Did I Fall Asleep?

Back in the fall, I checked out the Pilot of Dollhouse because of my first love of Joss Whedon's Firefly. To my (and many others) disappointment, it seemed awful. With such a fantastic premise of loading unique personalities into child-minded dolls (or "actives"), the episode was just about some lame hostage negotiation. With the mountain of fall television to plough through, I immediately stopped watching Dollhouse.

10 months later, with a $24 steal from Amazon.ca, I picked up Season 1 on Blu-Ray. Hearing good things about later episodes and wanting to see more Eliza Dushku on 1080p, I started watching the show again from the beginning, putting faith that the episodes will get better in time.

It certainly did. The mythology just builds and builds exponentially in every episode. A couple episodes later, you'll realize that the early episodes were just ways to demonstrate the capabilities of the Dollhouse technology. You become more invested in the morality of the Dollhouse management and the slowly becoming-self-aware Echo (hottie Eliza). As a viewer, you get the feeling that the Dollhouse concept is wrong--using clueless people for sex, adventure etc--but the writers make the management look like their actions are justified. With the 13 episodes, things move pretty quickly.

8/10



"I know you've heard colorful rumors about what an 'Active' is. Robots, zombie slaves — they are, of course, quite the opposite. The 'Active' is the truest soul among us."

"Tell me about the Dollhouse."
"Uh, it's pink and it opens up and there's teeny furniture and you put the boy doll on top of the girl doll and we learn about urges."

There are Twelve Models

The very last bit of Battlestar Galactica left to watch will be released on Oct 27 in the form of a DVD movie called The Plan. If anyone remembers Razor, you'll know that they'll try to stuff as much action and drama into the two hours as possible, giving it a very different pace from the regular TV show. I wasn't a huge fan of Razor, nor the finale of Galactica, so hopefully this will get rid of the dry taste in my mouth.

Excerpt:
From Universal Studios Home Entertainment:

Experience the Fight for Humanity's Survival
Through the Eyes of the Cylons for the First Time Ever In

Battlestar Galactica:
The Plan

Premieres Exclusively on Blu-ray Hi-Def,
DVD and Digital Download October 27, 2009

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., July 17

Television's most thrilling science fiction adventure makes a stunning turnabout when Battlestar Galactica: The Plan debuts on Blu-ray Hi-Def and DVD on October 27, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. For the first time ever, fans can experience the uncut and uncensored story of humanity's futuristic fight for survival through the eyes of their deadly adversaries, the Cylons. This never-before-seen perspective of the Cylon plan reunites the series' original television cast, including Emmy Award winner Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver), Dean Stockwell (JAG), Tricia Helfer (Burn Notice), Grace Park (The Cleaner) and Callum Keith Rennie (Californication). Ronald D. Moore and David Eick return as executive producers.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan's executive producer and writer Jane Espenson added, "Edward James Olmos was our director on the movie, and he did an amazing job. He also shot some great footage that we are not able to show on TV, so I'm thrilled that viewers can experience it uncut as our director envisioned it."

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan includes the uncensored 90-minute feature and revealing bonus features that take viewers onto the set of the most unexpected twist ever in the intergalactic saga's history. Interactive features available exclusively on Blu-ray Hi-Def include the new Battlestar Galactica Trivia Game, as well as Universal's acclaimed U-CONTROL and BD-LIVE experience. With Blu-ray Hi-Def, viewers can enjoy Battlestar Galactica: The Plan's stunning visuals with perfect picture and the purest digital sound available.

More on UGO.

Stay Frosty...

Generation Kill was pretty good. While not quite having the same production values of Band of Brothers, the show holds its own in terms of showing off hardware, cinematography, and casting.

Throughout the series, we continuously see questionable decisions made by commanders that are forced down to the troops. The difficulty came from fighting an enemy that was almost indistinguishable from the civilians.

Following the experience of a reporter (who wrote the original Generation Kill), we get some pretty amazing dialogue:

Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert: Once more into the great good night. Cry 'havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war.
Corporal Josh Ray Person: Man, when I get home I am gonna eat the fuck out of my girlfriend's pussy.
Evan Wright (Reporter): Is that Shakespeare?
Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley: Shakespeare wrote that? [Wright nods] About his girlfriend's pussy?

I don't really want to analyze this show deeply because that's for an Arts major. In general, you can expect to see some pretty epic firefights, a lot of humvee convoys, sand, and hilarious banter; all wrapped with a tinge of sadness to the entire Operation Iraqi Freedom.

8.0/10