tv review
Reviewing insightful and thought provoking science fiction TV and technology.
4 Bizarre 'House' Diseases that Actually Exist
If you have never seen an episode of House M.D., then you are missing true TV brilliance. House M.D. has incredible writing and acting and is worth watching just for Hugh Laurie's portrayal of Dr. House. The one criticism I always hear about House M.D. is how unrealistic it is. Virtually every episode ends with House figuring out what rare disease is killing his patient. House only deals with rare diseases and in the first episode his employee, Dr. Foreman, says "first year of medical school: If you hear hoofbeats, you think horses, not zebras." What separates House from other doctors is that he only deals with Zebras, all his cases have some element that makes them unique. The problem with having 177 unique diseases is that sometimes you need to stretch the truth a little. However, sometimes even the craziest illnesses are 100% real and here are some of the weirdest ones.
By Jason Schwartz9 years ago in Futurism
'Battlestar Galactica' Fan Review
I will admit I was one of those people who, growing up on the old 1970s sci-fi shows, had no real interest in a Battlestar Galactica reboot or re-imagining. I would rather have seen a Buck Rogers or even a Space 1999 before Battlestar Galactica. In truth, sometimes we don’t want people to take away from our personal definition of what a show should be. While the 70s Battlestar Galactica was cheesy, lighthearted, and silly, the new show was just the opposite. In fact, this was one of a handful of things that original fans cried foul about, that it was too serious, too dark, and no fun at all. Let’s not ever get started on the gender change for the character Starbuck.
By Jeff Fountain9 years ago in Futurism
Best Sci-Fi TV Shows of 2016
My priorities are simple. My family/friends first, then my business. Then science fiction. Quite frankly, as I look back on my life, I realize that before I had my own family or a business, sci-fi was all i had. From Buck Roger's and Space 1999, I have watched almost every sci-fi TV show ever. I have seen every episode of Star Trek for each of the series. I never stopped watching Sliders, and when the Syfy channel began it was a big day in my life. I am a sci-fi geek, and this year was an awesome year for sci-fi TV. Again, I watched every episode of every series. And yes, I still try to make time for family, friends, and business.
By Frank White9 years ago in Futurism
Sci-Fi's Obsession with the American West
I was once in Big Bend National Park and thought I’d stepped onto another planet. If you’ve had the misfortune never to have visited, it’s a mostly parched desert wonderland with the strangest flowers, succulents, and eerie hills that you can imagine. Toss in the sexy wild lawlessness of the historical American West and you can see why science fiction would create some of its most memorable works against such an awe-inspiring backdrop. From cartoons like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun to animated shows like Galaxy Rangers and Bravestarr, science fiction clearly has a great big ol’ crush on the American West. There’s DC Comics’ Jonah Hex, a whole slew of terrible B-movies, and then there are the great ones: films like Westworld and Back to the Future Part III, books like The Gunslinger, and shows like Firefly (*sniff*). If you haven’t seen them yet, check out these incredible tributes to science fiction and the West all in one beautiful biomechanical horse meets pony-express package.
By Sarah Quinn9 years ago in Futurism
Reviewing Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror’, Season 3
When Black Mirror first hit television screens in 2011, it was a quintessentially British creation. Episode 1, The National Anthem, shows an upstanding prime minister blackmailed into live sexual intercourse with a pig. The public responds with cynicism and ironic detachment, mocking the man on twitter, as the media scrambles for a scoop. The episodes that followed continued the condemnation of British culture – Brooker had given us a black mirror, reflecting us at our very worst. In Fifteen Million Merits he showed us powering the workings of an authoritarian regime, bombarded by advertising with an X-factor style talent show our only means of salvation. In White Bear, the justice system has been replaced by a sickening spectacle of psychological torture, with amnesiac criminals forced to relive their crimes, as children watch on. In The Waldo Moment, he shows a disaffected public voting a foul-mouthed CGI bear into office, rather than careerist politicians. The result is a degeneration into violence and fascism.
By Ed Venables9 years ago in Futurism
Sci-Fi Casting That Almost Happened - 'Star Trek' Edition
Our favorite TV shows and movies and the iconic characters who populate them effectively carry us away on captivating adventures. We connect to them as an audience on many emotional levels. Often, they’re more than mere entertainment or a simple distraction. We grow up watching them as wide eyed kids, discover them in high school or maybe while living off at college. Show casts can feel as if they’re part of our own family. Soon we find that those casts of actors and actresses become a part of our collective pop culture experience, one we share with family and friends. With a TV show and movie franchise as established and beloved as StarTrek, the casting becomes all the more essential and memorable.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Netflix Is Bringing Back Sci-Fi TV
Sci-fi TV, like any category of entertainment, sees an ebb and flow in its popularity and supply. These days it is back in a big way, and not just on cable outlet SyFy— it's coming on strong in the streaming arena. Netflix changed the game in Hollywood in distribution, and now it's competing with the big production studios to offer up some of the best original content around. Shows such as Orange Is The New Black and Grace And Frankie are great drama/comedies, but Netflix isn't leaving out nor forgetting its genre loving fans or geek squads. Stranger Things is one of the hottest new TV shows in years. You won't find it on broadcast or cable. Jessica Jones, Sense8, Black Mirror and Stranger Things are all original and exclusive to Netflix, and cable outlets like SyFy are now encouraged to make more stimulating science fiction for fans.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
'Star Trek' Booze: 50 Years Of Drinking With The Starship Enterprise
For the proud accomplishment of lasting half a century, a 50th anniversary is golden. It deserves a celebratory toast for any species in any part of the galaxy, and in the latest Trek film, fans get a fun tip of the glass after a fashion. Early on in Star Trek: Beyond, director Justin Lin’s action packed entry in Paramount Pictures feature film franchise, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Bones (Karl Urban) share a rare quiet moment by drinking together in Enterprise’s officer’s lounge. The two friends and Starfleet officers take the time to down a little Saurian Brandy—an alien drink all too familiar to fans from way back in the day of the start of the original series.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Confessions of a 'Star Trek' Writer
In 1996, director Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker) helmed the movie celebrating Star Trek's 30th anniversary. Co-starring Alice Krige as the seductive Borg Queen and Alfre Woodard as the resourceful Lilly, First Contact was a big box office hit and a favorite with both audiences and critics. Although that particular film Starship Enterprise was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and had Data, an android science officer, instead of a Vulcan, the spirit of Star Trek was alive and well. Now, fans celebrate of 50 years of content that has not lost its relevance or, thanks to a new generation of Star Trek writers and creators, its style.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
Black Mirror Series Consistently Challenges
“The black mirror is one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone,” says series creator Brooker, but unlike Jason Reitman’s what-the-Internet-is-doing-to-us flop movie “Men, Women, and Children,” the Black Mirror series challenges the intellect and eschews stark portrayals of teenagers texting and not making eye contact (oh, the poignancy!) and concocts futuristic-scenarios that are only slightly far-fetched, poised on the outer rim of the technology we already have.
By Glenn Kenny9 years ago in Futurism
Carol Burnett's Captain Kirk Impersonation
American comedy can’t be neatly categorized into one absolute style, like the country from which it springs, it’s a big melting pot. From early, formative clowns such as The Marx Brothers, Milton Berle or Abbott & Costello, to the shock chuckles of Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Chris Rock, American funny is a uniquely varied thing. However, it’s not only a boy’s club - one thing’s clear for awhile; we’ve been blessed with several of the funniest ladies history has ever known. There was lovable Lucille Ball, pioneer in the flexible art of the sitcom. Then came the outrageous Phyllis Diller, ground breaker in stand-up shtick. And then there's the comedy chameleon, Carol Burnett. Today’s funny ladies - Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy owe a lot to those original gals, but with Burnett, the modern sketch comedy we know today was basically shaped and fine tuned. If that wasn’t enough, Burnett has more than earned her ‘Geek Cred’, after she lampooned one of the most important sci-fi icons, none other than Captain Kirk. Carol Burnett's Captain Kirk impersonation is the original spoof on the iconic sci-fi figure portrayed by William Shatner.
By Will Stape9 years ago in Futurism
