From Barely Political comes a mashup of two of the most popular shows of the moment, Homeland and The Walking Dead. A combination of the two could be a ratings tsunami, but the plot might be rather hard to work out.

It’s actually pretty damn funny, with Brody protesting that he’s NOT a zombie as blood drips from his mouth, and Michonne refusing to say anything, in any situation. Some of these performances are SNL worthy. I actually thought that Claire Danes was in this for a few seconds.

The full six minute clip is above, complete with idiotic Talking Dead interject, which is probably my favorite part of the entire thing.

Though there are many TV programs universally recognized as being the “classics” of the medium, real life doesn’t always match critical perception. Due to either personal preference or everyone else simply being wrong, it often can be the case that you simply can’t stand something everyone else loves. 

Writing that down can result in some very nasty internet comments (as I’ve found), but I’d sort of be curious to hear what other people’s dark TV hate secrets are. I’ve had a friend tell me he hated Arrested Development because it was “slapstic humor,” and I looked at him the same way people look at me when I say “I just couldn’t get into Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” I  know, I know, but it’s the truth.

So, how about you? What’s one show that’s been highly recommended that you honestly gave the old college try, but simply didn’t like? I predict a lot of “Lost” related answers, as that show is particularly polarizing, but I’m curious to see the spread of personal preference across other shows as well.

The Office is now drawing to a close after nine years on the air, and the cast is starting to get a bit sentimental, Rainn “Dwight” Wilson recently post this picture to Facebook which shows the original sign-in sheet for the first day of casting for the American remake of the British show. On it is his own name (he was also auditioning for Michael. Ironic, given the character he eventually played) and Jenna Fischer as well.

But that’s not all. We also get a look at the cast that COULD have been, had the producers decided to go another direction. We could have seen Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott as Jim, 24′s Mary Lynn Rajskub as Pam and Firefly’s Alan Tudyk as Michael. Holy hell, that would have been a different show.

I’ve assembled a complete list of the actors who might have been below for you to check out in case you can’t read that handwriting or place their names. Check it out. Continue Reading »

One of my favorite things I discovered last year was the blog Arrested Westeros. It takes scenes from Game of Thrones and inserts quotes from the original show. The different dysfunctional families overlap quite well, sometimes almost scarily so (Uncle-father Jaime!).

Well, the mastermind behind the site has been hard at work for a while now and has come up with a bunch more images for our viewing pleasure. I can only imagine what she’ll come up with when she has season three footage to work with as well.

Check out the newest additions below. Continue Reading »

Japan is known for doing weird, and sometimes awesome shit, and that’s certainly the case today as we get a  look at a bunch of Dragonball Z themed snack food from one of their mini stop stores.

I would have been happy with just Super Saiyan french fries (as seen above), but they also have deep fried Dragonballs (I have no idea what they’re made of), edible spirit bombs and Majin Buu pudding, all of which you can see below.

No word on how high your power level gets if you eat these, but your cholesterol level may indeed reach over nine thousand. Continue Reading »

Goddamnit. Not only do we get a “non-event” episode for the third week in a row, but this time we have to do it without Rick, Carl, Daryl or any of the prison gang. Who do we get?

Andrea.

We’ve all wondered what it was going to take for Andrea to finally figure out that the Governor was a sadistic asshole who she shouldn’t be anywhere near.

Zombie fight club? Nope.

Imprisoning and torturing Glen? Nope.

Sexually assaulting Maggie? Nope.

Staging a siege on the prison? Nope.

A plan to capture and torture Michonne? Ah, there we f***ing go.

Yes, that was indeed the straw the broke the camel’s back, and Andrea strolled out of Woodbury to go and tell Rick the bad news that surprise, the Governor wasn’t going to keep his word and was planning to kill them all, something Rick should absolutely have figured out already by himself. Continue Reading »

I just read a rather interesting article over at THR which asks a simple question, though one that hasn’t really been asked before.

What if a network promised to air a full season of a show before cancelling it?

“Yes. Make them a promise. I know that in this town, promises are basically lies told through handshakes or back-slaps, but in the real world you’ll have to stick to it. And really, what’s the harm in that? You paid for it. The costs are sunk and you’re going to eat them anyway and then burn off the damned show in the summer, so why not roll the dice and discover what could very well be true: If viewers know you’re not going to waste their time, they will be more interested in watching and more patient when they do.”

The idea is that if viewers know a show isn’t going anywhere, they’ll be more likely to tune in and give it a chance. This is what cable does, and it’s supposedly how we have all our great serialized dramas.

I can see the advantages, but I disagree with the central premise. I don’t think the primary reason people don’t tune in to new shows isn’t because they fear the show will get canceled. I have personally said I’m worried about getting into a new show not because I fear it might be suddenly killed, but that I’ll slowly discover that…it’s not actually a good show.

I think people don’t watch many shows simply because they’re just not that good. The Event was not that good. Terra Nova was not that good. V was not that good, even if it got picked up for a second season. When Revolution gets canceled next year (it will), it’s because it’s not that good. But the shows that last? A lot of the time they ARE that good. Sure, bad shows get picked up too, but there really aren’t THAT many examples of truly great shows that get canceled. Sure, you can name some, but it’s a very, very low percentage of the total number of shows that have aired. And this is assuming that networks know how to spot this small percent that have the potential for greatness.

Now of course we can all say “if they starting doing this ten years ago, we’d still have Arrested Development and Firefly on the air.” Yeah that’s great, but hindsight is 20/20. Networks would be taking a huge gamble by paying for an entire 20+ episode season of a show banking on the fact that it will be as good as its first few episodes.

I don’t know, I’m not sure I buy this concept, as good as it may sound on the surface. What do you think?

I know that they recently just elected a new Latino pope in Italy which everyone is pretty pumped about, but I think we can all agree that this would have been a better choice.

The picture comes from Brian Cranston’s own Twitter, though I’m not sure where he got it from. It shows the next logical evolution of Heisenberg, to Pope of course, because why the hell not? I guess he’d have a great worldwide distribution system in place.

This is not meant to be some sort of commentary on the Catholic church being as evil as Walter White so stop your offendedness before it starts.

I was usually watching more established superhero cartoons rather than Gargoyles as a kid, but I did catch it a few times therefore meaning it will someday be adapted into a $150M movie directed by Michael Bay.

The art above and below shows what a “new era” Gargoyles might look like in what I’ll call “Dave Rapoza style.” That would be a badass portrait updating a classic character. In reality, the artist here is Digital Tofu, and as you can see they’re quite talented in their own right.

Check out the full collection below which includes the vast majority of the cast. Continue Reading »

I often take movie/show/game recommendations from readers, who suggest many to me based on what they know of my own tastes. Sometimes, this happens with my writers as well. I’ve discovered countless horror films thanks to Remy, for example.

Well, this time the credit goes to our own Benny Bedlam who thought I (and all of you) might like Black Mirror. I just finished all six of its episodes (love those insanely short British seasons), and can confirm that it is indeed awesome, and very well might be one of the best sci-fi shows ever made.

I liked it because it felt like I was reading some really cool sci-fi short stories. Many will probably be reminded of The Twilight Zone, where a bizarre sci-fi scene was concocted to make a larger point about something in society. Black Mirror is just like that, but with a tech focus. It’s either commentary about the current state of our techno-infused lives, or imagining the logical (or illogical) conclusions of where technology can take us.

I too had the same favorite episodes as Benny. “The Entire History of You” where you can instantly playback any memory from your life was bizarre, but powerful, though my favorite had to be “Be Right Back” about a woman who reassembles her dead husband with the help of social media. I also really liked the gamification of “15 Million Merits.” But really, they’re all pretty damn good. It’s like Sherlock. With so few episodes they can ensure that each one attempts to be more fantastic than the last. I wish we’d try something similar here in the USA, but we’re not really a fan of moderation. People start crying about how short a season is when it’s ten episodes long.

Anyway, I didn’t want to do a complete review and recommendation as Benny’s already done that, but I just wanted to throw my full support behind the idea that all of you should watch this immediately.

Well how about this? I knew we were using Kickstarter to fund video games and probably-going-to-fail consoles, but full length feature films? That’s a new one. But it’s exactly what’s happening now.

As of last night (when I wrote this), fans swarmed a Veronica Mars Kickstarter to raise $2M in about ten hours to full fund a feature length movie for the long-dead show. There are many shows with devoted fanbases who wished their program of choice would come back, but I had no idea that Veronica Mars still had this many die hard fans. Warner Bros. greenlighted Rob Thomas to do the Kickstarter to gauge “fan interest.” Well, I think they have their answer.

But I have questions about this now. Can a movie studio really get away with having the people who would pay to see the movie, actually fund the movie and then pay for tickets on top of it? I mean I guess when you buy a ticket, you’re subsidizing what it cost to make the film, but to pay $10, $20 or even $100 or more ahead of time? On the surface, it seems insane.

Is it really though? I don’t think so. This may seem odd from the outside for those of us who aren’t huge Veronica Mars fans, but pretend it was a show YOU loved. Would I be doing the same for a fundraiser to bring back Firefly or Arrested Development (if Netflix wasn’t)?

Yes, I would. Absolutely. It’s not just about pre-paying for the ticket price, it’s about believing that you’re doing your part to see that something you love lives again. Kickstarter is not an investment, it’s a charitable donation that makes you feel good about yourself. Sure, kids in Africa could probably use water instead of you paying for Kristen Bell’s next pair of jeans on set, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the idea that you have some small part in reviving something you thought was dead. I’d shell out $100 to feel like I helped put Firefly back on the air.

This won’t work often though, so Hollywood shouldn’t get any bright ideas. For example, Michael Bay couldn’t put one of these up and raise $200M to make Transformers 4. The money is too great for this to work for most films or shows, and the fanbase has to be absolutely RABID for this to even come close to succeeding. That said,  I’m wondering what will happen now that this has panned out for Veronica Mars. What other dead stories will come out of the woodwork begging for a cash resurrection?