on a different dimension, where all the crew of the Enterprise is bad. Even the federation doesn’t exist, being replaced by a Human Empire, who fights everyone. Great laughs when seeing the “Enterprise” crew using the clothes of the crew from the original series. Even the sounds are the same. Also, additional points for the change in the opening, showing a darker version of all experiments they used in the original opening.

“Demons” and “Terra Prime” turn again to T’Pol and Trip relationship, stealing some fragments from “Home” and the xenophobia against aliens. Not a great pair, except for finally adding the dots in the “i”s and the traces in the “t” in T’Pol and Trip relationship.

“These are the Voyages” is the last episode of “Star Trek: Enterprise”. I’ve read somewhere that the current crew didn’t approved the presence of Jonathan Frakes (William Riker on TNG) and Martina Sirtis (Diana Troi) and I must agree with them: they added nothing to the episode; actually, their presence almost ruined it, as there isn’t a general path on it. Again, saved by the last minutes, as it ends with a mix of all three Enterprise captains saying the famous “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise; its continuous mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”, with the ships coming through. A touching and beautiful finale for a series that didn’t get the respect it deserved.

This holiday, I saw Prison Break, the new series on FOX, on my cousin’s house.

The basic plot is this: a man gets into prison, where his older brother is also jailed, waiting in the death row. The younger brother, however, planed everything since the beginning, just waiting to break out with his brother.

I’m quite impressed with what I saw, the first four episodes (of a total of 22): they don’t hide the bad things that happen in a prison (not that I’ve been there, but, anyway), the plot goes straigth where it wants and this is a great suprise, as you are always waiting for the worst.

Acting could be a little better. One of the inmates, from a spanish family, played by Amaury Nolasco, when trying to speak in spanish, fails miserabily. The older brother, played by Dominic Purcell (from the “John Doe” fame) also has a poor acting. Wentworth Miller, playing the young brother, on other hand, build a very strong character, stealing every scene where he’s in.

If you have FOX or a fast pipe to download the torrents, go for it.

Today I saw another episode of the new “Battlestar: Galactica” and finally found out why I think it is so bad:

First, you have a story about human kind facing a great danger and, instead of fighting for survival, they run. I mean, if you look any other story (any, it could be another series or a movie or even a book) where the human race is put on a corner, they will find that mystical force, put themselves together and win. On this BSG they scream like little girls and just run.

If you look at the old series, they where going to another planet, a place where the Cylons still didn’t touch. They didn’t have enough resources and they needed to go non-stop. But, when facing the Cylons, they would always fight back. In the current series, they simply run.

Second, every character is flawed. There is no one that you could use as a model. Here, take a look:

• Commander William Amada: commander of the Battlestar Galactica, he seems to only love his sons if they become pilots. The typical stereotype of the father in the army.
• Starbuck: a fine pilot, but has more serious psychological issues than me. She blames herself for killing Zachary Adama, which is true.
• Lee Adama: seems that he is always trying to look better than his dead brother in the eyes of his father.
• Dr. Gaius: the first contact of the human-like Cylons, he gets information from then inside his head. But he never told this to anyone and, when trying to help, always do this a little bit too late.
• President Laura Roslin: took the power when all the other elected political faces died, is dying and is not telling anyone about this. Or doing anything. Right now, it looks like she just goes to her cabinet and count dead people.

All I wanted is a character with something positive. Like someone who would do anything for love. Actually, there is a guy in the series like that, but he is lost in a planet, dying, is being controlled by the human-like Cylons (that looks like his girlfriend) and doesnt’ appear to much. Right now, I think that, if he dies, nothing would change in the history.

Third, there is no “savior”. If you go to real life, you know that “a chain is as strong as it weakest link”. On movies, they put problems like a cement slab, hanging in the celling by cables and putting the Innocent below the slab. So, to keep the slab, you need a lot of cables or a few strong ones. On BSG, there are no strong ones. And just a few cables.

Fourth, the “Blair Witch” camera. For gods sake, that suck! It looks like directors think doing that is “edgy”. Well, guess what: is a real PITA trying to follow a history when the camera goes: focus character 1, focus table, focus character 2, focus wall, focus character 1.

Four bad reasons and zero good ones is enough to make me stop watching it. I’ll keep my “Star Trek: Enterprise”, thank you very much.

I’m getting the impression that the Beatlemania is out again.

Yesterday, on Simpsons, Lisa had to put a corrective dental device and, to do this, she had to be knock out with gas (you know, “breathe this” and you go to sleep). After breathing the gas, she had a strange dream that looked a lot like “Yellow Submarine”, the movie. They even put a purple submarine with four guys in it that really looked like the Beatles. I think the translation cut another pun when one the guys say something in the lines of “Lisa is flying”, which I think should be “Lisa in the Sky”.

Today, switching channels, I stopped on Cartoon Network and saw a part of “PowerPuff Girls”. I got it from the second half, but it looked like Mojo Jojo united with other three villains and formed a bad group called “Beat All”. Then he found a female monkey called Moko Jono and the group disbanded, basically ‘cause he was going to “Moko Jono said that screaming would hurt people’s ears, and that’s what we want to do” and “Moko Jono said that white stuff can be stolen” (while stealing flour and eggs and milk). They even added the Moko Jono trainer, called Jude, and the girls present she to Mojo saying “Hey Jude!”.

And, after a little search, it looks like it is the brazilian channels doing their worst again: the Simpsons episode was first aired 1993/03/11 and the PowerPuff Girls on 2001/02/09.

(BTW, be sure to check the PowerPuff quotes from that episode. Lots of references to Beatles)