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Monica and I started painting our bedroom today. That’s a story for another blog post as it’s still a work in progress. While painting though Monica discovered that the window (which doesn’t have a screen, despite several calls to the landlord) pops out. There are these little locking plastic things on the top that are supposed to hold the window in place, but they don’t appear to work on this window. We were careful and had the window open a crack to ventilate the room. It wasn’t popped out during the day or anything.

So after we finished painting for the day, we left the window cracked and thought nothing of it. Hours later, a storm rolled in. Suddenly we hear a large crash from the bedroom and run in to investigate.

OK. I’ll admit it. I’ve got a man crush on Nathan Fillion. But really, how can you not? The guy’s awesome. Not to mention that he’s a pretty damn funny actor with near perfect line delivery. I don’t think that Slither would have been half as funny if anyone else played Bill Pardy. It’s just not possible. So as a result of this man crush, I try to support the guy in anything I can. This is hard to do when he does shows like Drive and the recently started Castle.

I saw commercials for Castle and was immediately excited that Nathan would be in another TV show…then I watched the rest of the commercial. It just doesn’t look like a show I’d watch. And it seems that it’s a show I don’t. Castle premiered two weeks ago and despite noting the date and time of the first episode, Monica and I totally forgot about it. Then we didn’t even make an effort to watch it online or catch the second episode. Sorry, Nathan.

So has anyone actually watched it? Is it worth checking out or should I just avoid it and continue thinking of Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal?

So what have I been watching / reading or otherwise looking at this past week? Let’s take a look at what I’ve been pointing my eyeballs at.

Film
-Margot at the Wedding – This movie was an abortion. Read the full review here, but suffice it to say, I hated it.
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-The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow – A surprisingly decent adventure film featuring several brand new characters in the Marvel Universe. Definitely cheesy at parts, but not bad.
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-Clerks – In preparation for the Kevin Smith Q&A on Saturday, I watched his first film in its 10th Anniversary Edition DVD. It’s been several years since I’ve seen the movie, but it holds up quite a bit. Smith has definitely grown as a filmmaker and while the dialogue is funny, I have a hard time believing that anyone (especially a non-college going convenience store employee) would use words like that in day-to-day conversation. It’s still a fun movie and the presentation on this DVD is pretty good. I still have 2 discs to go through including an alternate cut of the film.
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Television
-Lost – Can we talk about this for a second? Holy crap. I’m so back in the game with Lost. This week’s episode was pretty damn good and gave us a huge chunk of information. I like what they’ve done this season in the info category. The days of more questions than answers are over. Instead we’ve got these giant pieces of the puzzle that are just falling into place. I love it. Next week looks to be another big puzzle piece too.
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-The X-Files – Monica and I finished up the fourth season and have slowly started the fifth season. I think I watched what could be my favorite episode on Friday morning. The fifth episode of the fifth season entitled “The Post-Modern Prometheus” was just perfect. Filmed in black and white, it had an homage to Frankenstein while also providing some good humor without getting too serious or too wacky. Very fun. I’ve really enjoyed the third and fourth seasons and I think the fifth season is fitting in with the previous two. The first couple of seasons were alright, but I don’t think the show really hit it’s stride until the third season.
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-Stephen King’s The Stand – I guess I should put this under TV. I wrote up a full review here, but I was not pleased with this TV mini-series based on King’s epic novel. Very disappointing and just bad in some parts.
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No new episodes of The Office or 30 Rock this week, much to my dismay.

Books
The Stand – I finally finished this 1,000+ page book on Monday and it was quite an accomplishment. I think I’ve been reading it for about a month. Excellent book. I don’t know what the difference is between this version and the original one that was released with a lot of stuff cut out. I can’t imagine trimming much of this book as it felt like just about everything was important or at least added something to the story. I never found a point where I thought a chapter or segment was trivial or without meaning.
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Watchmen – To prepare for the upcoming movie (and as a requirement for two book clubs I’ve joined), I’ve been re-reading Alan Moore’s Watchmen. I finished the re-read on Friday night and I’m totally blown away by this book (again) and I cannot wait for the movie. Reading it for a second time was great because I picked up on a lot of stuff that I didn’t notice during my first read through. The artwork is perfect and it works extremely well with the plot so the whole thing is like watching a very well crafted film. If you have any interest in seeing the movie, I highly recommend reading the book first.
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Audio
-SModcast – Also for the Q&A, I listened to a couple of SModcasts that I’ve been falling behind on. I’ve got at least 10 that I haven’t listened to yet because I just don’t have the time to do so. They’re great stuff though and each one is like a mini-Q&A because Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier just talk about random shit and the results are hilarious.

Being a huge fan of science fiction can be costly, especially when it comes to media. Oh, Battlestar Galactica is good? I’ll check it out? Babylon 5? Sure. Firefly? You bet your ass, I’m there. That’s how I got into Space: Above and Beyond. Another in the column of short-lived series on Fox, Space was a sci-fi show in the mid-90s that was basically like an expanded version of Starship Troopers, but with different aliens.

Set in the sort of distant future of the late-2000s, the show follows the 58th squadron of marines called “The Wild Cards” as they go from boot camp, to their first mission and into an elite status among their peers and superiors. These marines do it all. They’re ground pounders and pilots and they each have somewhat of a specialty. Each one of them also brings something a little different to the group. They don’t matter a whole lot separate, but throughout the episodes included in this set, they grow to a powerful and cohesive unit. More >