All Posts Tagged With: "Smallville"

Maybe not exactly-exactly, but really, really close. According to Ausiello from tvguide.com this is what we can expect from the new Smallville villain:

Tess (?) on Smallville

• Drop-dead gorgeous (duh)
• Roughly 28 years old
• She’s determined, sexy, vengeful and has super-strength.
• “While Lex is away, she is in control of his estate and rules it with aggression. She’s had intellect and the confidence all her life, though it’s obvious she’s had some training from Lex as well. But as much as Lex has helped fortify her power, he is also her biggest weakness. She harbors an undying devotion to Lex, claiming he saved her life a few years ago. She carries out his wishes with coercion, force, seduction — anything to get what she wants. And no one can resist her beguiling ways. Even Clark Kent. She doesn’t remember anything before the day she met Lex. Once she realizes her previous life is buried below the surface, she’s desperate to dig it up.”

I’m not a fan of Smallville, but I found this interesting because this villain seems so much like a ‘villain’ from Roswell. Her name was also, ironically, Tess - Tess Harding. You know her now as Claire on Lost. It was hard for me to accept Claire for a while, because I had so identified Emilie de Ravin as Tess, and being manipulative and evil. Claire, of course, couldn’t be farther from that. She’s saintly! Tess was another story.

Let’s compare! (It’s crazy similar!) Continued

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Despite the fact that I lost interest in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles three episodes in, it’s been renewed for a second season. The show probably isn’t even bad, I just didn’t have the motivation to watch it, commercials and all. (No, I don’t have any fancy TiVo/DVR schtuffs. Alas!) I think this is a show I may get the DVDs of sometime (I’m sure they’ll come out) and sit down to watch when I can really get into it all. It was hard to watch the show when I’d never seen any of the movies. You wanna know what movies I’m (re) watching lately? You’ve Got Mail*, Sabrina, I Am Legend, Desperately Seeking Susan and His Girl Friday.

Anyway, Lena Headey and Summer Glau were at the Fox TV upfronts. They looked interesting.

Lena, I’m not a huge fan of your haircut because it makes your hair seem limp, just hanging there - emphasizing your square face. So I kind of wish you’d do something else with it. Now, your uh…pantsuit, looks fine when I look at it and scroll down slowly - it would have been a cute sundress - the blue hue is lovely, and the moddish white flowers are pretty. However, I don’t even know what to begin calling the bunched, elastic-cuffed pant things. Designer clown-inspired pants?

Aside: I’m not a fan of tattoos, but you make them seem elegant. Neat.

Summer, you look like a sun-drenched flower. I suspect people somewhere are commenting on your toes (larger picture below the first). I hope they take into consideration all of the ballet training and dancing you did - and realize flaws make people more beautiful and unique. I’m glad you refuse to hide them. I love the strappy sandals. Continued

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It’s just like looking at an old yearbook, isn’t it? I mean, if you went to high school with vampires, werewolves, and bitchy cheerleaders. Hey, you know what? Some of us probably did.

So, The Warner Bros. Television Group is dong something that we can all be pretty happy about (werewolves included). They’re going to be putting up the website, TheWB.com. The site is going to be, “a premium, ad-supported, video-on-demand, interactive and personalized network” according to their press release. The site is still in beta mode - complete with a ‘clever’ graphic that says ‘We’re Back’ with The WB logo. I don’t see that frog anywhere, though. Remember that frog? Oh, come ON. You have to remember the frog.

There will be original programming streamed on the site, but there will also be some of our favorite TV shows. This includes: Gilmore Girls, Friends, One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Everwood, Smallville, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell.

Maybe we should lobby for Felicity, Popular and Grosse Point to be added. That last show hardly got a fair chance, and it was so damn fun! Our winner of the DVD contest didn’t cite an old WB show as one of her favorites, but she might like them anyway. And who is that winner, you ask? Maybe I won’t tell you! Maybe I’ll make you wonder and wonder and…oh, but I have a massage scheduled in ten minutes (this is a total lie, do you really think I’m that fabulous?*) so I’ll tell you that it was Patty F. from Boston, Massachusetts! She’s won Enchanted on DVD. Patty, please e-mail Emad@Sofachip dot com (.com) with your address!

Okay, I can’t stop thinking about the frog. Michigan J. Frog! Remember the ‘Watch the Frog’ commercials? Here’s one with Milo Ventimiglia and Jamie Kennedy (who was great at Randy Meeks in Scream, but most everything else he’s done has been lame - such a shame).

Picture from chosentwo.com.

When you’re not watching the frog, you could be reading Sofachip. Subscribe today!

*Hey, I actually AM that fabulous, I just don’t have a trained personal masseuse. Yet.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Too many TV shows get canceled unfairly. And, for the sake of whatever sanity we all have, I think we should talk about that. This is our therapy session. But don’t lay on the couch, that’s not what people usually really do in therapy. Plus, the couch is covered in cat fur. That’s probably not a look you should go for.

I want to hear your frustrations about the shows you loved and had taken away. And if I don’t mention a show you feel deserves a nod, comment with that as well. These are like, the Oscars for the shows canceled unfairly. (I can guarantee you that would be a much more fun show.)

First, I must tell you a story. In third grade there was this girl in my class named Hayley. She was sort of an oddball. I remember that she had really straight blonde hair that she wore in perfectly parted pigtails. And she wore saddle shoes. No one else wore saddle shoes. No one else was as peculiar as her. If she knew she was viewed as peculiar, she didn’t seem to care.

Or maybe she did. But I thought she was very cool. Not like ‘wow, if I can befriend her I’ll get to sit at the cool lunch table’ (and who’s to say I wasn’t already sitting there, punk) but more like ‘here’s someone who is actually really interesting and different.’ She didn’t seem to have a lot of friends. By the end of the year, I had started to be friendly to her - which has always been difficult for me as I’ve always been a shy person. But we weren’t really friends. We didn’t talk over the summer.

The next year, she had transfered to another school. Gone forever, but memorable. She was interesting in a way that captured attention. (Get ready for the awesome segue!) This seems like a (questionably good) metaphor for TV shows that were great and then canceled before they got a real chance.

What shows in particular might I be talking about? Here’s a list from the top of my head: Miss Match, Firefly, Dead Like Me (kind of got a chance but not really), Veronica Mars (ditto), Joan of Arcadia, Wonderfalls, and Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane (ZDJJ).

ZDJJ is what I’d like to talk about. It began in 1999. This is a show that is essentially gone. There are no DVDs you can buy of it. I had two episodes taped, which I faithfully watched far too many times until I lost them.

The show had five main characters: Zoe (Selma Blair), Duncan (David Moscow), Jack (Michael Rosenbaum), Jane (Azura Skye), and Mrs, Bean (Mary Page Keller) as Zoe’s Mom. The first four were Continued

Popularity: 55% [?]

Ah, TV - it used to be so simple. But it’s the end of 2007, and TV isn’t so simple anymore. The WGA strike is a huge subject, but ironically - many people don’t know enough about it a good portion of them get their ‘news’ (real news is often delivered, but it is almost always in a joke format, so I felt the need to add the ‘ ‘) from late night TV shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And that show is on hiatus for the strike. Do you see the irony? Do you feel the irony? Do you taste it? (Wait, stop eating my lemon bars! They aren’t ironic!)

If you, yourself, have stumbled upon this not knowing what the WGA strike is, let me direct you to a previous article I wrote.

Quick fact, coming atcha: the writers of the WGA are getting paid for what’s being shown on screens (big or little - movies or TVs) so it’s fine to watch them without taking a stance on the strike. However, that’s where the simplicity ends. Especially considering that most shows have gone into re-run mode due to the strike. You’ve already watched most all the good stuff.

Some people will tell you to not watch reality TV because they want to show the big companies that reality TV alone isn’t going to cut it, and people want their favorite well-written TV shows back. I don’t see a need to boycott all reality TV (some of it is entertaining, like Project Runway), although I also hope that the American public doesn’t fall victim to nights of endless reality TV marathons when that’s not what they even like (some people do, but not everyone).

What the writer’s are really trying to negotiate about are the residuals they get paid for on DVD sales and for streamed content online. They aren’t getting anything for the streamed content online (like if you purchase an episode on iTunes) so my advice is if you want to support the writers - do not purchase any streamed content. That’s easy enough, right?

So, gentle viewers, (picture my voice rising and falling dramatically) where do you turn?! Where can you find solace?! Perhaps Amazon is having a sale on TV show seasons? Great! Go and snatch them up - you’ve always meant to see Veronica Mars, anyway. (Excellent show!) Except… When it comes to DVDs…Well, that’s maybe the trickiest of all these issues for TV consumers during the strike. The answer is…it’s all a matter of opinion.

I’ve collected quotes from different people to show you small samplings of what people are saying about the WGA strike and how it affects their DVD purchasing. (I tried to get them to talk about Chia pets too, but no one wanted to, I swear!)

Fans are wondering whether or not to boycott DVDs to support the writers. Scott (43, last name initial and state withheld) summed up the crux of the question, “I’ve seen several (Internet postings) suggesting that we boycott DVD’s, but I don’t know what the “official” position is on this. Does anyone know? I definitely want to do my part to support the writers, but I’m not sure it makes sense to take money out of their pockets, which is what this would seem to be doing.”

Amanda E. is 25 and she lives in Utah. She is a fan of shows that include Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Veronica Mars. When asked about the strike, she said, “Personally, I believe that it’s better to ‘make’ the writers take a bit of a hit right now to prove to the networks/production companies that we find their work to be important. If we continue buying DVDs like nothing has changed, I don’t think it sends a clear message like a boycott does. They don’t see ‘oh, look, the fans are buying to help the writers get what residuals they can”, they see, ‘money! Hooray!’ I also made a point of un-subscribing to the shows that are now in reruns from my Windows Media Center (it’s like Tivo). I want to make sure I send a message that I’m not willing to just watch any show that pops up at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday or whatever. I’m not sure how much they track traffic on WMC, but I figure it can’t hurt.’”

However, right away you’ll notice a difference from what WGA strike supporter Matt M. (25) of Pennsylvania had to say when asked if he was still buying DVDs during the strike. Matt said, “I still buy a lot of DVDs during the strike. All in all, it’s still entertainment. I don’t see why I should have to stop buying DVDs because writer’s want a 5% commission instead of 2.5%. In the end, it doesn’t affect my enjoyment value of the product. Besides, the DVD itself only costs what, like 15 cents to make? What’s the difference between 2.5 and 5% of 15 cents?” Matt is a fan of LOST and Heroes, and I’m guessing he might have bought the recently released season three of LOST. For a lot of fans, their loyalty to certain shows has them buying DVDs even if they support the strike and the boycott.

That might have been the case with Smallville, House and Robot Chicken fan, Madison O. (20) from Nevada, except it wasn’t. Madison told me that she was aware of the strike going on, but that she didn’t support it. The strike isn’t stopping her from buying DVDs. She said she’d bought some DVDs for Christmas. When I asked what she has bought/will buy she replied, “Smallville, and a few animated movies of the same caliber.”

When Dana R. (22) of Wisconsin was asked if she supported the WGA strike, she replied with an emphatic, “Definitely!” I then asked her about her DVD purchasing and she told me, “I haven’t been buying any DVDs during the strike, but that’s honestly more because of my financial status than anything else. But if I was less broke, I still wouldn’t be buying many (or maybe) any at all.”

Kyle (18) from Florida was eager to talk about his disdain for the current state of TV when I contacted him. He said that the WGA strike, “…irks me. Especially since Prison Break is supposed to be back in January. If they screw that up, I’m going insane.” But it’s not the writers he should be mad at. It’s the guys in the suits. Or fedoras. Whatever they’re wearing.

Kyle went on to tell me, “No, I’m not buying DVDs, predominantly because I can’t afford them.” That reminded me of what Dana R. had been saying. However, when I prompted him about if he’d buy DVDs if he could afford them he said he would. He then said, “I empathize with the writers, but it still aggravates me that they can’t reach a suitable decision.” I think many people are feeling that, but no one more than the actual writers on strike.

Some people are not at all aware of the WGA strike, the boycotts, or any of the other things going into the efforts of both sides of the strike. Such was the case for Michael M. (20) of California. When asked if he’d bought any DVDs recently, or had future plans to do so, he told me, “Yeah I bought the seventh season of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. And if a DVD set ever comes out for Last One Standing, I’ll probably check that out too.” Being a fan of a scripted show, and a reality show like Last One Standing he probably won’t be as let down as people who don’t watch any reality TV.

WGA supporters Lisa, DFW (45, from Texas) and Karen (28, from New York - last name initial withheld) both were uncertain about boycotting DVDs. Lisa said, “I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure why we should boycott DVDs. Yes, the writers want more from them (and deserve it) However, the writers do get residuals from them now. Boycott streaming video and downloads, yes. Boycott substitute programming, yes. But why boycott what does put money in their pockets?”

Following that comment, Karen added, “I’m inclined to agree with this. Yes, writers should get more, but if I’m going to be catching up on their work while they’re on strike, I’d much rather buy a DVD (and know they’re getting minor residuals) than buy an iTunes download where they get zilch.”

The last quote I collected seems fitting to end this piece. It is by a fan of LOST, Battlestar Gallactica, Firefly, and The X-files.

“I support the strike but will not support this boycott. The writers rely on these residuals in the absence of other income, we shouldn’t deny them just because the AMPTP make money too (as they always do). Four cents a piece may not seem like a lot but it adds up - we know this since the writers are requesting an increase to a mere eight cents and will likely settle at six. DVD sales are not the big issue at the moment, it is internet revenue. Boycott the media where the writers receive nothing, but continue to buy your DVDs.” - Alison M. (40) Pennsylvania

So, those are their opinions. What’s yours?

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If you are purchasing DVDs (or other goodies), check out this stuff:

Continued

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