Links update

Updating my sidebar links. Added:

--Online magazine Forces of Good, at which I have one article published (there's only been one issue so far), and will soon also have an ongoing pop culture blog. Kind of like this, only... well, no, exactly like this, probably. Only over there. Maybe primarily about TV. (You've seen me write about TV. You know I've got enough crap to say to fill two blogs.)

--A couple of glaring omissions, which I could've sworn I had already linked to, but nope! Dopey me! Those would be Brian Hibbs' Savage Critic, Will Pfeifer's X-Ray Spex, and Dave Carter's Yet Another Comics Blog. My bad, guys.

--I Read the Comics So You Don't Have To, which I just wrote about.

--And a number of other new or newish (or just new to me) comics and/or pop culture blogs, namely Todd Murry's Comics TV Blah Blah, Dave White's Different Package (you'll probably have to click on the archives for December or earlier; there's nothing new up so far this year), Phil Parr's Hey Grown Ups -- Comics!, and RobB's Blog o' Stuff.

And it took forever for me to make those changes to my template, so for crying out loud, click on all of them, and make it worth my while! I personally guarantee hours of entertainment at each and every link!*

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*Not a guarantee.

TV: The case of the missing actress

As you may or may not know (well, you'd know if you'd read my article at forcesofgood.com), the original, unaired pilot episode of Joey had a different actress in the role of Joey's neighbor/landlady. The producers replaced her and reshot her scenes before the pilot debuted.

Last night, NBC repeated that pilot episode. And the new actress (Andrea Anders is her name) was MIA. The two scenes in which she had appeared (one toward the beginning, in which she first meets Joey, and one at the end, where she reveals to Joey that she's married) were cut completely out of the show.

Man, that does not bode well for her future with the show.

This mysterious retooling of an already aired show is right up there with Spin City. Do you remember in the first season, Michael J. Fox had a live-in girlfriend, played by Carla Gugino? Gugino was abruptly written out of the show (midway through that first season, if I'm not mistaken). ABC later reran one of the episodes she had been in -- only she wasn't in it anymore. Not only had her scenes been cut, the other cast members actually filmed additional, brand-new scenes to fill up the missing time. They made her an unperson.

I wonder if this new version of the Joey pilot is the first subtle step towards erasing Anders from existence, too.

Forces of Good

The online pop culture magazine Forces of Good has just gone live, and this is a link to my TV column, "Sitting Too Close". See, I have a work-related reason for watching so much TV! (I've also written mini-reviews of movies, DVDs, and books, found here and here.)

Go check it out! Go make it so staggeringly successful that someone somewhere will want to hire me and pay me to write about TV, and I never have to leave my house again! GO!!

TV: Various premieres

Smallville: I don't care for the Lois Lane character. I don't find the actress attractive at all -- which I may be alone on, judging from my recent search engine traffic, which I presume has been generated by my one mention of her name in this post. (I refuse to mention her name again, because, while I still find the search engine hits for "Misty May's ass" amusing -- by the way: Misty May's ass -- I'm not quite as pleased by all the "[actress' name]+topless+nude+naked+tits" hits I've been getting.) And the character is 100% unlikeable. I know, Lois Lane is traditionally brash and aggressive and so forth. But actresses such as Margot Kidder or Teri Hatcher have made those traits disarming and endearing. This actress just comes off as a royal bitch. I can't believe Ma Kent didn't smack the living hell out of her when she burst into her house like that.

Margot Kidder's appearance was fun, but what was with all the WB promos touting her "surprise" cameo? No, you just frickin' told us she would be on the show. That's not a surprise, dumbasses. And is black kryptonite a comic book thing, or is that a Smallville original?

Also, Lana's new boyfriend is a tool.

I enjoyed the hell out of seeing Clark fly, and that take-off was stunning. But this show greatly exceeded my daily allowance of Tom Welling's ass (which, for future reference, is 0%). (Man, I dread the search engine hits that sentence is gonna generate.) If you want to keep putting Lana in the shower, on the other hand, I'm okay with that.

So, Allison Mack and Sam Jones are out of the opening credits. Interesting. It looks like they've left the door open for Chloe to return, but Pete -- not so much. Did anyone even mention his name this episode? And why does Clark insist on being such a doofus about concealing his powers? He uses his X-ray vision on Chloe's coffin, sees it's empty, and instantly tells Lois, "Chloe's still alive." Way to play it cool, there, Clark.

A little too much business to deal with in this episode. Hopefully, now that everything's settled down, the next will be better.

Veronica Mars: The number of shows on UPN I have ever enjoyed has just doubled. (From one -- Enterprise -- to two. And I'm not counting Buffy; the WB developed it, they get the credit.) I really enjoyed this show. The lead actress is very appealing, and her character is smart, brave, and funny. I got a kick out of seeing two TV stand-bys as her parents: Enrico Colantoni (of Just Shoot Me), and Corinne Bohrer (whom I've had a crush on since she was on E/R -- no, not the one currently on the air, but the 80s sitcom starring Elliott Gould and, unbelievably, George Clooney).

The show was created by Rob Thomas, who also created one of my favorite cancelled-too-soon shows of all time, Cupid (which I've written about before). The look of the pilot is a little disappointing; I have to assume it was shot on the cheap, considering it's on UPN, and it shows. But the acting and the writing are more than entertaining enough to make up for that.

I got a little put off by how much misery is dumped on Veronica's head in this one episode. We learn: her best friend was murdered; her father, the Sheriff, botched the investigation and was fired, leading to their dreary financial situation; the man her father accused of the murder was her best friend's father, which led to both her boyfriend (her best friend's brother) dumping her, and her total ostracization by all her former friends; her mother, an alcoholic, ran out on her, and may even be having an affair with the best friend's father; and, to top it all off, at a party she was drugged and raped. It was at that point I said, "Oh, come on!" What else can be done to her? Will she develop a brain tumor? Will her dog get rabies? Will a piano fall from the sky and land on her? Geez, enough already.

But an awful lot of future plotlines were established here, and I think this show could be a real winner. Except for the fact that it's on UPN, which probably means eight episodes and out.

Lost: I loved it. But I'm holding off on talking about it here, because I've already written a column about it for Forces of Good, which will be going live a week from today. Don't forget to check it out!

So all I have to say is: seriously, do not miss this show. It's fantastic.

Forces of Good

From Stefan Blitz's Forces of Good:

On October 1st, 2004, www.forcesofgood.com will go live. An online-magazine dedicated to pop culture, forcesofgood.com will feature interviews, articles, reviews and a bullpen of regular talented columnists all with a love for the kind of stuff you didn't learn in school. Some of the first interviews will include adult film star Tera Patrick, comedian Patton Oswalt, UFO abduction expert Dr. David Jacobs, former MST3K host Michael J. Nelson as well as a number of comic book creators including Mark Waid, Jeph Loeb, Geoff Johns, Walter Simonson, Matt Wagner and Mike Allred.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in being a contributing writer, please send an email to forcesofgood@hotmail.com for submission information.

www.forcesofgood.com
"we like pop culture"

I'm going to be writing a column about television for forcesofgood.com, as well as contributing various reviews, unless Stefan suddenly comes to his senses and bans me from the site. I encourage any of you who might be interested to email him and find out about contributing. It sounds pretty damn cool to me -- the exact kind of thing I would try to create, if I had an ounce of ambition. And if you don't want to contribute, at least check out his blog, linked above. It's good fun.