Daily Archives: June 20, 2011

TV

TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’ – Review: Series Premiere

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TNT’s new original series Falling Skies kicked off last night with a two-hour premiere. The new sci-fi drama is executive produced by none other than Mr. Steven Spielberg, and stars Noah Wyle of ER fame. The show picks up 6 months in to a hostile alien invasion in Boston, and everything has already gone to hell in a hand basket. We learn from the opening children’s drawings that the invaders are killing off all adults, and capturing and enslaving the children they come across, referred to as ‘harnessing’. To underscore how bad things are truly going the show opens with the destruction of Boston and the retreating of all Massachusetts Resistance Forces and survivors.

Porter, the leader of the resistance fighters, decides to break up the remaining fighters and civilians into three separate groups, and send them into retreat in 3 separate directions to rendezvous later. It is here where we learn that our main man Tom Mason, a former history professor turned resistance fighter, (Wyle) is assigned to be second in command in the 2nd Massachusetts Resistance, led by Captain Weaver (Will Patton), and that his middle child Ben has been harnessed by the aliens.  We also learn from the meeting with Porter that while they are trying, there is no way to remove the harness from captured children without killing them. At the conclusion of the meeting, Tom is left with explicit instructions to do whatever it takes to protect the civilians assigned to them, which foreshadows the impending conflict he will inevitably have with Captain Weaver.

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GAMING

Star Wars: The Old Republic Trailer – Return

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It would seem George Lucas has set a precedent on doing things in the galaxy far far away backwards, because the latest Old Republic cinematic takes place before the previous two. Satele Shan is not a master yet nor is Darth Malgus. Also the Sith Empire has not returned yet…until the cinematic kicks off of course.

Darth Malgus and Satele Shan in their second duel on Alderaan

The trailers have showed us just about every character class that you can use in the MMORPG and this one introduces us to the smuggler class, portrayed by a smart mouth human Cad Bane wannabe, who also likes to check out Twi’lek behinds. Check out the trailer below to enjoy the goodness. And be good to yourself by watching it in 720p:

Let’s touch on some interesting points: Malgus and Satele certainly end up having quite a history, fighting for the first time here and Satele being the one to injure him so badly on Alderaan that he needs Darth Vader style life support. I can’t wait to see their next confrontation which will no doubt occur during the Old Republic game. (If it ever finally releases.)

Satele’s master

Malgus himself shows that he is quite the skilled fighter, as if that wasn’t apparent with his destruction of the Jedi Temple and concurrent conquering of Coruscant later. (That was a lot of c’s.) He also proves to be a true sith after striking down his wounded master after their fight against the Jedi. It was interesting to see a Sith Lord of the same species of Naga Sadow in action, something I can’t recall seeing before in any video. The red skinned Sith claim to be pure blooded Sith because they share the bloodline of the initially conquered Sith species.

Satele’s master also proved to be quite formidable, taking on both Malgus and his own master with plenty of finesse as he wielded his own lightsaber with Satele’s own double bladed weapon. It’s a shame that he bit the dust because he seemed interesting enough. Given Star Wars penchant for prequel material perhaps we will see him in something in future media.

I’ve told myself and told myself not to waste time playing the MMORPG when it finally does release but the more I see of it the more I know that just won’t happen. From all of the trailers, gameplay and books this portion of the Star Wars expanded universe has shown us so far, the Old Republic era still has plenty for us. Either way I need a new Star Wars game to play because I’m still reeling from the disappointment that was The Force Unleashed 2.

TV

HBO’s True Blood – First 8 Minutes of Season Four

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Tonight after the season finale of Game of Thrones, we were given an extended sneak peek of the upcoming season of True Blood!  This was the first 8 minutes (we had previously seen the first three) of the premiere, which will air next week on HBO.  Here’s the video if you missed it:

SPOILERS AHEAD…

THANK GOD we got the rest of this preview.  I don’t know how ‘Grandpa Lumbergh’ lasted 20 years in fairy land, I could hardly stomach three minutes.

Anyway, after Sookie and her grandfather get reunited, Sookie starts to get glimpses of her surroundings that lead her to believe that things are not all that they seem.  She uses her mind to tell her grandfather that they need to escape, that they are not safe there.  This is always a neat little trick on Earth, where 1 in 2,542,698 people is a telepath.  Sookie forgets, however, that she is in fairy land where mind reading is something everyone can do; so naturally, everyone hears her.  We are then introduced to what I assume to be the Queen of the Fairies, who appears less than thrilled with Sookie and her refusal to take anything at face value.

By now, we’ve deduced along with Sookie that this fairy land is not all that it seems, and that this light fruit is responsible for making everything more beautiful.  This Fairy Queen informs Sookie that because Bill came to the fairy land allegedly searching for more fairy blood to drink, the fairy race is no longer safe.  As a result, all the fairies and humans with fairy descendants must be sealed off in this other realm, which looks a lot less appealing when you’re not tripping on fairy fruit.

Naturally, Sookie tries to escape; but is chased down by the fairies, who now look like trolls and can shoot purple lasers from their hands.  The brother of Sookie’s “fairy godmother” (I guess that would make him her “fairy goduncle“) helps her and Lumbergh escape by talking them off a cliff, which is a portal that will take them home if they jump in before the crazy Fairy Queen seals it off.

Pretty weird.  I’m honestly still on the fence about all this.  Some of the previews of the new season get me really excited.  Others tend to make me really nervous.  Naturally, the scenes that get me the most excited are the ones that focus on the vampires, which I think are the lifeblood (pun intended) of the show.  I would like to see more focus on the vampires, considering they are the center of the premise of the series.  All this nonsense with fairies and witches and werewolves and shapeshifters gets stale.

Again, only time will tell what’s in store on True Blood.  As long as there’s gore and intrigue, I’m on board.  HBO doesn’t usually disappoint!

Tell us your thoughts in the comments – what are you most looking forward to, or dreading in the upcoming season?