May Grab Bag – Spring Flowers Edition

Has it been a month already?  Usually the Grab Bag comes out on the third Wednesday of each month, so I apologize for this one being late. Let’s see what you think of this month’s collection of randomness…
I’d like to begin this article by reflecting a bit on endings.  While I was reading the New Avengers Finale last night (which I thought was pretty good, though awkwardly positioned–it kind of took place in-between a few pages of Siege #4, which I dutifully reread before reading the issue), I realized that a whole bunch of stories I have been following are basically done now.  The ball started rolling down the hill with the finale of Battlestar Galactica, but over the past few weeks, it’s like everything I have been following over the years is ending, including TV shows like 24 and Lost, and comic story lines like the Civil and Secret Siege War Invasion mega-event and, to an extent, the whole “Death” of Bruce Wayne, which is well on its way, seemingly, to being rectified.  From a TV point of view, I must admit I found it kind of sad to delete Lost and 24 from my DVR scheduler–I mean, I have seen every single episode of those shows…well, except for one hour of 24 when I forgot to program my VCR (yup, I used to do that–I had four tapes that I would cycle through for all the shows we would watch; it was super confusing and terribly geeky, but hey, I was in NYC and didn’t have time to watch TV because I was too busy with the models and the blow) –but now…I am all done!  Yes, I have a lot to watch (8 behind on Smallville, 7 behind on Glee, 5 behind on The Pacific, 8 behind on Stargate Universe, etc), but, I mean, I liked BSG, Lost and 24.  Ah, well. There will be others…maybe.  I will be doing a piece on the concept of endings next month, so I will leave that here, but I was curious as to what you all were thinking as we bid farewell to many, many episodes of those shows.
Speaking of television, it sounds like the folks at SyFy (grr–I hate typing that) are looking to fill the that newly emptied space on your DVR with new pilots involving super heroes!  We’ll see what happens–I was one of those folks that was pretty happy with Heroes until it became unwatchable awhile back, but I still feel like the idea of a superhero TV show would lend itself to some really great storylines and characters.  The network has greenlit a 90 minute pilot directed by Jace Alexander called Three Inches and another 90 minute pilot called Alphas, which will be directed by Lost producer-director Jack Bender.  Three Inches is all about this kid who gets struck by lightning and can suddenly run reall–er, suddenly he can move things about…three inches.  This incredible power is noticed by some superhero team, who then recruits him.  I just hope they have slightly more exciting powers (I hear one guy can leap 4′ in a single bound!–kidding).  Alphas is about a team of “ordinary citizens who possess extraordinary and unusual mental skills”–which means that they are not actually “ordinary citizens.”  Still, as Nellie Adreeva points out, NBC Uni’s cable networks have had a pretty good run when it comes to original series, including Burn Notice, Psych, Royal Pains and Warehouse 13, which are pretty popular shows.  We shall see just how compelling NudgeBoy and Friends will be. 
Remember how I was all into Mass Effect 2?  Well, I was, and technically still am, I just haven’t plugged my XBox 360 into my TV since mid April.  (I have big plans for it, though, and just bought Red Dead Redemption so I can play with some friends online.)  It sounds like other folks enjoyed the Mass Effect story as well, so much so that the inevitable movie is now in the works. Apparently this guy Mike Protosevich is writing the script–I’ve never heard of him but Quint at Ain’t It Cool News reports that Protosevich’s un-made scripts for Thor and John Carter of Mars were quite good.  Of course, trying to take a sprawling game’s story (14-20 hours of playtime, apparently) and focus it into a 110 minute movie might be tricky, but I think it can be done, if you just highlight the primary mission from the game and touch it up with story aspects from the side missions. Casting will be interesting, but I think that they should include Yvonne Stahovski from Mass Effect 2, just because the CG version of her looked just like her and I bet the fanboys would go nutso to see her wear that uniform in real life. 
From fake space to real space, not to mention of eras ending, check out this video from spaceshuttle Discovery’s latest mission, created by thousands of individual photographs, showing the shuttle being prepped for launch and then, ultimately, blasting off into space last month, on April 5.  It’s totally super cool, like, just watching the engineers hoisting the shuttle up to get attached to the external fuel tank is kind of breathtaking.  The film ends with the shuttle blasting off into space, with a brief glimpse of Discovery’s return to Florida two weeks later.
On the other end of breathtaking, I’ve got this other video for you showing the introduction of their new mascots (named Wenlock and Mandeville) for the London 2012 Olympics. Wow. I guess they already paid over £400 for the freaky logo, but the organizers are not discussing how much they paid to create these one-eyed, reflective beasties. Though the names sound like rare herbs used to treat rashes, they are actually towns in England–Wenlock in Shropshire is apparently considered the birthplace of the modern Olympics (I seem to remember a TV miniseries chronicling the first Olympics…yup, from 1986–The First Olympics…but upon reading the description it seems to be a bit different. Ah well, I remember liking that series.) and Mandeville is named after Stoke Mandeville, the hospital where the Paralympic movement began, which makes me feel kind of bad comparing the names to healing herbs but oh well.  Regardless, the characters are pretty controversial, not to mention really freaky looking.
  
Finally, just because I haven’t talked about it in awhile, here’s a fun article discussing Sex Bob-Omb’s music in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World film, which is something I think we can all agree we are looking forward, regardless of if we think Michael Cera is the right actor for the role of Scott.  It’s interesting, really–music plays such a vital role in the Scott Pilgrim books, but each of us are experiencing the music in different ways, obviously. Once the movie comes out, we’ll probably have a soundtrack that will define the experience for us, which I guess will be okay, if the music is good.  If the music is bad, though…yikes, that’s gonna be a problem.  
So there you go. A slightly less jammed Grab Bag this month, but hey, you’re busy, right?  Don’t want to overwhelm ya.  
See ya in a week!

Mike Romo needs a new router( and he obviously wants the best wireless router that there is right now).  He can be reached via email here, and he’s on twitter, but he’s not gonna back on it until he watches the Lost finale.

Comments

  1. I thought 24 had a great ending. I thought it set up really well for the movie.

  2. speaking of endings, the last volume of Scott Pilgrim comes out in like two months and the awesome Jimmy Palmiotti/Justin Gray/Amanda Conner run on Power Girl ends today 🙁

  3. I was at the movie theaters yesterday and a trailer for Scott Pilgrim aired.

    Maybe it’s just my community but no one in the audience gave any type of reaction. No wait my mistake…..an idiot did scream ‘GAY’ at the end. I don’t endorse that I’m just saying that’s what happened. 

  4. I can’t wait to hear the big news coming from the summer con season from the Non DC Marvel Side of things. Also the IFanboy BBQ Mailbag!

  5. nice article. 🙂

    also, that NA group shot in the park is amazing. who did it? is it a random picture from marvel or was it part of the NA finale? 

  6. @Kenzaburo: Stuart Immonen. It’s the final shot from the NEW AVENGERS FINALE that was the Pick of the Week.

  7. I just got back into Mass Effect 2 this week myself.  I hadn’t touched my Xbox in awhile, too much stuff going on.  None of the shows I’m into are ending this season but next seasons are the end of Smallville and Supernatural.  I was into Heroes like everyone else but boy does it suck now.  I finished BSG on DVD a while ago.  I’d have to say that is the fast I went through viewing a whole series. It was good stuff.

  8. Wright did a BBC radio show last year where he mentioned and played some of the music from the movie. It was quite good. Needed more Cryptopsy, because thats how I always imagined Crash & the bo…The Boys and Crash. 🙂

     

    @Jestr

    Supernatural was supposed to end this season and was extended out of nowhere. Man the last two seasons, it out-Lost’ed Lost like nobody’s business.

    "I am Castiel, I am an <awesome spoiler for season 4>"

    With that one line, the writers added a whole facet to the universe. It was brilliant!